Mohawks on the Nile. Carl Benn
troops would face few problems through Egypt itself to Wadi Halfa because of railway lines along part of the river as well as the availability of steamboats — including a number maintained by the famous tour operator, Thomas Cook — and the ease with which additional transport could be arranged on the northern part of the Nile. Wadi Halfa, situated about ten kilometres north of one of the Nile’s treacherous barriers, the Second Cataract, was the centre of an area where the army established a series of camps, depots, and repair yards at both ends of the cataract that would serve as the jumping-off point for transporting the bulk of the matériel and men of the army of about ten thousand as it moved farther upriver into the heart of the rebellious territory.57 From the south end of the Second Cataract, small boats piloted in large part by voyageurs from Canada were to be the primary means of getting through the remaining four major cataracts and many smaller but still formidable patches of rough water. That part of the route ran for fifteen hundred kilometres to Khartoum through desert or semi-desert dominated by Muhammad Ahmad’s forces in a region where there were very few local resources available to supply the army. The main cataracts were extensive ranges of rapids, often were uncharted, and changed regularly, thus creating a situation in which the voyageurs would need to explore the waterways to find usable channels in addition to deploying their other skills in manoeuvring the boats through the rapids. Recognizing that the army would not be able to move rapidly, Wolseley planned to split his force into “River” and “Desert” columns if necessary at Korti, deep within Sudan’s boarders, with the latter to use horses and camels to ride overland to Metemma on the Nile and save time by bypassing the great bend in the river. From Metemma, the Desert Column could use steamboats Gordon had anchored there to open communications with Khartoum. In that eventuality, the River Column would continue upriver to capture Abu Hamed and Berber before joining the Desert Column in whatever subsequent operations were needed to complete the mission.
Chapter 2 The Voyageurs on the Nile
While the British army established its camps in and around Wadi Halfa, the Ocean King sailed into Alexandria harbour (which still showed the scars of the British bombardment two years earlier) on October 7, 1884. The next day, the officers and men of the Canadian contingent began their long journey south to take up their duties, covering the first part of the route on troop trains, from Alexandria on the Mediterranean to Asyut on the Nile, travelling via Cairo. Mohawk Boatman James Deer described the rolling stock as “something like cattle cars, open and without windows, so that the sand blew in upon us like drifting snow, giving everyone an extremely dirty and travel-stained appearance.” Foreman Louis Jackson from Kahnawake remembered the accommodations as uncomfortable and crowded, and commented on how the parched voyageurs all rushed for water at each stop along the line. (The contingent’s officers, in contrast, travelled in first-class carriages.) Despite the discomfort, Jackson took in the sights along the way, and remarked on how he saw fencing made from corn stalks that looked much like Canadian snow fences and which fulfilled a similar function by keeping the desert sands away from the tracks. At the first glimpse of the Nile during the afternoon of October 8, Jackson reflected on how it was about the “same width as the Saint Lawrence opposite Caughnawaga.”1 From Asyut to Wadi Halfa, the voyageurs travelled on the river itself, aside from a short rail portage around the First Cataract. Most of them sat in barges and whaleboats towed by steamers, while others made the journey on the steamers themselves. Each night the contingent had to camp rather than continue on its way because sandbars in the river made travel dangerous in the dark. Their commanding officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Denison, used the stops to purchase fresh meat, vegetables, dates, and other provisions for everyone to supplement the tinned “bully beef” (sold to the British by American meat packers), hardtack, tea, coffee, rum, lime juice, and other items that made up the army’s rations. These stops gave the Canadians time to see some of Egypt’s places of interest, including its ancient ruins, but Louis Jackson found the experience frustrating because the local people could not tell him anything about the great monuments that stimulated his curiosity. As they continued upriver, Colonel Denison told his men to keep their hair short and bodies washed to help preserve their health, and warned everyone that once they passed Aswan they would have to bathe only in shallow waters and in groups because of the threat posed by crocodiles. Despite the excitement of possible encounters with those giant reptiles, the members of the Canadian contingent generally thought the days spent travelling along the Nile to Wadi Halfa were pleasant.2
The move upriver through Egypt, however, was not without its troubles. On one occasion, during a scuffle over some melons, a Canadian shot and mortally wounded a local person. Frederick Denison conducted a thorough investigation, but could not establish who was responsible, so all he could do was confiscate the voyageurs’ handguns and fine three non-Mohawk men who were on shore at the time of the incident five pounds each. He also issued orders instructing his subordinates to conduct themselves “properly,” not touch the crops or belongings of the local population, and stay out of riverside villages, while reminding them that they fell under military disciplines, which meant that they could be court-martialled and shot for committing serious crimes.3 Shortly afterwards, when the Canadians still were making their way towards Sudan, Deer recorded that the governor of a town along the Nile invited the boatmen to visit him, treated them kindly, and gave them coffee and cigarettes. However, on their way back to the riverbank, they “were stoned by a party of five hundred Arabs, and some of our men” were “badly hurt,” without saying why they had been attacked, although the incident may have been related to the earlier shooting.4 At about the same time, one voyageur seemed to have disappeared from the main body, and the Canadians assumed that he had been murdered by local people. The contingent’s officers, with a party of men, and equipped with a surprisingly large amount of ammunition, prepared to “sally forth in a state of great excitement” according to one young British officer on the scene, Lieutenant F. Gore Anley, who, with his other imperial colleagues on board the steamer, thought the Canadians overreacted, and laughed when Surgeon-Major J.L.H. Neilson demanded that a strong guard be stationed around the boat. The incident ended when the “missing” man was discovered asleep behind a biscuit box. Yet, even the returning calm came close to ending in tragedy when a Canadian officer nearly shot one person while unloading his revolver.5 Beyond the awkward incident of the missing man, Denison and his fellow officers had trouble controlling their subordinates, according to Anley. One day they had to postpone their departure from a landing along the river for several hours because a number of voyageurs were slow to return to their vessels; and another time, despite being ordered to stay on board the transport, the voyageurs flocked ashore when they stopped, despite the shouts and efforts of the officers to prevent them from leaving. Both incidents of poor discipline reflected the long-standing customs of engaging in wild behaviour when shantymen back in Canada let off steam as they travelled from settled regions to the lumber camps where opportunities to indulge themselves would be few and where work would be hard, as would be the case once the contingent entered Sudan. Reflecting on their insubordination, Anley called the Canadians as a whole “dreadful,” yet thought that separately they were “very good chaps indeed.” However, he realized that some of them possessed little skill in boating, having finessed their way into the contingent merely to participate in the adventure. Lieutenant Anley also showed some gullibility when he observed that the natives among the Canadians were “dressed in the garb of civilization” claiming that “they only put on their war paint on great and solemn occasions.” He also enjoyed a ride in one of a pair of canoes the steersmen had brought along when “six Red Indians” made it “skip along at a tremendous pace”; and he took pleasure at a concert of boating songs given by the voyageurs for the benefit of their fellow travellers, which their officers probably hoped would temper some of the tensions caused by the unruly boatmen with their imperial comrades.6
The trip to the camps in and around Wadi Halfa took the Canadian voyageurs until October 26, 1884. Upon their arrival, General Lord Wolseley, who had been on the scene for three weeks, visited their camp (located somewhat south of the town itself at the north end of the Second Cataract) to give them their orders.7 Wolseley took some satisfaction when he saw the people who would be charged with mastering the challenges posed by the Nile,