Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 137.djvu/683

1855.] have alike distinguished themselves, and, according to their individual proclivities, have robbed the public store. Strange indeed at first must have been the taste of those hitherto unknown delicacies to the dwellers on the banks of the Nile; but now, probably no article, from pickles to permanganate of potash, comes amiss; while the head-man of any village from Haifa to Dongo la who cannot produce to any casual friend a pot of jam or tin of cocoa, is indeed unworthy to have spent six months in the immediate track of the Nile flotilla. Certainly the native was slightly, and somewhat unfairly, handicapped at first, as he had not the advantage of being able to read outside the lid of each medical-comfort box the enticing list of wines and delicacies within, which information was so thoughtfully provided as light reading for the soldiers in charge. Now, however, he is as well acquainted with the appearance of these neat little cases as are any of the Commissariat department themselves, – the innocent members of which fraternity speak with righteous indignation of the dishonesty of the natives, and the hardships their peculations inflict upon the already prematurely well-lined stomachs of the Commissariat and of Thomas Atkins. That much of this peculation took place in far higher latitudes than Nubia has long been thought probable; and the skilful way in which some of the boxes have been opened from the bottom, defying all detection till an examination of their contents has been made, points to a higher class of culprit having been in many cases engaged than the British soldier or any other member of the Nile expeditionary force. To such a pass have things lately come, that forwarding these boxes – as also cases of jam, milk, and bags of sugar – has become a farce, and inspections at various points on the line of communications have been made which prove that not more than 10 per cent of these boxes remain intact; while, to preserve the uniformity of weight, the deficiencies have been made up by stones and sand in place of jam and sugar – water or sand in place of wine. The conviction of theft by Egyptian soldiers or by natives has been visited with the summary punishment of flogging, while our soldiers have been awarded long terms of imprisonment and penal servitude: the former penalty being swift, and example salutary; while in the latter cases, the many weeks of waiting for confirmation of sentence has made it of little or no deterrent effect, and the consequence to the culprit is probably ruin for life. The force, too, is deprived of the offender's services (which are proportionately valuable according to the distance he happens to have advanced), unless, indeed, he is fortunate enough to arrive at home in time for the jubilee of jail-birds – the latest device announced for the proposed increase of the army.

But revenir à nos moutons, or rather oxen, for beef is just now the staple article of food. At present the supply is good and wholesome; but as our troops along the Nile consume about 750 beasts a-month, we cannot look forward with any certainty to the supply, unless augmented in some way, lasting three months longer. And how is it to be augmented? As the hot weather advances, the wells dry up, and the desert forms an impenetrable barrier to cattle arriving from Kordofan and the markets of the south, while bovine typhus is making its appearance among the live stock from the