On the 1st of Zilkade we started at daylight, and marched till about two hours after sunrise, when we stopped at some villages called Gannettee. The country we passed since yesterday is the desert, which comes down close to the river's bank, presenting but few spots fit for cultivation. We were informed last night, that the camp of Mehemmet Bey, who is on his way from Egypt with five thousand men, to take possession of Darfour and Kordofan, is on the other side of the river.[68] The weather continues serene and not very hot. Stayed at Gannettee till about the middle of the afternoon, when we proceeded on our journey through a a desert and dreary country, without either habitations or cultivation, as the desert comes here down to the river. The rocks and stones of the desert are generally of black granite. No verdure was to be seen, except on the margin of the river. The river hereabouts is much impeded by rocks and rapids, but contains many beautiful islands, some of them very large, fertile, populous, and well cultivated. Malek Mohammed el Hadgin commands this country. His province, called "El Raba Tab," contains eighty-eight large and fertile islands, and the shores of the river adjacent. He has a very high character for courage, morals, and generosity; he resides on the great island of Mograt, which is said to be about sixty miles long.[69]
We halted at about three hours before midnight on the bank of the river, within hearing of a Shellal, where the river forms a regular cataract, except a small pass on the easterly shore. After reposing the camels an hour and a half, and refreshing ourselves with bread and the muddy water of the Nile, we recommenced our march, which was continued without cessation till an hour before noon next morning, always through the desert, in order to cut a point of land formed by an angle in the river, when we stopped under the shade of some fine date trees on the bank of the river, and in view of one of its large and ever verdant isles, called Kandessee, in a small island adjoining which Khalil Aga, my companion, says he saw, when he ascended the third cataract,[70] a pyramid more modern and fresh than any he had seen in these countries. Possibly the island of Kandessee takes its name from the celebrated Candace, who, in the reign of Nero, repulsed and defeated the Roman legions, and this pyramid may be her tomb. Under the date trees, on the bank of the river opposite to this island, we refreshed ourselves with our usual repast, bread and water, as the people of a village close by would give us meat neither for love, money, nor soap,[71] of which latter article they stand in great but unconscious need.
3d of Zilkade quitted our station about two hours after midnight, and went on our way. Our route continued to lie through the desert, but not far from the bank of the river; about three hours before noon in the morning came to a small village, named Haphasheem, lying on the margin of the river, opposite a verdant island it was delightful to look at. The river on the third cataract, Khalil Aga tells me, contains a continual chain of such.[72] I could not get any thing to relish our usual repast of bread and water, except some dates.
My eyes to-day were much inflamed by the reflection of the sun's rays from the sand, and at night were very painful and running with matter. Stayed here till about the same hour after midnight as yesterday, when we again set forward. The country the same as yesterday, except that we saw several stony mountains in the desert, some of them at no great distance from the river. Some of these mountains must contain ruins, as at the village where we halted to-day, which we did at about noon, we found a very large and well-fashioned burnt brick, which the peasants said was brought from one of these mountains. The whole of the country through which we have passed for four days contains no cultivable land on this side of the river, except on its margin; but in compensation for this sterility, the islands in this part of the river, which are numerous, very large, and very beautiful, are without a superior for luxuriance of vegetation. Every day when we have come to the river to halt and refresh ourselves, we found one or more in view. At this last station I was lucky enough to purchase a small kid at the enormous price of twelve piasters, the first meat we had eaten for four days. Applied at night a poultice of dates to my eyes, which were much inflamed by today's march, and found some relief from the remedy. At about three hours after midnight we again resumed our travel, and marched till an hour before noon of to-day, the 5th of Zilkade expecting to arrive at the place where the road quits the river, and plunges into the great eastern desert of Africa; but the weather becoming close and very hot, and the camels fatigued, we halted to repose them and ourselves on the bank of the river. Shortly after our arrival two of the camels of the caravan died. Our route still lay through plains and over hills of rock and sand, which come down to the river's edge, but the river, as usual, presented a continual succession of beautiful islands.
The death of the two camels having alarmed the conductor of the caravan for the others, we stayed in this place till the middle of the second day after to repose and refresh them previous to entering the desert. During our stay here I engaged a man to swim over to the island opposite, to purchase some durra flour and dates. He could, however, obtain only some dates. I was obliged, in consequence, to reconcile myself to entering the desert short of provisions. I had made provision in Berber for fifteen days, being assured that in twelve days we should have passed the desert, and arrive at the villages on the bank of the Nile four days march above Assuan. The unexpected retardments of our march from Berber had, however, made us nine days in arriving at the place where the road turns into the desert. On the 7th of the moon, at about two hours before sunset, we quitted our halting-place, and after only one hour's march by the border of the river came to a place where the Nile suddenly turns off toward the south-west.[73] At this place the guide told us we were to fill our waterskins, and to quit the river for the desert.
