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 A Letter to the Postmaster General, 
 
 BY 
 
 SIK/ -A.. OOTTOIN", 
 
 GENERAL, R.E., MADRAS. 
 
 SECOND EDITION, July 4th, 188/+. 
 
 PRINTED BY R. J. CLARK, STATIONER, <fec. 16, HIGH STREET, 
 
 DORKING.
 
 To the Right Hon. the Postmaster General. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 Having had much experience in river navigation in India, I 
 beg respectfully to offer for your consideration some thoughts 
 on the subject of the Upper Congo. The important debate on 
 the 3rd instant, left one vital point in the subject of that river 
 untouched ; as, of course, it is absolutely necessary in these 
 debates, to keep within some bounds. Mr. Jacob B right's ad- 
 mirable speech probably dealt necessarily with the first point only, 
 viz., the question of the mouth of the river. I cannot express my 
 sense of the masterly way in which he broached the subject ; and 
 especially in bringing out, in plain unqualified language, the 
 great essential point, the curse that Portugal has been to every 
 tract that she has touched with her finger. Her influence has 
 been for evil, and evil only, whether in respect of slavery, 
 trade, missions, or civilization. There can be but one single 
 point to be kept in view in respect of her, and that is, to 
 confine within the smallest possible limits her opportunity of 
 doing mischief. England must insist upon one thing only, 
 that she shall not exercise her poisonous influence over one 
 additional square mile beyond what she now actually holds. 
 But having thus opened the mouth of the Congo absolutely for 
 ever, we are at liberty to extend our thoughts to the interior. 
 I look upon the descent of the river as the greatest exploit 
 ever accomplished by a traveller, and hold Mr. Stanley thereby 
 to have shewn himself the very first of explorers ; and certainly 
 what he has done has opened the way for an extent of good 
 that no words can measure. How wonderful it is to consider 
 this great discovery in the light which is thrown upon it bj r 
 the last and greatest addition to the British Empire. I 
 consider the establishment of British sole authority in Egypt as 
 incomparably the greatest political event that has happened in 
 my long life, planting at the centre of the earth the flag of that
 
 nation which it has pleased God to place at the head of the 
 world, exerting a commanding influence throughout the earth. 
 Round that grand centre all the leading events of times past 
 have been arranged, and around that centre the great future 
 events, we know from God's word, will also be arranged. This 
 river gives us direct access by ocean and inland water carriage, 
 at a cost which brings everything required within range, to the 
 southern extremity of the Egyptian territory, as the Med- 
 iterranean and Red Sea do to the north. Perhaps the Soudan 
 is at present the greatest difficulty in the whole Egyptian 
 question. The distance between Cairo and the advanced 
 southern post on the Uelle river, in lat. 3*45 N., and long. 27 E., 
 is 1800 miles in a direct line, and the various difficulties of 
 every possible sort, on the line, cut off the frontier so effectually 
 from the seat of government, that, as it is evident, the 
 authorities are at their wit's end how to reduce the Soudan to 
 a state worthy of a civilized government. This difficulty is 
 surely completely met by the access offered by the Congo, and 
 it seems certainly as if it would go far to remove all the 
 obstacles to an effective settlement of that vast province, the 
 Egyptian Soudan. For instance, the moment the news reached 
 the insurgents that a handful of troops with ammunition, &c, 
 had been landed in their rear, it would go far to paralyse all 
 their plans. I am, however, by no means certain that the Nile 
 cannot be navigated by suitable boats, to near Lake Albert. 
 All that I have heard on the subject of the " petty rapids," 
 as Gordon Pashaw calls them, leaves me in doubt whether, if 
 an Indian engineer, experienced in shallow river navigation, 
 is sent to Egypt, he would not be able to provide boats that 
 would run up these " rapids." Many clumsy steamers, not 
 calculated for river navigation, have already been sent up to 
 Khartoum. 
 
 We may now consider the particulars of the line from 
 England and Egypt to the frontier of the Soudan. The 
 distance by sea to Banana, at the mouth of the Congo, is from
 
 the latter 5,600 miles, and from the former 4,600 ; voyages of 
 eighteen and fifteen days. There is then perfect navigation to 
 the foot of the rapids, 150 land miles, a run of a few hours, on 
 which there are now several steamers, and probably the ocean 
 steamers could ascend so far. There are then two portages of 
 seventy miles each, divided by a river navigation of the same 
 length. The roads past the rapids appear to be in a manner 
 completed, for there are already two or three steamers on the 
 pool terminating the upper navigation. It is certain therefore 
 that even in the present state of things, the communication 
 past the rapids is effectively opened, and can be traversed even 
 by men on foot, and travelling only by day, in four days. We 
 thus reach Stanley's Pool in twenty days from England, and 
 twenty-three from Egypt. From this point, Stanley has fully 
 shewn that there is the finest inland navigation in the world 
 for 850 miles, to a point on the Congo itself, within 300 miles 
 of the southern post of the Soudan, on the Uelle river. This 
 could easily be accomplished, by fast steamers su,ch as Messrs. 
 Thornycroft now build, in much under two days. At the point 
 of the Congo now referred to, in long. 24°, Stanley saw an 
 immense river, the Aruwimi, flowing into the main river from 
 the north-east, and how far this is navigable towards the 
 frontier we are not informed.* It appears certain that the 
 Aruwimi is not the Uelle, but rises to the south of the sources 
 of the latter, and no doubt in the highlands that skirt Lake 
 Albert. There is, however, the serious objection to this line 
 that Stanley met there, the most formidable enemy on the 
 whole line of the river, and with them he had the most serious 
 of all his fights. But from the important information that has 
 lately reached England from Lupton Pashaw, the governor of 
 that portion of the Soudan, there is great reason to believe that 
 there is complete navigation up to near the Egyptian advanced 
 posts in lat. 3 45. The information is that there is a vast lake, 
 
 * In Stanley's late expedition lie navigated this river for 200 miles, when he 
 was stopped by falls ; but he had no trouble with the people.
 
