[Decoration]
The black complexion of the Africans seems to extend much farther North in the Western, than in the Eastern part of the continent they inhabit. The people of Fezzân, whose capital is in latitude 27° 48″ or about 2° 10″ to the South of Kahira, are black, while the Egyptians, in the same latitude, are only of brown or olive colour. The Fezzâners, however, have not entirely the negro feature. They have frequently children by their negro slaves, the Egyptians but seldom. The island, near Assûan, consists chiefly of blacks; but the townsmen of Assûan are of a red colour, and have the features of the Nubians,Barabra, whose language they also willingly speak. The people of El-wah are quite of Egyptian or Arab complexion and feature, none of them black: so that I scarcely conceived myself to have arrived at the confines of the blacks, till we reached the first inhabited part of Dar-Fûr. The first I saw are calledZeghawa; they are not negroes, but a distinct race. The Arabs of this empire remain always very distinguishable in colour and feature. The people ofHarrâzaare of a reddish complexion. Perhaps this being a very mountainous districtmay occasion some peculiarity. The Fûrians are perfectly black. I have seen some of the natives of Kulla, whence slaves are brought, and which is farther South than Dar-Fûr, that were red. On the whole, one might be inclined to go as far fifteen degrees of north latitude in this part of Africa, to find the line between the Arabs and the Blacks.
JOURNEY TO FEIUM.
Tamieh — Canals — Feiûm — Roses — Lake Mœris — Oasis Parva—Pyramids—of Hawara — of Dashûr — of Sakarra — of Jizé, or the great Pyramids — Antient Memphis — Egyptian Capitals.
Onthe 28th of December 1792 left Kahira to visit Feiûm, a city distant about sixty miles to the South-west. At Moknân procured from the Shech a letter to one of his officers, residing at Bedis, another village further on to the Southward, commanding him to accompany me to Feiûm. Proceeded through a grove of large date trees, which are watered from several cisterns, all of them supplied from the Nile, during its increase.
Between Bedis and Tamieh passed a natural opening, in the chain which constitutes the Western wall of Egypt. A small canal runs through Tamieh[29], and here the country againassumes the aspect of cultivation. This little town is remarkable for a manufacture of mats, though the situation be so insecure, that the Arabs in the preceding night had plundered their whole stock, to the value, as they said, of five or six thousand patackes. The Arabs still haunted the neighbourhood, and we were forced to discharge a few musket shot to keep off a small party that assailed us in the morning.
Passed another canal at Senûris, the seat of an hospitable Shech of the Bedouins. These canals reach from the Nile to the lake called Mœris. Left Senûris at half past seven on the 1st January 1793 and in two hours arrived at Feiûm.
At a small distance to the North are the ruins of an antient town, called by the ArabsMedinet Faris, city of the Persians, probably antient Arsinoe. Some mutilated busts and statues found here were offered for sale. I also observed some jars, resembling those used to contain the dead Ibis, and some vitrifications that seemed to indicate an Arab glass-work.
Feiûm stands on the principal canal leading from the Nile to the lake, and is surrounded with cultivated ground, a great part gardens, producing that profusion of roses for which this place was celebrated, and which were distilled into rose-water. The mode of propagating them was by continued layers; the young twigs thence arising being found to produce the largest and most fragrant flowers. The rose-water was excellent, and sent to all quarters; but the cultivation is now running gradually to decay. Wheat and other grain abound in the vicinity.
This city is not walled, but is populous, though on the decline; it contains several mosques and okals. There are few Copts, the inhabitants being chiefly Mohammedans. The houses are partly stone, partly unburned bricks. It is governed by a Cashef. The fish from the lake cannot be praised. Provisions tolerably plentiful; water good.
After passing three days at Feiûm, proceeded towards the lake, of which I wished to make the circuit. This is the Mœris of Strabo and Ptolemy; and the testimony of the latter, living in Egypt, seems unquestionable. However this be, the lake, now calledBirket-el-kerun, probably from its extremities bearing some resemblance to horns, bears no mark of being, as some suppose, the product of human art. The shape, as far as was distinguishable, seems not inaccurately laid down in D’Anville’s map, unless it be that the end nearest the Nile should run more in a North-west and South-east direction. The length may probably be between thirty and forty miles; the breadth, at the widest part I could gain, was 5000 toises, as taken with a sextant, that is, nearly six miles. The utmost possible extent of circuit must of course be thirty leagues. On the North-east and South is a rocky ridge, in every appearance primeval: there are some isles in the extremity nearest Feiûm, where there is a flat sandy shore. In short, nothing can present an appearance more unlike the works of men. Several fishermen, in miserable boats, are constantly employed on the lake. The water is brackish, like most bodies of water under the same circumstances.
The western extremity of this lake is in the dominion of the Muggrebine Arabs, who pass thither fromEl-wah el-ghurbi, and other places, and who being there under no control, suffer no person to travel thither, unless under their immediate protection. This information, which I received not till my arrival at Feiûm, frustrated my expectations of reaching some ruins which are said to exist there. The Arab Shech ofAbu-kissétold me it would require four days to go round the lake, and return on the other side. That there are no villages near it, nor any thing to be procured but from the Muggrebines just mentioned. On one of the isles at the Eastern extremity it is said that human bones are sometimes found.
