54 ([return])
[ The river Nile lost its transparency four days before the army reached Sennaar. The day that presents the river troubled, marks the commencement of its augmentation. The day before we observed this change in the Nile, its waters were very clear and transparent. The day after, they were brown with mud.]
55 ([return])
[ Sennaar has three market-places. On our arrival we found them deserted, but on assurances from the Pasha that all sellers should receive a fair price for their commodities, the principal one in a few days began to be filled. The articles I saw there during my stay in Sennaar, were as follows: Meat of camels, kine, sheep, and goats; a few cat-fish from the river, plenty of a vegetable called meholakea; some limes, a few melons, cucumbers, dried barmea, a vegetable common in Egypt; beans, durra, duchan, tobacco of the country, plenty of gum arable, with which, by the way, Sennaar abounds, (the natives use it in their cookery;) drugs and spices brought from Gidda, among which I observed ginger, pepper, and cloves; and great quantities of dried odoriferous herbs found in Sennaar, with which the natives season their dishes; to which must be added, aplenty of the long cotton cloths used for dress in Sennaar. Such were the articles offered for sale by the people of the country. In addition to which, the suttlers of our army offered for sale, tobacco, coffee, rice, sugar, shirts, drawers, shoes, gun flints, &c. &c. all at a price three or four times greater than they could be bought for at Cairo. In some parts of the market-place the Turks established coffee-houses, and the Greeks who accompanied the army, cook-shops. These places became the resort of every body who wanted to buy something to eat, or to hear the news of the day. There might be seen soldiers in their shirts and drawers, hawking about their breeches for sale in order to be able to buy a joint of meat to relish their rations of durra withal, and cursing bitterly their luck in that they had not received any pay for eight months; while the solemn Turk of rank perambulated the area, involved, like pious Eneas at Carthage, in a veil of clouds exhaling from a long amber headed pipe. All around you you might hear much hard swearing in favor of the most palpable lies; the seller in favor of his goods, and the buyer in favor of his Egyptian piasters. In one place a crowd collects around somebody or other lying on the ground without his head on, on account of some misdemeanor; a little farther on, thirty or forty soldiers are engaged in driving, with repeated strokes of heavy mallets, sharp pointed pieces of timber, six or eight inches square, up the posteriors of some luckless insurgents who had had the audacity to endeavor to defend their country and their liberty; the women of the country meantime standing at a distance, and exclaiming, "that it was scandalous to make men die in so indecent a manner, and protesting that such a death was only fit for a Christian," (a character they hold in great abhorrence, probably from never having seen one). Such was the singular scene presented to the view by the market-place of Sennaar.]
56 ([return])
[ The occasion of this expedition was as follows:—On our arrival at Sennaar, and after the accord made between the Pasha and the Sultan of Sennaar, by which the latter surrendered his kingdom to the disposal of the Vizier of the Grand Seignor, the Pasha sent circulars throughout all the districts of the kingdom notifying the chiefs of this act, and summoning them to come in to him and render their homage. The Chief of the Mountaineers, inhabiting the mountains south and south-west of Sennaar (the capital), not only refused to acknowledge the Pasha, but even to receive his letter. On this, the Pasha sent Cogia Achmet, one of the roughest of his chiefs, with thirteen hundred cavalry, escorting three, brazen-faced lawyers, out of the ten the Pasha had brought with him in order to talk with the people of the upper country, to bring this man and his followers to reason.]
57 ([return])
[ Several of the chiefs of Eastern Sennaar had refused to recognize the act of the Sultan, calling him "a coward" and "a traitor," for surrendering their country to a stranger. Some of them took up arms, which occasioned the expedition commanded by the Divan Effendi.]
58 ([return])
[ I must confess that I was much shocked and disgusted by this act on the part of the Pasha, especially as he had shown so many traits of humanity in the lower country, which was undoubtedly one of the principal causes of its prompt submission. This execution was excused in the camp, by saying, that it would strike such terror as would repress all attempts at insurrection, and would consequently prevent the effusion of much blood. It may have been consistent with the principles of military policy, but I feel an insurmountable reluctance to believe it.]