Early in the morning of the 17th of May, the Souakin caravan took its departure; it had passed the precincts of the town before I had completely loaded my camel; while I was thus employed several of the Daraou people, who had just been informed of my intended departure, came to vent their rage at my having foiled them in their rancorous projects against me; it was, however, too late; I was beyond the reach of their malice. The Ababde accompanied me to a short distance beyond the town, where I took an affectionate leave of them, for I could not but consider that almost from the time of my quitting Egypt, I owed my safety entirely to their protection or interference; I was still to owe them farther obligations; for in quitting the town one of the Mek’s slaves had followed me, and, after I had taken leave of the Ababde, the caravan being then about half a mile in advance, in the plain, he continued to keep alongside of me. One of the Ababde seeing this, and observing that the slave was armed, entertained some suspicion of him. He therefore immediately turned back, and came up just in time to extricate me from the slave, who, although he had, during our stay at Shendy, partaken almost daily of our meals, had followed me for the purpose of obliging me to give up to him my pistol.i[53] He probably thought I should part with it, rather than expose myself to delay, and the consequent danger of joining the caravan alone. He had taken hold of the camel’s halter, and had already demanded the pistol, when the Ababde came up, and severely reprimanded him for his conduct. In the afternoon we arrived at El Hassa (الحسّا), a hamlet situated beyond the salt works and plain of Boeydha, not far from the place where we encamped at noon on the day of our arrival at Shendy.
May 18th.—We remained encamped at El Hassa the whole day, and were joined in the afternoon by several Souakin and Shendy merchants, who came to take leave of their friends. The Djaalein Arabs hovered about us, and endeavoured to carry off several camels while brouzing on the acacia leaves, under the guard of the slaves; this obliged me to take great care of my own camel. While driving it to the thickest groves of acacias, I met with some remains of ancient buildings close to the river, the banks of which are here very high. These remains consist of stone foundations of houses, and some brick walls; the former appear to have belonged to private buildings of moderate size, and consist of blocks of sandstone three or four feet in length, very rudely worked, and much decayed. The stones bear a small proportion to the brickwork; the bricks are of the same description as those I saw near Dawah, and form the walls of private dwellings. I saw no remains of any town wall, nor of any thing like a large edifice; the whole of what I observed seemed to have belonged to a small open city. The circumference of these ruins is eight or ten minutes walk at most; I could trace no regularity in their plan; they seemed to consist of small insulated oblong squares irregularly dispersed among the trees. Of the brick walls there were no where more than two feet standing above ground, and even this is matter for astonishment when we consider the effect which the annual rains must have upon such deserted and loosely combined structures. I could discover no other remains of any kind in the vicinity. There is a ford over the river near this place, which the Djaalein use for three or four months before the rise of the waters.
May 19th.—We set out this morning, and travelled along the eastern limits of the cultivated plain, till we reached the village of Kaboushye (كبوشيه), the residence of a relation of the Mek of Shendy, about three hours from El Hassa. As we had three long days march to the Atbara, we filled our water-skins at the river, which is half an hour from the village. Just as we were starting, an accident happened to me, which frequently occasions great distress to the traveller in the desert; when I had tied the water-skins to my camel’s saddle, one of the largest of them sprung a leak, out of which the water issued as from a fountain. In such cases the Arabs generally stop the hole with a peg made of the green twig of a tree, wrapped with a bit of linen; but the best substance for the purpose is the pith of the Dhourra cane, which swells in the water, and thus fits very tight. We crossed a flat district, intersected by many low grounds and Wadys, in which were shrubs and wild grass (قش) Gish. We passed a large encampment of Djaalein, distant four hours from the river, from which, nevertheless, they bring their daily supply of water; we encamped late at night, after a march of seven or eight hours from Kaboushye.
May 20th.—We set out before sunrise, in a N.E. b. E. direction. The caravan consisted of at least two hundred loaded camels, twenty or thirty dromedaries, carrying the richest traders, without any other loads; about one hundred and fifty traders, three hundred slaves, and about thirty horses, destined for the Yemen market; they were led the whole way by the slaves. The greater part of the loads consisted of tobacco, which the Souakin people had themselves brought from Sennaar, and of Dammour, from the same place. The caravan was under good care. Its chief was one of the principal men among the Arabs of Souakin, connected by marriage with the first tribes of the Bisharye and Hadendoa Bedouins, through whose territory our road lay; but notwithstanding this, I clearly perceived that there was a constant dread of the Bisharein. The people yielded without reluctance to the orders of the chiefi[54] in every thing that related to the march of the caravan. The only strangers who had joined the Souakin merchants were a party of Tekaýrne (sing. Tekroury), or black traders, consisting of five masters, ten camels, and about thirty slaves. I joined this party, as we were all strangers, and glad of each other’s assistance; I encamped near them during the whole of the journey to the coast, separating myself from the Souakin traders, who were also divided into many different parties. I soon became tolerably familiar with my companions; they rendered me many little services, of which no one stands more in need than a caravan traveller, and I was never backward in returning them; so that we continued to be upon good terms: I cannot say a friendly footing, for nobody, even in the Negroe countries, is inclined to form an intimacy with a poor man.