 6 
 
 reported as large as Lake Victoria itself, north of the Congo, 
 the north-east point of which is in lat. 3*40 N., and long. 23 E. 
 It has long been a question whether the Uelle falls into Lake 
 Chad or the Congo. Lupton's information was that it enters 
 the new lake, and that from that it flows into the Congo. If 
 this is the case it is more than probable that the navigation is 
 open nearty to the frontier. But Schweinfurth gives the level 
 of the Uelle at the frontier at 2700 feet. If this is correct, there 
 must be a great fall somewhere between it and the Congo, as 
 the level of the latter, at the mouth of the Aruwimi, is well 
 ascertained to be 1500 feet, a difference of 1200 feet in 
 300 miles, but the probability is that the principal part 
 of this is near the Uelle. Now that the river is open, 
 this can be easily ascertained. At some distance below 
 the Aruwimi, Stanley found an immense population with whom 
 he had friendly communication, so that the probabilities are 
 that there is no serious obstacle of any kind to the direct 
 communication from the pool to near the frontier. If so, 
 troops, ammunition, and stores could be landed in a very short 
 time, and at a practicable expense, either from Egypt or 
 England. He was there informed of a large river, the Ukere, 
 entering the Congo from the north, in long. 22°, just where the 
 outlet from Lupton's Lake might be expected. It is impossible 
 to over-estimate the importance of this, even as respects Egypt 
 only ; but the establishment of a regular postal service by 
 England, along the river, would do more to establish peaceful 
 intercourse between Europeans and the natives, as well as 
 between the local tribes themselves, than anything else 
 could possibly. And it would at the same time go far to 
 counteract Mr. Debrazza's mission of rifles, ammunition, 
 rum, and popery, so admirably calculated to overthrow all the 
 efforts of the King of the Belgians, and the Christian Missions, 
 to carry peace and civilization to those vast populations. There 
 certainly is no want of fighting, drunkenness, superstition, and 
 idolatry in these countries now, and not the least necessity for
 
 sending them help in these things from civilized countries. 
 What could be more becoming on the part of the English 
 government than to support Stanley by placing at his disposal 
 three or four steamers of fifteen or twenty miles speed, costing 
 £2000 or £3000 each, at the pool, with their current expenses 
 for some years, to enable that noble pioneer to make the 
 arrangements for the establishment of the postal service. It 
 would of course be wise to leave the whole matter entirely in 
 his hands, as he has proved himself possessed of such wonderful 
 tact and sound judgment in dealing with these various tribes, 
 so curiously differing from each other in every way ; and now 
 too he has the great advantage of such extensive experience. 
 He would no doubt know where to fix stations on the line, 
 where he could have depots of fuel, &c. Stanley has since 
 established stations at intervals, all the way from the Pool 
 to the Stanley Falls, a distance of 1000 miles, and has had no 
 quarrel with the natives the whole way. He also ascended the 
 great northern feeder of the Congo, the Aruwimi, for one 
 hundred miles, to within two hundred miles of the southern 
 frontier of the Soudan, and could have easily communicated 
 with Lupton Bey, if he had time for it. 
 
 The whole distance from the pool to the first Egyptian post 
 is just 1000 miles, and thence to Alexandria is about 2000 
 miles, so that if this line of communication were established, 
 there would be a continuous line of stations from Banana at the 
 mouth of the Congo to the Mediterranean, of 3500 miles. 
 This line would also be the completion of the line from the 
 mouth of the Zambesi across the continent by the line of 
 stations established by the trading company, and the missions 
 of the Universities, the two Scotch churches, and the London 
 society, of which the present western-most point is at the 
 outlet of the Lake Tanganyika, on its west shore. This point 
 is 200 miles from Niangwe, on the Congo, and 400 from the 
 foot of the Stanley Eapids below that town, which last point is 
 the head of the navigation from Stanley Pool, a distance of 900
 
 8 
 
 miles. Thus the whole distance across Africa by this line, from 
 the mouth of the Congo to that of the Zambesi, is 3000 miles. 
 We are then on the eve of the completion of two grand lines of 
 stations, from the mouth of the Congo to those of the Nile and 
 the Zambesi, and by a branch from Lake Nyassa to Zanzibar. 
 And it must be remembered that these stations are in the 
 hands of Englishmen and the King of Belgium, all founded 
 upon principles of peace and justice ; and though it is true that 
 they are almost everywhere dogged by missions of the papacy, 
 but popery without the gentle aid of the rack, the torch, and 
 the sword is a very feeble affair, as is plainly seen by the 
 present state of all the so-called Roman Catholic countries. 
 Generally, wherever the blessed flag of England floats, there 
 are the seeds of peace, order, justice, and prosperity sown, 
 because the word of God and His messengers are set free. 
 Compare the present state of New Zealand, Fiji, Terra del 
 Fuego, and scores of islands in the Pacific, with their former 
 canabalism, massacries, idolatries, and miseries of every kind. 
 There is now no possible room for question about these things. 
 
 Having had considerable experience in difficult river nav- 
 igation on the Godavery, a matter which is not to be learnt in 
 England, I would give the results of our operations in India. 
 The last steamers employed by General Haig on the Godavery, 
 which have been a great success, are on a plan entirely new, 
 and I believe unknown on any other river. The peculiarity of 
 them is that they have vertical entrances instead of the universal 
 horizontal ones. 
 
 The object of this is to obtain a very fine entrance with 
 extremely small draft. The large steamers are 120-feet long by 
 24-feet, and drawing fifteen inches with a power for twelve miles. 
 They admit of an addition of cargo, for every additional inch of 
 draft, of seven tons, and they tow similar barges carrying seventy 
 tons on fifteen inches. The plan of them is a simple oblong with 
 an entrance of nine feet for eighteen inches of draft, that is, an 
 entrance of six to one. The bottom is perfectly flat for one
 
 9 
 
 hundred feet with a run of nine feet. But I am of opinion 
 that the entrance ought to be finer, about twelve to one. I 
 have no doubt that these boats are exactly suited to the Cougo ; 
 but there I think they should have higher speed. Of course, 
 in an unknown river, and among savage tribes, every inch of 
 draft is of importance, and the other essential point is high 
 speed. The grand means of escaping collision with the natives, 
 is to have commanding speed, not less than twenty miles, for 
 war canoes probably have a speed of fifteen miles. Another 
 essential point is simplicity of machinery, so that the 
 management can be easily acquired, and that there may be 
 the least possible chance of injury in an out of the way 
 country. Some of the steamers already sent are defective. In 
 one there was very near being a dreadful catastrophe ; in the 
 absence of the trained engineer, the man who took charge 
 made some mistake, through which the boiler gave way, 
 but happily in a way that did not result in a great explosion, so 
 that the lives of the men were spared ; but the engine had 
 to be removed, and the vessel left dependant upon sails. 
 Another vessel that has been sent, has a speed of only twelve 
 miles, which is not sufficient to make them safe from pursuit ; 
 also being built on the old plan, with horizontal entrances, they 
 draw more water than is necessary, The next essential point 
 is the surface. It is now fully established that the principal 
 part of the resistance of the vessel is the surface friction, and 
 that the displacement resistance is quite a small part ; in small 
 draft vessels only an eighth or a tenth of the whole. The grand 
 object of attention therefore in these boats is the surface, that 
 is, such a surface as will give the least friction. The surface 
 that has given the least, so far as has yet been tried, 
 is highly polished metal. A surface therefore of hard 
 phospho-bronze laid on in thick plates, and carefully jointed 
 without overlaps, and with countersunk nail-heads, is probably 
 the best that could at present be used, though what may be 
 done in this matter when once the attention of builders is given
 
