"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. Yesterday I went to a native village, and made
friends with the people, some of whom came down to our boats; they
complained bitterly that they were subject to pillage and massacre by
the traders. These so-called traders are the people of Kutchuk Ali, THE
OFFICER EMPLOYED BY THE GOVENOR-GENERAL OF THE SOUDAN to command his
expedition to the Bahr Gazal!
"Filled up with a large supply of wood ready to start tomorrow.
"March 5. - Great good fortune! A fine north wind for the first time
during many days. All the vessels sailing well. We started at 7 a.m. Saw
a Baleniceps Rex[*]; this is the second of these rare birds that I have
seen.
[*Footnote: The whale-headed stork, or Baleniceps Rex, is only met with
in the immense swamps of the White Nile. This bird feeds generally upon
water shellfish, for which nature has provided a most powerful beak
armed with a hook at the extremity.)
"At 1 p.m., as we were steaming easily, I happened to be asleep on the
poop-deck, when I was suddenly awakened by a shock, succeeded almost
immediately by the cry, `The ship's sinking!' A hippopotamus had charged
the steamer from the bottom, and had smashed several floats off her
starboard paddle. A few seconds later he charged our diahbeeah, and
striking her bottom about ten feet from the bow, he cut two holes
through the iron plates with his tusks. There was no time to lose, as
the water was rushing in with great force. Fortunately, in this land of
marsh and floating grass, there were a few feet of tolerably firm ground
rising from the deep water.
