120 
TEAVELS IN CENTEAL AFEICA. 
my middle in water. I was always accompanied by a few men of 
my escort ; and^ altbougb occasionally much inconvenienced by the 
depth of water we encountered^ the practicability of proceeding, 
although at a terrible discomfort, was agreed to ; the more so as, 
having an India-rubber punt requiring but one man to carry it, I 
could, if necessary, ford the party and our stores over any deep 
water that might intervene in our route. The task was, however, 
by no means an easy one, as we could not see the termination to 
this fatiguing journey ; nor could the natives give us any definite 
idea of the extent of the inundation, it being far beyond their 
territory. In the first instance, a march up to the middle, with an 
occasional swim across some ravine, to a trading station of the 
Poncet Brothers, called Ador, some miles due-west of us, was a 
certainty; but how far the flood extended beyond that point we 
had no means of ascertaining. 
Notwithstanding these difficulties, I was nobly supported by my 
wife in the determination to proceed, and the men, although sullen, 
coincided with my views. Everything being prepared, and the 
necessary instructions written for the securing of a fresh supply of 
boats and provisions, to return from Khartoum with the following 
season commencing in October, and to proceed to Gondokoro, we 
mounted our horses. At this juncture the men forming our escort, 
as I had been privately informed, made up their minds not to 
proceed with us, but to seize the boats and either insist upon our 
returning with them to Khartoum or to return thither without us. 
After so many years residence among them, and naturally possess- 
ing a knowledge of the Arab character, I well knew how keenly 
susceptible they were to praise or reproach from a woman, and that 
there was nothing they would shrink from if taunted by the ex- 
ample of a being whom, by their creed, they were taught not only 
