On landing at Alexandria, we were hurried on board a large mast-less canal boat, shaped like a Nile dahabeah.  In this we were towed up the Mahmoudieh canal for ten hours, until we arrived at Atfieh, on the Nile; thence we proceeded by steamer, reaching Cairo in about sixteen hours.  Here we put up at Shepherd’s Hotel for a couple of days, which were most enjoyable, especially to those of the party who, like myself, saw an eastern city and its picturesque and curious bazaars for the first time.  From Cairo the route lay across the desert for ninety miles, the road being merely a cutting in the sand, quite undistinguishable at night.  The journey was performed in a conveyance closely resembling a bathing-machine, which accommodated six people, and was drawn by four mules.  My five fellow-travellers were all cadets, only one of whom (Colonel John Stewart, of Ardvorlich, Perthshire) is now alive.  The transit took some eighteen hours, with an occasional halt for refreshments.  Our baggage was carried on camels, as were the mails, cargo, and even the coal for the Red Sea steamers.

On arrival at Suez we found awaiting us the Oriental, commanded by Captain Powell.  A number of people met us there who had left England a month before we did; but their steamer having broken down, they had now to be accommodated on board ours.  We were thus very inconveniently crowded until we arrived at Aden, where several of the passengers left us for Bombay.  We were not, however, much inclined to complain, as some of our new associates proved themselves decided acquisitions.  Amongst them was Mr. (afterwards Sir Barnes) Peacock, an immense favourite with all on board, and more particularly with us lads.  He was full of fun, and although then forty-seven years old, and on his way to Calcutta to join the Governor-General’s Council, he took part in our amusements as if he were of the same age as ourselves.  His career in India was brilliant, and on the expiration of his term of office as member of Council he was made Chief Justice of Bengal.  Another of the passengers was Colonel (afterwards Sir John Bloomfield) Gough, who died not long ago in Ireland, and was then on his way to take up his appointment as Quartermaster-General of Queen’s troops.  He had served in the 3rd Light Dragoons and on the staff of his cousin, Lord Gough, during the Sutlej and Punjab campaigns, and was naturally an object of the deepest veneration to all the youngsters on board.

At Madras we stopped to land passengers, and I took this opportunity of going on shore to see some old Addiscombe friends, most of whom were greatly excited at the prospect of a war in Burma.  The transports were then actually lying in the Madras roads, and a few days later this portion of the expedition started for Rangoon.

At last, on the 1st April, we reached Calcutta, and I had to say good-bye to the friends I had made during the six weeks’ voyage, most of whom I was never to meet again.