THE BOY TRAVELLERS

IN

EGYPT AND THE HOLY LAND.

CHAPTER I.

FROM BOMBAY TO SUEZ.-THE RED SEA, MECCA, AND MOUNT SINAI.

"HE

ERE we are in port again!" said Fred Bronson, as the anchor fell from the bow of the steamer and the chain rattled through the

hawse-hole.

"Three cheers for ourselves!" said Frank Bassett in reply. "We have had a splendid voyage, and here is a new country for us to visit."

"And one of the most interesting in the world," remarked the Doctor, who came on deck just in time to catch the words of the youth.

"Egypt is the oldest country of which we have a definite history, and there is no other land that contains so many monuments of its former greatness."

Their conversation was cut short by the captain, who came to tell them that they would soon be able to go on shore, as the Quarantine

boat was approaching, and they could leave immediately after the formalities were over.

When we last heard from our friends they were about leaving Bombay under "sealed orders." When the steamer was fairly outside of the beautiful harbor of that city, and the passengers were bidding farewell to Colaba Light-house, Dr. Bronson called the youths to his side and told them their destination.

"We are going," said he, "to Egypt, and thence to the Holy Land. The steamer will carry us across the Indian Ocean to the Straits of Babel- mandeb, and then through these straits into the Red Sea; then we continue our voyage to Suez, where we land and travel by rail to Cairo." One of the boys asked how long it would take them to go from Bombay to Suez.

"About ten days," was the reply. "The distance is three thousand miles, in round numbers, and I believe we are not to stop anywhere on the way."

The time was passed pleasantly enough on the steamer. The weather was so warm that the passengers preferred the deck to the stifling cabins, and the majority of them slept there every night, and lounged there during the day. The boys passed their time in reading about the countries they were to visit, writing letters to friends at home, and completing the journal of their travels. In the evenings they talked about what they had seen, and hoped that the story of their wanderings would prove interesting to their school-mates in America, and to other youths of their age.*

Soon after entering the Red Sea they passed the island of Perim, a barren stretch of rock and sand, crowned with a signal station, from which the English flag was flying. As they were looking at the island, and thinking what a dreary place it must be to live in, one of the passengers told the boys an amusing story of how the English obtained possession of it.

"Of course you are aware," said he, "that the English have a military post at Aden, a rocky peninsula on the shore of Arabia, about a hundred and twenty miles from the entrance of the Red Sea. They bought it from the Sultan of that part of Arabia in 1839 by first taking possession, and then telling him he could name his price, and they would

*

The Boy Travellers in the Far East." Parts I., II., and III. Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to Japan, China, Siam, Java, Cambodia, Sumatra, the Malay Archipelago, Ceylon, Burmah, Borneo, the Philippine Islands, and India. By Thomas W. Knox. Published by Harper & Brothers, New York.