FAREWELL TO UGANDA. 279 while in the early morning it was so heavy with dew, that in a few hundred yards one's clothes were as completely saturated as if one had plunged into a river. There were enormous quantities of wild vines in this district, and these were now heavily laden with large bunches of grapes which were just ripening. The fruit was small but sweet, and of a very good flavour, and most refreshing after a hot march. On the second day from Foweira we met soldiers coming from Fatiko, and they handed me a letter from Felkin, saying he had started for Lado at Dr. Eniin's urgent request. Towards the end of the third day's march we approached the edge of the vast plateau along which we had been travelling, and which here bounds the valley of the Nile, and having descended its western face, encamped at night at its foot, On July 24th I reached Fatiko, a strong military station, most charmingly situated near hills, among vast fields of corn. I was most courteously and hospitably received by the vakil, Abdul Aga Miner, a perfect negro gentleman ; and indeed in all my journeys through the Soudan and Egypt, extending to several thousands of miles, I always received (with scarcely an exception) the utmost courtesy and kindness from the highest to the lowest of the Egyptian officials.

I stayed more than a fortnight at Fatiko, and was charmed with the place. It possesses many natural