Page:India and Its Native Princes.djvu/29

 INDIA AND ITS NATIVE PRINCES

CHAPTER I. BOMBAY.

The Overland Route.—Aden.—Arrival at Bombay.—The Royal Hotel.—The Bombay Archipelago, —The Fort.—The Parsee Bazaar.—Colaba.—The Black Town.—The Jummah Musjid.—The Bazaars.—The Hospital for Animals.—The City of the Dead.—The Tomb of Jacquemont.— Malabar Hill.—Walkeshwar.—The Tower of Silence.—Bycullah.—Mazagon.—The Cubra.— The Flying Fox.

-N the 20th of June 1864 I embarked at Marseilles on board the

Vectis, an English steamer bound for the East. The voyage

through the Mediterranean was as charming and agreeable as it

usually is at that season of the year. For six days the sky

was blue and cloudless, the sea calm, and scarcely ruffled by a

gentle breeze, and the nights delightfully fresh. The constant

view of the Phas of Corsica, Sardinia, or Sicily, and our putting in for six hours at the picturesque island of Malta, relieved our passage of the monotony so commonly incident to a sea voyage. The passage of the isthmus of Suez took us two days, including the thirty-six hours which we were allowed to spend at Cairo. I took the opportunity of hastily imspecting the wonders of this famous town, and making a short excursion to the Pyramids. On the 28th of

June we embarked, at Suez, in the Afalta, a magnificent vessel of 2500 tons.

We found on board all the luxury and comfort necessary to enable us to endure

the fatigues of the passage of the Red Sea. But for four days we had to suffer

grievously from the oppressive and suffocating heat, which is almost perpetual on that sea. The hot season was at its height; and I really do not know what we should have done without the ice, of which we had a supply, and which was liberally dealt out to us. A few charred rocks, hillucks of white sand, and lofty hlue mountains in the distance, are the only objeets of interest that occur on the voyage. The sea, by way of most marked contrast to the name it bears, is intensely blue, and disturbed by a slight swell, while immense shoals of flying-fish glitter on the crests of the waves. Passing Bab-el-Mandeb, we entered the port of Aden to take in coal. Our stay there was too short to allow me to say

anything of this interesting town; and the little that I did see, on disembarking ABold text