I shuddered at the prospect for her, should she be left
alone in savage lands at my death; and gladly would I have left her in
the luxuries of home instead of exposing her to the miseries of Africa.
It was in vain that I implored her to remain, and that I painted the
difficulties and perils still blacker than I supposed they really would
be: she was resolved, with woman's constancy and devotion, to share all
dangers and to follow me through each rough footstep of the wild life
before me. "And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return
from following after thee: for whither thou goest I will go, and where
thou lodgest I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my
God: where thou diest will I die; and there will I be buried: the Lord
do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me."
Thus accompanied by my wife, on the 15th April 1861, I sailed up the
Nile from Cairo. The wind blew fair and strong from the north, and we
flew towards the south against the stream, watching those mysterious
waters with a firm resolve to track them to their distant fountain.
On arrival at Korosko, in Lat. 22 degrees 44 minutes, in twenty-six days
from Cairo, we started across the Nubian desert, thus cutting off the
western bend of the Nile, and in seven days' forced camel march we again
reached the river Abou Hamed. The journey through that desert is most
fatiguing, as the march averages fifteen hours a day through a
wilderness of scorching sand and glowing basalt rocks. The simoom was in
full force at that season (May), and the thermometer, placed in the
shade by the water skins, stood at 114 degrees Fahrenheit.
No drinkable water was procurable on the route; thus our supply was
nearly expended upon reaching the welcome Nile. After eight days' march
on the margin of the river from Abou Hamed through desert, but in view
of the palm trees that bordered the river, we arrived at Berber, a
considerable town in lat. 17 degrees 58 minutes on the banks of the
Nile.
Berber is eight days' camel march from Khartoum (at the junction of the
White and Blue Niles, in lat. 15 degrees 30 minutes), and is the regular
caravan route between that town and Cairo.
From the slight experience I had gained in the journey to Berber, I felt
convinced that success in my Nile expedition would be impossible without
a knowledge of Arabic.
