THE WORLD'S WONDERS. 225 



food, as was the hippopotamus, the two furnishing meat for one 

 day for the entire army. 



THE FLEET IS FORCED TO RETREAT. 



THE start for Gondokoro had been made at a very inopportune 

 time, for the Nile was already falling and progress must be 

 necessarily slow, as some of the boats drew more than four feet 

 of water. After proceeding one-half the distance, the vegetation 

 so obstructed the river that it was impossible to proceed further, 

 and a retreat had to be made back to the Shillook country, and 

 there wait until the November inundation. 



FINE SPORT ALONG THE RIVER. 



THE water was soon receding so rapidly that the boats had to 

 be pulled by a thousand men across the vegetable obstructions ; 

 in fact it became almost dry-land steamboating, for every few 

 miles the cables were run out and a long double line of men 

 would seize them and force the boats across the barriers high and 

 dry, into water again. Mr. and Mrs. Baker .whiled away the 

 tedium of the journey by shooting, every day killing hippopo- 

 tami, crocodiles, antelopes, geese and ducks, so that an abun- 

 dance of fresh meat was always available. Mrs. Baker was as 

 keen a lover of hunting as her husband, and was almost as good 

 a shot, while her powers of endurance and courage were 

 phenomenal. 



LIBERATING SLAVES. 



As the expedition approached the Shillook country, Baker was 

 astounded to find that the governor of Fashoda was engaged in 

 the capture of slaves. This discovery was made by accident. 

 Baker saw an old man seated on the bank, who had apparently 

 escaped from some bad master, and who told of his captivity and 

 efforts to escape back to his people. The governor of F.ishoda 

 had been pretending, for years, that he was violently opposed to 

 slave hunting and that no slave-traders could cross his^ountry. 

 He was taken by surprise, and in his pens were discovered 184 

 women and little children, whose village he had a few days before 

 destroyed and taken them into captivity, after killing all but ten 

 16 



