The drum beat a little after six o'clock in the evening. We then had

a very comfortable dinner sent us, camels flesh stewed with an herb

of a viscous slimy substance, called Bammia. After having dined, and

finished the journal of the day, I fell to unpacking my instruments,

the barometer and thermometer first, and, after having hung them up,

was conversing with Adelan's servant when I should pay my visit to his

master. About eight o'clock came a servant from the palace, telling

me now was the time to bring the present to the king. I sorted the

separate articles with all the speed I could, and we went directly to

the palace. The king was then sitting in a large apartment, as far as

I could guess, at some distance from the former. He was naked, but

had several clothes lying upon his knee, and about him, and a servant

was rubbing him over with very stinking butter or grease, with which

his hair was dropping as if wet with water. Large as the room was, it

could be smelled through the whole of it. The king asked me, If ever

I greased myself as he did? I said, Very seldom, but fancied it would

be very expensive. He then told me, That it was elephants grease,

which made people strong, and preserved the skin very smooth. I said,

I thought it very proper, but could not bear the smell of it, though

my skin should turn as rough as an elephant's for the want of it. He

said, "If I had used it, my hair would not have turned so red as it

was, and that it would all become white presently when that redness

came off. You may see the Arabs driven in here by the Daveina, and all

their cattle taken from them, because they have no longer any grease

for their hair. The sun first turns it red and then perfectly white;

and you'll know them in the street by their hair being the colour of

yours. As for the smell, you will see that cured presently."

After having rubbed him abundantly with grease, they brought a pretty

large horn, and in it something scented, about as liquid as honey. It

was plain that civet was a great part of the composition. The king

went out at the door, I suppose into another room, and there two men

deluged him over with pitchers of cold water, whilst, as I imagine,

he was stark-naked. He then returned, and a slave anointed him with

this sweet ointment; after which he sat down, as completely dressed,

being just going to his women's apartment where he was to sup. I told

him I wondered why he did not use rose-water as in Abyssinia, Arabia,

and Cairo. He said, he had it often from Cairo, when the merchants

arrived; but as it was now long since any came, his people could not

make more, for the rose would not grow in his country, though the

women made something like it of lemon-flower.

His toilet being finished, I then produced my present which I told him

the king of Abyssinia had sent to him, hoping that, according to the

faith and custom of nations, he would not only protect me while here,

but send me safely and speedily out of his dominions into Egypt. He

answered, There was a time when he could have done all this, and more,

but those times were changed. Sennaar was in ruin, and was not like

what it once was. He then ordered some perfumed sorbet to be brought

for me to drink in his presence, which is a pledge that your person is

in safety. I thereupon withdrew, and he went to his ladies.

It was not till the eighth of May I had my audience of Shekh Adelan

at Aira, which is three miles and a half from Sennaar; we walked out

early in the morning, for the greatest part of the way along the side

of the Nile, which had no beauty, being totally divested of trees, the

bottom foul and muddy, and the edges of the water white with small

concretions of calcarious earth, which, with the bright sun upon them,

dazzled and affected our eyes very much.

We then struck across a large sandy plain without trees or bushes, and

came to Adelan's habitation; two or three, very considerable houses of

one storey occupied the middle of a large square, each of whose sides

was at least half of an English mile. Instead of a wall to inclose

this square, was a high fence or impalement of strong reeds, canes,

or stalks of dora, (I do not know which) in fascines strongly joined

together by stakes and cords. On the outside of the gate, on each

hand, were six houses of a slighter construction than the rest; close

upon the fence were sheds where the soldiers lay, the horses picqueted

before them with their heads turned towards the sheds, and their food

laid before them on the ground; above each soldier's sleeping-place,

covered only on the top and open in the sides, were hung a lance, a

small oval shield, and a large broad-sword. These, I understood, were

chiefly quarters for couriers, who being Arabs, were not taken into

the court or square, but shut out at night.

Within the gate was a number of horses, with the soldiers barracks

behind them; they were all picqueted in ranks, their faces to their

masters barracks. It was one of the finest sights I ever saw of the

kind. They were all above sixteen hands high, of the breed of the old

Saracen horses, all finely made, and as strong as our coach-horses,

but exceedingly nimble in their motion; rather thick and short in the

forehand, but with the most beautiful eyes, ears, and heads in the

world; they were mostly black, some of them black and white, some of

them milk-white foaled, so not white by age, with white eyes and white

hoofs, not perhaps a great recommendation.

A steel shirt of mail hung upon each man's quarters opposite to his

horse, and by it an antelope's skin made soft like shamoy, with which

it was covered from the dew of the night. A head-piece of copper,

without crest or plumage, was suspended by a lace above the shirt of

mail, and was the most picturesque part of the trophy. To these was

added an enormous broad-sword in a red leather scabbard; and upon the

pummel hung two thick gloves, not divided into fingers as ours, but

like hedgers gloves, their fingers in one poke. They told me, that,

within that inclosure at Aira, there were 400 horses, which, with the

riders, and armour complete for each of them, were all the property

of Shekh Adelan, every horseman being his slave, and bought with his

money. There were five or six (I know not which) of these squares or

inclosures, none of them half a mile from the other, which contained

the king's horses, slaves, and servants. Whether they were all in as

good order as Adelan's I cannot say, for I did not go further; but

no body of horse could ever be more magnificently disposed under the

direction of any Christian power.

Adelan was then sitting upon a piece of the trunk of a palm-tree, in

the front of one of these divisions of his horses, which he seemed

to be contemplating with pleasure; a number of black people, his own

servants and friends, were standing around him. He had on a long

drab-coloured camlet gown, lined with yellow sattin, and a camlet cap

like a head piece, with two short points that covered his ears. This,

it seems, was his dress when he rose early in the morning to visit

his horses, which he never neglected. The Shekh was a man above six

feet high, and rather corpulent, had a heavy walk, seemingly more from

affectation of grandeur than want of agility. He was about sixty,

of the colour and features of an Arab and not of a Negro, but had

rather more beard than falls to the lot of people in this country;

large piercing eyes, and a determined, tho', at the same time, a very

pleasing countenance. Upon my coming near him he got up, "You that are

a horseman, (says he, without any salutation) what would your king

of Habesh give for these horses?"--"What king, answered I, in the

same tone, would not give any price for such horses if he knew their

value?"--"Well, replies he, in a lower voice, to the people about him,

if we are forced to go to Habesh (as Baady was) we will carry our

horses along with us." I understood by this he alluded to the issue of

his approaching quarrel with the king.

We then went into a large saloon, hung round with mirrors and scarlet

damask; in one of the longest sides, were two large sofas covered with

crimson and yellow damask, and large cushions of cloth of gold, like

to the king's. He now pulled off his camlet gown and cap, and remained

in a crimson sattin coat reaching down below his knees, which lapped

over at the breast, and was girt round his waist with a scarf or sash,

in which he had stuck a short dagger in an ivory sheath, mounted with

gold; and one of the largest and most beautiful amethysts upon his

finger that ever I saw, mounted plain, without any diamonds, and a

small gold ear-ring in one of his ears.

"Why have you come hither, says he to me, without arms, and on foot,

and without attendants?" _Yagoube._ "I was told that horses were not

kept at Sennaar, and brought none with me." _Adelan._ "You suppose

you have come through great dangers, and so you have. But what do you

think of me, who am day and night out in the fields, surrounded by

hundreds and thousands of Arabs, all of whom would eat me alive if

they dared?" I answered, "A brave man, used to command as you are,

does not look to the number of his enemies, but to their abilities; a

wolf does not fear ten thousand sheep more than he does one." _Ad._

"True; look out at the door; these are their chiefs whom I am now

taxing, and I have brought them hither that they may judge from what

they see whether I am ready for them or not." _Yag._ "You could not

do more properly; but, as to my own affairs, I wait upon you from the

king of Abyssinia, desiring safe conduct through your country into

Egypt, with his royal promise, that he is ready to do the like for you

again, or any other favour you may call upon him for." He took the

letter and read it. _Ad._ "The king of Abyssinia may be assured I am

always ready to do more for him than this. It is true, since the mad

attempt upon Sennaar, and the next still madder, to replace old Baady

upon the throne, we have had no formal peace, but neither are we at

war. We understand one another as good neighbours ought to do; and

what else is peace?" _Yag._ "You know I am a stranger and traveller,

seeking my way home. I have nothing to do with peace or war between

nations. All I beg is a safe conduct through your kingdom, and the

rights of hospitality bestowed in such cases on every common stranger;

and one of the favours I beg is, your acceptance of a small present.

I bring it not from home; I have been long absent from thence, or it

would have been better." _Ad._ "I'll not refuse it, but it is quite

unnecessary. I have faults like other men, but to hurt, or ransom

strangers, was never one of them. Mahomet Abou Kalec, my brother, is

however a much better man to strangers than I am; you will be lucky if

you meet him here; if not, I will do for you what I can when once the

confusion of these Arabs is over."

I gave him the sherriffe's letter, which he opened, looked at, and

laid by without reading, saying only, "Aye, Metical is a good man,

he sometimes takes care of our people going to Mecca; for my part, I

never was there, and probably never shall." I then presented my letter

from Ali Bey to him. He placed it upon his knee, and gave a slap upon

it with his open hand. _Ad._ "What! do you not know, have you not

heard, Mahomet Abou Dahab, his Hasnadar, has rebelled against him,

banished him out of Cairo, and now sits in his place? But don't be

disconcerted at that, I know you to be a man of honour and prudence;

if Mahomet, my brother, does not come, as soon as I can get leisure I

will dispatch you." The servant that had conducted me to Sennaar, and

was then with us, went forward close to him, and said, in a kind of

whisper, "Should he go often to the king?"--"When he pleases; he may

go to see the town, and take a walk, but never alone, and also to the

palace, that, when he returns to his own country, he may report he saw

a king at Sennaar, that neither knows how to govern, nor will suffer

others to teach him; who knows not how to make war, and yet will not

sit in peace." I then took my leave of him, but there was a plentiful

breakfast in the other room, to which he sent us, and which went far

to comfort Hagi Ismael for the misfortune of his patron Ali Bey. At

going out, I took my leave by kissing his hand, which he submitted to

without reluctance. "Shekh, said I, when I pass these Arabs in the

square, I hope it will not disoblige you if I converse with some of

them out of curiosity?" _Ad._ "By no means, as much as you please;

but don't let them know where they can find you at Sennaar, or they

will be in your house from morning till night, will eat up all your

victuals, and then, in return, will cut your throat if they can meet

you upon your journey."

I returned home to Sennaar, very well pleased with my reception at

Aira. I had not seen, since I left Gondar, a man so open and frank in

his manners, and who spoke without disguise what apparently he had in

his heart; but he was exceedingly engaged in business, and it was of

such extent that it seemed to me impossible to be brought to an end in

a much longer time than I proposed staying at Sennaar. The distance,

too, between Aira and that town was a very great discouragement to

me. The whole way was covered with insolent, brutish people, so that

every man we met between Sennaar and Aira produced some altercation,

some demand of presents, gold, cloth, tobacco, and a variety of other

disagreeable circumstances, which had always the appearance of ending

in something serious.

I had a long conversation with the Arabs I met with at Aira, and

from them I learned pretty nearly the situation of the different

clans or tribes in Atbara. These were all in their way northward to

the respective countries in the sands to the eastward of Mendera and

Barbar. These sands, so barren and desolate the rest of the year, were

beginning now to be crowded with multitudes of cattle and inhabitants.

The fly, in the flat and fertile mold which composes all the soil

to the southward of Sennaar, had forced this number of people to

migrate, which they very well knew was to cost them at least one half

of their substance; of such consequence is the weakest instrument in

the hand of Providence. The troops of Sennaar, few in number, but well

provided with every thing, stood ready to cut these people off from

their access to the sands, till every chief of a tribe had given in a

well-verified inventory of his whole stock, and made a composition, at

passing, with Shekh Adelan.

All subterfuge was in vain. The fly, in possession of the fertile

country, inexorably pursued every single camel till he took refuge

in the sands, and there he was to stay till the rains ceased; and

if, in the interim, it was discovered that any concealment of number

or quality had been made, they were again to return in the beginning

of September to their old pastures; and in this second passage, any

fraud, whether real or alledged, was punished with great severity.

Resistance had been often tried, and as often found ineffectual.

However great their numbers, encumbered with families and baggage as

they were, they had always fallen a sacrifice to those troops, well

mounted and armed, that awaited them in their way within sight of

their own homes. Arrived once in the sands, they were quiet during

the rains, having paid their passage northward, and so they were

afterwards, for the same reason, when they came again to their own

station, southward, when those rains had ceased.

It may be asked reasonably, What does the government of Sennaar do

with that immense number of camels which they receive from all those

tribes of Arabs in their passage by Sennaar? To this I answer, That

all this tribute is not paid in kind. The different tribes possessing

so many camels, or so many other cattle, have a quantum laid upon them

at an average value. This is paid in gold, or in slaves, the rest in

kind; so many for the maintenance of the king and government; for

there is no flesh commonly used at Sennaar in the markets but that of

camels. The residue is bought by the merchants of Dongola, and sent

into Egypt, where they supply that great consumption of these animals

made every year by the caravans going to Mecca.

One thing had made a very strong impression on me, which was the

contemptuous manner in which Adelan expressed himself as to his

sovereign. I was satisfied that, with some address, I could keep

myself in favour with either of them; but in the terms they then were,

or were very soon to be, I could not but fear I was likely to fall

into trouble between the two.

