, as I held a firman from the Viceroy, he could not do
otherwise, and that I must believe him to be my truest friend. "Save
me from my friends," was an adage quickly proved. I could not procure
a cook nor any other attendant, as every one was afraid to guarantee
a character, lest he might come in for his share of the two hundred
lashes!

The Governor came to my rescue, and sent immediately the promised
Turkish soldiers, who were to act in the double capacity of escort and
servants. They were men of totally opposite characters. Hadji Achmet was
a hardy, powerful, dare-devil-looking Turk, while Hadji Velli was
the perfection of politeness, and as gentle as a lamb. My new allies
procured me three donkeys in addition to the necessary baggage camels,
and we started from Berber on the evening of the 10th of June for the
junction of the Atbara River With the Nile.

Mahomet, Achmet, and Ali are equivalent to Smith, Brown, and Thompson.
Accordingly, of my few attendants, my dragoman was Mahomet, and my
principal guide was Achmet, and subsequently I had a number of Alis.
Mahomet was a regular Cairo dragoman, a native of Dongola, almost
black, but exceedingly tenacious regarding his shade of color, which he
declared to be light brown. He spoke very bad English, was excessively
conceited, and irascible to a degree. He was one of those dragomans who
are accustomed to the civilized expeditions of the British tourist to
the first or second cataract, in a Nile boat replete with conveniences
and luxuries, upon which the dragoman is monarch supreme, a whale among
the minnows, who rules the vessel, purchases daily a host of unnecessary
supplies, upon which he clears his profit, until he returns to Cairo
with his pockets filled sufficiently to support him until the following
Nile season. The short three months' harvest, from November until
February, fills his granary for the year. Under such circumstances the
temper should be angelic.

But times had changed. To Mahomet the very idea of exploration was
an absurdity. He had never believed in it front the first, and he now
became impressed with the fact that he was positively committed to an
undertaking that would end most likely in his death, if not in terrible
difficulties; he determined, under the circumstances, to make himself as
disagreeable as possible to all parties. With this amiable resolution
he adopted a physical infirmity in the shape of deafness. In reality, no
one was more ac