17th. I passed over in the canja of the Pasha, to the east side of the river, to visit the capital of Berber, which is nearly opposite to our camp. On reaching the bank, it is a walk of half an hour through immense fields of durra, to come to the road that leads to the residence of the chief.

After quitting the plantations, I came to a collection of villages, extending about three miles down the river. Among these villages is one called "Goos" which is marked in the maps as the capital of Berber; but the residence of the Malek,[32] or chief of the eastern shore, is not at Goos, but at another of the collection, much larger, called Nousreddin, as I was informed, after the name of the present Malek, who resides there. The houses of these villages, like the rest in the country of Berber, are built of clay, and roofed with unhewn timber, covered with trusses of straw; that of the Malek is like those of his people, only larger. The western shore is governed by another Malek, whose village lies higher up the river than the emplacement of our camp. The population of Nousreddin, and the villages adjoining, is considerable. The country is fertile and well cultivated, and abounds in durra, cotton, barley, fine horses, camels, dromedaries, kine, sheep, goats and fowls, as does all the country of Berber. I found in these villages some caravan merchants, who at present had nothing to sell but coarse cotton cloths. These cotton cloths form the only clothing of the inhabitants; both men and women wear them, wrapped round their middle, with one end thrown over the shoulder or head.[33] The Berber, though resembling the fellah of Upper Egypt in complexion, is generally not so well formed in figure and feature. Many of them have defective teeth, probably occasioned by the habit of chewing bad tobacco, (of which they have plenty,) which is common here.

The greater part of their household and field work is done by slaves they purchase from the caravans, coming either from Abyssinia or Darfour. Some of the owners of female slaves would, for a dollar, without scruple, permit the soldiers of our camp to sleep with them. The women of Berber, contrary to the custom in Egypt, go with the face unveiled, without embarrassment. Both men and women never consider themselves in full dress, unless the hair of the head has been combed sleek, then braided and platted together, and afterwards plentifully anointed with butter. They never cut the hair, I believe; it consequently forms an immense bunch behind the head, similar to that observable in some of the ancient statues of Egypt.[34] The barbarous practice of excision is universally performed upon all their females, whether free or slaves; as is the case also among all the tribes inhabiting the banks of the Nile above Assuan.

The people of Berber are, in their exterior deportment, mild and polite. Every man we meet, uniformly gives us the greeting of peace, "Salaam aleikoum," and uniformly shows a disposition to accommodate us in every thing reasonable. This is probably owing to their being, in a very considerable degree, a commercial people; Berber being every year visited and traversed by numerous caravans from Abyssinia, Sennaar, Darfour, and Kordofan.

23d of Jamisalachar. This day arrived the Divan Effendi, from Shendi, accompanied by the Malek of that province, and the son of Malek Shouus, the chief of the fugitive Shageias. The Malek of Shendi was accompanied by a considerable suite, and two most beautiful horses, intended as a present to the Pasha.[35] On being introduced to his Excellence, he kissed his hand, and pressed it to his forehead, and told him that he had come to surrender himself and his country to his favor and protection. His Excellence received him graciously, presented him with splendid habiliments, and a horse richly caparisoned. After his presentation was finished, he was conducted to the tent of the Hasnardar, who was directed by the Pasha to treat him with due hospitality. The son of Malek Shouus came in behalf of his father, and other distinguished chiefs of the Shageias, to implore the mercy of the Pasha for these chiefs and the fugitive remnant of their followers, who were opposite Shendi, awaiting the decision of the Pasha, as to what was to be their fate. I was told that the determination of the Pasha continued in their regard the same, making the surrender of their arms and horses the sine qua non of peace between him and them. Three days after, the chief of Shendi returned home the friend of the Pasha.

