e many of the officers; and sitting bolt upright on a stool,
'looking out forward' in the most amusing manner, was the captain's
little Skye terrier. The stern was crowded with passengers, of every
shade of colour. To our surprise a voice from among them shouted out
'Three cheers for Mr. Brassey!' which was responded to by ringing
shouts from all on board, and taken up again by some of our own men.
It was a very pleasant and unexpected greeting to hear in the middle
of the Indian Ocean. The ship soon drew ahead again, but handkerchiefs
and caps were waved till their owners faded away into the distance.
Meeting and passing thousands of people as you at home do daily, you
can hardly understand the excitement a little incident like this
causes on board ship, where even a distant sail in these lonely oceans
makes everybody leave his occupation and crowd to look at her. Soon
after sunset we saw the island of Abd-al-Kuri, with its fantastic
peaks, melting into orange, gold, and purple tints, beneath the
gorgeous Arabian afterglow.

_Saturday, April 14th_.--We made Cape Rasalhir, formerly called
Guardafui, about nine o'clock yesterday evening, and passing it during
the night entered the Gulf of Aden.[21] All to-day we have been going
along the Soumali coast. There is a good deal of trade carried on in
native boats. Passing all these strange and comparatively unknown and
little-visited islands and coasts, from which all sorts of things in
daily use at home are brought, one dimly realises what commerce means
and how necessary one part of the world is to the other.

[Footnote 21: We found considerable difficulty in making the light,
and since our return there have been several wrecks, and many lives
lost, on this dangerous point.]

_Sunday, April 15th_.--Still intensely hot. The usual services were
held on deck at eleven and four o'clock. The land, both in Arabia and
in Africa, could be seen the whole day, with precipitous mountains. In
the afternoon we could make out the rock of Aden, and at sunset it
stood grandly forth, looming in purple darkness against the crimson
and blood-red sky, which gradually faded to tenderest tints of yellow
and green, before it finally blazed forth into a radiant afterglow. At
half-past eight a gun from the fort at Aden summoned us to show our
colours, or rather lights. At nine o'clock we dropped our anchor in
the roads; a boat came off with a bag of newspapers and to ask for
orders in the mornin