Bruce leaves Sennaar.--Crosses the great Desert of Nubia.--His
Distress.--Reaches Seyne, on the Nile.
On the 8th of September the camels were at last laden, and sent forward
to a small village three or four miles from Sennaar. Bruce then finally
settled his accounts; "and I received back," he says, "six links, the
miserable remains of one hundred and eighty-four, of which my noble
chain once consisted." Thus robbed, even of this precious token of his
hard-earned honour, Bruce, after having been detained four months at
Sennaar, proceeded once again on his journey towards his native land:
although he had been so long directing his course to the north, he had
still to travel nearly seven hundred miles before he could escape from
that burning region of the earth, the torrid zone. His way was long, his
path beset with dangers; but the relentless persecution of a tropical
sun is what no man can adequately describe: every animal pants beneath
it, and the very atmosphere they breathe trembles and quivers like air
at the mouth of a furnace; still Bruce resolutely proceeded onward; and,
about ten o'clock at night, he and his little party joyfully reached
Soliman. He now formally addressed his people; he recommended diligence,
sobriety, and subordination; and assured them that, until the journey
was terminated, they should share with him one common fare and fortune.
Never was a discourse more gratefully received. "Sennaar," says Bruce,
"sat heavy upon all their spirits," and beyond description did they
rejoice at having escaped from it.
Constantly advancing, on the 16th they arrived at Herbagi, a large,
pleasant village; and Bruce immediately waited upon Wed Ageeb, an
hereditary prince of the Arabs, subject to the government of Sennaar. He
had never before seen a European, and testified great surprise at our
traveller's complexion. After resting two days at Herbagi, Bruce
proceeded along the river. "Nothing," he says, "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." After
travelling three days, they came, on the 21st, to the passage of the
Nile, which river they crossed. The manner of passing the camels at this
ferry is by fastening cords under their hind quarters, and then tying a
halter to their heads. Two men hold on to these cords, and a third the
halter, so that the animals, by swimming, carry the boat on shore. One
is fastened on each side of the stem and stern. These useful beasts
suffer greatly by such rude treatment, and many die in the passage, with
all the care that can be taken; but they still oftener perish through
the tricks of the boatmen, who privately put salt in the camel's ears,
which makes him desperate and ungovernable, till, by fretting and
plunging his head constantly in the water, he loses his breath, and is
finally drowned; they have then gained their object, and feast upon the
flesh.
Having thus crossed the Nile, they proceeded to Halfaia, where the
tropical rains terminate. A very important change was about to take
place in the character of the country, and Bruce, in bidding adieu to
the wet portion of Africa, was now entering on the confines of the
deserts. Here there are palm-trees, but no dates. The people eat cats,
the hippopotamus, and the crocodile. Having remained at Halfaia a week,
they set out on the 29th, and soon reached the village of Wed Hojila,
where the great Bahar el Abiad, or White river, falls into the Bahar el
Azergue, or Blue river; and here, with great frankness, Bruce
acknowledges that the Abiad "_is larger than the Nile_." "The Abiad," he
says, "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."
This confession certainly reflects no little credit on Bruce's
character, and it should put to silence those who have so unfairly
insinuated that he always endeavoured to conceal the fact that the Bahar
el Abiad was a much larger branch of the Nile than the Abyssinian river,
the sources of which it had cost him so much to visit.
"At Halfaia," says Bruce, "begins that noble race of horses justly
celebrated all over the world. They are the breed that was introduced
here at the Saracen conquest, and have been preserved unmixed to this
day. They seem to be a distinct animal from the Arabian horse, such as I
have seen in the plains of Arabia Deserta, south of Palmyra and
Damascus, where I take the most excellent of the Arabian breed to be, in
the tribes of Mowalli and Annecy, which is about lat. 36 deg.; while Dongola
and the dry country near it seem to be the centre of excellence for this
nobler animal.
"What figure the Nubian breed of horses would make in point of
fleetness, is very doubtful, their make being so entirely different from
that of the Arabian; but if beautiful and symmetrical parts, great size
and strength, the most agile, nervous, and elastic movements, great
endurance of fatigue, docility of temper, and seeming attachment to man
beyond any other domestic animal, can promise anything, the Nubian
stallion is, above all comparison, the most eligible in the world. Few
men have seen more horses, or more of the different places where they
are excellent, than I have, and no one ever more delighted in them, as
far as the manly exercise went. What these may produce for the turf is
what I cannot so much as guess; as there is not, I believe, in the
world, one more indifferent to, or ignorant of, that amusement than I
am. The experiment would be worth trying in any view, and the expense
would not be great."
All noble horses in Nubia are believed to be descended from one of the
five upon which Mohammed and his four immediate successors fled from
Mecca to Medina on the night of the Hegira. The horses of Halfaia and
Gherri are rather smaller than those of Dongola, few of which are less
than sixteen hands.
After travelling along the Nile two days, Bruce reached Chendi or
Chandi, a large village, the capital of its district, the government of
which belonged to Sittina, which means "the mistress." She was the
sister of Wed Ageeb, the principal of the Arabs in that part of Africa.
On the 12th of October, about a week after his arrival, Bruce waited
upon Sittina, who received him behind a screen, so that it was
impossible he could see either her figure or face. She expressed herself
with great politeness, and wondered exceedingly how a white man should
venture so far in such an ill-governed country. "Allow me, madam," said
Bruce, "to complain of a breach of hospitality in you, which no Arab has
been yet guilty of towards me." "Me!" said Sittina; "that would be
strange indeed, to a man that bears my brother's letter. How can that
be?" "Why, you tell me, madam," said Bruce, "that I am a white man, by
which I know that you see me, without giving me a like advantage. The
queens of Sennaar did not use me so harshly; I had a full sight of them,
without having used any importunity." Sittina burst into a fit of
laughter, and desired Bruce to come to her the next day.
