deavouring to form new connections
with the coast countries of eastern Africa, and open them to Egyptian
commerce.

Admiral Eumedes, the oldest son of Philippus and Thyone, had succeeded
in doing this most admirably, for the distinguished commander had not
only founded on the Ethiopian shore of the Red Sea a city which he named
for the King "Ptolemais," but also won over the princes and tribes of
that region to Egypt.

He was now returning from Ethiopia with a wealth of treasures.

After the brilliant festivals the invalid King, with his new wife, was
to give himself up to complete rest for a month in the healthful air of
the desert region which surrounded Pithom, far from the tumult of the
capital and the exhausting duties of government.

The magnificent shows which were to be expected, and the presence of the
royal pair, had attracted thousands of spectators on foot or horseback,
and by water, and the morning after Bias's return the sea near Clysma
was swarming with vessels of all kinds and sizes.

It was more than probable that Philippus, the father, and Thyone, the
mother of the famous returning Admiral Eumedes, would not fail to be
present at his reception on his native soil, and therefore Hermon wished
to seek out his dear old friends in Heroopolis, where the greeting was
to take place, and obtain their advice.

The boat on which the freedman had come was at the disposal of his
master and himself. Before Hermon entered it, he took leave, with an
agitated heart and open hand, of his Amalekite friends and, in spite
of the mist which still obscured everything he beheld, he perceived how
reluctantly the simple dwellers in the wilderness saw him depart.

When the master and servant entered the boat, in spite of the sturdy
sailors who manned it, it proved even more difficult than they had
feared to make any progress; for the whole narrow end of the arm of the
sea, which here extended between Egypt and Arabia Petrea, was covered
with war galleys and transports, boats and skiffs. The two most
magnificent state galleys from Heroopolis were coming here, bearing the
ambassadors who, in the King's name, were to receive the fleet and its
commander. Other large and small, richly equipped, or unpretending ships
and boats were filled with curious spectators.

What a gay, animated scene! What brilliant, varied, strange, hitherto
unseen objects were gathered here: vessels of every form and size, sails
white, brown, and bla