In marching from Ainé Dizé to Charjé, eight hours were employed. Excepting a small space near the spring, all is waste. The Chabir, or leader, chose to notify his approach to the town by beating drums, (two of which he had borne before him as marks of his office, and as occasion might require, to collect the travellers when dispersed,) and by other tokens of joy, as firing small arms, shouting, &c. One of my camels, in descending the mountain, had fallen and injured his right shoulder, which, as a cure could not suddenly have place, obliged me to change him for another.
There is a Gindi or officer at Charjé, and another at Beirîs, both belonging to Ibrahim-bey-el-kebir, to whom those villages appertain; and to them is entrusted the management of what relates to the caravan during the time of its stay there. We left Charjé on Friday the 7th of June, and having passed another desert space, after six hours reached another village, called Bulak. This is a wretchedly poor place, the houses being only small square pieces of ground inclosed with a wall of clay, or unburned bricks, and generally without a roof. It furnishes good water, and the people live by the sale of their dates. The caravan remained a day at Bulak, and having left it on Sunday the 9th, arrived at Beirîs on Monday the 10th, after nearly fourteen hours march through a barren tract. Here the Chabir thought proper to go through the same ceremony as at Charjé.
On the 13th we employed two hours in passing from Beirîs to Mughess, the last village of the Oasis toward the Southern desert. We left Mughess on the morning of the 15th, and on Thursday the 20th, in the morning, arrived at Sheb. At this place, by digging to the depth of a few feet in the sand, is found a supply of indifferent water. A tribe of the wandering Arabs, called Ababde, who come from the neighbourhood of the Nile, sometimes infests it. Sheb is marked by the production of a great quantity of native alum, as the name imports. The surface, near which the alum is found, abounds with a reddish stone; and in many places is seen argillaceous earth. Having left Sheb on the 21st, we arrived at Selimé on the 23d. This is a small verdant spot, at the foot of a ridge of rocks of no great height, nor apparently extending very far. It affords the best water of any place on the route; but though there be verdure enough to relieve the eye from the dry sterility of the surrounding surface, it affords no vegetable fit for the support either of man or beast. At Selime is a small building, which has apparently been raised by some of the tribes resting there, that place being much frequented by the roving parties passing the desert in different directions. The building consists only of loose stones, but the jelabs related many fables concerning it; as that it had of old been inhabited by a princess who, like the Amazons, drew the bow, and wielded the battle-axe, with her own hand; that she was attended by a large number of followers, who spread terror all over Nubia, &c.; and that her name was Selimé[33].
On the 24th we rested, and having proceeded the following morning, employed five days more in reaching Leghea. Water there is scarce, and far inferior in quality to that of Selimé, having a brackish taste. The camels throughout the caravan began now to be excessively weak and jaded, and the Chabir was at a loss for the true road: for though several persons in the caravan had traversed this desert ten or twelve times, they were not unfrequently unable to determine which was the right course. One of the party was sent forward to discover some known object that might be our guide, and after having been absent thirty-six hours he returned. While we remained here we felt much inconvenience from a suffocating wind that blew from the South, and raised the sand in clouds. On the 2d of July the caravan left Leghea; and on the eighth, after a severe and fatiguing march, reached the Bir-el-Malha or salt spring. The vicinity of this spring is remarkable for the production of natron, which substance appears under different circumstances, and is of different quality from that of Terané. It is very white and solid; and on immersion in water becomes hot, and discharges a great portion of its air.
Small quantities of it are carried by the jelabs to Egypt, where it is sold at a high price, and is used principally in making snuff. The water found at this place is very unpalatable, being brackish.
A troop of the natives of Zeghawa met us at this well. It is their practice to station a small party there, when caravans are expected, who remunerate themselves for the fatigue of a ten days journey by supplying provisions, and what else may be wanted by travellers, at an exorbitant rate. Many of our companions at this time had great need of their assistance, as their supply had been originally insufficient, and many camels had perished on the road. The vicinity of the Bir-el-Malha is occasionally infested by the Cubba-Beesh, a wandering tribe, who, mounted on the swiftest dromedaries, rapidly traverse the desert, and live by plundering the defenceless. As they are, however, unfurnished with fire-arms, so numerous a body as ours was not in much danger from their attack.
We remained at the Bir-el-Malha till the 12th; on which day we left that place, and travelled with little interruption till the 20th, and then encamped at a spot called Medwa, where however is no supply of water. One of my camels having fallen, we were obliged to purchase water of the Mahréa Arabs[34] whom we met, or to take up what had lodged in cavities on the earth, in consequence of the rains which were then beginning to fall.
On the 23d we came to the first springs within the limits of Fûr, which are in this place called Wadi Masrûk. The white ant, Termis, was here exceedingly vexatious, building his covered way to every thing within the tent, and destroying all within his reach. This together with the rains, which were now increasing, and began to pour in a torrent through the valley, obliged us to abandon the tents, and take shelter in the next village, (Sweini,) where I obtained an apartment in the house of Ali-el-Chatîb, one of the principal merchants established in the country. In it I passed eight or ten days, not having arrived at Cobbé, one of the towns whither the jelabs chiefly resort, till the seventh of August.
At Sweini resides generally a Melek or governor on the part of the Sultan of Dar-Fûr; and there all strangers, as well as merchants of the country, coming with the caravan, are obliged to wait, till the pleasure of the monarch in disposing of them be known.
Coming as I did under considerable exceptions from the general rule of merchants trading to that country, and, in the Arabic language, rather as Daif-es-Sultan, the king’s stranger, in which light the people of the country had hitherto viewed me, I expected to obtain, without delay, permission to continue my journey to the royal residence. I observed to the Melek of Sweini and other public officers, in one among many conversations I had with them, that “intending to visit the Sultan, I should hardly have expected to be put back with frivolous excuses, as the nonpayment of duties which you dare not explicitly demand of me, and tributes under the name of presents, which have never yet been exacted of a stranger. If any duties be payable, beyond what have already been discharged, you are perfectly at liberty to detain all, or such part, of the articles I bring with me, as you judge sufficient to answer your claim; but not to refuse me permission to go to the Sultan, with whom I have business. Or if other reasons operate to prevent my request being complied with, and any suspicions prevail relative to my views in coming here, I desire, without further delay, to be furnished with the means of returning to Egypt, before I suffer, as commonly happens to strangers, from the effects of the climate, while I am yet in the habit of travelling, and while the funds are yet unexhausted which should support me in my progress farther.”