ROOSEVELT’S RETURN TO CIVILIZATION 
437 
of rival correspondents to be the first to reach the Dal. The Cairo 
was much the fastest of the two boats, but Mr. Wellman, who had 
chartered it, nearly lost the race by over confidence, wasting time by 
tying up at nights. The Pasha drove on night and day, burning fuel 
to the stick. It was an old boat, with broken paddles and pounding 
engines, but six blacks stoked the furnace in a tropical sun, sparks 
streaming through the funnels and the timbers cracking, while the 
steam gauge was kept at the top-notch, as in the old days on the 
Mississippi when a negro boy held down the safety valve. In the 
end both boats reached the Dal at the same time, but the Tribune 
correspondents on the Pasha were the first to get the telegraph wire 
at Renk, and their dispatch was the first to reach America. 
Another story of interest to the traveler which they had to tell 
was that Mrs. Roosevelt and her daughter Ethel had left New York 
on February 15, en route for Khartum, which they hoped to reach 
on March 14, the day on which the husband and father expected to 
arrive at the outpost town. They had sailed from Naples for Cairo 
on March 4, and on reaching there would take the railroad up the 
Nile. 
Everything turned out as proposed. The Dal, though it had 
been delayed by the unusual turbulence of the waters of the Nile, 
reached Khartum in the afternoon of March 14, within one hour of 
the scheduled time, and after a brief halt at the palace Colonel Roose¬ 
velt hurried away to the railway station to meet his wife and daughter 
on the train looked for at 5 o’clock. With a courteous appreciation 
of the situation, the officials of the city had so arranged affairs that 
the family reunion after a separation for a year was in strict privacy. 
After a few moments of seclusion, the reunited family emerged from 
the station, evidently very happy at meeting again. 
Never in the history of this outpost of civilization had Khartum 
seen so many vessels as on that day. Every kind of river craft had 
been brought there, loaded with officials, tourists and correspondents. 
Many of these vessels had gone up the stream to escort the Dal back; 
among them that of Sir Francis Wingate, the Sirdar, with his official 
staff. For miles the river looked like a maritime parade. From the 
desert a steady stream of native chieftains, with barbarically splendid 
