ces" were
catching. When he left Cairo, as he confided to me, though it was warm
enough there, he decided not to buy too thin clothing lest he might
catch cold. He therefore purchased articles that even in England would
be called woolly and comfortable. Later on, as he reclined upon his
couch in a thrice-raised Turkish bath temperature, he lamented that he
"could not catch cold" even in a state of nature or next to it. He no
longer wondered at Sydney Smith's wish to sit in his bones, and
thought that expression would have acquired additional force if the
witty divine had added "packed in ice."

CHAPTER IV.

BY THE WAY--FROM CAIRO TO DAKHALA.

Ten days from London to the junction of the Atbara with the Nile: so
far from England and yet so near. By-and-by, no doubt, the Brindisi
mail, speeding in connection with the Khartoum express, will make the
run in seven or eight days. From England to Port Said is now but a
matter of four days by the new Peninsular and Oriental service. It
took me six days from Cairo to reach Dakhala. The officials prefer to
know the place as "Atbara Camp." There is no absolute rule for the
bestowal of proper names, or at least no practice one need care about
in the Soudan, so I prefer to dub the locality by its native title of
Dakhala, or Dakhelha. It saves a word in telegraphing, and there is
more fitness in calling that dusty, dirty enclosure by the less
euphonious name.

One could not but note what a wondrous change in the military and
political situation had been wrought in the land since 1884-85.
Railways had solved every difficulty of dealing with the dervishes.
Quite easily nowadays the remote provinces of the whilom great
Egyptian equatorial empire can be reached and governed. With ordinary
care under the altered conditions millions of Arabs and blacks can be
transformed from chronic-rebellious into trusty loyal subjects. There
has been bloodguiltiness and to spare in the Soudan since 1883-84,
therefore the rehabilitation of the country through the setting up of
just government will be in the nature of discharging a duty long
incumbent upon Great Britain. From the Atbara southward, the Niles and
their tributaries are open to steam navigation the year round. The
possession of these noble waterways, which extend over thousands of
miles, includes the fee-simple of sovereignty in the fertile lands of
the two Nile basins and their commerce. By admirable foresight and
indomitable An