Travels in Africa, Egypt, and Syria, from the year 1792 to 1798

by William George Browne

The Copts who, it might be supposed, would be accurately informed of all that relates to the government and history of the country, have no sentiment of antient glory, and are wholly immersed in gain or pleasure.

Settled in the composure of ignorance, they cannot conceive the motive of minute inquiries; and timid and reserved, they fear to discover even what they know.

The more liberal among the Mohammedan ecclesiastics, may be safely consulted for what concerns literature and the laws, and some few of them are communicative; but in general they despise strangers, and do not readily answer questions not of the most ordinary occurrence. On the whole, the most intelligent and communicative among the people of Kahira are the Mohammedan merchants, of a certain rank, who have visited various parts of the empire, and who have learned to think that all wisdom is not confined to one country or one race of men; and who having been led to mix, first by necessity and then by choice, with various nations, preserve their attachment to their own persuasion, without thinking all the rest of mankind dogs and accursed.

The general design of the Writer, as will be seen in the sequel, was of such a nature, that, without being extremely sanguine, he might have hoped to execute a considerable part of it. His prospects the first year were darkened by an unexpected disappointment on his arrival at Assûan; concerning which he may say, without any disposition to complaint, that he felt it severely. Another winter furnished him with a little more information and more experience: but still, as he afterwards unfortunately discovered, by no means all that was necessary to his purpose.

He might have appeared in Dar-Fûr as a Mohammedan, if he had known that the character was necessary to his personal security, or to his unrestrained passage; but, from the accounts he received in Kahira, among the people of Soûdan no violent animosity was exhibited against Christians. The character of the converts to Mohammedism, among the black nations, was, according to the general voice of the Egyptians who travelled among them, mild and tolerant. A disposition so generally acknowleged, that the more zealous among the latter are little scrupulous in honouring them with the appellation of Caffre. His surprise therefore was not inconsiderable at finding, on his arrival, that an unbeliever in the infallibility of the Korân was more openly persecuted, and more frequently insulted, than in Kahira itself.

The information received, previously to his departure in 1793, taught the writer to expect, from having chosen the route of what is called the Soudân Caravan, the choice of a free passage to Sennaar, which would, without much doubt, have secured him an entrance into Habbesh, under the conduct of the Fungni, who trade there: for the Fûrian monarch, had his favour not been withdrawn in consequence of false insinuations, would readily have accorded a safe-conduct through Kordofân, which was all that circumstances required. The being removed a few weeks journey too far to the Westward, was no objection, when he reflected on the confusion then reigning at Sennaar, and that in proportion as the road he took was indirect, the less suspicion would be entertained of him as a Frank, the greater experience he must acquire among the people of the interior, and the more easily he might be suffered to pass as a mere trader.

He had been taught, that the expeditions in quest of slaves, undertaken by the people of Fûr and its neighbourhood, extended often forty or more days to the Southward. This, at the lowest computation, gave a distance of five degrees on a meridian, and the single hope of penetrating so much farther Southward than any preceding traveller, was worth an effort to realize. He owns, he did not then foresee all the inconveniences of being exposed, on the one hand, to the band of plunderers whom he was to accompany, and on the other, to the just resentment of the wretched victims whom they were to enthral. Perhaps those very evils were magnified greatly beyond their real value by the Fûrians to whom he applied, and who were predetermined not to allow him to pass.

Another inducement to this route was, that part of it was represented to lie along the banks of the Bahr-el-abiad, which he had always conceived to be the true Nile, and which apparently no European had ever seen. To have traced it to its source was rather to be wished than expected; but he promised himself to reach a part of it near enough to that source, to enable him to determine in what latitude and direction it was likely to exist. It is unnecessary to observe, that, had either of these objects been realized, much interesting matter must have occurred in the course of the route. He could not in the sequel discover that the armed expeditions of the Fûrians extend to any high reaches of the Bahr-el-abiad.

Another object, perhaps in the eyes of some the most important of the three, was to pass to one or more of the extended and populous empires to the Westward. Africa, to the North of the Niger, as is certified from the late discoveries, is almost universally Mohammedan; and to have been well received among one of the nations of that description, would have been a strong presumption in favour of future efforts. He expected in that road to have seen part of the Niger, and even though he had been strictly restrained to the direct road from Dar-Fûr through Bernou and thence to Fezzan and Tripoli, an opportunity must have offered of verifying several important geographical positions, and observing many facts worthy remembrance relative to commerce and general manners; or, if those designs had entirely failed, at least of marking a rough outline of the route, and facilitating the progress of some future traveller.

So fixed was his intention of executing some one of these plans, that near three years of suffering were unable to abate his resolution; and the pain he endured at being ultimately compelled to relinquish them, had induced him to neglect the only opportunity that was likely to offer of personal deliverance, till the destitution of the means of living roused him from his lethargy; and the ridicule of his Mohammedan friends, who, fatalists as they are, yield to circumstances, instructed him that to despair was weakness and not fortitude; and that the frail offspring of hope, nursed by credulity, and not by prudence, marks the morbid temperament of the mind that conceived it.