380 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA.

doubt whether he has to this day discovered in what way he increased his profits by the operation.

My provision-chests were replenished with coffee, sugar, rice, dates and mishmish (dried apricots), from the bazaar, and Achmet worked so cheerily with the prospect of leaving Soudan, that every thing was in readiness at a day's notice.

Rather than wait until the following Monday, for luck's sake, I fixed upon Thursday, the fifth of February, for our departure. Many of the subordinate Egyptian officers prepared letters to their families, which they intrusted to Achmet's care, and poor old Rufaa Bey, more than ever disgusted with his exile, charged me with a letter to his wife and another to Mr.

Murray ,. through whoso aid he hoped to get permission to return to Egypt. I paid a farewell visit to the Pasha, who received me with great courtesy, informing me (what I already knew), that he was about to be superseded by Rustum Pasha, who, he predicted, would not find the government of Soudan an easy one.

I was sorry to part with Vicar Knoblecher and his brethren, Those self-sacrificing men have willingly devoted themselvBS to a life — if life it can be called, which is little better than death — in the remote heart of Africa, for the sake of introducing a purer religion among its pagan inhabitants, and I trust they will be spared to see their benevolent plans realized.

They are men of the purest character and animated by the best desires. Aboona Suleyman, as Dr. Knoblecher is called, is already widely known and esteemed throughout Soudan, and although he can do but little at present in the way of religious teaching, he has instituted a school for the children of the Copts, which may in time reform the (so-called) Christian so