to meet again. Of course we were his guests in a moment,
and learned everything that could be told. I now first
M ission-House, Grondokoro.
heard of the death of H.R.H. the Prince-Consort, which
made me reflect on the inspiring words he made use of,
in compliment to myself, when I was introduced to him
by Sir Roderick Murchison a short while before leaving
England. Then there was the terrible war in America,
and other events of less startling nature, which came on
us all by surprise, as years had now passed since we had
received news from the civilised world.
Baker then said he had come up with three vessels—one
dyabir and two nuggers—fully equipped with armed men,
camels, horsQS, donkeys, beads, brass wire, and everything
necessary for a long journey, expressly to look after us,
hoping, as he jokingly said, to find us on the equator in
some terrible fix, that he might have the pleasure of helping
us out of it. He had heard of Mahamed’s party, and
was actually waiting for him to come in, that he might
have had the use of his retum-men to start with comfortably.
Three Dutch ladies,* also, with a view to assist us
* The Baroness Miss A. van Capellan, and Mrs and Miss Tinne.
in the same way as Baker (God bless them), had come
here in a steamer, but were driven back to Khartum by
sickness. Nobody had even dreamt for a moment it was
possible we could come through. An Italian, named
Miani, had gone farther up the Nile than any one else ;
and he, it now transpired, was the man who had cut his
name on the tree by Apuddo. But what had become of
Petherick ? He was actually trading at N’yambara, seventy
miles due west of this, though he had, since I left him
in England, raised a subscription of £1000, from those of
my friends to whom this Journal is most respectfully
dedicated as the smallest return a grateful heart can give
for their attempt to succour me, when knowing the fate
of the expedition was in great jeopardy.
Instead of coming up the Nile at once, as Petherick
might have done—so I was assured—he waited, whilst a
vessel was building, until the season had too far advanced
to enable him to sail up the river. In short, he lost the
north winds at T north, and went overland to his trading
dépôt at N’yambara. Previously, however, he had sent
some boats up to this, under a Vakil, who had his orders
to cross to his trading dépôt at N’yambara, and to work
from his trading station due south, ostensibly with a view
to look after me, though contrary to my advice before,
leaving him in England, in opposition to his own proposed
views of assisting me when he applied for help to succour
me, and against the strongly-expressed opinions of every
European in the same trade as himself ; for all alike said
they knew he would have gone to Faloro, and pushed
south from that place, had his trade on the west of the
Nile not attracted him there.
Baker now offered me his boats to go down to Khartüm,
and asked me if there was anything left undone which
it might be of importance for him to go on and complete,
by survey or otherwise ; for, although he should like to
go down the river with us, he did not wish to return