elump of cactus growing over some ancient wells, which tradition has named the Wells of Moses, and has assigned as the spot near which the Israelites emerged from their passage through the sea. Looking at the dry, scorched-looking, rocky mountains which line the coast behind this spot, within a mile of the tidal mark, one cannot help reflecting what a strong hope of attaining to the Land of Promise, or an equally strong fear of returning to the House of Bondage which they had left, must have encouraged the emigrating nation to venture into such an arid wilderness. Perhaps more truly still, it was the faith, stronger than either hope or fear, which possessed the eager souls of their leaders, and from them spread into their more uncertain followers. The whole country looks as if it had but just cooled down from being in a state of white heat, or as if a searing-iron had been carefully passed over every square foot of it, and had scorched off every living or growing thing. Yet this is part of the poetic land that is supposed to breathe forth scented gales from its every shore. We must make large allowances for poetic licence, for we should have to wait long here before catching the 'Sabean odours from the spicy shore About a hundred and eighty miles from Suez we stop for a short time off the reef on which the unfortunate Carnatic' was recently wrecked, and land some provisions for the divers engaged in getting up part of her cargo. From this point we lose sight of the coast on the east with the Sinaitic range of mountains, and strike out into the broader part of the Red Sea; and as three days pass without our sighting land again, we gain an idea of the immense extent of this sea, which one is so apt to think of as a mere lake. On the second day, indeed, just at sunset, we can distinguish, away on the western horizon, two or three mountain-tops, but they are in the little-known interior of Nubia, and a hundred miles from where we are sailing. The absence of any living or dead thing to be seen outside the ship, gives us an opportunity of making notes on the life inside. Our crew is strangely different from that of the Pera.' Instead of men with more or less resemblance to the ideal Jack Tar, we have a motley assemblage of Lascars, Malays, Chinamen, Africans, and a very few Europeans. Shem, Ham, and Japhet, are all represented, if not others too, according to some learned authorities. Our passengers now consist of two sections -- that from Southampton and that from Marseilles. Between the two there exists a wall of ice which it takes all the heat of the Red Sea to melt; indeed it will scarcely be completely thawed till we reach Ceylon. Even in this month of January there is an amount of heat in the Red Sea which makes its influence visibly felt on many of us. The god of slumber is almost omnipotent; at all hours the deck can show an easy-chair or two whose unconscious occupants are dreaming the happy hours away. The thermometer within an hour or two of noon stands at 86° in the companion,' and on asking the engineer what it is marking in the stoke-hole, he says, 'Oh! only 110°; comparatively cool; in summer we sometimes have it at 145°. Of course no Europeans undertake stoking in such a temperature: the work is done by the more salamander-like Africans. As we approach the southern end of the Red Sea, however, the heat moderates again. On the morning of the 14th we pass close by the island of Jebel Tsuga, evidently of volcanic formation. It consists of a mountain, apparently about 3,000 ft. in height, sloping up from the sea in an alternation of rocky ridges and deep ravines. In the hollow of one ravine is plainly visible an old lava stream, which has rolled down from near the head of the ravine, and, as it neared the flat ground by the sea, has spread out in a black roughlooking mass to the width of half a mile or more. It will forcibly remind anyone who has seen Vesuvius of the lava-covered skirts of that mountain. On the evening of this same day we pass by the little island of Perim, surmounted by its white lighthouse, and leave the Red Sea behind us. On Perim floats the Union Jack: i.e. whenever there is a breeze in this hot and stagnant atmosphere; but the island had a narrow escape of being surmounted by a 'red, white, and blue.' Before it had been claimed by any Power, the French sent a frigate to take possession of it. But the frigate put in on her way at Aden, whereupon the English Governor at that place asked all the officers of the frigate to dine with him. Learning, either before or during the repast, the object of their cruise, he despatched a note, while the wine was still circulating, to the commander of a British gunboat in the harbour, bidding him get up steam, make the best of his way to Perim, and plant the English flag there. So when the gallant Frenchmen reached the spot, and found to their dismay that they had been outwitted even by the slow Britishers, all they could do was to utter many sacr-r-rés 'on the Governor and his wine, and steam straight home, without even returning to Aden on the chance of a second invitation to dinner. Early in the morning, after passing through the straits of Perim, we are lying at anchor in Aden harbour. After breakfast we go ashore, partly to escape the dust of coaling, partly to see what redeeming features we may in this much-reviled spot. We land on the edge of a dry, sandy, parched piece of land, whereon stand a few scattered houses and huts; the coal-sheds of the P. and O., and other companies, and one or two general stores. Rising abruptly round this flat piece is a huge ring of rocks, reaching to the height of 1,500 ft., bare and sharply cut, and looking as if they had been quite recently scorched, but picturesque withal. Immediately on landing we are surroundod by a swarm of black figures, some with black woolly pates, some with shaven crowns exposed to the blazing sun, some with shocks of hair black at the roots but yellow or vermilion towards the ends-the result of the application of a kind of clay, used for cleaning and 'depopulating' purposes. Some of them are laden with ostrich feathers, leopard-skins, shells, and other curiosities of the place, for which they demand exorbitant, but will take very moderate, prices; with others their only plea for touching our purse is a shrivelled arm, a foot in an aggravated state of elephantiasis, or some other ailment equally calculated to move our charity or our disgust. After spending a short time in purchasing a few curiosi ties, we take a rattletrap, which we could not dignify with the name of a carriage, and drive towards the Cantonment and the Tanks, which lie on the other side of the rocky ridge. We go through a narrow defile, and catch in passing a slight shadow from the overhanging pinnacles, 'the shadow of a great rock' which must often be so grateful in such a weary land.' We pass some trains of camels, which are carrying in to the Cantonment skins of water from the country to the north-west; for in Aden itself no rain has fallen for two years, yet twenty miles inland there is never a lack of water in the wells. We pass close by the Cantonment, in which are quartered one or two regiments of Sepoys, through a street of the small and dirty town hard by, and then up to the foot of the ravine in which are situated the famous tanks of Aden. These are said to have been built before the Christian era; and there is a tradition which assigns their construction to Solomon, the great originator of the overland route to India, but they were only brought to their present condition a few years ago, by the English. They are said to be able to contain enough water to supply the whole of Aden for more than two years; but, as we see them, they would almost seem to have been put up as a satire on the climate, for there is scarcely a hundred gallons in the whole of them. We make our way back to the steamer, and the hour which elapses before we start is employed in watching the diving and swimming performances of a dozen black urchins, who have paddled off from shore in their canoes, in the hope of earning a few coins by their amphibious powers. They dive and swim like so many seals, and seem able to go as fast by swimming as by paddling in their canoes. Half-a-dozen of them offer to dive under the vessel for bucksheesh,' and one of the passengers, ignorant of the fact that the vessel's keel is resting in mud, to the depth of a yard or more, offers a half-rupee to one of them for the feat. The ingenuous youth disappears under water like a stone, and shortly afterwards re-appears at the opposite side of the vessel, grinning and panting; but another observer, who happens to be standing at the stern of the vessel, deposes to having seen the urchin 'break water' close to the stern, swim round the rudder-post, and dive down again. There is no doubt, however, that these young mermen can, and often do, perform the feat without any deception. We leave Aden before sunset, and at ten o'clock next morning pass within a couple of miles of Cape Guardafui, a bold headland with precipitous sides, forming a termination to a high range of mountains running down from the interior. |