[Footnote A:  The author followed up these remarks with others, still more severe, upon the treatment which she and her fellow-travellers experienced on board this vessel; but as these remarks seem to have caused pain, and as Miss Roberts, without retracting one particle of her statements, regretted that she had published them, it has been deemed right to omit them in this work.]

CHAPTER IV.

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ALEXANDRIA TO BOULAK.

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Description of Alexandria—­Hotels—­Houses—­Streets—­Frank Shops—­Cafes—­Equipages—­Arrangements for the Journey to Suez—­Pompey’s Pillar—­Turkish and Arab Burial-grounds—­Preparations for the Journey to Cairo—­Embarkation on the Canal—­Bad accommodation in the Boat—­Banks of the Canal—­Varieties of Costume in Egypt—­Collision during the night—­Atfee—­Its wretched appearance—­The Pasha—­Exchange of Boats—­Disappointment at the Nile—­Scarcity of Trees—­Manners of the Boatmen—­Aspect of the Villages—­The Marquess of Waterford—­The Mughreebee Magician—­First sight of the Pyramids—­Arrival at Boulak, the Port of Cairo.

There are several excellent hotels at Alexandria for the accommodation of European travellers.  We were recommended to Rey’s, in which we found every comfort we could desire.  The house is large and handsome, and well situated, being at the end of a wide street, or rather place, in which the more wealthy of the Frank inhabitants reside, and where there are several houses belonging to the consuls of various nations.  These latter are usually detached mansions, of a very handsome description, and one especially, facing the top, will be magnificent when finished.

All the houses in this quarter are very solidly constructed, lofty, and with flat roofs.  The ground-floor seems to be appropriated to merchandize, or as domestic offices, the habitable apartments being above.  The windows are supplied with outside Venetian blinds, usually painted green, which, together with the pure white of the walls, gives them a fresh and new appearance, which I had not expected to see.  In fact, nothing could exceed the surprise with which I viewed a street that would have excited admiration in many of our European capitals.  It will in a short time be embellished by a fountain, which was erecting at the period of my visit:  could the residents get trees to grow, nothing more would be wanting to render it one of the most superb avenues of the kind extant; but, a few inches below the surface, the earth at Alexandria is so completely impregnated with briny particles, as to render the progress of vegetation very difficult at all times, and in some places impossible.