Of these Tekaýrne one was from Darfour, another from Kordofan, and three had come originally from Bornou, from whence, many years ago, they had travelled with the caravan to Fezzan, and from thence to Cairo. The principal among them, and who became the head of our mess, Hadji Aly el Bornaway (حاج علي البرناوي), had travelled as a slave-trader in many parts of Turkey, had been at Constantinople, had lived a long time at Damascus, (where many Tekaýrne serve as labourers in the gardens of the great), and had three times performed the Hadj: he was now established at Kordofan, and spent his time in trading between that place and Djidda. His travels, and the apparent sanctity of his conduct, had procured him great reputation, and he was well received by the Meks and other chiefs, to whom he never failed to bring some small presents from Djidda. Although almost constantly occupied, (whether sitting under a temporary shed of mats, or riding upon his camel on the march,) in reading the Koran, yet this man was a complete bon vivant, whose sole object was sensual enjoyment. The profits on his small capital, which were continually renewed by his travelling, were spent entirely in the gratification of his desires. He carried with him a favourite Borgho slave, as his concubine; she had lived with him three years, and had her own camel, while his other slaves performed the whole journey on foot.i[55] His leathern sacks were filled with all the choice provisions which the Shendy market could afford, particularly with sugar and dates, and his dinners were the best in the caravan. To hear him talk of morals and religion, one might have supposed that he knew vice only by name; yet Hadji Aly, who had spent half his life in devotion, sold last year, in the slave market of Medinah, his own cousin, whom he had recently married at Mekka. She had gone thither on a pilgrimage from Bornou by the way of Cairo, when Aly unexpectedly meeting with her, claimed her as his cousin, and married her:i[56] at Medinah being in want of money, he sold her to some Egyptian merchants; and as the poor woman was unable to prove her free origin, she was obliged to submit to her fate. The circumstance was well known in the caravan, but the Hadji nevertheless still continued to enjoy all his wonted reputation.
The Tekaýrne treated me in the same manner as they would have treated any other traveller; and as travellers are always treated in these countries, where, except assisting their neighbour occasionally in lifting a camel’s load, no one thinks of any thing but his own comforts; but this was all I wished for; I was in no real need of any one’s help; and I never experienced any thing like ill treatment from the Souakin merchants that was not equally shared by the Tekaýrne themselves. I was much upon my guard, behaved civilly to every body, shunned all intimacy with the slaves, with whom I was considered nearly upon a level; and shewed a proper spirit of resistance against any attempt to cheat or wheedle me out of a part of my baggage or provisions. By this conduct I have reason to believe, that I acquired the character of a hardy, active man, very selfish, stingy, and attentive to his own interests.
We travelled the whole morning across a plain composed chiefly of petrosilex. To the right we had a number of Wadys, or low grounds.
After a march of ten or eleven hours we rested; it is the custom to set out about sun-rise, to halt during the mid-day hours, or from ten o’clock A. M. till three or four P. M., and then to continue the march till late at night, and often till after midnight.
May 21st. Our road continued to traverse the plain. We this day experienced a violent Semoum. The camels of the Souakin merchants being heavily loaded with goods, had taken but a small supply of water, in proportion to the number of the slaves and horses. Towards noon, most of their skins were empty, and the chief of the caravan coming to our mess, almost forcibly took from every one of us a fourth part of the water which was left. We passed the mid-day hours upon a black gravelly plain, near some acacia trees; and after a long day’s march of ten or eleven hours, in a N. E. b. E. direction, we slept in a Wady full of shrubs and deep sands. The whole caravan went thirsty to rest. We found, almost the whole way across the desert, a well trodden path, much frequented by the people of Atbara, who carry their cattle to the Shendy market: we met several of them on the road, on their way to Shendy with mats made at Atbara of the leaves of the Doum tree.
May 22nd.—After a march of three hours among sandy plains, we came in sight of the river Atbara, and entered the groves of trees which line its banks. The luxuriant vegetation which now surrounded us filled with pleasure even the stony hearts of the slave-traders; one of whom, alluding to the dreary tract we had passed, exclaimed: (بعد الموت الجنّه Baad el mout el djenna), “After death comes paradise.” We marched for about a quarter of an hour among high trees, from the boughs of which we had much difficulty in disentangling the camels’ loads. There was a greater variety of natural vegetation here than I had seen any where on the banks of the Nile in Egypt. I observed different species of the mimosa, Doum trees of the largest size, whose luxuriant clusters of fruit excited the wishes of the slaves; the Nebek tree, with its fruit ripe; the Allobé, of the size of the Nebek, besides a great number of others, unknown to me; to these must be added an abundance of wild herbage, growing on a rich fat soil, similar to that of Egypt. The trees were inhabited by great numbers of the feathered tribe, whose song travellers in Egypt very rarely hear. I saw no birds with rich plumage, but observed small ones of several different kinds. Some sweet notes struck my ears, which I had never before heard, and the amorous cooings of the turtle doves were unceasing. We hastened to the river, and eagerly descended its low banks to allay our thirst. Several camels, at the sight of the water, broke the halters by which they were led, and in rushing or stumbling down the banks, threw off their loads, and occasioned great clamour and disorder.