2 PEEPACE.

of a duty than a diversion, and I have endeavored to

impart as much instruction as amusement to the

reader. While seeking to give correct pictures of the

rich, adventurous life into which I was thrown, I ha^e

resisted the temptation to yield myself up to its more

suhtle and poetic aspects. My aim has been to furnish

a faithful narrative of my own experience, believing

that none of those embellishments which the imagina-

tion so readily furnisheSj can equal the charm of the

unadorned truth.

There are a few words of further explanation which

I wish to say. The journey was undertaken solely

for the purpose of restoring a frame exhausted by

severe mental labor. A previous experience of a tropi-

cal climate convinced me that I should best accomplish my object by a visit to Egypt, and as I had a whole

winter before me, I determined to penetrate as far into

the interior of Africa as the time would allow, attracted

less by the historical and geographical interest of those

regions than by the desire to participate in their free,

vigorous, semi-barbaric life. If it had been my inten-

tion, as some of my friends supposed, to search for the

undiscovered sources of the White Nile, I should not

have turned back, until the aim was accomplished or all

means had failed.

I am aware that, by including in this work my

journey through Egypt, I have gone over much ground