therly winds to set in. Quitting Khartoum on December 18, 1862,
they arrived at Gondokoro on February 2, 1863. Baker was the first
Englishman to visit the place, and the reception which the
slave-traders accorded him was far from cordial. Believing him to be a
spy of the British Government, they concealed their slaves, and waited
anxiously for him to depart. In the meanwhile they made friends with
his men, sowed discontent amongst them, and succeeded in inciting them
to make a raid for food on the natives in the next village.

Baker, hearing of the proposed raid, promptly forbade it, whereupon his
men mutinied. Seizing the ringleader, Baker proceeded to give him a
sound thrashing, but was at once attacked by the rest of the men, and
would certainly have been killed had not Mrs. Baker rushed to the
rescue. Her sudden appearance on the scene--for it was known she was
ill with fever--and her appeals to some of the men to help her save her
husband caused the mutineers to hesitate. Instantly Baker saw his
opportunity. 'Fall in!' he commanded, and so accustomed were the men
to obeying his orders that the majority fell in instantly. The
ringleader and a few others refused to obey, and Baker was about to
administer another thrashing to the former when his wife besought him
not to do so. He acted on her advice, and promised to overlook the
mutineers' conduct if they apologised, which they promptly and
profusely did.

The slave-traders now declared that they would not permit the Bakers to
penetrate into the interior, but, ignoring the threats, husband and
wife resumed their journey. Soon they came into contact with a
well-armed party of these traders, and a fight would have resulted had
not Mrs. Baker suggested that they should make friends with the leader.
'Had I been alone,' Baker writes, 'I should have been too proud to have
sought the friendship of the sullen trader; and the moment on which
success depended would have been lost.... The fate of the expedition
was retrieved by Mrs. Baker.'

It was, of course, a trying task for Mr. and Mrs. Baker to be on
friendly terms with a slave-trader, and they both felt it to be so, but
it was productive of good. The slave-trader informed Baker that his
(Baker's) men intended to mutiny and kill him and his wife. Baker was
on his guard, and nipped the mutiny in the bud.

After many hardships and perils borne uncomplainingly by Mrs. Baker,
they reached the territory of the