[p.195] event; and the circumstance of living within hail of my fellow-countrymen, and yet finding it impossible to enjoy their society, still throws a gloom over the memory of my first sojourn in Egypt.

The ships of the Red Sea-infamous region of rocks, reefs, and shoals-cruise along the coast by day, and at night lay-to in the first cove they find; they do not sail when it blows hard, and as in winter time the weather is often stormy and the light of day does not last long, the voyage is intolerably slow.[FN#8] At sunset we stayed our adventurous course; and, still within sight of Suez, comfortably anchored under the lee of Jabal Atakah, the “Mountain of Deliverance,[FN#9]” the butt-end of Jabal Joshi.  We were now on classic waters.  The Eastern shore was dotted with the little grove of palm-trees which clusters around the Uyun Musa, or Moses’ Wells; and on the west, between two towering ridges, lay the mouth of the valley (Badiyah, or Wady Tawarik, or Wady Musa) down which, according to Father Sicard,[FN#10] the Israelites fled to

[p.196] the Sea of Sedge.[FN#11] The view was by no means deficient in a sort of barbarous splendour.  Verdure there was none, but under the violet and orange tints of the sky the chalky rocks became heaps of topazes, and the brown-burnt ridges masses of amethyst.  The rising mists, here silvery white, there deeply rosy, and the bright blue of the waves,[FN#12] lining long strips of golden sand, compensated for the want of softness by a semblance of savage gorgeousness.

Next morning (7th July), before the cerulean hue had vanished from the hills, we set sail.  It was not long before we came to a proper sense of our position.  The box containing my store of provisions, and, worse still, my opium, was at the bottom of the hold, perfectly unapproachable; we had, therefore, the pleasure of breaking our fast on “Mare’s skin,"[FN#13] and a species of biscuit, hard as a stone and quite as tasteless.  During the day, whilst insufferable splendour reigned above, the dashing of the waters below kept my nest in a state of perpetual drench.  At night rose a cold, bright moon, with dews falling so thick and clammy that the skin felt as though it would never be dry again.  It is, also, by no means pleasant

[p.197] to sleep upon a broken cot about four feet long by two broad, with the certainty that a false movement would throw you overboard, and a conviction that if you do fall from a Sambuk under sail, no mortal power can save you.  And as under all circumstances in the East, dozing is one’s chief occupation, the reader will understand that the want of it left me in utter, utter idleness.

The gale was light that day, and the sunbeams were fire; our crew preferred crouching in the shade of the sail to taking advantage of what wind there was.  In spite of our impatience we made but little way:  near evening time we anchored on a tongue of sand, about two miles distant from the well-known and picturesque heights called by the Arabs Hammam Faraun,[FN#14] which-