Let us now glance briefly at the physical geography of the Nile basin south of Khartoum. Below the tenth degree of latitude, the steppe country is no longer seen. Vast marshes stretch away on either hand, broken by peninsulas and islands of dry land. For 790 miles this is the character of the immediate valley of the White Nile. Between latitudes 5 and 6 the swamps end and the face of the country becomes more like our own land. From this latitude to the equator is a charmingly diversified country, with mountains, valleys, creeks, meadows, and not an extraordinary proportion of swamps. Of course, this region is more healthy than the marshes of the White Nile, but even it has a trying climate.
Here the Nile is a rapid stream, with numerous wooded and rocky islands and long stretches of rapids and cataracts. The forests are neither so vast nor so dense as we imagine tropical forests to be; nor do we find here the majestic trees and the luxuriant vegetation of the Central American forests. The herbage grows with wonderful rapidity, and during the summer months much of the country is covered with grass of amazing height and strength.
On the west and south the great swamp basin seems to end at a crest of high land running northwesterly from the Nile at about latitude 5, crossing the eighth degree of latitude at 150 or 200 miles west of the Nile, and keeping something the same general direction to the steppes of Darfour and Wadai.
The eastern limit of the swamp region is even more conjectural than the western, but we may expect that it will be found within 100 miles of the Nile, and that it is a line running south by west from near the mouth of the Sobat. The total area of the swamp basin may be 25,000 square miles.
Khartoum is the point of rendezvous and departure for all routes into the Soudan. It may be reached from Cairo by two principal routes; one up the Nile valley, the other by the Red Sea and by caravan to Berber on the Nile, 250 miles north of Khartoum. The quicker and probably the cheaper route is by the Red Sea, Suakim and Berber. The journey by this route, allowing three days each at Suakim and Berber, may be made in 32 days. By this route there are but two days of hard marching necessary. The rest of the journey can be made at a comfortable pace. Both of these routes into the Soudan are much frequented. Special difficulties in getting transportation may operate against one or the other of them at different times. This is something to be decided at Cairo.
Khartoum, the capital of the Soudan, is a town of about 30,000 people, with many and fairly good shops, at which the traveler can procure anything really necessary, except arms, ammunition and medicines. At this great African city all lines of traffic converge. Here boats can be procured, manned, provisioned and stored to go up the White or Blue Nile, the Sobat or the Bahr el Ghazalle. Here camels may be hired and caravans fitted out to go to the East or the West.
From Khartoum to Fashoda, in the tenth degree of latitude, about 450 miles, the White Nile is practically Mohammedan. Though the Shillooks rove considerably north of that point, they are continually harassed by their enemies, the Bagarra Arabs from Kordofan and the government tax-gatherers from the Nile, and lead a very unsettled life. On the eastern bank of the Nile, also, the Mohammedan tribes have driven the negroes south of the tenth parallel.
South of Fashoda, however, for more than 100 miles along the west bank of the Nile, past the mouth of the Sobat, and extending back many miles into the interior, is the country held by the great tribe of the Shillooks. Their huts in this region are like one vast village. They are a powerful and spirited tribe, numbering over a million souls, it is estimated. They have resisted the Egyptian Government with tenacity and considerable success. Indeed, I cannot say how much of their territory is actually subjugated to-day; but it is probable the Egyptian power is not acknowledged far from Fashoda.
The Shillooks are one of the finest negro tribes of which we know anything. They are prosperous cultivators of the soil and great hunters. Although they are greatly exasperated by the wars of the government and the plundering of the passing slave-traders, it is likely that they could soon be led to feel confidence in men whom they found to be neither officials nor slavers. With their light canoes they cross the river constantly, hunting, fishing and raiding on the neighboring Dinkas and Nouers. Although they have been so badly treated by the government and the traders, yet they have learned to discriminate among white men, and it is quite possible that they might be found more open to the influence of Christian missionaries than the tribes farther away from the route of travel.
On the west bank of the Nile, north of the Sobat, is a branch of the great Dinka tribe. These people have fared even worse than the Shillooks at the hands of the slavers, and have almost abandoned the banks of the streams. They will probably return with the decline of slave-hunting, if indeed they are not already occupying again their old lands. These are docile and intelligent negroes, and are favorite slaves. The black regiments of the Soudan were mostly recruited from the Dinkas. Like the Shillooks, the Dinkas are pure heathen and great cattle-breeders. The immediate southern bank of the Sobat is now occupied by the Nouer tribe, who have also pushed over to the north of that stream and are found far up its course. They go to the west as far as the Gazelle River and their southern limit is ill-defined. They are a very numerous tribe, but perhaps inferior in intelligence to either the Shillooks or the Dinkas, although Poncet speaks of them as clean, well-housed, and valiant warriors and hunters.