The Land of Midian, vol 1 | Page 7

converted into a fiery wilderness by the
representatives of the "gentle and gallant" Turk, and brought to life
once more by French energy and industry. And such was my vision of a
future Midian, whose rich stores of various minerals will restore to her
wealth and health, when the two Khedivial Expeditions shall have
shown the world what she has been, and what she may be again.
I was invited to resume my exploration during the winter of 1877-78,
by the Viceroy of Egypt, Ismail I., a prince whose superior intelligence
is ever anxious to develop the resources of his country. His Highness

was perhaps the only man in his own dominions who, believing in the
buried wealth of Midian, had the perspicacity to note the advantages
offered by its exploitation. For the world around the Viceroy
pronounced itself decidedly against the project. My venerable friend,
Linant Pasha, suggested a comparison with the abandoned diggings of
the Upper Nile; forgetting that in at least half of Midian land, only the
"tailings" have been washed: whereas in the Bishárí country, and
throughout the "Etbaye," between the meridians of Berenike and
Sawákín, the very thinnest metallic fibrils have been shafted and
tunnelled to their end in the rock by those marvellous labourers, the old
Egyptians. In the Hamámát country, again, the excessive distances,
both from the Nile and from the Red Sea, together with the cost of
transport, must bar all profit. Even worse are the conditions of
Fayzoghlú and Dár-For; whilst the mines of Midian begin literally at
the shore.
Another Pasha wrote to me from Alexandria, congratulating me upon
having discovered, during our first Expedition, "a little copper and
iron." Generally, the official public, knowing that I had brought back
stones, not solid masses of gold and silver, loudly deplored the
prospective waste of money; and money, after the horse-plague, the
low Nile, and the excessive exigencies of the short-sighted creditor,
was exceptionally scarce. The truly Oriental view of the question was
taken by an official, whom I shall call Árif Pasha--the "Knowing One."
When told that M. George Marie, the Government engineer detailed to
accompany the first Expedition, had sent in official analyses with
sample tubes of gold and silver, thus establishing the presence of
auriferous and argentiferous rocks on the Arabian shore, Son
Excellence exclaimed, "Imprudent jeune homme, thus to throw away
the chances of life! Had he only declared the whole affair a farce, a
flam, a sell, a canard, the Viceroy would have held him to be honest,
and would have taken care of his future."
Still, through bad report the Khediv, who had mastered, with his usual
accuracy of perception and judgment, the subject of Midian and her
Mines, was staunch to his resolve; and when one of his European
financiers, a Controleur Général de Dépenses, the normal round peg in

the square hole, warned him that there were no public funds for such
purpose, his Highness warmly declared, on dit, that the costs of the
Expedition should be defrayed at his own expense.
Meanwhile I had passed the summer of 1877 in preparation for the
work of the ensuing winter. A long correspondence with many learned
friends, and a sedulous study of the latest geographers, especially
German, taught me all that was known of mining in Arabia generally,
and particularly in Midian. During my six months' absence from Egypt
my vision was fixed steadily upon one point, the Expedition that was to
come; and when his Highness was pleased to offer me, in an autograph
letter full of the kindest expressions, the government of Dár-For, I
deferred accepting the honour till Midian had been disposed of.
Unhappily, certain kindly advisers persuaded me to make well better by
a visit to Karlsbad, and a course of its alkaline "Fountains of Health."
Never was there a greater mistake! The air is bad as the water is good;
the climate is reeking damp, like that of Western Africa; and, as in St.
Petersburg, a plaid must be carried during the finest weather. Its effects,
rheumatic and neuralgic, may be judged by the fact that the doctors
must walk about with pocketed squirts, for the hypodermal injection of
opium. Almost all those whom I knew there, wanting to be better, went
away worse; and, in my own case, a whole month of Midian sun, and a
sharp attack of ague and fever were required to burn out the
Hexenschuss and to counteract the deleterious effects of the "Hygeian
springs."
At last the happy hour for departure struck; and on October 19, 1877,
the Austro-Hungarian Espero (Capitano Colombo) steamed out of
Trieste. On board were Sefer Pasha, our host of Castle Bertoldstein;
and my learned friends, the Aulic Councillor Alfred von Kremer,
Austrian Commissioner to Egypt, and Dr. Heinrich Brugsch-Bey. The