till nearly noon, when the wind appearing to me and others on board,
more favorable, we, after some hard words with the rais, persuaded him
to get under way, the wind being about the same as in the morning, and
very strong. In about an hour we arrived at a bend in the river, which
enabled us to bring the wind aft.

We proceeded with great rapidity, threading the rocks and shoals with
which the river here abounds, till we came in view of a rapid ahead.
We had been informed, two days ago, that there was a dangerous rapid
between us and Dongola, and we congratulated ourselves that the wind was
fair and strong to push us through it; we passed it happily, though
not without peril. We felicitated ourselves on having cleared the only
obstacle, as we supposed, between us and the place of our destination,
when we came in view of another, of a more formidable appearance than
any we had yet seen. The passage lay where the river rolled furiously
over rocks under water, and between shores there was no approaching, on
account of the shoals and rocks above and under water which lined them.
The strong wind forced our boat alongside of another that was struggling
and reeling in the passage, to the imminent danger of both. To clear
this boat, our rais ventured to pass ours over a place where the
foam and fury of the water indicated latent rocks. We hardly dared to
breathe, but we did not strike here, but half a minute after we were
fast upon a sand bank. We stayed in this condition for about a quarter
of an hour, having in view close by us the wreck of a boat lost here.
With considerable difficulty our boat was disengaged, when we put her
before the wind and again faced this truly infernal pass. By the force
of the current, the boat neared a large and furious whirlpool, formed by
an eddy on the side of the passage. The steersman endeavored, in vain,
to counteract this drift of the boat by the aid of the rudder. The side
of the boat approached to within a yard of the white foam which covered