ON THE RED SEA AND THE INDIAN OCEAN.
Suez lies between the desert and the sea, and is the point of
departure both for ships and caravans. But the great canal to which it
gives its name, has not returned the favor by giving it prosperity.
Indeed the country through which it passes derives little benefit from
its construction. Before it was opened, Egypt was on the overland
route to India, from which it derived a large revenue. All passengers
had to disembark at Alexandria and cross by railroad to Suez; while
freight had to be unshipped at the one city and reshipped at the
other, and thus pay tribute to both. Now ships pass directly from the
Mediterranean into the canal, and from the canal into the Red Sea, so
that the Englishman who embarks at Southampton, need not set his foot
on the soil of Egypt. Thus it is not Egypt but England that profits by
the opening of the Suez Canal; while Egypt really suffers by the
completion of a work which is of immense benefit to the commerce of
the world.
Though the Suez Canal is an achievement of modern times, yet the idea
is not modern, nor indeed the first execution. It was projected from
almost the earliest period of history, and was begun under the
Pharaohs, and was at one time completed, though not, as now, solely
for the passage of ships, but also as a defence, a gigantic moat,
which might serve as a barrier against invasions from Asia.
There is nothing in Suez to detain a traveller, and with the morning
we were sailing out in one of the native boats, before a light wind,
to the great ship lying in the harbor, which was to take us to India.
We had, indeed, a foretaste, or rather fore_sight_, of what we were
soon to look upon in the farthest East, as we saw some huge elephants
moving along the quay; but these were not familiar inhabitants, but
had just been disembarked from a ship arrived only the day before from
Bombay--a present from the Viceroy of India to the Viceroy of Egypt.
Once on board ship I was as in mine own country, for now, for the
first time in many months, did I hear constantly the English language.
We had been so long in Europe, and heard French, German, Italian,
Greek and Turkish; and Arabic in Egypt; that at first I started to
hear my own mother tongue. I could not at once get accustomed to it,
but called to the waiter "garcon," and was much surprised that he
answered in English. But it was very pleasant to come back to the
speech of my childhood. Henceforth English will carry me around the
globe. It is the language of the sea, and of "the ends of the earth;"
and it seems almost as if the good time were coming when the whole
earth should be of one language and of one speech.
And now we are on the Red Sea, one of the historical seas of the
world. Not far below the town of Suez is supposed to be the spot where
the Israelites were hemmed in between the mountains and the sea; where
Moses bade the waves divide, and the fleeing host rushed in between
the uplifted walls, feeling that, if they perished, the waters were
more merciful than their oppressors; while behind them came the
chariots of their pursuers.
It was long before we lost sight of Egypt. On our right was the
Egyptian coast, still in view, though growing dimmer on the horizon;
and as we sat on deck at evening the gorgeous sunsets flamed over
those shores, as they did on the Nile, as if reluctant to leave the
scene of so much glory.
On the other side of the sea stretched the Peninsula of Sinai, with
its range of rugged mountains, among which the eye sought the awful
summit from which God gave the law.
This eastern side of the Red Sea has been the birthplace of religions.
Half way down the coast is Jhidda, the port of Mecca. Thus Islam was
born not far from the birthplace of Judaism, of which in many features
it is a close imitation.
I have asked many times, What gave the name to the Red Sea? Certainly
it is not the color of the water, which is blue as the sea anywhere.
It is said that there is a phosphorescent glow, given by a marine
insect, which at night causes the waters to sparkle with a faint red
light. Others say it is from the shores, which being the borders of
the desert, have its general sandy red, or yellow, appearance. I
remember years ago, when sailing along the southern coast of Wales, a
gentleman, pointing to some red-banked hills, said they reminded him
of the shores of the Red Sea.
But whether they have given it its name or not, these surrounding
deserts have undoubtedly given it its extreme heat, from which it has
become famous as "the hottest place in the world." The wind blowing
off from these burning sands, scorches like a sirocco; nor is the heat
much tempered by the coolness of the sea--for indeed the water itself
becomes heated to such a degree as to be a serious impediment to the
rapid condensation of steam.
