barren sandy desert, stands a tall date-tree, the only one of its
species met with hereabouts, for no dates are grown anywhere from
Dóngola to Sennaar. The merchants hail this tree as a beacon which
marks the successful termination of their journey. Several people of
Shendy were waiting for us, to salute their acquaintances, and take
a look at the loads. As traders never enter Shendy in the day time,
we halted till sun-set, and then proceeded slowly towards the town,
which we reached after about nine hours march from our departure
from Djebail.
_At Shendy from April 17th to May 17th._ We entered a large house
belonging to the friends of the Ababdes, situated on the skirts
of the town, towards the desert; but the next morning the Mek sent
one of his slaves to tell us, that he wanted that house himself for
one of his Abyssinian female slaves, who was to be inoculated with
the small-pox, and whom he wished to pass the time of her illness
in an open, airy, and insulated place. He ordered a house to be
prepared for us in the middle of the town, and we took possession
of it the next day; the owner was absent, but his wife gave us a
civil reception.
Next to Sennaar, and Cobbé (in Darfour), Shendy is the largest
town in eastern Soudan, and larger, according to the report of
the merchants, than the capitals of Dóngola and of Kordofan. It
consists of several quarters, divided from each other by public
places, or markets, and it contains altogether from eight hundred to
a thousand houses. It is built upon the sandy plain, at about half
an hour’s walk from the river; its houses are similar to those
of Berber; but it contains a greater number of large buildings,
and fewer ruins. The houses seldom form any regular street, but are
spread over the plain in great disorder. I nowhere saw any walls of
burnt bricks. The houses of the chief, and those of his relatives,
contain court-yards twenty feet square, inclosed by high walls, and
this is the general description of the habitations of Shendy. The
government is in the hands of the Mek; the name of the present
chief is Nimr (نِمر), i. e. Tiger. The reigning family is of
the same tribe as that which now occupies the throne of Sennaar,
namely the Wold Adjib(ولد عجيب), which, as far as I could
understand, is a branch of the Funnye. The father of Nimr was an
Arab of the tribe of Djaalein, but his mother was of the royal
blood of Wold Adjib; and thus it appears that women have a right
to the succession. This agrees with the narrative of Bruce, who
found at Shendy a woman upon the throne, whom he calls Sittina (an
Arabic word meaning our Lady). The Mek of Shendy, like the Mek of
Berber, is subject to Sennaar; but, excepting the purchase money
paid for his government, on his accession, and occasional presents
to the king and vizier[21] of Sennaar, he is entirely independent,
and governs his district, which extends about two days journeys
farther to the south, quite at his own pleasure.
Before the arrival of the Mamelouks in Dóngola Mek Nimr had been
for many years in continual warfare with the Arabs Sheygya, who had
killed several of his relatives in battle, and, by making inroads
into his dominions with large parties of horsemen, had repeatedly
laid waste the whole western bank of the river. The Sheygya made
peace with him, in order more effectually to oppose the Mamelouks,
when his own brother, to whom the command of the western bank had
been entrusted, declared against him, and they have now carried on
war for several years, with little success or loss on either side,
as they are separated from each other by the river, and can never
pass it but in small parties.
The government of Shendy is much to be preferred to that of Berber:
the full authority of the Mek is not thwarted by the influence of
powerful families, which in these countries tends only to insecurity,
nor has he adopted that system of rapacity which makes Berber so
justly dreaded by strangers. His absolute power is owing to the
diversity of Arab tribes inhabiting Shendy, none of which is strong
enough to cope with his own family and its numerous branches. The
largest of these tribes are the Nimrab, Nayfab, and Djaalein,
the greater part of whom still lead the Bedouin life. The most
respectable class of the inhabitants of Shendy are the merchants,
amongst whom are great numbers of foreign settlers from Sennaar,
Kordofan, Darfour, and Dóngola: the last are the most numerous, and
they occupy an entire quarter of the town, but their nation is less
esteemed than any other. They are reproached with inhospitality,
and their avarice has become proverbial; the broker business,
which is almost exclusively in their hands, has added to the odium
of their name, so that an Arab of Shendy considers it as an insult
to be called a Dongoláwy, a name here considered as equivalent to
that of Jew in Europe.
