Read it through once

Three days after leaving Portsmouth the _Ophir_, which was commanded by Commander A. L. Winslow, most luxuriously fitted up and accompanied by H. M. S. _Juno_ and the _St. George_, sighted the coast of Portugal, sailed into sunny waters off the shores at Lisbon and reached Gibraltar on March 13th, where the Royal visitors were welcomed by General Sir George White, of Ladysmith fame, and who had been Governor for about a year. From the Rock the _Ophir_ was escorted by two other ships of the Royal Navy to Malta, where Admiral Sir John Fisher and the Mediterranean fleet helped to render the welcome interesting and imposing, and from thence to Port Said and through the Suez Canal to Aden. Here a picturesque reception was given to the Duke and Duchess in a pavilion festooned with lights and filled with Indian and Arab ladies in robes of silks, officers in white uniforms, the Sultans of two tributary States and their dusky retinues. Surrounded by a guard of honour from the West Kent Regiment, with towering mountains of brown lava in the distance, and with groups of Somalis, Arabs, Hindoos and Seedees gazing at "the great lord of the seas," the Prince received an address of welcome. From here, through sweltering days and heated nights, the Royal yacht traversed the Indian Ocean until Ceylon--"the pearl set in sapphires and crowned with emeralds"--was reached on April 12th.