The tradition of the people is that in the early Christian ages the site was occupied by fishermen and smugglers. Some six centuries ago, a Shaykh from Sús in Morocco, returning from his pilgrimage, took up his abode on the sea-shore about a hundred yards west of the English hotel; his sanctity caused him to become famous as El-Súsí, and the place was called after him El-Sús, and afterwards El-Suways. His tomb is still shown and venerated as the founder

of the port-town.

The Heröopolis which named the Heröopolitan Gulf, and which Ptolemy (iv. 5) places in N. lat. 29° 45', can hardly have been far from Suez, and is generally supposed to be the Ajrúd Fort (Shaw, ii. 2). Arsinöe or Cleopatris,* built by Ptolemy Philadelphus, and named after his sister in the third century B.C., and existing as a town in the second century A.D.—a life of more than 400 years-has been identified by H.M.'s Consul Mr. George West† with the

Memoir of the Persian Empire," p. 100, et seq.). Finally, in 1412, the geographer, Abu'l Rashid-el-Bakuy (vol. ii. p. 243), calls it Suways el-hajar (Suez of the stony-ground), as if to distinguish it from others of the name. See Ayrton's note upon Wallin, p. 340, Journ. of R. Geog. Soc., vol. xx. of 1850.

Strabo (xvi. 4, § 24, and xvii. 1, § 26), Pliny (vi. 29), and Ptolemy (loc. cit.), who places it in 29° 10′.

† Consular Reports "on the Trade and Commerce of the Port of Suez for 1872." Mr. West well explains the reason of the several migrations of the town by the successive siltings-up of the several anchorages; and he believes that "the existing site of Suez, including the land recovered from the sea, south of the

Tell el-Klismeh (Clysma), a mound about seventy feet high, at the head of the creek, where the late Said Pasha built his Kiosk. In Ptolemy it lies twenty miles north of the Clysma Præsidium* (N. lat. 28° 50), whence it is supposed the Arabs derived their "Kulzum." Of the latter town Yakrút el-Hamawi, in his "Mu'ajam el-Bildán" ("What is known of Countries"), written at the beginning of the thirteenth century, states (sub voc. Kulzum), "it was then a ruin, with a gate; and a place near it, called Suways, had become the port, and it also was like a ruin, and had not many inhabitants."

Suez, at present only a "patch" upon Port Said,

settlement as far as the new port, will, for any period of time we can practically contemplate, be that of the Egyptian Red Sea entrepôt best suited for the trade between Egypt and the countries about the Red Sea and beyond it." M. Linant de Bellefonds ("Mémoires sur les Principaux Travaux d'Utilité Publique," etc. Paris: Bertrand, 1872-73) would place Arsinöe or Cleopatris at the so-called Serapium Plateau or Lake Timsah, then the terminus of ship-navigation.

Bochart (Phareg sub voc. Clysma) supposes the port to have sent a bishop to the Council of Chalcedon in A.D. 451. Vincent ("Commerce, etc., of the Ancients," i. 522) considers Kulzum an Arabic corruption of Kλúopa, which seems to imply a place by the sea-shore; although Bochart (loc. cit.) had suggested that it ought to be written Κλίσμα or Κλείσμα, from κλείω, to shut, in reference to its assumed position as a port at the entrance of the famous old Isthmic Canal (Strabo, xvi. 4, § 24). Mohammed ibn Ya'akub el-Firozábádi (died A.D. 1414), author of the “Kámús (or Ocean) Directory," and other worthies, derive the name of the town and its adjacent sea from its Arabic sense to "swallow up," alluding to the destruction of "Pharaoh and his host" near the spot.

may be described in 1877 as exactly the reverse of what I described her in 1853. True the old hotel remains, with its bad dinners and its unclean and sulky Hindi-Moslems, who never forget their creaking shoes, nor remember their turbans and waistbelts. To the experienced eye these latest developments of the óran-útan, or man of the woods, are pleasant as would be an English waiter in waistcoat and turned-up shirt-sleeves.

