e Steamship Neptune
Mediterranean Sea. October. 10. 1859
Monday morning.
My dear Fanny,
The Austrian Lloyd Company sent me a note at
8 yesterday morning to say that the Overland India mails
and passengers had arrived and that this ship would sail
at noon for Trieste. At ten the Captain of the Macedonian
had his barge Arn armed, I left that noble vessel

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receiving a ^Kind^ farewell from the officer and mariners. As soon
as we had got off in the barge, the guns of the
Macedonian gave me a parting salute, under which I
passed to the Neptune. As I mounted her deck she
she ran up the stars and stries of my country to
her Mast head and under their genial auspices
we set sail from Africa at the hour appointed.
The day was beautiful, the sky bright, the sea
calm and blue, and I saw the forts palaces
windmills, and vaults rifled vaults of cemeteries
catacombs of Alexandria recede rapidly from
my sight. Arab faces and black legs in red
slippers Turkish turbans and guttural voices
suddenly disappeared and in their places I
found Europeans only, Italians, Germans, Frenchmen,
and Englishmen in the conventional costumes of the
West. The change was agreeable indeed and
for the while at least I was prepared to
forget all the differences of sect and politics, and
welcome ever more the fraternity of Christians.
The shallows of Egypt had not abandoned
their us before, although the land was out of sight
when the wheels stopped their motion, an alarm
went forth into all the cabins and decks
and we all rushed to the side of the ship

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to ascertain the nature of the disaster. Far behind us
half mile at least, a mans ^human^ head was seen
and in the billows and the cry rang out “A man
overboard – the engine backed the vessel in her
track, a small boat was quickly let down. We
all watched the sufferer, our hearts sunk within
us and rose again as he alternatingly disappeared,
rose again and battled with the engulfing
sea. In twenty minutes he was dragged on
board, recovered his exhausted strength and walked
forward to his place in the steerage. “Was he a
passenger”? “a seaman?” “how did he happen to fall
off? was the universal inquiries. The answer told
a shortly the tale of a unhappy life. He was
destitute, a German, The Pacha of Egypt had
ordered him to leave Egypt ^the country^ and sent him on
board the ship to be conveyed back to his
own country, but whether from compassion or
as banishment for crime, he did not tell and no
one Knew. He had thought to end his sorrows
by death, but repented in the trial.
It is a fair autumnal morning, the sea is smooth
and we are steaming away ten miles an hour towards
the northern side of the Mediterranean and the
shores of civilized and Christian men.