JOHN LEWIS BURCKHARDT.
Born 1784.—Died 1817.
This traveller, descended from an eminent family of Basle, in Switzerland, was born at Lausanne, in 1784. He was the eighth child of John Rodolph Burckhardt, whose prospects in life were early blighted by his adherence to the Austrian faction during the troubles in Switzerland, consequent upon the French revolution. Our traveller, led by hereditary prejudices to nourish an aversion for republican principles, or too young and hot-headed not to confound the agents with the cause, imbibed at a very early age a detestation for the French, at that period regarded as the representatives of republicanism; and, with the same spirit which induced Pietro della Valle to engage in a crusade against the Turks, he wished to serve in the armies of some nation at war with France. These wishes, however, were the mere hallucinations of a boy, or an echo of the sentiments which he heard uttered by others. His education had not been completed: his notions were necessarily crude, and he had neither discovered nor learned from others the paramount importance of freedom, without which even national independence is a vain possession.
Burckhardt’s studies were, from various causes, conducted in the manner best calculated to create and nourish restless and adventurous habits. Having received the first rudiments of his education in his father’s house, he was removed to a school at Neufchatel, where he remained two years. At the age of sixteen he was entered a student at the university of Leipzig; from whence, after four years’ residence, heproceeded to Göttingen, where he continued another year. He then returned to his parents. The natural firmness and consistency of his character, of which his countenance was strikingly expressive, still taught him to keep alive his hatred of the French; but no continental nation had preserved itself wholly free from the influence of this people; and therefore, rejecting an offer which was made him by one of the petty courts of Germany, desirous of numbering him among its diplomatic body, he turned his thoughts towards England, which, like a separate world, had remained inviolate from the tread of the enemy. Accordingly, having provided himself with letters of introduction to several persons of distinction, among which was one from Professor Blumenbach to Sir Joseph Banks, he set out for London, where he arrived in the month of July, 1806.
This step was the pivot upon which the whole circle of his short life was destined to turn. His introduction to Sir Joseph Banks, who had long been an active member of the African Association, almost necessarily brought him into contact with several other individuals connected with that celebrated society; and conversations with these persons, whose motives were at least respectable, and whose enthusiasm was unbounded, naturally begot in Burckhardt a corresponding warmth, and transformed him, from a Quixotic crusader against the French, into an ardent, ambitious traveller.
It should not be dissembled that, upon Burckhardt’s desire to travel for the African Association being communicated to Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. Hamilton (then acting secretary to that body), strong representations of the dangers to be encountered in the execution of the plan were made to the youthful aspirant after fame; but such representations, which are a delusive kind of peace-offering placed for form’s sake on the altar of conscience, are seldom sincerely designed to effect their apparent purpose;and the actors in the farce would, for the most part, experience extreme chagrin should they find their eloquence prove successful. At all events, few men are so ignorant as not to know that the aspect of danger wears a certain charm for youth, which naturally associates therewith an idea of honour; and, provided success be probable, or even possible, reckons obstacles of every kind among the incentives to exertion. These dissuasive speeches, therefore, from persons whose sole object in constituting themselves into a public body was to produce a directly opposite result, were altogether hypocritical; and Burckhardt, if he possessed half the sagacity which seems to have entered into his character, must have distinctly perceived this, and have despised them accordingly.
However this may be, his offer, which was laid before the association at the general meeting of May, 1808, was “willingly accepted;” and he immediately commenced all those preparations which were necessary to the proper accomplishment of his undertaking. He employed himself diligently in the study of the Arabic language both in London and Cambridge, as well as in the acquiring of a knowledge of several branches of science, such as chymistry, astronomy, mineralogy, medicine, and surgery; he likewise allowed his beard to grow, assumed the oriental dress, “and in the intervals of his studies he exercised himself by long journeys on foot, bare-headed, in the heat of the sun, sleeping upon the ground, and living upon vegetables and water.”
On the 25th of January, 1809, he received his instructions, by which he was directed to proceed in the first instance to Syria, where, it was supposed, he might complete his knowledge of the Arabic, and acquire oriental habits and manners at a distance from the scene of his researches, and where he was not likely to meet with any individuals who might afterward recognise him at an inconvenient moment.
Burckhardt sailed from Cowes on the 2d of March, 1809, in a merchant-ship, proceeding to the Mediterranean, and arrived at Malta in the middle of April. From thence, in a letter to Sir Joseph Banks, he transmitted an account of the attempt to explore the interior of Africa which was at that time meditated by Dr. Seetzen, a German physician, who shortly afterward perished, not without suspicions of poison, in Yemen; and of a recent eruption of Mount Etna, the description of which he obtained from the letter of an English gentleman.
During his stay at Malta he completed his equipment in the oriental manner, and assumed the character of an Indian Mohammedan merchant, bearing despatches from the East India Company to Mr. Barker, British consul, and the company’s agent at Aleppo. Meanwhile he carefully avoided all intercourse with such persons from Barbary as happened to be in the island; and when he met parties of them in the street, as he often did, thesalaam alaikum, given and returned, was all that passed between them. There was at this time a Swiss regiment in the English service at Malta, to many of the officers of which Burckhardt was personally known. To be recognised by these gentlemen would at once have proved fatal to his assumed character; he therefore appeared in public cautiously, and but seldom; but had at length the satisfaction of finding that his disguise was so complete as to enable him to pass unknown and unnoticed.
Our traveller here entered into arrangements with a Greek, respecting his passage from this island to Cyprus; but on the very morning of his expected departure he received information that the owner of the ship had directed the captain to proceed to Tripoly. His baggage was in consequence transferred to another ship, said to be bound for the same island; “but the very moment I was embarking,” says Burckhardt, “the new captain told me that hewas not quite sure whether he should touch at Cyprus, his ship being properly bound for Acre. I had now the option to wait at Malta, perhaps another month or two, for an opportunity for Cyprus or the coast of Syria, or to run the chance of disembarking at a place where there was no person whatever to whom I could apply for advice or protection. Luckily an Arab of Acre, then at Malta, happened to be known to Mr. Barker, jun.; in half an hour’s time a letter for a merchant at Acre, with another in case of need for the pasha, were procured, and I embarked and sailed the same morning, in the hope of finding, when arrived at Acre, a passage for Tripoly (Syria), or for Latakia. However, we were no sooner out of sight of the island, than it was made known to me that the real destination of the ship was the coast of Caramania, that the captain had orders to touch first at the port of Satalia, then at that of Tarsus; and that if grain could not be purchased at an advantageous price at either of these places, in that case only he was to proceed to Acre. My remonstrances with the captain would have been vain: nothing was left to me but to cultivate his good graces and those of my fellow-travellers, as the progress of my journey must depend greatly upon their good offices. The passengers consisted, to my astonishment, of a rich Tripoline merchant, who owned part of the ship, two other Tripolines, and two negro slaves. I introduced myself among them as an Indian Mohammedan merchant, who had been from early years in England, and was now on his way home; and I had the good fortune to make my story credible enough to the passengers as well as to the ship’s company. During the course of our voyage numerous questions were put to me relative to India, its inhabitants, and its language, which I answered as well as I could: whenever I was asked for a specimen of the Hindoo language, I answered in the worst dialect of the Swiss German, almostunintelligible even to a German, and which in its guttural sounds may fairly rival the harshest utterance of Arabic. Every evening we assembled upon deck to enjoy the cooling sea-breeze and to smoke our pipes. While one of the sailors was amusing his companions with story-telling, I was called upon to relate to my companions the wonders of the farthest east; of the grand mogul, and the riches of his court; of the widows in Hindostan burning themselves; of the Chinese, their wall, and great porcelain tower,” &c.
