Mr. Churchill's Journey 



Captains Savile and Cameron, of the Egyptian 

 army, were on board, the former to help us on 

 our way, the latter as Governor of Mongalla. 



I have given a fair idea of a voyage down the 

 Nile elsewhere, so the relation of a few incidents 

 will suffice to describe the remainder of our 

 wanderings. 



We began with rather a tall order, as on 

 landing at Lado, by special request of the Belgian 

 Governor, we found ourselves "downing" sweet 

 champagne at something like 6.45 in the morning ! 

 A bit steep, eh ? Soon after we reached Mon- 

 galla, where Captain Cameron gave us an 

 excellent lunch ; thence on it would be some 

 little time before we met another English face. 

 After Mongalla we reached the sharp bends in 

 the swamp region, where, at dinner, Mr. Marsh 

 met with a slight contretemps. Without any 

 warning at all the boat hit the bank, bumping 

 with tremendous force round a corner. Before 

 you could say "knife," the ship heeled over to 

 such an extent that the aforesaid gentleman was 

 shot over backwards, and everything was flung 

 on top of him. He was overwhelmed with a 

 horrid mess of plates and knives, roast mutton, and 

 broken glass, soused in bottled beer and gravy 

 mixed : on top of all this came ourselves, and the 

 table as well, so as to make sure he had all he 

 could get ! 



And he took it like a lamb ! 



lOI 



