THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN declaring that he had been allowed free passage through the Oasis without paying anything ! On October 3rd he reached Selima, and thirteen days later he came to Moshi, on the Nile, where a long halt was made by the merchants, who had much business to transact. Here du Roule learned that several Franciscan friars had passed him at Asyut, and that they had gone into Sennaar, but that they had disappeared when they heard that his caravan was advancing through the desert. About this time a report was spread abroad in Cairo that du Roule had been murdered in Dongola. Towards the end of May du Roule arrived in Sennaar, and was well received by the king, who was a young man, and fond of strangers. Du Roule received particular attention from the master of the royal household, one Ahmad Sid-al-K6m, who told him that he had received information from Cairo that he had twenty chests of silver with' him, but at the same time expressed surprise at finding du Roule's baggage so little, both in bulk and value. Ahmad also told him that he had been warned from Cairo not to let him pass, and that he had been given to understand that the object of his mission was to persuade lyasus, the king of Abyssinia, to attack Masawa and Sawakin, and to take these towns from the Turks.

Soon after du Roule's arrival in Sennaar the court decreed that a festival should be held to celebrate a recent victory of the Abyssinians over the Arabs, and he determined to do all that lay in his power to add to the magnificence of the occasion. With this object in view he shaved off his beard and resumed European garb, but the only effect of this was to shock everybody. He appears to have made some display of the mirrors, which the French Consul in Cairo had insisted on his taking with him, and because they multiplied the objects round about them, and distorted them, they caused the common people to regard du Roule and his companions as sorcerers. On all festival occasions the king's wives were allowed to leave their apartments, and to go and look on at the general rejoicings and to see what was to be seen. Without any delay they went to visit du Roule, who failed to entertain them with spirits and sweets, and to give them scent, which all Stidani folks love, and they left him in high dudgeon. They were, moreover, terrified at his mirrors, and, 10