FROM THE ATBARA TO WAD HAMED 59 permitted to leave the society of ‘‘Gyppy” officers and native servants, and have our meals on the upper deck. | The gunboat conveyed the Staff of the Intelligence Department, including Slatin Pasha. The long years of hardship endured at Omdurman have left few traces on Slatin ; he is always in excellent spirits, and a most kind and unselfish travelling companion. He told me that he was utterly weary of the Sudan, and would, like many others, be heartily glad to see the last of campaigning in these torrid regions. He told me, too, many interesting things about Omdurman and the prisoners still in the Dervishes’ power ; and how the Austrian mission-sister had been compelled to marry a Greek by the Khalifa on the quaint ground that it was indecorous for an unmarried lady to reside at Omdurman without adequate protection. | The Nile becomes much more interesting above the Atbara, and the banks in places are clothed with dense vegetation. We stopped - several times to take in wood for the engine, and at one of our halting-places, Zeibad, during a ramble on shore, I found the bushes