Haddenda; but the Pascha has again dismissed him, with the necessary
orders to his father. Almost all the inhabitants of Gos-Rajeb have fled
from it, carrying off their herds, flocks, &c., so that nothing is to be
got there, not even milk. In the rainy season there is much life and
bustle on both sides of the river, as most of the Arabs from the lower
and overflowed lands then gather up here, especially those of Sauachinn
(Sauakim) and Kataref, when on both banks there are large fairs, much
bartering, and considerable business is done by the greater merchants
(chawagat, from chawagi) and the slave dealers (djellabi or haddaiba).
Only a small stripe on the left bank is planted with cotton; all else is
barren wilderness. All the birds have also retired from this
neighbourhood, save cranes and vultures. The ants here cause much pain
by their bites; they are black in colour, carry the hinder part of their
bodies upright, and are most rapid in their movements. Ever at night a
strong cold breeze gets up; and even during the day the cold winds
raised a feeling of the Chamsin. Tobacco we have never seen on all our
journey, and this accounts for the everlasting begging of the natives
for it. Much thieving goes on in the open camp, and the soldiers sell
many things under the rose to the inhabitants, especially durra, of
which 2000 ardips out of the magazine have been issued to the army. To-
morrow is to be a grand review, to dazzle and impose on the Sheiks
present.
_1st April._—At two o’clock P.M., we were marched off in an easterly
direction, and kept at it till three hours after sunset, without coming
on the promised water. All level, good soil, little or no wood. Mimosas
almost vanished; but, on the other hand, much Arrac or Tundo with its
bright green, its small red flowers and branches, very similar to our
roses, only with longer thorns and thicker more shrub-like stems,
growing more closely together, and of greater circumference, but not a
leaf; many Sammer trees also, the leaves of which contain no sap. On the
dried grass covered plain, gazelles, antelopes, and hares abound. From
the distance, the two hills of Herrerem with their grotesque blocks of
rocks still looked after us. At dawn we were again on foot, and marched
for two hours, till we struck the Atbara. Over the ground in all
directions stretched long runs made by the heavy rains. Nowhere was man
or beast to be seen; all seemed to have hidden themselves; the very
flocks of birds visible on our arrival we instantly frightened away.
Towards midday, many of the Sheiks who accompanied the camp assembled in
our tent, but being Faki they did not smoke; they could not comprehend
that our magnet-needle pointed ever to the north. The Hill of Kassela,
now to the east of us, was some two hours distant: this was the end of
our journey, at least for a time, as from thence the Pascha intended to
carry out his conquests, and spoke of founding a city there.
About noon, when the heat was greatest, off went the great gun, the
signal for marching. A mere quarter of an hour’s halt, as a rest towards
evening, and then on for four hours longer. All were tired out, and not
so much by the heat, which was bad enough, but by the hot wind, that
threatened, on these immense level lands, to dry us up into mummies; and
here the water-resembling Devil’s lakes (Bacher el Scheitan—the mirage)
were constantly deceiving us. In these the trees were reflected as in
clear water, although the soil is good, and not mere sand and stones, as
in the Desert. The frontiers of Taka are very ill defined, but it was
said that our camping-place was in that land, which seems to be
remarkable for its thick grass overgrown pasturage.
_3rd April._—Two hours before sunrise the army was under arms, and in
battle order pursued an eastward march, in which direction the hill of
Kassela and the blue mountains of Abyssinia were plainly visible; but,
as road there was none, the column of march soon fell into confusion.
The soil was of a dark colour, and looked as if it had been rained on
but yesterday, and this morning’s sun had called up on its surface a
coating of slime of an inch thick. The durra fields still threw out
fresh shoots from their ten feet high stems. To the left extended an
impenetrable forest of uschar (Asklepias procera), which, with its fresh
narcotic green, its verdant hues, and white violet-tinged flowers, was a
most pleasing and refreshing sight. After a ride of some three hours, we
arrived at a settlement of a Kabyle of Soggilabs, under the Sheik
Haddab, some thirty mat huts, enclosed in a seriba (thorn-hedge); a
little distance to the east many tents and some Tokuls showed over the
green stalks. The larger village is called Soggilab, from the race of
that name. A crowd of men, each with the lance or sword, dressed and
frizzed out like the other Arabs, were assembled to gaze at us and
receive the Pascha, but still no cattle were to be seen; it was plain
enough they were all driven away. As far as eye could reach, all the
ground was covered with a species of arborescent lucerne (loid) some
five or six feet high, on which the camels feasted with delight. The
richness of the soil is most evident, from the great luxuriance of all
its herbage and shrubs; running water there is none, but the twenty or
twenty-five feet deep wells give good drinking water in copious supply.
