'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 cur-

rent coin of the East. Its value is fluctuating, and always

higher in Egypt than in Syria and Turkey, but may be assum-

ed at about five cents, or twenty to the American dollar. Be-

fore closing the bargain, we asked the advice of M. de G-on- zenbach, 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.