teau being unpacked,
that he might satisfy himself by actual inspection. The luggage, all
ready for the journey, had to be unstrapped and examined, and the rags
were displayed in succession, but so wretched and uninviting was the
exhibition of the family linen that he simply returned them, and said
they did not suit him. Beads he must have, or I was "his enemy." A
selection of the best opal beads was immediately given him. I rose
from the stone upon which I was sitting and declared that we must start
immediately. "Don't be in a hurry," he replied; "you have plenty of
time; but you have not given me that watch you promised me."... This was
my only watch that he had begged for, and had been refused, every day
during my stay at M'rooli. So pertinacious a beggar I had never seen. I
explained to him that without the watch my journey would be useless,
but that I would give him all that I had except the watch when the
exploration should be completed, as I should require nothing on my
direct return to Gondokoro. At the same time I repeated to him the
arrangement for the journey that he had promised, begging him not to
deceive me, as my wife and I should both die if we were compelled
to remain another year in this country by losing the annual boats at
Gondokoro.

The understanding was this: he was to give me porters to the lake,
where I was to be furnished with canoes to take me to Magungo, which was
situated at the junction of the Somerset. From Magungo he told me that
I should see the Nile issuing from the lake close to the spot where the
Somerset entered, and that the canoes should take me down the river,
and porters should carry my effects from the nearest point to Shooa,
and deliver me at my old station without delay. Should he be faithful to
this engagement, I trusted to procure porters from Shooa, and to reach
Gondokoro in time for the annual boats. I had arranged that a boat
should be sent from Khartoum to await me at Gondokoro early in this
year, 1864; but I felt sure that should I be long delayed, the boat
would return without me, as the people would be afraid to remain alone
at Gondokoro after the other boats had quitted.

In our present weak state another year of Central Africa without quinine
appeared to warrant death. It was a race against time; all was untrodden
ground before us, and the distance quite uncertain. I trembled for my
wife, and weighed the risk of another year in this horrible country
should we lose