I cannot help feeling some apprehensions lest this project should not meet with the entire approbation of the Committee: as it will defer again for a twelvemonth my grand journey. As for myself, as long as I have any vigour of mind and body left, I shall look upon time as a very secondary consideration, and subservient only to objects of science; and I am indifferent to what extent my absence from Europe is prolonged, provided my final object of visiting as much of the unknown countries of Soudan as I possibly can, is obtained. If I am not to be tired with respect to time it is hardly to be supposed that my employers should; but other considerations may certainly make them desire a more prompt conclusion of my journey. And for this reason I am extremely anxious to know what opinion they entertain of my conduct.
Postscript, dated from Siout in Upper Egypt, 12th of July, 1813.
I am sorry to say that I have not been able to set out with the Sennaar caravan as soon as I expected. A small caravan, coming from the south, arrived at Daraou at the end of May. The merchants had been stripped on the road by the chief of Mograt, through whose territory they are obliged to pass. That chief had espoused the cause of the Mamelouks, and declared war against the Egyptian slave-traders. The party of the latter, with whom I intended to set out from Daraou, where they had already assembled, were now afraid to proceed on their journey in small numbers, and they put off their departure, until they might be joined by several other parties, in order to form a large caravan, capable of fighting its way through, if the robber of Mograt should attack them. I profited by the interval to return to Siout, from whence I sent a messenger to Cairo, for my purse was almost exhausted.
I shall write to you once more before I set out from hence, which I hope will be in three weeks. If the departure and arrival of the caravans, were as well regulated in Africa, as they are in Syria, this vast continent would soon be explored. But the difficulties and delays are great, and can only be overcome by patience.
The plague is said to have ceased at Cairo, but it still continues in some parts of Lower Egypt, after having almost depopulated Alexandria and Damietta. It had reached a village only two hours distant from here, but made no farther progress. But great fears are entertained that it will increase and spread next winter, over the whole country, which is generally the case whenever it has not completely subsided towards the end of June.
Extract of a letter from Esne, October 14th, 1813.
The great Djelabe traders from Sennaar who have just arrived here, have at length put an end to the impediment caused by the chief of Mograt, by killing him and his principal men in his own house at Mograt. But another difficulty has occurred. There is a great scarcity of provisions in the Nile countries, from Gous up to Sennaar, occasioned by the locusts, who devoured entirely the last winter crops. The envoys sent last year by Mohammed Aly, to the King of Sennaar, who have returned with the late caravans, describe the state of the inhabitants as most deplorable; they kill each other for a measure of Dhourra, and neither law nor government is any more attended to. Under such circumstances the caravans assembled at Daraou, in the neighbourhood of Assouan, have not thought proper to leave Egypt, where every kind of provision is at the lowest price. They have wisely resolved to defer their departure until the new Dhourra grain should have been reaped in the southern countries, when as the inundation of the Nile has been very copious this year, plenty will have returned to those districts. I shall thus start in their company in about three weeks from this time, and have little doubt, provided I remain in good health, that I shall reach Massuah in safety, by taking my road straight across the mountains from Damer towards Massuah.
From Massuah I mean to cross over to the Arabian coast, and to return to Cairo by the Hedjaz; I hope the Committee of the African Association will not object to this extension of my travels. I keep my ultimate object well in view, and after my return to Cairo, I shall be ready to put it in execution. But I think that the discovery of the interior parts of Nubia is well worth a year’s labour and the expense attending it. My journey through Arabia may probably qualify me better than any thing else, to future perilous travels in the Mohammedan world, nor will it, I hope, be devoid of some advantages to science.
I have collected some information on the interior parts of Africa, from the Soudan pilgrims, of whom I have seen great numbers in Upper Egypt. But I wish to improve upon it, before I transmit it to the Association. These pilgrims go here by the name of Tekaýrne (sing. Tekroury, from the verb تكرر: meaning to renew, improve and purify, that is to say, their faith and learning by the pilgrimage. It is probably from this name of Tekroury, that the Arabian geographers have placed a country called Tekrour, between Timbuctou and Kashna; none of these travellers knew of any such country.) Such of them as are most distinguished for skill in writing and reading, style themselves “Fokara,” (from فقير: a poor man, i. e. before the Lord) which name is given in Upper Egypt to the whole class of learned men. Most of the Tekaýrne come from Darfour; some from Bornou and the country of Wady el Ghazal, between Bornou and Darfour; others from Bagherme and Borgho. I have not met with a single man from Wangara, nor could I ever find any whose native country was west of Wangara. The road they take is from Darfour to Kordofan and Sennaar, from whence they follow the course of the Nile through Dóngola and Nubia, to Egypt. Those only who can afford to buy camels and provisions, cross the desert from the Nile to Souakin, the others live upon alms, and upon the selling of amulets. I understand that there is a still more frequented pilgrim road from Sennaar through Abyssinia to Massuah.
Upper Egypt enjoys at present perfect tranquillity, under the severe but equitable government of Ibrahim Pasha, son of Mohammed Aly. The taxes are moderate and the whole country is equally assessed; no avanies are practised, and the soldiery is kept in strict order. By secularizing a part of the revenues of the church, such as the superfluous income of mosques, schools, public cisterns, Olemas, village Shikhs, &c. the Pasha has of late considerably enriched his treasury. The clerical interest is of course now in opposition, although the Pasha has become the restorer of the faith, by delivering the holy cities. The Mamelouks have no chance of succeeding in any attempt upon Egypt, as long as Mohammed Aly keeps in power; but if he should happen to fall, I conceive that although their number is now reduced to three hundred fighting men only, they would forthwith regain their lost seat in Egypt, where their friends are still very numerous, especially among the most daring adventurers, who greatly dislike the just and vigorous measures of the actual government.