cases, ladies' boxes, of such magnitude that one turns to the steamer which is lying about two miles away down the gulf, with a sentiment of utter incredulity as to the possibility of stowing them all on board. The resources of Aden do not last long; after staring at the sea, and examining the mountains, having looked at the Arabs, observed that there was a tide at Suez, discussed de Lesseps, and made some remarks on the differences of races, and of the Egyptian and Turkish Yachmaks,-time hangs heavily on our hands, though the medical gents and the youngsters still found great amusement in oranges. The agents had promised that the small steamer should be at the pier to take us off at twelve o'clock, but though it was now two o'clock, very hot and very hazy weather, the little steamer could be seen smoking laboriously near the Calcutta and Bombay steamers, but not moving a yard. The tide was ebbing, for, be it observed, that there is a tide which rises six or seven feet at Suez on occasions. We listened to the blandishments of an Arab boatman, who represented his boat as only inferior in speed to a locomotive, and stepped on board. Ah! that sun! how it flashed down and struck us on the back, and flashed up from the water and smote us in the face! But the Arab and his crew of two lanky, muscular lads had stripped all but a very narrow substitute for a fig leaf. Carefully selecting the shoals which border the deep channel, they took out long poles, such as those used for rocking off the Richmond steamers when they run aground on those dangerous flats near Kew, and poled the boat along to the sound of a low guttural chant, at the rate of two miles an hour. There was not a breath

EXHAUSTING HEAT.

4.5

of air. The steamers in the distance seemed suspended in the clear blue sky, and the white awnings spread over the decks gave us warning of the sufferings to come. Our Arabs revelled in the rays which were exhausting us, and as the boat shot off the long bank into deep water, they took to their oars and pulled away vigorously, as if the sun had given them life and vigour. Shall I describe the petty miseries?-presumptuous man! Shall I seek then to give a faint notion of the wretchedness of the seven days' passage down the Red Sea in a steamer which contained the passengers destined for two boats of the same size as that which carried the double burthen? Alas! to what good should the attempt be made? If the wars of the Almas and the Nubias are to be written, it must be by some of those accomplished civilians who took such interest in the daily changes of the combat that ever rose in excitement as the weather waxed hottest.

CHAPTER IV.

A vow. An appeal on behalf of the ladies.-The surgeons' and officers' cabins.-Learned pundits.-The walnut-stage of argument.-La race blanche.—Why are we in India ?—The hottest place in the world.-Flying fish.-The French at Pondicherry. -Mistake imputed to the English.-Is our French friend right?-A novel resting-placc.-Astronomical contemplations. -Washing decks.

I FIND I have been going on in the career which at the outset I promised not to enter upon at all; and here, on the deck of the good ship Nubia, I must abandon it, or cut it short, or I shall never get to India. This deck aforesaid is an excellent place whereon to abjure any work of any sort without the smallest danger of being tempted to break one's vows. There is a heat such as one never experiences at home, even in Roman August, or in London July on the sunny side of the Strand. It is aggravated by a stifling crowd of moderately cross and indignant people. Every one is disgusted with every body else. Every one looks at his (it is oftener her) neighbour with an expression of extreme wonder that any one should venture to be a neighbour under the circumstances.

"I knew it, sir; I knew it. They never dared to ask such a thing round the Cape," shouted a very, very excitable old officer in my ears, pointing at the same time to a quiet, middle-aged gentleman who was going round the deck in a very demure way, followed by the purser with the air of a man who was collect

AN APPEAL ON BEHALF OF THE LADIES. 47

ing for a charity sermon. "Hang me if I do, tho' !" added the major. I watched our friend sidling along from passenger to passenger, stopping a few minutes with each male, and making memorandums with a little bow, as if he were putting down the amount of the subscription, whilst those whom he left looked. very much like men who felt they had been too generous. At last he approached me and fastened me with his eye-“I am sorry, sorry indeed, sir, to trespass on your generosity," (It's for a church at Suez,' said I, mentally, and I wont subscribe, for there will be no congregation,') "but," with a wave of the hand and a genial smile, "when I tell you that I make an appeal on behalf of the ladies on board," (It's for a girls' charity-school at Alexandria, certainly,') "I am sure I shall not ask you in vain-You have berth No. 16, sir?" "I have." "It has probably struck you that this ship is very much crowded? The fact is, sir, that we are obliged to put the passengers who should have gone by the Alma into this ship, in consequence of the Alma being disabled, by no fault of ours, sir, but by a mishap to her shaft, and I am obliged to ask you to give up your cabin to two ladies, in whose name I already thank you. All the gentlemen have been good enough to grant this request-and you shall have a very comfortable cabin indeed-in fact, the best in the ship," (why on earth doesn't he put the ladies there,' thought I), "which the surgeon will kindly make over to you." Of course I consented. To this day I consider those ladies owe me a year of my life. The surgeon's cabin might have been the best in the Arctic Seas, but in the Red Sea it was exposed to a few drawbacks. In

the first place, it had a commanding view of the steam-engine, which worked pleasantly opposite the door, so that one could mark the details of the mechanism when in bed on the sofa. In the next place, there was an important portion of the steam-engine running down by the head of the bed in the shape of an immense waste-pipe, through which, at every throb of the engine, rushed and hissed a great column of water to the sea. Thirdly, the port, in consequence of the great exaltation of the waters at the junction of the ever-flowing stream, could scarcely be kept open if there was a breath of wind. And fourthly, there was an important cabinet at the end of the sofa called the ship's library, which the public frequented from morn till sultry eve in defiance of a notice to the effect that it was only open from 11 till 1 o'clock. Then it was a long time before the public could be persuaded that I was not bound to give them medical advice because I lived in the surgeon's cabin, and they evidently thought that I was in some sort connected with a system intended to deprive them of their lawful allowance of tonics and fluid magnesia. Where my poor friend the doctor, Mr. Williams, to whose agreeable society I owe most of the few pleasant hours I passed on board, was domiciled, I cannot say, but I have a suspicion that he slept somewhere in the rigging. The officers of the Peninsular and Oriental ships, who, au reste, are not always placed in the very best of cabins, always excepting the captain, are subject to those expulsions, for which they receive a pecuniary consideration; but, if I am to judge from their expressions, they would much sooner be permitted to retain the berths which are allotted to them,