GEOGRAPHY AND ANTIQUITIES. 331 



beeak grounded in water only 2 feet 6 inches in depth. Quitting 

 the vessel, and accompanied by my nephew, Lieutenant J. Baker, 

 R.N., I proceeded in a small rowing boat, hoping that we might 

 find deep water before us. We were quickly beaten, as the chan- 

 nel divided into 3 branches and once more flowed through vast 

 marshes. There was not sufficient water for the rowing-boat, and 

 she grounded upon a bed of sand. The river was impassable. 

 On the following morning I attempted a survey of each channel, 

 but all were alike impassable. The painful fact was established 

 that the route by the Bahr Giraffe is only practicable during the 

 season of flood. 



" The rainy season was close at hand. Already we had suffered 

 from several storms ; provisions were damaged ; 160 men laid 

 down with marsh fever; some lives had been lost, and I daily 

 expected the arrival' of Mr. Higginbotharn and party from Khar- 

 toum, who, with a small force, would have been helpless in the 

 ever-closing marshes. The floating masses in many instances 

 closed the newly made channel a few minutes after the passage of 

 the vessels ; thus a weak force might be hemmed in like a ship by 

 ice-floes in the Arctic Sea. 



"I had beforehand determined that in the event of an insur- 

 mountable obstruction, I would form a station at a convenient 

 point upon the White Nile, at which 1 could unite all branches of 

 the expedition, and prepare for the favorable season in Novem- 

 ber. We therefore quickly retraced our steps, cutting through 

 those portions of the canal which had closed; and, remounting 

 the paddles of the steamer, we ran down the Bahr Giraffe at 10 

 miles an hour, in advance of the flotilla, and took up a position 

 for wood-cutting in a forest on the Nile banks, within 6 miles of 

 the Bahr Giraffe junction. At this point we were joined by Mr. 

 Higginbotham and troops from Khartoum, together with the sec- 

 tions of steamers and machinery which he had so ably conducted 

 through the desert journey from Cairo. Dr. Gedge and the 6 

 English engineers and mechanics were also with him in good 

 health and spirits. My exploration of the Bahr Giraffe had saved 

 them much difficulty; but this was not the only good of my 

 return. 



" The Turkish governor of a settlement on the lower White 

 Nile (Fashoda), thinking all chances of detection impossible, had 

 made a razzia on this portion of the Shillook country, and was 

 kidnapping slaves and cattle under the pretence of collecting 

 taxes. Having received this information from the people, I came 

 suddenly upon him with 2 steamers, and caught him in the act 

 with 150 slaves (women and children), 71 of whom were crammed 

 within a small vessel. He was accompanied by about 350 soldiers, 

 exclusive of a few irregular cavalry, with which force he was 

 harrying the country. I insisted upon the immediate liberation 

 of the slaves, and, as the poor people were within sight of their 

 villages which had been so recently pillaged, I had the satisfaction 

 of returning them to their homes, to their great astonishment and 

 to the confusion of the slave-hunting governor. 



