Thursday, Sept. 8.—Therm. 62°. Off at half-past six. Rode very fast till half-past one, when we halted at the Sheïkh’s garden. We had crossed the Assaka, and came to the Syod, which is here only a ditch. We then lighted a fire, and got some good tea made with fresh water; there was plenty of figs to give a relish to the remainder of the musty bread. I had now travelled hard for ten days, and had eaten nothing but a small piece of fish, dry bread and camel’s milk. I perfectly astonished these people, ............... but was much benefitted and pleased by the trip. Got home at six P.M. when I had coffee and a wash.
Here ends Mr. Davidson’s Journal, from which the notes have been extracted; and the three following letters, addressed to Mr. Willshire, will tell all that his friends have to communicate up to the period of his lamented decease.
“Wad Nún, October 7th 1836.
“Being still in this horrible place, and with little chance of getting away, I should not have written this to-day, had I not been anxious to take advantage of any opportunity of giving you a piece of information which will astonish you. The Tagakánths, notwithstanding all that the Sheïkh ’Abíb and Hámed promised, have not arrived here. Another express has been sent to them; but even after their arrival there is to be a stop: should this prove to be the case, I will give up the project, content to lose all the money I have paid. In twelve days from this, I shall have completed six calendar months here, and during a great part of the time I have been treated worse than a dog. I have told Hámed, and as soon as I can get the Sheïkh and ’Abíb together, I shall tell them likewise, that if I do not start by to-morrow week, I shall insist upon their returning the money they have had; at all events, that Hájí ’Abíb must give me the five hundred dollars he brought, and the camels which have been purchased with my funds; and I must make up my mind to be robbed of the rest. This I have often threatened to do; but now I will act up to my resolves, let what will happen. Zain came yesterday and told me he would wait no longer; that he had engaged some sixty of the Ben Alí tribe, who take twenty-seven men mounted on horses as a flying guard, and who are determined to fight their way through, if necessary; he says he can send me on with the greatest confidence; that unless he was certain of accomplishing the object, he would not risk his brother’s property; but that I must go at once. I shewed him every thing packed up, ready to start at a moment’s notice, and that I was only waiting for some bread that I expected. He asked me how I was situated? I told him of every thing, and that one hundred and ten dollars, including the present premium on the pesettas, had been paid to the Sheïkh for the Tagakánths. He lifted up his hands and said, it ought not to have been more than half that sum. Besides I have brought him, said I, a present amounting to one hundred and eighty dollars, and that he has asked for guns, which will cost him from six to seven hundred dollars more. Moreover, I have promised, if I am satisfied with his conduct, to send him pistols, powder, &c.; that I had left the money in your hands. He got up, and said, it was too bad; but as I had paid the money, it was no use to say anything more; it was gone without the chance of recovery. He thinks, and so do I, that the Sheïkh and his party will give themselves no further trouble about the matter. Zain and his friends are the people, who, as I told you some time since, offered to carry me to Tumbuktú for five hundred dollars, and not to receive any money until they had delivered me there in safety. The third and principal matter I have to communicate is, that Sídí Alí Ben Ilft is gone to join the caravan going to Tumbuktú; he came here last night to tell me so. No sooner, however, was it known in the Sheïkh’s room that he was there, than they sent Hájí ’Abíb to bring him to them. At first he refused to go; but afterwards he went, and then came back and staid with me till late. He says that he will go through all Súdan with me, and even back to England, if I wish it. He begged me to visit him this morning, and I have just left him. He wants me not to hurry the káfilah; and from what I could collect from his conversation with Hámed, he is disposed to give a large sum to delay the káfilah one month longer, and a good sum to delay it twenty days. This he says, is to give him time to arrange his affairs, but I know too well it is to get further instructions from Fez. I have stated decidedly that I will not wait twenty days. This Sídí Alí would be of great use as a protector, but I want none. My mind is made up, I am sorry to say, to leave my bones in Súdán, and it is as firmly made up to make a severe example before I fall. I am determined, on the least treachery I see here or on the road, to fire first, and my pistols never miss. I feel that I am in bad hands here. Close and Moor-like as Sídí Alí is, I wormed out of him that there was some fear lest I should divert a most lucrative trade into another channel. Sídí Alí will not believe that I have paid the sum I stated; so trifling is the hire of camels to Tumbuktú, that they leave it to chance, and even with the salt they are glad to obtain ten mithkáls, not of gold; but merely the ten ............ a camel-load for the salt, including cost and carriage; as it is the back carriage that pays. All here are in great commotion, since they have learnt about Sídí Alí, and they know not what to do. I am sorry for Hájí ’Abíb, who is really concerned about this bad treatment. He complains sadly of the food; and his servant, who has been four times to Tumbuktú, says the dogs there live better than the Sheïkh here. He cannot eat the food, and means to cook for himself. He is preparing a little meat for me, but I cannot buy a pot to put it into. I stated in my last that I was not going to put on any disguise. I have been so accustomed to the dirt and filth in which I have been living for some time past, that it has become quite natural to me. You, perhaps, know more about Khovut than any other person, and when I tell you I have been living in Khotu, sleeping on it for nearly three months, you can form a pretty good idea of my disguise. I never expect to become white again. My beard is very long, my hair is cut close to the head, leaving one long tuft over the left ear, my bare legs and arms are covered with the bites of vermin; my cheek bones are very prominent, and teeth very sharp from having little or nothing to do.