 10 
 
 to it, instead of to the much inferior point of the lines as at 
 present, it is not yet known what may be accomplished. An 
 immense advantage in this perfectly simple form of boat is, that 
 there could be no sort of difficulty in building the boats on the 
 spot with the local timber, as no skill would be required, and 
 no moulding of planks. A small model boat on this plan, has 
 been built by Messrs. Thornycroft, and is now in their yard in 
 Chelsea. It is made wider at the bow end than the other, the 
 object of which is that there may be no friction on the sides; it 
 has been found by trial, that the friction on side or bottom 
 surfaces, when they are parallel to the line of motion, being 
 taken at one, that on the bows, subject to the pressure of 
 the water, if the angle of entrance is six to one, will be double 
 the former, and that on the run is nothing. In such a boat 
 therefore, the whole resistance is made up — first, of the 
 displacement resistance, calculated in pounds by multiplying the 
 transverse section in square feet by thirteen, and dividing it by 
 the square of ratio of entrance, for a speed of two and half miles ; 
 thirteen lbs. being the resistance per square foot, to a surface 
 moving in a direction perpendicular to itself. Secondly, the bow 
 friction, which as far as our trials have shewn, may be taken at 
 one-thirtieth of a pound per square foot, on a metallic surface on 
 an entrance of twelve to one ; and thirdly, of the bottom friction, 
 which may be taken at one-fortieth of a pound. These friction 
 resistances are not exactly ascertained ; they are only estimated 
 from the friction ascertained by trial on ordinary copper 
 surfaces, having nail-heads and other imperfections. With 
 respect to the resistances at high speed, it has been lately 
 proved, according to the experiments made by Hussel, many 
 years ago, that before a vessel reaches a speed of twenty miles, 
 it begins to rise perceptably above its proper bearings, and in a 
 measure to skim the water. In an accurate trial of one of Messrs. 
 Thornycroft' s boats, the power at twenty miles was found to 
 be only seven-eighths of that due to the cube of the speed as 
 compared with sixteen miles ; this is an extremely important
 
 11 
 
 point, which has hitherto been entirely lost sight of, in 
 calculating for steamers of high speed, both for the sea and for 
 rivers. What the diminution of proportional resistance is for 
 higher speeds than twenty miles, I believe there are no data, 
 but I have no doubt that the ratio rapidly decreases at those 
 higher speeds. 
 
 It is of great importance in this connection, that I should 
 also refer to the new mode of working by hot air or caloric 
 engines, in substitution for steam ; this great vital point is 
 certainly now effectually secured. It has been long known that 
 fuel would produce more power by expanding air than by 
 means of steam ; the difficulty has been in applying heat without 
 the intervention of water, to prevent its destructive agency on 
 metal. There are now three patents, under which caloric 
 engines are in perfectly effective operation, and with very 
 great reduction of fuel, as compared with steam. There are 
 hundreds of these engines now in operation, for all sorts of 
 work, and there can be no possible question about their three 
 vital advantages over that power ; first, the absence of a boiler, 
 and so of five-sixths of the contingencies in the use of steam ; 
 second, the simplicity of management, without the possibility 
 of serious accident, and consequent facility of instructing men 
 to use them ; and third, the great reduction of fuel. Appended 
 is the report of Messrs. Field and Co., on the indicated power 
 and consumption of fuel, of a twelve H. engine of " Buckett's 
 Patent," made by the " Fog Signal Company." For remote 
 countries where there are few Europeans and no manufactories, 
 the simplicity of management, and impossibility of serious 
 accident, are points of the very highest importance. These 
 things would give an incalculable advantage for hot air over 
 steam on the Congo. Any native of ordinary intelligence, 
 could be safely trusted with such an engine ; and it is hardly 
 possible that it would require serious repairs, I believe there 
 are yet no very high powers of this engine in use ; the highest 
 reported by the Buckeit Company, is of fourteen effective
 
 12 
 
 indicator power, equal to twenty horse gross as usually reckoned 
 for the indicator power in steam engines. Her consumption of 
 gas coke was thirty-six pounds per hour, equal to about seventy 
 pounds of wood. This is not half what an engine of this 
 power would require with steam ; but this is nothing to its 
 simplicity and freedom from danger. The weight of this 
 engine is six and half tons, and its price £320. It would be 
 sufficient for a boat, of the form I have described, of eighty feet 
 long by ten feet by one and half. This would have a 
 displacement of nineteen tons, and would carry, besides that 
 engine, a load of eight tons when fully immersed. Its speed, 
 according to the best data I have, would be about fourteen 
 miles, and when light, that is, with only its engine and a few 
 passengers and mails, and drawing fourteen inches, its speed 
 would be sixteen miles, or four hundred miles a day, so that she 
 could run from the Pool to the Soudan in sixty hours. The 
 current would affect her very little. With a fall of only five 
 inches a mile as allowed by Stanley, the average current for 
 nine hundred miles cannot be above two and half miles, and a 
 vessel without side paddles, hugging the shore, would not 
 encounter a mile an hour in going up stream. Her 
 consumption of wood for the whole distance, would be only 
 two tons, and as soon as stations were established on the line, 
 she need not carry more than half a ton at a time. The 
 steamer built by Thornycroft for this river, has an admirable 
 protection in a strong wire net for a bulwark, and to this 
 should be added a curtain of cloth for concealment, for people 
 won't fire if they can't see anybody, and if they did, the fire 
 would be harmless. 
 