But behind the Caravanserai there is a Roman Catholic Church, with tall steeple and jangling bells; whilst priests, nuns, and pigs promenade the streets. What would that large old Turk, Giaffar Bey, have said to these abominations? The original English cemetery upon the Creek-islet shows rents. and tears in all its buildings; and the Wakálet Jirjis, the "George Inn," survives in the last state but one of dilapidation and decomposition. The Farzeh Daur, or rotation system,* so ably denounced by Mr. Henry Levick, formerly Vice-Consul, and still British Postmaster for Suez, has completely died out; and the shipping has changed from sail

to steam.

I found quarters at the Hôtel de l'Orient, in the Boulevard Colmar, formerly Súk el-Nimsá, the Austrian Bázár. Early on the following morning

* "Pilgrimage," vol. i. pp. 250-52. By a curious misprint the word generally appears as "Fazzeh."

(Friday, March 30th), M. George Marie, C. E., called, and gave me the following letter, bearing the signature of H.H. Prince Husayn Kamil, Minister of Finance.

"Monsieur,

Le Caire, 29 Mars, 1877.

"J'ai le plaisir de vous annoncer par la présente les dispositions que j'ai prises relativement à l'excursion que vous vous proposez de faire.

"Les officiers de l'Etat Major Egyptien-Amin Effendi Ruchdi, Hansan Haris, Abd-el-Kerim Izzet; ainsi que l'Ingénieurs des Mines, M. George Marie, ont été désignés pour vous accompagner; en dehors de ces Messieurs il y'aura encore environ une dizaine de soldats du Génie qui iront avec vous.

"Les susdits officiers ont des tentes, ainsi que tous les instruments nécessaires pour faire les cartes géographiques; M. Marie aura à faire le rapport sur les mines.

"Tous seront à Suez après demain (Samedi) matin.

"J'ai donné l'ordre par écrit au Gouverneur de Suez, pour qu'il soit à votre disposition pour le cas, où vous auriez besoin de lui; si par exemple vous voudriez quelques guides pour vous accompagner, vous n'avez qu'à les lui demander.

"La Frégate Égyptienne Sinnar partira de Suez Samedi ; et j'ai déjà donné les ordres necessaires au Commandant des bateaux stationnant à Suez pour que le Capitaine de la Frégate vous porte dans le port où vous voudrez aller, et qu'il reste autant que votre excursion l'exigera.

"Enfin j'ai donné aussi l'ordre au Gouverneur de Moelh (ElMuwaylah) pour qu'il vous donne des chameaux, guides et toutes autres choses, que vous voudriez, pour pouvoir faire votre excursion.

tion.

"Agréez, Monsieur, l'expression de ma plus haute considéra"HUSSEIN KAMIL.

(Signed)

"Monsieur Le Capitaine Burton."

Nothing could be more satisfactory. The three

* There were twenty with the Sháwish (chaush or corporal) Ali.

Egyptian officers were introduced to me, and I formally took command. We then called upon the Muháfiz (Governor) of Suez, H.E. Sa'id Bey, to meet the Captain commanding the corvette, and to settle the time and way of embarkation. Sa'id Bey is an old captain in the Egyptian navy, a fervent Moslem, born in Candia (Crete)--a man of energy, activity, and full of friendly feeling towards Europeans. M. Marie kindly undertook to become caterer, and Mr. Clarke, who was on "sick leave," to act as my secretary. All was ready; the officers had their surveying-gear, but the engineer had brought only a few bottles of acids for testing metals; and he afterwards assured me that he looked upon the whole affair as one of those Carottes which periodically sprout up with peculiar luxuriance in Egypt. Incessant work was required, during the short space of twenty-four hours, to collect the provisions and furniture; camel saddles, water-bags, large and small; batterie de cuisine, eating-gear, and the manifold other requisites for a three-weeks' cruise and desert-trip.

However, by the good aid of Mesdames Chiaramouti, a ship-chandler and general dealer established at Suez, and Isnard, proprietors of the Hôtel de l'Orient, we did pretty well.* The latter also entrusted to us her son, Marius Isnard, a youth of

See Appendix I.