Colonels Purdy and Mason, of the first expedition, and Colonel Colston
and Lieutenant-Colonel Reed, of the second expedition, are Americans.
Colonel Purdy is the “E. Sparrow Purdy” mentioned in my dispatches (Nos.
47 and 72, of December 15, 1872, and March 5, 1873,) as being in command
of an expedition then fitting out at Cairo, ostensibly for the relief of
Sir Samuel Baker. Colonel Mason was second in command of that
expedition, which, however, never left Cairo. Colonel Colston came to
Egypt in the spring of 1873. He served as colonel in the confederate
army during the rebellion, and afterward occupied the position of
professor of geology in the Military University of North Carolina.
Lieutenant-Colonel Reed was brevet colonel in the United States Army at
the close of the war. He entered the Egyptian military service early in
the spring of 1874.
[Inclosure in No.
268.—Translation.]
Official notice of the departure of two
expeditions of exploration for Darfour and Central
Africa.
On Saturday, December 5, two expeditions started by steamers for the
Upper Nile. The first is composed of Staff-Colonel Purdy, (in
command,) Lieutenant-Colonel Mason, Capt. Mahomed Sabriz, Lieut.
Mahomed Samij, Lieutenant Saidnasr, Sub-lieutenants Ahmed Ramsy and
Khalil Helmy, and Army Surgeon Mahomed Amin. Twelve sub-officers and
privates of the staff are also sent for surveying duties. The escort
will consist of 4 officers and 63 sub-officers, privates, and
military artisans.
The second expedition is composed of Staff-Major Colston, in command;
Lieutenant-Colonel Reed, adjutant; Major Ahmed Hamdy; Lieutenants
Yussif Heliny, Amer Ruchdy, Khalil Tanzy, and Mohamed Mahe; Army
Surgeon Mohamed Ferid, and Dr. Pfund, naturalist. Twelve officers
and men are assigned for surveying duties. The escort is similar in
composition to that of the first expedition.
These two expeditions will make the voyage together as far as the
Wadi Haifa, and thence by camels to Wadi el Hamed. Thence Colonel
Purdy has orders to leave the Nile and to advance through the desert
to the oasis of Selimeh, and from there to proceed by the caravan
route to the capital town of Darfour. He takes with him appliances
for improving the existing wells and for forming others in order to
insure the sufficient supply of drinking-water required for the use
of caravans coming from Darfour. Colonel Colston with his party will
proceed along the Nile to Debbe. Thence he will make and examine the
direct line to Darfour, in order to ascertain what facilities are
requisite for the opening of a new and shorter route between the
Nile and Darfour. Afterward he will leave Debbe and advance to
Obeid, the capital of Kordofan, making a map of the route, improving
the springs, wells, and reservoirs, for the purpose of facilitating
the transit of caravans and preparing a plan for a carriage-road
between Debbe and Obeid. The vicinity of Obeid will be examined and
a map prepared, after which Colonel Colston will proceed to examine
the country between Obeid and Darfour.
The two expeditions, reuniting at Darfour, will make careful
investigations of the country from east to west and from north to
south, and will report upon its resources of all kinds, its climate,
population, &c.
Upon reaching the southern limit of Darfour, the two parties will
again separate. That under Colonel Purdy will follow the course of
the streams flowing from Darfour to the southeast, and will
ascertain their embouchures; it will afterward proceed to the mouth
of the river Sobat.
Colonel Colston will examine the southern portion of the countries of
Kordofan, Jaggalet, and Schellouk, and will also proceed to Fashoda,
or to the junction of the rivers Sobat and Nile. Upon reaching
Fashoda, which is situate within the provinces attached to Colonel
Gordon’s government, the party will take orders and instructions
from him.
After obtaining there provisions and necessary supplies, and
forwarding their maps, reports, and specimens, the two corps will
start southwest in order to fully investigate the country to the
west of Lake Albert to a point beyond the equator. One party will
[Page 1333]
examine the banks of
the Lake Albert, and will take soundings, while the other will
explore the country to the westward of the high mountains, near the
shores of the lake, the district of Niam Niam, &c.
The parties are provided with surveying and land-measuring
instruments, Abyssinian pumps, and mining appliances, so that they
may be enabled to report upon the resources of the countries which
they will traverse and become acquainted with their geography. With
the means at their disposal, it is hoped that the works indicated
may be earned out within a period of two years or two years and a
half.
Another expedition will be dispatched next week, composed of Mr.
Mitchell, a mining engineer, two staff officers, and a detachment of
troops of the staff, to make geological and mineralogical
examination of the countries lying between the Nile and the Red Sea,
Nubia, and the Eastern Soudan, up to within a short distance of the
river Sobat.
The original of the above is in French, and signed by Chas. P. Stone,
chief of staff to the Egyptian army.
