INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
Discoveries and conquests, which so frequently go hand in hand, are of the greatest importance to the history of mankind. Like a combination of streams, they break through natural boundaries and the rocky dams of ages, and open a way for the incessant progress of civilization through new and untrodden paths. Yet glorious enterprises, costly equipments, and hazardous exploits, may conceal a swelling kernel of material interest beneath a husk of fine reasons, as if these constituted the primitive motive. Thus Mohammed Ali, the Viceroy of Egypt, has done very much for science, especially geography, without even thinking of it, whose comprehensive relations, with respect to the higher requirements of mankind, lie far beyond the limits of his ideas. Neither has he honoured with his study the hieroglyphics in the Biban el Moluk near Thebes, where the black Kushi bring golden rings as tribute to the Pharaohs. Yet he knows, and is so exceedingly fond of these rings (Okiën), which in Ethiopia even now serve instead of money, that, so far as the destroying arms of this much-famed satrap reach in Belled-Sudan, no more okiën are to be seen. Moreover, he is making exertions to follow and secure those that have retreated and eluded his grasp, which affords an excellent opportunity for extending our knowledge of the countries and people of East and Central Africa. He sacrificed his son Ismail, and, through the Defterdar, devastated and depopulated this beautiful country, merely to secure to himself the way to the gold regions; though he might have attained his object much better, had he sought to elevate the country in every possible way, and to re-establish mercantile confidence. For, from the earliest ages, a market has existed here, to which gold comes, first hand, in the leaf and grain form, by barter with the inhabitants of the interior, just as it has been separated from the sand of the torrents, and kept in quills or horns of the gazelle. In Sennaar or Kordofan it is found in rings of half and whole okiën and in gold wire, but it is frequently changed, by weighing and melting it down, into ingots or bars, which Mohammed Ali just as little contemns.
But “Turks:”—in this one word is included all and every answer to questions on the condition of the people. We shrug up our shoulders, and say “Turks.” Whoever has lived some time amongst them must, from the clearest conviction, confess the perfect incapacity of these Turks for advancing and civilizing the countries under their government, and their indifference to the interests, nay, even their premeditated murder of the nations infested by them. The complete depravity of the Asiatic world, even in the lifeless and powerless form of a mass dissolved in corrupt fermentation, always effervesces strongly into cruelty with the wide-spread barbarians of the East, and displays itself in bestial vices, to the disgrace of mankind and scorn of the sacred bond of nations. A truly savage nature is theirs, which, from Montenegro to the east and south, repels all western civilization, and would seek a kind of national fame by ridiculous reactions against it, as a hated and even despised foreign state of manners and life, in order to cover their nakedness and infamy, and to cloak their empty ostentation. But the Turk of Egypt is the outcast of his countryman in Turkey itself. Egypt, for example, is so decried in Albania, on account of its corruption, that the Arnaut returning from thence seldom obtains a wife, even if he have his girdle full of red gold.
The smallest portion of the white Mohammedan population, called Turks without distinction in Egypt and Ethiopia, belongs to the Albanian nation, which, on the whole, provides the Egyptian army with its best if not also with its cleverest men. This army is a mixture of heterogeneous materials, having only their religion in common, and the same slavish treatment and prospect of booty for their bond of union. If the Turk has no remains left of his ancient aptitude for conquests but the thirst of power which has accompanied his victories; a haughty contempt of the rest of the world; the belief, spread throughout the East, that European princes hold their crowns from the Sultan by feudal tenure; and a boundless presumption, which of itself would seem sufficient to destroy his dominion for ever, yet the Sultan still remains the Padishah of God’s ancient grace to his people.
This arises from the prevailing conglomeration of ideas about absolute power, and a slavery denying the rights of subjects to form themselves into an union of freemen. Thus Mohammed Ali is looked upon as an intruder, an usurper, and a tyrant, not only by the people, for he is feared, hated, and cursed even by the Turks; a circumstance which makes his position so much the more difficult, and his administration more oppressive and destructive. The whole aim of his conquests, which he has pursued with such obstinacy, is immediate enrichment at any price; a dangerous and destructive principle which animates all his wild hordes and mercenaries, since it exercises the most pernicious influence over what has been gained with a devastating hand, and in addition prepares unutterable misery which will annihilate itself at last, for the Turks, shewing no pity here, have none to expect. Thus, in my presence in Taka, thirty-two Turkish horsemen with their servants were slain at a feast given them by the Haddendas, not to mention other examples, which shew the feeling prevalent amongst the people of Ethiopia against their conquerors. Yet, as we before said, evil spirits must often serve the good against their will; so, also, Mohammed Ali must be of use to our scientific researches, although an involuntary instrument in the hands of civilisation.
