The Albert N'Yanza, Great Basin of the Nile - Samuel White Baker (paper ebook reader .TXT) 📗

that I had promised, and the punishment of this man had been an

expressed determination.

 

I went to the Divan and demanded that he should be flogged. Omer Bey was

then Governor of the Soudan, in the place of Moosa Pasha deceased. He

sat upon the divan, in the large hall of justice by the river. Motioning

me to take a seat by his side, and handing me his pipe, he called the

officer in waiting, and gave the necessary orders. In a few minutes the

prisoner was led into the hall, attended by eight soldiers. One man

carried a strong pole about seven feet long, in the centre of which was

a double chain, riveted through in a loop. The prisoner was immediately

thrown down with his face to the ground, while two men stretched out his

arms and sat upon them; his feet were then placed within the loop of the

chain, and the pole being twisted round until firmly secured, it was

raised from the ground sufficiently to expose the soles of the feet. Two

men with powerful hippopotamus whips stood, one on either side. The

prisoner thus secured, the order was given. The whips were most

scientifically applied, rind after the first five dozen, the

slave-hunting scoundrel howled most lustily for mercy. How often had he

flogged unfortunate slave women to excess, and what murders had that

wretch committed, who now howled for mercy! I begged Omer Bey to stop

the punishment at 150 lashes, and to explain to him publicly in the

divan, that he was thus punished for attempting to thwart the expedition

of an English traveller, by instigating my escort to mutiny.

 

This affair over—all my accounts paid—and my men dismissed with their

hands full of money,—I was ready to start for Egypt. The Nile rose

sufficiently to enable the passage of the cataracts, and on the 30th

June we took leave of all friends in Khartoum, and of my very kind

agent, Michael Latfalla, well known as Hallil el Shami, who had most

generously cashed all my bills on Cairo without charging a fraction of

exchange. On the morning of 1st July, we sailed from Khartoum to Berber.

 

On approaching the fine basalt hills through which the river passes

during its course from Khartoum, I was surprised to see the great Nile

contracted to a trifling width of from eighty to a hundred and twenty

yards. Walled by high cliffs of basalt upon either side, the vast volume

of the Nile flows grandly through this romantic pass, the water boiling

up in curling eddies, showing that rocky obstructions exist in its

profound depths below.

 

Our voyage was very nearly terminated at the passage of the cataracts.

Many skeletons of wrecked vessels lay upon the rocks in various places:

as we were flying along in full sail before a heavy gale of wind,

descending a cataract, we struck upon a sandbank—fortunately not upon a

rock, or we should have gone to pieces like a glass bottle. The

tremendous force of the stream, running at the rate of about ten or

twelve miles per hour, immediately drove the vessel broadside upon the

bank. About sixty yards below us was a ridge of rocks, upon which it

appeared certain that we must be driven should we quit the bank upon

which we were stranded. The reis and crew, as usual in such cases, lost

their heads. I emptied a large waterproof portmanteau, and tied it

together with ropes, so as to form a life-buoy for my wife and Richarn,

neither of whom could swim; the maps, journals, and observations, I

packed in an iron box, which I fastened with a tow-line to the

portmanteau. It appeared that we were to wind up the expedition with

shipwreck, and thus lose my entire collection of hunting spoils. Having

completed the preparations for escape, I took command of the vessel, and

silenced the chattering crew.

 

My first order was to lay out an anchor up stream.

 

This was done: the water was shallow, and the great weight of the

anchor, carried on the shoulders of two men, enabled them to resist the

current, and to wade hip-deep about forty yards up the stream upon the

sandbank.

 

Thus secured, I ordered the crew to haul upon the cable. The great force

of the current bearing upon the broadside of the vessel, while her head

was anchored up stream, bore her gradually round. All hands were now

employed in clearing away the sand, and deepening a passage: loosen ing

the sand with their hands and feet, the powerful rapids carried it away.

For five hours we remained in this position, the boat cracking, and half

filled with water however, we stopped the leak caused by the strain upon

her timbers, and having, after much labour, cleared a channel in the

narrow sandbank, the moment arrived to slip the cable, hoist the sail,

and trust to the heavy gale of wind from the west to clear the rocks,

that lay within a few yards of us to the north. “Let go!” and, all being

prepared, the sail was loosened, and filling in the strong gale with a

loud report, the head of the vessel swung round with the force of wind

and stream. Away we flew! For an instant we grated on some hard

substance: we stood upon the deck, watching the rocks exactly before us,

with the rapids roaring loudly around our boat as she rushed upon what

looked like certain destruction. Another moment, and we passed within a

few inches of the rocks within the boiling surf. Hurrah! we are all

right! We swept by the danger, and flew along the rapids, hurrying

towards Old England.

