172 
DIPLOMACY. 
[chap. IV. 
with you in any way. Transact your business, and 
don't interfere with me : the country is wide enough 
for us both. I have a task before me, to reach a great 
lake—the head of the Nile. Reach it I will (In- 
shallah). No power shall drive me back. If you 
are hostile, I will imprison you in Khartoum; if you 
assist me, I will reward you far beyond any reward 
you have ever received. Should I be killed in this 
country, you will be suspected; you know the result; 
the Government would hang you on the bare suspicion. 
On the contrary, if you are friendly, I will use my 
influence in any country that I discover, that you 
may procure its ivory for the sake of your master 
Koorshid, who was generous to Captains Speke and 
Grant, and kind to me. Should you be hostile, I 
shall hold your master responsible as your employer. 
Should you assist me, I will befriend you both. 
Choose your course frankly, like a man—friend or 
enemy ? ” 
Before he had time to reply, Mrs. Baker addressed 
him much in the same strain, telling him that he 
did not know what Englishmen were ; that nothing 
would drive them back ; that the British Government 
watched over them wherever they might be, and that 
no outrage could be committed with impunity upon 
a British subject. That I would not deceive him in 
