We here tacked again, and stood along the coast to the eastward, the weather fine, wind N. N. E., water smooth, and thermometer 65° at 2 P. M.

Throughout the afternoon we continued to advance at the slow rate of about a mile an hour, our soundings varying from five to four fathoms at a distance of about three miles from the shore.

At sunset having land open, off our weather-bow, which it would be impossible for us to clear on our present course, we tacked off to the northward, with an encreasing breeze and a heavy swell setting from the E.N.E.

The night was dark and cloudy, and the thermometer at 50° at 10 P.M., a degree of cold which made us all feel uncomfortable. 29th. We had tacked to the eastward at midnight, and at dawn were still struggling against a scant wind and contrary current, with the coast of the Delta barely visible under our lee.

Fresh arguments and remonstrances against the inutility of continuing at sea, contending with the elements without a hope of successfully opposing them, were again poured upon me at the moment of my crawling from my cabin even before I could raise myself from my position of all-fours to meet my adversaries face to face.

The captain and the crew were as strenuous as before in their opinions that we should return to port, where they said they had the pleasure of living chiefly on shore, of hearing the news and chit-chat of the coffee-houses, and where they slept. tranquilly every night; whereas here, besides the toil and fatigue of buffetting the winds and waves, their food was scanty, their nights passed in constant watching, and their apprehensions of danger kept alive by the length of the darkness and the nature of the coast.

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If the crew, however, were earnest in their advice, the passengers were vehement in their declamation, and scrupled not to call me an ignorant and headstrong fool," for persisting in a course which, without one apparent advantage resulting from it, positively prolonged the suffering and inconvenience of every one on board,

and seemed like a defiance of the Almighty Power, by courting an unnecessary exposure to certain and continual risk.

This last sentence so worked upon the piety of every one, both Mahommedans and Christians, as nearly to have decided our fate; for it was no sooner uttered than orders were given to bear up, and the helm was actually clapped a-weather and the after-sheets

let go.

Alone and unsupported as I was, (for even my old servant stood a silent spectator of the scene,) I hesitated for a moment what step to take, until remembering how often I had seen sturdy perseverance prevail against every obstacle, I ran to the helm and luffed the vessel once more to the wind, feigning at the same time an anger which I did not really feel, and calling them by the opprobrious epithets of cowards, women-hearted, hares, and husbandmen, terms of the greatest reproach to sailors in their language.

My cause would have been completely lost, however, had I not assured the Reis* that his emancipation from the avarice of the Egyptian government was entirely dependent on the British Consul at Alexandria, and that if he dared to return to that port without being driven there by absolute distress, I would not fail to represent his conduct as being in direct opposition to my wishes.

This was enough: the fear of losing money operated more powerfully than any other consideration; and though the murmurs of the passengers were not so easily quelled, yet the captain was henceforth all submission, and the order was given to haul aft the sheets and trim the sails to the wind again.

During the forenoon the breeze freshened so considerably as to oblige us to reduce our canvass, and a heavy swell set us constantly to leeward upon the Delta shore, our soundings varying from six to four fathoms irregularly.

ريس

a chief, head, &c. applied to all pilots and commanders of vessels.

At noon we were within a mile of the mouth of the Lake Booroolos, on the western beach of which are seen the remains of a square building. Over the eastern land we could perceive the masts of boats upon the lake itself, and a short distance to the eastward the minareh* of a mosque, the dome of a saint's tomb, and several clusters of date-trees. The whole line of the coast is here composed of yellow sand-hills from forty to fifty feet in height, loose and shifting in their nature, and completely barren ; the few date-trees seen over them being situated on a firmer soil within. A minareh and the appearance of dwellings is seen about a mile farther to the eastward than those already mentioned. Beyond this the coast runs in nearly a north-east direction for four or five miles, forming a continued chain of yellow and barren sand-hills, until it terminates in the low cape called Ras-el-Booroolos, off which the British ship Jiuste was wrecked in March, 1814.

