When the caravan reaches the place of rest, those who have been dragged along are liberated; whilst the dead and the exhausted are thrown without mercy on the sand, and the latter left to their fate. No prayers, no entreaties can soften the obdurate hearts of their torturers. They do not even allow a wife to take leave of her husband, or a child to press the parting kiss upon the lips of its expiring parent. No one is permitted to approach these unfortunate wretches,—they are given over to their fate. Not even as much as a piece of bread, or a drop of water is left behind for them. The discarded wretch is given up to his doom to linger out his existence, add to which the misery of the full consciousness of certain death. In six or fourteen days, the transport reaches Lobeid, and it is no wonder, considering the inhuman treatment the captives have had to endure, that on its arrival more than one-tenth of the number is found wanting. No notice, however, is taken of this frightful loss on the road, for it is government property, and personal interest is not concerned.
In Lobeid the slaves remain together until all the transports arrive, and then the distribution takes place. The men best adapted for the purpose are drafted into the regiments as recruits, and the remainder of the full-grown slaves are delivered over to the troops, quartered in Kordofan, in liquidation of their arrears of pay, at an estimate of three hundred piasters a head; younger slaves are valued at various prices. The soldiers are compelled to re-sell them to the merchants for ready money, or for money’s worth; sometimes the slave dies of over-fatigue, or excess of torture, or does not realize the full sum on account of his age or infirmities, and then the soldier suffers the loss, who, moreover, generally receives but half his pay, although he has had to wait for several months, or more frequently a whole twelvemonth for this portion of his arrears.
It is not an uncommon occurrence for a son to find his own father, or a father his son, assigned to him, or for a brother to become the possessor of his brother; but he is forced in defiance of the feelings of nature to sell him, in order to share the proceeds with a comrade who is co-proprietor of the slave with him. Officers and privates are obliged to receive these slaves at a certain valuation in lieu of money, and generally sell them at a loss to the Djelabi. The remainder is disposed of by public auction, in the market-place, to the highest bidder.
CHAPTER XVII.
DESCRIPTION OF A SLAVE-HUNT IN THE YEARS 1838 AND 1839.
Towards the end of the year 1838 the Viceroy commanded the province of Kordofan to contribute five thousand slaves. The corps under orders for this purpose, consisting of two thousand four hundred infantry, seven hundred and fifty Mogghrebeen (Bedouin horsemen), two hundred men irregular cavalry, three hundred dromedary riders, and twelve hundred natives armed with spear and shield, and attended by three guns, set out upon the march towards the close of the month of November 1838. On this occasion every two men of infantry were furnished with one camel, as they could not collect the complement very soon, and an immense number was, moreover, required for the transport of the baggage, water, tents, etc., for the troops. Provisions and forage for the cattle, both for service and for slaughter, were only added to the transport sufficient for a few days, for they hoped to be able to obtain the necessary supply in a short time by plunder and pillage. A hill, one of the nearest on the borders of the free Nuba, which had already suffered by the troops of Mehemed Ali, and by the marauding Bakkara, and, was in consequence greatly depopulated, was the first challenged to surrender. The sheikh instantly came into camp and delivered himself with all his subjects, consisting of one hundred and ninety-six souls, into the hands of the Turks; he received his liberty and a present of a dress, but the sheba was put on the young men, and the whole number forwarded on the next day to Lobeid. This sheikh himself told me that when the Turks first entered his village eighteen years before, the population consisted of three thousand souls, but the annual contribution of slaves, augmented by the insatiable Turks to ten times the number, had reduced them to one hundred and ninety-six souls. The prisoners of this hill were treated with some humanity, and not one instance of suicide took place among them, for they had seen the futility of resistance, and voluntarily surrendered to their dismal fate. The troops, however, were now in want of bread, and as they found but a very slight supply of dockn among this impoverished people, they were necessitated to advance. The next hill was attacked, but how were the soldiers disappointed in their expectations when they found the place evacuated! The inhabitants, apprized of the approach of the corps, had fled, taking all their property and cattle away with them, and had left nothing but the empty huts, which were instantly fired and burnt to the ground. And now the march was continued to the third hill. The inhabitants of this village had formed the firm resolution of defending their freedom to the uttermost; and, determined to suffer death rather than the horror of Turkish captivity, had prepared for a most obstinate resistance. The hill was charged, but the troops were several times repulsed; the attacks, however, were renewed, and the village was ultimately taken by storm. The scene which now presented itself to view was frightful in the extreme. Of five hundred souls who had been the peaceful inhabitants of the village, one hundred and eighty-eight only were found living. Every hut was filled with the bodies of the aged and the young indiscriminately, for those who had not fallen by the sword in battle, had put themselves to death to elude the dreadful fate of captivity. The prisoners were led away; and the place was given up to the soldiery for plunder, but the dead were left disinterred. What a fearful scene for the few who were fortunate enough to escape the carnage by flight! Nothing but the dead bodies of their friends and the ashes of their homes met their eye on their return!
