June 18th.—Some disputes arose this morning between the chief of the caravan, and the Sowakin merchants, about the route to be taken from hence; and after a march of two hours over generally level ground, but not without trees, we stopped in a wood of Syale trees, to settle the matter. There were two routes towards Souakin; the nearest branches off in a N. E. direction, and lies over steep mountains, inhabited by Bedouins; where are many wells, but the road is bad, and difficult from the number of ascents and descents. The other is more easy, but two days longer; the chief insisted upon taking the latter route in order to spare the camels, which were heavily laden, while the merchants wished to pursue the former. Not being able to agree, the parties separated; the black traders and myself remained with the chief; and in the evening we were joined by the others, who upon mature consideration, and finding the chief determined not to yield to them, thought it would be a folly to endanger their safety, in order to accelerate their arrival by two days only. In the place where we halted there grew many wide spreading trees of moderate height, which had a vast number of branches issuing in every direction out of the trunk, from the root to the top, and reaching down to the ground; the leaves much resembled those of the laurel; I found them to be very bitter, and the camels refused to eat them: the Negroes eat of them, in order, as they said, to strengthen their stomach (يمَكّن البطن Yemakken el battn). The Oshour is common here. After marching three hours farther, or five hours from our starting (direction N. E. ½ E.), we halted in a Wady of Doum trees, where our slaves killed and ate a quantity of locusts. An herb was here collected, the leaves of which resemble those of the Meloukhye; when boiled they were thrown into the broth with which the Assyde is seasoned. The Assyde is the principal dish of the Black traders, and appears to be in general use in every part of North Africa; it consists of a thick pap of Dhourra or Dhoken meal, over which a sauce made of butter and onions, or Bamye, is poured: it is prepared with more care than the Fetyre, formerly described, and when the meal is fine, it is far from being disagreeable. The Kordofan merchants carried Dhoken in their leathern sacks, which is more common with them than Dhourra. Most of the traders carried also the stones with which the Dhourra is ground, and their slaves were obliged by turns to pass the greater part of the night in grinding meal for the provision of the following day. Others, and among them myself, had during their stay at Taka filled their sacks with Dhourra flour, prepared as already described, which is also made into Assyde; it is esteemed more wholesome than the other. The slaves eat the Dhourra pap for dinner without any sauce or seasoning, except salt; for supper they generally boil the grain till it bursts, some salt is then strewed over it, and it is eaten by handfuls without butter or sauce. My slave was envied by all the others, because he always got his dinner and supper with butter, as I did. The Souakin merchants have their own dishes better seasoned than those of the slaves, which is not the case with the Egyptian traders. Among the former, if a slave is much fatigued, or suffers from severe head-ache, of which they often complain, he receives a small allowance of butter. Some of the merchants had dried flesh with them, which they boiled in the sauce of the Assyde. Whenever a camel was killed the flesh was cut into strips, and hung exposed for two days in the sun, round the camels saddles until it was sufficiently dried not to putrify; after which it was put into sacks. The heat was intense the whole of this day; after sunset we had loud thunder with lightning, followed by a heavy shower of rain, which set us all afloat. I had a mat which afforded me some shelter, but before the night was passed the water came through, and I was completely drenched, like the rest; this is no trifling inconvenience, when one is unprovided with a change of clothes, and when the body is still affected by the heat of the preceding day.
June 19th.—The morning was fine, and the birds sang so sweetly, at sunrise, that even slaves and slave-traders expressed their delight. After marching an hour, we entered the mountains; this is one of the principal chains in this part of Nubia, extending, as far as I could understand, in the direction from NW. to SE. for four or five days, on each side of the point at which we entered it. A branch of it runs to the north, near the coast, all the way to Kosseir. We ascended through a Wady, with steep rocks on each side, and we met with several difficult ascents and descents. The whole mountain is intersected by Wadys, in all of which trees and pasturage are met with. The path was well trodden, and tolerably free from stones. At the end of three hours we halted in a narrow elevated plain, where acacia trees grew in a soil of sand and gravel; it is called Wady Aréwad;i[66] some colossal Doum trees afforded us a shade, and we had hoped to find water in a small well near them; but it was choaked up with gravel, and we were unable, after long digging, to obtain a sufficiency for ourselves and camels. We in consequence took off the loads, mounted our beasts, and rode about three quarters of an hour to the westward up the rocky slope of the mountain, when we came to a large and deep basin of rain water which had been filled since last year. This morning I had a narrow escape from a Souakiny, who joined me while I was in advance of the caravan, and succeeded in leading me astray into a side valley about half a mile from the road. He was armed with a lance, while I had nothing but a small stick. Luckily for me, at the moment when I perceived his intention, I found a thick branch of a tree. He laughed when I took it up; but as I could not mistake his object in following me, I ordered him to stand off, threatening to become the assailant; by this means I made good my retreat, and rejoined the caravan. Had this man murdered me and taken the few dollars I had, which he probably supposed to be more than they really were, there would have been no danger in his returning to the caravan; no body on my being missed would have thought it worth his while to make any particular enquiries about me, still less to revenge my death. This proved an unlucky day to me, for about noon, while I was filling my water-skin at the basin, the camel, which I had left tied to a tree in the valley below, broke loose, without my knowledge, and returned to the resting place, in company of many others that were loaded with water. When I carried my water-skin down the cliff, I found the camel was gone as well as my companions the black traders; no one present would permit me to place the skin upon his camel, and as it was too heavy to be carried any distance on the shoulder, I was obliged to return to the caravan for my camel. By the time I had rejoined the caravan with the water, they had began to load; so that after having toiled during the heat of the morning and noon, I was obliged immediately to resume the march without either food or repose. The merchants who have several slaves, are very comfortably situated; cooking, carrying water, and loading are left to them, and the master merely adjusts the loads, and takes care that nothing be left behind. During the mid-day hours he sleeps soundly under a shed of mats erected for him by his slaves, and is only awakened when every thing is ready for departure. My little slave became useful to me in this route, in bringing wood and tending the fire; but cooking, and fetching water, when it was at any distance, fell entirely to my care, as well as the loading of the camel.
