I had left my two boys, Saat and Bellaal, with Ismail Pacha, to be
instructed either as musicians or soldiers, the latter profession being
their great ambition. There was already a school established for the
education of the more intelligent negro boys that might be liberated
from the slave-traders.
Upon our arrival at Berber, I found a considerable improvement in the
country. The Arabs were beginning to return to the fertile banks of the
river, and to rebuild their sakeeyahs or water-wheels. This change was
the result of a wise reform instituted by the Khedive, in dividing the
Soudan into provinces, each of which would be governed by a responsible
and independent official, instead of serving under a governor-general at
the distance of Khartoum.
Hussein Khalifah was now the governor of Berber. He was the great Arab
sheik of the desert who had so ably assisted Mr. Higginbotham in
transporting the machinery and steamer sections by camels from Korosko
to Berber across the great Nubian desert, for a distance of about 400
miles. The Arabs were much pleased at his appointment as governor, as he
was one of their race.
In starting from Berber for Souakim, I had the great misfortune to lose
by death one of my excellent Englishmen, David Samson.
