At the establishing of this monarchy, the king, and the whole nation of Shillook, were Pagans. They were soon after converted to Mahometism, for the sake of trading with Cairo, and took the name of Funge, which they interpret sometimes lords, or conquerors, and, at other times, free citizens. All that can be said with certainty of this term, as there is no access to the study of their language, is, that it is applicable to those only that have been born east of the Bahar el Abiad. It does not seem to me that they should pride themselves in being free citizens, because the first title of nobility in this country is that of slave; indeed there is no other. Upon any appearance of your undervaluing a man at Sennaar, he instantly asks you if you know who he is? if you don't know that he is a slave, in the same idea of aristocratical arrogance, as would be said in England upon an altercation, do you know to whom you are speaking? do you know that I am a peer? All titles and dignities are undervalued, and precarious, unless they are in the hands of one who is a slave. Slavery in Sennaar is the only true nobility.

As I do not know that the names of these sovereigns are to be found any where else, I have set them down here. The record from which I drew them is at least as extraordinary as any part of their history; it was the hangman's roll, or register. It is one of the singularities which obtains among this brutish people, that the king ascends his throne under an admission that he may be lawfully put to death by his own subjects or slaves, upon a council being held by the great officers, if they decree that it is not for the advantage of the state that he be suffered to reign any longer. There is one officer of his own family, who, alone, can be the instrument of shedding his sovereign and kinsman's blood. This officer is called, Sid el Coom, master of the king's household, or servants, but has no vote in deposing him; nor is any guilt imputed to him, however many of his sovereigns he thus regularly murders. Achmet Sid el Coom, the present licensed parricide, and resident in Ismain's palace, had murdered the late king Nasser, and two of his sons that were well grown, besides a child at his mother's breast; and he was expecting every day to confer the same favour upon Ismain; though at present there was no malice on the one part nor jealousy on the other, and I believe both of them had a guess of what was likely to happen. It was this Achmet, who was very much my friend, that gave me a list of the kings that had reigned, how long their reign lasted, and whether they died a natural death, or were deposed and murdered.

This extraordinary officer was one of the very few that shewed me any attention or civility at Sennaar. He had been violently tormented with the gravel, but had found much ease from the use of soap-pills that I had given him, and this had produced, on his part, no small degree of gratitude and friendship; he was also subject to the epilepsy, but this he was persuaded was witchcraft, from the machinations of an enemy who resided far off. I often staid at his house all night, when he suffered excessive pains, and I may say then only I was in safety.

Achmet seemed, by strange accident, to be one of the gentlest spirits of any that it was my misfortune to converse with at Sennaar. He was very little attached to, or convinced of, the truth of the Mahometan religion, and as little zealous or instructed in his own. He used often to qualify his ignorance, or disbelief, by saying, that any, or no religion, was better than that of a Christian. His place of birth was in a village of Fazuclo, and it appeared to me that he was still a Pagan. He was constantly attended by Nuban priests, powerful conjurers and sorcerers, if you believed him. I often conversed with these in great freedom, when it happened they understood Arabic, and from them I learned many particulars concerning the situation of the inland part of the country, especially that vast ridge of mountains, Dyre and Tegla, which run into the heart of Africa to the westward, whence they say anciently they came, after having been preserved there from a deluge. I asked them often, (powerful as they were in charms), Why they did not cure Achmet of the gravel, or epilepsy? Their answer was, That it was a Christian devil, and not subject to their power.

Achmet did not believe that I was a Christian, knew I was no Mahometan, but thought I was like himself, something between the two, nor did I ever undeceive him. I was no missionary, nor had I any care of souls, nor desire to enter into conversation about religion with a man whose only office was to be the deliberate murderer of his sovereign. He spoke good Arabic, was offended at no question, but answered freely, and without reserve, whether about the country, religion, or government, or the post which he enjoyed, if we can term it enjoying an office created for such horrid crimes. He told me, with great coolness, in answer to a question why he murdered Nasser's son in his father's presence, that he did not dare to do otherwise from duty to Nasser, whose right it was to see his son slain in a regular and lawful manner, and this was by cutting his throat with a sword, and not by a more ignominious and painful death, which, if it had not been done in the father's sight, the vengeance of his enemies might have suggested and inflicted. He said, that Nasser was very little concerned at the spectacle of his son's death, but very loth when it came to his turn to die himself; that he urged him often to suffer him to escape, but, finding this in vain, he submitted without resistance. He told me, Ismain, the present king, stood upon very precarious ground; that both the brothers, Adelan and Abou Kalec, were at the head of armies in the field; that Kittou had at his disposal all the forces that were in Sennaar; and that the king was little esteemed, and had neither experience, courage, friends, money, nor troops.

I asked him if he was not afraid, when he entered into the king's presence, lest he, too, might take it into his head to shew him, that to die or be slain was not so slight a matter as he made of it. He said, "By no means; that it was his duty to be with the king the greatest part of the morning, and necessarily once very late in the evening; that the king knew he had no hand in the wrong that might be done to him, nor any way advanced his death; but, being come to the point that he must die, the rest was only a matter of decency, and it would undoubtedly be the object of his choice rather to be slain by the hands of his own relation in private, than those of a hired assassin, an Arab, or a Christian slave, in public view before the populace." When Baady the king's father was taken prisoner, and sent to Teawa to Welled Hassan governor of Atbara, (Shekh Fidele's father) Adelan ordered him to be put to death there, and Welled Hassan carried that order into execution. The king being always armed, was stout, and seemed to be upon his guard; and Welled Hassan found no way of killing him but by thrusting him through the back with a lance while washing his hands. The people murmured against Adelan exceedingly, not on account of the murder itself, but the manner of it, and Welled Hassan was afterwards put to death himself, though he acted by express orders, because, not being the officer appointed, he had killed the king, and next, because he had done it with a lance, whereas the only lawful instrument was a sword.

I have already said, that it was the year of the Hegira, answering to 1504 of the Christian æra, that this people, called Shillook, built the town of Sennaar, and established their monarchy, which has now subsisted under a succession of twenty kings of the same family.

List of the Kings of Sennaar.

Years reigned.A. D.
Amru, son of Adelan, began his reign in the year 1504, and reigned301534
Neil, his son,171551
Abdelcader, son of Amru, 81559
Amru, son of Neil, deposed,111570
Dekin, son of Neil,171587
Douro, his son, deposed, 31590
Tiby, son of Abdelcader, 31593
Ounsa, deposed,131606
Abdelcader, son of Ounsa, deposed, 41610
Adelan, son of Ounsa, deposed, 51615
Baady, son of Abdelcader, 61621
Rebat, son of Baady,301651
Baady, his son,381689
Ounsa, son of Nasser son of Rebat,121701
Baady el Achmer, his son,251726
Ounsa, his son, deposed, 31729
L'Oul, son of Baady, 41733
Baady, his son, deposed,331766
Nasser, his son, deposed, 31769
Ismain, 31772