The next morning, after I came home from Aira, I was agreeably

surprised by a visit from Hagi Belal, to whom I had been recommended

by Metical Aga, and to whom Ibrahim Seraff, the English broker at

Jidda, had addressed me for any money I should need at Sennaar. He

welcomed me with great kindness, and repeated testimonies of joy and

wonder at my safe arrival. He had been down in Atbara at Gerri, or

some villages near it, with merchandize, and had not yet seen the king

since he came home, but gave me the very worst description possible of

the country, insomuch that there seemed to be not a spot, but the one

I then stood on, in which I was not in imminent danger of destruction,

from a variety of independent causes, which it seemed not possibly

in my power to avoid. He sent me in the evening some refreshments,

which I had long been unaccustomed to; some tea, excellent coffee,

some honey and brown sugar, several bottles of rack, likewise nutmegs,

cinnamon, ginger, and some very good dates of the dry kind which he

had brought from Atbara.

Hagi Belal was a native of Morocco. He had been at Cairo, and also at

Jidda and Mocha. He knew the English well, and professed himself both

obliged and attached to them. It was some days before I ventured to

speak to him upon money business, or upon any probability of finding

assistance here at Sennaar. He gave me little hopes of the latter,

repeating to me what I very well knew about the disagreement of the

king and Adelan. He seemed to place all his expectations, and those

were but faint ones, in the coming of Shekh Abou Kalec from Kordofan.

He said, nothing could be expected from Shekh Adelan without going to

Aira, for that he would never trust himself in Sennaar, in this king's

lifetime, but that the minister was absolute the moment he assembled

his troops without the town.

One morning he came to me, after having been with the king, when I

was myself preparing to go to the palace. He said, he had been sent

for upon my account, and had been questioned very narrowly what sort

of a man I was. Having answered very favourably, both of me and my

nation, he was asked for Metical Aga's letters, or any other letters

he had received concerning me from Jidda; he said, that he had only

shewn Metical's letter, wrote in the name of the sherriffe, as also

one from himself; that there were several great officers of government

present; and the Cadi (whom I had seen the first time I had been with

the king) had read the letters aloud to them all: That one of them

had asked, How it came that such a man as I ventured to pass these

deserts, with four or five old servants, and what it was I came to

see; that he answered, he apprehended my chief object at Sennaar was

to be forwarded to my own country. It was also asked, Why I had not

some Englishmen with me, as none of my servants were of that nation,

but poor beggarly Kopts, Arabs, and Turks, who were none of them of my

religion? Belal answered, That travellers through these countries must

take up with such people as they can find going the same way; however,

he believed some English servants had died in Abyssinia, which country

I had left the first opportunity that had offered, being wearied by

the perpetual war which prevailed. Upon which the king said, "He has

chosen well, when he came into this country for peace. You know, Hagi

Belal, I can do nothing for him; there is nothing in my hands. I could

easier get him back into Abyssinia than forward him into Egypt. Who is

it now that can pass into Egypt?" The Cadi then said, "Hagi Belal can

get him to Suakem, and so to Jidda to his countrymen." To which Belal

replied, "The king will find some way when he thinks farther of it."

A few days after this I had a message from the palace. I found the

king sitting alone, apparently much chagrined, and in ill-humour. He

asked me, in a very peevish manner, "If I was not yet gone?" To which

I answered, "Your Majesty knows that it is impossible for me to go a

step from Sennaar without assistance from you." He again asked me,

in the same tone as before, "How I could think of coming that way?"

I said, "nobody imagined in Abyssinia but that he was able to give a

stranger safe conduct through his own dominions." He made no reply,

but nodded a sign for me to depart, which I immediately did, and so

finished this short, but disagreeable interview.

About four o'clock that same afternoon I was again sent for to the

palace, when the king told me that several of his wives were ill,

and desired that I would give them my advice, which I promised to do

without difficulty, as all acquaintance with the fair sex had hitherto

been much to my advantage. I must confess, however, that calling these

the fair sex is not preserving a precision in terms. I was admitted

into a large square apartment very ill lighted, in which were about

fifty women, all perfectly black, without any covering but a very

narrow piece of cotton rag about their waists. While I was musing

whether or not these all might be queens, or whether there was any

queen among them, one of them took me by the hand and led me rudely

enough into another apartment. This was much better lighted than the

first. Upon a large bench, or sofa, covered with blue Surat cloth,

sat three persons cloathed from the neck to the feet with blue cotton

shirts.

One of these, who found was the favourite, was about six feet high,

and corpulent beyond all proportion. She seemed to me, next to the

elephant and rhinoceros, to be the largest living creature I had

met with. Her features were perfectly like those of a Negro; a ring

of gold passed through her under lip, and weighed it down, till,

like a flap, it covered her chin, and left her teeth bare, which

were very small and fine. The inside of her lip she had made black

with antimony. Her ears reached down to her shoulders, and had the

appearance of wings; she had in each of them a large ring of gold,

somewhat smaller than a man's little finger, and about five inches

diameter. The weight of these had drawn down the hole where her ear

was pierced so much that three fingers might easily pass above the

ring. She had a gold necklace, like what we used to call Esclavage, of

several rows, one below another, to which were hung rows of sequins

pierced. She had on her ancles two manacles of gold, larger than any I

had ever seen upon the feet of felons, with which I could not conceive

it was possible for her to walk, but afterwards I found they were

hollow. The others were dressed pretty much in the same manner; only

there was one that had chains which came from her ears to the outside

of each nostril, where they were fastened. There was also a ring put

thro' the gristle of her nose, and which hung down to the opening

of her mouth. I think she must have breathed with great difficulty.

It had altogether something of the appearance of a horse's bridle.

Upon my coming near them, the eldest put her hand to her mouth and

kissed it, saying, at the same time, in very vulgar Arabic, "Kifhalek

howaja?" (how do you do, merchant). I never in my life was more

pleased with distant salutations than at this time. I answered, "Peace

be among you! I am a physician, and not a merchant."

I shall not entertain the reader with the multitude of their

complaints; being a lady's physician, discretion and silence are my

first duties. It is sufficient to say, that there was not one part of

their whole bodies, inside and outside, in which some of them had not

ailments. The three queens insisted upon being blooded, which desire I

complied with, as it was an operation that required short attendance;

but, upon producing the lancets, their hearts failed them. They then

all cried out for the Tabange, which, in Arabic, means a pistol;

but what they meant by this word was, the cupping instrument, which

goes off with a spring like the snap of a pistol. I had two of these

with me, but not at that time in my pocket. I sent my servant home,

however, to bring one, and, that same evening, performed the operation

upon the three queens with great success. The room was overflowed with

an effusion of royal blood, and the whole ended with their insisting

upon my giving them the instrument itself, which I was obliged to do,

after cupping two of their slaves before them, who had no complaints,

merely to shew them how the operation was to be performed.

Another night I was obliged to attend them, and gave the queens, and

two or three of the great ladies, vomits. I will spare my reader the

recital of so nauseous a scene. The ipecacuanha had great effect, and

warm water was drunk very copiously. The patients were numerous,

and the floor of the room received all the evacuations. It was most

prodigiously hot, and the horrid, black figures, moaning and groaning

with sickness all around me, gave me, I think, some slight idea of

the punishment in the world below. My mortifications, however, did

not stop here. I observed that, in coming into their presence, the

queens were all covered with cotton shirts; but no sooner did their

complaints make part of our conversation, than, to my utmost surprise,

each of them, in her turn, stript herself entirely naked, laying her

cotton shirt loosely on her lap as she sat cross-legged like a tailor.

The custom of going naked in these warm countries abolishes all

delicacy concerning it. I could not but observe that the breasts of

each of them reached the length of their knees.

This exceeding confidence on their part, they thought merited some

consideration on mine; and it was not without great astonishment that

I heard the queen desire to see me in the like dishabille in which she

had spontaneously put herself. The whole court of female attendants

flocked to the spectacle. Refusal, or resistance, were in vain. I

was surrounded with fifty or sixty women, all equal in stature and

strength to myself. The whole of my cloathing was, like theirs, a long

loose shirt of blue Surat cotton cloth, reaching from the neck down

to the feet. The only terms I could possibly, and that with great

difficulty, make for myself were, that they should be contented to

strip me no farther than the shoulders and breast. Upon seeing the

whiteness of my skin, they gave all a loud cry in token of dislike,

and shuddered, seeming to consider it rather the effects of disease

than natural. I think in my life I never felt so disagreeably. I

have been in more than one battle, but surely I would joyfully have

taken my chance again in any of them to have been freed from that

examination. I could not help likewise reflecting, that, if the king

had come in during this exhibition, the consequence would either have

been impaling, or stripping off that skin whose colour they were so

curious about; tho' I can solemnly declare there was not an idea in my

breast, since ever I had the honour of seeing these royal beauties,

that could have given his majesty of Sennaar the smallest reason for

jealousy; and I believe the same may be said of the sentiments of the

ladies in what regarded me. Ours was a mutual passion, but dangerous

to no one concerned. I returned home with very different sensations

from those I had felt after an interview with the beautiful Aiscach

of Teawa. Indeed, it was impossible to be more chagrined at, or more

disgusted with, my present situation than I was, and the more so, that

my delivery from it appeared to be very distant, and the circumstances

were more and more unfavourable every day.

An event happened which added to my distress. Going one evening to

wait upon the king, and being already within the palace, passing

through a number of rooms that are now totally deserted, where the

court of guard used to be kept, I met Mahomet, the king's servant, who

accompanied us from Teawa. Such people, though in reality often enough

drunk, yet if they happen to be sober at the time of their committing

a crime, counterfeit drunkenness, in order to avail themselves of

it as an excuse. This fellow, seeing me alone, came staggering up

to me, saying, "Damn you, Yagoube, I have met you now, pay me for

the trouble of going for you to Teawa;" and with that he put his

arm to lay hold of me by the breast. I said to him, "Off hands, you

ruffian;" and, taking him by the arm, I gave him such a push that he

had very near fallen backward; on which he cried out, in great fury,

"Give me fifty patakas (about twelve guineas) or I'll ham-string you

this instant." I had always pistols in my pocket for an extremity;

but I could not consider this drunkard, though armed, to have reduced

me to that situation; I therefore immediately closed upon him, and,

catching him by the throat, gave him a violent wrench backward, which

threw him upon the ground. I then took his sword out of his hand;

and in the instant my black servant Soliman appeared, who had staid

behind conversing with some acquaintance in the street. Several

other black companions of this rascal likewise appeared; part seemed

to defend, and part to intercede for him, but none to condemn him.

Soliman, however, insisted upon carrying him before the king with his

drawn sword in his hand. But how were we surprised, when the king's

answer to our complaint was, "That the man was drunk, and that the

people in that country were not used to see franks, like me, walking

in the street." He then gave Soliman a sharp reproof for having the

presumption, as he called it, to disarm one of his servants in his

palace, and immediately ordered his sword to be restored him.

We were retiring full of thoughts what might be the occasion of this

reception, when we were met by Kittou, Adelan's brother, who was

left with the care of the town. I told the whole affair. He heard me

very attentively, and with apparent concern. "It is all the king's

fault; every slave does what he pleases, said he. If I mention this

to Adelan, he will order the drunkard's head to be struck off before

the palace-gate. But it is better for you that nothing of this kind

happen while you are here. Mahomet Abou Kalec is daily expected, and

all these things will be put upon another footing. In the mean time,

keep at home as much as possible, and never go out without two or

three black people along with you, servants, or others. While you are

in my brother's house, as you now are, and we alive, there is no body

dares molest you, and you are perfectly at liberty to refuse or admit

any person you please, whether they come from the king or not, by only

saying, Adelan forbids you. I will answer for the rest. The less you

come here the better, and never venture into the street at night."

At this instant a message from the king called him in. I went away,

better satisfied than before, because I now had learned there was a

place in that town where I could remain in safety, and I was resolved

there to await the arrival of Abou Kalec, to whom I looked up as to

the means Providence was to use to free me from the designs the king

was apparently meditating against me. I was more confirmed in the

belief of these bad intentions, by a conversation he had with Hagi

Belal, to whom he said, That he was very credibly informed I had along

with me above 2000 ounces of gold, besides a quantity of silver, and

rich embroideries from India, from which last place, and not from

Cairo, I was come as a merchant, and not a physician. I resolved,

therefore, to keep close at home, and to put into some form the

observations that I had made upon this extraordinary government; a

monarchy that had started up, as it were, in our days, and of which no

traveller has as yet given the smallest account.

CHAP. IX.

_Conversations with Achmet--History and Government of

Sennaar--Heat--Diseases--Trade of that Country--The Author's

distressed Situation--Leaves Sennaar._

From Salidan's time, till the conquest of Selim emperor of the Turks,

who finished the reign of the Mamalukes by the murder of Tomum Bey,

that is, from the twelfth to the sixteenth century, the Arabs in Nubia

and Beja, and the several countries above Egypt, had been incorporated

with the old indigenous inhabitants of those territories, which were

the _Shepherds_, and, upon conversion of these last to the Mahometan

religion, had become one people with those Saracens who over-ran this

country in the Khalifat of Omar. The only distinction that remained

was, that the Arabs continued their old manner of life in tents, while

the indigenous inhabitants lived in huts, mostly by the sides of

rivers, and among plantations of date-trees.

It must be, however, remembered, that this, though a pretty general

observation, does not hold without exception; for the Arabs of

Mahomet's own family, the Beni Koreish, mostly lived in towns, such

as Mecca, Tajef, and Medina, especially after the expulsion of the

Jews and the establishment of his empire. Many also of these, who

came over to Beja and the eastern part of Nubia, continued their

practice of living in small towns or villages, and were distinguished

by the name of Jaheleen: This appellation, literally interpreted,

signifies Pagans; but by extention, the ancient races of Arabs

converted immediately from Paganism to the Mahometan faith, by Mahomet

himself, without having ever embraced Christianity, or any other Pagan

superstition besides pure Sabaism, and this was the old religion of

Arabia, and of the whole peninsula of Africa to the Western Ocean.

These Jaheleen are generally known by their name, referring to men

of consideration in the time of Mahomet's life, whom they call their

father, or to some circumstance relating to Mahomet himself. An

example of the first of the race is, Rabatab, that is, _Rabat was

our father_, or, "we are the children of Rabat." An example of the

second is the Macabrab, or, _the sepulchre is our father_, meaning the

sepulchre of their prophet at Medina.