They sailed along the southern coast of Candia, saw Rhodes at a great distance, and arrived in a few days at Satalia in Caramania. Here the plague, it was found, was raging in the town; but this circumstance did not prevent the Tripoline merchant from landing and disposing of his merchandise, nor the captain from receiving him again on board. When their business with this town was completed, they again set sail, and after coasting for three days along the shore of Caramania, arrived in the roads of Mersin, from whence Burckhardt and several of his companions proceeded by land on an excursion to Tarsus. Finding here a ship bound for the coast of Syria, our traveller left the Maltese vessel in order to proceed by this new conveyance: “In taking leave of the Tripoline,” says he, “I took off my sash, a sort of red cambric shawl, of Glasgow manufacture, which he had always much admired, thinking it to be Indian stuff, and presented it to him as a keepsake or reward for his good services. He immediately unloosened his turban, and twisted the shawl in its stead round his head: making me many professions of friendship, and assuring me of his hospitality, if ever the chance of mercantile pursuits should again engage me to visit the Mediterranean, and perhaps Tripoly in Barbary.”
Burckhardt reached the coast of Syria at that point where the Aasi, the ancient Orontis, falls intothe sea; and immediately prepared to depart for Aleppo with a caravan. Having been intrusted with several chests for the British consul at Aleppo, his baggage appeared considerable; and he was consequently sent for by the aga, who expected a handsome present for permitting them to pass. When questioned by this officer respecting the contents of the chests, he replied that he was entirely ignorant of the matter, but suspected that among other things there was a sort of French drink, calledbeer, with various kinds of eatables. The aga now sent an officer to examine them. A bottle of beer having been broken in loading, “the man tasted it by putting his finger into the liquor, and found it abominably bitter: such was his report to the aga. As a sample of the eatables, he produced a potato which he had taken out of one of the barrels, and that noble root excited general laughter in the room: ‘It is well worth while,’ they said, ‘to send such stuff to such a distance.’ The aga tasted of the raw potato, and spitting it out again, swore at the Frank’s stomach which could bear such food.” The mean opinion which these specimens inspired them with for such merchandise inclined the aga to be content with the trifling sum of ten piastres, which he probably thought more than the value of a whole ship’s cargo of potatoes and beer.
Upon the arrival of the caravan at Antakia, our traveller, desirous of studying the manners of all ranks of men, took up his quarters in the khan of the muleteers, where, from a suspicion that he was a Frank in disguise, he was subjected to numerous indignities. The aga’s dragoman, some wretched Frenchman or Piedmontese, being sent by his master to discover the truth, and failing to effect his purpose by any other means, determined, as a last resource, on pulling him by the beard, and at the same time asked him familiarly why he had suffered such a thing to grow? To this Burckhardt replied bystriking him on the face, which turned the laugh against the poor dragoman, and was an argument so peculiarly Mohammedan that it seems to have convinced the bystanders of the truth of his assertions.
After a delay of four days he continued his journey with the caravan, with the motley members of which he was compelled to maintain an unceasing struggle in defence of his assumed character; a circumstance which proves one of two things, either that the Saonees of the west have by intercourse with Europeans been rendered more acute in discovering impostors, than the Shiahs of Afghanistan and Northern Persia, or that Burckhardt was hitherto somewhat unskilful in his movements; for the reader will no doubt remember that Forster, when he professed Mohammedanism, had much fewer suspicions to combat on his way through Central Asia.
On his arrival at Aleppo, he determined, in pursuance of the advice of Mr. Barker, to put off his Mohammedan disguise, though he still retained the Turkish dress; and with the aid of an able master, recommenced the study of the Arabic, both literal and vulgar. He was attacked, however, shortly after his arrival, by a strong inflammatory fever, which lasted a fortnight; and was occasioned, as he conjectured, by the want of sleep, of which blessing he had been deprived by the prodigious colonies of that “friendly beast to man” which, according to Sir Hugh Evans, “signifies love,” which had established themselves in his garments during his stay at the khan of Antakia. When this seasoning was over, his health appeared to be improved, and he found the climate finer and more salubrious than he had expected.
During his stay in this city, which was a very protracted one, Burckhardt laboured assiduously in fitting himself for the honourable performance ofthe task he had undertaken. His Arabic studies were uninterrupted. Besides seizing eagerly on every opportunity of improving himself by conversation with the natives, he laboured at an attempt to transform “Robinson Crusoe” into an Arabian tale. He moreover succeeded in making the acquaintance of several sheïkhs, and other literary men, who honoured him occasionally with a visit; a favour, he says, which he owed principally to Mr. Wilkins’s “Arabic and Persian Dictionary.” The ordinary lexicons of the country being very defective, the learned Turks were often obliged to have recourse to Wilkins, whose learning and exactness sometimes compelled them to exclaim, “How wonderful that a Frank should know more of our language than our first ulmas!”
In the month of July, 1810, Burckhardt departed from Aleppo under the protection of an Arab sheïkh, of the Aenezy tribe, who undertook to escort him to Palmyra, and thence through the Haurān to Damascus. On the way they were attacked, while the sheïkh was absent at a watering-place, by the hostile Marváli Arabs, by whom our traveller was robbed of his watch and compass; after which he pushed on into the desert to rejoin the chief. Contrary to the well-known faith of the Arabs, this man transferred to another the protection of his guest, thereby exposing him to be robbed a second time, at Palmyra, where the bandit in authority, finding that he had no money, contented himself with seizing upon his saddle. Returning from these ruins, he found at Yerud a letter from the sheïkh, forbidding him to proceed towards the Haurān, because, as the writer asserted, the invasion of the Wahabis had rendered that portion of the country unsafe, even to himself and his Arabs. In consequence of this fraudulent conduct of the sheïkh, for the excuse was a fiction, he found himself necessitated to take the road to Damascus; disappointed in part, but uponthe whole well satisfied with having beheld those magnificent ruins in the desert which have charmed so many strangers, and with having at the same time enjoyed so many occasions of observing the Bedouins under their own tents, where he was everywhere received with hospitality and kindness.
The rich and well-cultivated environs of Damascus, which all travellers, from Mohammed to the present day, have admired, appeared to great advantage to the eye of Burckhardt, accustomed to be sickened by the signs of misery which surround Aleppo. “The unsettled state of the government of Damascus,” says he, “obliged me to prolong my stay there for upwards of six weeks. I again left it in the middle of September, to visit Baalbec and Libanus. My route lay through Zahle, a small but prosperous town on the western side of the valley Bekan, the ancient Cœlosyria, and from thence to Baalbec, where I remained three days; then to the top of the Libanus, the Cedars, and Kannobin, from whence, following the highest summits of the mountain, I returned to Zahle by the villages called Akoura and Afki.”
After proceeding southward to the territory of the Druses, and Mount Hermon, he returned to Damascus; whence, after a short stay, he made an excursion into the Haurān, the patrimony of Abraham, which four years before had been in part visited by Dr. Seetzen, previous to his tour round the Dead Sea. “During a fatiguing journey of twenty-six days,” says Burckhardt, “I explored this country as far as five days’ journey to the south and south-east of Damascus; I went over the whole of the Jebel Haurān, or mountain of the Druses, who have in these parts a settlement of about twenty villages; I passed Bozra, a place mentioned in the books of Moses, and not to be confounded with Boostra; I then entered the desert to the south-east of it, and returned afterward to Damascus through the rockydistrict on the foot of the Jebel Haurān, called El Leja. At every step I found vestiges of ancient cities; saw the remains of many temples, public edifices, and Greek churches; met at Shohbe with a well-preserved amphitheatre, at other places with numbers of still standing columns, and had opportunities of copying many Greek inscriptions, which may serve to throw some light upon the history of this almost forgotten corner. The inscriptions are for the greater part of the lower empire, but some of the most elegant ruins have their inscriptions dated from the reigns of Trajan and M. Aurelius. The Haurān, with its adjacent districts, is the spring and summer rendezvous of most of the Arab tribes, who inhabit in winter time the great Syrian desert, called by them El Hammad. They approach the cultivated lands in search of grass, water, and corn, of which last they buy up in the Haurān their yearly provision.”
