"...We Eventually Turned It Over To The Keeping Of The Egyptian Troops..." Charles King Goes Back Home to England

   

  WITHDRAWAL OF OUTLYING BRITISH TROOPS IN EGYPT. (1886, March 24). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), p. 2. Retrieved December 28, 2022, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article9119398

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Continued from page 20... 

 ...This practically (ended?) the events in Egypt.  As it was then decided to withdraw the troops from...

Part II page 21 (pencil)

"...Akasha & make Wady Halfa the frontier.  And as soon as this place was sufficiently fortified we eventually turned it over to the keeping of the Egyptian troops who are now holding it...On my return journey I stayed in Assouan being stationed on Tagoog Heights & it was here that I applied for my discharge & with the rest of my company who I met at Assouan I went to Cairo from whence I received my discharge & came home in 11 (?) wks... Himalayas from Alexandria...calling this time at Cypress & Gibraltar & eventually being landed at Portsmouth on the 24th day of July 1886 having been nearly 2 years away from England." 

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 And rather abruptly, Charles King ended his memories of his trip to Egypt with the last sentence shown above.  He left me with questions about his trip home....

   After March 1886 the British troops were pulled back to Wadi Halfa and Charles began the process of obtaining a discharge from the army.  While near Assouan he stayed in a camp called Tagoog Heights. It took me several days to decipher his handwriting and pin down an exact location near Assouan.  After some considerable research, I found a small article in the British Medical Journal (The Theory of Airborne Typhoid in Armies/Assouan and London: H. E. Leigh Canney, M.D. August 24, 1901) that mentioned conditions at this camp at the time my Great Great Grandfather was there.  "In 1886 the sites 'North End', 'Tagoog Heights' and 'Shelial' were occupied simultaneously...in a distance of four miles on one bank there were three camps all with enteric cases (enteric fever was another name for Typhoid)...these men bathed in or washed in the river at each camp...water was taken for convenience...and recommendations for boiling and filtering were not effectually carried out. Therefore (the camps) gained the reputation of being not so nearly healthy". These camps were downstream from Assouan itself.  Intense heat also factored into the health of the troops, as was recorded by the Cameron Highlanders while 'under canvas' at Assouan.  Several deaths occurred due to heat stroke until the regiment embarked for Cairo on the 27th of April, 1886. Private Francis Ferguson (20th Hussars) was invalided at Assouan, which he regarded as "the most unhealthy station" in Egypt with "3 or 4 funerals every day sometimes as many as 9".  Between the heat, dysentery and typhoid many lives were lost after the retreat to Assouan. (The Victorian Soldier in Africa/Reconquering the Sudan:  Edward M. Spiers).  Charles was lucky to make it to Cairo and be formally discharged from the army. 

A scenic delight, this tour visits Darjeeling and Gangtok both offering gorgeous views of the Himalayan mountain peaks as well as tea plantations, forests, and old Buddhist monasteries. https://www.goway.com/trip/asia/foothills-himalayas/

  Getaways to the Himalayas  are still popular. 

  Did Charles King travel to the Himalayas? He may well have journeyed to "the jewel in the crown of the British Empire"...namely the Himalayan foothills where many British hill stations and plantations were located. At the time, the foothills and nearby mountains were an adventure destination of choice for Victorian travelers. Did he visit Darjeeling or Gangtok? His scant sentence is very intriguing, and I so  wish he had continued with his narrative!  He also mentioned "calling" at Cypress and Gibralter.  I hope that he had more time to sightsee on his way home now that he was no longer a soldier in the British army. 

  This is my Great Great Grandfather's obituary from The Union.  He passed away on July 12, 1943 in Grass Valley, California at the age of 80 years.  His participation in the 1884-5  Expedition was still being celebrated by his family and friends some 50 plus years later. His medals remain in the family and are as treasured now as they were when he was awarded them.  Charles King lived the rest of his life dedicated to his faith, his family and his profession as a builder and carpenter.  I imagine he used the many skills and life lessons he learned in Egypt as a young man throughout the remainder of his life's journey. 

