knives, and made a board upon the floor, playing by the dim light of an aperture in the roof. The brutal Ghazees, discovering their pastime, deprived them of the chessmen and their penknives, and blocked up the only source of light! The order for their removal to Cabul, to be placed under the eye of Akbar Khan himself, was thus hailed as a relief.

Nothing occurred to diversify the voyage of the Hindostan. She ran to Madras in three days, and we landed and drove about the town, while the coaling of the steamer went on. Madras, whatever it may be to the resident, who forms his coterie and passes his hours between business and social intercourse, is a stupid place to the occasional visitor who has been at either of the other presidencies. There is little novelty in the costume and usages of the people; the town, with its formal roads at right angles, its dust-coloured trees and inelegant houses, resembling buildings that have grown old before the architect had completed his labours, has nothing about it of the picturesque; there is not a lion to be seen, excepting the statue of Sir Thomas Munro; and the fun of getting ashore in a masullah boat is almost counterbalanced by the prospect of a capsize or a sousing. We were not overwhelmed with grief, therefore, when the signal was made for weighing anchor and putting to sea. Ceylon was reached in three days. Point de Galle, the coaling port, really has, in contradistinction to the "benighted" city of the coast, its agrémens. After a week of blue water, a ride through a coco-tree grove, a visit to cinnamon and coffee gardens, marketing for elephants'-teeth, snuff-boxes, and knife-handles, a glimpse at the Rifle corps, a match at billiards, and two or three capital fish dinners, make up an agreeable pastime; and, if you still have time on your hands, a few hours may be not unfruitfully passed in watching the process of manufacturing coco-nut oil, and in examining the various methods of converting the residue of the coco-nut to useful purposes. It is no uncommon thing, in the course of the ride along the edge of the island, to see the outer shell of the nut steeping in pools of water, preparatory to the conversion of the fibres into coir rope and material for matting, while the kernel lies in halves, the thick milky lining exhibiting its fitness for conversion by pressure into the liquid so generally used for illuminating or anointing purposes. We were told that each coco-tree yields its possessor an annual revenue of three shillings; and there were many, many thousands of them in every direction, What a noble fortune! you will say. Ay, but the tree takes seven years to reach maturity, and, meanwhile, what becomes of the interest of the money laid out in the purchase of the estate?

We left Point de Galle on the afternoon of the 27th of April. The weather was calm and beautifully clear, and the vessel clove the waters at the rate of 220 miles per day. Our course lay through the countless picturesque Maldives. Close to one of them, upon a shoal indicated by a rich green streak of water, lay a barque, which had missed her way in threading the complicated cluster, and become a wreck. In her neighbourhood were two other vessels, bearing the blood-red flag of the Arab, evidently drawn thither with the purpose of affording aid or

seeking plunder. We hailed a Maldive boat, with her carved sides and matted sail; but she passed under our bows, shewing no inclination to lay-to, until we shaped a course directly bearing upon her. The rowing was suspended when the Hindostan was within a few yards of her, and the "hail" became audible from our deck. No response was, however, made to the very civil salutation of Captain Moresby, although he was well known among the inhabitants of the islands, which he had at one time been engaged in surveying. On the contrary, directly our wheels stopped, the timid crew diligently plied their oars, and got away from our society, leaving us to marvel at their mistrust, and to bury our indignation in our contempt. Smoothly o'er the unruffled sea," we glided to the arid coast of Arabia, a brilliant sky and a scorching sun our companions by day, while a glorious moon illumined our canopy by night. We entered the straits of Babel Mandeb by the narrowest channel. I was alone on deck at the time, with the ever-watchful commander, who pointed out to me the rocky isle where 2,000 of our troops were placed to blockade the entrance to the Red Sea, when Napoleon and his legions were in Egypt. It was a Golgotha, that same rock. We knew nothing then of the climate of the Arabian Gulf, nor of the wretched resources available to us. No wonder, then, that the troops nearly all fell victims to insalubrity and privation.

