MELANCHOLY REFLECTIONS. 



25 



trial by court-martial then pending. The missive 

 was, as usual, so ineptly worded, that I did not think 

 proper to throw overboard the Royal Geographical So- 

 ciety — to whom my services had been made over — by 

 obeying it : at the same time I well knew what the con- 

 sequences would be. Before leaving Egypt, an interview 

 with the Count d'Escayrac de Lauture, had afforded me 

 an opportunity of inspecting an expedition thoroughly 

 well organised by His Highness Said Pacha, of military 

 predilections, and the contrast between an Egyptian and 

 an English exploration impressed me unpleasantly. 

 Arrived at Aden, I had enlisted the services of an old 

 and valued friend, Dr. Steinhaeuser, civil surgeon at that 

 station : a sound scholar, a good naturalist, a skilful 

 practitioner, endowed, moreover, with even more ines- 

 timable personal qualities, his presence would have 

 been valuable in a land of sickness, skirmishes, and 

 sporting adventures, where the people are ever impressed 

 with the name of " medicine-man," and in a virgin field 

 promising subjects of scientific interest. Yet though re- 

 commended for the work by his Excellency the Governor 

 of Bombay, Dr. Steinhaeuser had been incapacitated by 

 sickness from accompanying me: I had thus with me a 

 companion and not a friend, with whom I was " strangers 

 yet." The Persian war had prevented the fitting-out of 

 a surveying vessel, ordered by the Court of Directors 

 to act as a base of operations upon the African coast; no 

 disposable officer of the Indian navy was to be found at 

 the Presidency; and though I heard in Leadenhall Street 

 of an " Observatory Sergeant" competent to conduct the 

 necessary astronomical and meteorological observations, 

 in the desert halls of the great Bungalow at Colaba 

 only a few lank Hindus met my sight. Nor was this 

 all. His Highness the late Sayyid Said, that estimable 



