On the morning of 1st July, we sailed from Khartoum to Berber.
On approaching the fine basalt hills through which the river passes
during its course from Khartoum, I was surprised to see the great Nile
contracted to a trifling width of from eighty to a hundred and twenty
yards. Walled by high cliffs of basalt upon either side, the vast volume
of the Nile flows grandly through this romantic pass, the water boiling
up in curling eddies, showing that rocky obstructions exist in its
profound depths below.
Our voyage was very nearly terminated at the passage of the cataracts.
Many skeletons of wrecked vessels lay upon the rocks in various places:
as we were flying along in full sail before a heavy gale of wind,
descending a cataract, we struck upon a sandbank--fortunately not upon a
rock, or we should have gone to pieces like a glass bottle. The
tremendous force of the stream, running at the rate of about ten or
twelve miles per hour, immediately drove the vessel broadside upon the
bank. About sixty yards below us was a ridge of rocks, upon which it
appeared certain that we must be driven should we quit the bank upon
which we were stranded. The reis and crew, as usual in such cases, lost
their heads. I emptied a large waterproof portmanteau, and tied it
together with ropes, so as to form a life-buoy for my wife and Richarn,
neither of whom could swim; the maps, journals, and observations, I
packed in an iron box, which I fastened with a tow-line to the
portmanteau.
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