Commerce flourishes at Shendy because the Mek does not extort any
taxes from the merchants, which many people assured me he dared
not do from his fear of the vizier of Sennaar. I am not able to
judge how far this may be true; but the fact is, that caravans pay
nothing whatever by way of duty; they generally make up a small
present to the Mek, in order to enjoy his particular protection, and
add something further for one of his brothers, who is a principal
man in the place. Our party of Ababdes sent him a small parcel of
soap and sugar, of which my quota amounted to half a dollar. I did
not hear of any subordinate offices in the government of Shendy,
and the Mek seems to unite all the branches of authority in his
own person. His relatives are the governors of villages; and his
court consists of half a dozen police officers, a writer, an Imam,
a treasurer, and a body guard, formed principally of slaves. The
character of the people is much the same as that of the inhabitants
of Berber. They are kept in some order, it is true, by the Mek;
but wickedness and injustice govern all their conduct, for they
know that the law can do little more than endeavour to prevent
crimes, and that it very seldom punishes them. Nightly robbers,
drunken people who have assaulted strangers, thieves detected in
the market, &c. &c. are often carried before the Mek, but he is
generally satisfied with imprisoning them for two or three days;
and I did not hear a single instance of his having ordered any
person to be put to death, or even flogged, although such crimes as
I have mentioned were committed daily during my stay at Shendy. The
delinquents were permitted to return quietly to their homes, on
paying a small fine to the Mek and his people. I was told that at
Kordofan thieves are always punished with death.
Debauchery and drunkenness are as fashionable here as at Berber;
the latter, I think, is even more common. No night passed without my
hearing the loud songs of some Bouza meeting, though our quarter,
that of the Dongoláwy, who are too avaricious to be addicted to
these vices, was one of the quietest. At Berber public women were
constantly seen in the street; at Shendy I very seldom met any of
them, though within the inclosures of the houses they are almost
as numerous as at Berber.
The dress, habits, and manners of the inhabitants of Shendy are the
same as those of the places last described, and appear to prevail as
far as Darfour, and Sennaar. I observed more well dressed people at
Shendy than at Berber, and clean linen was much oftener seen. Gold
being a very current article in the Shendy market, the women have
more frequently golden rings at their noses and ears than those
of Berber; the people also possess more wealth. It is not uncommon
to see a family possessed of a dozen slaves, acting as servants in
the house, and labourers in the field.
The people of Shendy, like those of Berber, are shepherds,
traders, and husbandmen. Agriculture, however, seems to be little
thought of by the inhabitants themselves, being chiefly left to
the Arab peasants of the vicinity; the cultivable soil in the
neighbourhood of the city is narrow; but to the north and south
of it are some fine arable plains. Water-wheels are common; they
are erected generally on those parts of the high banks, which the
most copious inundations of the river cannot overflow; by means of
them the cultivators raise one winter crop; but they are too lazy
to bestow the labour necessary for watering the soil a second or
third time, as is done in the most elevated parts of Upper Egypt,
where also the river very seldom rises high enough to overflow the
banks. Dhourra is the chief produce; Dokhen and wheat are sown in
small quantities, the former for the consumption of the western
traders who visit Shendy, the latter almost exclusively for the
families of the great. Large quantities of onions, some red pepper
(brought from Kordofan), Bamyes, chick-peas (حُمّص), Meloukhye,
and Tormos,[22] are always found in the market either green or
dried. During the inundation some water-melons and cucumbers are
sown, but for the use only of the Harem of the Mek.
