A Narrative of the Expedition to Dongola and Sennaar / Under the Command of His Excellence Ismael Pasha, undertaken / by Order of His Highness Mehemmed Ali Pasha, Viceroy of / Egypt, By An American In The Service Of The Viceroy

by George Bethune English

10th of Rebi. The river and the wind still obliged us to proceed slowly by the cordel. The country we passed to-day was fine, and had been cultivated with great care, but deserted. The face of the fields was almost covered with the household furniture of the villagers. Straw mats, equal to any sold at Cairo, were abandoned by hundreds on the spots where they had been employed for the night by the troops, when on the pursuit after the brigands who had fled from the last battle. Many of the largest of these mats the soldiers had formed into square huts for the different guards. The abandoned harvests waved solitary in the wind, and the numerous water-wheels were all motionless. We passed several large castles, not many days back garrisoned by fierce marauders, who claimed all around them, or within the reach of their horses' feet, as theirs; and many well built villages, whose inhabitants were the slaves of their will. In one of these deserted castles, we found fragments of vessels of porcelain, basins of marble, chests of polished Indian wood, the pillage probably of some caravan, and a small brass cannon. The walls of the apartments were hung with large and colored straw mats, of fine workmanship, and showed many indications of the pains taken to make them comfortable and convenient. An hour after noon, we met great numbers of men, women, and children, accompanied by their herds and flocks, who were returning to this abandoned country, by the encouragement and under the protection of the Pasha. It was an affecting sight to see almost every one of these unfortunate women carrying her naked and forlorn children either upon her shoulders or in her arms, or leading them by the hand. The pleasure I felt at seeing these proofs of the humanity of the Pasha Ismael was diminished by seeing his safe-conduct disregarded by some of the Mogrebin soldiers, and particularly by the Greek and Frank domestics of the Proto Medico Bosari, who seized from the hands of these miserable creatures as many sheep and goats as they thought they had occasion for. About an hour before sunset, we passed the encampment of Abdin Cacheff, on the right or opposite bank of the river; and at night-fall came in view of that of the Pasha about three miles farther up on the same side. We stopped to pass the night, as the boatmen were too much fatigued to draw the boat any farther to-day.

11th of Rebi. The direction of the river and the wind still the same. Proceeded slowly by the cordel till about two hours after noon, when we arrived at the camp of the Hasnardar on the left bank of the river; that of the Pasha was on the opposite side. Not far from the camp of the Hasnardar, some ruins and several small pyramids attracted my attention. As I could not go to the Pasha before to-morrow, I determined to employ the remainder of the day in a visit to these antiquities, which lay near a large high and isolated rock, about a mile distant from the river. I found before this rock the ruins of a very large temple, which covered a great space of ground. Some columns, almost consumed by time, were standing nearly buried in the rubbish. The bases of others were visible, which, from their position, evidently once supported an avenue of pillars leading to an excavation in the great rock aforementioned, against and joining on to the side of which, that fronted towards the river, this temple appeared to have been constructed. Among the ruins saw two large lions of red granite, one broken, and the other little injured, and a small headless statue, about two feet high, in a sitting posture. On approaching the front of the rock, found it excavated into a small temple, whose interior was sculptured with the usual figures and symbols seen in the temples of ancient Egypt. Its roof, and that of the porch before it, exhibited several traces of the azure with which it had been painted. The porch before this excavation was supported by Caryatid figures, representing huge lions standing nearly erect upon their hinder legs. The ruins before the rock seemed to me to have originally composed a large temple, of which this excavation was the inner sanctuary. The pyramids were close by these ruins. I counted seventeen, some of them in ruins, and others perfect. Those which were uninjured were small, of a height greater than the breadth of the base, which was generally about twenty feet square; the sides resembled steep stairs. They were however compactly and very handsomely constructed of hewn stones, similar to the rock before mentioned, and probably taken from it. Before some of these pyramids, and attached to one of their sides, we found low buildings, resembling small temples, and, judging from the interior of one we found open, intended as such, as the inside of this one was covered with the usual hieroglyphics and figures. It would be a work of little difficulty to open the pyramid to which was attached the little temple I entered, as the figure of a door of stone in the pyramid is to be seen, when inside of the temple, attached to its side. In view from this place, many other pyramids were in view higher up the river, on the opposite bank, one of them large. The people of the country called the place I visited, "Meroe" as likewise the whole territory where these ruins are found. The ruins I have mentioned do not appear ever to have been disturbed. I doubt not that several remains worth research lie concealed under the rubbish, which here covers a great space of ground. No other remains of antiquity are visible in this place besides those I have mentioned. The immediate spot where they stand, and its vicinity backward from the river, is covered by the sand of the Desert, underneath which probably many more lie concealed.

