Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 137.djvu/187

1885.] fair breeze. At 11 A.M. reached Absaret, where are stationed a detachment of the Egyptian army, and a Commissariat depot established. Carried the wind with us for the first time throughout the day. and should make Kaibar to-morrow.

1st Dec. – Reached the rapid at mid-day, and were all through it by nightfall: a nasty shoal piece of water, but otherwise of no great difficulty to the whalers. Moon so bright to-night as to admit of a sketch being made of the place.

2d Dec. – Detained at Kaibar till 8 A.M. assisting a lame duck dropped by one of the preceding companies. Met Colonel Butler returning from Hannek, with pressing orders to lose no time. Little or no wind again after early morning; the banks too steep for tracking. Rowed all day; men somewhat fatigued. 4 P.M. sighted a crocodile, an object more rare here than I had supposed.

3d Dec. – Off at 7.15 A.M.; wind light and shifty. Rowed through two heavy bits of water. Halted 12.30 to 1 P.M. to rest the men and have dinner. No wind throughout the afternoon; much sunken rock. Stream sinuous; air hot. Reached Shaban rapid (true foot of Hannek cataract) at 3 P.M., and by sundown had accomplished a portion of its passage. Narrowly escaped accident through the tracking-line of our boat breaking in the current, from which, as she drifted down, the two men in her were unable to disengage the boat: her rescue was effected only just above the gate by boat 55, which, with her captain, Bijou, and a scratch crew, put off at once.

4th Dec. – A wasted day. By the misdirection of natives, the company took a wrong channel, which led just at sundown to a cul de sac, in the attempt to pass which No. 44 got a hole knocked in her, was badly strained, and must be repaired before to-morrow's retrograde.

5th Dec. – Began the day by retracing our steps, and now are still within the rapid, encamped near Tagab, on the island of Semite. Bijou sick through sun and overexertion. A hard day of tracking and rowing; no wind. Made about five miles.

6th Dec. – At 9 A.M. to-day reached Hannek proper, an intricate-looking place. Found four Canadians here left as pilots; shipped them accordingly. Their experience of this ever-changing river of little use. No. 44 took to the sand within the first quarter of an hour. Got natives on board, one to each boat, and succeeded, under their guidance, in reaching the head of the cataract by dusk, when No. 44 struck a sunken rock in mid-stream, remaining fast at an angle of 45°. The native waited not for backsheesh, but dived overboard; and we have a somewhat uncomfortable night before us.

7th Dec. – Efforts at extrication recommenced at dawn, and by 8 A.M. we were at the bank, our towing-line having been carried ashore by a friend; boat leaking, but otherwise little the worse for her straining. Breakfasted ashore, and at 11 A.M. arrived at Abou Fatmeh, where H.M.S. Nasifu-l-Khair (consort of the late lamented Ghizeh) was waiting to give us a tow to Dongola. The heavier stores were removed from the boats to the steamer, fourteen days' rations taken from the Commissariat depot, and at 2 P.M. the voyage was resumed under truly auspicious circumstances.

8th Dec., 5 P.M. – New Dongola reached, and our camp pitched