Ababdes with whom I lodged, although they did not shew me great
kindness, yet forbore to treat me with rudeness; this was all I
demanded. Their society served as a protection, for my person soon
became conspicuous throughout the town, and I took care to let every
one know that I belonged to the respected party of Ababde guides. Our
house and court-yard were soon filled with slaves and camels: we
separated into different messes, and every one delivered a daily
ration of Dhourra to the female slaves, who cooked for the mess;
we defrayed all our common expenses with Dhourra. Every evening some
of my companions had a Bouza party; the day was spent in commercial
pursuits. Soon after our arrival, in order to conciliate the Ababdes,
I bought a young sheep, and had it killed for their entertainment,
and I always kept my tobacco pouch well supplied for their use. I
attended the market regularly, and courted the acquaintance of
some Fakys, whose protection I thought might prove useful to me
against the ill-will which my former companions from Daraou never
failed to manifest towards me whenever we met. The son of my old
friend of Daraou, to whom I had been most particularly recommended
by his father, went so far as once to spit in my face in the public
market-place, because I pressed him for the payment of a small sum
which I had lent him, and which he denied with a solemn oath having
ever received from me; indeed I never met any of these Egyptians in
the streets without receiving some insulting language from them,
of which, had I taken notice, they would, no doubt, have carried
me before the Mek, where their superior influence might have been
attended with the worst consequences to me. It was to them, as I
afterwards learnt, that I was indebted for the loss of my gun; and I
do not know what they might have attempted further, had I not fallen
upon an expedient which was attended with the happiest effects. They
had always thought that I intended to proceed straight to Sennaar,
for I had never informed any one that I was bound direct to the
Red Sea. They became anxious, in consequence of their own behaviour
to me, that I should never return to Egypt, where I might be able
to call them to an account, and where, though they certainly did
not know it, a word from me to Ibrahim Pasha, who then governed
Upper Egypt, would have been of the most serious consequences to
them. They endeavoured therefore to prepare my ruin, by spreading
the most injurious reports of me among the Sennaar merchants,
whom they supposed that I should accompany; they represented me
to be possessed of wealth, which I had fraudulently acquired in
Egypt; and they urged that it would be an act of justice towards
those whom I had cheated, to deprive me of my baggage. I had now
been about three weeks at Shendy; my companions the Ababde having
purchased a considerable number of slaves and camels, were preparing
to return home; a Souakin caravan was also about to depart. Under
these circumstances, I gave out that I had abandoned all idea of
proceeding farther southward, as foreseeing that I should not have
more than enough to defray my expenses beyond Sennaar. Accordingly,
with the remainder of my funds, I bought a slave boy, and a camel,
and declared that I intended to return to Egypt with my friends the
Ababde, a course which they had often endeavoured to persuade me to
adopt. This proceeding completely thwarted the plans of the Daraou
people, and caused them suddenly to change their behaviour towards
me; the principal man amongst them, he who struck me at Damer,
repeatedly visited me, sent me several times a choice dish for my
supper, and expressed his wishes that we might again meet, as good
friends, in Egypt, for which country (he added) his party intended
to set out soon after the Ababde, and to take guides for the journey
across the desert from among the Ababde at Berber. In the meanwhile I
made every preparation for my journey. I had secretly informed myself
respecting the Souakin caravan, and on the eve of its departure,
which happened to be two days previous to the time fixed by the
Ababde for their return, I communicated my design to the chief of
the latter, and by making him a small present, prevailed on him to
accompany me to the chief of the Souakin caravan, and to recommend
me to him, as his friend. Much ceremony is not necessary on such
occasions; every person has his own beast of burthen, and joins
at pleasure, whatever caravan he chooses. An increase of numbers
is always desirable by the chief, as it both adds to the amount of
his duties, and to the means of general defence.