"On the 13th," says Bruce, "it was so excessively hot that it was
impossible to suffer the burning sun. The poisonous simoom blew as if it
came from an oven. Our eyes were dim, our lips cracked, our knees
tottering, our throats were perfectly dry, and no relief was found from
drinking an immoderate quantity of water. The people advised me to dip a
sponge in vinegar and water, and hold it before my mouth and nose, and
this greatly relieved me. In the evening I went to Sittina. Upon
entering the house, a black slave laid hold of me by the hand, and
placed me in a passage, at the end of which were two opposite doors. I
did not well know the meaning of this; but had stayed only a few
minutes, when I heard one of the doors at the end of the passage open,
and Sittina appeared magnificently dressed, with a kind of round cap of
solid gold upon the crown of her head, all beat very thin, and hung
round with sequins; with a variety of gold chains, solitaires, and
necklaces of the same metal about her neck. Her hair was platted in ten
or twelve small divisions, like tails, which hung down below her waist,
and over her was thrown a common white cotton garment. She had a purple
silk stole or scarf hung very gracefully on her back, brought again
round her waist, without covering her shoulders or arms.
"Allow me, madam," said Bruce, suddenly kissing her hand, "as a
physician, to say one word." Sittina bowed her head, and received Bruce
in a private room. "Are the women handsome in your country?" said
Sittina. "The handsomest in the world, madam," replied Bruce; "but they
are so good, and so excellent in all other respects, that nobody thinks
at all of their beauty, nor do they value themselves upon it." "And do
they allow you to kiss their hands?" said she. "I understand you,
madam," replied Bruce, "though you have mistaken me. There is no
familiarity in kissing hands; it is a mark of homage and distant respect
paid in my country to our sovereigns, and to none earthly besides." "But
do you know," said Sittina, "that no man ever kissed my hand but you?"
"It is impossible I should know that," replied Bruce, "nor is it
material. Of this I am confident, it was meant respectfully, cannot hurt
you, and ought not to offend you."
Some days afterward, as Bruce was sitting in his tent, musing upon the
very unpromising aspect of his affairs, an Arab of very ordinary
appearance, naked, with only a cotton cloth round his middle, came up to
him, and offered to conduct him to Barbar, and thence to Egypt. He said
his house was at Daroo, on the side of the Nile, about twenty miles
beyond Syene or Assouan, nearer Cairo. Bruce asked him why he had not
gone with Mohammed Towash, who had lately set off. He replied he did not
like the company, and was very much mistaken if their journey would end
well. On pressing him farther if this was the true reason, he confessed
that he had contracted debt, had been obliged to pawn his clothes, and
that his camel was detained for what still remained unpaid. After much
conversation, Bruce found that Idris (for that was his name) was a man
of some substance in his own country, and had a daughter married to the
schourbatchie at Assouan. A bargain was accordingly made. Bruce redeemed
the camel and cloak, and Idris agreed to show him the way to Egypt,
where he was to be paid and rewarded according to his behaviour.
Bruce having thus secured a guide, was now prepared to leave Shendi;
but, previous to his departure, he waited upon Sittina to thank her for
her favours; for she had sent for Idris, had given him very positive
instructions, which she enforced by threats, and had also furnished
Bruce with useful letters. He therefore begged he might be allowed to
testify his gratitude by once again kissing her hand, to which she
laughingly condescended, saying, "Well, you are an odd man! If Idris, my
son, saw me just now, he would think me mad!"
It is curious, instructive, and amusing to observe how admirably Bruce
works his way, by invariably bending before the difficulties which
assail him. He is bold and daring among the brave, resolute before
tyrants, a physician to his friends, a magician before the rabble, and
before the gentler sex (in these latitudes we should offend them were we
to call them fair) he is on his knee, and respectfully kisses their
hands, whether it be their custom or no.
After passing the small island of Kurgos, where Bruce saw the first
ruins he had met with since those of Axum in Abyssinia, he travelled for
five days, when he reached the ferry on the great river Tacazze, Atbara,
or Astaboras, which was about a quarter of a mile broad, and exceedingly
deep. It was as clear as Bruce had seen it in Abyssinia, but its banks
had lost their beauty, as it here flowed through a parched, desert,
barren country; still its waters came from Abyssinia, a country yet
fresh and dear in Bruce's recollection. "I reflected," he says, "with
much satisfaction, upon the many circumstances the sight of this river
recalled to my mind; but still the greatest was, that the scenes of
these were now far distant, and that I was by so much more advanced
towards home."
On the 26th, leaving the Nile about a mile on their left, they reached
Goos, a very small village, which is, nevertheless, the capital of
Barbar. Bruce and all his party here suffered from a disease in their
eyes, caused by the simoom and the fine sand blowing across the desert.
An unexpected misfortune now happened to Idris, who was arrested for
debt and carried to prison: "however," says Bruce, "as we were upon the
very edge of the desert, and to see no other inhabited place till we
should reach Egypt, I was not displeased to have it in my power to lay
him under one other obligation before we trusted our lives in his
hands, which we were immediately to do. I therefore paid his debt, and
reconciled him with his creditors."
Bruce and his party having received all the assurances possible from
Idris that he would live and die in their service, boldly committed
themselves to the desert. The party consisted of Ismael the Turk, two
Greek servants besides Georgis, who was almost blind and useless, two
Barbarins, that took care of the camels, Idris, and a young man, a
relation of his; in all nine persons, eight only of whom were effective.
They were all well armed with blunderbusses, swords, pistols, and
double-barrelled guns, except Idris and his lad, who had lances, the
only arms they could use. Five or six naked wretches of the Tucorory
joined the party at the watering-place, much against Bruce's will; for
he knew that he should probably be reduced to the painful necessity of
seeing them die of thirst before his eyes.
On the 9th of November, at noon, they left Goos for the sakia or
watering-place, which is near a little village called Hassa. At half
past three in the afternoon they came to the Nile, to lay in a store of
water. They here filled four skins, which might contain altogether about
a hogshead and a half. Their food consisted of twenty-two large goats'
skins stuffed with a powder of bread made at Goos, on purpose for such
expeditions. It required a whole day to fill the skins, and soak them
well in the water, in order to make an experiment, which was of the
greatest consequence, whether they were water-tight.
