BY THE GREAT WATERGATE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 33, 8 February 1908, Page 12

BY THE GREAT WATERGATE.

♦ (For Tho Post.) The upper waters of the Red Sea dance i and shimmer in the heat haze, as the Muoriland steams along towards Suez Bay. Whilo passing, at no great distance, the place where Pharaoh and his hosts vrere "buried beneath 'the waves ages and ages ago, we gaze around with some amount of interest. The. sea, in this locality is just a narrow stiip of steel-blue water about twenty miles in width, and bounded on either hand by a range of' barren lulls v. Inch run parallel with the. coastline; while some distance inland, the lofty peak of Mount Sinai towers towards tho burning sky. Hot as the weather is, it makes one feel oven hotter to look at these hills — glowing masses of bare granite and I sandstone, j with never a tree or a patch of green fo soften their glaring barrenness. Away on our starboaud hand lies the wilderness wherein the children of Israel .wandered before reaching the Promised Land. What an awful place jin ■which to spend forty long years ! One can quite understand that tho Israelites murmured — most people would murmur under similai conditions. We have it recorded in Holy Writ how Moses smote the rock and brought forth, water for the people, but just one glance at this waterless desert shows plainly that the prophet must have been empowered 1 by fche Almighty to produce water on many 'other occasions of which there is no mention ; otherwise l-here would be no Childlen of the Ghetto engaged in the manufacture and sale of cheap clothing at tho present day. The heat is intense. I said as much before, yet I may be excused my Topetition, because every one on the ship is passing remarks on the sultriness of the atmosphere. It is hurd to bear on board the Maoriland, whose wooden decks are well protected by awnings, and where j we havo a good supply of ice ; but it must be much worse on board a poky little, tramp steamboat that passes close to us, with heT ru&ty iron decks glowing as if they were led-hofc, and only one tattered awning to cover the bridge. Down in our' stokehold things are worse than Tisual, but the stokers stand the heat well, and stick to- their work in line styie. Steamboat fire Tien as seen on idaturday nights when, three-quarters lull of had Turn, they cause disturbances along the waterside, are, accoiding to the police d3G2ripi»ion of their conduct, drunken and violent characters. Well, I must admit that their behaviour is not nlways as it should be, but still, as wo &cc them now, we feel that Jiicy deserve great crediL lor their stamina and cheerfulness under very trying circumstances ; and men who shovel coal inio ;i furnace for a spell of four hours at a time while steaming up the Red Sex, and then walk forward to their quarlcis whistling the air of a music-hall ditty, are nob altogether bad. It is midnight when the anchor is dropped in Suez Bay. Then, after thy port doctor has examined our crow, an electric searchlight is fixed on the steamer's bow, and away w« go ag-ain, with an alert and careful pilot standing close by tho wheel directing the steering. Soon we are gliding along between the sandy banks of tho canal, which is very narrow at' its southern end, and a few milec north of Suez the Maoriland has to bo stopped and fascened 0163e up to tho bank in order 'to l?t another steamer pars.' A famous writer has stated that llwTe arc two certain meeting-places on this earth. One is Cannon-street railway station, and tho other is the Suez Canal. Tho famous Writer is correct in his statement, for, as tho other vessel passes, in the light of early dawn 1 recognise li-er captain as an old friend that I havo not seen < for ten years. Ten years ago I parted from him near Cannon-street, and now', as iva meet ia the cjueJ, we stars hard at one another for a moment. Then we Wiive our hands in greeting. "Hullo!" says he. "What arc jou doing there?" "I'm waiting for you to go by," I make answer. 'How goefl it?" he queries. ''Not too bad. How aie you?" ' "Fine, thanks," says he. And then our haud3 wave in farewell a3 we £o our different roads. Perhaps if « go through tho canal ten years heuve I shall meet him again. Why not? Hero and there we tee gangs of Arabs at work t-ansporting the heaps of sand dug up from tho canal by steam dredges. These heaps are shot on the edge of tho bank, and havo to be. carried further inhind ; otherwise the dry loose sand would blow back into the canal. It is interesting to watch thorn. A sliing of camels all kneel dovn, and the Arabs shovel the sand into the wpoden panniers on tho ' animals' backs. Then at the word of command* the camels rise and carry their load to tho place where it is to be shot. After the driver has pulled out the f>in, the side flaps of the panniers diop ike the tailboard! of a cart, and as his burden fallis from his back each camel returns for another load. ' ' The camel is said to bo a very stubbora and 1 stupid beast. Ho is stubborn beyond all doubt, but I think Jus stupidity is sometimes overrated, ioecaußo later on we tie up again to let a mailboat go through, and while waiting in the siding I watch some camels at work close by. Feeling some curiosity regarding these, "ships of the desert," I briba an Arab driver to refrain from shooting the load from the pannier wlicn a camel [ reaches the place where the sand is being piled. I wish to see if the creature is stupid enough to carry his burden back | to the. canal bank, but he soon shows that he has no intention of doing such a thing, for while the other animals wheel round and return for anotXier load', this one comes tc- a standstill. IN-ext he looks round at his -driveT, and gifves a grunt ot protest, and then, without waiting any longer for his load to bo shot, ho kneels down with a. sulky and injured air. My experiment is an insult to the camel's intelligence, for even after his burden has been emptied it tdkes some parstiasion on tho jpart of the Arab to get him to work again. The Arabs at work boside the canal am natives oi the locality. Many of them speak a little broken English, and they are so accustomed to tho sight of passing ships that they take scant notice, of us; but as we near the Bitter Lakes we see a group of Bedouins, who sit on their camels and watch tho ship in silent curiosity. These men arej genuine "outbackers" from the Syrian' desert. They carry long knives and guns, and a*ro fierce-looking fellows, quite different in appearance from the local Arabs. For countless ages the manners and customs of these gentry have remained unchanged, even though they have come in contact with Western civilisation. What does the Bedouin think of the European and his wonderful ships that glide silently past? He affects to despise the hated infidel, but he does not, for on the battlefields of the Soudan the magazine rifle andi machine gun of the white man havo imbued the Bedouin with a wholesomerespect for the nation that can manufacture such engine 3of war. But do these benighted desert nomads ever marvel at tho mechanical skill displayed by the races who build swift steamships and mighty irrigation pumps ? Do thoj-- wonder how iUis that the accursed Occidental is so far ahead of themselves ? No ! they do not, for^whon they see the wonderful iny<in.tiori3>of civilifia.tion .thej merely

