George Walker At Suez | Page 5

their habits and
manners--the outward bound being so different in their traits from their
brethren on their return. But I have to tell of my own triumph at Suez,
and must therefore hasten on to say that on turning round quickly with
my outstretched hand, I found it clasped by John Robinson.
"Well, Robinson, is this you?" "Holloa, Walker, what are you doing
here?" That of course was the style of greeting. Elsewhere I should not
have cared much to meet John Robinson, for he was a man who had
never done well in the world. He had been in business and connected
with a fairly good house in Sise Lane, but he had married early, and
things had not exactly gone well with him. I don't think the house broke,
but he did; and so he was driven to take himself and five children off to
Australia. Elsewhere I should not have cared to come across him, but I
was positively glad to be slapped on the back by anybody on that
landing-place in front of Shepheard's Hotel at Cairo.
I soon learned that Robinson with his wife and children, and indeed
with all the rest of the Australian cargo, were to be passed on to Suez

that afternoon, and after a while I agreed to accompany their party. I
had made up my mind, on coming out from England, that I would see
all the wonders of Egypt, and hitherto I had seen nothing. I did ride on
one day some fifteen miles on a donkey to see the petrified forest; but
the guide, who called himself a dragoman, took me wrong or cheated
me in some way. We rode half the day over a stony, sandy plain, seeing
nothing, with a terrible wind that filled my mouth with grit, and at last
the dragoman got off. "Dere," said he, picking up a small bit of stone,
"Dis is de forest made of stone. Carry that home." Then we turned
round and rode back to Cairo. My chief observation as to the country
was this--that whichever way we went, the wind blew into our teeth.
The day's work cost me five-and-twenty shillings, and since that I had
not as yet made any other expedition. I was therefore glad of an
opportunity of going to Suez, and of making the journey in company
with an acquaintance.
At that time the railway was open, as far as I remember, nearly half the
way from Cairo to Suez. It did not run four or five times a day, as
railways do in other countries, but four or five times a month. In fact, it
only carried passengers on the arrival of these flocks passing between
England and her Eastern possessions. There were trains passing
backwards and forwards constantly, as I perceived in walking to and
from the station; but, as I learned, they carried nothing but the labourers
working on the line, and the water sent into the Desert for their use. It
struck me forcibly at the time that I should not have liked to have
money in that investment.
Well; I went with Robinson to Suez. The journey, like everything else
in Egypt, was sandy, hot, and unpleasant. The railway carriages were
pretty fair, and we had room enough; but even in them the dust was a
great nuisance. We travelled about ten miles an hour, and stopped about
an hour at every ten miles. This was tedious, but we had cigars with us
and a trifle of brandy and water; and in this manner the railway journey
wore itself away. In the middle of the night, however, we were moved
from the railway carriages into omnibuses, as they were called, and
then I was not comfortable. These omnibuses were wooden boxes,
placed each upon a pair of wheels, and supposed to be capable of
carrying six passengers. I was thrust into one with Robinson, his wife
and five children, and immediately began to repent of my good-nature

in accompanying them. To each vehicle were attached four horses or
mules, and I must acknowledge that as on the railway they went as
slow as possible, so now in these conveyances, dragged through the
sand, they went as fast as the beasts could be made to gallop. I
remember the Fox Tally-ho coach on the Birmingham road when
Boyce drove it, but as regards pace the Fox Tally-ho was nothing to
these machines in Egypt. On the first going off I was jolted right on to
Mrs. R. and her infant; and for a long time that lady thought that the
child had been squeezed out of its proper shape; but at last we arrived
at Suez, and the baby seemed to me to be all right when it was handed
down