Additions to our party — Skeleton guides — Lost in the desert —
Surefootedness of the camel — The well — A horrible story — Nubian
despotism — An Arab’s revenge.
We started from Aboohamed at ten o’clock on the morning of the 22nd of
January, for it was far too cold to have attempted it earlier.
We had some additions to our party. One was a man who had escaped from
the jail at Fazokl—at least so said the Governor of Aboohamed; though he
retracted his assertion on being presented with a dollar. There was a
suspicious coincidence, however, in the knowledge the man evidently had
of the state of felon society in that Botany Bay of a place, which was
not to be expected from one who visited it solely for pleasure. Perhaps
he was not the most desirable acquaintance we could have selected, but
as he made himself extremely handy in pitching tents, we were glad to
have assisted in freeing him from his bonds.
Our other acquisition was a fat sheep, that was to walk as well, if not
better than a camel. I did not believe a word of this; and was not at
all surprised on finding that he did not answer his warranty in the
quality of pedestrianism. He was therefore transformed into mutton with
as little delay as possible.
The first day our route lay over undulating plains, that were as firm
and as smooth as a gravel road. There were twenty paths at least; but
had we lost our way, the skeletons of the numerous camels which covered
the road and tainted the air, would have shown us the right one.
Then we entered the chains of hills among which we wound, often through
narrow passes, where the ground was marked by deep water-courses, and
covered at this season by plants of three or four kinds, on which the
camels fed with great relish.
After passing these, we came to a long tract of deep sand, where we
wandered on for hours, without finding a place sufficiently firm to
pitch a tent; and then entered another chain of hills, mostly of a
conical shape, and very picturesquely grouped.
Here we were nearly lost; for, after watching our caravan descending the
plain beneath us, and apparently entering a defile, we discovered that
the distance was much greater than we thought it had been; for it took
two hours’ riding before we reached the defile, when it was quite dark,
and there was no signs of the caravan, which we had ordered to stop at
sunset. On we wandered, in some anxiety, when suddenly one of our party
happening to cast a backward glance, discovered a light. For this we
immediately made, and had the gratification to find that it proceeded
from our people, who had wandered out of the direct road in search of
forage for their camels, which they did not find.
After this adventure, we lingered very little in the rear, and found
ourselves obliged to curtail our mid-day rests.
We now entered the hilly district that crosses the line of desert, and
ascended and descended passes along narrow rocky paths, better adapted
to the light foot of the gazelles, than the broad and heavy tread of the
camels; and it was wonderful how these large animals, with their
cumbrous burthens, scrambled among the rocks, and along the edge of
precipices, without the slightest hesitation.
A long descent through a narrow pass at last brought us to a circular
plain, in the centre of which is the well. On approaching it, we found a
large drove of camels mounted by a few wild-looking Arabs. Encamped too
within the arena was a Turkish caravan, on one side, and an Arab phan
with its round low tents established on the other. So we crossed the
plain, and pitched our tents on the opposite side, where entirely
exposed to the sun, we found the heat most oppressive.
The well consists of two large and deep holes cut in the sand, and is
situated in a valley so entirely surrounded by high hills, that on
arriving there it was difficult to say whence we had come, or where we
could go. The water was extremely salt, and even when made into soup was
scarcely drinkable.
The camels were immediately driven away, to feed in the neighbouring
pastures—they were not valleys, for they were all on the level plain;
out of them, however, rose the hills, often perpendicularly.
We also despatched two water-carrying camels with ten small skins to a
pool of capital rain-water to be found among the rocks at about half a
day’s journey, which was reported to be sweet.
Daireh told us a horrible story while we were here, which I will give in
his own words.
“When Mahoh Bey, that some years ago was going to make Governess of that
part of the country, wanted some camels from the head man of the road,
the man could not stand what he wanted, because it was too hard what he
wanted—because he would not allow his tribe to be pressed. I don’t know
what you call it.
“So the Governess gave him much stick with large pole, called nabout;
then he die a few days after. After the man die, this Mahoh Bey make
government for some year in the country, and he died, after some year
make Governor at Berber.
“When he died, his children and wife obliged to come back to Cairo,
because they have no money to take care of them there. And they gather
all their father’s money and property, and take the road from Aboohamed
to Korosko.
“They take the son of the murdered Sheik as guide, as they found he was
a capital young man; so made him great Sheik as his father was, and give
him fine dress and good backsheesh to console him.
“And when the Sheik had guided the Governess wife, and children, and
brought them all very well from Berber to El Murat (the well), at this
place they were obliged to stop one day to water the camel and to rest.
“Then one of the camel people who was clever young man, made singing,
reminding the young guide how his father had been murdered by the father
of this family under his care. Then it entered into the mind of this
young man, to take his father’s blood back again.
“So he guide them one day more, not in the road, but a little to the
left of the pass, and he select the big son of Mohah Bey, which is quite
a man, and he call him away from his mother in the middle of the night,
and say to him:
“‘Come, and your father kill my father, I do the same to you, to pay for
my father.’
“And the poor son try to prevent himself with as much money as he could,
but he cannot, they won’t stand him. So they kill him. When they had cut
his neck, they go back to his mother.
“His Bedouins which he had with him wished to kill all, so that no one
know what come to the rest, but the son of the Sheik he only take one
instead of his father, and then he rob all the rest, take every money
they got, and all their jewels and clothes, and he give them twenty men
to take care of them, and send them back again to Aboohamed, and he send
message with them to the Ababdee people to ruin Aboohamed and to join
him in the desert near the well, and he do the same at Korosko.
“He broke the corn magazine at that place, and take all the corn, &c.,
to the desert with him; and he going to the desert and make very large
encampment at Aboohamed, and at the well, with very large troops, armed
with guns, and spears, and shields.
“And when the wife of the Governess arrive at Berber, she let all the
Government know, and the Government pay her all her losses, even more
than what she lost, and sent very big troops of Armenians, and also a
lot of Bedouins, who were not friends to the Ababda people, and go to
them in the desert, and stop all their way from all sides of the
mountains.
“And they begin to fight together very hard for one day. Twenty people
of the Ababdee are killed, and sixteen people of the Government people
killed, instead.
“When the Ababdee finished their powder, they pull up a very white flag
and say they come to the Governor, and do whatever he wish. Then they
take them all to Khartoum, and make them pay £50,000, instead of the
money taken, and of the expenses of fight.
“Then the Ababdee stand it, and Ali Bey Hassib make his cousin Sheik, as
unless one of the family are Sheik, the Ababdee will not keep quiet. So
they keep the big Sheik at Khartoum, to answer for the behaviour of his
tribe.”
So ends my tale.
This disturbance took place while we were passing Korosko in our boats
on our way to Wady Halfa. Our original intention was to start from
Korosko and return by Dongola and Wady Halfa, but the desert being in
such an unsettled state, we thought it wiser to change our plans, though
we should have run no actual risk by travelling among the people, even
while in a state of rebellion, as strangers are always respected.