the youth.
"Egypt is the oldest country of which we have a definite history, and there is no other land that contains so many monuments of its former greatness."
Their conversation was cut short by the captain, who came to tell them that they would soon be able to go on shore, as the Quarantine boat was approaching, and they could leave immediately after the formalities were over.
When we last heard from our friends they were about leaving Bombay under "sealed orders." When the steamer was fairly outside of the beautiful harbor of that city, and the passengers were bidding farewell to Colaba Light-house, Dr. Bronson called the youths to his side and told them their destination.
"We are going," said he, "to Egypt, and thence to the Holy Land. The steamer will carry us across the Indian Ocean to the Straits of Bab-el-mandeb, and then through these straits into the Red Sea; then we continue our voyage to Suez, where we land and travel by rail to Cairo."
One of the boys asked how long it would take them to go from Bombay to Suez.
"About ten days," was the reply. "The distance is three thousand miles, in round numbers, and I believe we are not to stop anywhere on the way."
The time was passed pleasantly enough on the steamer. The weather was so warm that the passengers preferred the deck to the stifling cabins, and the majority of them slept there every night, and lounged there during the day. The boys passed their time in reading about the countries they were to visit, writing letters to friends at home, and completing the journal of their travels. In the evenings they talked about what they had seen, and hoped that the story of their wanderings would prove interesting to their school-mates in America, and to other youths of their age.[1]
Soon after entering the Red Sea they passed the island of Perim, a barren stretch of rock and sand, crowned with a signal station, from which the English flag was flying. As they were looking at the island, and thinking what a dreary place it must be to live in, one of the passengers told the boys an amusing story of how the English obtained possession of it.
"Of course you are aware," said he, "that the English have a military post at Aden, a rocky peninsula on the shore of Arabia, about a hundred and twenty miles from the entrance of the Red Sea. They bought it from the Sultan of that part of Arabia in 1839 by first taking possession, and then telling him he could name his price, and they would give him what they thought best, as they were determined to stay. Aden is a very important station for England, as it lies conveniently between Europe and Asia, and has a fine harbor. The mail steamers stop there for coal, and the government always keeps a garrison in the fort. It is one of the hottest and most unhealthy places in the world, and there is a saying among the British officers that an order to go to Aden is very much like being condemned to be shot.
"Soon after the Suez Canal was begun the French thought they needed a port somewhere near Aden, and in 1857 they sent a ship-of-war to obtain one. The ship touched at Aden for provisions, and the captain was invited to dine with the general who commanded at the fort. During dinner he became very talkative, and finally told the general that his government had sent him to take possession of Perim, at the entrance of the Red Sea.
"Perim was a barren island, as you see, and belonged to nobody; and the English had never thought it was worth holding, though they occupied it from 1799 to 1801. As soon as the French captain had stated his business in that locality the general wrote a few words on a slip of paper, which he handed to a servant to carry to the chief of staff. Then he kept his visitor at table till a late hour, prevailed on him to sleep on shore that night, and not be in a hurry to get away the next morning.
"The French ship left during the forenoon and steamed for Perim. And you may imagine that captain's astonishment when he saw a dozen men on the summit of the island fixing a pole in the ground. As soon as it was in place they flung out the English flag from its top, and greeted it with three cheers. In the little note he wrote at the dinner-table the general had ordered a small steamer to start immediately for Perim and take possession in the name of the Queen, and his orders were obeyed. The French captain was dismissed from the navy for being too free with his tongue, and the English have 'hung on' to Perim ever since."
The Doctor joined them as the story of the occupation of Perim was concluded. There was a laugh over the shrewdness of the English officer and the discomfiture of the French one, and then the conversation turned to the Red Sea.
"It may properly be called an inlet of the Indian Ocean," said the Doctor, "as it is long and narrow, and has more the characteristics of an inlet than of a sea. It is about fourteen hundred miles long, and varies from twenty to two hundred miles in width; it contains many shoals and quicksands, so that its navigation is dangerous, and requires careful pilotage. At the upper or northern extremity it is divided into two branches by the peninsula of Mount Sinai; the western branch is called the Gulf of Suez, and is about one hundred and eighty miles long, by twenty broad. This gulf was formerly more difficult of navigation than the Red Sea proper, but recently the Egyptian government has established a line of beacons and light-houses along its whole length, so that the pilots can easily find their way by day or at night."
One of the boys asked why the body of water in question was called the Red Sea.
The Doctor explained that the origin of the name was unknown, as it had been called the Red Sea since the time of Herodotus and other early writers. It is referred to in the Hebrew Scriptures as Yam Suph, the Sea of Weeds, in consequence of the profusion of weeds in its waters. These weeds have a reddish color; the barren hills that enclose the sea have a strong tinge of red, especially at the hours of sunset and sunrise, and the coral reefs that stretch in every direction and make navigation dangerous are often of a vermilion tint. "You will see all these things as you proceed," he continued, "and by the time you are at Suez you will have no difficulty in understanding why this body of water is called the Red Sea."
The boys found it as he had predicted, and the temperature for the first two days after passing Perim led Frank to suggest that the name might be made more descriptive of its character if it were called the Red-hot Sea. The thermometer stood at 101° in the cabin, and was only a little lower on deck; the heat was enervating in the extreme, and there was no way of escaping it; but on the third day the wind began to blow from the north, and there was a change in the situation. Thin garments were exchanged for thick ones, and the passengers, who had been almost faint with the heat, were beginning to shiver in their overcoats.
"A change of this sort is unusual," said the gentleman who had told them of the seizure of Perim, "but when it does come it is very grateful. Only in January or February is the Red Sea anything but hot; the winds blow from the sandy desert, or from the region of the equator, and sometimes it seems as though you were in a furnace. From December to March the thermometer averages 76°, from thence to May it is 87°, and through the four or five months that follow it is often 100°. I have frequently seen it 110° in the cabin of a steamer, and on one occasion, when the simoom was blowing from the desert, it was 132°. Steamers going north when the south wind is blowing find themselves running just with the wind, so that they seem to be in a dead calm; in such cases they sometimes turn around every ten or twelve hours and run a few miles in the other direction, so as to let the wind blow through the ship and ventilate it as much as possible. The firemen are Arabs and negroes, accustomed all their lives to great heat, but on almost every voyage some of them find the temperature of the engine-room too severe, and die of suffocation."
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