A WEST COASTER ON HIS TRAVELS.

Inangahua Times, Volume X, Issue 1576, 20 July 1885, Page 2

A WEST COASTER ON HIS TRAVELS.

» The following letter, rewired frem Mr W. H. Harcoart by last mail, has lieen kindly placed at oar ( Wttt Cbest Time*) disposal. It is especially hater* 1 esting as being a record of the im- , pressions of an old resident here, who , has not used other people's eyes, and i i is coached in his own bloat, forcible * ! style : — ; Alkxahdua, Lower Egypt* l May 25, 1885. I landed at Suez on the 18th insft. . after a very uninteresting voysgs. The t lie** ill the ludian Ocean and the Bed, Sea was intense : the heat on deck in . the shade being from 90 to 96, and in ! the ca in 100 to 115. We bad 680 . passengers on lioard, and the avcrvge [ rnn of the ship per day was about 320 k miles. Moot of the passengers slept i on deck to avoid the heat We only j sighted one ship in a distance of 5400 miles. Suez is a curious-looking place about p five feet above the sea level. I went* to the Arab Bazaar^a most womlerfal ? sight. I think all colors and creeds . were fully represented. I engaged a x dragoman to pilot me about, and saw ,_ hundreds of camels and donkey & 1 Beggars in scores are asking for baks sbeesh. j I stayed 30 hours in Sues and then t took train for Cairo, by way of Ismaila. [ The first 60 miles were through a I; sandy desert, with here and them half a dozeu mud lints, inhabited by s wretched looking Aral*. We got to r Tel Ei Ketor, and saw the English ; graveyard; went and examined the trenches where the battle was fought . I knew the position of the field from p ' •• The Graphic " pictures. . From Tel El K«ber to Cairo was a J sight I will never forget. I would not t have missed it for *100l It is the most . fertile couutry in the world. Arah> men and women and children, eatnels, |t bullocks, donkeys, sheep, and goats, all appear to lie one family; they live . together, and are there in tens of \* thousands. The country is* quite level, and canals, water-races or ditches lg are everywhere. Men and women may e be seen lifting water on to their cultivations with the aid of bullocks. | t There is not a fence in the whole r conutry, bnt hundreds of thousands of lt miles of draius and ditches. The villages are about 1} miles s apart, the hats or bouses are built of o mud, from five to six feet high, flat roofs on some, and thousands without auy roofo at all. They are governed by Sheiks. ' In the tMTBs they are as numerous as ants, Turks, Arabs, Armenians, Greeks French, Itahaw, Negroes, aorl 20 other kinds. AtVr arriving at Cairo, we spent three days driving all ov*r the city. It is a wander, I could not dcscrib* it. I have worn our a pair of boots, climbing the Pyramids, my legs are stiff and sore. You have no idea of this wonderful place. I went to tl» great mosqne of Mahomet, saw his tomb. This mosque stands on about four acres of ground and all myble and alabaster. Mahomet's tomb is in the centre of the great building, and » guarded by priests night and day. I bad to put on slippers before I was admitted and was liaksheeded ad Kb. The citadel adjoins this, and ha* 25 guns garrisoned by English soldiers which I think is necessary; they could Wow the town down from this position in half an hour. ' I thea visited Jacob's Well, it is 145 feet deep, 80 by 15, and the ontUr side has a winding staircase ronni ana • round to the bottom, donkey's bring ap the water in skins. Everything is going on the same as Moses left it I w«nt to the great pyramids, and had 4 Arabs with me, otffi on each side to hold my band?, and two poshing me up behind. Tbejr bammed a Un« all the way up, it was a glorious sight I shall never fogs* it I then went through the tombs and galleries inside the pvraroids, went to the Sphynxand explored the galleries and catacombs of the dead, there was a cuiiotn smell about the hillside, lots of Arabs Were digging for coins, and curios, I bought some from them. Nearly every stow is sculptured everything is of immenso Biie. I saw the 3nlt,au's palace, and risked the church, we W^nt down into . the subtexmi ean galleries, cnt in stone , ind rock experienced morn nssfcy „ melfe There fere 4 numb** «f »-a^ „

and blind, hideous looking creature* who seldom, if ever spb the light of day, morn especially the bliud. Alexandria his a better apperanoe than Cairo. I visited Poinpey's Pillai which ia ninety-two feet high, it Stands oa a granite pedes.al 14? feet square, and the pillar itself is 27ft in circumference, the wonder is how it was put there. I visited the forts and saw the t-ftVcts of the British fire, Urge guns were lying in every direction, and hundreds of tons of shot and «llells. Some of the guns are 25 tong. Hundreds of houses were knocked down, burst shelly were lying about in many places. They are building the houses up again very fast; all Arab labor. The railways are worked by Arabs, with Turkish engine driver*, the firemen are mostly Arabs. I bave ndt seen a drunken man or woman in Egypt. But they are the greatest cheats in the world, the Greeks and Italians being the worst. I have been all through their narrow streets, •warming with humanity, and seemingly everyone has a trade ; they can make everything. # I pay 16s per day at the hotel, which is a very large one, there are great numbers of military men aixl swells here from BmsfUmd I leave here in the morning by a steamer for AtVn*. a two days' trip, thence to Italy., I •will be in England in about 12 days irom^Jate, Th«re are no Sundays Will write as soon as I arrive m England.