 I understand that Stanley has already established a station, 
 350 miles above the Pool, or one third of the way to the 
 Soudan, and one of the curious things that he ascertained, 
 by his most wonderful descent, was that there are all along at 
 intervals, kindly tribes with whom he had no sort of 
 difficulty. If the navigation can't be continued quite to the
 
 13 
 
 frontier Egyptian post, it is certain that there would be no 
 difficulty in arranging with a petty state, at the head of the 
 navigation, for a site for a post as a depot, and for a line of 
 transit from thence to the frontier. After the extraordinary 
 powers that Stanley has shewn, in dealing with these savages, 
 there can be no doubt, that if he were provided with three 
 steamers and funds for their support, he would arrange the 
 whole matter in a short time. The whole cost would be 
 perfectly insignificant, and not be named with the incalcuable 
 advantage of such a direct communication with the extreme 
 south of our new province. It would certainly save millions in 
 money, many years in time, and no end of blood. The boat I 
 have proposed should be twelve feet broad at the bow by eight 
 feet at the stern, the ends and sides quite straight, the deepest 
 part eighteen feet from the bow, so as to give an entrance of 
 twelve to one, and with no flat bottom. The transverse section 
 as I have said a rectangle, except that I would add a short 
 curve outwards at the gunwale so as to throw off the water, 
 when the ripple was high in so broad a river. There would 
 certainly be the difficulty of getting the heavy cylinder of 
 this engine past the rapids, but the cylinder might be cased in 
 wood, and rolled along without much difficulty. But the man 
 who conveyed his canoes, weighing several tons, over a height 
 of 1200-feet, before a road was made, would not make much of 
 such a work as this, with a good road already formed. I have 
 omitted to mention, that I would have the boat worked by a 
 stern wheel, as in the large boats on the Grodavery, and in those 
 on the Murray in Australia. 
 
 In considering this question we must keep in mind that we 
 are dealing with an immense subject. Once established at 
 Stanley's Pool, we have at least 5000 miles of navigation 
 opened to us, permeating through some fifty or one hundred 
 millions of population. Very large portions of these were 
 found by the explorers in a very orderly state, with immense 
 villages of well-built houses surrounded by gardens, &c. One
 
 
 traveller says they passed for four hours through one continuous 
 town. The trade therefore by this river must become enormous, 
 and such as abundantly to justify the most complete com- 
 munication past the rapids that money can provide. And the 
 rapidity with which the whole continent is being opened also is 
 an essential point. The number of stations that have been 
 firmly established in the last five years, in the very heart of the 
 country, is truly astonishing. The expense of the operations 
 proposed in this paper, that is, the establishment of a regular 
 postal service to the frontier of the Egyptian Soudan, would 
 be absolutely insignificant, while it would immensely promote 
 the progress of British influence for good in a thousand ways to 
 these vast populations, besides its first point, the pacification 
 and civilization of the Soudan. I do not here go into the 
 subject of the communication by sea from Egypt and England ; 
 these lines should of course be at once occupied by a regular 
 periodical steamer, which a company would provide if perhaps 
 supported at first by a government subsidy. It Would be a 
 grand climax to the magnificent steam service already established 
 by the Indian Navigation Company round the vast extent of 
 country from Singapore and Zanzibar to the Persian Gulf and 
 England. It would not, of course, be necessary to have two 
 complete lines from England and Egypt ; Gibraltar might be 
 made an entrepot ; or it might be sufficient at first to have only 
 a line from Gibraltar to Banana, the present steamers being 
 used to convey from Alexandria and London to that port. 
 
 I have before referred to the eastern stations of the 
 continent. There are now three stations on the western shore 
 of Tanganyika, and we may be sure that there will soon be one 
 at Niangwe, the most advanced of the Arab settlements, situate 
 on the Congo itself, above the Stanley Rapids, and about 200 
 miles above the navigable part of the great river. From the 
 head of the Congo navigation also it is 400 miles to Lake 
 Victoria, on which there are well-established stations. There 
 is thus a certainty that this main line of the Congo will soon
 
 15 
 
 form the great connecting link between the eastern and western 
 European stations, and complete the chain quite across tropical 
 Africa. No man can be accused of being too sanguine as to the 
 progress in this opening up of Africa, because the late progress 
 has far surpassed the expectations of the most sanguine. We 
 must expect that the whole of Central Africa will, in a few 
 years, be inoculated with well-established mission and mercantile 
 stations, and we may more than hope that we shall soon see the 
 blessed British flag raised in many places in the interior, with 
 all its happy accompaniments of peace, order, liberty, and the 
 bible. 
 
 The advanced Egyptian post on the Uelle is exactly at the 
 centre of the continent, 1200 miles from both the eastern and 
 the western coasts. 
 
 When we look at the vast extensions of the empire which we 
 continually witness going on in all other parts of the earth, we 
 cannot be mistaken in feeling fully assured that Central Africa 
 will have its share of the blessing. Within how short a time 
 have we seen Fiji, Walwisch Bay, Cyprus, Zululand, Egypt, 
 Borneo, more of the Guinea Coast, and now New Guinea, added 
 to the empire, and who can help confidently hoping that the 
 horrors described by Livingstone, Stanley, Schweinfurth, and a 
 multitude of others, as prevailing throughout that vast country, 
 will now be greatly relieved through that same agency which 
 God has used for giving peace and prosperity to the hundreds 
 of millions of India, and to so many more millions in other 
 lands. Under that glorious flag, so it has pleased God to order 
 it, not only our upright and self-denying rulers provided, such 
 as the world never saw before, but above all, liberty is given to 
 the word of God and the messengers of God, and thus the true 
 foundation is laid for a real and effectual regeneration of the 
 whole social state. Every mile that is brought under this flag 
 is clear gain, and the great hope is that all Africa will now 
 rapidly experience the benefits that it has pleased God to extend 
 to so many lands, by a progress that no man can stop.
 
 16 
 
 That you may have the happiness and the honour of helping 
 forward this great work by extending the operations of your 
 department to the southern frontier of Egypt, by this wonder- 
 ful line so opened before us I heartily pray. 
 
 Your obedient Servant, 
 
 ARTHUR COTTON, 
 Dorking, R.E., Madras. 
 
 April, 28th. 
 
 One most remarkable thing is, that in all the debates and 
 discussions of late, every word uttered has implied that the 
 whole South is in revolt ; but it is only the Northern Soudan 
 that is so ; all the Southern part is, at this moment, under the 
 British flag, governed by the two Beys, Emim and Lupton. 
 The last letter from the latter said he had £100,000 in his 
 treasury, which he was prevented from sending to Cairo only by 
 the revolt in the Northern districts. Before the decision to 
 abandon the Soudan can be carried out, the question must be 
 answered : are the two Beys, with all who have been faithful to 
 them, to be abandoned, to be massacred by the slave-traders, 
 and all the vast regions that those Beys have raised to such 
 a state of peace and prosperity, to be left, like the Northern 
 Soudan, to fall again into a state of anarchy and massacre ?
 
