Great Mortality through Famine. 403 by gentle methods ; it needs caustic treatment and the touch of fire. Some twenty examples carried out in the Soudan would crash all the slave traders.

I am confident that with the New Year my fate will change, having taken all possible measures to extricate myself from my present position, the worst I have known since I came into the world. If Providence favours me, I am inclined, as soon as I reach Khartoum, to return to the bosom of my family after three years of a tempestuous life.

January \d, 1881. — The day dawns; it is New Year's Day, and in my thoughts I send my good wishes to my family and friends.

As early as seven o'clock I called the men to work. The anchors were raised, the engines set going, and we gradually backed till we could turn our prow to the river. After four hours' work, always going astern, the engines stopped ; it was found that the grappling irons were rotten. Still we succeeded in tearing away a large piece of flotsam, which, carried off by the current, left our prow free, and the currents acting on it, enabled the steamer to turn to the channel. But behind us an entire island of vegetation got loose. There was not a moment to lose ; we were obliged to draw back the ropes. For the moment the grappling irons hung above the herbage, and we put on full steam so as not to be driven into another bar.

We are stopped again by another bar, which we hope to pass to-morrow. Meanwhile we employ the time in getting back the ropes. We are in a better position than before, as the woods of Ghudera, where we shall find tamarinds, and probably game, are only an hour distant.

January 2nd. — We commence work in good time. The bar presents difiiculties. Towards ten o'clock the part in front breaks away and is carried off by