i 4 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



cher, superior of the Catholic Mission upon the White 

 Nile. On one of his voyages the boat in which he was 

 travelling having separated the mother from her young, 

 she jumped furiously out of the water, and as Father 

 Knoblecher's cook happened to be leaning over the 

 side of the boat, he was struck by the enormous beast 

 as she fell back and dragged him with her into the 

 stream. 



" "We reached Khartoum at nine in the evening of 

 the 17th, and the next day the Viceroy informed me 

 that he had dictated during my absence his ordinances 

 for the administration of the Soudan. These curious 

 documents remind one at once of the ancient ordi- 

 nances of the French kings, and the patriarchal 

 traditions of the Bible. A few fragments of them 

 are worth quoting : 



" l Order of His Highness the Viceroy to the new Governors 

 of the five provinces of the Soudan: Sennaar, Kor- 

 dofan, Ta/ca, Berber, and Dongola. 

 (Translated from the Arab.) 



" KHAKTOUM, January 26, 1857. 



" ' You have heard what my heart yearns for, and 

 how I desire the prosperity of the land and the 

 welfare of the population. You know also how I 

 have sought to form a right understanding of what- 

 ever is calculated to develop their fortune, to spare 

 them suffering and place them beyond the reach of 

 persecution, so that they may reach the height of 



