| Description | He thinks it no use repeating what he has written to his mother and uncle Charles and therefore he details his movements since Alexandria. He describes the city, 'unlike the abominable French towns' and arrangements at the hotel, including bribery to secure rooms. William saw Pompey's pillar and the Needle, which he describes, together with the bazaars and slave markets, 'filthy dark places'. He notes luggage arrangements for travel around the Cape, including his thermometer, which he had carefully wrapped, but which is now broken. They embarked on a steamer which towed them along the Mahmoudia canal. William describes houses and the Sultan's Palace at Alexandria. They entered the Nile to arrive at Cairo, the banks very uniform and William was delighted by the variety of bird life, including vultures. They reached Cairo by torchlight, and Wlliam visited the mosque. They departed Cairo in white omnibuses and travelled across desert where he now waits for the departure of the steamship 'Oriental'. |