any : "Allah is great; these things are," and they let it go at that. As we appioach Isinailiya we find that th-2 land lying on tho wen torn side has been recently cultivated. This is dv© to an extensive and expensive pystem of irrigation by pipes leading from the nar"row freshwater canal, which is fed by the River Nile, and runs almost parallel with the ship waterway We- change pilots at Ismailiya, ■nhich town is the half-way station between Suez and Port Said, and ss no expense has been spared for irrigation prrposes, we see quite a refreshing aiaoi-iit of foliage at this place. There are ab^ut three thousand European residents at this cosmopolitan town — mostly Italians and French, with a good pTopoition of Greeks and Germans, and a lew English. These people, leaving out the women and children, are all in the service of the Canal Company, and moat of them speak at least four different languages, excepting, perhaps, the few British residents, who with tho calm superiority of their kind consider that as they belong to the leading uation on earth they need not trouble to learn foreign languages. I have a few minutes' conversation with arj English official stationed there, and he wonders why all the best jobs on the canal go to Frenchmen, and Italians. During the second stage of our journey w* have the right of way, and all ships that- we moet havo to tie up and lpt us puss, bo our ship makes gocd progress, and just before sundown we arrive at Port Said. Half-an-hour after our arrival a mob of yelling Arabs are at woik discharging a consignment of frozen moat from'' Sydney. Wo have a, large quantity for Port Said, and of course we wish to get finished with tho job just as soon as possible. Time- is coal on a- freezing ship, in pon as well as at &ca. Now, when frazaa cargoes are being work-ad in Australian or British ports, on ,no account will the men employed stay below while the freezing engine is running. If the temperatures rise the men are called on deck, and the hatches closed until the engine stops, but hero at Port Said the chief ofricer thinks he may take advantage ol the simple natives and tryit on. Me has much to learn. The engineer comes along- and makes his report. "Temperatuies aro up, v soys ho. "We'll have to stop and blow her down." "Blow away," replies the mate. "Those black beggars will stay at work below ; they don't know any better." The big freezing engine is started, but just as soon as t.ho iiist icy gusts of air aro pumps J into the hold, up clambers an indi^nnrt gang of Arabs, who jabbvr and gesticulate in a- most violent fashion, while then spokesman sddiesses himself to the chief officer in broken English. "What you tink, Mista-h ScheelV" ho yells. "Arab man no plenty foal. No stoppeo injun, no work. Me saves- plenty, all same white man!" Argument is unavailing; the hatches have to be shut while the machine is blowing, and not until it stopo, and not until the snow fog subsides, will these enlightened Orientals resume their labours below. Port Said is a purely business town, and all its European inhabitapts are business pc<sple — at leatt I am told so by an hotel proprietor, aud he- ought to know, lcdeod, I can easily believo that no person would reside thcie from choice. There is oiie theatre ; also thero aie sev-era l rather) line hotolc, fiontsd by open colonnades, Avhero sallow-faced men and women, gather nightly at lifctlo maihle tables to ftossip ana to listen to tiio music dispensed by Hungarian bands, which, however, are Gomctimcß beaten into silence by the blatant drums and cymbals of 'the Salvation Army on the other sido of the square. Early on tho following morning we slip our moorings, and tho Maoriland glides out from the northern end of the great watergai,o into .the- cool blue Mediterranean. W. BROOKE.