Chapter 2 - The White Nile and Khartoum

Summary

The White Nile excursion of the Tinne party

As soon as Henriette Tinne-van Capellen, Alexine Tinne and Adriana van Capellen arrived in Egypt for the third time on 22 August 1861, they began looking around for a fitting goal for a new journey southwards. They moved around in the diplomatic circles of Alexandria and Cairo and made the acquaintance of Ludwig Krapf, who had been a German missionary to the King of Shoa in Abyssinia, and had endeavoured to introduce Christianity into the distant region, recording with his companion Rebmann in 1848 the existence of the snow-crowned peaks of the Kilima Ndjaro under the very equator. Krapf may have been approached by the Tinnes because he was an expert on Central Africa. As the next object of their travels, they must have discussed Khartoum and their proceeding up the White Nile in his presence. There were also vague plans of procuring a residence in Cairo. ‘Dr. Krapf talked a deal with Alexine about a place to remain for the summer. He spoke of Gondar, the capital of Abyssinia, as a healthy place, the King Theódoros as a friend of his to whom he would give us introductions, and afterwards we had quite arranged in our minds to go to Khartoum according to the journal he gave us’, as Henriette relates in her diary. If they had left at that time, however, they would have encountered the rainy season in Gondar and moreover would have found themselves in the midst of a new war in which emperor Theódoros was then engaged.

In Cairo they lived, after a short stay in the Shepheard's Hotel, in a ‘petit palais’ named Gazr el-Minieh (the castle el-Minieh) and wintered there in the outskirts of the city. Finally the decision was made to leave for Khartoum first and reside there for a short time before making further plans. Thus Alexine's wish to go up the Nile for the third time and head for Khartoum had been fulfilled. It was at this moment that Henriette wrote to John for another transfer of £1000.