"While the camels were loading," says Bruce, "I bathed, with infinite
pleasure, for a long half hour in the Nile, and thus took leave of my
old acquaintance, very doubtful if we should ever meet again." They now
left the river, and slowly entering what may not unjustly be termed the
gate of the great desert of Nubia (that valley of the shadow of death),
they came to a bare spot of cemented gravel, of a very disagreeable
whitish colour, mixed with small pieces of white marble, and pebbles
like alabaster. At half past eight they stopped on a sandy plain without
trees: they now found that the camels were too heavily laden, but they
comforted themselves with the reflection that this would be remedied by
the daily consumption of the provisions. The next day, after travelling
six hours with great diligence, their misfortunes began, from a trifling
circumstance which had not been attended to. Their shoes, which had long
required repair, had now become absolutely useless; their feet were much
inflamed by the burning sand, and the skin rubbed off in different
places. Close before them was Hambily, a small rock, which being,
nevertheless, too large to be covered by the moving sands, is of the
utmost importance to the caravans as a landmark.
On the 14th, early in the morning, they continued their journey, and,
after travelling about twenty-one miles, alighted among some
acacia-trees, at a place called Waadi el Halbout. "We were here," says
Bruce, "at once surprised and terrified by a sight, surely one of the
most magnificent in the world. In that vast expanse of desert, from W.
to N.W. of us, we saw a number of prodigious pillars of sand at
different distances, at times moving with great celerity, at others
stalking on with a majestic slowness; at intervals we thought they were
coming in a very few minutes to overwhelm us; and small quantities of
sand did actually, more than once, reach us. Again they would retreat so
as to be almost out of sight, their tops reaching to the very clouds.
There the tops often separated from their bodies; and these, once
disjoined, dispersed in the air, and did not appear more. Sometimes they
were broken near the middle, as if struck with a large cannon-shot.
About noon they began to advance with considerable swiftness upon us,
the wind being very strong at north. Eleven of them ranged alongside of
us about the distance of three miles. The greatest diameter of the
largest appeared to me at that distance as if it would measure ten feet.
They retired from us with a wind at S.E., leaving an impression upon my
mind to which I can give no name, though surely one ingredient in it was
fear, with a considerable deal of wonder and astonishment. It was in
vain to think of flying; the swiftest horse or fastest sailing ship
could be of no use to carry us out of this danger, and the full
persuasion of this riveted me as if to the spot where I stood, and let
the camels gain on me so much in my state of lameness, that it was with
some difficulty I could overtake them.
"This stupendous sight caused Idris to repeat his prayers, or rather
incantations; for, except the names of God and Mohammed, all the rest of
his words were mere gibberish and nonsense. Ismael, the Turk, violently
abused him for not praying in the words of the Koran, maintaining, with
great apparent wisdom, that nothing else could stop these moving sands."
They this day proceeded very slowly, their feet being sore and greatly
swelled. "The whole of our company," says Bruce, "were much disheartened
(except Idris), and imagined that they were advancing into whirlwinds of
moving sand, from which they should never be able to extricate
themselves; but, before four o'clock in the afternoon, these phantoms of
the plain had all of them fallen to the ground and disappeared." In the
evening they came to Waadi Dimokea, where they passed the night much
disheartened; and their fear was not diminished on awaking in the
morning, by finding that one side was perfectly buried in the sand that
the wind had blown over them in the night.
From this day, subordination, though not entirely extinct, was rapidly
declining; all was discontent, murmuring, and fear. The water had
greatly diminished, and that terrible death by thirst began to stare
them in the face, owing, in a great measure, to their own imprudence.
Ismael, who had been left sentinel over the skins of water, had slept so
soundly that a Tucorory had opened one of the skins that had not been
touched, in order to serve himself out of it at his own discretion;
hearing somebody stir, however, and fearing detection, he withdrew as
speedily as possible, without tying up the mouth of the girba, which was
found in the morning with scarce a quart of water in it.
On the 15th, the same moving pillars of sand presented themselves, only
they seemed to be more in number and less in size. They came several
times in a direction close upon them. "They began," says Bruce,
"immediately after sunrise, like a thick wood, and almost darkened the
sun. His rays shining through them for near an hour, gave them an
appearance of pillars of fire. Our people now became desperate; the
Greeks shrieked out, and said it was the day of judgment. Ismael
pronounced it to be hell; and the Tucorories, that the world was on
fire. I asked Idris if ever he had before seen such a sight; he said he
had often seen them as terrible, though never worse; but what he feared
most was that extreme redness in the air, which was a sure presage of
the coming of the simoom. I begged and entreated Idris that he would not
say one word of that in the hearing of the people, for they had already
felt it at Imhanzara, in their way from Ras el Feel to Teawa, and again
at the Acaba of Gerri, before we came to Chendi, and they were already
nearly distracted at the apprehension of finding it here."
At half past four o'clock in the afternoon they left Waadi Dell Aned.
The sands scarcely showed themselves this day, and only at a great
distance in the horizon. This was, however, a comfort but of short
duration. Bruce observed that Idris took no notice of it, but warned him
and the servants that, upon the coming of the simoom, they should fall
on their faces, with their mouths upon the earth, so as not to inhale
the outward air as long as they could hold their breath. They alighted
at six o'clock at a small rock called Ras el Seah, or El Mout, which
signifies _death_. It is surrounded with sand, is without trees or
herbage, and the poor camels fasted all that night.
