AFRICA.
EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS OF REV. H. M. LADD.
Cairo, Egypt, Nov. 28, 1881.—We are off at last. The delay has been inevitable. No sooner would we make a plan than the bottom would fall out of it. About sixteen bottoms have fallen out. However, we have some reason to hope that the last one will stick unless all men are liars, or unless there should be an explosion or an upheaval of the Nile, or unless there should be something else. It is never best to be too sure about anything in this country.
The quarantine has also thrown all our plans into confusion. We tried all sorts of schemes to obtain a passage down the Red Sea and get landed at Souakim without quarantine, but every plan failed and we determined to go up the Nile. Then we heard by chance (everything seems to go by chance here) that the Egyptian steamboats had given up calling at Jedda, and that we could go direct to Souakim. We commenced telegraphing at once to Suez. Four times we telegraphed, and finally learned that one steamer would go direct to Souakim without quarantine, but that it would sail before we could catch it, and that there would not be another one for a month.
So again we gave up the Red Sea, and returned to the Nile route. We planned to go by rail to Siout, thence by postal steamer to Assouan. The steamer was to leave Siout on Wednesday; we must leave here on Tuesday; our baggage must leave by freight train on Monday, and to make sure of its getting on to the train it must be sent to the station on Sunday. So we got it ready on Saturday by working hard, and sent it to the station, and were quietly informed that there was no train that would take it till Tuesday, except for an enormous sum, and that as the boat left now on Tuesday instead of Wednesday we could not reach it any how. This all meant three days more of delay. * * * So we leave to-day, after taking the best advices we could possibly get on the subject, determined to push on up the river and cross the long Korosko Desert, which is the shortest though not the easiest route now open to us. We are both in excellent health and spirits and start off with much to cheer us. They tell us there is plenty of good weather before us in which to reach Fatiko or Lake Albert Nyanza, if we shall think it best to do so on reaching Khartoum.
Assyout or Siout, Dec. 2.—We arrived here last evening, and expect to start onward at 3 A.M. to-night. The American missionaries have entertained us very hospitably, and send us on our way rejoicing.
Assouan, Dec. 9.—We have reached the borders of Nubia in safety, and shall set sail to-morrow noon for Korosko. This is far better than we expected to do, as we were told we should be detained here three or four days. We have taken three Arabs into our company and thereby reduced our expenses to Khartoum. Everything now looks well for us. We shall try to reach Korosko in three days from here. The Governor of this district has ordered camels to be ready for us. From Korosko we shall try to make the desert from Nile to Nile in eight days, and in five more to reach Berber.
Korosco, Nubia, Dec. 12.—We found our camels ready for us, and we shall start into the great desert early to-morrow morning. To-day the men are making the necessary preparation in the way of food, etc. The Governer here, acting under orders from down the river, is very attentive. The water at Murat, the only point where there is any on the desert, is bad, and cannot be used for drinking; we shall, therefore, have to carry enough to last us till we reach Aboo Hamed and the river again. The doctor has had his hands full, attending to all sorts of people with all sorts of troubles, and evidently is destined to be quite in demand. We are both well and in good trim for the journey.