3-071-242 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Cholera in Cairo: the people leaving Boulak, 1883. 'The sudden compulsory removal of nearly fifteen thousand poor people, amongst whom cholera had broken out, at Boulak, the riverside suburb and Nile port of Cairo, occasioned many scenes of distress...A correspondent who went into Boulak on Saturday...the 21st July, describes the scene there, when the Prefect of Police enforced his decree of summary eviction. It was heartrending, he says, to see scores of sick and dying people, and women with child, amongst the crowd, hurried on board the barges. The wretched creatures were endeavouring to save some portion of their belongings, driving before them a few sheep and goats, and carrying on their heads boxes and bundles, whilst the young children clung to their filthy garments. The fugitives bore their lot with Oriental resignation, and the silence of the night was only broken by the wailing of the women, the bleating of the goats, and the cries of "ayalar malache" (go along, never mind), uttered from time to time by the mounted police. The poor dwellings they vacated, with such furniture or rags of bedding and clothing as remained, were set on fire by the police; and the flames and smoke had a dismal effect, viewed from the neighbouring city'. From "Illustrated London News", 1883.