On the 16th, at half past ten in the forenoon, they left El Mout. "Our
men," says Bruce, "if not gay, were, however, in better spirits than I
had seen them since we left Goos. One of our Barbarins had even
attempted a song; but Hagi Ismael very gravely reproved him, by telling
him that singing in such a situation was a tempting of Providence. There
is, indeed, nothing more different than active and passive courage. Hagi
Ismael would fight, but he had not strength of mind to suffer. At eleven
o'clock, while we contemplated with great pleasure the rugged top of
Chiggre, to which we were fast approaching, and where we were to solace
ourselves with plenty of good water, Idris cried out, with a loud voice,
'Fall upon your faces, for here is the simoom!' I saw from the southeast
a haze come, in colour like the purple part of the rainbow, but not so
compressed or thick. It did not occupy twenty yards in breadth, and was
about twelve feet high from the ground. It was a kind of blush upon the
air, and it moved very rapidly, for I scarce could turn to fall upon the
ground, with my head to the northward, when I felt the heat of its
current plainly upon my face. We all lay flat on the ground, as if dead,
till Idris told us it was blown over. The meteor or purple haze which I
saw was indeed passed, but the light air that still blew was of a heat
to threaten suffocation. For my part, I found distinctly in my breast
that I had imbibed a part of it, nor was I free of an asthmatic
sensation till I had been some months in Italy at the baths of Poretta,
near two years afterward.[36]
"A universal despondency had taken possession of our people. They
ceased to speak to one another, and when they did it was in whispers, by
which I easily guessed their discourse was not favourable to me, or else
that they were increasing each other's fears by vain suggestions
calculated to sink each other's spirits still farther, but from which no
earthly good could possibly result. I called them together, and both
reprimanded and exhorted them in the strongest manner I could. I bade
them attend to me, who had nearly lost my voice by the simoom, and
desired them to look at my face, so swelled as scarcely to permit me to
see, my neck covered with blisters, my feet swelled and inflamed, and
bleeding with many wounds. In answer to the lamentation that the water
was exhausted, and that we were upon the point of dying with thirst, I
ordered each man a gourd full of water more than he had the preceding
day, and showed them, at no great distance, the bare, black, and sharp
point of the rock Chiggre, wherein was the well at which we were again
to fill our girbas, and thereby banish the fear of dying by thirst in
the desert. I believe I never was at any time more eloquent, and never
had eloquence a more sudden effect. They all protested and declared
their concern chiefly arose from the situation they saw me in; that they
feared not death or hardship, provided I would submit to their direction
in taking proper care of myself. They entreated me to use one of the
camels, and throw off the load that it carried, that it might ease me of
the wounds in my feet, by riding at least part of the day. This I
positively refused to do, but recommended to them to be strong of heart,
and to spare the camels for the last resort, if any should be taken ill
and unable to walk any longer.
"This phenomenon of the simoom, unexpected by us, though foreseen by
Idris, caused us all to relapse into our former despondency. It still
continued to blow, so as to exhaust us entirely, though the blast was so
weak as scarcely would have raised a leaf from the ground. At twenty
minutes before five the simoom ceased, and a comfortable and cooling
breeze came by starts from the north, blowing five or six minutes at a
time, and then falling calm. We were now come to the Acaba, the ascent
before we arrived at Chiggre, where we intended to have stopped that
night; but we all moved on with tacit consent, nor did one person
pretend to say how far he guessed we were to go." At thirteen minutes
past eight they alighted in a sandy, barren plain, covered with loose
stones. They were now only a quarter of a mile due north from the well,
which is in the narrow gorge forming the southern outlet of this small
plain. Though they had travelled thirteen hours and a quarter this day,
it was but a slow pace, the wretched camels being famished as well as
tired, and lamed by the sharp stones with which the ground in all places
was covered. The country, for three days past, had been destitute of
herbage of any kind, entirely desert, and abandoned to moving sands;
which might be said to "sweep it with the besom of destruction."
Chiggre is a small narrow valley, about half way across the great desert
of Nubia, and surrounded with barren rocks. The wells are ten in number,
and the narrow gorge by which they are approached is not ten yards
broad. The springs, however, are very abundant. Wherever a pit is dug
five or six feet deep, it is immediately filled with water. The
principal pool is about forty yards square and five feet deep; but the
best-tasted water was in the cleft of a rock, about thirty yards higher,
on the west side of this narrow outlet.
The eagerness with which Bruce and his party rushed to these wells can
scarcely be imagined; for no one would believe the effect which the
sight of water under such circumstances produces on the human frame,
unless he had himself experienced the burning thirst of the desert.
The springs were exceedingly foul, having been visited by animals of
many descriptions. It was impossible to drink without putting a piece of
a cotton girdle over the mouth, to keep out, by filtration, the filth of
the putrid substances with which they were filled. Bruce saw a number of
partridges on the face of the bare rock, but he did not dare shoot at
them, for fear of being heard by wandering Arabs that might be in the
neighbourhood; for Chiggre is a haunt of the Bishareen of the tribe of
Abou Bertran, who, though they do not make it a station, because there
is no pasture, nor can anything grow there, yet find it one of their
most valuable places of refreshment, on account of the great quantity of
water.
Bruce's first attention was to the camels, to whom he gave that day a
double feed of dora, that they might drink sufficient for the rest of
their journey, should the wells in the way prove scanty of water. He
then bathed in a large pool of very cold water, in a cave covered with
rock, and inaccessible to the sun in any direction. All the party seemed
to be greatly refreshed except the Tucorory, one of whom died about an
hour after his arrival, and another early the next morning.
With the corpses of his companions at his side, with dangers of every
sort before him, lame and exhausted, Bruce, as usual, deliberately
unpacked his instruments, to determine, notwithstanding the piercing
glare of the sun and the weakness of his eyes, the longitude and
latitude of Chiggre. Regularly, at noon, he had described, in a rough
manner, his course through the day, carrying always a compass, with a
needle of five inches radius, round his neck. His ink was fixed to his
girdle, and his notes were written on very long, narrow strips of
drawing paper, cut for the purpose.
But subordination was now at an end, and Bruce had great difficulty in
persuading his own servants to assist him in setting up his large
quadrant, in order that he might determine the situation of the place.
On the 17th they left Chiggre. Ismael and Georgis, the blind Greek, had
complained of shivering all night, and Bruce began to be very
apprehensive that some violent fever was to follow. Their perspiration
had not returned since their coming out of the cold water. The day,
however, was insufferably hot, and their complaints insensibly vanished.
