Magrabin’s musket burst in his hands, and not only was the inside of one
hand carried away, but part of the fore-arm shot off, and so lacerated,
that most of the bones and sinews were laid bare and torn. As another
surgeon wished to amputate at once, the Sheik Selim brought him to my
brother: he put it to rights as far as he could, sewed up and plastered
it, ordering constant cold bandagings, though he had little hopes of the
lacerated parts uniting, as the accident happened yesterday, though the
wounded man only came to him to-day at noon. When Joseph visited him
this evening, no cold applications had been used; the patient fancied he
must eat first, and as he had no food of his own, thought we might,
perhaps, send him some;—a pleasant reward to my brother for all the
pains he had already taken about him, and for which he had not received
even a single word of thanks from any party.
A considerable number of the soldiers have been sent out to hasten the
bringing in of the tribute, as in their presence each Scheik makes
greater exertions, and it is possible they may pick up some knowledge of
his country. We now at length discovered that each tribe under tulba
pays 20 piastres each male (children not counted), and a tenth of all
beasts and produce of all kinds. This tribute is not great, but still it
will be heavily felt, and difficult to raise in those lands, where all
trade is carried on by barter against cotton cloths. What taxes these
tribes may have hereafter to pay, when the Turks find they have a firmer
footing in the land, time will show.
After the Pascha had again to-day called his most devoted follower, the
Major of Kordafan and Sennaar, an ass, complaining that everything fell
on his own shoulders, he turned to me, and with much seeming
satisfaction told me that the exploring expedition had returned from the
White Nile, having traced that river for 600 miles upwards from Chartum.
Now, this is either a great error or a great falsehood; nor can I resist
the inclination I feel to investigate how far the Pascha’s favourite
epithet may not apply to the leader of this expedition.
The chief commander of it, and general of its 400 soldiers, was Soliman
Kaschef, of Karreri, a countryman and friend of the Pascha, who had sent
him on this expedition to look after his interests, and have a special
eye on Selim-Capitan, sent from Alexandria as chief leader. Men call
Soliman Kaschef a good man, but though he may understand justly to allot
and gather in the taxes of his district, still he is certainly no fit
person to judge with accuracy of foreign countries and people, as
regards their geographical position, cultivation, produce, industrious
arts, and other such points, or to give them any hints how to better or
increase them; nor is he fitted to observe if the Nile flows from a lake
or hill, whether its course is east or west, &c. He has neither
education, nor, as far as I know, inclination for such matters, and
assuredly will ever have been thinking more of his harem at Karreri, and
comfortable life there, than the aims of his journey; so the first
plausible cause for a return will have been the pleasantest of all
occurrences to him.
As admiral of the exploring fleet went the already-named short and well-
fed Selim-Capitan, of Candia, a better judge of the qualities of young
slaves than of navigation; and even only so far qualified and equipped
for his office as one would expect from a proud, arrogant Mussulman. In
one word, he is a perfect specimen of an Egyptian man-of-war captain.
Such a one would not even admit of the idea of laying down a degree of
latitude or longitude, to determine the position of a country, or the
course of a river. [This however proved, as often happens in this world,
a hastily formed opinion which I had entered in my journal, possibly
from vexation at being prevented by sickness from personally taking part
in the expedition, and partly because I could perceive no scientific
knowledge about him; but I must now bear testimony, on the contrary, to
his ability as a practical navigator, of which I had full proof during
my later expedition on the White Nile, and in my account of that voyage
I have already done so.] Besides, he is a man of mean, avaricious
habits. The Soliman Kaschef is a liberal person, a quality that, well
used, may do much in these exploring expeditions. The vice-admiral, by
name Feizulla Capitan, is a man of good character, but, like the others,
most remarkable merely from his ignorance. He indeed had passed five
years in England, receiving instructions in naval science, and such
matters; but every one asserts he came home as wise as he went, though
he has picked up a smattering of English, with which he manages to make
a show on all occasions.
These three gentlemen were the chiefs of the exploring expedition; and
being such as they were, who could expect that any one of them could be
of any service in such an affair? and as their rank and authority was
pretty equal, it could be as little looked for that they should work in
unison, or do their best, bad though that might be, to carry out the
aims of their enterprise.
