... Fine weather and smooth water from Sunday to Thursday evening, especially during the long and lovely day which opened with Stromboli and the other Lipari Islands directly before us, and the snowy summit of Etna in the distance, and closed with the sun setting behind the southern base of Etna, and an inverted pyramid of smoke resting on its summit. The day was perfect, and, not to speak of anything else, Etna was in full view all day long, except when hidden for an hour by the cliffs behind Messina. The latter end of the voyage was uncomfortable enough, the sea very heavy, and glad we were to land at Alexandria, Saturday noon, December 12, a showery day, the streets deep with mud and filth. Early Sunday morning we were off by rail for Cairo, where we joined the main body, awaiting our arrival, and I had time for the English service in the afternoon, a bare dozen of people; but Mrs. L. said the congregation was very much larger in the morning. Monday to Friday we lived “Arabian Nights” in Cairo. If I let my pen run on my story might be only shorter than the thousand and one of the volume aforesaid.
On Friday, all being ready, we took to our boats, in which we have now been domiciled so long, seemingly, that events of October and November in England are dimly remembered, as if they belonged to another “dynasty.” There are nine of us, in two boats. The first and larger one, in which our table is spread, the Ibis, accommodates all the ladies and myself, the only married man of the company.... The bow is occupied by the crew, and at the very prow a simple cooking-affair, from which excellent dinners of four courses, breakfasts, etc., are produced in some wonderful way by our Arab cook and his assistant. The smaller boat, the Undine, gives ample quarters to the three single men, also our dragoman, the younger Sapienza, a Maltese, whose time, however, is mostly passed on our boat.
An independent party, but arranged to keep in company, consists of Mr. and Mrs. Howland of New York, very nice people, with their servant and dragoman, in the Heron. But I must cut short these details, or I shall never come to an end. On Friday and Saturday the wind was dead ahead, and, tracking being impossible until we get out of Cairo, we were stationary, and on Saturday some of us visited the interesting museum at Boulak, made by Mariette. Sunday, wind still unfavorable, until nearly sunset, when we got up two or three miles, where we commanded a superb view. In the morning you preached to the great satisfaction of your congregation of eleven, a very appreciating audience. We established a regular liturgical service. I was installed as curate; but Mrs. Gray read the first of your university sermons.... Monday and Tuesday, and I think Wednesday also, the boat was tracked, and so we made only a few miles a day, and some of us were much on shore....