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215.

Our visit came to an end on the morning of the third
day when, after a leisurely breakfast, we started on our
return to Beyrout. The direction we took was a more di-
rect one than via Baalbec, and we arrived at the seaport,
as had been agreed upon, on the afternoon of Saturday.
As we reached the summit of the mountain behind the town
and could see the sea, we percieved a small steamer at
anchor, and upon reaching the hotel we ascertained that
she was bound for Alexandria and would start the next
afternoon. I was not well during that last day’s ride and
went immediately to bed upon being assigned to a room at
the hotel. I dosed myself, and, towards noon of the next day
was up again - able to attend to my passport and other ar-
rangements for the steamer. During the day Hayes came
to my room and our journey was resumed as travelling com-
panions. He was satisfied with the land journey from Jeru-
salem and did not go to Damascus. He was also out of
funds at this point, and borrowed 300 fes from me, which
he returned in full at Alexandria. Towards sunset we went
on board of the steamer accompanied by Hambro, who bade
me a pleasant farewell, and expressed the hope that we
might meet again. He expected to rejoin Mr Balfour who
was on an excursion in the neighborhood and the two then
went on to Constantinople and the Crimea. X

Our steamer was one of the Austrian Lloyd’s and had a
very prudent captain. During some rough weather we spent
two days under the protection of a headland near Acre.
We then proceeded to Jaffa where some passengers and
freight were landed, but I did not go on shore. While
there I saw a struggle between two rival boatmen who
were anxious to get a bale of goods from the steamer.
The feature of the fight was that one tried to gouge out
the eye of the other with his thumb, and seemed almost to
have succeeded when the other managed to get away from
his grasp. It was a sickening sight and one that made
me feel indignant at the methods practised in the levant
in personal conflicts among the laboring class.

Upon arriving at Alexandria we returned to our same
hotel where we were obliged to remain a fortnight before there
would be a steamer for Malta. I was given a comfortable
room and employed my time very methodically, writing letters,
taking long walks and reading Lamartine’s “Voyage en
Orient.” The book has a good deal of the imagination in it, but
is very readable, and I was much pleased with it. My walk
was about the same every day and always led me by the
little palace of the viceroy on the outskirts of the city. There was
usually some drilling of troops going on in an open space in front, but what interested