On the 25th of the moon, I passed over to the eastern side of the river, to purchase camels; as there were many buyers at this time from our camp, I did not find any good enough for the exorbitant price demanded. I passed the greater part of the day, and the night following, at the town of Nousreddin, in the house of one of the principal chiefs of the Berbers. He bears the title of Malek, as do all the distinguished chiefs of Berber, Shageia, and Dongola. Their dignity is hereditary, generally passing from father to son. I have noticed that the families of the Maleks exceed the common people in respect of stature and stoutness. The Malek, in whose house I lodged, a man about 60 years of age, was near seven feet high, and very stout. His eldest son, a young man about 22 years of age, was about 6 feet 4 inches in stature, stout and well proportioned. I imagine, that this superiority in size is owing to the circumstance that they eat well and heartily, and have no work to do beside seeing that others work for them. The family of this Malek carried their hospitality towards me to a very extraordinary length for people professing Islam. I was offered, by the mother and mistress of the house, my choice of two of her daughters for a bedfellow. They were both young, and the handsomest women I have seen in Berber, but married to husbands whose houses were at the other end of the town. When I understood this circumstance, I told the mother, that a genuine Mussulman ought to regard lying with his neighbor's wife as a crime almost as bad as murdering him in his bed.[36] I am sorry to be obliged to say, that though the Berbers are a quiet and industrious people, very civil and disposed to oblige all for whom they have any regard, yet, with respect to their women, they appear to be unconscious that their conduct is quite irreconcilable with the precepts of the Koran, and the customs of their co-religionists. They suffer them to go about with the face exposed—to converse with the other sex in the roads, the streets, and the fields; and if the women are accustomed to grant their favors to their countrymen, as liberally and as frequently as they did to our soldiers, I should imagine that it must be more than commonly difficult, in this country, for a man to know his own father.[37]

On my return to camp, I was amused on the way by a dispute in connection with this subject, between the Malek I have mentioned and a soldier; it happened in the boat that brought me back to camp. The boat was heavily laden, and this gigantic Malek was stepping into it, when the soldier I have mentioned intimated a determination to exclude him, calling him by several opprobrious names, and among other terms, "a pimp." Upon this, I checked the soldier, telling him that this man was a considerable personage in his country, and extremely hospitable to the Osmanlis. This mollified the soldier, and the Malek took a place as well as he could. The Malek then addressed the soldier in a mild manner, and asked him why he had bestowed such appellations upon one who was a Mussulman, as well as himself. The soldier positively refused to allow the Malek's claims to this honorable appellation. The chief demanded upon what grounds the soldier denied it: "Because," said the soldier, "the women of your country are all whores, and the men all get drunk with bouza, araky, and other forbidden liquors, which you make out of durra and dates;" and turning to me, he demanded "whether he was not right?" The poor chief appeared to be much vexed that he was unable to reply to this accusation, and remained silent. The soldier, not content with humbling the unlucky Malek, pursued his advantage without mercy. "Come," said he to the chief, "I do not believe that you know any thing about your religion, and I will soon make you sensible of it" He then asked the chief how many prophets had preceded Mohammed? If he knew any thing about the history of Dhulkamein and Gog and Magog? and many others of a similar tenor: how to answer which the unfortunate Malek was obliged to own his ignorance. The soldier then told him that "the Commander of the Faithful,"[38] the chief of the Mussulmans, had authorized his Vizier, the Pasha Mehemmed Ali, to set the people on the upper parts of the Nile to rights, and that now the Osmanlis were come among them they would probably learn how to behave themselves. The Malek might, however, have had his revenge upon the edifying soldier, had he known as well as I did that he had gone over to the town of Nousreddin expressly to amuse himself with the women of the country, and had doubtless paid as much attention to the bouza as the most sturdy toper in Berber.

The country of the Berbers, after the best in formation I have been able to obtain, is small, not extending, from the upper end of the third cataract, more than eight days march in length on both sides of the Nile. The Bahar el Uswood, or Black river, bounds it (i.e. on the eastern bank) on the south, and separates it from the territory of Shendi. The cultivable land reaches generally to the distance of one or two miles from the river. It is overflowed generally at the inundation, and its produce is very abundant, consisting in durra, wheat, barley, beans, cotton, a small grain called "duchan," tobacco, and some garden vegetables similar to those of Egypt. Berber also raises great numbers of horned cattle, sheep, goats, camels, asses, and very fine horses. It is very populous, the succession of villages being almost continued along the road on both sides of the river. The houses are built of clay, covered with a flat roof of beams overlaid generally with straw; but the houses of the Maleks have generally terraced roofs of beaten clay, This manner of building is sufficient in a country where no great quantity of rain falls throughout the year. Some of the houses of the peasants are formed of trusses of cornstalks, and placed side by side in a perpendicular position, and lashed together, with roofs of the same materials. All the people sleep upon bedsteads, as they do also in Dongola and Shageia: these bedsteads are composed of an oblong frame of wood, standing on four short legs, the sides of the frame supporting a close network of leathern thongs, on which the person sleeps; it is elastic and comfortable.

