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68 detailing the supposed incidents of the capture of Saleh's caravan and myself. It will not have been forgotten that the published official and semi-official records report my capture at two different places a hundred and fifty miles apart, or, in other words, a minimum of five days' journey, and at different dates, — in one instance announcing my arrival at Omdurman as a captive one month before the caravan which I was supposed to have betrayed — or been the cause of the capture of through "imprudence" — had even started from Wadi Halfa.

In the early morning of April 28, I and Hasseena were taken outside the town to where the guards and camels were awaiting us, and setting off on our journey, travelled through Hannak, Debbeh, Abou Gussi, and Ambukol. The incidents connected with our appearance at these places are not of sufficient interest to warrant my detaining my readers with them. From Ambukol we struck into the desert, making for the Nile at Gebel Roiyan, enduring the inevitable discomforts and privations of such a journey. On arrival at the village near Gebel Roiyan, we took possession of what we believed to be a deserted house, and, after taking a little food, lay down to sleep. During the night a wretched old woman crept into my room, and commenced that peculiar wailing known to those who have been in the East. She was, she said, "El umm Khashm-el-Mus" (the mother of Khashm-el-Mus — but the expression may be taken to imply merely that she was one of Khashm-el-Mus's family or relatives), whom Gordon had sent with gunboats to Metemmeh to,