chap, i.] START FROM CAIRO . 3 
greater than I had failed, I determined to sacrifice all 
in the attempt. Had I been alone it would have been 
no hard lot to die upon the untrodden path before me, 
but there was one who, although my greatest comfort, 
was also my greatest care; one whose life yet dawned 
at so early an age that womanhood was still a future. 
I shuddered at the prospect for her, should she be left 
alone in savage lands at my death; and gladly would 
I have left her in the luxuries of home instead of 
exposing her to the miseries of Africa. It was in vain 
that I implored her to remain, and that I painted the 
difficulties and perils still blacker than I supposed they 
really would be : she was resolved, with woman s con¬ 
stancy and devotion, to share all dangers and to follow 
me through each rough footstep of the wild life before 
me. “And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, 
or to return from following after thee : for whither 
thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will 
lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God 
my God: where thon diest will I die, and there will 
I be buried : the Lord do so to me and more also, if 
aught but death part thee and me/’ 
Thus accompanied by my wife, on the 15th April, 
1861, I sailed up the Nile from Cairo. The wind blew 
fair and strong from the north, and we flew towards 
the south against the stream, watching those myste- 
