When he reached Constantinople he received a letter from the managers of the Tribune suggesting that he go across Asia to Hong-Kong, China, and join the expedition of Commodore Perry to Japan.  As the expedition would not reach Hong-Kong for some months, however, he had time to visit his German friend and go on to London.  From London he returned through Spain and went by way of the Suez, Bombay, and Calcutta to China, stopping on the way to view the Himalayas.

Commodore Perry made the young journalist “master’s mate,” and gave him a place on the flagship.  This was necessary, because no one not a member of the navy was allowed to accompany the expedition.

There is not space to detail the wonderful sights he saw or the interesting experiences he had.  He reached New York, December 20, 1853, after an absence of more than two years, and found that in his absence he had become almost famous.  His letters in the Tribune had been read all over the country, and everybody wanted to know more of the “great American traveler.”

He at once prepared for the press three books.  They were “A Journey to Central Africa; or, Life and Landscapes from Egypt to the Negro Kingdoms of the Nile “; “The Land of the Saracens; or, Pictures of Palestine, Asia Minor, Sicily, and Spain”; and “A Visit to India, China, and Japan in the Year 1853.”

He had hundreds of calls to lecture; and thereafter for several years he made lecturing his principal business.  From his books and his lectures he received large sums of money, so that before he was thirty he had accumulated a modest fortune.

In 1856 Bayard Taylor took his two sisters and his youngest brother to Europe.  He left them in Germany, while he himself carried out a plan long in his mind, of visiting northern Sweden and Lapland in winter.  The following summer he visited Norway, and later published the results of these journeys in “Northern Travel.”

While in Germany, after his trip to Sweden, he became engaged to Marie Hansen, daughter of Prof.  Peter A. Hansen, the noted astronomer and founder of Erfurt Observatory.  They were married in the following autumn, October 27, 1857.

He now hurried home with his wife and prepared to build a house and lay out the country estate which he called Cedarcroft.  The land had belonged to one of his ancestors, and he was very proud of his fine country house; but he found it a rather expensive enjoyment.

CHAPTER X

HIS POETRY

We have seen how in youth Bayard Taylor conceived the ambition to be known as one of his country’s great poets.  He saw his books of travel sell by the hundred thousand; but while this brought him money and notoriety, he clung still to his poetry.  He even felt annoyed when he heard himself spoken of as “the great American traveler” instead of the great American poet.  The truth is, he had not been able to give to poetry the time or energy he could have wished; and he afterwards worked with desperate energy to recover those lost poetic opportunities.