Chapter li. 



eveiiiiig t)f the IGth the wliole party set out from Naples on 

 board tlie Gerniaii hiier Bilrgermeister bound for East Africa. 



THE "WINIFRED" ALONGSIDE THE I'lEU IN l'OUT FLORENCE. 



The distance from Naples to Mombasa, situated on the East 

 Coast a little over four degrees south of the Equator, is about 

 4,100 miles. The steamers usually take seventeen days on the 

 voyage, \\\i\\ biief stops at Port Said, Suez, Aden, and Jibuti. 



Africa as seen from the Ked Sea is far from attractive. The 

 coast is low and sandy, flat or bounded l)y dunes. The hills are 

 barren and naked, the country baked by the sun, desolate and 

 sterile. Tlif ports upon the high road of the great trade lines, 

 present a profoundly depressing spectacle. Arabs, Turks, and 

 negroes in rags and stpialor, witli swarms of crippled, diseased, 

 and leprous l)eggars combine to form a pojjulation of countless 

 races, jioisoned and deteriorated phvsically and morally by 

 suddt-n contact witli a civilization too widelv diflerent from their 

 owiL 'I'lic wliitc mans lngli]\' complicated and subtle civil 

 organization, the growth of an innneasnrabl v long period, 

 (luring which ÌikIÌnkIu.iI {Icxclopincnt has kept pace with the 

 evolution of the i)o(l\- politic, has been suddenly thrust with 



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