110 MEMOIR OF FLEEMING JENKIN 



having no pretensions to that title. He is a man 

 after my own heart. 



' Then I came down to the cabin and heard 



young A 's schemes for the future. His highest 



picture is a commission in the Prince of Viziana- 

 gram's irregular horse. His eldest brother is tutor 

 to his Highness's children, and grand vizier, and 

 magistrate, and on his Highness's household staff, 

 and seems to be one of those Scotch adventurers 

 one meets with and hears of in queer berths — ^raising 

 cavalry, building palaces, and using some petty 

 Eastern king's long purse with their long Scotch 

 heads. 



' Off Bona^ June 4. 



' I read your letter carefully, leaning back in a 

 Maltese boat to present the smallest surface of my 

 body to a grilling sun, and sailing from the Elba 

 to Cape Hamrah about three miles distant. How 

 we fried and sighed ! At last, we reached land 

 under Fort Genova, and I was carried ashore pick-a- 

 back, and plucked the first flower I saw for Annie. 

 It was a strange scene, far more novel than I had 

 imagined : the high, steep banks covered with rich, 

 spicy vegetation of which I hardly knew one plant. 

 The dwarf palm with fan-like leaves, growing about 

 two feet high, formed the staple of the verdure. 

 As we brushed through them, the gummy leaves 

 of a cistus stuck to the clothes ; and with its small 

 white flower and yellow heart, stood for our English 