These Jaheleen are, as I have said, truly noble Arabs of the race

of Beni Koreish. Though they live in villages, they are the most

dangerous and most fanatic wretches a traveller can meet. All this

country, though nominally subject to Egypt for the sake of trade, had

their own prince of the race of Beni Koreish, whose title was Welled

Ageeb, _Son of the Good_, which was his general inauguration name;

and, besides this, he was called Ali, or Mahomet Welled Ageeb, which

is part of his title, or, as it were, his Christian name added to that

of his family. This prince was, nevertheless, but the Shekh of all

the Arabs, to whom they paid a tribute to enable him to maintain his

dignity, and a sufficient strength to keep up order and inforce his

decrees in public matters. As for œconomical ones, each tribe was

under the government of its own Shekh, old men, fathers of families in

each clan.

The residence of this Arab prince, called for shortness Wed Ageeb,

was at Gerri, a town in the very limits of the tropical rains,

immediately upon the ferry which leads across the Nile to the desert

of Bahiouda, and the road to Dongola and Egypt, joining the great

desert of Selima. This was a very well-chosen situation, it being a

toll-gate, as it were, to catch all the Arabs that had flocks, who,

living within the rains in the country which was all of fat earth,

were every year, about the month of May, obliged by the fly to pass,

as it were, in review, to take up their abode in the sandy desert

without the tropical rains. By the time fair weather returned in the

fertile part of the country to the southward, and freed them from the

fly, all sorts of verdure had grown up in great luxuriancy, while

hunger stared them now in the face among the sands to the northward,

where every thing eatable had been consumed by the multitudes of

cattle that had taken refuge there. The Arab chief, with a large

army of light, unincumbered horse, stood in the way of their return

to their pastures, till they had paid the uttermost farthing of

tribute, including arrears, if any there were. Such was the state and

government of the whole of this vast country, from the frontiers of

Egypt to those of Abyssinia, at the beginning of the 16th century.

In the year 1504, a black nation, hitherto unknown, inhabiting the

western banks of the Bahar el Abiad, in about latitude 13°, made a

descent, in a multitude of canoes, or boats, upon the Arab provinces,

and in a battle near Herbagi, they defeated Wed Ageeb, and forced him

to a capitulation, by which the Arabs were to pay to their conquerors,

in the beginning, one half of their stock, and every subsequent year,

one-half of the increase, which was to be levied at the time of their

passing into the sands to avoid the fly. Upon this condition, the

Arabs were to enjoy their former possessions unmolested, and Wed Ageeb

his place and dignity, that he always might be ready to use coercion

in favour of the conquerors, in case any of the distant Arabs refused

payment, and he thus became as it were their lieutenant.

This race of negroes is, in their own country, called Shillook. They

founded Sennaar, less advantageously situated than Gerri, and removed

the seat of government of Wed Ageeb to Herbagi, that he might be more

immediately under their own eye. It was the year 1504 of the Christian

æra that Amru, son of Adelan, the first of their sovereigns on the

eastern side of the Nile, founded this monarchy, and built Sennaar,

which hath ever since been the capital. From this period, till the

time when I was at Sennaar, 266 years had elapsed, in which 20 kings

had reigned, that is, from Amru the first, to Ismain the present king.

He was about 34 years of age, and had reigned three years, so that,

notwithstanding the long reigns of Amba Rabat the first, and the two

Baadys, the duration of the reigns of the kings of Sennaar will be

but 13 years upon an average; eight of the twenty have been deposed,

and Ismain the present king stands the fairest chance possible of

being very soon the 9th of that number.

At the establishing of this monarchy, the king, and the whole

nation of Shillook, were Pagans. They were soon after converted to

Mahometism, for the sake of trading with Cairo, and took the name

of Funge, which they interpret sometimes lords, or conquerors, and,

at other times, free citizens. All that can be said with certainty

of this term, as there is no access to the study of their language,

is, that it is applicable to those only that have been born east of

the Bahar el Abiad. It does not seem to me that they should pride

themselves in being free citizens, because the first title of nobility

in this country is that of slave; indeed there is no other. Upon any

appearance of your undervaluing a man at Sennaar, he instantly asks

you if you know who he is? if you don't know that he is a slave,

in the same idea of aristocratical arrogance, as would be said in

England upon an altercation, do you know to whom you are speaking? do

you know that I am a peer? All titles and dignities are undervalued,

and precarious, unless they are in the hands of one who is a slave.

Slavery in Sennaar is the only true nobility.

As I do not know that the names of these sovereigns are to be found

any where else, I have set them down here. The record from which I

drew them is at least as extraordinary as any part of their history;

it was the hangman's roll, or register. It is one of the singularities

which obtains among this brutish people, that the king ascends his

throne under an admission that he may be lawfully put to death by

his own subjects or slaves, upon a council being held by the great

officers, if they decree that it is not for the advantage of the

state that he be suffered to reign any longer. There is one officer

of his own family, who, alone, can be the instrument of shedding his

sovereign and kinsman's blood. This officer is called, Sid el Coom,

master of the king's household, or servants, but has no vote in

deposing him; nor is any guilt imputed to him, however many of his

sovereigns he thus regularly murders. Achmet Sid el Coom, the present

licensed parricide, and resident in Ismain's palace, had murdered the

late king Nasser, and two of his sons that were well grown, besides a

child at his mother's breast; and he was expecting every day to confer

the same favour upon Ismain; though at present there was no malice on

the one part nor jealousy on the other, and I believe both of them had

a guess of what was likely to happen. It was this Achmet, who was very

much my friend, that gave me a list of the kings that had reigned, how

long their reign lasted, and whether they died a natural death, or

were deposed and murdered.

This extraordinary officer was one of the very few that shewed me any

attention or civility at Sennaar. He had been violently tormented with

the gravel, but had found much ease from the use of soap-pills that

I had given him, and this had produced, on his part, no small degree

of gratitude and friendship; he was also subject to the epilepsy, but

this he was persuaded was witchcraft, from the machinations of an

enemy who resided far off. I often staid at his house all night, when

he suffered excessive pains, and I may say then only I was in safety.

Achmet seemed, by strange accident, to be one of the gentlest spirits

of any that it was my misfortune to converse with at Sennaar. He was

very little attached to, or convinced of, the truth of the Mahometan

religion, and as little zealous or instructed in his own. He used

often to qualify his ignorance, or disbelief, by saying, that any, or

no religion, was better than that of a Christian. His place of birth

was in a village of Fazuclo, and it appeared to me that he was still a

Pagan. He was constantly attended by Nuban priests, powerful conjurers

and sorcerers, if you believed him. I often conversed with these in

great freedom, when it happened they understood Arabic, and from them

I learned many particulars concerning the situation of the inland

part of the country, especially that vast ridge of mountains, Dyre

and Tegla, which run into the heart of Africa to the westward, whence

they say anciently they came, after having been preserved there from

a deluge. I asked them often, (powerful as they were in charms), Why

they did not cure Achmet of the gravel, or epilepsy? Their answer was,

That it was a Christian devil, and not subject to their power.

Achmet did not believe that I was a Christian, knew I was no

Mahometan, but thought I was like himself, something between the two,

nor did I ever undeceive him. I was no missionary, nor had I any care

of souls, nor desire to enter into conversation about religion with

a man whose only office was to be the deliberate murderer of his

sovereign. He spoke good Arabic, was offended at no question, but

answered freely, and without reserve, whether about the country,

religion, or government, or the post which he enjoyed, if we can term

it _enjoying_ an office created for such horrid crimes. He told me,

with great coolness, in answer to a question why he murdered Nasser's

son in his father's presence, that he did not dare to do otherwise

from duty to Nasser, whose right it was to see his son slain in a

regular and lawful manner, and this was by cutting his throat with a

sword, and not by a more ignominious and painful death, which, if it

had not been done in the father's sight, the vengeance of his enemies

might have suggested and inflicted. He said, that Nasser was very

little concerned at the spectacle of his son's death, but very loth

when it came to his turn to die himself; that he urged him often to

suffer him to escape, but, finding this in vain, he submitted without

resistance. He told me, Ismain, the present king, stood upon very

precarious ground; that both the brothers, Adelan and Abou Kalec, were

at the head of armies in the field; that Kittou had at his disposal

all the forces that were in Sennaar; and that the king was little

esteemed, and had neither experience, courage, friends, money, nor

troops.

I asked him if he was not afraid, when he entered into the king's

presence, lest he, too, might take it into his head to shew him,

that to die or be slain was not so slight a matter as he made of it.

He said, "By no means; that it was his duty to be with the king the

greatest part of the morning, and necessarily once very late in the

evening; that the king knew he had no hand in the wrong that might be

done to him, nor any way advanced his death; but, being come to the

point that he must die, the rest was only a matter of decency, and

it would undoubtedly be the object of his choice rather to be slain

by the hands of his own relation in private, than those of a hired

assassin, an Arab, or a Christian slave, in public view before the

populace." When Baady the king's father was taken prisoner, and sent

to Teawa to Welled Hassan governor of Atbara, (Shekh Fidele's father)

Adelan ordered him to be put to death there, and Welled Hassan carried

that order into execution. The king being always armed, was stout,

and seemed to be upon his guard; and Welled Hassan found no way of

killing him but by thrusting him through the back with a lance while

washing his hands. The people murmured against Adelan exceedingly,

not on account of the murder itself, but the manner of it, and Welled

Hassan was afterwards put to death himself, though he acted by express

orders, because, not being the officer appointed, he had killed the

king, and next, because he had done it with a lance, whereas the only

lawful instrument was a sword.

I have already said, that it was the year of the Hegira, answering to

1504 of the Christian æra, that this people, called Shillook, built

the town of Sennaar, and established their monarchy, which has now

subsisted under a succession of twenty kings of the same family.

List of the KINGS of Sennaar.

YEARS

REIGNED. _A. D._

Amru, son of Adelan, began his reign in the

year 1504, and reigned 30 | 1534

Neil, his son, 17 | 1551

Abdelcader, son of Amru, 8 | 1559

Amru, son of Neil, deposed, 11 | 1570

Dekin, son of Neil, 17 | 1587

Douro, his son, deposed, 3 | 1590

Tiby, son of Abdelcader, 3 | 1593

Ounsa, deposed, 13 | 1606

Abdelcader, son of Ounsa, deposed, 4 | 1610

Adelan, son of Ounsa, deposed, 5 | 1615

Baady, son of Abdelcader, 6 | 1621

Rebat, son of Baady, 30 | 1651

Baady, his son, 38 | 1689

Ounsa, son of Nasser son of Rebat, 12 | 1701

Baady el Achmer, his son, 25 | 1726

Ounsa, his son, deposed, 3 | 1729

L'Oul, son of Baady, 4 | 1733

Baady, his son, deposed, 33 | 1766

Nasser, his son, deposed, 3 | 1769

Ismain, 3 | 1772

Although these kings began with a very remarkable conquest, it does

not appear they added much to their kingdom afterwards. Ounsa, son

of Nasser, is said to have first subdued the province of Fazuclo. I

shall but make three observations upon this list, which is undoubtedly

authentic. The first is, that this monarchy having been established

in the 1504, it must answer to the 9th year of the reign of Naod in

the Abyssinian annals, as that prince began to reign in 1495.--The

second is, that Tecla Haimanout, the son of Yasous the Great, writing

to Baady el Achmer, or the White, who was the son of Ounsa, about the

murder of M. du Roule the French Ambassador, in the beginning of this

century, speaks of the ancient friendship that had subsisted between

the kings of Abyssinia and those of Sennaar, ever since the reign of

Kim, whom he mentions as one of Baady's remote predecessors on the

throne of Sennaar. Now, in the whole list of kings we have just given,

we do not find one of the name of Kim; nor is there one word mentioned

of a king of Sennaar, or a treaty with him, in the whole annals of

Abyssinia, till the beginning of Socinios's reign. I therefore imagine

that the Kim[37], which Tecla Haimanout informs us his predecessors

corresponded with in ancient times, was a prince, who, under the

command of the Caliph of Cairowan, in the kingdom of Tunis in Africa,

took Cairo and fortified it, by surrounding it with a strong wall, and

who reigned, by himself and successors, 100 years, from 998 to 1101,

when Hadec, the last prince of that race, was slain by Salidan, first

Soldan of Egypt, with which country the Abyssinians at that time

were in constant correspondence, though I never heard they were with

Sennaar, which indeed did not exist at that time, nor was there either

city or kingdom till the reign of Naod; so it was a correspondence

with the sovereigns of Cairo, Tecla Haimanout mistook for that with

Sennaar, which monarchy was not then founded.--The third observation

is, that this Baady el Achmer, being the very king who murdered M.

du Roule in 1704, did, nevertheless, live till the year 1726, having

reigned 25 years; whereas M. de Maillet[38] writes to his court, that

this prince had been defeated and slain in a battle he had with the

Arabs, under their Shekh at Herbagi in 1705.

Upon the death of a king of Sennaar, his eldest son succeeds by right;

and immediately afterwards as many of the brothers of the reigning

prince as can be apprehended are put to death by the Sid el Coom,

in the manner already described. Achmet, one of the sons of Baady,

brother of Nasser, and Ismain now on the throne, fled, upon his

brother's accession, to the frontiers of Kuara, and gathering together

about a hundred of the Ganjar horse, he came to Gondar, and was

kindly received by the Iteghé, who persuaded him to be baptised. Some

time after he returned to Kuara, and joined the king's army a little

before the battle of Serbraxos, with about the same number of horse,

and there he misbehaved, taking flight upon the first appearance of

the enemy, before a man was killed or wounded on either side. He was

graceful in his person and carriage, but a liar and drunkard beyond

all conception.

