I climbed to the mast-head and looked to the south, where the forest archipelago, divided by glittering reaches of water, wove its labyrinth in the distance. I thought I saw—but it may have been fancy—beyond the leafy crown of the farthest isles, the faint blue horizon of that sea of water and grass, where the palm again appears and the lotus fringes the shores. A few hours of the strong north-wind, now blowing in our faces, would have taken me there, but I gave myself up to Fate and a pipe, which latter immediately suggested to me that though I was leaving the gorgeous heart of Africa, I was going back to Civilization and Home.
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE WHITE NILE.
Explorations of the White Nile—Dr. Knoblecher’s Voyage in 1849-50—The Lands of the Shillooks and Dinkas—Intercourse with the Natives—Wild Elephants and Giraffes—The Sobat River—The Country of Marshes—The Gazelle Lake—The Nuehrs—Interview with the Chief of the Kyks—The Zhir Country—Land of the Baris—The Rapids Surmounted—Arrival at Logwek, in Lat. 4° 10′ North—Panorama from Mt. Logwek—Sources of the White Nile—Character of the Bari Nation—Return of the Expedition—Fascination of the Nile.
Let me here pause a moment, at the turning-point of my journey, and cast a glance up the grand and wonderful vista which the White Nile opened to my view. The exploration of this river within the last fifteen years constitutes the most interesting chapter in the annals of African Discovery. It has been ascended to lat. 4° north, eight degrees of latitude, or four hundred and eighty geographical miles—and at least eight hundred miles, following the course of the stream—beyond the island of Aba. Of the Europeans who at different times accompanied the exploring fleets of Mohammed Ali or the annual trading expeditions, three kept journals and made scientific observations, and two—D’Arnaud and Werne—have published accounts of the voyage. Werne’s book, however, is taken up with peevish comments on the conduct of D’Arnaud and Sabatier, and the report of the former, as I learned from Dr. Knoblecher himself, is incorrect in many particulars. The most satisfactory account is that of Dr. Knoblecher, who ascended about fifty miles beyond the point reached by previous expeditions. During my stay in Khartoum, I received from him full particulars of his adventures, and was allowed to inspect his journals and sketch-books. His reports are exceedingly curious and interesting, and I herewith present a brief outline of them.
Dr. Knoblecher was specially educated, in the Propaganda at Rome, as a missionary for Central Africa. After studying the Arabic language for a year in Syria, he proceeded to Khartoum, where a Catholic Mission had already been established. There, however, the Mission found its sphere of operations circumscribed by the jealousy of the government, as all attempts to make proselytes of Mussulmen are forbidden, and the highest ambition of the slaves who are brought from the interior is to be considered faithful followers of the Prophet. Dr. Knoblecher was therefore directed to accompany the annual trading expedition up the White Nile, for the purpose of ascertaining the practicability of establishing a missionary station among some of the native negro tribes near the Equator. He experienced much difficulty at the outset, on account of the jealousy of the Egyptian traders, who find the company of a European a restraint upon their violent and lawless practices, but through the influence of the Pasha, who was at last brought to give his consent, the missionaries secured a place in the expedition, and on the 13th of November, 1849, set sail from Khartoum. There were seven vessels in the flotilla, and that of Dr. Knoblecher, though the smallest, proved to be the best sailer and usually kept the lead. He had on board a faithful and experienced Nubian pilot, named Suleyman Abou-Zeid.
After fourteen days’ sailing, the expedition passed the islands of the Shillooks and reached that part of the river where the banks are covered with continuous villages. The number of these is estimated at seven thousand. It is worthy of notice that their circular tokuls of mud and reeds are precisely similar in form and construction to those of the tribes on the Niger and Senegal Rivers, with whom the Shillooks have no communication, and from whom they differ in language, appearance and character. While threading the mazes of the archipelago, a violent whirlwind passed over the river and completely dismasted one of the boats. Beyond the islands the river expands so that the marshy shores are barely visible in some places. The lotus grows abundantly in the shallows, and the appearance of the thousands of snowy blossoms as they flash open at sunrise, is described as a scene of vegetable pomp and splendor, which can be witnessed in no other part of the world. The forests of sont trees which cover the islands give place to doum-palms and immense tamarinds, and beyond lat. 10°, in the land of the Dinkas, the beautiful dhelleb-palm is first seen. It has a tall, graceful trunk, thick in the middle, but tapering towards the top and bottom, and a rich crown of large, fan-like leaves.
