My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

—LONDON, AND VOYAGE TO THE EAST 171sailed in about a week, so that I did not lose muchtime. The voyage was a very interesting one, as westopped a few hours at Gibraltar, passed within sightof the grand Sierra Nevada of Spain, stayed a dayat Malta, where the town and the tombs of the knightswere inspected, and then on to Alexandria. Havingby me a long letter I wrote to my schoolfellow, Mr.George Silk, I will here quote from it a few of theimpressions of my journey as they appeared to me atthe time they occurred :"Steamer Bcfigal, Red Sea, March 26." Of all the eventful days in my life (so far), myfirst in Alexandria was (in some respects) the mostexciting. Imagine my feelings when, coming out ofthe hotel (to which we had been conveyed in anomnibus) with the intention of taking a quiet strollthrough the city, I suddenly found myself in themidst of a vast crowd of donkeys and their drivers,all thoroughly determined to appropriate my personto their own use and interest, without in the leastconsulting my inclinations.In vain with rapid stridesand waving arms I endeavoured to clear a way andmove forward, arms and legs were seized upon, andeven the Christian coat-tails were not sacred fromthe profane hands of the Mahometan crowd. Onewould hold together two donkeys by their tailswhilst I was struggling between them, and another,forcing their heads together, hoped to compel me tomount one or both of them. One fellow, more impudentthan the rest, I laid flat upon the ground,and, sending the little donkey staggering after him,I escaped for a moment midst hideous yells and mostunearthly cries. I now beckoned to a fellow moresensible-looking than the rest, and told him that I