110 
TEAVELS IN CENTEAL AFEICA. 
course^ I suggested his coming down the Blue Nile to Khartoum, 
and, if in time and so disposed, I should he glad if he would join 
me on my expedition up the White Nile ; or in the event of his 
arrival subsequent to my departure, I begged he would consider 
my house as his own, and, it being my intention to provide a boat, 
to furnish me with supplies and any home letters, to follow me at 
a subsequent date he might take advantage of it to join me. 
My reasons for persuading Baker to give up that portion of his 
project of proceeding through the Dinka district and coming down 
the White Nile was the smallness of his escort and the hostility 
of the Dinkas to strangers, of every denomination, traversing their 
district from the Egyptian territories, in consequence of the great 
havoc that had been committed upon them by unprincipled ivory 
traders and professed slave dealers from Khartoum. 
Prior to leaving Khartoum, an American, Dr. Brownell, from 
New York, with a vague idea of crossing the African continent, 
called upon me and presented a letter of introduction from my 
friend Hekekian, Bey of Cairo. He wished me to assist him, and, 
upon inquiry, learning that his means were totally inadequate for 
the purpose, I took some pains to dissuade him from so rash an 
attempt. For some time he rather amusingly persisted in the re- 
quest that I should give him a passage in my boats to Gondokoro, 
and there drop him, and he would trust to a continuance of his 
hitherto good fortune to eventually turn up somewhere. On 
learning that he possessed a good knowledge of botany, with a 
view to render my expedition as complete as possible, and feeling 
that I should secure an ardent assistant, I, to our mutual satisfac- 
tion, concluded an arrangement with him to accompany us as 
botanist ; he to give me the advantage of his knowledge, and I to 
bear all expenses. 
