This Playing At Soldiers Was An Imitation Of The
Turks.
He was in great spirits, being perfectly delighted with the
necklace I had sent him."
"Oct. 6th. - I have examined my only remaining donkey: he is a picture of
misery - eyes and nose running, coat staring, and he is about to start to
join his departed comrades; he has packed up for his last journey. With
his loose skin hanging to his withered frame he looked like the British
lion on the shield over the door of the Khartoum consulate. In that
artistic effort the lion was equally lean and ragged, having perhaps
been thus represented by the artist as a pictorial allusion to the
smallness of the Consul's pay; the illustration over the shabby gateway
utters, 'Behold my leanness! 150l. per annum!'
"I feel a touch of the poetic stealing over me when I look at my
departing donkey. 'I never loved a dear gazelle,' &c.: but the practical
question, 'Who is to carry the portmanteau?' remains unanswered. I do
not believe the Turks have any intention of going to Kamrasi's country;
they are afraid, as they have heard that he is a powerful king, and they
fear the restrictions that power will place upon their felonious
propensities. In that case I shall go on without them; but they have
deceived me, by borrowing 165 lbs. of beads which they cannot repay;
this puts me to much inconvenience. The Asua river is still impassable,
according to native reports; this will, prevent a general advance south.
Should the rains cease, the river will fall rapidly, and I shall make a
forward move and escape this prison of high grass and inaction."
"Oct.
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