Of such wells I counted forty-eight, which denotes a considerable
population. There were many birds, especially pigeons; but, as usual,
very shy. Both to-day and yesterday I had shot some hares, smaller and
brighter in colour than ours, and with much larger ears. Many lions were
said to be about, and we were warned to refrain from hunting. A great
part of the bushes were fired and burnt down, to give open space round
the camp, as the inhabitants of Soggilab were not to be trusted; and
this conflagration made all so clear, that we did not require to kindle
any lights at night.
_4th April._—To-day is a day of rest. Some horsemen from the village of
Soggilab arrived to salute us; their horses, mostly stallions, were
small, but of great speed, seemingly a cross of the Arab breed. The
saddles small, and of wood; stirrups as ours, some having shoes fixed on
them for the lance, as with our lancers. Our poor soldiers are without
tents, having nothing to eat but belila, _i.e._ durra boiled in water,
without salt or grease; even with us salt is scarce. Up to this date
flesh has been served out but once. The Schaigies are ever the first,
form the advance guard, and is any thing to be got, or any booty made,
it falls of course to their share, as they are first in the field. Often
at night thirty or forty of them in all secrecy quit the camp,
surprising any village they can hit on, lay hands on all they can, and
ere morning are again returned to the neighbourhood of the camp, and
assume the demeanour of men bringing in their horses from pasturing.
_5th April._—Contrary to all hope, the signal gun awoke us to-day at
dawn, calling on us to march, though we had fully trusted that this day
would also be a halt. Ere long we joined the Pascha’s motley train, and
found ourselves, along with other Europeans, mixed up among former
kings, little and great Sheiks, and their armour-bearers, officers,
scribes, and body-guards; and equally singular must we have appeared to
the others as they to us. We wore over our Turkish dresses, loose wide
blouses, with doubly padded hoods as a protection from the sun’s rays.
Right and left surrounded us the wild crowd of Schaigies, on horseback;
and little peace or concord was there among their horses and the timid
camels and dromedaries; so that at length the Pascha ordered all riding
the latter to move on in advance. We did so, and at once found ourselves
in a thickly overgrown underwood, where the thorny mimosas ere long
again raised their heads, putting our tarbooshes in much danger. Besides
these, we observed tombu-bushes (hombuck), with rose-red round fruit,
with a gelatinous sweet inside, about the size of a common gooseberry;
high heaths, and _sammer_ of brightest green, as also a profusion of
uschars overloaded with flowers, and great green seed pods.
The main road had been here and there widened by hewing away some of the
trees, but it had already been taken by the cavalry and infantry on
their asses; so we had to make our way through the thick close bush as
well as we could. All was now indescribable confusion, and had the foe
set on us here with their javelins, things would certainly have gone ill
with us. We came, even in the bush, to some spots cleared by fire,
probably for the cultivation of durra. After a good hour, the ground
became more favourable, a halt was at last made, and some order restored
to us. The soil here seemed excellent, all covered with grasses, and
very deep two or three inch wide water runs intersecting it in all
directions, plainly showing by these deep and wide excavations, how
heavy the rain torrents must be here. The Pascha we found already
encamped, in full security and utmost unconcern, while for a long time
the forest kept throwing out his soldiery in beautiful disorder. Each
took up his position as he pleased,—cavalry and camel-mounted infantry
followed the example,—while a much longer tail of the ass-mounted came
slowly creeping out of the defile. Our confidence in the Pascha’s
generalship had been much shaken, and it now fell off much more at this
sample of Turkish indolence, to which it never occurred to take any
measures, or make any proper disposition of his forces.