  It is my hope that his thoughts and memories, both written in his own hand and now presented on line, will keep his service as a Royal Engineer serving under Queen Victoria preserved for our family and family to come. It has been a labor of love to present his journal to all of you. 

Charles King with his Egypt Medal (left) and his Khedive Star (right).  The Egypt Medal was awarded for his participation in the Sudan campaign, specifically the Nile Expedition of 1884-5. All recipients of the Egypt Medal were also eligible for a Khedive Star.  His is dated 1884-6 for his service in Egypt and the Sudan. In the safe keeping of JKuhwarth and Family. 

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  I would like to dedicate this blog to my family and especially to my Auntie Claire, who passed away just a few months ago.  She was the keeper of the family history for many years, along with Auntie Joan.  It is my privilege to continue with their work of research and especially of preservation. 

  I would also like to  thank Pam who started this project in the first place.  I am so thankful I had the time to help finish it. I hope I went in the direction you were headed when you started out.  It was a little daunting at first, but we got it done! 

   I would hope that someday a great great grandchild of mine would discover this history and embrace it as much as I have.  I don't think Charles King ever thought that great great grand children of his would be interested in his writings or experiences down through time.  But, I'm so glad we were!

"...The Roaring Of The Rapids Was So Great That It Was Almost Enough To Bewilder One..." The Akasheh Outpost and the Battle of Ginnis

  

A Mahdist soldier wearing a jibba (1899). The Mahdist War lasted from 1881 to 1899 and was between the Mahdist Sudanese (in response to Egyptian colonization in the early 1800's), the Khedivate of Egypt  and later the forces of Britain, who were protecting their interests in the region. The Anglo-Egyptian victory at Ginnis December 30, 1885 effectively ended the first third of the Mahdist War.  The Sudan was reconquered with the Battle of Omdurman in 1898, under the command of Sir Herbert Kitchener.  Sudan finally gained independence from British domination in 1956.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Madhist_Dervish.jpg

Public Domain

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahdist_State

  Charles King participated in the Nile Expedition of 1884-5 and then found himself a part of the combined forces of  British and Egyptian troops,  setting up advanced outposts up the Nile,  for the remainder of 1885.  The Frontier Field Force was put in place in an effort to slow the spread of the Mahdist rebellion and obtain retribution for the death of Gordon.  

  Charles was coming to the end of his service in Egypt.  We continue with his narrative regarding his activities at the outpost in Akasheh.   He  wrote these memories on the back of two pages of his business invoice sheets.  These pages were on the very bottom of the pile of Bazaar flyers and are literally falling apart.  The lines from the tops and bottoms of the pages are hard to make out or are lost. I believe some pages may even be missing entirely.  These two pages give  more in-depth detail which did not make it into the final narrative, written in Charles' larger notebook.  I will conclude his thoughts using his larger notebook, in which he switched from pen back to pencil (My Trip to Egypt Part II). 

 I have also attempted to reconstruct his last months in Egypt using historical records from the 79th Cameron Highlanders.  Charles' movements and activities can be extrapolated using the recorded history of this regiment, which was at the Korosko outpost the summer of 1885 along with my Great Great Grandfather. 

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 "During my stay at Akasha (continuing from page 29, last post) we were privileged to live in a reed hut & although this was rather more comfortable than tents..."

   Page 30

Back of page 30.  There is a date of April 9th, 1891 and quite a bit of doodling. This was written on the invoice form Charles used for his carpentry business in St. Austell, Cornwall. It may be a spelling test of some kind? Hard to say.  Dr. is an abbreviation of "debtor".  He would itemize his services for a customer and present it as a bill for payment using this form. 

