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.
