108 
TEAVELS IN CENTEAL AEEICA. 
service. When you went to your home I went to mine at Don- 
gola_, and did as you did — I married ; but^ unlike you^ I was obliged 
to leave my wife and babe behind,, when I heard of your return 
and hastened to rejoin you. You well know the contempt that in 
my country is felt towards a woman that leaves her home with her 
husband; and as your influence is greats I pray you,, if it should 
please God to grant us a safe return^ to write a letter to the 
Governor of Dongola,, that he may order my wife to join me at 
Khartoum. By obeying this command no disgrace would be 
attached to her; we shall then live near you,, and I pray God 
never to leave your service. 
April 21^^. — The close of our generally peaceful Sabbath was a 
terrible one. Yesterday, an hour before the setting of the sun, the 
crew eflPected a landing on the west bank, and gaily towed, the 
shore being free for a mile or more. The reeds again became an 
impediment, and the crew returned to the ‘^‘^Lady of the Nile 
nearly all had reached the boat, when a cry was heard. I followed 
Petherick to the upper deck, to ascertain the cause. A group of 
men had gathered there : they were talking eagerly to Petherick 
and pointing to the river. The reis and two or three were pushing 
off in the felucca, and calling Wallad il Faki! Wallad il Faki!^’ 
lifting the reeds as they did so. I knew at once that there our 
favourite sailor was in peril. No answering shout was heard, but 
in a few moments a wail burst from a boy, who was kneeling at the 
stern, a near relative of Faki ; the cry was echoed by all on board ; 
and a youth who had been with Faki, and who, like himself, had 
plunged into the river to gain the dahabyeh, threw himself on the 
neck of the mourner, weeping. He told that Faki, within a stroke 
of the boat, had been seized by a crocodile and carried underwater. 