 ...(the top line is gone)  "...blow the dust with such force that (we?) would almost get smothered whilst inside. Our hut was built on the bank of the river & immediately opposite one of the rapids forming the extreme end of the 3rd cataract* some 90 miles from the commencement at Wadi Halfa, although the river is not entirely innavigatable (sic) the whole of this distance but some places there are spaces of one or 2 miles of smooth water. The expedition on going up the Nile found their greatest difficulty in getting over the third cataract & some of you will no doubt remember pictures showing some of these difficultys (sic) being dealt with...The first night I spent at Akasha I was unable to sleep although I was as tired as very well could be.  But the roaring of the rapids was so great that it was almost enough to bewilder one. These rapids are formed by inundated**" (the last line is not readable)....

   *I believe he was talking about the Dal Cataracts which were nearer to Akasheh, and not the actual 3rd Cataract which was more than 50 miles up river.  The Dal Cataracts could be considered the extreme end of the Third Cataract.  

   **Winter is considered the dry season (the water levels tend to rise more in the summer months due to monsoons in Ethiopia).  Charles was in Akasheh at the tail end of monsoon season.    https://www.britannica.com/place/Nile-River/Climate--hydrology.   He may have been describing the inundation caused by the monsoons which in turn created the roaring sound making it difficult for him to sleep.  See map below. 

 Page 31 

 Back of page 31.  No doodling here! 

  This next page does not continue with the cataract description, but describes getting lost while on a survey mission.  It appears there may be a page or two missing?.....

 ...(the first line is gone)  "...yet the more we advanced the more difficult we had to encounter, so the officer decided to give up & return to camp if we could find our way back...but to find our whereabouts was the next question so it was decided that we should go in various directions, in search of something to identify our position...I happened to take the direction that eventually brought me in sight of the Nile after travelling about 4 miles & so I returned retracing my own foot marks in the sand in search of the rest of the party & eventually we meet after wandering about for several hours & neither one but myself having discovered anything certain. So I suggested that we all return to camp by way of the Nile bank a distance of several miles & that on the following day take the river route to Dal (a smaller cataract between Akasheh and Ginnis) & recommence our survey from that end.  This was eventually decided on & we returned to camp, only in time to save being overtaken by darkness...On the following day we equipped ourselves for 3 days & started by boat & reached Dal & recommenced our survey which this time proved successful...(the last line is lost)...

Part II Page 17 (pencil) 

    I cannot however dwell longer here than to say that we were gradually being annoyed more & more after the retreat of Wolsleys (sic) Columb (sic) down the river by party of the enemy who had taken fresh courage & made the best of their way down the river & had become a nuisance to the peaceful dwellers in our camp...The idea  of our station being the frontier was necessary that this advance of Natives should be checked so it was decided to send a Batallion (sic) of Blacks of the Egyptian Army to a place called Troshe (Toski) about 7 miles above our station...One man of our party went with them for the purpose of laying out a fort & ultimately the Cameron Highlanders were sent up from Korosko who after being there for a few weeks were besieged for about 6 weeks but they stood their ground...

 Part II page 18 (pencil)

  ...manfully until relief was sent up from down country.  During this time things began to look rather serious at our camp for during the whole of this time we were more or less under arms expecting to be be engaged with the Enemys reconoitering (sic) partys (sic) but although they never shew fright (fight?) with our (?) on they made their way between the hills to a station below on the railway about 16 or 14 miles called Ambigol Wells.  In one night they destroyed about 2 miles of the permanent way & beseiged (sic) Ambigol Wells where there were only about 20 men & a smart time they had of it for 2 or 3 days. We not being able to communicate with Ambigol or the stations below by rail or telegraph it was necessary to send...

 Part II Page 19 (pencil)

 ...a scout to find out the mystery & this task was undertaken by a private of the 20th Hussars who dashed at a gallop on his way down through the enemys forces who fired upon him with vengance (sic) you may expect but without hurting him & as soon as he arrived in sight of the fort at the Wells he was litterally (sic) dragged in by the men who were holding their position against enormous odds.  Having ascertained the desired information it was now his duty to return to Akasha & make known the state of affairs at the wells. And with the same bravery & fortitude he rode gallantly through the enemy again & returned to camp again.  It was then decided to form a relief party from Wady Halfa & Akasha with the hope of hemming in the...

