Scientific American Supplement, No. 1157, March 5, 1898 | Page 3

William, and we
are indebted for it to the Illustrirte Zeitung.
* * * * *

MY RECENT JOURNEY FROM THE NILE TO SUAKIM.
BY FREDERIC VILLIERS, IN THE JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY
OF ARTS.
THE ADVANCE TO KHARTOUM.

The recent campaign in the Soudan was a bloodless one to the
correspondent with the expedition, or, rather, on the tail of the advance.
Yet I think, in spite of this little drawback, there is enough in the
vicissitudes of my colleagues and myself during the recent advance of
the Egyptian troops up the Nile to warrant me addressing you this
afternoon. Especially as toward the end of the campaign the Sirdar, or
Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian army, Sir Herbert Kitchener,
became more sympathetic with our endeavors to get good copy for our
journals, and allowed us to return home by the old trade route of the
Eastern Soudan, over which no European had passed since the revolt of
the Eastern tribes in 1883. Unfortunately, the period for campaigning in
the Soudan is in the hottest months in the year, on the rising of the Nile
at the end of July, when the cataracts begin to be practicable for
navigation. At the same time, in spite of the heat, it is the healthiest
period, for the water, in its brown, muddy, pea soup state, is
wholesomer to drink, and the banks of the river, which, when exposed
at low Nile, give off unhealthy exhalations, are protected from
spreading fever germs by the flood. To show you how much the people
of Egypt depend for their very existence on this extraordinary river, the
average difference between high and low Nile, giving favorable results,
is 26 feet. Twenty-eight feet would cause serious damage by inundation,
and the Nile as low as 20 feet would create a famine. The flood of the
river depends entirely on the equatorial rains which cause the Upper
White Nile to rise in April and the Blue Nile early in June. The muddy
Atbara, joining her two sisters about the same time, sends the flood
down to Lower Egypt toward the end of August at the rate of 100 miles
a day. The Blue Nile in the middle of September falls rapidly away,
while the Atbara leaves the trio in October. The White Nile is then left
by herself to recede slowly and steadily from a current of four knots an
hour to a sluggish and, in many parts, an unwholesome stream. Flies
and mosquitoes increase, and fever is rife.
I arrived in Cairo on a sweltering day in July, and found four
colleagues, who had been waiting for a week the Sirdar's permission to
proceed to the front, still waiting. Luckily, the day after my arrival a
telegram came from headquarters, saying that "we might proceed as far
as Assouan and their await further orders." This, anyhow, was a move

in the right direction; so we at once started. It was rather a bustle for me
to get things ready, for Sunday blocked the way and little could be done,
even on that day, in Cairo. I procured a servant, a horse and two cases
of stores, for the cry was "nothing to be had up country in the shape of
food; hardly sufficient sustenance to keep the flies alive." My
colleagues, who had the start of me, were able to procure many
luxuries--a case of cloudy ammonia for their toilet, and one of
chartreuse, komel and benedictine to make their after dinner coffee
palatable, and some plum pudding, if Christmas should still find them
on the warpath, were a few of the many items that made up the
trousseau of these up-to-date war correspondents, though at least one of
them had been wedded to the life for many years. Unfortunately I had
no time to procure these luxuries, and I had to proceed ammonialess
and puddingless to the seat of war. My comrades were quite right. Why
not do yourself well if you can? One of them even went in for the
luxury of having three shooting irons, two revolvers and a
double-barrel slug pistol, so that when either of the weapons got hot
while he was holding Baggara horsemen at bay, there was always one
cooling, ready to hand. He also, which I believe is a phenomenal record
with any campaigner, took with him thirteen pairs of riding breeches, a
half dozen razors and an ice machine. Even our commander-in-chief,
when campaigning, denies himself more than two shirts and never
travels with ice machines. But the thirteen pairs impressed me
considerably. Why thirteen, more than fifteen, or any other number? I
came to the conclusion that my colleague must certainly be a member
of that mystic body the "Thirteen Club," and as he had to bring in