Show alexandria ALEXANDRI Aj egypt february 8 1873 president brigham young our railroad ride across the ancle of italy was interesting passing through many tunnels ana ard heavy work and giving us a hurried view loathe of the agricultural aspects of this portion of southern italy some of which is very fertile and well cultivated though in the hands of an indolent and degenerate race at about 9 pm tho the train stopped at Fezzia and wo we were told we must remain there all night this information annoyed us as we were apprehensive it would cause us to miss connection with the steamer we went to the principal hotel in the small town and found lound it so ailed with lazzaroni vermin and aith sith alth filth that we returned to the station and spent the night on the benches in the waiting room at the tile appointed nour hour in the morning a telegram arrived announcing noun cing the train two hours behind time we then telegraphed to the steamboat office at brindisi but soon learned from a greek trader who spoke english that the boat would not leave until after our arrival brindisi has a beautiful small harbor completely land locked in the days of the boman roman emperors it was a place of much importance being the terminus of tho the great road known as the way from rome it was a great depot of supplies for roman military ta operations to the eastward N we rn arrived in corfu at pm of feb 1 and took our quarters at the st george hotel these islands were under british protection from 1818 1418 until ceded to the greek government by the request of the inhabitants a few years ago they send nine members to the grecian parliament they had been for hundreds of years under the V v eno ene tian government as many monuments of venetian celebrities and the frequent sight eight of the two wl winged ed lion still testify the fall of or venice zenice venice venlee left them under the contro control I 1 of the french great britain baital 11 being unwilling they should fall fan into the hands of the austrians Aust rians under the reconstruction of the european map in 1815 caused them to be constructed into a republic under the name of the republic regu regu renu b iio llo of the ionian isles and under gu r t the he protection of great britain then theli sent a commissioner and an army to govern the islands until the ahe recent cession blowing up in the ther meantime the immense fortifications that had been erected there by the venetians fearing as they said that they might fall into the hands of the austrians Aust rians the island of corfu is about thirty miles long and in one place fifteen miles wide is mountainous and hud produces grapes grape s in great abundance i and many choice fruits the grass grain and many of the trees weme were we re green while w hile bile several varieties nie rie ties 0 of f trees were w without leaves twenty five hundred years ago these islands contained the most learned and highly civilized nation f antiquity but now their thel ir at appearance pe arance does not justify tho the r rule of or progress only in the ackward backward hya kya way the greek church has been the religion here for 1400 years we ve went to the princ principal one on sunday da Y feb fob 0 2 the service consisted in reading in an operatic way from t the he new Te testament stamen tj to w which the large audience was very avery attentive the reading being in modern greek certainly an improvement on the latin service in the roman churches ei which nobody understand understands it was however howe vei all greek to us the church was vas decorated with crosses paintings and holy water vases and lighted with numerous wax tapers hundreds of people were dipping their fingers inholt in holy water and crop crog crossing gin sin and sprinkling themselves and vf with th great gravity kissing the pictures of the saints in the same manner as thu romans kiss the too toe of the image of st peter in st SL JP peters eters eiers elens church in rome sunday pm a political meeting occurred many thou thod thousands sands of bf people I 1 0 o assembled in the grand square tte the the next saturday b being ing the day of election for memie members ro or of the greek par parliament lament they were wore selecting candidates we could not understand the nature of the questions but they became so exciting that one man saw proper to kill another and daring tho the evening the government kept soldiers on patrol through the city abo about ut one QUO am of the 3rd ard we av pent p ent abw steamer saturno Sa furno and found faund our state rooms had been secured by an agent of mr air cook we had bad a very plea piea pleasant sant sAut steam over a smooth sea bea J and arrived in this port at 7 30 am of the ath there were a great number of passengers including clergymen doctors lawyers and others frum from england and america mostly en route for upper egypt they were much surprised to find live specimens from mo bondom inon mon dom they would keep talking to us and we preached to them nearly the whole voyage they were a class of people that would not go to our meetings in S but U by t this means heard something thin oft of the e gospel the he turks ur are the rulers here the E egyptians are descendants of the am Araus arnus who conquered the country in the tiie ath century and the