We began to feel the heat immediately after leaving Suez. The very
next day officers of the ship appeared in white linen pantaloons,
which seemed to me a little out of season; but I soon found that they
were wiser than I, especially as the heat increased from day to day as
we got more into the tropics. Then, to confess the truth, they
sometimes appeared on deck in the early morning in the most neglige
attire. At first I was a little shocked to see, not only officers of
the ship, but officers of the army, of high rank, coming on deck after
their baths barefoot; but I soon came to understand how they should be
eager, when they were almost burning with fever, to be relieved of
even the slightest addition to weight or warmth. In the cabin,
_punkas_, long screens, were hung over the tables, and kept swinging
all day long. The deck was hung with double awnings to keep off the
sun; and here the "old Indians" who had made this voyage before, and
knew how to take their comfort in the hot climate, were generally
stretched out in their reclining bamboo-chairs, with a cigar in one
hand and a novel in the other.
The common work of the ship was done by Lascars, from India, as they
can stand the heat much better than English sailors. They are docile
and obedient, and under the training of English officers make
excellent seamen.
But we must not complain, for they tell us our voyage has been a very
cool one. The thermometer has never been above 88 degrees, which
however, considering that this is _midwinter_, is doing pretty well!
If such be the heat in January, what must it be in July? Then it is
fairly blistering; the thermometer rises to 110 and 112 degrees in the
shade; men stripped of clothing to barely a garment to cover them, are
panting with the heat; driven from the deck, they retreat to the lower
part of the ship, to find a place to breathe; sometimes in despair,
the captain tells me, they turn the ship about, and steam a few miles
in the opposite direction, to get a breath of air; and yet, with all
precautions, he adds that it is not an infrequent thing, that
passengers overpowered sink under a sunstroke or apoplexy.
Such heat would make the voyage to India one of real suffering, and of
serious exposure, were it not for the admirable ships in which it can
be made. But these of the Peninsular and Oriental company are about as
perfect as anything that swims the seas. We were fortunate in hitting
upon the largest and best of the fleet, the Peshawur. Accustomed as we
have been of late to the smaller steamers on the Mediterranean, she
seems of enormous bulk, and is of great strength as well as size; and
being intended for hot climates, is constructed especially for
coolness and ventilation. The state-rooms are much larger than in most
sea-going steamers, and though intended for three persons, as the ship
was not crowded (there were berths for 170 passengers, while we had
but 34, just one-fifth the full complement) we had each a whole
state-room to ourselves. There were bath-rooms in ample supply, and we
took our baths every morning as regularly as on land.
On the Peshawur, as on all English ships, the order and discipline
were admirable. Every man knew his place, and attended to his duty.
Everything was done silently, and yet so regularly that one felt that
there was a sharp eye in every corner of the ship; that there was a
vigilant watch night and day, and this gave us such a sense of safety,
that we lay down and rose up with a feeling of perfect security.
Besides, the officers, from the captain down, not only took good care
for the safety of our lives, but did everything for our comfort. They
tried to make us feel at home, and were never so well pleased as when
they saw us all pleasantly occupied; some enjoying games, and others
listening to music, when some amateur was playing on the piano, at
times accompanied by a dozen manly and womanly voices. Music at sea
helps greatly to beguile the tedium of a voyage. Often the piano was
brought on deck, at which an extemporized choir practised the hymns
for public service; among which there was one that always recurred,
and that none can forget:
"Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bid'st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep:
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea."
And when the Sunday morning came and the same prayers were read which
they had been accustomed to hear in England, many who listened felt
that, whatever oceans they might cross, here was a tie that bound them
to their island home, and to the religion of their fathers.
On the morning of the sixth day we passed the island of Perim, which
guards the Gates of the Red Sea, and during the day passed many
islands, and were in full sight of the Arabian coast, and at the
evening touched at Aden. Here the heat reaches the superlative. In
going down the Red Sea, one may use all degrees of comparison--hot,
hotter, hottest--and the last is Aden. It is a barren point of rock
and sand, within twelve degrees of the Equator, and the town is
actually in the crater of an extinct volcano, into which the sun beats
down with the heat of Nebuchadnezzar's furnace. But the British
Government holds it, as it commands the entrance to the Red Sea, and
has fortified it, and keeps a garrison here. However it mercifully
sends few English soldiers to such a spot, but supplies the place
chiefly with native regiments from India. All the officers hold the
place in horror, counting it a very purgatory, from which it is
Paradise to be transferred to India.
