in all that concerns the welfare of my
subjects beyond the seas."

FROM PORTSMOUTH TO MELBOURNE

As finally constituted the Royal suite consisted of H. S. H. Prince
Alexander of Teck, brother of the Duchess; Lord Wenlock, a former
Governor of Madras; Lieutenant Colonel Sir Arthur Bigge, so well known
as the Private Secretary for many years of the late Queen Victoria; Sir
John Anderson, a prominent official of the Colonial Office; Sir Donald
Mackenzie Wallace, the eminent journalist and author; Captain, the
Viscount Crichton, and Lieutenant, the Duke of Roxburghe, who acted as
Military Aides; the Hon. Derek Keppel and Commander Sir Charles Cust,
R.N., who acted as Equerries; the Rev. Canon Dalton as Chaplain;
Commander Godfrey-Tansell, R.N., A.D.C., and Major J. H. Bor, A.D.C.;
Lady Mary Lygon, Lady Catharine Coke and Mrs. Derek Keppel as
Ladies-in-Waiting to the Duchess. Chevalier de Martino, a marine artist;
Mr. Sidney Hall and Dr. A. R. Manby were also attached to the staff. On
March 7th the Duke of York--who had now become also Duke of
Cornwall--left Portsmouth accompanied by his wife and his large suite to
make a nine-months' tour of the Empire; to cover a distance of 50,000
miles by sea and shore under the British flag; and to meet with varied
experiences and an enthusiasm of popular welcome which stamped the whole
journey as the most remarkable Royal progress on record.

Three days after leaving Portsmouth the _Ophir_, which was commanded by
Commander A. L. Winslow, most luxuriously fitted up and accompanied by
H. M. S. _Juno_ and the _St. George_, sighted the coast of Portugal,
sailed into sunny waters off the shores at Lisbon and reached Gibraltar
on March 13th, where the Royal visitors were welcomed by General Sir
George White, of Ladysmith fame, and who had been Governor for about a
year. From the Rock the _Ophir_ was escorted by two other ships of the
Royal Navy to Malta, where Admiral Sir John Fisher and the Mediterranean
fleet helped to render the welcome interesting and imposing, and from
thence to Port Said and through the Suez Canal to Aden. Here a
picturesque reception was given to the Duke and Duchess in a pavilion
festooned with lights and filled with Indian and Arab ladies in robes of
silks, officers in white uniforms, the Sultans of two tributary States
and their dusky retinues. Surrounded by a guard of honour from the West
Kent Regiment, with towering mountains of brown lava in the distance,
a