I arrived at the camp at Wady Haifa on the Second Cataract, on the 16th of
the moon Zilhadge, in the year of the Hegira 3255,4 where I found
about four thousand troops,5 consisting of Turkish cavalry,
infantry and artillery, and a considerable proportion of Bedouin cavalry
and Mogrebin foot soldiers, besides about one hundred and twenty large
boats loaded with provisions and ammunition, and destined to follow the
march of the army to the upper countries of the Nile.
17th of Zilhadge. Presented myself to his Excellency the Pasha Ismael, by
whom I was received in a very nattering manner, and presented with a suit
of his own habiliments.
On my asking his Excellency if he had any orders for me, he replied, that
he was at present solely occupied in expediting the loading and forwarding
the boats carrying the provisions of the army, but that when that was
finished he would send for me to receive his commands.
I employed this interval in noticing the assemblage that composed the
army. The chiefs and soldiers I found well disposed to do their duty,
through attachment to their young commander and through fear of Mehemmed
Ali. They were alert to execute what orders they received, and very busy
in smoking their pipes when they had nothing else to do.
On the 19th I was sent for by the Pasha, with whom I remained in private
audience for an hour.
On the 21st of the moon Zilhadge was attacked by that distressing malady
the ophthalmia. In two days the progress of the disorder was such that my
eyes were closed up and incapable of supporting the light, and occasioned
me such acute anguish that I could get no sleep but by the effect of
laudanum. This misfortune at this crisis was peculiarly vexatious and
mortifying for me, as it put it out of my power to accompany the Pasha,
who departed with the army for Dongola on the 26th, taking his route on
the west bank of the river, and leaving the Divan Effendi and a small
party of soldiers to expedite the loading and forwarding the boats that
had not as yet got ready to proceed up the Cataract.
On the 3d of Mofiarram, A. H. 1236, I embarked on board the boat of the
Frank surgeons attached to the army, and left the lower or north end of
the Second Cataract as it is commonly styled in the maps, in company with
fifteen boats to follow and rejoin the army.
I would here observe that what is called the Second Cataract is properly a
succession of partial falls and swift rapids for more than a hundred miles
before we arrived at Succoot. I counted nine; some of them, particularly
the second,6
fifth,7
seventh,8
and ninth,9
very dangerous to pass, though at this time the Nile had fallen but a few
feet. Before we arrived at the fifth, two boats were wrecked against the
rocks which crowd the rapids, and one filled and sunk; and before we had
passed the ninth several similar accidents had taken place. To pass the
fifth and ninth rapids, it was necessary to employ about a hundred men to
drag the boats one after another against the current. At the fifth pass,
several of the boats were damaged, and two soldiers and two boatmen
drowned. At this pass, the river is interrupted by a ledge of rocks
reaching nearly across, and over which the Nile falls. Between this ledge
of rocks and the western shore of the river is a practicable passage, wide
enough to admit a boat to be hauled up the current, which here runs
furiously. Overlooking this passage are two hills, one on the east and one
on the west side of the river: on these hills are the ruins of ancient
fortifications. They are also surmounted by two small temples in the
Egyptian style: that on the west side is almost perfect. It is sculptured
exteriorly and interiorly with figures and hieroglyphics, and the ceiling
is painted azure.10
The appearance of the country on each side of the falls is similar to that
of the country south of Assuan—a sandy desert studded with rocky
hills and mountains, The only appearance of vegetation observable was in
some of the islands and on the immediate banks of the river, where we met
at every mile or two with small spots of fertile ground, some of them
cultivated and inhabited. The rocky hills consist frequently of beautiful
black granite, of the color and brilliancy of the best sea-coal. Here and
there, at different points on the Cataract, I observed some forts built by
the natives of the country. They are constructed of unhewn stones cemented
with mud, and flanked by towers and angular projections something
resembling bastions, and are pierced with loopholes for musquetry. Their
interior presents the following appearance:—against the interior
side of the walls all round are built low chambers, communicating by small
doors with the area and frequently with each other. I could observe
nothing in these chambers except the bottom part of the small handmills
used by the Orientals to grind meal, which could not be hastily removed as
they were fixed in the ground; every thing else the inhabitants had
carried off on the approach of the army. The great area in the centre of
these forts appeared to have been occupied by the camels and flocks of the
inhabitants; some of these forts are to be seen surmounting the high rocky
islands with which the Second Cataract abounds, and make a picturesque
appearance.
On the 2d of the moon Safa, we passed what our Rais erroneously told us
was the last rapid between us and Succoot. We have been thirty days in
getting thus far,11 the causes of our having been so
long in getting up the Falls were several. The crews of the boats which
had passed unhurt a dangerous passage were frequently detained to unload
and repair those which had been wrecked or damaged.—We have been
detained at the entrances of these rapids frequently for several days, for
want of a sufficient wind, it being absolutely necessary that the wind
should be very strong to enable the boats to force themselves through
currents running between the rocks with dreadful rapidity; and more than
once the boatmen have hesitated to attempt a dangerous pass till obliged
by the presence and menaces of the Divan Effendi who accompanied the
boats.
On the 3d of Safa, about an hour after we had passed what our Rais told us
was the last rapid of consequence we should have to encounter, we saw the
wreck of a boat lying against a rock in the middle of the river, her masts
alone appearing out of the water. The river here is interrupted by several
high insulated rocks. We had been assured that we should now find the
river open and without difficulty, till we should come to Succoot; the
appearance of this boat seemed to contradict this representation, and in
about an hour after we had abundant reason to be satisfied that it was
false. I was congratulating myself that we had got into smooth water, and
indulging myself with a tranquil pipe of tobacco, when suddenly the wind
slackened just as we were passing between two ledges of rocks where the
river was running at the rate of about six knots an hour. The current
overpowered the effort of the sails, and carried the boat directly among
the reefs, near the west bank of the river. After remaining for about ten
minutes in a very perilous position, the skill of our Rais happily got the
boat to shore without injury.
3d of Safa. We remained all night at the place where we landed; in the
morning got under sail to pass the strong current we had attempted
yesterday without success. After buffeting about for an hour we were
forced to return to the bank of the river, and await a stronger wind. In
about an hour after the wind freshened and we got under way with better
fortune, and after passing the current before mentioned found ourselves in
smooth water. After sailing for an hour we stopped for ten minutes at a
place where we saw sheep, in order to purchase some, having for the last
twenty days been obliged to live on bread, rice, and lentils. Succeeded in
purchasing two lambs. The banks of the river hereabouts present some
fertile spots, a few of them cultivated. About noon the wind fell and the
Rais put to shore; we immediately set our domestics about preparing the
purchased meat, and shortly after we sat down to this regale, which
appeared to me the most delicious meal I had eaten for many years.12
Remained here for the remainder of the day.
4th of Safa. Continued in the same place, there not being sufficient wind
to ascend the river. About two hours after noon arrived an Arab from
above; he was on his way to the Divan Effendi, who was a few miles below
us, to inform him that a boat, of which he had been one of the crew, had
been dashed to pieces against the rocks in attempting to pass a rapid. I
demanded of him "how many rapids there were yet ahead;" he replied "that
there were several; how many he did not exactly know." This intelligence
made me apprehensive that we might be another month in getting through
these obstacles, and determined me to renew my efforts to obtain camels
and proceed to the Pasha by land. I had made several attempts to hire some
for this purpose, during the last fifteen days, without success. The man
above mentioned informed me that I could probably obtain some at a village
about six hours off. I determined to send my servants on the morrow to
inquire.
5th of Safa. Passed the night at the same place; early in, the morning a
favorable breeze sprung up and the Rais got the boat under sail. Was
obliged, in consequence, to proceed in the boat as long as the wind held.
Observed as we proceeded a number of fertile spots, some of them
cultivated, and a few small villages. I was informed that these will
become more frequent as we proceed. During this day, with a favorable
wind, made only about twelve miles against the current.
6th of Safa. Got under way about two hours after sunrise, with a strong
breeze from the northward. About half an hour after quitting the land,
passed a dangerous rapid, occasioned by a. reef of rocks reaching nearly
across the river. In passing this rapid the wind slackened for half a
minute, and the current carried the boat astern to within six or seven
feet of the rocks; at this critical instant the wind happily freshened,
and forced the boat up the current, to the great relief of all on board.
An hour after, passed a picturesque spot, where the river is divided by a
high rocky island, supporting on its summit some ruined fortifications
made by the natives; on the right bank of the river, just opposite, is a
fertile spot of ground and a village, surrounded by date trees and
plantations.
Our Rais put to land about noon, the wind falling, and rocks and rapids of
formidable appearance being right ahead.13 We have
made about eight miles to-day. Saw about two miles above us a number of
boats lying to the shore, apparently obstructed by the rapid just
mentioned. About the middle of the afternoon, in walking along the shore,
saw a crocodile; it was small, about three feet in length. When I came
upon him, he was sunning himself on the shore; on seeing me, he ran with
great rapidity and plunged into the river.
7th of Safa. Got under way about two hours after sunrise, to pass the
rocks and rapids already mentioned. The passage was dangerous, and the
boat thrice in imminent peril. We struck once on rocks under water, where
the current was running probably at the rate of six knots an hour.
The current, after about ten minutes, swept the boat off without having
received a hole in her bottom, otherwise we must probably have perished.
Shortly after we were jammed between a great shallow whirlpool and a large
boat on our starboard beam. This boat was dashed by the current against
ours, and menaced to shove her into the whirlpool. The long lateen yards
of the two boats got entangled, and I was prepared to leap into the other
boat, in anticipation of the destruction of ours, when the wind freshened,
and the large boat was enabled to get clear of ours. Not long after, the
same boat fell aboard of us the second time, in a place where, if our boat
had drifted twice her length to leeward or astern, she must have run upon
rocks. All these accidents befell us, having under our eyes, at no great
distance from us, the wreck of a boat lost in this passage three or four
days ago.14
After being for about two hours in danger, the boat arrived at the west
bank of the river, where we found many more waiting a sufficient wind to
be enabled to clear the remainder of the rapid, which runs very strong
here.
Stayed for a wind at this place two days. On the 10th of Safa, the boat
happily passed the remainder of the rapid, when the wind calmed, and the
Rais put to shore, there being yet a strong current to surmount. Opposite
to the place where we were, at about half a mile from the shore, a boat
had stuck fast upon some rocks this morning, all attempts to get her off
had proved unsuccessful, and she remained in that position, with all her
company on board, till next morning.
11th of Safa. Quitted the shore about an hour after sunrise, with a fine
northerly wind. Passed the boat just mentioned, whose people looked very
forlorn. Some small boats were then on the way to unload this boat, should
it be found impossible to disengage her. Proceeded on our way, and passed
a number of small but pretty islands, lying near the west bank of the
river. They are cultivated and inhabited by a considerable population. The
country on the borders of the river begins to assume a better appearance—the
territory of Succoot, which we were now entering, containing many
villages. Beyond the green banks of the river, all is yellow desert,
spotted with brown rocky mountains, which, however, appeared to decrease
in number and height as we advanced up the river, till the country
subsided into a plain, with a few isolated mountains of singular forms and
picturesque appearance here and there in view. About two hours after
mid-day we arrived at a place where the river is embarrassed by small
rocks and shoals, except a narrow pass on the western side. We found the
current here too strong to be surmounted by the aid of what wind we had,
and therefore put to shore on a very fine island on our left. We passed
the remainder of the day here with satisfaction. This island is about a
mile and a half in length, naturally beautiful, and well cultivated by
about fifty or sixty inhabitants, who seemed to be well contented with
their situation.15 We saw here three men of about
twenty-five years of age, who had been circumcised but five days past, a
thing I had never before known to have occurred to the children of
Mussulmans.
12th of Safa. At an early hour, quitted the shore with a strong northerly
wind, to pass the current which had stopped us yesterday. This day's sail
was the most agreeable of any we had enjoyed since we left Egypt, the
river, since we had passed the rapids of Dall, (where the second cataract
of the Nile properly commences,) having become as broad as in Egypt, and
now flowing tranquilly through a country equally fertile, and much more
picturesque than the finest parts of Said. The eastern bank of the river,
particularly, presented a continual succession of villages, and fine soil
crowded with trees, and all cultivated. Passed, during the day, some fine
and large islands, also occupied by numerous villages. We stopped at night
at one of these islands, by whose beautiful borders we had been sailing
with great pleasure for more than four hours, with a stiff breeze. We were
in formed by the inhabitants, that this island was a day's walk in
breadth. They said, that, as we advanced, we should find others as large
and larger. Their island, they told us, was called Syee. They appeared to
be well satisfied with their condition, having an abundance of every thing
absolutely needful for a comfortable subsistence, and decent clothing of
their own manufacture. What surprised me not a little, was to find the
people as white as the Arabs of Lower Egypt, whereas the inhabitants of
Nubia are quite black, though their features are not those of the Negro.
I have observed, that the country through which we passed to-day, was as
fertile and much more picturesque than the Said. The reason for the latter
part of this assertion is, that in the Said the view is limited by the
ridges of barren and calcined mountains that bound it on both sides,
whereas here the view ranges over plains bounded only by the horizon, and
interspersed here and there with isolated mountains of most singular
forms. Some of them might be mistaken for pyramids, they are so regular
and well defined; some resembled lofty cones, and others resembled lofty
square or pentagonal redoubts. One of the latter description lies upon the
eastern bank of the river, and could easily be made an impregnable
fortress, which could command all water communication between Egypt and
Dongola. The scenes of verdure and cultivation through which we had passed
today, removed all suspicions from my mind as to what had been reported to
me of the great difference between Nubia and the country beyond it.
All the villages we have passed to-day, have in their centre a fort or
castle, fortified with towers at the corners, and, judging from those we
visited, resembling in their interior those on the cataract already
described. The village, consisting of low huts, built of mud, is built
round the walls of the fort, which is intended to serve as a place of
retreat and defense for the inhabitants and their flocks, in case of alarm
or attack. They are governed in the manner of the families of the
patriarchs, the Sheck of the village being both judge and captain. Saw at
this island a small skiff, the first boat belonging to the inhabitants of
the country that I have seen since quitting Wady Halfa.
12th of Safa, Parted from the land about an hour after sunrise and
proceeded on our voyage, which was, if possible, still more agreeable than
that of yesterday. On the east bank of the river, the eye rests on a
continued succession of villages, occupying land of the finest quality,
and lying under a continued forest of palm trees, larger and taller, in my
opinion, than those growing in Egypt. On the right we saw, as we passed, a
chain of beautiful islands, some of them large and presenting the same
spectacle as the east bank. It is certainly a beautiful country. The river
from Assuan has only about half the breadth that it has in Egypt. In this
country it is as broad, and in many places, on account of the large
islands it here contains, very much broader than it is in Egypt. We
stopped at night at one of these fine islands, whose breadth being but
about two miles, enabled us to have a view of the west bank of the river,
which presented the same succession of villages and cultivation as on the
oriental side. I have already observed, that the date trees of this
country were larger and taller than those in Egypt. We found a similar
difference in the animals of this country; I purchased a sucking lamb,
which was certainly as big as an Egyptian sheep of a year's growth. The
cattle of this country differ from those of Egypt, in bearing, as to form,
a resemblance to the buffalo. They have a rising on the shoulder, and a
similar form of the hips. They are also larger than the cows of Egypt.
14th of Safa. The wind did not spring up this morning till a late hour,
and after continuing for about an hour and a half, fell calm. We put to
shore on the western bank of the river, where we passed the remainder of
the day and the night. The country continued fine and crowded with
villages. At this place, some of the boat's company attempted to shoot a
hippopotamus, who had shown himself several times during the day. They
succeeded only in slightly wounding him, after which he disappeared. The
people of the country say that there are twelve that frequent this place
in the river, which contains here some low islands, well adapted to afford
them food and concealment.
16th of Safa. Parted from the land about two hours after sunrise, with a
strong breeze. After continuing an hour and a half the wind subsided into
a calm, which obliged us to make for the shore. We landed on a large
island resembling those already mentioned, where we passed the remainder
of the day and the night. The country we had passed resembled that below,
beautiful, and as fertile as land can be.
16th of Safa. Left the land about an hour after sunrise, and in half an
hour passed the southern boundary of the beautiful territory of Succoot,
and entered the province of Machass. The country we were now passing is
naturally fertile, but has not such a continued succession of villages as
Succoot. About three hours after sunrise came in view of the ruins of an
ancient temple on the west bank. With some difficulty engaged the Rais to
put to shore for a few minutes, to give me an opportunity of visiting it.
This temple is manifestly of Egyptian architecture; it is about two
hundred feet long from east to west; ten of the columns only are standing;
they are composed of separate blocks of a brown stone resembling that
employed in the construction of the temples in the isle of Philoe. The
walls of this temple are in ruins, except a part of the front which is in
a very dilapidated state. The front faces the East; the pillars and the
ruins of the walls are sculptured with hieroglyphics. It stands on the
west bank of the river about two miles beyond the territory of Succoot.
