Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile/Volume 4/Book 8/Chapter 9
CHAP. IX.
FROM Salidan's time, till the conquest of Selim emperor of the Turks, who finished the reign of the Mamalukes by the murder of Tomum Bey, that is, from the twelfth to the sixteenth century, the Arabs in Nubia and Beja, and the several countries above Egypt, had been incorporated with the old indigenous inhabitants of those territories, which were the Shepherds and, upon conversion of these last to the Mahometan religion, had become one people with those Saracens who over-ran this country in the Khalifat of Omar. The only distinction that remained was that the Arabs continued their old manner of life in tents, while the indigenous inhabitants lived in huts, mostly by the sides of rivers, and among plantations of date-trees.
It must be, however, remembered, that this, though a pretty general observation, does not hold without exception; for the Arabs of Mahomet's own family, the Beni Koreilli, mostly lived in towns, such as Mecca, Tajef, and Medina, especially after the expulsion of the Jews and the establishment of his empire. Many also of these, who came over to Beja and the eastern part of Nubia, continued their practice of living in small towns or villages, and were distinguished by the name of Jaheleen: This appellation, literally interpreted, signifies Pagans; but by extension, the ancient races of Arabs converted immediately from Paganism to the Mahometan faith, by Mahomet himself, without having ever embraced Christianity, or any other Pagan superstition besides pure Sabaism, and this was the old religion of Arabia, and of the whole peninsula of Africa to the Western Ocean. These Jaheleen are generally known by their name, referring to men of consideration in the time of Mahomet's life, whom they call their father, or to some circumstance relating to Mahomet himself. An example of the first of the race is, Rabatab, that is, Rabat was our father, or "we are the children of Rabat." An example of the second is the Macabrab, or, the sepulchure is our father, meaning the sepulchure of their prophet at Medina.
These Jaheleen are, as I have said, truly noble Arabs of the race of Beni Koreilli. Though they live in villages, they are the most dangerous and most fanatic wretches a traveller can meet. All this country, though nominally subject to Egypt for the sake of trade, had their own prince of the race of Beni Koreilli, whose title was Welled Ageeb, Son of the Good, which was his general inauguration name; and, besides this, he was called Ali, or Mahomet Welled Ageeb, which is part of his title, or, as it were, his Christian name added to that of his family. This prince was, nevertheless, but the Shekh of all the Arabs, to whom they paid a tribute to enable him to maintain his dignity, and a sufficient strength to keep up order and inforce his decrees in public matters. As for œconomical ones, each tribe was under the government of its own Shekh, old men, fathers of families in each clan.
The residence of this Arab prince, called for shortness Wed Ageeb, was at Gerri, a town in the very limits of the tropical rains, immediately upon the ferry which leads across the Nile to the desert of Bahiouda, and the road to Dongola and Egypt, joining the great desert of Selima. This was a very well-chosen situation, it being a toll-gate, as it were, to catch all the Arabs that had flocks, who, living within the rains in the country which was all of fat earth, were every year, about the month of May, obliged by the fly to pass, as it were, in review, to take up their abode in the sandy desert without the tropical rains. By the time fair weather returned in the fertile part of the country to the southward, and freed them from the fly, all forts of verdure had grown up in great luxuriancy, while hunger flared them now in the face among the lands to the northward, where every thing eatable had been consumed by the multitudes of cattle that had taken refuge there. The Arab chief, with a large army of light, unincumbered horse, flood in the way of their return to their pastures, till they had paid the uttermost farthing of tribute, including arrears, if any there were. Such was the state and government of the whole of this vast country, from the frontiers of Egypt to those of Abyssinia, at the beginning of the 16th century.
In the year 1504, a black nation, hitherto unknown, inhabiting the western banks of the Bahar el Abiad, in about latitude 13°, made a descent, in a multitude of canoes, or boats, upon the Arab provinces, and in a battle near Herbagi, they defeated Wed Ageeb, and forced him to a capitulation, by which the Arabs were to pay to their conquerors, in the beginning, one half of their flock, and every subsequent year, one-half of the increase, which was to be levied at the time of their passing into the sands to avoid the fly. Upon this condition, the Arabs were to enjoy their former possessions unmolested, and Wed Ageeb his place and dignity, that he always might be ready to use coercion in favour of the conquerors, in case any of the distant Arabs refused payment, and he thus became as it were their lieutenant.
This race of negroes is, in their own country, called Shillook. They founded Sennaar, less advantageously situated than Gerri, and removed the feat of government of Wed Ageeb to Herbagi, that he might be more immediately under their own eye. It was the year 1504 of the Christian æra that Amru, son of Adelan, the first of their sovereigns on the eastern side of the Nile, founded this monarchy, and built Sennaar, which hath ever since been the capital. From this period, till the time when I was at Sennaar, 266 years had elapsed, in which 20 kings had reigned, that is, from Amru the first, to Ismain the present king. He was about 34 years of age, and had reigned three years, so that, notwithstanding the long reigns of Amba Rabat the first, and the two Baadys, the duration of the reigns of the kings of Sennaar will be but 13 years upon an average; eight of the twenty have been deposed, and Ismain the present king stands the fairest chance possible of being very soon the 9th of that number.
At the establishing of this monarchy, the king, and the whole nation of Shillook, were Pagans. They were soon after converted to Mahometism, for the sake of trading with Cairo, and took the name of Funge, which they interpret sometimes lords, or conquerors, and, at other times, free citizens. All that can be said with certainty of this term, as there is no access to the study of their language, is, that it is applicable to those only that have been born east of the Bahar el Abiad. It does not seem to me that they should pride themselves in being free citizens, because the first title of nobility in this country is that of slave; indeed there is no other. Upon any appearance of your undervaluing a man at Sennaar, he instantly asks you if you know who he is? if you don't know that he is a slave, in the same idea of aristocratical arrogance, as would be said in England upon an altercation, do you know to whom you are speaking? do you know that I am a peer? All titles and dignities are undervalued, and precarious, unless they are in the hands of one who is a slave. Slavery in Sennaar is the only true nobility.
As I do not know that the names of these sovereigns are to be found any where else, I have set them down here. The record from which I drew them is at least as extraordinary as any part of their history; it was the hangman's roll, or register. It is one of the singularities which obtains among this brutish people, that the king ascends his throne under an admission that he may be lawfully put to death by his own subjects or slaves, upon a council being held by the great officers, if they decree that it is not for the advantage of the state that he be suffered to reign any longer. There is one officer of his own family, who, alone, can be the instrument of shedding his sovereign and kinsman's blood. This officer is called, Sid el Coom, master of the king's household, or servants, but has no vote in deposing him; nor is any guilt imputed to him, however many of his sovereigns he thus regularly murders. Achmet Sid el Coom, the present licensed parricide, and resident in Ismain's palace, had murdered the late king Nasser, and two of his sons that were well grown, besides a child at his mother's breast; and he was expecting every day to confer the same favour upon Ismain; though at present there was no malice on the one part nor jealousy on the other, and I believe both of them had a guess of what was likely to happen. It was this Achmer, who was very much my friend, that gave me a list of the kings that had reigned, how long their reign lasted, and whether they died a natural death, or were deposed and murdered.