Having to a certain extent satisfied his curiosity respecting this obscure country, he returned by way of Homs and Hamah towards Aleppo, where he arrived on the New-year’s day of 1811. He now meditated an excursion into the desert towards the Euphrates, but was for some time prevented from putting his design in execution by the troubled state of the country, two powerful Arab tribes, the one inimical, the other friendly to the Aleppines, having been for many months at war with each other. Burckhardt at length succeeded, however, in placing himself under the protection of the Sheïkh of Sukhne, and set out towards the desert: but his own account of this journey was lost, and all that can now be known of it is to be gathered from a letter from Mr. Barker, the celebrated British consul at Aleppo, to whose princely hospitality so many travellers of all nations have been indebted. “One hundred and twenty, or one hundred and fifty miles below the ruins of Membigeh, in the Zor,” says this gentleman,“there is a tract on the banks of the Euphrates possessed by a tribe of very savage Arabs. Not far from them is the village of Sukhne, at the distance of five days from Aleppo, and of twelve hours from Palmyra, in the road which Zenobia in her flight took to gain the Euphrates. The people of Sukhne are sedentary Arabs, of a breed half Fellah and half Bedouin. They bring to Aleppo alkali and ostrich feathers. It was upon one of these visits of the Sheïkh of Sukhne to Aleppo, that Burckhardt, after some negotiation, resolved to accept the protection of the sheïkh, who undertook, upon their arrival at his village, to place him under the protection of a Bedouin of sufficient influence to procure him a safe passage through the tribes of the country which he wished to explore. Burckhardt had reason to be satisfied both with the Sheïkh of Sukhne, and with the Arab whom he procured as an escort, except that, in the end, the protection of the latter proved insufficient. The consequence was, that poor Burckhardt was stripped to the skin, and he returned to Sukhne, his body blistered with the rays of the sun, and without having accomplished any of the objects of his journey. It was in this excursion to the desert that Burckhardt had so hard a struggle with an Arab lady, who took a fancy to the only garment which the delicacy or compassion of the men had left him.”
After his return from this unfortunate journey, Burckhardt was delayed for a considerable time at Aleppo by incessant rains; but at length, on the 14th of February, he bade this city a final adieu, and hastened once more to Damascus. He was desirous, before quitting Syria, of performing another journey in the Haurān. This he completed, and having transmitted to England an account of his discoveries in this extraordinary region, he departed on the 18th of June for the Dead Sea. The reader will not, I imagine, be displeased to find thedescription of this journey given in the author’s own words: having reached Nazareth, “I met here,” says he, “a couple of petty merchants from Szalt, a castle in the mountains of Balka, which I had not been able to see during my late tour, and which lies on the road I had pointed out to myself for passing into the Egyptian deserts. I joined their caravan; after eight hours’ march, we descended into the valley of the Jordan, called El Gor, near Bysan; crossed the river, and continued along its verdant banks for about ten hours, until we reached the river Zerka, near the place where it empties itself into the Jordan. Turning then to our left, we ascended the eastern chain, formerly part of the district of Balka, and arrived at Szalt, two long days’ journey from Nazareth. The inhabitants of Szalt are entirely independent of the Turkish government; they cultivate the ground for a considerable distance round their habitations, and part of them live the whole year round in tents, to watch their harvests and to pasture their cattle. Many ruined places and mountains in the district of Balka preserve the names of the Old Testament, and elucidate the topography of the province that fell to the share of the tribes of Gad and Reuben. Szalt is at present the only inhabited place in the Balka, but numerous Arab tribes pasture there their camels and sheep. I visited from thence the ruins of Amān, or Philadelphia, five hours and a half distant from Szalt. They are situated in a valley on both sides of a rivulet, which empties itself into the Zerka. A large amphitheatre is the most remarkable of these ruins, which are much decayed, and in every respect inferior to those of Jerash. At four or five hours south-east of Amān are the ruins of Om Erresas and El Kotif, which I could not see, but which, according to report, are more considerable than those of Philadelphia. The want of communication between Szalt and the southern countriesdelayed my departure for upwards of a week; I found at last a guide, and we reached Kerek in two days and a half, after having passed the deep beds of the torrents El Wale and El Mojeb, which I suppose to be the Nahaliel and Arnon. The Mojeb divides the district of Balka from that of Kerek, as it formerly divided the Moabites from the Amorites. The ruins of Eleale, Hesebon, Meon, Medaba, Dibon, Arver, all situated on the north side of the Arnon, still subsist to illustrate the history of the Beni Israel. To the south of the wild torrent Mojeb I found the considerable ruins of Rabbab Moab: and, three hours’ distance from them, the town of Kerek, situated at about twelve hours’ distance to the east of the southern extremity of the Dead Sea....
“The treachery of the Sheïkh of Kerek, to whom I had been particularly recommended by a grandee of Damascus, obliged me to stay at Kerek above twenty days. After having annoyed me in different ways, he permitted me to accompany him southward, as he had himself business in the mountains of Djebal, a district which is divided from that of Kerek by the deep bed of the torrent El Ahhsa, or El Kahary, eight hours’ distance from Kerek. We remained for ten days in the villages to the north and south of El Ansa, which are inhabited by Arabs, who have become cultivators, and who sell the produce of their fields to the Bedouins. The sheïkh, having finished his business, left me at Beszeyra, a village about sixteen hours south of Kerek, to shift for myself, after having maliciously recommended me to the care of a Bedouin, with whose character he must have been acquainted, and who nearly stripped me of the remainder of my money. I encountered here many difficulties, was obliged to walk from one encampment to another, until I found at last a Bedouin who engaged to carry me to Egypt. In his company I continued southward, in the mountains of Shera, which are divided to the north fromDjebal by the broad valley called Ghoseyr, at about five hours’ distance from Beszeyra. The chief place in Djebal is Tafyle, and in Shera the castle of Shobak. This chain of mountains is a continuation of the eastern Syrian chain, which begins with the Antilibanus, joins the Jebel el Sheïkh, forms the valley of Ghor, and borders the Dead Sea. The valley of Ghor is continued to the south of the Dead Sea; at about sixteen hours’ distance from the extremity of the Dead Sea its name is changed into that of Araba, and it runs in almost a straight line, declining somewhat to the west as far as Akaba, at the extremity of the eastern branch of the Red Sea. The existence of this valley appears to have been unknown to ancient as well as modern geographers, although it is a very remarkable feature in the geography of Syria and Arabia Petræa, and is still more interesting for its productions. In this valley the manna is still found; it drops from the sprigs of several trees, but principally from the Gharrab. It is collected by the Arabs, who make cakes of it, and who eat it with butter; they call it Assal Beyrook, or the honey of Beyrook. Indigo, gum-arabic, and the silk-tree, called Asheyr, whose fruit encloses a white silky substance, of which the Arabs twist their matches, grow in this valley.”
