THE VOYAGE FROM NAPLES TO EAST AFRICA. 25 



wonder if they are of the same race as Vasco da Gama, Cortez and 

 those other great navigators. 



The German ship in which the distinguished ex-President was 

 a passenger came from Hamburg and touched at Lisbon and Mar- 

 seilles before arriving at Naples. Leaving Naples, the ship passed 

 through the Bocca, as the two-mile-wide strait between the Cam- 

 panella (the point of the Sorrentian peninsular) and the Island of 

 Capri is called. Through this channel Ulysses sailed, ^.neas passed 

 this way in his flight from Troy to found a new race in a new land. 

 And so many ships of so many nationalities have since glided be- 

 tween these rocky promontories that to name the nationalities would 

 be to skim the history of civilization. 



Our good German ship turns in toward the huge cliff which 

 rises on Capri's eastern edge and is crowned by the ruins of a 

 splendid Roman villa, and as it does so, gives three clear toots. It 

 is the captain's greeting to a party of Germans who came with him 

 from Hamburg to Naples. There is always a group of Germans 

 who have the good sense to come by this round-about but charming 

 route to southern Italy. 



FOUNTAIN OF FIRE. 



The ex-President probably passed Stromboli at sunset on a clear 

 glowing day or by night, when the fountain of fire flares up and 

 then rolls bubbling and seething down to the sea. From the steamer 

 this splendid volcano seems to rise right out of the sea, with no 

 shore or resting place at the base. Symmetrical and awful, it lifts 

 its angry mouth to heaven and spouts fury at the gods, like a 

 creature in torment. Seen against a blazing evening sky and mir- 

 rored in glassy, opalescent waters, it is a sight never to be forgotten. 



A harrowing fascination must now lie in the dreadful desola- 

 tion to be seen in passing through the Strait of Messina. For Mes- 

 sina and Reggio lie so close on either hand, as you go through the 

 straits, that with glasses you can see the people and vehicles in the 

 streets. Now all is silent and still there, under a pall of devastation 

 which it will take years to lift. 



Three days across the always restless Mediterranean — each day 



