The Overland Guide-book

Of the manner in which the ascent of the Pyramids is made, the following sketch furnishes an accurate description: —

A recent writer, describing this laborious operation, speaks of it thus: – "It is advisable, if bent on mounting to the summit, to disencumber yourself of all but your shirt and a pair of loose trousers; for the journey upwards must be taken rapidly, and cannot easily be accomplished with warm and tight clothing. A couple of Arabs leap on to the stones immediately above you, and offer you each a hand, while a third follows, to give you an impetus from behind, and catch you, in case of a slip. Up you go, panting and toiling, step after step (each three feet in height) and stopping occasionally to take breath, and receive the cheering congratulations of your rude guide —good, good, Inglese, berry good! and then, with an impatient grin and extended hand, 'Baksheesh!'"

We now come to the Overland part of the journey; viz., from

CAIRO TO SUEZ.[8 - The following extract from the last report of the Peninsular and Oriental Company, may not be without interest to our readers – showing, as it does, that efforts have recently been made to improve the desert-transit. We should premise, that Sir John Pirie proceeded to Egypt as the bearer of an address to the new Viceroy."His Highness the Pacha received Sir John with marked distinction and courtesy, and readily acquiesced in every suggestion made to him for the improvement of the transit; and His Highness was moreover pleased to declare, that the increased expense consequent thereupon would be of secondary consideration to the perfecting the transit through his country."His Highness has authorised the directors to order for his account one additional steam-vessel for the Nile, to be fitted with all the improved accommodation which experience suggests; also two paddle-wheel steamers for the Mahmoudie Canal. These canal boats will be devoted to the conveyance of passengers only, and the baggage will be conveyed in future by track-boats. These two steamers will be a most important addition and improvement to the canal transit, which has hitherto been considered the most inconvenient part of the journey; and they will accordingly be fitted in the most commodious manner, and sent out with the utmost dispatch."A small steamer, now building at Boulac, will shortly be placed at Suez, for the embarkation and landing of passengers and baggage from the India steamers, which will be productive of great comfort and convenience."A considerable improvement has already been effected in the landing and embarkation of passengers and baggage at Alexandria; and commodious storehouses have also been erected there, and at the Mahmoudie Canal."The occasional difficulties and delays at Atfeh will, in future, be avoided, by the intended erection of a jetty and landing-place there; but, in most cases, the new canal steamers will pass through the locks, and go alongside the Nile steamers, and the change from one to the other will thus be easily and conveniently effected. The navigation of the canal is to be improved by deepening, for which object, three dredging machines are now in operation."]

The distance (ordinarily accomplished in about twenty hours, including stoppages) from Cairo to Suez is eighty four miles, and along the route through the desert there are seven station-houses. These station-houses are numbered from 1 to 7, and contain the following accommodation: —

No. 1. Nine miles from Cairo, stabling and a resting-room.

No. 2. Twenty miles from Cairo, contains two public rooms (one for ladies, and the other for gentlemen), two private rooms, and a servants' room.

No. 3. Thirty miles from Cairo, stabling for relays of horses, with one resting-room.

No. 4. Forty-one miles from Cairo, the centre station, contains a large saloon, a ladies' room, servants' room, kitchen, a number of commodious bed-chambers, large water-tank, stabling, &c. Here, also, will be found, liberally provided, those "creature comforts," which so essentially cheer and sustain the traveller on his way. Ladies, however, would do well to take in their basket, on leaving the steamer, a bottle of good water.

No. 5. Thirty miles from Suez, stabling and a resting room.

No. 6. Twenty miles from Suez, two public rooms, private rooms, and servants' rooms. The same as No. 2.

No. 7. Nine miles from Suez, stabling and resting-room.

The whole distance is traversed without inconvenience, in carriages, on horseback, on chairs, or on donkeys; the latter a very superior animal to those in this country. The Egyptian ass is easy in his pace, capable of great fatigue, and, it is said, will perform the whole distance with but little provender.

