160 
TEAVELS IN CENTEAL AFEICA. 
an extract from a letter addressed to the Times/ ^ January 29th, 
1863, by the President, will certify. For Baker, in lieu of support- 
ing me, and in opposition to his instructions and my wishes, when 
he had ocular proof at Gondokoro of the untruth of my reported 
death, and of the preparations I had made for the succour of Speke 
and Grant, still persisted in the continuation of those duties which 
had been assigned to me, and which he was in the event of my 
death only authorized to perform. That the Council of the Boyal 
Geographical Society, after they had by my report been placed in 
full possession of the circumstances of my successful efforts to place 
the boats, grain, &c., agreed upon at the disposal of Speke and 
Grant at Gondokoro, should continue to support Baker in this act 
of usurpation, and even to reward him for superseding their own 
representative, is a step which every impartial person must condemn. 
The President says : 
“It may surprise many persons that these ladies, who have 
thus penetrated by the White Nile into Central Africa beyond 
Gondokoro, and about one thousand miles by water beyond 
Khartoum to nearly 4° North of the Equator, should have 
made no mention of Mr. Petherick, who had preceded them in 
his voyage to Gondokoro. This seems to be explained by the 
fact, announced by Mr. S. W. Baker in a letter from Khartoum, 
that Mr. Petherick having met with disaster on the river, through 
a continuous south wind and incessant rain, had sent all his 
boats back to Khartoum, save one, and was proceeding by land 
to Gondokoro. 
‘‘It is therefore probable that the telegram announcing the 
death of this bold traveller and his spirited wife by drowning is 
inaccurate. 
“ The next post will probably solve this painful mystery ; but 