About an hour after leaving this place, the wind falling, our Rais was
obliged to put to shore. We soon arrived at the western bank of the river,
the Nile being in this place not a mile broad. The remainder of the day
being calm, we staid here till next morning. Several of the Pasha's
Cavalry passed along the west bank of the river yesterday and to-day,
bearing repeated orders from Dongola to the commanders of the boats to
hasten their progress.
17th of Safa. At an early hour started with a favorable wind, but in about
two hours were obliged to put to shore. The river hereabouts makes several
turns almost at right angles with each other. This circumstance brought
the wind directly ahead in one of the bends and obliged us to remain there
till next morning. The country we saw to-day is not equal to the territory
of Succoot; the date trees, the villages, and the cultivation are not so
continued; and the view from the river is bounded at a little distance
from its banks by low rocky hills. Saw to-day a singular mode of
navigating the river; a man, who apparently was traveling down the river
with his whole family, had placed his youngest wife and her two young
children on a small raft made of bundles of corn-stalks lashed together,
he himself swam by its side to guide it, while he kept his old wife a
swimming and pushing it by the stern, and in this way they proceeded down
the river.
I have seen in this country small rafts made to carry one person, which
are very well contrived. Three or four large empty gourds are fastened
firmly to a small oblong frame made out of the branches of the date tree,
the whole not weighing two pounds. A man may go safely down or across the
river on this, either by fastening it to his breast and swimming supported
by it, or by riding on it astride; and when on shore he can carry it with
ease either in his hand or on his shoulder.
18th of Safa, In the morning found that the wind had changed a little in
our favor, got under way, but after sailing for about two hours the
winding of the river again brought it ahead. Put to shore and staid there
till the middle of the afternoon, when the wind again hauled a little in
our favor, and with some difficulty we got to windward of the shore and
proceeded up the river. The river here is about half a mile broad, and
makes several turns which somewhat retarded our progress. We observed some
rocks and shoals, and on arriving at a place where the river is divided by
a large rocky island, observed a boat aground, which had taken the right
hand passage which was the broadest, and two others turning back to take
the passage on the other side of this island. We followed their example,
and found the passage safe enough. A little beyond the upper end of this
island the river makes an acute angle to the right hand. We proceeded
onwards till sunset, when we put to shore in company with two other boats.
The country we have passed through to-day resembled that we saw yesterday,
inferior to the fine territory of Succoot.
19th of Safa, Left the land an hour and a half after sunrise, with a fine
breeze from the north. Sailed for about an hour through a country where
the rocky hills come down here and there close to the river banks and
narrowed the usual breadth of the Nile considerably. Observed however in
this tract of country a few fine and cultivated islands. Shortly after the
river widened, the rocky hills retired at a distance, and the eye rested
with pleasure on a beautiful country cultivated by the inhabitants of a
continued succession of villages and castles which occupied both banks of
the river. The country resembled the province of Succoot, except that the
date trees were not so numerous nor so tall and large. Passed the ruins of
a considerable fortified town situated on a high hill on the west bank. A
little beyond this place saw the ruins of a temple; four of the columns
are yet standing; could not go ashore to examine it, as the wind was fair
and strong, and the Rais under positive orders to proceed with all
expedition. Observed that several of the castles we had passed yesterday
and to-day appeared newer and better constructed for defense than those we
had seen along the Cataract. I suspect that they were erected under the
direction of the exiled Mamalukes, as this tract forms a part of the
territory subject to them before the arrival of the Pasha Ismael.
Continued to advance, through a country very beautiful, the river here
embosoming several large and delightful islands, capable of being made, by
the hands of enlightened industry, every thing that the art of man
operating upon a fine soil under a soft climate could effect. We sailed
pleasantly by these charming shores and islands till an hour and a half
before sunset, when we came in view of a rapid ahead, and the wreck of a
boat lost in passing it. The Rais put to shore, and after taking on board
a native of the country to show him the passage through the rocks and
shallows, attempted to pass immediately; the effort was unsuccessful.
After remaining in the foaming passage for three quarters of an hour, we
found that the wind was not strong enough to force the boat through the
current, and as the sun was about setting and the wind falling, the Rais
was obliged to let the boat drift back to the shore from whence we had
departed.
18th of Safa. At about two hours after sunrise, the Rais thought the wind
sufficiently favorable and strong to carry the boat through the rapid. We
quitted the shore, and again faced the current. The Rais this time was not
mistaken; our boat forced her way slowly but victoriously through the
torrent, and in about three quarters of an hour carried us safely into
smooth water, where we could draw every advantage from a fine wind, which
swept us rapidly up the river between shores fertile and cultivated by the
inhabitants of a continued succession of villages shaded by palm trees.
About an hour after we had passed the rapid, we stopped to receive on
board three of our company who had left the boat yesterday in search of
fresh provisions on the western bank of the river. They reported that they
had seen a large pond of fresh water inland, and had found the country for
seven miles from the river crowded with villages, and as fertile as
possible. They represented that this country was watered by two ranges of
water-wheels; one range on the bank of the river, which threw the water of
the Nile into small canals leading to reservoirs inland, from whence the
other range took it up and distributed it to this fine territory. About
noon we passed, on the east bank, two very high, large and isolated rocks
of irregular and picturesque forms. On the side of the southernmost were
the remains of a considerable fortified town. The country hereabouts is
very beautiful. About three o'clock we passed another rapid, which was not
however very difficult. Found the river beyond this place much narrowed
and impeded by rocks. Passed two more rapids, the first of little
consequence, but the latter somewhat dangerous. In this last rapid saw two
boys sitting on a raft made of cornstalks lashed together, and driving
down the current. They appeared to be much at their ease, and not at all
alarmed at the rapid, though the current frequently whirled their fragile
raft round and round as it rushed past us. Soon after passing this rapid
the sun set, and we put to shore to pass the night.
19th of Safa. About two hours after sunrise we left the shore with a fair
and fresh breeze. The river here is broad, and the country on both banks
fertile and peopled. After about an hour's sail we came up with some
beautiful islands, one of them very large and among the finest we had
seen. The islands above the Second Cataract are probably the most
beautiful spots watered by the Nile, which rarely over flows them. They
are the most populous and best cultivated parts of this country. Half an
hour after we came up with the large island, the wind became squally, and
the boat could not make safe progress. Our rais therefore put to shore, as
did those of five other boats in company with ours. We remained here for
the rest of the day.
20th of Safa. In the morning, left the laud with the wind almost ahead.
After sailing about three miles, the rais found it necessary to put to
shore, as the wind was strong and too much ahead. Stayed by the land till
nearly noon, when the wind appearing to me and others on board, more
favorable, we, after some hard words with the rais, persuaded him to get
under way, the wind being about the same as in the morning, and very
strong. In about an hour we arrived at a bend in the river, which enabled
us to bring the wind aft.
We proceeded with great rapidity, threading the rocks and shoals with
which the river here abounds, till we came in view of a rapid ahead. We
had been informed, two days ago, that there was a dangerous rapid between
us and Dongola, and we congratulated ourselves that the wind was fair and
strong to push us through it; we passed it happily, though not without
peril. We felicitated ourselves on having cleared the only obstacle, as we
supposed, between us and the place of our destination, when we came in
view of another, of a more formidable appearance than any we had yet seen.
The passage lay where the river rolled furiously over rocks under water,
and between shores there was no approaching, on account of the shoals and
rocks above and under water which lined them. The strong wind forced our
boat alongside of another that was struggling and reeling in the passage,
to the imminent danger of both. To clear this boat, our rais ventured to
pass ours over a place where the foam and fury of the water indicated
latent rocks. We hardly dared to breathe, but we did not strike here, but
half a minute after we were fast upon a sand bank. We stayed in this
condition for about a quarter of an hour, having in view close by us the
wreck of a boat lost here. With considerable difficulty our boat was
disengaged, when we put her before the wind and again faced this truly
infernal pass. By the force of the current, the boat neared a large and
furious whirlpool, formed by an eddy on the side of the passage. The
steersman endeavored, in vain, to counteract this drift of the boat by the
aid of the rudder. The side of the boat approached to within a yard of the
white foam which covered this dreadful spot. Our rais tore his turban from
his head, and lifted his clasped hands to Heaven, exclaiming, "We are
lost!" The rest of the boatmen were screaming to God and the prophet for
aid, when, I know not how, but by the good Providence that watched over
us, the boat cleared this peril, and others that beset us in passing yet
two more rapids almost as dangerous. On passing the last, we found the
river divided lengthways, by a ridge of rocks and low islands covered with
verdure. On the right or west side of this ridge, where we were, the view
ahead presented our side of the river crowded with rocks, which we could
not pass. The singular ridge already mentioned, presented, however, some
gaps, which afforded passages into that part of the river that was on the
other side of this ridge. We passed through what appeared to us the safest
of these gaps, and soon after found ourselves in smooth but shallow water:
the river hereabouts being not less than five or six miles broad, and
spotted with rocks and little green islands and ridges. Soon after, a boat
ahead grounded, and stuck fast for some time: about five minutes after,
our boat received a violent shock from a rock under water. The rais put
the boat under her foresail only, in order that in case she struck, it
might be with as little force as possible. Shortly after, it being about
an hour before sunset, the rais put to shore to inquire of the people of
the country as to the condition of the river ahead.
The country we saw this day, on both sides of the river, is a level plain;
only one hill was visible. The shores, and many of the islands we passed
to-day, were such as we should have contemplated with greater pleasure, if
we could have employed our eyes and thoughts upon any thing beside the
perils by which we were environed. They are fertile, verdant, and in many
places truly picturesque.
We put to shore this day, as said before, about an hour before sunset.
When we disembarked, we found ourselves upon a large and beautiful island,
almost covered with trees of various kinds. The view from this island
ranges over an immense green plain, bounded only by the horizon, and
presents a great river winding in several branches through islands and
shores composed of as fine a soil as any in the world, and covered with
trees, among which the date tree bore a small proportion. Dongola, we were
told, was but a few hours distant from this place.
21st of Safa. At sunrise, quitted the land and proceeded up the river,
which we found very wide and shallow. Its middle was occupied by an almost
continual range of islands, in my opinion without superior in any river
whatever.16
The country bounding the river is a beautiful plain, as far as the eye can
reach, as fertile as land can be, and covered with a great variety of
trees, plants, and fields of corn. We sailed on with a fair wind till
within half an hour of sunset, without coming in sight of Dongola. This,
after the information we had received yesterday, somewhat disappointed us,
but we consoled ourselves by observing the islands and shores we were
passing, comparable to which, in point of luxuriant fertility, Egypt
itself cannot show. The whole country is absolutely overwhelmed with the
products of the very rich soil of which it consists.
22d of Safa. Quitted the land at an early hour and proceeded up the river,
in hourly expectation of coming in view of Dongola, which we had been
given to understand was a considerable town. After sailing with a good
wind till the middle of the afternoon, without seeing any thing but a very
fertile country, resembling that we passed yesterday, the people on shore,
on our landing and demanding whereabouts Dongola was, informed us that we
were in Dongola, meaning the country so called. On our asking where was
the city or town of Dongola, they pointed to a large village in the
distance on the west bank of the river, and told us that village was
called "New Dongola," and that Old Dongola was farther up the river. They
informed us that the Pasha had left a guard of twenty-four soldiers here,
and had proceeded with the army three days' march farther up the river,
where we should find him. We determined to proceed to his encampment. We
saw to-day, for the first time, a small sail boat, constructed by the
people of the country; it was very clumsy, resembling a log canoe. The
river, in some places which we passed to-day, appeared to be about three
miles from bank to bank, but shallow; the islands and shores presenting
the same spectacle of luxuriant vegetation that we saw yesterday.
We bought a lamb of three weeks old, this evening, whose mother was as
tall as a calf of two months old. This species of sheep is hairy, and has
no wool. The kidneys of this lamb were large enough to cover the palm of
my hand, though the animal was undoubtedly undiseased.
23d of Safa. Got under way shortly after sunrise, and proceeded up the
river with a fine wind, which lasted during the day, and carried us
probably thirty miles on our way. The country through which we passed
to-day is not so good as that we saw yesterday; the desert comes down to
the banks of the river in several places. We saw many villages, but for
the last two days have observed none of those castles so frequent in the
lower country. About an hour and a half after we quitted the land, passed
a fortified town on the west bank of the river, which appeared to be
mostly in ruins. On our landing, at night, we endeavored to purchase some
provisions, but the people of the country could only spare us some milk
and vegetables, for which they would not take money, but demanded flour.
On our consenting to this proposition, they brought us an abundance of the
articles above mentioned. They informed us that there was a town called
Dongola, containing about three hundred houses, at the distance of two
days' sail from this place, and that the Pasha was encamped three days'
march in advance of Dongola.
24th of Safa. Left the shore this morning shortly after sunrise, and
proceeded on our voyage. The country we passed through this day was, on
the west bank of the river, fine, but on the east bank the desert was
visible at a little distance from the river almost all the day. Passed two
considerable fortified towns, situated on the left bank of the river; they
were almost in ruins. An hour before sunset we put to shore on the west
bank, where we found a fertile and cultivated country. The people who
occupied it, said that they had settled here a year ago; the island they
had occupied before having been overflowed by the river, and their
plantations destroyed.
25th of Safa. This day made but little progress, there having been a calm
for more than half the day; what country we saw resembled that passed
yesterday.
26th of Safa. Remained fast by the shore for the whole of this day, the
wind being ahead. The country on the west bank of the river, where we
stopped, is fine, but deserted by the inhabitants. Some of the boat's
company, who went up the country in search of provisions, reported that
they had seen the ruins of a temple, containing fragments of columns of
black granite. I determined, in case the wind on the morrow should
continue unfavorable, to visit this place. They also had met a party of
fifteen armed men, who informed them that they belonged to this country,
but had been compelled to quit it, and fly, by the brigands of Shageia,
who had infested and ravaged the country, but had returned on hearing that
the Pasha Ismael had defeated and expelled these robbers, and had invited
every fugitive peasant to return home, giving them assurance of future
safety and protection. We were alarmed this evening by the report of
several musket shot, which appeared to come from the other side of the
river, where, we had been told, still lurked some of the brigands.
Prepared our arms to be ready in case of attack, but passed the night
unmolested.
27th of Safa. Early in the morning, quitted the shore with a fair wind,
and proceeded on our voyage; Dongola being, we were told, but half a day's
distance from us. The appearance of the country still the same.
28th of Safa. Made but little way today, the wind being light. About the
middle of the afternoon, put to shore on the east bank of the river, as
there appeared to be no villages in sight on the other shore, and we were
in want of provisions. The country we saw to-day is very good, and covered
with trees, but sparely inhabited.
The country where we landed was, however, tolerably well cultivated by the
inhabitants of several villages hereabouts. The soil, where it was not
cultivated, was completely covered with trees, generally of no great
height, and with bushes and long rank grass. The habitations of many of
the inhabitants could with difficulty be found; they are frequently
nothing but a rough arbor formed in the thickets. We had continual reason
to be surprised, that a country naturally so rich should be so thinly
populated and so carelessly cultivated. The people, however, appeared to
be content with raising enough for their subsistence, and to desire
nothing beyond this. Our money they did not value; they would give us
nothing for money, but the flour of Egypt readily obtained what they could
spare.
29th of Safa. At sunrise left the land with a fair and strong wind, and
proceeded up the river with rapidity. In about two hours passed what
appeared to be the ruins of a large fortified city, situated on a
commanding eminence on the east bank of the river. Shortly after, put to
shore on the west bank of the river, the wind having increased to a gale,
and the east side towards the city, just mentioned, being inaccessible on
account of the shoals that lined it. The violence of the wind forced the
boat aground upon a shallow, at the entrance of a canal here, the only one
I had seen for a month. After toiling for an hour, the boatmen at length
succeeded in getting the boat water-borne. About an hour after noon the
wind abated and the boat proceeded on her way under her foresail only. We
went at a great rate till an hour before sunset, when we put to shore on
the east bank of the river. The people informed us that we had passed
Dongola, and, from their description of that place, we were convinced that
the city we had seen this morning, upon the eminence on the east bank of
the river, must have been the place we were bound to. The people said that
all the boats that preceded us had followed the march of the army of the
Pasha, who was encamped, they reported, at two days' distance from this
place. We therefore determined to proceed to join him, and not to return
to Dongola, where it was probable we should only receive directions to
proceed to the Pasha. The country we saw to-day was not so uniformly
fertile as that we have passed for several days past. Sand was in some
places visible.
1st of Rebi. Made great way to-day, the wind being very strong till
sunset. We landed at evening on a large and fertile island which was well
cultivated. I observed here, at a considerable distance from the place
where we landed, a large and lofty column, situated, as I then supposed,
on the main land, on the eastern bank of the river.17 The
country we passed to-day, for about ten miles on the eastern bank of the
river, is mostly covered by sand; that on the western bank is beautiful.
During the whole of the afternoon, however, the country we passed, on both
banks, can be surpassed by none in the world for fertility; the appearance
of numerous water-wheels and large plantations of durra and cotton, showed
us that this fine territory was improved by a considerable population. The
face of the country continues still the same, an immense and fertile
plain, bounded by the horizon and intersected by the windings of the river
Nile. We have seen no considerable eminence for many days, except that on
which stands the old city of Dongola, which we passed yesterday; it is a
fine military position.