numerous crosses with other nations cause tile the streets to display a fine line mixture of europeans nub ians lans bedouins Bedou ins jews copts coats and degenerate greeks and and the greatest variety a clety of costumes of any place I 1 ever visited in the days of the roman emperors this place is said to have been fifteen miles in circuit and to have contained inhabitants and some of the finest temples and palaces in existence but little re mains to mark even the site of this ancient city pompeys Pom pil pillarist pillar larisa is a fine line column 98 feet 9 inches high and Cleo patras needles one of which 77 feet high is standing and the other fallen and covered with point out the spot where the temple ot of caesar stood we alle visited a Maho Moho cemetery the monuments are plain and without statues thousands of Muss ulmen were today to day engaged in wailing walling over their dead many had pitched tente tents for that purpose to keep sun and others were in t the e open air ah most of the women wear valls vails which hide t the h e face except the eyes we also aiso visited the christian burying grounds which contained many fine monuments mostly to europeans a among M ong which we saw graves the fig trees are at present leanness leafless lea ness bess the bananas are covered with bolf foliage and have fruit two thirds grown the date is a beautiful tree and in full foliage many fruit and flowing shrubs arm are re in bloom we expect to leave on monday morning loth for cairo behave met mr alexander howard the principal dragoman man for mr dir cooks trains in palestine and according to pro gramme shall arrive in jaffa on the alexandria is situated so near the sea that it has rains mins at certain seasons and is now well stocked with mosquitoes irrigation is n necessary ec essary anu and and is managed mr much much ch as we do it IL they are now irrigating portions of their gardens our party party are all well and in good spirl spirits tr the water was so smooth that none of them was sick while on brithe the adriatic and mediterranean seas today to day Is a Afus sulman gala day and while some are wailing walling for the dead others are bring firing cannons and thousands in the market places are engaged in sports and pastimes bro Se bettler hettler has had bad a ride on a donkey and has bought turkish caps for several of us which give us juite quite quito a turkish appearance I 1 bleam earn that the bring nning and celebration today to day is in commemoration of the day that mahomet ascended the tho th c mountain from mecca and that the pilgrims to mecca ed the mountain today to day and all the faithful rejoiced GEORGE A E egypt agypt feb 19 18 g 3 prest B young I 1 wrote to you from alexandria from which place we went to cairo the capital of egypt and understood to be the tho largest citrin in africa said to contain more than inhabitants it presents the strange mixture of a european Europea nj african and asiatic town all under one the frank quarter contains many fine european buildings and some newly made and very pleasant public gardens but the whole city isun paved ed A few streets that are newly ey asahe made are wide n and and nd convenient and d have flagged sidewalks all tile the others embracing an arma area of some three miles m iles lles by two are very xeny nar row many of them too much BO so for one loaded camel to pass another most of the houses are built of concrete bretean cre tean and bho kho many mans of them arm are out of repair tho mosque of mahomet all commenced b by that prince and finished after ats his death is the finest public building that we saw in cairo A great groat portion is very neatly finished inside with briehl oriental al alaba alabaster te r and is bittar better bett cr suited t to 0 the U poses 0 ses seb designed than any catho fl purposes Eur eth c church urell I 1 have visited it la is erected in the old citadel cradel rendered famous by the destruction of the Mameluke Mame iukes lukes 8 by mahomet all and on the site of the old palace of saladin the view of cairo from ethe athe he south side aide of the mosque Is the finest I 1 saw near this building Is a well they call joseph josephs and many travelers have rejoiced in seeing what they believed was the well of of the old oid patriarch jacob it would seem however lio ilo wever that gb saladin din the Fat imite calif so renowned in the history of the crusades located the citadel here not because it was hs the most commanding point in the then new city of cairo but because he learned by experiment that fresh meat would keep much longer there than in any other place iu in the city in I 1 clearing off the spot of ground for the foundation an old well was discovered which had been dug and walled by by the ancients saladin ordered the sand cleared out with which it had been filled and his other name namo being yoosef the well has taken that name its depth is feet and is descended by a gen gently t sio sloping Ing stair ellse eluse case the water is ralsey raised by mule power and is only fit for irrigating and for animals to drink we ve called on tile tilo consul general mr beardsley Beards icy lcy who treated us w very courteously flis fils his health is delicate delf delfe ate cate he complained of having to attend the khedives Khedive Khe dives ls