AND THEY ARRIVE AT KAMRASI'S CAMP--AN INVASION BY FOWOOKAS--
MR. BAKER PREVENTS AN ATTACK--HE AT LAST SETS OFF WITH TURKISH TRADERS,
AND ARRIVES AT SHOOA--A MARCH THROUGH THE BARI--REACH GONDOKORO--VOYAGE
DOWN THE NILE--WELCOMED AT KHARTOUM--A DUST-STORM--CONTINUING THEIR
VOYAGE, REACH BERBER, AND AT LENGTH ARRIVE IN ENGLAND--RETURNS TO
EGYPT--ORGANISES AN EXPEDITION TO CONVEY STEAMERS UP THE NILE FOR LAKE
NYANZA, TO OPPOSE THE SLAVE TRADE.

At Khartoum Mr and Mrs Baker spent some months to recruit, occupying
the house of the British Consul, who was then absent.

On the 17th of December their preparations for a fresh start were
completed. Three vessels had been engaged, and were laden with large
quantities of stores, with four hundred bushels of corn, and twenty-nine
transport animals, including camels, horses, and donkeys. Their party
consisted of ninety-six souls, including Johann Schmidt and the faithful
black Richarn, and forty-nine well-armed men.

Khartoum was a nest of slave-traders, who looked with jealous eyes upon
every stranger venturing within the precincts of their holy land, and,
as Mr Baker observes: "sacred to slavery and to every abomination and
villainy that man can commit."

The Turkish officers pretended to discountenance slavery; at the same
time every house was full of slaves, and Egyptian officers received a
portion of their pay in slaves. The authorities, therefore, looked upon
the proposed exploration of the White Nile by a European traveller as
likely to interfere with their perquisites, and threw every obstacle in
his way.

As the government of Soudan refused to supply him with properly-trained
soldiers, the only men he could get for an escort were the miserable
cut-throats of Khartoum, who had been accustomed all their lives to
murder and pillage in the White Nile trade; yet, such as they were, he
was compelled to put up with them, though he would undoubtedly have done
better had he gone without such an escort.

The voyage alone to Gondokoro, the navigable limit of the Nile, was
likely to occupy about fifty days, so that a large supply of provisions
was necessary.

Difficulties were met with from the very beginning. The vessel's yards
were continually being carried away.

Poor Johann, who, though he had long been suffering, insisted on
accompanying his employer, died a short time after the commencement of
the voyage.

On the 2nd of January they were sailing past the country inh