 ADDED TO THE PRESENT EDITION. 
 
 The present state of things in Egypt seems to force us to 
 the conclusion that the one fundamental mistake in its manage- 
 ment has been the placing it under a land engineer, instead of 
 a hydraulic engineer. In material things, Egypt's two grand 
 treasures are its water as applied to irrigation, and the same as 
 applied to transit. Its wonderfully fertile Valley and Delta 
 need only one thing to be applied by the hand of man, viz., 
 water, to make the population one of the richest in the world ; 
 and its grand river of three thousand miles wants nothing but 
 regulation to make it the outlet of one of the most important 
 and extensive fields of commerce in the world. When the late 
 Khedive placed it under engineers utterly without experience 
 in irrigation and river navigation, he laid the foundation of 
 all the financial and, consequently, all other difficulties, under 
 which the country has suffered for so many years, and which 
 are, at this moment, brought to a crisis. Much less money than 
 has been spent with the result of leaving the country in such a 
 state as amounts to complete ruin and confusion (which is now 
 universally acknowledged), if it had been spent by faithful and 
 experienced engineers of talents in some good measure equal to 
 the field, would have made the Delta the richest piece of 
 cultivation in the world, and have secured peace and prosperity 
 to the whole vast tract from the line to the Mediterranean. 
 
 Take two instances as shewing the effects of the system that 
 has been pursued. The Delta was, a few weeks ago, after 
 spending a vast sum on the great weir called the Burrage, as 
 dependent upon the rise of the Nile as if nothing had been
 
 18 
 
 spent, and a railway has been laid by the side of the river, 
 where it is a perfect navigation, to carry at a cost five times 
 what the water transit would cost. Amidst the utter confusion 
 that reigns in the country, there is one hopeful sign ; viz., that 
 Lord Dufferin has now taken hold of the thing by the handle in 
 placing a real Indian hydraulic engineer in charge of the Delta. 
 This shows that at last there is a right apprehension of the 
 case ; that is, in respect of one of the two points. But there is 
 still no sign of right understanding on the other great point, 
 the grand line of water communication through the vast region 
 to the equator. Think of one fact as illustrative of the state 
 of this case, that the boats used draw six and eight feet. On 
 the Godavery, boats 120 feet by 24 draw, light, fifteen inches, 
 and have a displacement of eighty tons per foot of draft, so that 
 they carry sixty tons on a draft of two feet. These Nile boats, 
 thus unfit to run at night and with a speed of six or seven 
 miles, only make eighty miles a day, and of course they are 
 quite unable to contend with the rapids. 
 
 Now if we put these three things together, viz., a weir that 
 
 does not raise the water, so that the canals do not command the 
 
 land ; a railway by the side of the navigable part of the river, 
 
 while the rapids are untouched ; and boats so utterly unsuited 
 
 to such a river that they cannot run at night, have a speed of 
 
 only seven miles, and cannot face the rapids, so that this grand 
 
 and invaluable highway, so wonderfully uniting this vast region 
 
 from the line to the Mediterranean, has been completely 
 
 thrown away upon such rulers ; if we put these things together 
 
 (upon which many millions have been spent), how can we be 
 
 mistaken in judging that the fundamental mistake of the 
 
 whole dealing of England with Egypt has been the sending her 
 
 an English land engineer instead of an experienced hydraulic 
 
 engineer from India. Had an effective weir, giving the whole 
 
 Delta a commanding supply of water, been constructed, with a 
 
 complete network of navigable canals ; and had the river been 
 
 improved and navigated by steamers drawing from two to three
 
 19 
 
 feet, and with a speed up to twenty-five miles an hour, up to 
 the falls near the great lake, the whole of Upper and Lower 
 Egypt and the Soudan, as far as the present British boundary 
 on the Uelle river, might have been in the highest state of 
 peace and wealth. Had Gordon been formerly thus within reach 
 of the seat of government, he would have reduced the whole 
 Soudan to order, and have put down the slave traders with great 
 ease. And so now, if the Delta irrigation and navigation were 
 in order, and the river open, there would not be the slightest 
 difficulty in relieving Gordon, either as to sending him a force, 
 or in providing the money required. There would be no more 
 question about how to get at Khartoum than there is about 
 getting to Alexandria. Think of the insuperable difficulty of 
 getting water to drink between these two places, while there is 
 a river flowing from the one to the other. 
 
 With respect to the Delta, it is reported that already, in the 
 midst of all this confusion, and before any funds worth 
 mentioning have been placed at the disposal of % this hydraulic 
 engineer, he has already so improved the barrage as to have 
 raised the water two feet in the canals, and rendered hundreds 
 of steam engines for raising water unnecessary. This is a 
 specimen of what may be done the moment we make a 
 right start. And so with the river : if we had a navigation 
 engineer taking it in hand, with trifling means, the whole 
 Soudan would immediately be brought under effective control 
 from Egypt. 
 
 Years ago, clumsy boats, totalty unfit for river navigation, 
 were taken up to Khartoum, in spite of the petty rapids, 
 without an accident, and it was these alone that enabled 
 Gordon to put down the slave traders, and give peace and 
 prosperity to the vast region for a time. 
 
 At this time there are two points therefore before us ; the 
 first : How to save this great Englishman, this hope and honour 
 of England, and to put a stop to bloodshed and slave-driving in 
 the Soudan ? and second : How permanently to regulate the
 
 20 
 
 river so as to give us the complete use of it, both for irrigation 
 and navigation. That both these things are now perfectly 
 within our reach, and that without the slightest difficulty, and 
 without England putting out a hundredth or a thousandth part 
 of her strength, either in arms or money, is most certain 
 and evident. A fleet of boats, of any strength, perfectly fitted 
 for this navigation, could be put together in a month, and 
 means applied for passing the rapids in their present condition 
 at the same time, so that such a force as would entirely overawe 
 the rebels could be thrown into the middle of the Soudan 
 without the smallest difficulty ; and the moment an attitude of 
 decision and action is assumed, the whole revolt will fall to 
 pieces. The only question with the great body of the people 
 there, is, which is the safe side, that is, which side shows 
 energy and decision. There is not the smallest question which 
 is the strongest, nor which is the best, that is, which is the most 
 wise and just. Probably the three battles which have occurred 
 were an absolute necessity, just to satisfy these poor 
 Mahomedans what English commanders and soldiers are ; but 
 that lesson has been now learnt, and we have only to act so as 
 to show that we are ready to follow up the movement. 
 