There are some poor families of Hadendoa in this Wady, who are afraid of descending into the plain, on account of the incursions of the Bisharein. The rains not having yet set in, there was little verdure in this elevated valley; but the lower plain had been several times irrigated.
We continued our route in the afternoon, along the narrow plain, in a northern direction, for about an hour and a half, when we met a small caravan coming from Souakin, and bound to Taka. This was the seventh day of their march. On reaching the extremity of the plain, we began again to ascend through a narrow sandy valley, thickly overgrown with the Seder (سدر) tree,i[67] a small space in the middle only being open for the road. The valley winds very much: it is generally about four hundred yards across, but in many places only one hundred, with steep cliffs on both sides worn into deep channels by the rains; we passed several pools of water; I might therefore have saved all the labour I had had in filling my water-skins; but thus it often happens in the desert with travellers who are ignorant of the road; those who know where the wells or pools are situated, generally keep their knowledge secret, and urge the necessity of taking as copious a supply as possible, for they have this saying, “We would transport the Nile itself, if the camels could but carry it.” Sometimes it becomes necessary to load water, even if a well is known to be at a short distance, because the caravan is not to halt there, and no one ever thinks of stopping alone to fill his water-skins. The Oshour and tamarisk trees grow in many parts of the valley, but the Seder predominated quite to the upper extremity. On looking back towards the plain we had quitted, a vast rocky wilderness presented itself with the green strip of the Wady serpentizing through it; there was in many parts of the Wady cultivable soil, for wherever in these countries water abounds, the most barren sands become fertile. The valley every where bore traces of the devastation occasioned by the torrents, and the sides of the mountain had been so much undermined by them, that the upper layer of rocks had been displaced, and was lying about shattered to pieces.
After a march of nine hours, (the general direction NNE.) four of which had been occupied in ascending, we came to a spot where the valley, having reached the summit, becomes level for about five hundred yards; here we encamped. We had met with several Hadendoa families near the pools of water, and as they are reputed to be great thieves, we determined to continue our march thus far, as we thought they would follow us no farther in the woods. One of the men asserted that in coming up the valley he had seen a monkey among the trees, and I was informed that these animals are not unfrequently met with in this place, and that they are very common on the western road to Souakin, which leads over the same chain of mountains. We saw many Gazelles, and several hares. The heat of the day, which had become particularly oppressive in the lower plain between the high mountains, was here succeded by a chilling cold. We lighted many fires, and the fear of robbers kept us awake the greater part of the night. I killed a scorpion just by my fire.
June 20th. The highest summit of the mountain was about three hundred feet higher than the elevation on which we were encamped. It is from its steep and almost perpendicular cliffs that the torrents in the rainy season are precipitated through innumerable clefts in the rocks, into this plain, where they divide, part rushing towards the northern, and part towards the southern plain. We followed, this morning, the bed of the northern torrent, in our descent, which was not so steep as the ascent had been. The climate of this mountain recalled to my feelings, that of the valleys of Mount Lebanon; the fresh morning air breathed a vigour through my frame which I had not felt since I quitted Syria. Trees were met with during the whole of the descent. At the end of four hours we halted where the valley widens considerably; here we found fine pasturage among the barren rocks; there were also many Doum trees, and some water in shallow pools. The whole aspect of the valley was extremely picturesque, at least to a traveller who, after passing a desert, hails every spot of verdure as an Eden. A small caravan, six days from Souakin, bound for Taka with salt here passed us. Several side valleys, all equally full of trees, join the main bed of the torrent. After again starting we continued descending very slowly for two hours, and then issued where the Wady is lost in the open plain; our road then lay over uneven, gravelly ground, (direction N. E. ½ N.) and after a day’s march of nine hours and a half we halted for the night; the chain of mountains extended to the right and left; on the right appearing to take a S. E. direction; and on the left dividing into two branches, one of which runs to the westward, and loses itself in the desert, and the other northwards parallel with the sea shore. Having met several straggling parties during the day, we kept close together the whole night, for fear of robbers.
