142 Seven Years in the Soudan.

I was able to leave Cairo, accompanied by the best wishes of the consular authorities and many friends.

" Our materials were contained in eleven cases, stowed in the same train by which we travelled, and in sixteen cases which were sent to the agents, Stross and Co., who were to forward them to me by the train direct from Alexandria to Suez.

" The cases were made of wood lined with tin, constructed for transportation by camels, and containing everything necessary for an expedition that was to last two years — that is, five photographic apparatus, two thousand ready-prepared plates, a perfect theodolite, thermometers, barometers, hypsometers, aneroids, pedometers, optical and engineering instruments, colours, geographical maps copied from the best existing at the Geographical Society of Vienna, clothing, beads, arms, and cloths.

" I arrived at Suez on the evening of the 11th, and was received with great festivities by the viceconsuls of Italy and Austria. Next morning I sent some men to fetch the sixteen cases, which ought to have arrived the evening before from the station. My messengers returned immediately with the bad news that all my possessions had been destroyed. On repairing to the spot with my friends, I found the baggage wagon intact, but all my baggage had disappeared except some fragments, which the authorities refused to give me. The stationmaster asserted that at three a.m. a fire had broken out in the carriage in which Avere my cases and some valuable articles destined for the Sheik of Mecca.

" I cannot express the heartfelt distress and disappointment of myself and companions at this unexpected occurrence, which destroyed all our-projects, and Avas, to myself alone, a loss of more than 2i>,000 francs. I begged the vice-consul to draw up a statement of the disaster, which I here enclose.

" An expedition meditated for so long, from which brilliant results might be expected, that would have