From Feiûm travelled South-east. At Hawâra are two small pyramids of unburned brick, and another passage through the mountain. The plain from Feiûm to the Nile is in excellent cultivation, chiefly wheat, then just rising from the ground. Illahôn is a town or large village, filled with persons whose chief employment is the culture of the soil. Passed theBahr-bila-ma, the channel of a large canal. Farther on is Bathen[30], a long deep cut, supposed to be the artificial Mœris of Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus.
Returned to Bedis. On the following day passed the pyramids of Dashûr. Five appear successively, exclusive of those of Sakarra. The third after those ofHawâra, already mentioned,is that of Medûn, which has been very elegant, and built in this singular form,
It is composed of large pieces of the usual soft free-stone, joined together with a little cement; and has been hewn off to a straight surface. It would be extremely difficult to ascend to the top, which is now very broad; but it is probable that there was another square, completing its summit, which has been removed. The north side has been injured by tearing out stones, which open a view of the interior, which is however entirely solid. This pyramid has been supposed to be natural rock at the base, but this mistake must have arisen from a part being concealed. On removing the sand, (which rises chiefly in the middle,) and on examining the corners, the stones and cement may be observed to the very bottom.
The fourth is the most southerly of the four pyramids of Dashûr, where are two large and two small. It is in the form of a cone, terminating in an obtuse triangle, and is now much damaged. There is no appearance of any casing on this or any other of the pyramids. The stones do not point to the center, like those of the great pyramids of Jizé. The faces of all these pyramids are directed to the four cardinal points of the compass. Near them stands one of unburned brick, and a small one of stone, not completed.
At Sakarra a great number exist, among which ten are of a large size. The smaller ones are sometimes almost undistinguishable from the sand-hills, and are dilapidated; the stones being used as materials for building at Kahira, Jizé, &c.
The two largest of the pyramids are at about the distance of two hours and a half from Jizé, and are well known to all who have visited Egypt. The dimensions of that which has been opened I found to be as follow:
The galleries and great chamber are situated due North and South, allowing for the variation of the needle.
An absurd opinion has recently been stated, that the pyramids are hewn out of the rock on which they stand; but the first ocular inspection would set this aside, the joinings of the stones being everywhere marked with cement. But it is unnecessary to dwell on a conjecture so futile.
In the open pyramid, the chamber is lined with granite, and the sarcophagus also formed of that stone. But the materials used in the general fabrication of these edifices is free-stone, of a soft kind and white hue; it is replete with shells. The rock on which they stand is of the same soft stone. Returned to Kahira.
On another occasion I visited the pleasant site of the antient Memphis, on the left bank of the Nile, about two hours to the South of Kahira, in a plain above three miles broad, between the river and the mountains. The land is now laid down in corn, with date trees toward the mountains. Nothing remains except heaps of rubbish, in which are found pieces of sculptured stone. The spot has been surrounded with a canal, and seems every way a more eligible situation than that of Kahira[31]. Its extent might be marked by that of the ground where remains are dug up, and which is always overgrown with a kindof thistle that seems to thrive among ruins. It is most conveniently visited from the Coptic convent calledAbu-Nemrûs.
None of the fine marbles that are scattered so profusely at Alexandria are discoverable here; whether it be that they were never used, or carried away to adorn other places.
Of the several capitals of Egypt in successive ages, Thebes, or Diospolis, seems the most antient. Next was Memphis, itself a city of the most remote antiquity. Babylon seems to have been only the capital of a part retained by the Persians, after Cambyses had subdued Egypt, and was, by all accounts, founded by the Persians. Alexandria succeeded Memphis, and remained the chief city, till the Saracens foundedMisr-el-Kahira.
JOURNEY TO SINAI.
Route — Suez — Ships and ship-building — Trade — Scarcity of water — Remains of the antient canal — Tûr — Mountains of red granite — Description of Sinai — Eastern gulf of the Red Sea — Return to Kahira.
Onthe 1st of March 1793 left Kahira to proceed to Suez. I had made an agreement with the Arab Shech, who was charged with the care of the caravan, that he and his servant should accompany me, without waiting for its slow progress. But he broke his engagement, as usual with the Arabs, and I was constrained to wait for the departure of a large body, consisting of an hundred and fifty persons and two hundred camels.
The route to Suez is nearly one uniform plain, generally hard and rocky, though here and there spots of deep sand occur. The journey was very slowly conducted, as the camels were permitted to brouze on the verdure which sprinkles the desert solely after the winter. On the third day, a South-west wind having subsided, rain fell for four hours and a quarter. The mornings and evenings were cold, though hot in the day. Some have ignorantly conceived that no rain falls in Egypt. At Alexandriashowery weather will prevail for a week together; and I have sometimes seen rain at Kahira. In Upper Egypt even showers are very rare, and only one fell while I was in that country.
After a heavy progress of five days reached Suez. The town is small, and built of unburned brick. It contains twelve mosques, of which some are stone, but the most are mean buildings. The sea near the town is very shallow, yet there is a small yard for ship-building. Population, Mohammedans, with a very few Greeks. Suez is very modern, probably built within these last three hundred years; being unknown to travellers of a more antient date.
There are here at present four three-masted vessels, and ten others, some with two, some with one. Two building, one of which is pierced for twelve guns; and ten large boats, without masts. The largest of these ships was intended for the Indian trade, the rest for traffic to Jidda; one or two of them had been built in Yemen.