Aden presents us with one of those phenomena which the giant "steam" is every day and everywhere achieving. Barren rocks, and a few yards of sandy shore, once tenanted only by the sea-gull and the crab, are now covered by cheerful domiciles, and animated by a small but busy and contented population, who live by unloading the fuelships, storing and protecting the coal, and embarking it upon the steamers. Upon the shore of a little bay, formed by a small belt of rocks, stands a spacious and commodious building, of wood, wattle, and dab, covered within and without by whitewash, and duly matted and thatched, which serves the purposes of a hotel. Some enterprising Parsees from Bombay started and maintain this establishment, where the steam-boat traveller will find an excellent and (all things considered) not expensive table and cellar, clean beds, white linen, and excellent attendance. Fire-wood and sweet water, being brought from a considerable distance, must necessarily be dear; but they do not constitute special items in the bill, unless you indulge in a fresh bath, when four shillings, or two rupees, are payable. Donkeys and their attendant vagabond owners are available by scores, and it is usual to hire one for a ride to the Arab town of Aden, four miles from the anchorage, and inspect the scene of many a bloody strife before our troops established their present footing on the soil of the Ishmaelite. We were regaled with excellent fish, including oysters, during our stay at Aden. But, indeed, there was no deficiency of any of the necessaries of life. Every thing that reasonable men can desire is obtained in abundance from the interior; and, judging from the specimens of grain and vegetables daily brought in on camels' backs, there can be no doubt of the richness and fertility of the soil of Arabia. It was singular to see every

Arab in and about Aden unarmed. On the opposite coast, and on the shores of the Persian Gulf-nay, from Bussorah to Constantinople, from Bushire to Tabreez-you rarely meet a man without his matchlock, his kundjur, or his scimitar, and sometimes with all three, and a lance and pistols into the bargain; but here you would fancy that the Moslem had ceased to war with his fellow, for if his hand be against every body, it is at Aden an empty hand! This restriction upon the use of arms has, I suppose, originated with Captain Haines, the political agent, and is no doubt intended as a protection against treachery. There is not, however, much of that to be apprehended now. The people are evidently more than reconciled to British authority, for they flock to Aden in numbers totally unknown during the government of the Sultan. From six hundred to a thousand souls inhabited the town before our conquest and occupation: at this moment there are not less than 20,000 living there!

A six days' trip from Aden, with the same delightful concomitants, fine weather and pleasant breezes, carried us to Suez. There we took leave of the Hindostan-and we may, in justice to the vessel and to the community who are interested in her, say a few words respecting her capabilities. The Hindostan is a very fine steamer, of nearly 2,000 tons burthen, with engines of 500-horse power. She has a magnificent saloon, or cuddy, where eighty persons can dine with comfort in cool weather. They might be equally at their ease in warm weather if the space now consecrated to fanciful pictures of the Nile were devoted to port-holes. The cabins are numerous, and in each of these are two berths and a horse-hair sofa (convertible into a third berth), a washhand stand, a mirror, and a pair of boot-hooks. When one person has a cabin to himself, it is only very disagreeably warm and confined; when two are located in the same closet, it is unspeakably hot and inconvenient; and when there are three "cribbed and confined" in the same endroit, it is but the thing may be conceived by persons who have been accustomed to dwell upon the sufferings of the captives in the Black Hole. I had a cabin to myself, and still preferred sleeping upon deck, under the quarter-deck awning: about thirty other passengers had a similar preference. There is a shower-bath and a plungebath on the starboard side of the vessel, and you may stand upon the grating near the paddle-boxes and be deluged with buckets of salt-water by an obliging seaman. The two former are the most agreeable methods of performing an ablution, but when you have sixty male fellowpassengers all equally anxious with yourself to dabble and splash in the cool fluid, it is sometimes unavoidably necessary to have recourse to the third process. The larboard side of the Hindostan, from the end of the cuddy to the gangway, is appropriated to the ladies, who have cabins, baths, and a small saloon to themselves. The library on board is select, and well adapted to the instruction and entertainment of the traveller in Egypt, Syria, India, &c. And as for the table!-I have here transcribed the bill of fare on one single day, and will trouble the

greatest gourmet of the City of London Corporation to say if he could add any thing to the carte :

