'JO JOURNEY IN CENTRAL AFRICA.

conducted us on board a boat belonging to a friend of his, a grizzly rais, or captain. The craft was a small Tcangia, with a large lateen sail at the bow and a little one at the stern. It was not very new, but looked clean, and the rais demanded three hundred piastres for the voyage. The piastre is the current coin of the East. Its value is fluctuating, and always higher in Egypt than in Syria and Turkey, but may be assumed at about five cents, or twenty to the American dollar. Before closing the bargain, we asked the advice of M. de G-onzenbach, who immediately despatched his Egyptian servant and engaged a boat at two hundred and twenty-five piastres. Every thing was to be in readiness for our departure on the following evening.