-- 79 — Now when I received this telegram I thought to myself, "if I go to Cairo I shall not return to the Sudan", (i) and so thought my followers who wished to prevent my going, but my duty to myself and to the Government constrained me to keep my word ; so I went to Cairo, travelling by way of El Obeid, Khartoum, lerber, Abu Hamed andKorosko, arriving on the tenth of June, 1875. Here I had the honour of an audience with His Highness the Khedive, in his palace at Giza. He congratulated me on my safe arrival, and invited me to stay in one of his Palaces at Abbassia with my friends and followers : he also supplied me with everything that I could want in the way of clothes and food. I had brought with me from the Sudan a thousand black soldiers armed with rifles, ico horses of the best Arab stock, 165 kantars of ivory of the biggest and best tusks, four lions, four leopards and sixteen parrots. These I gave to the Khedive through his aide-de-camp, and received in reply a very polite letter, in which His Highness said that he was much pleased with the present.

I remained in the Palace, which was put at my entire disposal until the third of August 1875, when His Highness summoned me to Giza and ordered me, in the presence of Maher Dara Kheiri Pasha,to be (i) See Gessi p 333.