2d of Rebi. The wind to-day was right ahead, owing to the curious fact
that the river here makes an eccentric bend to the left, toward the
north-east, and presents itself as coming from that quarter instead of
from the south or south-west, as usual hitherto.18 The Rais
attempted to advance by cordelling the boat; but the force of the wind and
current prevented the boatmen from gaining more than two or three miles
along the coast of the island, where we landed yesterday. We were
therefore obliged to pass a great part of this day and all night by the
shore. The island is about twenty miles long and very beautiful; it is
called, as I have been repeatedly informed, "Argo."
3d of Rebi. We were obliged still to continue fast by the shore till noon,
when the wind abating, the boat advanced about two miles by the help of
the cordel, so far as to arrive at a small bend in the river, which
brought the wind a little in our favor, so as to pass by its aid to the
other side, in the hope, if the wind continued the same on the morrow, to
profit by it and proceed. We arrived a little before sun set, and remained
there for the night. We saw this day, while the boat was warping slowly
along the left bank of the river, the ruins of a considerable fortified
town, built of stone and encompassed by large cemeteries. Some large
columns, of a beautiful stone, white intermixed red, are to be seen among
the ruins. One of the cemeteries is evidently ancient, as the tombs are
covered with hieroglyphics, intermixed with inscriptions. In one of the
tombs one of our party found the remains of a mummy.
4th of Rebi. Made but little progress to-day, on account of the
irregularity in the river already mentioned, which makes its course
hereabouts almost the direct contrary to its natural direction, and
brings, in consequence, the prevalent winds ahead. Passed some small, but
fine islands, and saw, for the first time for several days, stone
mountains in the distance: the shores of the river hereabouts are fertile,
but thinly inhabited. Saw several large villages in ruins.
5th of Rebi. The wind and the untoward direction of the river obliged us
again to employ the cordel to forward the boat a few miles more on her
way. By the middle of the afternoon we had arrived at a place on the left
19
bank of the river that had been, a few days ago, the scene of a battle
between the Pasha and the brigands of Shageia. We found there a strong and
well built castle at the farther extremity of a high and long mountain,
running nearly at right angles with the river, and which approached to
within a few hundred yards of its bank; thus furnishing a fine position to
the enemy. The castle was taken by the aid of the Pasha's artillery, and
his cavalry rode through and dispersed all who fought outside of it.20
This castle was astonishingly welt arranged in its interior, and was
thereby rendered very comfortable quarters for a considerable garrison.
The country, in the vicinity, contains many villages, and was covered with
plantations of durra beans and fields of cotton. These villages had been
ransacked, and in part destroyed, by the victorious troops, as the
inhabitants, instead of coming in to the Pasha, as did the people of the
lower countries, had taken up arms and sided with the brigands who lorded
it over the country. We learned, however, that they did this much against
their will, being compelled thereto by their marauding masters. I was
informed today that some English travelers were in one of the boats ahead.
I determined, in case the wind should continue unfavorable tomorrow, to
walk up the river and pay them a visit.
6th of Rebi. Set out very early in the morning, it being dead calm, and
the boat in consequence unable to proceed, except by the cordel, to see
the strangers, and to be informed of their accommodations, as I feared
that they too were obliged to participate in the privations to which we
were all exposed. After about two hours walk at length came up with the
boat, on board of which these gentlemen were. They informed me that they
had set out from Cairo a few days after we had quitted Bulac. They were
suffering privations, as were all in the boats, and I regretted that my
being in similar circumstances put it out of my power to ameliorate their
situation. As, however, we had now learned to a certainty, that the camp
of the Pasha was not far distant, it was in my power to assure them that
they would be better off in a day or two.21 All the
way to their boat, and on my return to ours, I observed some hundreds of
bodies of men and animals that had perished in the late engagement and
during the pursuit, and the stench which filled the air was almost
intolerable. The country, covered with an abundance of grain almost
matured, was abandoned; the water-wheels stood still, and the cisterns
were frequently infected by a bloody and putrefying carcass.
7th of Rebi. Passed the last night on board the boat, near the mountain
already mentioned in the day before yesterday's journal. Two Greeks on
board of our boat reported last evening, that they had heard menacing
cries from the mountain. The people on board of the boat supposed that
some of the brigands had returned to their haunt and meditated an attack
on our boat by night. We were accordingly on the watch till morning,
without, however, being molested. This morning, about two hours after
sunrise, these same Greeks reported that they had seen fifteen or sixteen
of the robbers in a body, and armed. They also told the Mogrebin soldiers
in the other boats, which had now come up with ours, that these men had
probably massacred one of the soldiers attached to me and two of my
servants, as they had not been seen since morning. I accordingly set out,
in company with twenty soldiers, in pursuit of the supposed assassins. We
had not proceeded far when we met the persons supposed killed, on their
way to our boat, safe and sound. They had seen no armed men, though they
came from the direction that the Greeks said the robbers had taken. I
therefore returned to the boat, reflecting upon the old proverb, "A Greek
and a liar." The Mogrebin soldiers were not, however, convinced of the
falsehood of the report, and pursued their way to the mountain; they found
no robbers there, but repaid themselves for the trouble they had taken, by
taking possession of a young and pretty girl, which they carried to their
boat as a lawful prize. After proceeding a few miles by the aid of the
cordel, we put to land at sunset, near a village on the left bank of the
river. We found here the ruins of a Christian church, built in the style
of the lower Greek empire, of which one column, of red granite, of no
great height, was standing, (it bore on its chapiter a cross and a star,)
and was all that stood on its base; others, fallen and broken, were lying
near it. The soldiers found in the villages near us several hundred women
and about two hundred men; they were peasants who had taken refuge here
during the battle between the brigands and the troops of the Pasha. The
soldiers were disposed to treat them as enemies, but they were saved from
their fury by showing a paper given them by the Pasha, assuring them of
protection. It is the rule to give these papers to every village not
hostile, to protect them from the soldiers. We remained here all night.
The country of Shageia, possessed by the brigands, was the best cultivated
we had seen this side of Assuan; the water-wheels, so far as we have
passed their country, being frequently within half a stone's throw of each
other. They obliged the peasants to work hard to raise food and forage to
ml the magazines of their castles, which are seen here and there all over
this country.
8th of Rebi. The wind and the direction of the river continuing the same,
we were obliged to advance by the cordel. The country continued fine and
well cultivated, and we passed several large and beautiful islands. In
walking along the shore, saw at a distance a large castle, lately occupied
by the brigands; on visiting it, found it capable of accommodating at
least a thousand men. The walls and towers very thick and pierced with
loopholes: it had been taken by the aid of the Pasha's artillery, and
almost every thing combustible in it had been burned by the troops. A few
miles beyond this the boat stopped for the night.
9th of Rebi. Heard this morning at day-light, with great pleasure, the
report of three cannon, which indicated the proximity of the camp. We
proceeded slowly by the cordel, the river obstinate in maintaining the
same untoward direction, and the wind consequently adverse. The country we
saw to-day, like that we have passed for the last two days, gave us
continual occasion of surprise. It was better cultivated than any part of
the countries south of Egypt that we had seen. It was crowded with
villages and covered with grain, deserted by its proprietors. In the
afternoon, however, the disagreeable impression produced by seeing so fine
a country without inhabitants was almost obliterated by the pleasure I
felt on being informed that a large number of its cultivators, with their
wives and children, were on their return to their fields and houses,
provided with an escort from the camp, and a firman from the Pasha Ismael,
securing them from outrage, and assuring them of protection. I am sorry to
be obliged to say, that the inhabitants of this unfortunate district had
great occasion for this protection. The soldiers in the boats were
disposed to take liberties with the inhabitants, on the plea of their
being the allies of the brigands. This morning, two men belonging to a
village in this neighborhood, were severely beaten, and their wives or
sisters violated by some soldiers belonging to the boats. This afternoon,
a soldier belonging to our boat, accompanied by one of the Greeks already
mentioned, and the Frank cook of the Proto Medico went to the same
village, without my knowledge, to participate in this licentious
amusement. They were somewhat surprised and terribly frightened on their
arrival at this village, on finding themselves suddenly surrounded by
about two hundred peasants armed with clubs, who fiercely demanded what
they wanted, asking them if they had come, as others had before them
to-day, to cudgel the men and violate the women, and ordered them to be
off immediately to the boats. The luckless fornicators, confounded by this
unexpected reception, were heartily glad to be allowed to sneak back to
the boat in confusion and terror. On their arrival, and this affair
becoming known to me, I abused them with all the eloquence I could muster,
first, for their villainy, and then for their cowardice, as they were well
armed, and had fled before the face of cudgels. When we stopped at night,
we were told that we were about three hours distance from the camp.
10th of Rebi. The river and the wind still obliged us to proceed slowly by
the cordel. The country we passed to-day was fine, and had been cultivated
with great care, but deserted. The face of the fields was almost covered
with the household furniture of the villagers. Straw mats, equal to any
sold at Cairo, were abandoned by hundreds on the spots where they had been
employed for the night by the troops, when on the pursuit after the
brigands who had fled from the last battle. Many of the largest of these
mats the soldiers had formed into square huts for the different guards.
The abandoned harvests waved solitary in the wind, and the numerous
water-wheels were all motionless. We passed several large castles, not
many days back garrisoned by fierce marauders, who claimed all around
them, or within the reach of their horses' feet, as theirs; and many well
built villages, whose inhabitants were the slaves of their will. In one of
these deserted castles, we found fragments of vessels of porcelain, basins
of marble, chests of polished Indian wood, the pillage probably of some
caravan, and a small brass cannon. The walls of the apartments were hung
with large and colored straw mats, of fine workmanship, and showed many
indications of the pains taken to make them comfortable and convenient. An
hour after noon, we met great numbers of men, women, and children,
accompanied by their herds and flocks, who were returning to this
abandoned country, by the encouragement and under the protection of the
Pasha. It was an affecting sight to see almost every one of these
unfortunate women carrying her naked and forlorn children either upon her
shoulders or in her arms, or leading them by the hand. The pleasure I felt
at seeing these proofs of the humanity of the Pasha Ismael was diminished
by seeing his safe-conduct disregarded by some of the Mogrebin soldiers,
and particularly by the Greek and Frank domestics of the Proto Medico
Bosari, who seized from the hands of these miserable creatures as many
sheep and goats as they thought they had occasion for. About an hour
before sunset, we passed the encampment of Abdin Cacheff, on the right or
opposite bank of the river; and at night-fall came in view of that of the
Pasha about three miles farther up on the same side. We stopped to pass
the night, as the boatmen were too much fatigued to draw the boat any
farther to-day.
11th of Rebi. The direction of the river and the wind still the same.
Proceeded slowly by the cordel till about two hours after noon, when we
arrived at the camp of the Hasnardar on the left bank of the river; that
of the Pasha was on the opposite side. Not far from the camp of the
Hasnardar, some ruins and several small pyramids attracted my attention.
As I could not go to the Pasha before to-morrow, I determined to employ
the remainder of the day in a visit to these antiquities, which lay near a
large high and isolated rock, about a mile distant from the river. I found
before this rock the ruins of a very large temple, which covered a great
space of ground. Some columns, almost consumed by time, were standing
nearly buried in the rubbish. The bases of others were visible, which,
from their position, evidently once supported an avenue of pillars leading
to an excavation in the great rock aforementioned, against and joining on
to the side of which, that fronted towards the river, this temple appeared
to have been constructed. Among the ruins saw two large lions of red
granite, one broken, and the other little injured, and a small headless
statue, about two feet high, in a sitting posture. On approaching the
front of the rock, found it excavated into a small temple, whose interior
was sculptured with the usual figures and symbols seen in the temples of
ancient Egypt. Its roof, and that of the porch before it, exhibited
several traces of the azure with which it had been painted. The porch
before this excavation was supported by Caryatid figures, representing
huge lions standing nearly erect upon their hinder legs. The ruins before
the rock seemed to me to have originally composed a large temple, of which
this excavation was the inner sanctuary. The pyramids were close by these
ruins. I counted seventeen, some of them in ruins, and others perfect.
Those which were uninjured were small, of a height greater than the
breadth of the base, which was generally about twenty feet square; the
sides resembled steep stairs. They were however compactly and very
handsomely constructed of hewn stones, similar to the rock before
mentioned, and probably taken from it. Before some of these pyramids, and
attached to one of their sides, we found low buildings, resembling small
temples, and, judging from the interior of one we found open, intended as
such, as the inside of this one was covered with the usual hieroglyphics
and figures. It would be a work of little difficulty to open the pyramid
to which was attached the little temple I entered, as the figure of a door
of stone in the pyramid is to be seen, when inside of the temple, attached
to its side. In view from this place, many other pyramids were in view
higher up the river, on the opposite bank, one of them large. The people
of the country called the place I visited, "Meroe" as likewise the whole
territory where these ruins are found. The ruins I have mentioned do not
appear ever to have been disturbed. I doubt not that several remains worth
research lie concealed under the rubbish, which here covers a great space
of ground. No other remains of antiquity are visible in this place besides
those I have mentioned. The immediate spot where they stand, and its
vicinity backward from the river, is covered by the sand of the Desert,
underneath which probably many more lie concealed.
The river Nile has been represented, and I think with justice, as one of
the wonders of the world. I do not consider it as meriting this
appellation so much on account of its periodical and regular floods, in
which respect it is resembled by several other rivers, as on account of
another circumstance, in which, so far as I know, it is without a
parallel.
The Nile resembles the path of a good man in a wicked and worthless world.
It runs through a desert—a dry, barren, hideous desert; on the parts
of which adjoining its course it has deposited the richest soil in the
world, which it continually waters and nourishes. This soil has been the
source of subsistence to several powerful nations who have established and
overthrown mighty kingdoms, and have originated the arts, the religion,
the learning and the civilization of the greater part of the ancient
world. These nations, instructors and pupils, have perished; but the
remains of their stupendous labors, the pyramids and the temples of Egypt,
Nubia, and in the countries now visited for the first time, at least for
many ages, by minds capable of appreciating the peoples who erected them,
are more than sufficient to excite astonishment and respect for the
nations who founded them. The few in stances that I have mentioned are
such as have presented themselves to my notice in sailing up the river,
without my having the opportunity to scrutinize them particularly, or time
or means to pursue any researches in the vicinity of those I have seen, by
which doubtless many more would be discovered. Some future traveler in
these interesting and remote regions, who may have the power and the means
to traverse at his leisure the banks and islands I have seen and admired,
will, I believe, find his labors rewarded by discoveries which will
interest the learned, and gratify the curious.
A voyage up the Nile may be considered as presenting an epitome of the
moral history of man. We meet at almost every stage with the monuments of
his superstition, his tyranny, or his luxury; but with few memorials of
his ingenuity directed with a view to real utility. We also every where
behold the traces of the vengeance of Almighty Justice upon his crimes.
Everywhere on the banks of the ancient river we behold cities, once famous
for power and luxury, a desolation, and dry like a wilderness; and temples
once famous, and colossal idols once feared, now prostrate and confounded
with the dust of their worshippers. "The flocks lie down in the midst
thereof: the cormorant and bittern lodge in the temples and palaces. Their
voice sings in the windows, and desolation is in the thresholds."
The peoples who now occupy the territories of nations extinct or
exterminated have profited neither by their history nor their fate. What
was once a land occupied by nations superstitious and sensual is now
inhabited by robbers and slaves. The robbers have been expelled or slain,
and the oppressed peasant is emancipated by the arms of the nation who
avenged the cause of Heaven upon the degenerate Greeks, but who
nevertheless have derived neither instruction nor warning from their
downfall and subjugation. The Nile meantime, which has seen so many
nations and generations rise and disappear, still flows and overflows, to
distribute its fertilizing waters to the countries on its borders: like
the Good Providence, which seems unwearied in trying to overcome the
ingratitude of Man by the favors of Heaven.
On my arrival at the camp, I was informed of the particulars of the
progress of the victorious son of the distinguished Meheromet Ali from
Wady Haifa to Meroe. Before his march every thing had submitted or fallen.
All attempts to arrest his progress had proved as unavailing as the
obstacles opposed by the savage rocks of the Cataracts of the Nile to the
powerful course of that beneficent and fertilizing river.
His Excellence, as said before, set out from Wady Haifa on the 26th of
Zilhadge last. In ten days of forced march he arrived at New Dongola. A
little beyond this village, the Selictar, at the head of a detachment of
about four hundred men, surprised and dispersed about fifteen hundred of
the enemy, taking many of their horses and camels. Four days' march beyond
New Dongola, the Pasha, at the head of the advance guard of the army, came
up with the main body of the Shageias and their allies, strongly posted on
the side of a mountain near a village called Courty, on the westerly bank
of the river. The Pasha at this juncture had with him but six hundred
cavalry and some of the Abbadies mounted on dromedaries, of whom we had
about five hundred with the army, but none of his cannon. The enemy
advanced to the combat with loud screams and cries, and with great fury.
The Abbadies could not withstand their charge, and were driven rearward.
