Chapter V: Taking Stock

Native assistants. — Soldiers. — Servants. — Drivers. — Water-tins and skins. — Tents. — Stores, wines, &c. — Estimate for travellers.

BEFORE beginning our journey into the desert it may not be uninteresting to the general reader, and more especially to travellers intending to undertake journeys into this part of Africa, to give some account of the people and things wherewith we had provided ourselves for the expedition.

The European staff consisted of four engineers and one doctor; four of us, including the doctor, of considerable experience in African travel and exploration; all of us tolerable shots, and the doctor in this respect first-rate. To his excellence in this acquirement I firmly believe we attached more importance than to his higher qualifications, which we, fortunately, had very seldom to call into requisition.

The higher native officials were:—

Mohommed Effendi Ameen, lieutenant of engineers.

Mohommed Effendi Abd-el-Fattáh, lieutenant in command of the troops.

Mohommed Effendi Radjai, Public Works Department, Cairo.

Mohommed Effendi, chief Mahound in general charge of the caravan and water arrangements.

Mohommed Effendi, second Mahound in charge.

Let it not be supposed from the circumstance of these personages all bearing the same first name that there is no other first name in Egypt or Nubia; it was simply a coincidence. Many of our soldiers and drivers had other names, but a call of Mohommed from the door of a tent would always bring not one, but many willing servants to do our bidding. The result was the Mohommeds got all the odd work to do; and this was not forgotten in the distribution of rewards at the end of our journey, when it was unanimously decided that each Mohommed should receive just twice as much “backsheesh” as anyone blessed only with a less universal and exalted name.

Under the charge of Mohommed Effendi Abd-el-Fattáh were two corporals and sixteen soldiers, each armed with a Remington rifle and a revolver, and all supplied with an ample number of cartridges.

We had five servants: Risk and Jacoob, cooks; and Petrus, Ibrahim, and Ibrahim gene al attendants; all, with the exception of the last Ibrahim, natives of Abyssinia, devout Christians, and fervent haters of all Mohommeds and Mohommedans.

The number of camels was two hundred and thirty-four, with about forty drivers; these last, with the owners of the camels, brought the total number of persons composing our “hamleh” or caravan to about eighty- five.

For carrying water we had fourteen iron tanks, measuring eight inches by one foot six inches by two feet, and each holding about twelve gallons; twenty-four smaller tins holding three gallons each, and about one hundred water skins, holding each from two to twenty gallons. Good water-skins keep the water cool in the hottest sun, but necessarily lose a great deal by evaporation, and, moreover, impart to it a strong leathery flavour, as well as a worse taste of the pitch and bad oil with which they are prepared in order to preserve them.

For long journeys the iron tanks are incomparably the best; the water certainly gets unpleasantly warm, but if transferred, immediately on arrival at the camping ground, to good and clean skins and hung up in the wind, it becomes cool in a quarter of an hour.

The camel-drivers are bound to take their own supply of water, but seldom do so in sufficient quantity, and ignorance of their careless habits may sometimes lead to their great suffering and death from thirst on the road.

We had in all about sixteen tents of various sizes. Some of them we had taken with us from England, and others, by far the most comfortable, had been supplied to us by the authorities in the War Office at Cairo. The latter were of cotton canvas, and only single, but we remedied the defect by fitting over the tops of them other and smaller tents of the same material, leaving about a foot’s space between the two.

With respect to tent-furniture, we had carpets, beds, tables, chairs, and complete canteens. In personal luggage we did not restrict ourselves; our native assistants had no personal luggage to be restricted.

