At Lado.

95 so remained till the end. After we liad washed our hands coffee was served to us, while a flourish of trumpets gave us a most inharmonious concert. It consisted of forty trumpeters and made a terrible noise. After having tortured our ears for an hour they were dismissed with some baksheesh. This was act the first.

The second was more comic. The prefect of the police appeared armed with a kind of mandoline, and the music began again ; seven secretaries sang a song composed by the military chemist, all in praise of Yussuf Bey, which ran nearly as follows : " The Governor of file White River is the greatest of all governors. There is not his equal for courage and wisdom. .Even his enemies hioiv hoio generous he is.

(Jod preserve our Mudir Yussuf Bey ! " The good man was so pleased that he went about gesticulating and clapping his hands, and made them repeat the song three times.

I thought the longed-for moment of leave-taking had arrived, when all of a sudden appeared a group of Congolese. Ten of these, seated on a mat, began to sing to the sound of a drum, while the youngest of the group danced, holding a little stick in his hand and twisting his body in every direction, in the most indecorous attitudes .

It was now ten o'clock, and as we must leave in a few hours I asked permission to Avithdraw, not without thanking my host for the feast held in my honour. On arriving on board I found several lambs and bundles of sugar-cane, the gift of the governor.

I had been sent to Khartoum with the powers necessary for organizing the service of the steamboats.

On October 7th I received from His Excellency, Gordon Pasha, orders to come to him as quickly as