Berber contains plenty of salt, which the natives find in some calcareous mountains between the desert and the fertile land. In its natural state, it is found mingled with a brown earth, with which the stone of those mountains is intermixed. This earth the natives dilute with water, which absorbs the salt and leaves the earth at the bottom; they then pour off the water into another vessel, and, by exposing it to the sun or fire, the water is evaporated and the salt remains.

The assemblage of villages which compose the capital of Nousreddin, contains houses enough for a population of five or six thousand souls, but I do not believe that the actual population of those villages is so great.

The language is Arabic, perfectly intelligible to the natives of Egypt, but containing some ancient words at present disused on the lower Nile; for instance, the Berber calls a sheep "Kebesh."[39'

As to the climate, the difference between the heat at two hours afternoon in the month of the vernal equinox, and at an hour before sunrise, has been as great as ten degrees of the thermometer of Reaumur, as I have been informed by one of the medical staff attached to the army, who was in possession of that instrument. It is at present the commencement of spring, and the heat at two hours after mid-day, at least to the sense, is as great as in the month of the summer solstice, in Cairo. I have seen no ferocious animals, either in Berber or the country below, and believe that they are rare.

5th of Regeb. The camp continues in Berber, awaiting the arrival of the remainder of the cannon, ammunition, provisions and troops, from the boats at the cataract. The reason why these have not been transported hither before this time, is the want of camels, a large part of the camels attached to the army having perished, by reason of having been over fatigued by the Pasha's forced march over the desert, and up the country of Berber. A considerable number of camels have been obtained from Berber and sent to the cataract, and more are expected to arrive from Shendi, to which place the Divan Effendi has accompanied the chief of that country when he left our camp, in order to receive them. Abdin Cacheff departed two days past for Dongola, with his division. He is charged, by Mehemmed Ali, with the government of the country between the second and third cataracts.[40] Twelve hundred men, under the command of Ibrihim Cacheff, are said to be on the way to replace the vacancy left in our camp by the departure of Abdin Cacheff. They are expected to arrive in a few days, if not delayed by the sickness of Ibrihim Cacheff, who, it is said in the camp, is dangerously ill on the road.

7th of Regeb. This day Nousreddin, the Malek of Berber, came to kiss the hand of the Pasha. He had been prevented from paying his homage to the conqueror heretofore by sickness. He brought with him, as a present to the Pasha, fifty fine horses, and fifty dromedaries of prime breed. He was well received by his Excellence, and his presents were returned by the Pasha, by others of great value. Nousreddin is a very tall and very large man, about sixty years of age. Two days after, having occasion to go to the other side of the river, I found Nousreddin upon the shore, awaiting the arrival of a boat to carry him and some of his chiefs over. I paid him some compliments relative to the handsome horses he had presented to the Pasha, which pleased him considerably; he invited me to come to his house and partake of his hospitality. I told him, if circumstances would admit it, I would visit him in a few days.

From the 10th of Regeb to the end of the moon, nothing worth notice took place, except the successive and gradual arrival of the remainder of the cannon,[41] ammunition, stores and troops from the cataract, which had been left there when the Pasha quitted it, for want of camels to transport them. On the last day of the month, arrived the cavalry of Ibrihim Cacheff from Egypt, consisting of four hundred excellent horsemen; one thousand infantry were yet far distant, but on their way to join us. Ibrihim Cacheff is at Wady Halfa, severely sick.

On the 2d of the moon Shaban, shortly after the hour of afternoon prayer, the signal was fired and the tents fell. We mounted our snorting horses, now lusty from long repose, and commenced our march to traverse the famous country of the Ethiopian shepherds, at present subject to the Malek of Shendi. We arrived opposite Shendi, by easy marches, in eight days, and encamped on the west side of the river, near a very large village called "Shendi el Garb," i.e. Shendi on the west bank.

