Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1874-05-29


also limited supply of books. We
have each, excellent, large tents, as
well as ms SIS tent, service tents for
our servants, kitchen. &c, &c. Onr
own r;stions are. one may say, unlim-
tied as to Quantity and consist of tx
ceiient coffee, (from Mocha on the OPP
posite coast of Arabia;) white loaf SUI
gar equal to any in the world, made ut
the khedive's sugar mills i'll enormous
quantities; tea, English wa.er-crackers
in tin boxes This is our only bread,
and though pretty dry it keeps unal-
terably good and sound. We also
have rice, beans, lentils and onions,
the produce of the country. We are
supplied with canned soups, Vegeta-
bles and meats of English preparation.
But these pail upon the taste very much
and become quite unpalatable as You
may judge from the names of 'tin soup
and rag meat which we have be-
abundance of sardines in boxes but
| Our guns supply us with good deal
of game and there is hardly day
while on the march that we don't bag
enough for one meal-and sometimes
much more. But our main depen-
dence is upon the sheep and goats we
buy from the Bedwins whom we meet
on the dessert at rare intervals. We
always try to keep a dozen or SO on
hand, AMI as we travel slowly, they
keep up very we'll with the caravan,
grazing as they go. The goats are
quite good. The sheep generally of
Soudan breed-large and beautiful an
imals. Nature has clothed them with
short hG ;r, about the length of bull
dogs hair, AMI generally white with
few black spots. They stand the heat
much better than the woolly Syrian
sheep. Pasturing upon the abundant ar
omatic herbs of the dessert, their meat
acquires delicious flavor and would
make the fortune of butcher in any
city-even Cairo. Unfortunately we
cannot always procure as many of these
animals as VIC would like, and we have
to use their meat sparingly. Occa-
sionally, when we pass near a Bedwin
camp always out Of sight in some
gorge of the mountain) our guides go
there and procure some goats milk,
which being transported in goats
shins on camels's back, reaches us in
the shape of half churned butter milk
with the butter all in it. After it be-
comes acid (Which is very SOON it is
excellent.
We are fortunate in the supply of
water. Before the rains of last No
vember, it had not rained here for
three years, and nearly all the natural
resources of rain water which exist in
the rocky holiows of the mountains had
dried up Now, there is water in
ABUNDANCE and generally pretty good
AS we have some forty odd water
camels, we can carry from six to eight
days supply.
When the nights were cold, III the
latter part of January and the early
, part Of February, while we We're some
,, twenty-five hundred feet above the sea
level the thermometer went down to
, 40 degrees-on!y 8 degrees above
, freezing point: and | can assure yop it
, felt cold to us wEo have become aocus~
, toned to the nineties and even more
.. But whenever there was plenty of fuel
around the camp, great fires were
built out doors; and when the wood
. had burned to charcoal, a hole was
made in the sand inside of the tent
, and filled with glowing Goals, produc-
ing as much heet as We wanted. But
, by the l1tl Of FEBRUARY. We had
: reached the highest part OF the chain
= and summer had already come back.
On the Odd of Febr'y the thermometer
stood thus: At ! p. M, 105 degrees in
side the tents, with both doors open
and good breeze blowing; at 3, 100
degrees; at 10 p. m, 80 degrees; at
, daylight, 20 degrees. But the lO3 de-
ing iii the -siu and which would ie liz
to!erah!e in America, liz easily borne
without suffering on the desert
, Iou will conclude from all this that
we ere very comfortable indeed; ard
, in fact no tourists could, with any
; reasonable expense, make themselves
). as much so, because of the veXations
they wGulu necessarily GnconntS{. 70
, those of us Who served IN the Coincide
rate army 20 the end OF the war, this
, sort of camp-life is perfectly luxurious
We American officers mess together,
of course, and the Arab officers have
, their own messes. We have an excel
lent cook from Berber Each of Ms
, has an orderly to attend to his tent,
, his baggage and follow him on the
, march. Col. Pnrdy's orderly is n Ser
geant of Engineer troops who has
, aeen with him for three years on many
:, expeditions through the deserts HIS
; name is Boori. He is full six feet
high, with broad square shoulders, a
= ! splendid form and a very good face,
which he keeps clearly shaved, except
, his moustache. He is just as good
natured as it is possible to be. So are
derry 4pu l.tin2. 4nueei,, ell t.-ese
Arab soldiers are So. They never
fight, and very seldom quarrel, and
give less trouble than any set of men I
ever saw. / have for my own personal
service Maltese, named Thomas Fer
ranti, who has been invaluable to me,
beth as servant and interpreter, for
he speaks Englisn PERFECTLY AID Arabic
almost as well, ard has travelled for
many years al! over this country and
the East Indies. Travellers going up
the Nile or any where in the East
could not secure a better and more
efficient sers.nt s.nkf t!.rego-can than he
Now that you know all about our
party and mode of life, you are ready
to start with me on the march to
Bcrber
On the 18th Of January, before day
light, everything was astir in Camp
Hodar; the water barrels and water
skins had I'll been filed up the day be-
fore cn4 the oaI.elE driven in close to
cain but its being the first day OF the
march we could not get off until eight
O'Clock, after a substantial breakfast.
We travelled until 3 p. NJ, rising up
wards of 600 feet in about II miles.
On that day we babe farewell to the
Red Sea, with its beautiful scenery,
its wonderful sunrise and moonrise,
its blue waters and the splendid con-
trast of mountains and water. The
weather was beautiful, as usual, the
temperature genial and the route
through the wadies smooth, firm ana
almost level. There is nothing in this
region that can be called roads, merely
tracks which remain visible on the
rocky parts, but which the wind soon
! effaces from the sandy portions of the
| way. do poi INTEND to giye you our
daily record Of the itinerary, for it
would be tedious; but I will select
from nay diary whateyer may seem
most interesting. I will begin by de-
| IhIncr 1au:S' r,oro1,