"In this spot the river is quite bank-full, and the scattered native
villages in the distance are in swamps. The innumerable high white
ant-hills are the only dry spots.
"February 24. - Started at 6 A.M. Everybody eaten up by mosquitoes. At 9
A.M. the steamer smashed her starboard paddle: the whole day occupied in
repairing. Saw a bull elephant in the marshes at a distance. Horrible
treeless swamps swarming with mosquitoes.
"February 25. - Started at 7 A.M. At 10 A.M. arrived at a very narrow and
shallow portion of this chaotic river completely choked by drift
vegetation. All hands worked hard to clear a passage through this
obstruction until 2.30, when we passed ahead. At 4 P.M. we arrived at a
similar obstacle; the water very shallow; and to-morrow we shall have to
cut a passage through the high grass, beneath which there is deeper
water. I ordered fifty swords to be sharpened for the work. We counted
seventy elephants in the distance, but there is no possibility of
reaching them through the immense area, of floating vegetation.
"February 26. - Hard at work with forty men cutting a canal about 150
yards long through the dense mass of compressed vegetation.
"February 27. - Working hard at canal. The fleet has not arrived; thus we
are short-handed.
"February 28. - The canal progresses, the men having worked well. It is a
curious collection of trash that seriously impedes navigation. The grass
resembles sugar-canes; this grows from twenty to thirty feet in length,
and throws out roots at every joint; thus, when matted together, its
roots still increase, and render the mass a complete tangle. During the
wet season the rush of water tears off large rafts of this floating
water-grass, which accumulate in any favourable locality. The difficulty
of clearing a passage is extreme. After cutting out a large mass with
swords, a rope is made fast, and the raft is towed out by hauling with
thirty or forty men until it is detached and floated down the stream.
Yesterday I cut a narrow channel from above stream in the hope that the
rush of water would loosen the mass of vegetation. After much labour, at
12.30 p.m. the whole obstruction appeared to heave. There was soon no
doubt that it was moving, and suddenly the entire dam broke up. Immense
masses were carried away by the rush of water and floated down the
river; these will, I fear, cause an obstruction lower down the stream.
"We got up steam, served out grog to all the men, and started at 2 P.M.
In half-an-hour's steaming we arrived at another block vegetation. In
one hour and three-quarters we cleared a passage, and almost immediately
afterwards we arrived at the first piece of dry ground that we have seen
for days. This piece of firm land was a few feet higher than the maximum
rise of the river, and afforded about half an acre. We stopped for the
night.
"March 1. - Started at 6.30 A.M., the river narrowing immediately, and
after a run of half a mile we found ourselves caught in a trap. The
river, although fourteen feet deep, had entirely disappeared in a
boundless sea of high grass, which resembled sugar-canes. There was no
possibility of progress. I returned to our halting-place of last night
in a small rowing-boat, and examined it thoroughly. I found marks of
occupation by the slave-traders, about three months old. Among the
vestiges were the remains of fires, a piece of a lucifer-match box, a
number of cartridge cases - they had been fired - and a piece of raw hide
pierced with bullets, that had evidently been used as a target.
"I shot two geese and five plover, and returned to our vessel. My
opinion is that the slave-hunters have made a razzia inland from this
spot, but that our guide, Bedawi, has led us into a wrong channel.
"I attempted to seek a passage ahead, but it was quite impossible for
the smallest rowing boat to penetrate the dense vegetation.
"An advance being impossible, I ordered the steamer and two diahbeeahs
to return down the river about eighty miles to our old wooding-place at
the last forest, as we are nearly out of fuel. We thus lose time and
trouble, but there is no help for it. For some days there has been no
wind, except uncertain breaths from the south. Unless a change shall
take place, I have no idea how the fleet will be able to come up against
the stream.
"March 2. - At 6.30 a.m. we got under way and ran down stream at eight
miles an hour towards our old wooding-place. Saw a few buffaloes. At 1
p.m. we passed on left bank a branch of the river. At 3.30 sighted the
tall yards of the fleet in the distance. At 4.30 we arrived at the
extreme southern limit of the forest, and met Raouf Bey with the steamer
and twenty-five vessels, with a good supply of wood. The troops were in
good health, but one unfortunate man had been carried off by a crocodile
while sitting on the vessel with his legs hanging over the side.
"March 3. - Filling up with wood from the forest.
"March 4. - Sent the steamer back to the station of Kutchuk Ali, the
trader, to procure some cattle for the troops. In this neighbourhood
there is dry land with many villages, but the entire country has been
pillaged by Kutchuk Ali's people - the natives murdered, the women
carried off, &c.
"Raouf Bey counted the bodies of eighteen natives who had been shot near
the trader's camp.
