Canadians on the Nile, 1882-1898 : Being the Adventures of the Voyageurs on the Khartoum Relief Expedition and Other Exploits

Canadians on the Nile, 1882-1898 is a lively description of Canada?s romantic and little known involvement in the greatest imperial drama of Queen Victoria?s later years. Chosen for their unique skills, 400 English- and French-speaking Canadian voyageurs transported imperial forces up the Nile in a daring attempt to rescue ?Chinese? Gordon, besieged in Khartoum. A generation later, their imperial work was completed by another Canadian, Sir Percy Girouard, who built the desert railway which enabled Kitchener to capture Khartoum in 1898.

Offering fresh insights to the general reader as well as to historians and students, this authoritative work is also a perceptive, exciting, and humorous account of a curious way station along the meandering road to Canadian nationhood.