ABSTRACT
PREPARATIONS for our journey moved on to completion and we began counting the days before we should start, like schoolboys ticking off the days left till holidays. When you have wanted anything as badly as I had wanted this journey, you are always in a fever lest something should happen to prevent it. But at last on October 29th we embarked on one of Besse's ships, the Al Amin. Meryem, his daughter, and he took us on board and we had a good dinner, "honest talk and wholesome wine," on the bridge over which the captain presided. Afterwards, as we talked, we watched the loading of sugar and bales of old newspapers and at about ten o'clock we said good-bye and were of[
At five o'clock the next morning but one we were drawing very close to the land. It was still dark but the houses of Mukalla were dimly visible through the mist. As the sun rose over the horizon on the seaward side it lit up the white town and gave a pink glow to the steep face of the mountains behind. Entering the harbour we were reminded of Zanzibar, though the minarets of some of Mukalla9s thirteen mosques are an added beauty. Tall, white-washed houses come right down to the sea, most of them having four or five storeys, or more. Looking from the sea the Sultan's new palace, built about five years ago, lies on the extreme left at the very edge of the town, for near-by is an archway leading out to the caravan halt where the camels are tethered. The full extent of the town to the east was not yet visible. Mukalla, long fanilliar to me in picture, had become a reality.