Besides these, the others were Turks of ordinary life. But a special
mention is due to that chief of adventurers, Monsieur Thibaut, who was
selected as engineer to this expedition, by reason of his various
capabilities and genius. Whether at this moment many cities dispute the
honour of his birth, I cannot tell; but as far as my information goes,
Paris is the honoured place of his nativity, and there he passed his
younger days as one of her famed _gamins_, without acquiring further
knowledge than to read and write, or troubling his head about more. When
Greece strove to burst her bonds of slavery, his heroic heart beat for
her, and for two whole years Greece had the pleasure of admiring his
deeds, but then the misfortune of beholding him quit her soil for Egypt,
and join the foes of Hellas. There, however, he rested on his laurels,
scorning fresh ones, till he joined his compatriot Seves (the present
Soliman Pascha in Syria) who was then in Assuan, where, and in the
opposite island of Elephantina, he organized the two first regiments on
the European system, and, as all must allow, did so zealously and well.
There it pleased M. Thibaut to fall into serious meditations over
Europe’s weal and woe, from which not even his best friend’s persuasions
could arouse him, or prevail on him to embrace some more active career,
as then every thing was open to Europeans, who had only to choose their
own degrees, as doctors or apothecaries, professors or instructors, to
have such allowed them in Egypt. But the philosophic Thibaut would have
held it a disgrace to have resigned his valuable meditations for the
duties of instructing and drilling recruits, so did not in any way
trouble himself about an instructor’s office or the good pay attached to
it; till at last Soliman Pascha lost all interest in a man’s affairs,
who, as he said of himself, was without mind or energy, but who had in
the meantime been brooding over another, though far less honourable
plan, which he now put in force. He became commissioner to the great
slave-dealer, Joseph Vaissère, a Frenchman of Languedoc, who with the
“Croix d’honneur” (?) on his breast, parades the slaves’ bazaars, buying
and selling these unfortunates; with him our philosopher journeyed to
the Bellad-Sudan, the Gold-rich Land. But ere long he had bored himself
enough with men and men’s affairs, so he now cast his eyes on the animal
kingdom, of which, with other men’s money, he picked up some curious
specimens, and so ere long we find him first in London, then at Paris,
where he gained himself high fame as showman and proprietor of some
living giraffes (saraf). His project of conveying a living hippopotamus
to Europe failed, but he at least bore off in triumph with him the
brute’s skin. In London he became acquainted with his present Dulcinea,
Madame Sara, who had arrived in that capital with an English family, a
slave from Kordofan, a most interesting person, and who, in addition, is
the one with whom the Vice-Admiral Feizulla displays his accomplishments
in English. It is said that in former years she had been most pretty, as
far as a black can be so; of this, indeed, some remains may still be
traced, though now good living, high indulgence in idleness and repose,
have swollen out her once well shaped form to colossal dimensions, and
repeated and full draughts of darling merissa, it is whispered, have
aided much in this. Mrs. Sara had picked up some property, reason
sufficient that Mons. Thibaut should pick up her, and with her and her
money return to Chartum, where he again set up his staff, and lived
comfortably enough on his wife’s means, till the Frigate-Capitan Achmet
(a Swiss named Baumgarten) was sent to examine closely the White Nile,
and took our friend, then Chawagi Ibrahim, with him. Achmet Capitan died
after fulfilling his task, but during his dying moments no one was near
him save Thibaut and Dr. Soliman Effendi,—a singular loneliness, more
remarkable as many matters belonging to the dead man were missing, as
books, maps, charts, manuscripts, and some instruments; but it is
possible these had been given away. Baumgarten had employed Ibrahim, at
the recommendation of Achmet Pascha; and Ibrahim, by what means I know
not, got himself recommended to Mehmet Ali, then in Bellad-Sudan. In
short, all of a sudden, Mons. Thibaut was named engineer to the
expedition, with 1000 piastres a month, and travelled on in full
security under the guidance of Baumgarten’s notes, maps, papers,
instruments, &c. The instruments, however, must have had an easy time of
it with him, as our hero had not the smallest idea of their scientific
uses, nor even of how to handle them, nor would he learn. So what could
be hoped for from him? Nothing but the journal, notes, and charts, of
Achmet-Capitan, altered and garbled, with favourite places and races set
down where fancy dictated, and others that did not please struck out.