It was not from any apprehensions of the consequences likely to
result from the representations of the Egyptian traders, that I was
induced to take the route to the Red Sea. Situated as I was, there
seemed to be no great obstacle in my way to Sennaar, nor from thence
to Gondar and Massouah; for I knew that the Abyssinian traders go
constantly backwards and forwards between Gondar and Ras el Fil,
where they are met by the Sennaar merchants; and once at Gondar,
and in the fertile valleys of Abyssinia, I should, at all events,
have been able to beg my way to the coast. But in this case I should
have followed the footsteps of Poncet and Bruce; and am persuaded
that it will not be long before Abyssinia, from its comparatively
easy access by sea, will be thoroughly explored. On the other hand
I thought that a journey through the country between Shendy and the
Red Sea would add new information to our knowledge of Ethiopia, and
being full of difficulty and danger, could only be undertaken by a
traveller who had already served a hard apprenticeship; I preferred
therefore traversing this comparatively small tract of ground,
which might otherwise still remain for a long course of years
unknown. The wish to be at Mekka in the month of November, at the
time of the pilgrimage, was another consideration that had a strong
effect upon me. It had indeed been a principal object with me during
all the time that I was in Upper Egypt, and a motive in determining
me to this second journey into Nubia. I was then, as I still am,
fully convinced, that the title of Hadji would afford me the most
powerful recommendation and protection in any future journey through
the interior countries of Africa. From Suez or Kosseir I should
have found it extremely difficult to carry my designs into effect;
in going through Abyssinia, I might perhaps have been detained too
long on the way by land or sea to reach Mekka at the above-mentioned
period, and I knew that if I should reach Mekka without being present
at the ceremonies of the Hadj, I could not hope to pass afterwards
as a true Hadji, without exposing myself to daily detection.
I sold at Shendy the whole of my adventure of merchandize, and
after paying my share of the expenses of our stay there, including a
suitable present in money to our landlord, I bought a slave boy about
fourteen years of age, partly for the sake of having a useful and
constant companion, and partly to afford me an ostensible reason for
going in the direction of the Red Sea, where I might sell him with
profit. I still pretended to be in search of a relation, but added,
that having experienced the difficulties of journeys by land through
these countries, I intended to embark at Souakin for Massouah, and
by that route to enter Abyssinia, where I affected to have every
reason to believe that I should find my relation. I knew that the
Souakin caravan consisted of two parties, one of which was bound
direct to Souakin, while the other intended to take the route by
Taka. It was with the latter that I resolved to proceed, and to take
the chance of finding a favourable conveyance from Taka to Massouah.
I chose my slave, who cost me sixteen dollars, from among a great
number, and he proved to be a very good and serviceable boy. I also
purchased a camel, for which I gave eleven dollars; and as my safety
entirely depended upon it, I took care to make choice of one of the
strongest. I laid in a provision of Abré, or dried bread, Dhourra,
Dhourra meal, and butter, and purchased several pieces of Dammour,
which I knew was much in demand on the way to Taka. After all my
accounts were settled, I had four dollars left; but the smallness of
this sum occasioned me no uneasiness, for I calculated on selling
my camel on the coast for as much as would defray the expenses of
my voyage to Djidda, and I had a letter of credit on that place
for a considerable sum, which I had procured at Cairo.
JOURNEY FROM SHENDY TO TAKA.
Early in the morning of the 17th of May, the Souakin caravan took
its departure; it had passed the precincts of the town before I
had completely loaded my camel; while I was thus employed several
of the Daraou people, who had just been informed of my intended
departure, came to vent their rage at my having foiled them in
their rancorous projects against me; it was, however, too late; I
was beyond the reach of their malice. The Ababde accompanied me to a
short distance beyond the town, where I took an affectionate leave
of them, for I could not but consider that almost from the time of
my quitting Egypt, I owed my safety entirely to their protection
or interference; I was still to owe them farther obligations; for
in quitting the town one of the Mek’s slaves had followed me,
and, after I had taken leave of the Ababde, the caravan being then
about half a mile in advance, in the plain, he continued to keep
alongside of me. One of the Ababde seeing this, and observing that
the slave was armed, entertained some suspicion of him. He therefore
immediately turned back, and came up just in time to extricate me
from the slave, who, although he had, during our stay at Shendy,
partaken almost daily of our meals, had followed me for the purpose
of obliging me to give up to him my pistol.[53] He probably thought
I should part with it, rather than expose myself to delay, and the
consequent danger of joining the caravan alone. He had taken hold of
the camel’s halter, and had already demanded the pistol, when the
Ababde came up, and severely reprimanded him for his conduct. In the
afternoon we arrived at El Hassa (الحسّا), a hamlet situated
beyond the salt works and plain of Boeydha, not far from the place
where we encamped at noon on the day of our arrival at Shendy.