For each party of two engineers we took with us from London the following stores, supplied by Messrs. Crosse and Blackwell:—

£ _s._ _d._

White crushed sugar, 1 cwt. 2 qrs. 8 lbs. at 40_s._ 3 2 11

Kiln-dried flour, 200 lbs. at 3_d._ 2 10 0

Best Java rice, 50 lbs. at 6_d._ 1 5 0

Fine Congou tea, 42 lbs. at 2_s._ 8_d._ 5 12 0

Huntley and Palmer’s cabin biscuits, 174 lbs. at 2 18 0
4_d._

Assorted pickles, 2 doz. pints at 10_s._ 1 0 0

Assorted sauces, 4 doz. ½-pints, various 1 17 8

Durham mustard, ½ doz. bottles at 17_s._ 0 8 6

White vinegar, ½ doz. quarts at 8_s._ 0 4 0

Cayenne pepper, ¼ doz. bottles at 3_s._ 6_d._ 0 0 11

Lime juice, 3 doz. quarts at 15_s._ 2 5 0

Jams and marmalade, 15 dozen lbs. 7 2 6

Cocoa and milk, 4 doz. ½-lbs. at 6_s._ 1 4 0

Bottled fruits (various) 8 doz. 3 15 10

Salmon, 4 doz. lbs. at 19_s._ 3 16 0

Lobster, 3 doz. lbs. at 10_s._ 1 10 0

Assorted vegetables, 10 doz. lbs. 4 17 6

Oysters, 3 doz. lbs. at 6_s._ 6_d._ 0 19 6

Sardines, 5 doz. ¼-lbs. at 9_s._ 6_d._ 2 7 6

Borwick’s baking powder, 1 doz. 0 12 0

Soda-water powders, 3 doz. boxes at 7_s._ 6_d._ 1 2 6

White pepper, ½ doz. pints at 10_s._ 0 5 0

Salt, 1 doz. bottles 0 4 6

Curry powder, ½ doz. ½-pints at 7_s._ 6_d._ 0 3 9

Arrowroot, 1½ doz. lbs. at 10_s._ 6_d._ 0 15 9

Opening knives, ½ doz. at 6_s._ 6_d._ 0 3 3

Windsor soap, 2 lbs. at 1_s._ 6_d._ 0 3 0

Swiss milk, 4 doz. tins at 8_s._ 1 12 0

Stearine candles, 50 lbs. at 11_d._ 2 5 10

Cases, tins, &c. 6 9 8
--------------
£60 14 1
--------------
41 cases, weighing 1 ton, 4 cwts. 2 qrs. 18 lbs.

From the above list it is advisable to omit the salt. Salt is a monopoly in Egypt, and the Custom laws are very severe. It may be procured in Cairo at a trifling extra cost, where it is refined from the deposited sea-salt in the dried-up lakes on the borders of the Mediterranean. Lake Mareotis is the chief source of supply.

We also took with us claret at the rate of two bottles per day each, and brandy at the rate of one third of a bottle a day each, making for the two persons for six months—

£ _s._ _d._

Claret, 60 doz. at 19_s._ 57 0 0

Martell’s Three Star Brandy, 10 doz. at 40_s._ 20 0 0
--------------
£77 0 0
--------------

These were, of course, purchased in bond.

To some persons these quantities may seem rather large, and to teetotallers perfectly appalling; but it must be considered that in the desert thirst is incessant, and the water seldom drinkable without sophistication of some kind. We had, moreover, to ride nearly every day from twenty to thirty miles and to work hard, to allow for breakages and other losses, and to count upon the possibility of the work lasting longer than the estimated time.

Previous to leaving Cairo for up country we had had about three or four months’ work in the Delta on the surveys and levels of a proposed canal for the general improvement and extension of the irrigation. Our supply of stores on which we had been living was therefore diminished to about that extent. Estimating that what was left would last three months, and that the expedition would take nine months, it was necessary to get a further six months’ supply. These we obtained in Cairo at the establishment of Messrs. Ablitt and Sons, in the Mooskee. The list is materially different from the last, and contains many things which it is not necessary to bring from England because easily procurable in Cairo, but which, of course, are not to be got in the desert. It is as follows:—

