Travels in Africa, Egypt, and Syria, from the year 1792 to 1798

by William George Browne

PART II.

EGYPT.

Egypt remained for a considerable time in quiet subjection to the Chalîfs, successors of Mohammed. But their power being on the decline, owing to the insolence of their Turcoman militia, the janizaries of that period, and other causes, this fertile country began to throw off the yoke.

DYNASTY I.

The Tholonides.

In the year of the Hejira 265, A.D. 879, Achmed, son of Tholon or Teilûn, governor of Egypt, usurped the sovereignty from the Chalîf Motamid-b’-illah. This short-lived dynasty expired in Sultan Harôn, grandson of the usurper, about thirty years after.

DYNASTY II.

The Fatimites.

The conquest of Egypt by Abu-Tammîm, Sultan of Africa, has been already mentioned.

975. Abu-Tammîm or Moaz was succeeded by his son Aziz. He carried on several wars in Syria.

996. Hakim, his successor, is only famed for his cruelty.

1021. Daher, fourth Chalîf of Egypt, conquered Aleppo, but was forced to abandon it.

1036. Abu-Tamîm Mostansir. In the reign of this Chalîf most of the Egyptian possessions in Syria were lost.

1094. Mostali. This Chalîf, in 1098, regained Jerusalem from the Turks; next year it was taken by the Franks, under Godefroy de Boulogne.

1101. Amer, a child. The Wizîr Afdhal exercised the sovereignty during his reign of thirty years.

1130. Hafed.

1149. Dafer. In his Chalîfate the Christians took Ascalon.

1155. Fayez.

1160. Aded. The Fatimite race had before this period sunk into such imbecility, that the Wizirs held the whole executive power. Shawûr, the reigning Wizir, having been supplanted by the intrigues of Dargham, passed to Syria, to implore the assistance of Nûr-el-din, Sultan of Damascus[19]. In 1164 his request was complied with. Shirakûk, called Syracon by the Christian writers, and his nephew, the famous Salah-el-dîn, or Saladin, were sent to re-establish Shawûr, who soon finding his associates too powerful, formed an alliance with the Franks. Shirakûk however defeated all his projects; and in 1169 procured an order from the Chalîf Aded for the decapitation of Schawûr, with the robe and firmân of wizîr for himself. He died in the same year, and was succeeded by his nephew Saladin.

1171. Saladin obliges the Franks to evacuate Egypt. An enemy of the Fatimites, from religious schism, he omits the name of Aded, in the public prayers, and substitutes that of the Chalîf of Bagdad. Aded died on the 13th of September 1171; and in him terminated the dynasty of the Fatimites. His successors renounced the title of Chalîf, and assumed only that of Sultans.

DYNASTY III.

The Aiûbite Sultans.

Salah-ed-din, son of Aiûb, a Kurd, usurped the title of Sultan of Egypt in 1174. Not contented with that sovereignty, he extended his views to Syria. In 1177 he is defeated at Ramlé by Rainaud de Chatillon.

1182. More success attended his arms in Syria; and next year he seized Amida in Mesopotamia, and forced Aleppo to a capitulation.

1187. Saladin gains over the Franks his famous victory at Hittîn: the Christian power falls, and Saladin becomes master of Jerusalem on the 2d of October.

1189. The Franks besiege Akka, or Ptolemais, which did not surrender till after it had been invested for two years.

1192. Saladin concludes a truce with Richard king of England. Akka and Yaffa were almost the only places left to the Franks.

Saladin died on the 4th March 1193, aged only fifty-seven, leaving sixteen sons and a daughter.

1193. Malek-el-Azîz, second son of Saladin. He seized Damascus, and left to his brother only Samosata.

1198. Malek-el-Mansûr. His uncle Afdhal, prince of Samosata, was called by the Emîrs to rule the kingdom during the minority, by the title of Atabek.

1200. Adel-Seif-el-dîn, brother of Saladin, usurps the crown.

1209. The Franks penetrate into Egypt, and retire with considerable booty. Nine years afterward they returned, and seized the isle Pharos and Damiatt.

1218. Malek-el-Kâmel, son of Seif-el-dîn. The crusaders abandon Damiatt in 1221.

1228. Malek surrenders, by treaty, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Sidon, to Frederic II. the Emperor of Germany.

1239. Malek Adel deposed by his brother.

1240. Malek Salah. In 1244 he defeated the Franks and Syrians, who were about to penetrate into Egypt.

1249. St. Louis seized Damiatt; and in the same year Malek Salah died.

He had bought from the Tatars a number of Turkish slaves from Kaptchak, to form a guard and marine. These he raised to the highest employments; and they became the famous Mamlûks, who seized the sovereignty of Egypt.

1249. Turân Shah, son of Malek. Next year he captures St. Louis, and his army of 20,000. On the 1st May 1250, Turân Shah is massacred by the Mamlûks, who assign the sceptre to his step-mother, and afterwards to a boy of the Aiubite race, which in him closed its domination over Egypt.

MAMLUKS.

SECT. I.

Baharite Mamlûks.

These were so styled, from having been originally employed as mariners on board the ships of the Sultan of Egypt. They were Turks.

A.D. 1254. Ezz-ed-dîn Moaz Ibegh was the first sovereign of this dynasty. He was assassinated.

1255. Nûr-ed-dîn Ali, son of Sultan Ezz-ed-dîn, followed.

It would be uninteresting to mark the names and short reigns of these princes, most of whom fell by assassination. The chief events alone shall be commemorated.

Bibars I. who reigned from A.D. 1260 to 1277, was an active prince, and seized most of the Christian possessions in Syria.

Kalîl Ascraf, who ascended the throne in 1290, took Ptolemais, and terminated the power of the Christians in Palestine.

During successive reigns many contests took place in Syria, the possession of which was disputed by the Mamlûk Sultans and the Moguls.

Nazr Mohammed, who died in 1341, distinguished himself by the protection which he granted to agriculture and the arts.

In 1348 a pestilence appeared in Egypt, or perhaps originally in Syria, which spread over a great part of Europe.

A.D. 1365. In October, Peter de Lusignan, king of Cyprus, besieged Alexandria; but he was soon constrained to abandon it, for want of provisions[20]. Shabân Ascrâf was then Sultan, and he was the first who ordered the Sherîfs, or descendants of the Prophet, to wear a green turban.

SECT. II.

Borgite Mamlûks.

This race was of Circassian extract, and continued to rule Egypt till the French invasion.

1382. Barkûk-Daher, who had been Atabek in the minority of Hadgi Salah, deposed his pupil, and seized the supreme authority. Timûr invading Syria, Barkûk obtained two victories over the Moguls, and forced them to withdraw.

1399. Faradj, son of Barkûk. Few of these Sultans reigned above a year, till

1442. Bursbai, who reigned sixteen. He sent a fleet against Cyprus, which took Lymissos and Nicosia, and brought John II. and most of his nobility, captives. Syria remained almost a constant appanage to Egypt.

1461. Abu-’l-Fathe Achmed received tribute from Cyprus, and assigned the crown to James, natural son of John III.

Of the succeeding Sultans we find nothing remarkable; and the Mamlûk aristocracy began to render their station more and more precarious.

In 1501 Kansû El-ghûri was raised to the throne.

In 1516, Selim II. emperor of Constantinople, having declared war against him, defeated and slew him near Aleppo, and seized Syria.

Tomân Bey was appointed his successor by the Mamlûks. On the 24th January 1517, he lost, at Rodania near Kahira, a great battle against the Othman troops. After another obstinate conflict, Tomân Bey was again defeated by Selim, taken prisoner, and hanged at one of the gates of Kahira on the 13th April.

Selim was contented with abolishing the monarchy of the Mamlûks, but suffered their aristocracy to retain its former power, on certain conditions; the chief of which were, an annual tribute, obedience in matters of faith to the Mufti of Constantinople, and the insertion of the name of the Othman Emperors in the prayers, and on the coin.

Syria, its usual appanage, being withdrawn, Egypt has rarely intermeddled with foreign affairs, and the Beys have generally been contented with squeezing the people, and enjoying in ease the fruit of their extortions. During the pre-eminence of the Othman power, Egypt appears one of the most quiet and submissive of the provinces: and the travellers of this and the two preceding centuries may supply what few materials arise, concerning its history, or rather its condition. The evening of the Turkish domination was marked by the appearance of that meteor, Ali Bey, who had scarcely dazzled the nations with his wild effulgence before he disappeared.

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CHAP. VIII.

UPPER EGYPT.

Design to penetrate into Habbesh or Abyssinia — Voyage on the Nile — Description of Assiût — General course of the Nile — Islands and villages — Caverns — Kaw — Achmîm — Painted caverns — Girgi — Dendera — Antient Temple — Kous — Topography of Upper Egypt — El-wah-el-Ghurbi — Situation of the Oasis parva.

Ever eager to accomplish my proposed journey into Abyssinia, I was nevertheless not able to set out till Monday 10th of September, and, even then, not with all the advantages that might have been expected. I had indeed employed part of the summer, which was passed in Kahira, in learning the Arabic language; which is a task of difficulty to those who are unable to supply the utter want of books, and method and perspicuity in the teacher. My friends were forward in representing the dangers to be encountered, rather than in furnishing the means of avoiding them. I determined to adopt such a method as an imperfect knowlege of the country suggested as the least exceptionable, and leave the rest to fortune. Judging that I should yet have occasion for an interpreter, I took care to provide a Greek, who, besides his native language, was acquainted with the Turkish, Arabic, and Italian. I had also with me a Mohammedan of the lower class of Kahirines, who, as belongs to that character, was prepared for every office. Thus provided, we commenced our voyage, and on the eighth day reached Assiût.

If we except some few inconveniences from the motley company that fills the boats, it is not easy to conceive a more pleasurable mode of travelling than that by the Nile when it overflows. The great body of water, perfectly calm and unruffled, the banks on each side covered with the rich product of the husbandman’s labour, form a scene in every sense alluring. The passengers are protected by a simple awning of branches from the immediate action of the sun, and the great heat of the tropical latitude is assuaged by a gentle breeze, which generally continues during four or five meridian hours. The mariners chaunt responsive to the motion of their oars; and the vessel offers an apt emblem of finding fortune in her most prosperous career.

I landed near Assiût, and went to an okal in that city to lodge. Here I suffered no kind of inconvenience.—A small room, dry and perfectly quiet, not infested with vermin, answered the purpose of security to property; and in this climate, at such a season, no shelter is required except from the sun’s rays. Assiût is, at this time, by far the most considerable city in the higher Egypt. This character formerly belonged to Girgi, which is in effect still a place of note, but less so than Assiût. The situation is in all respects favourable, and the manner in which the water is conducted round the town is worthy of remark. A canal, dug probably from an early period, parallel to the Nile, in this part of the country laves the foot of the mountains which are near to Assiût, and having surrounded that city, and the villages adjacent, descends again into the river. The water, however, is not admitted into it but at a certain period of its increase, and then it overflows all the surrounding lands, and Assiût only communicates with the Nile, by a road, artificially raised above the common level, which leads down to the point where the boats resort, and are laden and discharged; and by two bridges, the one leading to this road, and the other towards the mountains.

It has become much more populous within a few years by the good government of Solyman Bey, who has also adorned it by planting many trees. Assiût was formerly known to the Arabic writers by the name of hâut-es-Sultân, the king’s fish, or fish-pond, for حوض signifies both. It would be curious to inquire from what circumstance; whether from having been appointed to supply the king’s table with fish, or what other reason? The mountains above Assiût abound with caverns which have probably originally answered the purpose of sepulture, and then, in the Christian age, may have been the resort of persons who sought religious retirement. There are some hieroglyphic inscriptions, but nothing very remarkable, and they have been already described by former travellers, so that it is not necessary to give a detailed account of them here. The principal antiquities between Kahira and Assiût, are at Shech Abade[21], the antient Antinoopolis, and at Ashmunein. In the former are two Corinthian columns, highly adorned, standing diagonally opposed to each other, and having each a Greek inscription. The first words of the one are as follow,

ΑΓΑΘΗ ΤΥΧΗ

ΑΥΤΟΚΡΑΤΟΡΙ ΚΑΙΣΑΡΙ ΜΑΡΚΩ ΑΥΡΗΛΙΩ.

The next word appears to be ΣΕΚΟΥΝΔΩ, but it is obliterated[22].

Having passed about fourteen days in Assiût, waiting for a boat to go forward, which, in this season, when the corn is transported into the magazines, it is rather difficult to find, at length was able to hire one, of a moderate size, and entirely devoted to ourselves. We left Assiût on the 4th of October, and passed the night before a village called Mehâla. It has been built by a certain Osman Bey, within twenty years; and however destitute of any spirit of improvement persons of this description may be thought in Europe, this village is an evidence of some attention thereto; for the four streets of which it consists are at right angles with each other, built in right lines, and four times as wide as what is generally seen in places of the same kind. It is true, the materials are mean, and the number of houses inconsiderable.

The villagers of the Upper Egypt are at little expense for building. Clay and unburned bricks, the chief materials used in fabricating houses, are to be had for the labour of collecting or forming them. The same may be said of the thatch; and the date tree, though perishable, furnishes the timber required. If a carpenter be employed, his time is not occupied in preparing useless ornaments. In the towns however, as Ghenné, Assiût, Girgi, &c. the habitations are constructed of better materials, with much more art, and are some of them sumptuous.

Many considerable islands exist in the course of the Nile, but they are too frequently changing place, in consequence of new depositions of mud, to admit of their being marked with permanent accuracy.

The number of towns and villages which I distinguished on the Eastern side between Kahira and Assuân, amounted to about one hundred and sixty.

On the Western, where the cultivable lands are more extended, two hundred and twenty-eight. Yet they cannot be enumerated very accurately in passing on the stream; for there are many within the limits of the arable land on both sides, but principally on the West, which are not visible from the river, and the names and numbers of which the circumstances then existing did not permit me to learn from those to whom I could have recourse for information.

The more populous of the towns seem to be those which follow:

	East of the Nile.		West of the Nile.
1.	Achmîm.	1.	Benesoef.
2.	Ghenné.	2.	Mînié; city.
3.	Kous.	3.	Melawi.
4.	Assuân.	4.	Monfalût; city.
		5.	Assiût; city.
		6.	Tachta.
		7.	Girgi; city.
		8.	Bardîs.
		9.	Bagjúra.
		10.	Nakade.
		11.	Erment.
		12.	Isna; city.

In the mountain above Assiût are several remarkable caverns, very spacious, and adorned with hieroglyphics and emblematic figures. Some appear to have been sepulchral, as they contain fragments of the jars in which were deposited, not only the Ibis, but cats, dogs, and other animals, whether considered as sacred, or slain to attend their master or mistress in the other world. In one of these caverns, besides the entrance, there are three chambers hewn in the rock, which is free-stone, one sixty feet by thirty, another sixty by twenty-six, a third twenty-six by twenty-five. Farther up the mountain there are caverns yet more spacious than these.

In other parts of the mountain are numerous rough cavities, from which the stone has been extracted for the purposes of building, but they have afterwards been used for various objects; some for sepulture, as appears from the remains of jars curiously stopped with bitumen, others for summer retreats, as they are exposed to the North, and very cool.

Large quantities of fine flax are cultivated in the neighbourhood of Assiût: this article and wheat are transported from Upper to Lower Egypt. Salt and other articles are brought in return. From Mecca by way of Cossîr are imported Indian goods; but the European articles of broad-cloth, tin, &c. are here rarely seen. The Soudân caravans form a chief support of Assiût, which, with respect to them, serves as a midway station. Assiût is regarded as the capital of Middle Egypt; and in population exceeds all the towns to the South of Kahira. I should not be inclined to estimate the inhabitants at less than twenty-five thousand. The Senjiak, or Bey of Saïd, divides the year of his office between Assiût and Girgi; the internal government consists of the Cadi, assisted by other civil officers; and five Cashefs, mostly appointed by Soliman Bey, constantly reside there. It is the seat of a Coptic bishop, but the Copts are not very numerous, the people being chiefly Mohammedans.

So severely is female chastity guarded in this country, that instant death follows its violation. If tenderness of disposition should prevent the father, brother, husband from inflicting this punishment, he is shunned by all his acquaintance, and becomes a stranger to society.

Provisions are considerably cheaper at Assiût than in Kahira.

Lentilles form a considerable article of food to the inhabitants of the Upper Egypt, who rarely enjoy the luxury of rice. The lentilles are so prepared as to be very palatable.

In Dar-Fûr are no lentilles.

The Egyptian onions are remarkably mild, more so than the Spanish, but not so large. They are of the purest white, and the lamina are of a softer and looser contexture than those of any other species. They deteriorate by transplantation; so that much must depend on the soil and climate. They remain a favourite article of food with all classes; and it is usual to put a layer or two of them, and of meat, on a spit or skewer, and thus roast them over a charcoal fire. The desire of the Israelites for the onions of Egypt is not to be wondered at.

About four hours from Assiût we had passed Monfalût, a city which I afterwards returned to view at more leisure. Monfalût is of considerable extent and population. Between it and Assiût stands Ben-Ali, a populous town. Those three places constitute, with Girgi, the chief marts of the trade of Upper Egypt.

October 4th, 1792. Continued our navigation up the Nile.

6th. Passed Kaw or Gaw-es-Sherkî, the Antæopolis of antiquity, where remains part of a curious temple, consisting of several columns, built of large stones, as usual in Egyptian remains, and covered with emblematical figures, interspersed with hieroglyphics. Some of the stones in the temple are from eighteen to twenty feet in length. At How on the West, supposed the ancient Diospolis, observed no ruins.

8th. Came to Achmîm, the antient Chemmis or Panopolis, on the East side of the Nile, now a pleasant village or small town. Heliodorus, in his celebrated romance, often mentions Chemmis, and speaks of a dispute between its people and those of Bessa or Antinoe. Many cities intervened between Bessa and Chemmis, the latter of which he seems to place not far from a lake near the Heracleotic mouth of the Nile. The whole geography of that ingenious prelate forms one puzzle, though he was a native of the neighbouring country of Syria.

At Achmîm some fragments of columns still remain, and in the adjacent mountain are caverns resembling those at Assiût. The hieroglyphics have been painted in distemperature, as usual with all those executed on the smooth surface of free-stone. A mummy had been recently taken out of the principal room, as appeared from the remains of prepared cloth, and human bones. The ceilings of the chambers have been plaistered and coloured. Perhaps the antient Egyptians had a custom, not unknown to other Oriental nations, of annual visits to the dead[23]; and these chambers might be constructed for the reception of the relations on those occasions.

The neighbourhood of Achmîm abounds with sycamores.

This kind of sycamore, it is well known, bears a small dry fig, of a yellowish colour, adhering to the trunk of the tree. Many gardens are also seen, in which grow date and other trees.

11th October, arrived at Girgi, formerly the capital of Upper Egypt, now declining. There is a large market-place, with shops in abundance. At Menshié, antient Ptolemais, and at Girgi, observed several large pieces of granite, seemingly antique mill-stones. They are about six feet in diameter, and nearly three feet thick, with a perforation of one foot square in the centre, from which waving radii, about an inch deep, pass to the circumference.

The Senjiak, or Emîr-es-Saïd, passes half the year at Girgi, as already mentioned. His office is esteemed the third in importance, and is now filled by Soliman Bey, an honest and respectable character.

15th October. Passed onward to Farshiût, a populous town, with many Christian inhabitants.

17th. Arrived at Dendera, the antient Tentyra. Saw the noted temple, the most perfect remain of Egyptian architecture. It is in the form of an oblong square, 200 feet by 150—Pococke says 145; is now almost buried in the sand. Ascending some steps in the middle of the wall, you come to a dark gallery, passing through all the sides. Many of the columns are standing. The inside of the pronaos and of the gallery is covered with painted hieroglyphics in all their original freshness. A Cashef, imagining treasures were concealed, was employed in the laudable work of blowing up part of the walls!

The same night, about twelve, reached Ghenné, the antient Cœne, or Cœnopolis. The navigation on the Nile is particularly delightful in the stillness of the night, diversified by the bright reflection of the moon on the water, or the clear sparkling of innumerable stars; among which the brilliant Canopus, unseen in European climates, is observable, except when some mountain conceals that part of the hemisphere.