Mock turtle soup and bonilli-boiled legs of mutton-roast dittojugged hare-roast capons-corned pork-pigeon pies-roast geesestewed breast of mutton and green peas-boiled and roast turkeysham-roast shoulder of mutton and onion sauce-harricot-boiled capons and tongues-stewed ducks and green peas-roast beef-curried mutton and chickens-rice-potatoes, boiled and baked-pickles and sauces of every description-jam puddings-gooseberry, plum, currant, and cherry tarts-stewed pippins-maccaroni and cheese-rice puddings. A dessert of almonds, raisins, brandy, fruits and preserves, oranges, plantains, biscuits. At dinner, sherry, claret, champagne, ale, and porter. At dessert, port, Madeira, and sherry.-The wine well iced. The breakfasts were (and are still, I dare say) on the same scale of liberality. Then there was luncheon, and tea and coffee in the morning while decks were washing, and a fusillade of soda-water kept up from nine A.M. until nine P.M. In truth, meals were so numerous, and blended into each other so felicitously, that life on board the Hindostan was one vast monstre refection. In a word, if she were better ventilated, and every two cabins thrown into one, and lighted, the Hindostan would be an unexceptionable vessel. No steamer can be easier and smoother on the water; the action of her machinery is almost inaudible—there is no tremulous motion perceptible when the paddles are at work-the crew and engineers understand their duty, and do it, and Captain Moresby is a trump. It may be added, that abundance of steam-water is allowed the passengers for washing purposes, and the bed-linen, towels, &c. required on board, being found by the Oriental Steam-Navigation Company, there is no occasion to take any with you, Suez is not very inviting at the distance of three miles from the shore, where large vessels usually anchor. It gains nothing as you approach in a boat rowed and tracked by swarthy Arabs, and when you get fairly within its walls, you are satisfied that its exterior has not deceived you. Every thing, excepting the court-yard of the Caravanserai, which does duty for a custom-house, and contains numerous bales of silks, drugs, grain, &c.-denotes poverty and wretchedness. The houses, built of rough-hewn lumps of rocks cemented by mud, or a clay composed of sand, water, and coarse lime, have a dun-coloured exterior, in capital keeping with the dirty faces of the people and the soil on which the town is built. Still, there is enough in Suez to interest, at the first view, a traveller who has never before beheld a purely Mahomedan town. The place is thickly inhabited by Arabs, Egyptians, Copts, and a few Turks. Caravans of camels, which have just arrived, laden with merchandize from Cairo, or awaiting, recumbent, their loads of wealth from the farther East; mules and donkeys saddled for travellers; an occasional horse covered with gay trappings; the long, dark bazaar and the lofty minaret; the veiled and masked female, and the swarthy, bearded male, present a picture perfectly new even to the

eye of an Englishman fresh from India, and attest the character of the land.

We were not long in swallowing a breakfast at the hotel (lucus a non lucendo)—a breakfast in which coarse and bitter bread was fitly accompanied by coffee boiled in brackish water. Immediately afterwards— our baggage having meanwhile been landed, weighed, and sent forward to Cairo on camels-we prepared to cross the desert. The uninitiated reader will doubtless picture to himself a complete Oriental cortège, such as we find in the illustrations of the works of Buckingham and Burckhardt-turbaned travellers, long strings of camels, rude tents, guards bristling with arms, a flaring sun, drought, privation, a single palm tree, and the apex of a pyramid in the distance. Ah, nous avons changé tout cela! Thanks to the exertions of the British agents and Associations, who make it their business to promote the intercourse with India, there is little difference now between travelling seventy miles over a post-road in England and going over the same space of ground on the Isthmus of Suez. Forty vans, each drawn by four good horses, and driven by an Egyptian Jehu, carrying from four to six inside and none out, transport the living contents of two crowded steamers across the arid and desolate plain which divides Cairo from the Red Sea. Some of the vans have arched roofs, like those of common waggons, waterproof and painted green. They are all light, but very strong, and capable of bearing, without damage, the violent collisions with lumps of stone and rock to which they are exposed in some parts of the road. The passengers sit, omnibus-fashion, at the sides of the vehicles, entering at the back, an arrangement that is unavoidable from the height of the wheels (a single pair), which reach half-way up the body of the van. The seats are carpeted, and the whole thing is roomy and commodious. At the end of every ten or twelve miles, horses are changed at a sort of road-side stable-inn, erected for the purpose; at two or three of which the traveller will get a capital dinner, or breakfast, or luncheon, of eggs, mutton-chops, roast pigeons, stewed fowls, potatoes, bread, and good bottled ale, with tea or coffee if he prefer them. Midway, and again at the halting-place twenty miles from Cairo, there are divans or sofas all round the chief apartment, and bed-rooms for ladies and married people. At one of these it is as well to sleep for a few hours, for sixteen hours' continual travelling in the vans will be found de trop by people unaccustomed to great fatigue. From all this it is obvious that the day has gone by for grand desert, or, as they call it, overland preparations. Let the traveller from India, or vice versâ, therefore, shun the tempting advertisements of outfitters as he would a pestilence, and distrust the hand-books and guides as entirely as he would a matrimonial advertisement in the Times. All the urgent recommendations that people should provide themselves with camel-saddles, canteens, bottles of water, parasols, braces of pistols, green veils, carpets, &c., are, like the last comedy at the Haymarket, mere Moonshine. Dress yourself lightly for the day, carrying a cloak or great-coat for the night. Put a tooth-brush, a clean shirt, and a