Soon after entering the Red Sea they passed the island of Perim, a barren stretch of rock and sand, crowned with a signal station, from which the English flag was flying. As they were looking at the island, and thinking what a dreary place it must be to live in, one of the passengers told the boys an amusing story of how the English obtained possession of it.
"Of course you are aware," said he, "that the English have a military post at Aden, a rocky peninsula on the shore of Arabia, about a hundred and twenty miles from the entrance of the Red Sea. They bought it from the Sultan of that part of Arabia in 1839 by first taking possession, and then telling him he could name his price, and they would give him what they thought best, as they were determined to stay. Aden is a very important station for England, as it lies conveniently between Europe and Asia, and has a fine harbor. The mail steamers stop there for coal, and the government always keeps a garrison in the fort. It is one of the hottest and most unhealthy places in the world, and there is a saying among the British officers that an order to go to Aden is very much like being condemned to be shot.
"Soon after the Suez Canal was begun the French thought they needed a port somewhere near Aden, and in 1857 they sent a ship-of-war to obtain one. The ship touched at Aden for provisions, and the captain was invited to dine with the general who commanded at the fort. During dinner he became very talkative, and finally told the general that his government had sent him to take possession of Perim, at the entrance of the Red Sea.
"Perim was a barren island, as you see, and belonged to nobody; and the English had never thought it was worth holding, though they occupied it from 1799 to 1801. As soon as the French captain had stated his business in that locality the general wrote a few words on a slip of paper, which he handed to a servant to carry to the chief of staff. Then he kept his visitor at table till a late hour, prevailed on him to sleep on shore that night, and not be in a hurry to get away the next morning.
"The French ship left during the forenoon and steamed for Perim. And you may imagine that captain's astonishment when he saw a dozen men on the summit of the island fixing a pole in the ground. As soon as it was in place they flung out the English flag from its top, and greeted it with three cheers. In the little note he wrote at the dinner-table the general had ordered a small steamer to start immediately for Perim and take possession in the name of the Queen, and his orders were obeyed. The French captain was dismissed from the navy for being too free with his tongue, and the English have 'hung on' to Perim ever since."
The Doctor joined them as the story of the occupation of Perim was concluded. There was a laugh over the shrewdness of the English officer and the discomfiture of the French one, and then the conversation turned to the Red Sea.
"It may properly be called an inlet of the Indian Ocean," said the Doctor, "as it is long and narrow, and has more the characteristics of an inlet than of a sea. It is about fourteen hundred miles long, and varies from twenty to two hundred miles in width; it contains many shoals and quicksands, so that its navigation is dangerous, and requires careful pilotage. At the upper or northern extremity it is divided into two branches by the peninsula of Mount Sinai; the western branch is called the Gulf of Suez, and is about one hundred and eighty miles long, by twenty broad. This gulf was formerly more difficult of navigation than the Red Sea proper, but recently the Egyptian government has established a line of beacons and light-houses along its whole length, so that the pilots can easily find their way by day or at night."
One of the boys asked why the body of water in question was called the Red Sea.
The Doctor explained that the origin of the name was unknown, as it had been called the Red Sea since the time of Herodotus and other early writers. It is referred to in the Hebrew Scriptures as Yam Suph, the Sea of Weeds, in consequence of the profusion of weeds in its waters. These weeds have a reddish color; the barren hills that enclose the sea have a strong tinge of red, especially at the hours of sunset and sunrise, and the coral reefs that stretch in every direction and make navigation dangerous are often of a vermilion tint. "You will see all these things as you proceed," he continued, "and by the time you are at Suez you will have no difficulty in understanding why this body of water is called the Red Sea."
The boys found it as he had predicted, and the temperature for the first two days after passing Perim led Frank to suggest that the name might be made more descriptive of its character if it were called the Red-hot Sea. The thermometer stood at 101° in the cabin, and was only a little lower on deck; the heat was enervating in the extreme, and there was no way of escaping it; but on the third day the wind began to blow from the north, and there was a change in the situation. Thin garments were exchanged for thick ones, and the passengers, who had been almost faint with the heat, were beginning to shiver in their overcoats.
"A change of this sort is unusual," said the gentleman who had told them of the seizure of Perim, "but when it does come it is very grateful. Only in January or February is the Red Sea anything but hot; the winds blow from the sandy desert, or from the region of the equator, and sometimes it seems as though you were in a furnace. From December to March the thermometer averages 76°, from thence to May it is 87°, and through the four or five months that follow it is often 100°. I have frequently seen it 110° in the cabin of a steamer, and on one occasion, when the simoom was blowing from the desert, it was 132°. Steamers going north when the south wind is blowing find themselves running just with the wind, so that they seem to be in a dead calm; in such cases they sometimes turn around every ten or twelve hours and run a few miles in the other direction, so as to let the wind blow through the ship and ventilate it as much as possible. The firemen are Arabs and negroes, accustomed all their lives to great heat, but on almost every voyage some of them find the temperature of the engine-room too severe, and die of suffocation."
Our friends passed by Jeddah, the port of Mecca, and from the deck of the steamer the white walls and towers of the town were distinctly visible. Frank and Fred would have been delighted to land at Jeddah and make a pilgrimage to Mecca, but the Doctor told them the journey was out of the question, as no Christian is allowed to enter the sacred city of the Moslems, and the few who had ever accomplished the feat had done so at great personal risk.
"The first European who ever went there was Burckhardt, in 1814," said Dr. Bronson. "He prepared himself for his travels by studying the Arabic language, and went in the disguise of an Arab merchant, under the name of Sheikh Ibrahim ibn Abdallah. Then he travelled through Syria, Asia Minor, and Egypt for several years, and became thoroughly familiar with the customs of the people, so that he was able to pass himself successfully as a learned Moslem. Captain Burton went to Mecca in 1852, and since his time the city has been visited by Maltzan, Palgrave, and two or three others. Captain Burton followed the example of Burckhardt and wore the Arab dress; he spoke the language fluently, but in spite of this his disguise was penetrated while he was returning to Jeddah, and he was obliged to flee from his companions and travel all night away from the road till he reached the protection of the seaport."
"What would have happened if he had been found out?" Frank inquired.
"The mob of fanatical Moslems would have killed him," was the reply. "They would have considered it an insult to their religion for him to enter their sacred city—the birthplace of the founder of their religion—and he would have been stoned or otherwise put to death. Some Europeans who have gone to Mecca have never returned, and nothing was ever heard of them. It is supposed they were discovered and murdered."
"What barbarians!" exclaimed Fred.
"Yes,"