19th. Came opposite to Coptis, now Kepht. The rubbish may fill a circumference of two miles, evincing its antient extent. Several small columns of grey granite lie on the ground, and some large stones, engraved with hieroglyphics. The distance from the Nile to Coptis is much smaller than has been supposed by European geographers.

A small part of a bridge remains near Kepht or Coptis, sufficient to determine that there once was one, but it is impossible to say of what æra. There is nothing grand in the structure, which consists of small stones.

20th. Stopped at Kous, the Apollinopolis parva. Observed at a small distance on the North-east an antient gate, adorned with figures, and a deep cornice. Kous is a populous town, about a mile on the East of the Nile.

21st October 1792. Passed the night at Nakadé, where is a Catholic convent. On the following day came to Aksôr, the antient Thebes.

A brief general retrospect of the topography of Upper Egypt may here be given. The towns and cultivation are wholly confined to the banks of the Nile, but especially on the East. Mountains continue to present a regular barrier behind on both sides. Beyond this natural wall, on the West, is a vast sandy desert, traversed at times by the Muggrebîn Arabs; here and there, at the distance of about a hundred miles or more from the Nile, are Oases or fertile isles, in the ocean of sand. On the East, between the river and the Arabian gulf, are vast ranges of mountains, abounding with marble and porphyry, but generally destitute of water, so that no town or village can be built. Among these ranges, however, some tribes of Bedouin Arabs, as the Ababdi and Beni Hossein, contrive to find some fertile spots and diminutive springs, so as to furnish residences for about three or four thousand inhabitants. Even the shores of the Red Sea, corresponding with Egypt, contain but a small number of tribes; and the Arabs on the East in general are little formidable. The Muggrebîns are more ferocious, and might send forth thirty thousand men capable of bearing arms, could they ever be united, a thing almost impossible, their parties seldom exceeding four or five hundred, and the tribes being divided by intestine enmities. The Lesser Oasis, now El-wah el-Ghurbi, forms a kind of capital settlement, if I may so speak, of the Muggrebîn Arabs, who extend even to Fezzân and Tripoli. They are dressed in a linen or cotton shirt, over which is wrapped a blanket of fine flannel; all have fire-arms and are good marksmen, and their musquets are their constant companions. Their chief employment lies in breeding horses[24], camels, and sheep. They are very hardy and abstemious, a small cake of bread and leathern bottle of water supplying a man with ample provision for a day.

It is said that several ruins are to be found at El-wah-el-Ghurbi. Of the Oasis Magna, now El-wah, I shall speak at large in treating of my journey to Dar-Fûr; but must observe that the distance between this Oasis and that styled Parva is erroneously laid down in the most recent maps. I was informed by the Muggrebîns at El-wah, that Charjé, the most northern village of that district, was but two days journey from the nearest part of El-wah-el-Ghurbi; that is, about forty miles. Oasis Magna seems rightly to correspond with the latitude of Dendera, and of course that of the southern extremity of Oasis Parva should be a little to the South of that of Assiût, and not far North of Tinodes Mons, in D’Anville’s map; apparently the chain on the East of both the Oases, or الواحات. On the West I observed no mountains, nor on the South. The most northern Oasis known near Egypt is that of Siwa, already described.

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CHAP. IX.

UPPER EGYPT.

Thebes — Site and antiquities — Painted caverns — Their discovery and plan — Manners of the people at Thebes — Isna — Fugitive Beys — Antiquities — Rain — Assûan or Syene — Obstacles to farther progress — Return to Ghenné.

I found the inhabitants of the Thebaic district had been recently in open rebellion against the Mamlûks, but they were now somewhat more quiet. The Troglodytes of the caverns remained tumultuous, and sometimes opposed the troops of the Bey, by firing from their recesses; at other times they would retreat to the mountains, and leave all pursuit behind.

The massy and magnificent forms of the ruins that remain of antient Thebes, the capital of Egypt, the city of Jove, the city with a hundred gates, must inspire every intelligent spectator with awe and admiration. Diffused on both sides of the Nile, their extent confirms the classical observations, and Homer’s animated description rushes into the memory:

“Egyptian Thebes, in whose palaces vast wealth is stored; from each of whose hundred gates issue two hundred warriors, with their horses and chariots.”

These venerable ruins, probably the most antient in the world, extend for about three leagues in length along the Nile. East and West they reach to the mountains, a breadth of about two leagues and a half. The river is here about three hundred yards broad. The circumference of the antient city must therefore have been about twenty-seven miles.

In sailing up the Nile, the first village you come to within the precincts is Kourna, on the West, where there are few houses, the people living mostly in the caverns. Next is Abuhadjadj, a village, and Karnak, a small district, both on the East. Far the largest portion of the city stood on the Eastern side of the river. On the South-west Medinet-Abu marks the extremity of the ruins; for Arment, which is about two leagues to the South, cannot be considered as a part.

Modern authors have styled the site of Thebes Luxor, a name which is not in my journal taken on the spot, nor does my memory retain a trace of such an appellation, not to mention that the word is not Arabic. Some write Aksor, which convinces me that both are corruptions of El Kussûr, the real term, which is still applied to the ruins by the Arabs. Norden is very imperfect in his Arabic names, as well as his topography.

In describing the ruins, we shall begin with the most considerable, which are on the East of the Nile. The chief is the Great Temple, an oblong square building of vast extent, with a double colonnade, one at each extremity. The massy columns and walls are covered with hieroglyphics, a labour truly stupendous. 1. The Great Temple stands in the district called Karnac.

2. Next in importance is the temple at Abu-Hadjadj.

3. Numerous ruins, avenues marked with remains of Sphinxes, &c. On the West side of the Nile appear,

1. Two colossal figures, apparently of a man and woman, formed of a calcareous stone like the rest of the ruins.

2. Remains of a large temple, with caverns excavated in the rock.

3. The magnificent edifice styled the palace of Memnon. Some of the columns are about forty feet high, and about nine and a half in diameter. The columns and walls are covered with hieroglyphics. This stands at Kourna.

4. Behind the palace is the passage styled Bibân-el-Molûk, leading up the mountain. At the extremity of this passage, in the sides of the rock, are the celebrated caverns known as the sepulchres of the antient kings.

Several of these sepulchres have been described by Pococke with sufficient minuteness; he has even given plans of them. But in conversation with persons at Assiût and in other parts of Egypt, I was always informed that they had not been discovered till within the last thirty years, when a son of Shech Hamâm, a very powerful chief of the Arabs, who governed all the South of Egypt from Achmîm to Nubia, caused four of them to be opened, in expectation of finding treasure.

They had probably been rifled in very antient times; but how the memory of them should have been lost remains to be explained. One of those which I visited exactly answers Dr. Pococke’s description; but the other three appear materially different from any of his plans. It is therefore possible that some of those which he saw have been gradually closed up by the sand, and that the son of Hamâm had discovered others.

They are cut into the free-stone rock, in appearance upon one general plan, though differing in parts. First, a passage of some length; then a chamber; a continuation of the first passage turns abruptly to the right, where is the large sepulchral chamber, with a sarcophagus of red granite in the midst.

In the second part of the passage of the largest are several cells or recesses on both sides. In these appear the chief paintings, representing the mysteries, which, as well as the hieroglyphics covering all the walls, are very fresh. I particularly observed the two harpers described by Bruce; but his engraved figures seem to be from memory. The French merchants at Kahira informed me that he brought with him two Italian artists; one was Luigi Balugani, a Bolognese, the other Zucci, a Florentine.

On landing with my Greek servant at Kourna, no male inhabitants appeared, but two or three women were standing at the entrance of one of their dens. As we passed in quest of the Shech-el-belad, to request a guide, one of the women said in Arabic, “Are not you afraid of crocodiles?” I replied in the negative. She said emphatically, “We are crocodiles;” and proceeded to depict her own people as thieves and murderers. They are indeed a ferocious clan, differing in person from other Egyptians. Spears twelve or fourteen feet in length are sudden and deadly weapons in their hands. At Kahira, Mohammed Bey Elfi had told me I should here need a guard of twenty men, but I found two guides assigned me by the Shech-el-belad sufficient.

In the temple at Medinet Abu we observed a large quantity of blood, and were told by the peasants of Beirât that the Kournese had there murdered a Muggrebîn and a Greek, travellers passing from Assuân to Kahira, who had strayed thither from mere curiosity, or perhaps with a view of finding treasure, in which the Muggrebîns pretend to superior skill.

At the village called Beirât is a native spring; and some others, I was told, are found in the neighbourhood, the water of which is different from that of the Nile, yet sweet.

Walled towns, it has been observed by Pococke, were not common in Egypt, and therefore, he adds, it is probable that Thebes was never surrounded by a wall.—That the passage in Homer refers not to the gates of the city, must readily be admitted. But it appears to me likely that Thebes was walled, from some feint remains, which are even to this day visible. In the precincts of the vast temple at Aksor, or El-Kussûr, is discoverable a small chamber, lined either with red granite or with porphyry, on ascending to the roof of which from without, and directing the eye to the Southward in a straight line, as far as it can reach, an insulated mass is seen, which has the appearance of having been a gate. With a telescope, from the same spot, are visible other still more imperfect remains, under the same circumstances, in the directions West and North. From their situation, precisely opposed to each other, and at the three cardinal points, at so great a distance, rather than from any stronger circumstance, I was inclined to believe that these may have been three gates.—That to the West is very near the mountains on that side.

After passing three days in and about antient Thebes, we advanced on the 26th Oct. 1792 on our voyage up the Nile.

27th Oct. Came to Isna, a large town, the residence of the fugitive Beys. Here is also found a temple of the same kind as those of Thebes, inferior in size, but tolerably well preserved.

The Beys now resident here, are, Hassan el Giddawi, Achmet el Uali, Osman Bey Hassan, and another, whose name I did not learn. They are very poor and dejected, in consequence of their long exclusion from the government. Hassan Bey has about thirty Mamlûks with him; the rest only eight or ten each. Their whole revenues are drawn from the country near Isna and Assuân, which is but unproductive. Passed one night at Isna, and thence proceeded towards Edfû.

The people here have a superstition concerning crocodiles similar to that entertained in the West Indies; they say there is a king of them, who resides near Isna, and who has ears, but no tail; and he possesses an uncommon regal quality, that of doing no harm (“the king can do no wrong”). Some are bold enough to assert that they have seen him.

28th Oct. Near a village called Hillal, observed reliques of an antient town; part of two small Egyptian temples, and a statue of less than the human size, in a kneeling posture, but broken off above the knees; the feet and legs remaining entire. The place has been surrounded by a thick wall of unburned brick, but of what date it is now impossible to determine.

The following day, a little shower fell in the morning; the only instance I met with of rain in Upper Egypt. Arrived at Edfû, and inspected a gate or portico, and a small Egyptian temple adjoining.

30th. Passed by Gebel-el-Silsili, the chained mountain, where, in antient times, a chain was passed across the Nile. Here are some sculptures in the rock, which is of hard free-stone, not of granite, as Norden mentions by mistake.

Same day sailed by Kûm-Ombû, literally the heap or ruins of Ombos. Saw there the temple described by the traveller just mentioned.

On the following day arrived at Assuân, the antient Syene. The remains of antiquity are here few, and some seem rather of Roman than Egyptian fabric. Even the modern town is almost in ruins, and contains very few houses and inhabitants; it is chiefly supported by a small duty upon dates, passing from Ibrîm to Kahira. Near Assûan may be still seen the tombs of the Mamlûks who fled from Selim on his invasion of Egypt. They are now very ruinous.

Some remains of antiquity are yet visible in the isle opposite Syene, antiently called Elephantine[25]. The Arabs use one as an inclosure for cattle. A statue of granite also appears, holding a lituus in each hand. It is remarkable that many of the present inhabitants of this island have the negro countenance, hair, and person.

About three hours walk from Assûan is the cataract, in Ar. Shelal, more properly rapides, being merely an easy descent of the river among numerous isles and rocks of granite, which obstruct the current. Far from deafening the spectator, the noise is hardly audible.

Near the cataract I observed some black rocks; but whether of basaltes, or any other substance, the distance prevented me from distinguishing. It is well known that many of the antient statues and engraved stones found in Egypt are of that material, but it is believed to have been drawn from Abyssinia. I observed no quarries of basaltes either in Egypt or the other parts of Africa which I visited.

At Assûan I remained three days, contriving, if possible, to pursue my route up the Nile. But a war having arisen between the Mamlûks of Upper Egypt and the Cashef of Ibrîm, no one was suffered to pass from Egypt to Nubia. The caravans had all been stopped for many months, and not even a camel could be procured. At Kahira I could attain no previous knowlege of this war having originated with the fugitive Beys.

With deep regret for the disappointment in my earnest wish of proceeding to Abyssinia by this route, I was constrained to abandon all hope for that season, and to think of returning.

Left Assûan the 4th of November 1792, and proceeding rapidly down the Nile, arrived at Ghenné on the 7th.

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CHAP. X.

JOURNEY TO COSSÎR ON THE RED SEA.

Inducements and danger — Route — Account of Cossîr — Commerce — Return by another route — Granite rocks and antient road — Marble quarries — Pretended canal — Earthen ware of Ghenné — Murder of two Greeks, and subsequent report of the writer’s death.

Arriving on my return at Ghenné (غنه), I could not resist the impulse of curiosity excited by the late descriptions of curious marbles, &c. which had been found in that route. It was not difficult to find the means of passing, though the Bedouins then infested the road; but I determined to take nothing that could be of importance to lose, not intending to stay long at Cossîr. For which indeed there was another motive—An English vessel, commanded, as was said, by a Captain Mitchell, having three or four years before moored there, a quarrel had arisen between them and the natives about a supply of water, which is a commodity furnished at Cossîr not without extreme difficulty. From a violent contention blows ensued, and the Captain thought himself justified in firing on the town: in consequence several individuals were killed, it is said there that they amounted to fourteen, and much damage done. The natives were exceedingly exasperated, and swore to sacrifice the first Englishman that should fall into their hands. I however conceived it possible to pass undiscovered; and so in fact it happened. Having agreed with an Arab for two dromedaries and a man, also mounted on a dromedary, for all which I was to pay fifteen mahbûbs, I left Ghenné at one in the morning of 8th November 1792, and travelling diligently, arrived at Cossîr on the 11th before sun-rise. We took the most northern route, which is not that apparently which Bruce travelled, (and which seems to be the longest by two or three hours,) as being the least frequented by robbers. Our course on the first day occupied twelve hours, the second fifteen, and the third thirteen hours; in all about forty hours. The principal inhabitants of Cossîr came successively to compliment us on our arrival. They all scanned me with an eye of suspicion, and the more so as I could not yet speak the Arabic fluently. But none so much as an old Sherîf, a considerable man in the place, who having travelled to Mecca, Constantinople, Bakdad, and other parts of the Turkish empire, had become acquainted with the various orders of men, and acquired an intuitive discrimination of character which very few in that country possess. After the common salutations had passed, “Are you not a Frank?” said he.—“No,” replied I.—“But of Frank origin?”—“No,” said I, “I am a Georgian by birth, but have passed so short a time in Constantinople, that I believe I cannot speak Turkish much better than I do Arabic;” (for I knew he spoke a little, and was beginning to address me in that language.) My servant then joined the conversation, and I escaped discovery. The dress, and apparently the language of the people of Cossîr, approach more to those of the Eastern shore of the Arabian gulph, than to those of the Egyptians. They are armed with the Jembîa, a crooked knife, often not less than a yard long, and commonly a lance. Indeed they altogether appear rather settlers from the opposite shore than native Egyptians. The commerce in coffee here is not inconsiderable. Formerly all Upper Egypt was supplied with coffee by way of Suez and Kahira, but the Beys having laid a very heavy duty on that commodity, the inhabitants began to import from Cossîr for themselves, whence they are now supplied with the best coffee, and at a cheaper rate than from Suez. The town is provided with excellent fish, and pepper and other spices are brought there free of duty. Some Abyssinian slaves, transported from Jidda, are landed there and carried to Kahira, but in very small number. While I was there, a beautiful girl, of about fifteen, was sold for an hundred mahbûbs, or about 30l. sterling. There is no plenty of provisions at Cossîr, there being no cultivable land near the town. Even the butter they use there is brought from Arabia. The only good water they have is supplied by the Bedouins from Terfowi, which is at the distance of three hours. If any quarrel ensue with them about the price, the town is compelled to use brackish water. We paid twenty-five medines for the ghirbé of fresh water. I observed but two vessels lying in the road, and these were lately arrived from Jidda. The houses in Cossîr are built of clay, and the number of inhabitants settled there is very small, though the strangers, who are continually passing and repassing, augment them prodigiously. I could observe no remain of antiquity within the limits of Cossîr, and it was not then possible to stray to a distance from it. Finding the resentment of the people as strong as ever against the Franks, in consequence of what had happened between them and the English vessel in 1786, I thought it most advisable to hasten my departure, though otherwise inclined to have made some excursions by sea, as to the emerald mine, maadden ezzummerud, &c.

13th Nov. at 7½ hours A.M. we left Cossîr, and proceeding by the strait road, apparently that which Bruce travelled, on the 15th, about five P.M. arrived at the village called Bîr-Ambar, having met a caravan coming from Ghenné the second day on the road. The morning of the 16th at sun-rise we proceeded to Ghenné, which is distant about three hours, having slept at Bîr-Ambar in the house of a villager, who was very civil and hospitable. There was an officer at Cossîr, who belonged to the Cashef of Kenné, but he seemed to have very little authority with the people, being there only to collect the customs.

The road we travelled in going to Cossîr, as well as that we took in returning, have both something in them very remarkable. The rough and lofty rocks of granite and porphyry with which it is on all sides environed have a magnificent and terrific appearance; and the road between them, which is almost level throughout, gives the idea of immense labour in cutting it. All these circumstances concur in testifying the importance Cossîr must once have had as a port. In the route we took in going, at certain distances on the highest rocks is observable a succession of small structures, formed with uncemented stones, and which, by the marks of fire within them, seem to have served as signals. These are numerous, but they are too rude to enable one to fix any time for their erection. They appear to me to be pretty antient. The red granite is in vast quantities, and the chain of rocks consisting of that substance appears to extend itself in a North and South direction. Huge rocks of porphyry, both red and green, are distinguishable, and, as appears, more of it in the road we pursued in going, than in that by which we returned. I observed veins of alabaster in both, but particularly in returning. The verde antico it was long before I could discover; at length I found it, in returning, by the signs Bruce had described. In short, this route unfolds a treasure of marbles that astonishes the beholder, and demonstrates, that on any future occasion the quarries may be again wrought, and modern architecture equal that of the best ages of Greece or Rome as to richness and durability of ornament, if ever it shall in justness of proportion, simplicity of taste, or unity of parts in one sublime whole, which indeed seems sufficiently problematical.

The immense excavations in these rocks, which greatly contribute in many places to facilitate the road, are abundantly sufficient to supply any quantity of these marbles that is any where known to exist. And it was more convenient to bring them thence, than from any other part of Egypt, to the Southward, or by a long land carriage from Arabia Petræa and the neighbourhood of Mount Sinai: yet, as the stones were to be carried some way by land, perhaps a day’s journey at least, it was necessary to have a road more level and easy, than could have been required for the passage of less ponderous and cumbrous materials. Whether observation of the fact, without reflecting enough on the probable cause, might have given rise to the report respecting a canal communicating in this quarter between the Nile and the Arabian gulf, or whether it was the effect of misunderstanding the antient writers on the subject, is unimportant; such an idea has prevailed, and it is countenanced by some intelligent authors. In frequenting the places, and not wholly unimpressed by this thought, I have never yet been able to persuade myself that such a canal had existed, or could have been formed. There are no marks, in either of the roads I passed, of water having ever flowed there, and the level of the road, after leaving the river, is much higher than that of the river itself. But the level of the river is certainly not lower than in former ages, and the water, if ever it flowed there, must have flowed from the Nile to the sea, and not from the sea to the Nile.—The conclusion is obvious.

