the houses have peaked roofs, on account of the snow and rain. In Smyrna they build in the same manner, because it is the fashion in the capital.

At the entrance of the old or western harbour of Alexan. dria there is a reef of rocks (some of which appear above water) extending from the main land quite to the western point of the ancient island of Pharos, with several deep though narrow passes between them. When once inside this barrier, there is found one of the safest ports in the Mediterranean Sea, completely sheltered, and as quiet as a millpond. It is here that we have now been at anchor for several days, and have a few more yet to try our patience before our quarantine probation will be at an end. This is one of the vexations to which travellers are subjected in these regions. Had we not been provided with a clean bill of health at Smyrna (there being no cases of plague there at the time of our sailing), or had we a cargo of susceptible goods, we should not consider our case so hard a one, and should submit with all due patience to a wholesome and prudent regulation. But being entirely free from disease, with no cargo on board, and having had quarantine enough. during a voyage of twelve days, we certainly expected to be admitted immediately on our arrival into free pratique. But the Solomons of the Sanita gave their judgment against us. It has been hinted that the present quarantine is a sort of commercial and political retaliation for similar grievances inflicted on their commerce at Smyrna, when circumstances made them quite unnecessary. We have just been informed that, through the interference and influence of our worthy consul Mr. Gliddon, Senior, the term of our imprisonment has been reduced from eighteen to eleven days, the shortest possible term allowed to the discretion of the board of health. But the storms at sea, and the vexations of an unnecessary and arbitrary quarantine, are all as naught when compared with the mortifying disappointment which we experienced

BITTER DISAPPOINTMENT.

75

on our arrival here, and one that has destroyed at one fell blow all my long-cherished hopes of seeing the great East. We arrived too late for the Bombay steamer, she having left for Suez some time since. Now I met our first disap

pointment heroically, so long as I felt assured that the way through Egypt was open for us. But this last is "the unkindest cut of all." It will be five or six months before another opportunity offers to reach India, and who knows what may turn up in the interval to make me lose that most interesting part of our tour in the East? Were this the proper season to travel in Palestine, we could go there first, and then return and visit Egypt, and be ready for the May steamer to Bombay; but by so doing we should entirely reverse the regular order of things. The winter in Palestine is cold and rainy, and the spring extremely hot and generally unhealthy in Egypt, and the river too low for navigation as far up as we wish to go. I must therefore take example from the gentlemen, who bear their disappointment manfully; yet, as for them, they can accomplish that journey at any other time; but when once I get home again, not all the "gardens of Gul" nor the "vale of Cashmere" would induce me again to leave it to revisit the East.

Without indulging in unavailing regrets, but endeavouring to smother my disappointment, I shall content myself with enjoying the present, and let the future take care of itself. If I should finally be prevented from visiting India, why, what with Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor, I shall have an ample field whereon to reap a rich harvest, and be enabled to lay up a never-failing store of reminiscences of the East; then, with Greece, Sicily, and Italy, I shall return home contented. Adieu, then, for ever to regrets! It is all in vain, I find, to make calculations so far ahead, for "L'homme propose, et Dieu dispose."

Now, then, for Egypt; but stay, the city of Alexander is not in Egypt. The Libyan Desert claims her, and, but for

the canal, which brings the waters of the Nile forty miles to her walls, she would long ago have been smothered in the sti. fling embraces of the moving sands, and antiquaries would now be disputing about the identity of her site. By means of this canal, vegetation is produced and maintained around the city, arresting and fixing the volatile particles of sand brought by the western winds from the Libyan Desert.

The beautiful palm groves which I see from the deck are all supported by irrigation; and I can hear the incessant creaking of the Persian wheel day and night.

When the first keen edge of disappointment was blunted against the steel armour of our philosophy, we set about utilizing the tedious term of our "durance vile." Along with the stores we received at Smyrna was a fresh supply of books from London and Paris, relating to the East, which, together with our previous provision, gives us a complete travelling library of over 100 volumes, all pertinent to the subjects most likely to command our attention in these regions. My time here has been occupied in reading, wri. ting, and observing the curious and busy scenes by which we are surrounded. The number of foreign vessels now anchored near to us, in the harbour, is about one hun. dred, besides which here is the principal part of the fleet of Mohammed Ali, with the star and crescent waving at their peaks. The sound of martial music which proceeds from them, with the occasional discharge of their great guns, and the incessant plying of the boatswain's shrill whistle, piping all hands to their duties, tend much to enliven the Then there is the more busy and peaceful employ. ment on board the numerous trading vessels, some dischar. ging, others receiving their freights, to the merry time of "Yo, heave yo!" while the country boats constantly passing and repassing, with their enormous lateen sails spread to catch every breeze, and loaded with cotton and other produce, give a picturesque effect to the whole.

scene.

A RESPONSIBLE OFFICER.

77

When I turn my eyes to the shore, the scene, though not so varied, is more interesting; our anchorage is immediately under the guns of the fort made by Napoleon. A beautiful

grove of palm-trees next arrests my attention, with their fanlike branches waving in the air. A little beyond, and towering above the grove, is that stately monument of antiquity, miscalled "Pompey's Pillar." A very animated and Oriental scene constantly presents itself along the beach, produced by the numerous caravans of camels kneeling to receive their burdens, and then, with their slow and meas. ured step, moving off in "Indian file" through the arched gateway into the city, conducted by Egyptian fellahs in their peculiar costume.

On another side of the harbour is the navy-yard of the pacha, where I can see a number of large ships on the stocks, and others undergoing repairs, some of them of enormous size.

Within a day or two we have been permitted to row about the harbour with a "guardiano," much to our amusement; for thus we have obtained a nearer view of many distant objects, which had excited our curiosity simply from the imperfect view we had of them.

Thus has our time been occupied, and, I think, not without some profit.

Besides an occasional oar's-length visit from our consul, we are daily favoured with the company of a much more interesting personage to us at present, a sort of long-shore, half-and-half Arab, Greek, Italian, and Turk, yclept a "Spendidore," whose business it is to spend our money for such matters as we may require for our table. In addition to the more substantial articles, many are the fine bunches of ripe bananas, and branches loaded with luscious oranges, he daily presents to the "signora," with many compliments in his lingua Franca dialect. Within a day or two several vessels have arrived from the coast of Barbary, freighted

with pilgrims on their way to Mecca. They are of the Bedouin tribes who inhabit the regions around Mount Atlas; and if their Numidian progenitors were not a less ill-favoured and savage-looking race, the soldiers of Massinissa need have brought no other weapons into the field than their own hatchet faces. No enemy could withstand the glances of their demon eyes, and not quail beneath their fiendlike expression of countenance. They bring with them various productions of their own country, besides some of those of Morocco and the adjacent regions, which they intend to exchange at Mecca against Oriental articles, brought by equally holy pilgrims from the opposite point of the compass; each one realizing a good profit both ways. Thus making out very conveniently to serve both God and mammon at the same time, and to drive a very advantageous bargain with the good and evil principle, by propitiating both

at once.

We shall have pratique in two or three days, when we shall land immediately on that shore towards which my longing eyes have been impatiently turned for many days past; and if the old Alexandria, or its modern representative, should present anything that might interest you, I will endeavour to record it for your amusement. The result of my observations will accompany the above by the next steamer to London. Without bidding you adieu, I will

now refer you to my next. Until then,

AU REVOIR.