Page 64 - AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS

Around the World in 80 Days

Aden on the morning of the 15th, when she was due,
arrived there on the evening of the 14th, a gain of fifteen
hours.
Mr. Fogg and his servant went ashore at Aden to have

the passport again visaed; Fix, unobserved, followed them.
The visa procured, Mr. Fogg returned on board to resume
his former habits; while Passepartout, according to custom,
sauntered about among the mixed population of Somanlis,
Banyans, Parsees, Jews, Arabs, and Europeans who
comprise the twenty-five thousand inhabitants of Aden.
He gazed with wonder upon the fortifications which make
this place the Gibraltar of the Indian Ocean, and the vast
cisterns where the English engineers were still at work,
two thousand years after the engineers of Solomon.
‘Very curious, very curious,’ said Passepartout to
himself, on returning to the steamer. ‘I see that it is by no
means useless to travel, if a man wants to see something
new.’ At six p.m. the Mongolia slowly moved out of the
roadstead, and was soon once more on the Indian Ocean.
She had a hundred and sixty-eight hours in which to reach
Bombay, and the sea was favourable, the wind being in
the north-west, and all sails aiding the engine. The steamer
rolled but little, the ladies, in fresh toilets, reappeared on
deck, and the singing and dancing were resumed. The trip

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