The landlord of the hut where I was asleep having prepared for our safety and that of our baggage, thought himself bound in duty to go and give immediate information to the prime minister of the unexpected guests that then occupied his house. He found Adelan at supper, but was immediately admitted, and a variety of questions asked him, which he answered fully. He described our colour, our number, the unusual size and number of our fire-arms, the poorness of our attire, and, above all, our great chearfulness, quietness, and affability, our being contented with eating any thing, and in particular mentioned the hogs flesh. One man then present, testifying abhorrence to this, Adelan said of me to our landlord, "Why, he is a soldier and a Kafr like yourself. A soldier and a Kafr, when travelling in a strange country, should eat every thing, and so does every other man that is wise; has he not a servant of mine with him?" He answered, "Yes, and a servant of the king too; but he had left them, and was gone forward to Sennaar." "Go you with them, says he, and stay with them at Basboch till I have time to send for them to town." He had returned from Aira long before we arose, and told us the conversation, which was great comfort to us all, for we were not much pleased with the king's servant going before, as we had every reason to think he was disaffected towards us.
On the 26th, at six o'clock in the morning, we set out from this village of Nuba, keeping something to the westward of S. W. our way being still across this immense plain. All the morning there were terrible storms of thunder and lightning, some rain, and one shower of so large drops that it wet us to the skin in an instant. It was quite calm, and every drop fell perpendicularly upon us. I think I never in my life felt so cold a rain, yet it was not disagreeable; for the day was close and hot, and we should have wished every now and then to have had so moderate a refrigeration; this, however, was rather too abundant. The villages of the Nuba were, on all sides, throughout this plain. At nine o'clock we arrived at Basboch, which is a large collection of huts of these people, and has the appearance of a town.
The governor, a venerable old man of about seventy, who was so feeble that he could scarcely walk, received us with great complacency, only saying, when I took him by the hand, "O Christian! what dost thou, at such a time, in such a country?" I was surprised at the politeness of his speech, when he called me Nazarani, the civil term for Christian in the east; whereas Infidel is the general term among these brutish people; but it seems he had been several times at Cairo. I had here a very clean and comfortable hut to lodge in, though we were sparingly supplied with provisions all the time we were there, but never were suffered to fast a whole day together.
Basboch is on the eastern bank of the Nile, not a quarter of a mile from the ford below. The river here runs north and south; towards the sides it is shallow, but deep in the middle of the current, and in this part it is much infested with crocodiles. Sennaar is two miles and a half S. S. W. of it. We heard the evening drum very distinctly, and not without anxiety, when we reflected to what a brutish people, according to all accounts, we were about to trust ourselves. The village of Aira, where the vizir Adelan had then his quarters, was three miles south and by west.
Next morning, the 27th, Shekh Adelan's servant left us to the charge of the Nuba, to give his master an account of his journey, and our safe arrival. He found Mahomet, the king's servant, our other guide, before him there, and Adelan well informed of all that had passed relating to Fidele, though not from Mahomet; for as soon as he began to mention that he had found us at Teawa, Adelan said in a very angry stile, "Will no one save me the disgrace of hanging that wretch?" Adelan sent back his servant to inform us, that, two days afterwards, we should be admitted. Mahomet, the king's servant, too, came back with him, and staid till the evening; then he returned to Sennaar; but he did not give us the satisfaction to tell us one word of what the king had said to him about us, or how we were likely to be received, leaving us altogether in suspence.
On the 29th, leave was sent us to enter Sennaar. It was not without some difficulty that we got our quadrant and heavy baggage safely carried down the hill, for the banks are very steep to the edge of the water. The intention of our assistants was to slide the quadrant down the hill, in its case, which would have utterly destroyed it; and as our boat was but a very indifferent embarkation, it was obliged to make several turns to and fro before we got all our several packages landed on the western side. This assemblage, and the passage of our camels, seemed to have excited the appetite, or the curiosity, of the crocodiles. One, in particular, swam several times backwards and forwards along the side of the boat, without, however, making any attack upon any of us; but, being exceedingly tired of such company, upon his second or third venture over, I fired at him with a rifle-gun, and shot him directly under his fore shoulder in the belly. The wound was undoubtedly mortal, and very few animals could have lived a moment after receiving it. He, however, dived to the bottom, leaving the water deeply tinged with his blood. Nor did we see him again at that time; but the people at the ferry brought him to me the day after, having found him perfectly dead. He was about twelve feet long; and the boatmen told me that these are by much the most dangerous, being more fierce and active than the large ones. The people of Sennaar eat the crocodile, especially the Nuba. I never tasted it myself, but it looks very much like Congor eel.
