New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-05-12

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those OF Bruce and Hoskins. Caillaudand Burck
hardt have been translated, as well a, Verne
late voyage on the White Nile, but the researche
oil hussegger and RuppeIl, who have made impor
tant contributions to our knowledge Of Eastern
Soudan. are still sealed fountains to those unac
quaInted with the German tongue. A few words
therefore, concerning the character and relative
position of the different countries Of which have
occasion to speak, may make these sketches o
African life and landscapes more Ineligible II
mary readers. Besides, in khartoum | meet
continually with persons who have made extern
sive Journeys in various parts of Soudnny and have
daily occasion Of learning new and interesting
facts.
As tar as southern Nubia, with the exception Oh
the Gases in the Lybian Desert, the Nile s the
only agent of productiveness. Beyond the narrow
limits of his bounieous valley, all is red sand and
naked rock, from the Red Sea to the Atlantic.
On reaching lat. l9o, however, change takes
place in the desert landscapes. Here the tropical
rains, which are unknown in Egypt and Northern
Nubia, fall every summer, though in diminished
quantity. The dry, gravtlly plains, nevertheless,
exhibit scattering growth of grass and thorny
shrubs, and springs are frequently found among
the mountain ranges. As we proceed southwark,
the vegetation increases in quantity the grass no
longer keeps the level of the plain, but climbs the
mountain sides, and before reaching Khartoum, in
lat. l5' 4V NJ, we have passed the limit of the
Desert. The wide plains stretching from here
eastward to the Atbara, and westward beyond
Kordcan, are savannas of rank grass, crossed here
and there by belts of the thorny mimosa, and DIFF
fering little in aspect from the plains of California
during the dry season. The Arabs who inhabt
them are herdsmen and own vast focks ofcamels
and sheep. The Nile here is no longer the sole
river, and loses his title of The Sea-" which he
owns in Egypt. The Atbara, which flows down
to him from the Abyssinian Alps, has many trbuta-
ries Gifts own; the Blue Nile, between here and
SEMINAR, receives the large streams of the Rahad
and the Bender; and the White Nile, though
flowing for the greater part of his known course
through an immense plain, boasts the important
affluents-the Sobat and the Bahr el-Ghazal. The
soil, climate, productions, and character of the
scenery of this region are therefore very different
from Egypt.
Before the conquest of SoUdan by M0hammed
Ali, little was known of the country between the
Ethiopian Nile and the Red Sea, or of Central AZ
RIGA south of the latitude of Kordoan and SEMINAR.
The White Nile, it is true, was known to exist,
but was considered as n tributary stream. 1t was
extremely difficult and dangerous to proceed be-
yond Nubia, and then only in company with the
yearly caravans which passed between Assouan
and SEMINAR. Ibrahim Pasha, Ismail Pasha and
Mohammed Bey Defterdar between the years
1920 ard 1885, gradually subugated and attached
to the rule of Egypt the countries of Berber, Shen
dy and Sennaar as far as the mountains of Fazogl,
in lat 10, on the southwestern frontier of Abys
sinia, the wild domains Of the Shukorees, the
Biskarees, the Haengas and Hadendoas, extend
ing to the Red Sea, and embracing the seaport OF
Sowakin, and the kingdom of Kordofan, west OF
the Nile, and bounded by the large and powerful
negro Kingdom of Dar-Fur. The Egyptian pos
sessions in Soudan are nearly as extensive as all
Egypt Nubia not included, and might become
even richer and more flourishng under a just and
liberal policy Of government. The plains on both
sides of the Nile might be irrigated to a much
greater extent than in Egypt, and many vast
tracts of territory given up to the nomadic tribes
The native inhabitants are infinitely more stupid
and degraded than the Fellahs Of Egypt, but that
they are capable of great improvement is shown by
the success attending the efforts of the Catholic
Priests here, in educating children. The terrible
climate of Soudan will always be drawback to its
physical prosperity, yet even this would be mti-
gated in some measure, were the soil under culti-
walton.
As followed the course of the Nile, from the
northern limit Of the tropical rains to this place
my previous letters will have given you some idea
of the country along his banks. The territory to
the east toward and beyond the Atbara, is still in
great measure unexplored. Burckhardt was the
first European who visited it, but his route lay
among the mountan-ranges near and parallel to
the coast of the Red Sea. The long chain of Die
bel Langay, which he crossed, is three to five thou
sand feet in hight, and like the mountaineering OF
the island of Ceylon, never has the season on
both sides at once. When it rains on the eastern
slopes the western are dry, and the contrary
There is another and still higher chain near the
coast but the greater part of this region consists
of vast plains tenanted by the Arab herdsmen, and
rising gradually toward the south into the first
terraces Of the table-and Of Ably ssnia. The land
of the Shukorees and the Hallengas, lying on both
sides ofthe Atbara, is called Beiad el Taxa. Dr.
Reitz, the Austrian Consul, visited it three months
ago in company with the military expedition under
Moussa Bey, and Travelled for three or four weeks
through regions where no European had been be-
fore him. His account OF the trip has interested
me exceedingly, and l make no apology for giving
an outline of it.
Leaving the town of Shendy, he travelled east
ward for nine days over unbroken plains of grass
Astounding with gazelles and hyenas, to village
called Coz Radeb, on the Atbara River. This
belongs to the Shukorees, against whom the expe-
dition was in part directed. He then crossed the
river, and travelled for two or three weeks through
a broken mountain country, inhabited by the wan
x,caa Of he Hallenpas and HadcndOas.-