CHAPTER XXX.

Arrival at Souakim. — A Visit to Mr. Bewley. — Our Fellow-Passengers on the "Messina." — Arrival at Suez.— Accounts of Abyssinian Raid in English and Egyptian Press.— Suleiman's History.— We leave Cairo for England.

The next afternoon, at half-past five, we arrived in Souakim ; just at the right time, as, had we been a Uttle later, we should have been obliged to spend the night outside the harbour, as it is impossible to enter after dark. We landed the same evening, and paid Mr. Bewley a long visit. We heard that the officers of the " Blues," with whom we had travelled in going down the Red Sea, had gone to Suez in the last trip of the " Messina." We also heard that English consuls had been appointed to Souakim and Khartoum, and none too soon, if what we heard were true, — that hundreds of slaves were still being shipped from the neighbourhood of the town to Arabia.

M. Elsen, the Belgian gentleman, had returned from the interior, and sailed for Europe. He had been very unfortunate in being ill most of the time he was in Africa ; and, although he had collected a great many antelope-heads, they had mostly been destroyed, owing to their not being properly prepared. He had got no lions or elephants, but had shot one buffalo.

Arriving on the afternoon of the i8th, we did not get off again until the morning of the 22d, at nine o'clock : our time, however, was very pleasantly spent, partly in fishing, though with no great success. We had a great deal of cargo to take on board, and they were very slow about it ; but we were told 267