On pursuing our march we came again to forest, but much opener, and we
were now free from crowd and confusion; but from this all the more
likely to fall a prey to the foe. Soon there stretched out before us a
long wide field, full of numerous holes; these seemed, above, one and a
half to two feet in diameter; but below, some four or six, with a depth
of the same. They were pear-shaped, and said to be used by the natives
to store their grain in. A town must once have been here. Before now we
had observed such open spaces;—a sign that this fruitful stretch of
land, on which we had now some days been marching, was at times
inhabited in certain places by some nomade tribes; and we also remarked,
especially at Soggilab, ditches and walls, though not of the most artful
structure, to retain the rain water and guide it in irrigating the soil.
The soil is lighter than that of the Nile, but covered with the same
crust of some fine substance most similar to Nile slime, and must from
its lightness be looked on as of vegetable origin; the more so as this
is only to be found in the neighbourhood of the Atbara, and the deposit
left by the rain floods from the mountains can only be looked for in
their channels, or where such gather in the low grounds.
After a further march of three good hours we arrived at some wells,
which, like those at Soggilab, ran in a line or course from south-east
to north-west, and which might lead one to suspect a subterraneous
river, or river bed, as here no great fall of the ground is to be seen.
Near the wells were flocks of handsome birds, called Honey-birds
(Nectarinia lucida); but they were soon frightened away by the numerous
noises. Here were, as at Gos-Rajeb, and more so at Soggilab, many cotton
fields; the Asclepias, also, again grew in full luxuriance, covered in
greatest profusion with their pendant green air-bottles.
Achmet Pascha had galloped on in advance to look about him, and now off
went a cannon as a signal for the army to encamp, or, rather, for each
to throw himself down where he pleased. But soon, at my persuasion, came
contrary orders; viz., to get clear of the bush, and encamp somewhat
farther east, in the open ground. Now, again, all fell into somewhat
better order. The infantry enclosed the camp towards the eastward woods;
the cavalry faced the south; the Schaigies, Schukuries, and Magrabins
the wells towards the west and north. Our two field-pieces were before
the infantry; the few tents, along with the baggage camels and asses,
were in the centre of our rather irregular square.
We brothers were just trying to gain some strength by a midday siesta,
when some shots were fired, followed by a loud confused shouting of
“_Arab, arab ketir!_” The Pascha at once threw himself on his horse,
and, followed by all the mounted, galloped on, while the soldiery in the
utmost confusion ran to the quarter where all looked for the “numberless
enemy,” who had already three times defeated the Turks, and where about
again to, or had risked an attack. We also loaded our rifles, buckled on
our swords, and set out on our way, but had not advanced far in the
thick underwood, when there advanced from it to meet us the so-called
“Old Knight,” the Bischari Sheik Wood Naja, in full suit of armour, but
his grey head bare, riding a most splendid black stallion, with tidings
that it was only a magazine that had been discovered, where durra and
lubia were stored in immense quantities, in the midst of numberless
holes dug in the earth, belonging to the Haddenda Arabs, who had fled
from hence only the night before, under their great Sheik Mohammed Din,
into the Chaaba, making with all possible speed their way out of the
Pascha’s reach, whose arrival they had not so soon expected. On the
discovery of the corn a fight had arisen between the Turks and the row-
loving Schaigies, our friends, the expert goat milkers, but of the enemy
not one was to be seen. The Pascha had given orders that every one might
help himself at will from the prize; and when we arrived at the spot, we
found all in the fullest activity with hands, bayonets, spears, sabres,
hooks, axes, sticks, groping in the pits; and as each found anything, in
it went to sack, bag, or dress, and on horse, camel, or ass-back away
off with it to camp; and left there, the finder was instantly back again
to try his luck once more. The army might have been subsisted for over
two months on this store of durra, although the Haddenda had before
carried off all they could. Besides the grain, the soldiers found beans,
wood, mats, supports for mat huts, and many such things. As we returned
to camp, all the army were going to or coming from the plunder, and
again we were in a critical state; but the Pascha trusted to his lucky
star. The Sheiks, put in action by the false alarm, in their full iron
panoplies, their swords in hand, and horses covered with ornamental
saddlecloths, looked proudly and splendidly out among the thickly dusted
and sweat drenched soldiery, laden like mill-asses. We ourselves got
back to our huts as if drenched in water, but, in spite of the midday-
sun’s heat, we were not there long ere we felt a thrill of frost all
over our bodies.
