THE RED SEA.

African shore present a most remarkable appearance, as if cut into gigantic steps. We have volunteer music on deck every evening at 8.30 -piano-playing, songs and glees.

Saturday, 19th, was quite calm. We are out of sight of land, but pass the solitary light on the shoal where H.M.S. Dædalus was lost. I am surprised at the number of people on board going, like ourselves, merely to travel in India, and not on official duty or commercial business. The thermometer has stood steadily at 80°. Now the temperature rises. At 8 o'clock on Sunday morning it was 86° in the shade on the companion, and few people had been able to sleep from the heat. At 10.30 a.m. all hands were mustered in their Sunday dress on the quarter-deck, and at 10.45 a young chaplain going out to Delhi conducted divine.

service.

The colour of the Red Sea is a lapislazuli blue. Our run was 294 miles, and at 3 p.m. the thermometer in the shade registered 95°, and very little walking was done on deck. Small sails were put out from each cabin

B

window, to make a draught, and the punkahs in the saloon were kept hard at work. Not a rock, or a steamer, or a light-house was to be seen.

On Monday the Surat had a very unusual experience: namely, a strong head-wind, a tempestuous sea, and 96° of heat in the shade. Most people were motionless, and looked very miserable. The ports had all to be closed, and ladies slept on the saloon table and all about the place. We were shipping such heavy seas that the captain had to slacken speed during the night. In the evening we passed the Island of Jebeltur, and here the navigation is not a little ticklish.

There are two other Members of Parliament on board, going to see India- my friend Mr. Hamilton, of South Lanarkshire, and Mr. Johnson, who represents Exeter. We have a considerable number of British officers returning from furlough, men of large experience and cultivation; and I am happy to find that most of them are by no means Jingoes, and that some who approved of the Afghan expedition

THE HARBOUR OF ADEN.

II

are now convinced that it was a terrible mistake. A friend tells me that he went home recently with twenty-eight officers of the Cabul force, twenty-five of whom informed him that they approved of the evacuation of Candahar.

We are now in full sight of the Arabian coast, with Mocha in the distance, a strong wind dead ahead. The Straits of Babel Mandeb, or "The Gate of Tears"—so called from the number of wrecks that have taken place on that desolate shore are 14 miles wide, and the Island of Perim, on which flies the British flag, lying right in the channel commands the entrance to the Red Sea. It is only two miles distant from a very striking promontory on the Arabian coast, and we ran through that narrow passage, meeting the steamship City of Agra under full sail going north, and two other steamers also taking advantage of the wind just outside on the Indian Ocean.

By II p.m. we were at anchor in the wonderful harbour of Aden, but the noise made by coaling, and by the naked Soumali boys diving for coins, prevented much sleep. When I came

on deck I found it crowded with natives selling ostrich feathers, baskets, and other articles. We were anchored between a French man of war, and the P. and O. steamer Assam, from Bombay. The Italian gunboat Chioggia passed up harbour under our stern, and by-and-bye the great P. and O. steamer Nepaul arrived from Calcutta. Aden surprised me; it is as fine as Gibraltar, and has a splendid anchorage. The wild barren rocks and peaks dotted over with white houses present a singular appearance, and it is a much more imposing place than I had imagined. We lay there till nearly 10 o'clock on Wednesday morning, and might have gone ashore, but a placard announcing that the ship was to sail at 5 a.m. prevented us. The cantonments, which are five miles from the harbour, can be seen very distinctly from the sea after leaving.

Lofty mountains in Arabia were visible all Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning. I learned to-day that in the Red Sea on Sunday the thermometer in the stoke-hole was 154°. We have several excellent artists on board, and people who fall asleep in ungraceful attitudes,

A BALL ON DECK.

13

especially when they are not prepossessing, find themselves immortalised in sketch-books.

On Monday night the quarter-deck was decorated with flags, and we had a ball, which was kept up for several hours. At 2.30 a.m. on Tuesday I happened to look out of my porthole, and there, in all its glory, just above the horizon, was the Southern Cross and certainly my feeling on seeing it for the first time was by no means one of disappointment.

Between 6 and 7 o'clock I went to the bow, and saw the land—peaks in the Ghauts on each side of Bombay. The colour of the water is changed to a light dirty brown; a row of fishingboats stationed right in the way of the navigation-why, I don't know, nor it appears does anyone else—are on the starboard; and right ahead, one by one begin to appear the spires and factory chimneys of the city.