Page:Viscount Hardinge and the Advance of the British Dominions into the Punjab.djvu/180

176 of Eastern travel were found ready for our march. The route taken was that which had been chosen by Sir D. Baird when he landed there with an Indian contingent in 1801; and it has been more than once made use of recently during the British occupation of Egypt. Some five or six days' march through a wild and rocky gorge brought us to the Nile. The soil was hard and capable of bearing guns and wheeled carriages, although, from the narrowness of the pass, this route had some disadvantages from a military point of view. On reaching the river, we were met by the present Sir C. Murray, then Consul-General, who had been deputed by the Pasha to escort us. The days passed away pleasantly, so that on our return to our old quarters at Alexandria we felt that the duty of reporting on this military route had been combined with recollections by no means uninteresting.

After a few days' repose, H. M.'s ship 'Sidon' got up steam, and on the 28th of February we were sailing up the Adriatic on a short visit to Corfu, where Lord Hardinge saw his old friend Lord Seaton, separated however by a distance of some 200 yards in consequence of our being in quarantine. Then, after a heavy gale, we were in four days safely harboured in the port of Trieste. Without an hour's delay, the journey was resumed by road and rail. We had intended to pass through Paris, but the fall of the Orleans dynasty rendered it necessary to take another route. After a week's incessant travelling night and day we reached Ostend, and embarking in a