This extraordinary officer was one of the very few that shewed me any attention or civility at Sennaar. He had been violently tormented with the gravel, but had found much ease from the use of soap-pills that I had given him, and this had produced, on his part, no small degree of gratitude and friendship; he was also subject to the epilepsy, but this he was persuaded was witchcraft, from the machinations of an enemy who resided far off. I often staid as his house all night, when he suffered excessive pains, and I may say then only I was in safety.
Achmet seemed, by strange accident, to be one of the gentled spirits of any that it was my misfortune to converse with at Sennaar. He was very little attached to, or convinced of, the truth of the Mahometan religion, and as little zealous or instructed in his own. He used often to qualify his ignorance, or disbelief, by saying, that any, or no religion, was better than that of a Christian. His place of birth was in a village of Fazuclo, and it appeared to me that he was still a Pagan. He was constantly attended by Nuban priests, powerful conjurers and sorcerers, if you believed him. I often conversed with these in great freedom, when it happened they understood Arabic, and from them I learned many particulars concerning the situation of the inland part of the country, especially that vast ridge of mountains, Dyre and Tegla, which run into the heart of Africa to the westward, whence they say anciently they came, after having been preserved there from a deluge. I asked them often, (powerful as they were in charms), Why they did not cure Achmet of the gravel, or epilepsy? Their answer was, That it was a Christian devil, and not subject to their power.
Achmet did not believe that I was a Christian, knew I was no Mahometan, but thought I was like himself, something between the two, nor did I ever undeceive him. I was no missionary, nor had I any care of souls, nor desire to enter into conversation about religion with a man whose only office was to be the deliberate murderer of his sovereign. He spoke good Arabic, was offended at no question, but answered freely, and without reserve, whether about the country, religion, or government, or the post which he enjoyed, if we can term it enjoying an office created for such horrid crimes. He told me, with great coolness, in answer to a question why he murdered Nasser's son in his father's presence, that he did not dare to do otherwise from duty to Nasser, whose right it was to fee his son slain in a regular and lawful manner, and this was by cutting his throat with a sword, and not by a more ignominious and painful death, which, if it had not been done in the father's fight, the vengeance of his enemies might have suggested and inflicted. He said, that Naffer was very little concerned at the spectacle of his son's death, but very loth when it came to his turn to die himself; that he urged him often to suffer him to escape, but, finding this in vain, he submitted without resistance. He told me, Ismain, the present king, flood upon very precarious ground; that both the brothers, Adelan and Abou Kalec, were at the head of armies in the field; that Kittou had at his disposal all the forces that were in Sennaar; and that the king was little esteemed, and had neither experience, courage, friends, money, nor troops.
I asked him if he was not afraid, when he entered into the king's presence, lest he, too, might take it into his head to shew him, that to die or be slain was not so slight a matter as he made of it. He said, "By no means; that it was his duty to be with the king the greatest part of the morning, and necessarily once very late in the evening; that the king knew he had no hand in the wrong that might be done to him, nor any way advanced his death; but, being come to the point that he must die, the rest was only a matter of decency, and it would undoubtedly be the object of his choice rather to be slain by the hands of his own relation in private, than those of a hired assassin, an Arab, or a Christian slave, in public view before the populace." When Baady the king's father was taken prisoner, and sent to Teawa to Welled Hassan governor of Atbara, (Shekh Fidele's father) Adelan ordered him to be put to death there, and Welled Hassan carried that order into execution. The king being always armed, was stout, and seemed to be upon his guard; and Welled Hassan found no way of killing him but by thrusting him through the back with a lance while washing his hands. The people murmured against Adelan exceedingly, not on account of the murder itself, but the manner of it, and Welled Hassan was afterwards put to death himself, though he acted by express orders, because, not being the officer appointed, he had killed the king, and next, because he had done it with a lance, whereas the only lawful instrument was a sword,
I have already said, that it was the year of the Hegira, answering to 1504 of the Christian æra, that this people, called Shillook, built the town of Sennaar, and established their monarchy, which has now subsisted under a succession of twenty kings of the same family. List of the Kings of Sennaar.
| Years reigned |
A.D. | |
|---|---|---|
| Amru, son of Adelan, began his reign in the year 1504, and reigned | 30 | 1534 |
| Neil, his son, | 17 | 1551 |
| Abdelcader, son of Amru, | 8 | 1559 |
| Amru, son of Neil, deposed, | 11 | 1570 |
| Dekin, son of Neil, | 17 | 1587 |
| Douro, his son, deposed, | 3 | 1590 |
| Tiby, son of Abdelcader, | 3 | 1593 |
| Ounsa, deposed, | 13 | 1606 |
| Abdelcader, son of Ounsa, deposed, | 4 | 1610 |
| Adelan, son of Ounsa, deposed, | 5 | 1615 |
| Baady, son of Abdelcader, | 6 | 1621 |
| Rebat, son of Baady, | 30 | 1651 |
| Baady, his son, | 38 | 1689 |
| Ounsa, son of Nasser son of Rebat, | 12 | 1701 |
| Baady el Achmer, his son, | 25 | 1726 |
| Ounsa, his son, deposed, | 3 | 1729 |
| L'Oul, son of Baady, | 4 | 1733 |
| Baady, his son, deposed, | 33 | 1766 |
| Nasser, his son, deposed, | 3 | 1769 |
| Ismain, | 3 | 1772 |
first subdued the province of Fazuclo. I shall but make three observations upon this list, which is undoubtedly authentic. The first is, that this monarchy having been established in the 1504, it must answer to the 9th year of the reign of Naod in the Abyssinian annals, as that prince began to reign in 1495. — The second is, that Tecla Haimanout, the son of Yasous the Great, writing to Baady el Achmer, or the White, who was the son of Ounsa, about the murder of M. du Roule the French Ambassador, in the beginning of this century, speaks of the ancient friendship that had subsisted between the kings of Abyssinia and those of Sennaar, ever since the reign of Kim, whom he mentions as one of Baady's remote predecessors on the throne of Sennaar. Now, in the whole list of kings we have just given, we do not find one of the name of Kim; nor is there one word mentioned of a king of Sennaar, or a treaty with him, in the whole annals of Abyssinia, till the beginning of Socinios's reign. I therefore imagine that the Kim[1], which Tecla Haimanout informs us his predecessors corresponded with in ancient times, was a prince, who, under the command of the Caliph of Cairowan, in the kingdom of Tunis in Africa, took Cairo and fortified it, by surrounding it with a strong wall, and who reigned, by himself and successors, 100 years, from 998 to 1101, when Hadoc, the last prince of that race, was slain by Salidan, first Soldan of Egypt, with which country the Abyssinians at that time were in constant correspondence, though I never heard they were with Sennaar, which indeed did not exist at that time, nor was there either city or kingdom till the reign of Naod; so it was a correspondence with the sovereigns of Cairo, Tecla Haimanout mistook for that with Sennaar, which monarchy was not then founded. — The third observation is, that this Baady el Achmer, being the very king who murdered M. du Roule in 1704, did, nevertheless, live till the year 1726, having reigned 25 years; whereas M. de Mailiet[2] writes to his court, that this prince had been defeated and slain in a battle he had with the Arabs, under their Shekh at Herbagi in 1705.