Our route from Berber led us through a country consisting of immense plains of fertile soil, extending many miles from the river, and mostly covered with herbage; mountains or hills were rarely visible.[42]

We passed many large villages, most of which stood far off from the river, to be out of the reach of the inundation. The houses of these villages, particularly as we approached Shendi, were generally built with sloping roofs of thatched straw, which indicated that this is a country visited by the rains. We hardly ever, during our march, came in view of the river, except to encamp. We found it at this season narrow and shallow, though its bed was frequently a mile and a half broad. At every halt we made, the chiefs of the country came to salute the Pasha, and seemed to be well disposed towards the army, whose conduct was very exemplary.

On the 9th of the moon, I visited the town of Shendi el Garb, in the rear of our camp. It is large and well built, in comparison with the other villages I have seen on the Upper Nile. It contains about six thousand inhabitants, and has three market places, where the people of the country exchange dollars and durra for what they have need of. Our piasters they disliked, being ignorant of their value, but sometimes received them for fowls, vegetables, butter, and meat, and for durra, but for wheat they demanded dollars.

On the 10th of the moon, I went to Shendi on the east bank, which is the capital of the country. I traversed the town with some surprise; the houses are low, but well built of clay. Large areas, walled in for the reception of the merchandize brought by the caravans, are to be seen in various parts of the town, which is large, containing probably five or six thousand inhabitants; the streets are wide and airy, regular market places are found there, where, beside meat, butter,[43] grain and vegetables are also to be purchased, spices brought from Jidda, gum arabic, beads, and other ornaments for the women. The people of Shendi have a bad character, being both ferocious and fraudulent. Great numbers of slaves of both sexes, from Abyssinia and Darfour, are to be found here, at a moderate price, a handsome Abyssinian girl selling for about forty or fifty dollars. The chief of Shendi, the same who had come to our camp in Berber, has done his uttermost to promote a good disposition in his people towards the Osmanlis, and has made the Pasha a present of several hundreds of very fine camels, within the last two days. His house is not built of better materials than those of his people, and differs from them only in being larger. Shendi stands about half a mile from the easterly bank of the river. Its immediate environs are sandy; it derives its importance solely from being the rendezvous of the caravans of Sennaar and the neighboring countries going to Mecca or Egypt. The territory belonging to the chief of Shendi is said to be very large,[44] but by no means peopled in proportion to its extent. He can, however, in conjunction with the Malek of Halfya, bring into the field thirty thousand horsemen, mounted on steeds probably as beautiful as any found in any country in the world.

On the 14th of the moon, some soldiers, who went to a village in the neighborhood of the camp, to get their rations of durra from the magazine in this village, which had been formed there by its chief, for the service of the army, were insulted, maltreated, and two of them killed outright with lances, and others severely wounded by the inhabitants. On the news of this outrage reaching the camp, the soldiers took arms, and mounted, to proceed to this village, with the full determination to revenge the death of their comrades in the severest manner. In five minutes nearly all the camp was upon the march for this village, when the Pasha sent orders to stop them and leave the affair to him. It was however impossible to prevent the greater part of them from proceeding to the village, which they pillaged and destroyed, sacrificing to their fury many of its inhabitants. The plunder which they brought back was however seized by the Selictar, and by the Pasha's orders restored to its owners.

The conduct of his Excellence on this occasion was highly laudable, while it must be confessed that that of the soldiers was not much to be blamed. Durra—a miserable pittance of durra, scarcely sufficient to support nature, was all that was required from the people of these countries, money free; and this, in the instance mentioned, was refused by a people whose chief had already granted it—a people absolutely within our power, and who extorted from the starving soldiery enormous prices for every thing they sold us, and who frequently refused to sell us any thing at all with great ferocity and insolence.

On the 15th of the moon, at two hours before sunset, the signal was fired, and the camp of the Pasha rose to commence its march for Sennaar. We marched till midnight, and reposed, as usual, on the bank of the river till about the same hour of the afternoon of the 16th of the moon, when we pursued our march for five hours, and halted by the river. We stayed here till the 18th, in the afternoon, in order to obtain three days rations for the horses from the villages in the neighborhood, which are numerous and large, as the country through which our route would lie for that time, is destitute of inhabitants and cultivation.