At this critical instant, his Excellence gave the order, and the cavalry
of the Pasha charged and poured in the fire of their carabines and
pistols. After a conflict of no long duration, the cavalry of the enemy
fled in dismay, while those who fought on foot fell on their faces,
throwing their shields over their heads to secure them from the tramp of
the cavalry, and implored mercy.
In consequence of the result of this affair, all the country between the
place of combat and Shageia, i.e. the country occupied by the castles and
immediate subjects of the Maleks of Shageia, submitted and were pardoned.
The Pasha pursued his march to the province of Shageia, where Malek
Shouus, the principal among the Shageia chiefs, had collected the whole
force of the republic of the brigands with a determination to risk another
battle. The Pasha found, on his arrival, a part of their force posted on
an island near the long mountain I have mentioned in my journal as having
been the scene of a combat a few day? before I reached it. Those of the
enemy who were in the island were forthwith attacked by troops sent over
in the boats which accompanied the army, and were cut to pieces or driven
into the river. The army then advanced to attack the great mass of the
enemy in their position on the mountain. It was a very advantageous one.
The mountain runs nearly at right angles with the river, which it nearly
reaches, leaving between itself and the river a tract of ground about a
quarter of a mile in width, which at the time was covered with plantations
of durra. The enemy were posted on the side of this mountain and among the
durra in the open ground between the mountain and the river; so that their
rear was secured by the mountain, and their right covered by a strong
castle at the foot of its extremity lying off from the river. Malek
Shouus, Malek Zibarra, and the other chiefs of Shageia, and their
immediate followers, composed the cavalry of the enemy. They had
assembled, either by force or persuasion, all the peasantry subject to
their dominion, the whole forming a mass which blackened the whole side of
the mountain. Their arms consisted of lances, shields and long broad
swords double-edged. These wretched peasants, who were all on foot, their
masters posted in front in order to receive and exhaust the fire of the
Pasha's troops; while Shouus and the cavalry occupied the rear in order to
keep the peasants to their posts, and to have the start of the Pasha's
cavalry in case they should find it necessary to take to flight. The Pasha
posted his troops parallel to the enemy, placing the greater part of the
cavalry opposite the open ground between the mountain and the river, and
pushing the artillery a little in advance. The enemy with loud cries and
uplifted lances rushed forward. Some of the peasants in advance of the
others, with no other arms than lances and shields, threw themselves upon
the cannon and were blown to pieces.22 The castle
on the right of the enemy was stormed. After feeling the effects of a few
rounds from the artillery, which dashed horse and man to pieces, the
cavalry of the enemy fled in dismay, leaving their infantry to be rode
over and shot down 23 by our cavalry, who destroyed
many hundreds of them in the battle and during the pursuit. Malek Shouus
and his cavalry did not discontinue their flight till they reached the
territory of Shendi, leaving their numerous and strong castles, their
dependant villages, and a rich and beautiful country, in the hands of the
conqueror.24
On the 12th of Rebi, I passed over to the camp of the Pasha. I did not
however obtain an audience of his Excellence till two days after, when,
being alone, he sent for me, and received me in the most nattering manner,
ordering me as usual to sit in his presence. After the usual compliments,
I informed his Excellence that I had been much mortified and distressed,
that the act of God, in depriving me of the use of my eyes a few days
before his Excellence left Wady Halfa, had prevented me from accompanying
his victorious march, and participating in the exploits of his troops; so
that I had not arrived till there was nothing left to do. His Excellence
replied that a "great deal more remained to be done, in which I should
have a share." I replied with a compliment, and then demanded horses and
camels for myself, and the soldiers I had brought with me; he replied
"that I should have them." After some further conversation, of a
confidential nature, I retired. During the nine days following, I had
reason to applaud the humanity and good policy of the Pasha, in offering
amnesty and peace to all the brigands who should come in and surrender
themselves. Several of their chiefs, whom they call "Maleks" accompanied
by their followers, came in while the camp remained near Meroe. The chiefs
were presented with costly habiliments, and the written protection of his
Excellence, recognizing them as under his safeguard; and returned with
their followers to their homes, tranquillized and contented. The most
rigid discipline was observed in the camp, to prevent the people of the
country from suffering by the presence of the army. Some soldiers and
domestics were severely beaten for taking sheep and goats without paying
for them, and five of the Abbadies (or auxiliaries mounted on dromedaries)
were impaled for having seized some camels from the peasants. It was truly
honorable to the army and its commander to see villages embosomed in a
camp, whose inhabitants, men, women and children, pursued their usual
occupations, without molestation and without fear. In the country below,
which had been the scene of combat, the fields were deserted, and for
several days I had not seen a peasant at work upon the ground. In the
vicinity of the camp of the Pasha, where the people had submitted
themselves, the discordant creak of the water-wheels frequently attracted
the ear, and the peasants cultivated their fields within musket shot of
the camp of a conqueror.
On the 21st of Rebi, a detachment, consisting of three hundred cavalry,
departed from the camp for the country of the Berbers, to secure its
submission and to obtain horses and camels for the army. Learning that it
was the intention of the Pasha to march in a few days, to pitch his camp
about eight hours march farther up the river, I wished to ascertain
whether I could have the horses and camels I needed before the Pasha
marched. His reply to my demand was, that he had no camels, at present,
that were not appropriated to some service or other, but that, as soon as
he had them, I should receive what I needed. I was consequently obliged to
embark in a boat to accompany the march of the camp as, without camels to
carry my tent and baggage, I could not accompany it by land. On the 25th,
all the boats followed the departure of the troops; the wind was ahead,
and the direction of the river the same as repeatedly before mentioned. We
proceeded slowly by the cordel. This circumstance gave me an opportunity
of visiting the Pyramids which I have mentioned as in view from Meroe.
They stand about half a mile from the right hand bank of the river. I
counted twenty-seven, none of them perfect, and most of them in ruins; the
greater part of them are built of stone, and are evidently much more
ancient than those of Meroe.
The largest is probably more than a hundred feet square, and something
more in height. It presents a singularity in its construction worthy of
notice. It is a pyramid within a pyramid; i.e. the inner pyramid has been
cased over by a larger one; one of its sides being in ruins makes this
peculiarity visible. By climbing up the ruined side, it is easy to reach
its summit. No remains of a city or any traces of temples are visible in
the immediate vicinity of this place, which is called by the natives
"Turboot."
On the 23d we came in view of the lower end of the rapids of the Third
Cataract; those hereabouts are called "the rapids of Oula" We were obliged
to consume thirty-nine days in getting as far as the island of Kendi,
(which is not above fifty miles from Meroe.) As the direction of the river
continued almost the same, coming from about the north-east, and the wind
being almost invariably ahead, the difficulties attending advancing the
boats by the cordel were very great, as the river here is spotted by an
infinity of islands and rocks. In some of the passages where the water was
deep, the current was as swift as a mill-sluice, which made it necessary
to employ the crews of perhaps twenty boats to drag up one at a time. In
other passages, where the water was very shallow, it was sometimes
necessary to drag the boats by main force over the stones at the bottom.
The camp of the Pasha remained during all this time about eight hours
march above Meroe, on the right bank of the river, waiting till the boats
should have passed the rapids. No military movements took place, except
detaching the Divan Effendi with four hundred cavalry, to join the
detachment already in Berber, where all was quiet and friendly. The
country on the rapids of the Third Cataract is sterile, being composed,
for the most part, of black granite and sand, excepting some of the
islands, which contained good ground, and a few spots on the shores, where
the floods of the river had deposited some fertile soil. The rocks by the
shore presented indications which proved that the river had risen in some
of its floods about twenty feet above its present level. Ostriches are not
unfrequently seen hereabouts. We have met with no ruins of any ancient
building of consequence on these rapids, except the ruins of a strong fort
on the right bank of the river, and those of what was probably a Christian
Monastery on the bank right opposite. This place, I was told, is called
"Kennis;" it is about thirty miles above Meroe.25 We passed
one small island, which the natives said was called also Meroe, as well as
the site where we found the pyramids and temple below. No indications of a
considerable city are however to be found on this island, which is beside
too small to have served for the emplacement of a city of consequence.
Khalil Aga, who swam over to this island, reported that he had seen there
the ruins of brick houses, and many fragments of porcelain; of the latter
there are immense quantities among all the ruined edifices found in this
country.26
The island of "Kendi" is large, and in some parts cultivated; it contains
evident traces of brick buildings, among which we found fragments of
ancient pottery and porcelain, but no ruins of any considerable building.
We stayed for three days as high up as the middle of the island of Kendi.
On the 6th of Jamisalawal the boats received orders to descend to the
lower end of the island, in order to take the passage on its right hand
side, that on the left being so shallow as not to be passed but with great
difficulty. We descended accordingly, and remained at its lower extremity
till the thirteenth of the moon, which delay was occasioned by the absence
of the Rais Bashi, who had gone up to examine and sound the passages
through the remainder of the Third Cataract. On the thirteenth, our boat
and many others passed over to the right bank of the river, in order to be
on the same side as was the camp of the Pasha,27 and to
have free communication with it.
The same day I received an order from the Pasha to come to the camp with
my baggage. I went accordingly and presented myself to his Excellency, and
demanded to know his pleasure. He replied, that it was his will that I
should stay in the camp, and that he would immediately furnish me with the
means of accompanying him in his intended march to Berber over the Desert.
Five days after, his Excellency broke up his camp, and proceeded about
four leagues higher up the rapids, where the boats were found stopped by
the impossibility of proceeding any farther, as the water was found to be
too low to admit their passing. I arrived at this place (opposite the
upper end of the island of Kendi) on the same day with his Excellency,
having left orders to my domestics to follow with my camels and baggage.
The next morning, finding that they had not arrived, and learning that it
was the intention of the Pasha to commence his march to Berber that day, I
mounted my horse to go and ascertain the reason why my camels had not
arrived. I learned, as I proceeded, that one of them had fallen under his
load, and that it would be necessary to send back the first that should
arrive and be unloaded, to take the burden of the other. All my effects,
inconsequence, did not arrive before evening. During my absence to see
after this vexatious affair, the Pasha had departed with the camp, as I
learned the same evening on my return. After leaving the most bulky part
of my baggage in one of the boats, I proceeded on the 21st to the place
where the Pasha's last camp had been, to join some party who should have
been delayed by circumstances similar to my misadventure. On my arrival I
found the Hasna Katib, and about three hundred soldiers, waiting till
camels should come from Berber to carry them to join the Pasha. There
were, besides, seven hundred Mogrebin infantry in the boats, awaiting the
means of transporting their tents and baggage across the Desert. On my
representing to the Hasna Katib the circumstance that had delayed me, he
informed me that the Selictar was expected from below in a few days, who,
on the day after his arrival, would proceed after the Pasha, and that I
had better accompany him. I accepted the advice, and pitched my tent to
await the arrival of the Selictar. The same day I was informed that all
the large boats had received orders to abandon the attempt to pass the
remainder of the third cataract of the Nile. They had already, with great
difficulty, got through about fifty difficult passages, and it was
reported that there were nearly one hundred more ahead before the third
cataract could be got clear of. When the river is full, and the flood, of
course, strong, this cataract must, in my opinion, be almost impassable
upwards, as, on account of the strange direction of the river, little or
no aid can be derived from the wind, and the current in some places, from
the straitness of the passages between the rocks and islands, must, in the
time of the inundation, be very furious, while the cordel, from the
natural obstacles which cover the shore of this cataract, could hardly
overcome the difficulties which every mile or two would present.28
On the first day of the moon Jamisalachar, the Selictar arrived from
below, where he had been to collect durra for the army. Two days after I
set forward in company with him to pass the Desert. The road for two days
lay near the bank of the river. By the middle of the afternoon of the
first day we arrived at a pleasant spot on the border of the Nile, where
we encamped to pass the night. On the morning following we mounted our
horses at sunrise, and by mid-day arrived at a fine pond of water at the
foot of a high rock, at no great distance from the river, where we
refreshed ourselves and filled the water-skins, as at this place the roads
turns into the Desert. We marched from the middle of the afternoon till an
hour after midnight, when we halted to sleep. The road for this day was
evidently the dry bed of an arm of the Nile, which, during the inundation,
is full of water. Even at this season the doum tree and the acacia, which
grew on its borders, were green, and coarse long grass was abundant. At
sunrise of the sixth day of the moon we again mounted, and set forward in
a direction nearly East. Our way lay over low rocky hills, gravelly or
sandy plains, and sometimes through valleys containing plenty of coarse
grass and acacia trees; but no water is to be found above ground at this
season, though it probably might be obtained by sinking wells in some of
these valleys. We halted at noon, and in two hours after again mounted,
and marched till midnight. Our road lay through a country resembling that
we had passed the day before. On the morrow morning, a little after
day-light, we proceeded on our journey, and at noon halted at the only
well of water we found on our route. It lies near two high hills of black
granite. The water was yellow and dirty, and was almost rejected by the
thirsty camels. By the middle of the afternoon we were again on horseback,
and marched till midnight, when some of the camels dropping and dying, and
others giving out, the Selictar found himself obliged to order a halt for
the rest of the night. It was his intention to have marched till morning,
by which time our guides told us that we should arrive at the river. We
threw ourselves on the ground to sleep a few hours, but by sunrise we were
called to mount and away. We proceeded till about noon, when we came in
view of the beneficent river, whose beauty and value cannot be duly
appreciated by any who have not voyaged in the deserts through which it
holds its course. It was on the eighth of the moon when we arrived on its
borders. I had expected that our toilsome forced march would end here, and
had promised myself some repose, which I greatly needed, as I had suffered
much from the heat of the sun, which had burned the skin off my face;—from
fatigue and want of sleep;—from hunger, as we had barely time to
prepare a little rice and bread once in twenty-four hours;—and from
the exasperation of my ophthalmia, which had never entirely quitted me
since I was attacked by it at Wady Halfa, on the second cataract. The
Selictar, however, did not indulge us with more than half a day's and one
night's repose on the bank of the river, which we found well cultivated by
the inhabitants of numerous villages in sight. On the morning of the ninth
day of the moon, we were again called to proceed. For this day our march
lay near the bank of the river, and through and by fine fields of barley,
cotton, and wheat. The day after, our route lay over a narrow space of
rocky land, lying between the river and the hills of the desert. We saw
this day but a few cultivated spots. On the 11th we commenced our march
before sunrise, animated by the information that we should be at the
Pasha's camp by noon or the middle of the afternoon. Our road lay this day
on the edge of the Desert, just where it touches the cultivable soil
deposited by the Nile, which is indicative of the point to which the
inundations of the river extend in this country. On both sides of tills
road was an almost continued succession of villages, which are built here
in order to be out of the reach of the overflowing of the river, which
almost every year here overspreads the country for one or two miles from
its banks. The land liable to this inundation is in part cultivated as
well as any portion of Egypt, and in part devoted to feeding great numbers
of fine horses, camels, dromedaries, kine, sheep, and goats, with which
the country of the Berbers is abundantly stocked.
We marched on till nearly set of sun, without halting, when we arrived at
the encampment of the Pasha; it was on our side [i.e. the west side] of
the Nile, which here runs in its natural direction from south to north. At
five or six days march below it, it turns to the left, and describes, from
above its turning point and Dongola, a track something resembling the
following figure—which is the reason why, in coming up the river
from Dongola, we found it running from the north-east. The length of this
curious bend in the river Nile, never known to the civilized world before
the expedition of Ismael Pasha, may be about two hundred and fifty miles
long, the greater part of it all rocks and rapids.
The journey from our last encampment on the third cataract to the country
of the Berbers, following the direction of the river, takes eight days of
forced marches, but that by the desert, i.e. across the peninsula formed
by the course of the river between the country of the Berbers and our last
encampment, takes four days forced march.
The road from the place where we arrived at the river (in coming from the
desert) up the country of Berber, lies generally on the edge of the
desert, and outside of the fertile land lying between the river and the
desert; of consequence we were rarely led to its banks so as to ascertain
its course and appearance. But from several points where the road
approaches the river, I observed that it winded continually and contained
many beautiful islands, some of them, particularly that named "Sibne,"
cultivated like gardens. I also observed that the river, at the lower
extremity of the country of the Berbers, is much interrupted by rocks, and
I have learned, since my arrival, that between the third cataract and the
camp, the water is so low at this season that the Canja of the Pasha
(probably the first boat that ever passed the third cataract of the Nile)
was obliged to be lifted three times over shallow passages.
The natives of this country had never seen a sail boat before the arrival
of this Canja. They called it "a water mare" comparing it, by this
appellation, to the swiftest animal with which they are acquainted. They
ran in, crowds to the river's edge to see it mount the current without the
aid of oars.
On the 13th, I had a private audience of the Pasha in the evening. His
Excellence received me as usual, and on my informing him of the
circumstance which had prevented my accompanying his march from the
cataract, he assured me that he would give orders, that, for the future, I
should be furnished from the best of his own camels. I preferred to his
Excellence some requests, which he granted immediately, and on my
retiring, requested me to present myself to him frequently.
