10 steamer that I had brought up to Gondokoro from Khartoum was
originally built in England for the mail service (per Nile) between
Alexandria and Cairo, at the time when the overland route was made by
vans across the desert to Suez. This steamer had sailed from London, and
had arrived complete at Alexandria.
It appears almost impossible that she is now floating at an altitude of
nearly 2,000 feet above the sea level; to which great elevation she has
actually steamed from the Mediterranean. Thus, starting from a base
line, and producing a line perpendicular to the sea level of 2,000 feet,
she has climbed up the Nile to her present high position.
Accepting the approximate length of the Nile in all its windings from
the Mediterranean to N. lat. 4 degrees 38 minutes, at 3,000 miles in
round numbers; this will give an average rise or fall in the river of
nine inches per mile; which easily explains the position of the steamer
at her most remote point below the last cataracts.
I revelled in this lovely country. The fine park-like trees were clumped
in dark-green masses here and there. The tall dolape-palms (Borassus
Ethiopicus) were scattered about the plain, sometimes singly, at others
growing in considerable numbers. High and bold rocks; near and distant
mountains; the richest plain imaginable in the foreground, with the
clear Un-y-Ame flowing now in a shallow stream between its lofty banks,
and the grand old Nile upon our right, all combined to form a landscape
that produced a paradise.
The air was delightful. There was an elasticity of spirit, the result of
a pure atmosphere, that made one feel happy in spite of many anxieties.
My legs felt like steel as we strode along before the horses, with rifle
on shoulder, into the broad valley, in which the mountain we had
descended seemed to have taken root.
The country was full of game. Antelopes in great numbers, and in some
variety, started from their repose in this beautiful wilderness, and
having for a few moments regarded the strange sights of horses, and
soldiers in scarlet uniform, they first trotted, and then cantered far
away. The graceful leucotis stood in herds upon the river's bank, and
was the last to retreat.
I selected a shady spot within a grove of heglik-trees for a bivouac,
and leaving my wife with a guard, and the horses, I at once started off
with Lieutenant Baker to procure some venison.
We returned after a couple of hours, having shot five antelopes. The
native name for this part of the country is Afuddo. Our present halting
place was thirty-seven miles from Lobore. Formerly there were villages
in this neighbourhood, but they had been destroyed by the slave-hunters.
Fortunately I had prepared a stock of flour sufficient for the entire
journey to Fatiko.
