As to the manufactures of the people of the Upper Nile, they are limited, I believe, to the following articles, Earthenware for domestic uses and bowls for pipes; cotton cloths for clothing; knives, mattocks, hoes and ploughs, for agriculture, water-wheels for the same; horse furniture, such as the best formed saddles I ever rode on, very neatly fabricated; stirrups in the European form, made of silver for the chiefs, and not like those of the Turks; large iron spurs, bits with small chains for reins, to prevent them from being severed by the stroke of an enemy's broadsword; long and double edged broadswords, with the guard frequently made of silver; iron heads for lances, and shields made of the hide of the elephant; to which may be added, that the women fabricate very beautiful straw mats.
There is a general resemblance, in domestic customs, among all the peoples who inhabit the borders of the Nile from Assuan to Sennaar. They differ, however, somewhat in complexion and character. The people of the province of Succoot are generally not so black as the Nubian or the Dongolese. They are also frank and prepossessing in their deportment. The Dongolese is dirty, idle, and ferocious. The character of the Shageian is the same, except that he is not idle, being either an industrious peasant or a daring freebooter. The people on the third cataract are not very industrious, but have the character of being honest and obliging. The people of Berber are by far the most civilized of all the people of the Upper Nile. The inhabitants of the provinces of Shendi and Halfya are a sullen, scowling, crafty, and ferocious people; while the peasants of Sennaar inhabiting the villages we found on our route, are a respectable people in comparison with those of the capital. Throughout the whole of these countries there is one general characteristic, in which they resemble the Indians of America, namely, courage and self-respect. The chiefs, after coming to salute the Pasha, would make no scruple of sitting down facing him, and converse with him without embarrassment, in the same manner as they are accustomed to do with their own Maleks, with whom they are very familiar. With the greatest apparent simplicity they would frequently propose troublesome questions to the Pasha, such as, "O great Sheck, or O great Malek; (for so they called the Pasha) what have we done to you, or your country, that you should come so far to make war upon us? Is it for want of food in your country that you come to get it in ours?" and others similar.
On the 14th of the moon Shawal, Cogia Achmet returned to Sennaar, bringing with him about two thousand prisoners as slaves, consisting almost entirely of women and children. The events of his expedition were related to me as follows: He marched rapidly for ten days in a direction about south-west of Sennaar, (the capital) without resistance, through a well-peopled country, without meeting with any opposition till he came to the mountains of Bokki, inhabited by Pagans, the followers of the chief who had rejected the Pasha's letter. They were posted on a mountain of difficult access; but their post was stormed, and after a desperate struggle, they found that spears and swords, though wielded by stout hearts and able hands, were not a match for fire-arms. They fled to another mountain, rearward of their first position. They were again attacked by cannon and musketry, and obliged to fly toward a third position: in their flight, they were in part hemmed in by the cavalry of Cogia Achmet, and about fifteen hundred of them put to the sword. Those who escaped took refuge in a craggy mountain, inaccessible to cavalry. Cogia Achmet, believing he had made a sufficient proof to them that resistance on their part was unavailing, and the troops having suffered great distress by reason of the almost continual rains, after sweeping the villages of these people of all the population they could find in them, resumed his march for Sennaar. On their return, they had to ford several deep streams, at this season running from the mountains, and both horse and man were almost worn out before they reached Sennaar.
The people of Bokki are a hardy race of mountaineers—tall, stout, and handsome. They are Pagans, worshippers of the sun, which planet they consider it as profane to look at. The prisoners brought in by Cogia Achmet resembled in their dress the savages of America; they were almost covered with beads, bracelets, and trinkets, made out of pebbles, bones, and ivory. Their complexion is almost black, and their manners and deportment prepossessing. The arms of these people gave me great surprise: they consisted of well-formed and handsome helmets of iron, coats of mail, made of leather and overlaid with plates of iron, long and well fashioned lances, and a hand-weapon exactly resembling the ancient bills formerly used in England by the yeomanry. They were represented to me by the Turks as dangerous in personal combat. They had never seen fire-arms before, and they nevertheless withstood them with great intrepidity. They said, I was informed, that a fusee was "a coward's weapon, who stands at a safe distance from his enemy, and kills him by an invisible stroke."[65]
On the 17th, the courier carrying the information to Cairo of this expedition and its results, embarked in a canja to descend the river as far as Berber, from whence he would proceed by the desert to Egypt. Agreeably to the promise of the Pasha, I accompanied him. We arrived at Nousreddin in Berber in five days and nights. Having the favor of the current, and sixteen oarsmen on board, we descended with great rapidity. The view of the country from the river is not pleasing, as the villages lie almost invariably far off from the river; the country, therefore, has the appearance of being almost uninhabited. We saw great numbers of hippopotami, who, in the night, would lift their heads out of the water at no great distance from the canja. They were sometimes fired at, but without apparent effect. We stopped, during the night, for an hour at Shendi, to leave orders from the Pasha to a small garrison of Turkish troops stationed there.[66] The river Nile, below the point of junction with the great Bahar el Abiud, presents a truly magnificent spectacle.[67] Between Halfya and Shendi, the river is straitened and traverses a deep and gloomy defile formed by high rocky hills, between which the Nile runs dark, deep, and rapidly for about twelve or fifteen miles. On emerging from this defile, the river again spreads itself majestically, and flows between immense plains of herbage, bounded only by the horizon: its banks nearly full, but not yet overflowed. About thirty miles above Nousreddin, we passed the mouth of the Bahar el Iswood (on the eastern shore); it is the last river that empties into the Nile. I estimated it at about two-thirds of a mile broad at its embouchure. The Nile, below the point of junction with this river, is more than two miles from bank to bank, at this season. During the two first days of our voyage, we had some severe squalls and very heavy rains; but after passing the territory of Sennaar, we had a sky almost without a cloud.
On our arrival at Nousreddin, no more dromedaries could be immediately obtained than were sufficient to mount the courier and his two guides. I was, therefore, obliged to tarry five days in Nousreddin before I could find a caravan journeying to Egypt.
On the 28th of Shawal, I quitted Nousreddin, along with a caravan on its way to Egypt from Sennaar, conducted by a soldier attached to the Cadilaskier of the army of Ismael Pasha, who was conducting to Egypt twenty-two dromedaries and camels, and some slaves, belonging to the Cadilaskier, and four fine horses belonging to the Pasha.
We started at about three hours before noon, and after marching for three hours, stopped at a village named Sheraffey, to obtain rations for the horses and camels to subsist them through the desert. Our route lay on the outside of the villages, and on the border of the desert. The villages are numerous and well built of sun-dried bricks, and the face of the country, on our side of the river, perfectly level.
We stayed at Sheraffey until the next morning: the conductor of the caravan not being able to obtain at this place the durra he wanted for his cattle, we proceeded to a village called Hassah, which is about an hour's march from Sheraffey. We stayed there till next morning.
On the 30th of the Moon, at day-light, we mounted our camels, and proceeded on our road, which lay on the skirts of the desert. We passed a continual succession of large, well-built and populous villages, lying about a mile distant from the river; the weather serene and cool, as it has been since our arrival in Berber. We halted at about the middle of the forenoon, by a village called Abdea, until an hour and a half before sunset, when we again set forward, and after marching for three hours and a half, halted for the remainder of the night in a small village, half in ruins. The reason of our short marches and frequent stoppages was, to give the conductor of the caravan opportunities to make provision for passing the desert. He might have done it at any of the villages, had he been content to pay the price demanded; but as he was a man who seemed to hold hard bargains in horror, and to love money with great affection, he did not give the latter for durra till he was absolutely obliged to make the afflictive exchange.