Previous to his march from the third cataract, there had arrived at the
camp ambassadors from Shendi, from Malek Shouus, the chief of the fugitive
Shageians, demanding terms of peace. The Pasha replied, that "the only
terms on which they could obtain peace with him, would be by the surrender
of their horses and arms, and returning to their country to live
tranquilly, and without disturbing their neighbors." The ambassadors
replied, that "they would not give up their horses and arms." The Pasha
then answered, that "then he would come to Shendi and take them." To which
it is said they answered, "Come."29 On
hearing, however, of the rapid march of the Pasha, and of his arrival in
Berber, the chief of Shendi, on whose support it seems Shouus had
calculated, was frightened, and sent his son, bearing some valuable
presents, to the Pasha, to notify his submission, and to receive his
orders. The terror and confusion this step, on the part of one of the most
powerful allies of Sennaar, will occasion to the latter, will probably
prevent the necessity of a battle to ensure its submission. A part of the
remnant of the once powerful Mamalukes of Egypt, who had fled before the
Pasha to Shendi,30 on his arrival in Berber have
surrendered themselves to the protection of the Pasha Ismael. They have
been treated by him with great kindness, and were presented with a
thousand piasters each, to bear their expenses to Cairo, to which place
they have departed, with the assurance of passing the remainder of their
lives in tranquility in Egypt, under the protection and favor of Mehemmed
Ali. They had gone from the camp before my arrival. I was informed that
these Mamalukes were in possession of many slaves and fine horses, which
will turn to good account in Egypt. A small remnant of the Mamalukes at
Shendi, under the direction of a refractory Bey, have fled to the
countries on the Bahar el Abiud, where they will probably perish
miserably. The Divan Effendi, who has been sent to Shendi to arrange the
terms of peace with the Malek of that country, had orders to assure this
Bey and his followers there, of the same favor and protection already
accorded to their comrades, who had already departed for Egypt, but
without success. It is not to be doubted, however, that the remnant of the
once powerful Mamalukes, who have surrendered themselves to the compassion
and protection of the Viceroy, will receive both from him; whose humanity
has been interested in their behalf since their power is gone, and their
number reduced to a few individuals, who, doubtless, will be happy to live
tranquilly in the country these unfortunate fugitives continually sigh
after, and whose sovereignty they have lost by their own misconduct.31
17th. I passed over in the canja of the Pasha, to the east side of the
river, to visit the capital of Berber, which is nearly opposite to our
camp. On reaching the bank, it is a walk of half an hour through immense
fields of durra, to come to the road that leads to the residence of the
chief.
After quitting the plantations, I came to a collection of villages,
extending about three miles down the river. Among these villages is one
called "Goos" which is marked in the maps as the capital of Berber; but
the residence of the Malek,32 or chief of the eastern shore,
is not at Goos, but at another of the collection, much larger, called
Nousreddin, as I was informed, after the name of the present Malek, who
resides there. The houses of these villages, like the rest in the country
of Berber, are built of clay, and roofed with unhewn timber, covered with
trusses of straw; that of the Malek is like those of his people, only
larger. The western shore is governed by another Malek, whose village lies
higher up the river than the emplacement of our camp. The population of
Nousreddin, and the villages adjoining, is considerable. The country is
fertile and well cultivated, and abounds in durra, cotton, barley, fine
horses, camels, dromedaries, kine, sheep, goats and fowls, as does all the
country of Berber. I found in these villages some caravan merchants, who
at present had nothing to sell but coarse cotton cloths. These cotton
cloths form the only clothing of the inhabitants; both men and women wear
them, wrapped round their middle, with one end thrown over the shoulder or
head.33
The Berber, though resembling the fellah of Upper Egypt in complexion, is
generally not so well formed in figure and feature. Many of them have
defective teeth, probably occasioned by the habit of chewing bad tobacco,
(of which they have plenty,) which is common here.
The greater part of their household and field work is done by slaves they
purchase from the caravans, coming either from Abyssinia or Darfour. Some
of the owners of female slaves would, for a dollar, without scruple,
permit the soldiers of our camp to sleep with them. The women of Berber,
contrary to the custom in Egypt, go with the face unveiled, without
embarrassment. Both men and women never consider themselves in full dress,
unless the hair of the head has been combed sleek, then braided and
platted together, and afterwards plentifully anointed with butter. They
never cut the hair, I believe; it consequently forms an immense bunch
behind the head, similar to that observable in some of the ancient statues
of Egypt.34
The barbarous practice of excision is universally performed upon all their
females, whether free or slaves; as is the case also among all the tribes
inhabiting the banks of the Nile above Assuan.
The people of Berber are, in their exterior deportment, mild and polite.
Every man we meet, uniformly gives us the greeting of peace, "Salaam
aleikoum," and uniformly shows a disposition to accommodate us in every
thing reasonable. This is probably owing to their being, in a very
considerable degree, a commercial people; Berber being every year visited
and traversed by numerous caravans from Abyssinia, Sennaar, Darfour, and
Kordofan.
23d of Jamisalachar. This day arrived the Divan Effendi, from Shendi,
accompanied by the Malek of that province, and the son of Malek Shouus,
the chief of the fugitive Shageias. The Malek of Shendi was accompanied by
a considerable suite, and two most beautiful horses, intended as a present
to the Pasha.35 On being introduced to his
Excellence, he kissed his hand, and pressed it to his forehead, and told
him that he had come to surrender himself and his country to his favor and
protection. His Excellence received him graciously, presented him with
splendid habiliments, and a horse richly caparisoned. After his
presentation was finished, he was conducted to the tent of the Hasnardar,
who was directed by the Pasha to treat him with due hospitality. The son
of Malek Shouus came in behalf of his father, and other distinguished
chiefs of the Shageias, to implore the mercy of the Pasha for these chiefs
and the fugitive remnant of their followers, who were opposite Shendi,
awaiting the decision of the Pasha, as to what was to be their fate. I was
told that the determination of the Pasha continued in their regard the
same, making the surrender of their arms and horses the sine qua non of
peace between him and them. Three days after, the chief of Shendi returned
home the friend of the Pasha.
On the 25th of the moon, I passed over to the eastern side of the river,
to purchase camels; as there were many buyers at this time from our camp,
I did not find any good enough for the exorbitant price demanded. I passed
the greater part of the day, and the night following, at the town of
Nousreddin, in the house of one of the principal chiefs of the Berbers. He
bears the title of Malek, as do all the distinguished chiefs of Berber,
Shageia, and Dongola. Their dignity is hereditary, generally passing from
father to son. I have noticed that the families of the Maleks exceed the
common people in respect of stature and stoutness. The Malek, in whose
house I lodged, a man about 60 years of age, was near seven feet high, and
very stout. His eldest son, a young man about 22 years of age, was about 6
feet 4 inches in stature, stout and well proportioned. I imagine, that
this superiority in size is owing to the circumstance that they eat well
and heartily, and have no work to do beside seeing that others work for
them. The family of this Malek carried their hospitality towards me to a
very extraordinary length for people professing Islam. I was offered, by
the mother and mistress of the house, my choice of two of her daughters
for a bedfellow. They were both young, and the handsomest women I have
seen in Berber, but married to husbands whose houses were at the other end
of the town. When I understood this circumstance, I told the mother, that
a genuine Mussulman ought to regard lying with his neighbor's wife as a
crime almost as bad as murdering him in his bed.36 I am sorry
to be obliged to say, that though the Berbers are a quiet and industrious
people, very civil and disposed to oblige all for whom they have any
regard, yet, with respect to their women, they appear to be unconscious
that their conduct is quite irreconcilable with the precepts of the Koran,
and the customs of their co-religionists. They suffer them to go about
with the face exposed—to converse with the other sex in the roads,
the streets, and the fields; and if the women are accustomed to grant
their favors to their countrymen, as liberally and as frequently as they
did to our soldiers, I should imagine that it must be more than commonly
difficult, in this country, for a man to know his own father.37
On my return to camp, I was amused on the way by a dispute in connection
with this subject, between the Malek I have mentioned and a soldier; it
happened in the boat that brought me back to camp. The boat was heavily
laden, and this gigantic Malek was stepping into it, when the soldier I
have mentioned intimated a determination to exclude him, calling him by
several opprobrious names, and among other terms, "a pimp." Upon this, I
checked the soldier, telling him that this man was a considerable
personage in his country, and extremely hospitable to the Osmanlis. This
mollified the soldier, and the Malek took a place as well as he could. The
Malek then addressed the soldier in a mild manner, and asked him why he
had bestowed such appellations upon one who was a Mussulman, as well as
himself. The soldier positively refused to allow the Malek's claims to
this honorable appellation. The chief demanded upon what grounds the
soldier denied it: "Because," said the soldier, "the women of your country
are all whores, and the men all get drunk with bouza, araky, and other
forbidden liquors, which you make out of durra and dates;" and turning to
me, he demanded "whether he was not right?" The poor chief appeared to be
much vexed that he was unable to reply to this accusation, and remained
silent. The soldier, not content with humbling the unlucky Malek, pursued
his advantage without mercy. "Come," said he to the chief, "I do not
believe that you know any thing about your religion, and I will soon make
you sensible of it" He then asked the chief how many prophets had preceded
Mohammed? If he knew any thing about the history of Dhulkamein and Gog and
Magog? and many others of a similar tenor: how to answer which the
unfortunate Malek was obliged to own his ignorance. The soldier then told
him that "the Commander of the Faithful,"38 the chief
of the Mussulmans, had authorized his Vizier, the Pasha Mehemmed Ali, to
set the people on the upper parts of the Nile to rights, and that now the
Osmanlis were come among them they would probably learn how to behave
themselves. The Malek might, however, have had his revenge upon the
edifying soldier, had he known as well as I did that he had gone over to
the town of Nousreddin expressly to amuse himself with the women of the
country, and had doubtless paid as much attention to the bouza as the most
sturdy toper in Berber.
The country of the Berbers, after the best in formation I have been able
to obtain, is small, not extending, from the upper end of the third
cataract, more than eight days march in length on both sides of the Nile.
The Bahar el Uswood, or Black river, bounds it (i.e. on the eastern bank)
on the south, and separates it from the territory of Shendi. The
cultivable land reaches generally to the distance of one or two miles from
the river. It is overflowed generally at the inundation, and its produce
is very abundant, consisting in durra, wheat, barley, beans, cotton, a
small grain called "duchan," tobacco, and some garden vegetables similar
to those of Egypt. Berber also raises great numbers of horned cattle,
sheep, goats, camels, asses, and very fine horses. It is very populous,
the succession of villages being almost continued along the road on both
sides of the river. The houses are built of clay, covered with a flat roof
of beams overlaid generally with straw; but the houses of the Maleks have
generally terraced roofs of beaten clay, This manner of building is
sufficient in a country where no great quantity of rain falls throughout
the year. Some of the houses of the peasants are formed of trusses of
cornstalks, and placed side by side in a perpendicular position, and
lashed together, with roofs of the same materials. All the people sleep
upon bedsteads, as they do also in Dongola and Shageia: these bedsteads
are composed of an oblong frame of wood, standing on four short legs, the
sides of the frame supporting a close network of leathern thongs, on which
the person sleeps; it is elastic and comfortable.
Berber contains plenty of salt, which the natives find in some calcareous
mountains between the desert and the fertile land. In its natural state,
it is found mingled with a brown earth, with which the stone of those
mountains is intermixed. This earth the natives dilute with water, which
absorbs the salt and leaves the earth at the bottom; they then pour off
the water into another vessel, and, by exposing it to the sun or fire, the
water is evaporated and the salt remains.
The assemblage of villages which compose the capital of Nousreddin,
contains houses enough for a population of five or six thousand souls, but
I do not believe that the actual population of those villages is so great.
The language is Arabic, perfectly intelligible to the natives of Egypt,
but containing some ancient words at present disused on the lower Nile;
for instance, the Berber calls a sheep "Kebesh."39
As to the climate, the difference between the heat at two hours afternoon
in the month of the vernal equinox, and at an hour before sunrise, has
been as great as ten degrees of the thermometer of Reaumur, as I have been
informed by one of the medical staff attached to the army, who was in
possession of that instrument. It is at present the commencement of
spring, and the heat at two hours after mid-day, at least to the sense, is
as great as in the month of the summer solstice, in Cairo. I have seen no
ferocious animals, either in Berber or the country below, and believe that
they are rare.
5th of Regeb. The camp continues in Berber, awaiting the arrival of the
remainder of the cannon, ammunition, provisions and troops, from the boats
at the cataract. The reason why these have not been transported hither
before this time, is the want of camels, a large part of the camels
attached to the army having perished, by reason of having been over
fatigued by the Pasha's forced march over the desert, and up the country
of Berber. A considerable number of camels have been obtained from Berber
and sent to the cataract, and more are expected to arrive from Shendi, to
which place the Divan Effendi has accompanied the chief of that country
when he left our camp, in order to receive them. Abdin Cacheff departed
two days past for Dongola, with his division. He is charged, by Mehemmed
Ali, with the government of the country between the second and third
cataracts.40
Twelve hundred men, under the command of Ibrihim Cacheff, are said to be
on the way to replace the vacancy left in our camp by the departure of
Abdin Cacheff. They are expected to arrive in a few days, if not delayed
by the sickness of Ibrihim Cacheff, who, it is said in the camp, is
dangerously ill on the road.
7th of Regeb. This day Nousreddin, the Malek of Berber, came to kiss the
hand of the Pasha. He had been prevented from paying his homage to the
conqueror heretofore by sickness. He brought with him, as a present to the
Pasha, fifty fine horses, and fifty dromedaries of prime breed. He was
well received by his Excellence, and his presents were returned by the
Pasha, by others of great value. Nousreddin is a very tall and very large
man, about sixty years of age. Two days after, having occasion to go to
the other side of the river, I found Nousreddin upon the shore, awaiting
the arrival of a boat to carry him and some of his chiefs over. I paid him
some compliments relative to the handsome horses he had presented to the
Pasha, which pleased him considerably; he invited me to come to his house
and partake of his hospitality. I told him, if circumstances would admit
it, I would visit him in a few days.
From the 10th of Regeb to the end of the moon, nothing worth notice took
place, except the successive and gradual arrival of the remainder of the
cannon,41
ammunition, stores and troops from the cataract, which had been left there
when the Pasha quitted it, for want of camels to transport them. On the
last day of the month, arrived the cavalry of Ibrihim Cacheff from Egypt,
consisting of four hundred excellent horsemen; one thousand infantry were
yet far distant, but on their way to join us. Ibrihim Cacheff is at Wady
Halfa, severely sick.
On the 2d of the moon Shaban, shortly after the hour of afternoon prayer,
the signal was fired and the tents fell. We mounted our snorting horses,
now lusty from long repose, and commenced our march to traverse the famous
country of the Ethiopian shepherds, at present subject to the Malek of
Shendi. We arrived opposite Shendi, by easy marches, in eight days, and
encamped on the west side of the river, near a very large village called
"Shendi el Garb," i.e. Shendi on the west bank.
Our route from Berber led us through a country consisting of immense
plains of fertile soil, extending many miles from the river, and mostly
covered with herbage; mountains or hills were rarely visible.42
We passed many large villages, most of which stood far off from the river,
to be out of the reach of the inundation. The houses of these villages,
particularly as we approached Shendi, were generally built with sloping
roofs of thatched straw, which indicated that this is a country visited by
the rains. We hardly ever, during our march, came in view of the river,
except to encamp. We found it at this season narrow and shallow, though
its bed was frequently a mile and a half broad. At every halt we made, the
chiefs of the country came to salute the Pasha, and seemed to be well
disposed towards the army, whose conduct was very exemplary.
On the 9th of the moon, I visited the town of Shendi el Garb, in the rear
of our camp. It is large and well built, in comparison with the other
villages I have seen on the Upper Nile. It contains about six thousand
inhabitants, and has three market places, where the people of the country
exchange dollars and durra for what they have need of. Our piasters they
disliked, being ignorant of their value, but sometimes received them for
fowls, vegetables, butter, and meat, and for durra, but for wheat they
demanded dollars.
On the 10th of the moon, I went to Shendi on the east bank, which is the
capital of the country. I traversed the town with some surprise; the
houses are low, but well built of clay. Large areas, walled in for the
reception of the merchandize brought by the caravans, are to be seen in
various parts of the town, which is large, containing probably five or six
thousand inhabitants; the streets are wide and airy, regular market places
are found there, where, beside meat, butter,43 grain and
vegetables are also to be purchased, spices brought from Jidda, gum
arabic, beads, and other ornaments for the women. The people of Shendi
have a bad character, being both ferocious and fraudulent. Great numbers
of slaves of both sexes, from Abyssinia and Darfour, are to be found here,
at a moderate price, a handsome Abyssinian girl selling for about forty or
fifty dollars. The chief of Shendi, the same who had come to our camp in
Berber, has done his uttermost to promote a good disposition in his people
towards the Osmanlis, and has made the Pasha a present of several hundreds
of very fine camels, within the last two days. His house is not built of
better materials than those of his people, and differs from them only in
being larger. Shendi stands about half a mile from the easterly bank of
the river. Its immediate environs are sandy; it derives its importance
solely from being the rendezvous of the caravans of Sennaar and the
neighboring countries going to Mecca or Egypt. The territory belonging to
the chief of Shendi is said to be very large,44 but by no
means peopled in proportion to its extent. He can, however, in conjunction
with the Malek of Halfya, bring into the field thirty thousand horsemen,
mounted on steeds probably as beautiful as any found in any country in the
world.