The treasures which Mohammed Ali had collected with Turkish cunning and cruelty combined, threatened to be engulfed. The army and the fleet—Syria, Arabia, and Albania—in one place war, in the other military levies and plots against the Porte—disbursements in all kinds of ventures with their costly cheats and samples—manufactories and other establishments—travellers and agents to spread his fame, and give him a good European reputation—unprecedented embezzlements of the public funds, &c., and, lastly, Constantinople, that insatiable gulf and grave of the Eastern world—all these had completely exhausted his finances. There seemed but little more to be gained by him, excepting the temples and antiquities, the sale of which is not beyond the reach of possibility. Mohammed Ali was in this embarrassment, when he determined to realise the plan of immediately laying claim to the treasures of Fàzogl and Kordofàn. His Highness obtained, by paying dearly for their services, certain officers from the Austrian mining works, whose contract, however, (dated Jan. 15th, 1836, in Trieste,) was so cunningly drawn up, that it only agreed to an examination of the mountainous part of Syria, Tarsus, and Adana. In Egypt itself, however, a fresh negotiation took place, and the offers of the Viceroy, who, in his imagination, already perceived an Ethiopian gold fleet sailing down the Nile, were so tempting, that Russegger, the director of this mining expedition, accepted the invitation to go with a part of the company to Kordofàn and Fàzogl, in order to open those veins of gold from which the old Venetian ducats had been extracted.
Russegger ate, drank, and lorded it like a bey, the pay of which rank was granted to him, with a liberal board suitable to it. He made use of this profitable opportunity to ramble about Belled-Sudàn, and to write an expensive journal, which Mohammed Ali (though it must have been with a heavy heart, no treasure having been raised) honoured, like a worthy Mecænas, with his especial approbation, so that the curious world has procured a cheap work, and the author the acknowledgment due to him in his native country.
The issue, however, of the exploration for the precious metals had answered so little the expectations of the Basha, that he could not resolve to pay 30,000 Spanish dollars to the experienced Russegger to put the mine into operation in Fàzogl, as Boreani, the founder of his great guns, whom the Basha, from pure mistrust, had added as an assistant to the before-mentioned expeditition, asked only 15,000 crown thalers (about 3,094l. English) as his eventual reward. Russegger had already, as being a German, many opponents in the Italian spirits of Alexandria and Káhira, and though Boreani had far more limited acquirements, yet he knew how to anticipate the fame of discoveries, by loud boasting, (having gone through a much more extensive routine of experiments and investigations,) and knew also how to make the best of them with Mohammed Ali. Nevertheless, the Basha at last trusted neither, and determined, as soon as possible, to examine the matter himself. Thus the Viceroy, in the autumn of 1838, undertook a journey of discovery into the country of the Blacks. There were also other circumstances which made it appear desirable to the crafty old man to avoid, for some time, the diplomatists in Alexandria, and certain pressing questions of theirs. Together with this bold journey to Fàzogl, Mohammed Ali, in the summer of 1838, had decided upon a navigation of the White branch of the Nile, with the same golden object. It was on Oct. 15th of this year, that I, who had been for some time an anchorite in the deserts near Tura, and had just returned from a hunt on the ruins of Memphis, saw, from the left bank of the Nile, Abu Dagn (father of the beard), as Mohammed Ali was designated by the Fellahs standing near me, and when closer, pointed out to me as Effendina (his Excellency) steam past in his yacht, hastening away to those regions I had just so wished to visit. I had already been informed in Alexandria, over a glass of wine, by the Frigate-Capitan, Ahmed, (Baumgärtner, from Switzerland,) of the secret plan of the expedition to the White Stream (Bah’r el abiàd). I had used every exertion, and strained every nerve, to be allowed to accompany the voyage of discovery, but my endeavours were in vain, as my silence could not be confided in, being a Nazrani,—the expression of the authority most nearly concerned, as Ahmed informed me, with a shrug of the shoulders.
The scientific researches were entrusted to this Ahmed-Capitan, who had before accompanied Russegger to Belled-Sudàn, and had just returned from thence. He set out in August, and, on his arrival in Sennaar, made, in the same year, an experimental journey up the White Stream, as far as the lower island of the Shilluks. He died, however, at Khartum, in the May of the following year—before I arrived there with my younger brother—deserted by the few Franks residing there; and even at the very moment of his death, according to the usual custom of the country, they were dividing his property among themselves without scruple, and handing over the gleanings to the Divan to be sold. But the enterprise to examine the Bah’r el abiàd was delayed only a short time by the death of Baumgärtner, because the other Frigate-Capitan, Selim, was exceedingly anxious to gain alone the Turkish laurels. But the prospect of joining ourselves to the expedition seemed lost to us brothers; for we had kept this constantly in our eye, and considered it as the extent of our wishes in Africa, since through Baumgärtner’s influence we might certainly hope for a procul a fulmine.