The coloquintida, cœlocynth, abounds near Bîrambar, and between it and Ghenné. The natives scarcely think it worth gathering, so low is the price in Kahira. At Ghenné is a manufactory of the best bardaks, kullé, earthen bottles, and jugs for water. They are made of a fine blue or bluish white clay; very thin and light, not too much baked, of a pretty shape and convenient size. Something of the same kind is made in other places, but none so much esteemed as those of Ghenné. The fabric is in few hands, but great numbers are made. They sell for double the price at Kahira which they fetch here. Large jars are also constructed, which are called hamâm, or bath. These too are very elegantly formed, and both by filtration purify and cool the water, in a greater degree than might be imagined. The people of the country however drink the water that remains within, not that which has passed through the jar or bottle.

On going to Cossîr, I had sent my baggage forward to Assiût. Nothing remained therefore but to find a small boat, on my return to Ghenné, in which to be conveyed to Assiût. This offered itself on the second day, and two Derwîshes were my companions in that journey, one of them a very intelligent man. We stopped at all the principal towns, but without any new occurrence, and reached Assiût on the 21st.

I remained in that city till the 30th, when we set sail for Kahira, or rather trusted ourselves to the current, the wind blowing constantly from North-west. I stopped a night at Benesoef, intending to have passed thence to Feiume: but finding it not easy to meet with a conveyance, declined that journey, and arrived in Kahira on the 8th of December.

The wind, which was high during our excursion to Cossîr, and afterwards on the Nile, contained such penetrating cold, that, on coming to Assiût, I found myself affected strongly with a fever. A large dose of James’s powder however removed it.

A short time before my arrival at Ghenné, two Greeks, who were going to seek their fortune, as they reported, in Habbesh, came to Kous. The one had a small supply of money, of which the other was destitute—Words arose between them, and some good friend advised them to have recourse to the Cashef of the place to settle their difference. This officer, who was a young man, and noted for the violence of his character, heard their respective narratives, and then, finding that money was the cause of their disagreement, terminated the hopes of the one, and the fears of the other, by an order for the instant death of both.

The report, in reaching Kahira, was charged with various circumstances of aggravation, and even the persons of the sufferers were changed. It was there said, that the Frank who was in Saïd was one of the two massacred, and the Cashef’s master was among the number of those who had been deceived. Keid Aga, in whose department Kous was situated, sent word of this event, accompanied with a suitable comment, and, as was said, an offer of any reasonable reparation, to the Austrian Consul, the only one resident in Kahira. The latter had forwarded it to the British Consul at Alexandria, when I arrived at Kahira in time personally to contradict it. The death of the two Greeks, it was said, remained unnoticed.

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CHAP. XI.

OCCURRENCES AT KAHIRA.

Arrival of the Pasha — Death of Hassan Bey — Decline of the French factory in Kahira — Expulsion of the Maronite Christians from the Custom-house — Riot among the Galiongîs — Obstruction of the canal of Menûf — Supply of fish in the pools of Kahira — Expedition of Achmet Aga, &c.

On the 13th October 1796, the newly-appointed Pasha made his entrance into the city, in a manner more public than has been usual for some years. His name is Bekîr: he is a Pasha of three tôk or tails, and was formerly Grand Wizîr. The procession consisted of, first, the great officers of the city, and among them the Janizary aga, then some bostangîs, two and two. Several of the Beys, superbly mounted, two and two, preceded and followed by a body of Mamlûks. Twelve fine led horses, richly caparisoned. The band of music belonging to the Pasha. The tails, the officers and servants of his house-hold; and lastly, the Pasha himself.

Neither Ibrahim nor Murad Bey was present. They both afterwards made their visit of ceremony, when, as usual, nothing remarkable passed. After a convenient interval, Bekîr Pasha sent to the Shech-el-Belad and Defterdâr, desiring them to meet him to consider of providing the usual Chasné for Constantinople, which he said for some time had been greatly in arrear. The former replied, that all which related to the public revenue was under the management of his brother Murad; and that he (Ibrahim) only concerned himself with the city, and its internal government. The latter gave for answer, that he had long since turned his attention from public affairs to his personal ease and security; that he was now poor, and become a farmer, cultivating wheat and beans. He contented himself with referring the Pasha to the younger Beys, who, he said, shared between them all the public authority. The next message was directed to Mohammed Bey Elfi, Ibrahim Bey el Sogheir, and other of the younger Senjiaks. They replied, that if the Pasha sought for money, all their treasures were buried in Kara-meidân[26], and he had nothing more to do than to meet them there, to become possessed of a part of them.

The Mamlûks commonly exercise on Monday and Friday in each week, at a place called Mustabé, between Kahira and Misr-el-attiké. Here they shoot at a mark, and throw the jerîd. The Beys are often spectators, and sometimes actors. It was on one of these occasions that Hassan Bey, who had been formerly a slave of Ibrahim Shech-el-Belad, and in whom the latter placed much confidence, being present, a mamlûk of his train, having attempted to discharge his fusil, which missed fire, threw it on his shoulder, and rode off, to make way for others. In passing the Bey, the powder, which was damp, having taken fire, the piece went off, and lodged the contents in the breast of the Bey. He fell, and immediately expired. The slave fled, but it was not supposed any notice would be taken of what was merely accidental, however unfortunate. To fill up the number, Murzûk, son of Ibrahim Bey, was promoted by his father’s interest.

Even as far back as the period of my arrival in Egypt, the French nation complained loudly of the treatment it received from the Beys. Forty or fifty days scarcely elapsed without some new demand for money, which it was understood was never likely to be repaid. Add to this, their commerce was daily decreasing, and no fixed tarif had they been able to establish with the farmer of the customs, for the reception of their goods.

When the war commenced, a consul was newly arrived at Alexandria, and he came to Kahira; but it was to little purpose that he fixed himself there for the protection of trade, when the thoughts of the French government were engrossed by other objects, and they could neither support nor supply their factories.

Affairs continued nearly in the same state till this time, Nov. 1796, when the Consul, Magallon, has obtained leave from his government to quit Kahira, and to reside entirely at Alexandria, which is obviously a place of greater security, and more prompt escape, if they have any shipping in the port. The merchants must indeed divide their profits with their agents in Kahira, but in all other respects have ameliorated their condition. At this time there remain only three French commercial houses in Kahira, and a physician. The remainder of the nation is at Alexandria, to the amount perhaps of ten or twelve families.

Nov. 1796. A change has lately taken place in the custom-house here, and at Alexandria and Damiatt, with which the Christians are much displeased. The duties for many years had been farmed to Jews, whose gains and sufferings were both in the extreme. During the last twenty years they have been in the hands of Damascene or other Syrian Christians, whose numbers and wealth have in that period increased. Their mutual jealousies and incessant quarrels were of great benefit to the ruling Beys, who took care to fleece each party alternately, and teach them a wisdom by dear-bought experience, which, however, they were not always able to learn.

Their most solemn asseverations would have led any person uninformed on the subject to imagine, that their whole nation was continually a loser by its bargain with the Beys. But their gains were in reality so vast, that certain secrets, developed by their infidelity to each other, led Murad Bey, in whose jurisdiction the customs were, to imagine that the having the collection of them in his own hands would be a material addition to his revenue. For once his determination accorded with the public good: the plurality of the Kahirine merchants being better contented with the new mode than the old one. The Christians were removed, and spared the sufferings of which they had long so loudly complained. But how vain are human wishes! This novel regulation was scarcely put in force, and the collection of the import and export duties thrown into the hands of Mohammedans, who were immediately responsible for the receipts of their office to the Bey, than the Syrian Christians came forward with very lucrative proposals, if they might be allowed to hope, that the right of farming the customs would be a second time transferred to them. Murad, whose intellect is clear, though constitution, past sufferings, and indifference as to the future, have rendered him absolutely sensual, whose profuseness had left him no option as to the means of gain, but who had yet spirit to scorn the baseness of these parasites, on the offer of some conditional presents of great value, contumeliously dismissed the deputation from his presence. The customs therefore continued in the hands of Mohammedans, and the Christians were reduced to despair.

The Christian merchants of Syria, established here, make such a prodigal and ostentatious display of wealth, that it lessens our wonder at the extortions of the Beys. At one of their weddings, five hundred chickens were served up every day, and other articles in proportion. This fête lasted ten successive days. The presents to the singers were said to have amounted to fourteen hundred mahbûbs.

A riot happened between the Galiongîs, or sailors, (mostly Christians,) belonging to Murad Bey, and the Mamlûks. Murad had dismissed a naval officer, beloved by the Galiongîs, and their discontent joined with the constant jealousy of the Mamlûks to create a disturbance, in which about seventy lives were lost, and the city was shut up for several days.

Nov. 1796. The waters of the Nile having almost abandoned the Eastern branch, which leads to Damiatt, pursuing the more direct course of the canal of Menûf, after a neglect of many years, it became necessary to apply a remedy. Accordingly, Murad Bey commanded his engineer, Achmed, to undertake this duty. After encountering some difficulties, the purpose was at length effected by driving piles, and the river resumed its former course.

A circumstance is related concerning the propagation of fish in Kahira. As soon as the Nile begins to fill the several pools, birkets, in the neighbourhood, the fishermen go to the river, and collecting several sorts of spawn, distribute it into the pools, where in the space of three or four days, it produces fish in abundance.

Nov. 1796. Achmet Aga, a Zanthiote, who has been already mentioned, about this time left Kahira on his way to Dar-Fûr, by the return of the caravan with which I came. The Sultan Abd-el-rachmân, desirous of gaining a name among the neighbouring princes, but injudicious and governed by caprice in the choice of the means, and stung with the rage of conquest, though regardless of the means of security, sought for some person to exhibit to him the European invention of artillery; and though he had not yet been witness to its effects, conceived that the possession of some of the gold mines under Sennaar would soon be realized on his obtaining these powerful engines. He wrote to the Beys to request they would send him some one from among their servants, who might make him master of this important discovery. He also sought for a medical practitioner.

The person abovementioned had embraced Islamism, and possessed some ingenuity in mechanical operations, particularly the construction of artillery. He was not extremely at ease in Kahira; and Murad Bey, unable to improve his situation from the multitude of prior claimants, consented to his request for permission to depart. He gave him strong recommendations to the monarch, and a horse, camels, and other requisites for the journey. Achmed commenced his route with eclat, having with him fifty or sixty artificers, who had enterprize enough to encounter the difficulties of so long a passage, or who thought no change could render their situation worse. He had also four pieces of brass cannon, six pounders.

Thus an opening seemed offered to furnish the people of Soudân with one more, at least, of the equivocal blessings of civilized society.—What may have been the termination of Achmet’s voyage I have not heard; but his perseverance was scarcely equal to the undertaking, and it seems likely, that when his golden hopes should have vanished, he would return to Egypt in despondency, or perish in Dar-Fûr.

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CHAP. XII.

ANTIENT EGYPTIANS.

Their persons, complexion, &c.

In the history of nations, some facts may gradually become obscure, by having appeared to the historiographer of the time, and even to those of some ages after, too notorious to require being particularly recorded. Amid the various information respecting the manners of the Athenians and Romans to be drawn from their respective historians, poets, and orators, we are not furnished with the means of ascertaining the appropriate enunciation of their own languages. A few casual hints, from Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Cicero, afford all the light that antiquarian labour has been able to throw on this subject.

The colour of the antient Egyptians has of late become a matter of doubtful investigation from the same causes; but is in its nature more interesting, and therefore merits a short discussion. By one of the most recent and intelligent travellers in that country, a conjecture, apparently novel, has been offered to the public, viz. that the original inhabitants of Egypt were negroes, and that, accordingly, the world is indebted for all those branches of science which had their origin in Egypt, and were afterwards perfected by the Greeks, and for all those monuments of art, the feint remains of which still excite admiration, to a people of that description.

The philanthropy of Volney has induced him to rely more on the arguments he adduces in support of his hypothesis, than the nature of those arguments seems to admit: and the authority of an author who justly holds so high a place in the public estimation, is sufficient to give currency to error.

If plausible arguments were brought to establish the doctrine here mentioned, it would be unreasonable to refuse assent to it solely as militating against a commonly received opinion. But to fix beyond controversy an historical fact, more surely is required than ingenious conjecture, fancied resemblances, and quotations of but dubious meaning.

The subject in question ought not to be clouded by any prejudicated opinion relative to the physical differences between the white and black race of men. The evidence should be patiently weighed, and the whole left to stand on a solid basis, or fall by its own infirmity.

The Coptic language bears a manifest relationship to the Arabic and Syriac, as Volney allows. But are the languages allied, and the nations who speak them strangers to each other? It would seem, on the contrary, the subject of proof, that if the languages be indeed cognate, the nations who speak them must have proceeded from one parent stock; for what resemblance between the sonorous copiousness of the Arabic, and the ineffable mendicancy of the native African tongues[27]?

The Ethiopians, or in a more confined sense, the Abyssinians, though so much farther removed from Asia, the source of migration, are far from partaking what is properly called the negro character, as the narratives of the Portuguese writers, who first knew them, with those of Poncet, and in our times of Bruce, abundantly testify. The Fungni, or people of Sennaar, with those of Dongola, Mahas, &c. in Barabra, or Nubia, are, as all the Europeans who have seen them in Kahira can affirm, not negroes. And if all these be colonies from Syria or Arabia Felix, how are we constrained to acknowlege that the Egyptians must have been of the African race?

It has been urged that the Colossal figure of the Sphinx, near the pyramids, gave additional countenance to the opinion that the Egyptians were black, the face of that statue having been said to resemble the negro. But, not to mention that the form of the visage is now become entirely dubious, in forming statues of mere ornament, or as representations of the human figure, the artist endeavours to give the features most habitual to him, or what are most admired among his countrymen; but as to a merely emblematical figure, the same reasoning is not conclusive. Would it be imagined that a dog-headed nation once existed from the figure of Latrator Anubis? Unfortunately, of the Sphinxes at Thebes, innumerable fragments of which are yet remaining, scarcely one is entire enough to give any idea of the form of the visage which the sculptor designed to attach to it.

The statues of the Nile, it is said, were made of black marble, in allusion to his coming from Ethiopia. If this symbol, hitherto so unsatisfactorily explained, (the Sphinx,) had any relation to the same subject, might not the negro face be given to it for a similar reason[28]? It would hardly have been thought necessary to explain why the figure of the Nile was black, if the complexion of the natives of Egypt had been generally acknowleged of the same tinge.

The complete silence of the antient writers, concerning so singular a circumstance as that of the negro character of the Egyptians, if all other arguments were equally balanced, would be sufficient to decide this point in the negative. In defect, however, of historical and positive testimony, strong circumstantial evidence is drawn from the monuments of undoubted antiquity yet remaining. Among these are the small statues of Isis, &c. daily found among the ruins in various parts of Egypt. These are adorned with a profusion of long hair, peculiarly contorted, and the nose, lips, and other features, are far from resembling those of the negro. The same may be observed of the figures in alto relievo and basso relievo, on the walls at Thebes, in the caverns of Gebel-el-Silsili, &c. Of the Colossal statues at Thebes, the features are too much damaged to be adduced in proof.

The two harpers, and several other human figures in the caverns of Thebes, called Biban-el-molûk, (tombs of the kings,) and in which the colours are perfectly well preserved, have the features and complexion exactly resembling the Egyptians of the present day.

The apparent testimony of Herodotus, the earliest historian whose works have reached our days, is not so strong as might at first appear. The terms μελάγχροες και ουλότριχες are merely relative, and apply to the greater or less degree of blackness and crispature of the Egyptians, as compared with the Greeks, to whom the writer was addressing himself; and certainly cannot be confined to positive blackness or woolly hair. To corroborate this interpretation of the passage from Herodotus, may be adduced a similar one from Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. xxii. That author says, that the Egyptians are Atrati, a term of equally strong import with the μελάγχροες of Herodotus, but, like it, evidently applied in a comparative sense; for, in the very next sentence, he says, erubescunt, they blush, or grow red. It is true, indeed, negroes suffer a certain change of countenance when affected with the sentiment of shame, but it would be rather a bold assertion that the word erubescere can ever be applied to characterise the effect of that feeling on a negro. Even in the vernacular idioms of modern Europe, by the term a black man, is daily designated one of visibly a darker complexion than ourselves. Besides, what antient writer has described the inhabitants of Colchis? Was Medea, the Love of the Grecian heroes, a negress?

Volney has offered as a general remark on the Mamlûks of Egypt, that they are easily distinguishable from the natives by having light hair. It is certain that dark hair, eyes, and complexion, do not obtain so universally among them as among the native Egyptians or Arabs; yet in fact, their eyes and hair may be observed much more commonly of a dark than light hue. If then the fondness for generalizing his remarks have operated to deprive this author of the knowlege which hourly experience, continued for several months, could not fail to have given him, what may not be credited as to the effect of his prejudices in matters of remote and doubtful history, where truth is to be drawn out only by patient inquiry, and the frequency of error is exactly proportioned to that of conjecture?

But if all the arguments to confute this new theory should fail, one fact remains which is invincible. The persons of the antient Egyptians, preserved as it were entire by the prescience of that people concerning the errors into which posterity might fall, exhibit an irrefragable proof of their features and of the colour of their skin, which is now, by the quantity of mummies that have been imported into Europe, subject to the inspection of the curious almost throughout that quarter of the globe. This resurrection of witnesses also evinces, that the Copts are their genuine descendants, and preserve the family likeness in their complexion of dusky brown, dark hair and eyes, lips sometimes thick, but the nose as often aquiline, and other marks of a total dissimilitude between them and the negro race.

The black complexion of the Africans seems to extend much farther North in the Western, than in the Eastern part of the continent they inhabit. The people of Fezzân, whose capital is in latitude 27° 48″ or about 2° 10″ to the South of Kahira, are black, while the Egyptians, in the same latitude, are only of brown or olive colour. The Fezzâners, however, have not entirely the negro feature. They have frequently children by their negro slaves, the Egyptians but seldom. The island, near Assûan, consists chiefly of blacks; but the townsmen of Assûan are of a red colour, and have the features of the Nubians, Barabra, whose language they also willingly speak. The people of El-wah are quite of Egyptian or Arab complexion and feature, none of them black: so that I scarcely conceived myself to have arrived at the confines of the blacks, till we reached the first inhabited part of Dar-Fûr. The first I saw are called Zeghawa; they are not negroes, but a distinct race. The Arabs of this empire remain always very distinguishable in colour and feature. The people of Harrâza are of a reddish complexion. Perhaps this being a very mountainous district may occasion some peculiarity. The Fûrians are perfectly black. I have seen some of the natives of Kulla, whence slaves are brought, and which is farther South than Dar-Fûr, that were red. On the whole, one might be inclined to go as far fifteen degrees of north latitude in this part of Africa, to find the line between the Arabs and the Blacks.

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CHAP. XIII.

JOURNEY TO FEIUM.

Tamieh — Canals — Feiûm — Roses — Lake Mœris — Oasis Parva — Pyramids — of Hawara — of Dashûr — of Sakarra — of Jizé, or the great Pyramids — Antient Memphis — Egyptian Capitals.

On the 28th of December 1792 left Kahira to visit Feiûm, a city distant about sixty miles to the South-west. At Moknân procured from the Shech a letter to one of his officers, residing at Bedis, another village further on to the Southward, commanding him to accompany me to Feiûm. Proceeded through a grove of large date trees, which are watered from several cisterns, all of them supplied from the Nile, during its increase.

Between Bedis and Tamieh passed a natural opening, in the chain which constitutes the Western wall of Egypt. A small canal runs through Tamieh[29], and here the country again assumes the aspect of cultivation. This little town is remarkable for a manufacture of mats, though the situation be so insecure, that the Arabs in the preceding night had plundered their whole stock, to the value, as they said, of five or six thousand patackes. The Arabs still haunted the neighbourhood, and we were forced to discharge a few musket shot to keep off a small party that assailed us in the morning.

Passed another canal at Senûris, the seat of an hospitable Shech of the Bedouins. These canals reach from the Nile to the lake called Mœris. Left Senûris at half past seven on the 1st January 1793 and in two hours arrived at Feiûm.

