It is about 275 miles, or
25 days' camel-journey, from thence to Berber on the Nile. The road
passes through Korib, and among fine red granite and black basalt
mountains, 4,000 feet high. We left one of the firemen, Tom Dollar,
behind at Aden by mistake, and only found out yesterday that we had
done so. It appears that he has a brother living there, whom he was
most anxious to go and see directly the anchor was let go, in the
morning. Unfortunately, he did not speak to us on the subject. He had
never been in anything but a regular steamer before, and could not
believe it possible that the 'Sunbeam' could spread her wings and be
off without any preliminary 'fire-worshipping,' I am very sorry for
the poor man, as he has left all his clothes and the wages he had
earned on board the P. and O. steamer behind him. We must send them
back from Suez, and telegraph to some one to look out for him. The
heat is intense, and we all sleep on deck at night; the sunrises and
sunsets are magnificent.
_Friday, April 20th_.--A little hotter still; there is no wind at all,
and we are obliged to steam. In the morning we passed to the southward
of Jeddo, the port of Mecca. Unfortunately it was so hazy that we
could not distinguish anything whatever of the town or country, only a
line of mountains rearing their heads above the clouds.
Pages:
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
591
592
593
594
595
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603