Page 310 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat

XIV.] COAST OF ARABIA. 291

employed on that duty, and was constantly
voyaging along its shores, or sailing between
them and India, my remarks on this import­

ant subject are offered with some confidence,
although they can only derive interest or value
from a total absence of all others.

It is almost needless to say there are few
subjects which of late years have occupied
more general interest and discussion than the
establishment of a steam navigation between
the Eastern and Western world. The necessity
of its final adoption was so obvious, and its
importance so vast and striking, that in spite
of the chilling influence exerted to stifle or

retard it, it nevertheless continued at every
interval to thrust itself into notice, and even
to excite a degree of interest with the mother
country, which she has rarely, excepting in
certain important epochs in Indian affairs,
been known to exhibit. If the comfort, con­
venience, and speedy transmission to and fro,
of so large a portion of British subjects as are
contained in the civil, military, and commer­
cial ranks of the India service, the benefits
which might be expected to accrue to the
mercantile interests of Britain; or last, but
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