“I have told you a great deal about Sheïkh Berúk, but the finishing stroke was put to it this morning. I yesterday purchased two sheep, to prepare a little meat to serve me either to go or return. After cutting what meat I could off the bones, and putting this aside, one of the slaves was sent from the house to bring them away, there being enough for the dinner, and the small pieces were of no use to me. I asked the girl why she was taking them away? She replied, ‘the Sheïkh had sent her for them.’ This conduct was strongly contrasted with that of Sídí Alí, who sent for Abú, and told him that he had heard I was buying meat, but he would not allow it; there were plenty of people to buy and cook meat for me, if necessary; and he would not have it said, that a stranger was buying his food while he was in their country.
“I am daily at the tents of the Tagakánths, and the ladies, not one, but several, have openly asked me to pass the night with them; an arrangement to which their husbands make not the least objection. The Sheïkh alone, who is no great favourite, is jealous of the little attention shewn to others. Hájí ’Abíb says, he does not know how to manage these people. He is too close-fisted for them.
“Hámed has just been here (Saturday P.M.). I asked him to sit down; he said he was ashamed, and would not sit in my room, till his father came or sent a letter, bidding him to bring me on.
“I wrote a hasty P. S. about the medicines for the Sultán. My friend, G. D———d, tells me that two such chests were never sent from any house: besides the medicines, ............ of silver, glass and copper, mortars of glass and slabs for pills and ointments, I ordered the best work on medicine, the latest on diseases of the eye, and the paper of anatomical figures made at Paris, which are taken to pieces by leaves, and through which the medical schools in Egypt and Persia are taught anatomy, as religious prejudices in those countries do not permit persons to make use of dead subjects for dissection. I likewise ordered several cases of bottles of Seidlitz and other powders for Sídí Ben Alí. All these I know have been sent, and I have paid for them: their non-arrival is owing probably to the want of proper directions to the Káïd of Tangier to forward them on: the matter should be really looked into for the national credit.
“Sunday.—Some observations have been made about my bones, and I was this morning told they were taken to make soup for the Sheïkh’s party in the garden, to which they all thought I should go; but I am too poorly to stir out. At length there is news from the tents, ordering all to be ready on Friday next to leave on Saturday or Sunday. I shall not believe it, till I am really on my camel. I have got no bread as yet.
“Wednesday Evening.—Your welcome letter, with the parcel, reached this place yesterday evening: the messenger wanted to return this day; but I was totally unable to hold a pen yesterday, and can but ill manage writing to-day. Ever since Sunday I have been upon my carpet alarmingly ill. This it appears is the sickly season of Wád Nún: my first attack was ophthalmia. From this the disorder went to the throat, and I had what they call a falling of the palate, and to such an extent, that, after finding no relief from strong blisters and gargling, and fearing suffocation, I was about to cut a hole in my throat to admit of breathing; but Hájí ’Abíb, the Sheïkh, the Jews, &c. all begged me to try the remedy of the country; and for the last two days I have had a stick covered with tar poked down my throat, and have inhaled the fumes of boiled tar twice or thrice a-day. I am now wonderfully better, and am able to speak and swallow hot liquids, though I cannot the saliva. The quantity of this secretion has quite astonished me: there has been a continued discharge for hours together, and amounting during the night to above a quart. Hámed has been particularly attentive, and so have all; and all have been frightened not a little. To-day I have had some severe palpitations, for which, if they return, I shall bleed myself till I faint, and repeat this as often as nature will allow. I do, perhaps, wrong in writing, but I know your kindness and good feeling would make you more anxious, should you hear of my illness through any other channel.