'Southern Arabia, by Theodore Bent, F.R.G.S., F.S.A., Author of 'The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland' 'The Sacred City of the Ethiopians' 'The Cyclades, Or Life Among the Insular Greeks' etc. and Mrs Theodore Bent' [‎341] (400/552)

BEHIND THE JEBEL EEBA
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after their day's fast, and the poor fellows had to work till
9 o'clock, doing the best they could for the safety of the
ship.
We went to bed, however, with the unpleasant know
ledge that we were not very tightly fastened up, and
the uneasy feeling that we might drag in the night, and
not without making some little preparation in case of a
swim.
We were all safe in the morning, but almost the first
thing we did, as we sat at breakfast, was to grind over a
reef, more than the length of the keel.
We duly reached Sawakin in the afternoon of March 4,
where Hackett Pain Bey, who was acting-governor, kindly
lent us two accommodation in the Government House, and
we said farewell to the Taisir, its cockroaches, its mosquitoes,
and its mouse ; and the ship had immediately to be turned
over on her side for repairs—needed, as the coral reefs had
done a good deal of damage. Keis Hamaya was enchanted
with a gift of the cabins with their padlocks, and I am sure
they soon became very dirty holes.
Though we were scolded for our pains, our approving
consciences told us how pleasing to the British Government
those pains had been, and how glad it was of some map
beyond the Admiralty chart. Eight days after our arrival
the news of the declaration of war came to Sawakir.
We were offered a passage to Suez in the Behera
(which means delta), but as an ordinary steamer came in,
and we did not know how long the Behera might be
waiting for troops, we thought it better to make our way
northward at once. We reached Cairo just in time for
Captain Smyth to be rewarded for his hard work, while
with our expedition, by being ordered off to the war by
Sir F. Wingate, who, with the Sirdar Leader of a tribe or a polity; also refers to a military rank or title given to a commander of an army or division. , was starting that
night; Captain Smyth was to follow in two days.