Lies,—adventures,—wonders,—were there in over abundance; such as the 600
miles of course surveyed, as the Pascha told us. The expedition was five
months out; allow them three consumed in upward progress, and two for
returning, thus to arrive at the 600 miles, seven miles a day must have
been for three months the advance; a thing utterly impossible, taking
into consideration ignorance of the river’s channel, the long and large
shallow reaches—so many of which are to be seen in the White River—the
knowing nothing of the languages of the countries, the halts necessary
to make inquiries, and the still more necessary ones to procure
provisions; then the total indifference of the Turks to all pushing on,
or discoveries of any kind; and, finally, the disunion of the leaders
among themselves;—all these considered, I say, made such progress
impossible; and, were these not enough, the heavy-laden state of their
vessels of itself made the thing impracticable.
But, be the 600 miles’ survey as it may, this much is only too
certain,—that the hopes raised in all Europe as to the results of this
expedition will be as little satisfied, as science or knowledge will be
advanced by it.[10]
Mohammed Din has again visited the camp, and the Pascha has announced to
him, that he must remain a hostage here till the tribute is paid, and
probably also to answer for the lives of the thirty soldiers sent into
his country. However, it seems to have occurred to the Pascha, that it
was more than probable that the great Sheik’s absence from his own tribe
might cause matters to go totally wrong, as he has again dismissed him
to his people; but, as hostage in his stead, his only son Mussa has been
placed under Mohammed Defalla’s care and guard.
We have now, in the early mornings, a good many clouds (Nedde), and
tolerably cool air. At night the breeze is actually cold. The soldiers
suffer much on night guards from this, as also from their bad food,
which for long has been nothing but Belila. That the white soldiers from
Syria and Egypt hold out far better against fatigues and heat than the
blacks, is remarkable, as these latter should be far more accustomed and
used to the heat.
The medical lessons and occupations of my brother have begun to attract
much of my attention, and he has promised to keep a medical journal; but
he must first get himself well, as he ever returns from his medical
duties perfectly disgusted, complaining of the insufferable stench
arising from the patients, and, worn out, falls back in perfect apathy
on his cushions, with sunken head; sleeps with his eyes open,—often
seeming to me as if something unnatural had come over him. So gets on my
Joseph as doctor!
Later, when I had joined the expedition up the White Nile, he wrote me
from the camp of Kassela-el-Lus to Chartum, that he had compiled a stout
volume on African diseases, but was inconsolable at having lost all his
labours. Ten days’ dangerous illness, during which he sadly missed me,
had rendered him delirious; during the time he was in this state, on his
servant’s asking him for some paper to light a fire with, he had given
him his manuscript journal, and the stupid blockhead had used it for
such mean purposes. In the same letter he bewailed the loss of our small
menagerie, all of which had been starved to death. Topschi Baschi had,
at the Pascha’s order, who had visited and beheld the state my brother
was in, taken charge of his money that it might not be stolen, and
issued to the servants the necessary coin for Joseph’s expenses, as also
that needed to purchase food for the animals, which latter money they
had spent in Merissa. Joseph, on being a very little better, opened the
Fagged (a species of lynx), that had held out longest, having just then
expired, and perfectly convinced himself that starvation alone had
caused its death. The annoying vexations one suffers from these servants
is beyond belief; and even the gentlest and mildest of men, like my
brother, are compelled to do violence to their feelings, and have
recourse to the Kurbash (hide whip).
