ree Dutch ladies--the Baroness Capellen, Madame Tinne,
and her daughter--who had, in the most spirited way, come up the Nile in
a steamer for the purpose of assisting them, intending to proceed
overland to Fernando Po.

They had, while at Gondokoro, been shocked by seeing a number of slaves,
attacked by small-pox, thrown overboard by the native traders. These
noble and philanthropic ladies had rescued some of the unfortunate
natives from slavery. Unhappily, overcome by the climate, Madame Tinne
and most of her companions some time afterwards died, and their proposed
expedition was arrested.

The voyage down the Nile to Khartoum took from the 26th of February to
the 30th of March, and was performed in a _diabeah_, the usual Nile
boat, the after part being covered with a deck, on which was built a
comfortable poop cabin. Their Seedees followed them in two large boats.
They were hospitably welcomed by Ali Bey, and by a number of European
and Turkish inhabitants.

They now felt themselves in a civilised country. Fifty years ago
Khartoum was a mere military post on the Egyptian frontier; it now
contains quarters for fifteen thousand troops.

At a banquet, given in their honour by an Italian hunter, Monsieur
Debono, upwards of twenty gentlemen and four ladies were present. They
here met also Mr Aipperly, a minister of the Pilgrim Mission from the
Swiss Protestant Church. He was stationed at Gallabat, and, having
learned blacksmith's work and other trades, he was able to make friends
with the natives by assisting them to put up their irrigation wheels and
other carpenter's work.

Among other interesting places they visited was a Coptic church. In the
centre was a desk, at which a man was reading aloud to a number of other
persons wearing large turbans, their shoes placed on one side, and
several children, all sitting on a carpet, listening devoutly. On the
walls were draperies and pictures of the Saviour, and within a doorway
was a high altar, covered with a cloth marked with the figure of the
cross. The service was in Arabic. A handsome old man entered, bearing
a staff surmounted by a golden cross. After kneeling at the altar, he
invited the strangers to his house to have coffee. Grant says that he
never saw a finer face than that of this venerable Copt, Gabriel by
name, who is at the head of the Coptic Church at Khartoum.

They left Khartoum on the 15th of April, and continued their journey
down to Berber