THE EXPLORERS' CHRISTMAS 201 



and 'Arriets might be expected to do during" a 

 saturnalia. Of course they all thoroughly enjoyed them- 

 selves, and in that there is merit of a kind ; and it was 

 only through sheer fatigue that sleep and peace came 

 together. Not since I had been in Ireland had I heard 

 such intense, perfervid fifing and drumming. Those 

 awful drum obligates and fife solos ! But twice through 

 the awful hubbub at Cape Coast Castle as in a dream 

 I heard a far-off refrain of two sweet English Christ- 

 mas carols, * God save ye, honest gentlemen ' and the 

 ' Star of Bethlehem/ 



It was very early on Christmas Day that the steamers 

 Coromandel and Manilla arrived in the roadstead, bring- 

 ing respectively the Special Service Corps and the 

 2nd West Yorks battalion. All were well on board 

 both ships, and Prince Henry of Battenberg*, who had 

 landed in the afternoon and took up his quarters in the 

 Castle, looked remarkably ' fit/ although thinner than 

 when he left England on the Coromandel. There was 

 a big Christmas party at the Headquarters Mess, which 

 included the two princes. On Christmas Eve Prince 

 Christian Victor and Major Piggott had gone off on 

 a shooting excursion into the bush, and were lucky 

 enough to secure a good bag, which swelled the menu 

 at dinner." 



This is how some of the officers of the Nile Expiedi- 

 tion of 1884 celebrated Christmas. The account is 

 from Mr. Henry Melladew's reminiscences. 1 " On this 

 Christmas morning I had reached with my camels, 

 carrying a part of the advanced field hospital, a point 

 where it became necessary to cross the Nile to a place 

 called Shabadbod on the left bank, about a thousand 

 1 See Bibliography, 14. 



