Was I Right?

EARLY on Saturday morning we arrived at Port Said, and Sir William proposed that we should go on shore and escape from our uncomfortable quarters in the dirty little steamer.

We had no difficulty in obtaining a boat rowed by Arabs, but immediately we touched land, we were marched off to the Custom House, that our passports might be examined. Sir William had been told in London that passports were now quite unnecessary, so we had not provided ourselves with any, and he was rather at a loss what to do. However, Mr. Stanley came to the rescue, and after he had harangued the Turkish officers in Arabic, and had given them a proper amount of "baksheesh," we were politely bowed out of the office and allowed to enter the town, although we had no passports.