g. It was sent by the great Parsee merchants here,
who undertake to supply us with coals, provisions, water, and
everything we want, and spare us all trouble. For the last three or
four days we have had a nice little breeze astern, and if we had not
been in a hurry to cross the Indian Ocean before the south-west
monsoon set in, we should certainly have been contented with four or
five knots an hour under sail instead of eight and a half under steam.
We have averaged over 200 miles a day under steam alone, ever since we
left Penang, and have burnt only four tons of coal for every fifty
miles.

_Monday, April 16th_.--At 1.30 a.m. I heard the signal gun fired, and
shortly afterwards a great splash of boats and oars, and a vast
chattering and shouting of tongues announced the arrival of a P. and
O. steamer. She dropped her anchor just outside us, so we had the
benefit of the noise all night. I got up at daylight and found the
pilot just coming off. He took us to a buoy, a little closer in, and
soon the business of coaling and watering commenced.

[Illustration: Soumali Indian, Aden.]

We reached the shore about 7.30, and, landing at the pier, had our
first near view of the natives, who are most curious-looking
creatures. They have very black complexions, and long woolly hair,
setting out like a mop all round, and generally dyed bright red, or
yellow by the application of lime. Mr. Cowajee had sent his own
private carriage to meet us. It was a comfortable open barouche, with
a pair of nice horses, and two servants in Eastern liveries, green
vests and full trousers, and red and orange turbans. We went first to
his store, which seemed to be an emporium for every conceivable
article. There was carved sandal-wood, and embroidered shawls from
China, Surat, and Gujerat, work from India, English medicines, French
lamps, Swiss clocks, German toys, Russian caviare, Greek lace,
Havannah cigars, American hides and canned fruits, besides many other
things. The feathers did not look very tempting; there was a great
deal of feather and very little stem about most of them, and only a
few were white, the majority being a pretty sort of brown and drab.
But this general store is only a very small part of their business,
for about 60,000 tons of coal pass through their hands every year.

We went on to the Hotel de l'Europe, which was by no means in
first-rate order, but allowances must be made for a new house. A
delightful breeze was blow