It was on the 16th that Malek Shouus, the chief of the fugitive Shageias, who had fled as the army approached up the country, came at length to the camp to surrender himself to the discretion of the Pasha. He addressed the Pasha, as I have been informed, as follows: "I have fought against you to the utmost of my means and power, and am now ready, if you will, to fight under the orders of my conqueror." The courage this man had shown in battle, and his firmness in adversity, had engaged the respect of the Osmanlis, and he is as graciously received by the Pasha, who created him a Bimbashi, and received him, his companions, and followers, into his service. Malek Shouus is a large stout man, of a pleasing physiognomy though black, of about forty years of age, and was considered as the greatest warrior among the people of the Upper Nile, who all stood in awe of him.[45]

The 19th, 20th, and 21st of the moon, were employed in traversing the naked country before-mentioned, which is barren, rocky, and without cultivation. We marched for three days, from the middle of the afternoon till midnight. It was not till the second hour after midnight, however, of the third day, that we arrived at a country on the border of the Nile, containing several villages, where we remained till the middle of the afternoon of the 21st. On our arrival at these villages, the darkness and severe hunger engaged several of the soldiers to take, by force, sheep and goats from the inhabitants. The officers of the Pasha vigorously interposed to prevent this infraction of the orders of his Excellence, and several of the guilty were severely punished for taking forbidden means to gratify the demands of nature.

At the hour of afternoon prayer the signal was fired, and the camp proceeded onwards. We left the villages afore-mentioned, and passed through a sandy tract covered with bushes and the thorny acacia, which embarrassed our march, and, by occasioning several detours, caused the army to lose its way. After wandering about till midnight, the camp at length arrived on the bank of the Nile.

On the 22d, at the rising of the moon, the camp proceeded, and halted in the forenoon on the beach of the river, opposite Halfya, a very large village on the easterly bank. We stayed here till the twenty-sixth to obtain durra from this territory, whose chief brought, as a present to the Pasha, some fine horses and many camels, and received, in return, some valuable presents. Our side of the river is desert, and covered with trees and bushes. During our stay opposite Halfya, the Nile, on the night of the 23d, rose suddenly about two feet, and inundated some parts of the sandy flats where we were encamped; the water entering the tents of several, my own among others, and wetting my bed, arms, and baggage.[46] It had risen a little shortly after the equinox, while the army was in Berber, and afterwards subsided more than it had risen. We find the sky every day more and more overcast; distant thunder and lightning, accompanied with violent squalls, (which have overset my tent twice,) are, within a few days, frequent, and drops of rain have fallen in our camp.

On the 26th, at one hour after noon, we proceeded to the Bahar el Abiud, about five hours march above our present position, where the Pasha intends to cross into the territory of Sennaar. The camp arrived at sunset at a position a little above where the Nile falls into the Bahar el Abiud, and stopped. Immediately on my arrival, I drank of this river, being, probably, the first man of Frank origin that ever tasted its waters.

The Nile is not half as broad as the Bahar el Abiud, which is, from bank to bank, one mile higher than where the Nile joins it, about a mile and a quarter in breadth. It comes, as far as we can see it, from the west-south-west. The Nile of Bruce must, therefore, after the expedition of Ismael Pasha, be considered as a branch of a great and unexplored river, which may possibly be found to be connected with the Niger.

On the 27th, early in the morning, the Pasha commenced transporting the army over the Bahar el Abiud, by means of nine small boats, which had been able to pass the third Cataract, and follow the army. The country on our side of the Bahar el Abiud, is uncultivated, and apparently without inhabitants. The army is encamped by the side of the river, on a beautiful plain of good soil, extending a considerable distance back towards the desert. During the inundation, this plain becomes evidently an island, as there is a channel worn by water, in the rear of it, at this season dry. The tracks of the hippopotamus are found throughout this plain.