Part II page 20 (pencil)

... enemy in the neighborhood of the wells but lo they had escaped to the south & joined the main body above Kosha (Kosheh). Whilst this was going on our camp was almost deserted having only 100 men to defend in case of emergency. General Stephenson at this juncture made his way up the Nile with an organized force of 4000 men & after a hard fight of 7 hours duration the rebels were ultimately drove back above Dongola with a large number of killed...You may conclude from what I have read that I was in the fight but as a matter of fact I was not (...) only within sound of the firing." 

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The Victorian Soldier in Africa  Edward M. Spiers Manchester University Press
  Locations of movement of the Frontier Field Force in the latter part of 1885 are highlighted in yellow. 

    Here is a brief timeline of movements and battles of the Egyptian Frontier Field Force in the Fall of 1885.  Sentences in quotes are taken from Great Britain. Army. Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders; Mackenzie, Thomas Arthur; Ewart, John Spencer, Sir, 1861-1930; Jameson, Robert.  

 

13th  October 1885...."...the first Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment arrived at Korosko to relieve the regiment..(the Cameron Highlanders).... The Cameron Highlanders embarked on three steamers and barges."  Orders were received  to proceed up the Nile to the advanced outposts of Kosheh and Akasheh.  Charles King was also on his way to Akasheh from Korosko,  and spent the latter part of his journey on a camel. The Highlanders moved by train, and then marched from Akasheh to Kosheh, which was the most advanced British post at that time. 

Madhist forces were estimated at 7,000-10,000 men by late October, and Egyptian Mounted Infantry including a half a battalion of black troops were sent to strengthen the fort at Akasheh where Charles King was serving.  The rest of the posts were also being  fortified with more British and Egyptian troops in preparation for an enemy advance. 

  Around this time the railway was attacked at Ambigol Wells by 700 Mahdists. Communication lines were cut and a mile of railway was torn up.  The fort was attacked but the small force of 30 men held strong until reinforcements arrived four days later.   (The Egyptian Campaigns, 1882-1885 by Charles Royle. Hurst and Blackwell Publishers 1900).    The Cameron Highlanders also recorded the event..."On the 1st of December  information was received that a force of the enemy had moved around to the rear, had torn up a mile of the railway between Ambigole and Akasheh, and had attacked the fortified post at Ambigole Wells."  This is very close to Charles' description of the incident as he experienced it. 

  By early December Kosheh and other frontier posts came under consistent attack. "On the fifth of December the enemy advanced on both banks of the river...from this date the dervishes kept up an almost ceaseless fire of artillery and musketry upon the fort....occasioning many casualties in the garrison.  When it became evident that they did not mean to attack in earnest, but to harass and annoy the garrison with their fire...magazines and covered ways were constructed to protect the men." The enemy's fire was described as "incessant".   The Cameron Highlanders engaged enemy snipers, mounted sorties to dislodge the enemy marksmen and  gathered intelligence from spies and deserters.   (Edward Spiers The Victorian Soldier in Africa) .   They also engaged the enemy from the Nile steamer Lotus, using machine gun fire.  This may have been the activity Charles King referred to when he described the Highlanders as being  "besieged for about 6 weeks but they stood their ground manfully until relief was sent up from down country".   The Highlanders had bought sufficient time for General Stephenson to bring more brigades into the area. 

  Charles King refers to a  "hard fight of 7 hours duration"  in which he was only within the sound of firing.  What fight was this? 

  In the early morning hours of December 30, 1885, the Frontier Field Force, "...under Lieutenant-General Stephenson, attacked and dispersed the dervishes at Ginnis."  A force of two infantry brigades and a cavalry brigade engaged the enemy in two separate actions in a short but fierce battle, which effectively sent the enemy into full retreat south and back into the desert.  Overwhelming firepower had produced a decisive outcome.  The British counted 7 killed and 30 wounded, with 500 dead and 300 wounded on the enemy side. The victors were entitled to the Egyptian Medal and the Khedive's Star. The Battle of Ginnis is now largely forgotten, but it effectively ended the first Mahdist Campaign and halted the previously unstoppable Dervish advance on Egypt. (dcmmedals.co.uk and Edward Spiers The Victorian Soldier in Africa).   Charles was within earshot of this battle but did not participate in the actual fighting. That was left to the First and Second British Brigades and their Egyptian counterparts.  