In this valley, about two long days’ journey north-east of Akaba, is a small rivulet, near the banks of which Burckhardt discovered the ruins of a city, which he conjectured to be those of Petra, the capital of Arabia Petræa. No other European traveller had ever visited the spot, though few places in Western Asia seem more curious or deserving of examination. The red rocks composing the flanks of the valley contained upwards of two hundred and fifty sepulchral chambers, adorned with Grecian ornaments. Besides these there were numerous mausolea, some in the Egyptian style, with obelisks, others in the chaste manner of the Greeks; andamong the latter there was one in perfect preservation, and of vast dimensions, with all its apartments, its vestibule, its peristyle, &c. cut out in the solid rock. On the summit of the mountain which forms the western boundary of the valley is the tomb of Aaron, which the Arabs, who are great Scriptural antiquarians, hold in extraordinary veneration. Our traveller, however, to his great regret, was necessitated to abandon to some more fortunate visiter the thorough examination of this interesting region, at which circumstances allowed him merely to cast a glance as he was hurrying along with his Bedouin conductor towards the Red Sea. In proceeding from this place towards Akaba he encountered a small party of Arabs who were conducting a few camels for sale to Cairo, and uniting himself to this little caravan, performed the remainder of the journey in their company. “We crossed the valley of Araba,” says he, “ascended on the other side of it the barren mountains of Beyane, and entered the desert called El Tih, which is the most barren and horrid tract of country I have ever seen; black flints cover the chalky or sandy ground, which in most places is without any vegetation. The tree which produces the gum-arabic grows in some spots; and the tamarisk is met with here and there; but the scarcity of water forbids much extent of vegetation, and the hungry camels are obliged to go in the evening for whole hours out of the road in order to find some withered shrubs upon which to feed. During ten days’ forced marches we passed only four springs or wells, of which one only, at about eight hours east of Suez, was of sweet water. The others were brackish and sulphureous. We passed at a short distance to the north of Suez, and arrived at Cairo by the pilgrim road.”
On his arrival at Cairo, Burckhardt’s first employment was to draw up a detailed account of his journey through Arabia Petræa: he then turned hisattention to the means of fulfilling the great design of his mission; but no opportunity of penetrating into the interior of Africa occurring, he undertook, in order to fill up the interval thus created, a journey into Nubia. During his residence at Cairo, and on his journey up the Nile to Assouan, he beheld the principal ruins of Egypt. His preparations for the Nubian excursion were soon made. He purchased two dromedaries, one for himself and the other for his guide, for about twenty-two pounds; provided himself with letters of recommendation, and a firman from the pasha; and leaving his servant and baggage at Assouan, set out with his guide on the 14th of February, 1813, carrying along with him nothing but a gun, a sabre, a pistol, a provision-bag, and a woollen mantle, which served by day for a carpet, and for a covering during the night.
Their road lay along the eastern bank of the Nile; they passed Philæ (where, a few days before, a pregnant woman had been killed in a fray, as the softer sex always mix in the battles in which their husbands are engaged, which had created a deadly feud between the hostile villages); and then pushed on with rapidity towards Derr. The Mameluke chiefs, with their desperate followers, were at this period roaming about Nubia, amusing their imaginations with vain projects for the recovery of Egypt.—Every person coming from the north was of course an object of curiosity, if not of suspicion, to these baffled soldiers, as it was possible he might be the bearer of tidings of events upon the results of which their fate depended. Such was the state of things when Burckhardt entered Nubia. Everywhere reports calculated to create alarm were circulated. To-day it was said that the Mamelukes had descended, like famished tigers, from the mountains, and were about to deliver up the whole country to plunder and devastation; to-morrow they appeared to have passed away, like a thunder-cloud, towardsDongola and the desert, leaving behind them that sort of uneasy satisfaction with which we behold the quelling of unruly elements.
Burckhardt arrived at Derr on the 1st of March, and, to his surprise, found two Mameluke beys at the palace of the governor. He had reckoned upon their utter disappearance, and had intended, under these circumstances, to represent himself as the secret agent of the Pasha of Egypt; but learning, upon inquiry, that the pasha and his enemies were regarded with nearly equal dread by the Nubian princes, he changed his resolution, and professed to be guided in his motions by no other motive than pleasure. Ignorant persons find it hard to conceive that men can expose themselves to difficulties and dangers from an enthusiasm for knowledge, or can find pleasure in encountering hardships and fatigue; however, a concurrence of fortunate circumstances extorted from the governor a permission to proceed, and accordingly, having provided himself with provisions for the road, our traveller departed for Sukkot.
His guide on the present occasion was an old Arab of the Ababde tribe. The branch of the Ababde to which this man, whose name was Mohammed, belonged, feed their flocks on the uninhabited banks of the river, and on its numerous islands, as far south as Dongola. Though poor, they refuse to bestow their daughters, who are famed for their beauty, in marriage on the rich Nubians, and have thus preserved the purity of their race. They are, moreover, an honest and hospitable race, and during his journeys in Nubia, Burckhardt was constantly received and treated with kindness by these simple people.
In pursuing his course up the Nile, our traveller passed a day at Ibrim, a town inhabited by Turks, where, though quarrels and bloodshed were frequent, property was more secure than in any other townhe had visited in the eastern world; the corn was left all night in the field, and the cattle on the banks of the river, unwatched, and even the greater part of the household furniture remained all night under the palm-trees around their dwellings. Indeed, theft was here quite unknown. Proceeding a short distance to the south of this town, he dismounted from his dromedary, and directing his guide to continue his road to the next village, struck off into a narrow footpath along the lofty, precipitous shores of the river. Pursuing this mountain-track he arrived at an ancient temple hewn out of the rock, in as perfect a state of preservation as when first finished. Sepulchral chambers and mystic sculptures, the usual accompaniments of Egyptian temples, were found here.
The reception which our traveller and his guide met with at the Nubian villages was generally hospitable; as soon as they alighted a mat was spread for them upon the ground, just before the door of the house, which none but intimate friends are permitted to enter; dhourra bread, milk, and sometimes dates were placed before the strangers, and their host, if earnestly pressed, sat down with them. Straw, when plentiful, was likewise given to their camels; and when the host desired to be particularly hospitable, a breakfast of hot milk and bread was served up before their departure in the morning.
At length, on the 6th of March, they arrived on a sandy plain, sprinkled with rocky points, which thrust up their heads through the sand that concealed their bases. Here they encamped in the evening near one of the islands which are formed by the river. The noise of the cataract was heard in the night, at about half an hour’s distance. The place is very romantic: when the inundation subsides, many small lakes are left among the rocks; and the banks of these, overgrown with large tamarisks, have a picturesque appearance amid the black andgreen rocks; the lakes and pools thus formed cover a space of upwards of two miles in breadth.
The Arabs who serve as guides through these wild districts “have devised,” says Burckhardt, “a singular mode of extorting small presents from the traveller: they alight at certain spots, and beg a present; if it is refused, they collect a heap of sand, and mould it into the form of a diminutive tomb, and then placing a stone at each of its extremities, they apprize the traveller that his tomb is made; meaning that henceforward there will be no security for him in this rocky wilderness. Most persons pay a trifling contribution rather than have their graves made before their eyes; there were, however, several tombs of this description dispersed over the plain. Being satisfied with my guide, I gave him one piastre, with which he was content.”
On his arriving in the territory of Sukkot, he presented the letter to the governor of which he was the bearer; and received from this old savage a scrap of paper, containing an introduction to his son, who was the chief of the southern part of the district. Here the guide, who had been granted him at Derr, reached the extremity of his commission, and announced his intention of returning from thence; four piastres, however, overcame his determination, and he agreed to proceed to Mahass: “If Hassan Kashif,” said he, “upbraids me, I shall tell him that you rode on, notwithstanding my exhortations, and that I did not think it honourable to leave you alone.” An admirable custom prevails in this and every other part of Nubia: water-jars are placed under a low roof at short distances by the roadside, where the traveller may always quench his thirst; and every village pays a small monthly sum to some person to fill those jars morning and evening. The same thing is practised upon a much larger scale in Upper Egypt.
