292 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA.

Ali Bey alone abstaining. There were twenty courses in all, and the cookery was excellent. Besides the delicate Turkish compounds of meat and vegetables, delicious fish from the White Nile and fruits from the Pasha's garden, we had blanc mange and several varieties of French patisserie. At the close of the repast, a glass bowl containing a cool drink made from dried figs, quinces and apricots, was placed upon the table.

The best possible humor prevailed, and I enjoyed the dinner exceedingly, the more so because I had not expected to find such a high degree of civilization in Soudan.

We had afterwards coffee and pipes in the reception-room, and about ten in the evening took leave of the Pasha and walked home, preceded by attendants carrying large glass lanterns.

After accompanying Dr. Knoblecher to the gate of the Mission, Ali Bey Khasib took my hand, Bufaa Bey that of the Consul, and we walked to the residence of the Bey, who detained us an hour by the narration of the injuries and indignities which had been inflicted upon him by order of Abbas Pasha.

The latter, on coming into power, took especial care to remove all those officers who had been favorites of Mohammed Ali.

Many of them were men of high attainments and pure character, who had taken an active part in carrying out the old Pasha's measures of reform. Among them was Rufaa Bey, who, with several of his associates, was sent to Khartoum, ostensibly for the purpose of founding a College there, but in reality as a banishment from Egypt. He had been there a year and a half at the time of my visit, yet no order had been received from Cairo relative to the College. This state of inaction and uncertainty, combined with the effect of the climate, had already terminated the lives of two of his fellow-profes-