By the 29th, in the afternoon, i.e. in two days and a half, the Pasha had finished transporting into Sennaar the whole of his camp, consisting of about six thousand persons, with the artillery, ammunition, tents, baggage, horses, camels, and asses, by the aid of nine boats, none of them large, an expedition, I believe, unparalleled in the annals of Turkish warfare.[47]

During our stay on the other side of the Bahar el Abiud, it was reported in the camp that some of the Mogrebin soldiers, gone out to shoot gazelles, had killed in the desert which lies off from the river, an animal, resembling a bull, except that its feet were like those of a camel. I did not see this animal, but the story was affirmed to me by several.

The army, on its crossing the Bahar el Abiud, encamped on the point of land just below which the Bahar el Abiud and the Nile join each other. The water of the Bahar el Abiud is troubled and whitish, and has a peculiar sweetish taste. The soldiers said that "the water of the Bahar el Abiud would not quench thirst." This notion probably arose from the circumstance that they were never tired of drinking it, it is so light and sweet. The water of the Nile is at present perfectly pure and transparent, but by no means so agreeable to the palate as that of the Bahar el Abiud, as I experimented myself, drinking first of the Bahar el Abiud, and then walking about two hundred yards across the point, and drinking of the Nile, the water of which appeared to me hard and tasteless in comparison.

Nothing of the kind could be easier than to ascend the Bahar el Abiud from the place where we are. A canja, well manned and armed, and accompanied by another boat containing provisions for four or six months, and both furnished with grapnels to enable them at night to anchor in the river, might, in my opinion, ascend and return securely: as the tribes on its borders have great dread of fire-arms, and will hardly dare to meddle with those who carry them.

We stayed on the Sennaar side of the Bahar el Abiud till the 1st of Ramadan, when the army commenced its march for Sennaar, the capital, proceeding by the bank of the Nile.[48]

The army reached Sennaar in thirteen days. The signal for striking the tents and loading the camels was generally fired about two hours after midnight. One hour was allowed for loading the baggage, when a second cannon was fired, and the march of the army commenced, and was continued each day till about two or three hours before noon, when the camp reposed till about two hours after midnight of the same day. The army suffered severely during this march; nothing was given to the troops for subsistence but durra, unground, which the soldiers were frequently in great distress to obtain the means of making into meal, in order to bake a little miserable bread, which was all they had to eat.[49] For myself, I was reduced to great extremity. The camel, carrying my provisions and culinary utensils, and several other articles, was lost by the carelessness of a domestic. I was consequently left without any thing to eat, or the means of preparing what I might obtain. I threw myself under the hospitable shade of the tent of Mr. Caillaud, (then only occupied by Mr. Constant, his companion,) the gentleman I have mentioned in the Preface with so much well merited esteem, where I stayed till my arrival at Sennaar.

The country we traversed is that part of the kingdom of Sennaar which lies between the Nile and the Bahar el Abiud. It is an immense and fertile plain, occupied by numerous villages, some of them very large; that of "Wahat Medinet," for instance, containing, probably, four or five thousand inhabitants. What country we saw was, at this season, perfectly naked of grass, consisting generally of immense fields which, in the season past, had been planted with durra. Acacia trees, and bushes in the country far back from the river, (which is sandy,) were abundant, but no herbage was visible; I did not see throughout our route a single waterwheel;[50] and I believe that the country is only cultivated when the inundation has retired.

The houses of the villages are built in the following manner. A circle of stakes is planted in the ground, a conical frame of poles attached to these stakes below, and meeting and fastened at the top of the cone, forms the roof. This roof, and the sides of the house, are then covered with thatched straw, which suffices to exclude the rains.

Some of the houses, however, belonging to the chiefs are of a stronger fabric, being composed of thick walls made of bricks dried in the sun, and having terraced roofs. In the thatched cottages I have mentioned, the air and light come in by the doorway and four small holes pierced in the walls of the house. This scanty ventilation renders these cottages very hot and close: the difference between the temperature of an inhabited house and that of the air outside being, in my judgment, almost as great as that of the undressing room of a bath at Cairo, and that of the passage just outside of the bath itself. This circumstance alone is almost sufficient to account for the great mortality in Sennaar, during the rainy season, when whole families are shut up in these close cottages; and every one who goes abroad must necessarily go with his pores in a condition expressly adapted to make him catch a cold or a fever.

