, waiting
for the sea breeze which invariably freshens towards noon, the
Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamship "Thames," with my wife and
children on board, passed ahead of us into the harbour. We had a
delightful meeting in the afternoon at Government House, Malabar
Point, where we were greeted with a most cordial welcome from our dear
friends Lord and Lady Reay.'

We are so accustomed nowadays to the punctual keeping of appointments
made months before, with half the width of the world between the
meeting-places, that this happy and fortunate coincidence will
scarcely excite remark, even when the home journal dwells on the added
joy of the arrival, that very same evening, as planned beforehand, of
Lord Brassey's son, who had started earliest, and had been spending
some weeks of travel, sight-seeing, and sport, pleasantly combined, in
Ceylon and Southern India.

The punctuality of the P. & O. steamers might be a proverb, if in
these hurried days anyone ever paused to make a proverb; and therefore
it is not the rapid run of the 'Thames' which excites our admiration.
It is rather the capital sailing qualities, well tried and proven as
they are, of the 'Sunbeam.' Though essentially a _sailing_ vessel and
carrying very little coal, the yacht had made her way through the
intricate navigation of the Red Sea and against the strong contrary
winds of the N.E. monsoon, which blew with quite exceptional force off
the southern shores of Arabia, and had finally dropped anchor at the
appointed day, and almost hour, in Bombay Harbour.

[Illustration: Kurrachee Harbour]

[Illustration: The Mirs Falconer]

On this, her first visit, the 'Sunbeam' remained only three days at
Bombay. She sailed again for Kurrachee on January 6th, 1887, and
reached her destination early on Tuesday, the 11th. The stay in Bombay
was cut short by the desire of the travellers to join Lord and Lady
Reay, and journey with them for the first few days of an official tour
in Sindh, on which the Governor of Bombay was about to start. There
are exceptional opportunities in such an excursion for seeing great
concourses of natives, and gaining knowledge of the condition of the
country from the officials engaged in its administration. The first
point of interest noted is a native horse-fair held at Shikarpur,
where 'in the immense concourse gathered together, all the races of
these wild districts were represented. The most characteristic people
were the Belo