she had revived the splendour of
Palmyra.

This profusion was, however, not wholly without calculation. Those who
benefited by it spread her praises in every direction, so that her
coming was eagerly looked for, and hospitality pressed upon her with an
eagerness which may have been inspired by selfish motives, but was not
the less agreeable to her companions or herself. The young girls danced
merrily at her approach; they took her for a princess, or, at all
events, as such they saluted her.

After resting for some weeks at Berber, Miss Tinne again hired their
boats, and ascended the Nile to Khartum, the chief town of the Egyptian
Soudan. Situated at the confluence of the two Niles, the White and the
Blue, it is already the centre of a considerable commerce, and the
rendezvous of almost all the caravans of Nubia and the Upper Nile.
Unfortunately it is one of the world's _cloacinae_, a kind of moral
cesspool, into which flows the uncleanness, the filth of many nations;
the rendezvous of Italians, Germans, Frenchmen, and Englishmen, whom
their own countries have repudiated; political gamblers, who had played
their last card and lost their last stake; fraudulent bankrupts,
unscrupulous speculators--men who have nothing to hope, nothing to lose,
and are too callous, or too desperate, or too miserable to fear. The
great scourge of the place--even now, after all the efforts, not wholly
unsuccessful, of Colonel Gordon, is the detestable slave-trade; and by
its abettors the projected journey of Miss Tinne was regarded with much
hostility. It was obvious that, traversing as she would do the districts
blighted by this terrible plague, she would see all its sad results, and
her fearless exposure of them would not long be delayed. Secretly,
therefore, they threw every possible obstacle in the way of her
advance; but her wealth, high position, and unfailing energy, prevailed
over all; and after a delay of some weeks she succeeded in completing
her preparations. A sufficient stock of provisions was got together, and
a supply of trinkets for the purpose of gifts or barter; an escort of
thirty-eight men, including ten soldiers, fully armed, and all bearing a
good character for trustworthiness, was engaged; and, finally, she
hired, for the large sum of ten thousand francs, a small steamboat,
belonging to Prince Halim, the late Khedive's brother.

Her high moral sense revolted at the low social tone of Khartum, and she
left it with gla