[Speech of Sir Edwin Arnold at the banquet given by the Lotos Club, New York, October 31, 1891, as a welcome to him on the occasion of his visit to America, after his visit to the East. The hall decorations symbolized his membership in the order of the White Elephant. Frank R. Lawrence, President of the Lotos Club, in introducing the guest of honor, said: "Splendid as are his qualities as a poet, they do not obscure his usefulness as a journalist. We remember and acknowledge his services as a moulder of public opinion in England, and among his many achievements it may not be amiss to recall the fact that it was he, in conjunction with one of our own great American journalists, who arranged the first visit of Stanley to Africa to perfect the discoveries of Livingstone."]
Mr. President and Gentlemen:—In rising to return my sincere thanks for the high honor done to me by this magnificent banquet, by its lavish opulence of welcome, by its goodly company, by the English so far too flattering which has been employed by the president, and by the generous warmth by which you have received my name, I should be wholly unable to sustain the heavy burden of my gratitude, but for a consideration of which I will presently speak. To-night must always be for me indeed a memorable occasion.
Many a time and oft during the lustrums composing my life, I have had personal reason to rejoice at the splendid mistake committed by Christopher Columbus in discovering your now famous and powerful country. When his caravels put forth from our side of the Atlantic, he had no expectation whatever, contrary to the general belief and statement, of discovering a new world. He was at that time thinking of and searching for a very ancient land, the Empire
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