The following day, the 8th, Lord Avonmore requested of me seven men and a foreman, to go with him up to the Dal cataract to be stationed there, owing probably, as I thought to myself, that Col. Alleyne considered the Dal the most difficult. I pointed out Peter Canoe as the most experienced boatman I had, and as he does not speak English, James Deer went as their interpreter. I received orders for myself to go down with the rest of my men to Gemai. At Gemai I found twenty-three light boats manned by Dongolese. Placing a captain in each boat we started, but were disappointed to find that these men had never seen a boat nor used an oar. With the help of the usual north wind we managed to ascend in good time to Sarras. On the way up we had to teach one man to steer and then go round to each man and teach him to row. Neither understanding one word of the other's language, this was a terrible task. I had however, been long enough in contact with English military discipline by this time, to know that there was no backing out. We loaded at Sarras and proceeded up with Lieut. C. R. Orde as Commander of this convoy, who had an interpreter with him. Without the latter it would have been impossible to get along; as it was, some accidents could not be avoided. Our new commander being an experienced boatman as well as a good carpenter, and a gentleman we managed to keep up with the other fleets. To give an idea of the trouble we had, I need only say that these Dongolese generally understood just the contrary of what they were ordered to do. They would pull hard when asked to stop or stop pulling at some critical place when hard pulling was required. Lieut. Orde as well as myself were continually patching boats on account of these fellows. We made the nine miles from Sarras to Semnah in just six days, whereas we had travelled before at the rate of seventy miles in five days. At Semnah Lieut. Orde reported to Commander Hammill, R. N., in charge of Semnah cataract, Commander Hammill informed me that my plan of ascending Semnah gate was adopted by all the others, he also asked me if I thought I should be able to make boatmen of the Dongolese, I told him I was discouraged and the only consolation I had was that my Dongolese convoy was still travelling as fast as the other fleets in spite of my strict orders always to give the right of way to boats manned by soldiers and to avoid retarding them in the cataracts.