The blacks in large numbers are suffering fearfully from the heat of the
sun. They complain of horribly torturing heat, and burning in the head,
and over the whole body; of such relaxation and weakness in the limbs,
especially the legs, as not to be able to walk, and hardly to move them;
the pulse is much quickened, at times hard, but never full. They are
generally, after a few days, restored to health by bleeding, and cupping
in the neck; but a bad case it ever is, when a negro becomes seriously
ill, or is attacked by dysentery, for seldom does he survive it. Still,
as before, one half of the army suffer from catarrh. Considering how we
are situated, fever is rare; and only in very few cases does it reach
_stadium frigoris_; but then, the hot fit, with violent headache, and
often gastric complication, is all the longer and more severe. As yet we
have had no deaths from fever alone, violent though in many cases its
attacks have been. Diseases of the eyes have been rare if one does not
regard as such a kind of œdema of the eyelids, which often goes so far
as to prevent the sufferer opening even a hair’s breadth, the rima
palpebræ. Often, in one day, six or eight sufferers under this, come to
us; the reason they give for it is, they have been cutting durra, and
must have rubbed their eyes with their hands, and some hurtful herb been
among the durra. But as the conjunctiva balbi et palpebræ, as well as
the pupil of the eyes, are wholly uninjured, Joseph doubts much that it
is the effect of any blistering or deleterious substance. Probably the
cause is cold. The men are highly heated by day while cutting durra, and
then exposed to cold on night duties, without a sufficient covering for
the head; for it is at these times, by their own showing, that the evil
commences.
To-day the Sheik of the Beni-Amer, with his elephant uncle, left us for
his three days’ distant home, to bring in his Tulba. Hassan Effendi, of
Chartum, accompanied him with his soldiers, and also Melek Aat and his
Schaigies. Our hunter Abdallah goes with this party, to shoot, and
collect specimens for our collection. His Mentor is an old Schaigie
named Hami, who is answerable to us for Abdallah with his head. Mohammed
Defalla may once more rejoice in being master in his own tent, as this
heretofore has been ever filled with these Sheiks and their attendants,
so that he could call no part of it his own; besides, on him fell the
heavy burden of providing for all these people. If a stranger arrives,
and asks the Pascha where he is to lodge, the reply, without a moment’s
consideration, is, “Go to Defalla!” Unalarmed at his thus ever
increasing expenses, the good-natured Defalla, into whose head the idea
of repayment never enters, replies, “Taib (Well, good) Effendina!” and
has another guest. Our fat friend comes daily to our tent for his cough
mixture, _i.e._ a beaker of strong punch, after swallowing which he
never fails to remark that his Battè (paunch) feels much better. This
Battè of his is much in his way when he would kneel to say his prayers;
so he now holds it wiser to sit quietly down on his hinder end. For our
bodily refreshment he often regales us with Kuschab, a kind of mead made
with dripped honey, water, and much pepper; by no means unpleasant to
the taste, and slightly intoxicating. We received to-day, as a present
from the leader of the Magrabins, Mohammed Ladham, of Tripolis, the skin
of an antelope (Ariel) as large as an ass, with legs like those of a
cow; on the back and sides it is bright brown, white under the belly,
greyish on the sides of the head and under the eyes; over the forehead
and nose runs a broad brown stripe, and the horns are black, twisted,
rising upwards from behind, and turning away from each other at the
points. It is a pity that the hide is completely severed across at the
throat, to let out the blood; the custom of the Mussulmen in killing all
beasts and birds, for so it is ordered in the Koran—the beast must be
living, and the flesh (debieg—with the Jews, Koscher) quivering, when
this cut is made. In general, a Mussulman, immediately after firing at
any animal, exclaims, “Bismillah!” to propitiate Allah, as the chase is
strictly forbidden by the Prophet, save under peculiar circumstances.
To tempt into the camp the Arabs round, not one of whom is hardly ever
seen inside our fence, the merchants accompanying the army have been
permitted to form a bazaar outside the palisades, and there by day
expose their wares for sale. The most favourite articles for sale are
small mirrors or looking-glasses (Marrai, or Mirroa, from the French,
Miroir); these are offered cheap, and must be highly pleasing to the
Arabs here, as they will sit the whole day gazing into them, and even
the eldest among them seem never to weary of this unrelaxing admiration
of their own reflections. As a variety, every now and then a camel,
horse, or ass of ours is carried off by these gentry. Not very long ago
a Soggilab stole a horse of one of the Schaigies, and bringing him up
close to the camp, killed the beast with many stabs of his knife; thus
displaying the deep innate hatred of these people to their oppressors.
