URAGE--THE TRAVELLERS REACH KHARTOUM.

Sir Samuel, then Mr Baker, was already an experienced traveller and a
practised sportsman, when in March, 1861, having resolved to devote his
energies to the discovery of one of the sources of the Nile, he set
forth from England to proceed up the mysterious river from its mouth,
inwardly determined to accomplish the difficult task or to die in the
attempt. He had, however, shortly before married a young wife. She,
with a devoted love and heroism seldom surpassed, notwithstanding the
dangers and difficulties she knew she must encounter, entreated to
accompany her husband, in a way not to be denied.

Leaving Cairo on the 15th of April, they sailed up the Nile to Korosko,
whence they crossed the Nubian Desert on camels, with the simoon in full
force and the heat intense to Berber. Here Mr Baker, finding his want
of Arabic a great drawback, resolved to devote a year to the study of
that language, and to spend the time in the comparatively known regions
to the north of Abyssinia, while he explored the various confluences of
the Blue Nile.

They were kindly received at Berber by Halleem Effendi, the ex-governor,
who gave them permission to pitch their tents in his gardens close to
the Nile. It was a lovely spot, thickly planted with lofty date-groves
and shady citron and lemon-trees, in which countless birds were singing
and chirruping, and innumerable ring-doves cooing in the shady palms.
The once sandy spot, irrigated by numerous water-wheels, had been thus
transformed into a fruitful garden.

Here they received visits from their host and the governor, as well as
from other officers, who expressed their astonishment when they
announced their intention of proceeding to the head of the Nile.

"Do not go on such an absurd errand," exclaimed Halleem Effendi.
"Nobody knows anything about the Nile. We do not even know the source
of the Atbara. While you remain within the territory of the Pacha of
Egypt you will be safe; but the moment you cross the frontier you will
be in the hands of savages."

Mr Baker, though receiving the advice _cum grano salis_, profited by
it.

Their host sent them daily presents of fruit by a charmingly pretty
slave girl, whose numerous mistresses requested permission to pay the
travellers a visit. In the evening a bevy of ladies approached through
the dark groves of citron-trees, so gaily dressed in silks of the
brightest dyes of yellow, blue, and sca