A little before eleven they were again terrified by an army of sand
pillars, whose march was constantly south. At one time a number of these
pillars faced to the east, and seemed to be coming directly upon them;
but Bruce began now to be reconciled to this phenomenon, and the
magnificence of its appearance seemed in some measure to indemnify them
for the panic it had first occasioned: it was otherwise, however, with
the simoom, for they all were firmly persuaded that another passage of
that purple meteor would cause their deaths.
At half past four they alighted in a vast plain, bounded on all sides by
low sandy hills, which seemed to have been just produced. These hillocks
were from seven to thirteen feet high, formed into perfect cones, with
very sharp points and well-proportioned bases. The sand was of an
inconceivable fineness, having been the sport of hot winds for thousands
of years. "There could be no doubt," says Bruce, "that the day before,
when it was calm, and we suffered so much by the simoom between El Mout
and Chiggre, the wind had been raising pillars of sand in this place,
called Umdoom; marks of the whirling motion of the pillars were
distinctly seen in every heap, so that here again, while we were
repining at the simoom, Providence was busied keeping us out of the way
of another scene, where, if we had advanced a day, we had all of us been
involved in inevitable destruction."
On the 18th they left Umdoom at seven in the morning, their course being
N., a little inclined to W. At nine o'clock Idris pointed to some sandy
hillocks, where the ground seemed to be more elevated than the rest;
and he told Bruce that one of the largest caravans which ever came out
of Egypt was there buried with sand, to the number of some thousands of
camels. At five o'clock in the evening they alighted at an Oasis called
Terfowey, full of trees and grass. As soon as they had chosen a proper
place where the camels could feed, they unloaded the baggage, and sent
the men to clean the well and wait the filling of the skins. They then
lighted a large fire, for the nights felt excessively cold, though the
thermometer was at 53 deg.; and that degree of cold occasioned Bruce
inexpressible pain in his feet, which were now swelled to a monstrous
size, inflamed, and excoriated. The camels were always fastened by the
feet, and the chain secured by a padlock, lest they should wander in the
night, or be stolen or carried off. While Bruce was occupied in deep
thought, he heard the chain of the camels clink, as if somebody was
unloosening them, and then, by the gleam of the fire, he distinctly saw
a man pass swiftly by, stooping as he went along, his face almost close
to the ground. A little time after this he heard another clink of the
chain, as if from a sharp blow, and immediately after a movement among
the camels. He instantly rose, and called out in a threatening tone in
Arabic. Mohammed, Idris's nephew, hearing Bruce's voice, came running up
from the well to see what was the matter. They went down together to the
camels, and, upon examination, found that the links of one of the chains
had been broken, but the opening was not large enough to let the whole
link through. A hard blue stone was also driven through a link of one of
the chains of another camel, and left sticking there, the chain not
being entirely broken through; they saw, besides, the print of a man's
feet on the sand; and they found that several articles belonging to the
party had been stolen. This sufficiently showed the presence of hidden
enemies.
"Our situation," says Bruce, "was one of the most desperate that could
be figured. We were in the middle of the most barren, inhospitable
desert in the world, and it was with the utmost difficulty that, from
day to day, we could carry wherewithal to assuage our thirst. We had
with us the only bread it was possible to procure for some hundred
miles; lances and swords were not necessary to destroy us; the bursting
or tearing of a girba, the lameness or death of a camel, a thorn or
sprain in the foot, which might disable us from walking, were as certain
death to us as a shot from a cannon. There was no staying for one
another; to lose time was to die, because, with the utmost exertion our
camels could make, we scarce could carry along with us a scanty
provision of bread and water sufficient to keep us alive."
That desert, which did not afford inhabitants for the assistance or
relief of travellers, contained, nevertheless, more than sufficient for
destroying them; for large tribes of Arabs (two or three thousand
encamped together) were cantoned wherever there was water enough to
supply their numerous herds of cattle, and Bruce fully expected that in
the morning he should be attacked by these merciless robbers.
He therefore briefly addressed his people, who uttered a loud cry, "God
is great! let them come!" but, when the day broke, no Arabs appeared;
all was still: Bruce, however, took Ismael and two Barbarins along with
him, to see who these neighbours could be. They soon traced in the sand
the footsteps of the man who had been at their camels; and, following
them behind the point of a rock which seemed calculated for concealing
thieves, they saw two ragged, old, dirty tents, pitched with grass
cords.
The two Barbarins entered one of them, and found a naked woman there.
"Ismael and I ran," says Bruce, "briskly into the largest, where we saw
a man and a woman, both perfectly naked, frightful, emaciated figures,
not like the inhabitants of this world. The man was partly sitting on
his hams; a child, seemingly of the age to suck, was on a rag at the
corner, and the woman looked as if she wished to hide herself. I sprang
forward upon the man, and, taking him by the hair of the head, pulled
him upon his back on the floor; setting my foot upon his breast, and
pointing my knife to his throat, I said to him sternly, 'If you mean to
pray, pray quickly, for you have but this moment to live.' The fellow
was so frightened he scarce could beg us to spare his life; but the
woman, as it afterward appeared, the mother of the sucking child, did
not seem to copy the passive disposition of her husband; she ran to the
corner of the tent, where was an old lance, with which, I doubt not, she
would have sufficiently distinguished herself, but it happened to be
entangled with the cloth of the tent, and Ismael felled her to the
ground with the butt-end of his blunderbuss, and wrested the lance from
her. A violent howl was set up by the remaining woman, like the cries of
those in torment. 'Tie them,' said I, 'Ismael; keep them separate, and
carry them to the baggage till I settle accounts with this
camel-stealer, and then you shall strike their three heads off, where
they intended to leave us miserably to perish with hunger; but keep them
separate.' While the Barbarins were tying the woman, the one that was
the nurse of the child turned to her husband and said, in a most
mournful, despairing tone of voice, 'Did I not tell you you would never
thrive if you hurt that good man? did I not tell you this would happen
for murdering the aga?'"
