Having concluded these arrangements and established my positions, with
the necessary instructions to the officers in command, I returned to the
river, and prepared to start for Gondokoro in the little dingy. I did
not wish to take a large vessel, therefore I ordered Raouf Bey to fill
the noggurs with corn as rapidly as possible, and to start them off when
full to Gondokoro. The granaries on the islands were all full, and close
to the banks; therefore the vessels lay alongside, as though in a dock,
and could load with great ease.
I started in the dingy with two boatmen to row, accompanied by Monsoor
and two soldiers of "The Forty."
The stream ran at three miles and a half per hour: thus, with good
pulling, we reached head-quarters in one hour and thirty-two minutes, a
distance of about ten miles and a half.
I believe it is common to human nature to love to carry good news. The
sight of the little dingy approaching Gondokoro alone, had given rise to
all kinds of surmises, and when I reached the shore, a crowd of
officers, soldiers, sailors, and women were standing in expectation upon
the cliff. My men immediately recounted all particulars.