Six days before the army reached Sennaar, the Pasha was met by an ambassador from the Sultan; he had an audience of his Excellence, and returned the next day to Sennaar. He was a handsome young man, accompanied by a numerous suite mounted on dromedaries. The army pursued its route, steadily marching in order of battle, the infantry in the centre, the cavalry on the wings; the artillery in advance of the centre and the baggage in the rear, with Shouus' cavalry and the dromedary corps of Abbadies scouring our front and flanks to a great distance. Two days after it was reported in the camp that the Sultan of Sennaar was on his way to meet us with a strong force, preceded by numerous elephants and great herds of cattle, collected in order to receive and exhaust the fire of our troops. The Pasha proceeded however steadily on with the army in order of battle, and equally prepared for peace or war. Two days before the arrival of the army in Sennaar, as I was riding near the Topgi Bashi, who was in front of the army with the artillery, I saw a great number of armed men approaching, mounted on horses and dromedaries. Presently the Malek of Shendi (who had accompanied the Pasha)[51], rode up to the Pasha and informed him that the strangers approaching were the principal officers of the Sultan of Sennaar, and their suite, who had come to demand terms of peace.

I saw these personages when they arrived. They were two, one a tall thin elderly man of a mulatto complexion, dressed in green and yellow silks of costly fabric, with a cap of a singular form, something resembling a crown, made of the same materials, upon his head. The other was the same young man who had come a few days past to the Pasha. He was dressed to-day in silks like the other, except that his head was bare of ornament. They were accompanied by a fine lad about sixteen, who was, it is said, the son of the predecessor of the present Sultan. All three were mounted on tall and beautiful horses, and accompanied by about two hundred soldiers of the Sultan, mounted on dromedaries, and armed with broadswords, lances and shields.

When the Pasha was informed of their approach by the Malek of Shendi, he ordered a halt. The tent of the Pasha was pitched, and the ambassadors were introduced. They were treated with great attention and liberality by the Pasha, who, during the day and the course of the evening following, gave them opportunities enough to be convinced of the immense superiority of our arms to theirs. During the evening, some star rockets and bombs were thrown for their amusement and edification. No language can do justice to their astonishment at the spectacle, which undoubtedly produced the effect intended by the Pasha—humility and a sense of inferiority. The next morning at an early hour the army pursued its march, accompanied by the ambassadors from Sennaar.

About the hour of noon, the outscouts announced to the Pasha that the Sultan of Sennaar himself was approaching to salute his Excellence. On his approach, the army received him with the honors due to his rank. He was conducted to the tent of the Pasha, by the ambassadors he had sent, where he remained in audience with his Excellence a long time. When the audience was finished, he and the personages he had before sent to the Pasha were splendidly habited in the Turkish fashion, and presented with horses, furnished with saddles and bridles embroidered with gold.[52]

It was on the morning following that the army reached the capital. We marched in order of battle. The Pasha, accompanied by the Sultan of Sennaar and his chief servants, in front. On approaching the city, the army saluted this long wished for town, where they imagined that their toils and privations would cease, at least for a time, with repeated and continued volleys of cannon and musquetry, accompanied with shouts of exultation. But these shouts subsided on a nearer approach, on finding this once powerful city of Sennaar to be almost nothing but heaps of ruins, containing in some of its quarters some few hundreds of habitable but almost deserted houses. After the camp was pitched, and I had refreshed myself with a little food, I took a walk about the town. At almost every step I trod upon fragments of burnt bricks, among which are frequently to be found fragments of porcelain, and sometimes marble. The most conspicuous buildings in Sennaar are a mosque, and a large brick palace adjoining it. The mosque, which is of brick, is in good preservation; its windows are covered with well wrought bronze gratings, and the doors are handsomely and curiously carved. The interior was desecrated by uncouth figures of animals, portrayed upon the walls with charcoal. This profanation had been perpetrated by the Pagan mountaineers who inhabit the mountains thirteen days march south of Sennaar, and who, at some period, not very long past, had taken the town, and had left upon the walls of the mosque these tokens of possession.