  Charles King's service in Egypt and the Sudan was over, and now it was time to go home.    To be continued.....

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Mahdists[edit]

Main article: Sudanese Dervish

Various western historical writers have sometimes used the term dervish rather loosely, linking it to, among other things, the Mahdist War in Sudan and other conflicts by Islamic military leaders. In such cases, the term "dervishes" may have been used as a generic (and often pejorative) term for the opposing Islamic entity and all members of its military, political and religious institutions, including persons who would not be considered "dervishes" in the strict sense.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dervish

  

  

"...This Latter Part We Had To Do On Camels..." From Korosko to Akasheh

 

 Date palms growing along the Nile.  "The natives had to pay a tax to the state for the right of gathering fruite from these trees..."

Underwood & Underwood, photographer. (ca. 1911) A typical Egyptian village in the Nile Valley. Egypt Nile River Valley, ca. 1911. May 22. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2004672940/.

Page 26

(Page 25 last line from previous post)  "...I asked him...(page 26)...one day if he did not find life monotonous on the top of the mountain alone to which he replied that he preferred being there to the bustle of the camp below. He almost regularly held service in the camp on Sunday evenings & they were enjoyed very much by those who attended them. He was granted a furlough whilst stationed at Korosko but he did not return again for when he got back to Cairo his liberty was redeemed by the American Missionary Society who retained his services as a missionary. To break the monotany (sic) of camp life concerts and theatrical parties used to be organized & carried out very satisfactorily & we were favored several times with original songs, composed & sung by a private soldier of the 79th (Cameron Highlanders). There is very little vegetation in and around Korosko...The Natives would grow their 2 crops of corn a year & then there are groves of date palms...

Page 27

...along the bank of the river & the Natives have to pay a tax to the state for the right of gathering fruite from these palm trees. They yield abundantly in the season, and generally the Natives put the fruite aside & dry them for the less productive seasons of the year. The Natives live very largely on dried dates during the winter & spring. They also use a quantity of dhuroo (dhurra?) a kind of red pea shaped grain peculiar to the Natives themselves.  Cotton is also grown in some parts of Egypt more especially in the lower part of Egypt. Sugar cane is also grown in lower Egypt sometimes 6 or 7 feet high...the cane itself is something in appearance like a bamboo with a large course grass top sometimes 1 1/2 ' or 2' wide. Oxen & camels are the chief kind of animels (sic) used for locomotion & work purposes but seldom you will see oxen yoked except for water raising...carrying is done principally by panniers..."

     Edward M. Spiers wrote about the Cameron Highlanders during their summer in Korosko in his The Victorian Soldier in Africa ;  "...When the soldiers faced lengthy encampments, as the Cameron Highlanders did, they made the best of it."  The Highlanders were based at Korosko for 10 months, and spent their time building mud huts, playing football and cricket, rowing on the river and forming their own theatrical company.

   In October of 1885 they were sent upriver to occupy the small fort of Kosheh which was the most southerly frontier post protecting the 87 mile railway from Wadi Halfa to Akasheh.  After the failure to rescue Gordon and the retreat back down the Nile, the British Government established an Egyptian Frontier Field Force comprised of British and Egyptian troops.  The struggle to stave off the Mahdists continued. 

Our reference map for this area of Egypt and Sudan.  Charles was stationed in Korosko, and then traveled by steamer, train and camel to Akasheh. By this time the Expedition had ended and the assembly of the Frontier Field Forces was beginning. Kosheh was the southern most outpost. 

  From here Charles King's narrative suddenly reverts to his orders to proceed to Akasha (Akasheh).  His timeline seems to fit in with the Highlanders departure date, namely, around October of 1885. He traveled by steamer, train, and then finished his journey by camel....