The cattle is very fine; and the inhabitants say that their size
and quality continue to increase, in proportion as you ascend
the river. I saw no domestic animals that are not common in
Egypt. Elephants are first met with at Abou Heraze, two or three
days to the north of Sennaar; and they have never been known to
pass to the northward of that district, which is bounded by a chain
of mountains six or eight hours in breadth, reaching close to the
river. I was told that tigers are frequently seen in the Wadys
east of Shendy. In the mountains of Dender, a district towards the
Atbara, and six or eight journies south-east of Shendy, the giraffa
is found (Arabic, Zerafa, ظرافه, i. e. the elegant). It is
hunted by the Arabs Shukorein and Kowahel, and is highly prized for
its skin, of which the strongest bucklers are made. I frequently
saw mountain-goats of the largest size brought to the market of
Shendy; they have long horns bending to the middle of the back;
their flesh is esteemed a great dainty. They call them Areal
(آريَل), a name given in Syria to the red deer. In Upper
Egypt they are called Teytal (تيتل), and in Syria Beden
(بَدَن). They are caught by the Djaalein Bedouins in nooses,
in the same manner as they catch ostriches, which are also very
common in this neighbourhood. The ostrich-feathers however are
inferior to those of the western deserts. Those most esteemed in
Egypt are from Kordofan and Darfour, which the caravans from the
latter place bring to Siout. The Djaalein peasants bring the feathers
to the market in bundles, good and bad together, and exchange them
for Dhourra. Their price, when I was at Shendy, was about one-tenth
of what they would bring at Cairo, where the best kinds, in 1812,
sold at two hundred and eighty piastres per pound. The Pasha of Egypt
has lately included them among the articles monopolised by him[23].
The hippopotamus (in Arabic Farass el Bahhr, فَرَص البحر,
or Barnick, برنيق), is not common at Shendy, though it
occasionally makes its appearance there; during my stay there was one
in the river in the vicinity of Boeydha, which made great ravages
in the fields. It never rose above water in the day-time, but came
on shore in the night, and destroyed as much by the treading of
its enormous feet, as it did by its voracity; the people have no
means of killing them. At Sennaar, where hippopotami are numerous,
they are caught in trenches, slightly covered with reeds, into which
they fall during their nightly excursions. It is generally said that
no musket ball can bring them to the ground, unless they are hit in
the vulnerable spot, which is over the ear. The whips called Korbadj
(كرباج), which are formed of their skins, are made at Sennaar,
and on the Nile, above that place, immediately after being taken off,
the skin is cut into narrow strips, about five or six feet in length,
gradually tapering to a point: each strip is then rolled up, so that
the edges unite, and form a pipe, in which state it is tied fast and
left to dry in the sun. In order to render these whips pliable, they
must be rubbed with butter or grease. At Shendy they are sold at the
rate of twelve or sixteen for a Spanish dollar; in Egypt, where they
are in general use, and the dread of every servant and peasant, they
are worth from half a dollar, to a dollar each. In colder climates,
even in Syria, they become brittle, crack, and lose their elasticity.
Crocodiles are very numerous about Shendy. I have generally
remarked that these animals inhabit particular parts of the Nile,
from whence they seldom appear to move; thus, in Lower Egypt,
they have entirely disappeared, although no reasonable cause can
be assigned for their not descending the river. In Upper Egypt,
the neighbourhood of Akhmim, Dendera, Orment, and Edfou, are at
present the favourite haunts of the crocodile, while few are ever
seen in the intermediate parts of the river. The same is the case
in different parts of Nubia towards Dóngola. At Berber nobody
is afraid of encountering crocodiles in the river, and we bathed
there very often, swimming out into the midst of the stream. At
Shendy, on the contrary, they are greatly dreaded; the Arabs and
the slaves and females, who repair to the shore of the river near
the town every morning and evening to wash their linen, and fill
their water-skins for the supply of the town, are obliged to be
continually on the alert, and such as bathe take care not to proceed
to any great distance into the river. I was several times present
when a crocodile made its appearance, and witnessed the terror it
inspired; the crowd all quickly retiring up the beach. During my
stay at Shendy a man who had been advised to bathe in the river,
after having escaped the small-pox, was seized and killed by one of
these animals. At Sennaar crocodiles are often brought to market,
and their flesh is publicly sold there. I once tasted some of the
meat at Esne, in Upper Egypt; it is of a dirty white colour, not
unlike young veal, with a slight fishy smell; the animal had been
caught by some fishermen in a strong net, and was above twelve feet
in length. The Governor of Esne ordered it to be brought into his
court yard, where more than an hundred balls were fired against it
without effect, till it was thrown upon its back, and the contents
of a small swivel discharged at its belly, the skin of which is
much softer than that of the back. Fish are very seldom caught by
the Arabs of Shendy. Nets appear to be unknown, but children often
amuse themselves in angling with hooked nails.
