_Friday, Feb. 17th._—The thumping of the rudder kept us awake nearly all night. We went on shore not expecting to be gone long, but the men said they had seen a lion, and that started us off, and we soon got on the trail. Doctor and I were separated in the thick brush. He followed one trail and I another. Ibrahim was with me; a good sailor with him. I soon came upon three large deer. I had only a shot gun, but dropped a bullet in, and was just raising the gun when Ibrahim, in what I call his woman’s clothes, came marching up, and asked what I saw. Of course I saw no deer then. It was a splendid hunting ground. There were fresh tracks of lions and buffaloes and deer, etc., all around us. But it was time to return to the steamer. We had turned and gone only a little way, when, all of a sudden, two mounted Baggara Arabs, with their long spears leveled, sprang from the bushes and stood in the pathway between us and the steamer. The truth flashed upon us. We were waylaid by followers of El Mehdi, who would not hesitate to kill us if they could. Ibrahim began to mutter his prayers and repeat passages from the Koran. The two men stood their horses before us, directly in our pathway, and eyed us from head to foot. My gun was ready, my finger on the trigger, and they saw that the first step forward meant death to one if not both of them. We walked steadily forward and towards them. Ibrahim was so frightened that I could hardly make him understand anything I said. Finally, I spoke so sternly that he recovered his senses, and kept close to my side, as I ordered him to do. As we approached the Arabs they turned their horses and walked them ahead of us, consulting what they had better do. Then they moved around us in a circle, and followed us up in the rear. Finally, they called to us, and we turned and faced them. They had evidently concluded that our guns were too many for them; but they tried to get us to go back into the country, telling us that our friends wanted to see us. But we were not to be fooled so easily, and kept steadily on till we reached the steamer. We thought, at first, that possibly the Doctor was in trouble, and did want to see us, but we found, on his return, that he had not seen them, and knew nothing about them. It was a ruse to get us into a trap. All agreed that, if we had not been armed as we were, they would have killed us in a minute. The Doctor had had his adventures, too. He had seen three lions, and wounded one and chased him nearly to Gebel Ain. He had met a party of Shillooks, and found them friendly, after marching up to them and shaking them by the hand. This region is full of game of all sorts. I killed some pigeons for dinner, and then we all went on board. We started at 11:20, and reached the broad part of the river, known as Aboo Zeid, which Gordon has put down on his map as _a town_, at 3:30. We anchored near the island of Abbas, about two hours from the former village of Mohammed Achmet.