432 
fort over inconvenience, of health over 
sickness, would result from adapting a 
steam-mail to India. 
Men are so much the victims of 
habit, as to oppose strenuous and 
unfounded objections oftentimes to 
schemes pregnant with public utility ; 
as a few think and act for the many 
even in the most momentous concerns, 
so the success of this proposition 
will, in a great measure, depend upon 
the prejudive or interest of a small por- 
tion of the people. Ihave no specified 
interest either in the adoption or rejec- 
tion of ihe measure, but only a san- 
guine anxiety about the flourishing of 
the arts and sciences, and the emanci- 
pation of mankind from ignorance, 
barbarism, and bigotry. Some people 
might doubt how intelligence could be 
imparted to that classic and revered 
land bordering on the Nile, where 
Euclid and Ptolemy, and Sesostris 
and Aristotle, flourished; and where 
thousands of thronged cities, temples, 
and ‘palaces, were once crowded, 
whose ruins still strike the beholders 
with admiration and wonder. As a 
steam-boat would be only like a meteor 
passing through the region of darkness, 
yet the desolation of Egypt, on one 
hand, would be a Pharos to the nations 
of Europe, I hope equally monitory to 
tyrants and slaves; and, on the other, 
the bigotted and besotted people of 
Egypt would be aroused by a transient 
example of the light of public spirit. 
I have no means of knowing the 
exact distance from place to place 
described in the annexed route, as I 
have only the* benefit of maps ; but I 
apprehend the calculation is sufficiently 
correct for general purposes. 1 have 
made no allowance for contrary winds 
and tides, as such as act in opposition 
at one time will be favourable another. 
Asasteam-ship would still be a pheno- 
menon on the Arabian sea, I shall not 
venture to recommend it to sail during 
the whole of the’monsoon months. f 
lay down the following route as an ap- 
proximation to the truth ; and T think, 
by good management, that voyages 
could be effected in a shorter time. 
Days. Miles. 
From Falmouth to Gibraltar, +» 5 or 1200 
From Gibraltar.to Rosetta +--+: 9 2170 
From Rosetta to Bulac, or Cairo 
up the Nile 5: s-<+seeher Lo 110° 
From Cairo to Suez, by land’ +. 2° . 70 
From Suez, down the Red Sea, 
to Bombay.-+e++reessst* »°14.— 3300 
31 
Proposal for an East-India Steam- Mail. 
{Jan, 1 
For the convenience of passengers, 
and for taking letters and light parcels, 
and public dispatches, and for the 
purpose of taking passengers on-board, 
who may be going to the Mediterra- 
nean, to Evypt, or to India, from the 
latter places, or of putting the mail for 
Gibraltar, or Malta, or Rosetta, and 
the short passengers, on-shore at any 
of those places, the steam-mail could 
call; another steam-mail could. be 
stationed at Gibraltar, ready stored; 
and the mail-bags, parcels, and pas- 
sengers, could be removed out of the 
one from England into the one for the 
Mediterranean, to Malta, Rosetta, and 
to Cairo; passengers from the south of 
Europe could be taken On-board at 
Malta, for Egypt or India. From 
Malta it is only three days’ sail to 
Toulon or Marseilles, by a steam- 
boat. Although ships are not able to 
get over the bar at the month of the 
Nile, near Rosetta, yet the steam- 
boats, from drawing so little water, 
would not experience the same diffi- 
culty: the steam-boat navigation is 
singularly well adapted for the Nile; 
and, it appears, that the mouth of the 
Nile, on which Rosetta stands, would 
answer better than any other. Bulac 
is the port of Cairo, a harbour about 
two miles below that city ; and, for the 
distance of 100 miles, I have allowed 
one day, a space of time more than 
sufficient for that purpose. The Nile 
is navigable for a considerable dis- 
tance above Cairo, as the merchan- 
dise of the Red Sea is landed at 
Cossier, and from Cossier it goes by the 
caravan to Girge on the Nile, near 
300 miles above Cairo. Ihave recom- 
mended the passengers to disembark 
at Cairo, in preference to going up the 
Nile to Girge, on account of the land 
journey being more laborious in, that 
country, and being not half so far from 
Cairo to Suez, as from Girge to Cos- 
sier on the Red Sea, the former being 
only about seventy miles, while the 
other is above 160 miles, 1am not 
aware that there is any regular cara- 
van from Cairo to Suez; but one could 
be established to meet the steam-mail, 
and to convey passengers, goods, &c. 
across the Isthmus: in_ this. track, 
there is still seen the remains of a 
canal, which, for some reason, does not 
appear to have been opened, either 
from some apprehension that, by turn- 
ing the course of the Nile into the Red 
Sea, it would cease to overflow the 
Delia; and, consequently, that fertile 
district 
Se 
