CHAPTER XVI.
MEHEMED ALI’S SLAVE-HUNTS IN GENERAL.[86]
Many travellers who have visited the East, and more especially Egypt, justly mention the humanity with which slaves are treated in these countries, but few persons are probably acquainted with the inhuman manner in which these miserable beings are led into captivity. The treatment they meet with among the Turks, Arabs, and other eastern nations, certainly is an indemnification, although a very frail one, for the loss of their liberty; but unfortunately only a small number of these poor wretches live to enjoy even this slight benefit, for more than one half of them fall victims to barbarous and cruel treatment before they reach the place of their destination. The Viceroy of Egypt institutes annually, once or twice in the course of the year, an actual hunt in the mountains of Nuba, and in the bordering countries, and seizes upon a certain number of the negroes by stratagem or force, in order either to pay the arrears due to his troops in Kordofan with these unfortunate men, instead of with ready money, or to increase his revenue by the sale of his fellow creatures. I must leave it to the kind judgment of my readers whether an apology for such a proceeding is to be found, and abstain myself from any observation on the subject, as the object of my sketch is simply to give a correct description of the slave-hunts as conducted by Mehemed Ali. Several European journals have stated that these marauding expeditions were put an end to by command of the viceroy on the occasion of his visit to Sennaar, but I can assure the reader that the order was “vox et præterea nihil,” and that these robberies take place as before even at the present day. No pen can describe the acts of deliberate cruelty perpetrated on these occasions, revolting atrocities which I am sure that Mehemed Ali, were he acquainted with the particulars, would visit on the heads of his officers, notwithstanding that they are committed in his interest and in his service; unfortunately, however, the distance of this ill-fated province is too great from the seat of justice for the cries of the afflicted to reach his ear, and those whose duty it would be to report these inhuman deeds, are too deeply criminated themselves. The burden of this sanguinary fate falls most heavily upon the miserable inhabitants of the Nuba mountains. In the year 1825, four years, therefore, after the conquest, the number of slaves which had been led away into captivity was estimated at forty thousand; and in the year 1839 the total number amounted at least to two hundred thousand, without reckoning the thousands stolen by the Bakkara and bought by the Djelabi. As soon as the rainy season is concluded, the arrangements for the marauding excursion called gasua[87] are made, and the necessary number of camels are pressed into service. Of the multitude of animals required an estimate may be formed, by considering that every infantry soldier is provided with a camel to mount, and that their total amount is nearly doubled by those employed in the transport of arms, ammunition, tents, and other military stores. The outfit of the expedition causes the commanding officer, however, not the least care, for everything being considered in the countries subject to Egypt as property of the government, he experiences very little trouble in obtaining his supplies. The soldiers steal whatever they can find, and thus in a few days the most necessary articles are furnished. To provisions very little attention is paid, for the harvest terminates with the rainy season, and the soldiers well know by many years experience where to find the supplies of the poor negroes, gained absolutely by the sweat of their brow, but vainly hidden from the rapacious hands of these avaricious barbarians. The province of Dar Hammer is more especially oppressed for the purpose of obtaining camels; but as the majority consists of young animals which have never borne a weight upon their backs, and must therefore be taught to bend to receive their load or for the convenience of their rider, each soldier is provided with his camel ten to fourteen days before the march, during which interval they are daily exercised in the morning and afternoon. It is really a very imposing sight to behold these hundreds of camels collected together on one spot, where the obstinate animals are being broken in to kneel down. A well-taught camel always exhibits evident signs of displeasure and utters a piercing cry whenever it bends down; imagine therefore in addition, an immense number of wild unbroken beasts who are frequently obliged to be pulled down on their knees by ropes, and you will be able to form a slight idea of the exercising ground. It frequently happens that a clumsy rider is thrown in mounting, or rather as the animal rises, and receives a severe injury. But even on this occasion we have proof that the animal must succumb to the will of man, for in the course of a few days the same beasts we had seen so refractory and dull before, obey their riders at a mere wink. The complement of the brigade employed in a slave-hunt consists ordinarily of from one thousand to two thousand men regular troops of infantry; from four hundred to eight hundred Mogghrebeen armed with guns and pistols; from three hundred to one thousand native troops on foot, with shields and spears, each man carrying from three to five javelins in a small leathern quiver attached to his shoulder by a cord; and from three hundred to five hundred natives mounted on dromedaries, armed with shield and spear. The dromedary riders present a very military appearance; they are quite naked, with the exception of a small piece of calico round their loins, and exhibit an alacrity which is almost incredible; they also exercise for a certain time before the march, and their shouts in a charge, which is always made in a body and at the full speed of the dromedary, the whistling of their lances in the air, whilst their shaggy locks float in the wind, and the oblong shields covering their entire bodies, give the riders a very fearful appearance, sufficient to overawe the most courageous man. I was always present at their manœuvres, and can assure my readers, that it took a long time before I accustomed myself to the sight of these men without feeling a secret horror, although I lived among them, and had absolutely nothing to fear. At these moments these people appear as if deranged, and it is very difficult to recognise those with whom you may be well acquainted, they so distort their features in their shout.