The practice which obtains at Sennaar of murdering all the collaterals

of the royal family, seems to be but a part of the same idea[39]

which prevails in Abyssinia, of confining the princes all their lives

upon a mountain. The difference of treatment, in cases perfectly

parallel, seems to offer a just manner of judging, how much the one

people surpasses the other in barbarity of manners and disposition.

In Abyssinia, the princes are confined for life on a mountain, and in

Sennaar they are murdered in their father's sight, in the palace where

they were born.

[39] Bear, like the Turk, no brother near the throne. POPE.

As in Abyssinia, so neither in Sennaar do women succeed to

sovereignty. No historical reason is given for this exclusion. It

probably was a rule brought from El-aice, their own country, before

founding their monarchy, for the very contrary prevailed among the

Shepherds, whom they subdued in Atbara. The princesses, however, in

Abyssinia, are upon a much better footing than those of Sennaar. These

last have no state nor settled income, and are regarded very little

more than the daughters of private individuals. Among that crowd of

women which I saw the two nights I was in the palace, there were many

princesses, sisters of the king, as I was after told. At that time

they were not distinguishable by their manners, nor was any particular

mark of respect shewn them.

The royal family were originally Negroes, and remain so still, when

their mothers have been black like themselves; but when the king has

happened to marry an Arab woman, as he often does, the black colour of

the father cedes to the white of the mother, and the child is white.

Such was the case of Baady, therefore named Achmer; his father Rebat

was black, but marrying an Arab, his son who succeeded him was white.

The last Baady who was slain at Teawa was a perfect Negro; and by a

slave from his own country he had the late king Nasser, who, like his

father, was a perfect black. By an Arab of the tribe of Daveina he

had Ismain the present king, who is white, and so it has invariably

happened in the royal family, as well as in private ones. But what is

still more extraordinary, though equally true, an Arab who is white,

marrying a black woman slave, has infallibly white children. I will

not say that this is so universal as that an example of the contrary

may not be found, but all the instances I happened to see confirmed

this. The Arabs, from choice, cohabit only with Negro women in the

hot months of summer, on account of the remarkable coolness of their

skins, in which they are said to differ from the Arab women; but I

never saw one black Arab in the kingdom of Sennaar, notwithstanding

the generality of this intercourse.

There is a constant mortality among the children in and about this

metropolis, insomuch that, in all appearance, the people would be

extinct were they not supplied by a number of slaves brought from

all the different countries to the southward. The men, however, are

strong and remarkable for size, but short-lived, owing, probably, to

their indulging themselves in every sort of excess from their very

infancy. This being the case, this climate must have undergone a

strange revolution, as Sennaar is but a small distance from where the

ancients place the Macrobii, a nation so called from the remarkable

length of their lives. But perhaps these were mountaineers from the

frontiers of Kuara, being described as having gold in their territory,

and are the race now called Guba. It is very remarkable, that, though

they are Mahometans, they are so brutal, not to say indelicate, with

regard to their women, that they sell their slaves after having lived

with, and even had children by them. The king himself, it is said, is

often guilty of this unnatural practice, utterly unknown in any other

Mahometan country.

Once in his reign the king is obliged, with his own hand, to plow

and sow a piece of land. From this operation he is called Baady, the

countryman or peasant; it is a name common to the whole race of kings,

as Cæsar was among the Romans, though they have generally another

name peculiar to each person, and this not attended to has occasioned

confusion in the narrative given by strangers writing concerning them.

No horse, mule, ass, or any beast of burden, will breed, or even live

at Sennaar, or many miles about it. Poultry does not live there.

Neither dog nor cat, sheep nor bullock, can be preserved a season

there. They must go all, every half year, to the sands. Though all

possible care be taken of them, they die in every place where the fat

earth is about the town during the first season of the rains. Two

greyhounds which I brought from Atbara, and the mules which I brought

from Abyssinia, lived only a few weeks after I arrived. They seemed to

have some inward complaint, for nothing appeared outwardly. The dogs

had abundance of water, but I killed one of them from apprehension of

madness. Several kings have tried to keep lions, but no care could

prolong their lives beyond the first rains. Shekh Adelan had two,

which were in great health, being kept with his horses at grass in the

sands but three miles from Sennaar: neither rose, nor any species of

jessamin, grow here; no tree but the lemon flowers near the city, that

ever I saw; the rose has been often tried, but in vain.

Sennaar is in lat. 13° 34´ 36´´ north, and in long. 33° 30´ 30´´

east from the meridian of Greenwich. It is on the west side of the

Nile, and close upon the banks of it. The ground whereon it stands

rises just enough to prevent the river from entering the town, even

in the height of the inundation, when it comes to be even with the

street. Poncet says, that when he was at this city, his companion,

father Brevedent, a Jesuit, an able mathematician, on the 21st of

March 1699, determined the latitude of Sennaar to be 13° 4´ N. the

difference therefore will be about half a degree. The reader however

may implicitly rely upon the situation I have given it, being the

mean result of above fifty observations, made both night and day, on

the most favourable occasions, by a quadrant of three feet radius,

and telescopes of two, and sometimes of three feet focal length, both

reflectors and refractors made by the best masters.

The town of Sennaar is very populous, there being in it many good

houses after the fashion of the country. Poncet says, in his time

they were all of one storey high; but now the great officers have

all houses of two. They have parapet roofs, which is a singular

construction; for in other places, within the rains, the roofs are

all conical. The houses are all built of clay, with very little

straw mixed with it, which sufficiently shews the rains here must be

less violent than to the southward, probably from the distance of

the mountains. However, when I was there, a week of constant rain

happened, and on the 30th of July the Nile increased violently,

after loud thunder, and a great darkness to the south. The whole

stream was covered with wreck of houses, canes, wooden bowls, and

platters, living camels and cattle, and several dead ones passed

Sennaar, hurried along by the current with great velocity. A hyæna,

endeavouring to cross before the town, was surrounded and killed by

the inhabitants. The water got into the houses that stand upon its

banks, and, by rising several feet high, the walls melted, being clay,

which occasioned several of them to fall. It seemed, by the floating

wreck of houses that appeared in the stream, to have destroyed a great

many villages to the southward towards Fazuclo.

The soil of Sennaar, as I have already said, is very unfavourable

both to man and beast, and particularly adverse to their propagation.

This seems to me to be owing to some noxious quality of the fat earth

with which it is every way surrounded, and nothing may be depended

upon more surely than the fact already mentioned, that no mare, or

she-beast of burden, ever foaled in the town, or in any village within

several miles round it. This remarkable quality ceases upon removing

from the fertile country to the sands. Aira, between three and four

miles from Sennaar, with no water near it but the Nile, surrounded

with white barren sand, agrees perfectly with all animals, and here

are the quarters where I saw Shekh Adelan the minister's horse, (as

I suppose, for their numbers) by far the finest in the world, where

in safety he watched the motion of his sovereign, who, shut up in his

capital of Sennaar, could not there maintain one horse to oppose him.

But however unfavourable this soil may be for the propagation of

animals, it contributes very abundantly both to the nourishment of

man and beast. It is positively said to render three hundred for one,

which, however confidently advanced, is, I think, both from reason and

appearance, a great exaggeration. It is all sown with dora, or millet,

the principal food of the natives. It produces also wheat and rice,

but these at Sennaar are sold by the pound, even in years of plenty.

The salt made use of at Sennaar is all extracted from the earth about

it, especially at Halfaia, so strongly is the soil impregnated with

this useful fossile.

About twelve miles from Sennaar, nearly to the N. W. is a collection

of villages called Shaddly, from a great saint, who in his time

directed large pits to be dug, and plastered closely within with clay,

into which a quantity of grain was put when it was at the cheapest,

and these were covered up, and plastered again at the top, which they

call sealing, and the hole itself matamore. These matamores are in

great number all over the plain, and, on any prospect of corn growing

dearer, they are opened, and corn sold at a low price both to the town

and country.

To the north of Shaddly, about twenty-four miles, is another

foundation of this sort, called Wed Aboud, still greater than

Shaddly. Upon these two charities the chief subsistence of the Arabs

depends; for as there is continual war among these people, and their

violence being always directed against the crops rather than the

persons of their enemies, the destruction of each tribe would follow

the loss of its harvest, was it not for the extraordinary supplies

furnished at such times by these granaries.

The small villages of soldiers are scattered up and down through this

immense plain to watch the grain that is sown, which is dora only,

and it is said that here the ground will produce no other grain.

Prodigious excavations are made at proper distances, which fill

with water in the rainy season, and are a great relief to the Arabs

in their passage between the cultivated country and the sands. The

fly, that inexorable persecutor of the Arabs, never pursues them to

the north of Shaddly. The knowledge of this circumstance was what,

perhaps, determined the first builders of Sennaar to place their

capital here; this too, probably, induced the two saints, Shaddly and

Wed Aboud, to make here these vast excavations for corn and water.

This is the first resting-place the Arabs find, where, having all

things necessary for subsistence, they can at leisure transact their

affairs with government.

To the westward of Shaddly and Aboud, as far as the river Abiad, or

El-aice, the country is full of trees, which make it a favourite

station for camels. As Shaddly is not above three hours ride on

horseback from Sennaar, there could not be chosen a situation more

convenient for levying the tribute; for though Gerri, from the

favourable situation of the ground, being mountainous and rocky, and

just on the extremity of the rains, was a place properly chosen for

this purpose by the Arab prince before the conquest of the Funge, (for

his troops there cut them off, either from the sands, or the fertile

country, as he pleased), yet many of them might have remained behind

at Shaddly, and to the westward, free from the terror of the fly, and

consequently without any necessity of advancing so far north as Gerri,

and there subjecting themselves to contribution.

In this extensive plain, near Shaddly, arise two mountainous

districts, the one called Jibbel Moia, or the Mountain of Water, which

is a ridge of considerable hills nearly of the same height, closely

united; and the other Jibbel Segud, or the Cold Mountain, a broken

ridge composed of parts, some high and some low, without any regular

form. Both these enjoy a fine climate, and are full of inhabitants,

but of no considerable extent. They serve for a protection to the

Daheera, or farms of Shaddly and Wed Aboud. They are also fortresses

in the way of the Arabs, to detain and force them to payment in

their flight from the cultivated country and rains to the dry lands

of Atbara. Each of these districts is governed by the descendant of

their ancient and native princes, who long resisted all the power of

the Arabs, having both horse and foot. They continued to be Pagans

till the conquest of the Funge. Bloody and unnatural sacrifices were

said to have been in use in these mountainous states, with horrid

circumstances of cruelty, till Abdelcader, son of Amru, the third of

the kings of Sennaar, about the year 1554, besieged first the one

and then the other of these princes in their mountain, and forced

them to surrender; and, having fastened a chain of gold to each of

their ears, he exposed them in the public market-place at Sennaar

in that situation, and sold them to the highest bidder, at the vile

price of something like a farthing each. After this degradation,

being circumcised, and converted to the Mahometan religion, they were

restored each to their government, as slaves of Sennaar, upon very

easy conditions of tribute, and have been faithful ever since.

Nothing is more pleasant than the country around Sennaar, in the end

of August and beginning of September, I mean so far as the eye is

concerned; instead of that barren, bare waste, which it appeared on

our arrival in May, the corn now sprung up, and covering the ground,

made the whole of this immense plain appear a level, green land,

interspersed with great lakes of water, and ornamented at certain

intervals with groups of villages, the conical tops of the houses

presenting, at a distance, the appearance of small encampments.

Through this immense, extensive plain, winds the Nile, a delightful

river there, above a mile broad, full to the very brim, but never

overflowing. Every where on these banks are seen numerous herds of the

most beautiful cattle of various kinds, the tribute recently extorted

from the Arabs, who, freed from all their vexations, return home with

the remainder of their flocks in peace, at as great a distance from

the town, country, and their oppressors, as they possibly can.

The banks of the Nile about Sennaar resemble the pleasantest parts of

Holland in the summer season; but soon after, when the rains cease,

and the sun exerts his utmost influence, the dora begins to ripen, the

leaves to turn yellow and to rot, the lakes to putrify, smell, and be

full of vermin, all this beauty suddenly disappears; bare, scorched

Nubia returns, and all its terrors of poisonous winds and moving

sands, glowing and ventilated with sultry blasts, which are followed

by a troop of terrible attendants, epilepsies, apoplexies, violent

fevers, obstinate agues, and lingering, painful dysenteries, still

more obstinate and mortal.

War and treason seem to be the only employment of this horrid people,

whom Heaven has separated, by almost impassable deserts, from the rest

of mankind, confining them to an accursed spot, seemingly to give them

earnest in time of the only other worse which he has reserved to them

for an eternal hereafter.

The dress of Sennaar is very simple. It consists of a long shirt of

blue Surat cloth called Marowty, which covers them from the lower

part of the neck down to their feet, but does not conceal the neck

itself; and this is the only difference between the men's and the

women's dress; that of the women covers their neck altogether, being

buttoned like ours. The men have sometimes a sash tied about their

middle; and both men and women go bare-footed in the house, even

those of the better sort of people. Their floors are covered with

Persian carpets, especially the women's apartments. In fair weather,

they wear sandals; and without doors they use a kind of wooden

patten, very neatly ornamented with shells. In the greatest heat at

noon, they order buckets of water to be thrown upon them instead of

bathing. Both men and women anoint themselves, at least once a-day,

with camels grease mixed with civet, which they imagine softens their

skin, and preserves them from cutaneous eruptions, of which they are

so fearful, that the smallest pimple in any visible part of their

body keeps them in the house till it disappears. For the same reason,

though they have a clean shirt every day, they use one dipt in grease

to lie in all night, as they have no covering but this, and lie upon a

bull's hide, tanned, and very much softened by this constant greasing,

and at the same time very cool, though it occasions a smell that no

washing can free them from.

