There will be no opportunity of proceding into Africa by the road to Fezzan, before next year. A small caravan of Twatees[8] from Augila was at Cairo at the moment of my arrival, and left it three weeks afterwards; but it would not have been advisable for me to have made any attempt to accompany it. I should hardly have had time to prepare for setting out with them; I knew no body to whom to address myself for introduction to the caravan; I had no funds to equip myself; and I was as yet too little acquainted with the Egyptian and African world to suppose that I should be able to take my measures in such a way as to remain undiscovered. I am moreover extremely averse to any hasty steps; they are the ruin of the traveller’s health as well as of his plans; and a hasty proceeding it would have been to set out upon such a journey, without having recovered from the fatigues of the former one, and without being in the least acquainted with the people, to whom I was to have intrusted my fortunes. The delay thus occasioned in my Fezzan expedition, I shall endeavour to make profitable to African geography, in another quarter. I mean to set out next month, by land, for Upper Egypt, as soon as the state of the Nile renders the voyage practicable. I shall push on beyond the first cataract, and follow the course of the river by the second and third cataract, towards Dóngola. That country, farther up than Derr, has never been visited by any travellers; yet I am informed by many of the natives, that the borders of the river are full of ancient temples and other antiquities; resembling those of Luxor, and the Isle of Philæ. The present tranquil state of Egypt renders such a voyage of much less danger than it might have been during the whole of the last century; for the Pasha is completely master of the country, and is in friendly intercourse with the princes of Nubia. Were it not for the Mamlouks who have settled at Dóngola, and taken possession of the country, I might hope to reach that point. But I shall not expose myself to their treachery, and shall be contented with approaching to within a journey of five or six days from Dóngola, and with making perhaps some lateral excursions into the Nubian desert. This journey will, I hope, make me acquainted with the character of the Negroe nations, and of those who traffic for slaves, and will thus facilitate my travels in the interior of the continent. It will take me about five months to perform this tour. The Fezzan caravan is not expected to arrive till June next, I shall therefore be in full time to join it after my return to Cairo.