After a long discussion with these people, many of Bruce's party were
exceedingly desirous to kill them: and Hagi Ismael was so enraged, that
he begged he might have the preference in cutting off one of their
heads; but Bruce, animated by Christian feelings, thus addressed his
people: "It has appeared to me, that often, since we began this journey,
we have been preserved by visible instances of God's protection, when we
should have lost our lives if we had gone by the rules of our own
judgment only. We are, it is true, of different religions, but we all
worship the same God; and, therefore, my determination is to spare the
life even of this man, and I will oppose his being put to death by every
means in my power."
"It was easy to see," continues Bruce, "that fear of their own lives
only, and not cruelty, was the reason they sought that of the Arab. They
answered me, two or three of them at once, 'that it was all very well;
what should they do? should they give themselves up to the Bishareen,
and be murdered? was there any other way of escaping?' 'I will tell you,
then,' says Bruce, 'since you ask me, what you should do: you shall
follow the duty of self-defence and self-preservation as far as you can
do it without a crime. You shall leave the women and the child where
they are, and with them the camels, to give them and their child milk;
you shall chain the husband's right hand to the left of some of yours,
and you shall each of you take him by turns till we shall carry him into
Egypt. Perhaps he knows the desert and the wells better than Idris; and
if he should not, still we have two hybeers instead of one; and who can
foretell what may happen to Idris more than to any other of us? But as
he knows the stations of his people, and their courses at particular
seasons, that day we meet one Bishareen, the man that is chained with
him and conducts him shall instantly stab him to the heart, so that he
shall not see, much less triumph, in the success of his treachery. On
the contrary, if he is faithful, and informs Idris where the danger is
and where we are to avoid it, keeping us rather by scanty wells than
abundant ones, on the day I arrive safely in Egypt I will clothe him
anew, as also his women, give him a good camel for himself, and a load
of dora for them all. As for the camels we leave here, they are she
ones, and necessary to give the women food. They are not lame, it is
said; but we shall lame them in earnest, so that they shall not be able
to carry a messenger to the Bishareen before they die with thirst in the
way, both they and their riders, if they should attempt it.'"
Universal applause followed this speech; Idris, above all, expressed his
warmest approbation. The man and the women were sent for, and had their
sentence repeated to them. Having expected death, they all cheerfully
subscribed to the conditions; and the woman declared she would as soon
see her child die as be the cause of any harm befalling them; and that,
if a thousand Bishareen should pass, she well knew how to mislead them
all, and that none of them should follow till they were far out of
danger.
Bruce accordingly sent two Barbarins to lame the camels effectually, but
not so as to injure them past recovery. After which, for the nurse and
the child's sake, he took twelve handfuls of the bread which was their
only food, and which, indeed, they could scarcely spare, and left it to
this miserable family.
With these precautions, on the 20th, at eleven o'clock, they left the
well at Terfowey, after having warned the women that their chance of
seeing their husband again depended wholly upon his and their faithful
conduct. They then took their prisoner with them, his right hand being
chained to the left hand of one of the Barbarins. They had scarcely got
into the plain when they felt great symptoms of the simoom; and about a
quarter before twelve, their prisoner first, and then Idris, cried out,
"The simoom! the simoom!" "My curiosity," says Bruce, "would not suffer
me to fall down without looking behind me. About due south, a little to
the east, I saw the coloured haze as before. It seemed now to be rather
less compressed, and to have with it a shade of blue. The edges of it
were not defined as those of the former, but like a very thin smoke,
with about a yard in the middle tinged with those colours. We all fell
upon our faces, and the simoom passed with a gentle ruffling wind. It
continued to blow in this manner till near three o'clock; so we were all
taken ill that night, and scarcely strength was left us to load the
camels and arrange the baggage. This day one of our camels died, partly
famished, partly overcome with extreme fatigue; so that, incapable as we
were of labour, we were obliged, for self-preservation's sake, to cut
off thin slices of the fleshy part of the camel, and hang it in so many
thongs upon the trees all night, and after upon the baggage, the sun
drying it immediately, so as to prevent putrefaction."
At half past eight in the evening they alighted at a brackish well
called Naibey, in a bare, sandy plain, where there were a few straggling
acacia-trees. They found near the well the corpse of a man and two
camels; it was apparently long since that their deaths had taken place,
for the camels were so dried up that their remains would weigh but a
very few pounds; no vermin had touched them, for in this whole desert
there is neither worm, fly, nor anything that has in it the breath of
life.
On the 21st, at six in the morning, having filled the girbas with water,
they set out from Naibey. The first hour of the journey was among
sharp-pointed rocks, which, it was easy to foresee, would very soon
disable the camels. At about eight they had a view of the desert to the
westward as before, and saw that the sands had already begun to rise in
immense twisted pillars, which darkened the heavens. The rising of these
so early in the morning was a sure sign of a hot day, of a calm about
midday, and of its being followed by two hours of the poisonous wind,
which Bruce and his suffering companions dreaded more than any
affliction that could assail them.
The moving columns were this day more magnificent than any they had yet
seen, being thicker, and containing more sand; and, the sun shining
through them, they appeared as if spotted with stars of gold.
"The simoom," says Bruce, "with the wind at southeast, immediately
follows the wind at north, and the usual despondency that always
accompanies it. The blue meteor, with which it began, passed over us
about twelve, and the ruffling wind that followed it continued till near
two. Silence, and a desperate kind of indifference about life, were the
immediate effect upon us; and I began now, seeing the condition of my
camels, to fear we were all doomed to a sandy grave, and to contemplate
it with some degree of resignation. At half past eight in the evening we
alighted in a sandy flat, where there was great store of bent grass and
trees, which had a considerable degree of verdure, a circumstance much
in favour of our camels. We determined to stop here, to give them an
opportunity of eating their fill where they could find it."