_6th April._—All rejoiced that to-day was a day of rest. We learned we
were in the neighbourhood of the now deserted tent-villages or camps of
the Arabs of Issi and Teschum. The soldiers could now, by aid of their
hand-mills (tachuhn), slowly grind their grain; and the Khaimakan, that
they might not altogether want meat, did not fail, in his high humanity,
to sell them for 60 paras the heads and entrails of every sheep he
killed, probably thinking these were too small matters to make a present
of. This generous man was the Circassian Sorop Effendi. But even while
eating this meat, the purchaser had to keep an eye on his dearly won
prize, as the numerous vultures, hawks, and ravens were daring enough to
have carried it off from under his very nose, and these bold birds
repeatedly succeeded in snatching the flesh away from its possessor,
especially from the small slaves of eight and ten years old, a number of
whom were in the camp. How these little beings held out under the great
fatigues is to me incomprehensible, nor less did the soldiers’ power of
endurance astonish me, as no arrangements or provisions were made for
such as fell sick, neither tents for their reception nor attendants
provided, and the medicines laid in were not sufficient for an eighth of
them. We rejoiced that we had bought at Cairo a small travelling
medicine chest; this had already done us good service in Chartum, and we
had brought it with us: the Pascha also had a similar one with him for
his own use, and lucky it was so, as all the medicines furnished by
government were bad, and the quinine, here so necessary, fearfully
adulterated. Although a breeze does occasionally blow here, and one may
as much as he can shelter himself by branches, mats, cloaks, &c., from
the sun’s rays, still the glowing heat will not long delay to make its
unhealthy effects fearfully felt. The black soldiers have taken the
wiser course, as many have been daily deserting, and the day before
yesterday fifteen of them left us.
To-day the Sheik of the Hallenga, Mohammed Eli, has arrived to meet the
Pascha. He looks a man of some forty years, is of stately, warrior-like
bearing, with a noble expression of countenance; his hair, greyish about
the temples, is there cut short, but long at the sides, and behind hangs
down at its full length; he had by his side a small Turkish sabre,
probably some present of honour, but most wisely had slung on his saddle
behind him his more trusty long-sword. But Mohammed Din, the most
dreaded of all, alone came not in; indeed, he has had the Pascha
informed, that he will give such grain and beasts as are required, but
he will not visit him. He had already, as I mentioned, sent his only son
as an hostage to meet the Pascha at Soggilab, but the latter, either
from generous pride or some other motive, in my own presence again
dismissed him. As his not coming to meet the Pascha is not the most
peacelike sign, Achmet has repeatedly warned us not to go far from the
camp. Doubtless these Arabs, in larger numbers, lie hidden in the
impenetrable bush, and that they know right well how to throw their
javelins they have more than once shown. In the meantime the all
undertaking and the all attacking Schaigies have to-day slain some of
them, though in the skirmish many of themselves have been wounded.
On a large scale the Pascha cannot act against these people. Roads and
ways there are none; rapidly do they pack up their all on camels, and
with their herds, fly into the Chaaba, where to follow them with an army
is impossible. Where will the Pascha procure the heavy expenses of his
expedition, where will he pass the rainy season? These and others are
questions, the answers to which even he himself has not yet arrived at.
