2 
TEAVELS IN CENTEAL AEEICA. 
On the ^th the invalid still better. We had her on deck — all 
on hoard feel happy. It quite unmans me to see how tender to 
her the men are; some with lines out fishing, others with guns 
on the look-out for shots at wild fowl as they skim along the surface 
of the water ; and the cook has so thoroughly scoured his copper 
pans, that he can see his face reflected as he places them in readiness 
for the food which is to tempt the Sitta Madame ” to eat. 
June Qth . — Entered the Sobat. Took depth and width of river, 
and rate of current ; and it resulted that the discharge of waters 
per second amounted to eight thousand six hundred and fifteen 
cubic feet, being three hundred and thirty-five feet more than the 
volume of the White Nile before its junction with the Bahar il 
Gazal. 
The idea of navigating the Sobat, even for a short distance, was 
abandoned, as our grain was rapidly diminishing, and could not, 
contrary to our expectation, be replaced. How different to what I 
had known it ! The frequent raids upon them by the slave traders, 
Mahommed Kheir and his wild nomad Arab coadjutors, had so 
scared the negroes, who had been so often deceived and preyed 
upon, that they would trust no one, and fled on the approach of our 
boat. 
Proceeding downwards on the 7th June. The wind is dead against 
us ; we can make no way, and for hours are compelled to make 
fast to the shore. Last year these northern winds at the same 
date would have been our salvation ; but it was not to be. 
One of my interpreters, employed at my station, at the Bahar 
il Gazal, wishing to return to Khartoum, I exchanged him for 
another from my boat. He was a Shillook, who in his infancy 
had been captured by the Bagara nomad Arabs, and had served 
DSf 
