From these contemporary notes it will at once be inferred that the entire length of the Gazelle was navigated by us in four and a half days of very moderate sailing. If the stream is from 136 to 140 miles long, as nearly all the existing maps have represented it, we must have sailed at a rate of about thirty miles a day; but for my part I feel sure that this estimate of our speed must be reduced by at least one-quarter.
All the comfort of our future progress was marred by the incessant plagues of flies, and all its regularity was interrupted by the same grass-obstructions that had impeded us on our former voyage. Before we could enter the side channel known as the Maia Signora, we had to make our way by a narrow cut of water that rushed along like a wild brook, and forced itself through the masses of vegetation on either side of the river, which here, I should suppose, was about half a mile wide. The depth of the fairway varied from six feet to eight feet, and the boat nowhere touched the bottom. The best plan that I can devise for rendering the stream permanently navigable would be to erect dams at certain intervals, and it appears to me that the small depth of water would render the project far from difficult of accomplishment.
We spent the 3rd in sailing along the channel of the Maia Signora, which was 300 feet in width. Towards evening we re-entered the main-stream. At night we continued to drift along, borne gradually onward by the slow current; but, in case of being surprised by sudden gusts of strong wind, we did not hoist a sail. The open channel was about 500 feet in width, but on the northern side it was divided from the actual shore by a growth of grass that was scarcely less than 3000 feet across. The morning brought us in sight of the huts in the Shillook district of Tooma.
A HYÆNA-WOMAN.
A horrible association will be for ever linked to my memories of that night. Dysentery is a disorder to which the negroes, on changing their mode of living, are especially liable, and an old female slave, after long suffering, was now dying in the hold below. All at once, probably attacked by a fit of epilepsy, she began to utter the most frightful shrieks and to groan with the intensest of anguish. Such sounds I had never heard before from any human being, and I hardly know to what I may compare them, except it be to the unearthly yells of the hyænas as they prowl by night amidst the offal of the market-towns of the Soudan. Beginning with a kind of long-drawn sigh, the cries ended with the shrillest of screams, and were truly heartrending. From my recess in the bow of the boat, that was partitioned off by a screen of matting, I could not see what was going on, and conscious that I was quite powerless to accomplish any alleviation for the sufferer, I tried to shut out the melancholy noise by wrapping myself closely round in my bed-clothes. Presently I was conscious of the sound of angry voices; then came a sudden splash in the water amidst the muttered curses upon the “marafeel” (the hyæna), and all was still. The inhuman sailors had laid hold upon the miserable creature in her death-agonies, and, without waiting for her to expire, had thrown her overboard. In their own minds they were perfectly convinced that she was a witch or hyæna-woman, whose existence would inevitably involve the boat in some dire calamity.
It was about five o’clock in the afternoon when we passed the mouth of the Gazelle. Nearly all next day a contrary north wind prevailed, and was so strong that we were obliged to put in upon the right-hand bank. From the spot where we lay-to I counted as many as forty villages on the opposite shore. The district was called Nelwang, and the whole of the surrounding region belonged to the once powerful Shillook chieftain Kashgar, now no longer formidable, as he had lately been reduced to subjection and his entire dominion converted into a regular Egyptian province. Of this altered condition of things we had received no intelligence, and consequently we were in no little trepidation when we saw the natives crossing the river in large numbers just above the place where we were stopping. But we need not have been under any apprehensions. It was soon manifest that the Shillook party had no hostile intentions, and were gathered together merely for a hunting excursion in the forests beyond the right bank of the river.
On observing the crowd of Shillooks our first impulse had been to make our way into the middle of the stream. It was past noon, and we were intently watching the movements of the hunters, when our attention was suddenly attracted by four men, dressed in white, shouting and gesticulating to us from the opposite bank. We could not imagine what Mohammedans were doing in this part of the country, and without loss of time pushed across and took the men on board. They proved to be Khartoom boatmen sent by the Mudir of Fashoda to inform us that his camp was close at hand, and that it was requisite for all boats coming down the river to stop there and submit to a rigid investigation as to what freight and passengers they were carrying. Our long sail-yard had been observed from the camp, and active measures had been immediately taken to prevent us from continuing our voyage without undergoing the prescribed scrutiny.
We had not long to wait before an unaccustomed surging of the water made us aware that a steamer was quite close upon us; in a few moments more the “Remorquer,” No. 8, was alongside, and a rope thrown out by which we had to be towed down to the camp.
However elated I might be at the prospect of being now so soon restored to intercourse with men of a higher grade than those with whom I had been long associated, I must confess that this our first greeting from the civilized world rather jarred upon my sensibilities, and in the sequel resulted in some bitter disappointment.
For nearly a couple of hours we were quietly towed down the river until, at a spot just above the mouth of the Sobat, we came to a side arm of the main stream, called the Lollo. Turning off abruptly into this we found ourselves proceeding in a direction that was quite retrograde as compared with that in which we had just come, and in another couple of hours reached the Mudir’s temporary camp in the district of Fanekama. His force consisted of 400 black soldiers, fifty mounted Baggara, and two field guns.