The river Nile has been represented, and I think with justice, as one of the wonders of the world. I do not consider it as meriting this appellation so much on account of its periodical and regular floods, in which respect it is resembled by several other rivers, as on account of another circumstance, in which, so far as I know, it is without a parallel.

The Nile resembles the path of a good man in a wicked and worthless world. It runs through a desert—a dry, barren, hideous desert; on the parts of which adjoining its course it has deposited the richest soil in the world, which it continually waters and nourishes. This soil has been the source of subsistence to several powerful nations who have established and overthrown mighty kingdoms, and have originated the arts, the religion, the learning and the civilization of the greater part of the ancient world. These nations, instructors and pupils, have perished; but the remains of their stupendous labors, the pyramids and the temples of Egypt, Nubia, and in the countries now visited for the first time, at least for many ages, by minds capable of appreciating the peoples who erected them, are more than sufficient to excite astonishment and respect for the nations who founded them. The few in stances that I have mentioned are such as have presented themselves to my notice in sailing up the river, without my having the opportunity to scrutinize them particularly, or time or means to pursue any researches in the vicinity of those I have seen, by which doubtless many more would be discovered. Some future traveler in these interesting and remote regions, who may have the power and the means to traverse at his leisure the banks and islands I have seen and admired, will, I believe, find his labors rewarded by discoveries which will interest the learned, and gratify the curious.

A voyage up the Nile may be considered as presenting an epitome of the moral history of man. We meet at almost every stage with the monuments of his superstition, his tyranny, or his luxury; but with few memorials of his ingenuity directed with a view to real utility. We also every where behold the traces of the vengeance of Almighty Justice upon his crimes. Everywhere on the banks of the ancient river we behold cities, once famous for power and luxury, a desolation, and dry like a wilderness; and temples once famous, and colossal idols once feared, now prostrate and confounded with the dust of their worshippers. "The flocks lie down in the midst thereof: the cormorant and bittern lodge in the temples and palaces. Their voice sings in the windows, and desolation is in the thresholds."

The peoples who now occupy the territories of nations extinct or exterminated have profited neither by their history nor their fate. What was once a land occupied by nations superstitious and sensual is now inhabited by robbers and slaves. The robbers have been expelled or slain, and the oppressed peasant is emancipated by the arms of the nation who avenged the cause of Heaven upon the degenerate Greeks, but who nevertheless have derived neither instruction nor warning from their downfall and subjugation. The Nile meantime, which has seen so many nations and generations rise and disappear, still flows and overflows, to distribute its fertilizing waters to the countries on its borders: like the Good Providence, which seems unwearied in trying to overcome the ingratitude of Man by the favors of Heaven.

On my arrival at the camp, I was informed of the particulars of the progress of the victorious son of the distinguished Meheromet Ali from Wady Haifa to Meroe. Before his march every thing had submitted or fallen. All attempts to arrest his progress had proved as unavailing as the obstacles opposed by the savage rocks of the Cataracts of the Nile to the powerful course of that beneficent and fertilizing river.

His Excellence, as said before, set out from Wady Haifa on the 26th of Zilhadge last. In ten days of forced march he arrived at New Dongola. A little beyond this village, the Selictar, at the head of a detachment of about four hundred men, surprised and dispersed about fifteen hundred of the enemy, taking many of their horses and camels. Four days' march beyond New Dongola, the Pasha, at the head of the advance guard of the army, came up with the main body of the Shageias and their allies, strongly posted on the side of a mountain near a village called Courty, on the westerly bank of the river. The Pasha at this juncture had with him but six hundred cavalry and some of the Abbadies mounted on dromedaries, of whom we had about five hundred with the army, but none of his cannon. The enemy advanced to the combat with loud screams and cries, and with great fury. The Abbadies could not withstand their charge, and were driven rearward. At this critical instant, his Excellence gave the order, and the cavalry of the Pasha charged and poured in the fire of their carabines and pistols. After a conflict of no long duration, the cavalry of the enemy fled in dismay, while those who fought on foot fell on their faces, throwing their shields over their heads to secure them from the tramp of the cavalry, and implored mercy.

