THE JOURNEY TO INDIA. 19 



eleven pilgrims — Hadjis — as deck passengers for Bombay, and the 

 next morning we continued our course down the Eed Sea. 



There were only three saloon passengers besides myself, an 

 officer of the Indian army with his wife and child, returning from 

 fui'lough to their station at Kohat, in the Punjab, close to the 

 Khyber Pass. In Colonel — then Captain — Ross of the 1st Sikh In- 

 fantry, I met a man whose mind was a store-house, full of valuable 

 information, who patiently endured a tedious amount of question- 

 ing, and whose friendship and advice afterward proved of great 

 service to me. He entered heai'tily into the details of my plans for 

 India, and even condescended to teach me enough Hindostanee to 

 enable me to inquire whether there were " any large gavials near 

 here ? " — " how far away ? " — " who can take me in a boat ? " — and 

 so on. My meeting with Colonel Ross was indeed most fortunate, as 

 events "proved, and as I look back upon it, I do not see how I could 

 possibly have accomplished what I did, without his assistance. 



In the course of many deUghtful conversations with Mrs. Ross, 

 each of which was to me a mental treat, she rendered me an im- 

 portant and lasting service. She diagnosed so cleverly a malady 

 which had often attacked me — " the blues " — and prescribed a 

 remedy so skilfully that I never have suffered from it since that day. 

 For the benefit of fellow-sufferers I will state both. Diagnosis : — ■ 

 " The blues " are caused by envy and selfishness. Remedy : — 

 When attacked, go to work vigorously to promote the hajDpiness of 

 those around you, and thereby forget yourself. 



The third day after leaving Jeddah we passed through the 

 strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, which is the Ai-abic for " gate of tears," a 

 name applied to these straits on account of the many wrecks that 

 have occurred here of vessels tr;ying to get in or out of the Red 

 Sea. At the point where the strait is naiTowest the island of Perim 

 stands mid-way between Arabia and Africa, a sentrj'-box with a 

 British soldier in it. Of course England occupies Perim and holds 

 the key to the Red Sea, just as she holds the keys to all the impor- 

 tant points between Downing Street and Canton. This little bit of 

 ban-enness was made, Hke Gibraltar, Aden, and Hong Kong, espe- 

 cially for England. At the nan-owest point, the strait of Bab-el- 

 Mandeb is but fifteen miles wide, and the navigable channel on 

 either side of Perim is near the island and very narrow. The 

 Ai-abian coast, which is in sight all day, is mountainous, rocky, and 

 entirely barren, save for an occasional palm-tree along the shore. 



After getting through the strait, we called at Aden. The 



