HORRORS OF THE RED SEA PASSAGE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2483, 9 June 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

HORRORS OF THE RED SEA PASSAGE.

By way of contra-t to the delights of the Pacific voyage we quote the following 1 from a recent traveller's description of the Red Sea trip in tho magnificent steamer Austral After going through the Suez Gaual on to Suez they entered the Red Sea. No words of his could convey to their mind the unpleasantness of that journey. There was no breeze except that caused by the steamer's motion, and they had not been going many days before the steerage passengers began to tumble over it with heat apoplexy. It was not so much the heat as the moisture from the water which caused this. One gentleman pulled out his silver watch, which was as black as if it had been dipped in aqua fortis, and the same operation was going on in their bodies. It was a matter of life and death to them that they should bo careful what they ate and drank while going through tho Red Sea, and men and women were gasping for existence, their breathing being audible across tho ship. As soon as a person tumbled down ho was attended to. a spoon placed between his teeth that he could breathe, and his hands and breast rubbed with ice until he came round. Those who were attacked most seriously were stripped and packed in ice. Not a single Ist saloon passenger waa attacked because they had fruit and ica supplied to them, but those in the second saloon and steerage suffered from the lack of these things. The thermometer was 103 in tho shade and 130 in the sun, and to be without fiuit and ice, was almost murdering many on board. He was of opinion that the ship's company ought to charge more for second saloon and steerage, that the passengers may be supplied with fruit and ice, and their lives saved, and ho would advise none but persons of strong constitutions to go to Australia through the Red Sea if t*. -y wanted to be brought safe to land."