The principal diet of the poorer sort is millet, made into bread or

flour. The rich make a pudding of this, toasting the flour before

the fire, and pouring milk and butter into it; besides which, they

eat beef, partly roasted and partly raw. Their horned cattle are the

largest and fattest in the world, and are exceedingly fine; but the

common meat sold in the market is camels flesh. The liver of the

animal, and the spare rib, are always eaten raw through the whole

country. I never saw one instance where it was dressed with fire: it

is not then true that eating raw flesh is peculiar to Abyssinia; it is

practised in this instance of camels flesh in all the black countries

to the westward.

Hogs flesh is not sold in the market; but all the people of Sennaar

eat it publicly: men in office, who pretend to be Mahometans, eat

theirs in secret. The Mahometan religion made a very remarkable

progress among the Jews and Christians on the Arabian, or eastern

side of the Red Sea, and soon after also in Egypt; but it was either

received coolly, or not at all, by the Pagans on the west side, unless

when, after a signal victory, it was strongly enforced by the sword of

the conqueror.

The Saracens, who over-ran this country, were bigots in their

religion, as their posterity continue to be at this day. They have

preserved the language of the Koran in its ancient purity, and adhere

rigidly to the letter of its precepts. They either extirpated the

Pagans, or converted them; but this power and tyranny of the Saracens

received a check, both in Egypt and Arabia, about the 16th century, by

Selim, who established Turkish garrisons in all their principal places

on the frontiers of Beja, or Barbaria, and in the Ber el Ajam, or

ancient Azamia, along the west coast of the Red Sea.

These Turks were all truly atheists in their hearts, who despised

the zeal of the Arabs, and oppressed them so, that Paganism again

ventured to shew its head. The Shillook, as I have said before, made

an eruption into Beja, and conquered the whole of that country. They

became masters of the Arabs, and embraced their religion as a form,

but never anxiously followed the law of Mahomet, which did not hold

out to them that liberty and relaxation by which it had tempted the

Jews and Christians. These the law of Mahomet had freed from many

restraints upon pleasures and pursuits forbidden by the gospel,

and thus made their yoke easier. But it was not so with the Pagan

nations. The Mahometan religion diminished their natural liberty,

by imposing prayers, ablutions, alms, circumcision, and suchlike,

to which before they were under no obligation. The Pagans therefore

of Sennaar, and all the little states to the westward, Dar-Fowr,

Dar-Sele, Bagirma, Bornou, and Tombucto, and all that country upon the

Niger, called Sudan, trouble themselves very little with the detail

of the Mahometan religion, which they embraced merely for the sake

of personal freedom and advantages in trade; but they are Pagans in

their hearts and in their practices, Mahometans in their conversation

only. As for the sons of these, they are Pagans like their fathers,

unless some Fakir, or Arab saint, takes pains to instruct and

teach them to read, otherwise the whole of their religion consists

in the confession of faith, "La Illah el Ullah, Mahomet Rasoul

Ullah,"--"There is but one God, and Mahomet is his prophet."

There are three principal governments in the kingdom of Sennaar.

The first is at El-aice, the capital of that country, from which

the Shillook come. The Bahar el Abiad spreads itself all over the

territory, and, divided into a quantity of small channels, (whether

by art or nature I know not) surrounds a number of little islands,

upon each of which is a village, and this collection of villages is

called the town of El-aice. The inhabitants are all fishermen, and

have a number of boats, like canoes, in which they sail up and down

to the cataracts. With incredible fleets of these their invasion

was made when they undertook the conquest of the Arabs, who had not

the smallest warning of the attempt. They had, at that time, no

weapons of iron: their swords and lances were of a hard wood called

Dengui-Sibber. It must be a relation of the Mek of Sennaar that

commands at El-aice; and he is never suffered to leave that post, or

come to Sennaar.

The second government, next to this in importance, is Kordofan. The

revenue consists chiefly in slaves procured from Dyre and Tegla.

It seems this situation is the most convenient for invading those

mountains, either from its having water in the way, or from some

other circumstance that is not known. Mahomet Abou Kalec had this

government, and with him about 1000 black horse, armed with coats of

mail, with whom he maintained himself at this time independent of the

king. It is a frontier nearest to Dar-Fowr, a black state still more

barbarous, if possible, than Sennaar, and by them it often has been

taken from Sennaar, and again retaken.

The third government is Fazuclo, bounded by the river El-aice on the

west, and the Nile on the east, and the mountains of Fazuclo, where

are the great cataracts, on the south. These are part of the large

chain of mountains of Dyre and Tegla, which reach so far westward into

the continent, from whence comes the chief supply both of gold and

slaves which constitute the riches of this country; for the greatest

part of the revenue of Fazuclo is gold; and the person that commands

it is not a Funge, but the same native prince from whom the army

of Sennaar conquered it. This seems to be a very remarkable piece

of policy in this barbarous nation, which must have succeeded, as

they constantly adhere to it, of making the prince of the state they

have conquered their lieutenant in the government of his own country

afterwards. Such was the case with Dongola, whose Mek they continue;

also with Wed Ageeb, prince of the Arabs, whom they subdued; and such

was the case with Fazuclo, Wed Aboud, Jibbel Moia, and other petty

states, all of which they conquered, but did not change their prince.

The forces at Sennaar, immediately around the capital, consist of

about 14,000 Nuba, who fight naked, having no other armour but a short

javelin and a round shield, very bad troops, as I suppose; about

1800 horse, all black, mounted by black slaves, armed with coats

of mail, and without any other weapon but a broad Sclavonian sword.

These I suppose, by the weight and power of man and horse, would bear

down, or break through double the number of any other troops in the

world: nobody, that has not seen this cavalry, can have any idea to

what perfection the horse rises here. The Mek has not one musket in

his whole army. Besides these horse, there is a great, but uncertain

number of Arabs, who pay their tribute immediately to the Mek and to

the great men in government, and live under their protection close

by the town, and thereby have the advantage of trading with it, of

supplying it with provisions, and, no doubt, must contribute in part

to its strength and defence in time of need.

After what I have said of the latitude of Sennaar, it will scarcely

be necessary to repeat that the heats are excessive. The thermometer

rises in the shade to 119°, but as I have observed of the heats of

Arabia, so now I do in respect to those of Sennaar. The degree of

the thermometer does not convey any idea of the effect the sun has

upon the sensations of the body or the colour of the skin. Nations of

blacks live within lat. 13° and 14°, when 10° south of them, nearly

under the Line, all the people are white, as we had an opportunity

of seeing daily in the Galla, whom we have described. Sennaar, which

is in lat. 13°, is hotter, by the thermometer, 50 degrees, when the

sun is most distant from it, than Gondar is, though a degree farther

south, when the sun is vertical.

Cold and hot are terms merely relative, not determined by the

latitude, but elevation of the place; when, therefore, we say hot,

some other explanation is necessary concerning the place where we

are, in order to give an adequate idea of the sensations of that heat

upon the body, and the effects of it upon the lungs. The degree of

the thermometer conveys this very imperfectly; 90° is excessively hot

at Loheia in Arabia Felix, and yet the latitude of Loheia is but 15°,

whereas 90° at Sennaar is, as to sense, only warm, although Sennaar,

as we have said, is in lat. 13°.

At Sennaar, then, I call it _cold_, when one, fully cloathed and at

rest, feels himself in want of fire. I call it _cool_, when one, fully

cloathed and at rest, feels he could bear more covering all over, or

in part, more than he has then on. I call it _temperate_, when a man,

so cloathed and at rest, feels no such want, and can take moderate

exercise, such as walking about a room without sweating. I call it

_warm_, when a man, so cloathed, does not sweat when at rest, but,

upon moderate motion, sweats, and again cools. I call it _hot_, when

a man sweats at rest, and excessively on moderate motion. I call it

_very hot_, when a man, with thin or little cloathing, sweats much

though at rest. I call it _excessive hot_, when a man, in his shirt,

at rest, sweats excessively, when all motion is painful, and the

knees feel feeble as if after a fever. I call it _extreme hot_, when

the strength fails, a disposition to faint comes on, a straitness is

found in the temples, as if a small cord was drawn tight around the

head, the voice impaired, the skin dry, and the head seems more than

ordinary large and light. This, I apprehend, denotes death at hand, as

we have seen in the instance of Imhanzara, in our journey to Teawa;

but this is rarely or never effected by the sun alone, without the

addition of that poisonous wind which pursued us through Atbara, and

will be more particularly described in our journey down the desert,

to which Heaven, in pity to mankind, has confined it, and where it

has, no doubt, contributed to the total extinction of every thing

that hath the breath of life. A thermometer graduated upon this scale

would exhibit a figure very different from the common one; for I am

convinced by experiment, that a web of the finest muslin, wrapt round

the body at Sennaar, will occasion at mid-day a greater sensation of

heat in the body than the rise of 5° in the thermometer of Fahrenheit.

At Sennaar, from 70° to 78° in Fahrenheit's thermometer is cool;

from 79° to 92° temperate; at 92° begins warm. Although the degree

of the thermometer marks a greater heat than is felt by the body of

us strangers, it seems to me that the sensations of the natives bear

still a less proportion to that degree than ours. On the 2d of August,

while I was lying perfectly enervated on a carpet, in a room deluged

with water, at twelve o'clock, the thermometer at 116°, I saw several

black labourers pulling down a house, working with great vigour,

without any symptoms of being at all incommoded.

The diseases of Sennaar are the dysentery, or bloody flux, fatal in

proportion as it begins with the first of the rains, or the end of

them, and return of the fair weather. Intermitting fevers accompany

this complaint very frequently, which often ends in them. Bark is

a sovereign remedy in this country, and seems to be by so much

the surer, that it purges on taking the first doze, and this it

does almost without exception. Epilepsies and schirrous livers are

likewise very frequent, owing, as is supposed, to their defeating or

diminishing perspiration, or stopping the pores by constant unction,

as also by the quantity of water they deluge themselves with at the

time they are hottest. The influence of the moon in epilepsies,

and the certainty with which the third day after the conjunction

brings back the paroxysm in regular intermitting fevers, is what

naturally surprises people not deeper read than I am in the study of

medicine. Those who live much in camps, or in the parts of Atbara far

from rivers, have certainly, more or less, the gravel, occasioned,

probably, by the use of well-water; for at Sennaar, where they drink

of the river, I never saw but one instance of it, that of the Sid el

Coom; as for Shekh Ibrahim, whom I shall speak of afterwards, he had

passed a great part of his life at Kordofan. The venereal disease is

frequent here, but never inveterate, insomuch that it does not prevent

the marriage of either sex. Sweating and abstinence never fail to cure

it, although, where it had continued for a time, I have known mercury

fail.

The elephantiasis, so common in Abyssinia, is not known here. The

small-pox is a disease not endemial in the country of Sennaar.

It is sometimes twelve or fifteen years without its being known,

notwithstanding the constant intercourse they have with, and

merchandizes they bring from Arabia. It is likewise said this disease

never broke out in Sennaar, unless in the rainy season. However, when

it comes, it sweeps away a vast proportion of those that are infected:

The women, both blacks and Arabs, those of the former that live in

plains, like the Shillook, or inhabitants of El-aice, those of the

Nuba and Guba, that live in mountains, all the various species of

slaves that come from Dyre and Tegla, from time immemorial have known

a species of inoculation which they call Tishteree el Jidderee, or,

_the buying of the small pox_. The women are the conductors of this

operation in the fairest and driest season of the year, but never at

other times. Upon the first hearing of the small pox any where, these

people go to the infected place, and, wrapping a fillet of cotton

cloth about the arm of the person infected, they let it remain there

till they bargain with the mother how many she is to sell them. It is

necessary that the terms be discussed judaically, and that the bargain

be not made collusively or gratuitously, but that one piece of silver,

or more, be paid for the number. This being concluded, they go home,

and tie the fillet about their own child's arm; certain, as they say,

from long experience, that the child infected is to do well, and not

to have one more than the number of pustules that were agreed and paid

for. There is no example, as far as I could learn, either here or

in Abyssinia, of this disease returning, that is, attacking any one

person more than once.

The trade of Sennaar is not great; they have no manufactures, but the

principal article of consumption is blue cotton cloth from Surat.

Formerly, when the ways were open, and merchants went in caravans

with safety, Indian goods were brought in quantities to Sennaar from

Jidda, and then dispersed over the black country. The return was made

in gold, in powder called Tibbar, civet, rhinoceros's horns, ivory,

ostrich feathers, and, above all, in slaves or glass, more of which

was exported from Sennaar than all the east of Africa together. But

this trade is almost destroyed, so is that of the gold and ivory.

However, the gold still keeps up its reputation of being the purest

and best in Africa, and therefore bought at Mocha to be carried to

India, where it all at last centers. If the wakea of Abyssinian gold

sells at 16 patakas, the Sennaar gold sells at the same place for 22

patakas. The ivory sells at 1½ oz.[40] per rotol at Cairo, which

is about 25 per cent lighter than the rotol of Mocha. Men-slaves,

at a medium, may be about a wakea per head at Sennaar. There are

women, however, who sell for 13 or 14 wakeas. What their peculiar

excellencies may be, which so far alters the price, I cannot tell,

only they are preferred by rich people, both Turks and Moors, to the

Arab, Circassian, and Georgian women, during the warm months in summer.

The Daveina Arabs, who are great hunters, carry the ivory to

Abyssinia, where they are not in fear. But no caravan comes now from

Sudan[41] to Sennaar, nor from Abyssinia or Cairo. The violence of the

Arabs, and the faithlessness of the government of Sennaar, have shut

them up on every side but that of Jidda, whether they go once a-year

by Suakem.

The wakea of Sennaar, by which they sell gold, civet, scented oils,

&c. consists of 10 drams; 10 of these wakeas make a rotol. This wakea

at Sennaar is accounted the same as that of Masuah and Cairo. It is

equal to 7 drams 57 grains troy weight.

1 Rotol 10 Wakeas.

1 Wakea 10 Drams.

But there is another wakea used by the merchants called the Atareys.

