WCP352

Copy¹ of Alfred[']s Letter from Euxine P & O Co Steamer² to G. Silk³

Mediterranean

March 19. 1854

All right so far — We have had beautiful weather. I was sick only one day and qualmish two or three more — This ship is crowded we have four births [sic] in our cabin 3 occupied & there is not room for two to dress in it at once. I am in the lower tier[.] They are luckily well ventilated and so are pretty comfortable. We sit down 60 to dinner, everything is generally cold & the only way to get a good dinner is to sieze [seize] on the nearest dish to you and stick to it till exhausted nature is replenished. Our hours are Breakfast 9 Lunch 12 — Soda water Ale & bread and cheese wine & Spirits ad lib. Dinner at 4 Claret Port & Sherry with Champagne twice a week — Tea at 7. Band plays 8 to 9 Lights extinguished at ½ past 10 — Our company consists of a few officers and about 20 cadets for India 3 or 4 Scotch clerks for Calcutta — same number of business men for Australia — a chinese interpretter [sic] and two or three others for China 1 Frenchmen — [1 word deleted illeg.] Portuguese officer for Goa with whom I converse. 3 Spaniards going to the Phillip Philippines (very grave) a Gentleman and two Ladies (Dutch) going to Batavia [Jakarta] and some officers & miscellanias [sic] for Alexandria and others we have left at Malta⁴ — There are two or three chess players & I am have so much improved that I think I should have some chance with you. At Gibraltar we lay 24 hours in Quarrantine [sic] — a boat came alongside with a health officer in the stern, selling fruit, cigars &c all [2] handed up with tongs and payment received in a basin of water, all for fear of the Cholera[.]⁵

We reached Malta at night & left at 10 the next morning[.] I went on shore from 6 to 9 saw the streets and the market, heard Maltese spoken, admired the beggar boys and Girls and walked through the Cathedral of St John gorgeous with gold and marble and the tombs of the Knights of Malta. We have had lovely weather but the boat is slow going generally only 9 Knots so we are two days behind time, but we hope to make it up on the other side of the Isthmus in the "Bengal"⁶ which is a fast boat and much more commodious having 2200 tons & the cabins much larger. Tomorrow morning we are to reach Alexandria & then for Cairo and the desert with a glimpse at the Pyramids I hope — a parson came on board at Malta going to Jerusalem a Mr Hayward,⁷ my namesake⁸ also came on board there, he goes to Bombay where he has been before. He is a neat figure, sharp face and very respectable, not at all like me!

I have found no acquaintance on board who exactly suits me so shall have less to regret at parting with them. One of my cabin mates is going to Australia reads "How to make money"⁹ seems to be always thinking of it and is very dull and unsociable, the other is a young Cadet, very aristocratic — great in Dressing Case & Jewellery, Takes an hour to dress & reads the Hindostany [sic] Grammar. The Frenchman, the Portuguese & the Scotchman I find the most amusing, there is a little fat navy Lieut[enant]. who is very amusing [3] tries practical jokes and has set up a "Monte" Table[.]¹⁰ If you have no more than this it will go from Alexandria — If not I will continue it —

so Adieu

Steamer "Bengal" Red Sea

March 26^th [1854]

