3^2 A Vision of Wrath [1900 



I see in it a menace forbidding me to approach the Holy Mountain. 

 Perhaps another year I may return, but not now. 



; ' In the early morning as we arrived at Suez I was awoke from 

 sleep by a very terrible dream or imagination, for I was between wak- 

 ing and sleeping. The screws of the gunboat had been reversed, and 

 there was a fearful vibration on board, so loud that it sounded like 

 a storm. I thought that we had come to the head of the gulf to that 

 place where Pharoah and the Egyptians were overwhelmed in the sea, 

 and that an immense wind had struck us from the west, so that the 

 gunboat was being driven on to the eastern shore. It was a storm so 

 terrible that nothing could live in it, and I knew that it had been sent 

 by God, and I heard a voice saying : ' There are no pilgrims here to 

 save you again by their prayers,' and I was terror struck and I made 

 my profession of faith — ' La Allah ila Allah, wa Mohammed rasul 

 Allah,' nor was I relieved of my fear until I had looked out of the 

 scuttle and seen the lights of Suez, and smooth water, and the Scor- 

 pion in a quite clear sky. [I think the extreme vividness of this dream 

 was probably due to the morphia I had been taking during the wreck.] 

 I remember Captain Taylor, whose cabin I was sharing, asking me 

 what o'clock it was, and I told him a quarter to three. He was sur- 

 prised at my knowing this when, having struck a match, he found that 

 I was exactly right. I had calculated it by the stars in the Scorpion's 

 tail, which are an excellent clock at this time of year, but sailors have 

 forgotten these old-fashioned observations of the stars." 



The next fortnight of my journal is defective. The excitement of 

 the shipwreck over, I felt the effect of it, and was once more suffering 

 in health. My last days in Egypt before returning to Europe were 

 occupied in laying before Lord Cromer the circumstances of the pil- 

 grim case, and urging him to take up the defence of these Moslems, 

 whose safety had been so jeopardized by the disgraceful mismanage- 

 ment of the Khedivial Government, the lack of all proper provision 

 for them on board, and the incompetence of the captain. I also wrote 

 a strong letter in the same sense to the " Times," with the effect that 

 a naval court of inquiry was appointed to be held at Suez on board 

 H.M.S. Halycon. Consul Cameron presiding. This Court Cocker- 

 ell and I and Dr. Rist attended, and we gave evidence with the result 

 that on the 28th of March, the Court found against the Company, 

 and Rist and I were publicly thanked for our " public spirited action," 

 while it eventually led to new regulations being issued with regard 

 to the pilgrim traffic in the Red Sea, which to some extent alleviated 

 the evils of the system so long pursued. All that I find of importance 

 in my journal is the following account of my. final visit to the Khedive. 



" 2nd April. — To see the Khedive at Abdin, where I found Moham- 



