Memoirs, (chiefly autobiographical), from 1798 to 1886 / edited by his son Thomas More Madden.

  • Richard Robert Madden
Date:
1891
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Memoirs, (chiefly autobiographical), from 1798 to 1886 / edited by his son Thomas More Madden. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    80 * * * * * [Dr. Madden remained for some months in Nubia and Upper Egypt, which at that time was seldom visited by European travel- lers. He then returned to Alexandria, whence, after a brief stay, he once more departed with the intention of visiting the Holy Land, which had long been a cherished project. Nor was his curiosity satisfied with this one visit to Palestine, as years subsequently he again visited the sacred scenes which had been sanctified by the Redeemer’s presence ; and even in his extreme old age he delighted to recall the recollections of these visits, and was wont to express an earnest wish that he had but strength remaining to permit of his making a final pilgrimage to the Holy Land.] * * ■ * * * I set out with one servant from Alexandria across the desert along the seashore to Damietta, and in five days we accomplished the journey. In all the route we met with nothing interesting but the remains of Canopus on the beach about ten miles from Alexandria, and the scene of the memorable battle in which Abercrombie fell. Near the shore, where the sea had undermined the soil, I perceived a stratum of human bones, which proved to be those of the soldiers that fell on that day. By one skeleton I found the remnants of a coat and some regimental buttons, which were all that remained after thirty years to tell that the poor victim of glory was an English soldier. In two hours more we passed the Bay of Aboukir: it was smooth and tranquil. A spectator could hardly have imagined that the sound of wTar had ever disturbed the stillness, or that the wreck of many a stately ship was covered by its waters, and that the remains of many a gallant fellow were strewn upon its sands. I picked up a cannon-shot near the shore, which soon convinced me, if I doubted for a moment, that the stillness of Aboukir had once been broken by the fury of Christian armies. VISIT TO SYRIA. I came to Damietta with the purpose of remaining two or three days, and remained there for three months in the house of Vice- Consul Surur, a native of Syria, and a man of considerable erudi- tion in A rabic literature. The cause of my detention was my repute as a halekim amongst the Levantine merchants, who form at Damietta a very numerous and respectable body. The fame of an amputation of the shoulder which I had performed on one of them in Alexandria had spread here, so that on my arrival I was hailed as a second Hippocrates. In no other place was I ever treated with so much respect, or received so many marks of gratitude. One lady