The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile - Samuel White Baker (paper ebook reader .TXT) 📗
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boy, as we could now make some soup. Goats we had purchased in the Shir
country for molotes (iron hoes) that we had received in exchange for
corn at Gondokoro from Koorshid’s agent who was responsible for the
supply I had left in depot. We left Fashoder, and continued our voyage
towards Khartoum.
Saat grew worse and worse: nothing would relieve the unfortunate boy
from the burning torture of that frightful disease. He never slept, but
night and day he muttered in delirium, breaking the monotony of his
malady by occasionally howling like a wild animal. Richarn won my heart
by his careful nursing of the boy, who had been his companion through
years of hardship. We arrived at the village of Wat Shely, only three
days from Khartoum. Saat was dying. The night passed, and I expected
that all would be over before sunrise; but as morning dawned a change
had taken place,—the burning fever had left him, and although raised
blotches had broken out upon his chest and various parts of his body, he
appeared much better. We now gave him stimulants; a tea-spoonful of
araki that we had bought at Fashoder was administered every ten minutes
on a lump of sugar. This he crunched in his mouth, while he gazed at my
wife with an expression of affection, but he could not speak. I had him
well washed and dressed in clean clothes, that had been kept most
carefully during the voyage, to be worn on our entree to Khartoum. He
was laid down to sleep upon a clean mat, and my wife gave him a lump of
sugar to moisten his mouth and relieve his thickly-furred tongue. His
pulse was very weak, and his skin cold. “Poor Saat,” said my wife, “his
life hangs upon a thread. We must nurse him most carefully; should he
have a relapse, nothing will save him.” An hour passed, and he slept.
Karka, the fat, good-natured slave woman, quietly went to his side:
gently taking him by the ankles and knees, she stretched his legs into a
straight position, and laid his arms parallel with his sides. She then
covered his face with a cloth, one of the few rags that we still
possessed. “Does he sleep still?” we asked. The tears ran down the
cheeks of the savage but good-hearted Karka, as she sobbed, “He is
dead!”
We stopped the boat. It was a sandy shore; the banks were high, and a
clump of mimosas grew above high watermark. It was there that we dug
his grave. My men worked silently and sadly, for all loved Saat: he had
been so good and true, that even their hard hearts had learnt to respect
his honesty. We laid him in his grave on the desert shore, beneath the
grove of trees. Again the sail was set, and, filled by the breeze, it
carried us away from the dreary spot where we had sorrowfully left all
that was good and faithful. It was a happy end—most merciful, as he had
been taken from a land of iniquity in all the purity of a child
converted from Paganism to Christianity. He had lived and died in our
service a good Christian. Our voyage was nearly over, and we looked
forward to home and friends, but we had still fatigues before us: poor
Saat had reached his home and rest. Two faithful followers we had
buried,—Johann Schmidt at the commencement of the voyage, and Saat at
its termination.
A few miles from this spot, a head wind delayed us for several days.
Losing patience, I engaged camels from the Arabs; and riding the whole
day, we reached Khartoum about half an hour after sunset on the 5th of
May, 1865.
On the following morning we were welcomed by the entire European
population of Khartoum, to whom are due my warmest thanks for many kind
attentions. We were kindly offered a house by Monsieur Lombrosio, the
manager of the Khartoum branch of the “Oriental and Egyptian Trading
Company.”
I now heard the distressing news of the death of my poor friend
Speke. I could not realize the truth of this melancholy report
until I read the details of his fatal accident in the appendix of
a French translation of his work. It was but a sad consolation
that I could confirm his discoveries, and bear witness to the
tenacity and perseverance with which he had led his party through
the untrodden path of Africa to the first Nile source. This
being the close of the expedition, I wish it to be distinctly
understood how thoroughly I support the credit of Speke and Grant
for their discovery of the first and most
elevated source of the Nile in the great Victoria N’yanza.
Although I call the river between the two lakes the “Somerset,” as
it was named by Speke upon the map he gave to me, I must repeat
that it is positively the Victoria Nile, and the name “Somerset”
is only used to distinguish it, in my description, from the entire
Nile that issues from the Albert N’yanza.
Whether the volume of water added by the latter lake be greater than
that supplied by the Victoria, the fact remains unaltered: the Victoria
is the highest and first-discovered source; the Albert is the second
source, but the ENTIRE RESERVOIR of the Nile waters. I use the term
SOURCE as applying to each reservoir as a head or main starting-point of
the river. I am quite aware that it is a debated point among
geographers, whether a lake can be called a SOURCE, as it owes its
origin to one or many rivers; but, as the innumerable torrents of the
mountainous regions of Central Africa pour into these great reservoirs,
it would be impossible to give preference to any individual stream. Such
a theory would become a source of great confusion, and the Nile sources
might remain forever undecided; a thousand future travellers might
return, each with his particular source in his portfolio, some stream of
insignificant magnitude being pushed forward as the true origin of the
Nile.