1 Rotol 12 Wakeas,

1 Wakea 12 Drams.

But this is only used for coarse goods. There is but one long measure

in Sennaar, called the Draa, which is the peek, or cubit, and is

measured from the center of the elbow-joint to the point of the middle

finger. This is probably the ancient cubit of Egypt, and of the holy

scripture.

I have said, that the 5th and 6th of August it rained, and the river

brought down great quantities of fragments of houses which it had

swept away from the country to the southward. It was a very unusual

sight to observe a multitude of men swimming in this violent current,

and then coming ashore riding upon sticks and pieces of timber. Many

people make a trade of this, as fuel is exceedingly scarce at Sennaar.

But there were other signs in this inundation, that occupied the

imagination of this superstitious people. Part of the town had fallen,

and a hyæna, as already observed, had come alive across the river,

from which the wise ones drew melancholy presages.

I had not been out of the house for two days on account of the rain.

On the 7th I intended to have gone to Aira; but on the morning was

told by Hagi Belal, that Mahomet Abou Kalec had advanced to the river

El-aice, to cross it into Atbara, and that Shekh Adelan had decamped

from Aira, and was gone to meet him; to this it was added, that Wed

Ageeb had been sent to by the king, to collect all his forces among

the Arabs, and join him between Herbagi and Sennaar. It was foreseen,

that if this was true, a revolution of some kind was near at hand,

probably the deposing and death of the king, and that, in the interim,

all subordination would cease in the town, and every man do what

seemed good in his own eyes.

Hagi Belal had, besides, told me that Shekh Fidele of Teawa had been

several days in the palace with the king, and had informed him that

I was laden with money, besides a quantity of cloth of gold, the

richest he had ever seen, which the king of Abyssinia had destined as

a present to him, but which I had perverted to my own use: He added,

that the king had expressed himself in a very threatening manner, and

that he was very much afraid I was not in safety if Shekh Adelan was

gone from Aira. Upon this I desired Hagi Belal to go to the palace,

and obtain for me an audience of the king. In vain he represented to

me the risk I ran by this measure; I persisted in my resolution, I was

tied to the stake. To fly was impossible, and I had often overcome

such dangers by braving them.

He went then unwillingly to the palace. Whether he delivered the

message I know not, but he returned saying, the king was busy, and

could not be seen. I had, in the interim, sent Soliman to the Gindi,

or Sid el Coom, telling him my difficulties, and the news I had heard.

In place of returning an answer, he came directly to me himself; and

was sitting with me when Hagi Belal returned, who, I thought, appeared

somewhat disconcerted at the meeting. He told me the story of Abou

Kalec was false, as also that of Wed Ageeb; but it was really true

that Shekh Adelan had left Aira, and was then encamped at Shaddly. He

chid Hagi Belal very sharply, asking him, what good all that tittle

tattle did either to him or me? and insinuated pretty plainly, that he

believed Hagi Belal did this in concert with the king, to extort some

present from me. "What is the difference to Yagoube, says he, if Shekh

Adelan be at Aira, three hours journey from Sennaar, or at Shaddly,

five? Is not Kittou in town? and shall not I bring every slave of the

king to join him upon the first requisition? At a time like this,

will you persuade me, Hagi Belal, the king is not rather thinking of

his own safety than of robbing Yagoube? I do not wish that Yagoube

should stay a minute longer at Sennaar; but, till some way be found

to get necessaries for his journey, it is not in the king's power to

hurt him in the house where he is; and he is much safer in Sennaar

than he could be any where out of it. Before the king attempts to hurt

Yagoube, as long as he stays in Adelan's house, he will think twice

of it, while any of the three brothers are alive. But I will speak to

Kittou in the evening, and the king too, if I have an opportunity. In

the mean time, do you, Yagoube, put your mind at rest, defend yourself

if any body attempts to enter this house, and do what you will to

those that shall force themselves into it." I then attended him down

stairs, with many professions of gratitude; and at the door he said,

in a very low voice, to me, "Take care of yon Belal, he is a dog,

worse than a Christian."

I resolved at all events to leave Sennaar, but I had not yet sounded

Hagi Belal as to money-affairs. It was now the 20th; and, for several

days since Adelan's departure, no provisions were sent to my house,

as before was usual. Money therefore became absolutely necessary,

not only for daily subsistence, but for camels to carry our baggage,

provisions, and water, across the desert.

I now despaired absolutely of assistance of any kind from the king;

and an accident that happened made me lay all thoughts aside of ever

troubling him more upon the subject. There are at Mecca a number of

black eunuchs, whose services are dedicated to that temple, and the

sepulchre at Medina. Part of these, from time to time, procure liberty

to return on a visit to their respective homes, or to the large cities

they were sold from, on the Niger, Bornou, Tocrur, and Tombucto, where

they beg donations for the holy places, and frequently collect large

sums of gold, which abounds in these towns and territories. One of

these, called Mahomet Towash, which signifies Eunuch, had returned

from a begging voyage in Sudan, or Nigritia, and was at Sennaar

exceedingly ill with an intermitting fever. The king had sent for me

to visit him, and the bark in a few days had perfectly recovered him.

A proportional degree of gratitude had, in return, taken place in the

breast of Mahomet, who, going to Cairo, was exceedingly desirous of

taking me with him, and this desire was increased when he heard I had

letters from the sherriffe of Mecca, and was acquainted with Metical

Aga, who was his immediate master.

Nothing could be more fortunate than this rencounter at such a time,

for he had spare camels in great plenty, and the Arabs, as he passed

them, continued giving him more, and supported him with provisions

wherever he went, for these people, being accounted sacred, and

regarded with a certain religious awe, as being in the immediate

service of their prophet, till now used to pass inviolate wherever

they were going, however unsettled the times, or however slenderly

attended.

Every thing was now ready, my instruments and baggage packed up, and

the 25th of August fixed when we should begin our journey for Atbara.

Mahomet, who passed a great part of his time at my house, had not been

seen by us for several days, which we did not think extraordinary,

being busy ourselves, and knowing that his trade demanded continual

attendance on the great people; but we were exceedingly surprised at

hearing from my black Soliman, that he and all his equipage had set

out the night of the 20th for Atbara. This we found afterwards was

at the earnest persuasion of the king, and was at that time a heavy

disappointment to us, however fortunate it turned out afterwards.

The night of the 25th, which was to have been that of our departure,

we sat late in my room up stairs, in the back, or most private part

of the house. My little company was holding with me a melancholy

council on what had so recently happened, and, in general, upon the

unpromising face of our affairs. Our single lamp was burning very low,

and suggested to us that it was the hour of sleep, to which, however,

none of us were very much inclined. Georgis, a Greek, who, on account

of the soreness of his eyes had staid below in the dark, and had

fallen asleep, came running up stairs in a great fright, and told us

he had been wakened by the noise of men endeavouring to force open

the door; that he hearkened a little, and found there were many of

them. Our arms were all ready, and we snatched them up and ran towards

the door; but I stopt, and planted them upon the first landing-place

in the staircase, as I wished not to fire till the enemy was fairly

in the house, that no excuse might remain for this their violation of

hospitality.

I stationed Ismael at the outer door of the house, intending that he

should fire first, as it would be less odious in him, being a Turk

and a sherriffe, than for us Christians. I then went out to the outer

gate, and Soliman with me. The entry into the yard was through a kind

of porters lodge, where servants used to sit in the day-time, and

sleep at night. It had a door from the street, and then another into

the yard, the latter small, but very strong. They had forced the outer

gate, and were then in the lodge, endeavouring to do the same by the

inner, having put a handspike under it to lift it up from the hinges.

"Are you not madmen, said I, and weary of your lives, to attempt to

force Adelan's house, when there are within it men abundantly provided

with large fire-arms, that, upon one discharge through the door, will

lay you all dead where you now stand?" "Stand by from the door, cries

Ismael, and let me fire. These black Kafrs don't yet know what my

blunderbuss is." They had been silent from the time I had spoken, and

had withdrawn the handspike from under the door. "Ullah! Ullah! cries

one of them softly, how sound you sleep! we have been endeavouring

to waken you this hour. The king is ill; tell Yagoube to come to the

palace, and open the door instantly." "Tell the king, said I, to drink

warm water, and I will see him in the morning." Ah! Mahomet, cries

Soliman, is that you? I thought you had had a narrow enough escape in

the palace the other day, but stay a little, a servant is gone over

the back wall to call the Gindi, and we are here numerous enough to

defend this house till morning against all the servants the king has,

so do not attempt to break the door, and Yagoube will go to the king

with the Gindi.

At this time one of my servants fired a pistol in the air out of an

upper window, upon which they all ran off. They seemed to be about ten

or twelve in number, and left three handspikes behind them. The noise

of the pistol brought the guard, or patrole, in about half an hour,

who carried intelligence to the Sid el Coom, our friend, by whom I was

informed in the morning, that he had found them all out, and put them

in irons; that Mahomet, the king's servant, who met us at Teawa, was

one of them; and that there was no possibility now of concealing this

from Adelan, who would order him to be impaled.

Things were now come to such a crisis that I was determined to leave

my instruments and papers with Kittou, Adelan's brother, or with

the Sid el Coom, while I went to Shaddly to see Adelan. But first I

thought it necessary to apply to Hagi Belal to try what funds we could

raise to provide the necessaries for our journey. I shewed him the

letter of Ibrahim, the English broker of Jidda, of which before he

had received a copy and repeated advices, and told him I should want

200 sequins at least, for my camels and provisions, as well as for

some presents that I should have occasion for, to make my way to the

great men in Atbara. Never was surprise better counterfeited than by

this man. He held up his hands in the utmost astonishment, repeating,

200 sequins! over twenty times, and asked me if I thought money grew

upon trees at Sennaar, that it was with the utmost difficulty he could

spare me 20 dollars, part of which he must borrow from a friend.

This was a stroke that seemed to insure our destruction no other

resource being now left. We were already indebted to Hagi Belal

twenty dollars for provision; we had seven mouths to feed daily; and

as we had neither meat, money, nor credit, to continue at Sennaar

was impossible. We had seen, a few nights before, that no house

could protect us there; and to leave Sennaar was, in our situation,

as impossible as to stay there. We had neither camels to carry our

provisions and baggage, nor skins for our water, nor, indeed, any

provisions to carry, nor money to supply us with any of these, nor

knew any person that could give us assistance nearer than Cairo,

from which we were then distant about 17° of the meridian, or above

1000 miles in a straight line; great part of which was thro' the

most barren, unhospitable deserts in the world, destitute of all

vegetation, and of every animal that had the breath of life. Hagi

Belal was inflexible; he began now to be weary of us, to see us but

seldom, and there was great appearance of his soon withdrawing himself

entirely.

My servants began to murmur; some of them had known of my gold chain

from the beginning, and these, in the common danger, imparted what

they knew to the rest. In short, I resolved, though very unwillingly,

not to sacrifice my own life and that of my servants, and the

finishing my travels now so far advanced, to childish vanity.

I determined therefore to abandon my gold chain, the honourable

recompence of a day full of fatigue and danger. Whom to intrust it to

was the next consideration; and, upon mature deliberation, I found it

could be to nobody but Hagi Belal, bad as I had reason to think he

was. However, to put a check upon him, I sent for the Sid el Coom,

in whose presence I repeated my accusation against Belal; I read the

Seraff's letter in my favour, and the several letters that Belal had

written me whilst I was at Gondar, declaring his acceptance of the

order to furnish me with money when I should arrive at Sennaar; and

I upbraided him in the strongest terms with duplicity and breach of

faith.

But all that I could say was very far short of the violent

expostulation from the Gindi that immediately followed. He gave Hagi

Belal many not obscure hints, "that he looked upon this injury as

done to himself, and would repay him; that though he had done this

to please the king, the time might not be far off when that favour

would be of very little use to him; on the contrary, might be a

reason for stripping him of all he had in the world." The force

of these arguments seemed to strike Hagi Belal's imagination very

powerfully. He even offered to advance 50 sequins, and to see if he

could raise any more among his friends. The Gindi (a rare instance in

that country) offered to lend him fifty. But the dye was now cast,

the chain had been produced and seen, and it was become exceedingly

dangerous to carry such a quantity of gold in any shape along with

me. I therefore consented to sell it to Hagi Belal in presence of

the Gindi, and we immediately set about the purchase of necessaries,

with this proviso, that if Adelan, upon my going to Shaddly, did

furnish me with camels and necessaries, so much of the chain should be

returned.

It was the 5th of September that we were all prepared to leave

this capital of Nubia, an inhospitable country from the beginning,

and which, every day we continued in it, had engaged us in greater

difficulties and dangers. We flattered ourselves, that, once

disengaged from this bad step, the greatest part of our sufferings was

over; for we apprehended nothing but from men, and, with very great

reason, thought we had seen the worst of them.

In the evening I received a message from the king to come directly to

the palace. I accordingly obeyed, taking two servants along with me,

and found him sitting in a little, low chamber, very neatly fitted up

with chintz, or printed callico curtains, of a very gay and glaring

pattern. He was smoaking with a very long Persian pipe through water,

was alone, and seemed rather grave than in ill-humour. He gave me his

hand to kiss as usual, and, after pausing a moment without speaking,

(during which I was standing before him) a slave brought me a little

stool and set it down just opposite to him; upon which he said, in

a low voice, so that I could scarcely hear him, "Fudda, sit down,"

pointing to the stool. I sat down accordingly. "You are going, I

hear, says he, to Adelan." I answered, "Yes." "Did he send for you?"

