ur feet. The ancient Arsinoe stood here; a
few blocks of marble with the cross attest the presence of Venetian
Christians; but now--the desolation of desolations. Mr. Liddell and I
separated from the rest, and when we had found a sure bay for the
cable, had a tremendous lively scramble back to the boat. These are
the bits of our life which I enjoy, which have some poetry, some
grandeur in them.

"_May 29_ (?).

"Yesterday we ran round to the new harbour [of Alexandria], landed the
shore-end of the cable close to Cleopatra's bath, and made a very
satisfactory start about one in the afternoon. We had scarcely gone
200 yards when I noticed that the cable ceased to run out, and I
wondered why the ship had stopped. People ran aft to tell me not to
put such a strain on the cable; I answered indignantly that there was
no strain; and suddenly it broke on every one in the ship at once that
we were aground. Here was a nice mess. A violent scirocco blew from
the land; making one's skin feel as if it belonged to some one else
and didn't fit, making the horizon dim and yellow with fine sand,
oppressing every sense and raising the thermometer 20 degrees in an
hour, but making calm water round us, which enabled the ship to lie
for the time in safety. The wind might change at any moment, since the
scirocco was only accidental; and at the first wave from seaward bump
would go the poor ship, and there would [might] be an end of our
voyage. The captain, without waiting to sound, began to make an effort
to put the ship over what was supposed to be a sandbank; but by the
time soundings were made this was found to be impossible, and he had
only been jamming the poor _Elba_ faster on a rock. Now every effort
was made to get her astern, an anchor taken out, a rope brought to a
winch I had for the cable, and the engines backed; but all in vain. A
small Turkish Government steamer, which is to be our consort, came to
our assistance, but of course very slowly, and much time was occupied
before we could get a hawser to her. I could do no good after having
made a chart of the soundings round the ship, and went at last on to
the bridge to sketch the scene. But at that moment the strain from the
winch and a jerk from the Turkish steamer got off the boat, after we
had been some hours aground. The carpenter reported that she had made
only two inches of water in one compartment;