44 
NEW YEAR. 
[chap. I. 
ministered to his last necessities. This sad event 
closes the year 1862. Made sail at 8.30 p.m., the 
repairs of ship being completed. 
1863, Jan. ls£, 2 o'clock a.m. —Melancholy thoughts 
preventing sleep, I have watched the arrival of the 
new year. Thank God for his blessings during the 
past, and may He guide us through the untrodden 
path before us! 
We arrived at the village of Mahomed Her in the 
Shillook country. This man is a native of Dongola, 
who, having become a White Nile adventurer, estab¬ 
lished himself among the Shillook tribe with a band 
of ruffians, and is the arch-slaver of the Nile. The 
country, as usual, a dead flat: many Shillook villages 
on west bank all deserted, owing to Mahomed Hers 
plundering. This fellow now assumes a right of terri¬ 
tory, and offers to pay tribute to the Egyptian Govern¬ 
ment, thus throwing a sop to Cerberus to prevent 
intervention. 
Course S.W. The river in clear water about seven 
hundred yards wide, but sedge on the east bank for 
a couple of miles in width. 
2d Jan. —The “ Clumsy " lagging, come to grief 
again, having once more sprung her rotten yard. Fine 
breeze, but obliged to wait upon this wretched boat— 
the usual flat uninteresting marshes : Shillook villages 