At a small distance to the North are the ruins of an antient town, called by the Arabs Medinet Faris, city of the Persians, probably antient Arsinoe. Some mutilated busts and statues found here were offered for sale. I also observed some jars, resembling those used to contain the dead Ibis, and some vitrifications that seemed to indicate an Arab glass-work.

Feiûm stands on the principal canal leading from the Nile to the lake, and is surrounded with cultivated ground, a great part gardens, producing that profusion of roses for which this place was celebrated, and which were distilled into rose-water. The mode of propagating them was by continued layers; the young twigs thence arising being found to produce the largest and most fragrant flowers. The rose-water was excellent, and sent to all quarters; but the cultivation is now running gradually to decay. Wheat and other grain abound in the vicinity.

This city is not walled, but is populous, though on the decline; it contains several mosques and okals. There are few Copts, the inhabitants being chiefly Mohammedans. The houses are partly stone, partly unburned bricks. It is governed by a Cashef. The fish from the lake cannot be praised. Provisions tolerably plentiful; water good.

After passing three days at Feiûm, proceeded towards the lake, of which I wished to make the circuit. This is the Mœris of Strabo and Ptolemy; and the testimony of the latter, living in Egypt, seems unquestionable. However this be, the lake, now called Birket-el-kerun, probably from its extremities bearing some resemblance to horns, bears no mark of being, as some suppose, the product of human art. The shape, as far as was distinguishable, seems not inaccurately laid down in D’Anville’s map, unless it be that the end nearest the Nile should run more in a North-west and South-east direction. The length may probably be between thirty and forty miles; the breadth, at the widest part I could gain, was 5000 toises, as taken with a sextant, that is, nearly six miles. The utmost possible extent of circuit must of course be thirty leagues. On the North-east and South is a rocky ridge, in every appearance primeval: there are some isles in the extremity nearest Feiûm, where there is a flat sandy shore. In short, nothing can present an appearance more unlike the works of men. Several fishermen, in miserable boats, are constantly employed on the lake. The water is brackish, like most bodies of water under the same circumstances.

The western extremity of this lake is in the dominion of the Muggrebine Arabs, who pass thither from El-wah el-ghurbi, and other places, and who being there under no control, suffer no person to travel thither, unless under their immediate protection. This information, which I received not till my arrival at Feiûm, frustrated my expectations of reaching some ruins which are said to exist there. The Arab Shech of Abu-kissé told me it would require four days to go round the lake, and return on the other side. That there are no villages near it, nor any thing to be procured but from the Muggrebines just mentioned. On one of the isles at the Eastern extremity it is said that human bones are sometimes found.

From Feiûm travelled South-east. At Hawâra are two small pyramids of unburned brick, and another passage through the mountain. The plain from Feiûm to the Nile is in excellent cultivation, chiefly wheat, then just rising from the ground. Illahôn is a town or large village, filled with persons whose chief employment is the culture of the soil. Passed the Bahr-bila-ma, the channel of a large canal. Farther on is Bathen[30], a long deep cut, supposed to be the artificial Mœris of Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus.

Returned to Bedis. On the following day passed the pyramids of Dashûr. Five appear successively, exclusive of those of Sakarra. The third after those of Hawâra, already mentioned, is that of Medûn, which has been very elegant, and built in this singular form,

It is composed of large pieces of the usual soft free-stone, joined together with a little cement; and has been hewn off to a straight surface. It would be extremely difficult to ascend to the top, which is now very broad; but it is probable that there was another square, completing its summit, which has been removed. The north side has been injured by tearing out stones, which open a view of the interior, which is however entirely solid. This pyramid has been supposed to be natural rock at the base, but this mistake must have arisen from a part being concealed. On removing the sand, (which rises chiefly in the middle,) and on examining the corners, the stones and cement may be observed to the very bottom.

The fourth is the most southerly of the four pyramids of Dashûr, where are two large and two small. It is in the form of a cone, terminating in an obtuse triangle, and is now much damaged. There is no appearance of any casing on this or any other of the pyramids. The stones do not point to the center, like those of the great pyramids of Jizé. The faces of all these pyramids are directed to the four cardinal points of the compass. Near them stands one of unburned brick, and a small one of stone, not completed.

At Sakarra a great number exist, among which ten are of a large size. The smaller ones are sometimes almost undistinguishable from the sand-hills, and are dilapidated; the stones being used as materials for building at Kahira, Jizé, &c.

The two largest of the pyramids are at about the distance of two hours and a half from Jizé, and are well known to all who have visited Egypt. The dimensions of that which has been opened I found to be as follow:

	Feet.	Inches.
Great chamber	34	5
Breadth	17	2
Sarcophagus	7	8
Breadth	3	2
Depth within	2	10½
Thickness	0	6

The galleries and great chamber are situated due North and South, allowing for the variation of the needle.

	Feet.	Inches.
The first passage descending	105	1
Small chamber, length	18	9
breadth	17	1
Antichamber, length	7	5
Main gallery, upper part	150	0
lower part	148	0
Passage to inferior chamber	109	1

An absurd opinion has recently been stated, that the pyramids are hewn out of the rock on which they stand; but the first ocular inspection would set this aside, the joinings of the stones being everywhere marked with cement. But it is unnecessary to dwell on a conjecture so futile.

In the open pyramid, the chamber is lined with granite, and the sarcophagus also formed of that stone. But the materials used in the general fabrication of these edifices is free-stone, of a soft kind and white hue; it is replete with shells. The rock on which they stand is of the same soft stone. Returned to Kahira.

On another occasion I visited the pleasant site of the antient Memphis, on the left bank of the Nile, about two hours to the South of Kahira, in a plain above three miles broad, between the river and the mountains. The land is now laid down in corn, with date trees toward the mountains. Nothing remains except heaps of rubbish, in which are found pieces of sculptured stone. The spot has been surrounded with a canal, and seems every way a more eligible situation than that of Kahira[31]. Its extent might be marked by that of the ground where remains are dug up, and which is always overgrown with a kind of thistle that seems to thrive among ruins. It is most conveniently visited from the Coptic convent called Abu-Nemrûs.

None of the fine marbles that are scattered so profusely at Alexandria are discoverable here; whether it be that they were never used, or carried away to adorn other places.

Of the several capitals of Egypt in successive ages, Thebes, or Diospolis, seems the most antient. Next was Memphis, itself a city of the most remote antiquity. Babylon seems to have been only the capital of a part retained by the Persians, after Cambyses had subdued Egypt, and was, by all accounts, founded by the Persians. Alexandria succeeded Memphis, and remained the chief city, till the Saracens founded Misr-el-Kahira.

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CHAP. XIV.

JOURNEY TO SINAI.

Route — Suez — Ships and ship-building — Trade — Scarcity of water — Remains of the antient canal — Tûr — Mountains of red granite — Description of Sinai — Eastern gulf of the Red Sea — Return to Kahira.

On the 1st of March 1793 left Kahira to proceed to Suez. I had made an agreement with the Arab Shech, who was charged with the care of the caravan, that he and his servant should accompany me, without waiting for its slow progress. But he broke his engagement, as usual with the Arabs, and I was constrained to wait for the departure of a large body, consisting of an hundred and fifty persons and two hundred camels.

The route to Suez is nearly one uniform plain, generally hard and rocky, though here and there spots of deep sand occur. The journey was very slowly conducted, as the camels were permitted to brouze on the verdure which sprinkles the desert solely after the winter. On the third day, a South-west wind having subsided, rain fell for four hours and a quarter. The mornings and evenings were cold, though hot in the day. Some have ignorantly conceived that no rain falls in Egypt. At Alexandria showery weather will prevail for a week together; and I have sometimes seen rain at Kahira. In Upper Egypt even showers are very rare, and only one fell while I was in that country.

After a heavy progress of five days reached Suez. The town is small, and built of unburned brick. It contains twelve mosques, of which some are stone, but the most are mean buildings. The sea near the town is very shallow, yet there is a small yard for ship-building. Population, Mohammedans, with a very few Greeks. Suez is very modern, probably built within these last three hundred years; being unknown to travellers of a more antient date.

There are here at present four three-masted vessels, and ten others, some with two, some with one. Two building, one of which is pierced for twelve guns; and ten large boats, without masts. The largest of these ships was intended for the Indian trade, the rest for traffic to Jidda; one or two of them had been built in Yemen.

The Arab mode of ship-building is singular. They have no art to bend the timbers; none of them are crooked except naturally so. They are very slender, and where the upper and lower ribs join, do not pass one over the other, but by the side of each other.

At Suez coffee forms the chief article of trade. It is a place of no strength, and has only eight old cannon, seemingly unfit for service; the others were removed to Jizé by Ismaîl Bey. The sea here produces few fish. Oysters indeed, and a few others of the shell kind, are seen; the best fish not coming higher than Cossîr. Meat is scarce, bread of an inferior quality, sometimes hardly eatable. Butter and milk are brought in small quantities by the Arabs. Water is brought from three several places. Bîr Naba, to the northward, affords the best; the others are Aiûn Mûsa and Bîr-es-Suez. It is always bought by the skin at a considerable price, and if a war were to arise with the Arabs, none could be found.

I was very desirous to inspect the Eastern portion of the canal cut by Adrian, according to D’Anville, which extends from Birket-es-Sheib to Suez, but my Arab guides would not accompany me, in spite of a previous agreement made for that purpose. All consented that marks of the canal existed, and some of them arose to my own observation.

The ruins of Arsinoe may yet be recognized in a mount of rubbish in the neighbourhood of Suez. The spot is now called Kolsûm, and remains exist of a stone pipe for conveying water thither from Bîr Naba. A rock, on the African side of the gulf, furnishes petroleum, which is brought to Suez, and esteemed a cure for bruises, &c. In crossing the gulf just before Suez, boats are used at high water, which comes in rapidly to the height of four feet; at other times camels, horses, and men ford it with safety.

At Suez I observed in the shallow parts of the adjacent sea, a species of weed, which in the sunshine appeared to be red coral, being of a hue between scarlet and crimson, and of a spungy feel and quality. I know not if any use be made of it, nor am I acquainted with its Arabic name; but it strikes me, that, if found in great quantities at any former period, it may have given the recent name to this sea; for this was the Arabian gulf of the Antients, whose Mare Erythræum, or Red Sea, was the Indian Ocean. This weed may perhaps be the סוּפ suph of the Hebrews, whence ים סוּפ Yam Suph, their name for this sea.

The shores here abound in beautiful shells of various kinds; a circumstance which might also have been remarked in speaking of Maadié near Abukîr.

On the 8th of March 1793, passed the ford at Suez, and on the 14th arrived at Tûr. So many journies to Mount Sinai have been published, that I shall not dwell much on the particulars. The route from Suez to Tûr at first lies along a barren coast, but afterwards some pleasant vales of verdure are found, particularly Wadi Corondel, where grow some date trees and shrubs. Mountains of red granite are seen, perhaps too interspersed with porphyry.

A spot is pointed out by the Greek priests of a small convent near Tûr, where a church is said to have been buried, and miraculous noises still heard, but on visiting it, in the mere expectation of some natural phenomenon, found nothing.

On the 18th left Tûr, and on the 22d, at 3½ hours A.M. reached the monastery of Sinai. Shot a red-legged partridge. The convent is large, with a good garden, to which there is a subterraneous passage. Within the walls is a small mosque for the convenience of the Arabs. The mountain now called Sinai is high and abrupt. On the North side of it some snow was visible. The whole is a very remarkable rock of red granite, interspersed with spots, to which soil has been brought by human toil, or washed down by rain, and in which grow almond trees, (now in bloom,) figs, and vines. Numerous rills of excellent water gush from various apertures in the precipice, and wander among the little gardens. Sinai has two summits somewhat resembling Parnassus, another scene of inspiration; and the one termed St. Catherine, being, it is believed, the highest, may be the Sinai of Moses.

The weather being very clear, I observed, from Mount Sinai, the Eastern gulph of the Red Sea, which appears very small, and more round and short than is laid down in the latest maps.

Returned to Suez and Kahira, meeting with nothing memorable on the route.

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Map of the route of the Soudan Caravan, from Assiut to Darfûr,

Including some of the routes of the Jelabs, or Slave Merchants, from the latter to the adjacent Countries.

To Accompany Travels in Africa &c. from the Year 1792 to 1798.

by W. G. Browne.

to face page 180.

London, Published by Mess^rs. Cadell and Davies Strand 4 June 1799.

[(Large-size)]

CHAP. XV.

JOURNEY TO DAR-FÛR,

A KINGDOM IN THE INTERIOR OF AFRICA.

Design to penetrate into the interior of Africa — Difficulties — Caravan from Soudan or Dar-Fûr — Preparations — Departure from Assiût — Journey to El-wah — Mountains — Desert — Charjé in El-wah — Bulak — Beirîs — Mughes — Desert of Sheb — Desert of Selimé — Leghéa — Natrôn spring — Difficulties — Enter the kingdom of Fûr — Sweini — Detention — Representations to the Melek — Residence — New difficulties — Villany of agent — Sultan’s letter — Enmity of the people against Franks — El Fasher — Illness — Conversations with the Melek Misellim — Relapse — Robbery — Cobbé — Manners — Return to El Fasher — The Melek Ibrahim — Amusements — Incidents — Audience of the Sultan Abd-el-rachman-el-rashîd — His personal character — Ceremonies of the Court.

My views to the South of Egypt having been frustrated during the last year, I was reduced to the alternative of abandoning any further projects in that quarter, or of waiting for a more seasonable opportunity. As it was reported that such an one would soon offer, I did not hesitate to prefer the latter, though strongly dissuaded from it, as generally happens to those whose designs are any way analogous to mine. The Europeans in this quarter, as well as the natives, being immersed in commerce from their early years, are unable to conceive the advantages promised by voyages of discovery, to which no immediate profit is attached; and accordingly as they know the hazard great, and imagine the atchievement frivolous and useless, even from the best motives they are rather inclined to discourage, than to animate, any one who undertakes them.

From conviction sufficiently clear, arising both from reading and the sentiments of those who were best informed on the subject, that the river whose source Mr. Bruce describes is not the true Nile, I thought it an object of still greater importance, that the source of the more Western river should be investigated. But what might have been a matter of choice, was with me only the result of necessity. The idea of reaching the sources of this river, (the Bahr-el-abiad,) laid down in the maps apparently at about two hundred leagues farther South than Sennaar, seemed to me so hopeless, that this object alone would hardly have induced me to undertake such a voyage. I should rather have been inclined to attempt Abyssinia, and endeavour to certify, as well as circumstances might permit, how far authentic former narratives had been, and what might offer that was new to European observation. For this purpose the obvious and most easy route was by the Red Sea to Masouah. But all accounts concurred in magnifying the difficulty, and almost impossibility, of an European passing there undiscovered; and, being discovered, of his penetrating any farther.

The road from Kahira to Sennaar was the one I should have preferred; but the desolation and anarchy then prevailing in Nubia, which had prevented me from passing the former year, would not probably have allowed me better success in this. Besides, the city of Sennaar was then occupied by the slaves of the last Mecque, or king, who had deposed and put to death their master, and still continued to usurp the government. By taking the route of Dar-Fûr, I was taught to believe that I might hope for the advantages of a regular government; and with proper management might expect every favour from the monarch. The local inconvenience of being so much farther removed from Abyssinia was indeed obvious; but on the other hand the choice of more than one route was, it seemed likely, thereby offered; which, in a place where progress is so uncertain, and contingencies so numerous, would be a matter of no inconsiderable importance.

At the moment of my return from Assûan to Assiût, the caravan of jelabs from Dar-Fûr, called Cafflet-es-Soudân[32], the Soudân caravan, arrived at El-wah. It was then reported that the sale of their merchandize and slaves, of which they had no great quantity, would be completed in about two months, and that then they would return home. Their stay, however, was protracted during the whole of that winter; and in the month of March 1793 they commenced their departure from Kahira for the Upper Egypt. They were slow in collecting all that was necessary for the journey, and I made use of the time so allowed to draw information from various quarters concerning what was requisite for the voyage. From what cause I know not, but at that time the persons of whom I made enquiry gave no intimation that the treatment of Christians in their country was marked by any asperity. The late Sultan of Fûr, indeed, as I afterwards learned, had been remarkable for his mildness and liberality to all descriptions of persons. But this was not all—a native of Soudân is, in Kahira, the most obsequious and servile of the human race. He behaves towards a Christian whom he meets there nearly as to one of the true believers. In his own country he repays with interest the contempt that has been shewn him by the Egyptians.

On the 21st April 1793, I set out from Bulak, having embarked on the Nile; and on the eighth day, the wind having been often unfavourable, arrived at Assiût. The first care was to provide camels for the route, and these were unfortunately at that time scarce. Five however I at length obtained, at about 13l. sterling each. We had also made our provision of food, &c. required for the journey; and the caravan having at length assembled, after about fifty days the expected moment of departure arrived. It was the hottest season of the year, and consequently unfavourable to travelling. These merchants however, disposed as they are to indolence, and governed by present sensations, when their profit is concerned, esteem the variations of climate unworthy of a thought: and long habit has familiarized them with such degrees of heat, that what is insupportable to northern nations is with them no serious motive for the remission of labour.

The route taken by the Soudân caravan is in part the same as that traversed by Poncet, in the beginning of the present century, on his way to Abyssinia. He passed by Sheb and Selimé, and thence striking across the desart South-east, crossed the Nile at Moscho. We continued our march from Selimé, almost due South, or with a small variation to the West. Our party having left Assiût on the 25th May, encamped on the mountain above it till the 28th, when it proceeded by short stages towards El-wah. The jelabs commonly pay the Muggrebines for their protection, or rather for forbearing to plunder them, at the rate of about a patacke for each camel. I refused them this tribute, alleging that I was not of the number of merchants who usually trade to Soudân, but a stranger who was employed on business to the Sultan; and though my refusal occasioned a slight dispute, the Arabs thought proper to relinquish their claim. The camels were heavily laden, and the jelabs travelled slowly, and in detached parties, each consulting his own convenience, till the 31st of the same month, when we came to Gebel Rumlie, an high rocky mountain, which we were to descend. It forms the Western side of the ridge, which constitutes, as it were, the wall of Egypt, and the Eastern boundary of the low desert, in which lie the Oases. It consists of a coarse tufa, and is of rugged and difficult descent. The road seems in many places to have been opened by art. We were a full hour in reaching the bottom. The camels not without great pain carrying their loads on the steep declivity, and being often in danger of falling.

From the summit of this rock the view lost itself in an extensive valley, consisting chiefly of rocks and sand, but diversified by small bushes of the date tree, and other marks of vegetation, near the spring where we designed to repose. Nothing could exceed the sterility of the mountain we had passed. Having reached the plain, it became necessary to unload the camels, and allow them some rest. We were employed four hours and a half, the following morning, in passing from the foot of the mountain to Ainé Dizé, the first place where water is found, and the Northern extremity of the great Oasis. An hot wind blowing during the meridian hours, the thermometer here stood during that time under the shade of the tent at 116 degrees.

In marching from Ainé Dizé to Charjé, eight hours were employed. Excepting a small space near the spring, all is waste. The Chabir, or leader, chose to notify his approach to the town by beating drums, (two of which he had borne before him as marks of his office, and as occasion might require, to collect the travellers when dispersed,) and by other tokens of joy, as firing small arms, shouting, &c. One of my camels, in descending the mountain, had fallen and injured his right shoulder, which, as a cure could not suddenly have place, obliged me to change him for another.

There is a Gindi or officer at Charjé, and another at Beirîs, both belonging to Ibrahim-bey-el-kebir, to whom those villages appertain; and to them is entrusted the management of what relates to the caravan during the time of its stay there. We left Charjé on Friday the 7th of June, and having passed another desert space, after six hours reached another village, called Bulak. This is a wretchedly poor place, the houses being only small square pieces of ground inclosed with a wall of clay, or unburned bricks, and generally without a roof. It furnishes good water, and the people live by the sale of their dates. The caravan remained a day at Bulak, and having left it on Sunday the 9th, arrived at Beirîs on Monday the 10th, after nearly fourteen hours march through a barren tract. Here the Chabir thought proper to go through the same ceremony as at Charjé.

