The Melek Ibrahim is a man of about sixty years of age, tall but not athletic, and characterised by the roughness rather than the expression of his features. He has no beard, and the little hair which remains either on his head or face is grey. His manners and even the motions of his body are ungraceful, and without the ease of superior rank, or the majesty of superior intellect. Yet his understanding seems clear and comprehensive, and his sagacity not unworthy the station assigned him—one of the first in the empire. He is indeed a bigot in matters of faith, but in all that concerns not the prevailing superstition, his judgment is cool, and little liable to error. He once held the reputation of integrity above the rest of his order, but his present riches render this character ambiguous. Generosity, however, holds no place among his virtues. The uniform tenor of his life is governed by mean avarice; and though the most opulent man in the empire, except the Sultan, so little does he possess of Arabian hospitality, that the man used to be regarded as unhappy who went supperless to his evening councils. He had never yet seen a Frank, and regarded me nearly as the British or French commonalty view the dwarfish Goîtres of the Alps. I could collect from his conversation that he looked on Europeans as a small tribe, cut off by the singularity of colour and features, and still more by their impiety, from the rest of mankind.
When I entered the court where he was sitting, he bad me welcome, and received with complacency a present which, in compliance with custom, I brought on the occasion. He even thanked me for it; but expressed strong surprise at my journey to Dar-Fûr. I complained of the injuries done me, and he assured me of redress for the past, and protection for the future. At the same time it was clear that he esteemed the present a tribute, and conceived that personal safety was more than I could reasonably expect. His conduct afterwards was a further proof of his sentiments: for though I remained at El Fasher three entire months, I saw him only when I forced myself on his notice, and experienced no return of civility, much less any compensation for what I had already suffered.
During this time I was solicitous to attend regularly the levees of the Sultan, which are from six in the morning till ten; but could very rarely obtain admittance, and when I did had no opportunity of speaking. Whether the general prejudice against me, or the machinations of my enemies, produced this pointed disregard, which, as was said, a stranger scarcely ever experienced before, circumstances afforded no sufficient ground to decide. I suspected the former; but probably both had their share.
On returning to my temporary habitation, a shed, as was usual with me on the sun’s approach to the meridian, fatigued with heat, oppressed with thirst, and not without inclination for food, my repast was commonly a kind of bread gently acid, moistened with water. I grew acquainted with a few of the people who attend the court, as well as with many strangers who were suitors there. Their conversation sometimes amused me, but more often I found their continued and unmeaning questions harassing and importunate, and their remarks either absurd or offensive. The tædium of solitude, unfurnished with the means to render it agreeable, was however removed. I occasionally frequented the markets, which are usually held from four o’clock in the afternoon till sunset. But my person being there still strange, the crowd that assembled inclined me to a precipitate retreat.
The Fûrians here seemed unacquainted with the sports of the field. I occasionally went out with a gun after the commencement of the rainy season, when the face of the country became green; but little offered itself worthy attention, either in the animal or vegetable kingdoms. During the early part of the summer the earth had been parched, and destitute of all vegetation.
After waiting in fruitless expectation at El Fasher, as the time of my departure was drawing near, an accident happened, which, though not of the most pleasing kind, contributed to make me noticed, and obtained for me at length an interview with the Sultan.—The slaves of the house used frequently to collect round me, as if to examine a strange object—I joked occasionally with them, without any other view than that of momentary relaxation. One day as I was reading in the hut, one of them, a girl about fifteen, came to the door of it, when, from a whim of the moment, I seized the cloth that was round her waist, which dropped and left her naked. Chance so determined that the owner of the slave passed at the moment and saw her. The publicity of the place precluded any view of farther familiarity, but the tumult which succeeded appeared to mark the most heinous of crimes, and to threaten the most exemplary vengeance. The man threw his turban on the earth, and exclaimed, “Ye believers in the Prophet, hear me! Ye faithful, avenge me!” with other similar expressions.—“A Caffre has violated the property of a descendant of Mohammed;” (meaning himself, which was utterly false.) When a number of people was collected around him, he related the supposed injury he had received in the strongest terms, and exhorted them to take their arms and sacrifice the Caffre. He had charged a carbine, and affected to come forward to execute his threats, when some one of the company who had advanced farthest, and saw me, called out to the rest that I was armed, and prepared to resist.
It was then agreed among the assembly that some method of punishment might be found, that promised more security and profit to the complainant, and would be more formidable to the guilty. The man whom I have already mentioned as my broker was to take the slave, as if she had really been violated[36], and agreed to pay whatever her master should charge as the price. The latter had the modesty to ask ten head of slaves. He was then to make his demand on me for the value of ten slaves, and if I carried the matter before the Cadi, which he supposed I should hardly venture to do, he had suborned witnesses to prove that I had received of him property to that amount.
On my removal from Cobbé to El Fasher, I had caused my small remaining property, among which were few articles of value, but many of much use to me, to be lodged in the house of Hossein, (the owner of the slave,) and his companion. On my return thither, which happened within a few days after the accident, I claimed it: they resisted, as they alleged, at the suit of my broker, and would not deliver it till the value of ten slaves should be paid to him. I had from the first considered their conduct as so violent, that if it reached the ears of the government, the claim must unquestionably be abandoned: and indeed my adversaries had only rested their expectations on the timidity which they had been accustomed to observe in Christians of the country, whose accusation and condemnation are in fact the same. I had not neglected to give the transaction all the notoriety I could, without having recourse to public authority, and those to whom I had applied were decidedly in my favour: I therefore now went to my adversaries, Hossein and his companion, and in their presence offered to Ali Hamad a promissory note for the value of ten slaves, at the market price on my arrival in Kahira. It was refused; and my chest, in which were some German dollars and other articles, was still detained by them; the rest was given up.
In the mean time much had been said on the subject, both among the natives and foreigners; and the flagrant injustice I was likely to suffer forcibly struck all that were not in a state to profit by it, but none more than the Egyptian merchants: they were indignant to see that so enormous a penalty should be forfeited to those who had no claim but effrontery to demand it; and that they had no share, and were too numerous to expect to be all rewarded for connivance; accordingly some of them were diligent in carrying the news to the monarch.
It is not to be imagined that he would have moved in the business, from any love of justice, or commiseration with the sufferings of a person to whom himself had shewn such pointed disregard, not to say manifest injustice. But he was told that the Franks enjoyed great favour with the Senjiaks, and that whatever one of their number suffered in Fûr, might be retaliated on the jelabs on their arrival at Kahira, with very little effort, by getting their property there seized by the magistrate, either as an indemnification for what should have been lost, or a security for what might happen. Add to this, he thought his own dignity compromised, should a foreigner thus be permitted to vindicate himself by force in his country. I had indeed been told that the Sultan was apprised of the transaction previously to my departure from El Fasher, and that he intended to grant me redress; but after waiting about fifteen days without hearing any thing farther of his intentions, weary of suffering, I determined to return. I had been there but a short time when a fulganawy (messenger) arrived express from the court, with orders for me to repair to El Fasher immediately. The object of the message was kept in profound secrecy, nor could I discover whether it portended good or evil. I left Cobbé the same evening, and arrived at the end of my journey the following day about noon.