LONDON VS. MECCA, 9 Persian Gulf ; and as it had not reached the Arabian ports, they were not permitted to land. They consequently had to go on in the steamer ; but were not allowed to disembark either at Suez, Algiers, or Lisbon, at all of which ports they touched, and so were carried on to London.

There they had spent three or four weeks ; and the British India Company had sent them to the Aquarium, Crystal Palace, and other sights, keeping them at the expense of the company.

I should say they had a far more agreeable time of it in London than they would have had at Mecca ; and surely, under the circumstances, it would help them as well on their road to paradise as though they had in reality been enabled to say their prayers at the sacred shrine, and to have drunk, at their source, the sacred waters of Zem-Zem.

As the pilgrimage season was over, it was of no use for them to land at Jeddah when the Agra " called there after leaving Souakim ; and consequently they were on their way back to Bushire. Two or three of the original band, better off than the rest, had, we were told, left London for Paris, intending to travel overland ; and one had discovered a Jioiiri in London, with whom he was living in Bayswater.