e
other European languages. He was no fanatic or religious crank, but a
polished, cultured gentleman, who had seen and learned to know the
world, reaped its honors and tasted its allurements, and he was
evidently as liberal and tolerant as myself. And this man went to a
field of action of which he had no knowledge whatsoever. Probably an
honorable position as professor in a university was awaiting him, or
perhaps he would have to go to some isolated mountain to observe a
phenomenon of nature in the interest of science, or penetrate a
malarious wilderness as missionary among savages, where he would be
debarred from all intercourse with civilized people, and deprived of all
the comforts and conveniences to which he had been used during his
previous life. Still he went willingly and joyfully to his work,
completely indifferent as to his fate, thoroughly convinced that he was
on the path of duty--to accomplish what God intended he should do. I was
on my way to a great country and a court as the representative of one of
the greatest nations on earth, but when I walked the deck arm in arm
with this humble priest, I felt my inferiority compared with him, and I
actually considered his position enviable. On the same voyage I became
acquainted with a Danish traveler,--A. d'Irgens-Bergh,--who afterward
met me in India, where we visited many places of interest together, and
established a friendship which afforded both of us much pleasure.

On the morning of September 21st the coast of Egypt appeared in sight.
There is Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great, and formerly
renowned for its commerce, and as the centre of learning and culture of
the then known world. Even now this city is grand and beautiful,
although its beauty and style are different from anything else that I
have seen. We often form conceptions of things which we have not seen,
but which are interesting to us, and when we afterward find that those
conceptions are wrong we feel disappointed. Thus I had always thought of
Egypt as a country of a dark tone of color, probably on account of the
fertility of the soil of the valley of the Nile, since we Northerners
find that fertile soil is dark and poor soil of a lighter color.
Therefore I could hardly believe my own eyes when everything I saw on
the shore looked white. Not only the houses, palaces, and huts, but even
the roads and the fields, all had a white color.

As we neared the harbor, and even before the pilot c