hey were on the point of dethroning him. My intention
was to apply to the English commissioners to help me in getting my
little business settled. I found, however, that my portfolio and papers
were with Lefebure, who had the baggage; fortunately, I still had the
gold which I carry in my belt. Then I naturally availed myself of this
opportunity to go off and wander about the interior, as far as Nubia,
where I had some acquaintances. I commissioned Captain Picklock to tell
Lefebure to come on and join me at Sennaar, with the camels. So off I
go, and arrive in ten days' time at Sennaar, where I find the King of
Nubia, who was not very happy about the political situation; he treats
me very hospitably, and I buy ivory and ostrich feathers of him.

Three weeks go by, but no Lefebure! So I naturally avail myself of the
delay, for pushing on a bit into Darfour; when, lo and behold! just like
my luck, on the ninth day, as I am entering the outskirts of El-Obeid in
Kordofan, I am met by a predatory tribe of Changallas! They surround me;
I try to defend myself, and a great burly rascal jumps at my throat, and
trips me up. I feel that I am being strangled by him; I deal him a blow
in the stomach with my fist, and he tumbles backwards; only, as his hand
still grips my throat, he drags me down with him; the others attack me
at the same time, and I am captured! My blow appears to have been the
death of the negro--which did not mend matters for me. They thrust me,
bound fast like a bundle of wood, into a sort of shed, after robbing me
of all my gold.

I was carefully guarded. At the end of eight days I said to myself,
'Barbassou, your ship lies in the harbour of Aden; you have business to
attend to, and you won't get out of your present scrape without
conciliatory negotiations. You must resign yourself to a sacrifice!' I
send for the chief, and offer him as my ransom a cask containing fifty
bottles of rum, ten muzzle-loading guns, and two complete uniforms of an
English general. This offer tempts him; but as I ask him first of all to
have me safe conducted to the King of Nubia, he answers that if once I
got there I should send him about his business. They confined me in a
pit, where I had only rice and bananas to eat, to which I am not at all
partial. As to the women, they are monkeys. However, after four months
of negotiations we came to an agreement that I should be conveyed back
to Sennaar, where I engaged upon my word of honour to