Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 1.djvu/92



We passed the Ganges. We raised three cheers for her, which were heartily returned by the passengers on board the Ganges. The town Suez is at the other end of the canal. The steamer hardly stops there for half an hour.

Now we entered the Red Sea. It was a three days' voyage but it was most trying. It was unbearably hot. Not only was it impossible to remain inside the steamer, but it was too hot even on the deck. Here, for the first time, we felt that we were going to India to face the hot climate.

We had some breeze when we reached Aden. Here, we (the passengers for Bombay) had to transship into the Assam. It was like leaving London for a miserable village. The Assam is hardly half as big as the Oceana.

Misfortunes never come single; with the Assam we had a stormy ocean, because it was the monsoon season. The Indian Ocean is generally calm, so during monsoon it is stormy with a vengeance. We had to pass five days more on the waters before we reached Bombay. The second night brought the real storm. Many were sick. If I ventured out on the deck I was splashed with water. There goes a crash; something is broken. In the cabin you cannot sleep quietly. The door is banging. Your bags begin to dance. You roll in your bed. You sometimes feel as if the ship is sinking. At the dinner table you are no more comfortable. The steamer rolls on your side. Your forks and spoons are in your lap, even the cruet stand and the soup plate; your napkin is dyed yellow and so on.

One morning I asked the steward if that was what he would call a real storm, and he said: "No, sir, this is nothing." and, waving his arm, showed me how the steamer would roll in a real storm.

Thus tossed up and down, we reached Bombay on July 5th. It was raining very hard and so it was difficult going ashore. However, we reached the shore safely, and bade good-bye to the Assam.

What a human cargo was on the Oceana, and the Assam! Some were going to make fortunes in Australia in high hopes; some, having finished their studies in England, were going to India in order to earn a decent living. Some were called away by a sense of duty, some were going to meet their husbands in Australia or India, as the case may be, and some were adventurers who, being disappointed at home, were going to pursue their adventures, God knows where.