Page 28

"...after I had been at Korosko about 8 or 9 months & then received orders to proceed to Akasha a place 90 miles above Wadi-Halfa where is the second & longest cataract on the Nile...we done the journey from Korosko to Wadi Halfa by steamer & was not permitted to stay long on our upward journey at Wadi Halfa.  The Egyptian government had previously constructed a Railway from Wadi Halfa to Sarras some 12 miles crossing the worst part of the cataract, our government to make greater dispatch for transport purposes had decided to continue the line 18 miles further on & thus cross the whole of the cataract, so when we were going up we found a good bit of the line laid & was able to travel as far as Ambigul Wells (Ambigol) by train within about 16 or 14 (19?) miles from our destination this latter part we had to do on camels.  This I assure you is anything but pleasant for novices as the motion of the camel is quite....

Page 29

  ...unique and causes great pain to one unused to it...We however got to Akasha after several days travelling & took up our quarters & soon found out what our duties was to be here...It was intended as the Expedition was coming down the river to make this place the frontier station of Egypt so our job was to lay out & construct fortifications...we had several gangs of Native workmen at our disposal & we were kept going for several months at this, but occasionally relieved the monotony by repairing & repainting the boats that had been used in the expedition. I may say that the whole of the boats was whalers (two bow boats about 30 ft long), & fitted with rowing & sailing gear complete for each boat..."  (to be continued)...

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"Photograph of Cataract of Ambigole or Second Cataract" Photograph taken in Egypt by Anglo-Italian photographer Felice Beato 1884/5. National Archives UK. The train skirted the second cataract. 

 A rare day of good sailing on the Nile between Sarras and Dal, with voyageurs in the bows of the whalers. Orignally published in the Illustrated London News.  Reproduced from MacLaren 1978: plate 21.

 General Wolseley recruited almost 400 Canadian Voyageurs to help his expedition ascend the Nile.  It was the first time that a Canadian contingent served overseas.  They were recruited because they were known for their exceptional skills in navigating rough waters in small boats.  I can't imagine what they thought of the wild contrast between snow and sub-zero temperatures of their home country to the soaring heat and desert landscape experienced in Egypt and the Sudan. 

  They arrived in Alexandria on October 7th of 1884 and by October 26th had made it to Wadi Halfa to join the British soldiers who had piloted the whalers this far.  The tough work really began here, as the voyageurs encountered the second cataract and by a combination of rowing, sailing and towing from shore made their way slowly up the Nile. They encountered more cataracts, rough current, and submerged rocks that broke their boats apart. It was the Sappers job to repair the boats on the way.  Their navigational skills did help the column advance at a quicker pace through November and December. 

  Wolseley then sent his Camel Column across the Bayuda desert in hopes it would reach Khartoum faster while the River Column continued to fight its way up the river.  By the end of January all hope was lost for the rescue for General Gordon.  The River Column never made it to Khartoum, and the relief mission was now over.  The Column began its journey back down the Nile, at one point descending in 9 days what previously took 30 days to ascend.   On the way they were attacked by the Sudanese army in the battle of Kirbekan, but made it to Korti where General Wolseley let the Canadians continue on to Alexandria and eventually back home to Canada by March of 1885.  (From Voyageurs on the Nile by John Boileau in Legion Magazine Jan. 1, 2004). 

  Charles King, as a sapper, was also given the task of repairing and painting what whaler boats were left from the Expedition while he was stationed at Akasheh.  They were still being used by the  Frontier  Field Force in the fall of 1885.  Charles' service in the Expedition had ended, and he was now a part of the combined forces of the British and Egyptian troops.     To be continued.....

  

"There Is No Town At Korosko Only A Village..."

 Korosko, Egypt, on the Nile River.  From a 1912 Post card;  eBay 

The signal station was most likely located on the top of the highest hill, located on the right in this picture.  Korosko disappeared under Lake Nassar, created by the Aswan High Dam, in the 1960's. 