I said, "No; but, as I wanted to return to Egypt, I expected letters

from him in answer to those I brought from Cairo." He told me, Ali

Bey that wrote these letters was dead; and asked me if I knew Mahomet

Abou Dahab? _Yagoube._ "Perfectly; I was well acquainted with him

and the other members of government, all of whom treated me well,

and respected my nation." _King._ "You are not so gay as when you

first arrived here." _Ya._ "I have had no very great reason." Our

conversation was now taking a very laconic and serious turn, but he

did not seem to understand the meaning of what I said last. _K._

"Adelan has sent for you by my desire; Wed Abroff and all the Jehaina

Arabs have rebelled, and will pay no tribute. They say you have a

quantity of powerful fire-arms with you that will kill twenty or

thirty men at a shot." _Ya._ "Say fifty or sixty, if it hits them."

_K._ "He is therefore to employ you with your guns to punish those

Arabs, and spoil them of their camels, part of which he will give to

you." I presently understood what he meant, and only answered, "I am

a stranger here, and desire to hurt no man. My arms are for my own

defence against robbery and violence." At this instant the Turk, Hagi

Ismael, cried from without the door, in broken Arabic, "Why did not

you tell those black Kafrs, you sent to rob and murder us the other

night, to stay a little longer, and you would have been better able

to judge what our fire-arms can do, without sending for us either to

Abroff or Adelan. By the head of the prophet! let them come in the

day-time, and I will fight ten of the best you have in Sennaar."

_K._ "The man is mad, but he brings me to speak of what was in my head

when I desired to see you. Adelan has been informed that Mahomet, my

servant, who brought you from Teawa, has been guilty of a drunken

frolic at the door of his house, and has sent soldiers to take him

to-day, with two or three others of his companions." _Ya._ "I know

nothing about Mahomet, nor do I drink with him, or give him drink.

About half a score of people broke into Adelan's house in the night,

with a view to rob and murder us, but I was not at the pains to fire

at such wretches as these. Two or three servants with sticks were

all that were needful. I understand, indeed, that Shekh Adelan is

exceedingly displeased that I did not fire at them, and has sent to

the Gindi, ordering him to deliver two of them to him to-morrow to

be executed publicly before the door of his house on the market-day.

But this, you know, is among yourselves. I am very well pleased none

of them are dead, as they might have been, by my hands or those of my

people." _K._ "True; but Adelan is not king, and I charge you when

you see him to ask for Mahomet's life, or a considerable deal of

blame will fall upon you. When you return back, I will send him to

conduct you to the frontiers of Egypt." Upon this I bowed, and took

my leave. I went home perfectly determined what I was to do. I had

now obtained from the king an involuntary safe-guard till I should

arrive at Adelan's, that is, I was sure that, in hopes I might procure

a reprieve for Mahomet, no trap would be laid for me on the road. I

determined therefore to make the best use of my time; and every thing

being ready, we loaded the camels, and sent them forward that night

to a small village called Soliman, three or four miles from Sennaar;

and having settled my accounts with Hagi Belal, I received back six

links, the miserable remains of one hundred and eighty-four, of which

my noble chain once consisted.

This traitor kept me the few last minutes to write a letter to the

English at Jidda, to recommend him for the service he had done me

at Sennaar; and this I complied with, that I might inform the broker

Ibrahim that I had received no money from his correspondent, and give

him a caution never again to trust Hagi Belal in similar circumstances.

CHAP. X.

_Journey from Sennaar to Chendi._

After leaving Sennaar I was overtaken on the road by a black slave,

who at first gave me some apprehension, as I was alone with only one

Barbarian, a Nubian servant, by the side of my camel, and was going

slowly. Upon inquiry I found him to be sent from Hagi Belal, with a

basket containing some green tea and sugar, and four bottles of rack,

in return for my letter. I sent back the messenger, and gave the care

of the basket to my own servant; and, about ten o'clock in the evening

of the 5th of September, we all met together joyfully at Soliman.

Before my departure from Sennaar I had prevailed on a Fakir, or

Mahometan monk, servant to Adelan, to write a letter to his master,

unknown to any other person whatever, to let him know my apprehensions

of the king, and that, in the uncertainty how far his occupations

might oblige him to move from Shaddly, my way was directly for

Herbagi, and requesting that he would give me such recommendations to

Wed Ageeb as should put me in safety from the king's persecution, and

insure me protection and good reception in Atbara. I begged him, in

the most serious manner, to consider, however slightly he had thought

of the king of Abyssinia's recommendatory letters, he would not treat

those of the regency of Cairo, and of the sherriffe of Mecca, in the

same manner; that my nation was highly respected in both places; and

that it was known, by letters written from Sennaar, that I actually

was arrived there; that they should take care therefore, and not by

ill-usage of me expose their merchants, either at Mecca or Cairo,

to a severe retaliation that would immediately follow the receiving

bad news of me, or no news at all. My faithful Soliman, who was now

to leave me, was charged to carry the answers they should choose to

return to the letters I brought from Abyssinia, and I sent him that

very night, together with the Fakir, to Adelan at Shaddly, fully

instructed with every particular of ill-usage I had received from the

king, of which he had been an eye-witness.

Although my servants, as well as Hagi Belal, and every one at Sennaar

but the Fakir and Soliman, did imagine I was going to Shaddly, yet

their own fears, or rather good sense, had convinced them that it was

better to proceed at once for Atbara than ever again to be entangled

between Adelan and the king. Sennaar sat heavy upon all their spirits,

so that I had scarce dismounted from my camel, and before I tasted

food, which that day I had not done, when they all intreated me with

one voice that I would consider the dangers I had escaped, and,

instead of turning westward to Shaddly, continue north through Atbara.

They promised to bear fatigue and hunger chearfully, and to live and

die with me, provided I would proceed homeward, and free them from

the horrors of Sennaar and its king. I did not seem to be convinced

by what they said, but ordered supper, to which we all sat down in

company. As we had lemons enough, and Hagi Belal had furnished us

with sugar, we opened a bottle of his rack and in punch (the liquor

of our country) drank to a happy return thro' Atbara. I then told

them my resolution was perfectly conformable to their wishes; and

informed them of the measures I had taken to insure success and

remove danger as much as possible. I recommended diligence, sobriety,

and subordination, as the only means of arriving happily at the end

proposed; and assured them all we should share one common fare, and

one common fortune, till our journey was terminated by good or bad

success. Never was any discourse more gratefully received; every toil

was welcome in flying from Sennaar, and they already began to think

themselves at the gates of Cairo.

As I had recommended great diligence and little sleep, before four in

the morning the camels were loaded, and on their way, and it was then

only they came to awake me. The camels were abundantly loaded, and we

had then but five, four of which carried all the baggage, the other, a

smaller one, was reserved for my riding. This I told them I willingly

accepted at the beginning of the journey, and we should all of us take

our turn, while water and provisions were to be procured, and that

Ismael the Turk, an old man, and Georgis the Greek, almost blind,

required an additional consideration, so long as it possibly could be

done with safety to us all; but, when we should advance to the borders

of the desert, we must all resolve to pass that journey on foot, as

upon the quantity of water, and the quantity of provisions alone, to

be carried by us, could depend our hopes of ever seeing home.

On the 8th of September we left the village of Soliman, and about

three o'clock in the afternoon came to Wed el Tumbel, which is not a

river, as the name would seem to signify, but three villages situated

upon a pool of water, nearly in a line from north to south. The

intermediate country between this and Herbagi is covered with great

crops of dora. The plain extends as far as the sight reaches. Though

there is not much wood, the country is not entirely destitute of it,

and the farther you go from Sennaar the finer the trees. At Wed el

Tumbel there is great plenty of ebony-bushes, and a particular sort

of thorn which seems to be a species of dwarf acacia, with very small

leaves, and long pods of a strong saccharine taste. This is here in

great abundance, and is called Lauts, or Loto, which I suspect to be

the tree on whose fruit, we are told, the ancient Libyans fed. At a

quarter past three we left Wed el Tumbel, and entered into a thick

wood, in which we travelled till late, when we came to the Nile. We

continued along the river for about 500 yards, and alighted at Sit el

Bet, a small village about a mile's distance from the stream. Here we

saw the tomb of a Shekh, or saint, built of brick in a conical form,

much after the same figure as some we had seen in Barbary, which were

of stone.

On the 12th, at ten minutes past six we set out from Sit el Bet, and

a few minutes after came to a village called Ageda, and five miles

further to another, whose name is Usheta. At half past nine we passed

a third village, and at half after eleven encamped near a pool of

water, called Wed Hydar, or the River of the Lion. All the way from

Wed el Tumbel to this village we were much tormented with the fly,

the very noise of which put our camels in such a fright that they ran

violently into the thickest trees and bushes, endeavouring to brush

off their loads. These flies do not bite at night, nor in the cool of

the morning. We were freed from this disagreeable companion at Wed

Hydar, and were troubled with it no more.

At four o'clock we again set out through an extensive plain, quite

destitute of wood, and all sown with dora, and about five miles

further we encamped at a place named Shwyb, where there is a Shekh

called Welled Abou Hassan. While at Abou Hassan, we were surprised

with a violent storm of rain and wind, accompanied with great flashes

of lightning. This storm being blown over, we proceeded to a village

called Imsurt. At one mile and a half further we joined the river. The

Nile here is in extreme beauty, and winds considerably; it is broader

than at Sennaar, the banks flat, and quite covered with acacia and

other trees in full bloom. The thick parts of this wood were stored

with great numbers of antelopes, while the open places were covered

with large flocks of cattle belonging to the Arabs Refaa, who were

returning from the sands to their pastures to the southward. Large

flocks of storks, cranes, and a variety of other birds, were scattered

throughout the plain, which was overgrown with fine grass, and which

even the multitude of cattle that thronged upon it seemed not capable

of consuming. At three quarters past six in the evening we came to a

large village called Wed Medinai, close upon the side of the river,

which here having made a large turn, comes again from the S. E. This

town or village belongs to a Fakir, who received us very hospitably.

On the 14th, at six in the morning we set out from Wed Medinai in

a direction N. W. and at three quarters past eight arrived at the

village Beroule. We then entered a thick wood, and thence into a very

extensive and cultivated plain, sown with dora and bammia; a plant

which makes a principal article in their food all over the southern

part of the kingdom of Sennaar, which is described, and the figure

of it published, by Prosper Alpinus[42]. At a quarter past eleven

we arrived at Azazo, about a mile and a half distant from the Nile.

The corn seemed here much more forward than that at Sennaar, and in

several places it was in the ear. It rained copiously in the night of

the 14th, but before this there had been a very dry season, and very

great scarcity the preceding year. At ten minutes past four in the

afternoon we left Azazo, our journey, like that of the day before,

partly through thick woods, and partly through plains sown with dora.

Our direction was nearly north, and the river about two miles and a

half distant, nearly parallel to the road we went. At six we came to a

small village called Sidi Ali el Genowi.

On the 16th, at half past six in the morning we left Sidi Ali el

Genowi, and a few minutes after passed two villages on our left along

the river side, not fifty yards from the water, after which we went

through the village of El Mensy. The next to this were two tombs of

Fakirs, nothing different from the former ones. At a quarter past

ten we arrived at Herbagi, a large and pleasant village, but thinly

inhabited, placed on a dry, gravelly soil. The people told us, that

the greatest part of the townsmen were at some distance looking after

their farms. Herbagi is the seat of Wed Ageeb, hereditary prince of

the Arabs, now subject to the government of Sennaar, whose lieutenant

he is according to treaty. He raises the tribute, and pays it to the

Mek, or his ministers, from all those Arabs that live in the distant

parts of the kingdom, as far as the Red Sea, who do not pass by

Sennaar to the sands, in the season of the fly; for these, as I have

mentioned, are taxed by the chief minister, or the person who hath the

command of the troops of that capital. The revenue arising from this

is very large, and more than all the rest put together. The Refaa, one

tribe of Arabs who had compounded at this time with Shekh Adelan, were

said to possess 200,000 she-camels, every one of which, at a medium,

was worth half an ounce of gold, each ounce being about ten crowns.

The tribute then which that Arab paid was 100,000 ounces of gold, or

1,000,000 dollars or 250,000l. There were at least ten of these tribes

with which Adelan was to account, and at least six times that number

that fell to the share of Wed Ageeb, whose composition is the same as

that paid to Sennaar, besides whatever extraordinary sum he imposes

for himself. There is also a tax upon the male camels; but this is

small in comparison of the others, and the young ones pay no duty,

till they are three years old.

Camels flesh is the ordinary food of the Arabs; but there is still

room to inquire what becomes of the prodigious numbers of this animal

annually consumed. The caravan of Mecca requires a large supply,

and vast numbers are employed in the service of Damascus, of Syria

and Persia, and especially of Sudan, whose caravans traverse Africa

from east to west with Indian commodities, which they carry from the

Arabian Gulf to the Atlantic Ocean. These, and this vast inland trade

of which they were masters, the gold, ivory, pearls, and tortoise

shells, that served for returns to India, were the source of the

riches and power of those Shepherds, of which so many things are

recorded in ancient history almost exceeding belief.

Immediately upon entering Herbagi, I went to wait upon Wed Ageeb.

He had a very good house, considered as such, though but a very

indifferent palace for a prince. He seemed to be a man of very gentle

manners; was about 30 years of age; had a thick black beard and

whiskers, large black eyes, and a long thin face, which marked his

constitution not to be a strong one. We found, indeed, afterwards,

that he had been very much addicted to drinking, which he had often

endeavoured in vain to leave off, by substituting opium in its place.

He had never before seen an European, and testified great surprise

at my complexion. He sent us abundance of provisions, two sheep and

two goats, and begged I would give him advice about his health in the

evening. He inquired very particularly about my reception at Sennaar,

which I told him only in part, and, among other circumstances, the

report at Sennaar, that he was gathering his forces to the assistance

of the king against Adelan and Abou Kalec. He answered with a sneer,

"Gehennim el Kafr," _i. e._ _The Pagan may go to hell._ He spoke

contemptuously of the king of Sennaar, but very respectfully of

Adelan and Abou Kalec, any one of whose little fingers, he said, was

sufficient to crush the Mek, and all who adhered to him. I then took

my leave, and went home to rest.