I found few letters awaiting me at Khartoum: all the European population
of the place had long ago given us up for lost. It was my wish to start
without delay direct for England, but there were extraordinary
difficulties in this wretched country of the Soudan. A drought of two
years had created a famine throughout the land, attended by a cattle and
camel plague, that had destroyed so many camels that all commerce was
stagnated. No merchandise could be transported from Khartoum; thus no
purchases could be made by the traders in the interior: the country,
always wretched, was ruined. The plague, or a malignant typhus, had run
riot in Khartoum: out of 4,000 black troops, only a remnant below 400
remained alive!
This frightful malady, that had visited our boat, had revelled in the
filth and crowded alleys of the Soudan capital.
The Blue Nile was so low that even the noggurs drawing three feet of
water could not descend the river. Thus, the camels being dead, and the
river impassable, no corn could be brought from Sennaar and Watmedene:
there was a famine in Khartoum—neither fodder for animals, nor food for
man. Being unable to procure either camels or boats, I was compelled to
wait at Khartoum until the Nile should rise sufficiently to enable us to
pass the cataracts between that town and Berber.
[The want of water in the Blue Nile, as here described, exemplifies the
theory that Lower Egypt owes its existence during the greater portion of
the year entirely to the volume of the White Nile.]
We remained two months at Khartoum. During this time we were subjected
to intense heat and constant dust-storms, attended with a general plague
of boils. Verily, the plagues of Egypt remain to this day in the Soudan.
On the 26th June, we had the most extraordinary dust-storm that had ever
been seen by the inhabitants. I was sitting in the courtyard of my
agent’s house at about 4:30 P.M.: there was no wind, and the sun was as
bright as usual in this cloudless sky, when suddenly a gloom was cast
over all,—a dull yellow glare pervaded the atmosphere. Knowing that
this effect portended a dust-storm, and that the present calm would be
followed by a hurricane of wind, I rose to go home, intending to secure
the shutters. Hardly had I risen, when I saw approaching, from the S.W.
apparently, a solid range of immense brown mountains, high in air. So
rapid was the passage of this extraordinary phenomenon, that in a few
minutes we were in actual pitchy darkness. At first there was no wind,
and the peculiar calm gave an oppressive character to the event. We were
in “a darkness that might be felt.” Suddenly the wind arrived, but not
with the violence that I had expected. There were two persons with me,
Michael Latfalla, my agent, and Monsieur Lombrosio. So intense was the
darkness, that we tried to distinguish our hands placed close before our
eyes;—not even an outline could be seen. This lasted for upwards of
twenty minutes: it then rapidly passed away, and the sun shone as
before; but we had FELT the darkness that Moses had inflicted upon the
Egyptians.
The Egyptian Government had, it appeared, been pressed by some of the
European Powers to take measures for the suppression of the slave-trade:
a steamer had accordingly been ordered to capture all vessels laden
with this in famous cargo. Two vessels had been seized and brought to
Khartoum, containing 850 human beings!—packed together like anchovies,
the living and the dying festering together, and the dead lying beneath
them. European eyewitnesses assured me that the disembarking of this
frightful cargo could not be adequately described. The slaves were in a
state of starvation, having had nothing to eat for several days. They
were landed in Khartoum; the dead and many of the dying were tied by the
ankles, and dragged along the ground by donkeys through the streets. The
most malignant typhus, or plague, had been engendered among this mass of
filth and misery, thus closely packed together. Upon landing, the women
were divided by the Egyptian authorities among the soldiers. These
creatures brought the plague to Khartoum, which, like a curse visited
upon this country of slavery and abomination, spread like a fire
throughout the town, and consumed the regiments that had received this
horrible legacy from the dying cargo of slaves. Among others captured by
the authorities on a charge of slave-trading was an Austrian subject,
who was then in the custody of the consul. A French gentleman, Monsieur
Garnier, had been sent to Khartoum by the French Consulate of Alexandria
on a special inquiry into the slave-trade; he was devoting himself to
the subject with much energy.
While at Khartoum I happened to find Mahommed Her! the vakeel of
Chenooda’s party, who had instigated lily men to mutiny at Latooka, and
had taken my deserters into his employ. I had promised to make an
example of this fellow; I therefore had him arrested, and brought before
the Divan. With extreme effrontery, he denied having had anything to do
with the affair, adding to his denial all knowledge of the total
destruction of his party and of my mutineers by the Latookas. Having a
crowd of witnesses in my own men, and others that I had found in
Khartoum who had belonged to Koorshid’s party at that time, his
barefaced lie was exposed, and he was convicted. I determined that he
should be punished, as an example that would insure respect to any
future English traveller in those regions. My men, and all those with
whom I had been connected, had been accustomed to rely most implicitly
upon all
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