The Arab mode of ship-building is singular. They have no art to bend the timbers; none of them are crooked except naturally so. They are very slender, and where the upper and lower ribs join, do not pass one over the other, but by the side of each other.
At Suez coffee forms the chief article of trade. It is a place of no strength, and has only eight old cannon, seemingly unfit for service; the others were removed to Jizé by Ismaîl Bey.The sea here produces few fish. Oysters indeed, and a few others of the shell kind, are seen; the best fish not coming higher than Cossîr. Meat is scarce, bread of an inferior quality, sometimes hardly eatable. Butter and milk are brought in small quantities by the Arabs. Water is brought from three several places.Bîr Naba, to the northward, affords the best; the others areAiûn MûsaandBîr-es-Suez. It is always bought by the skin at a considerable price, and if a war were to arise with the Arabs, none could be found.
I was very desirous to inspect the Eastern portion of the canal cut by Adrian, according to D’Anville, which extends fromBirket-es-Sheibto Suez, but my Arab guides would not accompany me, in spite of a previous agreement made for that purpose. All consented that marks of the canal existed, and some of them arose to my own observation.
The ruins of Arsinoe may yet be recognized in a mount of rubbish in the neighbourhood of Suez. The spot is now calledKolsûm, and remains exist of a stone pipe for conveying water thither from Bîr Naba. A rock, on the African side of the gulf, furnishespetroleum, which is brought to Suez, and esteemed a cure for bruises, &c. In crossing the gulf just before Suez, boats are used at high water, which comes in rapidly to the height of four feet; at other times camels, horses, and men ford it with safety.
At Suez I observed in the shallow parts of the adjacent sea, a species of weed, which in the sunshine appeared to be redcoral, being of a hue between scarlet and crimson, and of a spungy feel and quality. I know not if any use be made of it, nor am I acquainted with its Arabic name; but it strikes me, that, if found in great quantities at any former period, it may have given the recent name to this sea; for this was the Arabian gulf of the Antients, whoseMare Erythræum, or Red Sea, was the Indian Ocean. This weed may perhaps be theסוּפsuph of the Hebrews, whenceים סוּפYam Suph, their name for this sea.
The shores here abound in beautiful shells of various kinds; a circumstance which might also have been remarked in speaking of Maadié near Abukîr.
On the 8th of March 1793, passed the ford at Suez, and on the 14th arrived at Tûr. So many journies to Mount Sinai have been published, that I shall not dwell much on the particulars. The route from Suez to Tûr at first lies along a barren coast, but afterwards some pleasant vales of verdure are found, particularlyWadi Corondel, where grow some date trees and shrubs. Mountains of red granite are seen, perhaps too interspersed with porphyry.
A spot is pointed out by the Greek priests of a small convent near Tûr, where a church is said to have been buried, and miraculous noises still heard, but on visiting it, in the mere expectation of some natural phenomenon, found nothing.
On the 18th left Tûr, and on the 22d, at 3½ hours A.M. reached the monastery of Sinai. Shot a red-legged partridge. The convent is large, with a good garden, to which there is a subterraneous passage. Within the walls is a small mosque for the convenience of the Arabs. The mountain now called Sinai is high and abrupt. On the North side of it some snow was visible. The whole is a very remarkable rock of red granite, interspersed with spots, to which soil has been brought by human toil, or washed down by rain, and in which grow almond trees, (now in bloom,) figs, and vines. Numerous rills of excellent water gush from various apertures in the precipice, and wander among the little gardens. Sinai has two summits somewhat resembling Parnassus, another scene of inspiration; and the one termed St. Catherine, being, it is believed, the highest, may be the Sinai of Moses.
The weather being very clear, I observed, from Mount Sinai, the Eastern gulph of the Red Sea, which appears very small, and more round and short than is laid down in the latest maps.
Returned to Suez and Kahira, meeting with nothing memorable on the route.
Mapof the route of theSoudan Caravan, fromAssiuttoDarfûr,Including some of the routes of theJelabs, or Slave Merchants, from the latter to the adjacent Countries.To Accompany Travels inAfrica&c. from the Year 1792 to 1798.by W. G. Browne.to face page 180.London, Published by Messrs. Cadell and Davies Strand 4 June 1799.(Large-size)
Mapof the route of theSoudan Caravan, fromAssiuttoDarfûr,Including some of the routes of theJelabs, or Slave Merchants, from the latter to the adjacent Countries.To Accompany Travels inAfrica&c. from the Year 1792 to 1798.by W. G. Browne.to face page 180.London, Published by Messrs. Cadell and Davies Strand 4 June 1799.(Large-size)
Mapof the route of theSoudan Caravan, fromAssiuttoDarfûr,
Including some of the routes of theJelabs, or Slave Merchants, from the latter to the adjacent Countries.
To Accompany Travels inAfrica&c. from the Year 1792 to 1798.
by W. G. Browne.
to face page 180.London, Published by Messrs. Cadell and Davies Strand 4 June 1799.(Large-size)
to face page 180.
London, Published by Messrs. Cadell and Davies Strand 4 June 1799.
(Large-size)
JOURNEY TO DAR-FÛR,
A KINGDOM IN THE INTERIOR OF AFRICA.