On the 22d, at six o'clock, as they were crossing this sandy flat, one
of the Tucorory was seized with phrensy or madness. He rolled upon the
ground, moaned, and refused to continue his journey, or to rise from
where he lay. It was death to stop with him; and as each man was barely
able to support his own sufferings, and could not participate in those
of others, the wretched maniac was left to die among the thirsting
sands, under the scorching sun which had already deprived him of his
reason. In the evening the party reached Umarack, where another of the
camels died, completely worn out and exhausted.
"I here began," says Bruce, "to provide for the worst. I saw the fate of
our camels approaching, and that our men grew weak in proportion; our
bread, too, began to fail us, although we had plenty of camel's flesh in
its stead; our water, though in all appearance we were to find it more
frequently than in the beginning of our journey, was nevertheless
brackish, and scarcely served the purpose to quench our thirst; and,
above all, the dreadful simoom had perfectly exhausted our strength, and
brought upon us a degree of cowardice and languor that we struggled with
in vain. I therefore, as the last effort, began to throw away everything
weighty I could spare, or what was not absolutely necessary, such as all
shells, fossils, minerals, and petrifactions that I could get at, the
counter-cases of my quadrant, telescopes, and clock, and several such
like things.
"Our camels were now reduced to five, and it did not seem that these
were capable of continuing their journey much longer. In that case, no
remedy remained but that each man should carry his own water and
provisions. Now, as no one man could carry the water he should use
between well and well, and it was more than probable that that distance
would be doubled by some of the wells being found dry; and, if that were
not the case, yet, as it was impossible for a man to carry his
provisions who could not walk without any burden at all, our situations
seemed to be most desperate."
The Bishareen alone, existing in his native element, seemed to keep up
his strength, and was in excellent spirits. He had attached himself in a
particular manner to Bruce, and, with a part of a very scanty rag which
he had round his waist, he neatly made a wrapper to defend Bruce's feet
during the day; but the pain occasioned by the cold in the night was
scarcely bearable. Bruce offered to free his left hand, which was
chained to some one of the company night and day, but the man constantly
refused, saying, "Unchain my hands when you load and unload your camels;
but keep me to the end of the journey as you began with me: then I
cannot misbehave, and lose the reward which you say you are to give me."
Proceeding on their journey, they saw large strata of fossil salt
everywhere upon the surface of the ground; and this dismal scene was not
much enlivened by passing the body of a man who had been murdered,
stripped naked, and was lying on his face unburied. A wound in the hind
sinew of his leg was apparent; and he was, besides, thrust through the
back with a lance, and had two sword-wounds in the head. During the next
day they saw many dead bodies of the Tucorory, who had been scattered by
the Bishareen, and left to perish with thirst. In a small pool of water
at which they now arrived, they found a small teal or widgeon. The Turk
Ismael was preparing to shoot at it with his blunderbuss; but Bruce
desired him to refrain, being desirous to ascertain, by its flight,
something as to the probable distance of the Nile; he therefore obliged
it to take wing. The bird flew straight west, rising as he flew (a
melancholy proof that his journey was a long one), till at last, being
very high, he vanished from their sight, without seeking to approach the
earth: from which it was but too evident that the Nile was yet far
removed from them.
This night Georgis and the Turk Ismael were both so ill and so
desponding that they had resolved to pursue their journey no farther,
but submit to their destiny, as they called it, and stay behind to die.
It was with the utmost difficulty Bruce could persuade them to lay aside
this resolution; and the next morning he promised they should ride by
turns upon one of the camels, a thing that no one had yet attempted.
"After travelling for nearly three days," says Bruce, "we had an
unexpected entertainment, which filled our hearts with a very
short-lived joy. The whole plain before us seemed thick-covered with
green grass and yellow daisies. We advanced to the place with as much
speed as our lame condition would suffer us; but how terrible was our
disappointment when we found the whole of that verdure to consist in
senna and coloquintida, the most nauseous of plants, and the most
incapable of being substituted as food for man or beast! We were now
very near a crisis one way or the other. Our bread was consumed, so that
we had not sufficient for one day more; and, though we had camel's
flesh, yet, by living so long on bread and water, an invincible
repugnance arose either to smell or taste it. As our camels were at
their last gasp, we had taken so sparingly of water, that, when we came
to divide it, we found it insufficient for our necessities, if Syene was
even so near as we conceived it to be.
"Georgis had lost one eye, and was nearly blind in the other. Ismael and
he had both become so stiff by being carried that they could not bear to
set their feet to the ground; and I may say for myself, that, though I
had supported the wounds in my feet with a patience very uncommon, yet
they were arrived at a height to be perfectly intolerable, and, as I
apprehended, on the point of mortification. The bandage which the
Bishareen had tied about the hollow of my foot was now almost hidden by
the flesh swelling over it. Three large wounds on the right foot and two
on the left continued open, whence a quantity of lymph oozed
continually. It was also with the utmost difficulty we could get out
the rag by cutting it to shreds with scissors. The tale is both
unpleasant and irksome. Two soles which remained from our sandals, the
upper leathers of which had gone to pieces in the sand near Goos, were
tied with a cotton cloth very adroitly by the Bishareen. But it seemed
impossible that I could walk farther even with his assistance, and
therefore we determined to throw away the quadrant, telescope, and
timekeeper, and save our lives by riding the camels alternately. But
Providence had already decreed that we should not terminate this
dangerous journey by our own ordinary foresight and contrivance, but owe
it entirely to his visible support and interposition.
"On the 27th, at half past five in the morning, we attempted to raise
our camels at Saffieha by every method that we could devise, but all in
vain; only one of them could get upon his legs, and that one did not
stand two minutes till he kneeled down, and could never be raised
afterward. This the Arabs all declared to be the effects of cold; and
yet Fahrenheit's thermometer, an hour before day, stood at 42 deg.. Every
way we turned ourselves death now stared us in the face. We had neither
time nor strength to waste, nor provisions to support us. We then took
the small skins that had contained our water, and filled them as far as
we thought a man could carry them with ease; but, after all these
shifts, there was not enough to serve us three days, at which I had
estimated our journey to Syene, which still, however, was uncertain.