As soon as the preparations are concluded, the expedition sets out upon its march. Two to four field-pieces accompany it, and it is provided with a sufficient supply of bread for eight days. The oxen, sheep, and other beasts for slaughter, which may be required, are seized on in Kordofan, although the province may have already paid its contribution. If they meet a herd at pasture or at a well, the cattle is stolen; no one asks whether it belong to one person or to several, the contribution is not effected in shares; whoever meets with the loss must bear it with patience; no objection, no remonstrance is of avail; no complaint is ever listened to, for the governor is present in person.
On the arrival of the forces at the nearest hills of the Nubas, the natives are challenged to contribute a stipulated number of slaves. This demand is generally acceded to willingly, because the poor creatures know they are too close to the confines of Kordofan, and that they would expose themselves to a far more obdurate fate if they offered resistance. If then the slaves are voluntarily contributed, that hill is spared. But about this time a scarcity of bread generally begins to be felt; the troops, therefore, are not content with slaves alone but must be provided with grain, nor do they ever for one moment consider whether the harvest has been successful, or the reverse with these poor people; but whatever their wants may be, they must be supplied either spontaneously, or by force; and on these occasions the soldiers show vast experience in detecting the hidden stores of the unfortunate natives, whom they frequently leave barely enough bread for the ensuing day. The march is now continued to the next hill. The skirmishers already consider themselves on hostile ground, and they halt in the vicinity of that hill they intend to storm on the next day, or if time admit it, on that very day. Before the actual charge takes place, they endeavour to arrange the affair amicably, and dispatch a herald to the sheikh of the hill, commanding him to descend into camp, and bring the number of slaves ordered by the commanding officer with him. If he have already come to an understanding with his subjects, or feel his inequality to the Turkish troops, and will not offer resistance, the stipulated number of slaves is furnished, and the claim is thus cancelled, in order to avoid unnecessary bloodshed. Then comes the conscription. The slaves are generally volunteers, who sacrifice themselves, or who to free their brethren from a hard fate subject themselves to a yet more painful lot. Scenes may at these times be witnessed that would rend the heart of a man of feeling. Who is ever willing to quit his home, to separate himself for ever from his parents, his blood-relations, and friends? who leaves the roof willingly that has covered him from the day of his birth, under which he has passed happy hours in the circle of those that are dear to him? Who can boldly face a frightful future, entailing permanent captivity, promising nothing but misery, cruel treatment, and, what becomes even desirable, pallid death? Yet the necessity is there—some one must be victimized, some one must volunteer to sacrifice his liberty; and for this privilege the father will contend with the son, and the brother with the brother, for each man is anxious to save the other at the expense of his own life. Overpowering, indeed, must be the knowledge that they are about to fall into the hands of the heartless Turks, where nothing but misery and torture awaits them, to which they must ultimately succumb; but yet more heart-rending must be the feeling of leaving all that is nearest and dearest to them, for ever; this must be wretchedness, indeed. In sorrow and tears they part—press the last kiss on the cheek of their relations, and descend into the camp of their heartless and ruthless tormentors; nay, they are even frequently torn by force from the arms of their friends. The sheikh generally receives a present of a dress in remuneration for the readiness with which he has performed his services. Very few hills, however, submit to the voice of power thus tacitly on a mere challenge; for the majority of the villages, advantageously situated on steep declivities or inaccessible heights, and only to be scaled with the utmost difficulty, defend themselves most sturdily, and fight for their liberty with a courage, perseverance, and resolution equalled by few instances we find recorded in history. A very small portion of the negroes only fly before the approach of their persecutors, although they might save themselves with all their property, by a retreat into the neighbouring hills, for they always receive timely intimation of the advance of the enemy; but they look upon escape by flight as disgraceful, and prefer death in the struggle for their freedom. If, therefore, the sheikh will not listen to the claim made upon him, the village must stand a storm. The cavalry and lance-bearers surround the whole hill, whilst the infantry endeavour to scale the heights. In former days, the villages and places where the negroes were congregated together, were cannonaded, but with the inefficiency of the Egyptian artillery scarcely one shot ever took effect; and thus the negroes paid no attention to this prelude, but it appeared on the contrary rather to encourage them to a more obstinate resistance.
