176 
TEAVELS IN CENTEAL AFEICA. 
them through the eountry; but Consul Petheriek eould scareely 
be expeeted to do this at his own eost^ and, as the Government 
declined making any further grants the Council of the Society had 
departed from their usual rules^ and had headed a subscription 
with <£100 towards defraying expenses/^ He then urged the 
Fellows of the Society to subscribe liberally for the same purposed 
How^ then_, can the Committee say that it was at my suggestion 
that the Society availed themselves of my services^ when^ from the 
evidence of the Proceedings/^ quoted above, it is plain that the 
idea originated with Captain Speke and the Council, who, unsoli- 
cited, sought my aid ? 
At this stage I oifered, in case the sum of £2,000 was raised, to 
go as far south as the point of the termination of Speke^s first 
expedition. 
On the 25th February, 1861 (see Proceedings,^^ Vol. V., No. 
3, page 107) the President announced the subscriptions to exceed 
£1,000, and said, Consul Petheriek is about to proceed to Khar- 
toum,^ ^ &c. I then distinctly stated that the sum subscribed was 
only one-half what would be required for the whole object, and con- 
sequently, that found would only suffice for carrying out the first 
part of the project of the Society, viz., that of meeting Captain 
Speke and supplying him with grain and other necessaries at Gon- 
dokoro. 
That I did succeed in doing this is beyond dispute — and Speke 
not availing himself thereof is no fault of mine. The two boats 
under Abd il Majid arrived at Gondokoro in December, 1861, 
and not in January, 1862. A third boat, laden with grain and 
having a crew of forty-three men, arrived at the date stated by 
the Committee, for the support of Abd il Majid in his search for 
Speke overland, as advised in my letter to Speke, dated Khartoum, 
