The cape is a mighty bluff rising almost straight up from the blue waters of the Indian Ocean. Its sides are of black rock, ragged and rugged, and its top is covered with sand. There is sand at its foot and lodged in the crevices, making yellow streaks against the black background. Beyond the cape extend sandy hills which swell over one another until they are lost in the distance. The country all about is desert. Neither trees, bushes, habitations, nor animals are to be seen. The clouds hang low over the cape, and out at sea the air is as moist as that of Virginia in April. Seen from the ocean, the bluff assumes the outlines of a sleeping lion with its tail in the sand. Still farther out it looks like a fortification towering over the sea. One hundred and thirty miles to the eastward, on the direct route to India, is Sokotra Island, owned by the British. We went on southward, passing British Somaliland, a country a little larger than the State of Missouri, with a population of several thousand Mohammedan nomads who roam about from pasture to pasture with their cattle and camels. The colony came into the hands of the British after the war with the Mahdi, having belonged before that to Egypt. It was first administered by the government of India, but it is now managed directly from London. [Illustration: Fifty years ago Suez, where canal and Red Sea meet and “East of Suez” begins, was a miserable Arab village. Now it is a city where several thousand Europeans share the general dreariness of this hot and desolate spot.] [Illustration: When two ships meet, one usually stops close to the bank and lets the other pass. In places the sides are lined with stones to prevent slides, and dredges are at work all the time keeping the channel clear.] Back of the European colonies that fringe the coast lies Abyssinia, one of the most interesting countries of the Black Continent. With the exception of Liberia, it is the only one that is independent of Europe. Recognized by the Powers as a self-governing state, it has been able to preserve its native monarchy. Everyone in America has heard of the famous King Menelik II, founder of the present government, and the name is still one to conjure with in that country. It is said that an Abyssinian can stop another from whatever he happens to be doing by calling out to him: “Ba Menelik,” or “In the name of Menelik.” There are penalties for using this formula frivolously, and the one so doing may be called upon to justify his action before a judge.