Chapter II. 



evening of the IGtli tlie whole party set out from Naples on 

 board the German liner Biirgermeister Ijounil for East Africa. 



THK "WINIFRED ALONGSIDE THE PIEK IN roi;T Fl.UltE.NCE. 



Tiie distance from Naples to Mombasa, situated on tlie East 

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

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

 voyage, with brief stops at Port Said, Suez, Aden, and Jibuti. 



Africa as seen from the Red Sea i.s far from attractive. The 

 coast is low and sandv. ilat or bounded by dunes. The hills are 

 barren and naked, the comitrv baked bv tlie sun, desolate and 

 sterile. The i)orts upon the liigli road of the great trade lines, 

 present a profoundly depressing spectacle. Arabs, Turks, and 

 negroes in rags and squaloi-, \\itli swarms of crippled, diseased, 

 and leprous })eggars combine to form a population of countless 

 races, poisoned and deteriorated jjhysically and morallv bv 

 sudden contact Avith a civilization too widely dilierent from their 

 own. The wliite mans highly complicated and subtle civil 

 organization, tlie growtli of an immeasm-ablv long period, 

 (hning wliicii individual development has kept pace with the 

 evolution of tlie liody politic, has lieen .suddenly thrust with 



32 



