846 JOTJRNET TO CENTRAL AFRICA.

taken up with peevish comments on the conduct of D'Arnaud and Sabatier, and the report of the former, as I learned from Dr. Knoblecher himself, is incorrect in many particulars. The most satisfactory account is that of Dr. Knoblecher, who ascended about fifty miles beyond the point reached by previous expeditions. During my stay in Khartoum, I received from him full particulars of his adventures, and was allowed to inspect his journals and sketch-books. His reports are exceedingly curious and interesting, and I herewith present a brief outline of them.

Dr. Knoblecher was specially educated, in the Propaganda at Rome, as a missionary for Central Africa. After studying the Arabic language for a year in Syria, he proceeded to Khartoum, where a Catholic Mission had already been established. There, however, the Mission found its sphere of operations circumscribed by the jealousy of the government, as all attempts to make proselytes of Mussulmen are forbidden, and the highest ambition of the slaves who are brought from the interior is to be considered faithful followers of the Prophet.

Dr. Knoblecher was therefore directed to accompany the annual trading expedition up the White Nile, for the purpose of ascertaining the practicability of establishing a missionary station among some of the native negro tribes near the Equator.

He experienced much difficulty at the outset, on account of the jealousy of the Egyptian traders, who find the company of a European a restraint upon their violent and lawless practices, but through the influence of the Pasha, who was at last brought to give his consent, the missionaries secured a place in the expedition, and on the 13th of November, 1849, set sail from Khartoum. There were seven vessels in the flotilla, and