9 steamer to Khartoum with the post, together
with three sons of Quat Kare, who were to represent their father at the
divan of Djiaffer Pacha. The old man declined the voyage, pleading his
age as an excuse. Mr. Wood also returned, as his health required an
immediate change to Egypt. On the 25th, four vessels arrived from the
south, two belonging to Kutchuk Ali, one to Agad, and one to a trader
named Assaballa, from the Bahr Gazal. The latter had thirty-five slaves
on board. The others had heard, by some vessels that had gone up from
Khartoum, that I had formed a station near the Sobat, and had captured
the vessel and slaves of Kutchuk Ali, thus they had landed their slaves
at the Bahr Giraffe station. The Bahr Gazal vessel having arrived from a
different direction had not received the information. I seized the boat
and cargo, and liberated the slaves.
On board the diahbeeah of Kutchuk Ali were four musicians, natives of
Pongo, on the river Djoor. Their band consisted of two iron bells, a
flageolet and an instrument made of hard wood that was arranged like the
musical glasses of Europe. The latter was formed of ten pieces of a
metallic sounding-wood suspended above long narrow gourd shells. Each
piece of wood produced a separate note, and the instrument was played by
four sticks, the ends of which were covered with india-rubber. The
general effect, although a savage kind of harmony, was superior to most
native attempts at music.
The station of Tewfikeeyah had now assumed an important aspect, and I
much regretted that when the time should arrive for our departure to the
south it would be abandoned: however, I determined to keep all hands
employed, as there is nothing so demoralizing to troops as inaction. At
the same time there was a general dislike to the expedition, and all
trusted that something might happen that would prevent another attempt
to penetrate the marshes of the Bahr Giraffe. There was much allowance
to be made for this feeling. The seeds of dangerous disorders, that had
been sown by the malaria of the swamps, had now exhibited themselves in
fatal attacks of dysentery, that quickly formed a cemetery at
Tewfikeeyah.
The Egyptian troops were generally sickly and dispirited, and went to
their daily work in a slouching, dogged manner, that showed their
passive hatred of the employment.
I arranged that the sailors should cultivate a piece of ground with
corn, while the soldiers should be employed in a similar manner in
another position. The sailors were all Nubians, or the natives of
Dongola, Berber, and the countries bordering the Nile in the Soudan.
These people were of the same class as the slave-hunter companies, men
who hated work and preferred a life of indolence, lounging sleepily
about their vessels.
