The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1906-07-05
COLOMBO TO ALDEN.
Mr.. Hoye's Letter Descriptive Of His
Journey Between These Two Ports.

the latter port May 27th. It was
rather dull trip, with fair wealth
er, a pleasant breeze, and few
scraps between Our Russian and
German friends.
- The eight Russian passengers
seem to have more troubles than
all the others. They quarreled
with some Of the Germans, called
them Swine" and finally, after a
wordy war in German, complained
to the captain, who advised them
to settle their troubles on shore.
Now the German and Russian
ladies sit on opposite sides of the
deck and peace reigns.
The English and American pas
sengers associate readily and with
less friction than any other nation
alities. This is as it should be:
we are people speaking the same
language, having similar customs
and Our blood is thicker than
water"
Two days before our arrival at
Alden we passed quite close to the
island of Sokota, British posses
sion off the Somali coast of Africa.
1t is a barren desert land of high
hills and steep cliffs. A few white
Arab houses could be seen in a
little valley.
Alden was long ago an impor-
tant place. Early in the 10th cen
fury the Portuguese, who then dom
mated these seas, attempted to
capture it but were repulsed by
the Turks. In 1887 an English
vessel was wrecked on its shores.
The cargo was stolen and the pas
sengers murdered or thrown into
slavery by the Arabs. Two years
later an English fleet bombarded
and captured the town and made it
an English crown colony.
Having a good harbor midway
between the Suez canal and India
it has become all important coaling
station for ships and also has con-
siderable commerce with Arabia.
It's one Of England's chain of for
tilted stations to the East and is
said to be as strong as Gibraltar.
The town occupies part of a small
peninsula, crowned by high rocky
hills; these hills are strongly forti-
fed, secure from capture by sea or
land. The defence works and
barracks of the English troops
were the most impressive things
we saw as we entered the harbor.
Going ashore we hired a car
rage and drove thru the town and
over the desert little way. Our
old horse-not the fiery Arabian
steed you have read about-refused
to go up hill despite all the urging
of his Arab driver, so Mr.. McDon-
aid and l walked to the top. We
passed under one Of the great de-
fence walls and had a fine view of
the town and the country beyond.
This port Of Arabia has little or
no rain; the hills and desert lands
which we crossed have no vegeta-
ton. What dreary place any
land is without plants. There are
a few shrubs and flowers in town,
but all fresh water is hauled from
hills five miles away on water carts
drawn by camels, and is therefore
very expensive. We also saw ma
tives carrying water thru the
streets in big bottles made of skin,
the kind so common in Palestine.
The people here are dried-up
looking Arabs, big Somali negroes
from Africa and a few Turks and
Jews; they all look as if they had
been half baked in the sunshine of
the desert.
We saw few women; no Moham-
medan lady will allow her face to
be seen by a strange man, SO the
few we saw on the street were
closely yelled.
Foolish custom Most of them
are probably so ugly that a man
would not waste a second look on
their faces even if they were WISH
bic.
The work animals are uplv cam