Their conversation was partly carried on in their vernacular idiom, partly in Arabic. At length a wooden bowl of polenta, and another of dried meat, were set before them. My illness deprived me of all inclination to eat; and observing the company not much inclined to invite me to join them, and yet embarrassed how to avoid that ceremony, I relieved them by declining it, and desiring them to begin. When they were satiated, and they lose no time in eating, a great number of foolish questions were asked me about Europe, some of which I waved, and satisfied them as to others in the best manner I was able.
One of the principal questions was, whether the English paid the Jizié to the Othman Emperor? This, as is well known, is a capitation tax, paid by the Greeks and others, for liberty to worship after their own manner. I replied, that England was so remote from the Imperial dominions, that no war between the two countries could well have place, till all the rest of Europe should have submitted to the Mohammedan arms, which had not hitherto come to pass: but that, for the purposes of trade, the inhabitants of the one country frequented the other, and by mutual agreement were considered as personally secure; that presents were occasionally made by the British King to the Emperor, in token of amity, but not as a mark of subjection; and that the latter, on his part, as it did not appear that the decrees of the Almighty had fixed this as the moment of general conversion to the true faith, in virtue of his dispensing power, and swayed by the general law of hospitality to strangers, sanctioned by the authority of the Prophet, judged it lawful, and even a matter of political expediency, to tolerate such Europeans as conducted themselves inoffensively in his dominions, though they did not pay the Jizié. I thought it necessary to enter into this explanation of the terms on which I conceived myself to stand in relation to them, having by this time learned how rigidly they were disposed to adhere to the letter of the Prophet’s dictum, viz. that no infidels are to be spared but such as pay the capitation tax. When I observed they grew tired of asking questions, I seized the opportunity of explaining why I came there, and what favour I expected would be shewn me.
“Melek,” said I, “having come from a far distant country to Misr, (Kahira,) I was there made acquainted with the magnificence, the extended empire, and, above all, the justice and hospitality of the King Abd-el-rachmân, whose dominion be eternal! Having been used to wander over various countries as a derwish, to learn wisdom from the aged, and to collect remedies for diseases from the herbs that spring in various soils, I grew desirous of seeing Dar-Fûr. I was told that my person and property would be secure, and that permission would be given me to go wherever I might think proper. Since my arrival within the confines, I have found that all these assurances were fallacious; my inclinations have been thwarted, my person treated with indignity, and my property plundered, while compliance has been refused even to my most reasonable demands. I ask redress.—What I have already suffered from the officers of the Sultan is passed, and cannot now be remedied, but I desire protection for the future. I desire the punishment of the man who has robbed me, and restitution of what has been taken. Nor is this all, I particularly desire permission to go to Sennaar, in order to proceed to Habbesh. I was prevented from going there last year by the straight road. Habbesh is a Christian country, abounding in slaves and gold. There are also many herbs valuable in medicine. Being there, I may easily join my countrymen, merchants who come to Moccha, in the Bahr Yemeni. I desire the Sultan will allow me to proceed thither; and, if it be necessary, grant me his protection, and three or four persons, deserving confidence, to attend me to the frontiers of Kordofân. I have a small present to offer him, consisting of such things as my circumstances permitted me to bring—I hope he may not refuse to receive it, and to grant me the favour I ask.” He answered—“Merchant, you are welcome to the Dar—The King is kind to strangers, and he will favour you in all you wish. Whatever you want you have only to demand. He has ordered a sack of wheat and four sheep to be sent you.—At this time it is not possible to pass through Kordofân—The Sultan has a great army there, and when the country shall be in subjection to him you may pass unmolested. When you are admitted to his presence, you will tell him who has robbed you, and what you have lost, and he will cause it to be restored.” It was now the hour of prayer, and when the company commenced their ablutions I retired.
During three or four days ensuing I suffered so violent a relapse as to be unable to perform the common offices of life, and even to suppose that it was nearly at an end. The moment any symptom of amelioration appeared, I sent word to the Melek that it was my wish to be introduced to the Sultan, and then as soon as possible to be dismissed. No reply was made to this message; but the following day he came to the tent with some of his attendants, and desired to see the merchandize that I had brought with me. As to part of the articles, consisting of wearing apparel suited to the great, &c. I very readily complied. But this was not sufficient—The Melek insisted also on seeing the contents of a small chest, which chiefly held articles useful to myself, but not designed for sale. There were also in it some English pistols, of which I intended to avail myself as presents at Sennaar, or wherever else I might be able to penetrate. I therefore positively refused to open the chest. He then threatened to have it broke open—I remained unmoved—At length his attendants proceeding to break it open, Ali Hamad, the man who was with me, with his usual villany, took the key from its concealment and opened the box. Every thing was taken out, and examined minutely—many small articles appeared no more. The pistols were reserved to be taken by the Sultan, (after a violent but fruitless altercation,) at the valuation made by his own servants; and my telescopes, books, of which they knew not the use, wearing apparel, &c. were graciously left me.