In consequence of the result of this affair, all the country between the place of combat and Shageia, i.e. the country occupied by the castles and immediate subjects of the Maleks of Shageia, submitted and were pardoned. The Pasha pursued his march to the province of Shageia, where Malek Shouus, the principal among the Shageia chiefs, had collected the whole force of the republic of the brigands with a determination to risk another battle. The Pasha found, on his arrival, a part of their force posted on an island near the long mountain I have mentioned in my journal as having been the scene of a combat a few day? before I reached it. Those of the enemy who were in the island were forthwith attacked by troops sent over in the boats which accompanied the army, and were cut to pieces or driven into the river. The army then advanced to attack the great mass of the enemy in their position on the mountain. It was a very advantageous one. The mountain runs nearly at right angles with the river, which it nearly reaches, leaving between itself and the river a tract of ground about a quarter of a mile in width, which at the time was covered with plantations of durra. The enemy were posted on the side of this mountain and among the durra in the open ground between the mountain and the river; so that their rear was secured by the mountain, and their right covered by a strong castle at the foot of its extremity lying off from the river. Malek Shouus, Malek Zibarra, and the other chiefs of Shageia, and their immediate followers, composed the cavalry of the enemy. They had assembled, either by force or persuasion, all the peasantry subject to their dominion, the whole forming a mass which blackened the whole side of the mountain. Their arms consisted of lances, shields and long broad swords double-edged. These wretched peasants, who were all on foot, their masters posted in front in order to receive and exhaust the fire of the Pasha's troops; while Shouus and the cavalry occupied the rear in order to keep the peasants to their posts, and to have the start of the Pasha's cavalry in case they should find it necessary to take to flight. The Pasha posted his troops parallel to the enemy, placing the greater part of the cavalry opposite the open ground between the mountain and the river, and pushing the artillery a little in advance. The enemy with loud cries and uplifted lances rushed forward. Some of the peasants in advance of the others, with no other arms than lances and shields, threw themselves upon the cannon and were blown to pieces.[22] The castle on the right of the enemy was stormed. After feeling the effects of a few rounds from the artillery, which dashed horse and man to pieces, the cavalry of the enemy fled in dismay, leaving their infantry to be rode over and shot down [23] by our cavalry, who destroyed many hundreds of them in the battle and during the pursuit. Malek Shouus and his cavalry did not discontinue their flight till they reached the territory of Shendi, leaving their numerous and strong castles, their dependant villages, and a rich and beautiful country, in the hands of the conqueror.[24]

On the 12th of Rebi, I passed over to the camp of the Pasha. I did not however obtain an audience of his Excellence till two days after, when, being alone, he sent for me, and received me in the most nattering manner, ordering me as usual to sit in his presence. After the usual compliments, I informed his Excellence that I had been much mortified and distressed, that the act of God, in depriving me of the use of my eyes a few days before his Excellence left Wady Halfa, had prevented me from accompanying his victorious march, and participating in the exploits of his troops; so that I had not arrived till there was nothing left to do. His Excellence replied that a "great deal more remained to be done, in which I should have a share." I replied with a compliment, and then demanded horses and camels for myself, and the soldiers I had brought with me; he replied "that I should have them." After some further conversation, of a confidential nature, I retired. During the nine days following, I had reason to applaud the humanity and good policy of the Pasha, in offering amnesty and peace to all the brigands who should come in and surrender themselves. Several of their chiefs, whom they call "Maleks" accompanied by their followers, came in while the camp remained near Meroe. The chiefs were presented with costly habiliments, and the written protection of his Excellence, recognizing them as under his safeguard; and returned with their followers to their homes, tranquillized and contented. The most rigid discipline was observed in the camp, to prevent the people of the country from suffering by the presence of the army. Some soldiers and domestics were severely beaten for taking sheep and goats without paying for them, and five of the Abbadies (or auxiliaries mounted on dromedaries) were impaled for having seized some camels from the peasants. It was truly honorable to the army and its commander to see villages embosomed in a camp, whose inhabitants, men, women and children, pursued their usual occupations, without molestation and without fear. In the country below, which had been the scene of combat, the fields were deserted, and for several days I had not seen a peasant at work upon the ground. In the vicinity of the camp of the Pasha, where the people had submitted themselves, the discordant creak of the water-wheels frequently attracted the ear, and the peasants cultivated their fields within musket shot of the camp of a conqueror.