The produce of the fields of Shendy and its neighbourhood is not
sufficient for the supply of the population, the wants of which
are much increased by the continual arrival of caravans. Dhourra is
imported principally from Abou Heraze, in the route to Sennaar. A
caravan of more than three hundred camels arrived from thence
with Dhourra during my stay at Shendy, and the price, which, on
our arrival, was at the rate of one dollar for twelve measures,
fell to twenty measures per dollar. The price of grain varies almost
daily, the market being affected by the arrival of every caravan of
traders, who always buy up a considerable quantity for the food of
the slaves and camels. The Mek also monopolizes the corn-trade as
much as he can. At Abou Heraze and Sennaar, Dhourra is said to be
in great plenty; forty measures being sold for a dollar. This grain
is of the same shape and size as that of Shendy and Upper Egypt;
but it is of an ash gray colour; it is said to be less nourishing,
and of course is less esteemed than the other.
Horses are more numerous here than at Berber. The Mek, it is
said, can raise within Shendy itself from two to three hundred
horsemen. According to the custom of the Eastern Arabs, the Djaalein
Bedouins ride mares in preference to stallions; but the latter are
preferred by the inhabitants of the town. The Mek’s brother, Ras
Saad ed Dyn (سعد الدين), had a horse for which he had given
in the southern districts thirteen slaves; it surpassed in beauty
any other horse I ever remember to have seen. At a public festival
on the occasion of the circumcision of one of Mek Nimr’s sons,
all the horsemen of Shendy met, and accompanied the family of the
chief through the town, their horses prancing about. They appeared
to me but very indifferent horsemen; none attempted any of the
manœuvres for which the Mamelouks are so famous; they contented
themselves with gallopping backwards and forwards; nor did I see
one bold rider amongst them. It is in this cavalry, however, that
the Mek places his chief strength, and it decides the fate of all
the battles he is obliged to fight with his enemies. The saddles,
and bridles, as well as the stirrups, in which they place the great
toe only, are the same as those used at Berber and by the Arabs
Sheygya, who appear to be as celebrated for their horsemanship in
this country as the Mamelouks once were in Turkey. Mek Nimr has
about twenty firelocks, which he has either bought or taken from
Egyptian traders; with these he arms his favourite slaves, but few
of them have courage sufficient to fire them off, and there are none
who dare take an aim by placing the gun against the shoulder. The
sight of it alone generally frightens the enemy, and so far it fully
answers their purpose, for it is always the wish of both parties to
finish the battle with as little bloodshed as possible, because the
law of retaliation is in full force amongst these Arabs. Several
of Mek Nimr’s musquets are either broken, or so much rusted, as
to make them unserviceable, and nobody could be found to clean and
mend them. Having been seen one day cleaning my gun, I was supposed
to be skilful in this art, and serious proposals were made to me,
to enter into the Mek’s service as gunsmith. He offered me one
male and two female slaves, and as much Dhourra as I might want for
their maintenance; and it was with difficulty that I could persuade
the slaves who made me the proposal in the name of their master,
that I knew nothing of the business of a gunsmith. Travellers
in these countries ought to avoid shewing their capacity in the
most trifling things that may be of use or afford pleasure to the
chiefs, who will endeavour to force them into their service. Not
having succeeded in prevailing upon me to remain, the Mek wished at
least to have my gun. He sent for it, and kept it for several days;
and upon my urgent entreaties to have it returned to me, he sent me
four Spanish dollars, ordering his slaves at the same time to carry
me several dishes of bread and meat from his own kitchen. Upon
complaining to some of the inhabitants of this treatment, they
replied, that having now eaten of the Mek’s food I had become
his friend, and that it would therefore be a disgrace to me to make
any difficulty in parting with my gun. I was very sorry to lose it,
especially when I considered in what countries I still intended to
travel; but in my present circumstances four dollars were not to be
despised. Seeing no chance therefore of either getting back my gun,
or obtaining a higher price for it, I accepted the Mek’s four
dollars with many professions of thanks.