 The very first thing, therefore, that it seems advisable to do 
 at present is, to build a large fleet of boats on the plan of the 
 Godavery boats, as already described for the Congo. They 
 might be either built of wood and coppered, or entirely of 
 phospho-bronze on wooden timbers. Such boats might be put 
 together in an}^ boat-builder's yard in a few days, as they 
 require no moulding of the planks, and any number of engines 
 could be bought ready-made, that would answer the present 
 purpose. A drawing of this simple form of Godavery boat is 
 given below. The main fleet, intended for the open parts of 
 the river above, below, and between the rapids, might be made 
 of any dimensions, but those intended for the navigation of the 
 rapids should be made of such length and breadth as those 
 obstructions especially needed. The Godavery boats, with a
 
 21 
 
 length of 120 feet and a breadth of 24 feet, that is, with a deck 
 surface of 3000 square feet, would accommodate, in that 
 climate, 200 men. 
 
 I have recommended in the pamphlet that the air engine 
 should be used in preference to the steam engine, but of course, 
 for the present purpose, readjr-made steam engines should be 
 used, as no time is to be lost. A very large fleet of these 
 boats ought to be built at once ; they would cost a mere trifle, 
 and could be worked at a trifling cost, in comparison of the 
 expense of the whole war which is now before us. They should 
 have a power to give them a speed of fifteen to twenty-five 
 miles an hour, from 360 to 600 miles per day. Besides the boats 
 carrying engines, there should, of course, be two or three times as 
 many barges to be towed, of similar form. With such a fleet 
 distributed throughout the river up to the Great Falls near 
 Lake Albert, the cost of navigating the whole valley would be 
 quite trifling. 
 
 But what is to be done with the rapids? That they are 
 not very formidable is evident, for General Gordon wrote me 
 that he had taken six of the present clumsy steamers up to 
 Khartoum without any accident. First : some of them may 
 probably be navigated by steamers with a power for twenty 
 miles an hour, without help. Second : they may be passed by 
 portages ; rails being laid round them. Third : boats may be 
 anchored, where necessary, containing crabs, by which the 
 traffic boats may be drawn up the rapids. Fourth : permanent 
 works may be executed, consisting of rough weirs with shafts 
 and tunnels, by which the boats may be dropped from the 
 higher to the lower level, as in locks. Probably all such works 
 would not cost a fifth part of what has been expended on 
 the railway by the side of the river, where it was not wanted. 
 But it is quite certain, that all the money that could possibly be 
 expended on such a work, could not be compared with the 
 enormous value of such a grand highway for 3,000 miles, 
 bringing the whole of that vast tract within reach of peace
 
 22 
 
 and trade, under the British flag. Nothing but this highway 
 is wanted to enable England to bestow upon that miserable 
 country the incalculable blessings which it has pleased God to 
 grant to India by her means. With all the mistakes and all the 
 defects of our rule there, one thing is certain, that no country 
 in the world ever enjoyed such a faithful, intelligent, upright 
 rule, and such consequent progress in population, wealth, order, 
 and liberty as India now enjoys, though of course there yet 
 remains abundance to be done there. But let any one just 
 compare the present state of the Soudan with that of our other 
 great colony. The first thing of all is, here as everywhere, 
 communications, and here we have the very thing we need, 
 requiring only quite a trifling work, in comparison, to give us 
 the full use of it. At last a real irrigation engineer from India 
 has been provided, and now nothing is wanted but an Indian 
 navigation officer, one who has had experience in the Godavery, 
 which is the Indian river that requires the same treatment as 
 the Nile. 
 
 But there is another grand point to be considered con- 
 cerning the Nile. This is, its regulation by means of the great 
 lakes. Low weirs at the mouths of these two vast reservoirs, 
 with sluices, would enable the rulers to store any amount of 
 water, and to discharge it exactly as the navigation and 
 irrigation needed. Such works could not be named in 
 magnitude with those executed in India. Instead of weirs two 
 and four miles long, two of one or two hundred yards would be 
 sufficient. A single foot of water retained in Lake Victoria 
 would give a store of 20,000 million cubic yards, equal to a 
 supply of five million cubic yards per hour for two hundred 
 days. This, with the barrage put into an effective state, would 
 make the whole Delta quite independent of the rise of the Blue 
 Nile a few feet more or less. 
 
 Thus is an unbounded field, like that of India, now before 
 England, for giving peace and prosperity and righteous rule to 
 the whole region from the Mediterranean to the Line, which
 
 23 
 
 must also extend its influence far beyond to the south and west, 
 if she would only look the matter fairly in the face, and set 
 herself manfully to the task that God has set before her. She 
 must do it ; she might just as well set about it at once, instead 
 of letting the dreadful state of things that we have seen of late, 
 continue. We have spent already, in doing nothing but shed 
 blood, much more money than would have been ample to put 
 everything to rights, if we had set about it in earnest. Nothing 
 can separate us again from Egypt. It is, and must, continue, a 
 province of the British empire, whatever words are used about 
 it, and a very few millions, wisely expended on its irrigation 
 and navigation, will enable it to bear the cost of upright 
 English government with the utmost ease. 
 
 To revert to the Congo for a moment. Stanley has now 
 fully established himself the whole way to the head of 
 navigation, and has ascended the Aruwimy to within two 
 hundred miles of the Soudan frontier. It is a great pity that 
 he did not put himself in communication with Lupton Bey. 
 But it is evident that this is now a matter of a very short time, 
 and there will then be a chain of Englishmen from Alexandria 
 to Banana, laying the foundation of peace and right rule com- 
 pletely through the very heart of Africa. What hath God 
 wrought ?
 
 24 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Comparative cost of working a 
 
 GAS, STEAM, AND " BUCKETT " CALORIC ENGINE 
 
 Respectively, as certified by Messrs. Field & Co., 
 Consulting Engineers, London. 
 
 Example : A 12-Horse Power Engine, working fully up to that 
 power 10 hours per day for 300 working days per annum. 
 
