whether old age found her rich or poor, it
found her a noble-minded, Christian Englishwoman.

LADY BAKER, AN EXPLORER'S COMPANION

When Samuel White Baker decided to make an attempt to discover the
sources of the Nile, his young wife determined to accompany him and
share his dangers and hardships. On April 15, 1861, they started from
Cairo, and after a twenty-six days' journey by boat they disembarked at
Korosko, and plunged into the dreary desert. Their camels travelled at
a rapid pace, but the heat was terrible, and Mrs. Baker was taken
seriously ill before arriving at Berber. She was, however,
sufficiently recovered to accompany her husband when he started off
along the dry bed of the Atbara, and soon had a novel experience, which
Baker in _The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia_, describes as follows:--

'At half-past eight I was lying half asleep upon my bed by the margin
of the river, when I fancied that I heard a rumbling like distant
thunder. Hardly had I raised my head to listen more attentively, when
a confusion of voices arose from the Arabs' camp, with the sound of
many feet; and in a few minutes they rushed into my camp, shouting to
my men in the darkness, "El Bahr! El Bahr!"'[1] The rolling flood was
sweeping down the dry bed of the river. 'We were up in an instant.
Many of the people were asleep on the clean sand in the river's bed;
these were quickly awakened by the Arabs.... Hardly had they (the
Arabs) descended, when the sound of the river in the darkness beneath
told us that the water had arrived; and the men, dripping with wet, had
just sufficient time to drag their heavy burdens up the bank. All was
darkness and confusion. The river had arrived like "a thief in the
night."'

When daylight came a mighty river was flowing where yesterday there was
only dry land.

Proceeding to Kassala, Baker engaged additional camels and attendants,
and then crossing the Atbara at Korasi proceeded to Sofi, where he
decided to halt for five months. Big game abounded, and Baker enjoyed
excellent sport. Shooting and studying Arabic occupied nearly all his
attention, until Mrs. Baker was taken ill with gastric fever. For a
time it was not expected that she would recover; but, fortunately, she
was spared to assist her husband in the arduous labours which followed.

Mr. and Mrs. Baker arrived at Khartoum on June 11, 1862, and remained
there for six months, waiting for the rains to cease, and for the
nor