We have actually cut away about six miles
of vegetation. No dependence whatever can be placed upon the guides: no
place answers to their descriptions. We have now been hard at work for
thirteen days with a thousand men, during which time we have travelled
only twelve miles!
"March 22. - Wind S.W. - foul. The people are all lazy and despairing.
Cleared a sudd. I explored ahead in a small boat. As usual, the country
is a succession of sudds and small open patches of water. The work is
frightful, and great numbers of my men are laid down with fever; thus my
force is physically diminished daily, while morally the men are
heart-broken. Another soldier died; but there is no dry spot to bury
him. We live in a world of swamp and slush. Lieutenant Baker shot a
Baleniceps Rex. This day we opened about 600 yards.
"March 23. - We have been throughout the day employed in tugging the
vessels through the channel. The Egyptians have quite lost heart. The
Soudanis are far more valuable as soldiers; none of them are ill, and
they work with a good will. I serve them out a glass of grog in the
evening. The fanatical fellahs will not touch spirits, thus they succumb
to fever and nervousness when exhausted by the chill occasioned by
working throughout the day in mud and water.
"March 24. - Wind fresh from the S.W. All the vessels assembled last
evening in a small lake. Before us there is as usual simply a narrow
stream closed in by vegetation. I observed marks of the traders' parties
having broken through a few months ago. These people travel without
merchandise, but with a large force of men: thus their vessels are of
light draught of water. My steamers and many of the boats require four
feet six inches. Every vessel is heavily laden, thus they are difficult
to manage unless in open and deep water.
"There is to-day a forest on the east, about two miles distant, beyond
the swamp. After a hard day's work we made about 1,400 yards.
"March 25. - Wind fair and fresh from the N.E. This helped us to make
about a mile through the narrow channel, hemmed in by thick and high
grass. Another soldier died. As usual, this poor fellow was an
artilleryman. These men came direct from Cairo with their guns, and not
being acclimatized, they cannot resist the fever. The Egyptian troops
give in and lose all heart; but there is much allowance to be made for
them, as it is a fearful country, and far beyond my worst experience.
There is no apparent break to the boundless marsh before and behind us,
this is about fifteen miles wide, as forest trees and the tall dolape
palms can sometimes be distinguished upon the horizon.
"What the unfortunate Higginbotham will do I cannot conceive, as there
is no possibility of communicating with him, and he will get into the
rainy season.
"Another soldier died this evening; he was an excellent man, who had
been employed at the arsenal at Cairo. His friend and bosom companion
was a fellow workman, and he was so grieved at the loss that he declared
he should not live beyond a few days. There was no dry ground in which
to dig a grave; it was therefore necessary to cut a hole in the base of
a white ant-hill, as these Babel-like towers were the only dry spots
that rose above the flood.
"This death is the sixth within the last few days, exclusive of one boy.
I think our black doctor assists them in departing from this life, as
they die very suddenly when he attends them. Like Dr. Sangrado, he is
very fond of the lancet, which is usually fatal in this climate. We made
about half a mile today.
"March 26. - Wind fresh from the S.E. The ditch is completely blocked up
with vegetation: thus we made only 250 yards. Before us, as usual, is
the hopeless sea of high grass, along which is a dark streak which marks
the course of the ditch through which we slowly clear a passage. How
many days or months we may require to reach the White Nile is a problem.
One hundred and fifty men are on the sick list; nearly all of them are
fellahs. Upon my own diahbeeah six soldiers out of ten are down with
fever, in addition to two of the sailors. I gave them all a shock with
the magnetic battery, which appeared to have a wonderful effect; one
fellow, who had been groaning with severe pains in his back and limbs,
declared that he was instantly relieved. I made a good shot with the
Dutchman at a Baleniceps Rex, at a distance of upwards of 200 yards.
"There is no rest by night or day for our people, who are preyed upon by
clouds of mosquitoes, which attack like bulldogs.
"March 27. - All hands hard at work clearing the ditch. Wind S.E. - fresh.
The diahbeeah, as usual, leads the way, followed by No. 10 steamer, and
the whole fleet in close line. Most of the men suffer from headache;
this is owing to the absurd covering, the fez, or tarboosh, which is no
protection against the sun.
"In the evening I took a small boat, and in forty-one minutes' poling
and tugging through the narrow channel, I succeeded in reaching a long
narrow lake resembling a river, about 110 yards wide. The mouth of our
effluent was, for a wonder, clear from obstruction; I returned with the
joyful news to the fleet after sunset.
"March 28. - At 7.30 a.m. all hands turned out to clear the channel to
the lake; this was about 500 yards long, and the diahbeeah, leading the
way, entered the lake at 11.30 a.m. Unfortunately a shallow channel near
the entrance prevented the steamers from entering, thus a passage had to
be dug in the tough clay beneath them.
