_Monday, Feb. 6th._—Started about 4 A.M. Stopped for wood on the west side; went ashore and looked about. The Captain will not go on shore, nor allow us to do so, without being well armed. Some Shillooks came down to the shore apparently to barter. We were warned to be on our guard. They were absolutely naked, and a wild looking set. We were off as soon as we got wood enough. Passed a small island, one end of which was literally covered with crocodiles. There is almost a continuous stretch of Shillook villages on both banks along here. The men are all naked. The language strikes one as very peculiar. There are a number of palm trees in this vicinity with a bulge or swelling in the middle of the stem. Passed several villages of considerable size. Saw the village called O-Gawdie, where the late King of the Shillooks, who was killed by Mohammed Achmet, resided. The natives in many places are burning the grass and getting ready to plant their farms. We notice also various methods of fishing, which for a wonder seem to be quite successful. Some large flies came on board along here, and we found that they could bite. At 7:30 we cast anchor in the Sobat, at a point some distance above its mouth, and opposite the deserted military station. We chose the middle of the stream as a matter of safety, for although there are but a handful of people living near here, yet they will swarm from the White Nile, and other parts, at very short notice. Relays of three men each were placed on watch all night. Now that the military station is abandoned the country about here is not considered at all safe. But here we are in the Sobat at last! After all our hopes and fears, after all our journeyings over sea and land, up the old Nile and across the burning sands of the Desert, here we are at last! We are twenty-five hundred miles up the Nile. We are more than eight thousand miles from home. We are in Central Africa. Dr. Ladd and his party went up the Sobat as far as was practicable, and took a number of photographs of the country and the people. They also went beyond the Sobat junction of the White Nile. Having successfully accomplished their mission, they were obliged to return as speedily as possible on account of the increasing dangers that surrounded them. They stopped at “Tawfikeeyeh,” where Sir Samuel Baker had his camp, and at the towns of Melacan and Waw, and took many interesting photographs of all these places. They also visited with a guard among the Shillook villages in the vicinity of Fashoda.