€IIAP. I.] 
PREPARATIONS FOR SAILING. 
27 
to work in earnest. I had taken the precaution to 
obtain an order upon the Treasury at Khartoum for 
what money I required, and as ready cash performs 
wonders in that country of credit and delay, I was 
within a few weeks ready to start. I engaged three 
vessels, including two large noggurs or sailing barges, 
and a good decked vessel with comfortable cabins, 
known by all Nile tourists as a diahbiah. 
The preparations for such a voyage are no trifles. 
I required forty-five armed men as escort, forty men as 
sailors, which, with servants, &c. raised my party to 
ninety-six. The voyage to Gondokoro, the navigable 
limit of the Nile, was reported to be from forty-five to 
fifty days from Khartoum, but provisions were neces¬ 
sary for four months, as the boatmen would return to 
Khartoum with the vessels, after landing me and piy 
party. In the hope of meeting Speke and Grant’s 
party, I loaded the boats with an extra quantity of 
corn, making a total of a hundred urdeps (rather ex¬ 
ceeding 400 bushels). I had arranged the boats to 
carry twenty-one donkeys, four camels, and four 
horses; which I hoped would render me independent 
of porters, the want of transport being the great diffi¬ 
culty. The saddles, packs, and pads/ were all made 
under my own superintendance; nor was the slightest 
trifle neglected in the necessary arrangements for 
