I returned home to Sennaar, very well pleased with my reception at Aira. I had not seen, since I left Gondar, a man so open and frank in his manners, and who spoke without disguise what apparently he had in his heart; but he was exceedingly engaged in business, and it was of such extent that it seemed to me impossible to be brought to an end in a much longer time than I proposed staying at Sennaar. The distance, too, between Aira and that town was a very great discouragement to me. The whole way was covered with insolent, brutish people, so that every man we met between Sennaar and Aira produced some altercation, some demand of presents, gold, cloth, tobacco, and a variety of other disagreeable circumstances, which had always the appearance of ending in something serious.
I had a long conversation with the Arabs I met with at Aira, and from them I learned pretty nearly the situation of the different clans or tribes in Atbara. These were all in their way northward to the respective countries in the sands to the eastward of Mendera and Barbar. These sands, so barren and desolate the rest of the year, were beginning now to be crowded with multitudes of cattle and inhabitants. The fly, in the flat and fertile mold which composes all the soil to the southward of Sennaar, had forced this number of people to migrate, which they very well knew was to cost them at least one half of their substance; of such consequence is the weakest instrument in the hand of Providence. The troops of Sennaar, few in number, but well provided with every thing, stood ready to cut these people off from their access to the sands, till every chief of a tribe had given in a well-verified inventory of his whole stock, and made a composition, at passing, with Shekh Adelan.
All subterfuge was in vain. The fly, in possession of the fertile country, inexorably pursued every single camel till he took refuge in the sands, and there he was to stay till the rains ceased; and if, in the interim, it was discovered that any concealment of number or quality had been made, they were again to return in the beginning of September to their old pastures; and in this second passage, any fraud, whether real or alledged, was punished with great severity. Resistance had been often tried, and as often found ineffectual. However great their numbers, encumbered with families and baggage as they were, they had always fallen a sacrifice to those troops, well mounted and armed, that awaited them in their way within sight of their own homes. Arrived once in the sands, they were quiet during the rains, having paid their passage northward, and so they were afterwards, for the same reason, when they came again to their own station, southward, when those rains had ceased.
It may be asked reasonably, What does the government of Sennaar do with that immense number of camels which they receive from all those tribes of Arabs in their passage by Sennaar? To this I answer, That all this tribute is not paid in kind. The different tribes possessing so many camels, or so many other cattle, have a quantum laid upon them at an average value. This is paid in gold, or in slaves, the rest in kind; so many for the maintenance of the king and government; for there is no flesh commonly used at Sennaar in the markets but that of camels. The residue is bought by the merchants of Dongola, and sent into Egypt, where they supply that great consumption of these animals made every year by the caravans going to Mecca.
One thing had made a very strong impression on me, which was the contemptuous manner in which Adelan expressed himself as to his sovereign. I was satisfied that, with some address, I could keep myself in favour with either of them; but in the terms they then were, or were very soon to be, I could not but fear I was likely to fall into trouble between the two.
The next morning, after I came home from Aira, I was agreeably surprised by a visit from Hagi Belal, to whom I had been recommended by Metical Aga, and to whom Ibrahim Seraff, the English broker at Jidda, had addressed me for any money I should need at Sennaar. He welcomed me with great kindness, and repeated testimonies of joy and wonder at my safe arrival. He had been down in Atbara at Gerri, or some villages near it, with merchandize, and had not yet seen the king since he came home, but gave me the very worst description possible of the country, insomuch that there seemed to be not a spot, but the one I then stood on, in which I was not in imminent danger of destruction, from a variety of independent causes, which it seemed not possibly in my power to avoid. He sent me in the evening some refreshments, which I had long been unaccustomed to; some tea, excellent coffee, some honey and brown sugar, several bottles of rack, likewise nutmegs, cinnamon, ginger, and some very good dates of the dry kind which he had brought from Atbara.
Hagi Belal was a native of Morocco. He had been at Cairo, and also at Jidda and Mocha. He knew the English well, and professed himself both obliged and attached to them. It was some days before I ventured to speak to him upon money business, or upon any probability of finding assistance here at Sennaar. He gave me little hopes of the latter, repeating to me what I very well knew about the disagreement of the king and Adelan. He seemed to place all his expectations, and those were but faint ones, in the coming of Shekh Abou Kalec from Kordofan. He said, nothing could be expected from Shekh Adelan without going to Aira, for that he would never trust himself in Sennaar, in this king's lifetime, but that the minister was absolute the moment he assembled his troops without the town.
One morning he came to me, after having been with the king, when I was myself preparing to go to the palace. He said, he had been sent for upon my account, and had been questioned very narrowly what sort of a man I was. Having answered very favourably, both of me and my nation, he was asked for Metical Aga's letters, or any other letters he had received concerning me from Jidda; he said, that he had only shewn Metical's letter, wrote in the name of the sherriffe, as also one from himself; that there were several great officers of government present; and the Cadi (whom I had seen the first time I had been with the king) had read the letters aloud to them all: That one of them had asked, How it came that such a man as I ventured to pass these deserts, with four or five old servants, and what it was I came to see; that he answered, he apprehended my chief object at Sennaar was to be forwarded to my own country. It was also asked, Why I had not some Englishmen with me, as none of my servants were of that nation, but poor beggarly Kopts, Arabs, and Turks, who were none of them of my religion? Belal answered, That travellers through these countries must take up with such people as they can find going the same way; however, he believed some English servants had died in Abyssinia, which country I had left the first opportunity that had offered, being wearied by the perpetual war which prevailed. Upon which the king said, "He has chosen well, when he came into this country for peace. You know, Hagi Belal, I can do nothing for him; there is nothing in my hands. I could easier get him back into Abyssinia than forward him into Egypt. Who is it now that can pass into Egypt?" The Cadi then said, "Hagi Belal can get him to Suakem, and so to Jidda to his countrymen." To which Belal replied, "The king will find some way when he thinks farther of it."