I requested a private interview with the Sultan, and on the following day (29th) called and told him the nature of my commission to his Highness.

He was very gracious, and seemed pleased with the gift, as well he might, for the _Thule_ is fitted up in the most gorgeous manner.

We asked a few days to put her in perfect order, and this being the Ramadan, or fasting month, he was all the more willing to defer a visit to the vessel.
Dr.Seward arranged to have an audience with the Sultan, to carry out his instructions, which were to present me in a formal manner; Captain Bradshaw of the _Wasp_, with Captain Leatham of the _Vigilant_, and Bishop Tozer, were to accompany us in full dress, but the Sultan had a toothache and gumboil, and could not receive us; he, however, placed one of his houses at my disposal, and appointed a man who speaks English to furnish board for my men and me, and also for Captain Brebner, of the _Thule_, and his men.
[Illustration: Livingstone's House, Zanzibar.] _6th February, 1866._--The Sultan being still unable to come, partly on account of toothache and partly on account of Ramadan, he sent his commodore, Captain Abdullah, to receive the _Thule_.

When the English flag was hauled down in the _Thule_, it went up to the mainmast of the _Iskander Shah_, and was saluted by twenty-one guns; then the _Wasp_ saluted the Arab flag with an equal number, which honour being duly acknowledged by a second royal salute from the _Iskander Shah_, Captain Abdullah's frigate, the ceremony ended.
Next day, the 7th, we were received by the Sultan, and through his interpreter, I told him that his friend, the Governor of Bombay, had lately visited the South Mahratta Princes, and had pressed on them the necessity of education; the world was moving on, and those who neglected to acquire knowledge would soon find that power slipped through their fingers, and that the Bombay Government, in presenting his Highness with a portion of steam power, showed its desire to impart one of the greatest improvements of modern times, not desiring to monopolize power, but hoping to lift up others with themselves, and I wished him to live a hundred years and enjoy all happiness.

The idea was borrowed partly from Sir Bartle Frere's addresses, because I thought it would have more weight if he heard a little from that source than if it emanated from myself.