Upon the death of a king of Sennaar, his eldest son succeeds by right; and immediately afterwards as many of the brothers of the reigning prince as can be apprehended are put to death by the Sid el Coom, in the manner already described. Achmet, one of the sons of Baady, brother of Nasser, and Ismain now on the throne, fled, upon his brother's accession, to the frontiers of Kuara, and gathering together about a hundred of the Ganjar horse, he came to Gondar, and was kindly received by the Iteghè, who persuaded him to be baptised. Some time after he returned to Kuara, and joined the king's army a little before the battle of Serbraxos, with about the same number of horse, and there he misbehaved, taking flight upon the first appearance of the enemy, before a man was killed or wounded on either side. He was graceful in his person and carriage, but a liar and drunkard beyond all conception.
The practice which obtains at Sennaar of murdering all the collaterals of the royal family, seems to be but a part of the same idea[3] which prevails in Abyssinia, of confining the princes all their lives upon a mountain. The difference of treatment, in cafes perfectly parallel, seems to offer a just manner of judging, how much the one people surpasses the other in barbarity of manners and disposition. In Abyssinia, the princes are confined for life on a mountain, and in Sennaar they are murdered in their father's sight, in the palace where they were born.
As in Abyssinia, so neither in Sennaar do women succeed to sovereignty. No historical reason is given for this exclusion. It probably was a rule brought from El-aice, their own country, before founding their monarchy, for the very contrary prevailed among the Shepherds, whom they subdued in Atbara. The princesses, however, in Abyssinia, are upon a much better footing than those of Sennaar. These last have no state nor settled income, and are regarded very little more than the daughters of private individuals. Among that crowd of women which I saw the two nights I was in the palace, there were many princesses, sisters of the king, as I was after told. At that time they were not distinguishable by their manners, nor was any particular mark of respect shewn them.
The royal family were originally Negroes, and remain so still, when their mothers have been black like themselves; but when the king has happened to marry an Arab woman, as he often does, the black colour of the father cedes to the white of the mother, and the child is white. Such was the case of Baady, therefore named Achmer; his father Rebat was black, but marrying an Arab, his son who succeeded him was white. The last Baady who was slain at Teawa was a perfect Negro; and by a slave from his own country he had the late king Nasser, who, like his father, was a perfect black. By an Arab of the tribe of Daveina he had Ismain the present king, who is white, and so it has invariably happened in the royal family, as well as in private ones. But what is still more extraordinary, though equally true, an Arab who is white marrying a black woman slave, has infallibly white children. I will not say that this is so universal as that an example of the contrary may not be found, but all the instances I happened to see confirmed this. The Arabs, from choice, cohabit only with Negro women in the hot months of summer, on account of the remarkable coolness of their skins, in which they are said to differ from the Arab women; but I never saw one black Arab in the kingdom of Sennaar, notwithstanding the generality of this intercourse.
There is a constant mortality among the children in and about this metropolis, insomuch that, in all appearance, the people would be extinct were they not supplied by a number of slaves brought from all the different countries to the southward. The men, however, are strong and remarkable for size, but short-lived, owing, probably, to their indulging themselves in every sort of excess from their very infancy. This being the case, this climate must have undergone a strange revolution, as Sennaar is but a small distance from where the ancients place the Macrobii, a nation so called from the remarkable length of their lives. But perhaps these were mountaineers from the frontiers of Kuara, being described as having gold in their territory, and are the race now called Galla. It is very remarkable, that, though they are Mahometans, they are so brutal, not to say indelicate, with regard to their women, that they sell their slaves after having lived with, and even had children by them. The king himself it is said, is often guilty of this unnatural practice, utterly unknown in any other Mahometan country.
Once in his reign the king is obliged, with his own hand, to plow and sow a piece of land. From this operation he is called Baady, the countryman or peasant; it is a name common to the whole race of kings, as Cæsar was among the Romans, though they have generally another name peculiar to each person, and this not attended to has occasioned confusion in the narrative given by strangers writing concerning them.
No horse, mule, ass, or any beast of burden, will breed, or even live at Sennaar, or many miles about it. Poultry does not live there. Neither dog nor cat, sheep nor bullock, can be preserved a season there. They must go all, every half year, to the sands. Though all possible care be taken of them, they die in every place where the fat earth is about the town during the first season of the rains. Two greyhounds which I brought from Atbara, and the mules which I brought from Abyssinia, lived only a few weeks after I arrived. They seemed to have some inward complaint, for nothing appeared outwardly. The dogs had abundance of water, but I killed one of them from apprehension of madness. Several kings have tried to keep lions, but no care could prolong their lives beyond the first rains, Shekh Adelan had two, which were in great health, being kept with his horses at grass in the sands but three miles from Sennaar: neither rose, nor any species of jasmine, grow here; no tree but the lemon flowers near the city, that ever I saw; the rose has been often tried, but in vain.
Sennaar is in lat. 13° 34' 36" north, and in long. 33° 30' 30" call from the meridian of Greenwich. It is on the west side of the Nile, and close upon the banks of it. The ground whereon it stands rises just enough to prevent the river from entering the town, even in the height of the inundation, when it comes to be even with the street. Poncet says, that when he was at this city, his companion, father Brevedent, a Jesuit, an able mathematician, on the 2nd of March 1699, determined the latitude of Sennaar to be 13° 4' N. the difference therefore will be about half a degree. The reader however may implicitly rely upon the situation I have given it, being the mean result of above fifty observations, made both night and day, on the most favourable occasions, by a quadrant of three feet radius, and telescopes of two, and some times of three feet focal length, both reflectors and refractors made by the best masters.
The town of Sennaar is very populous, there being in it many good houses after the fashion of the country. Poncet says, in his time they were all of one storey high; but now the great officers have all houses of two. They have parapet roofs, which is a singular construction; for in other places, within the rains, the roofs are all conical. The houses are all built of clay, with very little straw mixed with it, which sufficiently shews the rains here must be less violent than to the southward, probably from the dalliance of the mountains. However, when I was there, a week of constant rain happened, and on the 30th of July the Nile increased violently, after loud thunder, and a great darkness to the south. The whole stream was covered with wreck of houses, canes, wooden bowls, and platters, living camels and cattle, and several dead ones passed Sennaar, hurried along by the current with great velocity. A hyaena, endeavouring to cross before the town, was surrounded and killed by the inhabitants. The water got into the houses that stand upon its banks, and, by rising several feet high, the walls melted, being clay, which occasioned several of them to fall. It seemed, by the floating wreck of houses that appeared in the stream, to have destroyed a great many villages to the southward towards Fazuclo.
The soil of Sennaar, as I have already said, is very unfavourable both to man and beast, and particularly adverse to their propagation. This seems to me to be owing to some noxious quality of the fat earth with which it is every way surrounded, and nothing may be depended upon more surely than the fact already mentioned, that no mare, or she-beast of burden, ever foaled in the town, or in any village within several miles round it. This remarkable quality ceases upon removing from the fertile country to the sands. Airs, between three and four miles from Sennaar, with no water near it but the Nile, surrounded with white barren sand, agrees perfectly with all animals, and here are the quarters where I saw Shekh Adelan the minister's horse, (as I suppose, for their numbers) by far the finest in the world, where in safety lie watched the motion of his sovereign, who, shut up in his capital of Sennaar, could not there maintain one horse to oppose him.