Upon Burckhardt’s reaching the Mahass territory,he suddenly found himself in the midst of the worst description of savages. The governor, a ferocious black, received him in a hut, furiously intoxicated, and surrounded by numerous followers in the same condition. In the midst of their drunken mirth they called for their muskets, and amused themselves with firing in the hut. Burckhardt every moment expected that a random ball would put an end to his travels; but the palm wine at length extended the whole of this atrocious rabble upon the ground, and next morning, when sleep had somewhat restored the tone of the governor’s senses, he found time to question our traveller respecting the motives of his visit. The story which he related to them was not believed: “You are an agent of Mohammed,” said they; “but at Mahass we spit at Mohammed Ali’s beard, and cut off the heads of those who are enemies to the Mamelukes.” These suspicions, although they produced no immediate injury to his personal safety, entirely put a stop to his progress farther south; for he was now within two days and a half of the limits of Dongola, where the Mamelukes were lords paramount, and to enter their territories with the character of an agent of Mohammed Ali would be to court certain death. He therefore turned his face towards the north, and travelled with all possible celerity along the eastern bank of the Nile, until he arrived at Kolbe, where he swam across the river, holding by his camel’s tail with one hand, and urging on the beast with the other.
Burckhardt now descended the Nile to Ipsambol, the vast rocky temple of which he supposed to be of extremely ancient date. He here found four colossal statues of enormous magnitude, which had been hewn out of the rock, on the face of an elevated cliff, with their backs adhering to the precipice. The fine sand of the desert had been blown up into mounds against the rock, and covered two of these statues almost entirely; the rest rosesomewhat above the surface. The faces of these colossal statues are turned towards the north. “The head, which is above the surface,” says he, “has a most expressive youthful countenance, approaching nearer to the Grecian model of beauty than that of any ancient Egyptian figure I have seen; indeed, were it not for a thin, oblong beard, it might well pass for a head of Pallas.”
From Ipsambol he continued his journey to Mosmos and Derr, where he parted with his guide, who, on taking his leave, begged as a present the mellaye, or cloak, which our traveller usually wore. To this request Burckhardt replied, “May God smooth your path!”—a phrase usually addressed to beggars, when they are civilly told to be gone. “No,” said the Arab, who had often employed this phrase when he desired to elude the questions of the traveller, “for once I will beg you to smooth it.” “So,” says Burckhardt, “I gave him the mellaye, and a small present in money; and am confident that Abou Saad will never forget me.”
On his return to Assouan, Burckhardt’s first care was to repair, by repose, the inroads which fatigue had made upon his constitution. He then repaired to Esne, where he established his head-quarters. It being his policy to excite but little attention, he very seldom went into company, dressed meanly, and reduced his expenditure to the lowest possible sum. The cheapness of provisions was incredible. His whole expenditure for himself, his servant, his dromedary, and his ass not exceeding one shilling and sixpence per day, while his horse cost him no more than sixteen pence per month.
Here he remained until the 2d of March, 1814, when he joined himself, as a petty trader, to another caravan, which was proceeding from Deraou to Berber. The caravan, consisting of about fifty merchants, with their slaves and beasts, moved under the protection of about thirty Ababde Arabs, who, though no heroes or philosophers, were not remarkablydeficient either in courage or humanity. Burckhardt was a man more apt to blame than praise. If an individual performed a generous action, he generally evinced a disposition to attribute it to some selfish or mean motive, probably from the opinion that it might be considered vulgar and unphilosophical to betray a belief in disinterested virtue. It is to be regretted, however, that he should have indulged in this unamiable habit of thinking, as nothing more surely tends to awaken the resentment or suspicion of the reader, who will be led to imagine that he who constantly misrepresents the motives of men may sometimes, from unknown causes, be tempted to misrepresent their manners and actions also. If we do not entertain this opinion of Burckhardt, it is that we exercise towards him a higher degree of charity than he was accustomed to exercise towards others.
The march of a caravan through the desert is a magnificent spectacle. There is a kind of sublime daring in thus venturing upon what seem to be the secret places of nature; the places whence the simoom, the hurricane, and the locust-cloud issue forth upon their fatal errands, and where many tremendous phenomena, peculiar to those dreary regions, present themselves, at intervals, to the astonished but delighted eye of the traveller.
Burckhardt, on this occasion, possessed no command over his own movements. He travelled, halted, ate, slept, in obedience to the fantasy of the caravan-leaders; who were ignorant, however, that the humble trader, whom they regarded, at most, with compassion, was at that moment forming reflections, and bringing observations to maturity, which were, perhaps for ages, to affect the opinion entertained by the civilized world of their character and pursuits. Meanwhile the merchants, who were chiefly engaged in the debasing traffic of slaves, and, as may be supposed, cherished no respect for anything but riches, and the power which commands riches, looked upon their humble companion with undisguised contempt; for imbecility and ignorance are of themselves incapable of appreciating intellectual superiority, and reverence it only when it is exerted for their defence or destruction. The scorn which our traveller entertained for those miscreants was, therefore, just. They constantly treated him with contumely, though he professed a belief in the same law and the same prophets; plundered his water-skins, or obstructed his filling them at the wells, thus exposing him to the danger of perishing of thirst; circulated, in the towns where they stopped, the report that he was a spy; and, in short, put in practice every art which their dastardly malice and shallow brains could conceive, in order to disgust him with the trade, and thus free themselves from a new competitor. But they were slave-dealers: an epithet which comprises every thing most loathsome and abominable; and their manners entirely corresponded with their occupation, being marked by a degree of depravity which language blushes to describe.
At the end of a week’s journey, the caravan arrived at the celebrated wells of El Haimar, in the vicinity of which they found the tomb of a Mameluke chief, who died on this spot. “His companions, having enclosed the naked corpse within low walls of loose stones, had covered it over with a large block. The dryness of the air had preserved the corpse in the most perfect state. Looking at it through the interstices of the stones which enveloped it, it appeared to me a more perfect mummy than any I had seen in Egypt. The mouth was wide open, and our guide related that the man had died for want of water, although so near the wells.” Next day they passed Wady Ollaky, a fine valley, extending east and west from the Nile to the Red Sea. Here were numerous trees and excellent pasture; advantages whichcaused it to be regarded with peculiar veneration by the Bedouins; and every man, as he traversed it on his ass or camel, took a handful of dhourra, and threw it on the ground, as a kind of pious offering to the good genius of the Wady.
On the following day, in crossing Wady El Towashy, or the Valley of the Eunuch, Burckhardt saw the tomb of that Mahomet Towash whose body was found on the sands by Bruce, three days after he had been murdered by his guides. The principal facts in Bruce’s narrative of this transaction Burckhardt found to be true, but he imagined that the details of the story must have been “made up.” Nothing can be conceived more insolent or absurd than this skepticism. Why should it be supposed that we were to accept the testimony of this young man, coming from a country where assuredly truth is not more respected than it is in Britain, and who, compared with Bruce, was an unknown and an inferior person, before that of an English gentleman, whose education was conducted with the utmost care, and who, except as a traveller, was never regarded, I believe, other than as a person of probity and honour? The principle which teaches the despots of the East to respect each other’s harems, when, by the chances of war, they fall into their hands, as Darius’s fell into those of Alexander, should, we think, be acted upon by travellers, who, unless upon the amplest and most satisfactory information, should beware of tampering with the integrity of each other’s characters. The contrary proceeding must, in the end, be productive of a degree of skepticism which would extinguish all enthusiasm and enterprise in travellers, who, at this rate, could expect no better fate than to be denounced as liars by every timid knave, who, skulking by his own fireside, might be impelled by envy to rail at those who boldly measure sea and land, and undergo the extremity of hardships to obtain an honourable reputation.