On the 17th, at noon, I observed the meridian altitude of the sun, and

found the latitude of the place to be 14° 30´ N. but this observation

was made with Hadley's quadrant, that I might save time, being willing

to advance to as great a distance as possible from Sennaar, so there

may be perhaps a minute of error, and more there ought not to be, as

it was confirmed by several observations at night. The instrument,

inspected and rectified by day light, was examined, and I found it to

be without alteration before using it at night.

About eight o'clock in the evening I went to see Wed Ageeb, who had

supped, and was drinking sorbet made of tamarinds, I believe rather to

sweeten his breath than from thirst, for he had apparently drunk of

stronger liquor before he took the sorbet. He told me that a servant

of Adelan was arrived that evening from the camp, who had brought him

a letter and messages on my account, and bade me be of good courage,

for I should be safer in my tent than in Adelan's house at Sennaar;

that two men had been executed for attempting to rob Adelan's house;

and that Mahomet, the king's servant, was destined to suffer upon a

stake, as soon as ever Adelan should move at a greater distance from

Shekh Shaddly's tomb, where such executions could not be performed

with decency.

I made him a small present of fine muslin, which I had bought at

Sennaar; and, in the course of conversation, he told me that the

Moorish troops from Ras el Feel had burnt Teawa; that the Daveina

were with them, and had plundered the Jehaina, and forced Fidele

to fly to Beyla. I asked if any Christian troops were among them?

suspecting much Ayto Engedan and Ayto Confu. He said there were none

but the Moors of Ras el Feel, the Ganjar horse of Kuara, and the Arabs

Daveina. As I did not wish to be known in this matter, I pushed my

inquiries no further: I asked him to provide me with one of his men

for fear of the Shukorea Arabs, with which he complied, adding, that

he was himself going out to the Shukorea, and would send a man to

Halfaia, where I was to consider, and acquaint him, whether I was to

pass the Nile at Gerri, and go by the desert of Bahiouda and Dongola,

or by the more unfrequented way of Chendi, Barbar, and the great

desert, the fatigues and dangers of which he thought it impossible

for a European to suffer, but would give me a letter to Sittina his

sister, to whom that country belonged. After Chendi, he assured me

there was no protection to be relied upon but that of Heaven. This

sensible discourse was of great service to me, as it set me all the

rest of the journey upon the inquiry as to the proper steps for

performing this dangerous expedition.

On the 18th, at seven o'clock I left Herbagi, after writing a letter

to Adelan, thanking him for his punctuality and care of me, and giving

the servant that had come on the errand a small present. He told me

it would be ten days before he returned to the camp; with which last

intelligence I was very well pleased, as thereby no information could

arrive where I was, till I was forgot, or out of their power. At ten

minutes past eleven we arrived at Wed el Frook, a small village close

upon the Nile. Nothing could be more beautiful than the country we

passed that day, partly covered with very pleasant woods, and partly

in lawns, with a few fine scattered trees. The Nile is a short quarter

of a mile from the village, and is fully half a mile broad. It runs

smooth, and when in inundation, overflows the small space of ground

between its present banks and Wed el Frook. It was now considerably

lower than it had been, and was confined within its banks.

On the 19th we set out from Wed el Frook at half past five in the

morning, and about four miles from it came to a large village, and the

tomb of a Fakir, the Nile running all the way parallel to our road. At

ten o'clock we came to another village called Abouascar; and a little

way east of it, in the river, there is a large island considerably

above the water, where shrubs and grass grow abundantly. The village

is placed upon a small hill, and there are a great many of the same

size and shape scattered about the country on the banks of the river,

which add greatly to the beauty of it, as we had not yet seen such

since our leaving Sennaar. At three quarters past one we came to the

village of Kamily. The country here is more open, the soil lighter,

the grass short and thin; it is all laid out in pasture, and there

is here plenty of goats, as well as black cattle. This day we met a

caravan from Egypt, last from Chendi, who brought us word that Ali

Bey was deposed, and Mahomet Abou Dahab was made Bey in his place.

They said, one part of the caravan, that went before them, had been

attacked and cut off by the Bishareen under Abou Bertran; that they

had escaped by a few hours only, and that all the road was so infested

with robbers, that it was a miracle if any one could pass.

On the 20th we left Kamily at a quarter past five in the morning,

and at about six miles (the distance between that and Wed Tyrab) we

passed a bare and sandy country, interspersed with small coppices,

and three quarters past ten came to Bishaggara. This is a large

village, something above a mile's distance from the Nile, which space

is entirely taken up with brush-wood, without any timber trees. We

begin now to see the effects of the quantity of rain having failed.

There was little sown, and that so late as to be scarcely above the

ground. It seems the rains begin later as they pass northward. Many

people were here employed in gathering grass seeds[43] to make a very

bad kind of bread. These people appear perfect skeletons, and no

wonder, as they live upon such fare. Nothing increases the danger of

travelling, and prejudice against strangers, more than the scarcity of

provisions in the country through which you are to pass.

At fifty minutes past three in the afternoon we left Bishaggara, and

at seven came to Eltie, a straggling village, about half a mile from

the Nile, in the north of a large, bare plain, all pasture, except

the banks of the river, which are covered with wood. We now no

longer saw any corn sown: The people here were at the same miserable

employment as those we had seen before, that of gathering grass-seeds;

yet, though starving, they brought us plenty of milk in exchange for

tobacco, a commodity very much in request in these parts. At half past

ten we arrived at Gidid; the houses were built of clay, with terrassed

roofs: on our way we passed through several little cantonments of

Nuba. All this country is sand, interspersed with thick coppices and

acacia-trees that seemed not to thrive. On the other side are large,

dead, sandy plains, but both sides of the river are covered with wood.

The ferry over the Nile is here from the west to the east. The country

about Gidid, especially to the westward, is very bare and barren, and

scarcely produces any thing saving grass and bent, of which the poor

people use the seed for bread. This is the case all to the westward

of El-aice; and the country here, for want of rain, is fast dwindling

into a desert, and the soil is changed to sand. There is no corn,

though, from the vicinity of two large rivers, it produces grass

enough for cattle, sheep, and goats, and there is as yet plenty of

milk: but as soon as the sun shines constantly, no herbage will remain

that can be food for any other cattle but goats, and at last the whole

becomes a perfect desert, capable of nourishing nothing but antelopes

and ostriches.

On the 21st, at seven in the morning we left Gidid, and near three

miles further we came to the passage, and descended a long way with

the current before we landed. The manner they pass the camels at this

ferry is by fastening cords under their hind quarters, and then tying

a halter to their heads. Two men sustain these cords, and a third the

halter, so that the camels, by swimming, carry the boat on shore. One

is fastened on each side of the stern, and one along each side of the

stem. These useful beasts suffer much by this rude treatment, and many

die in the passage, with all the care that can be taken, but often

through malice, or out of revenge. These boatmen privately put salt in

the camels ears, which makes the animal desperate and ungovernable,

till, by fretting and plunging his head constantly in the water, he

loses his breath, and is drowned; the boatmen then have gained their

end, and feast upon the flesh. But the Arabs, when they pass their

camels, use a goat's skin, blown with wind like a bladder, which they

tie to the fore part of the camel, and this supports him where he is

heaviest, while the man, sitting behind on his rump, guides him, for

this animal is a very bad swimmer, being heaviest before. The boats

here are larger and better made than in any other part on the river.

All between the Nile and Halifoon is bare ground, interspersed with

acacia-trees. The loss of a camel is very considerable, but the price

of ferrying very moderate; it is only three mahalacs for each camel,

with his merchandise and every thing belonging to him. The river is

something more than a quarter of a mile broad, but is double that

measure in the rainy season, the current very violent, and strong at

all times.

Notwithstanding our boatmen had a very bad character at this time,

we passed with our camels and baggage without loss or accident. They

seemed indeed to shew a very indifferent countenance at first, but

good words, and a promise of recompence, presently rendered them

tractable. By half past twelve we were all safe on the other side,

and at thirty-five minutes past three we arrived at Halifoon, about

five miles from the ferry on the east side of the Nile. One mark of

the boatmen's attention I cannot but mention: The weather was very

hot, and we had plenty of time; the water being clear and tempting, I

proposed swimming over to the other side for the pleasure of bathing;

but they, one and all, opposed my design with great violence, and

would not suffer me to undress. They said there was a multitude of

crocodiles in the river near that place, and although they were not

large enough to kill, or carry off a camel, they very often wounded

them, and it would be a wonder if we passed without seeing them;

indeed the last boat had not reached the shore before two of them rose

in the middle of the stream. I made what haste I could to get a gun,

and fired at the largest, but, as far as I could judge, without effect.

On the 22d, at three o'clock in the afternoon we left Halifoon, and by

ten at night came to Halfaia, a large, handsome, and pleasant town,

although built with clay. The houses are terrassed at the tops, their

inhabitants being no longer afraid of the rains, which have been for

some time here very inconsiderable. The Battaheen were encamped near

Umdoom, a large village on the side of the river, about seven miles

from Halifoon. They are a thievish, pilfering set, and we passed them

early in the morning, before it was light. The road is very pleasant,

through woods of acacia-trees, interspersed with large fields covered

with bent grass. At Umdoom we found troops of women going to their

morning occupation, that of gathering seeds to make bread.

The command of Mahomet Wed Ageeb is very extensive. It reaches from

this passage of the river at Halifoon on the south, as far as Wed

Baal a Nagga on the north, and to the east as far as the Red Sea,

though a great part of those Arabs have been in rebellion, and have

not paid their tax for some years. His command on the westward of the

river reaches to Korti, all over the desert of Bahiouda, though lately

the Beni Gerar, Beni Faisara, and Cubba-beesh, have expelled the

ancient Arabs of Bahiouda, who pretend now only to be the subjects of

Kordofan. He has also the charge of levying the tribute of horses from

Dongola, in which consists the great strength of Sennaar.

Halfaia is the limit of the rains, and is situated upon a large

circular peninsula surrounded by the Nile from S. W. to N. W. that

is, at all the points of W. It is half a mile, or something more,

from the river. This peninsula contains all their sown land, and

is not watered by the river, but by what is raised from the stream

by wheels turned by oxen. Halfaia consists of about three hundred

houses; their principal gain is from a manufacture of very coarse

cotton cloth, called Dimour, which serves for small money through all

the lower parts of Atbara. There are palm-trees at Halfaia, but they

produce no dates. The people here eat cats, also the river-horse and

the crocodile, both of which are in great plenty. Halfaia, by many

altitudes of the sun and stars, was found to be in lat. 15° 45´ 54´´,

and in long. 32° 49´ 15´´ east from the meridian of Greenwich.

On the 29th, at six o'clock in the morning we left Halfaia, and

continued our journey about 3 miles and a half further, when we came

to two villages, a small one to the north and a large one to the

west. The Nile here runs N. E. of us. This whole day was spent in

woods of a very pleasant kind; there were large numbers of birds of

various colours, but none of them, so far as I could hear since we

left Sennaar, endowed with the gift of song. _Sakies_[44] in the

plain, all between the Nile and the road, lift the water from the

stream, and pour it on the land, in hopes that it may produce some

miserable crops of dora; for the river overflows none of this country,

and it is very precariously and scantily watered with rain.

In a little time, continuing our journey, we came to Shekh Atman's,

the tomb of a Fakir on the road. There is a high ridge of mountains on

our left, west of the Nile about five miles, and a low ridge on our

right, about eight miles distant; our direction was straight north.

At half past eight, about five miles further, we came to the village

Wed Hojila. The river Abiad, which is larger than the Nile, joins it

there. Still the Nile preserves the name of Bahar el Azergue, or the

Blue River, which it got at Sennaar. The village was once intended to

be built at the junction of the two rivers, but the Fakir's tomb being

on the side of the Nile, the village likewise was placed there. The

Abiad is a very deep river; it runs dead and with little inclination,

and preserves its stream always undiminished, because rising in

latitudes where there are continual rains, it therefore suffers not

the decrease the Nile does by the six months dry weather. Our whole

journey this day was through woods, with large intervals of sandy

plains producing nothing except some few spots of corn sown in time

of the showers, while the sun returned over the zenith, but still

looking very poorly. At half past twelve we arrived at Suakem, under

trees, near a sakia. At four o'clock in the afternoon we left Suakem,

the mountains of Gerri bearing N. E. of us, and, five miles further,

alighted in a wood near the Arabs Abdelab.

On the 30th, at five o'clock in the morning we left this station, and

after having gone eight miles N. E. we came to a village, which is,

as it were, the suburb of Gerri. The Acaba of Gerri is a low ridge

of rocks that seems first to run from both sides across the bed of

the river, as if designed to stop it; and it is impossible to look

at the gap through which it falls down below, without thinking that

this passage was made by the Nile itself when first it began to flow.

Gerri is built on a rising ground, consisting of white, barren sand

and gravel, intermixed with white alabaster like pebbles, which, in

a bright sun, are extremely disagreeable to the eye. It consists of

about 140 houses, none of them above one storey high, neat, well

built, flat-roofed, and all of one height, composed with the same

coloured earth as that on which it stands, and, for this reason, it is

scarcely visible at a distance. It is immediately at the foot of the

Acaba, something more than a quarter of a mile from the Nile. Gerri is

situated at the end of the tropical rains, in lat. 16° 15´, and the

Acaba seems to answer those mountains of Ptolemy, beyond which (that

is to the N.) he says it is [Greek: diammon kai abrochon chôran][45],

that is, a country full of sand and without rain; it is but a small

spot immediately on the Nile, which is all cultivated, as it enjoys

the double advantage both of the overflowing of the river and the

accidental showers. It is also called Beladullah, or the Country

of God, on account of this double blessing. The dates of Gerri are

sent to the Mek, and are reserved on purpose for him. They are dry,

and never ripen, nor have any of the moist and pulpy substance of

the dates of Barbary. They are firm and smooth in the skin, and of a

golden colour.