On the 13th we employed two hours in passing from Beirîs to Mughess, the last village of the Oasis toward the Southern desert. We left Mughess on the morning of the 15th, and on Thursday the 20th, in the morning, arrived at Sheb. At this place, by digging to the depth of a few feet in the sand, is found a supply of indifferent water. A tribe of the wandering Arabs, called Ababde, who come from the neighbourhood of the Nile, sometimes infests it. Sheb is marked by the production of a great quantity of native alum, as the name imports. The surface, near which the alum is found, abounds with a reddish stone; and in many places is seen argillaceous earth. Having left Sheb on the 21st, we arrived at Selimé on the 23d. This is a small verdant spot, at the foot of a ridge of rocks of no great height, nor apparently extending very far. It affords the best water of any place on the route; but though there be verdure enough to relieve the eye from the dry sterility of the surrounding surface, it affords no vegetable fit for the support either of man or beast. At Selime is a small building, which has apparently been raised by some of the tribes resting there, that place being much frequented by the roving parties passing the desert in different directions. The building consists only of loose stones, but the jelabs related many fables concerning it; as that it had of old been inhabited by a princess who, like the Amazons, drew the bow, and wielded the battle-axe, with her own hand; that she was attended by a large number of followers, who spread terror all over Nubia, &c.; and that her name was Selimé[33].

On the 24th we rested, and having proceeded the following morning, employed five days more in reaching Leghea. Water there is scarce, and far inferior in quality to that of Selimé, having a brackish taste. The camels throughout the caravan began now to be excessively weak and jaded, and the Chabir was at a loss for the true road: for though several persons in the caravan had traversed this desert ten or twelve times, they were not unfrequently unable to determine which was the right course. One of the party was sent forward to discover some known object that might be our guide, and after having been absent thirty-six hours he returned. While we remained here we felt much inconvenience from a suffocating wind that blew from the South, and raised the sand in clouds. On the 2d of July the caravan left Leghea; and on the eighth, after a severe and fatiguing march, reached the Bir-el-Malha or salt spring. The vicinity of this spring is remarkable for the production of natron, which substance appears under different circumstances, and is of different quality from that of Terané. It is very white and solid; and on immersion in water becomes hot, and discharges a great portion of its air.

Small quantities of it are carried by the jelabs to Egypt, where it is sold at a high price, and is used principally in making snuff. The water found at this place is very unpalatable, being brackish.

A troop of the natives of Zeghawa met us at this well. It is their practice to station a small party there, when caravans are expected, who remunerate themselves for the fatigue of a ten days journey by supplying provisions, and what else may be wanted by travellers, at an exorbitant rate. Many of our companions at this time had great need of their assistance, as their supply had been originally insufficient, and many camels had perished on the road. The vicinity of the Bir-el-Malha is occasionally infested by the Cubba-Beesh, a wandering tribe, who, mounted on the swiftest dromedaries, rapidly traverse the desert, and live by plundering the defenceless. As they are, however, unfurnished with fire-arms, so numerous a body as ours was not in much danger from their attack.

We remained at the Bir-el-Malha till the 12th; on which day we left that place, and travelled with little interruption till the 20th, and then encamped at a spot called Medwa, where however is no supply of water. One of my camels having fallen, we were obliged to purchase water of the Mahréa Arabs[34] whom we met, or to take up what had lodged in cavities on the earth, in consequence of the rains which were then beginning to fall.

On the 23d we came to the first springs within the limits of Fûr, which are in this place called Wadi Masrûk. The white ant, Termis, was here exceedingly vexatious, building his covered way to every thing within the tent, and destroying all within his reach. This together with the rains, which were now increasing, and began to pour in a torrent through the valley, obliged us to abandon the tents, and take shelter in the next village, (Sweini,) where I obtained an apartment in the house of Ali-el-Chatîb, one of the principal merchants established in the country. In it I passed eight or ten days, not having arrived at Cobbé, one of the towns whither the jelabs chiefly resort, till the seventh of August.

At Sweini resides generally a Melek or governor on the part of the Sultan of Dar-Fûr; and there all strangers, as well as merchants of the country, coming with the caravan, are obliged to wait, till the pleasure of the monarch in disposing of them be known.

Coming as I did under considerable exceptions from the general rule of merchants trading to that country, and, in the Arabic language, rather as Daif-es-Sultan, the king’s stranger, in which light the people of the country had hitherto viewed me, I expected to obtain, without delay, permission to continue my journey to the royal residence. I observed to the Melek of Sweini and other public officers, in one among many conversations I had with them, that “intending to visit the Sultan, I should hardly have expected to be put back with frivolous excuses, as the nonpayment of duties which you dare not explicitly demand of me, and tributes under the name of presents, which have never yet been exacted of a stranger. If any duties be payable, beyond what have already been discharged, you are perfectly at liberty to detain all, or such part, of the articles I bring with me, as you judge sufficient to answer your claim; but not to refuse me permission to go to the Sultan, with whom I have business. Or if other reasons operate to prevent my request being complied with, and any suspicions prevail relative to my views in coming here, I desire, without further delay, to be furnished with the means of returning to Egypt, before I suffer, as commonly happens to strangers, from the effects of the climate, while I am yet in the habit of travelling, and while the funds are yet unexhausted which should support me in my progress farther.”

The misrepresentations which had been made concerning me, and which had by this time reached the Sultan, manacled the hands of the Melek, and prevented my remonstrance from having any effect. But candour and ingenuousness have no part in the character of slaves; and the antient observation is most just, that “when a man becomes a slave he loses half his virtue.” I therefore remained in perfect ignorance of the reasons of my detention. Perhaps indeed, without implicating himself, the Melek could not have declared them; or perhaps he was not thoroughly informed as to their nature. The plot that had been laid against me might indeed have deceived much abler heads than theirs, on whose caprices my fate depended.

Finding no mode of advancing, till the rest of the caravan had obtained the same permission, I resolved to follow the example of the other jelabs, and wait patiently the event. The house I was in consisted of a multitude of distinct apartments, built with clay, and covered with a slanting thatched roof, but not closed by doors. The hospitality of the owner allowed all who could find place in it to lodge themselves without distinction. At length, after the expiration of about ten days, an order from the Sultan arrived, directing that all the jelabs should be allowed to proceed to their houses on paying the duties assessed on them.

The circumstances attending myself were peculiar; and many of the disadvantages I had to contend with could not be well foreseen: it is therefore necessary to mark them, that if any occasion should offer they may be serviceable to others, and for this reason they shall be detailed at considerable length.

Before leaving Kahira I was apprised, that all commerce in Dar-Fûr was conducted by means of simple exchange. To carry on this in such a way as not to be grossly defrauded, especially having my attention engrossed by other objects, and in utter ignorance of the articles fit for bargain and sale in this country, seemed wholly impossible; I therefore sought for a person who might go through this business for me, at least with some share of probity. Such a one arose to the notice of my friends there; and knowing nothing more of the man, as indeed I could not know any thing more, than the character they gave of him, I took him on the general recommendation of being honest, and understanding the business in which he was likely to be employed. The person recommended had been a slave-broker in the market of Kahira; a circumstance which, had it been known to me earlier, would probably have prevented my employing him. Till the moment of departure I had observed in him keenness but no fraud, and in general that submissive acquiescence and absolute devotion to the will of the superior, for which the lower class of Kahirines are externally, at least, remarkable. The hour for commencing our march, however, seemed with him the signal for disobedience and insulting behaviour; and we were not yet far removed from the confines of Egypt, when this misconduct was carried to such an excess that I once levelled my gun at him with a view of inspiring terror. The merchants around us interfered, and for the time this passed off; but the man only sought an opportunity of revenge, which the prejudices of the people of Soudan, in direct opposition to my former information, too soon afforded him means to gratify.

The letters with which I was provided for different merchants in this district, under whose roof I might have had a safe lodging, could be of no use to me till I had seen the Sultan; for till then no person knew in what character to receive me. The object of this man therefore was to prevent my introduction to the Sultan, and to preclude me from any opportunity of representing my case. We were no sooner arrived at Sweini, than he found means to employ one of his associates, who had been some years established in the place, to go to the monarch, and infuse into his mind suspicions of me as a Frank and an infidel, who came to his country for no good purpose, and whose designs it behoved him to guard against; and to suggest to him that it would not be proper I should remain at large, nor yet immediately come to his presence, but that some person should be commissioned to watch over and report my actions, and thus frustrate my supposed evil intentions. He added, as I afterwards found, many anecdotes, falsified or exaggerated, of the inquiries I had made, the way I had been employed, and my general behaviour on the road.

Nor was the villain himself idle during the time his coadjutor was thus laudably engaged. I have already mentioned that there were no doors to the apartments of the house we were in. He took advantage of this circumstance and my momentary absence, to take out of a box which had been broken on the road a quantity of red coral, the most valuable article in my package. As the box remained locked, it was not till long after that I discovered this loss. By the help of this commodity he expected to make his way with the great. At the end of a few days this agent returned, bearing a specious letter impressed with the Sultan’s seal, ordering that no officer on the road should presume to detain me, or to take any thing from me, till I came to the house of Ibrahim-el-Wohaishi, (the name of this very agent,) in Cobbé, where I was to rest myself, till further orders should be given for my admission to his presence. I was not indeed at that time privy to the plot, yet if I could have obtained a knowlege of it, it might not have been easy immediately to counteract its influence; nevertheless I suspected something might have been practised against me.

An order from the despot, which while it was to protect me from his officers on the road, obliged me to confine myself to a particular spot, was a matter of surprise to me; but submission was unavoidable, as I was at that time unprovided even with the means of remonstrance. Had the machinations of my adversaries, which went much farther than my confinement, having been actually employed against my life, been at that time known to me, this severity would not have caused any astonishment, and the means of redress might have been less doubtful. But suspense filled the void of positive suffering—a suspense to which no apparent remedy suggested itself. Those who had known me in Egypt or on the road were dispersed to the East and West, and the people of the place were ill disposed to form any communication with me, being filled with religious horror of one supposed an infidel, but of yet undefined impiety, and whose colour, variously regarded as the sign of disease, the mark of divine displeasure, or at least, the unequivocal proof of inferiority of species, had averted their wonted hospitality, closed their compassion, and inflamed their personal pride and religious fury.

It was in this situation that, seeing no means of immediate relief, I began to feel impatience; which, as I continued in a state of perfect inactivity, communicated the more rapidly its pernicious influence to my state of health. On the fourteenth day after my arrival, I was attacked with a violent fever, attended with extreme pain in the head. How long it lasted I cannot precisely say, having on the second day lost my recollection. It was afterwards recalled by the effect of a dysentery, which lasted for two days, and left me too weak to assist myself. I had reflection enough to know, that of the aliments there to be procured, scarcely any could be found that would not be pernicious. After the first attack therefore, I confined myself to the use of bark and water, which last I drank in great quantities.

A little more than a month had elapsed, when the symptoms appearing to diminish, I again pressed to be permitted to visit the residence of the Sultan. But I had reason to regret my impatience; for having at length obtained leave, I proceeded to El Fasher, only to repeat my suffering. The rainy season was almost at an end, but the air, which still continued insalubrious, fatigue, and anxiety renewed the malady, which, after extreme abstinence, and having gone through the short catalogue of remedies which I had had the precaution to take with me, I found unabated. Excessive headachs, lassitude, thirst, occasional constipation, succeeded by extreme irritation of the viscera, continued for several months to shew the inefficacy of my precautions, and to incapacitate me from all personal exertion. At length the heat of the ensuing summer gradually increasing, and producing regular and continued transpiration, and the state of the air then meliorated, having removed the cause of indisposition, it was not long before I gained a certain degree of strength.

Arrived at El Fasher, I was first introduced to the Melek Misellim, one of the principal ministers. This man, when young, had been a slave, and engaged in domestic offices of the palace, but having been detected using some familiarities with one of the women, the monarch had ordered him to be deprived of the ensigns of manhood. Ignorant and uneducated, he appeared to have a certain quickness of apprehension, which, together with uncommon gaiety of humour, had rendered him acceptable at court, where he appeared more as a buffoon than a minister of state. He received me with a rude stare as an object he was unused to, which was followed by a mingled smile of contempt and aversion. He was seated with some other of the royal attendants, under a kind of awning of cotton cloth, on a mat spred upon the sand. After the common salutations, the Melek and his company entered into conversation on the nature of my visit to the country; and each made his remarks on my person, and offered his conjectures as to my character and intentions.

Their conversation was partly carried on in their vernacular idiom, partly in Arabic. At length a wooden bowl of polenta, and another of dried meat, were set before them. My illness deprived me of all inclination to eat; and observing the company not much inclined to invite me to join them, and yet embarrassed how to avoid that ceremony, I relieved them by declining it, and desiring them to begin. When they were satiated, and they lose no time in eating, a great number of foolish questions were asked me about Europe, some of which I waved, and satisfied them as to others in the best manner I was able.

One of the principal questions was, whether the English paid the Jizié to the Othman Emperor? This, as is well known, is a capitation tax, paid by the Greeks and others, for liberty to worship after their own manner. I replied, that England was so remote from the Imperial dominions, that no war between the two countries could well have place, till all the rest of Europe should have submitted to the Mohammedan arms, which had not hitherto come to pass: but that, for the purposes of trade, the inhabitants of the one country frequented the other, and by mutual agreement were considered as personally secure; that presents were occasionally made by the British King to the Emperor, in token of amity, but not as a mark of subjection; and that the latter, on his part, as it did not appear that the decrees of the Almighty had fixed this as the moment of general conversion to the true faith, in virtue of his dispensing power, and swayed by the general law of hospitality to strangers, sanctioned by the authority of the Prophet, judged it lawful, and even a matter of political expediency, to tolerate such Europeans as conducted themselves inoffensively in his dominions, though they did not pay the Jizié. I thought it necessary to enter into this explanation of the terms on which I conceived myself to stand in relation to them, having by this time learned how rigidly they were disposed to adhere to the letter of the Prophet’s dictum, viz. that no infidels are to be spared but such as pay the capitation tax. When I observed they grew tired of asking questions, I seized the opportunity of explaining why I came there, and what favour I expected would be shewn me.

“Melek,” said I, “having come from a far distant country to Misr, (Kahira,) I was there made acquainted with the magnificence, the extended empire, and, above all, the justice and hospitality of the King Abd-el-rachmân, whose dominion be eternal! Having been used to wander over various countries as a derwish, to learn wisdom from the aged, and to collect remedies for diseases from the herbs that spring in various soils, I grew desirous of seeing Dar-Fûr. I was told that my person and property would be secure, and that permission would be given me to go wherever I might think proper. Since my arrival within the confines, I have found that all these assurances were fallacious; my inclinations have been thwarted, my person treated with indignity, and my property plundered, while compliance has been refused even to my most reasonable demands. I ask redress.—What I have already suffered from the officers of the Sultan is passed, and cannot now be remedied, but I desire protection for the future. I desire the punishment of the man who has robbed me, and restitution of what has been taken. Nor is this all, I particularly desire permission to go to Sennaar, in order to proceed to Habbesh. I was prevented from going there last year by the straight road. Habbesh is a Christian country, abounding in slaves and gold. There are also many herbs valuable in medicine. Being there, I may easily join my countrymen, merchants who come to Moccha, in the Bahr Yemeni. I desire the Sultan will allow me to proceed thither; and, if it be necessary, grant me his protection, and three or four persons, deserving confidence, to attend me to the frontiers of Kordofân. I have a small present to offer him, consisting of such things as my circumstances permitted me to bring—I hope he may not refuse to receive it, and to grant me the favour I ask.” He answered—“Merchant, you are welcome to the Dar—The King is kind to strangers, and he will favour you in all you wish. Whatever you want you have only to demand. He has ordered a sack of wheat and four sheep to be sent you.—At this time it is not possible to pass through Kordofân—The Sultan has a great army there, and when the country shall be in subjection to him you may pass unmolested. When you are admitted to his presence, you will tell him who has robbed you, and what you have lost, and he will cause it to be restored.” It was now the hour of prayer, and when the company commenced their ablutions I retired.

During three or four days ensuing I suffered so violent a relapse as to be unable to perform the common offices of life, and even to suppose that it was nearly at an end. The moment any symptom of amelioration appeared, I sent word to the Melek that it was my wish to be introduced to the Sultan, and then as soon as possible to be dismissed. No reply was made to this message; but the following day he came to the tent with some of his attendants, and desired to see the merchandize that I had brought with me. As to part of the articles, consisting of wearing apparel suited to the great, &c. I very readily complied. But this was not sufficient—The Melek insisted also on seeing the contents of a small chest, which chiefly held articles useful to myself, but not designed for sale. There were also in it some English pistols, of which I intended to avail myself as presents at Sennaar, or wherever else I might be able to penetrate. I therefore positively refused to open the chest. He then threatened to have it broke open—I remained unmoved—At length his attendants proceeding to break it open, Ali Hamad, the man who was with me, with his usual villany, took the key from its concealment and opened the box. Every thing was taken out, and examined minutely—many small articles appeared no more. The pistols were reserved to be taken by the Sultan, (after a violent but fruitless altercation,) at the valuation made by his own servants; and my telescopes, books, of which they knew not the use, wearing apparel, &c. were graciously left me.

The valuation was to be made the following day, which was done quite against my consent, and in contempt of my warmest remonstrances. Some part of the articles were stated at their full value, and others far below it. The whole was estimated at thirty-eight head of slaves, being at the market-price worth about eighty, exclusively of a present of value for the Sultan. A pair of double-barrelled pistols, silver-mounted, which had cost twenty guineas in London, were valued at one slave, which is commonly purchasable, by those who are experienced in that traffic, for the value of fifteen piastres in Egyptian commodities. On this I exclaimed, that if they meant to plunder, and bargain and sale were not conducted in this country by consent of the parties, but by force, it would be better to take the whole gratis.—No answer was made, but the day following two camels were brought me as a present.

The violent manner in which my property had been seized, and the general ill-treatment I had received, much augmented the disorder, already severe. I had now been fifteen days in the tent, exposed to great variations of temperature, it being at the close of the rainy season, and so entirely disregarded, that though tormented with thirst, I could rarely obtain water to drink. I judged that the only means of restoration which remained were, to return to Cobbé, and avail myself of the shelter of a clay-house, and that privacy and quiet, the want of which I had so sensibly felt. Being in possession of the greater part of my property, and having left me only so much as would supply the wants of a few months, the Melek did not seem very anxious about my stay. I hired two Arabs, and with the camels that had been given me, and the property that remained, made my way on the third day to the place whence I came.

In the intervals of my illness, I visited the chief persons of the place; and as the eyes of the people became habituated to me, I found my situation growing somewhat more tolerable. Idle, as I certainly was, during this winter, with respect to the immediate objects of my voyage, I grew of course more familiar with the manners and particular dialect of the country; for the Arabic, which is spoken here, differs materially from the vernacular idiom of Egypt. I seldom, indeed, joined in the parties where Merîsi[35] was introduced, because it was important not to hazard becoming concerned in the riots, which are the frequent consequence of their inebriation. But I was often diverted by the mode of conducting a bargain, which sometimes lasts for several hours; and I listened, perhaps not wholly without instruction, to their legal arguments, and the cool discussions of right, which are the consequence of often submitting disputes to arbitration. I could smile at the quibbling distinctions, by which the niceties of external observance are settled; but I had generally reason to be satisfied with their theory of morals.

It is usual for the graver men, during the heat of the day, to sit and converse under a shed erected for the purpose. When convalescent, I seldom failed to be of this party; for though the conversation contained few sallies of wit, much less profundity of observation, yet it was carried on without ill-humour, with mutual forbearance, and on the whole in an equable course. Perhaps indeed the society appeared less dull, as dissipating reflections which my situation rendered unpleasant.

The following summer (1794) having in some degree recovered my strength, I determined to go and reside for a time near the Sultan, as well to have an opportunity of supplicating for redress of what I had already suffered, as to seize any moment that might offer of pressing my request for permission to advance. On leaving the house which I had inhabited at Cobbé, a dispute had arisen with the owner of it, who wanted me to sign a declaration that nothing had been lost during my residence in his house. This, which was directly the reverse of the truth, I refused to do; and in consequence he called an assembly of Fukkara or sacred judges. The result, after much contest, served to skreen him from the responsibility legally attached to his conduct, without averting the charge, and determined me never to return to his roof.

