id
good bye to the "nut-brown maids," and at 5 p.m., on September 4th,
enter the broad waters of the Gulf of Suez.

The great feature of the town of Suez is its donkeys; wonderfully
knowing creatures, who, with their masters, look upon every visitor, as
in duty bound, to engage their services. To say them nay, and to suggest
that your legs are quite capable of bearing you to the town, is only
provocative of an incredulous smile, or a negative shake of the head.
Never was seen such patience and importunity as that displayed by boy
and beast. The most striking thing about them is their names--shared in
common--which furnish one with a running commentary on current events in
Europe. For example, there were the "Prince of Wales" and "Roger
Tichborne," "Mrs. Besant" and the "Fruits of Philosophy"! The "mokes"
are so well trained--or is it that they have traversed the same ground
so often? that, in spite of all tugging at the reins, and the
administration of thundering applications of your heel in the abdominal
region, they will insist upon conducting you to a locality well
understood, but of no very pronounced respectability. I did hear--but
this between you and I--that a rather too confiding naval chaplain, on
one occasion, trusted himself to the guidance of one of these perfidious
beasts, and even the sanctity of his cloth, could not save him from the
same fate.

September 7th. We may now be said to have entered upon the saddest and
most unpleasant part of the voyage, that of the Red Sea passage.

The day after sailing, the look-out from the mast head reported a vessel
aground off the starboard bow, with a second vessel close by, and,
seemingly, in a similar predicament. Our thoughts at once adverted to
the two troopships which left last night, so we hurried on, and,
arriving at the spot, found we had surmised correctly. One only, the
steamer, was aground; her consort, the sailing ship, being at anchor a
safe distance off. We lost no time in sending hawsers on board, but it
was not until the third day that we were successful in our efforts to
haul her off.

Our voyage resumed, we had scarcely got out of sight of the two ships,
when the sudden cry of "man overboard!" was heard above the din of
flapping canvas and creaking blocks. To stop the engines, gather in the
upper sails, let fly sheets, and back the main yard, was the work of
seconds; and before the ship was well around--smart as she was on her
heel, too--the lif