 

We arrived at Berber, the spot from which we had started upwards of four

years ago for our Atbara expedition. Here we were most hospitably

received by Monsieur and Madame Laffargue, a French gentleman and his

charming wife, who had for many years been residents in the Soudan. It

is with feelings of gratitude that I express my thanks to all Frenchmen

that I have met in those wild countries, for courtesies and attention,

that were appreciated by me like unexpected flowers in a desert. I can

only hope that Frenchmen may, when in need, receive the same kindness

from my countrymen, when travelling in lands far distant from LA BELLE

FRANCE.

 

I determined upon the Red Sea route to Egypt, instead of passing the

horrible Korosko desert during the hot month of August. After some delay

I procured camels, and started east for Souakim, from whence I hoped to

procure a steamer to Suez.

 

This route from Berber is not the usual caravan road: the country was in

rather a disturbed state, owing to the mutiny of all the black troops in

the Egyptian service in the Taka province; and the Hadendowa Arabs, who

are at no time the best of their race, were very excited. The first

eight days’ journey are devoid of water, except at two stations, the

route being desert. Our party consisted of my wife, Richarn, Achmet, and

Zeneb; the latter was a six-foot girl of the Dinka tribe, with whom

Richarn had fallen in love and married during our sojourn at Khartoum.

 

Zeneb was a good girl, rather pretty, as strong as a giraffe, and a good

cook; a very valuable acquisition for Richarn. Her husband, who had been

my faithful follower, was now a rich man, being the owner of thirty

napoleons, the balance of his wages. Achmet was an Egyptian servant,

whom I had recently engaged in Khartoum. I had also offered a Swiss

missionary the protection of our party.

 

One day, during the heat of noon, after a long march in the burning sun

through a treeless desert, we descried a solitary tree in the distance,

to which we hurried as to a friend. Upon arrival, we found its shade

occupied by a number of Hadendowa Arabs. Dismounting from our camels, we

requested them to move and to give place for our party—as a tree upon

the desert is like a well of water, to be shared by every traveller. Far

from giving the desired place, they most insolently refused to allow us

to share the tree. Upon Richarn attempting to take possession, he was

rudely pushed on one side, and an Arab drew his knife. Achmet had a

coorbatch (hippopotamus whip) in his hand, that he had used on his

camel; the act of raising this to threaten the Arab who had drawn his

knife was the signal for hostilities. Out flashed the broadswords from

their sheaths! and the headman of the party aimed a well-intended cut at

my head. Parrying the cut with my sun umbrella, I returned with a quick

thrust directly in the mouth, the point of the peaceful weapon

penetrating to his throat with such force that he fell upon his back.

Almost at the same moment I had to parry another cut from one of the

crowd that smashed my umbrella completely, and left me with my remaining

weapons, a stout Turkish pipe-stick about four feet long, and my fist.

Parrying with the stick, thrusting in return at the face, and hitting

sharp with the left hand, I managed to keep three or four of the party

on and off upon their backs, receiving a slight cut with a sword upon my

left arm in countering a blow which just grazed me as I knocked down the

owner, and disarmed him. My wife picked up the sword, as I had no time

to stoop, and she stood well at bay with her newly-acquired weapon that

a disarmed Arab wished to wrest from her, but dared not close with the

naked blade. I had had the fight all my own way, as, being beneath the

tree (the boughs of which were very near the ground), the Arabs, who do

not understand the use of the point, were unable to use their swords, as

their intended cuts were intercepted by the branches. Vigorous thrusting

and straight hitting cleared the tree, and the party were scattered

right and left, followed up by Richarn and Achmet, armed with

double-barrelled rifles. I was determined to disarm the whole party, if

possible. One of the Arabs, armed with a lance, rushed up to attack

Richarn from behind; but Zeneb was of the warlike Dinka tribe, and

having armed herself with the hard wood handle of the axe, she went into

the row like “Joan of Arc,” and hastening to the rescue of Richarn, she

gave the Arab such a whack upon the head that she knocked him down on

the spot, and seizing his lance she disarmed him. Thus armed, she rushed

into the thickest of the fray.

 

“Bravo, Zeneb!” I could not help shouting. Seizing a thick. stick that

had been dropped by one of the Arabs, I called Richarn and our little

party together, and attacking the few Arabs who still offered

resistance, they were immediately knocked down and disarmed. The leader

of the party, who had been the first to draw his sword and had received

a mouthful of umbrella, had not moved from the spot where he fell, but

amused himself with coughing and spitting. I now ordered him to be

bound, and threatened to tie him to my camel’s tail and lead him a

prisoner to the Governor of Souakim, unless he called all those of his

party who had run away. They were now standing at a distance in the

desert, and I insisted upon the delivery of their weapons. Being

thoroughly beaten and cowed, he conferred with those whom we had taken

prisoners, and the affair ended by all the arms being delivered up. We

counted six swords, eleven lances, and a heap of knives, the number of

which I forget.

 

I ordered