On my arrival at El Fasher, my good friend the Melek Misellim being employed by his master in the South, I went under the protection of the Melek Ibrahim, one of the oldest persons in authority there, and lodged myself (as all strangers are obliged to lodge in the inclosure of some of the natives) in the house of a man named Musa, now only an inconsiderable officer, though one of the sons of Sultan Bokar. This Musa was one of the most upright and disinterested men I have known in that country, and indeed among the Mohammedans of any country. Calm and dignified in his demeanour, though poor and destitute of power, he never insulted, though his religion taught him to hate. No motive could have been strong enough to induce him to eat out of the same plate with a Caffre, but he was punctiliously observant of the rights of hospitality which that religion also dictated, and daily provided me with a portion of food from his kitchen. He often said that, as it was a precept of my faith to hate the Prophet, he was bound to encourage the same sentiment towards me; but that he was neither obliged to injure me, nor excused in doing so.

The Melek Ibrahim is a man of about sixty years of age, tall but not athletic, and characterised by the roughness rather than the expression of his features. He has no beard, and the little hair which remains either on his head or face is grey. His manners and even the motions of his body are ungraceful, and without the ease of superior rank, or the majesty of superior intellect. Yet his understanding seems clear and comprehensive, and his sagacity not unworthy the station assigned him—one of the first in the empire. He is indeed a bigot in matters of faith, but in all that concerns not the prevailing superstition, his judgment is cool, and little liable to error. He once held the reputation of integrity above the rest of his order, but his present riches render this character ambiguous. Generosity, however, holds no place among his virtues. The uniform tenor of his life is governed by mean avarice; and though the most opulent man in the empire, except the Sultan, so little does he possess of Arabian hospitality, that the man used to be regarded as unhappy who went supperless to his evening councils. He had never yet seen a Frank, and regarded me nearly as the British or French commonalty view the dwarfish Goîtres of the Alps. I could collect from his conversation that he looked on Europeans as a small tribe, cut off by the singularity of colour and features, and still more by their impiety, from the rest of mankind.

When I entered the court where he was sitting, he bad me welcome, and received with complacency a present which, in compliance with custom, I brought on the occasion. He even thanked me for it; but expressed strong surprise at my journey to Dar-Fûr. I complained of the injuries done me, and he assured me of redress for the past, and protection for the future. At the same time it was clear that he esteemed the present a tribute, and conceived that personal safety was more than I could reasonably expect. His conduct afterwards was a further proof of his sentiments: for though I remained at El Fasher three entire months, I saw him only when I forced myself on his notice, and experienced no return of civility, much less any compensation for what I had already suffered.

During this time I was solicitous to attend regularly the levees of the Sultan, which are from six in the morning till ten; but could very rarely obtain admittance, and when I did had no opportunity of speaking. Whether the general prejudice against me, or the machinations of my enemies, produced this pointed disregard, which, as was said, a stranger scarcely ever experienced before, circumstances afforded no sufficient ground to decide. I suspected the former; but probably both had their share.

On returning to my temporary habitation, a shed, as was usual with me on the sun’s approach to the meridian, fatigued with heat, oppressed with thirst, and not without inclination for food, my repast was commonly a kind of bread gently acid, moistened with water. I grew acquainted with a few of the people who attend the court, as well as with many strangers who were suitors there. Their conversation sometimes amused me, but more often I found their continued and unmeaning questions harassing and importunate, and their remarks either absurd or offensive. The tædium of solitude, unfurnished with the means to render it agreeable, was however removed. I occasionally frequented the markets, which are usually held from four o’clock in the afternoon till sunset. But my person being there still strange, the crowd that assembled inclined me to a precipitate retreat.

The Fûrians here seemed unacquainted with the sports of the field. I occasionally went out with a gun after the commencement of the rainy season, when the face of the country became green; but little offered itself worthy attention, either in the animal or vegetable kingdoms. During the early part of the summer the earth had been parched, and destitute of all vegetation.

After waiting in fruitless expectation at El Fasher, as the time of my departure was drawing near, an accident happened, which, though not of the most pleasing kind, contributed to make me noticed, and obtained for me at length an interview with the Sultan.—The slaves of the house used frequently to collect round me, as if to examine a strange object—I joked occasionally with them, without any other view than that of momentary relaxation. One day as I was reading in the hut, one of them, a girl about fifteen, came to the door of it, when, from a whim of the moment, I seized the cloth that was round her waist, which dropped and left her naked. Chance so determined that the owner of the slave passed at the moment and saw her. The publicity of the place precluded any view of farther familiarity, but the tumult which succeeded appeared to mark the most heinous of crimes, and to threaten the most exemplary vengeance. The man threw his turban on the earth, and exclaimed, “Ye believers in the Prophet, hear me! Ye faithful, avenge me!” with other similar expressions.—“A Caffre has violated the property of a descendant of Mohammed;” (meaning himself, which was utterly false.) When a number of people was collected around him, he related the supposed injury he had received in the strongest terms, and exhorted them to take their arms and sacrifice the Caffre. He had charged a carbine, and affected to come forward to execute his threats, when some one of the company who had advanced farthest, and saw me, called out to the rest that I was armed, and prepared to resist.

It was then agreed among the assembly that some method of punishment might be found, that promised more security and profit to the complainant, and would be more formidable to the guilty. The man whom I have already mentioned as my broker was to take the slave, as if she had really been violated[36], and agreed to pay whatever her master should charge as the price. The latter had the modesty to ask ten head of slaves. He was then to make his demand on me for the value of ten slaves, and if I carried the matter before the Cadi, which he supposed I should hardly venture to do, he had suborned witnesses to prove that I had received of him property to that amount.

On my removal from Cobbé to El Fasher, I had caused my small remaining property, among which were few articles of value, but many of much use to me, to be lodged in the house of Hossein, (the owner of the slave,) and his companion. On my return thither, which happened within a few days after the accident, I claimed it: they resisted, as they alleged, at the suit of my broker, and would not deliver it till the value of ten slaves should be paid to him. I had from the first considered their conduct as so violent, that if it reached the ears of the government, the claim must unquestionably be abandoned: and indeed my adversaries had only rested their expectations on the timidity which they had been accustomed to observe in Christians of the country, whose accusation and condemnation are in fact the same. I had not neglected to give the transaction all the notoriety I could, without having recourse to public authority, and those to whom I had applied were decidedly in my favour: I therefore now went to my adversaries, Hossein and his companion, and in their presence offered to Ali Hamad a promissory note for the value of ten slaves, at the market price on my arrival in Kahira. It was refused; and my chest, in which were some German dollars and other articles, was still detained by them; the rest was given up.

In the mean time much had been said on the subject, both among the natives and foreigners; and the flagrant injustice I was likely to suffer forcibly struck all that were not in a state to profit by it, but none more than the Egyptian merchants: they were indignant to see that so enormous a penalty should be forfeited to those who had no claim but effrontery to demand it; and that they had no share, and were too numerous to expect to be all rewarded for connivance; accordingly some of them were diligent in carrying the news to the monarch.

It is not to be imagined that he would have moved in the business, from any love of justice, or commiseration with the sufferings of a person to whom himself had shewn such pointed disregard, not to say manifest injustice. But he was told that the Franks enjoyed great favour with the Senjiaks, and that whatever one of their number suffered in Fûr, might be retaliated on the jelabs on their arrival at Kahira, with very little effort, by getting their property there seized by the magistrate, either as an indemnification for what should have been lost, or a security for what might happen. Add to this, he thought his own dignity compromised, should a foreigner thus be permitted to vindicate himself by force in his country. I had indeed been told that the Sultan was apprised of the transaction previously to my departure from El Fasher, and that he intended to grant me redress; but after waiting about fifteen days without hearing any thing farther of his intentions, weary of suffering, I determined to return. I had been there but a short time when a fulganawy (messenger) arrived express from the court, with orders for me to repair to El Fasher immediately. The object of the message was kept in profound secrecy, nor could I discover whether it portended good or evil. I left Cobbé the same evening, and arrived at the end of my journey the following day about noon.

I repaired as before to the Melek Ibrahim, who on the following day introduced me at the public audience. The Sultan, as he retired to the palace after it was over, ordered all the parties to appear. Being come within the inner court, he stopped the white mule on which he was mounted, and began a short harangue, addressing himself to Hossein and Ali Hamad, my servant, in which he censured, in a rapid and energetic style, their conduct towards me.—“One,” said he, turning to Ali, “calls himself Wakîl of the Frank; if he were a Sherîf and a Mûslim, as he pretends, he would know that the law of the Prophet permits not a Mûslim to be Wakîl to a Caffre: another calls himself his friend—but both are agreed in robbing him of his property, and usurping the authority of the laws.—Henceforth I am his Wakîl, and will protect him.” He then ordered all the parties to repair to the house of Musa Wullad Jelfûn, Melek of the jelabs, under whose appropriate jurisdiction are all foreign merchants. Here it may not be improper to relate briefly how I had been before received by the Sultan.

On my first audience I was too ill to make much observation: I was seated at a distance from him; the visit was short, and I had no opportunity of opening a conversation. He was placed on his seat (cûrsi) at the door of his tent. Some person had mentioned to him my watch, and a copy of Erpenius’s Grammar, which I had with me. He asked to see both; but after casting his eyes on each he returned them. The present I had brought was shewn him, for which he thanked me, and rose to retire.

During the following summer, the first time I got admission to him, he was holding a diwan in the outer court. He was then mounted on a white mule, clothed with a scarlet Benish, and had on his head a white turban; which however, together with part of his face, was covered with a thick muslin. On his feet were yellow boots, and the saddle on which he was seated was of crimson velvet, without any ornament of gold or silver. His sword, which was broad and straight, and adorned with an hilt of massy gold, was held horizontally in his right hand. A small canopy of muslin was supported over his head. Amid the noise and hurry of above a thousand persons who were there assembled, I was unable to make myself heard, which the nature of my situation obliged me to attempt, though not exactly conformable to the etiquette of the court, that, almost to the exclusion of strangers, had appropriated the diwan to the troops, the Arabs, and others connected with the government.

On another occasion I contrived to gain admittance to the interior court by a bribe. The Sultan was hearing a cause of a private nature, the proceedings on which were only in the Fûrian language. He was seated on a kind of chair, كورسي, which was covered with a Turkey carpet, and wore a red silk turban; his face was then uncovered: the Imperial sword was placed across his knees, and his hands were engaged with a chaplet of red coral. Being near him I fixed my eyes on him, in order to have a perfect idea of his countenance, which, being short-sighted, and not thinking it very decent to use a glass in his presence, I had hitherto scarcely found an opportunity of acquiring. He seemed evidently discomposed at my having observed him thus, and the moment the cause was at an end, he retired very abruptly. Some persons to whom I afterwards remarked the circumstance seemed to think that his attendants had taught him to fear the magic of the Franks, to the operation of which their habit of taking likenesses is imagined by some of the Orientals to conduce. He is a man rather under the middle size, of a complexion adust or dry, with eyes full of fire, and features abounding in expression. His beard is short but full, and his countenance, though perfectly black, materially differing from the negro; though fifty or fifty-five years of age, he possesses much alertness and activity.

At another of my visits I found him in the interior court, standing, with a long staff tipped with silver in his right hand, on which he leaned, and the sword in his left. He then had chosen to adorn his head with the folds of a red silk turban, composed of the same material as the western Arabs use for a cincture. The Melek Ibrahim presented him, in my name, with a small piece of silk and cotton, of the manufacture of Damascus. He returned answer, Barak ulla fi!—May the blessing of God be on him!—a phrase in general use on receiving any favour, and instantly retired, without giving me time to urge the request of which I intended the offering should be the precursor. It is expected of all persons that, on coming to El Fasher, they should bring with them a present of greater or less value, according to the nature of the business in hand. It is no less usual before leaving the royal residence, to ask permission of the Sultan for that purpose. With this latter form, which was to me unpleasant, I sometimes complied, but more frequently omitted it. But on this occasion, having been long resident there, I thought fit to make a last effort to promote my design. The day preceding that which I had fixed for my return happened to be a great public audience. I found the monarch seated on his throne (cûrsi), under a lofty canopy, composed not of one material, but of various stuffs of Syrian and even of Indian fabric, hung loosely on a light frame of wood, no two pieces of the same pattern. The place he sat in was spread with small Turkey carpets. The Meleks were seated at some distance on the right and left, and behind them a line of guards, with caps, ornamented in front with a small piece of copper and a black ostrich feather. Each bore a spear in his hand, and a target of the hide of the hippopotamus on the opposite arm. Their dress consisted only of a cotton shirt, of the manufacture of the country. Behind the throne were fourteen or fifteen eunuchs, clothed indeed splendidly in habiliments of cloth or silk, but clumsily adjusted, without any regard to size or colour. The space in front was filled with suitors and spectators, to the number of more than fifteen hundred. A kind of hired encomiast stood on the monarch’s left hand, crying out, a plein gorge, during the whole ceremony, “See the buffaloe (جاموس), the offspring of a buffaloe, a bull of bulls, the elephant of superior strength, the powerful Sultan Abd-el-rachmân-el-rashîd! May God prolong thy life!—O Master—May God assist thee, and render thee victorious!”

From this audience, as from those which had preceded it, I was obliged to retire as I had come, without effecting any purpose. I was told there were occasions when the Sultan wears a kind of crown, as is common with other African monarchs; but of this practice I had no opportunity to bear testimony. When he appeared in public, a number of troops armed with light spears usually attended him, and several of his slaves were employed to bear a kind of umbrella over his head, which concealed his face from the multitude. When he passes, all the spectators are obliged to appear barefooted, and commonly to kneel—His subjects bow to the earth, but this compliance is not expected from foreigners. Even the Meleks, when they approach the throne, creep on their hands and knees, which gave occasion to an Egyptian to remark, that the Jarea[37] in Fûr was a Melek, and the Melek a Jarea—alluding to the servile behaviour of the ministers, and the publicity of women in the domestic offices of the palace.

The Sultan Abd-el-rachmân, soon after he became possessed of sovereign authority, with the ostensible motive of testifying his attachment to the religion of the Prophet, but more perhaps with a view of obtaining greater weight among his subjects, by some mark of the consideration of the first of Mohammedan princes, thought proper to send a present to Constantinople. It consisted of three of the choicest eunuchs, and three of the most beautiful female slaves that could be procured. The Othman emperor, when they were presented, had, it is said, never heard of the Sultan of Dar-Fûr, but he returned an highly-ornamented sabre, a rich pelisse, and a ring set with a single diamond of no inconsiderable value.

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CHAP. XVI.

DAR-FÛR.

Residence with the Melek Musa — Dissimulation of the Arabs — Incidents — Return to Cobbé — Endeavours to proceed farther into Africa — Necessity of exercising Medicine — Festival — Punishment of Conspirators — Art of the Sultan — Atrocious Conduct of my Kahirine servant — At length find an opportunity of departure, after a constrained residence in Dar-Fûr of nearly three years.

My reception with Musa Wullad Jelfûn was very different from that which I had experienced in the house of Misellim, or Ibrahim. All the principal people saluted me, and sought my conversation. The Melek, by those who knew him, was esteemed a man of consummate dissimulation, and boundless ambition; quick of apprehension, decisive, and energetic. I found him easy and dignified in his manner; and, by his communication with foreigners perhaps, more polished, and better informed, than the rest of his order. His behaviour toward myself was complacent; and he affected to seek opportunities of hearing my sentiments on such subjects as occurred. During three days we were generally seated with him, and partook of his table, which was remarkable for the abundant supply, if not for the delicacy of the food. On these occasions I was indeed frequently harassed with questions, the simplicity of which disgusted me, and was even in some instances indirectly reviled for my supposed attachment to a sect, whose tenets among Mohammedans are thought absurd and even impious. However, when they were led to imagine that the favour of the Sultan was beginning to brighten my prospects, their disposition on that head appeared much more easy and tolerant. But I was also frequently impressed with the clear intelligence, and penetrating sagacity, with which the claims of the respective suitors were investigated, and the equity and firmness with which they were terminated by this officer. Oftener than once even, during my short abode with him, the best constructed plans to disguise the truth, and elude the purposes of justice, were laid open and rendered abortive; for it is remarkable with how much artifice the Arabs, however ignorant in other respects, defend themselves, whether right or wrong, as long as they have any profit to hope, or loss to dread. So clear is their discernment, so retentive their memory, and so firm their resolution on these occasions, that no word, no look, not even an involuntary movement escapes them, which can in the smallest degree betray their cause; and the longest cross-examination, or questions put at the greatest distance of time, will bring to light no fact unfavourable to the interest which they are to defend.

In obedience to the Sultan’s command, I gave in an exact statement of the property I had lost, and substantiated the proof by the strongest circumstantial evidence. With regard to the slave, the most complete redress was accorded me. The charge brought against me was judged absolutely futile, and she was restored to her master; while he, on the other hand, was compelled to give up the chest, &c. which had been violently withheld. The plunder which had fallen into the hands of my servant and his accomplice was not so easily restored. The Melek, tired of gratuitous justice, began to think that a lucrative composition was more eligible. The offenders, who had been obstinate in the first instance, seeing how the cause relative to the jarea (female slave) had been decided, thought proper to offer to the Melek marks of their gratitude for the lenity they expected from him; and the Sultan was unwilling to imagine that the sufferings of a Caffre could fall heavy on himself at the day of final retribution. In fact, his disgust at the complaints continually preferred, and jealousy and resentment against some of the Egyptians, who in this and other instances appeared to have usurped his authority, certainly influenced him in the first part of the proceedings, rather than any love of justice.

At length the Melek, who in reality was supreme arbiter of the contest, contented himself with giving me in intrinsic value about four head of slaves, instead of twenty-four or twenty-five, which at first he had unequivocally declared due to me, and promised I should receive. And thus the matter was terminated.

I a second time retired to Cobbé, with little expectation of ever leaving the country. Of the property which the king’s agents had on my arrival purchased, no part of the price had yet been discharged. I had been insulted with the mockery of justice, yet obliged to thank my oppressors for the compensation which their corruption and malignity alone had rendered incomplete.

I had not indeed omitted to renew to the Melek Musa, the request which had been previously made to Misellim and Ibrahim. I explained to him in the manner least exceptionable, my intention in coming thither, completely did away all the suspicions, which my enemies had at first been assiduous to excite, and too successful in establishing; and concluded with desiring permission to go to Sennaar, or to accompany the first Selatea (an armed expedition for the purpose of acquiring slaves) to the South or South-west; or finally to have a safe-conduct, and one of the Sultan’s slaves, acknowleged as such, to accompany me to Bergoo (the first Mohammedan kingdom to the West). By the first route I hoped to have reached Abyssinia; or, if that had been impracticable, to have gone through Nubia to Egypt, or by Suakem to the Red Sea, and thence to Mocha or Jidda. By the second I was almost certain of settling some important points relative to the White River, possibly of tracing it to its source. And by the third, either of passing directly West, and tracing the course of the Niger, or of penetrating through Bornou and Fezzan to Tripoli.

To the first proposal, he answered in a manner which gave me no reason to doubt his sincerity, that the road to Sennaar was at present impassable, the Sultan being as yet master of but one half of Kordofan; that the natives of all that part of it which remained unsubdued, were his implacable foes, and would infallibly destroy any person who came from Dar-Fûr; that he thought however, if I waited another year, that route might possibly be more secure; and in case it should be so, that he would use all his efforts to obtain the Sultan’s permission for my departure. Of the Selatea he said, that I should only encounter certain death by attempting it, as between the jealousy of those who accompanied me, and the actual hostility of the country attacked, there would be no hope of escaping. I hinted that the Sultan might give me a few attendants, whom I was very ready to pay, and an order to enable me to pass unmolested, as his physician in search of herbs. He replied that he would propose such a measure, but did not expect it would receive the Sultan’s approbation, whom he represented as very adverse to strangers, and still suspicious of me individually, in consequence of the reports that had been spread on my arrival. To the third proposal, he answered, that he had no hope of my succeeding; and if I should attempt it, would by no means be answerable for what might happen, since the utmost distrust subsisted between the monarchs of Fûr and Bergoo, and the most implacable enmity to Christians in the latter country. He concluded with strongly recommending it to me to seize the first opportunity of returning to Egypt; but assured me, that if he could accomplish either of the measures I so much wished, he would not fail to inform me, and afford me the necessary aid. I left matters thus when I retired to Cobbé, dejected, and little expecting to realize even my least sanguine hopes. Not more than six weeks after this conversation had taken place, I was sent for in haste to attend the Melek, who was confined by an old disorder in his lungs. I found him yet sensible, but his eyes were fixed, and the extremities incapable of motion. In five hours afterwards he expired. Thus were blasted my returning hopes of success; for no mediator now remained between myself and the monarch, and no longer was there near the court a man, even of seeming liberality and good sense, to whom my projects might safely be opened.