 Steam Engine. £ s d 
 
 6-lbs. of best Steam Coal per H.P. per hour, 
 6 x 12 x 10 x 300=21 6,000-lbs.=say, 96| tons 
 at 18s 86 17 
 
 Engine Driver's Time, 3000 hours at 6d. per hour 75 
 
 £161 17 
 
 Gas Engine, 
 
 The best Gas Engine is stated to consume 23 
 cubic feet of Gas per H.P. per hour, 23 x 12 x 
 10 x 300=828,000 cubic feet, at the average all 
 England rate of, say, 3s. 9d 155 5 
 
 Attendant's time, starting, cleaning, lubricating, 
 
 &c, say 1 hour per day, 300 hours at 6d 7 10 
 
 £162 15 
 
 The " Buckett " Caloric Engine. 
 
 Consumption, 2|-lbs. ordinary Gas Coke per 
 I.H.P. per hour, 2J x 12 x 10 x 300=90,000-lbs. 
 which at 14 cwt. per chaldron=say, 58 chaldrons 
 at 12s 34 16 
 
 Man's time, lighting fire, cleaning and feeding 
 with coke, (at most) 2 hours per day=600 hours 
 at6d [5 
 
 £49 16 
 
 Fog Signal Company, 4, Budge Row, Cannon Street, 
 
 London, E.G.
 
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 25 
 
 APPENDIX IT. 
 
 ECONOMY. 
 
 As a proposition for the Government to go to the expense 
 of a few thousand pounds will, according to custom, be 
 objected to on the score of economy, it seems necessary that I 
 should venture to try and meet this standing objection. If 
 there is one thing above all others wanting, in order immensely 
 to promote the welfare of England and the world, it is the 
 banishment of this abominable word from the House of 
 Commons. The robberies, breaches of faith, immeasurable 
 waste of blood and money, that it has been the cause of, are far 
 beyond all calculation. How many of the late wars have been the 
 fruit solely of economy. Look at the Opium war and the Indian 
 mutiny, the consequence of it ; entirely from the fear of losing 
 the opium revenue. Consider the utter paralysis of the trade 
 with China, solely from the opium traffic. Look again at the 
 blood already poured out just now at the Cape, and the seeds of 
 bloodshed without end that have been sown there, all from 
 economy. Think of the millions of natives delivered over to the 
 savages, black and white, Cetewayo and the Boers, the latter, as 
 always, ten times worse than the former, all the consequence of 
 peace for the sake of economy. So with the Egyptian war, so 
 with the present state of things in Ashantee, so with making 
 India pay England's debt for the Egyptian war, sowing the seed 
 of unlimited confusion, from the just irritation caused by this 
 dishonest appropriation of Indian revenue, and so on. In the 
 first place, even if economy were true and not false, think of 
 England wasting the time of Parliament, discussing for hours 
 about a few hundred thousand pounds, while the most terrible 
 social evils, such as the state of East London, and all the other
 
 26 
 
 great cities, the canal and river populations, &c, cannot be 
 thought of, because the Government are so occupied by matters 
 which are of utter insignificance in comparison. The Parliament 
 of England being now occupied by questions of economy, is like 
 a poor girl who has married a Duke, taking time to consider 
 whether she can afford to spend half a crown on a ribband. 
 The income of the British Empire, exclusive of the colonies, 
 that is England, Egypt, and India, is at least 1500 million 
 pounds. What upon earth does it signify whether her ex- 
 penditure is a few millions more or less ? Compare the ideas of 
 the Americans with ours on this point of money. There they 
 have entrusted their Government with a revenue some thirty 
 millions in excess of expenditure for the last fifteen years. If 
 Parliament were to place at the disposal of Government one 
 hundred millions, at once, it would cause a permanent charge 
 upon my own income, a sufficient one for a gentleman, of the sum 
 of five pounds a year, if I paid my due share of the interest, 
 three millions. How gladly would I pay ten times the sum to 
 see the word economy banished from the House of Commons. 
 Let us consider for a moment what a hundred millions would do. 
 It would first of all enable us to prohibit the cultivation of opium, 
 and perhaps avert from us the terrible vengeance that is 
 hanging over our heads, for the greatest crime that ever was 
 committed by one nation against another. It has pleased God to 
 show us not only what he can do, but what He will do against 
 us, notwithstanding all the inconceivable favours he has heaped 
 upon us above all nations that were ever in the world, in the 
 Indian Mutinies, brought on immediately by the opium war ; 
 and if we do not take warning from this, who can imagine that 
 He will not show us that He has more terrible things in His 
 power than the mutiny. He can, for instance, allow us to send 
 foolish rulers to India, who will sow the seeds of a far more 
 dreadful convulsion than that was, one in comparison of which 
 that would be a trifle. The present actual gain by the iniquitous 
 opium traffic is, perhaps, five millions a year, and certainly
 
 27 
 
 ten years at an average of two and half millions would be 
 abundant to enable us to tide over the loss of the opium 
 revenue. Next we could purchase the Suez Canal, and widen 
 it so that it would accommodate an unlimited traffic. Then 
 we might lay the direct railway from Acre by Bussorah to 
 Kurrachee, completing the communication with India in eight 
 or ten days. A single million or so would make Cyprus what 
 it ought to be, a credit to the country, and an example to the 
 Turks ; giving two or three harbours, economising the water 
 by storing and distribution, making railways, building barracks, 
 hospitals, &c, so as to make it a completely effective military 
 depot, such as was so terribly wanted in the late war. These 
 things would make the island worthy of the Empire to which it 
 belongs. Again, the sea could be brought into the interior 
 depression of the Sahara at Cape Juby near the Canaries, and 
 the communication by a steamboat canal might be continued to 
 the Niger at Timbuctoo, by which river and the Benue, the 
 navigation would be open to near the source of one of the 
 northern influents of the Congo, with which it is quite possible 
 that the Benue might be connected by canal, and if so tho 
 whole line would then be open to steam from Cape Juby to 
 the foot of the Stanley Falls on the upper Congo, a distance 
 of four thousand miles through the very heart of Africa. This 
 would bring an immense area of country within perfectly 
 practicable reach of England, both for goods and passengers. 
 
 Again, a telegraph cable could be laid from Columbo to 
 Perth, in W. Australia, and thence a railway might be laid to 
 meet the Sydney lines in the Plains of the Murray, by means of 
 which, with fast steamers direct from Aden to Perth, the time 
 for Passengers to Sydney would be about twenty-five days, and 
 so on. 
 