But however unfavourable this soil may be for the propagation of animals, it contributes very abundantly both to the nourishment of man and beast. It is positively said to render three hundred for one, which, however confidently advanced, is, I think both from reason and appearance, a great exaggeration. It is all sown with dora, or millet, the principal food of the natives. It produces also wheat and rice, but these at Sennaar are sold by the pound, even in years of plenty. The salt made use of at Sennaar is all extracted from the earth about it, especially at Halfaia, so strongly is the soil impregnated with this useful fossile.
About twelve miles from Sennaar, nearly to the N. W. is a collection of villages called Shaddly, from a great saint, who in his time directed large pits to be dug, and plastered closely within with clay, into which a quantity of grain was put when it was at the cheapest, and these were covered up, and plastered again at the top, which they call sealing, and the hole itself matamore. These matamores are in great number all over the plain, and, on any prospect of corn growing dearer, they are opened, and corn sold at a low price both to the town and country.
To the north of Shaddly, about twenty-four miles, is another foundation of this fort, called Wed Aboud, still greater than Shaddly. Upon these two charities the chief subsistence of the Arabs depends; for as there is continual war among these people, and their violence being always directed against the crops rather than the persons of their enemies, the destruction of each tribe would follow the loss of its harvest, was it not for the extraordinary supplies furnished at such times by these granaries.
The small villages of soldiers are scattered up and down through this immense plain to watch the grain that is sown, which is dora only, and it is said that here the ground will produce no other grain. Prodigious excavations are made at proper distances, which fill with water in the rainy season, and are a great relief to the Arabs in their passage between the cultivated country and the sands. The fly, that inexorable persecutor of the Arabs, never pursues them to the north of Shaddly. The knowledge of this circumstance was what, perhaps, determined the first builders of Sennaar to place their capital here; this too, probably, induced the two saints, Shaddly and Wed Aboud, to make here these vast excavations for corn and water. This is the first resting place the Arabs find, where, having all things necessary for subsidence, they can at leisure transact their affairs with government.
To the westward of Shaddly and Aboud, as far as the river Abiad, or El-aice, the country is full of trees, which make it a favourite station for camels. As Shaddly is not above three hours ride on horseback from Sennaar, there could not be chosen a situation more convenient for levying the tribute; for though Gerri, from the favourable situation of the ground, being mountainous and rocky, and just on the extremity of the rains, was a place properly chosen for this purpose by the Arab prince before the conquest of the Funge, (for his troops there cut them off, either from the sands, or the fertile country, as he pleased), yet many of them might have remained behind at Shaddly, and to the westward, free from the terror of the fly, and consequently without any necessity of advancing so far north as Gerri, and there subjecting themselves to contribution.
In this extensive plain, near Shaddly, arise two mountainous districts, the one called Jibbel Moia, or the Mountain of Water, which is a ridge of considerable hills nearly of the same height, closely united; and the other Jibbel Segud, or the Cold Mountain, a broken ridge composed of parts, some high and some low, without any regular form. Both these enjoy a fine climate, and are full of inhabitants, but of no considerable extent. They serve for a protection to the Daheera, or farms of Shaddly and Wed Aboud. They are also fortresses in the way of the Arabs, to detain and force them to payment in their flight from the cultivated country and rains to the dry lands of Atbara. Each of these districts is governed by the descendant of their ancient and native princes, who long resisted all the power of the Arabs, having both horse and foot. They continued to be Pagans till the conquest: of the Funge. Bloody and unnatural sacrifices were said to have been in use in these mountainous states, with horrid circumstances of cruelty, till Abdelcader, son of Amru, the third of the kings of Sennaar, about the year 1554, besieged first the one and then the other of these princes in their mountain, and forced them to surrender; and, having fastened a chain of gold to each of their ears, he exposed them in the public market-place at Sennaar in that situation, and sold them to the highest bidder, at the vile price of something like a farthing each. After this degradation, being circumcised, and converted to the Mahometan religion, they were restored each to their government, as slaves of Sennaar, upon very easy conditions of tribute, and have been faithful ever since.
Nothing is more pleasant than the country around Sennaar, in the end of August and beginning of September, I mean so far as the eye is concerned; instead of that barren, bare waste, which it appeared on our arrival in May, the corn now sprung up, and covering the ground, made the whole of this immense plain appear a level, green land, interspersed with great lakes of water, and ornamented at certain intervals with groups of villages, the conical tops of the houses presenting, at a distance, the appearance of small encampments. Through this immense, extensive plain, winds the Nile, a delightful river there, above a mile broad, full to the very brim, but never overflowing. Every where on these banks are seen numerous herds of the most beautiful cattle of various kinds, the tribute recently extorted from the Arabs, who, freed from all their vexations, return home with the remainder of their flocks in peace, at as great a distance from the town, country, and their oppressors, as they possibly can.
The banks of the Nile about Sennaar resemble the pleasantest parts of Holland in the summer season; but soon after, when the rains cease, and the sun exerts his utmost influence, the dora begins to ripen, the leaves to turn yellow and to rot, the lakes to putrify, smell, and be full of vermin, all this beauty suddenly disappears; bare, scorched Nubia returns, and all its terrors of poisonous winds and moving sands, glowing and ventilated with sultry blasts, which are followed by a troop of terrible attendants, epilepsies, apoplexies, violent fevers, obstinate agues, and lingering, painful dysenteries, still more obstinate and mortal.
War and treason seem to be the only employment of this horrid people, whom Heaven has separated, by almost impassable deserts, from the rest of mankind, confining them to an accursed spot, seemingly to give hem earnest in time of the only other work which he has reserved to them, for an eternal hereafter.
The dress of Sennaar is very simple. It consists of a long shirt of blue Surat cloth called Marowty, which covers, them from the lower part of the neck down to their feet, but does not conceal the neck itself; and this is the only difference between the men's and the women's dress; that of the women covers their neck altogether, being buttoned like ours. The men have sometimes a sash tied about their middles; and both men and women go barefooted in the house, even those of the better fort of people. Their floors are covered with Persian carpets, especially the women's apartments. In fair weather, they wear sandals; and without doors they use a kind of wooden patten, very neatly ornamented with shells. In the greatest heat at noon, they order buckets of water to be thrown upon there instead of bathing. Both men and women anoint themselves, at lead once a-day, with camels grease mixed with civet, which they imagine softens their skin, and preservesthem from cutaneous eruptions, of which they are so fearful, that the smallest pimple in any visible part of their body keeps them in the house till it disappears: For the same reason, though they have a clean shirt every day, they use one dipt in grease to lie in all night, as they have no covering but this, and lie upon a bull's hide, tanned, and very much softened by this constant greasing, and at the same time very cool, though it occasions a smell that no washing can free them from.
The principal diet of the poorer fort is millet, made into bread or flour. The rich make a pudding of this, toasting the flour before the fire, and pouring milk and butter into it; besides which, they eat beef, partly roasted and partly raw. Their horned cattle are the largest and fatted in the world, and are exceedingly fine; but the common meat fold in the market is camels flesh. The liver of the animal, and the spare rib, are always eaten raw through the whole country. I never saw one instance where it was dressed with fire: it is not then true that eating raw flesh is peculiar to Abyssinia; it is practised in this instance of camels flesh in all the black countries to the westward.
