CHAPTER X 



THE ADVANCE ON DONGOLA 



" 14th Oct. — I arrived at Sheykh Obeyd and remained there only a 

 fortnight, going on from Cairo up the Nile to visit Upper Egypt and 

 Nubia, a part of the Nile Valley still new to me. I travelled on this 

 occasion alone, my family not having yet arrived, and got as far south 

 as what was then the extreme frontier of Egypt towards the Soudan. 



"29th Oct. — Left Sheykh Obeyd for the Upper Nile, taking Ali 

 Suffraji with me as body servant. 



" Passing through Cairo called on Gorst, who begged me to inquire 

 on my journey whether there was any ill-feeling in Upper Egypt be- 

 tween Moslems and Copts, and on other points to get him what informa- 

 tion I could. He told me that as to Philse, the reservoir scheme was 

 for the time laid by, the finances being not quite safe, and the political 

 conditions too uncertain. 



" At sunset I drove out beyond the Kasr el Nil bridge, to enjoy the 

 cool breeze and see the villages still partly surrounded by water and at 

 nine I started by train. I travelled all night, comfortably enough but 

 for the exceeding dust, with a fine moon in its second quarter, and a 

 splendid morning star, showing the country still half inundated. Peo- 

 ple are beginning to sow their beans and wheat in the immense flats of 

 mud. In other places the plain is covered with sheep feeding on the 

 new green grass before it is ploughed. Sugar cane is the only growing 

 crop. 



" 30^ Oct. — At half-past ten reached Girgeh, where the railway 

 ends, and took boat in a stern-wheel steamer leaving at one. No first- 

 class passenger besides myself, except three French engineers connected 

 with the railway now being constructed to Keneh. With one of them, 

 Megie, I had some interesting talk. He has been thirty-five years in 

 the country, having come as a boy with his father, a protege of Linant 

 Pasha — now for eight years in Upper Egypt — intelligent and kindly. 

 He tells me there is absolutely no ill-will between Moslems and Copts 

 — never was any, even in the time of Arabi — knew Arabi — consid- 

 ered him a brave homme — had remained at Kaliub till after the bom- 

 bardment, when he left by the last train for Suez — could have stayed 

 on, if he had liked, in security at Cairo, though perhaps not in the 

 villages. I asked him whether the fellahin were better off now or in 



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