Design to penetrate into the interior of Africa — Difficulties — Caravan from Soudan or Dar-Fûr — Preparations — Departure from Assiût — Journey to El-wah — Mountains — Desert — Charjé in El-wah — Bulak — Beirîs — Mughes — Desert of Sheb — Desert of Selimé — Leghéa — Natrôn spring — Difficulties — Enter the kingdom of Fûr — Sweini — Detention — Representations to the Melek — Residence — New difficulties — Villany of agent — Sultan’s letter — Enmity of the people against Franks — El Fasher — Illness — Conversations with the Melek Misellim — Relapse — Robbery — Cobbé — Manners — Return to El Fasher — The Melek Ibrahim — Amusements — Incidents — Audience of the Sultan Abd-el-rachman-el-rashîd — His personal character — Ceremonies of the Court.
Myviews to the South of Egypt having been frustrated during the last year, I was reduced to the alternative of abandoning any further projects in that quarter, or of waiting for a more seasonable opportunity. As it was reported that such an one would soon offer, I did not hesitate to prefer the latter, though strongly dissuaded from it, as generally happens to thosewhose designs are any way analogous to mine. The Europeans in this quarter, as well as the natives, being immersed in commerce from their early years, are unable to conceive the advantages promised by voyages of discovery, to which no immediate profit is attached; and accordingly as they know the hazard great, and imagine the atchievement frivolous and useless, even from the best motives they are rather inclined to discourage, than to animate, any one who undertakes them.
From conviction sufficiently clear, arising both from reading and the sentiments of those who were best informed on the subject, that the river whose source Mr. Bruce describes is not the true Nile, I thought it an object of still greater importance, that the source of the more Western river should be investigated. But what might have been a matter of choice, was with me only the result of necessity. The idea of reaching the sources of this river, (the Bahr-el-abiad,) laid down in the maps apparently at about two hundred leagues farther South than Sennaar, seemed to me so hopeless, that this object alone would hardly have induced me to undertake such a voyage. I should rather have been inclined to attempt Abyssinia, and endeavour to certify, as well as circumstances might permit, how far authentic former narratives had been, and what might offer that was new to European observation. For this purpose the obvious and most easy route was by the Red Sea to Masouah. But all accounts concurred in magnifying the difficulty, and almost impossibility, of an European passing there undiscovered; and, being discovered, of his penetrating any farther.
The road from Kahira to Sennaar was the one I should have preferred; but the desolation and anarchy then prevailing in Nubia, which had prevented me from passing the former year, would not probably have allowed me better success in this. Besides, the city of Sennaar was then occupied by the slaves of the lastMecque, or king, who had deposed and put to death their master, and still continued to usurp the government. By taking the route of Dar-Fûr, I was taught to believe that I might hope for the advantages of a regular government; and with proper management might expect every favour from the monarch. The local inconvenience of being so much farther removed from Abyssinia was indeed obvious; but on the other hand the choice of more than one route was, it seemed likely, thereby offered; which, in a place where progress is so uncertain, and contingencies so numerous, would be a matter of no inconsiderable importance.
At the moment of my return from Assûan to Assiût, the caravan of jelabs from Dar-Fûr, calledCafflet-es-Soudân[32], the Soudân caravan, arrived at El-wah. It was then reported that the sale of their merchandize and slaves, of which they had no great quantity, would be completed in about two months, and that then they would return home. Their stay, however, was protracted during the whole of that winter; and in the month of March 1793 they commenced their departure from Kahira for the Upper Egypt. They were slow in collecting all that wasnecessary for the journey, and I made use of the time so allowed to draw information from various quarters concerning what was requisite for the voyage. From what cause I know not, but at that time the persons of whom I made enquiry gave no intimation that the treatment of Christians in their country was marked by any asperity. The late Sultan of Fûr, indeed, as I afterwards learned, had been remarkable for his mildness and liberality to all descriptions of persons. But this was not all—a native of Soudân is, in Kahira, the most obsequious and servile of the human race. He behaves towards a Christian whom he meets there nearly as to one of the true believers. In his own country he repays with interest the contempt that has been shewn him by the Egyptians.
On the 21st April 1793, I set out from Bulak, having embarked on the Nile; and on the eighth day, the wind having been often unfavourable, arrived at Assiût. The first care was to provide camels for the route, and these were unfortunately at that time scarce. Five however I at length obtained, at about 13l. sterling each. We had also made our provision of food, &c. required for the journey; and the caravan having at length assembled, after about fifty days the expected moment of departure arrived. It was the hottest season of the year, and consequently unfavourable to travelling. These merchants however, disposed as they are to indolence, and governed by present sensations, when their profit is concerned, esteem the variations of climate unworthy of a thought: and long habit has familiarized them with such degrees of heat, that what is insupportableto northern nations is with them no serious motive for the remission of labour.