Hogs flesh is not sold in the market; but all the people of Sennaar eat it publicly: men in office, who pretend to be Mahometans, eat theirs in secret. The Mahometan religion made a very remarkable progress among the Jews and Christians on the Arabian, or eastern side of the Red Sea, and soon after also in Egypt; but it was either received coolly, or not at all, by the Pagans on the west side, unless when, after a signal victory, it was strongly enforced by the sword of the conqueror. The Saracens, who over-ran this country, were bigots in their religion, as their posterity continue to be at this day. They have preserved the language of the Koran in its ancient purity, and adhere rigidly to the letter of its precepts. They either extirpated the Pagans, or converted them; but this power and tyranny of the Saracens received a check, both in Egypt and Arabia, about the i6th century, by Selim, who established Turkish garrisons in all their principal places on the frontiers of Beja, or Barbaria, and in the Ber el Ajam, or ancient Azamia, along the well coast of the Red Sea.
These Turks were all truly atheists in their hearts, who despised the zeal of the Arabs, and oppressed them so, that Paganism again ventured to shew its head. The Shillook, as I have said before, made an eruption into Beja, and conquered the whole of that country. They became mailers of the Arabs, and embraced their religion as a form, but never anxiously followed the law of Mahomet, which did not hold out to them that liberty and relaxation by which it had tempted the Jews and Christians. These the law of Mahomet had freed from many restraints upon pleasures and pursuits forbidden by the gospel, and thus made their yoke easier. But it was not so with the Pagan nations. The Mahometan religion diminished their natural liberty, by imposing prayers, ablutions, alms, circumcision, and such-like, to which before they were under no obligation. The Pagans therefore of Sennaar, and all the little Hates to the westward, Dar-Fowr, Dar-Sele, Bagirma, Bornou, and Tombusto, and all that country upon the Niger, called Sudan, trouble themselves very little with the detail of the Mahometan religion, which they embraced merely for the fake of personal freedom and advantages in trade; but they are Pagans in their hearts and in their practices, Mahometans in their conversation only. As for the sons of these, they are Pagans like their fathers, unless some Fakir, or Arab faint, takes pains to instruct and teach them to read, otherwise the whole of their religion consists in the confession of faith, "La illah el Ullah, Mahomet Rafoul Ullah," — "There is but one God, and Mahomet is his prophet."
There are three principal governments in the kingdom of Sennaar. The first is at El-aice, the capital of that country, from which the Shillook come. The Bahar el Abiad spreads itself all over the territory, and, divided into a quantity of small channels, (whether by art or nature I know not) surrounds a number of little islands, upon each of which is a village, and this collection of villages is called the town, of El-aice. The inhabitants are all fishermen, and have a number of boats, like canoes, in which they sail up and down to the cataracts. With incredible fleets of these their invasion was made when they undertook the conquest of the Arabs, who had not the smallest warning of the attempt. They had, at that time, no weapons of iron: their swords and lances were of a hard wood called Dengui-Sibber. It must be a relation of the Mek of Sennaar that commands at El-aice; and he is never suffered to leave that post, or come to Sennaar.
The second government, next to this in importance, is Kordofan. The revenue consists chiefly in slaves procured from Dyre and Tegla. It seems this situation is the most convenient for invading those mountains, either from its having water in the way, or from some other circumstance that is not known. Mahomet Abou Kalec had this government, and with him about 1000 black horse, armed with coats of mail, with whom he maintained himself at this time independent of the king. It is a frontier nearest to Dar-Fowr, a black state still more barbarous, if possible, than Sennaar, and by them it often has been taken from Sennaar, and again retaken.
The third government is Fazuclo, bounded by the river El-aice on the west, and the Nile on the east, and the mountains of Fazuclo, where are the great cataracts, on the south. These are part of the large chain of mountains of Dyre and Tegla, which reach so far westward into the continent, from whence comes the chief supply both of gold and slaves which constitute the riches of this country; for the greatest part of the revenue of Fazuclo is gold; and the person that commands it is not a Funge, but the same native prince from whom the array of Sennaar conquered it. This seems to be a very remarkable piece of policy in this barbarous nation, which must have succeeded, as they constantly adhere to it, of making the prince of the state they have conquered their lieutenant in the government of his own country afterwards. Such was the case with Dongola, whose Mek they continue; also with Wed Ageeb, prince of the Arabs, whom they subdued; and such was the case with Fazuclo, Wed Aboud, Jibbel Moia, and other petty states, all of which they conquered, but did not change their prince.
The forces at Sennaar, immediately around the capital, consist of about 14,000 Nuba, who fight naked, having no other armour but a short javelin and a round shield, very bad troops, as I suppose; about 1800 horse, all black, mounted by black slaves, armed with coats of mail, and without any other weapon but a broad Sclavonian sword. These I suppose, by the weight and power of man and horse, would bear down, or break through double the number of any other troops in the world: nobody, that has not seen this cavalry, can have any idea to what perfection the horse rises here. The Mek has not one musket in his whole army. Besides these horse, there is a great, but uncertain number of Arabs, who pay their tribute immediately to the Mek and to the great men in government, and live under their protection close by the town, and thereby have the advantage of trading with it, of supplying it with provisions, and, no doubt, must contribute in part to its strength and defence in time of need.
After what I have said of the latitude of Sennaar, it will scarcely be necessary to repeat that the heats are excessive. The thermometer rises in the shade to 119°, but as I have observed of the heats of Arabia, so now I do in respect to those of Sennaar. The degree of the thermometer does not convey any idea of the effect the sun has upon the sensations of the body or the colour of the skin. Nations of blacks live within lat. 13° and 14°, when 10° south of them, nearly under the Line, all the people are white, as we had an opportunity of seeing daily in the Galla, whom we have described. Sennaar, which is in lat. 13°, is hotter, by the thermometer, 50 degrees, when the sun is most distant from it, than Gondar is, though a degree farther south, when the sun is vertical.
Cold and hot are terms merely relative, not determined by the latitude, but elevation of the place; when, therefore, we say hot, some other explanation is necessary concerning the place where we are, in order to give an adequate idea of the sensations of that heat upon the body, and the effects of it upon the lungs. The degree of the thermometer conveys this very imperfectly; 90° is excessively hot at Loheia in Arabia Felix, and yet the latitude of Loheia is but 15°, whereas 90° at Sennaar is, as to sense, only warm although Sennaar, as we have said, is in lat. 13°.
At Sennaar, then, I call it cold, when one, fully cloathed and at rest, feels himself in want of fire. I call it cool, when one, fully cloathed and at rest, feels he could bear more covering all over, or in part, more than he has then on. I call it temperate, when a man, so cloathed and at rest, feels no such want, and can take moderate exercise, such as walking about a room without sweating. I call it warm, when a man, so cloathed, does not sweat when at rest, but, upon moderate motion, sweats, and again cools. I call it hot, when a man sweats at rest, and excessively on moderate motion. I call it very hot, when a man, with thin or little cloathing, sweats much though at rest. I call it excessive hot, when a man, in his shirt, at rest, sweats excessively, when all motion is painful, and the knees feel feeble as if after a fever; I call it extreme hot, when the strength fails, a disposition to faint comes on, a straitness is found in the temples, as if a small cord was drawn tight around the head, the voice impaired, the skin dry, and the head seems more than ordinary large and light. This, I apprehend, denotes death at hand, as we have seen in the instance of Imhanzara, in our journey to Teawa; but, this is rarely or never effected by the sun alone, without the addition of that poisonous wind which pursued us through Atbara, and will be more particularly described in our journey down the desert, to which Heaven, in pity to mankind, has confined it, and where it has, no doubt, contributed to the total extinction of every thing that hath the breath of life. A thermometer graduated upon this scale would exhibit a figure very different from the common one; for I am convinced by experiment, that a web of the finest muslin, wrapt round the body at Sennaar, will occasion at midday a greater sensation of heat in the body than the rise of 5° in the thermometer of Fahrenheit.