  From here to the end of Charles Kings' description of his trip to Egypt and back we have to toggle between his original manuscript written on the back of the Bazaar flyers, his small notebook  and his final copy written in pen, which he ended in pencil.  It appears that at this point in his narrative Charles either ran out of time in his talk and had to trim quite a bit of detail and extra information, or he wanted to add some of the more colorful and descriptive tidbits of his experiences and was otherwise discouraged in including them (perhaps by his wife Anna? Boils and near drowning may have been too much for his intended audience). I have pieced together the rest of my Great Great Grandfather's  narrative from the remaining pages of his writings.

   In the following pages we get a glimpse of what Charles was doing in Korosko as a Royal Engineer and we also get more details of the expedition itself.  I especially enjoyed his descriptions of  wild life on the Nile....I can just hear the music of the frogs at night.....

  Small notebook, continued from previous post... 

"...There is no town at Korosko only a village but the importance of Korosko lies in the fact of its being the entrance to the pass by which Gordon took this rout (sic) on his journey to Khartoum thus saving several...

Small notebook 

 ...hundreds of mile rout (sic) which from here may be likened unto a D the straight line showing the rout (sic) across the desert from Korosko to Abu Hamed & the circular part that of the river with Korti about the middle of the curve..."

 Map of Korosko in relation to places mentioned by Charles King in this post and subsequent posts (highlighted).  The "D" he refers to here would be in relation to Korosko looking south. 

"...We found here stationed the 79th Cameron Highlanders Regiment, and it then became known to us that we were sent there to commence to build a permanent camp for them...we also found that Major Rundle of the Egyptian Army was organizing a relief party to cross the desert with stores & C (commissary/canned food?) for General Earl's (Earle's) column who was making their...

 Small Notebook

...way up the Nile to reach Berber and ultimately to overtake Stewarts column who were crossing the desert from Korti. You all know that this did not work out in fact as Earl(e) was killed & Gordon was no more & by a lucky coincidence Rundle did not commence his journey across the desert, had he done so it is more than probable that the whole party would have been annihilated... as prisoners who were taken & brought into camp from the desert reported that a very large party were...

 Small notebook

...outside waiting for the expedition to move out to compete their deadly design. We remained at Korosko for several months during which time we had raised accommodations for several hundred of troops & as it was of urgent importance that our work should be got on with, we were obliged to work when the sun was intensely hot.  I here experienced the hottest day that I knew in Egypt namely 125 (degrees) in the shade...I could tell you lots of things that I witnessed during my...

 Small Notebook 

 ...sojourn on the Nile but I must not go further that to take a ramble. I witnessed a tremendous whirlwind at Korosko... paper matting made of palm leaves & things that was laying on the ground was carried up in the air to a tremendous height.  It was here that I first witnessed the manufacture of Egyptian brick, primitive of course made today & dried in the sun  & used tomorrow, we used millions of these brick whilst at Korosko and the native method of making them is as follows. *

Page 23 (on the back of a Bazaar flyer)

*They have a goodly supply of water & they dig up the soil into a kind of pit & 2 or 3 men tread the whole together as the water is allowed to run into the pit & when the whole is brought to the consistency of stiffish mortar it is taken out of the pit in such quantitys (sic) as two men can conveniently carry on a piece of matting such as I named just now. It is then carried to the moulders who, having placed the mould on the ground, the moulder sitting on his haunches fills the mould...lifts it from the brick he has made & again sets the mould in a position alongside the brick last made, thus after continuing this motion from morning till night they have a large quantity of brick covering the surface of the ground. Those made as it were today will be fit to use after having the strength of a days sun upon & they are then collected together and if for immediate use are taken away in panniers on camels backs.  Sometimes straw is used in making the brick & sometimes the stubble from...

