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So grievous were the dangers and trials confronting Baha'u'llah at the hour of His departure from Gallipoli that He warned His companions that "this journey will be unlike any of the previous journeys," and that whoever did not feel himself "man enough to face the future" had best "depart to whatever place he pleaseth, and be preserved from tests, for hereafter he will find himself unable to leave"-- a warning which His companions unanimously chose to disregard. (182:1) On the morning of the 2nd of Jamadiyu'l- Avval 1285 A.H. (August 21, 1868) they all embarked in an Austrian- Lloyd steamer for Alexandria, touching at Madelli, and stopping for two days at Smyrna, where Jinab- i- Munir, surnamed Ismu'llahu'l- Munib, became gravely ill, and had, to his great distress, to be left behind in a hospital where he soon after died. In Alexandria they transhipped into a steamer of the same company, bound for Haifa, where, after brief stops at Port Said and Jaffa, they landed, setting out, a few hours later, in a sailing vessel, for Akka, where they disembarked, in the course of the afternoon of the 12th of Jamadiyu'l- Avval 1285 A.H. (August 31, 1868). It was at the moment when Baha'u'llah had stepped into the boat which was to carry Him to the landing- stage in Haifa that Abdu'l- Ghaffar, one of the four companions condemned to share the exile of Mirza Yahya, and whose "detachment, love and trust in God" Baha'u'llah had greatly praised, cast himself, in his despair, into the sea, shouting "Ya Baha'u'l- Abha," and was subsequently rescued and resuscitated with the greatest difficulty, only to be forced by adamant officials to continue his voyage, with Mirza Yahya's party, to the destination originally appointed for him.
(182:2)
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