8 steamer with ten soldiers as an escort to bring him to my
station.
"April 30. - We commenced erecting the iron magazines. Lieutenant Baker,
Mr. Higginbotham, and the Englishmen all actively employed, while Raouf
Bey and his officers, instead of attending to the pressing work of
forming the permanent camp, sit under a tree and smoke and drink coffee
throughout the day.
"The artillerymen are nearly all ill; likewise many of the Egyptian
regiment, while the black troops are well and in excellent spirits.
There is no doubt that for this service the blacks are very superior to
the Egyptians: these are full of religious prejudices combined with
extreme ignorance, and they fall sick when deprived of the vegetable
diet to which they are accustomed in Egypt.
"In the evening the steamer returned with the true Shillook king,
accompanied by two of his wives, four daughters, and a retinue of about
seventy people."
CHAPTER IV.
THE CAMP AT TEWFIKEEYAH.
"May 1. - The camp is beginning to look civilized. Already the underwood
has been cleared, and the large trees which border the river have their
separate proprietors. There is no home like a shady tree in a tropical
climate; here we are fortunate in having the finest mimosas, which form
a cool screen.