In order to recruit the troops, a camp was now formed, and a detachment sent out in search of forage. An encampment of this description, which is always erected on the plains, consists of an irregular quadrangle, surrounded by a hedge of thorns or bushes, or sometimes even by a stone fence, in which the regular infantry, the guns, and baggage are enclosed, whilst the cavalry and spear-bearers encamp without the enclosure. Of setting outposts, or of other judicious military movements they have no idea, but confine themselves merely to preparations for defence in case of a surprise, as the negroes frequently venture by night on an attack, which might prove very destructive to the troops, considering their carelessness. Generally speaking a camp is soon broken up, and this was the case on the present occasion; for no sooner had the soldiers recovered somewhat from their fatigues, and furnished a scanty supply of provisions, than the tents were struck, and the march commanded for the next hill destined for attack. The cavalry was sent about two miles in advance to surround the hill. On its arrival, however, in the vicinity of the village, it was suddenly surprised by the inhabitants, who had received intelligence of the movements, of the troops and was attacked with vigour. The negroes in a very large body, and only armed with spears and shields, broke with impetuosity from their covert, and with a fearful war-cry, augmented by the shouts of the women accompanying them, (resembling the Lu, lu, lu! of the Arab women,) threw themselves headlong upon the enemy. Surprised by this sudden movement, yet too discreet to sustain the attack of the negroes, the cavalry turned and took to flight. One of the Bedouin chiefs, who was mounted on a restive horse, and could not keep up with his troop, was surrounded; he seized his gun to discharge it at the first man who might attack him, but it refused fire, and before he could make use of his pistols and sabre, or put himself in any other way on his defence, he was torn off his horse and instantly slain. None of his corps made the slightest attempt to save their officer, for each man was intent on his own escape. This flight must not be ascribed to cowardice on the part of the Bedouins; for they generally fight well, provided their interest is not at stake. By fraud, or promises destined never to be fulfilled, these nomadic people are enticed away from their native plains and employed in these frightful slave-hunts. With the exception of very trifling pay, they can expect nothing beyond what they may be able to gain themselves by robbery and plunder; if by any chance, and without fault on their part, they happen to lose a horse,—which is their personal property—even on actual service, they cannot reckon upon any indemnification from the government; for should they not have the means of purchasing a fresh animal, they are indeed mounted by the government, but the price of the horse is deducted from their pay, which is always on the very lowest scale, and thus they have to serve for several years gratuitously. Their sheikh, or commanding officer, told me this himself, and assured me that his Bedouins, (erroneously termed Mogghrebeen) would act very unwisely in risking their horses on an attack whence nothing was to be gained; for the negroes, in encountering cavalry, are well aware of the advantage of injuring the horse rather than the rider, as the latter falls a certain victim to them when the animal is slain. After the cavalry had again formed in the rear of the infantry, the officer in command ordered a charge by the foot for the following day. If the attack had succeeded, the carnage would, indeed, have been terrific, for the troops were all eager to revenge the death of the Bedouin sheikh. But it was differently recorded in the book of fate. With the first dawn of morning the infantry were put in marching order for the ensuing storm, and the cavalry placed in reserve. The advance was now made, on the word of command, with the utmost caution, a few cannon balls having been first sent into the village without effect. All remained perfectly quiet, until the advanceguard of the storming party had reached the foot of the hill and prepared for action, when the negroes suddenly broke forth endeavouring to surround the enemy. The position of the Egyptians became now very critical, for bent upon the capture of this hill, they had overlooked two other villages flanking the one attacked, which were densely populated by negroes, who joined the besieged, and threw themselves with the whole strength of their united forces upon the troops. Not one man would have escaped, for enclosed in a narrow valley, and surrounded by hills, the infantry could scarcely move, and no assistance could be expected from the cavalry. The whole brigade, in fact, would have been lost, as the negroes gathered like a black cloud upon the hills, and poured down by hundreds upon the enemy; no troops could withstand their attack, for they rushed into battle with unparalleled frenzy, regardless of shot or bayonet, and used their spears with great dexterity. The commander of the Egyptian forces, however, betimes recognized the danger threatening his troops, and ordered a retreat; when the whole body fled in wild confusion from the vale of death. The cavalry was not behindhand in this movement, and thus the brigade never halted until it was fairly out of the dominions of the foe. Of a renewal of the attack there was now no idea; for nothing in the world can induce these heroes to repeat an advance where they have once been beaten. They know further that the negroes become almost invincible with success; while the musket and bayonet afford but slight advantage over the weapons of the blacks, for the wild inhabitants of the hills rush blindly to the charge, heedless of every wound. I myself had opportunities of convincing myself of the intrepidity of these men.
