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[Page 131]
would be interesting to know. But as it is a place typical of death, desolation, and decay. We were ashore for few hours two days in succession. It seems nothing will grow in the soil. Some attempt has been made to grow some climbing plants along the footway on the Crescent, and the plants are in barrels evidently in soil brought from other parts, and even then they look very sickly. The unfavourable impression received of the port from the Ship was more than confirmed on going ashore. Dirt, vile smells, and unsightliness prevail everywhere. The natives seem rather more energetic than Colombo, and not quite so persistent in their endeavour to force their wares on one. The hotels, like every thing else, abound in filth, and the natives wait on one reluctantly and in many cases with evident dislike, not taking much pains to conceal the same.
We took a motor out to the township of Aden three or four miles from the port, but the same conditions prevail there and on the way. The road winds through bleak and arid hills passing a cemetery on the way, a place of death amidst death, where the mouldering clay beneath the sod was no more dead than the land surrounding. There is a fine bit of engineering here called The Great Pass. Beyond the township of Aden again there are wonderful old tanks, said to date from the time of Solomon