Travellers now embark on board the Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamer, and, as soon as the luggage has been shipped, and every other arrangement made, the anchor is weighed, and the steamer starts for Aden. Beyond certain historical associations, the Red Sea presents little that can interest the traveller in his brief and expeditious trip. The shores are dreary and barren, and are only agreeable to the eye of the landsman, because they present a somewhat less monotonous scene than the expanse of "blue above and blue below," which distinguishes the ocean in parts remote from land.

Aden, which was formerly called "Portus Romanicus," is a town of the Yemen, which, from its position, and now, on account of its recent occupation by the English, promises to become a commercial and military station of great importance. The town is built on the crater of an exhausted volcano, and is situate at the extremity of a small peninsula, formed of volcanic matter, and attached to the continent solely by a low neck of land from 500 to 600 yards wide, and which might be easily isolated by a canal. The harbour is a magnificent basin, capable of containing an immense fleet; and is entered by a narrow passage between two other craters. It would be easy to establish defensive works on the rocks, which would place the fort in safety against any attack. One redoubt has been already raised, as a security against the Arabs, ever ready to attack the English. From this point to the gate of the town has been traced a road of about a league in length, by which the defile is reached that forms the entrance to Aden. This defile is being fortified with a gate, evidently constructed to resist other attacks than those of the Arabs, and is about 100 yards long, and four or five wide; it is cut out of a rock which stands 150 yards above the level of the sea. A formidable battery, commanding the entrance, is in process of being erected above the rock on the left of the defile. A covered way, with an arch thrown from one rock to another, unites the system of defence which the batteries on the summit of the rocks on the left will complete.

In despite of sickness and desolation, the population of Aden has greatly augmented in a short space of time. When first occupied, the population did not exceed 4,000; it is now upwards of 30,000; and every morning at daybreak 50 to 200 camels may be seen coming into the town, laden with the produce of the interior, provisions, vegetables, &c., to console and comfort the otherwise benighted occupants of this extinguished crater. The fact is, the security to property afforded by a residence within the limits of British possession and influence, has contributed, in no inconsiderable degree, to this outward sign of prosperity.

An hotel on the sea-shore, kept by some enterprising Parsees from Bombay, and a great number of donkeys, attended by their drivers or proprietors (little woollyheaded urchins), offer to the passenger who may go ashore, the contrast of a dinner of fish and a ride to the town and cantonment of Aden. Beyond these, the attractions of the place may be represented by a cipher.

At Aden the steamer takes in a supply of coal, and then starts for Ceylon; which island she reaches in ten days, and where she remains but for a few hours. Here will be found a branch steamer ready to start for China; and, to the traveller thenceward, we can promise that this portion of the journey, touching at Penang and Singapore, en route, will surpass in picturesque and romantic scenery all that his eye has hitherto beheld – we do not mean to say that, in many parts of Europe or America, there are not isolated spots equally beautiful and sublime; but, whether, for a continuous sea-journey of so many miles, for the most part, in water as smooth as a "milk pan," it can be equalled? certainly, it cannot be surpassed. The voyage from Ceylon to Penang is commonly made in six days, – the steamer stopping there six hours; that to Singapore in three days, with a stay of twenty-four hours; and, finally, to Hong Kong, in another six days. Four days under steam from Ceylon carry us to Madras, where, after another supply of fuel, we proceed to Calcutta, occupying four days in the trip; and there terminates our interesting journey. We have given a brief description of the three last-named places in the section appropriated to the details of the homeward trip, and therefore consider it unnecessary to offer any remarks here.

TO BOMBAY

The responsibility of this journey is divided, being firstly in the hands of the Peninsular and Oriental Company; secondly, of the Egyptian Oriental Transit Company; and, lastly, of the East India Company. Forethought and precaution are therefore recommended in making the arrangements necessary to secure the passage to Bombay throughout, with as little inconvenience and as much comfort as can be experienced under the circumstances above stated.

The Peninsular and Oriental Company allow a limited number of passengers to book for Aden, on the 20th of each month, and, when this can be effected, it is decidedly the most comfortable and least expensive mode of reaching Bombay. The East India Company's frigates, that convey the mid-monthly mail from Aden to Bombay, afford good accommodation for a few persons; and the run is only one of ten days' endurance.