The route taken by the Soudân caravan is in part the same as that traversed by Poncet, in the beginning of the present century, on his way to Abyssinia. He passed by Sheb and Selimé, and thence striking across the desart South-east, crossed the Nile at Moscho. We continued our march from Selimé, almost due South, or with a small variation to the West. Our party having left Assiût on the 25th May, encamped on the mountain above it till the 28th, when it proceeded by short stages towards El-wah. The jelabs commonly pay the Muggrebines for their protection, or rather for forbearing to plunder them, at the rate of about a patacke for each camel. I refused them this tribute, alleging that I was not of the number of merchants who usually trade to Soudân, but a stranger who was employed on business to the Sultan; and though my refusal occasioned a slight dispute, the Arabs thought proper to relinquish their claim. The camels were heavily laden, and the jelabs travelled slowly, and in detached parties, each consulting his own convenience, till the 31st of the same month, when we came to Gebel Rumlie, an high rocky mountain, which we were to descend. It forms the Western side of the ridge, which constitutes, as it were, the wall of Egypt, and the Eastern boundary of the low desert, in which lie theOases. It consists of a coarsetufa, and is of rugged and difficult descent. The road seems in many places to have been opened by art. We were a full hour in reaching the bottom. The camels not without great pain carrying their loads on the steep declivity, and being often in danger of falling.
From the summit of this rock the view lost itself in an extensive valley, consisting chiefly of rocks and sand, but diversified by small bushes of the date tree, and other marks of vegetation, near the spring where we designed to repose. Nothing could exceed the sterility of the mountain we had passed. Having reached the plain, it became necessary to unload the camels, and allow them some rest. We were employed four hours and a half, the following morning, in passing from the foot of the mountain to Ainé Dizé, the first place where water is found, and the Northern extremity of the great Oasis. An hot wind blowing during the meridian hours, the thermometer here stood during that time under the shade of the tent at 116 degrees.
In marching from Ainé Dizé to Charjé, eight hours were employed. Excepting a small space near the spring, all is waste. The Chabir, or leader, chose to notify his approach to the town by beating drums, (two of which he had borne before him as marks of his office, and as occasion might require, to collect the travellers when dispersed,) and by other tokens of joy, as firing small arms, shouting, &c. One of my camels, in descending the mountain, had fallen and injured his right shoulder, which, as a cure could not suddenly have place, obliged me to change him for another.
There is aGindior officer at Charjé, and another at Beirîs, both belonging to Ibrahim-bey-el-kebir, to whom those villages appertain; and to them is entrusted the management of what relates to the caravan during the time of its stay there. We leftCharjé on Friday the 7th of June, and having passed another desert space, after six hours reached another village, called Bulak. This is a wretchedly poor place, the houses being only small square pieces of ground inclosed with a wall of clay, or unburned bricks, and generally without a roof. It furnishes good water, and the people live by the sale of their dates. The caravan remained a day at Bulak, and having left it on Sunday the 9th, arrived at Beirîs on Monday the 10th, after nearly fourteen hours march through a barren tract. Here the Chabir thought proper to go through the same ceremony as at Charjé.
On the 13th we employed two hours in passing from Beirîs to Mughess, the last village of the Oasis toward the Southern desert. We left Mughess on the morning of the 15th, and on Thursday the 20th, in the morning, arrived at Sheb. At this place, by digging to the depth of a few feet in the sand, is found a supply of indifferent water. A tribe of the wandering Arabs, calledAbabde, who come from the neighbourhood of the Nile, sometimes infests it. Sheb is marked by the production of a great quantity of native alum, as the name imports. The surface, near which the alum is found, abounds with a reddish stone; and in many places is seen argillaceous earth. Having left Sheb on the 21st, we arrived at Selimé on the 23d. This is a small verdant spot, at the foot of a ridge of rocks of no great height, nor apparently extending very far. It affords the best water of any place on the route; but though there be verdure enough to relieve the eye from the dry sterility of the surrounding surface, it affords no vegetable fit for the support either of man or beast. At Selime is a small building, which hasapparently been raised by some of the tribes resting there, that place being much frequented by the roving parties passing the desert in different directions. The building consists only of loose stones, but the jelabs related many fables concerning it; as that it had of old been inhabited by a princess who, like the Amazons, drew the bow, and wielded the battle-axe, with her own hand; that she was attended by a large number of followers, who spread terror all over Nubia, &c.; and that her name was Selimé[33].
On the 24th we rested, and having proceeded the following morning, employed five days more in reaching Leghea. Water there is scarce, and far inferior in quality to that of Selimé, having a brackish taste. The camels throughout the caravan began now to be excessively weak and jaded, and the Chabir was at a loss for the true road: for though several persons in the caravan had traversed this desert ten or twelve times, they were not unfrequently unable to determine which was the right course. One of the party was sent forward to discover some known object that might be our guide, and after having been absent thirty-six hours he returned. While we remained here we felt much inconvenience from a suffocating wind that blew from the South, and raised the sand in clouds. On the 2d of July the caravan left Leghea; and on the eighth, after a severe and fatiguing march, reached the Bir-el-Malha or salt spring. Thevicinity of this spring is remarkable for the production ofnatron, which substance appears under different circumstances, and is of different quality from that of Terané. It is very white and solid; and on immersion in water becomes hot, and discharges a great portion of its air.
Small quantities of it are carried by the jelabs to Egypt, where it is sold at a high price, and is used principally in making snuff. The water found at this place is very unpalatable, being brackish.
A troop of the natives of Zeghawa met us at this well. It is their practice to station a small party there, when caravans are expected, who remunerate themselves for the fatigue of a ten days journey by supplying provisions, and what else may be wanted by travellers, at an exorbitant rate. Many of our companions at this time had great need of their assistance, as their supply had been originally insufficient, and many camels had perished on the road. The vicinity of the Bir-el-Malha is occasionally infested by the Cubba-Beesh, a wandering tribe, who, mounted on the swiftest dromedaries, rapidly traverse the desert, and live by plundering the defenceless. As they are, however, unfurnished with fire-arms, so numerous a body as ours was not in much danger from their attack.
