30 
NEW YEAR. 
[chap. I. 
1863, Jan. 1st , 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 Hongola, 
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 Her s 
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. 
2 cl 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 
in great numbers on the terra firma to the west. 
Verily it is a pleasant voyage; disgusting naked 
savages, everlasting marshes teeming with mosquitoes, 
and the entire country devoid of anything of either 
common interest or beauty. Course west the whole 
day; saw giraffes and one ostrich on the east bank. 
On the west bank there is a regular line of villages 
throughout the day’s voyage within half a mile of each 
other ; the country very thickly populated. The huts 
are of mud, thatched, having a very small entrance— 
they resemble button mushrooms. The Shillooks are 
wealthy, immense herds of cattle swarm throughout 
their country. The natives navigate the river in 
two kinds of canoes—one of which is a curious com¬ 
bination of raft and canoe formed of the Ambatch 
wood, which is so light, that the whole affair is 
