- I started with two steamers and two diahbeeahs to explore a
favourable spot for a permanent station. We reached the Sobat junction
in three hours and a quarter, about twenty-five miles. From the Sobat,
down stream, we steamed for forty minutes, arriving at a forest, on a
high bank to the east, where some extraordinary high dome palms (palma
Thebaica), together with dolape palms (Borassus Ethiopicus), gave an air
of tropical beauty to a desolate and otherwise uninviting spot.
"I fixed upon this place for a station as the ground was hard, the
position far above the level of high floods, and the forest afforded a
supply of wood for building purposes and fuel.
"April 24. - We steamed for half-an-hour down stream to a large village
on the west bank, named Wat-a-jook. Thence I went down stream for one
hour to the grove of dolape palms and gigantic India rubber trees. This
was formerly a large village, known as Hillet-el-dolape, but it has been
entirely destroyed by the governor of Fashoda. After much difficulty, I
induced some natives to come to me, with whom I at length made friends:
they all joined in accusing the Koordi governor of wanton atrocities.
"In the afternoon, not having discovered a spot superior to that I had
already selected for a station, we returned; but we had not travelled
more than an hour and a half when the engine of the No. 10 steamer broke
down. On examination, it appeared that the air pump was broken.
Fortunately the accident occurred close to the spot selected for a
station.
"April 25. - At 12.30 p.m. I sent back the No. 8 steamer to call the
fleet to the station. I soon made friends with the natives, great
numbers of whom congregated on the west bank of the river. All these
people had heard that I had liberated the women and children.
"April 26. - The steamer and entire fleet arrived in the afternoon.
"The natives brought a bullock and a Pongo slave as a present from the
chief. I freed the slave, and sent a piece of cloth as an introduction
to the chief.
"April 27. - This was a busy day passed in measuring out the camp. I set
several companies at work to fell the forest and to prepare timber for
building.
"April 28. - Pouring rain. No work possible.
"April 29. - The Englishmen set up their forge and anvil; and we
commenced unloading corrugated iron sheets to form our magazines.
Fortunately, I had a number of wall-plates, rafters, &c., that I had
brought from Egypt for this purpose, as there is no straight wood in the
country.
"The sheik or head of the Shillook tribe sent envoys with a present of
four bullocks and two small tusks, with a message that he wished to see
me, but he was afraid to come. I accordingly sent the messengers back in
the No. 8 steamer with ten soldiers as an escort to bring him to my
station.
"April 30. - We commenced erecting the iron magazines. Lieutenant Baker,
Mr. Higginbotham, and the Englishmen all actively employed, while Raouf
Bey and his officers, instead of attending to the pressing work of
forming the permanent camp, sit under a tree and smoke and drink coffee
throughout the day.
"The artillerymen are nearly all ill; likewise many of the Egyptian
regiment, while the black troops are well and in excellent spirits.
There is no doubt that for this service the blacks are very superior to
the Egyptians: these are full of religious prejudices combined with
extreme ignorance, and they fall sick when deprived of the vegetable
diet to which they are accustomed in Egypt.
"In the evening the steamer returned with the true Shillook king,
accompanied by two of his wives, four daughters, and a retinue of about
seventy people."
CHAPTER IV.
THE CAMP AT TEWFIKEEYAH.
"May 1. - The camp is beginning to look civilized. Already the underwood
has been cleared, and the large trees which border the river have their
separate proprietors. There is no home like a shady tree in a tropical
climate; here we are fortunate in having the finest mimosas, which form
a cool screen. I have apportioned the largest trees among the higher
officers. The English quarter of the camp is already arranged, and the
whole force is under canvas. A few days ago this was a wilderness; now
there are some hundred new tents arranged in perfectly straight rows so
as to form streets. This extensive plot of white tents, occupying a
frontage of four hundred yards, and backed by the bright green forest,
looks very imposing from the river.
"The English quarter was swept clean, and as the surface soil on the
margin of the river was a hard white sand, the place quickly assumed a
neat and homely appearance. I had a sofa, a few chairs, and a carpet
arranged beneath a beautiful shady mimosa, where I waited the arrival of
the true king of the Shillooks - Quat Kare.
"In a few minutes he was introduced by an aide-de-camp, accompanied by
two wives, four daughters, and a large retinue. Like all the Shillooks,
he was very tall and thin. As his wardrobe looked scanty and old, I at
once gave him a long blue shirt which nearly reached to his ankles,
together with an Indian red scarf to wear as a waistband. When thus
attired I presented him with a tarboosh (fez); all of which presents he
received without a smile or the slightest acknowledgment. When dressed
with the assistance of two or three of the soldiers who had volunteered
to act as valets, he sat down on the carpet, upon which he invited his
family to sit near him.