We remained at the Bir-el-Malha till the 12th; on which day we left that place, and travelled with little interruption till the 20th, and then encamped at a spot called Medwa, where however is no supply of water. One of my camels havingfallen, we were obliged to purchase water of theMahréaArabs[34]whom we met, or to take up what had lodged in cavities on the earth, in consequence of the rains which were then beginning to fall.
On the 23d we came to the first springs within the limits of Fûr, which are in this place called Wadi Masrûk. The white ant,Termis, was here exceedingly vexatious, building his covered way to every thing within the tent, and destroying all within his reach. This together with the rains, which were now increasing, and began to pour in a torrent through the valley, obliged us to abandon the tents, and take shelter in the next village, (Sweini,) where I obtained an apartment in the house of Ali-el-Chatîb, one of the principal merchants established in the country. In it I passed eight or ten days, not having arrived at Cobbé, one of the towns whither the jelabs chiefly resort, till the seventh of August.
At Sweini resides generally a Melek or governor on the part of the Sultan of Dar-Fûr; and there all strangers, as well as merchants of the country, coming with the caravan, are obliged to wait, till the pleasure of the monarch in disposing of them be known.
Coming as I did under considerable exceptions from the general rule of merchants trading to that country, and, in theArabic language, rather asDaif-es-Sultan, the king’s stranger, in which light the people of the country had hitherto viewed me, I expected to obtain, without delay, permission to continue my journey to the royal residence. I observed to the Melek of Sweini and other public officers, in one among many conversations I had with them, that “intending to visit the Sultan, I should hardly have expected to be put back with frivolous excuses, as the nonpayment of duties which you dare not explicitly demand of me, and tributes under the name of presents, which have never yet been exacted of a stranger. If any duties be payable, beyond what have already been discharged, you are perfectly at liberty to detain all, or such part, of the articles I bring with me, as you judge sufficient to answer your claim; but not to refuse me permission to go to the Sultan, with whom I have business. Or if other reasons operate to prevent my request being complied with, and any suspicions prevail relative to my views in coming here, I desire, without further delay, to be furnished with the means of returning to Egypt, before I suffer, as commonly happens to strangers, from the effects of the climate, while I am yet in the habit of travelling, and while the funds are yet unexhausted which should support me in my progress farther.”
The misrepresentations which had been made concerning me, and which had by this time reached the Sultan, manacled the hands of the Melek, and prevented my remonstrance from having any effect. But candour and ingenuousness have no part in the character of slaves; and the antient observation is most just, that “when a man becomes a slave he loses half hisvirtue.” I therefore remained in perfect ignorance of the reasons of my detention. Perhaps indeed, without implicating himself, the Melek could not have declared them; or perhaps he was not thoroughly informed as to their nature. The plot that had been laid against me might indeed have deceived much abler heads than theirs, on whose caprices my fate depended.
Finding no mode of advancing, till the rest of the caravan had obtained the same permission, I resolved to follow the example of the other jelabs, and wait patiently the event. The house I was in consisted of a multitude of distinct apartments, built with clay, and covered with a slanting thatched roof, but not closed by doors. The hospitality of the owner allowed all who could find place in it to lodge themselves without distinction. At length, after the expiration of about ten days, an order from the Sultan arrived, directing that all the jelabs should be allowed to proceed to their houses on paying the duties assessed on them.
The circumstances attending myself were peculiar; and many of the disadvantages I had to contend with could not be well foreseen: it is therefore necessary to mark them, that if any occasion should offer they may be serviceable to others, and for this reason they shall be detailed at considerable length.
Before leaving Kahira I was apprised, that all commerce in Dar-Fûr was conducted by means of simple exchange. To carry on this in such a way as not to be grossly defrauded,especially having my attention engrossed by other objects, and in utter ignorance of the articles fit for bargain and sale in this country, seemed wholly impossible; I therefore sought for a person who might go through this business for me, at least with some share of probity. Such a one arose to the notice of my friends there; and knowing nothing more of the man, as indeed I could not know any thing more, than the character they gave of him, I took him on the general recommendation of being honest, and understanding the business in which he was likely to be employed. The person recommended had been a slave-broker in the market of Kahira; a circumstance which, had it been known to me earlier, would probably have prevented my employing him. Till the moment of departure I had observed in him keenness but no fraud, and in general that submissive acquiescence and absolute devotion to the will of the superior, for which the lower class of Kahirines are externally, at least, remarkable. The hour for commencing our march, however, seemed with him the signal for disobedience and insulting behaviour; and we were not yet far removed from the confines of Egypt, when this misconduct was carried to such an excess that I once levelled my gun at him with a view of inspiring terror. The merchants around us interfered, and for the time this passed off; but the man only sought an opportunity of revenge, which the prejudices of the people of Soudan, in direct opposition to my former information, too soon afforded him means to gratify.