Burckhardt, however, had acquired the habit of suspecting every thing, not because he himself could have been guilty of an untruth, for he was a high-spirited and honourable man, but because he generalized too hastily. I readily pardon his error, therefore, and trust that his involuntary injustice may be injurious neither to Bruce’s character, nor to his own. His picture of what he endured in the course of this journey is sufficient to account for any little asperity of manner observable in his travels. “For myself,” says he, in describing what daily occurred at their halting-places, “I was often driven from the coolest and most comfortable birth into the burning sun, and generally passed the midday hours in great distress; for besides the exposure to heat, I had to cook my dinner, a service which I could never prevail upon any of my companions, even the poorest servants, to perform for me, though I offered to let them share my homely fare. In the evening the same labour occurred again, when fatigued by the day’s journey, during which I always walked for four or five hours, in order to spare my ass, and when I was in the utmost need of repose. Hunger, however, always prevailed over fatigue, and I was obliged to fetch and cut wood, to light a fire, to cook, to feed the ass, and finally to make coffee, a cup of which, presented to my Daraou companions, who were extremely eager to obtain it, was the only means I possessed of keeping them in tolerable good-humour. A good night’s rest, however, always repaired my strength, and I was never in better health and spirits than during this journey, although its fatigues were certainly very great, and much beyond my expectation. The common dish of all the travellers at noon was fetyre, which is flour mixed up with water into a liquid paste, and then baked upon the sadj, or iron plate; butter is then poured over it, or honey, or sometimes a sauce ismade of butter and dried bamyé. In the evening some lentils are boiled, or some bread is baked with salt, either upon the sadj or in ashes, and a sauce of bamyé, or onion, poured over lentils, or upon the bread, after it has been crumbled into small pieces. Early in the morning every one eats a piece of dry biscuit, with some raw onions or dates.”
On the 14th of March, on arriving at the Wady el Nabeh, they found the celebrated wells of that valley insufficient to supply the caravan until they should reach the rocks of Shigre, and as no water was anywhere to be found in the intervening space they were reduced to the greatest perplexity. “Upon such occasions as these,” says Burckhardt, “every man gives his opinion: and mine was, that we should kill our thirty-five asses, which required a daily supply of at least fifteen water-skins, that we should load the camels to the utmost of their strength with water, and strike out a straight way through the desert towards Berber, without touching at Shigre; in this manner we might perform the journey in five forced marches.” This plan the Arabs refused to follow. They repaired their water-skins and their sandals, refreshed themselves with bathing in the cool wells, and then set out. But “it was not without great apprehension,” says our traveller, “that I departed from this place. Our camels and asses carried water for three or four days only, and I saw no possibility of escaping from the dreadful effects of a want of water. In order to keep my ass in good spirits, I took off the two small water-skins with which I had hitherto loaded him, and paid one of the Ababdes four dollars to carry four small water-skins as far as Berber; for I thought that if the ass could carry me, I might bear thirst for two days at least, but that if he should break down, I should certainly not be able to walk one whole day without water in this hot season of the year.”
Notwithstanding all these difficulties and sufferings, our traveller considered the Nubian desert, at least as far south as Shigre, far less terrible than that of Syria or Tyh. Trees and water are much more frequent, and though it be intersected in various directions by shaggy barren rocks, the more desolate and awful appearance which it acquires from this circumstance is, in a great measure, compensated for by its consequent grandeur and variety. “Here,” says the traveller, “during the whole day’s march, we were surrounded on all sides by lakes of mirage, called by the Arabs Serab. Its colour was of the purest azure, and so clear that the shadows of the mountains that bordered the horizon were reflected on it with the greatest precision, and the delusion of its being a sheet of water was thus rendered still more perfect.” This mockwater, however, only served to heighten the terrors which the scarcity of real water excited. Every man now began to attach the greatest importance to the small stock he possessed. Burckhardt, who possessed but two draughts of water in the world, drank the moiety of it at once, reserving the remainder for the next day; but, observing the general scarcity, shared the dejection of his companions. At length, their condition having become nearly desperate, they adopted the course recommended by the Ababde chief, and despatched ten or twelve of their companions, mounted on as many camels, to the nearest part of the Nile, which was not more than five or six hours distant; but its banks being inhabited in this part by fierce hostile tribes, nothing but the fear of instant death could have forced them upon this step. They timed their march in such a manner that they would reach the banks of the river by night; when they were directed to select some uninhabited spot, and having there loaded their camels, to return with all speed. “We passed the evening,” says Burckhardt, “in the greatest anxiety, for if the camels should not return,we had little hopes of escape either from thirst or from the sword of our enemies, who, if they had once got sight of our camels, would have followed their footsteps through the desert, and would certainly have discovered us. Many of my companions came in the course of the evening to beg some water of me, but I had well hidden my treasure, and answered them by showing my empty skins. We remained the greater part of the night in silent and sullen expectation of the result of our desperate mission. At length, about three o’clock in the morning, we heard the distant hallooings of our companions; and soon after refreshed ourselves with copious draughts of the delicious water of the Nile.”
This was the last of their sufferings on this route; on the 23d of March they entered on a plain with a slight slope towards the river, which was felt at more than two hours’ distance by the greater moisture of the air. The Arabs exclaimed, “God be praised, we again smell the Nile!” and about ten o’clock at night, the caravan entered the village of Ankhecreh, the principal place in the district of Berber. Burckhardt’s residence at this place was nothing but one continued series of annoyance. The principal delight of the whole population, among whom drunkenness and debauchery were scarcely accounted vices, seemed to consist in deluding and plundering travellers, who on all the envenomed soil of Africa could scarcely be exposed to more irritating insults or extortion than on this spot.
The caravan, now reduced to about two-thirds of its original number, several of the merchants having returned to Egypt, while others remained at Berber to dispose of their goods, again put itself in motion on the 7th of April. Our traveller, who had hitherto attached himself to the merchant portion of the party, several of whom, previous to their leaving Egypt, had received benefits at his hands, was heredriven by abuse and contumely to take refuge among the Ababde, who not only willingly received him as their companion, but exercised their influence, on more than one occasion, to protect him from violence. Pursuing a southerly direction for three days, they arrived at the town of Damer, which, under the government of a number of religious men, had attained a very high pitch of prosperity. Their sanctity, indeed, was considerably aided by their skill in magic, which, as Burckhardt was credibly informed, was so great that, on one occasion, the Faky el Kebir, or Great Fakir, caused a lamb to bleat in the stomach of the thief who had stolen, and afterward eaten it. There was no daily market at Damer, nor was there any thing whatever sold publicly, except on the weekly market-day. However, as our traveller needed a few measures of dhourra for his ass, and found it impracticable to purchase less than a dollar’s worth, which would have been more than he could carry, he was under the necessity of imitating his companions, and went from house to house with some strings of beads in his hands, offering them for sale at about four handfuls of dhourra for each bead. “I gained at this rate,” says he, “about sixty per cent. above the prime cost, and had at the same time an opportunity of entering many private houses. I repeated these walks every day during our stay. One afternoon, while crying my beads for sale, I was accosted by a faky, who asked me if I could read. On my answering in the affirmative, he desired me to follow him to a place where, he said, I might expect to get a good dinner. He then led me to a house where I found a great number of people, collected to celebrate the memory of some relative lately deceased. Several fakies were reading the Koran in a low tone of voice. A great faky afterward came in, whose arrival was the signal for reciting the Koran in loud songs, in the manner customary in the East, inwhich I joined them. This was continued for about half an hour, until dinner was brought in, which was very plentiful, as a cow had been killed upon the occasion. After a hearty meal, we recommenced our reading. One of the sheïkhs produced a basketful of white pebbles, over which several prayers were read. These pebbles were destined to be strewed over the tomb of the deceased in the manner which I had often observed upon tombs freshly made. Upon my inquiries respecting this custom, which I confessed to have never before seen practised in any Mohammedan country, the faky answered that it was a mere meritorious action: that there was no absolute necessity for it; but that it was thought that the soul of the deceased, when hereafter visiting the tomb, might be glad to find these pebbles, in order to use them as beads in addressing its prayers to the Creator. When the reading was over, the women began to sing and howl. I then left the room, and on taking my departure my kind host put some bones of roasted meat in my hand to serve for my supper.”
