He
Then Made Friends With Mahamed, Who Promised To Help Him On To
Faloro, And I Gave Mahamed And His Men Three Carbines As An
Honorarium.
I should now have gone down the Nile at once if the moon had been
in "distance" for fixing the longitude; but as it was not, I had
to remain until the 26th, living with Baker.
Kurshid Agha became
very great friends with us, and, at once making a present of a
turkey, a case of wine, and cigars, said he was only sorry for
his own sake that we had found a fellow-countryman, else he would
have had the envied honour of claiming us as his guests, and had
the pleasure of transporting us in his vessels down to Khartum.
The Rev. Mr Moorlan, and two other priests of the Austrian
Mission, were here on a visit from their station at Kich, to see
the old place again before they left for Khartum; for the
Austrian Government, discouraged by the failure of so many years,
had ordered the recall of the whole of the establishment for
these regions. It was no wonder these men were recalled; for, out
of twenty missionaries who, during the last thirteen years, had
ascended the White river for the purpose of propagating the
Gospel, thirteen had died of fever, two of dysentary, and two had
retired broken in health, yet not one convert had been made by
them.
The fact is, there was no government to control the population or
to protect property; boys came to them, looked at their pictures,
and even showed a disposition to be instructed, but there it
ended; they had no heart to study when no visible returns were to
be gained.
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