Tidings from Cairo

Having been permanently sick since her arrival in Suez on 23 November, Alexine finally moved into a house in Cairo some three weeks later. Eager to leave Suez – this ‘miserable and cold place’ – she had ordered Heuglin directly after disembarking to search for a house outside the city, in ‘Old Cairo’, the quarter alongside the Nile embankment. Alexine's outspoken wish of staying in the old quarter, at some distance from the city, was identical to her choice of not remaining in Khartoum itself after the return of the expedition. Here as well, too many memories of the near past would fall upon her when seeing the places where she had stayed with her mother and aunt. With her group of Sudanese girls and boys she moved into her new home. Alexine had shared her isolation with others who experienced themselves under her guidance as being associated with each other.

In 1865, Old Cairo was still a quarter on its own, at a distance of some two kilometres from the city. The house Heuglin would find for her in December 1864 was meant to be temporary, because she intended to look around for a lot on which she could build a large house that would accommodate her wishes. She waited for John's arrival to make visits to parcels that were offered for sale. From this point, one had a fine view across the Nile to the pyramid of Gyzeh, with two small islands in between, of which the larger one had been connected by French engineers with a pont volant to the pyramid quarter under the regime of Muhammad Ali.

A decisive moment in Alexine's life had arrived. The Bahr el-Ghazal expedition had been aborted; she had succeeded in accomplishing her return journey to Egypt from Sudan with an immense amount of luggage, including the two bodies of Henriette and Flore. Surrounded by some twenty people, constituting her troupe of men and women, and boys and girls, from now on she remained in her house most of the time, avoiding entering the city. In the expedition's aftermath, she appeared unable to come to her senses about the events of the past and her present state, which would enable her to outline her next steps.