OUR PARTY. 3

the service between Suez and the African ports, and she had

started before we had collected our party together.

In this dilemma, we fortunately were able to induce the

British India Company's steamer "Agra" to stop for us at

Souakim, on her way out to India. This was most lucky for

us, as we grudged spending more of the cool weather at Cairo

than we could help ; the heat in the Soudan becoming very

trying by the spring.

The "Agra" was delayed in the canal, and instead of

leaving Suez on Dec. 2, as she should have done, did not start

until the 7th : this was, however, fortunate, as one of our

party (Colvin) was to join us there from Australia; and,

had she started on the right day, he would have been too

late, as he did not arrive until the 4th, running it rather fine. He had come straight from Adelaide, in the " Chimborazo,"

one of the Orient line, without touching anywhere : and she

had been a few days late in starting.

Before embarking at Suez, I may as well introduce our

party to my readers. It consisted of seven, besides servants, — G. Percy V. Aylmer, R. B. Colvin, E. Lort Phillips, my two

brothers, the Doctor, and myself. Of these, all except Colvin

and the Doctor had made an expedition together, during the

previous winter, into the Bogos country, on the Abyssinian

frontier ; and my brothers and myself had, four years previous

to that, travelled via the Nile and Atbara Rivers, as far as

the River Settite : so that we were not novices in African

travel, and, moreover, — a most important consideration in

undertaking such an expedition, — we felt that we should get

on well together.

As we were so large a number of Europeans, we thought

that it would be prudent to have a doctor in the party. I

undertook the task of finding one, and found it no sinecure.