ttempting to thwart the expedition of an
English traveller, by instigating my escort to mutiny.

We stayed at Khartoum two months, waiting for the Nile to rise
sufficiently to allow the passage of the cataracts. We started June
30th, and reached Berber, from which point, four years before, I had set
out on my Atbara expedition.

I determined upon the Red Sea route to Egypt, instead of passing the
horrible Korosko desert during the hot month of August. After some
delay I procured camels, and started east for Souakim, where I hoped to
procure a steamer to Suez.

There was no steamer upon our arrival. After waiting in intense heat for
about a fortnight, the Egyptian thirty-two-gun steam frigate Ibrahimeya
arrived with a regiment of Egyptian troops, under Giaffer Pacha, to
quell the mutiny of the black troops at Kassala, twenty days' march
in the interior. Giaffer Pacha most kindly placed the frigate at our
disposal to convey us to Suez.

Orders for sailing had been received; but suddenly a steamer was
signalled as arriving. This was a transport, with troops. As she was to
return immediately to Suez, I preferred the dirty transport rather than
incur a further delay. We started from Souakim, and after five days'
voyage we arrived at Suez. Landing from the steamer, I once more found
myself in an English hotel.

The hotel was thronged with passengers to India, with rosy, blooming
English ladies and crowds of my own countrymen. I felt inclined to talk
to everybody. Never was I so in love with my own countrymen and women;
but they (I mean the ladies) all had large balls of hair at the backs
of their heads! What an extraordinary change! I called Richarn, my pet
savage from the heart of Africa, to admire them. "Now, Richarn, look at
them!" I said. "What do you think of the English ladies? eh, Richarn?
Are they not lovely?"

"Wah Illahi!" exclaimed the astonished Richarn, "they are beautiful!
What hair! They are not like the negro savages, who work other people's
hair into their own heads; theirs is all real--all their own--how
beautiful!"

"Yes, Richarn," I replied, "ALL THEIR OWN!" This was my first
introduction to the "chignon."

We arrived at Cairo, and I established Richarn and his wife in a
comfortable situation as private servants to Mr. Zech, the master of
Sheppard's Hotel. The character I gave him was one that I trust has done
him service. He had shown an extraordinary amount of moral courage in
totally reformin