“With regard to the desire which you expressed to us, to know the source of the inundation of the river that divides our country, we have to inform you that this sea (river) of ours is a great and extensive lake, the circumference of which is about twenty days’ journey, and into which various rivers empty themselves from the part of the land of Soodan, and from the right and east of our country, which joins the uninhabited mountains and the land of the Pagans, to whom no one goes. And God only knows what is to be found on the other side of these places.
“Send our salutation to the great King of the English, and to every one who inquires after us amicably.
(Sealed) “MOHAMMED EL KANEMY.”
(Dated) “Sunday, the eve of the end of the month of
Rajab, 1240.” (About the 20th of March, 1825.)
2.—A Document containing the List of the Property left by Mr. Tyrwhit, as alluded to in the foregoing Letter, and a Certificate of his Death, and the Things that were found after the Return of the Sheikh from his Expedition.
The List.
“Whereas the Elders and Priests of the metropolis of the Arabs (Barnoo), having assembled and repaired to the house of the deceased English traveller, named Tair (Tyrwhit), who died on Monday the last day of Saffar, 1240, to ascertain and note down what he left; it proved, in their presence, that all his property was as follows:
“First, two swords and a sash, a musket, a pair of pistols, another pair ditto, three . . . ., a sash, six silver spoons, a fork, a razor, fifteen bottles of . . . . . ., eleven . . . . . ., four coffee cups, three cupping glasses, a sun scale (quadrant), a . . . . ., three squares of soap, a box containing some . . . . ., four . . . . ., two pair of boots or slippers, a skull cotton cap, a woollen ditto, an Indian looking-glass, twenty pieces of wearing apparel, as shirts, drawers, &c. of his country, six towels, a paper containing some cinnamon, a black napkin handkerchief for his neck, four hand napkins, two . . . . ., a pillow of Soodan manufacture, a silk sash, a silk cord, a . . . . ., a jacket embroidered with silver, a yard of red cloth, a canvas bag, three gun covers, a cord for trowsers, some boxes containing part of these things, a pair of Constantinople slippers, a pair of Barbary ditto, or shoes, two scrapers of pig’s hair (tooth-brushes), a looking-glass, ten pounds of gunpowder, twenty-three bundles of . . . . ., three looking-glasses for the nose (spectacles), a . . . . ., another hand napkin, three empty . . . . ., a broken glass, three squares of soap again, a . . . . three watch rings, a pair of fine razors, a pound of antimony, a pound of coral, fifty-three beads of amber, a pair of Soodanie boots, three pair ditto of his country, a red cloth bornouse or cloak, a . . . . ., fifty hard dollars, fifty-two books, a coffee waiter, two tin cans, three burning glasses, a telescope, a waistcoat, a white bornouse of Barbary, a towel, another bornouse, a writing desk, an umbrella, two loaves of sugar, a . . . . ., two time pieces for the road (compasses), a nose looking-glass (spectacles), a razor, two cork-screws, or ramrod screws, a . . . . ., five . . . . ., three pair of trowsers, four tiger skins, two mats of Noofee, two beds, or small Turkish carpets, a pillow of Soodan, five sacks, fifteen water skins, or leather bags, a cooking pot, a saucepan, an ewer, two large jars, a pan, two coffee pots, two . . . ., two hooks, four empty . . . . ., a chisel, a hammer, a camel, a female ditto, a horse, a mule, two saddles of Barnoo, one ditto of his country, three wax cloth covers, a . . . . ., two sun glasses, fifty medicine bottles, a woollen bed or carpet, a . . . . .; and Hamdo Et-tafteef has by him a network shirt or dress, a bird called Jamaj-mak; and he confessed that he borrowed fifty dollars from the deceased.
“Besides the above property, it was found that he has to receive twenty dollars from one of the inhabitants of Barnoo, and thirty from another; as likewise twenty-four dollars from the servant of the sharif Barakat, sixty dollars from the Mamluk Bey Mohammed, and 165 from the Mamluk Mohammed, son of Hadje Mahmood.
“His debts to various persons are as follows: fourteen and a half dollars to Hamdo Et-tafteef for . . . . ., eight dollars to the same, for a bed and six pounds of . . . . ., four feathers to . . . . ., and the wages of his two servants; as likewise, three dollars to the burying people, and two dollars to the man who watched his tomb at night, to prevent the body from being devoured by the hyena.