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Herkhuf brought his treasures safely back to Egypt, and the King was so pleased with his success that he sent a special messenger with a boat full of delicacies to refresh the weary traveller. But the most successful of all his expeditions was the fourth.
The text of this letter Herkhuf had cut on the front of his tomb, and it reads thus: Royal seal. Royal despatch to the smer uat, the Kher-heb priest, the governor of the caravan, Herkhuf. I have understood the words of this letter which thou hast made to the king in his chamber to make him to know that thou hast returned in peace from Amam, together with the soldiers who were with thee.
Herkhuf was so proud of the King's letter that he caused it to be engraved, word for word, on the walls of the tomb which he hewed out for himself at Elephantine, and there to this day the words can be read which tell us how old is the story of African exploration, and how a boy was always just a boy, even though he lived five thousand years ago, and reigned over a great kingdom.
So rich a caravan was a tempting prize for the wild tribes on the way; but Herkhuf persuaded one of the Soudanese chiefs to furnish him with a large escort, and the caravan was so strongly guarded that the other tribes did not venture to attack it, but were glad to help its leader with guides and gifts of cattle.
In early days they evidently lived not so far away from Egypt as when Stanley found them, for, on at least one occasion, one of Pharaoh's servants had been able to capture one of the little men, and bring him down as a present to his master, greatly to the delight of the King and Court. Herkhuf was equally fortunate.
In the second year of Pepy's reign, the bold Herkhuf set out again for the Soudan, and this time, along with other treasures, he brought back something that his boy-King valued far more than gold or ivory. You know how, when Stanley went in search of Emin Pasha, he discovered in the Central African forests a strange race of dwarfs, living by themselves, and very shy of strangers.
Herkhuf made a fourth journey into the Sūdān, and when he came back he reported his successes to the new king, Pepi II, and told him that among other remarkable things he had brought back from Amam a dancing dwarf, or pygmy. The king then wrote a letter to Herkhuf and asked him to send the dwarf to him in Memphis.
Perhaps there was more danger of killing him with kindness and care, than if they had left him more to himself; but Pepy's anxiety was very like a boy. However, Herkhuf evidently succeeded in bringing his dwarf safe and sound to the King's Court, and no doubt the quaint little savage proved a splendid toy for the young King.
This inscription is cut in hieroglyphs upon a slab of stone, which was originally in the tomb of Herkhuf at Aswân, and is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and upon parts of the walls of his tomb.
Some of the records of these early journeys, the first attempts to explore the interior of Africa, may still be read, carved on the walls of the tombs where the brave explorers sleep. One baron, called Herkhuf, has told us of no fewer than four separate expeditions which he made into the Soudan.
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