AMEDEB, 141 and I received it on my arrival at Suez. I also telegraphed our thanks to the Bey at Cassala, for the trouble he had taken on our behalf.

Amedeb is a wretched place ; it contains a garrison of eight hundred soldiers, and boasts of four cannon and a mortar. It is the worst supplied town I met with in the Soudan, owing, no doubt, to its being off any principal caravan-route ; and is a purely military post, having no trade worth mentioning. Our camel-drivers had told us how poor the bazaars were ; they had only been able to get five small packets of candles to take to the camp, one of which we appropriated, having forgotten to bring any with us. We bought a few beads to take back, but they were poor and very dear ; and we were also able to obtain milk and eggs. We were in great luck, too, in being able to procure camels, as, during our stay, a string of from two to three hundred Shukereeyeh camels arrived, bringing dJiurra for the government. We sent a Shukereeyeh camel-driver we had brought from Aibaro to their owners, and, after a great deal of discussion, succeeded in hiring eight, with four drivers, at the rate of twelve dollars a month each, enormous wages for the country ; but they were all in such fear of the Base, that they would not consent to take less.

While detained at Amedeb, I wrote a letter to Pere Picard, a French priest, belonging to the Roman-Catholic mission at Sanheit, telling him of what had happened, and asking him to help us recover our rifles. We had made his acquaintance the previous winter ; he is a most energetic man, and knows Abyssinia well ; and I knew he would help us if he could. It was not merely on account of the monetary value of the rifles, that we were anxious to recover them, but we could not bear to think that they had got our weapons from us.

Mahomet, before he died, had told Salee that he had a sister