New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-05-21

and insisted on our remaining for dinner, although
we had invited two friends tn help us eat roasted
ram. We urged this in excuse, but he cut US Of
by exclaiming: IL am ruler here, and my com.
mands dare not be disobcyed," and Immediately
sent servant to order our guests, in his name, 70
eat the ram themselves. He then dispatched
messengers for Abd-el-Kader Bey, Governor Of
Kordoian and Rufaha Bey, who were brought 10
the palace in the same arbitrary manner Having
thus secured his company, he retired for the usual
prayers before dinner leaving US TO ENJOY the pre-.
paratory pipe. Among the manifold dishes served
az dinner. were three or four kinds of fish from the
White Nile all of them of excellent flavor. The
Pasha continued his discussion of Louis Napo.
Icons coup fttat, taking delight m recommending
a sanguinary policy as his only course, and could
not enough praise Sultan Mahomoud |. for his ex.
ccution of forty thousand Janissaries in one day.
Nv boat is of the small kind called sandal, car.
rying two sails and with sort OF covered coop
for cabin. Except the Pasha's dahabiysh, it was
the best vessel in khartoum, and as it happened,
the only one ready to sail. have named It the
John Ledyard in memory of the first Americas
traveller in Africa. The name is none the less ap-
proprate, since Ledyard was buried beside tho
Nile. ON his way to discover its sources. BESIDES
the rails, there are five strong Dongolese sailors,
an! black female slave, as cook. My eAecta
including two sheep which the Consul gave me.ss
provision for the voyage were on board early this
morning and the rails and sailors were IN read
mess Fat Abou-Balta, the owner of the vess',
who had promised to accompany me as far az she
first village on the White Nile, did not make his
appearance and SO we pushed of without him.
Never was name more wrongly applied than that
If tbou Balta. 1.-THE father of hatchets,l for he
weighs three hundred pounds, has face like tho
full moon. and is the jolliest Turk | ever saw.
Dr. Reitz, whose hospitality knows no bounds,
sent his dromedaries up the river the day before,
and accompanied me with his avorite servants
two ebony boys, with shining countenances and
white and scarlet dresses.
The men pushed away from shore with some
difficulty, "a a violent north-wind drove the boat
back, but the sail once unfurled we shot like an
arrow between the gardens of khartoum and the
green shores of the Island of Tuti Before reach.
ing the confluence of the rivers, jut Of land
obliged the sailors again to take to their poles aud
oars but short time sufiiced to bring us to the
turillng-DOlnt. fttTt tHt tViuic w tho W''N'ehb
streams are strongly marked. They are actually
blue and white, and meet in an even line, which
can be seen extending far down the common tide.
We tossed on the agtated line of their junction
but the wind carried US in few minutes past the
Island of Omdurman, which lies opposite. The
first American flag that ever noated over the White
Nile huttered gayly at the masthead, pointing to
the South--to those vast mysterious regions out
of which the mighty stream finds its way. A
flock of the sacred ibis alighted on the sandy
shore of the island where the tall king. heron with
his crest of stately feathers, watched us as he
walked up and down. In front, over the Island Of
Moussa Bey, broad mirage united its deusss
waters with those of the true river and lifted the
distant shores so high above the horizon that they
seemed floating in the air. The stream which is
narrow at its junction with the Blue Nile, expand-
ed to breadth oftwo miles, and the shores ahead
of us were so low that we appeared to be at the
entrance of a greaG inland sea. Our coarse
sweryed to the eastward, that we were in tho
rear of Khartoum, whose mnaret was still visible
when we were ten miles distant. The low mud
dwellings of the town were raised to twice their
real hight, by the effect Of the mirage. The shores
on either side sandy tracts almost unculti-
waited, and covered with abundant growth OF
thorns, mimosas and small tree with thick green
foliage. BY twelve o'clock reached the point
where the Consul had sent his dromcdalies, which
were in readiness kneeling on the beach. We
could not approach the shore, ON account of tho
mud but the sailors carried us out on their shoul-
ders. rode with linn to small Arab hamlet,
scattered among the thomy thckets. There
were but two mud houses, the other dwellings,
being merely rude tents of grass mating few Of
the inhabitants were at home but those few were
peaceable and friendly.
All the afternoon | have been going before q
strong wind up this magnificent river. Its breadth
varies from two to three miles, but its current is
shallow and sluggish. The shores are sandy, ans
covered with groves of the gum-producing mimosas
which appears for the first time in proflson. About
o'clock passed low, isolated hill on the eastern
bank, and near sunset, a long ridge on the right,
two miles inland, broke the dead level OF the
plains of kordofan. The sand-banks are covered
with wild geese and ducks in myrids, and here and
there we see an enormous crocodile lounging on tho
edge of the water.
Jan. 23.-The new moon and the eyening-stm
are setting together behind the mimosa forests on
the western bank. We are passing the island Oh
Hassaniyeh, having sailed upward Of one hundred
and forty miles since this time last evening, IL
the wind does not fail, | shall reach my destIna-
ton, the Island of Aba, in the archipelago Of the
Shllooks, before noon tomorrow, in two Days
from khartoum-a distance of more than two hun
dred and fifty miles Better sailing than this ~@
never made on the Nile. Four more days oil snch
wind would take me to the Bahr El-Gazal, 10 ht'
9o-the land of lions, elephants, and giraass'
where the Nile becomes a sea of grass. 1t grows