I Had Been Extremely Fortunate, As, Although Exposed To
Hard Work For More Than A Year In The Burning Sun, I Had
Remarkably Good Health, As Had My Wife Likewise, With The
Exception Of One Severe Attack While At Sofi.
Throughout the
countries we had visited, the temperature was high, averaging
about 90 degrees in the shade from May
Until the end of
September; but the nights were generally about 70 degrees, with
the exception of the winter months, from November until February,
when the thermometer generally fell to 85 degrees Fahr. in the
day, and sometimes as low as 58 degrees at between 2 and 5 A.M.
I shall not repeat a minute description of Khartoum that has
already been given in the "Albert N'yanza;" it is a wretchedly
unhealthy town, containing about thirty thousand inhabitants,
exclusive of troops. In spite of its unhealthiness and low
situation, on a level with the river at the junction of the Blue
and White Niles, it is the general emporium for the trade of the
Soudan, from which the productions of the country are transported
to Lower Egypt, i.e. ivory, hides, senna, gum arabic, and
bees'-wax. During my experience of Khartoum it was the hotbed of
the slave-trade. It will be remarked that the exports from the
Soudan are all natural productions. There is nothing to exhibit
the industry or capacity of the natives; the ivory is the produce
of violence and robbery; the hides are the simple sun-dried skins
of oxen; the senna grows wild upon the desert; the gum arabic
exudes spontaneously from the bushes of the jungle; and the
bees'-wax is the produce of the only industrious creatures in
that detestable country.
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