on, as I
believe it is called, without assistance. Miss E., however, who was
more observant, hooked her parasol into one of the ropes, which
she subsequently caught. We were now to be taught a new lesson--the
extreme nonchalance with which the officers of a Government steamer
treat the passengers who have the misfortune to choose these boats
instead of making the voyage on board merchant vessels. Some minutes
elapsed before any notice was taken of us, or any assistance afforded
in getting up our baggage; our own people being obliged to look on
and do nothing, since, had they touched the ship, they would have been
obliged to perform eighteen days of quarantine.

Upon reaching the deck, we requested that our baggage might be taken
down into the ladies' cabin, in order that we might get our small
dormitories put to rights before the rest of the passengers came on
board; but, though it could have made no earthly difference to the
people employed, we met with a refusal, and the whole was deposited in
the grand saloon, already encumbered with luggage, every quarter of an
hour adding to the heap and the confusion, and the difficulty of each
person recognizing the identical carpet-bag or portmanteau that he
might claim as his property.[A]

Among our new fellow-passengers there was a young English gentleman,
who intended to travel into Syria, and who, though looking scarcely
twenty, had already spent some years in foreign countries. He was very
modest and unassuming, and both agreeable and intelligent; and, having
had a good deal of conversation together, I was sorry to lose sight of
him at Alexandria.

We had also one of Mehemet Ali's _proteges_ on board, a young
Egyptian, who had been educated at the Pasha's expense in England,
where he had resided for the last ten years, latterly in the
neighbourhood of a dock-yard, in order to study the art of
ship-building. This young man was a favourite with those persons on
board who could make allowances for the circumstances in which he had
been placed, and who did not expect acquirements which it was almost
impossible for him to attain. His natural abilities were very good,
and he had cultivated them to the utmost of his power. Strongly
attached to European customs, manners, and institutions, he will lose
no opportunity of improving the condition of his countrymen, or of
inducing them to discard those prejudices which retard the progress
of civilization. He was naturally very anxi