94 MEMORIES OF MY LIFE 



deemed expedient to appoint an English Consul, 

 partly to watch and report on matters connected with 

 the slave trade. Mr. Petherick, who had been an 

 ivory dealer in the Soudan, was the first to hold that 

 post. I often saw him after his return ; he was 

 extremely cheery, and apparently frank in conver- 

 sation, but very reticent on much that I wanted to 

 hear. I could not discover what had been the end 

 of my villainous acquaintances, nor how far the society 

 of Khartum had become purified by the time he 

 arrived there. 



We had a few days still to spare, and Parkyns 

 was glad to join us in a short cruise up the White 

 Nile. His birthday and mine proved to be the 

 same, and we had an appropriate jollification. Our 

 house or hut looked over the swift and broad Blue 

 Nile on to the waste beyond, where pillars of whirling 

 sand were constantly forming at that time of year, 

 February. Many of them careered simultaneously, 

 but soon dissipated. I have never been caught in 

 one ; it would no doubt be disagreeable, but I never 

 saw one that behaved as if it were dangerous. 



It was a strange sight on turning the corner 

 where the two Niles meet, to change from the Blue 

 Nile, which sparkled and rushed like a clear Highland 

 river, into the stagnant and foul, but deep White 

 Nile. We sailed through mournful scenery up a 

 width of water visited by great flocks of pelicans. 

 The river had few marked banks, but lapped upon 

 grassy shores like a flooded mere. The water was 

 so stagnant, that when we anchored for the night the 

 offal thrown overboard by the cook hung about the 

 boat, and a man had to be sent each morning with 