After the troops had again collected, order was once more restored, and the march was continued; in the course of a few days several hills were taken, and the prisoners duly forwarded to Lobeid. The expedition now moved in a southern direction from the Nuba mountains, towards a country inhabited by a different race of men. The tribe now attacked differs from the natives of Nuba, both in language and manners; they are easily recognized by the number of brass ear-rings, which they do not pass through the appendix of the ear, but wear in the upper part of the cartilage, by which means the whole ear is distorted, so that the superior portion covers the meatus. Almost all the men wear the tooth of some animal, one inch and a half to two inches in length, above their chin; it is passed through a hole in the under lip when they are very young, and acquires a firm adhesion with the integument. In their habits they differ but little from the other negro tribes, but it is rather remarkable that they do not, like the negroes, Turks, or Arabs, convey food to their mouths with their fingers, but make use of a shell, or piece of wood, shaped like a spoon, for this purpose. The dwelling place of this tribe was very advantageously situated on the summit of a hill, and very difficult of access; the commanding officer, therefore, on hearing that it was not supplied with water, to avoid a loss, decided upon surrounding the hill, and forcing the negroes by thirst to surrender. The siege lasted eight days, and the poor creatures, who felt themselves too weak for a sortie, had not a drop of water left on the fourth day, as was subsequently heard. The cattle was slain in the early part of the blockade to diminish the consumption of water; on the sixth day, several children and old people had perished of thirst; and on the seventh day the mortality became so frightful, that they determined to surrender. Several of them advised a sally, but exhausted as they were, they saw the futility of this movement; and when, on the eighth day, hundreds had fallen in the most fearful torments of unsatisfied thirst, and many of the negroes, in the horrors of despair, had put an end to their miseries by ripping open their abdomina with their double-edged knives, the small body of survivors delivered itself up to the enemy. Of more than two thousand souls, one thousand and forty-nine were only found living, the rest had all perished by thirst, or had committed suicide. On entering the village, the huts were seen filled with the dead, and the few unfortunate survivors were so exhausted by fatigue, and overpowered by thirst, that they could scarcely stand upon their feet; yet with blows with the butt-end of the musket, or with the whip, these poor wretches were driven from the huts, dragged into camp, with every description of cruelty, and thence despatched for Lobeid, on which march more than one hundred and fifty souls perished from ill-usage.
On the fourth day of the march of this transport, after the caravan had halted, and whilst the prisoners were forming detachments to take up their quarters for the night, it so happened that an aged woman, worn out with the fatigues of the long march, or overcome by the mental sufferings she had endured, was incapable of reaching the spot assigned to her with sufficient alacrity, and a barbarous Turk dealt her a blow with the butt end of his musket, which laid her nearly lifeless on the sand. Her son, who witnessed this gratuitous act of cruelty, no longer master of his feelings, rushed with fury towards the soldier, struck him a blow with the sheba round his neck, and felled him to the ground. This was the signal for attack; all the slaves, who bore a sheba, threw themselves upon the troops, and knocked them down, before they could take to their arms, or fix their bayonets; thus fifty-six negroes took to flight during the confusion in the camp, and aided by the darkness of night, succeeded in effecting their escape. The natives, attached to this transport, remained quiet spectators of the fray, a proof of the interest they feel in these sanguinary hunts.
