DEAREST ALICK,

I have been back in my own boat four days, and most comfortable she is.
I enlarged the saloon, and made a good writing table, and low easy divans
instead of benches, and added a sort of pantry and sleeping cabin in
front; so that Omar has not to come through the saloon to sleep; and I
have all the hareem part to myself. Inside there is a good large stern
cabin, and wash-closet and two small cabins with beds long enough even
for you. Inshallah, you and Maurice will come next winter and go up the
Nile and enjoy it with me. I intend to sail in ten days and to send back
the 'Urania' to seek work for the winter. We had a very narrow escape of
being flooded this year. I fear a deal of damage has been done to the
dourrah and cotton crops. It was sad to see the villagers close by here
trying to pull up a little green dourrah as the Nile slowly swallowed up
the fields.

I was forced to flog Mabrook yesterday for smoking on the sly, a grave
offence here on the part of a boy; it is considered disrespectful; so he
was ordered, with much parade, to lie down, and Omar gave him two cuts
with a rope's end, an apology for a flogging which would have made an
Eton boy stare. The stick here is quite nominal, except in official
hands. I can't say Mabrook seemed at all impressed, for he was laughing
heartily with Omar in less than ten minutes; but the affair was conducted
with as much solemnity as an execution.

'Sheykh' Stanley's friend, Gezawee, has married his negro slave to his
own sister, on the plea that he was the best young man he knew. What
would a Christian family say to such an arrangement?

My boat is beautifully buoyant now, and has come up by the bows in fine
style. I have not sailed her yet, but have doubt she will 'walk well' as
the Arabs say. Omar got 10 pounds by the sale of old wood and nails, and
also gave me 2000 piastres, nearly 12 pounds, which the workmen had given
him as a sort of backsheesh. They all pay one, two or three piastres
daily to any _wakeel_ (agent) who superintends; that is his profit, and
it is enormous at that rate. I said, 'Why did you not refuse it?' But
Omar replied they had pay enough after that reduction, which is always
made from them, and that in his opinion therefore, it came out of the
master's pocket, and was 'cheatery.' How people have been talking
nonsense about Jamaica _chez vous_. I have little doubt Eyre did quite
right, and still less doubt that th