Christmas only ten days off and the fields ripe with the golden glow of harvest. We played at Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Ballarat, being received everywhere with demonstrations of welcome, and much interest in the game was elicited at all points in the great island continent.
Originally our tour had been planned to end in Australia, retracing via Honolulu, as we had sailed; but before leaving the Pacific Coast I had been studying the situation and found that the distance from Australia around the world to New York was about the same as via San Francisco. During the voyage I had discussed the matter with the players, and as they were unanimously and enthusiastically in favor of the globe trip, we decided to return home that way.
Therefore, on the morning of January 8th, 1889, we left Melbourne homeward bound via Suez Canal, taking the steamer "Salier." Sixteen days later we arrived at the Island of Ceylon, and, upon landing at Colombo, we startled the natives of that far-off island of the seas by an exhibition of American ball playing, on January 26th, 1889.
Following this came the "flight into Egypt," with a game on the desert's sands in front of the Great Pyramids, and near enough to use one for a backstop. Afterwards the whole company was photographed en groupe on the Egyptian Sphinx, to the horror of the native worshippers of Cheops and the dead Pharaohs.
On the 19th of February, having reached the Bay of Naples, we went ashore, and under the shadow of Vesuvius
