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

—LONDON, AND VOYAGE TO THE EAST 173consciousness of being dreadful guys for two crowdedhours, returned to the hotel, whence we are to startfor the canal boats. You may think this littlenarrative is exaggerated, but it is not so. Thepertinacity, vigour, and screams of the Alexandriandonkey-drivers cannot be exaggerated. On our wayto the boats we passed Pompey's Pillar ; for a daywe were rowed in small boats on a canal, then onthe Nile in barges, with a panorama of mud villages,palm-trees, camels, and irrigating wheels turned bybuffaloes,—a perfectly flat country, beautifully greenwith crops of corn and lentils ; endless boats withimmense triangular sails. Then the Pyramids camein sight, looking huge and solemn ; then a handsomecastellated bridge for the Alexandria and Cairorailway ; and then Cairo— Grand Cairo ! the city ofromance, which we reached just before sunset. Wetook a guide and walked in the city, very picturesqueand very dirty. Then to a quiet English hotel, wherea Mussulman waiter, rejoicing in the name of Alibaba,gave us a splendid tea, brown bread and freshbutter. One or two French and English travellerswere the only guests, and I could hardly realize mysituation. I longed for you to enjoy it with me.Thackeray's 'First Day in the East' is admirable.Read it again, and you will understand just how Ithink and feel."Next morning at seven we started for Suez insmall four-horsed two-wheeled omnibuses, carryingsix passengers each. Horses were changed every fivemiles, and we had a meal every three hours at verycomfortable stations. The desert is undulating,mostly covered with a coarse, volcanic-looking gravel.The road is excellent. The skeletons of camelshundreds of them—lay all along the road ; vultures,