The transactions I had been engaged in, and my frequent appearance in public, had given me a degree of notoriety, which I shunned rather than sought. Having learned by accident that I was in possession of a few medicines, which indeed were rather studiously concealed, all the town grew indisposed, and sought for remedies. Under various pretences, I as often as possible declined administering any; but one or two of the sick having recovered, spread the news of their supposed cure, with such additions as they thought proper. It then became necessary for me to attend at El Fasher, whither I was sent for on several occasions, in the course of the subsequent year. Soon after Musa’s death, a messenger arrived requiring my presence, but, as is usual with them, without specifying the object. Judging it might possibly be something favourable to my interests, I used all possible dispatch. On my arrival I was directed to attend the Faqui Seradge, the principal Imam, who was ill of a fistula. It appeared that palliatives could afford him no relief, and I declined the responsibility attached to more violent remedies. On this occasion however the Sultan had seen me, and addressed me personally, telling me that he should give orders for the payment of what was due to me, and that he should consult my inclination in all things. I began to press my request for permission to travel; but to this he turned a deaf ear, and soon left the place of audience. Another time I was called to a Melek, a man of advanced age, who had been blind of one eye for nine years, but was much displeased at being told his disorder was incurable. Many instances of the same kind occurred.

The same winter I was sent for by Misellim, to receive a part of what was due to me. He was at Gidîd, a town about forty miles from Cobbé. I was not long detained, having been permitted to return in a few hours after my arrival. But the payment was made in oxen, a commodity to me of very little value. They however afforded me subsistence for some months, which otherwise probably I should have wanted.

The first week of the month Rabîa-el-achir, this year, was distinguished by a festival which I conceive peculiar to this country—the Geled-el-Nahâs, the leathering of the kettle-drum. It lasts eight or ten days successively; during which time the Meleks and great men offer to the monarch considerable presents. I have known the Melek of jelabs take with him in his visit of congratulation presents, of various kinds, worth sixty head of slaves. Almost all, except absolute mendicants, are obliged to come forward with some offering, proportioned to their rank. In recompence of this involuntary generosity on the part of the people, a kindness almost as involuntary, but somewhat cheaper, is exhibited on the part of the Sultan—his kitchen during the time is devoted to the public service. But as too great a number of animals is frequently slaughtered on the first day, the meat often remains to be devoured in a corrupt state; which gave occasion to some one to remark, that the festivals of Fûr resembled those of the Leopard[38]. The celebrity is also marked by a review of the troops. But as their equestrian exercises are no more than a clumsy imitation of those of the Mamlûks, a more particular description of them would afford nothing new. They serve however to characterise the mode of warfare, where victory is always the effect of personal exertion. The monarch and his chief officers have fine horses of Dongola, which they mount without skill, carrying in one hand five or six javelins, in the use of which they are adequately expert.

During the summer of 1794, five men, who had exercised considerable authority in some of the provinces, were brought to El Fasher as prisoners. It was said that they had been detected in treasonable correspondence with the hostile leader (Hashem) in Kordofân. They did not undergo any form of trial, but as the Sultan chose to give credit to the depositions that were made against them, his command issued for their execution. Three of them were very young men, the youngest not appearing to be more than seventeen years of age. Two of them were eunuchs. A little after noon they were brought, chained and fettered, into the market-place before one of the entrances of the palace, escorted by a few of the royal slaves, armed with spears. Several of the Meleks, by the monarch’s express order, were present, to witness, as he termed it, what they might expect to suffer if they failed in their fidelity. The executioner allowed them time only to utter some short prayer, when he plunged the knife in the neck of the oldest of them, exactly in the same manner as they kill a sheep. The operation too is marked by the same term (dhebbah). He fell and struggled for some time: the rest suffered in their turn. The three last were much agitated, and the youngest wept. The two first had borne their fate with becoming firmness. The crowd, that had assembled, had scarcely satiated itself with the spectacle of their convulsive motions, while prostrate in the dust, when the slaves of the executioner coolly brought a small block of wood, and began mangling their feet with an axe. I was surprized at this among Mohammedans, whose decency in all that concerns the dead is generally worthy of applause. Nor did it diminish my astonishment, that having at length cut off their feet, they took away the fetters, which had been worn by the criminals, in themselves of very inconsiderable value, and left the bodies where they were. Private humanity, and not public order, afterwards afforded them sepulture.

It happened this year that some excesses had been committed by persons in a state of inebriation, and the Sultan having had cognizance of the fact, could find a remedy only in force. He ordered search to be made in all houses throughout the country for the utensils for making merîsé; directed that those who should be found in a state of intoxication should be capitally punished; and the women who made it should have their heads shaved, be fined severely, and exposed to all possible ignominy. The Furians had however been habituated to Merîsé before they had known their monarch, or the Islam. The severity of the order, therefore, and the numbers trespassing against it, defeated the Sultan’s purpose. It was indeed put in execution, and a few miserable women suffered unrelenting tonsure, and innumerable earthen jars were indignantly strewed piecemeal in the paths of the faithful; but the opulent, as is usual, escaped with impunity, and some were bold enough to say, that the eyes even of the Sultan’s women were still reddened with the voluptuous beverage, while priests and magistrates were bearing the fulminating edict from one extremity of the empire to the other. It is certain that, subsequent to this new law, the minds of the troops were much alienated from the monarch, and it is thought that no other cause than this was to be sought. The monarch who admits of no licence will never reign in the hearts of the soldiery; and he must give up the hope of their affections, who is disposed to become an impartial censor of the public morals.

Innumerable reports had been propagated at different times, that the Jelabs would be allowed to depart. But none was well authenticated; nay, as afterwards appeared, all were false. It is probable they were artfully circulated by order of the Sultan, with a view to cajole the foreign merchants, who, having now collected the intended number of slaves, were at a heavy expense for their daily sustenance, and of course ill bore the unexplained delay, while his own merchandize was sold at a prodigious advance in Egypt. In effect, two small caravans found their way thither, between the time of my arrival at Fûr, and that of my departure; but they consisted only of the Sultan’s property, and that of one or two individuals, whom he particularly favoured. For a great quantity of merchandize having accumulated in his hands, he was determined to dispose of it to advantage, before the other merchants should be permitted to produce theirs for sale.

They were therefore restrained by the strong arm of power, to favour the monarch’s pernicious monopoly; while the latter, with singular effrontery, gave out, that he had sent to negociate with the Beys the reception of the commodities of Soudân, on more advantageous terms than they had been before admitted.

The man whom I had brought with me from Kahira as servant, had availed himself of the property he had plundered to purchase several slaves. He still continued to live in an apartment within the same inclosure with myself, and I occasionally employed one of his slaves to prepare my food.

He knew too much of me to imagine that I should lose any opportunity that might offer of punishing him, and accordingly was desirous of anticipating my design. I had received warning of his views, and was cautious, sleeping little at night, and going always armed; not that I much expected any thing would be attempted by open force, though in effect two men had been employed by him, under promise of a reward, to strangle me. Finding that measure unsuccessful, he obtained some corrosive sublimate, and put it into a dish that one of the slaves was dressing. She was honest and generous enough to inform me of it, or the scheme would probably have taken effect, as I had certainly then no suspicion. The villain on returning, after a few hours, and finding that the poison had not produced its effect, vented his rage on the slave, and had nearly strangled her with a cord, when I interfered and forced him to leave her. The next scheme was an accusation of debauching his slaves, which after a tedious investigation before the civil judge, and then the Melek of Jelabs, I was able to refute. Other attempts, planned with sufficient art, were made against my life, which, however, I had equal good fortune in escaping.

In the summer of 1795, I received the second payment for the property in the Sultan’s hands, which consisted of female camels (naka). The same injustice operated on this occasion as before. After all the other creditors of the monarch had been satisfied, I was directed to choose from what remained: two of which, as usual, were allotted as equivalent to a slave, though of so inferior a kind, that three would not have been sufficient to purchase one.

After having received these, I was preparing to return to Cobbé, when a message came to require my attendance on a sick person. The patient was brother of the Melek of the Jelabs. He was in the last stage of a peripneumony, and I immediately saw the case was desperate; but was forced to remain there with the sick man, administering such remedies as his situation permitted the application of, till he expired. Two guides were sent to accompany me home, but coming to a torrent that crossed the road, (it was the middle of the Harîf, or wet season,) they were fearful of passing it, and returned, after endeavouring in vain to persuade me to do the same. I was obliged to abandon the camel, which belonged to the Melek, and pursue my journey on foot.

The time I was constrained to devote to this patient afforded me an opportunity of remarking the True believer’s practice of physic. No mummery, that ever was invented by human imbecility to banish the puny fears of mortality, was forgotten to be put in practice. The disease was sometimes exorcised as a malignant spirit, at others deprecated as the just visitation of the Deity: two or three thousand fathas were to be uttered, and numbered at the same moment on a chaplet; and sentences of the Koran were then written on a board, which being washed off, the inky water was offered to the sick man to drink, when he was no longer able to open his mouth. But though this puerile anxiety prevailed so long as the man remained alive, the moment he was dead, all sunk into undisturbed composure, except a few of the women, who officiously disquieted the living, with vociferations of affected sorrow for the dead.

Near the end of the year 1795, a body of troops was mustered and reviewed, who were to replace those that had died of the small-pox in Kordofân, which it was said amounted to more than half the army. The spoils which had been taken from Hashem, were also on this occasion ostentatiously displayed. They consisted of eighty slaves, male and female, but the greater proportion of the latter, many of them were very beautiful, nor the less interesting, that though the change in their situation could not be very important, their countenances were marked with despondency. To these succeeded five hundred oxen and two hundred large camels; the whole procession concluded with eighty horses, and many articles of less value borne by slaves. Shouts rent the air, of “Long live el Sultan Abd-el-rachmân el rashîd! May God render him always victorious!”

A short time after I caused a petition to be drawn up, which was presented by Ali-el-Chatîb to the Sultan, in which I stated my sufferings, requested payment of what yet remained due to me, and permission to proceed on my journey to Kordofân. Though the person who presented it was a man of considerable weight, no answer was given. I therefore followed it up by a visit in person, which I had resolved should be my last. My arrival was no sooner known, than I was directed as before to attend some sick person. This I positively refused to do; and it was many days before I could be admitted at court, for Fowaz, the Melek of Jelabs, was grown tired of his office. I therefore accompanied (11th December 1795) the Chatîb to the monarch’s presence, and shortly stated what I came to request, which the former seconded, though not with the zeal that I might have wished. To my demand of permission to travel no answer was returned. But the generous and hospitable monarch, who had received from me the value of about 750 piasters in goods, and notwithstanding that my claim was well supported, condescended to give me twenty meagre oxen, in value about 120 piasters! The state of my purse would not permit me to refute even this mean supply, and I bad adieu to El Fasher, as I hoped for ever.

Another accident happened at this time, which awaked my attention to personal security. Being retired at night to a small distance from my apartment, a spear was thrown over the fence, grazed my shoulder, and stuck in the ground near me. I ran to the place whence it came, but saw no one, and in vain endeavoured to discover the owner of it.

Having applied the value of the oxen to preparatives for the journey to Egypt, the report of the caravan’s departure growing daily stronger, I lost no time in joining the Chabîr, who was then encamped at Le Haimer, (3d March 1796,) a small village about three days’ journey North of Cobbé, where was a tolerable supply of water, but no other requisite for living.

Two nights previously to leaving Cobbé I received a letter, impressed with the seal of Fowas, Melek of Jelabs, importing that he (Fowas) had obtained from the Sultan for me the permission I had so often earnestly sought, viz. of passing through Kordofan to Sennaar, and that nothing remained but to repair to El Fasher, and set out from that place. My astonishment was great at finding that what had so constantly and contumeliously been refused, should now be spontaneously offered. I therefore immediately went to some of the merchants, in whom I had the greatest confidence, to inquire their opinion. All of them strongly dissuaded me from paying any attention to the Melek’s letter, hinting at the same time that they understood what it meant. I acquiesced, notwithstanding my earnest desire of going eastward; and it afterwards was proved to me in a way sufficiently clear, that this letter was the result of a scheme concerted between the Melek and my servant Ali, by which it was contrived that I should reach the eastern confine, and there perish by the hands of my attendants.

During my residence at El Fasher and Cobbé, I had been repeatedly assured, and that from those persons who were best informed, that the Sultan never meant to permit my departure; and the imperfect compensation he had directed for what had been brought him confirmed that opinion. But as I knew much is done among persons of that description by whispers, I took care to spread them thickly in his way. To the Chabîr I promised an ample recompence for his assistance, and set before him the consequences of his appearing in Kahira without me. I also offered proofs that I had been able to dispatch letters to Egypt, unknown to the government here. The Chabîr did not neglect to use his interest with the Sultan; and whether the latter was really intimidated by these vain insinuations, whether he had begun to hold a more favourable opinion of me from my having been so long in the country without attempting any thing improper, or whether he was not in reality much more tranquil and indifferent on the subject than we at that time imagined, I cannot even now with certainty affirm.

We arrived at Le Haimer about a month before Ramadan, and it was not till the sixth day of El Hedge, the second month after that fast, that we actually commenced our journey to Egypt. In the mean time having pitched the tent under a great tree, where we were sheltered from the rays of the sun, and in tolerable security, I fed on polenta (as-cidé) and water with the camel-drivers. I had collected eight camels for the journey, but the best of them was stolen while grazing. Another died; and to supply his place I was obliged to seek one on credit, for my whole exchangeable property at that time amounted only to about eight piasters.

While the caravan was assembling, an incident happened which may deserve mention. The Muggrebîns of Elwah, having passed by Selimé, crossed the desert (a route of three or four days) to Dongola, where they carried off goods and captives. Among these was a Dongolese girl, of fourteen years of age, who was sold in Upper Egypt, and carried to Kahira, where she was bought by an Arab, who had afterwards returned to Dar Fûr with his property. The girl being recognized by some Dongolese, of her own tribe, resident in Fûr, the question came before the Melek of the district, and was referred to the monarch. Her master pleaded the purchase at a valuable consideration; but it was decided that having been free, she was not a subject of sale, and she was restored to her friends.

This pretext of an accusation for purchasing free persons is often used to extort money from rich merchants, and an instance happened, within my knowlege, in which the purchaser was condemned, not only to forfeit two females, but to pay a fine of seven slaves for each. Such is the sole attention which the government pays to the freedom of the subject.

Our voyage, once commenced, was continued with little remarkable, except the violent heat. We returned by the only caravan route, Bir el malah, Leghea, Selime, Sheb, and Elwah. Our provisions were indifferent, and in small quantity. The camel-drivers regaled themselves with the flesh of those animals, when they chanced to be disabled on the road. When we came to Beirîs we were met by a Cashef, who welcomed the Jelabs with an exhibition of fire works; on this occasion he treats the chief merchants with coffee, and presents to each a benîsh of coarse cloth, worth about a guinea, expecting, however, in return, a slave from each, worth at least ten guineas. When I arrived at Assiût it was four months since I had eaten of animal food. The hard living, heat, and fatigue, occasioned a diarrhea which much weakened me; but before leaving Assiût, where I passed about twenty days, it was considerably abated.

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CHAP. XVII.

DAR-FÛR.

Topography of Fûr, with some account of its various inhabitants.

The town called Cobbé, as being the principal residence of the merchants, and placed almost in the direct road from the North to the South extremity of the country, shall, for the sake of perspicuity, though not centrally situated, be considered as the capital of Dar-Fûr.

I found it to be in lat. 14° 11′ long. E. G. 28° 8′. This town is more than two miles in length, but very narrow, and the houses, each of which occupies within its inclosure a large portion of ground, are divided by considerable waste. The principal, or possibly the only view of convenience by which the natives appear to have been governed in their choice of situation and mode of building, must have been that of having the residence near the spot rented or inherited by them for the purpose of cultivation. The town is full of trees of several kinds, among which are the palm, deleib, &c. but chiefly the heglîg and the nebbek, which give it an agreeable appearance at a small distance, for being situated in a plain, it is not distinctly visible more than four or five miles in any direction.

During the rainy season, the ground on which it stands is surrounded by a wadi or torrent. Fronting it to the East, (for the town extends from North to South,) is a mountain or rock, distinguished by the same appellation. It is not memorable for its height, nor indeed for any thing but as being the resort of hyenas and jackals; yet it forms part of a ridge of hills, or rocks, for there is little earth on them, which runs from North to South for many leagues.

The inhabitants are supplied with water from wells, of small depth, which are dug within the inclosure of many of the houses; but the best of them are those which are in or near the bed of the torrent. The water is generally turbid, and though not apparently possessing any injurious quality, has often an ungrateful flavour. The quantity too is not always equal to the public consumption, which sometimes throws the people into difficulties before the periodical return of the rains. Their manner of digging is so unskilful, that the soil often collapses; and the same well is seldom useful for more than three or four months successively.

There are some villages, at small distances, in various directions from Cobbé, which are dependent on it, and increase its apparent population. To the N.E. by N. Hellet Hassan, inhabited altogether by the people of Dongola. It has been[39] governed many years by the Chabîr Hassan wullad Nasr, one of the oldest of them, who had been formerly once, or more than once, Chabir (leader) of the jelabs on their journey to Kahira, and a man, as I have generally understood, respectable for his talents and his virtues. North and North-west, Nûkti and Hellet-hummâr. South, Hellet-el-Atamné and Hellet Jemîn-Ullah. South-west and West, Hellet-el-Fukkara and Bweri. There are some other smaller ones, the names of which I have either never learned or have forgotten.

On all sides Cobbé is surrounded by a plain. To the West and South-west it extends to the foot of Kerda and Malha, two rough mountains or rocks, at about twenty-miles distance in that direction. South it is bounded by Gebel Cusa, at near twelve miles distance, near which are seen some villages. South-east it extends to Barbogé, and is there bounded, on the North-east, by Gebel Wanna, and on the East South-east by a wadi or torrent, which bears its name, and the sands (goze) beyond it. But to the East there is no extent of level ground; the whole road from Sweini North, to Gidîd South, being bounded in that direction by a mountain, first under the name of Téga, and then under that of Wanna. Gebel Cobbé stands almost insulated, and is placed West of the latter. In Cobbé there are very few houses, perhaps none, inhabited by natives of Fûr. The people are all merchants and foreigners. The other more noted towns of the empire are, Sweini, Kûrma, Cubcabîa, Rîl, Cours, Shoba, Gidîd, Gellé. Sweini is situated almost North of Cobbé, at the distance of more than two days diligent travelling. Koûrma, a small town, West by South, at the distance of four and a half or five hours—twelve or thirteen miles. Cubcabîa, a more considerable one, it was not in my power to visit, but it is described as nearly due West, at the distance of two days and a half. The road is rocky and mountainous, and of course may be supposed somewhat circuitous. Cours, a place of little note, North-west by West, at five hours and a half travelling from Cobbé. Rîl is something more than three days removed from it, in the direction South-south-east; and as the road is good and lies through a plain, this cannot be estimated at much less than sixty miles. Shoba is two days and a half from Cobbé.

Gidîd is nearly South-east, and about one day and a half from Cobbé. Gellé is not far from Cubcabîa, but some hours further removed to the South. Sweini is the general resort of the merchants trading to Egypt, both in going and returning, and thence derives its chief importance. Provisions, of most kinds which the country affords, are found there in plenty, and while the jelabs remain there, a daily market is held. The Chatîb, and some other of the principal merchants have houses there, for the convenience of lodging their property, as the caravans pass and repass. A Melek, with a small number of troops, is always stationed there to receive them. The town therefore may be considered as in some measure the key of that road, though not entirely so, as there are two others which lead from the center of Dar-Fûr towards Egypt, without going to Sweini.

