THE OVERLAND COMPANION: BEING A Guide FOR THE TRAVELLER ΤΟ INDIA VIA EGYPT. BY J. H. STOCQUELER, Esq., AUTHOR OF THE "HANDBOOK OF INDIA." LONDON: WM. H. ALLEN AND Co., LEADENHALL-STREET. 1850. THE OVERLAND JOURNEY TO INDIA. EVERY reader of history is aware that, down to the close of the fifteenth century, the trade between Europe and the East was entirely in the hands of the Venetians and Genoese, who received the wealth of India by way of the Red Sea and Egypt. Every effort was made by the Dutch, the Germans, and the Spaniards, to obtain a share in the lucrative commerce; but neither intrigue nor the most tempting offers made to the rulers of Egypt and Syria could shake the influence of the two great Italian republics. In the year 1497, however, the Portuguese having discovered a route to India round the southernmost point of Africa-which they thence named the Cap de Buon Esperanza, or the Cape of Good Hope-the King of Portugal deputed Vasco de Gama to ascertain whence the riches of the Venetians and Genoese were drawn. His mission was successful, he brought home substantial proofs that he had discovered the key to their wealth. Thenceforth, fleet after fleet was dispatched to India; and for nearly a century the Portuguese monopolised the trade. The enterprise of the Dutch, and afterwards of the English, whose maritime power had increased, now, however, induced them to enter the field of competition; and out of that honourable rivalry arose the marvellous commercial relations with India which have continued uninterruptedly to the present moment. For many years, even after naval architecture had made important advances, ships consumed more than a year in making the voyage to India and back to England. Few vessels even now can accomplish the voyage out, in the most favourable seasons, much under four months; and it very often happens that long calms and contrary winds render it a voyage of five months' duration. It could not be supposed that, in an age when all the great resources of science are applied to accelerate the communication between different parts of the known world, Great Britain would quietly submit to the perpetuation of this tedious system in her intercourse with a country which had become a large and important branch of the British Empire. For the half-century preceding the year 1823, small sailing vessels had occasionally been employed by the government of India to convey despatches to the agents on the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, in the hope, rather than the expectation, that they might thence be forwarded to England, in anticipation of the packets going round to the Cape of Good Hope; and now and then adventurous gentlemen would avail themselves of such and other occasional opportunities of attempting an Overland trip, and of afterwards becoming distinguished in the salons of London as authors and enterprising travellers. It was not, however, until the 1823 that the idea of establishing an intercourse with England, by means of steam-vessels, entered into the heads of the mercantile community of British India. In that year the first movement was made by the Europeans of Calcutta. They subscribed a sum of money, by way of premium, to the first person who should practically establish the feasibility of superseding sailing vessels by steamers. The result of the movement was, that a steam vessel was taken out to India round the Cape of Good Hope; but the length of her voyage, owing to the great intervals of the coal depôts, demonstrated that nothing had been gained, in point of time, by the bold experiment. |