Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-07-24
DANIIETTA.
A Brief Description of the Land OF
Plaques.

PdL WdN GUsefte.
The eyes of the civilized world are
drawn to Egypt now, as they were a year
ago. but the interest, in this country at
least, is of more anxious character now
than when Arab and his followers were
laying Alexandria in ashes. Damietta.
where the cholera is making such fearful
raYages, is a city on one of the outlets of
the Nile, eight miles from the Mediterra-
mean. The approach to the place is
10y rail from Mansurah through Shirbin,
The line runs along the left bank of the
Nile. across a plain remarkable for the
growth of melons. Damietta is 40 miles
from Mansura. % miles from Cairo, 80
from Port said, about 40 from AleNan-
dria and 90 from Tantah. The town is
old and decaying, its present population
Of $4,000 souls living IN the midst of the
ruins of its former greatness. A trip by
boat to the Nile mouth with a fair wind
takes about an hour and half.
The neighbOrhOOd abOunds with extern
siye rice fields, which are intersected in
every direction by canals. The ancient
Damietta, captured by King John of Jeru-
salem, 1919, and occupied by st. Louis of
France in 1919, is supposed to have stood
near the sea further to the north than the
modern town. 4 field near the town,
which is of a dark red color. is known as
the ''Sea of BlOOd.'' and as local tradition
martyrs of Islam who were massacred
there. The hills to the northeast are
known as the Hills of Skeletons" from
the immense number of human remains
found there, relics Ofthe old crusade wars.
Back of the town is Lake Men
Zaleh, an almost interminable eXpanse of
sand, swamp and water, which stretches
as far east as Port Said. The narrow
strip Of land lying between this sO-called
In 20 n n l. ~ TO n ~
can be found in all Egypt. The harbOr of
Damietta IS frequented in times of peace
by about 800 vessels annually; but ii is
very poor, as no vessel of more than 60
tons can cross the dangerous and shifting
bar of the Damietta arm of the Nile, the
channel Of which, under the most favOra-
bic circumstances. varies from to Is feet
in depth. Yet the place, in spite of these
draw backs. has a considerable trade in
dates, bones, rags, dried fish and grain.
As might be inferred from this brief de-
scriptiOn OF its surroundings, Damietta is
about as unhealthy town as is to he
found in the Land of the PharaOhs. When
st. Louis marched his army to the place i'm
the thirteenth century, it was almost de-
stTOyed by the epidemics which prevailed.
just as the armies of Napoleon, Kleber
and MenOn were decimated by disease
nearly six centuries later. The whole re-
giOn Of the lower Nile, in fact. is a vast
hOt-bed of disease, and the wonder is. not
that so many should succumb to
the climate during the unhealthy
season. but that any one
should escape. The dreadful |skham-
SIM or hot wind, which the strongest
man cannot face without instantly feeling
his muscles unstrung. his skin parched
and feVerish, and his whole body limp and
neryeleSS as a wet rag, is of itself a suf-
ficient agent of evil. The fevers en-
gendered by the malaria of the Nile Delta
are as yirulent as ever those of European
Turkey, while the devastating visits of the
plague itself are neither few nor far be-
tween. \ less fatal but equally formidable
enemy TO natives and foreigners alike is
the terrible Egyptian Ophthalmia," which,
although often brought on by the unclean
habits of the natives, is at times generated
in another and very singular fashion. \
small green fly persistently settles upon
the sores of the diseased eyelid. and when
driven of carries the infection along with
IL wherever il alights. SO common is this
disease among the Arabs that Mehpmit
Ali is said to have formed two battalions
of One-eyed men, the one wanting the
right eye and the other the left
In 1898 this complaint made great raw
ages in the army of BOnaparte, one of
whose best officers becoming blind i'm the
desert, was forced to cling to the tail of
his comrades horse in order to make his
way back to the camp. 1t is a common
saying in Alexandria that ''an Egyptian
Arab with two eyes is as rare as snow
ball in june" The prevalence of Asiatlc
cholera is such that land of plaques is
a distressing accumulation of horrors.