DOWN THE NILE; THE GIANT ELAND 



509 



now and then to sing. Except the whiskey jacks and 

 Hudsonian chickadees of the North Woods I never saw 

 such tame little birds. 



At Gondokoro we met the boat which the Sirdar, Major- 

 General Sir Reginald Wingate, had sent to take us down 

 the Nile to Khartoum; for he, and all the Soudan officials 

 -including especially Colonel Asser, Colonel Owen, Slatin 

 Pasha, and Butler Bey treated us with a courtesy for 









Arrival at Gondokoro 

 From a photograph by J. Alden Loring 



which I cannot too strongly express my appreciation. In 

 the boat we were to have met an old friend and fellow- 

 countryman, Leigh Hunt; to our great regret he could 

 not meet us, but he insisted on treating us as his guests, 

 and on our way down the Nile we felt as if we were on the 

 most comfortable kind of yachting trip; and everything 

 was done for us by Captain Middleton, the Scotch engi- 

 neer in charge. 



Nor was our debt only to British officials and to Ameri- 

 can friends. At Gondokoro I was met by M. Ranquet, the 

 Belgian Commandant of the Lado district, and both he 



