Mogrebin infantry in the boats, awaiting the means of transporting their
tents and baggage across the Desert. On my representing to the Hasna
Katib the circumstance that had delayed me, he informed me that the
Selictar was expected from below in a few days, who, on the day after
his arrival, would proceed after the Pasha, and that I had better
accompany him. I accepted the advice, and pitched my tent to await the
arrival of the Selictar. The same day I was informed that all the large
boats had received orders to abandon the attempt to pass the remainder
of the third cataract of the Nile. They had already, with great
difficulty, got through about fifty difficult passages, and it was
reported that there were nearly one hundred more ahead before the third
cataract could be got clear of. When the river is full, and the
flood, of course, strong, this cataract must, in my opinion, be almost
impassable upwards, as, on account of the strange direction of the
river, little or no aid can be derived from the wind, and the current in
some places, from the straitness of the passages between the rocks and
islands, must, in the time of the inundation, be very furious, while
the cordel, from the natural obstacles which cover the shore of this
cataract, could hardly overcome the difficulties which every mile or two
would present.[28]

On the first day of the moon Jamisalachar, the Selictar arrived from
below, where he had been to collect durra for the army. Two days after
I set forward in company with him to pass the Desert. The road for two
days lay near the bank of the river. By the middle of the afternoon of
the first day we arrived at a pleasant spot on the border of the Nile,
where we encamped to pass the night. On the morning following we mounted
our horses at sunrise, and by mid-day arrived at a fine pond of water at
the foot of a high rock, at no great distance from the river, where we
refreshed ourselves and filled the water-skins, as at this place the