THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN distance in the desert, and he was most anxious to visit them.

His guide, however, declared that the site was infested with Hons, that it was folly to attempt to go there without an adequate guard and escort, and finally declined to undertake the responsibility of his safety if he went. Whilst he was revolving the matter in his mind, and forming plans whereby he might camp in one of the buildings at Nagaa, and so defend himself against the lions, his artist raised so many objections that he told him, in disgust, that he might go or not as he thought proper. The artist took him at his word, and promptly refused to go, and as Hoskins was unable to make satisfactory arrangements for him if he should himself go alone, which he had fully intended to do, he was obliged to give up the expedition. Hoskins puts the best face possible on the matter, and mentions his lack of funds, and the difficulty of replenishing them in that country, and refers to the excessive heat and to his health, which had for some days not been very good, and tries to show that he estimated the giving up of his expedition to Nagaa as a matter of " little importance ;" but it is easy to read between the lines and see that his chagrin and disappointment were great. As a matter of fact, the temples of Nagaa are the most interesting of allthemonuments in the Sudan! and every one who does see them and knows that Hoskins did not, will greatly regret that this bold and enterprising traveller was, through the timidity of his artist, obliged to leave the Island of Meroe without seeing the best preserved and most characteristic of all its antiquities. Having given up the idea of going to Nagaa, he abandoned his intention of going to Sennaar and all hope of tracing the White Nile to its source. He therefore made up his mind that Sennaar was very much like Shendi, and was not worth a journey of twenty-two da\ s, that the source of the White Nile could only at that period be successfully discovered by an armed force, that certain death would certainly await the individual who undertook such an expedition, and— he returned to Shendi From Shendi Hoskins crossed the river to Matamma, whence, having obtained camels, he set out to cross the Baydda Desert to Merawi, a distance of about two hundred miles. At Abulay he found wells of water, at which he refilled his water-skins, and he then pressed on to Gakdul Wells, and arrived at the Nile, a little 58