Asiatic Breezes; Or, Students on The Wing

by Oliver Optic

  CHAPTER XXVII

  THE CONFERENCE ON THE PROMENADE

  The promenade did not wholly change its name after it became ConferenceHall, and had been enlarged and improved. It was as popular a resort asit had ever been when the ship was under way and there was anything tobe seen. The place was occupied when the ship hauled out of the basin inthe early morning of January 19; for the passengers had all asked to becalled at five o'clock.

  It seemed a little strange to go to sea without the Maud astern, andwith the principal members of her ship's company seated with the otherson the promenade. The commander had engaged a pilot for the whole lengthof the Red Sea; for it is full of rocks and reefs, making the navigationdifficult and dangerous, though it has been thoroughly surveyed, and thechart is speckled with small islands and coral reefs.

  "I could give you the Arabic names of some of the surroundings as weproceed," said the captain, who had taken a position where he couldobserve the movements of the vessel, and it enabled him to look into thepilot-house through the after windows when he desired to do so.

  "Please don't, Captain Ringgold!" exclaimed Mrs. Belgrave. "It makes myjaws ache even to hear them."

  "But there are some things which have no other names, and they mustsometimes be used. That buoy on the starboard has no English name; butit is of no consequence, and I will not try to speak it. On the oppositeshore is the Gebel Ataka, which you have noticed before. By this timeyou have learned that gebel is a mountain, and _jebel_, as you will findit on your map of the Peninsula of Sinai, means the same thing. _Ras_ isa cape. Formerly I knew many more words than now; for it is very easy toforget a foreign language."

  "There is a lightship on the starboard," said Louis, who was seatedbetween his mother and Miss Blanche.

  "That is the Zenobia, on Newport Rock," added the captain. "Now look tothe shore on the left, which is called Abu Darraj. Perhaps you hadbetter write it down and remember it; for the people in this vicinitybelieve the Israelites crossed the Red Sea where the ship is at thismoment. The water was formerly very shallow here, and a passage forvessels had to be dredged through it. Napoleon and some of his generalswere here, and tried to cross over on horseback; but the sea served himas it did Pharaoh and his army; the wind changed, and the tide rolled inso that he was compelled to retreat."

  There was nothing more to be explained, and the commander went to thepilot-house; but the air was delightfully pleasant, and the sun risingover the mountains of the peninsula was a beautiful sight. The ladieswere in raptures, and some of the gentlemen shared the enthusiasm. Theboys left their seats, and walked about the upper deck. Then MissBlanche thought she had better walk for a time before breakfast, andvery soon the whole party were occupied in the same manner. Thecommander had appointed a conference at nine o'clock, and severalinteresting subjects were to be considered.

  Captain Ringgold was not disposed to drive his ship at her best speed,which was over sixteen knots an hour; but he had instructed Mr. Shafter,the chief engineer, to give her about fourteen knots, for she was morecomfortable at this rate than when forced to do her utmost, to saynothing of the saving of coal. At this rate she would arrive at Bombayin ten days, including a stop of one day at Aden. In this time heexpected to accomplish a great deal in the school of the conference.

  The weather was fortunately all that could be desired, though the RedSea sometimes behaves very badly; and at the time appointed the membersof the party were all in their places on the promenade. The littletable, with its vase of flowers brought from the gardens of theTerreplein, was in position. Mr. Woolridge was one of the first to takehis arm-chair. He had at first been rather indifferent in regard to theinstruction element of the ship, but had become quite interested sincehe had been called to the platform as a speaker.

  The commander was the first to take the platform; and he appeared with arose in the lappel of his coat, which probably would not have been thereif Mrs. Belgrave had not placed it there. She was very fond of flowers,and had arranged quite a collection of potted plants, as well as filledall the vases on board with cut flowers from the village.

  "The subject first in order seems to be the Red Sea; and we have not yetspoken of it in detail, though we have had considerable to say about it.I shall purposely omit some things which will be explained when we cometo them. I am glad to see that you have brought your diaries ornote-books with you, as I suggested, and you can write down the names ofnotable sights and the figures I shall give. I wish to say that I havealways prepared myself for these occasions, and do not talk to you atrandom.

  "The Red Sea is an arm of the Indian Ocean, with the Gulf of Aden, about800 miles long, as a connection between them. The Persian Gulf, with theGulf of Oman, forms a similar body of water, and they will probablyrender the same service to England and India that the Red Sea does atthe present time. Arabia lies between them. The sea on which we are nowsailing is 1,200 miles long."

  "Badaeker gives the length as 1,400 miles," said Louis.

  "He gives it in English miles," replied the commander. "A degree of agreat circle is 69.07 English, or statute miles as we call them, or 60geographical sea miles or knots. This distinction has been fullyexplained to you before. For ordinary purposes the number of sea milesis to the number of statute miles in the ratio of six to seven. In otherwords, there will be six-sevenths as many knots as statute miles, andconversely, seven-sixths as many statute as sea miles. Six-sevenths of1,400 is 1,200; and thus we agree.

  "The Red Sea varies in width from 100 to 200 miles, and in the broadestpart it is 205 sea miles. We are still in the Gulf of Suez, and shall betill about five this afternoon. On the African side you will seemountains all the way to the strait, with only sand between them and thewater. There is nothing that can be called a town between Suez andKoser, over 300 statute miles. All around the sea are coral-reefs; andwe shall pass a lighthouse on one right in the middle of it. Not asingle river flows into the Red Sea, for there are no rains in Egypt;and if there were on either side, the desert would absorb all the water.