The roaring of the cannon certainly caused them at first more alarm than the effect, but they subsequently became accustomed to the noise, and totally disregarded it. Every access to the hill is barricaded with stones and other impediments, and the village supplied with water for two days, for few hills can boast of springs, the water, therefore, must be fetched from the foot of the hill. All the cattle and other property is carried up into the fortified height, in short, every arrangement is made for an obstinate defence. The men, armed with spears, occupy every point of importance, while the women even do not remain idle spectators, but either participate in the fight, or encourage their husbands by their lamentations and war-cry, and hand them their arms; in fact, every one is in activity except the aged and infirm. The points of their wooden arrows are dipped into poison which stands in an earthen vessel beside them. It is the juice of a plant, and appears white like curdled milk, but of what plant it may be the juice I could never learn, for this is a secret imparted only to a few persons in the village. I am told that there are many hills where this secret is totally unknown. As soon as the officer gives the word of command to attack, the infantry beat to arms and storm the hill. Thousands of spears, large stones, and immense beams of wood are instantly hurled at the storming party, every stone is an ambush to a wary negro, who either throws his poisoned dart at the enemy, or, waiting his opportunity, thrusts his spear into the body of his unsuspecting foe on his approach. The soldiers, who experience the greatest difficulty in scaling the steep acclivities, are obliged to sling their muskets to their backs to facilitate their ascent with their hands, and frequently fall victims before they have even seen the enemy. But nothing deters these marauders when bent on prey, goaded on by cupidity and the desire of revenge they heed no impediment, not even death itself; over the dead body of his fallen comrade the successor marches with impetuosity, his mind totally engrossed by ideas of plunder and murder; and thus the village is at last captured in spite of the most resolute defence. But now, indeed, is vengeance terrific: neither aged men nor the infirm, neither helpless women and children, nor, indeed, the babe unborn are spared; every hut is plundered, the property of the unfortunate besieged either pillaged or destroyed, and whosoever falls into the hands of the destroyer with his life is carried down into the camp as captive. When the negroes see that resistance is no longer of avail, they frequently prefer suicide, unless prevented, to slavery; and thus it often occurs that a father rips up the abdomen of his wife, then of his children, and lastly murders himself, to avoid falling alive into the hands of the enemy. Others endeavour to escape captivity by secreting themselves in caverns, where they pass many days without food; they there lie upon their backs, and will remain in this position sometimes for an entire week. I have been informed that a man can very well bear the whole of the eight days without nourishment, if he have only surmounted the difficulty of the first three days. But even in this covert they are not safe, as the monsters either hunt them up or destroy them in their places of refuge; for the soldiers light fires with pitch, sulphur, and other combustibles before the entrance, and endeavour to drive the irritating fumes into the caves, when the poor wretches are forced to creep out and deliver themselves to their enemies, or perish by suffocation in the smoke. After every means have been resorted to for gaining possession of the living, the unfortunate beings are escorted to the camp, the houses are plundered, and the cattle is driven away, and a detachment of several hundred soldiers then examines the hill in every direction to pillage the hidden grain, in order that the survivors who may have been fortunate enough to save their lives by flight, or by secreting themselves in inaccessible caverns, may not find anything on their return wherewith to maintain their dearly purchased existence.