I now go on with my account and hope to give you some idea of the state of Egypt &c &c[.] Of all the eventful days of my life my first in Alexandria was the most striking, I imagine my feelings when coming out of the Hotel (whither I had been convey’d in an omnibus) for the purpose of taking a quiet stroll through the City — I found myself in the midst of a vast crowd of donkey’s & their drivers all thoroughly determined to appropriate my person to their own use and interest, without in the least consulting my inclinations. In vain with rapid strides and waving arms I endeavoured to clear a way and move forward, arms and legs were seized upon and even the Christian coat tails were not sacred from the profane mahometans — One would hold together two donkeys by their tails while I was struggling between them — & another forcing together their heads, would thus hope to compel me to mount upon one or both of them and another forcing One fellow more impudent than the rest I laid flat upon the ground and sending the donkeys staggering after [4] him, I escaped a moment midst hideous yells and most unearthly cries. I now beckond [sic] to a fellow more sensible looking than the rest and told him that I wished to walk and would take him for a guide & hoped now to be at rest, but vain thought! I was in the hands of the Philistines, and getting us up against a wall they formed an impenetrable phalanx of men and Brutes thoroughly determined that I should only get away from the spot on the legs of a donkey — Bethinking myself now that donkey riding was a national institution and seeing a far Yankee (very like my Paris friend) mounted, being like myself hopeless of any other means of escape, I seized upon a bridle in hopes that I should then be left in peace[.] But this was the signal for a more furious onset, for seeing that I would at length ride each one was determined that he alone should profit by the transaction and a dozen animals were forced suddenly upon me & a dozen hands tried to lift me upon their respective beasts[.] But now my patience was exhausted so keeping firm hold of the bridle I had just taken with one hand, I hit right & left with the other and calling upon my guide to do the same we succeeded in clearing a little space around us — Now then behold your friend [5] mounted upon a Jackass in the streets of Alexandria, a boy behind holding by his tail and whipping him up. Charles¹¹ (who had been lost sight of in the crowd) upon another and my guide upon a third and off we go among a crowd of Jews and Greeks — Turks and Arabs and veiled women and yelling donkey boys to see the City — We saw the Bazars [Bazaars] & the slave market when I was again nearly pulled to pieces for "backsheash" [baksheesh] (money), the mosques with their elegant minirets, [sic] and then the Pasha’s new Palace¹² the interior of which is most gorgeous. We have lots of Turkish soldiers walking in comfortable irregularity, and after feeling ourselves to be dreadful Guys for two hours — returned to the hotel whence we were to start for the canal boats, you may think this account exaggerated, but it is not, the pertunacity [sic] vigour and screams of the Alexandrian donkey drivers no description can do justice to — on our way we passed Pompey’s Pillar¹³ & then [1 deleted word illeg.] a day in a small boat on a canal, the next day on the Nile mud villages, Palm trees, Camels and irigating [sic] [6] wheels turned by buffaloes form the staple of the Landscape with a perfectly flat Country often beautifully green with crops of corn & lentils, numerous boats with immense triangular sails — Here the Pyramids came in sight looking very large — then a handsome castellated bridge for the Alexandria & Cairo railway¹⁴ — and then Cairo — Grand Cairo! The City of romance which we reached just before sunset. We took a guide & walked in the city, very picturesque and dirty — got to a quiet English hotel where a Mussulman waiter rejoicing in the name of "Ali Baba" gave me some splendid Tea, brown bread and fresh butter — One or two French and English travellers were the only company & I could hardly realize my situation. I longed for you to enjoy it with me. Thackeray’s first day in the East¹⁵ is admirable, read it again[,] it represents my sentiments exactly. In the morn[in]g[?] at 7 we started for Suez in small two wheeled omnibuses 6 in each 4 horses change every 5 miles — a meal every 3 hours at very comfortable stations. The desert is undulating covered with a coarse volcanic gravel the road is excellent Hundreds of Camels skeletons lay all along Vultures & a few [7] sand grouse were seen also some small sand larks &c — We saw the Mirage frequently — near the middle station the Pasha has a hunting lodge like a palace[.] The Indian and Australian mail about 600 boxes & all the parcels & Passengers luggage came over on Camels which we passed on the way — a few odorificious [odoriferous?] little plants grew here & there in the hollows I made a small collection in my pocket books and got a few land shells. We enjoyed the ride exceedingly and reached Suez at midnight — Suez is a miserable little town & the Bazar [sic] is extraordinarily small dark and dirty, no water or any green thing exists within 10 miles. In the afternoon we were taken on board the ship, a splendid vessel where the cabins are large & comfortable and everything very superior to the Euxine. It is a perfect calm & at length hot and pleasant I cannot write on board ship or I could have filled sheets with an account of "From Alexandria to Suez" I was much pleased. Take this letter to N^o 44 Albany Street¹⁶ as I cannot now write home —

Yours sincerely │ Alfred R Wallace [signature]

G C Silk Esq^r