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A TRAVELLER'S IMPRESSIOSN.

[Rr Qdb Special Cokb*spokd*mt.] j . nr.—the "trip home. ■’ —Aden to Suez—The “ Hottest ” Spot on Earth- * We have loft Colombo behind, and are out again at sea for nearly a week before Aden is reached. The Sports Committee get to work once more, and are looking up the new passengers who have joined us from China, Japan, and from various parte of India. Games and tournaments on deck wo in full swing, although the jJavs are getting hotter. Lawyers, clergy, *nd military officers, importers, merchants, and shopkeepers, lady doctors, actresses, and chorus girls, and a strange medley of ■il ranks and ages are plavmg games together. It is a coalition that only shipboard could make possible. And here are ' some who are revisiting their homeland after an absence of 40 years or more. It will be a great pleasure and a great disappointment at the same time. For what recollections will com© back to them, ami ■what changes they will see! It might be happier for some of them if they had •fared awav and fed themselves on the memoir of‘the “good old days,” instead of home to find that times had Changed. It is a bright, clear morning when w© reach the dreary hill peaks, beneath which the little squalid town of , Aden is built. God-forsaken, it stands aentinel to the tropic sea ! Titans in fury 4ave blasted and bared it. Against its *aunt and sterile sides no charm of flower r fruit can prevail—waterless, treeless, and shadow less rises the rock of Aden. The merciless sun beats down, the hot breath of the desert furnace scorches the fine sand, and yet, besmirched and bare, unblessed bv heaven and hated by man, • nation holds and keeps it.—“ Pearl of price!” Aden is a large crater, formed of lofty, precipitious hills, the highest peak of which is nearly I,Booft high. These rise almost immediately from the jrater’s edge. There is no vegetation of piv kind, and it is hard to realise that -Ahere should be a tract of country so absolutely- barren. Not a single blade of irass or herbage of any kind exists. All that one looks upon is a series of mudcolored, rockv hills. It is a cruel place to live in; wtere the heat is intense, and an absence of min for years at a time. A little shower fell six months ago, after a total drought of many years’ duration. The water used for household and drinkipurposes is sea water condensed. Braat quantities of salt are exported. I'h© whole populated area comprises 35 square mike, and has a population of About 20,000. Aden is the —Key to the Red Sea-, — rfid a coaling station for the British fleet, •nd is therefore most important from a •aval point of view. IVo regiments of •oklierß—one British, the otner native are always stationed hero. The British regiment is drawn from different' parts of India, and pat in a year at Aden before returning to Great Britain. The Lincolnshire regiment has served about six months there now. The year at Aden is probably the most trying of the whole of their military service. The camels, as ■beasts of burden, are much used in Aden. There are no rickshaws, and only a few small fourwheelers, drawn by miserable horses, which are ready to convoy passengers to the ancient rock-hewn watertanks some seven miles away, constructed 2.500 yeans ago, having a holding capacity originally of 30,000.000 gallons. At Aden the same kind of bargaining as at Colombo is indulged in, and the wares are chiefly Indian, Japanese, and African. Leopard skies, ostrich feathers, and eggs from Africa are the articles that strike •one as most peculiar to this port. In the harbor fish absolutely abound, and every particle of food thrown from the ship is immediately swarmed upon by myriads of little fish about six inches in length. There are several kind of largo fish as well, but not in such innumerable quantities. There are two hotels, and a rather {nice English Church in Aden, and the apparently much-needed police station. Heme w© found about a dozen small boys, about 12 yeasts of age, confined in a stone cell about 10ft square, absolutely devoid of furniture, having a great old time, and xlaaatsing for alma through the iron bars o£ their cell as we approached. They were in for a month for stealing. In another part of the lockup were two more little fellows. On© of them was lying on a piece oi matting, and was covered with a sheet. He was ill with fever, and was in for 10 days for fighting. The orders of the native police were readily obeyed everywhere in Aden, and one of them attached himself to our party and kept off the boys and men who crowded round us with post cords and feathers for sale, or offering their services as guides to the shops along the single street of this sweltering and squalid town. When the policeman sang out “Finish!”— as he often had to do—they seemed to evaporate suddenly. We rewarded him with a small tip afterwards, and parted the best of friends. The dothing worn by the poorer class of Arabs could not possibly be more scanty. The population of Aden does not appear to be very large, but it is hard to understand how those who are there manage to make a living. They must live on very little. As we passed along the road we came across two or three of these miserable fellows who had been at work in a side street breaking stones. It was a shady spot, a yard or two away from the flaring rays of the baking son. They ■were having a spell, and were stretched full length upon the heaps of stones asleep. With only a loin cloth on, it most have been a hard, bed; but it was typical of Aden. At Suez one does not go ashore. It was Sunday morning when we arrived, and in a few hours we were glad to be off •gain. The canal begins here, and extends some 80 or 90 miles to Port Said. We •went thsough most oi it at night, but the moonlight showed the banks on either side sufficiently plainly to prevent our having ; any desire to “get off and walk.” On the , one is a long vista of trackless sand, with , -her© and there a few darkies dredging the | sides of the canal or working on the walls; . and on the other, running parallel with us, ’ the fresh-water canal, which is the only thing that makes possible the growth of the trees and patches of vegetation that appear as oases in the desert. A few oxen are seen here and there, and camels—mild-

looking, forbearing creatures that seem to suggest the hopelessness, of the desert ; waste. On arrival at Port Said we ap- >. proach very doe© to the town, but still far .enough awav to bring trade for the crowds 9f watermen’s boats which ply to and fro from the jetty and cany ns ashore at 3d • head. Port Said has greatly grown within the last decade. As one is allowed about eight hours ashore one can see the town, beyond which the tourist will find little of interest. Those of oar company ’who had left the ship at Suez and trained > it to Cairo, joining us again at Port Said, were enthusiastic in then - praises of the trip, and some of them described their day ■there, as being the most interesting 24 Iterate in their life’s history. To-day, ' amidst colossal relics. Egypt, under the fondly influence of England and France, is lifting herself out of the ruin, reviving her ’arts aud commerce, and bidding fair to live again in the front rank of nations. Sort Said, as, perhaps, the —Most Cosmopolitan Town—*n the world, and is not on that account shy the more desirable as a place of residence- The wares offered for sale include many of the choicest treasures of the East, .but one is also inundated with a heap of cheap trumpery. Port Said enjoys the reputation of being the fastest of all coaling atations, and our ship is loaded with 700 imu of coal in the space of three hours. The coal is all carried on board from the bargee in baskets by the natives. This town Jhas also the unenviable reputation of belng the wickedest place in the world.

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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ESD19110729.2.103

Bibliographic details

Evening Star, Issue 14631, 29 July 1911, Page 12

Word Count
1,413

A TRAVELLER'S IMPRESSIOSN. Evening Star, Issue 14631, 29 July 1911, Page 12

A TRAVELLER'S IMPRESSIOSN. Evening Star, Issue 14631, 29 July 1911, Page 12