E. Ashmead-Bartlett, M.P.; Clive Bigham, Correspondent of the _Times_; Geo. R. Montgomery, Correspondent of the _Standard_; W. Peel, Special Correspondent of the _Daily Telegraph_; H. A. Gwynne, Special Correspondent of _Reuter_’s Agency; G. W. Steevens, Correspondent of the _Daily Mail_; Hamilton Weldon, Special Correspondent of the _Morning Post_.” Before leaving Constantinople I received an invitation from Sir Philip and Lady Currie to a garden party in the beautiful grounds of the British Embassy overlooking the Golden Horn. On such occasions politics were taboo. Everybody who was anybody was present, and a more charming host and hostess it would be difficult to imagine than the British Ambassador and Lady Currie; both since, alas! gone from hence. Among the guests was an old Englishman, once, as I was told, the gardener of the British Embassy in Lord Stratford de Redcliffe’s time, and whose son is now one of the most prosperous English traders of Constantinople. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER IV JOURNEY THROUGH ASIATIC TURKEY The Pontic Sea, Whose icy current and compulsive course Ne’er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on To the Propontic and the Hellespont. SHAKESPEARE, _Othello_ IN the beginning of September 1897 I was taking a “rest cure” at Marienbad when I received a telegram from the proprietor of the _New York Herald_ asking me to join him on his yacht _Namouma_ at Venice. On my arrival he informed me that he had been to Constantinople and had an interview with the Sultan. In the course of it he had suggested to His Majesty that he should send an expedition into Armenia to verify the facts connected with the disturbances of the last two years, and allow the _New York Herald_ to be represented on the occasion. The Sultan was favourably disposed to the idea, and proposed that I should be the person selected to accompany the expedition. To this Mr. Bennett had, as he told me, demurred; not that he had any reason to doubt my reliability, but the fact remained that it was already known in America that I had had personal relations with the Sultan. This in itself would make it desirable that somebody else should report on this particular subject. It was finally agreed with the Sultan that a member of the New York staff of the paper, the late Dr. George H. Hepworth, should be the correspondent, the Sultan making his final consent dependent upon my accompanying the expedition as well.