new steamer, the Volcano, the vessel appointed to carry the mails on to Alexandria.  This ship was in quarantine, and it was consequently necessary to take some precautions in going on board.  We proceeded, in the first instance, to a police station, where we took a second boat in tow, and a guadiano, an official appointed to see that no persons transgress the rules and regulations of the port instituted for the preservation of health.

Upon getting alongside of the Volcano, our baggage was placed in this boat; Miss E. and myself were then handed in, and cast adrift, to my great astonishment; for not having had any previous intimation of the method to be pursued, I was not at all prepared to hold on, as I believe it is called, without assistance.  Miss E., however, who was more observant, hooked her parasol into one of the ropes, which she subsequently caught.  We were now to be taught a new lesson—­the extreme nonchalance with which the officers of a Government steamer treat the passengers who have the misfortune to choose these boats instead of making the voyage on board merchant vessels.  Some minutes elapsed before any notice was taken of us, or any assistance afforded in getting up our baggage; our own people being obliged to look on and do nothing, since, had they touched the ship, they would have been obliged to perform eighteen days of quarantine.

Upon reaching the deck, we requested that our baggage might be taken down into the ladies’ cabin, in order that we might get our small dormitories put to rights before the rest of the passengers came on board; but, though it could have made no earthly difference to the people employed, we met with a refusal, and the whole was deposited in the grand saloon, already encumbered with luggage, every quarter of an hour adding to the heap and the confusion, and the difficulty of each person recognizing the identical carpet-bag or portmanteau that he might claim as his property.[A]

Among our new fellow-passengers there was a young English gentleman, who intended to travel into Syria, and who, though looking scarcely twenty, had already spent some years in foreign countries.  He was very modest and unassuming, and both agreeable and intelligent; and, having had a good deal of conversation together, I was sorry to lose sight of him at Alexandria.

We had also one of Mehemet Ali’s proteges on board, a young Egyptian, who had been educated at the Pasha’s expense in England, where he had resided for the last ten years, latterly in the neighbourhood of a dock-yard, in order to study the art of ship-building.  This young man was a favourite with those persons on board who could make allowances for the circumstances in which he had been placed, and who did not expect acquirements which it was almost impossible for him to attain.  His natural abilities were very good, and he had cultivated them to the utmost of his power.  Strongly attached to European