AN UNSUCCESSFUL STRIKE. 57 tented, — so we made him stand aside. On asking the rest if they would come on these new terms, all except three replied in the affirmative. These afterwards repented of having refused, and wanted to go with us ; but we would not take them, and chose others in their stead.

This affair was no sooner settled, than the natives whom we had brought from Souakim struck, and all declared they wished to go back. We had engaged them to look after the horses, help pitch the tents, and make themselves generally useful ; but, as they were becoming very lazy, we had been thinking of dismissing them, and so were not sorry to lose them. The best of them, a fine, tall, handsome fellow, named Achmet, afterwards repented, and asked to be taken on to look after the horses (of which we had purchased several at Cassala) ; and we acceded to his request. He had travelled the previous winter with two Austrians ; and we found him most useful, particularly as a tracker, in which capacity he excelled. We were afterwards very glad of his services, and he remained with us during the whole of the expedition.

We had no difficulty in finding men to replace those who returned to the coast, but some of them proved all but useless. As to the camel-drivers, some of whom were natives of Cassala, and some from the Mahass district in the Dongola country, they were, as a rule, both lazy and incompetent. Real cameldrivers were not to be obtained ; and, of those we had engaged in that capacity, most had had nothing to do with camels previously.

As we had not bought a sufficient number of camels to carry all our luggage, we had to hire a few more to take the rest of it as far as Haikota, where we intended leaving it. The governor obtained the required number for us, with Shukreeyeh drivers. We were anxious that he should dine with us before