It will appear very singular that fire-arms are not more frequently
met with here, as they may so easily be imported. But the fact is,
that traders are afraid to carry them, lest they should excite
the cupidity of some or other of the chiefs; and it is not to be
supposed, that until they are more numerous, they can be taken
to market like other goods, or be paid for at a regular price. To
the country people, who seldom visit the towns where traders make
any stay, a musquet is an object of the greatest terror, and will
frighten away dozens of them. A Djaalein Arab, who had some ostrich
feathers to sell, came one day to the house where I lodged, to
barter with my companions for his feathers. The moment he espied
my gun standing in the corner of the room, he got up, and desired
it might be removed, for that he did not like to remain near so
deadly an instrument.
The envoy whom the Pasha of Egypt sent to Sennaar, related, upon his
return, that the king exhibited one day a review of cavalry before
him, when the envoy desired to be permitted to shew the Turkish
artillery exercise, he having with him two small field-pieces mounted
on camels, and three soldiers. When they began to fire, the greater
part of the people fled, and many threw themselves on the ground,
crying out for help. I never saw a man of these countries who dared
touch my gun, unless he had been either in Egypt or Arabia; and the
young men belonging to our caravan frequently got rid of troublesome
visitors by laying hold of it, and saying that they were going to
fire it off. If such is the case in this part of the continent,
which has so much intercourse with the Turkish dominions, what must
be the degree of surprise and terror upon first witnessing the effect
of fire-arms among the people farther removed in the interior, where
such instruments have never been seen, and scarcely heard of. This
is one of the reasons which lead me to believe that with prudence and
perseverance a very small body of European soldiers might make their
way across these countries without opposition. Three hundred, for
instance, well inured to a tropical climate, might, I am persuaded,
penetrate very far into Eastern Africa. From Assouan to Sennaar they
certainly would have little to apprehend. If 250 miserable Mamelouks
conquered and kept possession of Dóngola, against the joint efforts
of the Dongoláwy and the Sheygya, a body of experienced Europeans
could not have much to fear from these Africans, divided as they
are into small principalities, which possess no union among one
another. The difficulties arising from fatigue, privation, and
climate, might be obviated by patience and prudence; by following
the banks of the rivers, where provisions and camels may be always
procured, and, by selecting salubrious and elevated spots, wherein
to pass the rainy season, which moreover has none of those dreadful
effects experienced in the western countries of Africa. Single
individuals attempting to make discoveries in the interior of this
continent, through districts unfrequented by northern traders, will,
I fear, always fall victims to their zeal and honourable ambition;
and if the sources of the Bahr el Abyadh are ever to be discovered,
it must be by an armed force. England has, by her different voyages
of discovery, and her missions to explore distant countries, far
surpassed all the nations of Europe: and a successful expedition
through the interior of the African continent is alone wanting to
render her triumph complete.
Shendy has a daily, and one large weekly market, which is frequented
by all the surrounding Arabs. The common currency is the same
as that at Berber, viz. Dhourra and Dammour. Slaves and camels
are generally bought with dollars, or whole parties of slaves are
bartered for Egyptian and Souakin merchandize. Of dollars those only
are current that are coined in Spain. They are called Abou Medfaa
(ابو مدفع), from having the supposed figure of a gun on
the reverse, or Abou Amoud (ابو عمود), from the columns:
none pass current but those with the inscription Carolus IIII.,
which they term Reyal Abou Areyaa (ريال ابو اريع), and
these numerals, or lines, must be visible upon the dollar to make
it pass at its full value. They say that the dollars with Carolus
III. must be of less value, because they have only three lines,
whence they are estimated at one-sixth below the real value. Those
coined under the Ferdinands lose one-third. Austrian dollars are not
taken at all. During my stay at Shendy, I found a blacksmith secretly
employed in adding an I to the dollars of Charles III., for which
he received two measures of Dhourra per dollar. This distinction of
the numerals, it is said, was first made by the Bedouins; as it is
now known amongst the merchants, little inconvenience arises from
it. Gold coins have no currency; but pure gold, in small pieces,
or lumps, or ear-rings, can always be procured from the Sennaar
merchants at the market price. I never saw any gold dust in the
possession of the traders during the whole of my journeys. The
Mamelouks had sent one of their servants to Shendy with Venetian
zecchins, and Turkish gold coins, in order to exchange them for
dollars; the Egyptians bought them up at half their value, but they
afterwards repented of it, when they recollected that they might
have employed their dollars in other purchases, which would have
returned them more than fifty per cent. profit in Egypt.