Finding, therefore, the camels would not rise, we killed two of them,
and took as much flesh as might serve for the deficiency of bread, and
from the stomach of each of the camels got about four gallons of water,
which the Bishareen Arab managed with great dexterity." It is well known
that the camel has within him reservoirs, in which he can preserve water
for a very considerable time. In caravans making long journeys from the
Niger across the desert of Selima, it has been said that each camel lays
in a store of water sufficient to support him for forty days. This
statement is probably exaggerated; but fourteen or sixteen days, it is
well known, an ordinary camel will live, though he have no fresh supply
of water; for when he eats, one constantly sees him throw from his
repository mouthfuls of water to dilute his food; and nature has
contrived this vessel with such properties, that the water within it
never putrefies nor turns unwholesome.
The spirits of Bruce's companions now began completely to fail them. The
miserable stock of black bread on which they had hitherto subsisted was
nearly exhausted, and though they had extracted water from the carcasses
or stomachs of the camels, and, like vampires, were thus sucking a
horrid nourishment from the bodies of the dead, yet the difficulties
which opposed them seemed greater than their strength, and they began to
abandon even the hope of ever getting out of the desert. "We were
surrounded," says Bruce, "with those terrible and unusual phenomena of
nature which Providence, in mercy to the weakness of his creatures, has
concealed far from their sight, in deserts almost inaccessible to them.
Nothing but death was before our eyes; and, in these dreadful moments of
pain, suffering, and despair, honour, instead of relieving me, suggested
still what was to be an augmentation to my misfortune; the feeling this
produced fell directly upon me alone, and every other individual of the
company was unconscious of it.
"The drawings made at Palmyra and Baalbec for the king were, in many
parts of them, not advanced farther than the outlines, which I had
carried with me, that, if leisure or confinement should happen, I might
finish them during my travels, in the case of failure of other
employment, so far, at least, that, on my return to Italy, they might be
in a state of receiving farther improvement, which might carry them to
that perfection I have since been enabled to conduct them. These were
all to be thrown away, with other not less valuable papers, and, with my
quadrant, telescopes, and timekeeper, abandoned to the rude and
ignorant hands of robbers, or to be buried in the sands. Every
memorandum, every description, sketch, or observation since I departed
from Badjoura and passed the desert to Cosseir, till I reached the
present spot, were left in an undigested heap, with our carrion camels,
at Saffieha, while there remained with me, in lieu of all my memoranda,
but this mournful consideration, that I was now to maintain the reality
of these my tedious perils with those who either did, or might affect,
from malice and envy, to doubt my veracity upon my ipse dixit alone, or
abandon the reputation of the travels which I had made with so much
courage, labour, danger, and difficulty, and which had been considered
as desperate and impracticable to accomplish for more than two thousand
years."
On the 28th, at half past seven in the morning, they left Waadi el Arab
and entered a narrow defile, with rugged but not high mountains on each
side. About twelve o'clock they came to a few trees in the bed of a
torrent. Ill as Bruce was, after refreshing himself with his last bread
and water, he set out in the afternoon to gain a rising ground, that he
might see, if possible, what was to the westward; for the mountains
seemed now rocky and high, like those of the Kennouss near Syene. He
arrived, with great difficulty and pain, on the top of a moderate hill,
but was exceedingly disappointed at not seeing the river to the west:
the vicinity of the Nile, however, was very evident, from the high,
uniform mountains that confine its torrent when it comes out of Nubia.
The evening was still; and sitting down and covering his eyes with his
hands, not to be diverted by external objects, he listened and heard
distinctly the noise of waters, which he supposed to be the cataract,
although it seemed to the southward, as if he had passed it.
The party now proceeded, and continued their course for two days; when,
on the 28th, Bruce saw a flock of birds, which he recognised as
belonging to the Nile. Satisfied that they should soon arrive at or
below Syene, he returned to his companions, to whom he communicated this
important news, which was confirmed by Idris. A cry of joy followed
this annunciation. Christians, Moors, and Turks all burst into floods of
tears, kissing and embracing one another, and thanking God for his
infinite mercy in this deliverance.
On the 29th, at seven o'clock in the morning, they left Abou Seielat; at
about nine they saw before them the palm-trees of Assouan, and very
shortly afterward reached a grove of palm-trees on the north of that
city.
In justice to Bruce's character, it is our duty to state, that we have
given but a very imperfect idea of the real fatigue of this journey to
Assouan; for, however weary the reader may have been with the desert
from which he has just returned, however he may rejoice to quit the
deep, heavy sand, and once more behold the fresh-flowing waters of the
Nile, yet, in a _short half hour_, he has travelled from Gondar, a
distance which it took Bruce _eleven months_ to perform--twelve weeks of
which were spent in coming from Sennaar to Syene. Not only is it
impossible adequately to describe, from the report of others, real
sufferings and dangers, but those who have actually undergone either
soon find it impossible to bring back an unfaded picture of them to the
mind; of which there can be no stronger proof than the everyday
occurrence of people cheerfully returning to difficulties which, while
actually felt, they had firmly resolved never again to encounter.
FOOTNOTE:
[36] The appearance and effects of this "wind of the desert" are more
fully described in the following account. "The sky, at other times
serene and cloudless, appears lurid and heavy; the sun loses his
splendour, and appears of a violet colour. The air, saturated with
particles of the finest sand, becomes thick, fiery, and unfit for
respiration. The coldest substances change their natural qualities;
marble, iron, and water are hot, and deceive the hand which touches
them. Every kind of moisture is absorbed; the skin is parched and
shrivelled; paper cracks as if it were in the mouth of an oven. When
inhaled by men or animals, the simoom produces a painful feeling, as of
suffocation. The lungs are too rarefied for breathing, and the body is
consumed by an internal heat, which often terminates in convulsions and
death. The carcasses of the dead exhibit symptoms of immediate
putrefaction, similar to what is observed to take place in bodies
deprived of life by thunder, or the effect of electricity," &c. See
_Crichton's History of Arabia_, vol. i., p. 63, _et seq._, Harpers'
Family Library.--_Am. Ed._