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my course until I fell in with my friend Ali Amuri and found him also in mind to return to Khartoum. Whereupon we agreed to travel in company. The

zeriba of Ashur was near the River Bangu, one

of the branches of the Bahr el Ghazal River, which none of our people had ever before traversed: so we proposed to navigate it, that thus we might save

ourselves the labour of carrying the merchandise and

bales by land. We built two boats and embarked

in them our goods and porters to the number of two hundred and fourteen, and set out for Meshra el

Rek with food sufficient for two months. We

progressed for thirteen days and nights when the

stream widened out, until it resembled a lake rather

than a river, and so we deviated from our way. In

this lake we wandered for five and seventy days,

without seeing aught but sky and sea, even though we searched with a scrutinising eye the waters far and near ; then indeed did our stores become

exhausted, and we ate what we had of skins and

leather thongs, being reduced to sore straits through

hunger. For, verily, God abaseth whom He

willeth, while there be some whom He exalteth. While we were in this sad condition lo ! there

appeared some smoke afar off. So Amuri and I

selected nine of our men, and we embarked in a

small skiff making for the direction of the smoke,

but we had not gone but a short distance from the

boats when the smoke ceased. Then the boats

drew away from us, and we wandered aimlessly at