_May 18th._—We remained encamped at El Hassa the whole day,
and were joined in the afternoon by several Souakin and Shendy
merchants, who came to take leave of their friends. The Djaalein
Arabs hovered about us, and endeavoured to carry off several camels
while brouzing on the acacia leaves, under the guard of the slaves;
this obliged me to take great care of my own camel. While driving
it to the thickest groves of acacias, I met with some remains of
ancient buildings close to the river, the banks of which are here
very high. These remains consist of stone foundations of houses,
and some brick walls; the former appear to have belonged to private
buildings of moderate size, and consist of blocks of sandstone three
or four feet in length, very rudely worked, and much decayed. The
stones bear a small proportion to the brickwork; the bricks are of
the same description as those I saw near Dawah, and form the walls
of private dwellings. I saw no remains of any town wall, nor of any
thing like a large edifice; the whole of what I observed seemed to
have belonged to a small open city. The circumference of these ruins
is eight or ten minutes walk at most; I could trace no regularity in
their plan; they seemed to consist of small insulated oblong squares
irregularly dispersed among the trees. Of the brick walls there
were no where more than two feet standing above ground, and even
this is matter for astonishment when we consider the effect which
the annual rains must have upon such deserted and loosely combined
structures. I could discover no other remains of any kind in the
vicinity. There is a ford over the river near this place, which the
Djaalein use for three or four months before the rise of the waters.
_May 19th._—We set out this morning, and travelled along the
eastern limits of the cultivated plain, till we reached the village
of Kaboushye (كبوشيه), the residence of a relation of the Mek
of Shendy, about three hours from El Hassa. As we had three long
days march to the Atbara, we filled our water-skins at the river,
which is half an hour from the village. Just as we were starting, an
accident happened to me, which frequently occasions great distress
to the traveller in the desert; when I had tied the water-skins
to my camel’s saddle, one of the largest of them sprung a leak,
out of which the water issued as from a fountain. In such cases the
Arabs generally stop the hole with a peg made of the green twig of
a tree, wrapped with a bit of linen; but the best substance for the
purpose is the pith of the Dhourra cane, which swells in the water,
and thus fits very tight. We crossed a flat district, intersected
by many low grounds and Wadys, in which were shrubs and wild grass
(قش) Gish. We passed a large encampment of Djaalein, distant four
hours from the river, from which, nevertheless, they bring their
daily supply of water; we encamped late at night, after a march of
seven or eight hours from Kaboushye.
_May 20th._—We set out before sunrise, in
a N.E. b. E. direction. The caravan consisted of at least two
hundred loaded camels, twenty or thirty dromedaries, carrying the
richest traders, without any other loads; about one hundred and fifty
traders, three hundred slaves, and about thirty horses, destined for
the Yemen market; they were led the whole way by the slaves. The
greater part of the loads consisted of tobacco, which the Souakin
people had themselves brought from Sennaar, and of Dammour, from the
same place. The caravan was under good care. Its chief was one of
the principal men among the Arabs of Souakin, connected by marriage
with the first tribes of the Bisharye and Hadendoa Bedouins, through
whose territory our road lay; but notwithstanding this, I clearly
perceived that there was a constant dread of the Bisharein. The
people yielded without reluctance to the orders of the chief[54]
in every thing that related to the march of the caravan. The only
strangers who had joined the Souakin merchants were a party of
Tekaýrne (sing. Tekroury), or black traders, consisting of five
masters, ten camels, and about thirty slaves. I joined this party,
as we were all strangers, and glad of each other’s assistance;
I encamped near them during the whole of the journey to the coast,
separating myself from the Souakin traders, who were also divided
into many different parties. I soon became tolerably familiar with
my companions; they rendered me many little services, of which no
one stands more in need than a caravan traveller, and I was never
backward in returning them; so that we continued to be upon good
terms: I cannot say a friendly footing, for nobody, even in the
Negroe countries, is inclined to form an intimacy with a poor man.