The experience of many years has made the troops employed in these expeditions gradually wiser; in former times one-third of the number at least, and on some occasions even one half of them lost their lives in these attacks, at present they confine themselves to a simple blockade, and storm merely in extreme cases. Very few hills are, as I before said, provided with springs, when, therefore, all communication is impeded, the poor negroes are forced to surrender, but not before they have suffered the most horrible tortures; for they never provide themselves with a supply of water for longer than two days, partly from want of vessels or reservoirs, partly because they do not expect to be besieged for a longer period, thus the scarcity of water is generally felt on the third day of the blockade. Nothing can be more frightful than the position of these unhappy men at this time. The fear of falling into the hands of the Turks on the one hand, and the certainty of death from thirst on the other, drives the poor wretches to the very verge of despair. This scarcity is immediately known in camp, for the screams of the children and the groans of the cattle betray the melancholy position of the village. The cattle runs about as if wild, and on the third day becomes so dangerous that the negroes are obliged to slay it. The human being struggles in despair with death, to find a mode of escape, but, alas! in vain: the blood-thirsty huntsmen have surrounded their game too securely, thus not one soul can escape with his life. Many of the unhappy victims prefer death for themselves and their families to captivity, whilst others endeavour to conceal themselves in caverns, and thus to spare themselves the awful miseries of slavery. The remainder call a meeting to concert upon the surrender of their village and their children. The calamity makes not the slightest impression upon their persecutors, who remain quiet beholders of all these horrors, impatiently awaiting the moment when they shall receive their victims. The scarcity of water does not apply to all the hills without exception, for several of them are well supplied with water, and are not so easily to be taken. In such cases force becomes necessary, but it frequently happens that populous villages or such as are favoured by the ground, are able to repel the storming party several times with considerable carnage, so that the expedition frequently will not venture on an attack for fear of heavy losses, as was the case with Mount “Deyer,”[88] situated at a distance of two day’s march from Lobeid, which was thrice attacked without success, and where the troops suffered severely. But even in such cases they know how to ensure the certain fall of their victims by demoniacal deceit. Thus, after Kurshid Pasha, governor of the Belled-Soodan, had made several fruitless attempts at storming a hill in the country of the Shilluks, in which he had been, moreover, always repulsed with considerable carnage, and at last had made up his mind that every further attack would be in vain, and his loss too frightful, he thought of the following ruse, which would never have succeeded with any other people than this good-natured tribe; in this case, however, it proved successful. He encamped himself, namely, at the foot of the hill, without surrounding it, where he quietly remained for several days; he then despatched one of his soldiers into the village with the request to the inhabitants to send down four hundred dishes of food to his people in camp, and assured them at the same time that they need be under no further apprehension about him, as he would not make another attack on their village, but would march his troops off immediately on receipt of the provisions. The good-natured negroes, suspecting no harm, forgot all animosity towards their enemy in consideration of their pretended unfortunate position, and instantly shewed their readiness to accede to the request, by furnishing the provisions required. The articles of food were duly prepared, and four hundred grown persons carried the number of dishes demanded down into the camp of their persecutors. How were they, however, now deceived! for no sooner had they placed the dishes on the ground at the order of Kurshid-Pasha, than they were, on a signal he gave, surrounded on all sides and made prisoners, without the necessity of pulling a trigger, or without the possibility of their offering resistance.
The inhabitants of those hills which may have been forced into a surrender by cutting off their supplies, and more especially by depriving them of water, are compelled to deliver themselves up as captives in the camp, as soon as they have capitulated; but the condition of those who have defended themselves, or stood the blockade for some time, is far more dreadful. Worn out with the fatigues of the conflict, or totally exhausted by the want of water, they can scarcely stand, and are literally speaking, dragged down into camp, where they are certainly regaled with the absolute necessaries of life, but are allowed only a short time to recover themselves. The Turks have, indeed, sufficient compassion to send the necessary quantity of water up to those poor wretches on the hill, who are too weak even to be brought down; they are obliged to pour water over their heads first, and to allow them to drink only in small quantities, and gradually, for indulgence would prove fatal to them.
