done; but the next morning (7th), after our things were put
out for the march, all Kidgwiga's men bolted, and no guides would take
service with us. It was now obvious that, even supposing I succeeded in
taking Kidgwiga to Gondokoro, he would not have a sufficient escort to
come back with, unless, indeed, it happened that Englishmen might be
there who might wish to carry out my investigations by penetrating to
the Little Luta Nzige, and to pay a visit to Kamrasi. I therefore called
Kidgwiga, and after explaining these circumstances, advised him to go
back to Kamrasi. He was loth to leave, he said, until his commission was
fully performed; but as I thought it advisable, he would consent. I then
gave him a double gun and ammunition, as well as some very rich beads
which I obtained from Mahamed's stores, to take back to Kamrasi, with
orders to say that, as soon as I reached Gondokoro or Khartum, I would
send another white man to him--not by the way I had come through Kidi,
but by the left bank of the Nile: to which Kidgwiga replied, "That will
do famously, for Kamrasi will change his residence soon, and come on the
Nile this side of Rionga's palace, in order that he may cut in between
his brother and the Turks' guns."

After this, I gave a lot of rich beads to Kidgwiga for himself, and a
lot also for the senior officers at the Chopi and Kamrasi's palaces, and
sent the whole set off as happy as birds. When these men were gone, I
tried to get up an elephant-shooting excursion due west of this, with a
view to see where the Nile was, for I would not believe it was very far
off, although no one as yet, since I left Chopi, either would or could
tell me where the stream had gone to.

8th. Mahamed professed to be delighted I had made up my mind to such
a scheme. He called the heads of the villages to give me all the
information I sought for, and went with me to the top of a high rock,
from which we could see the hills I first viewed at Chopi, sweeping
round from south by east to north, which demarked the line of the Asua
river. The Nile at that moment was, I believed, not very far off; yet,
do or say what I would, everybody said it was fifteen marches off, and
could not be visited under a month. [25] It would be necessary for me
to take thirty-six of Mahamed's men, besides all my own, to go there,
which, he said, I was welcome to, but I should have to pay them for
their services. This was a damper at once.

I knew in my mind all