The Prince of Wales's journey, which is to keep him
south of the Equator for several months, has started auspiciously. When two days out from home H.M.S. ' Repulse ' met the British fleets, fresh from manoeuvres off Majorca, and steamed slowly through lines of forty men-of-war. Though the Prince's visit to South Africa, postponed from last year on account of the elections there, and his long tour through the Union, the last of the Dominions to entertain him, will be the most important part of his work, we are particularly glad that he is visiting the Crown Colonies on the West Coast, where the native populations understand so little of the Crown and Empire and the small bodies of British are apt to think that they are almost forgotten at home. Many exceedingly picturesque scenes are taking place, marked with great enthusiasm and childlike humour, intentional or not, on the part of the natives, as well as solemn ceremonial. At Bathurst the Gambian natives addressed the Prince in pidgin English as " King Piccin " or the " Kid King," or as the " Son of the Great White Queen," a striking tribute to the lasting tradition of Queen 'Victoria. The Observer quotes a Muslim address describing the Empire as " Your great Castle built of the best of perfume."
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