DECEMBER 25th, 1815. THE many obstacles which had retarded my departure from Alexandria, from day to day, being at length removed, and a favourable wind blowing from the south-west, I took leave of my friends there, and, accompanied by Mr. Thurburn and Mr. Babington, my fellow-voyager from India to Egypt, embarked on board the vessel in which I had taken my passage for the coast of Syria on the morning of Christmas-day.

These gentlemen had the kindness to remain with me until we

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were under way, and had cleared the pharos of the new harbour, when I had again to undergo the most painful of all guiltless feelings, —that of bidding adieu to tried and well-loved friends, with scarcely a hope of our ever meeting again.

When the spacious okellas of the European quarter, now crowned with the flags of her respective nations, began to sink beneath the line of the visible horizon, and the towering column of Dioclesian, the obelisk of Cleopatra, and the lofty lantern of the pharos were the only objects that remained in sight to mark the speed with which we receded from the port, I felt a degree of regret which even the ardour for new scenes was not sufficient to conquer. It was in vain that I remembered the glow of enthusiasm with which I once saluted these proud monuments of Alexandria's former glory, on my first approaching Egypt's classic shores. It was in vain that I endeavoured to recall the charm of that fairy hope which even then, amid more powerful causes for despondency than now existed, bore me lightly on my way, and strewed that way with flowers. The influence of these united feelings, often as it had supported me before, and warmly as I courted its aid, availed me nothing at the present moment; so that when the evening sun became obscured by the dark bed of western clouds into which he sunk, I yielded myself, in spite of every struggle of my judgment, to the sadness of that solitude by which I felt myself surrounded.

My eyes continued fixed upon the spot I had quitted with such regret, until the broken eminences of the shore had gradually dwindled into almost indistinguishable specks, and till at length the darkness of the night had completely shrouded even these from my view.

26th. Impatience for the return of day had forced me to quit my birth before the stars had faded; and although I expected no augmentation of happiness from the presence of the sun more than from the milder light of those orbs which were soon lost in his refulgence, yet I felt a glow of satisfaction at beholding the

first blush of dawn in the east, as it cheated me into a hope of its opening for me a day of less suffering than the preceding.

The favourable wind with which we had sailed having declined during the night, was followed by a calm; and the current attributed to the discharge of the Nile had swept us again to the westward, so that we found ourselves within a few miles of the island and castle of Aboukir. As the day advanced, the wind freshened from the eastward, and at last settled into a steady north-east breeze. Our captain, as well as all the passengers and crew, were desirous of returning to Alexandria, insisting with great truth that the slow progress which we should make against a strong contrary wind was not to be reckoned an advantage, when it incurred the risk of errors in night-sailing, and the dangers of a lee-shore on a shoal coast. A sense of duty, rather than a want of conviction of the justice of these remarks, induced me to urge our continuing at sea whether we made any progress on our way or not. courage their compliance with my request, I stated to them my professional capacity, as well as my willingness to take charge of the vessel, and conduct her navigation during the continuance of the contrary wind; and this had the effect of making them agree unanimously to keep under sail a little longer.

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The vessel in which I had embarked, was one of those called a Shuktoor, and seemed peculiar to the navigation of the Syrian coast. Its length was about thirty feet, and its extreme breadth fifteen, but being of shallow draught, its burthen could not have exceeded forty tons. Small as it was, it had three masts, two of them being fixed nearly at the extreme points of the frame, and the principal one a little before the centre of the hull. On the fore and mizen masts were carried a latteen sail, exactly similar in size and form to those worn by the Egyptian jerms, and on the main-mast were a square course, a topsail, and a top-gallant sail, all fitted like the central sails in a polacca ship, and the mast rigged in the same

way.

See the vignette at the head of this chapter.

This vessel being chiefly employed in the transportation of corn and rice from Egypt to Syria, with the former of which she was now laden, had the security of a good deck fore and aft, with regularly raised gunwales, hatchways, &c. From the mizen-mast to the stern-post, a space of about six feet in length, a raised poop formed a small cabin, the highest part of which was less than three feet, so that it was necessary to enter it on all-fours, and when within it, to continue in a reclining posture; as even when sitting on the bare deck the body could not be held upright. The only aperture for the admission of light or air into the cabin was the door of entrance, which was exactly two feet square: more than half its interior was already occupied by baskets of rice, clusters of dates, &c. belonging to the captain; and in the centre of the foremost bulkhead, in a small recess, a dim lamp was kept constantly burning, the oil and heat of which attracted some hundreds of young cock-roaches and other insects around it.

In sails, furniture, and ground tackle, the vessel appeared to be as well furnished as those of the Levant generally are, and between her fore and main mast was carried a boat sufficiently large to contain every one on board, in the event of the vessel's foundering or stranding on the coast.

The captain and his crew, altogether ten in number, were Syrian Arabs of the Greek religion, and their persons and dresses, as well as their language, evinced a singular mixture of the native manners of their country with the acquired ones of their church. In the management of their vessel, they were unskilful, and of navigation none of them appeared to have any knowledge. An English compass stood in a binnacle before the helmsman, but he very seldom regarded it; and no account was taken either of the rate or of the courses steered, beyond a general aim to make as much northing and easting as possible, and trust to a look-out for avoiding dangers.

Among them all, the most perfect equality seemed to exist, and no one appeared to have any peculiar charge while the vessel was

at sea; as on several occasions the oldest sailor was employed in cooking, the youngest at the helm, and the captain holding-on a brace, or hauling out a bow-line. The same equality entered into their amusements when card-parties were formed on the deck, in which every individual of the crew joined by turns: as they did not play for money, the losers were condemned to undergo some ridiculous penance, and, among others, it fell to the lot of the captain, in the course of the day, to suffer himself to be plunged overboard, and ducked beneath the surface of the water by each of the victors, and again to perform some feats of activity, while burthened with a load of baskets and other packages suspended around his neck. Amid the bursts of laughter excited by these ludicrous exhibitions, there was neither the slightest appearance of anger or ill-humour in the suffering party, nor of malicious. triumph on the part of those who witnessed them.

Besides the crew, there were on board two Mahommedan passengers, one a Syrian Turk, the other a respectable Arab trader from Tunis, some Muggrebin Moors, and a Syrian Christian merchant, with four others apparently attached to his establisment, and partaking of his fare. The Barbary trader and the Syrian merchant, though differing essentially in their religion, and liable to jealousies, from their pursuit of the same object, and though these differences were marked by external badges calculated to nourish pride in the one and mortification in the other, seemed to associate together with unusual harmony. They jointly occupied a small space left open in the main hatchway, and smoked their pipes and drank their coffee together in a social equality that did honour to the feelings of both. The Moors from Barbary lay in the boat upon each other, and the Christians stretched themselves along on different parts of the deck; while the crew, who were not divided into watches, either slept, or sang, or played, or were engaged in duty, as the occasion demanded.

The small cabin already described was the part of the ship appropriated to my accommodation; but though it had been digni