The poorer people who constantly live there, are either of the province called Zeghawa, or Arabs.

In Kourma, the merchants who occupy almost the whole of the place, are called the Jeiâra, most of them born in the Upper Egypt. Exclusively of them and their dependents, the number of people in that town is inconsiderable. Twice in the week a market is held there for meat and other provisions, as at Cobbé.

Cubcabîa is a considerable town, and its inhabitants various and numerous. It forms the key of the Western roads, as Sweini of the Northern; and is the depôt of all the merchandize that is brought from that quarter. A market is held there twice a week, in which the chief medium of exchange for articles of small value is salt, which the inhabitants make by collecting and boiling the earth of those places where horses, asses, or other animals have been long stationary. This market is celebrated for the quantity of tokeas, and for the manufacture, if so it may be called, of leather, which they are very dextrous in stripping of the hair, tanning, and then forming into large and durable sacks for corn, (geraubs,) water, (ray,) and other purposes. The tokeas are cotton cloths, of five, six, or eight yards long, and eighteen to twenty-two inches wide: they are strong but coarse, and form the covering of all the lower class of both sexes. The inhabitants are partly Fûrians, who speak their own language, in part Arabs, and partly from some of the Western countries, as Bergoo, &c. There are also some of the race called Felatîa, and other descriptions.

In Cours are found some merchants from the river; the remainder are fukkara, who affect extraordinary sanctity, and are distinguished for their intolerance and brutality to strangers. Rîl is inhabited partly by Fûrians; but there are also some foreign merchants. During the reign of Sultan Teraub there appear to have been many more there; for he had built a house, and made the town his usual residence in time of peace. But Abd-el-rachmân has abandoned it, probably from the fear attendant on usurpation. Rîl[40] is the key of the South and East roads, as Cubcabîa of the West, and Sweini of the North; and therefore a Melek with a body of troops commonly resides there, as a guard to the frontier, and to keep the Arabs, who abound in that neighbourhood, in subjection. It is a place eminently fitted for the Imperial residence, being abundantly supplied with fresh water from a large pool, which is never completely dry, with bread from Saïd[41], with meat, milk, and butter from the Arabs, who breed cattle, and with vegetables from a soil well adapted to horticulture; nor are they without a kind of tenacious clay, which, with little preparation, becomes a durable material for building. In Shoba, another town of some note, was an house of Sultan Teraub. The place is said to be well supplied with water, and there are some chalk pits near it, from which that material was drawn at the time I was in the country. These pits were then almost exhausted, for the purpose of adorning the royal residence, and some others, with a kind of white-wash. In Shoba reside some jelabs; the rest of the people are Fûrians, and occupied in other pursuits.

Gidîd has also a competent supply of water, and is near the road from Cobbé to Rîl. Its bearing from the former is South-east. It is a town of Fukkara, who are reported to be so little famous for hospitality, that they will hardly furnish to a traveller water to allay his thirst. In this town are many houses, and some of them belong to merchants who derive their origin from the Eastward.

Gellé was esteemed less flourishing than most other towns of Dar-Fûr, being under the galling tyranny of a priest. The Faqui Seradge, one of the two principal Imams of the Sultan, a man of intrigue and consummate hypocrisy, had gained an ascendancy over his master, and distanced all competitors at court. Gellé was his native place, and the people of the town were become his dependents. His unsated avarice left them neither apparel nor a mat to lie on; and his immortal malice persecuted them for having no more to plunder. The greater part of the people are either Corobâti or Felatîa (two tribes); of the latter sort is the faqui.

The greater part of the people inhabiting Cobbé consists, as hath been already observed, of merchants. The generality of them are employed in trading to Egypt, and some of them are natives of that country; but the greater number come from the river. The latter class, if from circumstances a conjecture may be hazarded, seem first to have opened the direct communication between Egypt and Fûr. For many years their native countries, Dongola, Mahas, and all the borders of the Nile as far as Sennaar, which, according to report, are in all the gifts of nature much superior to Dar-Fûr, have been the scene of devastation and bloodshed, having no settled government, but being continually torn by internal divisions, and harassed by the inroads of the Shaikié and other tribes of Arabs, who inhabit the region between the river and the Red Sea. Such of the natives as were in a condition to support themselves by traffic, or by manual labour, in consequence emigrated, and many of them retired to the West. These people, accustomed in their native country to a short and easy communication with Egypt, and impelled by the prospect of immense profit, which a farther attempt of the same kind promised them, opened the route which the Jelabs now pursue. But to return to Cobbé.—

Some Egyptians, chiefly from Saïd, a few Tunisines, natives of Tripoli, and others, come and go with the caravans, only remaining long enough to sell their goods. Others have married in Dar-Fûr, and are now perfectly naturalized, and recognized as subject to the Sultan. The fathers being no more, the children are in many instances established in their room, and are engaged in the same occupations.

The remainder of them consists of foreigners, coming from Dongola, Mahas, Sennaar, and Kordofân, who are generally remarked as indefatigable in commerce, but daring, restless, and seditious, (which consideration has induced the present Sultan to use some efforts to banish them from his dominions,) and the offspring of those whose parents have emigrated, and who are themselves born in Dar-Fûr. The latter are often people of debauched manners, and not remarkable for the same spirit of enterprise as the actual emigrates. Gradually formed to the despotism which coerces their external deportment, and seeks to crush and sterilize even the seeds of energy, somewhat of the spirit of their progenitors yet remains: the affections indeed are turned askance, but not eradicated. The pushes that should have been made ad auras æthereas, opposed revert to Tartarus. The luxuriancy of mental vigour, though repulsed and forcibly inverted, still extends its ramifications. Its pallescent shoots pierce the dunghill, when not permitted to open themselves to the influence of the sun. The active mind may descend to brutal sensuality, when it can no longer expand itself in a more sane exercise.

The people first mentioned commonly among themselves use the language of Barabra, though they also speak Arabic. The latter are generally unacquainted with any language but the Arabic. They usually intermarry with each other, or with the Arabs. Some of them avoid marrying, and cohabit only with their slaves, seldom taking to wife a Fûrian woman. Both these descriptions of men are easily distinguishable from the natives of the country[42], being usually of a more olive complexion, and having a form of visage more nearly resembling the European, with short curly black hair, but not wool. They are a well-sized and well-formed people, and have often an agreeable and expressive countenance, though sometimes indicating (if so much faith may be given to physiognomy) violent passions and a mutable temper. Such are the inhabitants of Cobbé. South-east of the town, in a large open space adapted to the purpose, a market[43] is held twice in the week, (Monday and Friday,) in which are sold provisions of every kind, and, in short, all the commodities which the country produces, or which are derived from Egypt and other quarters. Slaves however, though sometimes brought to the market, are now commonly sold privately, which is not unfrequently complained of as an evil, inasmuch as it facilitates the sale of such as have been stolen from other quarters. The people of Barabra and Kordofân cannot relinquish their favorite liquor, and as all who drink persist in drinking till they are completely inebriated, the natural violence of their temper is increased, and gives occasion to continual disputes, which frequently are not decided without blows, and occasionally terminate in bloodshed.

There are in the town four or five Mectebs, where boys are taught to read, and, if they wish it, to write. Such of the Fukkara as fill the office of lecturer, instruct gratuitously the children of the indigent; but from those who are in easy circumstances they are accustomed to receive a small remuneration. Two or three lecture in the Korân, and two others in what they call Elm, theology.

There was, at the time of my arrival, only one small mosque, a little square room, formed by walls of clay, where the Fukkara were accustomed to meet thrice in the week. The Cadi of the place was a certain Faqui Abd-el-rachmân, a man much in the decline of life, originally of Sennaar. He had studied at the Jama-el-azher in Kahira, and was much reputed in the place for the justice and impartiality of his decisions, and the uniform sanctity of his life. He sunk under the weight of years and infirmity, during the second year after my arrival, and the charge of Cadi was committed by the monarch to another, who was almost incapacitated from executing the duties of it, as well by a painful disorder as by his great age. The more active part of the office, therefore, was discharged by his son, who was as remarkable for corruption as the Faqui Abd-el-rachmân had been for integrity. Whether from indignation at this man’s unworthiness, or envy of his pre-eminence, is uncertain, a division ensued among the Fukkara, and part of them united under Hassan, part under Bellilu, a man said to be learned in the laws, but of a forbidding and ungracious deportment. The former, with the countenance and assistance of the Sultan, had commenced building a mosque more spacious than that above mentioned; but I observed it went on slowly, though the material for building was nothing better or more costly than clay. The area inclosed was about sixty-four feet square, and the walls were to be three feet thick.

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CHAP. XVIII.

DAR-FÛR.

On the mode of travelling in Africa — Seasons in Dar-Fûr — Animals — Quadrupeds — Birds — Reptiles and Insects — Metals and Minerals — Plants.

One mode of travelling, with small variations, obtains through all the north of Africa. I mean by caravans (from قرو Karu, to wander from place to place). When the inhabitants have occasion to pass the boundaries of their respective states, they form themselves into a larger or smaller body, united under one head. Their association is produced by considerations of mutual convenience and security, as even the most easy and safest of the roads they are to pass, would yet be difficult and dangerous for a single traveller.

Three distinct caravans are employed in bringing slaves, and other commodities, from the interior of Africa to Kahira. One of them comes straight from Murzûk, the capital of Fezzân, another from Sennaar, and the third from Fûr. They do not arrive at fixed periods, but after a greater or less interval, according to the success they may have had in procuring slaves, and such other articles as are fitted to the market, the orders of their respective rulers, and various other accidental circumstances.

The Fezzân caravan is under the best regulations. The merchants from that place employ about fifty days in their passage from Murzûk to Kahira; which city they as often as possible contrive to reach a little before the commencement of Ramadan, that such as find themselves inclined to perform the pilgrimage, may be prepared to accompany the Emîr of Misr. The sale of their goods seldom employs them in the city much more than two months; after the expiration of which, those who have no design of visiting Mecca return to their native country. The arrival of this caravan is generally annual.

The other two are extremely various in their motions; sometimes not appearing in Egypt for the space of two or even three years, sometimes two or more distinct caravans arriving in the same year. The perpetual changes in their several governments, and the caprices of their despots, are in a great degree the occasion of this irregularity. The road also between these two places and Kahira, is often infested by bodies of independent Arabs, as that of Sennaar, by the Ababdé and Shaikié, and that of Fûr by the Cubba-Beesh and Bedeiât: the latter is however for the most part much safer than the former. The departure of a caravan from Dar-Fûr forms an important event. It engages the attention of the whole country for a time, and even serves as a kind of chronological epocha.

The period of their arrival in Kahira is as uncertain as that of their departure; for they travel indifferently either in winter or summer. The journey from Assûan to Sennaar requires much less time than that from Assiût to Dar-Fûr.

Many obstacles exist to the erection of any permanent marks by which the roads of the desert might be distinguished. Yet I have observed that the people of our caravan, in such places as afforded stones for the purpose, used to collect four or five large ones, thus raising small heaps at proper distances from each other. This affords them some satisfaction at their return; but in many places, where the sand is loose and deep, it becomes impracticable. They are then obliged to rely on the facility acquired by habit, of distinguishing the outline and characteristic features of certain rocks, as they are perfectly ignorant of the compass, and very little informed as to the fixed stars. Though the names of the constellations be little known to them, yet they distinguish such as may guide them in their course during the night. With all these aids however their deviations from the true line are not infrequent. Three times, in the course of our journey, the whole caravan was quite at a loss for the road, though some of the members of it had made ten or twelve different journies to and from Dar-Fûr. During the whole of my route I had reason to suspect that the accounts in books of travels, which have generated such terrific notions of the moving sands of Africa, are greatly exaggerated. While we remained at Leghea, indeed, a violent gale sprang from the North-west, and raised a cloud of sand. At that time I placed a wooden bowl, capable of containing about two gallons, in the open air. Thirty minutes had elapsed when it appeared completely filled with sand. Our companions indeed affected to relate various stories of caravans that had been overwhelmed. But as neither time nor place were adduced, it would seem not unreasonable to doubt the truth of the assertion.

If caravans have been thus buried on their road, it may be presumed that accident can only have happened after they have been deprived of the power of moving, by the influence of a hot wind, want of water, and other causes. A number of men, and other animals, found dead, and covered with sand, would be sufficient ground for succeeding native travellers to believe, as they are strangers to ratiocination, or, though not entirely persuaded, to relate, as they delight in the marvellous, that the persons they had found had been overwhelmed on their march; when in fact this accumulation had not happened till they were already dead. But perhaps the matter scarcely merits this discussion.

Our company consisted of nearly five hundred camels. This exceeds the number usually employed by the Jelabs on their return from Egypt, which is often not more than two hundred. In passing from Dar-Fûr to Egypt, they esteem two thousand camels, and a thousand head of slaves, a large caravan. Of persons of other countries, but particularly Egyptians, trading for themselves, there were not more than fifty, including five or six Coptic Christians, whose admittance in Dar-Fûr the monarch of that country has since forbidden. Several of this number were Muggrebines, or Occidental Arabs; the remainder, amounting to one hundred and fifty or two hundred, including the chabîr, or leader, were subjects of Fûr. Few particulars of other caravans are known to me but by report.

The Arabs and Jelabs find the camel too indispensable to their long and fatiguing voyages, not to employ much care in nourishing him. This ship of the land, (مركب البر,) as he is called, is exclusively the bearer of their fortunes, and the companion of their toils. Much care is observed in rearing him, and not unfrequently the merchant pays nearly as much for the camels to carry his merchandize, as he did for the commodities themselves; what then must be the profit that covers his expenses, his fatigue, indemnifies him for accidental losses, and yet leaves him a gainer? But if this patient and enduring animal be thus rendered subservient to their wants, or their avarice, he is not at least tortured for their caprice.

Horses are very little used by the Jelabs. They generally furnish themselves with Egyptian asses, which alleviate the fatigue of the way, and are afterwards sold in Soudân at an advanced price. The strength and spirits of this animal are recruited with a small quantity of straw and water; the horse has not the same recommendation; and these people, though not averse from parade in cities, find the labour and hazard of these voyages too enormous, not to augment their profits by all possible economy.

The provisions they use are scanty and indifferent, and by no means testify any foresight for the necessities of the sick, or for the procrastination of the voyage by those innumerable accidents that may befal them.

I did not observe that any of them were furnished with dried meat, as is common with the Fezzanners. But few used coffee and tobacco, and the rest contented themselves with a leathern bag of flour, another of bread baked hard, a leathern vessel of honey or treacle, and another of butter. The quantity of each was regulated by the number of persons, and seldom exceeded what is absolutely necessary. In travelling from Dar-Fûr to Egypt another article is much in use, especially for the slaves, which Egypt itself does not afford, or produces in no quantity. The grain chiefly in use among the Fûrians is the small kassob, called among them dokn (millet). Of this, after it has been coarsely ground, they take a quantity, and having caused it to undergo a slight fermentation, make a kind of paste. This will keep a long time, and when about to be used, water is added to it; if properly made, it becomes a tolerably palatable food. But the natives are not very delicate. From its acidity they esteem it a preventive of thirst. The fermentation gives it also a slight power of inebriating, and it has a narcotic tendency. The substance so prepared is called ginseia. The want of materials for fire on the road prevents the use of rice, and other articles that would require cookery.

Experienced travellers, among every ten camels laden with merchandize, charge one with beans, and straw chopped small, which, sparingly given, serves them during the greater part of the voyage. Those with whom I travelled were not so provided, these articles being then very dear in Egypt; and in consequence numbers of camels perished. In coming from Dar-Fûr, they use for the same purpose the dokn, and coarse hay of the country, but not altogether with the same salutary effect.

The water, in leaving Egypt, is commonly conveyed in goat skins artificially prepared; but no skill can entirely prevent evaporation. On their march from Soudân to Egypt, the Jelabs oftener use ox-hides, formed into capacious sacks and properly seasoned with tar or oil. A pair of these is a camel’s load. They keep the water in a better state for drinking than the smaller; and these sacks are sold to great advantage throughout Egypt, a pair of the best kind being sometimes worth thirty piasters. They are the common instruments for conveying water from the river to different parts of each town. The camels are not allowed to partake of this store, which, after all the care that can be taken of it, is often very nauseous, from the tar, the mud which accompanies the water in drawing, heat, &c. Six of the smaller skins, or two of the larger, are generally esteemed sufficient for four persons for as many days.

The Cubba-Beesh, and the Bedeiât, the latter of whom seem to me not of Arab origin, when they make any attempt on the caravans, commonly shew themselves between Leghea and the Bîr-el-Malha. But this road is so ill provided with any thing that is necessary for the sustenance of man or beast, that neither the wandering tribes, nor the ferocious animals, which infest other parts of the continent, are commonly found there. The Egyptians and other whites therefore, though they commonly carry fire-arms with them from the North, generally take advantage of the market of Fûr, and return without any. The natives of Soudân are furnished with a light spear, or spears, the head of which is made of unhardened iron of their country. They have also a shield of about three feet long, and one foot and a half or three-quarters broad, composed of the hide of the elephant or hippopotamus, very simple in its construction.

Intercourse with Mecca.

No regular caravan of Hadgîs leaves Dar-Fûr, but a number of the natives make their way to Mecca, either with the caravan of merchants trading to Egypt, or by way of Suakem and Jidda. The present king was about to establish his attorney (waquîl) at Mecca, but some obstacles had prevented his reaching that place, when I came away. Fear of the sea, or I know not what other cause, prevents them from choosing the route by Suakem, though it be so much shorter and less expensive than that by the way of Egypt; but the territory between Fûr and Suakem is not subject to any settled government, and those who have travelled with property have frequently been plundered there. The Tocrûri however, who come from various parts, and somewhat resemble the Derwishes of the North, travelling as paupers, with a bowl to drink out of, and a leathern bag of bread, frequently take that route and pass in safety.

Seasons, &c.

The perennial rains, which fall in Dar-Fûr, from the middle of June till the middle of September, in greater or less quantity, but generally both frequent and violent, suddenly invest the face of the country, till then dry and steril, with a delightful verdure. Except where the rocky nature of the soil absolutely impedes vegetation, wood is found in great quantity, nor are the natives assiduous completely to clear the ground, even where it is designed for the cultivation of grain.

As soon as the rains begin, the proprietor, and all the assistants that he can collect, go out to the field, and having made holes at about two feet distance from each other, with a kind of hoe, over all the ground he occupies, the dokn is thrown into them, and covered with the foot, for their husbandry requires not many instruments. The time for sowing the wheat is nearly the same. The dokn remains scarcely two months before it is ripe; the wheat about three. Wheat is cultivated only in small quantities; and the present Sultan having forbidden the sale of it, till the portion wanted for his domestic use be supplied, it is with difficulty to be procured by purchase. The Mahriek, or greater kassob, which is a larger grain than the dokn, is also common, and a small supply of sesamum, (Simsim in Arabic,) is sown. What they term beans is a species of legumen different from our bean. In what are called gardens are Bamea, Meluchîa, lentils, (adis,) kidney beans, (lubi,) and some others. The water melon, and that called in Kahira Abd-el-awi, together with some other kinds, abound during the wet season, and indeed before, if they be watered. Sultan Teraub was solicitous to procure every thing the gardens of Egypt produce, and caused much care to be taken of the culture of each article brought: but the present prince does not turn his thoughts to that kind of improvement, and little of the effect of his predecessor’s laudable anxiety is at this moment distinguishable. There are several species of trees, but none that produces fruit worth gathering, unless it be the Tamarind (Tummara[44] Hindi). The date trees are in very small number, and their fruit diminutive, dry, and destitute of flavour. That tree seems not indigenous in the country, but to have been transported from the neighbourhood of the Nile, Dongola, Sennaar, &c. The inhabitants appear not well to understand the management of this useful production; and perhaps the great drought will never admit of its flourishing, whatever diligence or care may be used to increase the number or improve the kind.