1900] On Board the "Hebe" 361 



first light we got our traps together, and distributed all our remaining 

 provisions among the pilgrims who were ravenous for our oranges. 

 These were rescued at last from the water which had been sweeping 

 over them on the after deck. They had been well packed and were not 

 much spoiled. The best of them went to our friends, Sheykh Abdul 

 Hamid, and the gallant sea-dog of the Caspian, Suleyman Ismailoff of 

 Astrakhan, the rest I took with Hassan in a bundle to the forecastle 

 where they were eagerly grabbed for by the Persian pilgrims, es- 

 pecially the women. Here are the names of our chief friends on board, 

 Sheikh Abdul Hamid of St. Petersburgh, one of the Ulema, and his 

 friend, Suleyman Ali from Crimea, a Crim Tartar Student of the 

 Azhar, Captain Suleyman Ismailoff of Astrakhan; our friend the 

 Muhajjer, whose name I have unfortunately forgotten, Mohammed Ali, 

 aged nine, a gay boy who was the captain's servant. Gilroy, an English 

 accountant going to Jeddah, Dr. Edward Rist of the Sanitary Board 

 of Alexandria (an Alsacian Frenchman, of whom we afterwards saw 

 much). 



" 3 p. m. We are on board H.IVLS. Hebe. At eight o'clock we 

 were taken off among the first of those rescued by Captain Taylor, and 

 are once more on the clean deck of a British man-of-war, feeling that 

 after all the British Fleet has its beneficent uses and was intended for 

 other things than only the bombardment of Eastern towns. Taylor tells 

 me that but for the telegram sent by Suliman, we must have been 

 several days longer on the reef — we might well have been overlooked 

 till it was too late. All is ended now, however, and we can say ' El 

 hamdu ITllah.' In the course of the morning other ships arrived, and 

 all the pilgrims having been taken from the wreck and placed on board 

 them, they went on their way to Jeddah, while we returned to Suez on 

 the Hebe. 



"Names of the Officers of the Hebe are: Commander Taylor, 

 Lieutenant Frederick Loder Symonds, Lieutenant James Kirkness, 

 Surgeon Herbert Gill, Chief Engineer George Pascoe. 



" The officers of the He be are an excellent set of men ; they have 

 entertained us all last night on board, feasting our hunger, and giving 

 us stretchers for beds. Remembering the navy as I knew it forty 

 years ago at Athens, these young officers seem to me superior in intel- 

 ligence and manners to what they then were. The Hebe is one of the 

 new and highly scientific gunboats which require men of head and 

 education to work them, and they took pleasure in explaining to us 

 everything, more indeed than I did in listening, for machinery is the 

 least interesting of novelties. We might have been taken on to Tor if 

 we had wished it, but I decided against this, seeing the peril we had 

 escaped, and I have a superstition against continuing a journey in 

 face of a strong warning; indeed to me this is more than a warning. 