On the 14th of the moon, some soldiers, who went to a village in the
neighborhood of the camp, to get their rations of durra from the magazine
in this village, which had been formed there by its chief, for the service
of the army, were insulted, maltreated, and two of them killed outright
with lances, and others severely wounded by the inhabitants. On the news
of this outrage reaching the camp, the soldiers took arms, and mounted, to
proceed to this village, with the full determination to revenge the death
of their comrades in the severest manner. In five minutes nearly all the
camp was upon the march for this village, when the Pasha sent orders to
stop them and leave the affair to him. It was however impossible to
prevent the greater part of them from proceeding to the village, which
they pillaged and destroyed, sacrificing to their fury many of its
inhabitants. The plunder which they brought back was however seized by the
Selictar, and by the Pasha's orders restored to its owners.
The conduct of his Excellence on this occasion was highly laudable, while
it must be confessed that that of the soldiers was not much to be blamed.
Durra—a miserable pittance of durra, scarcely sufficient to support
nature, was all that was required from the people of these countries,
money free; and this, in the instance mentioned, was refused by a people
whose chief had already granted it—a people absolutely within our
power, and who extorted from the starving soldiery enormous prices for
every thing they sold us, and who frequently refused to sell us any thing
at all with great ferocity and insolence.
On the 15th of the moon, at two hours before sunset, the signal was fired,
and the camp of the Pasha rose to commence its march for Sennaar. We
marched till midnight, and reposed, as usual, on the bank of the river
till about the same hour of the afternoon of the 16th of the moon, when we
pursued our march for five hours, and halted by the river. We stayed here
till the 18th, in the afternoon, in order to obtain three days rations for
the horses from the villages in the neighborhood, which are numerous and
large, as the country through which our route would lie for that time, is
destitute of inhabitants and cultivation.
It was on the 16th that Malek Shouus, the chief of the fugitive Shageias,
who had fled as the army approached up the country, came at length to the
camp to surrender himself to the discretion of the Pasha. He addressed the
Pasha, as I have been informed, as follows: "I have fought against you to
the utmost of my means and power, and am now ready, if you will, to fight
under the orders of my conqueror." The courage this man had shown in
battle, and his firmness in adversity, had engaged the respect of the
Osmanlis, and he is as graciously received by the Pasha, who created him a
Bimbashi, and received him, his companions, and followers, into his
service. Malek Shouus is a large stout man, of a pleasing physiognomy
though black, of about forty years of age, and was considered as the
greatest warrior among the people of the Upper Nile, who all stood in awe
of him.45
The 19th, 20th, and 21st of the moon, were employed in traversing the
naked country before-mentioned, which is barren, rocky, and without
cultivation. We marched for three days, from the middle of the afternoon
till midnight. It was not till the second hour after midnight, however, of
the third day, that we arrived at a country on the border of the Nile,
containing several villages, where we remained till the middle of the
afternoon of the 21st. On our arrival at these villages, the darkness and
severe hunger engaged several of the soldiers to take, by force, sheep and
goats from the inhabitants. The officers of the Pasha vigorously
interposed to prevent this infraction of the orders of his Excellence, and
several of the guilty were severely punished for taking forbidden means to
gratify the demands of nature.
At the hour of afternoon prayer the signal was fired, and the camp
proceeded onwards. We left the villages afore-mentioned, and passed
through a sandy tract covered with bushes and the thorny acacia, which
embarrassed our march, and, by occasioning several detours, caused the
army to lose its way. After wandering about till midnight, the camp at
length arrived on the bank of the Nile.
On the 22d, at the rising of the moon, the camp proceeded, and halted in
the forenoon on the beach of the river, opposite Halfya, a very large
village on the easterly bank. We stayed here till the twenty-sixth to
obtain durra from this territory, whose chief brought, as a present to the
Pasha, some fine horses and many camels, and received, in return, some
valuable presents. Our side of the river is desert, and covered with trees
and bushes. During our stay opposite Halfya, the Nile, on the night of the
23d, rose suddenly about two feet, and inundated some parts of the sandy
flats where we were encamped; the water entering the tents of several, my
own among others, and wetting my bed, arms, and baggage.46
It had risen a little shortly after the equinox, while the army was in
Berber, and afterwards subsided more than it had risen. We find the sky
every day more and more overcast; distant thunder and lightning,
accompanied with violent squalls, (which have overset my tent twice,) are,
within a few days, frequent, and drops of rain have fallen in our camp.
On the 26th, at one hour after noon, we proceeded to the Bahar el Abiud,
about five hours march above our present position, where the Pasha intends
to cross into the territory of Sennaar. The camp arrived at sunset at a
position a little above where the Nile falls into the Bahar el Abiud, and
stopped. Immediately on my arrival, I drank of this river, being,
probably, the first man of Frank origin that ever tasted its waters.
The Nile is not half as broad as the Bahar el Abiud, which is, from bank
to bank, one mile higher than where the Nile joins it, about a mile and a
quarter in breadth. It comes, as far as we can see it, from the
west-south-west. The Nile of Bruce must, therefore, after the expedition
of Ismael Pasha, be considered as a branch of a great and unexplored
river, which may possibly be found to be connected with the Niger.
On the 27th, early in the morning, the Pasha commenced transporting the
army over the Bahar el Abiud, by means of nine small boats, which had been
able to pass the third Cataract, and follow the army. The country on our
side of the Bahar el Abiud, is uncultivated, and apparently without
inhabitants. The army is encamped by the side of the river, on a beautiful
plain of good soil, extending a considerable distance back towards the
desert. During the inundation, this plain becomes evidently an island, as
there is a channel worn by water, in the rear of it, at this season dry.
The tracks of the hippopotamus are found throughout this plain.
By the 29th, in the afternoon, i.e. in two days and a half, the Pasha had
finished transporting into Sennaar the whole of his camp, consisting of
about six thousand persons, with the artillery, ammunition, tents,
baggage, horses, camels, and asses, by the aid of nine boats, none of them
large, an expedition, I believe, unparalleled in the annals of Turkish
warfare.47
During our stay on the other side of the Bahar el Abiud, it was reported
in the camp that some of the Mogrebin soldiers, gone out to shoot
gazelles, had killed in the desert which lies off from the river, an
animal, resembling a bull, except that its feet were like those of a
camel. I did not see this animal, but the story was affirmed to me by
several.
The army, on its crossing the Bahar el Abiud, encamped on the point of
land just below which the Bahar el Abiud and the Nile join each other. The
water of the Bahar el Abiud is troubled and whitish, and has a peculiar
sweetish taste. The soldiers said that "the water of the Bahar el Abiud
would not quench thirst." This notion probably arose from the circumstance
that they were never tired of drinking it, it is so light and sweet. The
water of the Nile is at present perfectly pure and transparent, but by no
means so agreeable to the palate as that of the Bahar el Abiud, as I
experimented myself, drinking first of the Bahar el Abiud, and then
walking about two hundred yards across the point, and drinking of the
Nile, the water of which appeared to me hard and tasteless in comparison.
Nothing of the kind could be easier than to ascend the Bahar el Abiud from
the place where we are. A canja, well manned and armed, and accompanied by
another boat containing provisions for four or six months, and both
furnished with grapnels to enable them at night to anchor in the river,
might, in my opinion, ascend and return securely: as the tribes on its
borders have great dread of fire-arms, and will hardly dare to meddle with
those who carry them.
We stayed on the Sennaar side of the Bahar el Abiud till the 1st of
Ramadan, when the army commenced its march for Sennaar, the capital,
proceeding by the bank of the Nile.48
The army reached Sennaar in thirteen days. The signal for striking the
tents and loading the camels was generally fired about two hours after
midnight. One hour was allowed for loading the baggage, when a second
cannon was fired, and the march of the army commenced, and was continued
each day till about two or three hours before noon, when the camp reposed
till about two hours after midnight of the same day. The army suffered
severely during this march; nothing was given to the troops for
subsistence but durra, unground, which the soldiers were frequently in
great distress to obtain the means of making into meal, in order to bake a
little miserable bread, which was all they had to eat.49
For myself, I was reduced to great extremity. The camel, carrying my
provisions and culinary utensils, and several other articles, was lost by
the carelessness of a domestic. I was consequently left without any thing
to eat, or the means of preparing what I might obtain. I threw myself
under the hospitable shade of the tent of Mr. Caillaud, (then only
occupied by Mr. Constant, his companion,) the gentleman I have mentioned
in the Preface with so much well merited esteem, where I stayed till my
arrival at Sennaar.
The country we traversed is that part of the kingdom of Sennaar which lies
between the Nile and the Bahar el Abiud. It is an immense and fertile
plain, occupied by numerous villages, some of them very large; that of
"Wahat Medinet," for instance, containing, probably, four or five thousand
inhabitants. What country we saw was, at this season, perfectly naked of
grass, consisting generally of immense fields which, in the season past,
had been planted with durra. Acacia trees, and bushes in the country far
back from the river, (which is sandy,) were abundant, but no herbage was
visible; I did not see throughout our route a single waterwheel;50
and I believe that the country is only cultivated when the inundation has
retired.
The houses of the villages are built in the following manner. A circle of
stakes is planted in the ground, a conical frame of poles attached to
these stakes below, and meeting and fastened at the top of the cone, forms
the roof. This roof, and the sides of the house, are then covered with
thatched straw, which suffices to exclude the rains.
Some of the houses, however, belonging to the chiefs are of a stronger
fabric, being composed of thick walls made of bricks dried in the sun, and
having terraced roofs. In the thatched cottages I have mentioned, the air
and light come in by the doorway and four small holes pierced in the walls
of the house. This scanty ventilation renders these cottages very hot and
close: the difference between the temperature of an inhabited house and
that of the air outside being, in my judgment, almost as great as that of
the undressing room of a bath at Cairo, and that of the passage just
outside of the bath itself. This circumstance alone is almost sufficient
to account for the great mortality in Sennaar, during the rainy season,
when whole families are shut up in these close cottages; and every one who
goes abroad must necessarily go with his pores in a condition expressly
adapted to make him catch a cold or a fever.
Six days before the army reached Sennaar, the Pasha was met by an
ambassador from the Sultan; he had an audience of his Excellence, and
returned the next day to Sennaar. He was a handsome young man, accompanied
by a numerous suite mounted on dromedaries. The army pursued its route,
steadily marching in order of battle, the infantry in the centre, the
cavalry on the wings; the artillery in advance of the centre and the
baggage in the rear, with Shouus' cavalry and the dromedary corps of
Abbadies scouring our front and flanks to a great distance. Two days after
it was reported in the camp that the Sultan of Sennaar was on his way to
meet us with a strong force, preceded by numerous elephants and great
herds of cattle, collected in order to receive and exhaust the fire of our
troops. The Pasha proceeded however steadily on with the army in order of
battle, and equally prepared for peace or war. Two days before the arrival
of the army in Sennaar, as I was riding near the Topgi Bashi, who was in
front of the army with the artillery, I saw a great number of armed men
approaching, mounted on horses and dromedaries. Presently the Malek of
Shendi (who had accompanied the Pasha)51, rode up
to the Pasha and informed him that the strangers approaching were the
principal officers of the Sultan of Sennaar, and their suite, who had come
to demand terms of peace.
I saw these personages when they arrived. They were two, one a tall thin
elderly man of a mulatto complexion, dressed in green and yellow silks of
costly fabric, with a cap of a singular form, something resembling a
crown, made of the same materials, upon his head. The other was the same
young man who had come a few days past to the Pasha. He was dressed to-day
in silks like the other, except that his head was bare of ornament. They
were accompanied by a fine lad about sixteen, who was, it is said, the son
of the predecessor of the present Sultan. All three were mounted on tall
and beautiful horses, and accompanied by about two hundred soldiers of the
Sultan, mounted on dromedaries, and armed with broadswords, lances and
shields.
When the Pasha was informed of their approach by the Malek of Shendi, he
ordered a halt. The tent of the Pasha was pitched, and the ambassadors
were introduced. They were treated with great attention and liberality by
the Pasha, who, during the day and the course of the evening following,
gave them opportunities enough to be convinced of the immense superiority
of our arms to theirs. During the evening, some star rockets and bombs
were thrown for their amusement and edification. No language can do
justice to their astonishment at the spectacle, which undoubtedly produced
the effect intended by the Pasha—humility and a sense of
inferiority. The next morning at an early hour the army pursued its march,
accompanied by the ambassadors from Sennaar.
About the hour of noon, the outscouts announced to the Pasha that the
Sultan of Sennaar himself was approaching to salute his Excellence. On his
approach, the army received him with the honors due to his rank. He was
conducted to the tent of the Pasha, by the ambassadors he had sent, where
he remained in audience with his Excellence a long time. When the audience
was finished, he and the personages he had before sent to the Pasha were
splendidly habited in the Turkish fashion, and presented with horses,
furnished with saddles and bridles embroidered with gold.52
It was on the morning following that the army reached the capital. We
marched in order of battle. The Pasha, accompanied by the Sultan of
Sennaar and his chief servants, in front. On approaching the city, the
army saluted this long wished for town, where they imagined that their
toils and privations would cease, at least for a time, with repeated and
continued volleys of cannon and musquetry, accompanied with shouts of
exultation. But these shouts subsided on a nearer approach, on finding
this once powerful city of Sennaar to be almost nothing but heaps of
ruins, containing in some of its quarters some few hundreds of habitable
but almost deserted houses. After the camp was pitched, and I had
refreshed myself with a little food, I took a walk about the town. At
almost every step I trod upon fragments of burnt bricks, among which are
frequently to be found fragments of porcelain, and sometimes marble. The
most conspicuous buildings in Sennaar are a mosque, and a large brick
palace adjoining it. The mosque, which is of brick, is in good
preservation; its windows are covered with well wrought bronze gratings,
and the doors are handsomely and curiously carved. The interior was
desecrated by uncouth figures of animals, portrayed upon the walls with
charcoal. This profanation had been perpetrated by the Pagan mountaineers
who inhabit the mountains thirteen days march south of Sennaar, and who,
at some period, not very long past, had taken the town, and had left upon
the walls of the mosque these tokens of possession.
The palace is large, but in ruins, except the centre building, which is
six stories high, having five rows of windows.53 By
mounting upon its roof you have the best possible view of the city, the
river, and the environs, that the place can afford. I judged that Sennaar
was about three miles in circumference. The greater part of this space is
now covered with the ruins of houses, built of bricks either burnt or
dried in the sun. I do not believe that there are more than four hundred
houses standing in Sennaar and of these one-third or more are round
cottages, like those of the villages. Of those built of bricks, the
largest is the house of the Sultan. It is a large enclosure, containing
ranges of low but well built habitations of sun-dried bricks, with
terraced roofs, and the interior stuccoed with fine clay. What struck me
the most, was the workmanship of the doors of the old houses of Sennaar,
which are composed of planed and jointed planks, adorned frequently with
carved work, and strengthened and studded with very broad headed nails;
the whole inimitable by the present population of Sennaar. These houses
are very rarely of more than one story in height, the roofs terraced with
fine and well beaten clay spread over mats laid upon rafters, which form
the roof.
The city of Sennaar is of an oblong form, its longest side opposite the
river. It stands not at any distance from the river, but directly upon its
west bank, which consists hereabouts of hard clay.
The river is now rising,54 but exhibits itself at present
to the view as narrow and winding, as far as the eye can reach, between
sand flats, which will shortly be covered by its augmenting waters. The
bed of the Nile opposite Sennaar may be reckoned at about half a mile
broad.
The environs of Sennaar are wide plains, containing large and populous
villages. A long ragged mountain, the only one visible, stands about
fifteen miles to the west of the town. Below the town is a small but
pretty island, whose inhabitants thrive by raising vegetables for the
market of Sennaar; and the opposite bank of the river, presents several
verdant patches of ground devoted to the same object.55 Beyond
these spots, the country on the other bank appeared to be mostly covered
with trees and bushes, among which I saw four elephants feeding.
I could not find any remains of any very ancient building in Sennaar
during my stay, and I believe that none exists there. Such is the present
appearance of a town which has evidently been once rich, comfortable and
nourishing, but which, for eighteen years past, as I have been informed,
has been the lacerated prey of War and Confusion.
On the day after our arrival the conditions of the accord between the
Pasha and the Sultan of Sennaar were arranged and sealed; by which the
latter recognized himself as subject and feudatory of the Grand Seignor,
and surrendered his dominions to the supremacy and sway of the Vizier of
the Padischah, Mehemmed Ali Pasha. The next day the Tchocadar Aga of his
Highness the Viceroy of Egypt, who had arrived in our camp two months
past, embarked in the canja of the Pasha Ismael to carry the documents of
this important transaction to Cairo.
For several days after our arrival at Sennaar, our camp was incommoded by
furious squalls of wind, accompanied with thunder, lightning, and torrents
of rain. The Pasha therefore determined to caserne the troops in the
houses of the town, and to stay there during the rainy season. In ten days
after our arrival, the army was distributed throughout the town and in the
villages on the opposite bank of the river. The Pasha himself took up his
quarters in a large house of the Sultan of Sennaar, which had been
prepared for his accommodation.