The route over the mountain which we had just crossed presents no difficulties whatever; the mountain is called by the inhabitants Orbay Langay, or the mountain of Langay, and is one of the principal features in the topography of Eastern Nubia. It is full of pasturage in every direction, but more particularly to the west, where many wells and springs are found. I think it probable that in the most western point of this mountain the river, or rather great torrent, Mogren has its rise, for as I have already said, its course does not intersect the caravan route from Atbara to Souakin. The mountain Langay is inhabited by Hadendoa Arabs only, and serves them as an asylum against the depredations of the Bisharein. The Hadendoa who live at several days distance, and the people of Souakin also, send their cattle in the summer to this mountain, where they are certain of finding pasturage. The Langay forms a separation of climates in Eastern Nubia; to the south of it the rains had set in for a fortnight, while to the north no rain had yet fallen, as appeared both by the dusty ground, and the testimony of the Bedouins. At Souakin, I was told that the rains were not expected there till the middle of July. In the plains of the Bedja,i[68] easterly winds had generally prevailed; but in this northern plain we had usually northerly breezes. On the south of the mountains, since quitting the Atbara, we had never felt any dew during the night, whereas heavy dews now fell every night, and continued during our stay at Souakin. The whole of this chain consists of primitive calcareous rock. I could no where find any petrifactions, nor any granite.
June 21st.—We rode this morning over uneven and generally stony ground; direction NE. ½ N.; the rocks were quartz and grünstein, which latter is met with in every part of Nubia. Many low grounds, the beds of torrents, intersected the road. At the end of three hours we halted in Wady Osouyt, near a pool of water. These collections of rain water amongst the rocks are often of considerable depth; those on the level plain are shallow and of greater extent. From Wady Osouyt we continued NW. by N. over a plain having exactly the appearance of the Syrian deserts. Low shrubs were growing everywhere in a soil that might easily be rendered productive. We travelled parallel with the chain on our left, and from four to six miles distant from it. This chain is called Dyaab, and extends along the coast, I conjecture, as far as Kosseir: at first sight it appears barren, but the sheep and goats find plenty of herbage in its clefts. We met another caravan of about thirty camels, returning unloaded, to Taka. We also passed a small encampment of Hadendoa, who had large herds of camels. We halted in the plain after a day’s march of ten hours.
June 22d.—We travelled over stony ground; direction NNW. After three hours march we entered Wady Moez, full of large fragments of rocks, among which we rode westward towards the mountain, till we reached a well, close to which was a pool of rain water; here we found flocks of sheep and many camels, which the Hadendoa shepherds had been watering. Notwithstanding the steepness of the mountain there are trees to its very summit, exhibiting an interesting and novel sight to me, who had seen nothing like it since I quitted Syria. There are numberless ravines through which the torrents are precipitated into the plain during the rains, when they must form so many cascades boiling over the rocks, and presenting altogether a grand spectacle. Many Seder trees grow in the plain. Here again the slaves caught locusts, which they roasted over the fire, after taking out the entrails. From Wady Moez we continued over even but rocky ground, four hours farther, when we halted.
June 23d. The country before us presented a valley (called Wady Osyr) of at least four hours in breadth, bordered on the east side by low hills. We continued our route close to the high western chain; the whole plain is full of trees and shrubs, and in every low ground was herbage, now parched up. We passed another encampment of Hadendoa, with large herds of camels; they appear to live here in perfect security from any surprise by their enemies. We also met a travelling party of Hadendoa, with their women and tents; the women were seated upon the camels, on high saddles fantastically decorated, with three or four poles sticking out in front, beyond the animal’s head, having the extremities ornamented with large bunches of black ostrich feathers. The African, like the Arabian Bedouins, seem to display elegance of equipment in the decorations of their women only: leathern tassels of different sizes, small bells, and white shells, from the Red Sea, contributed to the ornament of the harness and saddles of the camels. None of the women passed me without uttering a loud shriek, and then laughing. After marching two hours and a half, we halted under a thick cover of acacia trees, in low ground, called Wady Shenkera. The slaves had to bring water from an hour’s distance in the mountain. We here collected the same herb which I have already mentioned, to season our Asyde. A few poor women came to sell us milk and to beg a little Dhourra, which is scarce among these Bedouins; they draw their supplies from Taka, but they live generally upon milk and flesh only. We continued travelling in Wady Osyr during the evening, NE. b. E. and halted for the night after a day’s journey of eight hours and a half.