pascha's plans. 261 army was much melted away, and many were sick. He held that the Sheiks under him must have business elsewhere, and would there make much spoil ; he would, therefore, wait till spring, and then push up, on and by the Blue Nile, to Atisch, from there fall on Habesch, and quickly conquer it, ere the English, who had taken it and its bad people under their protection, could have tidings of it, and so by force open up this old road of trade. His plans of conquest extended from thence all over the gold lands of Faszogl, out over the Beni-Amer, and to Darfur ; as if all this was a mere trifle. On a sign given, his attendants quitted the recuba, and he entrusted to me that the Viceroy had invited him to pay him a visit at Cairo ; that he certainly would not go, but had no wish to quarrel with him, as he still possessed his confidence, as his sending the twenty-three great guns showed ; although he had before had liis doubts about it. (This reserve that he obstinately persisted in, after a second and even third invitation, afterwards cost him his life ; and it was fortunate for me I made my escape in time, as he must have divulged to some treacherous Sheiks the plans of independence he fostered, as I afterwards, on my journey to Mandera, had completely proved to me by Abu Sin.) He then made a gloomy face, and related that his father-in-law, even at this busy and unpleasant time, urged him to equip a second expedition to the White Nile, and that he must, for the moment, comply with his wishes.

No one was better pleased than I by this last intelligence, and I was hard put to to conceal it. His promise to promote me to Bey on his conquest of Abyssinia, or rather of its nearest provinces, and to give me sixteen purses monthly, was, compared with this, a mere nothing ; as, in this country, there is a mighty difference between promising and performing, as I, unfortunately, in the sequel had bitter experience of. Solinian Kaschef, of Karreri, a brave Circassian, and a " fellow of infinite humour," wlio already had commanded the first expedition to the Bachr-el-Abiat, and who had now been some time with the camp, and employed on many plundering expeditions, made a long face when the Pascha announced to him that he should lead this expedition. However, on our quitting the Pascha's presence, he came with us T 4