e current and driven
against one of the boats. This was too good an opportunity to be
neglected: the boatmen immediately attacked the ill-fated animal,
killed it, and cut it in pieces.

On the 10th of March the ladies steamed into the port of Meschra-el-Rey,
in the Bahr-el-Ghazal, and joined Dr. Heughlin. They were received with
great enthusiasm--flags flying and guns firing. Here a delay of some
days occurred, while they awaited further supplies of provisions, and a
number of porters to carry their baggage, from Khartum. At length the
gentlemen grew impatient, and it was arranged that they should go in
search of the promised bearers, leaving Miss Tinne and her companions at
Meschra. Accordingly, Drs. Heughlin and Steudner set out; but the
malarious climate was working its evil will upon them, and in a state of
great prostration from fever and dysentery, they traversed a desert
country, and crossing the river Djur on the 2nd of April, arrived the
same evening at Wan. Here Dr. Steudner succumbed to his disease, and
passed away, almost without pain, on the 10th. His friend contrived to
give him decent burial. The body was wrapped in Abyssinian cloth,
covered with leaves, and interred in the shade of melancholy boughs,
amidst "that magnificent nature whose true servant and worshipper he
was."

At Bongo, in the land of Dur, Dr. Heughlin succeeded in hiring an
adequate number of porters, though at a heavy price, and returned to
Meschra after an absence of six weeks. The ladies were suffering from
fever; but a supply of provisions having arrived from Khartum, they set
out, undismayed, for Bongo. They travelled by short stages, and when
towards nightfall they reached a village which seemed to offer
convenient quarters, Miss Tinne would send for the sheikh, and the gift
of a few beads was always sufficient to secure them convenient quarters.

The African villages are frequently of considerable size. They are
usually surrounded by a belt of cultivated ground, where dourra,
sesamum, and culinary vegetables thrive abundantly. The flocks that
swarm over the pastures often include some thousands of sheep, though
they are never killed by the natives for purposes of food. At first Miss
Tinne easily purchased several, but as soon as the natives discovered
that she slaughtered them for provision, they refused to sell.
Apparently they make them the object of a rude _cultus_, as the Lapps do
the hare. Their scruples vanished, however,