The body of the expedition had, in the meantime, continued its march and taken another hill by storm,—but not without loss. This village was situated on a steep declivity, accessible only on the one side, and so well supplied with water that a blockade was out of the question. A storm was, therefore, commanded. On both sides, the men fought with desperate bravery. The storming party purchased dearly with their blood every inch of ground they advanced. The negroes had barricaded every accessible spot; each tree and every stone formed an ambush whence they rushed forth upon their enemies, who were scaling the heights under severe difficulties. The muskets were of no avail, for the soldiers were forced to creep upon their hands and feet and could not use their arms; thus, many were stabbed by the spears of the natives, before they could rise on their feet, and, in their fall, tore several of their advancing comrades down with them into the precipice and ravines below. The cannonade employed against the village was ineffective, and forced to be silenced to avoid injuring their own men. The struggle was fearful, and the event for some time doubtful, the soldiers, however, at last succeeded in obtaining a footing on the heights, and were able to employ their arms; the bayonet now decided the victory in their favour, and the village was soon taken, in spite of the most obstinate resistance on the part of the negroes. The havoc became frightful: everyone who offered the slightest resistance was cut down, children, women, and old men were put to the bayonet, the huts were fired, and the whole place was pillaged; in short, every species of cruelty was perpetrated on these ill-fated victims. Those who fell into the hands of the victorious enemy were immediately dragged down into the camp; whilst those who endeavoured to escape, by concealing themselves in caverns and ravines, were either hunted out by fire and smoke, or suffocated in their place of shelter; every description of atrocity was practised, nor did the carnage cease until the very last man of this ill-starred tribe was exterminated or led away in captivity. All the inconsiderable property of the natives which the troops could not carry away with them as plunder was destroyed, and the whole village sacked and levelled with the ground. These were not all the sufferings which fell to the lot of these unfortunate men, for severer tortures awaited them during their march to Kordofan. I was unfortunately, during some few days, an eye-witness of the misery these poor prisoners endured. No pen can describe the cruelties these miserable men were made to suffer, in addition to the mental torment consequent on their loss of freedom; for laden with the heavy sheba round their necks, or bound together with tight straps or handcuffs, the poor negroes were driven on like cattle, but treated with far less care or forbearance. The greater number of them, covered with the wounds they had received in battle, or excoriated by the sheba, or the straps, and handcuffs, were put to yet severer trials on the road, and, if too exhausted to keep pace with the transport, the most cruel punishment awaited them; the piercing cry of complaint of these unfortunate beings, and the tears and sobs of the children who had either lost their parents in the capture of the village, or were too tired to follow their exhausted mothers, would have melted a heart of stone to pity. On these ruthless executioners, however, even this scene of misery produces no effect; they march with unconcern by the side of the prisoners, and are only anxious to further the progress of the convoy, by urging on those who may be so weak that they cannot follow the rest with blows and stripes. As they dragged everyone away with them whom they found living, there was, of course, a large number of lame, blind, and old men, and persons afflicted with other infirmities, among the complement of slaves, who were sure to perish on the road, or who would be of no value on their arrival in Lobeid. But, even this circumstance was not deemed worthy of consideration; without mercy all were driven from their homes, and delivered up to their fate; for the sole object is, to furnish the number of slaves demanded by the government. Every morning, at about ten o’clock, a halt was ordered, whereupon the prisoners were formed according to their age into divisions, to receive their rations, consisting of boiled dokn. Salt was out of the question, and the dokn so hard that the full-grown men experienced difficulty in masticating it. Children, who are too weak in the jaw to reduce the grain, swallow it as they would pills, and are frequently put to the most excruciating agony in consequence; for, not being able to digest the food, their bodies swell, and they suffer from flatulence and spasm. I have seen mothers chewing the victuals for their children, and then offering it to them. In forming these detachments according to age, children who anxiously cling to their parents are torn by force from their arms, that they may eat alone. The condition of sick and wounded was not considered; their wounds were not even dressed, and they received the same allowance; many of them threw themselves on the sand, and, refusing all food, preferred to rest their weary limbs. When one of these poor wretches was so debilitated that it became a matter of doubt whether he could be dragged on any further, or when he was drawing his last breath, he was thrown, like a piece of wood, aside, either to languish in despair, or to be torn to pieces by the wild beasts. Bread is unheard of on these marches, although they have every convenience for baking; this would be too great a luxury, however, for the poor slaves, who must content themselves with food not even good enough for cattle.