 Page 24 

  ...the land after the corn crop has been taken out. I may just say that whilst at Korosko I was almost drowned, having gone down to the river to bathe of Easter Sunday 1885, and as there was a very large number bathing at the same time I was fouled (?) whilst swimming from a small island not far from the shore & lost my stroke & was only just reached when going under water for the third time.  I was also impressed with the reality of the plagues with which god smote the Egyptians in the days of Moses.  I was the recipient of several boils by way of (?), on another occasion we were almost swarmed with flies & almost the whole time I was at Korosko we used to be blessed with frog music...frogs are very numerous there...I remember one night sleeping in our tent which was a square one about 10 ft square with doors open at each end when in the dead of the night I was almost (?) & seeing a wolf run right through our tent on its way from the hills to the river to drink. The wild animals which inhabit the desert and mountainous regions generally make their way to the river for drink at all hours of the night. I did not see any lions whilst I was in Egypt but I was told that one was seen in the deserts a little way out from our camp. One of the Officers in our camp killed a hyena one day & had it brought into camp & stuffed (?)....

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...I did not see any crocodiles or alligators whilst I was there but I know they frequent the waters further up the river & sometimes they are several together & make it very dangerous to people frequenting the river in any way.  During my stay at Korosko the Nile was quite low but began to rise rapidly before I left to go upward. On the highest hill behind the camp was the signal station & the man who was stationed there could see a good distance over the river in both directions & it was his duty as soon as a steamer hove in sight to signal its approach by hoisting a ball to the flag pole attached to which was an arm each way & so whicher (which ever?) way the steamer was approaching from he would raise the ball indicating the direction...The man who was appointed to this billit (?) was a good man....I have been on the top of the hill for a ramble occasionally & found him devoted to reading his bible or praying or some other religious exercise......"  (to be continued)

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 "We found here stationed the 79th Cameron Highlanders Regiment, and it then became known to us that we were sent there to commence to build a permanent camp for them"   ...Who were the Cameron Highlanders? And what was their role in the Nile Expedition?  

 

Internet Archive 

https://archive.org/stream/historicalrecord00grearich/historicalrecord00grearich_djvu.txt

  The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders (or the 79th of Foot) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, originally raised in 1793.  Their primary mission during the Nile campaign was to assist in guarding the lines of communication at Korosko; they remained to later join the Sudan Frontier Field Force in 1885. (Cameron Highlanders; Wikipedia)

  According the Historical Records of the 79th Queens Own Cameron Highlanders, the Highlanders arrived in Korosko on the 4th of December, 1884. On the 23rd of January more troops from the 79th arrived in Korosko from Cairo.  On the 28th of January, 1885, the sad news of the fall of Khartoum and the death of General Gordon was communicated to Colonel Leith, the Commandant of the station. 

  An excerpt from the text is as follows...

On the 8th of February the following telegram was received by 
Colonel Leith from Major-General Sir Evelyn Wood, V.C., commanding 
the lines of communication : 

" Your battalion will spend the summer at Korosko ; commence at 
once to hut half a battalion with a view to health and comfort, and 
report progress when half is completed." 

From this it became evident that Lord Wolseley's army would 
summer in the Soudan and advance upon Khartoum in the autumn. 

On receipt of this order the regiment at once commenced to 
construct huts of mud and palm branches, 

  

  The role of the Royal Engineers stationed at Korosko was to oversee the building of these huts.  Charles gave a detailed description of how the mud bricks were constructed.  Did he participate in the making of the bricks, or just the design and construction of the huts?  He didn't say. We do know that he was a part of a small detachment consisting of an officer, a corporal and 4 men (himself included). 

  On the 7th of April, Lord Wolseley himself arrived in Korosko and inspected the work of hutting the Highlanders.  B, C and D companies occupied the mud huts by the 20th of April, and by the middle of May the whole regiment was hutted (from Historical Records...) Charles King was most certainly there in April to meet Lord Wolseley and have his detachment's work reviewed.  

  The Highlanders stayed and eventually went on to defend the Sudan later in the year, with Korosko used an an outpost. The greater part of the expedition forces began leaving Egypt in July of 1885.  (Project Gutenberg's The Egyptian campaigns, 1882 to 1885, by Charles Royle, Chapter 51 Evacuation)

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