But from this point the great oppression of the heat ceased. Rounding
this rock of Aden, we no longer bore southward (which would have taken
us along the Eastern coast of Africa, to the island of Zanzibar, the
point of departure for Livingstone to explore the interior, and of
Stanley to find him), but turned to the East, and soon met the
Northeast monsoon, which, blowing in our faces, kept us comparatively
cool all the way across the Indian Ocean.
And now our thoughts began to be busy with the strange land which we
were soon to see, a land to which most of those on board belonged, and
of which they were always ready to converse. Strangers to each other,
we soon became acquainted, and exchanged our experiences of travel.
Beside me at the table sat a barrister from Bombay, and next to him
three merchants of that city, who, leaving their families in England,
were returning to pursue their fortunes in India. One had been a
member of the Governor's Council, and all were familiar with the
politics and the business of that great Empire. There was also a
missionary of the Free Church of Scotland, who, after ten years'
service, had been allowed a year and a half to recruit in the mother
country, and was now returning to his field of labor in Bombay, with
whom I had many long talks about the religions of India and the
prospects of missions. There was a fine old gentleman who had made his
fortune in Australia, to which he was returning with his family after
a visit to England.
The military element, of course, was very prominent. A large
proportion of the passengers were connected in some way with the army,
officers returning to their regiments, or officers' wives returning to
their husbands. Of course those who live long in India, have many
experiences to relate; and it was somewhat exciting to hear one
describe the particulars of a tiger hunt--how the game of all kind was
driven in from a circuit of miles around by beaters, and by elephants
trained for the work; how the deer and lesser animals fled frightened
by, while the hunter, bent on royal game, disdained such feeble prey,
and every man reserved his fire, sitting in his howdah on the back of
an elephant till at last a magnificent Bengal tiger sprang into view,
and as the balls rained on his sides, with a tremendous bound he fell
at the feet of the hunters; or to hear a Major who had been in India
during the Mutiny, describe the blowing away of the Sepoys from the
mouths of cannon; with what fierce pride, like Indian warriors at the
stake, they shrank not from the trial, but even when not bound, stood
unmoved before the guns, till they were blown to pieces, their legs
and arms and mangled breasts scattered wide over the field.
There was a surgeon in the Bengal Staff Corps, Dr. Bellew, who had
travelled extensively in the interior of Asia, attached to several
missions of the Government, and had published a volume, entitled "From
the Indus to the Tigris." He gave me some of his experiences in
Afghanistan, among the men of Cabul, and in Persia. Three years since
he was attached to the mission of Sir Douglas Forsyth to Kashgar and
Yarkund. This was a secret embassy of the government to Yakoob Beg,
the Tartar chief, who by his courage as a soldier had established his
power in those distant regions of Central Asia. In carrying out this
mission, the party crossed the Himalayas at a height far greater than
the top of Mont Blanc. Our fellow traveller gave us some fearful
pictures of the desolation of those snowy wastes, as well as some
entertaining ones of the strange manners of some parts of High Asia.
He passed through Little Thibet, where prevails the singular custom of
polyandry--instead of one man having many wives, one woman may have
many husbands, although they cannot be of different families. She can
marry half a dozen brothers at once, but must not extend her household
into another family. He was now bound for Nepaul, under the shadow of
the Himalayas, being ordered to report at once to the Maharajah, who
is preparing to receive the Prince of Wales, and to entertain him with
the grandest tiger hunt ever known in India.
With such variety of company, and such talk to enliven the hours, as
we sat on deck at twilight, or by moonlight--for we had the full moon
on the Indian Ocean--the days did not seem long, and we were almost
taken by surprise as we approached the end of our voyage.
On the afternoon of the twelfth day from Suez we were nearing our
destined port, and eyes and glasses were turned in that direction; but
it was not till the sun was setting that his light shone full on the
Ghauts, the range of mountains that line the western coast of
India--steps, as their name implies, to the high table-land of the
interior. Presently as the darkness deepened, the revolving light of
the lighthouse shot across the deep; signal guns from the city
announced the arrival of the mail from England; rows of lamps shining
for miles round the bay lighted up the waters and the encircling
shore; and, there was India!