His plans he holds most secret, often says the contrary to what he
intends, either to do, or not to do; but the truth is, he is without any
well considered plan, and the doubtful reports of the Sheiks are not
sufficient to let him clearly see the outs and ins, the why and
wherefore, of his proceedings. That these Sheiks who have now come in so
friendlike, or that those who have accompanied him on his march, can at
heart wish well to the Turks, is not to be easily credited; they who
before were independent, ruled over a free people, could act and do as
they willed, are now deprived of all those privileges, treated with
contempt by the stupid, proud Turks,—nay, even subjected to the
bastinado, loaded with heavy taxes, and hardly enabled, from diminished
revenue, to live, while formerly they fed thousands. Mohammed Din sees
these lords’ lot, seems determined to preserve his freedom as long, and
sell it as dear as he can, should things go ill for him. But if matters
come to extremities, to war itself, setting the Pascha aside, where is
there an able, even a tolerable leader? Abdin Aga, the commander of the
Turkish cavalry, a puffed up Arnaut; Sorop Effendi, stupidity grafted on
avarice; Hassan Effendi Bimbaschi, a quiet glutton; Solimon Aga, greedy
and without all or any education; Hassan Effendi of Sennaar, a Turk in
the true meaning of the word, commands the Infantry; Mohammed Ladjam, a
good-humoured but inexperienced youth, leads the Mograbin horsemen: all
these leaders are distinguished from one another, only by the one
knowing less than his fellow. What can be expected from an army under
such commanders, and more, when that army knows no discipline, and where
its best and bravest, the Schaigies, do and ever have done how and what
they pleased, and might at a critical moment ruin all? Joined with these
are the endless mob of useless rabble, idlers, slaves, and strumpets,
dangerous allies, a mere burden to any army, and a fearful impediment to
its powers of action. But there is comfort in “Allah Cherim!”
_7th April._—To-day we were stationary, so could enjoy a small hunting
excursion round the camp, during which we saw many large and small
turtle-doves, crowds of guinea-fowl and partridges, and a perfect swarm
of finches, but the variety of birds must be far greater in the rainy
season. The thick bush is everywhere most green, everywhere bound
together by square-limbed, cactus-like parasites and climbing plants,
but thornless. From the earth in many places sprout out small grasses,
and when it is kept in mind that from the thickness of the bush, the sun
cannot exert its full withering powers, the idea of some subterraneous
moisture is much strengthened, as the dew is perfectly insignificant.
Stones we saw none.
The excursion did my brother no good, as, after his return to camp he
felt extremely unwell, out of spirits, complained of insufferable
headache, and burning heat. He had hardly lain down, when shouts of
“Arab! Arab!” set all again in motion, and made all run to arms. At such
a moment my brother would not even seem sick, so we hurried off to the
wells, where we met the Pascha already returning with the cavalry. Some
thirty thieving Arabs (Garami) had endeavoured to steal the beasts out
of the asses’ pen, had thrown some lances over their guards heads, and
these, though unharmed, had raised the shouts and tumult. The camp, as
we, on going out of it, discovered, had neither pallisade, ditch, nor
any defence towards the east. Enriched by this new proof of Turkish
tactics, but unfortunately poorer by a handsome hunting-knife, which my
brother lost on the way, we returned back to our tent.
_8th April._—During the past night, which we spent without rest, as my
brother’s sufferings were much increased by violent vomiting, incessant
thirst, fearful burning in the bowels, restless dozing, and delirious
raving, there all at once arose a fearful noise and a little firing; in
spite of it, I, however, remained in our hut, as my brother could not
move, and the infantry did not stir, trusting to their cavalry comrades.
Only when I saw the Bimbaschi Hassam Effendi lead his company past our
hut, and commence, in his mad zeal, firing away over the powder barrels,
as if he intended to use them as a defence against hostile lances, did I
rush on him, sword in hand, and threaten him both with the weapon and
the Pascha; on which the idiot recovered his senses, praying me not to
betray him. The whole proved a false alarm, but the tormented Pascha had
again started into activity, as he never made the slightest use of his
aid-de-camps, and seemed to hold that his own presence was necessary to
inspire his troops with courage. Some foes had, however, been brought
down, as many traces of blood ran into the bush, although all the shots
during the night had been fired on the happy-go-lucky principle. The
tactics of our Napoleon-honouring Pascha went so far as to leave the
wells, though some 200 paces from our camp, all night totally unguarded,
and these might therefore have been with the greatest ease poisoned or
filled up, by an enterprising enemy. A real piece of good luck it was
for us that no large stones were to be had near to fill up these wells,
as we had neither tools nor any means of removing such.
As a variety, the bands were ordered by the Pascha to perform; but a
fearful punishment their music proved to our European ears, and how
could it be otherwise, as no two instruments were in tune, nor was there
aught to soften the banging of the brass instruments. The Turkish
cavalry, as well as the Magrabin, have some few small kettle-drums of
four inches in diameter, which are incessantly thumped, while the
Schaigies of Melik Mammud had only one great copper drum, on which were
struck single blows at long irregular intervals, at the performer’s
pleasure.