MARSEILLES TO SINGAPORE 9 



breathless heat aboard the India just then. So I 

 joined the shore-goers to the landing-stage, where 

 we mounted absurdly minute donkeys and romped 

 off through the bazaar out into the desert, lying 

 white as snow in the moonlight. Whatever may 

 have been our secret fears, the fumigating ordeal, 

 when we returned to the quay, was at least support- 

 able ; holding our v/rists for a period of five seconds 

 each, the quarantine doctor pronounced us free 

 from cholera, and to the astonishment and chagrin 

 of our fellow passengers, we boarded the India unac- 

 companied by even a suspicion of carbolic acid. 



But what a change had taken place on board! 

 Two enormous coal-barges were moored by the ves- 

 sel's side, gang-planks had been run to them, and 

 now four continuous streams of Arab coolies, black 

 as night originally, now doubly black from the coal 

 which they carried in baskets on their shoulders, 

 ascended and descended in endless chains. Canvas 

 tarpaulins had been hung over the decks, to protect 

 them from the clouds of coal-dust which arose from 

 below; but even with their protection, the atmos- 

 phere was full of it, and with every breath we in- 

 haled quantities of coal-dust with the stifling air. 

 As all the doors, windows, and port-holes of the 

 ship were tightly closed, and were to remain so all 

 night, to have ventured into the interior of the ship 