The Peninsular and Oriental Company, under no circumstances, book the whole way to Bombay. Passengers wishing to adopt that course, and having fixed the date of their departure, should make immediate application to James Barber and Co., whose circular will be found at the end of this book, and whose advice and assistance will always be found useful to the Overland traveller.

Passengers who cannot adopt the first part of this route, so far as Aden, in the Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamers, will find the following directions serve them in the time of need.

The Company's steamers for Malta and Constantinople start from Southampton on the 29th of every month, at 1·30 P.M. (when the 29th falls on a Sunday, the steamer leaves at nine o'clock on the morning of the 30th), arriving at Malta about the 10th of the month.

Passengers for Alexandria and Bombay are conveyed from Malta to Alexandria by one of Her Majesty's steamers, leaving Malta, on the arrival there, from Marseilles, of the London mail of the 7th of the month.

On their arrival at Alexandria, the same means of travelling are provided for passengers, as described in a previous part of this work; but the passenger, in this case, having only hitherto paid for his sea-journey to Malta £27 10s. – a further sum of £12 10s. has to be paid for passage from Malta to Alexandria, and then he has to make his arrangement with the Egyptian Transit Company, in order that he may reach Suez in time to embark in the East India Company's steamer at that port, which conveys the mail to Bombay.

The Transit Company have established the following rates: —

Two cwt. of baggage is allowed at the £12 rate, and one cwt. for all below it, and 16s. per cwt. is charged for any excess on that weight.

Provisions are liberally supplied on the journey; but hotel expenses at Alexandria, Cairo and Suez, as well as wines, beer and spirits, are not included in the sum charged by the Transit Company. The following may be considered a fair estimate of the cost of the trip: —

This amount will vary, of course, according to the mode of living and views of the passenger, but 15s. per day may be taken as a fair average for living, and 5s. additional, well managed, will pay the expense of seeing the sights of interest in or about Cairo, if a prolonged stay be contemplated or practicable.

Arrived at Suez, the passenger will have to secure his accommodation to Bombay, according to the regulations in the following pages.

East India Company's rules for the engagement of passages and accommodation of passengers in the Government steam-packets between Bombay and Suez.

Application for passage is to be made at the office of the master-attendant in Bombay, and at other ports to the commander.

Passengers are to be divided into two classes, viz.: —

First class, who sit at the commander's table and are entitled to all the privileges of the quarter-deck.

Second-class, who are not entitled to walk aft of the paddle-boxes, who berth forward, and either arrange for their own provision, or mess with the warrant-officers or engineers.

Every passenger of the first class shall pay the following sum, as table-money, for the voyage from Bombay to Suez, or from Suez to Bombay, viz.: —

It is to be understood that, for the above sums, the passengers are to be provided with a plain, substantial table; but no person is entitled to more than one pint of wine and one bottle of beer per diem. Cabin passengers have the first choice of seats at the table, and, after them, the saloon passengers, in preference to those on the deck, whose priority will be arranged according to their standing on the passage-list. The seats will be arranged by the commander, and, once taken, they cannot be changed without his permission during the voyage.

In addition to the table-money, the following sums will be charged for the accommodation engaged by first-class passengers, viz.: —

Every second class passenger shall pay Rs. 150.

For each European servant 50 Rs. must be paid as subsistence-money, and 50 Rs. as passage-money; for native servants the charge will be one-half the rate for a European; but none are to be considered and taken as servants unless they actually accompany their masters or mistresses.

A passenger who has engaged a cabin may make what arrangement he likes for its occupation; he may either keep it entirely to himself, or admit to share it with any one that he pleases, provided only that the name of the person so admitted (if an adult) have been previously on one of the lists, and subject to the following restrictions, viz.: —

A treble cabin cannot be appropriated to the accommodation of more than —

Four ladies.

Three gentlemen.

Six children.

One lady and four children.

Two ladies and three children.

Three ladies and two children.

One gentlemen and three children.