CHAPTER XXXI.

GRANT IN INDIA.

General Grant again visited London, where a grand dinner and reception was given him by our Minister to England, Mr. Welsh, which was largely attended by the elite of London, and American residents. At every station en route the greatest enthusiasm was manifested. The General left the next day for Paris, where he was the recipient of a grand dinner at the United States Legation on January 14, and a grand state dinner and reception at the Palais d' Elysee, the residence of President MacMahon.

Among the invited guests were General Grant and family, M. Waddington and wife, General Noyes and wife, Miss King, Miss Stevens, the members of the Chinese Embassy, the representatives of San Salvador, Buenos Ayres, Chili, Guatemala, Peru, Colombia and Uruguay, and many French generals and admirals.

The General left Paris for Marseilles on the evening of January 21. The party accompanying him consisted of Mrs. Grant, Colonel Fred. Grant, ex-Secretary of the Navy A. E. Borie, Dr. Keating, and the Herald correspondent, who made the whole trip to India. General Badeau went as far as Marseilles. Generals Noyes and Fairchild, Secretaries Hill, Itgneau, and a large number of Americans, went to the station to see the party off. ter past seven o'clock, and arrived ing morning at eleven o'clock.

The train left at a quarat Marseilles the followConsul John B. Gould

received them at the railway station. An afternoon reception was held at the Consulate, where General Grant met the leading citizens of Marseilles. At noon the party embarked on the French steamship Labourdonais for India, via Suez. The party embraced General and Mrs. Grant, ex-Secretary Borie, Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick D. Grant, Dr. Keating, of Philadelphia, and the Herald correspondent.

General Badeau, Consul Gould, J. B. Lippincott, of Philadelphia, John Munroe, the banker, and many other citizens, took leave of General and Mrs. Grant. The day was cold and the sky was filled with masses of gray cloud. The people of Marseilles evinced great interest in the General's departure. The ships in the harbor were dressed with flags and streamers. General Grant and his party were in the best of health and spirits.

The steamer moved out of the harbor shortly after twelve o'clock, and the land journey of General Grant in Europe closed amid the kindest manifestations of his countrymen at Marseilles and the French citizens of that great Mediterranean port. Marshal MacMahon had sent orders to the French admirals on foreign stations and to the governors of French colonies to treat ex-President Grant with all the honors due to the head of an independent State.

The first hours on the Mediterranean were on a high sea, but on second the day the sea went down and charming yachting weather was enjoyed. On Friday, January 24, the steamer passed between Corsica and Sardina, having a a fine view of the dusky coasts of the former island. On the 25th, about noon, Ischia was sighted, and through the hazy atmosphere faint outlines of Vesuvius could be traced. Ischia is a beautiful island, dotted with smiling villages, and presenting an inviting appearance. Passing the island, Capri was left to the right, and the vessel sailed into the

beautiful Bay of Naples. The King's palace, the convent, the range of hills and the towering landscape remained unchanged, and at once recognized, though a year had nearly passed since the General's first visit. As soon as the anchor was dropped, Mr. Maynard, our Minister to Turkey, and Mr. Duncan, our Consul at Naples, came on board, and a delightful hour was passed. In the afternoon the Labourdonais steamed out to sea. Stromboli was in sight. to the stormy weather, were unable to see this famed island upon the previous voyage over this same route, but they were now sailing under the shadow of this ancient island. The volcano was throwing out ashes and smoke in a feeble, fretful manner. At the base of this volcano is a cluster of houses or a village. What reason any human being can give for remaining in Stromboli is beyond the knowledge of man. They are at the absolute mercy of the sea and the furnace, and far away from neighbors and refuge and rescue. It must be to gratify some poetic in stinct, for Stromboli is poetic enough. With every turn of the screw our visitors were coming into the land of classic and religious fame; these islands through which they were sailing are the islands visited by the wandering Ulysses.

On the morning of the 26th The General and party, owing

Reggio was passed, which in ancient days was called Rhegium. It was here that St. Paul landed, after Syracuse and Malta adventures, carrying with him the message of Christ, going from this spot to preach the gospel to all

mankind.

Leaving Etna to the left, they sailed through Messina. Straits, the sea scarcely rippling, and were soon again in the open sea, the land fading from view.

On the second morning Crete was passed, the snow upon her mountain ranges being plainly visible from the decks of the steamer. At noon Crete faded from their sight, and a last farewell to Europe was uttered-farewell

to many a bright and happy hour spent on its shores, of which all that remains is the memory.

On the evening of the 29th of January-it being the evening of the seventh day of their journey from Marseilles they came to anchor outside of the harbor of Alexandria. There was some disappointment that the steamer did not enter that evening, but they were an hour or so late, and so they swung at anchor and found what consolation they could in the enrapturing glory of an Egyptian night. In the morning when the sun arose, the steamer picked her way into the harbor, and when our visitors came on deck they found themselves at anchor, with Alexandria before them, her minarets looking almost gay in the fresh light of the morning sun. A boat came out about eight, bringing General C. P. Stone, Mr. Farman, our Consul-General, Mr. Salvago, our Consul in Alexandria, and Judge Morgan of the International Tribunal. General Stone came with kind messages from the Khedive, and the hope that General Grant might be able to come to Cairo. But this was not possible, as he had to connect with the English steamer at Suez, and Suez was a long day's journey. So all that was left was that they should pull ashore as rapidly as possible and drive to the train. The Consul-General, with prudent foresight, had arranged that the train should wait for the General, and thus it came that the General's ride through Egypt, from Alexandria to Suez, was during the day, and not, as otherwise would have happened, during the long and weary night.

It must have been pleasant to General Grant to land in a quiet, unostentatious fashion, without pomp and ceremony and pachas in waiting and troops in line, the blaze of trumpets and the thunder of guns. The escape from a salute and a reception was a great comfort to the General, who seemed to enjoy having no one's hands to shake, to enjoy a snug corner in an ordinary railway car, talking with Gen

eral Stone and Mr. Borie and the Consul-General. The train waited half an hour for the General and party, and would have been detained longer but for the energy and genius shown by Hassan - the General's old friend Hassan who accompanied him on the Nile. Hassan, as the official guard of the Legation, wearing a sword, was an authority in Egypt, and he used his authority to the utmost in having the traps and parcels carried from the wharf to the train. The ride to Suez was without incident, and Egypt, as seen from the car windows, was the same Egypt about which so much has been written. The fields were green, the air was clear and generous, the train people were civil. When Arabs gathered at the doors to call for backsheesh in the name of the prophet Hassan made himself, not without noise and effect, a beneficent influence. The General chatted with Stone about school times at West Point, about friends. Mr. Borie made various attempts to see the Pyramids from the cars, and talked over excursions that some of the party had made, and so much interested was he that the party offered to remain over one steamer to enable him to visit the Pyramids, and the Sphinx, and the Serapeum at Memphis. But General Grant was too late for India, and Mr. Borie would not consent to the sacrifice of valuable time on the General's part, and so they kept on to Suez. The hotel at Suez was formerly a harem of the Egyptian princes. From the balcony one can look out on the Red Sea, on the narrow line of water which has changed the commerce of the world - the Suez canal Suez is a small, clean town - clean from an Oriental standpoint. As the steamer that was to convey General Grant and party to India had not arrived, but was blocked in the canal, the visitors had a fine opportunity to visit the bazaars and town.

About five in the afternoon the boat was sighted, and, as the sun went down, General Grant went on board the