A few days after our arrival, a slave informed the Pasha that the Sultan
of Sennaar, before our arrival, had thrown into the river some cannon. The
Pasha ordered search to be made; four iron guns were discovered by divers,
and were dragged on shore. They appeared to me to be ordinary ship guns;
no mark or inscription was found on them to enable me to judge where they
were fabricated. I believe them however to have been originally obtained
of the Portuguese by the Abyssinians, from whom the people said the Sultan
of Sennaar had taken them in some ancient war between the two kingdoms.
On the 19th of Ramadan, a party of Bedouins were ordered by the Pasha to
go in pursuit of some hundred black slaves of the Sultan of Sennaar, who
some time before our arrival had run away, taking with them some of his
best horses. On the 23d they returned, bringing with them between five and
six hundred negroes of both sexes. But on Malek Shouus going to the Pasha
and representing to him that these people were not the fugitives in
question, the Pasha ordered them to be immediately released and to return
to their respective villages.
About the same time the Pasha detached Cogia Achmet with thirteen hundred
cavalry and three pieces of artillery to the upper country of Sennaar
between the Bahar el Abiud and the Nile to secure its submission.56
And on the 26th of the moon the Divan Effendi was sent with three hundred
men across the Nile, to secure that part of the kingdom of Sennaar which
lies on the east side of the Nile.57
Seven days after our arrival in Sennaar I put in execution a resolution
the state of my health obliged me to determine on, and demanded of the
Pasha permission to return to Cairo. I represented to him, that all the
critical operations of the campaign were now happily concluded, and
crowned with the fullest success; and that, therefore, he could have no
particular need of me any longer. I stated to him that repeated sickness
during the campaign had rendered my health very infirm, and that a
residence of four months at Sennaar, during the rainy season, would
probably destroy me; and as my presence for that time at least could be no
ways necessary, I requested him to grant the permission demanded, telling
him that if, after the rainy season was finished, he should think proper
to recall me to camp that I would obey the summons. The Pasha hesitated,
and for several days declined granting my request; but on its being
represented to him that the reasons I had stated were really just and
sufficient causes for my return, his Excellence finally told me, that on
the return of Cogia Achmet he should dispatch a courier to Cairo, and that
I should accompany him.
On the third day of the Feast of Bairam I saw the Sultan of Sennaar parade
the town in great ceremony. He was mounted on a superb horse, and clothed
in green and yellow silks, but his head was bare of every thing but its
natural wool. Over his head an officer carried a large umbrella of green
and yellow silks in alternate stripes. He was accompanied by the officers
of his palace, and his guard, beautifully mounted, and followed by the
native population of Sennaar, both men and women, who uttered shrill
cries, which were now and then interrupted by the sound of a most
lugubrious trumpet which preceded the Sultan, and which was blown by a
musician who, judging from the tones he produced, seemed to be afflicted
with a bad cough.
On the 7th of the moon Shawal, the Divan Effendi returned to Sennaar,
having crushed all attempts to oppose the establishment of the Pasha's
authority in the eastern part of the kingdom of Sennaar, and bringing with
him three of the chiefs of the refractory, and three hundred and fifty
prisoners, as slaves. The events of this expedition were related to me as
follows: "We marched without resistance for eight days, in the direction
of the rising sun, through a country fine, fertile, and crowded with
villages, till we came to some larger villages near a mountain called
'Catta,' where we found four or five hundred men posted in front of them
to resist our march They were armed with lances, and presented themselves
to the combat with great resolution. But on experiencing the effects of
our fire-arms, they took to flight toward the mountain; two hundred of
them were hemmed in, and cut to pieces, and three of their chiefs were
taken prisoners, as well as all the inhabitants we could find in their
villages; after which we returned."
On my demanding if water was plentiful at a distance from the river, my
informant replied, that "there were wells in abundance in all the numerous
villages, with which the country abounds; and also numerous rivulets and
streams, which at this season descend from the mountains. The troops, he
said, had forded two small rivers (probably the Ratt and the Dandar); he
added, that the country abounded in beautiful birds and insects, one of
the latter he brought with him; it was a small scarabeus, covered with a
fine close crimson down, exactly resembling scarlet velvet. The people of
the country he described as very harmless, and exceedingly anxious to know
what had brought us to Sennaar to trouble them."
Two of these Chiefs taken prisoners the Pasha ordered to be impaled in the
market-place of Sennaar. They suffered this horrid death with great
firmness. One of them said nothing but "there is no God but God, and
Mohammed is his Apostle," which he frequently repeated before impalement;
while the other, named Abdallah, insulted, defied, and cursed his
executioners, calling them "robbers and murderers," till too weak to
speak, when he expressed his feelings by spitting at them.58
The third Chief was detained prisoner, in order to be sent to Cairo.
During my stay in Sennaar, I endeavored to get information of the people
of the country, and of the few caravan merchants found in the market-place
of Sennaar, relative to the Bahar el Abiud and the Nile. The information I
received was as follows: "The source of the Adit (so the people of Sennaar
call the river that runs by their city) is in the Gibel el Gumara, (i.e.
that great range of mountains called the Mountains of the Moon,) about
sixty days march of a camel from Sennaar. in a direction nearly south. It
receives, at various distances above Sennaar, several smaller rivers which
come from Abyssinia and from the mountains south of Sennaar. The general
course of the Bahar el Abiud (they said) was nearly parallel with that of
the Adit, but its source was much farther off, among the Gibel el Gumara,
than that of the Adit. The Bahar el Abiud, they said, appears very large
at the place where the Pasha's army crossed it, because it is augmented
from the junction of three other rivers, one from the south-west, and two
others from the east, running from the mountains south of Sennaar."59
On my asking them, "whether the Bahar el Abiud was open and free of
shellals or rapids?" they said, "that at a place called Sulluk, about
fifteen days march above its junction with the Adit, (i.e. above the place
where we crossed the Bahar el Abiud,) there was a shellal, which they
believed that boats could not pass.60 On my
asking whether, by following the banks of the Bahar el Abiud and the river
that empties into it from the west, it was not possible to reach a city
called Tombut or Tombuctoo?" They said, that "they knew nothing of the
city I mentioned, having never been farther west than Kordofan and
Darfour."
This was all I could learn: but I am disposed to believe, that the main
stream of the Bahar el Abiud cannot have its source in the same latitude
with that of the Adit, because it commenced its rise, at least, this year,
about twenty days sooner than did the Adit, and the different color of its
waters proves that it flows through a tract differing in quality of soil
from that through which passes the Adit. The interesting question,
"whether the Niger communicates with the Bahar el Abiud?" will, however,
very probably be determined before the close of another year, as the Pasha
will probably send an expedition up that river.
Secondly, I am further disposed to believe that the main stream of the
Adit, or Nile of Bruce, does not take its rise in Abyssinia, but in the
mountains assigned as the place of its origin by the people of Sennaar.
For on viewing the mass of water that runs by Sennaar even now, when the
river has not attained two-thirds of the usual magnitude it acquires
during the rainy season, I can by no means believe that the main source of
such a river is only about three hundred miles distant from Sennaar.
The tract of country included between the Adit and the Bahar el Abiud is
called El Gezira, i.e. the island: because, in the season of the rains,
many rivers running from the mountains in the south into the Bahar el
Abiud and the Adit, occasion this tract to be included by rivers.
I am disposed to believe, that the representations made of the climate of
this country are much exaggerated; as, except during the rainy season, and
immediately after it, the country is a high and dry plain,61
by no means excessively hot, because the level of the countries on the
Nile being constantly ascending from Egypt, occasions Sennaar to be many
hundred feet higher than the level of Egypt, which is proved by the rapid
descent of the waters of the Nile toward the latter country. The east and
south winds also are, in Sennaar, cool breezes; because they come either
from the mountains of Abyssinia, or the huge and high ranges which compose
the Gibel el Gumara. I was in Sennaar at Midsummer, and at no time found
the heat very uncomfortable, provided I was in the open air, and under a
shade. In the cottages and houses, indeed, on account of their want of
ventilation, the heat was excessive.
I made during my stay in Sennaar frequent inquiries about the fly
mentioned by Bruce; the people of Sennaar said they knew nothing of it;62
but, in reply to my inquiries, referred to a worm, which they say comes
out of the earth during the rainy season, and whose bite is dangerous.
The reptile species in Sennaar are numerous. The houses are full of
lizards, which, if you lie on the floor, you may feel crawling or running
over you all night. I saw at Sennaar a serpent of a species, I believe,
never before mentioned. It was a snake of about two feet long, and not
thicker than my thumb, striped on the back, with a copper colored belly,
and a flat head. This serpent had four legs, which did not appear to be of
any use to him, as they were short and hanging from the sides of his
belly. All his motions, which were quick and rapid, were made in the usual
manner of serpents, i.e. upon its belly.63
I do not feel authorized to give an opinion as to the national character
of the people inhabiting the kingdom of Sennaar; but I am obliged to
consider the inhabitants of the capital as a very detestable people. They
are exceedingly avaricious, extortionate, faithless, filthy and cruel.64
The men are generally tall and well shaped, but the females are, almost
universally, the ugliest I ever beheld; this is probably owing to their
being obliged to do all sorts of drudgery.
The children of these people, and indeed of all the tribes on the Upper
Nile, go quite naked till near the age of puberty. A girl unmarried is
distinguished by a sort of short leather apron, composed of a great number
of leather thongs hanging like tassels from a leather belt fastened round
the waist: and this is all her clothing, being no longer than that of our
mother Eve after her fall. The married women, however, are generally
habited in long coarse cotton clothes, which they wrap round them so as to
cover their whole person, except when they are at work, when they wrap the
whole round the waist.
As to the manufactures of the people of the Upper Nile, they are limited,
I believe, to the following articles, Earthenware for domestic uses and
bowls for pipes; cotton cloths for clothing; knives, mattocks, hoes and
ploughs, for agriculture, water-wheels for the same; horse furniture, such
as the best formed saddles I ever rode on, very neatly fabricated;
stirrups in the European form, made of silver for the chiefs, and not like
those of the Turks; large iron spurs, bits with small chains for reins, to
prevent them from being severed by the stroke of an enemy's broadsword;
long and double edged broadswords, with the guard frequently made of
silver; iron heads for lances, and shields made of the hide of the
elephant; to which may be added, that the women fabricate very beautiful
straw mats.
There is a general resemblance, in domestic customs, among all the peoples
who inhabit the borders of the Nile from Assuan to Sennaar. They differ,
however, somewhat in complexion and character. The people of the province
of Succoot are generally not so black as the Nubian or the Dongolese. They
are also frank and prepossessing in their deportment. The Dongolese is
dirty, idle, and ferocious. The character of the Shageian is the same,
except that he is not idle, being either an industrious peasant or a
daring freebooter. The people on the third cataract are not very
industrious, but have the character of being honest and obliging. The
people of Berber are by far the most civilized of all the people of the
Upper Nile. The inhabitants of the provinces of Shendi and Halfya are a
sullen, scowling, crafty, and ferocious people; while the peasants of
Sennaar inhabiting the villages we found on our route, are a respectable
people in comparison with those of the capital. Throughout the whole of
these countries there is one general characteristic, in which they
resemble the Indians of America, namely, courage and self-respect. The
chiefs, after coming to salute the Pasha, would make no scruple of sitting
down facing him, and converse with him without embarrassment, in the same
manner as they are accustomed to do with their own Maleks, with whom they
are very familiar. With the greatest apparent simplicity they would
frequently propose troublesome questions to the Pasha, such as, "O great
Sheck, or O great Malek; (for so they called the Pasha) what have we done
to you, or your country, that you should come so far to make war upon us?
Is it for want of food in your country that you come to get it in ours?"
and others similar.
On the 14th of the moon Shawal, Cogia Achmet returned to Sennaar, bringing
with him about two thousand prisoners as slaves, consisting almost
entirely of women and children. The events of his expedition were related
to me as follows: He marched rapidly for ten days in a direction about
south-west of Sennaar, (the capital) without resistance, through a
well-peopled country, without meeting with any opposition till he came to
the mountains of Bokki, inhabited by Pagans, the followers of the chief
who had rejected the Pasha's letter. They were posted on a mountain of
difficult access; but their post was stormed, and after a desperate
struggle, they found that spears and swords, though wielded by stout
hearts and able hands, were not a match for fire-arms. They fled to
another mountain, rearward of their first position. They were again
attacked by cannon and musketry, and obliged to fly toward a third
position: in their flight, they were in part hemmed in by the cavalry of
Cogia Achmet, and about fifteen hundred of them put to the sword. Those
who escaped took refuge in a craggy mountain, inaccessible to cavalry.
Cogia Achmet, believing he had made a sufficient proof to them that
resistance on their part was unavailing, and the troops having suffered
great distress by reason of the almost continual rains, after sweeping the
villages of these people of all the population they could find in them,
resumed his march for Sennaar. On their return, they had to ford several
deep streams, at this season running from the mountains, and both horse
and man were almost worn out before they reached Sennaar.
The people of Bokki are a hardy race of mountaineers—tall, stout,
and handsome. They are Pagans, worshippers of the sun, which planet they
consider it as profane to look at. The prisoners brought in by Cogia
Achmet resembled in their dress the savages of America; they were almost
covered with beads, bracelets, and trinkets, made out of pebbles, bones,
and ivory. Their complexion is almost black, and their manners and
deportment prepossessing. The arms of these people gave me great surprise:
they consisted of well-formed and handsome helmets of iron, coats of mail,
made of leather and overlaid with plates of iron, long and well fashioned
lances, and a hand-weapon exactly resembling the ancient bills formerly
used in England by the yeomanry. They were represented to me by the Turks
as dangerous in personal combat. They had never seen fire-arms before, and
they nevertheless withstood them with great intrepidity. They said, I was
informed, that a fusee was "a coward's weapon, who stands at a safe
distance from his enemy, and kills him by an invisible stroke."65
On the 17th, the courier carrying the information to Cairo of this
expedition and its results, embarked in a canja to descend the river as
far as Berber, from whence he would proceed by the desert to Egypt.
Agreeably to the promise of the Pasha, I accompanied him. We arrived at
Nousreddin in Berber in five days and nights. Having the favor of the
current, and sixteen oarsmen on board, we descended with great rapidity.
The view of the country from the river is not pleasing, as the villages
lie almost invariably far off from the river; the country, therefore, has
the appearance of being almost uninhabited. We saw great numbers of
hippopotami, who, in the night, would lift their heads out of the water at
no great distance from the canja. They were sometimes fired at, but
without apparent effect. We stopped, during the night, for an hour at
Shendi, to leave orders from the Pasha to a small garrison of Turkish
troops stationed there.66 The river Nile, below the point
of junction with the great Bahar el Abiud, presents a truly magnificent
spectacle.67
Between Halfya and Shendi, the river is straitened and traverses a deep
and gloomy defile formed by high rocky hills, between which the Nile runs
dark, deep, and rapidly for about twelve or fifteen miles. On emerging
from this defile, the river again spreads itself majestically, and flows
between immense plains of herbage, bounded only by the horizon: its banks
nearly full, but not yet overflowed. About thirty miles above Nousreddin,
we passed the mouth of the Bahar el Iswood (on the eastern shore); it is
the last river that empties into the Nile. I estimated it at about
two-thirds of a mile broad at its embouchure. The Nile, below the point of
junction with this river, is more than two miles from bank to bank, at
this season. During the two first days of our voyage, we had some severe
squalls and very heavy rains; but after passing the territory of Sennaar,
we had a sky almost without a cloud.
On our arrival at Nousreddin, no more dromedaries could be immediately
obtained than were sufficient to mount the courier and his two guides. I
was, therefore, obliged to tarry five days in Nousreddin before I could
find a caravan journeying to Egypt.
On the 28th of Shawal, I quitted Nousreddin, along with a caravan on its
way to Egypt from Sennaar, conducted by a soldier attached to the
Cadilaskier of the army of Ismael Pasha, who was conducting to Egypt
twenty-two dromedaries and camels, and some slaves, belonging to the
Cadilaskier, and four fine horses belonging to the Pasha.
We started at about three hours before noon, and after marching for three
hours, stopped at a village named Sheraffey, to obtain rations for the
horses and camels to subsist them through the desert. Our route lay on the
outside of the villages, and on the border of the desert. The villages are
numerous and well built of sun-dried bricks, and the face of the country,
on our side of the river, perfectly level.
We stayed at Sheraffey until the next morning: the conductor of the
caravan not being able to obtain at this place the durra he wanted for his
cattle, we proceeded to a village called Hassah, which is about an hour's
march from Sheraffey. We stayed there till next morning.
On the 30th of the Moon, at day-light, we mounted our camels, and
proceeded on our road, which lay on the skirts of the desert. We passed a
continual succession of large, well-built and populous villages, lying
about a mile distant from the river; the weather serene and cool, as it
has been since our arrival in Berber. We halted at about the middle of the
forenoon, by a village called Abdea, until an hour and a half before
sunset, when we again set forward, and after marching for three hours and
a half, halted for the remainder of the night in a small village, half in
ruins. The reason of our short marches and frequent stoppages was, to give
the conductor of the caravan opportunities to make provision for passing
the desert. He might have done it at any of the villages, had he been
content to pay the price demanded; but as he was a man who seemed to hold
hard bargains in horror, and to love money with great affection, he did
not give the latter for durra till he was absolutely obliged to make the
afflictive exchange.