We stayed here till the afternoon of the 8th of the moon.
The two last nights we have kept watch, and only slept with our hands upon our arms, robbers being, we were told, in this neighborhood, who had lately pillaged some caravans. We were not, however, molested. The desert, on the border of the river hereabouts, abounds with doum trees, which are inhabited by great numbers of monkeys. Its fruit furnishes their food. This fruit consists in a large nut, on the outside covered with a brown substance almost exactly resembling burned gingerbread. It is, however, so hard that no other teeth and jaws, except those of a monkey or an Arab, are well capable of biting it. About one hour's march below our present position is an encampment of Bedouins and the tomb of a Marabout. The people of the country and the caravans had piled his grave with camels' and asses saddles, probably intended as offerings to interest his good offices in the other world.
At about four hours after the noon of the 8th, we quitted the banks of the Nile, and turned into the desert, carrying as much water as we well could, myself taking four water-skins for myself, Khalil Aga, and a black slave of mine. We marched till about an hour before midnight, when we halted for an hour to breathe the camels and to eat a morsel of bread, after which we continued our way till nearly day-break, when one of the Pasha's horses falling down and refusing to rise, it was necessary to wait till the animal had taken a little rest. We threw ourselves upon the sand, and slept profoundly for two hours, when we were roused to continue our journey. We proceeded till about two hours before noon, when we halted in a low sandy plain, sprinkled here and there with thorny bushes. These bushes afforded food for the camels, and a miserable shelter from the sun for ourselves. We shoved embodies under them as closely to their roots as the thorns would admit, to sleep as well sheltered as possible from the burning rays of the vertical sun. But sound sleep in this condition was impossible, as every half-hour the sun advancing in his course contracted or changed the shadow of the bush, and obliged us to change our position; as to sleep in his rays in this climate is not only almost impossible but dangerous, it almost infallibly producing a fever of the brain.
The country we traversed this first day's journey is a level plain of sand and gravel, with scattered mountains of black granite here and there in view, where no sound is heard but the rush of the wind. The weather was cool enough during the day, and coldish in the night.[74] In the afternoon we again set forward, proceeding and halting as yesterday, viz. once for an hour about two hours before midnight, and once again a little before day-break for an hour and a half. The desert continued to exhibit the same aspect as before till about midnight, when we quitted the plains to enter among gloomy defiles, winding between mountains of black granite. We passed one chain, and at a little beyond the entrance of another, lying about two leagues to the north of the first, the guide told us that we were near the well Apseach; soon after we arrived at a place containing bushes. Here the caravan halted, and those who wanted fresh water filled their water-skins from the well which lies in the mountains, about an hour's march from the place where we halted. This well is at the bottom of an oblique passage leading into one of the mountains, at the termination of which is found no great quantity of sweet water deposited by the rains which fall in this country about the time of the summer solstice.[75] During the last two days I traveled in great pain; the reflection of the sun from the sand, and the strong wind from the north (prevalent at this season in the desert), which blew its finer particles into my eyes, in spite of all my precautions to shelter them, exasperated and inflamed their malady to a great degree, which the want of sufficient shelter from the sun, during the time of repose, contributed to aggravate.
We stayed near the well till about sunset, when we resumed our travel, and at about three hours after sunrise on the morning of the 10th, came to a rock in a sandy plain, where the conductor of the caravan ordered a halt. We distributed ourselves round this rock as well as we could, in order to repose;[76] Khalil Aga and myself making a covering from the sun by means of my carpet, propped up by our fusees and fastened by the corners to stones we placed upon the rock, by means of our shawls and sashes. We stayed here till the middle of the afternoon, when we mounted our camels in order to reach the well Morat as soon as possible, in order to water those patient and indispensable voyagers of the desert.[77] We traversed a tolerably level but rocky tract till about two hours after midnight, when we reached the well. It lies in a valley between two high chains of mountains of black granite. Its water is somewhat bitter, as its name imports, and is not drank by travelers except when their water-skins are exhausted. It serves, however, for the camels of the caravans, and for the inhabitants of two Arab villages in the vicinity, named "Abu Hammak" and "Dohap" who brought their camels to water here the morning after our arrival. These poor but contented people are obliged to subsist, for the most part, upon their camels' milk, their situation affording little other means of nourishment. They are, however, independent, and remote from the tyranny and oppression which afflicts the people of most of the countries of the east.[78]