Hardly Had. I raised my head to listen more attentively
when a confusion of voices arose from the
Arabs’ camp, with a sound of many feet, and in a
few minutes they rushed into my camp, shouting to
my men in the darkness, “ El Bahr! El Bahr! | (the
river! the river!)
We were up in an instant, and my interpreter,
Mahomet, in a state of intense confusion, explained
that the river was coming down, and that the supposed
distant thunder was the roar of approaching
water.
Many of the people were asleep on the clean sand
"on the river’s bed; these were quickly awakened by
the Arabs, who rushed down the steep bank to save
the skulls of my two hippopotami that were exposed
"to dry. Hardly had they descended, when the sound
of the river in the darkness beneath, told us that the
water had arrived, and the men, dripping with wet,
had just'sufficient time to drag their heavy burdens
up the bank.
All was darkness and confusion; everybody was
talking and no one listening, but the great event
had occurred, the river had arrived “ like a thief in
the night.” On the morning of the 24th June, I
stood on the banks of the noble Atbara river, at the
break of day. The wonder of the desert! yesterday
there was a barren sheet of glaring sand, with a fringe
of withered bush and trees upon its borders, that cut
the yellow expanse of desert. For days we had
journeyed along the exhausted bed : all Nature,_ even.
in Nature’s poverty, was most poor: no bush could
boast a leaf: no 'tree could throw a shade : crisp
gums crackled upon the stems of the mimosas, the
gap dried upon the burst bark, sprung with the
withering heat of the simoom. In one night there
was a mysterious change—wonders of the mighty
Nile!—an army of water was hastening to the wasted
river: there was no drop of rain, no thunder-cloud
on the horizon to give hope, all had been dry and
sultry; dust and desolation yesterday, to-day a
magnificent stream, some 500 yards in width and
from fifteen to twenty feet in depth, flowed through
the dreary desert! Bamboos and reeds, with trash
of all kinds, were hurried along the .muddy waters.
Where were all the crowded inhabitants of the pool f.
The prison doors were broken, the prisoners were
released, and rejoiced in the mighty stream of the
Atbara.
The 24th June, 1861, was a memorable day.
Although this was actually the beginning of my
work, I felt that, by the experience of this night I
had obtained a clue to one portion of the . Nile
mystery, and that, as “ coming events cast their
shadows before them,” this sudden creation of a
river was but the shadow of the great cause.
The rains were pouring in Abyssinia ! these were
sources of the Nile |
One of my Turks, Hadji Achmet, was ill; therefore,
although I longed to travel, it was necessary to wait.
I extract verbatim from my journal, 26th June:—