On the 12th of October, 1898, the Emperor and Empress set out on their journey to the Holy Land, accompanied by many representatives of the church. In Venice they visited the Italian King and Queen and passed on by way of Messina and Constantinople. They reached Jerusalem on October 29. During his stay at Constantinople the Emperor obtained the rights to a piece of land, the _Dormitio Sanctæ Virginis_, and turned it over to the German Catholics in Jerusalem. On November 4 they began their return journey via Damascus. Though the dedication of the Church of Our Redeemer constituted the ostensible object of the visit, the Emperor had also other purposes in mind. He took the occasion to announce that he would protect the interests of all Germans of whatever faith. This is the more significant when we remember that up to this time the French had always been allowed to assume the duty of protecting the Catholics there. The Emperor likewise had in mind increasing his prestige in the East. One of the outward indications of the growing friendliness between Turkey and Germany which was then strengthened may be found in the fact that the building of the Anatolian railway was intrusted to a German company, to which was also granted a concession for a harbor and permission to extend the line through Bagdad to Bassora. It will be noted that the approach to Jerusalem aroused a very unfavorable impression in the Emperor. Nevertheless, he had somewhat unusual preparations made for his entrance. The old walls of the sacred city were breached in order to allow him to make his entry in imperial state. In pursuance of his policy as a world-emperor he attempted during his visit, as we have seen, both by his acts and by his speeches, to conciliate all sects and creeds; the Catholics through the grant of land, which likewise pleased the Centre or Catholic party at home; the Evangelicals through the dedication of a church; and the Moslems incidentally and through his speech nine days later at Damascus, in the course of which he said: "May the Sultan and may the three hundred million Mohammedans who are scattered over the face of the earth and who recognize him as their caliph be assured of the fact that at all times the German Emperor will be their friend!" This friendship of the Emperor for the Sultan was not to be clouded by the Armenian massacres, nor did the assassinations in Asia Minor evoke any protest. Indeed, we are told by a well-known foreign correspondent that "five days after the great massacre of August, 1896, in Constantinople, when Turkish soldiers shot down their fellow citizens under the eyes of the Sultan and of the foreign ambassadors, William II sent to Abdul-Hamid for his birthday a family photograph of himself with the Empress and his children." At