Saturday, Dec. 13

Breakfast at Shepherds, see the MacCallum pictures of Jerusalem and Jaffa, say adieu to Cairo and at 2 o’clock set sail with a good wind, a comfortable boat and a pleasant looking lot of sailors. There is the steersman, Reis Mahommet (2nd Reis but really first in command), a Nubian of deep die, a merry excitable fellow, an excellent sailor and soon a great favourite with us all, Joseph, who talkee leetle Engliz, Fodle (virtue) a strong-made Nubian, blue black, Hadji Mahommed, ‘the responsible’, and little Osman, surnamed Goggles, the smallest man with the biggest spirit on the boat, afterwards revered by all in his various capacities of desperate swimmer, sailor, washerwoman and dress-maker. Abdallah, the good tempered, and four others of no particular attractions, a serpenty gentleman, Cook, at £12 a month, and a melancholly man called the Marmeton, or kitchen maid, complete our crew. We have a brisk and lovely voyage to Bedri Shayn, 18 miles, where we anchor at night. The boat shows very good sailing powers and is not content with always following her large and illustrious consort. The views on each side have been beautiful, first passing picturesque old Cairo with its little mosks and date trees, always with their lovely background of limestone ridge and quarries of the Mokattene Hills, worked for stone from the Pyramids till now. On the other hand, the Pyramids of Gizeh and then the Pyramids of Sakkara, a dozen at least, standing out on the plain in ever changing variety of lights and colours, with villages, date trees, the river and pretty old boats painted up by the setting sun and afterglow into exquisite pictures.