The letters with which I was provided for different merchants in this district, under whose roof I might have had a safelodging, could be of no use to me till I had seen the Sultan; for till then no person knew in what character to receive me. The object of this man therefore was to prevent my introduction to the Sultan, and to preclude me from any opportunity of representing my case. We were no sooner arrived at Sweini, than he found means to employ one of his associates, who had been some years established in the place, to go to the monarch, and infuse into his mind suspicions of me as a Frank and an infidel, who came to his country for no good purpose, and whose designs it behoved him to guard against; and to suggest to him that it would not be proper I should remain at large, nor yet immediately come to his presence, but that some person should be commissioned to watch over and report my actions, and thus frustrate my supposed evil intentions. He added, as I afterwards found, many anecdotes, falsified or exaggerated, of the inquiries I had made, the way I had been employed, and my general behaviour on the road.
Nor was the villain himself idle during the time his coadjutor was thus laudably engaged. I have already mentioned that there were no doors to the apartments of the house we were in. He took advantage of this circumstance and my momentary absence, to take out of a box which had been broken on the road a quantity of red coral, the most valuable article in my package. As the box remained locked, it was not till long after that I discovered this loss. By the help of this commodity he expected to make his way with the great. At the end of a few days this agent returned, bearing a specious letter impressed with the Sultan’s seal, ordering that no officer on theroad should presume to detain me, or to take any thing from me, till I came to the house ofIbrahim-el-Wohaishi, (the name of this very agent,) in Cobbé, where I was to rest myself, till further orders should be given for my admission to his presence. I was not indeed at that time privy to the plot, yet if I could have obtained a knowlege of it, it might not have been easy immediately to counteract its influence; nevertheless I suspected something might have been practised against me.
An order from the despot, which while it was to protect me from his officers on the road, obliged me to confine myself to a particular spot, was a matter of surprise to me; but submission was unavoidable, as I was at that time unprovided even with the means of remonstrance. Had the machinations of my adversaries, which went much farther than my confinement, having been actually employed against my life, been at that time known to me, this severity would not have caused any astonishment, and the means of redress might have been less doubtful. But suspense filled the void of positive suffering—a suspense to which no apparent remedy suggested itself. Those who had known me in Egypt or on the road were dispersed to the East and West, and the people of the place were ill disposed to form any communication with me, being filled with religious horror of one supposed an infidel, but of yet undefined impiety, and whose colour, variously regarded as the sign of disease, the mark of divine displeasure, or at least, the unequivocal proof of inferiority of species, had averted their wonted hospitality, closed their compassion, and inflamed their personal pride and religious fury.
It was in this situation that, seeing no means of immediate relief, I began to feel impatience; which, as I continued in a state of perfect inactivity, communicated the more rapidly its pernicious influence to my state of health. On the fourteenth day after my arrival, I was attacked with a violent fever, attended with extreme pain in the head. How long it lasted I cannot precisely say, having on the second day lost my recollection. It was afterwards recalled by the effect of a dysentery, which lasted for two days, and left me too weak to assist myself. I had reflection enough to know, that of the aliments there to be procured, scarcely any could be found that would not be pernicious. After the first attack therefore, I confined myself to the use of bark and water, which last I drank in great quantities.
A little more than a month had elapsed, when the symptoms appearing to diminish, I again pressed to be permitted to visit the residence of the Sultan. But I had reason to regret my impatience; for having at length obtained leave, I proceeded to El Fasher, only to repeat my suffering. The rainy season was almost at an end, but the air, which still continued insalubrious, fatigue, and anxiety renewed the malady, which, after extreme abstinence, and having gone through the short catalogue of remedies which I had had the precaution to take with me, I found unabated. Excessive headachs, lassitude, thirst, occasional constipation, succeeded by extreme irritation of the viscera, continued for several months to shew the inefficacy of my precautions, and to incapacitate me from all personal exertion. At length the heat of the ensuing summer gradually increasing, andproducing regular and continued transpiration, and the state of the air then meliorated, having removed the cause of indisposition, it was not long before I gained a certain degree of strength.
Arrived at El Fasher, I was first introduced to the MelekMisellim, one of the principal ministers. This man, when young, had been a slave, and engaged in domestic offices of the palace, but having been detected using some familiarities with one of the women, the monarch had ordered him to be deprived of the ensigns of manhood. Ignorant and uneducated, he appeared to have a certain quickness of apprehension, which, together with uncommon gaiety of humour, had rendered him acceptable at court, where he appeared more as a buffoon than a minister of state. He received me with a rude stare as an object he was unused to, which was followed by a mingled smile of contempt and aversion. He was seated with some other of the royal attendants, under a kind of awning of cotton cloth, on a mat spred upon the sand. After the common salutations, the Melek and his company entered into conversation on the nature of my visit to the country; and each made his remarks on my person, and offered his conjectures as to my character and intentions.
Their conversation was partly carried on in their vernacular idiom, partly in Arabic. At length a wooden bowl ofpolenta, 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 bydeclining 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 theProphet’sdictum, 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 aderwish, 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 theDar—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 byconsent 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 materiallyfrom the vernacular idiom of Egypt. I seldom, indeed, joined in the parties whereMerîsi[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 momentthat 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 ofFukkaraor 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 MelekIbrahim, 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 namedMusa, now only an inconsiderable officer, though one of the sons of SultanBokar. 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 encouragethe same sentiment towards me; but that he was neither obliged to injure me, nor excused in doing so.
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 thepeople 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 herwaist, 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 theprice. 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 ofHossein, (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 afulganawy(messenger) arrived express from the court, with orders for me to repair to El Fasher immediately. The object ofthe 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.
