May 29, 1955 
Aboard Hlle atr. Bejaf 
Dear Bruce and f^rs. Bredin; 
It’s a*»cool'' 85 in the little stateroan that I share with Dr. Baker, 
where in mid-afternoon the thermometer by the cabin door reads 96 degrees. 
On the deck below some of the Kosla?! "boys" are going through with their 
devotions directed Mecca-wards. With the lowering of the sun behind the 
distant rain clouds to the west, the evening breezes seem to drift across 
the endless, grassy, scrubby aluvial plains that border this channel of 
the Hile on which we float, as far as the eye can reach, to either horisson. 
Or is it the motion of the steamer or the two electric fans, one over each 
bed that makes us think a breeze is blowing? No, the tall shore-line 
reeds (papyrus) and grasses are bowing their hmds to it. llie fresher 
cooler evening air is welcome , and we have yet in Africa to have trouble 
sleeping nights. It is surprising and hart to believe, but a lot of our 
ccwifort here on this historic river, said to be the longest in the world, 
and at Juba, our take-off-point for Cairo, is due to the fans in our 
rooms. They have a lot to do with it, I’m sure. 
This is a sudden jump into the last 3a p of your exjsddition and shortly 
I shall back-track to let you know what happened between my 3^st, 
suddenly ended letter and the present one,-- — 
This trip down the Nile is all and more than te expected and “we 
ain’t seen nothing yet.“ First of all, at Juba it was impossible to 
board the river steamer, the river was too lowj the sand bar below the 
town had just h feet of water over it and the steamer needed a minimum 5. 
Thus we T«?re forced to take to busses furnished by the company, and drive 
72 miles over land (2-1/2 hrs.) to get 10 miles downstream where 
up 
the boat was tied/at Mangalla. We left the hotel (Juba) shortly after 7 
but did not get aboard the steamer until near 11; first we got aboard a 
house boat like barge, transferred to a second of the same kind along side 
