Overland Route

Overland Route to India, Australia, and the East is now understood to be that from England across France, through Mont Cenis by tunnel, to Brindisi in Italy, thence through the Levant, the Suez Canal, Red Sea, and Indian Ocean. This makes the journey only about half as long as the voyage round by the Cape of Good Hope, a little over 6000 miles instead of more than 12,000. The saving in time is even more considerable. The time from London to Bombay is within three weeks, instead of three months by the Cape. In 1838 a monthly service was started to carry the mails across Egypt; but to Lieutenant Waghorn (1800-50) belongs the credit of first showing how the voyage from India could be still further shortened. On 31st October 1845 he arrived in London with the Bombay mail of the 1st October (via Austria, Bavaria, Prussia, and Belgium). The railway from Suez to Alexandria by Cairo was opened in 1858; but the great event that rendered the Overland Route available for passengers generally was the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. See also EUFRATES.