Of these Tekaýrne one was from Darfour, another from Kordofan,
and three had come originally from Bornou, from whence, many years
ago, they had travelled with the caravan to Fezzan, and from thence
to Cairo. The principal among them, and who became the head of
our mess, Hadji Aly el Bornaway (حاج علي البرناوي),
had travelled as a slave-trader in many parts of Turkey, had been
at Constantinople, had lived a long time at Damascus, (where many
Tekaýrne serve as labourers in the gardens of the great), and had
three times performed the Hadj: he was now established at Kordofan,
and spent his time in trading between that place and Djidda. His
travels, and the apparent sanctity of his conduct, had procured him
great reputation, and he was well received by the Meks and other
chiefs, to whom he never failed to bring some small presents from
Djidda. Although almost constantly occupied, (whether sitting under
a temporary shed of mats, or riding upon his camel on the march,)
in reading the Koran, yet this man was a complete bon vivant,
whose sole object was sensual enjoyment. The profits on his small
capital, which were continually renewed by his travelling, were spent
entirely in the gratification of his desires. He carried with him
a favourite Borgho slave, as his concubine; she had lived with him
three years, and had her own camel, while his other slaves performed
the whole journey on foot.[55] His leathern sacks were filled with
all the choice provisions which the Shendy market could afford,
particularly with sugar and dates, and his dinners were the best
in the caravan. To hear him talk of morals and religion, one might
have supposed that he knew vice only by name; yet Hadji Aly, who
had spent half his life in devotion, sold last year, in the slave
market of Medinah, his own cousin, whom he had recently married at
Mekka. She had gone thither on a pilgrimage from Bornou by the way
of Cairo, when Aly unexpectedly meeting with her, claimed her as
his cousin, and married her:[56] at Medinah being in want of money,
he sold her to some Egyptian merchants; and as the poor woman was
unable to prove her free origin, she was obliged to submit to her
fate. The circumstance was well known in the caravan, but the Hadji
nevertheless still continued to enjoy all his wonted reputation.
The Tekaýrne treated me in the same manner as they would have
treated any other traveller; and as travellers are always treated
in these countries, where, except assisting their neighbour
occasionally in lifting a camel’s load, no one thinks of any
thing but his own comforts; but this was all I wished for; I was
in no real need of any one’s help; and I never experienced any
thing like ill treatment from the Souakin merchants that was not
equally shared by the Tekaýrne themselves. I was much upon my guard,
behaved civilly to every body, shunned all intimacy with the slaves,
with whom I was considered nearly upon a level; and shewed a proper
spirit of resistance against any attempt to cheat or wheedle me out
of a part of my baggage or provisions. By this conduct I have reason
to believe, that I acquired the character of a hardy, active man,
very selfish, stingy, and attentive to his own interests.
We travelled the whole morning across a plain composed chiefly of
petrosilex. To the right we had a number of Wadys, or low grounds.
After a march of ten or eleven hours we rested; it is the custom to
set out about sun-rise, to halt during the mid-day hours, or from
ten o’clock A. M. till three or four P. M., and then to continue
the march till late at night, and often till after midnight.
_May 21st._ Our road continued to traverse the plain. We this day
experienced a violent Semoum. The camels of the Souakin merchants
being heavily loaded with goods, had taken but a small supply of
water, in proportion to the number of the slaves and horses. Towards
noon, most of their skins were empty, and the chief of the caravan
coming to our mess, almost forcibly took from every one of us a
fourth part of the water which was left. We passed the mid-day hours
upon a black gravelly plain, near some acacia trees; and after a long
day’s march of ten or eleven hours, in a N. E. b. E. direction, we
slept in a Wady full of shrubs and deep sands. The whole caravan went
thirsty to rest. We found, almost the whole way across the desert,
a well trodden path, much frequented by the people of Atbara, who
carry their cattle to the Shendy market: we met several of them on
the road, on their way to Shendy with mats made at Atbara of the
leaves of the Doum tree.