In proceeding from this place to Shendy the caravan was accompanied by several fakies, whose presence was found to be a sufficient protection against the Nubian Bedouins. They reached Shendy on the 17th of April, and this being, next to Sennaar and Kobbe, the largest town in eastern Soudan, they remained here a whole month, during which time Burckhardt enjoyed an ample opportunity of collecting materials for an account of this and the neighbouring countries. Crocodiles are numerous in this part of the Nile. They are much dreaded by the inhabitants, who, when repairing to its banks for water or to wash their linen, are in constant fear of these creatures. Burckhardt ate of the crocodile’s flesh, which he found of a dirty white colour, not unlike young veal, with a slight fishy smell. To bring its flesh into fashion as an article of foodwould be the most certain way of rendering it rare.
At this place Burckhardt abandoned all idea of proceeding farther south, and, in order to procure himself some little civility from his former companions, circulated the report that he intended to return directly to Egypt, where, by describing to the pasha their conduct towards him during the journey, he might do them considerable injury. This stratagem succeeded. Their civility and affected friendship now surpassed their former insolence. In the mean while, understanding that a caravan was about to set out for Suakin on the Red Sea, our traveller prevailed on the Ababde chief to introduce and recommend him as his own friend to its leader. Here he disposed of his merchandise, and purchased a slave-boy to attend upon him on the road; and having laid in the necessary quantity of provisions, joined the Suakin caravan, and departed from Shendy on the 17th of May. “After all my accounts were settled,” says he, “I had four dollars left; but the smallness of the sum occasioned me no uneasiness, for I calculated on selling my camel on the coast for as much as would defray the expenses of my voyage to Jidda, and I had a letter of credit on that place for a considerable sum, which I had procured at Cairo.”
The road now traversed by the caravan crossed the Atbara, the Astaboras of the ancients, on the banks of which they found numerous groves of trees, and the most luxuriant vegetation. At the sight of this, the imagination even of the slave-dealers was touched with enthusiasm; and in alluding to the dreary track over which they had travelled, one of them exclaimed, “After death comes paradise!” “There was a greater variety of natural vegetation here than I had seen anywhere on the banks of the Nile in Egypt. I observed different species of the mimosa, doom-trees of the largest size, whose luxuriant clusters of fruit excited the wishes of the slaves, the nebek-tree, with its fruit ripe; the allobé,of the size of the nebek, besides a great number of others unknown to me; to these may be added an abundance of wild herbage, growing on a rich fat soil, similar to that of Egypt. The trees were inhabited by great numbers of the feathered tribe, whose song travellers in Egypt very rarely hear. I saw no birds with rich plumage, but observed small ones of several different kinds. Some sweet notes struck my ears, which I had never before heard, and the amorous cooings of the turtle-dove were unceasing. We hastened to the river, and eagerly descended its low banks to allay our thirst. Several camels, at the sight of the water, broke the halters by which they were led, and in rushing or stumbling down the banks threw off their loads, and occasioned great clamour and disorder.”
In the vicinity of Goz Rajeb, Burckhardt saw on the summit of a hill the ruins of a huge fabric of ancient times, but was deterred from visiting it by the assertion of his companions that it was the haunt of banditti. On the 5th of June, while the caravan halted at an encampment of Hadendoa Bedouins, Burckhardt beheld the effects of a desert storm: “Towards evening we were visited by another hurricane, the most tremendous I ever remember to have witnessed. A dark blue cloud first appeared, extending to about 25° above the horizon; as it approached nearer, and increased in height, it assumed an ash-gray colour, with a tinge of yellow, striking every person in the caravan who had not been accustomed to such phenomena with amazement at its magnificent and terrific appearance; as the cloud approached still nearer, the yellow tinge became more general, while the horizon presented the brightest azure. At last, it burst upon us in its rapid course, and involved us in darkness and confusion; nothing could be distinguished at the distance of five or six feet; our eyes were filled with dust; our temporary sheds were blown down at the first gust,and many of the more firmly fixed tents of the Hadendoa followed; the largest withstood for a time the effects of the blast, but were at last obliged to yield, and the whole camp was levelled with the ground. In the mean time the terrified camels arose, broke the cords by which they were fastened, and endeavoured to escape from the destruction which appeared to threaten them; thus adding not a little to our embarrassment. After blowing about half an hour with incessant violence, the wind suddenly abated, and when the atmosphere became clear, the tremendous cloud was seen continuing its havoc to the north-west.”
Next day they reached Taka, a district famous for its fertility, where hares, gazelles, wolves, giraffes, and limes as large, it was said, as cows, were found in the woods. Hence, after a stay of several days, they departed for Suakin, and after a not unpleasant journey through a wild, picturesque country, approached the termination of their toils. On the morning of the last day they started before sunrise. “The eastern hills,” says Burckhardt, “terminate in this latitude; and the sun was just rising beyond them, when we descried its reflection at an immense distance in the sea, affording a pleasing sight to every individual in the caravan, but most of all to me.” At length, on the 26th of June, they reached Suakin, and pitched their little sheds at about twenty minutes’ walk from the town. Next day they were visited by the emir, who, understanding that our traveller’s camel was an excellent animal, determined on taking it as a part of the caravan dues; upon which Burckhardt insisted upon referring their difference to the Turkish custom-house officer. His wishes were quickly complied with, but the aga, instead of interfering to protect the stranger, immediately conceived the idea of uniting with the emir in seizing upon the whole of his property; and therefore, pretending to regard him as a Mameluke spy,began at once to overwhelm him with abuse. To all this Burckhardt returned no reply, but requested the aga to inform him whether the emir was entitled to his camel. “Not only thy camel,” replied the Turk, “but thy whole baggage must be taken and searched. We shall render a good account of them to the pasha, depend upon it. You shall not impose upon us, you rascal; and you may be thankful if we do not cut off your head!” Our traveller protested that he was nothing but an unfortunate merchant, and endeavoured, by a submissive deportment, to pacify his anger; but “he began cursing and swearing in Turkish,” says Burckhardt, “and then calling an old cripple, to whom he had given the title of waly, or police-officer, he ordered him to tie my hands, to put me in prison, and to bring my slave and baggage into his presence. I now thought it high time to produce my firmans, which I drew from a secret pocket in my thaboot; one of them was written in Turkish, upon a piece of paper two feet and a half in length, and one foot in breadth, and was sealed with the great seal of Mohammed Aly; the other, a smaller one, was written in Arabic, and bore the seal of Ibrahim Pasha, his son, in which Ibrahim termed me ‘Our man, Ibrahim, the Syrian.’ When Yemak saw the firmans unfolded, he became completely stupified, and the persons present looked at me with amazement. The aga could read the Arabic only; but he kissed them both, put them to his forehead, and then protested to me, in the most submissive terms, that it was the good of the public service alone that had led him to treat me as he had done, and for which he begged me a thousand pardons. Nothing more was said about the emir’s right to my camel, and he declared that I should pay no duty for my slave, though he was entitled to it.”
Burckhardt now disposed of his camel, and took his passage to Jidda in one of the country vessels. After tossing about the Red Sea for nearly a fortnight,visiting Macouar, and several points of the African coast, he arrived at Jidda on the 18th of July, 1814. His first care now was to present his letter of credit, which being of an old date, however, he was refused payment, though the merchant offered him a lodging at his house. This he accepted, but removed, two days afterward, to a public khan, where he was attacked by a fever, in which he lay delirious for several days. His recovery from this violent disorder, which he attributed to his indulging in the fine fruits of the Jidda market, seems to have been chiefly owing to the kindness of a Greek captain, who, having been his fellow-passenger from Suakin, attended him during one of his lucid intervals, and, at his own request, procured a barber, who bled him copiously.
