VOYAGE UP WHITE NILE 37 



gunbearer, an ebony-black Nubian, Abdul Halim, both 

 of whom accompanied me on my subsequent voyage on 

 board Candace, in 191 3-14. r A cabin-boy, or sufragi, 

 made up a total of ten hands all told. A notable personage 

 on my second voyage in Candace was my Arab shikari, 

 Baraka, a Baggara of the Selim tribe, hailing from near 

 Renk, and a skilled hunter and tracker. 



The general appearance of both vessels will be gathered 

 from the photographs. In his, the white erection forward 

 was the kitchen ; the deckhouse aft was fitted in the style 

 of a miniature liner first a dining-room, 14 by 10 feet, 

 whence a corridor led aft to two tiny sleeping-bunks and 

 a bathroom. The poop-deck above afforded a promenade 

 and look-out ; but was rendered untenable at midday by 

 the sun, and after sundown (save when we had a breeze) 

 by mosquitoes. 



Both these drawbacks we remedied on our second 

 voyage by bringing out a movable mosquito-netted frame- 

 work, big enough to dine and sleep in, which could be 

 erected on the poop ; and by having an awning stretched 

 overhead. The former we had constructed in London 

 for about sixty shillings ; the latter would cost about as 

 many pence. 



The local climatic feature which renders a i2OO-mile 

 Nile voyage by sail not only feasible but delightful, is 

 the permanent North Wind which, during the winter 

 months, blows steadily up-river, constant by day ; frequent, 

 though intermittent, by night. That blessed breeze, 

 tempering the fierce sun-rays, renders up-stream sailing 

 fast and reliable, at least as far as the Sobat River (530 

 miles from Khartoum). Beyond that point, White Nile 

 takes its great westerly bend of 100 miles to Lake No. 

 The wind on that latter stretch being abeam is necessarily 

 less favourable to a gyassa, since these keelless craft sail 



1 Again in 1919 faithful Mahomed Maghazi attended my brother and self 

 through the Sudan. He had meanwhile put in three years' service with 

 the camel-transport in Palestine, and had just returned from Beyrout. 