I repaired as before to the Melek Ibrahim, who on the following day introduced me at the public audience. The Sultan, as he retired to the palace after it was over, ordered all the parties to appear. Being come within the inner court, he stopped the white mule on which he was mounted, and began a short harangue, addressing himself to Hossein and Ali Hamad, my servant, in which he censured, in a rapid and energetic style, their conduct towards me.—“One,” said he, turning to Ali, “calls himself Wakîl of the Frank; if he were a Sherîf and a Mûslim, as he pretends, he would know that the law of the Prophet permits not a Mûslim to be Wakîl to a Caffre: another calls himself his friend—but both are agreed in robbing him of his property, and usurping the authority of the laws.—Henceforth I am his Wakîl, and will protect him.” He then ordered all the parties to repair to the house of Musa Wullad Jelfûn, Melek of the jelabs, under whose appropriate jurisdiction are all foreign merchants. Here it may not be improper to relate briefly how I had been before received by the Sultan.
On my first audience I was too ill to make much observation: I was seated at a distance from him; the visit was short, and I had no opportunity of opening a conversation. He was placed on his seat (cûrsi) at the door of his tent. Some person had mentioned to him my watch, and a copy of Erpenius’s Grammar,which I had with me. He asked to see both; but after casting his eyes on each he returned them. The present I had brought was shewn him, for which he thanked me, and rose to retire.
During the following summer, the first time I got admission to him, he was holding a diwan in the outer court. He was then mounted on a white mule, clothed with a scarletBenish, and had on his head a white turban; which however, together with part of his face, was covered with a thick muslin. On his feet were yellow boots, and the saddle on which he was seated was of crimson velvet, without any ornament of gold or silver. His sword, which was broad and straight, and adorned with an hilt of massy gold, was held horizontally in his right hand. A small canopy of muslin was supported over his head. Amid the noise and hurry of above a thousand persons who were there assembled, I was unable to make myself heard, which the nature of my situation obliged me to attempt, though not exactly conformable to the etiquette of the court, that, almost to the exclusion of strangers, had appropriated the diwan to the troops, the Arabs, and others connected with the government.
On another occasion I contrived to gain admittance to the interior court by a bribe. The Sultan was hearing a cause of a private nature, the proceedings on which were only in the Fûrian language. He was seated on a kind of chair,كورسي, which was covered with a Turkey carpet, and wore a red silk turban; his face was then uncovered: the Imperial sword was placed across his knees, and his hands were engaged with a chaplet of red coral. Being near him I fixed my eyes on him, in order tohave a perfect idea of his countenance, which, being short-sighted, and not thinking it very decent to use a glass in his presence, I had hitherto scarcely found an opportunity of acquiring. He seemed evidently discomposed at my having observed him thus, and the moment the cause was at an end, he retired very abruptly. Some persons to whom I afterwards remarked the circumstance seemed to think that his attendants had taught him to fear the magic of the Franks, to the operation of which their habit of taking likenesses is imagined by some of the Orientals to conduce. He is a man rather under the middle size, of a complexion adust or dry, with eyes full of fire, and features abounding in expression. His beard is short but full, and his countenance, though perfectly black, materially differing from the negro; though fifty or fifty-five years of age, he possesses much alertness and activity.
At another of my visits I found him in the interior court, standing, with a long staff tipped with silver in his right hand, on which he leaned, and the sword in his left. He then had chosen to adorn his head with the folds of a red silk turban, composed of the same material as the western Arabs use for a cincture. The Melek Ibrahim presented him, in my name, with a small piece of silk and cotton, of the manufacture of Damascus. He returned answer,Barak ulla fi!—May the blessing of God be on him!—a phrase in general use on receiving any favour, and instantly retired, without giving me time to urge the request of which I intended the offering should be the precursor. It is expected of all persons that, on coming to El Fasher, theyshould bring with them a present of greater or less value, according to the nature of the business in hand. It is no less usual before leaving the royal residence, to ask permission of the Sultan for that purpose. With this latter form, which was to me unpleasant, I sometimes complied, but more frequently omitted it. But on this occasion, having been long resident there, I thought fit to make a last effort to promote my design. The day preceding that which I had fixed for my return happened to be a great public audience. I found the monarch seated on his throne (cûrsi), under a lofty canopy, composed not of one material, but of various stuffs of Syrian and even of Indian fabric, hung loosely on a light frame of wood, no two pieces of the same pattern. The place he sat in was spread with small Turkey carpets. The Meleks were seated at some distance on the right and left, and behind them a line of guards, with caps, ornamented in front with a small piece of copper and a black ostrich feather. Each bore a spear in his hand, and a target of the hide of the hippopotamus on the opposite arm. Their dress consisted only of a cotton shirt, of the manufacture of the country. Behind the throne were fourteen or fifteen eunuchs, clothed indeed splendidly in habiliments of cloth or silk, but clumsily adjusted, without any regard to size or colour. The space in front was filled with suitors and spectators, to the number of more than fifteen hundred. A kind of hired encomiast stood on the monarch’s left hand, crying out,a plein gorge, during the whole ceremony, “See the buffaloe (جاموس), the offspring of a buffaloe, a bull of bulls, the elephant of superior strength, the powerful Sultan Abd-el-rachmân-el-rashîd!May God prolong thy life!—O Master—May God assist thee, and render thee victorious!”