The greatest sufferings are not yet surmounted, and many of these unhappy men would prefer death inflicted by their own hands to the dreadful fate which awaits them, if they were acquainted with their lot beforehand. They now have to suffer every description of ill-treatment from their tormentors; blows with the butt-end of the musket, bayonet wounds, and stripes with the whip, are the ordinary modes of encouragement adopted to arouse the energies of those miserable beings, who, exhausted by physical or moral suffering, may happen to sink. Pity is unheard of in these transports; and as personal interest is not engaged for the preservation of one of those unhappy wretches, or to prove it an advantage, the only consideration is to render their escape impossible. The Djelabi treat their slaves with more humanity, because their personal interests are implicated, for each slave may be considered a capital to them, and they, consequently, do all in their power to preserve life, at least, and thus to avert a loss. The Turks, on the other hand, who have no considerations of this description to attend to, treat their prisoners far worse than they would beasts. As soon as they have collected from three to six hundred, or perhaps a thousand slaves, the convoy is sent with an escort of native troops, and of about fifty men, regulars, under the command of an officer to Lobeid.
To prevent flight, a Sheba is hung round the neck of the full-grown slaves; it consists of a young tree about six or eight feet in length, and two inches in thickness, forming a fork in front; this is bound round the neck of the victim so that the stem of the tree presents anteriorly, the fork is closed at the back of the neck by a cross-bar, and fastened in situ by straps cut from a raw hide; thus the slave, in order to be able to walk, is forced to take the tree in his hands, and carry it before him. No individual could, however, bear this position for any length of time; to relieve each other, therefore, the man in front takes the log of his successor on his shoulder, and this measure is repeated in succession. It amounts to an impossibility to withdraw the head, but the whole neck is always excoriated, an injury leading often to inflammatory action, which occasionally terminates in death. Boys from ten to fifteen years of age, who could not carry the sheba, are hand-cuffed together by wooden manacles. The instruments are applied to the right hand of the one and the left of the other, above the wrists, where they are fastened by straps; they are somewhat excavated to admit the hand, but generally fit so closely that the skin is excoriated, and malignant ulcers are the result; but even if the hand were to mortify, or drop off, no alleviation of the sufferings of the individual would ensue, for the fetters are not taken off before the arrival of the convoy at Lobeid. Some of the boys are fastened together in couples by straps applied round the upper part of their arms. It may, therefore, easily be imagined how difficult progression is rendered to these poor sufferers, and what tortures they have to endure on this march. In addition to these trials, they have to bear with most miserable fare, and further ill-treatment, should their strength fail them, or should they become too weak to proceed. Children under the age before-mentioned, women, and old men, are marched singly, and unfettered. Many a mother carries her infant, born but a few days before, at her breast, and must even take two or three of her children, who may be too young or too weak to walk alone, in her arms, or on her back. Old and infirm men who can scarcely creep along with the aid of a stick, the sick, and the wounded, are taken in the middle, between their daughters, wives, or relations, and thus slowly dragged onwards, or even carried by turns. If one of these unfortunate beings happen to remain behind the ranks, he is immediately stimulated to increased activity by blows with the butt-end of the musket, or flogged on with the whip. Should even this encouragement fail, and when several of these poor wretches cannot possibly proceed any further, ten or twenty of them are bound by the hand with a rope, the one end of which is attached to the saddle-bow of a camel, and thus those who are half dead are dragged onwards; even if one of them happen to sink no mercy is shown, but the fallen man is trailed along the ground and not liberated, even should he breathe his last, before his arrival at the stated place of rest. Before the caravan halts there is no idea of offering any refreshment whatever in the way of food to the exhausted; the heartless Turk feels no compassion, knows no pity; even if a drop of water might revive a weary wretch, none is given him—no, he may perish from want.