72 
TEAVELS IN CENTEAL AFEICA. 
humbly trust that we may, in due time, he enabled to send to our 
friends at home a faithful account of our journey to the equator, 
and of a meeting with the brave travellers we go in search of. 
December, 1861. — How vexatious is this delay! We are not 
yet off to the Mountain,^^ as the people here call Gondokoro. 
When our boats sailed last month for that place, to meet the 
expedition of Captains Speke and Grant, we confidently hoped to 
have quickly followed in their wake; but great difficulties are 
apparent. In the first place, our dahabyeh, the Kathleen,^^ sailed 
from Korosko on September 4th; we subsequently left on the 7th, 
via the desert, and the ‘^HCathleen has not yet arrived. She is 
laden with many articles of importance, without which we cannot 
justifiably start for Gondokoro ; therefore Petherick has dispatched 
a trustworthy servant in search of her. He is mounted on a swift 
dromedary, with saddle-bags well filled. The season is far advanced, 
and if, therefore, it is impracticable for the passing of the boat over 
the cataracts, this agent will see to the removal of the necessary 
requirements, and forward them on camels to Khartoum. 
It is evident that money, ‘^^the root of all evil,^^ is likely to be 
wanting. The sums subscribed in England under the auspices of 
the Royal Geographical Society for the Petherick Expedition had, 
at the time of our departure, reached but half the sum expected, 
namely, J02,OOO ; the amount received by Petherick, therefore, was 
301,000. The expenses incurred in sending out the expedition 
under Abd il Majid last month nearly exhausted those funds. It 
being essential that Petherick, organizing an expedition on a grand 
scale — one which would not be necessitated to return in June, 1862 
— he was compelled to endeavour to effect large sales of ivory, &c. ; 
so traders from the Hedjas'and Mussawa were awaited. 