On the twenty-eighth of November the expedition succeeded, after some difficulty, in establishing an intercourse with the Dinkas and Shillooks, who inhabited the opposite banks of the river. The latter in consideration of some colored glass beads, furnished a number of oxen for provisions. Dr. Knoblecher described their running, when they drove the cattle together, as resembling that of the gazelle; they leap high into the air, drawing up their long legs as they rise, and clear the ground at a most astonishing speed. The next day the vessels reached a large town called Vav, where the people received them without the least appearance of fear, and brought quantities of elephants’ tusks to trade for beads. Herds of wild elephants and giraffes were now frequently seen on the banks of the river, and the former sometimes threw up their trunks and spirted water into the air when they saw the vessels. Numbers of white herons were perched composedly upon their backs and heads. The giraffes, as they gazed with wonder at the fleet, lifted their heads quite above the tops of the mimosa trees. On the second of December, the expedition passed the mouth of the Sobat River, the only tributary stream which comes to the White Nile from the east. Its source is supposed to be in the country of the Gallas, south of the kingdom of Shoa. Its breadth, at its entrance into the Nile, is six hundred and fifty feet. Werne, who ascended it about eighty miles, with D’Arnaud’s expedition, states that its shores are higher than those of the Nile, and that the surface of the country became more elevated as he ascended, whence he infers that the White Nile, as far as it has been explored, flows in a depressed basin of the table-land of Central Africa.
From lat. 9° 26′ to 6° 50′ N. there is a complete change in the scenery. The magnificent forests disappear, and the shores become marshy and unhealthy, covered with tall grass, whose prickly stalks render landing difficult, and embarrass the navigation of the shallows. The air is heavy with noxious miasmas and filled with countless swarms of gnats and mosquitoes. The water of the river is partially stagnant, and green with vegetable matter, occasioning serious disorders to those who drink it. Dr. Knoblecher clarified it by means of alum, and escaped with a sore mouth. In order to sleep, however, he was obliged to wear thick gloves and muffle up his face, almost to suffocation. The Bahr el-Ghazàl, or Gazelle Lake, lies in lat. 9° 16′ N. It is thus named from the Gazelle River, which flows into it on the western side, and which has never yet been explored. Its depth is about nine feet, but the reeds and water-plants with which it is filled reach to the surface, and render the navigation difficult. Its shores are inhabited by the Nuehr negroes, a stupid, imbruted race, many of whom are frequently carried off by the traders and sold as slaves. For this reason it is now very difficult to procure elephants’ teeth from them.
After leaving the Gazelle Lake, the course of the White Nile becomes exceedingly tortuous, and its current sluggish. Innumerable estuaries, or blind channels, which lose themselves among the reeds, perplexed the pilots, and delayed the progress of the expedition. The land of the Kyks succeeded to that of the Nuehrs, which terminated about the eighth parallel of latitude. The former are a race of herdsmen, who have great numbers of cattle and sheep. Dr. Knoblecher found them exceedingly shy, on account of the threats of one of their kogiurs, or soothsayers, who had warned them against holding any intercourse with the traders. On the twenty-second of December they reached the village of Angwen, where the King of the Kyks resided. The monarch received them with great kindness, and paid distinguished homage to Padre Angelo Vinco, Dr. Knoblecher’s companion, whom, on account of his spectacles and gray beard, he took to be a magician. He begged the Padre to grant him four favors, viz:—abundance of children; the death of the enemy who had slain his father; victory in all his fights, and a cure for the wound in his head. The latter gift was easily bestowed, by means of a plaster, but he was not satisfied until an image of the Virgin had been hung around his neck.