The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1872-02-01
Letters from the Old World,
BY MISS JENNIE A. NELSON.
NO. II.
RED SEA, STEAMSHIP DECCAN,
Oct. 81, 1871.

NO. II.
RED SEA, STEAMSHIP DECCAN,
Oct. 81, 1871.
You have no idea of my perplex
ity when I attempt to write letter
to America. In the first place, am
at a loss to whom my epistle shall
be addressed, and when that point
is settled the next difficulty is
where shall I begin? What shall
1 select from my wonderful store
How shall I condense my thoughts
and feelings and experiences into the
form ofa letter? III were to mem
ton only the places I have seen, or
the incidents Of one day, I would
fill whole sheet, and would leave
no room to comment or moralize
upon any one of them.
I have already given a hasty
sketch of my journey as far as Alex
andria. We embarked upon the
old Red Sea one week ago to-day.
We started about 5 A. N. The sea
was very rough, and almost every
one was dreadfully sick. Even the
Emperor ofBrazil did not escape.
The usual occupation on ship-board
is eating, sleeping, smoking and
drinking. The wines certainly can
not be like ours at home, for the
gentlemen drink so constantly, and
yet we see no bad effects from it.
PrOmenading the deck, reading and
talking are our recreations.
We had beautiful moonlight, in
4 deed we still have, and 1 can give
you no conception of the beauty of
moonlight upon the sea. It looks
like liquid silver, and when the
waves break it sparkles like dia-
mOnds. Inever weary of watching
it. Early last Saturday morning 1
looked out of my port,hole and saw
the sun rising over the spires, pillars
and domes of Alexandria. I made
a hasty toilet and hurried on deck.
The Emperor and suite were already
there. Soon we saw several beauti.
full boats coming out from shore,
rowed by 90 or 80 oarsmen, with
bright buff coats and red caps. The
picture was beautiful. These boats
belonged to the Pacha of Egypt and
other officials, VIII had come out to
meet the Emperor and offer him
their hospitality. He received them
very kindly, but declined the invi.
tation and went on shore in our
captains little boat. l saw the EN-
press and other ladies presented to
these officials. She is very plain !
old lady, and smiled and bowed to me
very pleasantly whenever we met. |
She did not speak English. found |
the little I knew of French of great !
value, as I came across the contin-
ent, but had many amusing exper- |
fences for want of language.
1 was greatly disappointed in moi |
getting to Geneva. We could not
get through tickets across France,
owing to the disturbed state of the
country. Our ship lay at anchor |
some distance from the shore all day |
Saturday, and the train did not
leave till Z P. NJ. We had the !
privilege of remaining all day on |
the ship or of going ashore, so some
very pleasant gentlemen with whom /
we have been travelling for some
time, offered to take US with them. |
as they intended going. Soon we
were in a little boat out on the
grand old sea, and soon we landed I
on the shores of old Egypt, and |
were introduced for the first time to |
oriental customs. No pen can de !
scribe the scenes we witnessed. Wei
soon got a carriage and a dragoman,
and started through the narrow,
filthy streets. Here we saw all |
manner of emplOyments, but realiz-
ed that we were among the Moham- |
medan Turks and Egyptians, and
saw the customs and costumes of the
times of Moses. The streets are
thronged with dragomen, with little |
donkeys saddled, ready to hire to
any one who wants them. One boy |
led one up to me. 1 said, "that is a 1
very fine donkey; what is his
name "He said, "OLd Bob Ridley! |
Do you know him ?" You cannot
imagine how I was surprised and |
amused to hear that name there and
then.
We drove down to the Nile and |
along its banks for some distance
saw buIrushes growing, and actual
| ly saw some women making an ark |
of them so I thought of poor little
Moses.
We saw a procession of people
and heard a great noise, on the op-
posite side of the river. Our guide
said, ga man go dead" Soon we
saw bier carried by men, and
those who followed it were waving
their handkerchiefs and screaming at
the top of their voices.
| After we had driven until we
! we're tired and had seen Pompey's
Pillar and CleOpatra's Needle, we
walked through some of the Bazars