Ismailia

Blue lights are quite invaluable if fitted with percussion caps. They should be packed in a strong tin box, with partitions to contain a dozen; to be placed near your bed at night.

Lamps.—Should burn either oil or candles.

Burning glasses are very useful if really good. The inner bark of the fig-tree, well beaten and dried in the sun, makes excellent tinder.

Mosquito gaiters or stockings should be wide, of very soft leather, to draw over the foot and leg quite up to the thigh joint. These are a great comfort when sitting during the evening.

Tanned goods.—All tents, awnings, sails, nets, lines, &c., should be tanned, to preserve them in African climates.

Books.—All journals and note-books should be tinted paper, to preserve the eyes from the glare, which is very trying when writing in the open air upon white paper.

Seeds.—Should be simply packed in brown paper parcels sewn up in canvas, and should never be hermetically sealed.

Blood.—When meat is scarce do not waste the blood. Clean out the large intestine of an animal if far from camp. This will contain a considerable quantity, and can be easily secured by a ligature at each end.

Fish can be preserved without salt, by smoke. They should be split down the back (not the belly) from head to tail, and be smoked upon a framework of sticks immediately when caught. Four forked sticks, driven into the ground as uprights to support two parallel poles, crossed with bars will form a framework about three feet high; the fire is beneath. All fish and flesh is thus preserved by the natives when hunting.

Salt.—When efflorescent on the surface of the soil, scrape with a spoon or shell, and collect it with as little sand as possible. Cut a hole two inches square in the bottom of a large earthen pot, cover the hole with a little straw, then fill the pot with the salt and sand. Pour water slowly over this, and allow it to filter into a receiver below. Boil the product until the water has evaporated, then spread the wet salt upon a cloth to dry in the sun.

Potash.—If you have no salt, treat wood ashes or those of grass in the same way.

Oil.—All seeds or nuts that will produce oil should be first roasted like coffee, then ground fine upon a flat stone, and boiled with water. The oil then rises to the surface, and is skimmed off. Unless the nuts or seeds are roasted, the boiling water will not extract the oil.

Crutches.—To make impromptu crutches to assist wounded men upon a march, select straight branches that grow with a fork. Cut them to the length required, and lash a small piece of wood across the fork. This, if wound with rag, will fit beneath the arm, and make a good crutch.

In this manner I brought my wounded men along on the march from Masindi.

Tamarinds.—Whenever possible, collect this valuable fruit. Take off the shell, and press the tamarinds into lumps of about two pounds. They will keep in this simple form for many months, and are invaluable in cases of fever-cooling when drunk cold, and sudorific when taken hot. If taken in quantity, they are aperient.

notes

1

The whale-headed stork, or Baleniceps Rex, is only met with in the immense swamps of the White Nile. This bird feeds generally upon water shellfish, for which nature has provided a most powerful beak armed with a hook at the extremity.

2

Mr. Reilly, of 502 New Oxford Street, has been most successful in heavy rifles, with which he has supplied me in both my African expeditions.

3

Vide Appendix. This antelope, which I considered to be a new species, proved to be the Damalis Senegalensis of Western Africa.

4

one of the principal Khartoum ivory and slave-traders

5

It was satisfactory to me that this young man, who was pardoned and punished as described, became one of the best and most thoroughly trustworthy soldiers of my body-guard; and having at length been raised to the rank of corporal, he was at the close of the expedition promoted to that of sergeant. His name was Ferritch Ajoke.

6

After the Khedive's eldest son, Mahomed Tewfik Pacha

7

Eventually the old king, Quat Kare, was imprisoned at Fashoda, and died in a mysterious manner. There are no coroners' inquests in Central Africa.

8

See "Eight Years' Wanderings in Ceylon," published by Longman & Co.

9

Since this was written Ismail Bey has become Pacha, and is governor of the Khartoum province.

10

The agent of the great company of Agad & Co., who farmed the district from the government.

11

The bodyguard of picked men, armed with snider rifles.

12

This officer was a Soudani who had served under Marshal Bazaine for four years in Mexico.

13

His Highness lost no time in sending the necessary orders for the clearing of the main channel of the White Nile to the governor of the Soudan. This energetic officer, Ismail Ayoob Pacha, worked with a large force during two consecutive years and restored the river to its original character—completing the work after I had returned to England, but before the arrival of my successor. Colonel Gordon was thus enabled to make use of the six powerful steamers which I had sent up from Cairo to Khartoum, and the expedition continued without hindrance.

14

These reinforcements were thirteen months actually on the river from Khartoum to Gondokoro, and they only arrived at the close of the expedition.

15

The superior chief was presented with a costume which delighted him. This was a long blue shirt with red waist-band, a bright tin funnel inverted to form a helmet with a feather in the tube, and a pair of spectacles. He declared that he would be "the admiration of the women."

16

The corn tax was thus established. Each house was taxed to pay a small basket of corn every full moon. All old and infirm people and also strangers were exempted from taxation. The headman of each village was responsible for the tax, and he delivered a bundle of small pieces of reed, the size of drawing pencils which represented the number of houses belonging to able-bodied men. This tax was always paid cheerfully, in gratitude for the protection afforded by the government.

17

I had written to him for a supply of coffee-seed.