The beneficial effects of these arrangements were soon felt in India, as would appear by a despatch from the Bombay Government to the Court of Directors (September 1836), wherein it is stated “that the three last overland mails have brought despatches from London to Bombay in thirty-eight, forty-five, and sixty-four days, and those intended for Calcutta have been forwarded in ten days more.” But as the despatch of the 16th of September, which conveyed this information by way of Egypt, did not reach England till the beginning of the following year, owing to various delays between Bombay and Suez, it was resolved to place larger and more powerful steamers on the Red Sea route—chiefly, as it would seem, because neither the Hugh Lindsay nor the Enterprize could perform the passage against the south-west monsoon.
Steamers of the Indian Navy.
The result was that the Court of Directors placed on this station (that by the Euphrates presenting greater difficulties) two vessels of much superior power, the Berenice and Atalanta, which had been laid down in 1835 for their naval service. The particulars of these vessels and of their cost, as well as those of the steamers on the Red Sea service which followed, will be found in the Indian navy list supplied by the East India House to Lord Jocelyn’s Committee of 1851, from which see extract.[318]
A regular steam service having now been established between England and her Eastern empire by ships of the East Indian navy on the one side of the Isthmus of Suez, and by the Admiralty packets on the other, I shall glance at the various means of transit across this neck of land, before describing the great mercantile steam lines which now maintain the communication throughout.
Modes of transport across the Isthmus of Suez.
Great exertions of Waghorn in the establishment of this route.
At the outset they were of the most original and multifarious description, and the few passengers who then made the overland passage found their way as best they could on camels, dromedaries, or donkeys. Towards the improvement in all its stages of this rude mode of transport there was no one more conspicuous than Thomas Waghorn. He was the moving genius of the whole undertaking, and its most zealous and successful agitator. Whatever may be said of his prudence, or however much we may lament his failings, his industry was unwearied and his zeal unbounded. It may be that he was only a convert to a scheme long contemplated by others; but, when once undertaken, his efforts never ceased until the object he had in view was accomplished. Though the first resting-places across the desert were constructed at the expense of the Bombay Steam-fund Committee by Hill and Raven,[319] under the orders of Colonel Barr,[320] the route itself was organized by Waghorn, and he was the first who undertook and carried on by a regular system for three years the conveyance of the mails across the Isthmus of Suez.[321] Sir Gardner Wilkinson (‘Modern Egypt,’ pp. 306-7) and various other competent witnesses bear ample testimony to this important fact, and it is one which must ever hold a prominent place in the records of the origin of the modern overland route to India.
Though camels are capable of carrying a weight of from 9 to 10 cwt. each at a rate of 2½ miles an hour [322] for twelve or sixteen consecutive hours, it became necessary to adopt other modes of transit as the traffic increased. Two-wheeled vans drawn by four horses, and fitted to carry eight persons, were therefore introduced to transport the passengers from Suez to Cairo, whence they were embarked in sailing boats on the Nile to Alexandria; Mr. Waghorn subsequently organizing, in connection with the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, a line of small steamers which took the place of these boats. In course of time caravansaries and hotels were substituted for the original stations and resting-places on the route. These were completed in February 1843, and received the passengers from the Hindostan steamer on her first trip in the regular mail service from Calcutta, Madras, and Galle to Suez, by which time this branch of the business had been undertaken by the Egyptian Transit Company. But, in the organization of all these important works, Mr. Waghorn took the leading part, and their completion, under many difficulties, was in a great measure due to his indefatigable exertions.
So early as 1834, Muhammed Ali, seeing the advantages to be obtained by a railway between Cairo and Suez, instructed Mr. Thomas Galloway to make arrangements for its construction, and, with this object in view, the rails, locomotives, and plant, were ordered from England;[323] but, owing to the opposition of France, the formation of this line was continually postponed,[324] and subsequently abandoned. A railway was, however, commenced in 1852 by Robert Stephenson from Alexandria to Cairo, and completed in 1857. Subsequently, it was continued from that city to Suez, branching off at Benha to Zaga-Zig, and following the course of the old canal to Suez, by which a considerable saving of distance was effected over the Cairo route as originally proposed. The line throughout was completed and opened for traffic in 1870.
Suez Canal.