Ahead to the Gazelle-river

On 25 January at daybreak, Heuglin and Steudner sailed off from the moqrèn as the lead of the expedition, accompanied by a volley of rifles from other boats moored in the bay. The northern wind was blowing inshore and at the junction of the Blue and White Nile they had to make use of their oars to keep the boat in the middle of the stream. While turning around the land point the sails unfolded and the broad bow of the nuggar cleaved the foaming waves of the White Nile.

It was a fresh day and Heuglin relates how brightly the rising sun was shining. He was sitting, dressed in a flannel coat, before his ship's compass looking to the south and thinking of his country in the far north that he had left behind. Somewhat preoccupied about the near future but cheerful at the prospect of fulfilling his long-awaited aim of reaching Central Africa's unknown regions, he saw ‘cheerless Khartoum’, with its ‘filthy mud huts’, rapidly vanishing beyond the horizon. A huge ancient acacia tree, 25° southwest from Khartoum on the eastern bank, marked a point known far and wide to all the ships’ men as ‘the tree’. Cows were slaughtered there and cut into long strips, which were salted and hung in the tackling to dry. Already Heuglin's group had been provided with meat. His ship had to moor there to allow some crew members to embark. To bring the last passengers aboard, his boat had to touch the tree roots which stood partly in the river at high tide.

The vegetation on the shores, in particular the west bank, was growing more and more luxuriant. The next morning at 4 am they passed the village of Wad Shellal scattered about the eastern bank, a vital link in the trade between Sennār and Khartoum and Kordofan. Most of the houses were of the tukul type: round straw huts with high tapered roofs, fit for the hot climate. From this point their route proceeded mainly along the current of the western coast of the White Nile, skirting various islands, one of which seemed to Heuglin to be a small Garden of Eden with its yet undisturbed and enchantingly silent nature.