Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1879-04-19
NOTES ON THE W4Y,
Sailing Under the Yellow Flag.
Correspondence Of the Erening Starl


IN QUARANTINE,
MARSEILLES, MARCE, 1879 {
was half afraid when / was writing some
pleasant things about the Mediterranean, In q
letter to THE STAR some time ago, that nigh,
have to take them back, either In whole or In
part, before finally bade her farewell Even
so 1T has come to pass. l have since made a
passage from Jaffa to Marseilles which fulfilled
al the conditions OF the description OF sea
voyage given by the fellow who defined OF
ought to have defined it as being "put in prison
drowned" 1t was, in short, long, tedious, cod
wet, and stormy, thoroughly disagreeabIe
danger to give it dramatic interest on the
latter point will only remark that the captain
of the good ship 'Erymanthe."-on which il
the outward t1ip-stated that he hod never
known so long and unbrOken q term OF strong
head winds and bad weather as on this particu.
certificate furnished by all sea captains to worn
out passengers after what they consider 8
r0ugh % passage; but believeit all the same, and
all the more because we have since learned OF
the loss OF several vessels and number of lives
Dy the same storm, we passed through and In
nearly the same part OF the sea where we were
curing the worst part OF it. But anticipate.
Let me therefore 60 back and take up my story
at Its beginning.
SOME PLANS THAT CAME TO NAUGHT.
one beautiful Sunday morning in February,
as the novelist would say, five English speak
Ing gentlemen-four Americans and one East
Indian officer, on his way to England,-sat at
the breakfast table of the Mediterranean Hotel
IN Jerusalem, comparing notes and discussing
thelr plans. said there were five gentlemen,
put as afterwards saw the name of one of the
Americans scrawled by himself in common.
coare school boy hand on the walls of the
haps four would be safer number. one of tie
party-the name recording American, by the
Way,-Was to leave that afternoon for Jana,
the mne1e n ne expected to take an Italian steamer
man intended to leave on wednesday for
!, Jana, WheIe he expected to take an Aus
tilan Sn,d ns steamer, on Thursday, for Port
thence to England, cia Brlndisi. The second
American was to leave on Thursday and take
FIeDch steamer on Friday for Alexandra,
Lloyd line and go on it direct to Trieste. The
writer and his companion were bound for Da-
mascus, and afterward for Constantinople and
amen Athens: TWAS their intention to go from Jeru-
salem to the hrsG-named city by horseback.
overland through Palestine and Syria, but as II
was rather early in the season and too cold and
s9odmy dn TO r. ask camping out they had decided to
an Italian steamer On Friday for Beirut. thence
10 Damascus by wagon road. Such, say, were
oae plans. The me, happenings came out quite
When we reached Jaffa THURSDAY night we
found current there rumor, brought down by
a. vessei from the north the day before, to the
erect that the Russian plague had spread into
Turkey and Greece, and was rapidly trayelinr
toward Syria; that Egypt had imposed strict
qnarantlne Ial,o on an vessels coming from those
Sountfes, co j. g. ana that this course would at once
ne, II II had not already been, followed by all
tne european powers having ports on the MedI-
terranean. This report was confirmed in some
aegIee Dy steamer arriving from Smyrna the
believe it, it yet seemed prudent to get out Of
What might be an unpleasant IL not an UNSAFE
pred1cament In the shortest way POSSIBLE We
!wo tneIeIore decided t9 g..Ts up our contem-
andgo direct to the European port most quickly
reached. We accordingly embarked that even
Ing for Naples, provided we were allowed to
am lana there after arrival; II not then for Mar
sellles. When we reached Port Said early next
morning we found lying there the Austrian
steamer Argo, with the yellow flag flying, and
our name.scraWling l American and East india
q heavy sea, the Italian steamer on which the
former had expected to take passage did NOT,
call at Jafa, SO he had availed himself of this
opportunity opp to get away from that place. In
lev moments our foremast was also Dc corated
Win the Yellow Flag-the recognized badge of
ln1ect1ous disease all the world overland we
IN QUARANTINE!
The situation and the prospect now presented
were not pleasant. All communication with
the shore and between interdicted vessels in
the harbor was strictly prohibited, and no
freight was allowed to be put OF or taken on
The latter restriction was removed, however a
little before n1ghtfall, and few lighter loads
acn on our The
respects that OF people in wild panic They
knew nothing OF the nature or progress of the
% disease they were guarding against, nor could
tney give any Information as TO when the quar-
anime would probably be raised. They only
knew tnat communication was forbidden, but
thought that at Alexandria something farther
N I'm apS< <<H1a
The Argo left for Alexandra at O'Clock that
evening, and we followed at 9, arriving there
about three hours ahead Of her, at IL next
ter. They knew no more there than was
known at Port Said, except that Italy had es-
tablished quarantine Of twenty one DAYS on
Xs er aEyng a% IN sns
ati antne and provided no place for that purpose.
were eo1 required to to leave her ports in
board water and necessary supplies. no no
matter what their destination or cargo might
na1d oe ana passengers pa arliving on such were not
ther would they allow persons thus placed I'M
der ban to better their condition by Changing
from one vessel to another In the outer harbor'
T Steamer at anchor to enforce these regulations.
me situation OF our Jerusalem break
fast party was therefore as follows: The
hdaed american slss, who started for Naples was on
0Ou1AO AOI 1IlCSUC, 50 was
the Indian who started for Cairo. The
other American who wanted to go to Trieste
found himself booked for Marseilles, while we
VINO were going to Damascus were on the way
10 Naples, instead. However just as the Fry
manthe was leaving on Tuesday morning, the
ATgo oeclded TO go back to Smyrna, instead OF
dliect TO Trieste, and with no little trouble per
mission was finally obtained for her ppssengers
10 aepart on our vessel. Among these was q
commercial traveller for Scotch house, whose
case seemed to be rather hard. He had come
lIom smyrna to Alexandria, expressly to trans
act some business at the latter place. but was
not allowed to land. He was obliged, there
1ore, 10 make trip to MarSeilles and serve out
such term OF quarantine as might be prescribed
there, after which he could return TO Alexan-
dr1a, purged as 1T were of the Russian plague
1t subsequently turned out that the process cost
him more than month Of time and Something
IKE o Thousand francs In money. But even more
aggravat1Dg than his was the experience Of a
young Australian who came on board the Ery-
mantle just as she was taking in her last line
In company with his business partner, he had
come passenger on the steamer Aconcagua
from Adelaide, bound for London She had
been out twenty eight days to Suez, and
would require fifteen or sixteen more to
reach her destination. Thinking to hurry
up some business matters in London by
lhaC course, our new arrival had forfeited the
Dalence OF his passage on his own steamer, LEFT
nef at SueZ, with the funds and papers of the
urn, and come on by rail to Alexandria, where
ne hoped to catch an English steamer for Bfin-
dis1: BY adopting this course and going over
land from that nr 10 o. od to