"You neither appreciated this delicate attention on my part, nor made any allowances for the exigences of the case as regarded de Morin and Delange. In your inconsiderate way, you snatch up a pen, and hurl the most terrible threats against three poor devils who are about to offer up their lives as a sacrifice to science and geography. "But, most inexorable of tyrants, you have us in your power. We cannot do without cigars, and so we surrender at discretion. "Do you know, first of all, where I am at this present moment? I am neither in a hotel, nor in a room, nor under a tent, nor on land, nor on the Nile. I am out at sea—the Red one, on board a steamer belonging to the Medschidieh Company of Egypt, and am on my way to Souakim, a port of some importance, situated midway between Suez and Aden, on the west coast, that is to say, on the same side as Egypt and Nubia, I trust that you will, at all events do me the honour of following me on the map. Get the one by Brué—it is about the best, though it leaves much to be desired. The German map of Stieler, of Gotha, '_Mittel und nord Africa (ostlicher theil)_', which, being interpreted, is, 'Nothern and Central Africa (eastern portion),' is far more complete, but you would lose yourself amongst all the German names. It requires a certain amount of skill to understand the French maps, whereon the names of towns, tribes, villages, rivers and mountains are inscribed in half-a-dozen different ways. Sometimes, even, there is not the slightest resemblance between two names given to the same place. For instance, the town of Berber, where we shall once more join the Nile, is called on some maps, El-Mecheref. If you can recognise Berber under that name, you are far cleverer than I am. "But I am wandering. I was telling you that we were proceeding by sea towards Souakim, whence we shall go by land to Berber, and then up the Nile by Chendy, as far as Khartoum. Why, you will ask, did we select that route? For many reasons, but principally because it is the shortest, and offers great advantages in the way of security. In a week at the most, we may expect, in spite of having to call in at several places on the coast, to be at the first-named port. We shall there be within two or three degrees of the latitude of Khartoum. We shall thus have accomplished in eight days, a distance which, even in good seasons, takes at least six weeks, sometimes even two months, if the journey is made by steamer up the Nile.