The valuation was to be made the following day, which was done quite against my consent, and in contempt of my warmest remonstrances. Some part of the articles were stated at their full value, and others far below it. The whole was estimated at thirty-eight head of slaves, being at the market-price worth about eighty, exclusively of a present of value for the Sultan. A pair of double-barrelled pistols, silver-mounted, which had cost twenty guineas in London, were valued at one slave, which is commonly purchasable, by those who are experienced in that traffic, for the value of fifteen piastres in Egyptian commodities. On this I exclaimed, that if they meant to plunder, and bargain and sale were not conducted in this country by consent of the parties, but by force, it would be better to take the whole gratis.—No answer was made, but the day following two camels were brought me as a present.
The violent manner in which my property had been seized, and the general ill-treatment I had received, much augmented the disorder, already severe. I had now been fifteen days in the tent, exposed to great variations of temperature, it being at the close of the rainy season, and so entirely disregarded, that though tormented with thirst, I could rarely obtain water to drink. I judged that the only means of restoration which remained were, to return to Cobbé, and avail myself of the shelter of a clay-house, and that privacy and quiet, the want of which I had so sensibly felt. Being in possession of the greater part of my property, and having left me only so much as would supply the wants of a few months, the Melek did not seem very anxious about my stay. I hired two Arabs, and with the camels that had been given me, and the property that remained, made my way on the third day to the place whence I came.
In the intervals of my illness, I visited the chief persons of the place; and as the eyes of the people became habituated to me, I found my situation growing somewhat more tolerable. Idle, as I certainly was, during this winter, with respect to the immediate objects of my voyage, I grew of course more familiar with the manners and particular dialect of the country; for the Arabic, which is spoken here, differs materially from the vernacular idiom of Egypt. I seldom, indeed, joined in the parties where Merîsi[35] was introduced, because it was important not to hazard becoming concerned in the riots, which are the frequent consequence of their inebriation. But I was often diverted by the mode of conducting a bargain, which sometimes lasts for several hours; and I listened, perhaps not wholly without instruction, to their legal arguments, and the cool discussions of right, which are the consequence of often submitting disputes to arbitration. I could smile at the quibbling distinctions, by which the niceties of external observance are settled; but I had generally reason to be satisfied with their theory of morals.
It is usual for the graver men, during the heat of the day, to sit and converse under a shed erected for the purpose. When convalescent, I seldom failed to be of this party; for though the conversation contained few sallies of wit, much less profundity of observation, yet it was carried on without ill-humour, with mutual forbearance, and on the whole in an equable course. Perhaps indeed the society appeared less dull, as dissipating reflections which my situation rendered unpleasant.
The following summer (1794) having in some degree recovered my strength, I determined to go and reside for a time near the Sultan, as well to have an opportunity of supplicating for redress of what I had already suffered, as to seize any moment that might offer of pressing my request for permission to advance. On leaving the house which I had inhabited at Cobbé, a dispute had arisen with the owner of it, who wanted me to sign a declaration that nothing had been lost during my residence in his house. This, which was directly the reverse of the truth, I refused to do; and in consequence he called an assembly of Fukkara or sacred judges. The result, after much contest, served to skreen him from the responsibility legally attached to his conduct, without averting the charge, and determined me never to return to his roof.
On my arrival at El Fasher, my good friend the Melek Misellim being employed by his master in the South, I went under the protection of the Melek Ibrahim, one of the oldest persons in authority there, and lodged myself (as all strangers are obliged to lodge in the inclosure of some of the natives) in the house of a man named Musa, now only an inconsiderable officer, though one of the sons of Sultan Bokar. This Musa was one of the most upright and disinterested men I have known in that country, and indeed among the Mohammedans of any country. Calm and dignified in his demeanour, though poor and destitute of power, he never insulted, though his religion taught him to hate. No motive could have been strong enough to induce him to eat out of the same plate with a Caffre, but he was punctiliously observant of the rights of hospitality which that religion also dictated, and daily provided me with a portion of food from his kitchen. He often said that, as it was a precept of my faith to hate the Prophet, he was bound to encourage the same sentiment towards me; but that he was neither obliged to injure me, nor excused in doing so.