 These are only material things. What might be done by a 
 liberal and enlightened use of the enormous means that England 
 has at her disposal, in matters of far greater importance, no 
 words can measure. When the time of the parliament and the
 
 28 
 
 rulers cease to be taken up with this insignificant matter of 
 money, and the attention of the country is given to matters of 
 real importance, a thousand things will be brought under 
 consideration, which are at present entirely lost sight of, except 
 as they are forced upon notice from time to time by the terrible 
 consequences arising from their neglect. But above all, we 
 should act honestly, not break treaties, desert those who have 
 befriended us, and destroy a vast nation by forcing upon her a 
 thing so deadly in every possible way upon the well-being 
 of society, that if it were to make any serious progress in 
 England, the country would be so horrified that no means would 
 be considered too stringent to put a stop to it. Already where 
 it has but touched the very limits of the empire, that is in 
 Burmah, the Government has been roused to take some decided 
 steps to stop the terrible evil ; how much more would the feelings 
 of England be stirred up to action if, in God's just retribution, it 
 deeply penetrated the heart of the Empire itself. How strange 
 it seems that when the Government saw it absolutely necessary 
 by stringent measures to check the intolerable evil in their 
 own territory, it did not occur to them that they ought 
 to do as they would be done by, and so to take the necessary 
 steps to put an end to the awful destruction of a vast 
 population of hundreds of millions in China. If we began to 
 see in the parks and in the city the dreadful objects that opium 
 creates, especially if we saw them in the upper classes, how 
 different would be the expression of opinion in the House of 
 Commons from the pleasant easy speeches that are now made 
 there on the dreadful ruin that we are bringing on hundreds of 
 thousands in China, all for economy. What would be said if 
 many of our highest families became extinguished in con- 
 sequence of the heirs sinking down into dreadful victims of 
 this worst of all the curses that was ever inflicted on man. Are 
 we never really to act upon the principle that honesty is the 
 best economy ? What if this awful evil were, by God's most 
 just judgment, spread through our own population, and we had
 
 29 
 
 to watch the dreadful downward course of many members of 
 the houses of Parliament, by their personal appearance from 
 day to day, till they became such a shocking sight that there 
 was no alternative but for them to keep out of public view. 
 
 These are some specimens of what might be done at a cost, 
 the interest of which would be a mere trifle out of the enormous 
 income of the British empire, even supposing all these vast lines 
 of communication were left free, whereas it is certain that 
 every one of them would pay double or treble interest in a short 
 time, if tolls were levied. When will England in some small 
 degree realize the astonishing position to which God has raised 
 her, and the inconceivable amount of good she may spread 
 through the whole world, and all with immeasurable benefit to 
 herself. If China were really thrown open to British trade by 
 the removal of the present grand hindrance, the opium trade, 
 and if the interior of Africa were made practicably accessible to 
 trade, who can estimate the demand upon Yorkshire, Lancashire, 
 and Staffordshire, for their several manufactures. 
 
 So with India, if steamboat canals were carried from 
 Kurrachee to the great wheat districts of the Punjab and the 
 north-west, so as to do away with the cost of internal carriage, 
 reducing it to something quite nominal, America would be 
 quite unable to compete with her in the wheat trade, and an 
 entirely new stimulus would be given to the Indian demand for 
 those manufactures. 
 
 How much more if the material improvement of India 
 generally were carried out with some little boldness instead of 
 this false economy. About 200 millions have been expended in 
 Railways and Navigation alone (including interest), and 
 nobody questions the result, even in direct returns in money to 
 the treasury, already, while the works are not yet half developed ; 
 and the far greater returns to the people are equally undenied ; 
 we have therefore absolute certainty that the material im- 
 provement of all India may be forwarded without fear. It 
 must also be remembered that to this day, since the last awful
 
 30 
 
 famine, not one single new work has been undertaken to supply 
 water to the lands exposed to suffer from drought. All this 
 withholding from India the immense benefits that it is open to, 
 is solely the fruit of false economy. 
 
 When a member has nothing else to speak about, he stands 
 up and talks about economy. When shall we see a man come 
 forward, boldly to fight this giant evil, and put some more 
 statesmanlike ideas into the heads of Englishmen.
 
 31 
 
 DRINKING WATER IN THE DESERT. 
 
 It seems very remarkable that, in all the late discussions, 
 nothing has been said about distilling water in the desert, or 
 anywhere where there is water, but not of good quality. On 
 the road from Karosko to Ben Humed, for instance, there is 
 water at one place, but not fit for men. And there are many 
 places where there is water which is drinkable but not whole- 
 some. 
 
 The question is : cannot distilling apparatus be carried by 
 travellers in case of such places ? 
 
 From what information I have, and from trial, a gallon may 
 be distilled in sixteen hours from a still weighing a pound, 
 and probably, when the thing is tried, a much smaller weight 
 may be sufficient. But at this rate two camels could carry stills 
 sufficient for one thousand men. The weight therefore would 
 be no hindrance at all, whether for an army or an individual. 
 No large quantity of water would be required beyond that 
 actually used in drinking, because the condensing water may be 
 used repeatedly. With respect to fuel, in most places it can be 
 obtained on the spot. In the Arabian desert there is an 
 unlimited supply from the accumulations of camels' dung, and 
 this must generally be the case. But if there is no certainty of 
 this on any line, it would be necessary to carry one pound of 
 coal or two pounds of wood for every gallon distilled. This 
 would be one or two thousand pounds weight, two or four 
 camels' load, per day for every thousand men, which would not 
 be a very serious addition to the baggage of a regiment ; and 
 only one-tenth or one-fifth of what would be required for the 
 carriage of water. For ten thousand men and a march of 
 twenty days, four hundred camels would be required if coal is
 
 32 
 
 carried, and the load would be diminishing every day, so that 
 the failing camels might be relieved of their loads. And it is 
 extremely improbable that a twenty days' march could be found 
 without any fuel on it. 
 
 For individuals travelling, it would be a wonderful help to 
 carry such a still, so that doubtful water need never be drunk. 
 And indeed, why should troops ever be moved without such a 
 precaution, so as to secure them thoroughly wholesome water, 
 wherever there is the least question about such being procured 
 on the ground. Probably in all tropical countries it ought to 
 be taken whenever troops are moved. It took hundreds of 
 years for men to discover that there was no want of fresh water 
 at sea, and so, though not in all, yet certainly in many lines of 
 road, where at present men perish for want of wholesome 
 water, there is no necessity for it.
 
 
 
 
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