  "This sea has the reputation of being a hot region. The thermometerranges from 70 deg. to 94 deg., and sometimes the mercury mounts to over100 deg., always in the daytime, and it may fall to the freezing pointat night, though rarely. As on the Nile, the rule is hot days and coolnights, though you may find some of the latter uncomfortable farthersouth, for the water has shown a temperature of 100 deg.

  "The water is somewhat salter than the ocean, because no rivers emptyinto it, and because of excessive evaporation. It has been said by somescientists that, if the Red Sea were entirely enclosed, it would becomea solid body of salt in less than two thousand years. I suppose theymean that all the fluid would evaporate, and the salt in it would remainat the bottom. We will not worry about it.

  "The average depth of this sea is 2,250 feet, and the greatest 7,200. Ihave nothing more to say about it; but while I am up I will say a fewwords about the new route to India of which I have spoken before. TheGulf of Iskanderun, sometimes called Scanderoon, is the north-eastcorner of the Mediterranean. Its eastern shore is within a hundred milesof the headwaters of the Euphrates River, which is navigable for smallcraft to Bir. Sixty years ago some preferred it to the Suez route. Agrant of money was made by Parliament, two iron steamers of small sizewere put into the river; and though one of them was sunk, the other wentthrough to the Persian Gulf.

  "It was shown that this route was about a thousand miles less indistance than any other to Kurrachee, the nearest port in India. Butpolitical influences were at work against it, first from Egypt, and thenfrom some of the Powers, in the belief that it would give England anadvantage in the affairs of Asia, and the scheme was dropped. Now wewill take a walk of half an hour about the ship; for school-childrenneed rest and recreation.

  "But I wish to remind you again that you are now near the ancient world;for Arabia is in sight all the time, and Assyria, Babylonia, Syria arebeyond it. The professor will have the floor after the intermission."

  Dur
ing the recess the party walked about the deck and observed themountains, which were still in sight on both sides. Four bells, or teno'clock, was the signal for them to come together again. Whatever mightbe anticipated farther south, the air was soft and pleasant, and notover warm, about 70 deg. in the shade.

  "My excellent friend, Mr. Woolridge, has just reminded me of the promisemade by the commander that certain ancient travellers over the worldshould be taken up, as we have frequent occasion to quote them,"Professor Giroud began. "There are only three of them of any especialnote, the first of whom is Herodotus, 'the Father of History,' as he isoften called, and was worthy of the title.

  "He was born about 485 years before the time of Christ, atHelicarnassus, a Greek colony of Asia. This was about the time thePersians were invading Greece. When this city obtained its freedom,there was a dispute about the method of government, in which he wasinvolved, and which caused him to leave his native place. For theancient time, over two thousand years ago, when they had no railroadsand steamboats, his travels are remarkable for their extent. He went allover Asia Minor and Greece proper, as well as the islands of the AEgeanSea. He visited Macedonia, Thrace, and the coasts of the Black Sea.

  "What was more remarkable, he penetrated to the Persian Empire andBabylon, and toured Egypt more thoroughly than most modern travellers.Then he extended his wanderings to Sicily and lower Italy. He was aliveat the first of the Peloponnesian War; but what became of him, when orwhere he died, is not known.

  "He spent the greater part of his life in travel, though not forpleasure, but in acquiring knowledge which he intended to make useful tothe world. He was the most eminent geographer of his time, and he mayfather that science as appropriately as that of history. But he treatedmany other branches of knowledge, like the races of men and theirpeculiarities, mythology, archaeology, and, in fact, everything that camewithin the range of his observation. He was a man of a high order ofintellect, a philosopher in his criticism of governments. Modernscholars are greatly indebted to him, and his works are still extant. Hedid not have the highest style of composition; but he was an honest man,and he wrote as he talked. You can understand the frequent references tohim in modern books of travel.

  "Not as favorable a notice can be given of Strabo, who was an ancientgeographer. He was born about sixty-four years before Christ, at Amasiain Pontus."

  "Where was that?" asked the magnate, who was taking the deepest interestin the exercise.

  "It is a name given to a country in the north-eastern corner of AsiaMinor, on the Black Sea, the ancient name of which was Pontus Euxinus,or Euxine Sea, from which it got its name. His mother was of Greekdescent, and nothing is known of his father. I suppose you all know whatstrabismus means."

  "I am sure I don't," replied Mrs. Blossom; and probably she was the onlyone who could answer in the negative.

  "In plain terms, it means cross-eyed; and doubtless Strabo obtained hisname from having this defect in his eyes. Whether any of his family werecalled so before him is not known. He studied with various learned menin Greece, Rome, and Alexandria. It does not appear that he had anyoccupation, but devoted all his time to study and travel. He wroteforty-seven books, and those on geography were very valuable; for hewrote from his own observation, though sometimes he is very full, atothers very meagre. He is regarded as by no means the equal ofHerodotus.

  "The third of whom I am to speak is Diodorus Siculus."

  "You have put a tail on his name, Professor," added the magnate.

  "That is as much a part of his name as the rest of it, as used byscholars. It means that he was born in Sicily. Very little is knownabout him beyond what he told himself. He lived in the time of JuliusCaesar and Augustus, and for a long time in Rome. He travelled in Europeand Asia for material. He wrote a history of the world from the creationto the time of Julius Caesar. Some of the volumes are lost, and some ofthem are still read.

  "Diodorus was deficient in the qualifications of a historian; and aboutall that is valuable in his writings is the mass of facts he gives, fromwhich he was not competent to make the proper deductions. The materialhe gathered is valuable; but the thirty years he spent in thecomposition of his works have not purchased for him the literaryreputation of Herodotus, or even of Strabo."

  "I am very much obliged to you for your lecture, and I hope othersbesides myself have profited by it," said Mr. Woolridge.

  The professor bowed, and took some manuscript from his pocket.