Steam Yacht Ceylon 
Bergen Roads, 22 July 1890 

Dear Liebknecht, 

Having safely returned to civilised latitudes after our trip to North 
Cape—Schorlemmer and I left London in the above vessel on the Ist of 
this month—I hasten to inform you that we shall be back in London on 
Saturday the 26th inst. And look forward to seeing you as soon as may 
be. Come straight away if that suits you, since we shall probably be 
setting off for the seaside shortly afterwards and intend to inveigle you 
into joining us;°’s that will still leave you some time to do what you have 
to do in London. 

4 Emma Engels, Rudolf Engels, Mathilde Engels, Hedwig Engels 

The first news to reach us from the outside world is today pinned up 
in our vessel and reads: The German Social Democracy will reorganize 
on October 1st and is preparing a plan of organization to be discussed and 
adopted at a congress in October.*’* Otherwise nothing of any impor- 
tance—but it’s enjoyable to be promptly presented with that news. 

As young William* was favouring Norway with his presence at the 
same time,°”> I kept as quiet as possible about my itinerary, lest there 
should be any police chicanery. On our way home we met the fleet in 
Molde; ‘young Hopeful’, however, was not present, having gone off 
gallivanting in a torpedo boat; he sneaked past us in the Geiranger Fjord, 
much to the annoyance of the middle-class English gang on board our 
ship, who would have liked to give three cheers for a real live emperor. 

While the sailors in the fleet were splendid chaps, the junior officers 
and midshipmen differed little from the ensigns of the Prussian guards, 
their every turn of phrase being of the kind we’ve known from time 
immemorial; the senior officers we met in the hotel dressed in mufti 
were quite different and were in no way distinguishable from ordinary 
civilians. The predominant accents were those of old Prussia. We nearly 
died of laughter at the sight of two fat admirals sitting squashed together 
in a minute Norwegian cab (there was barely room in it for one) as they 
went to pay their calls (Primrose Hill would accommodate the whole of 
Molde twice over); all one could see from behind were epaulettes and 
tricorns. 

It was a very pleasant and very interesting trip and I liked the 
Norwegians a great deal. Up in Troms6 we visited the Lapps and their 
reindeer and in Hammerfest saw piles of dried cod—at first I took it to 
be firewood—and, at North Cape, the famous midnight sun. But there’s 
nothing one gets sick of more quickly than perpetual daylight when for 
a solid week there’s literally no night at all and it’s always quite light 
when one goes to bed. 

We sampled the beer conscientiously right up to 71 degrees of lati- 
tude; it was good but not so good as the German stuff, and invariably 
bottled. Only in Trondheim could one actually get draught beer. Here 
too, by the way, the legislators are much concerned with temperance and 
it would seem that sales of Bismarck’s spirits have been steadily drop- 
ping. We shall probably carry out a reconnaissance today to see whether 
there is a beer hall in Bergen where draught ale may be had. 

4 William II 

The train from Gossevangen to Bergen covers 108 kilometres in 4 1/2 
hours—24 kilometres per hour! But it passes through rock of all kinds 
out of which pretty well the whole line had to be blasted. 

Up north on the Svartisen, which is one enormous ice field, we 
walked on a glacier separated from the sea only by the low moraine, i.e. 
it drops to approximately 100 feet above sea level. 

But now it’s time for breakfast and I shall close so as to be able to 
hand this letter in for posting immediately it is over. 

Warm regards to your wife and children and to yourself from 
Schorlemmer and 

Your 
F Engels