At Sennaar, from 70° to 78° in Fahrenheit's thermometer is cool; from 79° to 92° temperate; at 92" begins warm. Although the degree of the thermometer marks a greater heat than is felt by the body of us strangers, it seems to me that the sensations of the natives bear still a less proportion to that degree than ours. On the 2d of August, while I was lying perfectly enervated on a carpet, in a room deluged with water, at twelve o'clock, the thermometer at 116°, I saw several black labourers pulling down a house, working with great vigour, without any symptoms of being at all incommoded.
The diseases of Sennaar are the dysentery, or bloody flux, fatal in proportion as it begins with the first of the rains, or the end of them, and return of the fair weather. Intermitting fevers accompany this complaint very frequently, which often ends in them. Bark is a sovereign remedy in this country, and seems to be by so much the surer, that it purges on taking the first doze, and this it does almost without exception. Epilepsies and cirrhosis livers are like wise very frequent, owing, as is supposed, to their defeating or diminishing perspiration, or stopping the pores by constant unction, as also by the quantity of water they deluge themselves with at the time they are hottest. The influence of the moon in epilepsies, and the certainty with which the third day after the conjunction brings back the paroxysm in regular intermitting fevers, is what naturally surprises people not deeper read than I am in the study of medicine. Those who live much in camps, or in the parts of Atbara far from rivers, have certainly, more or less, the gravel, occasioned, probably, by the use of well-water; for at Sennaar, where they drink of the river, I never saw but one instance of it, that of the Sid el Coom; as for Shekh Ibrahim, whom I shall speak of afterwards, he had passed a great part of his life at Kordofan. The venereal disease is frequent here, but never inveterate, insomuch that it does not prevent the marriage of either sex. Sweating and abstinence never fail to cure it, although, where it had continued for a time, I have known mercury fail.
The elephantiasis, so common in Abyssinia, is not known, here. The small-pox is a disease not endemial in the country of Sennaar. It is sometimes twelve or fifteen years without its being known, notwithstanding the constant intercourse they have with, and merchandizes they bring from Arabia. It is likewise said this disease never broke out in Sennaar, unless in the rainy season. However, when it comes, it sweeps away a vast proportion of those that are infected: The women, both blacks and Arabs, those of the former that live in plains, like the Shillook, or inhabitants of El-aice, those of the Nuba and Cuba, that live in mountains, all the various species of fiaves that come from Dyre and Tegla, from, time immemorial have known a species of inoculation which they call Tishicree el Jidderee, or, the buying of the small pox. The women are the conductors of this operation in the fairest and dried season of the year, but never at other times. Upon the first hearing of the small pox any where, these people go to the infected place, and, wrapping a fillet of cotton cloth about the arm of the person infected, they let it remain there till they bargain with the mother how many she is to sell them. It is necessary that the terms be discussed judaically, and that the bargain be not made collusively or gratuitously, but that one piece of silver, or more, be paid for the number. This being concluded, they go home, and tie the fillet about their own child's arm; certain, as they say, from long experience, that the child infected is to do well, and not to have one more than the number of pustules that were agreed and paid for. There is no example, as far as I could learn, either here or in Abyssinia, of this disease returning, that is, attacking any one person more than once.
The trade of Sennaar is not great; they have no manufactures, but the principal article of consumption is blue cotton cloth from Surat. Formerly, when the ways were open, and merchants went in caravans with safety, Indian goods were brought in quantities to Sennaar from Jidda, and then dispersed over the black country. The return was made in gold, in powder called Tibbar, civet, rhinoceros's horns, ivory, ostrich feathers, and, above all, in slaves or glass, more of which was exported from Sennaar than all the east of Africa together. But this trade is almost destroyed, so is that of the gold and ivory. However, the gold still keeps up its reputation of being the purest and best in Africa, and therefore bought at Mocha to be carried to India, where it all at last centers. If the wakea of Abyssinian gold sells at 16 patakas, the Sennaar gold sells at the same place for 22 parakas. The ivory sells at 1½ oz.[4] per rotol at Cairo, which is about 25 per cent lighter than the rotol of Mocha. Men-slaves, at a medium, may be about a wakea per head at Sennaar. There are women, however, who sell for 13 or 14 wakeas. What their peculiar excellencies may be, which so far alters the price, I cannot tell, only they are preferred by rich people, both Turks and Moors, to the Arab, Circassian, and Georgian women, during the warm months in summer.
The Daveina Arabs, who are great hunters, carry the ivory to Abyssinia, where they are not in fear. But no caravan comes now from Sudan[5] to Sennaar, nor from Abyssinia or Cairo. The violence of the Arabs, and the faithlessness of the government of Sennaar, have shut them up on every side but that of Jidda, whether they go once a-year by Suakem.
The wakea of Sennaar, by which they sell gold, civet, scented oils, &c. consists of 10 drums; 10 of these wakeas make a rotol. This wakea at Sennaar is accounted the same as that of Masuah and Cairo. It is equal to 7 drams 57 grains troy weight.
- 1 Rotol 10 Wakeas.
- 1 Wakea 10 Drams. But there is another wakea used by the merchants called the Atareys.
- 1 Rotol 12 Wakeas,
- 1 Wakea 12 Drams.
But this is only used for coarse goods. There is but one long measure in Sennaar, called the Draa, which is the peek, or cubit, and is measured from the center of the elbow-joint to the point of the middle finger. This is probably the ancient cubit of Egypt, and of the holy scripture.
I have said, that the 5th and 6th of August it rained, and the river brought down great quantities of fragments of houses which it had swept away from the country to the southward. It was a very unusual sight to observe a multitude of men swimming in this violent current, and then coming ashore riding upon sticks and pieces of timber. Many people make a trade of this, as fuel is exceedingly scarce at Sennaar. But there were other signs in this inundation, that occupied the imagination of this superstitious people. Part of the town had fallen, and a hyaena, as already observed had come alive across the river, from which the wise ones drew melancholy presages.
I had not been out of the house for two days on account of the rain. On the 7th I intended to have gone to Aira; but on the morning was told by Hagi Belal, that Mahomet Abou Kalec had advanced to the river El-aice, to cross it into Atbara, and that Shekh Adelan had decamped from Aira, and was gone to meet him; to this it was added, that Wed Ageeb had been sent to by the king, to collect all his forces among the Arabs, and join him between Herbagi and Sennaar. It was foreseen, that if this was true, a revolution of some kind was near at hand, probably the deposing and death of the king, and that, in the interim, all subordination would cease in the town, and every man do what seemed good in his own eyes.
