“On the 3rd we arrived at Port Said after a very uneventful voyage. On the voyage across we received the news by wireless every day, so we knew that the great offensive had begun. We watched the coaling of the boat, during the afternoon of the 3rd, and it struck me as a mild form of slavery, to see the natives coaling the ship: they work like devils, and all for a few annas a day. Native boys swim round the ship, diving for pennies which we threw them from the deck. “When we woke at réveillé on the following morning the boat was already on the move down the Canal.... Towards night we sailed past Port Suez, but we could not see much of it; but it looked magnificent with the streets lighted up, and it seemed to stretch a long way along the coast. “After sailing down the Red Sea for several days we entered the Indian Ocean. We saw large shoals of flying-fish in the Red Sea, also other big fish. “We had an uneventful voyage across the Indian Ocean, and arrived outside Bombay at about 9 A.M. on the 15th of July. On the 16th we went into dock soon after réveillé, disembarked, and marched to Colaba Camp, about four miles from the docks. I went with several others to the swimming-baths, and for the first time in my life managed to swim a few yards. I was so fond of the salt water that I was in it again that night, aided by the light of the moon.” Lance-Corporal Bowie, already quoted, strikes the same note about the horses. “Here” (at Marseilles), he writes in his diary, “our horses were taken from us, many of us being very sorry to part with some splendid horses which we had brought with us from India, and which had carried us so well all the time in France.” In that respect the officers were more fortunate than the men. Though it was not thought desirable to send the troop-horses back again to the East, the officers were allowed to take their chargers--about 100 in all,--a great boon. _June 26, 1916._--“All has gone well,” writes the officer commanding “D” Squadron, “and I am taking all my three children with me.” And later from Marseilles he mentions “the glad news that we are taking our own children with us.... We have handed over a certain number of the best of the walers and country-breds to the 30th, including, I am sorry to say, ‘Jean,’ and the remainder all go to the depot to-morrow when we depart.... All the Regiment will be together, and the ‘children’ with us too. It could hardly be better, all things considered.” From Port Said again: “All is well. It’s the usual dull routine, but better than I remember it before in these parts. The great mercy for me is having the children with us. They give me an interest and are most comfortable--tons of room, two or three stalls for each, and very flourishing so far. ‘Caprice’ was off her feed and with a temperature yesterday afternoon, but only for a little while, and is as fit as anything to-day.”