Expedition to discover the sources of the White Nile, in the years 1840, 1841, Vol. 1 (of 2)Werne, Ferdinand
History
Expedition to discover the sources of the White Nile, in the years 1840, 1841, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Werne, Ferdinand
Nile River
Suliman Kashef, a bold Circassian, who had commanded the first
expedition, and had only been a short time with us in the camp,
was nominated, according to Ahmed Basha’s statement, by Mohammed
Ali himself, as the Commandant, though he is said, in the former
expedition, to have been pushed forward by the mistrustful Ahmed,
in order to take care of his interests, and to keep a watch
on Selim-Capitan, who was sent from Alexandria. To deceive, by
a demonstration, the enemy, the great nation of the Haddendas,
(whose cause must be honoured as a sacred and just one, and whose
great Sheikh, Mohammed Din, had been taken prisoner in a treacherous
manner, and was detained in the camp,) and to open at least the
road, Ahmed Basha marched with us, about two miles and a quarter,
as far as the village of Huàthi, where we had to cross a large
mountainous torrent. The spies sent out by Mohammed Ehle, the Sheikh
of the Hallengas, came back the second time, and declared that the
forest on the other side was free from Arabs (Arab plural Urbàn),
as they judged by the footsteps, which all turned to the north. In
this manner Suliman Kashef and the Shaïgiën leader, Melek Hammed,
and myself, left the camp, which was threatened far and wide by more
than 100,000 hostile lances. Having good guides preceding us, we
pushed through Gohr-el-Gash, (Gohr, pass of the floods, or wild path
of tropical cataracts,) the dry and hitherto sandy bed of which was
full of water, 4,000 feet deep, arising from the periodical rains,
pouring down from the lofty chain of mountains of Makada (Habesh),
that lay before us, and crossed, without any accident, a chain of
sand-banks, which Baraká, the overflowing arm of the Gohr, forms
below Huàthi. This Baraká springs in the north-eastern alpine chain
of Habesh, and, as trustworthy persons, amongst others, the Kadhi
of the Hallengas, have assured us, flows towards the west, through
the mountainous countries of Kostàn and Mària, then separates into
two branches, of which one runs by Suakin eastwards into the Red Sea,
and the other takes its course through Beni-Amer westward, and divides
itself again at Sadderath, a day’s journey to the east of Kaffela,
and then flows into the Gash. On the contrary, this great Gohr comes
from the north-west mountains of Habesh, and pursues its principal
direction through the countries, or mountainous regions of Hamassein,
Dembalass, Belga, and Basa, to the group of rocks of Kaffela-el-Lus,
where it runs to the north, and is said to lose itself, or else it
forms the Mogren, which appears to me also to be a Gohr. These Gohrs
afford sufficient water during the hot season, when their beds seem
quite dry, to the various tribes, with whom we partly came in contact,
and who may be the remains of some ruined nations that have fled
to the mountains. When they require water for themselves and their
cattle, they make in the bed of the Gohr a hole, not very deep, in the
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