Hagi Belal had, besides, told me that Shekh Fidele of Teawa had been several days in the palace with the king, and had informed him that I was laden with money, besides a quantity of cloth of gold, the richest he had ever seen, which the king of Abyssinia had destined as a present to him, but which I had perverted to my own use: He added, that the king had expressed himself in a very threatening manner, and that he was very much afraid I was not in safety if Shekh Adelan was gone from Aira. Upon this I desired Hagi Belal to go to the palace, and obtain for me an audience of the king. In vain he represented to me the risk I ran by this measure; I persisted in my resolution, I was tied to the stake. To fly was impossible, and I had often overcome such dangers by braving them.
He went then unwillingly to the palace. Whether he delivered the message I know not, but he returned saying, the king was busy, and could not be seen. I had, in the interim, sent Soliman to the Gindi, or Sid el Coom, telling him my difficulties, and the news I had heard. In place of returning an answer, he came directly to me himself; and was fitting with me when Hagi Belal returned, who, I thought, appeared some what disconcerted at the meeting. He told me the story of Abou Kalec was false, as alfo that of Wed Ageeb; but it was really true that Shekh Adelan had left Aira, and was then encamped at Shaddly. He chid Hagi Belal very sharply, asking him, what good all that tittle tattle did either to him or me? and insinuated pretty plainly, that he believed Hagi Belal did this in concert with the king, to extort some present from me. "What is the difference to Yagoube, says he, if Shekh Adelan be at Aira, three hours journey from Sennaar, or at Shaddy, five? Is not Kittou in town? and shall not I bring every slave of the king to join him upon the first requisition? At a time like this, will you persuade me, Hagi Belal, the king is not rather thinking of his own safety than of robbing Yagoube? I do nor wish that Yagoube should stay a minute longer at Sennaar; but, till some way be found to get necessaries for his journey, it is not in the king's power to hurt him in the house where he is; and he is much safer in Sennaar than he could be any where out of it. Before the king attempts to hurt Yagoube, as long as he stays in Adelan's house, he will think twice of it, while any of the three brothers are alive. But I will speak to Kittou in the evening, and the king too, if I have an opportunity. In the mean time, do you, Yagoube, put your mind at rest, defend yourself if any body attempts to enter this house, and do what you will to those that shall force themselves into it." I then attended him down stairs, with many professions of gratitude; and at the door he said, in a very low voice, to me, "Take care of yon Belal, he is a dog, worse than a Christian."
I resolved at all events to leave Sennaar, but I had not yet founded Hagi Belal as to money affairs. It was now the 20th; and, for several days since Adelan's departure, no provisions were sent to my house, as before was usual. Money therefore became absolutely necessary, not only for daily subsistence, but for camels to carry our baggage, provisions, and water, across the desert.
I now despaired absolutely of assistance of any kind from the king; and an accident that happened made me lay all thoughts aside of ever troubling him more upon the subject. There are at Mecca a number of black eunuchs, whose services are dedicated to that temple, and the sepulchre at Medina. Part of these, from time to time, procure liberty to return on a visit to their respective homes, or to the large cities they were sold from, on the Niger, Bornou, Tocrur, and Tombucto, where they beg donations for the holy places, and frequently collect: large sums of gold, which abounds in these towns and territories. One of these, called Mahomet Towash, which signifies Eunuch, had returned from a begging voyage in Sudan, or Nigritia, and was at Sennaar exceedingly ill with an intermitting fever. The king had sent for me to visit him, and the bark in a few days had perfectly recovered him. A proportional degree of gratitude had, in return, taken place in the breast of Mahomet, who, going to Cairo, was exceedingly desirous of taking me with him, and this desire was increased when he heard I had letters from the sherriffe of Mecca, and was acquainted with Metical Aga, who was his immediate master.
Nothing could be more fortunate than this rencounter at such a time, for he had spare camels in great plenty, and the Arabs, as he passed them, continued giving him more, and supported him with provisions wherever he went, for these people, being accounted sacred, and regarded with a certain religious awe, as being in the immediate service of their prophet, till now used to pass inviolate wherever they were going, however unsettled the times, or however slenderly attended.
Every thing was now ready, my instruments and baggage packed up, and the 25th of August fixed when we should begin our journey for Atbara. Mahomet, who passed a great part of his time at my house, had not been seen by us for several days, which we did not think extraordinary, being busy ourselves, and knowing that his trade demanded continual attendance on the great people; but we were exceedingly surprised at hearing from my black Soliman, that he and all his equipage had set out the night of the 20th for Atbara. This we found afterwards was at the earnest persuasion of the king, and was at that time a heavy disappointment to us, however fortunate it turned out afterwards.
The night of the 25th, which was to have been that of our departure, we sat late in my room up Hairs, in the back, or most private part of the house. My little company was holding with me a melancholy council on what had so recently happened, and, in general, upon the unpromising face of our affairs. Our single lamp was burning very low, and signaled to us that it was the hour of sleep, to which, however, none of us were very much inclined. Georgis, a Greek, who, on account of the soreness of his eyes had staid below in the dark, and had fallen asleep, came running up flairs in a great fright, and told us he had been wakened by the noise of men endeavouring to force open the door; that he hearkened a little, and found there were many of them. Our arms were all ready, and we snatched them up and ran towards the door; but I stopt, and planted them upon the first landing-place in the staircase, as I wished not to fire till the enemy was fairly in the house, that no excuse might remain for this their violation of hospitality.
I stationed Ismael at the outer door of the house, intending that he should fire first, as it would be less odious in him, being a Turk and a sherriffe, than for us Christians. I then went out to the outer gate, and Soliman with me. The entry into the yard was through a kind of porters lodge, where servants used to sit in the day-time, and sleep at night. It had a door from the street, and then another into the yard, the latter small, but very strong. They had forced the outer gate, and were then in the lodge, endeavouring to do the fame by the inner, having put a handspike under it to lift it up from the hinges. "Are you not madmen said I, and weary of your lives, to attempt to force Adelan's house, when there are within it men abundantly provided with large fire-arms, that, upon one discharge through the door, will lay you all dead where you now?" "Stand by from the door, cries Ismael, and let me fire. These black Kafirs don't yet know what my blunderbuss is." They had been silent from the time I had spoken, and had withdrawn the handspike from under the door. "Ullah! Ullah! cries one of them softly, how found you sleep! we have been endeavouring to waken you this hour. The king is ill; tell Yagoube to come to the palace, and open the door instantly." "Tell the king, said I, to drink warm water, and I will see him in the morning," Ah ! Mahomet, cries Soliman, is, that you? I thought you had had a narrow enough escape in the palace the other day, but stay a little, a servant is gone over the back wall to call the Gindi, and we are here numerous enough to defend this house till morning against all the servants the king has, so do not attempt to break the door, and Yagoube will go to the king with the Gindi.
At this time one of my servants fired a pistol in the air out of an upper window, upon which they ail ran off. They seemed to be about ten or twelve in number, and left three handspikes behind them. The noise of the pistol brought the guard, or patrols, in about half an hour, who carried intelligence to the Sid el Coom, our friend, by whom I was informed in the morning, that lie had found them all out, and put them in irons; that Mahomet, the king's servant, who met us at Teawa, was one of them; and that there was no possibility now of concealing this from Adelan, who would order him to be impaled.