Having stood into three fathoms water, with discoloured patches and broken ground all around us, we tacked off to the northward in order to weather the cape. In reviewing the coast from every point of direction, I felt the same impressions as those which my land-journey along its shores had before suggested; namely, that its appearance was unfavourable to the idea of the Delta being wholly the gift of the Nile, and that whatever changes might have been produced at the apex of this island by the alluvium of the river, its base being composed of sand-hills and salt-lakes extending many leagues in-shore, betrays the strongest symptoms of its being entirely gained from the sea, and of the river never having reached it to leave any of its deposit there.

The wind still freshening with a heavy sea, we tacked at sunset and stood along the coast to the eastward, having six and five

• The name applied peculiarly to the tall and slender tower of a mosque, either from the Arabic word, a candlestick, lamp, light-house, or pharos; or from the Persian word, a tower or spire in general.

fathoms by the way. The night was dark, cloudy, and uncomfortably cold.

30th. The wind had now settled into a strong north-east gale, and the vessel being laden to within about ten inches of her upper railway, and at least six inches above her deck, the sea not only made a complete breach over her, but we became in danger of foundering by the water lodging on her deck without finding an outlet overboard. Fresh cries to return to port were therefore raised on all sides, and there was in the present case too evident a foundation for their fears to treat them as before.

From the estimated distance which we had advanced during the night, we had reason to believe ourselves abreast of Damietta, for which port I recommended them to bear up, if they were determined to seek shelter any where. At the same time, however, I endeavoured to dissuade them from the measure by urging the danger of the experiment if we should find ourselves too far to leeward of the bar on nearing the coast, and assuring them that by the exertions of the crew in baling the water off the deck as it entered, we might yet keep the sea without imminent danger. "To Alexandria, to Alexandria !" was the united cry, and nothing could have deterred them from the execution of this step but the sense of shame which I endeavoured to excite in them by every epithet but that of men and sailors.

To follow up this volley of reproaches by an example of encouragement, my servant and myself commenced baling in the lee-waist with buckets; and in little more than half an hour the the deck was perfectly clear. We next had all the weighty and bulky articles, with which the deck was crowded fore and aft, removed in amid-ships to ease the vessel's rolling and plunging in the sea, and being now under a double-reefed topsail and course, with all the smaller sails furled, we lay-to in safety.

The tone of command which I had thus unwillingly, but, as I thought, prudently assumed, seemed to give great offence to the passengers; but as they were all now helpless from sea-sickness

their murmurs were of less avail. The captain and the crew, on the other hand, though they at first expressed some repugnance at my opposition to their wishes, subsequently evinced a confidence in my direction beyond even my expectation; for the bare suggestion of a sail being badly trimmed, a rope too taut, or the helm ill managed, was sufficient to obtain the necessary amendment of the evil.

We all passed the day uncomfortably, the breaking sea rendering it impossible to cook any food; and the violent motion of the vessel making it difficult even to read. At sunset we were cheered by a hope of the gale's abating.

31st. The morning dawned upon us with brighter prospects; the gale had abated, our reefs were shaken out, and as we were still in shoal water the swell of the sea was rapidly subsiding.

A temporary evil offered considerable annoyance to the passengers, who had just risen as from the dead. The stock of firewood was expended to the last splinter, and not even sufficient could be mustered to prepare for them their morning cup of coffee. All tongues conspired to brand me as the cause of this and every other privation they had suffered, and the mortification was now the greater to them, as when they again reiterated "To port, to port!" I consented readily to their return, there being now an irregular swell and scarcely wind enough to make the vessel answer to her helm.

At noon we had an air from the eastward, and expecting that it would draw round more southerly in the course of the day, we stood on the larboard tack S. S. E., having good sea-room and no land in sight. In the afternoon, a vessel passed under our lee standing to the westward, from some Syrian port; and at sunset the wind had drawn more northerly, and freshened again into a strong breeze, obliging us to furl our small sails and reef our larger canvass. We now hauled up east, standing on that course with ten fathoms water, and no land in sight even from the masthead.