The Daveina being Arabs, who constantly live in tents, bear a mortal enmity to all who inhabit villages, and, as occasion offered, had destroyed, starved, and laid waste the greatest part of Atbara. They had been outlawed by the government of Sennaar for having joined Yasous II. upon the expedition against that kingdom. They had ever since been well-received by the Abyssinians, lived independent, and in perpetual defiance of the government of Sennaar. They had often threatened Teawa, but had given the Shekh of Beyla an assurance of friendship ever since Yasine had married a daughter of that Shekh.
The strength of Teawa was about 25 horse, of which about ten were armed with coats of mail. They had about a dozen of firelocks, very contemptible from the order in which they were kept, and still more so from the hands that bore them. The rest of the inhabitants might amount to twelve hundred men, naked, miserable, and despicable Arabs, like the rest of those that live in villages, who are much inferior in courage to the Arabs that dwell in tents: weak as its state was, it was the seat of government, and as such a certain degree of reverence attended it. Fidele, the Shekh of Atbara, was reputed by his own people a man of courage; this had been doubted at Sennaar. Welled Hassan, his father, had been employed by Nasser the son, late king of Sennaar, in the murder of his father and sovereign Baady, which he had perpetrated, as I have already mentioned. Such was the state of Teawa. Its consequence was only to remain till the Daveina should resolve to attack it, when its corn-fields being burnt and destroyed in a night by a multitude of horsemen, the bones of its inhabitants scattered upon the earth, would be all its remains, like those of the miserable village of Garigana.
I have already observed, in the beginning of the journey, that the Shekh of the Arabs Nile, who resided in Abyssinia, near Ras el Feel, since the expedition of Yasous, had warned me, at Hor-Cacamoot, to distrust the fair promises and friendly professions of Shekh Fidele, and had, indeed, raised such doubts in my mind, that, had not the Daveina been parted from Sim Sim, (or the confines of Abyssinia) though there would have been a risk, that if, coming with that tribe, I should have been-ill received at Sennaar, I nevertheless would have travelled with them, rather than by Teawa; but the Daveina were gone.
The Shekh of Atbara, having no apparent interest to deceive us, had hitherto been a friend as far as words would go, and had promised every thing that remained in his power; but, for fear of the worst, Nile had given us a confidential man, who was related to the Jehaina and to the principal Shekh of that tribe. This man conducted an ass, loaded with salt, among the other Arabs of the caravan, and was to set off to Ras el Feel upon the first appearance of danger, which he was to learn by coming once in two days, or oftner, either to Teawa, where he was no farther known than as being one of the Jehaina, or to the river, where my Soliman was to meet him at the pools of water; but his secret was only known to Soliman, myself, and a Greek servant, Michael. From leaving Hor-Cacamoot, he had no personal interview with me; but the night, when we were like to perish for thirst in the wood, he had sent me, by Soliman, privately, a horn-full of water, which he had in his goat's skin, and for which I had rewarded him handsomely in the instant, glad of that opportunity of confirming him in his duty.
This man we set off to Jibbel Isriff, as a stranger, with orders not to come to us till the third day; for we were well-persuaded, whatever the end was to be, that our first reception would be a gracious one. Indeed we were all of us inclined to believe, that our suspicions of Fidele Shekh of Atbara, and of his intentions towards us, were rather the effects of the fear that Shekh Nile had infused into us, than any apprehension which we could reasonably form after so many promises; at the same time, it was agreed on all hands, that, life being at stake, we could not be too careful, in providing means that could, if the worst happened, at the least diminish our risk.
CHAP. V.
Transactions at Teawa—Attempts of the Shekh to detain the Author there—Administer Medicines to him and his Wives—Various Conversations with him, and Instances of his Treachery.
At the passage of the small river, about a quarter of a mile from Teawa, we were met by a man on horseback, cloathed with a large, loose gown of red camlet, or some such stuff, with a white muslin turban upon his head, and about 20 naked, beggarly servants on foot, with lances, but no shields; two small drums were beating, and a pipe playing before them. He stopt upon my coming near them, and affected a delicacy in advancing to salute me, he being on horseback, and I upon a mule, for my horse was led behind, saddled and bridled, with a loose blue cloth covering him. Soliman, who first accosted him, told him it was the custom of Abyssinia not to mount horses but in time of war, upon which he immediately dismounted, and, upon seeing this, I alighted likewise. We saluted one another very courteously. He was a man about seventy, with a very long beard, and of a very graceful appearance. It was with the utmost difficulty I could prevail upon him to mount his horse, as he declared his intention was to walk by the side of my mule till he entered the town of Teawa. This being over-ruled, by an invincible obstinacy on my part, he was at last constrained to mount on horseback, which he did with an agility only to be expected from a young man of twenty.
Being mounted, he shewed us a variety of paces on horseback. All this, too, was counted a humiliation and politeness on his part, as playing tricks, and prancing on horseback, is never done but by young men before their elders, or by meaner people before their superiors. We passed by a very commodious house, where he ordered my servants to unload my baggage, that being the residence assigned for me by the Shekh. He and I, with Soliman on foot by the side of my mule, crossed an open space of about five hundred yards, where the market is kept; he protested a thousand times by the way, what a shame it was to him to appear on horseback, when a great man like me was riding on a mule.