Things were now come to such a crisis that I was determined to leave my instruments and papers with Kittou, Adelan's brother, or with the Sid el Coom, while I went to Shaddly to see Adelan. But first I thought it necessary to apply to Hagi Belal to try what funds we could raise to provide the necessaries for our journey. I shewed him the letter of Ibrahim, the English broker of Jidda, of which before he had received a copy and repeated advices, and told him I should want 200 sequins at least, for my camels and provisions, as well as for some presents that I should have occasion for, to make my way to the great men in Atbara. Never was surprise better counterfeited than by this man. He held up his hands in the utmost astonishment, repeating, 200 sequins! over twenty times, and asked me if I thought money grew upon trees at Sennaar, that it was with the utmost difficulty he could spare me 20 dollars, part of which he must borrow from a friend.
This was a stroke that seemed to insure our destruction no other resource being now left. We were already indebted to Hagi Belal twenty dollars for provision; we had seven mouths to feed daily; and as we had neither meat, money, nor credit, to continue at Sennaar was impossible. We had seen, a few nights before, that no house could protect us there; and to leave Sennaar was, in our situation, as impossible as to stay there. We had neither camels to carry our provisions and baggage, nor skins for our water, nor, indeed, any provisions to carry, nor money to supply us with any of these, nor knew any person that could give us assistance nearer than Cairo, from which we were then distant about 17° of the meridian, or above 1000 miles in a straight line; great part of which was thro' the most barren, unhospitable deserts in the world, destitute of all vegetation, and of every animal that had the breath of life. Hagi Belal was inflexible; he began now to be weary of us, to see us but seldom, and there was great appearance of his soon withdrawing himself entirely.
My servants began to murmur; some of them had known of my gold chain from the beginning, and these, in the common danger, imparted what they knew to the rest. In short, I resolved, though very unwillingly, not to sacrifice my own life and that of my servants, and the finishing my travels now fo far advanced, to childish vanity. I determined therefore to abandon my gold chain, the honourable recompence of a day full of fatigue and danger. Whom to intrust it to was the next consideration; and, upon mature deliberation, I found it could be to nobody but Hagi Belal, bad as I had reason to think, he was. However, to put a check upon him, I sent for the Sid el Coom, in whose presence I repeated my accusation against Belal; I read the Seraff's letter in my favour, and the several letters that Belal had written me whilst I was at Gondar, declaring his acceptance of the order to furnish me with money when I should arrive at Sennaar; and I upbraided him in the strongest terms with duplicity and breach of faith.
But all that I could fay was very far short of the violent expostulation from the Gindi that immediately followed. He gave Hagi Belal many not obscure hints, "that he looked upon this injury as done to himself, and would repay him; that though he had done this to please the king, the time might not be far off when that favour would be of very little use to him; on the contrary, might be a reason for stripping him of all he had in the world." The force of these arguments seemed to strike Hagi Belal's imagination very powerfully. He even offered to advance 50 sequins, and to see if he could raise any more among his friends. The Gindi (a rare instance in that country) offered to lend him fifty. But the dye was now cast, the chain had been produced and seen, and it was become exceedingly dangerous to carry such a quantity of gold in any shape along with me. I therefore consented to sell it to Hagi Belal in presence of the Gindi, and we immediately fet about the purchase of necessaries, with this proviso, that if Adelan, upon my going to Shaddly, did furnish me with camels and necessaries, so much of the chain should he returned.
It was the 5th of September that we were all prepared to leave this capital of Nubia, an inhospitable country from the beginning, and which, every day we continued in it, had engaged us in greater difficulties and dangers. We flattered ourselves, that, once disengaged from this bad step, the greatest part of our sufferings was over; for we apprehended nothing but from men, and, with very great reason, thought we had seen the worst of them.
In the evening I received a message from the king to come directly to the palace. I accordingly obeyed, taking two servants along, with me, and found him sitting in a little, low chamber, very neatly fitted up with chintz, or printed callico curtains, of a very gay and glaring pattern. He was smoaking with a very long Persian pipe through water, was alone, and seemed rather grave than in ill-humour. He gave me his hand to kiss as usual, and, after pausing a moment without speaking, (during which I was standing before him) a slave brought me a little stool and set it down just opposite to him; upon which he said, in a low voice, so that I could scarcely hear him, "Fudda, sit down," pointing to the stool. I sat down accordingly. "You are going, I hear, says he, to Adelan." I answered, "Yes." "Did he send for you?" I said, "No; but, as I wanted to return to Egypt, I expected letters from him in answer to those brought from Cairo." He told me, Ali Bey that wrote these letters was dead; and asked me if I knew Mahomet Abou Dahab? Yagoube. "Perfectly; I was well acquainted with him and the other members of government, all of whom treated me well, and respected my nation." King. "You are not so gay as when you first arrived here." Ya. "I have had no very great reason." Our conversation was now taking a very laconic and serious turn, but he did not seem to understand the meaning of what I said last. K. "Adelan has sent for you by my desire; Wed Abroff and all the Jehaina Arabs have rebelled, and will pay no tribute. They say you have a quantity of powerful fire-arms with you that will kill twenty or thirty men at a shot." Ya. "Say fifty or sixty, if it hits them." K. "He is therefore to employ you with your guns to punish those Arabs, and spoil them of their camels, part of which he will give to you." I presently understood what he meant, and only answered, "I am a stranger here, and desire to hurt no man. My arms are for my own defence against robbery and violence." At this instant the Turk, Hagi Ismael, cried from without the door, in broken Arabic, "Why did not you tell those black Kafirs, you sent to rob and murder us the other night, to stay a little longer, and you would have been better able to judge what our fire-arms I can do, without sending for us either to Abroff or Adelan. By the head of the prophet! let them come in the day time, and I will fight ten of the best you have in Sennaar."
K. "The man is mad, but he brings me to speak of what was in my head when I desired to see you. Adelan has been informed that Mahomet, my servant, who brought you from Teawa, has been guilty of a drunken frolic at the door of his house, and has sent foldiers to take him today, with two or three others of his companions." Ya. "I know nothing about Mahomet, nor do I drink with him, or give him drink. About half a score of people broke into Adelan's house in the night, with a view to rob and murder us, but I was not at the pains to fire at such wretches as these. Two or three servants with sticks were all that were needful. I understand, indeed, that Shekh Adelan is exceedingly displeased that I did not fire at them, and has sent to the Gindi, ordering him to deliver two of them to him to-morrow to be executed publicly before the door of his house on the market-day. But this, you know, is among yourselves. I am very well pleased none of them are dead, as they might have been, by my hands or those of my people." K. "True; but Adelan is not king, and I charge you when you see him to ask for Mahomet's life, or a considerable deal of blame will fall upon you. When you return back, I will send him to conduct you to the frontiers of Egypt." Upon this I bowed, and took my leave. I went home perfectly determined what I was to do. I had now obtained from the king an involuntary safe-guard till I should arrive at Adelan's, that is, I was sure that, in hopes I might procure a reprieve for Mahomet, no trap would be laid for me on the road. I determined therefore to make the best use of my time; and every thing being ready, we loaded the camels, and sent them forward that night to a small village called Soliman, three or four miles from Sennaar; and having settled my accounts with Hagi Belal, I received back six links, the miserable remains of one hundred and eighty-four, of which my noble chain once consisted.
This traitor kept me the few last minutes to write a letter to the English at Jidda, to recommend him for the service he had done me at Sennaar; and this I complied with, that I might inform the broker Ibrahim that I had received no money from his correspondent, and give him a caution never again to trust Hagi Belal in similar circumstances.