success. In all the detail, I was much assisted by a
most excellent man whom I had engaged to accompany
me as my head man, a German carpenter, Johann
Schmidt, I had formerly met him hunting on the
banks of the Settite river, in the Basé country, where
he was purchasing living animals from the Arabs, for
a contractor to a menagerie in Europe ; he was. an
excellent sportsman, and an energetic and courageous
fellow ; perfectly sober and honest. Alas ! “ the spirit
was willing, but the flesh was weak,” and a hollow
cough, and emaciation, attended with hurried respira-,
tion, suggested disease of the lungs. Day after day he
faded gradually, and I endeavoured to persuade him
not to venture upon such a perilous journey as that
before me : nothing would persuade him that he was
in danger, and he had an idea that the climate of
Khartoum was more injurious than the White Nile,
and.that the voyage would improve his health. Full
of good. feeling, and a wish to please, he persisted in
working and perfecting the various arrangements, when
he should have been saving his strength for a severer
trial. Meanwhile , my preparations progressed. I had
clothed my men all in uniform, and had armed them
with double-barrelled guns and rifles. I had explained
to them thoroughly the object of my journey, and that
implicit obedience would be enforced, so long as they
were in my service; that no plunder would, be permitted,
and that their names were to be registered at
the public Divan before they started. They'promised
fidelity and devotion, but a greater set of scoundrels
in physiognomy I never encountered. Each man received
five months’ wages in advance, and I gave them
an entertainment with abundance to eat and drink, to
enable them to start in good humour.
We were just ready to start; the supplies were all on
board, the donkeys and horses were shipped, when an
officer arrived from the Divan, to demand from me the
poll-tax that Moosa Pasha, the Governor-general, had
recently levied upon the inhabitants; and to inform
me, that in the event of my refusing to pay the said
tax for each of my men, amounting to one month’s
wages per head, he should detain my boats. I ordered
•my'captain to'hoist the British flag upon each of the
-three boats, and sent my compliments to the government
official, telling him that I was neither a Turkish
subject nor a trader, but an English explorer;' that I
was not responsible for the tax, and that if any Turkish
■official should board my boat, under the British flag,
I should take the liberty of throwing him overboard.
This announcement appeared so practical, that the
official hurriedly departed, while I marched my men
on board, and ordered the boatmen to get ready to