E-text prepared by Malcolm Farmer, V. L. Simpson,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
()

[Pg. iii]

It was a Midsummer Night, and Mr. Punch in hissanctum dreamed a Dream! To adapt the Laureate's lay:—

It was the wondrous tale of Stanley which had turned the Sage'sattention to the pages of the great Epic of Commerce.

He had read:—

And though even Africa has considerably changed since the year of grace1497, when "daring Gama" went "incessant labouring round thestormy Cape," Mr. Punch thought of that great gloom-shroudedEquatorial Forest and its secular savage dwarf-denizens, and mused howmuch there was yet for our modern Gamas to do in the DarkContinent.

Mr. Punch found himself in the lovely "Isle of Venus," thedelicious floral Paradise which the Queen of Love, "the guardian goddessof the Lusian race," created "amid the bosom of the watery waste," as "aplace of glad repast and sweet repose," for the tired home-returningGama and his companions.

"Of 'glad repast,'" said a familiar voice, "there is plenty and tospare; but for the 'sweet repose,' 'tis not to be found in this 'Isle ofBanqueting.'"

"Mr. Stanley, I presume?" said the Sage.

"You cannot presume," rejoined H. M. neatly. "But some of thesegregarious dinner-givers do, and sometimes,—yes, sometimes I'mafraid I let them see that I'm aware of it."

"As fame-preoccupied, country-loving Gama, wearied of the'feasts, interludes, and chivalrous entertainments,' with which 'thetaste of that age demonstrated the joy of Portugal,' might perchancehave snubbed some too importunate Don. 'The compliments of the Court andthe shouts of the streets were irksome to him,' says the chronicle."

"Salisbury is not quite a Prince ...