£ _s._ _d._

232 rottles[6] sugar, at 4½_d._ 4 7 0

20 packets chocolate at 10_d._ 0 16 8

4 doz. lbs. cocoa and milk at 1_s._ 8_d._ 4 0 0

20 lbs. Parmesan cheese at 1_s._ 4_d._ 1 6 8

4 hams at 1_s._ 6_d._ per lb. 3 15 9

240 tins of soup at 1_s._ 4_d._ 16 0 0

24 tins of Liebeg’s Extract at 2_s._ 2 8 0

24 packets salt at 10_d._ 1 0 0

24 bottles mint at 1_s._ 6_d._ 1 16 0

36 „ salad oil at 2_s._ 6_d._ 4 10 0

24 „ vinegar at 1_s._ 1 4 0

48 „ raspberry vinegar at 1_s._ 3_d._ 3 0 0

24 „ capers at 9_d._ 0 18 0

232 rottles rice at 3½_d._ 5 7 8

400 „ flour at 3½_d._ 5 16 8

80 lbs. macaroni at 4½_d._ 1 10 0

24 „ corn flour at 1_s._ 6_d._ 1 16 0

16 „ barley at 9_d._ 0 12 0

20 „ tapioca at 9_d._ 0 15 0

20 packets rice-powder at 1_s._ 1 0 0

24 lbs. sago at 1_s._ 1 4 0

96 tins preserved milk at 1_s._ 4 16 0

112 lbs. soap at 5_d._ 2 6 8

100 „ candles at 1_s._ 5 0 0

12 tins wax matches at 2_s._ 1 4 0

8 doz. Bryant & May’s matches at 1_s._ 0 8 0

12 Bath bricks at 6_d._ 0 6 0

24 packets baking powder at 1_s._ 1 4 0

8 tin openers at 1_s._ 3_d._ 0 10 0

36 tins biscuits at 2_s._ 9_d._ 4 19 0

12 packets julienne at 2_s._ 1 4 0

2 tins knife-powder at 3_s._ 0 6 0

8 bottles spices at 1_s._ 6_d._ 0 12 0

12 bottles curry-powder at 1_s._ 3_d._ 0 15 0

6 doz. tins meat at 1_s._ 4_d._ 4 16 0

12 bottles chutnee at 1_s._ 9_d._ 1 1 0

80 tins asparagus at 2_s._ 3_d._ 9 0 0

84 „ turnips at 1_s._ 4_d._ 5 12 0

96 „ carrots at 1_s._ 4_d._ 6 8 0

8 bottles sauces at 1_s._ 6_d._ 0 12 0

20 lbs. raisins at 6_d._ 0 10 0

14 „ currants at 6_d._ 0 7 0

4 doz. Old Tom gin at 20_s._[7] 4 0 0

4 „ whisky at 26_s._ 5 4 0

16 „ Medoc at 20_s._ 16 0 0

Cases and tins 4 4 0
---------------
£142 8 1
---------------

This list of stores was, as before, for a party of two engineers. In some cases a few additional things were subsequently added, of which, however, no record was kept.

From these details, and from the prices paid for the hire of the camels, mentioned in the last chapter, it is easy to arrive at an approximate estimate of the cost of a year’s _comfortable_ travelling for, say, two persons undertaking an expedition into the deserts of Nubia.

The hire of a camel, per month, may be taken at two pounds, and this is the price we paid on our return journey from El Fasher.[8] Fifty camels for the party is a safe estimate if others are easily procurable on the journey, but if not, in order to allow for deaths, &c., it is not advisable to travel with less than sixty.

_Estimate for Twelve Months’ Travelling in the Desert for Two Persons,
with Servants, &c._

£ _s._ _d._

60 camels, per month £2 1,440 0 0

Stores (London List) 137 14 1

„ (Cairo „ ) 142 8 1

2 cooks, each at £5 per month 120 0 0

2 men to help pitch tents, &c. at £1 10_s._ per 36 0 0
month

Tents, beds, furniture, canteens, &c. 100 0 0

Expenses for sheep, milk, fruits, charcoal, &c. 100 0 0
-----------------
£2,076 2 2
-----------------

The above includes everything but water-skins, which may be had at a very trifling expense. From the estimate it will be seen that the cost is about three pounds per head per day, and that to travel in comfort, as we did, is as dear, or dearer, in Nubia than in any part of Europe.

[Decoration]