_May 22nd._—After a march of three hours among sandy plains, we
came in sight of the river Atbara, and entered the groves of trees
which line its banks. The luxuriant vegetation which now surrounded
us filled with pleasure even the stony hearts of the slave-traders;
one of whom, alluding to the dreary tract we had passed, exclaimed:
(بعد الموت الجنّه Baad el mout el djenna), “After
death comes paradise.” We marched for about a quarter of an hour
among high trees, from the boughs of which we had much difficulty
in disentangling the camels’ loads. There was a greater variety
of natural vegetation here than I had seen any where on the banks
of the Nile in Egypt. I observed different species of the mimosa,
Doum trees of the largest size, whose luxuriant clusters of fruit
excited the wishes of the slaves; the Nebek tree, with its fruit
ripe; the Allobé, of the size of the Nebek, besides a great number
of others, unknown to me; to these must be added an abundance of wild
herbage, growing on a rich fat soil, similar to that of Egypt. The
trees were inhabited by great numbers of the feathered tribe, whose
song travellers in Egypt very rarely hear. I saw no birds with rich
plumage, but observed small ones of several different kinds. Some
sweet notes struck my ears, which I had never before heard, and the
amorous cooings of the turtle doves were unceasing. We hastened
to the river, and eagerly descended its low banks to allay our
thirst. Several camels, at the sight of the water, broke the halters
by which they were led, and in rushing or stumbling down the banks,
threw off their loads, and occasioned great clamour and disorder.
We remained but a short time at this place, and then continued
our route along the banks of the river for about an hour, for
the most part among the date trees, which line the borders of the
desert. These trees were larger than any I had seen in Egypt. At
the end of one hour we forded the river, without any difficulty,
as the water hardly reached above the knees of the camels. In less
than half an hour from the opposite bank, we came to the village
of Atbara, so named from its vicinity to the river. As the caravan
was to remain here some days, the first care of every one was to
choose a proper halting-place. The Souakin merchants alighted on
an open ground in front of the village, where they formed several
parties among themselves. The Tekaýrne and myself took possession of
some thick thorny bushes on one side of the village, within which,
after a few hours labour with the axe, each cut a small birth, just
large enough to contain himself and his baggage, while the slaves
were ordered to sleep before the entrance. We thus secured our
goods from pilferers, and by spreading a few mats over the bushes,
procured a comfortable shade.
The village, or more properly encampment, of Atbara, consisted of
several long irregular rows of tents, formed of mats made of the
leaves of the Doum tree, and containing about two hundred families
of Bisharein. This is the general mode of dwelling throughout the
tract of desert country lying between Egypt and Abyssinia. The bare
skins of the Nubian sheep and goats not furnishing the inhabitants
with the necessary materials for making tent-coverings of wool or
goats’ hair, like the eastern Bedouins, their place is supplied
with mats. They fix a row of poles, about twelve or fifteen feet
high, into the ground, opposite to each other, and converging at
the top; over these they fasten others horizontally; upon which
mats are thrown in such a way as to present every where an inclined
plane for the rain to run off. Every tent is furnished with two or
three Angareygs, which take up nearly the whole of the interior,
so that a very small part remains for any one to stand in; nor
is this very necessary, as the Bisharein pass the greater part of
their time reclined upon the Angareyg.[57] In the smaller tents both
sexes live together; but in the larger there is a partition across
the tent, behind the Angareygs, which divides it into a front and
back apartment; the latter is occupied by the women, and serves
also as the kitchen; though the women never think of concealing
themselves from strangers. All persons of quality have separate
tents for their women, to which they sometimes add an open shed,
for the reception of strangers. Whenever the Bedouins remove, the
tents are struck, and the poles, mats, &c. are loaded upon camels.