360 Rescued by a Man- of -War [1900 



has been, I fancy, with all of us, though we say nothing about it. The 

 still water inside the reef must be full of them — here it is too rough, 

 and there is only drifting seaweed and a multitude of gulls. 



" Later. The weather shows signs of improvement, though the sea 

 is as high as ever, and the wind is hardly less, but the sky is clearing, 

 and the line of hills on the west coast is beginning to show again. 

 We can see Ghareb and the rest. I feel confident the wind will fall 

 at sunset. And the Misr should return and take us off to-morrow- — 

 but everything depends upon the fall of the wind. 



: ' Evening. Our troubles, I hope, are over. At 4 p.m., behold as 

 a coup de theatre, H.M.S. Hebe, a gunboat, arriving from Suez to 

 our rescue. The sea was still very heavy, and the wind as strong as 

 ever, but Commander Taylor in command of her, gallantly put off in 

 a whale-boat, and has himself come on board our wreck. His arrival 

 has relieved us entirely from our anxiety, for though he cannot land 

 us to-night he is satisfied our ship is in no immediate danger of break- 

 ing up. He will return in the morning and take us all across the reef 

 at high tide, if it is still rough, or directly to Tor if the wind has 

 gone down. He is a good, clean-shaven, grey-eyed little British officer 

 of the best type. To us personally he offered, if we wished, to take 

 us all three off with him at once to-night, but as he seemed to think it 

 would be rather a risk, especially with Miss Lawrence, we elected to 

 stay on the wreck yet another night — and it is well we did — for the 

 whale-boat as we could see it had a narrow shave of being capsized, 

 and was unable to get taken on board the Hebe on her return until 

 the Hebe had moved down a mile or two to leeward of the reef. 

 What has caused Taylor coming is this. As long ago as Saturday 

 the people at Suez became uneasy at getting no telegram about us from 

 Tor, but imagined the Chibine must have neglected to call there and 

 gone on to Jeddah, then rumours came that something was wrong, 

 and the Misr was sent out to look for us, and later Cromer, having 

 been referred to, ordered the Hebe out. The Hebe was to have 

 looked for us on the West Coast of the Red Sea, but fortunately just 

 as she was getting up steam our telegram, carried by Suliman and 

 despatched from Tor, arrived, telling them where we were, otherwise 

 they would have searched the Western Coast in vain, and might not 

 have found us for some days. However, as our friend the Crimean 

 pilgrim says, 'El hamdu ITllah ' (God has not forgotten his slaves). 

 We are all congratulating each other now, and the pilgrims are showing 

 their good-will to us, and thanks for having helped to get Suleyman 

 sent ashore, in a number of agreeable ways. 



" 13th March (Tuesday). — Our last night on the wreck was a 

 peaceful and a joyful one. At sunset the wind, as was expected, dropped 

 — and it is now nearly a dead calm. I slept profoundly. With the 