Here our traveller was reduced to the hard necessity of parting with his slave, for whom he obtained forty-eight dollars, of which thirty-two were profit. With this he dressed himself in the guise of a reduced Egyptian gentleman, and determined to remain in the Hejaz until the time of the pilgrimage in the following November. However, as his funds were far too low to enable him to live independently until that period, he began to turn his thoughts towards manual labour; but first determined upon trying the effect of a direct application to Mohammed Aly, then at Tayef. He accordingly wrote to his highness’s Armenian physician, who was likewise at Tayef with his master, requesting him to learn from the pasha whether he would accept a bill upon Burckhardt’s correspondent at Cairo, and order his treasurer at Jidda to pay the amount of it. Before the result of this application could be known, he received an invitation to the house of Tousoun Pasha’s physician, who, upon being made acquainted with the state of his finances, kindly offered him the sum of three thousand piasters (about 100l.) for a bill upon Cairo payable at sight. Mohammed Aly,to whom his condition was accidentally made known, immediately despatched a messenger with two dromedaries, an order for five hundred piasters, and a request that he would repair immediately with the same messenger to Tayef. With this invitation, which was, in fact, equivalent to a command, he thought it necessary to comply, and accordingly set off on the same afternoon (24th of August) for the interior of the Hejaz.
They were accompanied during the first portion of the way by about twenty camel-drivers of the tribe of Harb, who were carrying money to Mecca for the pasha’s treasury. The road at first lay over a barren sandy plain, ascending slightly as it receded from the sea; it then entered the narrow gorges of a mountainous country, where they overtook a caravan of pilgrims, who were accompanying a quantity of goods and provisions destined for the army. The pasha, who, no doubt, suspected the sincerity of our traveller’s creed, had given orders to the guide to conduct him by a by-road to Tayef, which lay to the north of Mecca: “Just before we left Hadda,” says Burckhardt, “my guide, who knew nothing further respecting me than that I had business with the pasha at Tayef, that I performed all the outward observances of a Moslem pilgrim, and that I had been liberal to him before our departure, asked me the reason of his having been ordered to take me by the northern road. I replied that it was probably thought shorter than the other. ‘That is a mistake,’ he replied; ‘the Mecca road is quite as short, and much safer; and if you have no objection we will proceed by it.’ This was just what I wished, though I had taken care not to betray any anxiety on the subject; and we accordingly followed the great road, in company with the other travellers.”
On this occasion, however, Burckhardt saw but little of the sacred city, as the guide, who had no curiosity to gratify, hurried through the streetswithout allowing him time for observation. Continuing their journey, therefore, towards the east, they arrived, on the 27th of August, at Ras el Kora, where they passed the night. “This,” says our traveller, “is the most beautiful spot in the Hejaz, and more picturesque and delightful than any spot I had seen since my departure from Lebanon, in Syria. The top of Jebel Kora is flat, but large masses of granite lie scattered over it, the surface of which, like that of the granite rocks near the sacred cataract of the Nile, is blackened by the sun. Several small rivulets descend from this peak, and irrigate the plain, which is covered with verdant fields, and large shady trees, on the side of the granite rocks. To those who have only known the dreary and scorching sands of the lower country of the Hejaz, this scene is as surprising as the keen air which blows here is refreshing. Many of the fruit-trees of Europe are found here; figs, apricots, peaches, apples, the Egyptian sycamore, almonds, pomegranates; but particularly vines, the produce of which is of the best quality.” “After having passed through this delightful district for about half an hour, just as the sun was rising, when every leaf and blade of grass was covered with a balmy dew, and every tree and shrub diffused a fragrance as delicious to the smell as was the landscape to the eye, I halted near the largest of the rivulets, which, although not more than two paces across, nourishes upon its banks a green alpine turf, such as the mighty Nile, with all its luxuriance, can never produce in Egypt.”
Upon his reaching Tayef, he caused his arrival to be made known to the pasha, who, upon learning his desire to visit the Holy Cities, expressed a desire to see him late in the evening at his public residence, and observed jocosely to the Kadhy of Mecca, who happened to be present, “It is not the beard alone which proves a man to be a true Moslem; but you are a better judge in such matters than I am.” Ourtraveller, on learning these particulars, affected to be much hurt by the pasha’s suspicions, and let the physician, who was the bearer of the message, know that he should not go to the pasha’s public audience unless he was received as a Turk. When the physician delivered this message, Mohammed Aly smiled, and said that he was welcome, whether Turk or not. The audience passed off well. But Burckhardt clearly discovered that he was regarded as a spy of the English government; that his conduct was narrowly watched; and that, in being made the guest of the physician, he was a kind of prisoner, all whose words and actions were reported to the pasha. This was by no means an agreeable position. He therefore determined to be delivered from it; and, in order to effect his purpose, adopted the most prudent plan that could have been imagined: he rendered himself so troublesome and expensive to his host, that the latter, in order to be freed from him, represented him in the most favourable light to his master, and contrived to obtain him permission to spend the last days of the Ramadhan at Mecca.
Accordingly, on the 7th of September, Burckhardt departed in company with the kadhy for the Holy City. On passing Wady Mohram, he assumed theihram, the dress worn by all pilgrims during the Hadj, and consisting of two pieces of linen, woollen, or cotton cloth, one of which is wrapped round the loins, while the other is thrown over the neck and shoulders, so as to leave part of the right arm bare. In this dress he arrived at Mecca, on the 9th of September; and, as the law enjoins, proceeded immediately to visit the temple, before he had attended to any worldly concern whatever. The ceremonies practised on this occasion are long and tedious, the Mohammedans apparently believing, like our monkish madmen in Europe, that whatever is painful or disgusting to man must therefore be pleasing to God. Having completed these absurdities, hehired a ready-furnished lodging in the house of a metowaf, or guide to the holy places; who, while the poor hajjî was occupied with his devotions, employed his spare moments industriously in stealing whatever he could from his travelling-sack.
Being desirous of completing his travelling equipments before the commencement of the Hadj, Burckhardt now proceeded to Jidda, where such things are more easily procured than at Mecca, and again returned about the middle of October, with a slave-boy whom he purchased. He hired apartments in an unfrequented part of the city, where he enjoyed the advantage of several large trees growing before his windows, “the verdure of which,” says he, “among the barren and sunburnt rocks of Mecca, was to me more exhilarating than the finest landscape could have been under different circumstances.” The principal curiosity of Mecca is the Beitullah, or House of God, a species of quadrangle, in the centre of which stands the Kaaba, “an oblong massive structure, eighteen paces in length, fourteen in breadth, and from thirty-five to forty feet in height. It is constructed of the gray Mecca stone, in large blocks of different sizes, joined together in a very rough manner, and with bad cement.” “At the north-east corner of the Kaaba, near the door, is the famous ‘Black Stone;’ it forms a part of the sharp angle of the building at four or five feet above the ground. It is an irregular oval of about seven inches in diameter, with an undulating surface, composed of about a dozen smaller stones of different sizes and shapes, well joined together with a small quantity of cement, and perfectly smoothed. It looks as if the whole had been broken into many pieces by a violent blow, and then united again. It is very difficult to determine accurately the quality of this stone, which has been worn to its present surface by the millions of touches and kisses it has received. It appeared tome like a laver, containing several small extraneous particles, of a whitish and of a yellowish substance. Its colour is now a deep reddish brown, approaching to black: it is surrounded on all sides by a border, composed of a substance which I took to be a close cement of pitch and gravel, of a similar, but not quite the same, brownish colour. This border serves to support its detached pieces; it is two or three inches in breadth, and rises a little above the surface of the stone. Both the border and the stone itself are encircled by a silver band, broader below than above, and on the two sides, with a considerable swelling below, as if a part of the stone were hidden under it. The lower part of the border is studded with silver nails.”