[Pg i]
THE CERVARO CAVES.
[Pg ii]
SAND AND CANVAS;
A
NARRATIVE OF ADVENTURES IN EGYPT,
WITH A SOJOURN
AMONG THE ARTISTS IN ROME.
By SAMUEL BEVAN.
LONDON:
CHARLES GILPIN, 5, BISHOPSGATE STREET, WITHOUT.
MDCCCXLIX.
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LONDON:
RICHARD BARRETT, PRINTER,
MARK LANE.
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TO
THOMAS WAGHORN, Lieut. R.N.,
WHO BY HIS OWN
ENERGY, AND INDEFATIGABLE EXERTIONS,
SUCCEEDED IN ESTABLISHING THE PRACTICABILITY
OF THE
OVERLAND ROUTE TO INDIA;
SACRIFICING HIS TIME AND FORTUNE IN DIVESTING THE EGYPTIAN PORTION
OF THAT ROUTE OF ITS VARIED DISCOMFORTS; FACILITATING BY
THE AID OF STEAM THE PASSAGE OF THE MAHMOUDIEH
AND THE NILE; AND RENDERING SAFE, AND
EVEN AGREEABLE, THE ONCE
DREADED DESERT,
THESE SKETCHES ARE MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.
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PREFACE.
The matter contained in the following pages has been gathered from adiary, in which the incidents of each successive day had been regularlynoted down, not with any intention of subsequently submitting themto the public, but from a belief that the practice, if not actuallyinstructive, is at least sure to repay the little trouble it occasions.
As the writer had not been attracted either to Egypt or Italy, by anyof the usual inducements which influence the generality of travellers,but had been suddenly transplanted, by a somewhat singular chain ofcircumstances, from the yellow fogs of the great Metropolis, to thebracing air and cloudless skies of the Desert, it was suggested thata relation of his experiences, might possibly present something new,even upon those countries, without encroaching upon themesalready exhausted by able and experienced travellers. He has nottherefore, carried the reader into the midst of scenes with which heis already well acquainted, nor are his pages filled with elaboratedescriptions of[Pg vii] churches, temples, and palaces—he has not indulgedin rhapsodies upon the pleasant prospects which greeted him, as wellas his predecessors, in a ramble through the garden of Italy, neitherdoes he seek to parade his own opinions upon the many glorious works ofart, it has been his good fortune to fall in with. All that awaits thereader, is a simple narrative of adventures during a few months’ activeemployment in Egypt, and a description of such places and things, inRome and other Italian ci