festivities twice a week for four weeks given on account of the marriages of three of his sons and one daughter his delicate health and apparent fatigue ca caused used us to make our call brief the U S consul for cairo treated us courteously bo be is a native egyptian he procured us passes into two of the gardens of the khedive and voluntarily told us if we had arrived one week sooner he could have procured us admission to the rooms of the harem but the close of the festivities made it impossible po M ible ibie we visited a coptic church and employed p loyed one of its members V balem aman monsoor for our dragoman while fin cairo the copts coats are bigoted and ignorant the greek church also has its organizations here one of which we visited but christianity here is of a low type though the present government protects all rel rei religions egions I 1 in n a manner entirely disliked by the more zealous Mahome dans mr beardsley told us that the khedive had bad recently hung a dervish sheik for interfering improperly with his nel neighbors labors religious rights he ile thinks filat that while the present khedive lives any one is free to follow his religious convictions but remarked that he has much prejudice and bigotry to combat we visited several palaces and their surrounding grounds belonging to the khedive constructed and laid out with the spirit of modem improvement and ard are highly creditable we paid a visit to the obelisk at hello Helio poli poil which is all that remains of the renowned city of on the obelisk Is supposed to be one third of its length in the ground there am are sixty two feet above ground and it is surrounded by a luxuriant sugarcane sug arcane field the surrounding ground is a vast accumulation mu lation of the ruins of the old city and is exceedingly fertile a considerable portion having been recently brought under cultivation by the khedive who brought to it th the waters odthe of the nile rhe the obelisk is six feet square tapering g to the summit and is covered with wi th hiero glynice gly hice josephs wire wife asenath asena th was the daughter of potiphar priest of on our grandmother of course moses was educated here lre as this was the seat of the tile great college where the tile E egyptian tian notables received their s schooling Cp boling 0 its name on is faid paid to have been determined from the interpretation terp of an inscription on the obell obelisk k near kear this place we wo visited a sycamore tree which bears the name of the virgin mary arary it is ig said salil that joseph and mary camped by this tree when on their flight to egypt with the young child jesus in the days of herod near this freo free is a well which was salt kilt at that time but mary many washed in it and it made it sweet A donkey was at work raising the water by a rude wheel to which were attached several earthon carthon jars jam we drank and found the water pure but warm the tile taste much resembling that of the big spring at st george the tree is xer vor very y old and has suffered severely by devout people carrying off pieces of it and carving their names on it to which me tha th a mior has hat 4 wi w I surrounded it with a substantial picket fence and that has been disfigured although neatly painted with awkwardly cut itoman roman initials the large plain north of has recently been broi brought ight into cultivation by bringing the nile waters over it and N very productive it is memorable in E egyptian history bistor y as s the battle nned fied field upon which selim helim the 2nd and sultan of turkey defeated tile the mameluke caliph iu in 1517 reducing egypt to a turkish province for years except the three years it was occupied by the french the sultan put the caliph to death but retained the mameluke aristo aristocracy on condition that they paid arte tribute renounced their reli rell religion glou and adopted his and inserted his name in their thein prayers which they continued to do until they were destroyed by mahomet all the grandfather of the present khedive in 1811 our hotel accommodations at were much better than I 1 had expected to nind find in egypt though so crowded that two had to occupy a room the floors were stone but carpeted they furnished meat potatoes and wines the bo hotel faro was sixteen shillings a day when driving out we took with us a dragoman to interpret and keep from us a numerous lotof beggars and bummers clamorous for backs heesh and only equalled oqual equal led as far as we have traveled by the beggars in na naples reft left ea we left cairo on the by rail ran for the jred red sea sen several hours of our journey lay jay through one of the finest cultivated regions I 1 have seen been all irrigated by water from the nile wo we lunched at kagazig Zaga zig supposed to be in what was the land of goshen kagazig is near some extensive ruins of an ancient bu bastis said to have been the capital of or egypt in in the days of Sh ishak and to have contained a magnificent temple of mercury the ruins indicate the site of an extensive city alty 41 A fresh water canal has been constructed from the nile on or near the line of an nit ancient canal which existed in the days of the pharaohs Phara to mailia mallia Is whence it is forced ina lna in a pipe 50 miles to port said on the mediterranean and the |