On the 1st of Zilkade we started at daylight, and marched till about two
hours after sunrise, when we stopped at some villages called Gannettee.
The country we passed since yesterday is the desert, which comes down
close to the river's bank, presenting but few spots fit for cultivation.
We were informed last night, that the camp of Mehemmet Bey, who is on his
way from Egypt with five thousand men, to take possession of Darfour and
Kordofan, is on the other side of the river.68 The
weather continues serene and not very hot. Stayed at Gannettee till about
the middle of the afternoon, when we proceeded on our journey through a a
desert and dreary country, without either habitations or cultivation, as
the desert comes here down to the river. The rocks and stones of the
desert are generally of black granite. No verdure was to be seen, except
on the margin of the river. The river hereabouts is much impeded by rocks
and rapids, but contains many beautiful islands, some of them very large,
fertile, populous, and well cultivated. Malek Mohammed el Hadgin commands
this country. His province, called "El Raba Tab," contains eighty-eight
large and fertile islands, and the shores of the river adjacent. He has a
very high character for courage, morals, and generosity; he resides on the
great island of Mograt, which is said to be about sixty miles long.69
We halted at about three hours before midnight on the bank of the river,
within hearing of a Shellal, where the river forms a regular cataract,
except a small pass on the easterly shore. After reposing the camels an
hour and a half, and refreshing ourselves with bread and the muddy water
of the Nile, we recommenced our march, which was continued without
cessation till an hour before noon next morning, always through the
desert, in order to cut a point of land formed by an angle in the river,
when we stopped under the shade of some fine date trees on the bank of the
river, and in view of one of its large and ever verdant isles, called
Kandessee, in a small island adjoining which Khalil Aga, my companion,
says he saw, when he ascended the third cataract,70 a pyramid
more modern and fresh than any he had seen in these countries. Possibly
the island of Kandessee takes its name from the celebrated Candace, who,
in the reign of Nero, repulsed and defeated the Roman legions, and this
pyramid may be her tomb. Under the date trees, on the bank of the river
opposite to this island, we refreshed ourselves with our usual repast,
bread and water, as the people of a village close by would give us meat
neither for love, money, nor soap,71 of which
latter article they stand in great but unconscious need.
3d of Zilkade quitted our station about two hours after midnight, and went
on our way. Our route continued to lie through the desert, but not far
from the bank of the river; about three hours before noon in the morning
came to a small village, named Haphasheem, lying on the margin of the
river, opposite a verdant island it was delightful to look at. The river
on the third cataract, Khalil Aga tells me, contains a continual chain of
such.72
I could not get any thing to relish our usual repast of bread and water,
except some dates.
My eyes to-day were much inflamed by the reflection of the sun's rays from
the sand, and at night were very painful and running with matter. Stayed
here till about the same hour after midnight as yesterday, when we again
set forward. The country the same as yesterday, except that we saw several
stony mountains in the desert, some of them at no great distance from the
river. Some of these mountains must contain ruins, as at the village where
we halted to-day, which we did at about noon, we found a very large and
well-fashioned burnt brick, which the peasants said was brought from one
of these mountains. The whole of the country through which we have passed
for four days contains no cultivable land on this side of the river,
except on its margin; but in compensation for this sterility, the islands
in this part of the river, which are numerous, very large, and very
beautiful, are without a superior for luxuriance of vegetation. Every day
when we have come to the river to halt and refresh ourselves, we found one
or more in view. At this last station I was lucky enough to purchase a
small kid at the enormous price of twelve piasters, the first meat we had
eaten for four days. Applied at night a poultice of dates to my eyes,
which were much inflamed by today's march, and found some relief from the
remedy. At about three hours after midnight we again resumed our travel,
and marched till an hour before noon of to-day, the 5th of Zilkade
expecting to arrive at the place where the road quits the river, and
plunges into the great eastern desert of Africa; but the weather becoming
close and very hot, and the camels fatigued, we halted to repose them and
ourselves on the bank of the river. Shortly after our arrival two of the
camels of the caravan died. Our route still lay through plains and over
hills of rock and sand, which come down to the river's edge, but the
river, as usual, presented a continual succession of beautiful islands.
The death of the two camels having alarmed the conductor of the caravan
for the others, we stayed in this place till the middle of the second day
after to repose and refresh them previous to entering the desert. During
our stay here I engaged a man to swim over to the island opposite, to
purchase some durra flour and dates. He could, however, obtain only some
dates. I was obliged, in consequence, to reconcile myself to entering the
desert short of provisions. I had made provision in Berber for fifteen
days, being assured that in twelve days we should have passed the desert,
and arrive at the villages on the bank of the Nile four days march above
Assuan. The unexpected retardments of our march from Berber had, however,
made us nine days in arriving at the place where the road turns into the
desert. On the 7th of the moon, at about two hours before sunset, we
quitted our halting-place, and after only one hour's march by the border
of the river came to a place where the Nile suddenly turns off toward the
south-west.73
At this place the guide told us we were to fill our waterskins, and to
quit the river for the desert.
We stayed here till the afternoon of the 8th of the moon.
The two last nights we have kept watch, and only slept with our hands upon
our arms, robbers being, we were told, in this neighborhood, who had
lately pillaged some caravans. We were not, however, molested. The desert,
on the border of the river hereabouts, abounds with doum trees, which are
inhabited by great numbers of monkeys. Its fruit furnishes their food.
This fruit consists in a large nut, on the outside covered with a brown
substance almost exactly resembling burned gingerbread. It is, however, so
hard that no other teeth and jaws, except those of a monkey or an Arab,
are well capable of biting it. About one hour's march below our present
position is an encampment of Bedouins and the tomb of a Marabout. The
people of the country and the caravans had piled his grave with camels'
and asses saddles, probably intended as offerings to interest his good
offices in the other world.
At about four hours after the noon of the 8th, we quitted the banks of the
Nile, and turned into the desert, carrying as much water as we well could,
myself taking four water-skins for myself, Khalil Aga, and a black slave
of mine. We marched till about an hour before midnight, when we halted for
an hour to breathe the camels and to eat a morsel of bread, after which we
continued our way till nearly day-break, when one of the Pasha's horses
falling down and refusing to rise, it was necessary to wait till the
animal had taken a little rest. We threw ourselves upon the sand, and
slept profoundly for two hours, when we were roused to continue our
journey. We proceeded till about two hours before noon, when we halted in
a low sandy plain, sprinkled here and there with thorny bushes. These
bushes afforded food for the camels, and a miserable shelter from the sun
for ourselves. We shoved embodies under them as closely to their roots as
the thorns would admit, to sleep as well sheltered as possible from the
burning rays of the vertical sun. But sound sleep in this condition was
impossible, as every half-hour the sun advancing in his course contracted
or changed the shadow of the bush, and obliged us to change our position;
as to sleep in his rays in this climate is not only almost impossible but
dangerous, it almost infallibly producing a fever of the brain.
The country we traversed this first day's journey is a level plain of sand
and gravel, with scattered mountains of black granite here and there in
view, where no sound is heard but the rush of the wind. The weather was
cool enough during the day, and coldish in the night.74 In the
afternoon we again set forward, proceeding and halting as yesterday, viz.
once for an hour about two hours before midnight, and once again a little
before day-break for an hour and a half. The desert continued to exhibit
the same aspect as before till about midnight, when we quitted the plains
to enter among gloomy defiles, winding between mountains of black granite.
We passed one chain, and at a little beyond the entrance of another, lying
about two leagues to the north of the first, the guide told us that we
were near the well Apseach; soon after we arrived at a place containing
bushes. Here the caravan halted, and those who wanted fresh water filled
their water-skins from the well which lies in the mountains, about an
hour's march from the place where we halted. This well is at the bottom of
an oblique passage leading into one of the mountains, at the termination
of which is found no great quantity of sweet water deposited by the rains
which fall in this country about the time of the summer solstice.75
During the last two days I traveled in great pain; the reflection of the
sun from the sand, and the strong wind from the north (prevalent at this
season in the desert), which blew its finer particles into my eyes, in
spite of all my precautions to shelter them, exasperated and inflamed
their malady to a great degree, which the want of sufficient shelter from
the sun, during the time of repose, contributed to aggravate.
We stayed near the well till about sunset, when we resumed our travel, and
at about three hours after sunrise on the morning of the 10th, came to a
rock in a sandy plain, where the conductor of the caravan ordered a halt.
We distributed ourselves round this rock as well as we could, in order to
repose;76
Khalil Aga and myself making a covering from the sun by means of my
carpet, propped up by our fusees and fastened by the corners to stones we
placed upon the rock, by means of our shawls and sashes. We stayed here
till the middle of the afternoon, when we mounted our camels in order to
reach the well Morat as soon as possible, in order to water those patient
and indispensable voyagers of the desert.77 We
traversed a tolerably level but rocky tract till about two hours after
midnight, when we reached the well. It lies in a valley between two high
chains of mountains of black granite. Its water is somewhat bitter, as its
name imports, and is not drank by travelers except when their water-skins
are exhausted. It serves, however, for the camels of the caravans, and for
the inhabitants of two Arab villages in the vicinity, named "Abu Hammak"
and "Dohap" who brought their camels to water here the morning after our
arrival. These poor but contented people are obliged to subsist, for the
most part, upon their camels' milk, their situation affording little other
means of nourishment. They are, however, independent, and remote from the
tyranny and oppression which afflicts the people of most of the countries
of the east.78
On the rocks near the well we saw some rude hieroglyphics, representing
bulls, horses, and camels, cut in the granite, in the manner of those
found in the rocks near Assuan, on the south side of the cataract. Our
guide tells us that such cuttings in the rocks are found in many of the
mountains of the desert.
During our stay at Morat a violent dispute had arisen among the Arabs of
our caravan about some money which had been stolen from one of them. The
man suspected of the theft endeavored to justify himself by much hard
swearing, but circumstances being strong against him, I told the man who
had been robbed, that if the money was not restored previous to our
arrival at Assuan, I would speak to the Cacheff about the affair, who
would take the proper measures to detect and punish the thief. In
consequence of this menace, the man robbed, next morning had the
satisfaction to find unexpectedly that his money had been secretly
restored and deposited among the baggage, from whence it had been stolen.
On the 13th, at sunset, we quitted Morat; and after a winding march among
the hills for five hours, we arrived at a broad valley, surrounded by high
mountains and abounding in doum trees, the first we had seen since we
quitted the river. This place is called "El Medina." It contains an Arab
village, whose inhabitants gain something by supplying the caravans with
goats, of which they have many, and by furnishing them with water, of
which they possess several reservoirs filled by the rains. We reposed for
the rest of the night under the doum trees, and in the morning regaled
ourselves with the pure and wholesome water of El Medina, which was to me
particularly grateful after being obliged to drink, for several days,
either the muddy water we had brought from the river, or that of Apseach,
which had become heated by the sun, and impregnated with a disgusting
smell, derived from the new leather of the water-bags which contained it.
I bought here a fat goat and some milk, which made us a feast, which
hunger and several days fasting on bad bread made delicious.
We stayed here to water and repose the camels till the afternoon of the
second day after our arrival, when we recommenced our march for the river,
whose distance we were told was three days march from El Medina. During
our stay at El Medina, Khalil Aga my companion was taken very ill with
vomiting and purging, occasioned by having drank of the water of Morat,
against which I had remonstrated without effect. He did not get quit of
the consequences of his imprudence for several days.
On the 15th, in the afternoon, we commenced our march for the river. The
desert hereabouts resembles that we passed the two first days after our
quitting the river, being a sandy plain studded with hills and mountains
of granite. We proceeded till about three hours after midnight, when we
lay down to repose till day-break, when we again mounted and continued our
journey till two hours before noon, when we stopped at a rock which had
some holes in it, where we sheltered ourselves from the sun, and dined
with appetite on some coarse durra bread baked upon camel's dung.
By the middle of the afternoon we were again on our way, which led through
the deep and winding valleys of three mountains of calcareous stone, which
indicated the proximity of the river, and over hills of deep sand, with
which the eddies of the wind had in many places filled those valleys.
Since we left Morat till we came to these mountains the granite hills had
become rarer, others of calcareous stone here and there presented
themselves, and the level of the desert was constantly ascending79
I have no doubt that the level of the interior of the desert is lower than
the bed of the river.
During the passage over these hills several of the camels gave out, that
of my black slave among the rest.80 Four hours
after sunrise we came to a valley, where there was here and there some
herbs of the desert, where we stopped to let the camels eat, they having
fasted since we left El Medina.
We were obliged to look among the rocks for shelter from the sun, each one
arranging himself as well as he could to eat durra bread and drink warm
water, and sleep as soundly as possible. During the course of last night
we fell in with a caravan coming from Assuan; we pressed round them to buy
something to eat; we asked for dates and flour to make bread, but they had
nothing of the kind that they could afford to part with.
We stayed at the rock before mentioned till the middle of the afternoon.
On awaking from sleep, I observed two of the Arabs of our caravan busily
employed about our guide. They were a long time engaged in frizzing and
plaiting his hair, and finished the operation by pouring over it a bowlful
of melted mutton suet, which made his head quite white. I asked for the
meaning of this operation at this time; they told me that we should be at
the river to-morrow morning, and that our guide was adorning himself to
see and salute his friends there. He appeared to be highly satisfied with
the efforts of his hair-dressers to make him look decent, and it must be
confessed that he made a very buckish appearance.
As soon as our guide had finished his toilette, he mounted his dromedary
and took his post in front, and we set forward. We marched all night
without stopping, which was necessary, as our water was nearly spent,81
but which distressed greatly that part of our caravan who had no beast to
ride.82
These wretched men had hitherto accompanied us all the way on foot, with
little to eat and less to drink. At present they were almost exhausted
with fatigue, hunger and thirst. Every now and then, one or more of them
would throw himself on the sand in despair. The repeated assurance that
the river was near, hour after hour, became less and less capable of
rousing them to exertion, and the whip was at length applied to make them
get up and go on.83 They demanded water immediately,
which we were too short of ourselves to give them, as we feared every
minute that our camels would drop, which would render every drop of water
we had as precious as life.
One unfortunate lad, who had joined the caravan before it entered the
desert, I suspect a domestic who had fled from the distresses that had
found us in the upper countries, made pathetic applications to me for
water; I twice divided with him a bowlful I was drinking, "in the name of
God, the protector of the traveler."
This young man, in the course of this toilsome night, had disappeared,
having doubtless laid himself down in despair. We unfortunately did not
miss him till it was too late.84 About two hours before day-break
we reached the entrance of a deep ravine, between ridges and hills of
rocks. We marched in it for six hours. It zigzagged perpetually, and its
bottom was covered with fragments of the rocks that enclosed it, and which
had apparently been displaced by strong currents of water. This phenomenon
surprised me, as the entrance into this ravine being from the plain, it
was evident that the currents which had produced these displacements could
not at any era have come from thence. But at the termination of this
ravine, which ended nearly at the river, the cause became evident. An
ancient canal, now nearly filled up, leads from the river into this
ravine, and the rush of the current during the seasons of inundation, has
loosened and displaced fragments of the bordering mountains.
It was about two hours before noon on the 18th of Zilkade, when, emerging
from this ravine, we came upon the bank of the beautiful and blessed
river, which is the very heart and life's blood of all north-eastern
Africa. It was with the most grateful feelings toward "the Lord of the
universe," that I laid myself down under the date trees by its brink to
cool and to wash my swollen and inflamed eyes, whose disorder was greatly
increased by fatigue, a dazzling sun, and want of sleep.
Immediately after our arrival at the little village of Seboo,85
which stands on the canal leading to the ravine before mentioned, myself
and Khalil Aga addressed ourselves to the people of the village to engage
some one to go and bring to the river the unfortunate lad who had been
missed. I told them that, in two hours, a man mounted on a dromedary could
reach the place where he had disappeared, and save his life: I appealed to
their humanity, to their sense of duty towards God and man, to engage them
to go and save him. Finding them deaf to my entreaties, I offered them
money, and Khalil Aga his musket, to bring him safe and sound to the
river. I appealed to their humanity in vain, and to their avarice without
effect.86
We told them that the Christians, in a case of this kind, would send not
one but forty men, if necessary, to go and save a fellow creature from the
horrible death of desert famine; and that heaven would surely require at
their hands the life of this young man, if they neglected to save him At
length the Sheck of the village promised me to send a dromedary to the
place to-morrow morning. He made the promise probably to appease my
reproaches, for he did not fulfill it.
On the second day after my arrival, I dipped my feet and slippers into the
Nile, and bequeathing the village of Seboo my most hearty curse, (which
God fulfill!) embarked on board a boat on its way from Dongola to Egypt,
and in three days reached Assuan.87
THE END
London Printed by C. Roworth Bell Yard, Temple Bar