And this would be most assuredly proved to us in a very different
manner, were it not that the Pascha has concentrated so large a force as
to overawe them; and so many being armed with firearms, of which the
natives’ dread is almost childish. Even at present they show how deep
their hate is, by not one ever bringing us the smallest article for
sale, flesh, milk, honey, &c.—we can get none, no, not by an offer of
ten times its value. Then, from their repeated refusals of money, it
seems probable, all trade among themselves is by barter; coin they
certainly have none. How under such circumstances the Pascha will get in
the tribute, and in the short space of thirty days, is to us
incomprehensible. It is true, that at a village some hours’ journey from
hence, the present abode of Mohammed Din, a considerable number of
cattle have been collected; but it is equally certain that far greater
numbers are held in concealment, and in this way the tithe of both
beasts and goods will be much reduced. That the number of men will also
be in some similar manner made appear much less than the real number,
and so diminish the head tax, is also not to be doubted. And who, save a
Turk, could blame the people for doing so, as it is only what self-
interest teaches?
The lot of the oppressed and enslaved is pitiable enough in its best
view; but doubly enraged must every right-minded man be when he sees how
inhumanly even Europeans allow themselves to act towards the
unfortunates who have the ill fate of being their slaves. Thus the
tender-hearted apothecary Dumont blushes not constantly to vent his
uncalled-for passion in the most savage manner by kurbasch, fist, or
foot on his little slave Amber, though the poor lad does more than all
his other servants—but then the slave cannot defend himself! Often have
we before now left this brute’s presence not to be spectators of his
savage cruelties, but he seems determined to persist in these in spite
of all our remonstrances. I have, however, at last informed him that I
will call him to an account with my sabre if he does not desist, and
also have threatened him that we will take Amber away from him, give him
letters of manumission, and employ him as our servant, as he (Dumont)
being an European and Frenchman has no right to possess a slave; and
this we have already done in the cases of some ill-used slaves of
Europeans in Chartum, and in these acts the Pascha ever supported us.
Unfortunately, he is not the only Frank here who acts thus tyrannically;
nor can I refrain from mentioning by name another, the Frenchman
Vigoureux, an old corporal of Napoleon’s, at present living at Kordofan,
who is also guilty of even worse cruelties. That his manner and habits
have not lost their old corporal’s tinge is no fair charge against him,
but it is a nameless disgrace to him that his newly-imported Parisian
wife should be allowed to exercise on her female slaves the cruelties of
all sorts she too often is guilty of. While in Chartum, my brother, one
day at noon, during its fearful heat, saw this man’s small ten-year old
female slave Nimra bound perfectly naked to a post, so that her body,
all marked with bloody wheals and clotted, drying, and bleeding cuts,
was exposed to the sun’s glowing rays, without her having the power of
moving it. On his demanding the cause, madame and monsieur smilingly
replied, that the little girl had not done something exactly as this
Xantippe had ordered, and that he, this old soldier of the empire, had
with his own hand flogged and cut the wretched girl with a kurbasch,
till wearied out he had, to make the punishment complete, thus bound and
exposed her to the sun’s beams, that the cuts might smart the longer;
nor would these worthies consent even now to put an end to their
barbarities, and madame most particularly showed her total ignorance of
mercy. Pity such a woman should boast European blood! My brother came
home, when I soon remarked something unpleasant had befallen him, and
set about questioning him. “If you will promise to keep cool,” he said,
and told me the story; but no remonstrance was of any use; I was already
dressed and soon on my legs; so buckling on my sword, and taking up my
10½ lb. iron staff, well known in Chartum, and from which I was
nicknamed Abu Nabut (the father of the stick), I set off at a pace that
soon left my brother behind, who followed, fearing some mischance. Over
the low but bolted court-door I beheld the poor girl, and, as I was
afterwards told, shouted in furious tones for Vigoureux; but he, though
in all haste, held it advisable to unbind the girl ere he admitted me.
At first I was furious, but he called his wife to the rescue, and as her
interference prevented my punishing him on the spot, I grew calmer, and
at last cooled down. He, after this, told me, as he had done before, of
a curious escape he had made when in former days pursued by our black
hussars, by bending down over his horse’s neck while urging him to his
utmost speed; he had to thank his carbine, slung across his back, that
he was not sliced into ribbons.