The palace is large, but in ruins, except the centre building, which is six stories high, having five rows of windows.[53] By mounting upon its roof you have the best possible view of the city, the river, and the environs, that the place can afford. I judged that Sennaar was about three miles in circumference. The greater part of this space is now covered with the ruins of houses, built of bricks either burnt or dried in the sun. I do not believe that there are more than four hundred houses standing in Sennaar and of these one-third or more are round cottages, like those of the villages. Of those built of bricks, the largest is the house of the Sultan. It is a large enclosure, containing ranges of low but well built habitations of sun-dried bricks, with terraced roofs, and the interior stuccoed with fine clay. What struck me the most, was the workmanship of the doors of the old houses of Sennaar, which are composed of planed and jointed planks, adorned frequently with carved work, and strengthened and studded with very broad headed nails; the whole inimitable by the present population of Sennaar. These houses are very rarely of more than one story in height, the roofs terraced with fine and well beaten clay spread over mats laid upon rafters, which form the roof.

The city of Sennaar is of an oblong form, its longest side opposite the river. It stands not at any distance from the river, but directly upon its west bank, which consists hereabouts of hard clay.

The river is now rising,[54] but exhibits itself at present to the view as narrow and winding, as far as the eye can reach, between sand flats, which will shortly be covered by its augmenting waters. The bed of the Nile opposite Sennaar may be reckoned at about half a mile broad.

The environs of Sennaar are wide plains, containing large and populous villages. A long ragged mountain, the only one visible, stands about fifteen miles to the west of the town. Below the town is a small but pretty island, whose inhabitants thrive by raising vegetables for the market of Sennaar; and the opposite bank of the river, presents several verdant patches of ground devoted to the same object.[55] Beyond these spots, the country on the other bank appeared to be mostly covered with trees and bushes, among which I saw four elephants feeding.

I could not find any remains of any very ancient building in Sennaar during my stay, and I believe that none exists there. Such is the present appearance of a town which has evidently been once rich, comfortable and nourishing, but which, for eighteen years past, as I have been informed, has been the lacerated prey of War and Confusion.

On the day after our arrival the conditions of the accord between the Pasha and the Sultan of Sennaar were arranged and sealed; by which the latter recognized himself as subject and feudatory of the Grand Seignor, and surrendered his dominions to the supremacy and sway of the Vizier of the Padischah, Mehemmed Ali Pasha. The next day the Tchocadar Aga of his Highness the Viceroy of Egypt, who had arrived in our camp two months past, embarked in the canja of the Pasha Ismael to carry the documents of this important transaction to Cairo.

For several days after our arrival at Sennaar, our camp was incommoded by furious squalls of wind, accompanied with thunder, lightning, and torrents of rain. The Pasha therefore determined to caserne the troops in the houses of the town, and to stay there during the rainy season. In ten days after our arrival, the army was distributed throughout the town and in the villages on the opposite bank of the river. The Pasha himself took up his quarters in a large house of the Sultan of Sennaar, which had been prepared for his accommodation.

A few days after our arrival, a slave informed the Pasha that the Sultan of Sennaar, before our arrival, had thrown into the river some cannon. The Pasha ordered search to be made; four iron guns were discovered by divers, and were dragged on shore. They appeared to me to be ordinary ship guns; no mark or inscription was found on them to enable me to judge where they were fabricated. I believe them however to have been originally obtained of the Portuguese by the Abyssinians, from whom the people said the Sultan of Sennaar had taken them in some ancient war between the two kingdoms.

On the 19th of Ramadan, a party of Bedouins were ordered by the Pasha to go in pursuit of some hundred black slaves of the Sultan of Sennaar, who some time before our arrival had run away, taking with them some of his best horses. On the 23d they returned, bringing with them between five and six hundred negroes of both sexes. But on Malek Shouus going to the Pasha and representing to him that these people were not the fugitives in question, the Pasha ordered them to be immediately released and to return to their respective villages.

About the same time the Pasha detached Cogia Achmet with thirteen hundred cavalry and three pieces of artillery to the upper country of Sennaar between the Bahar el Abiud and the Nile to secure its submission.[56] And on the 26th of the moon the Divan Effendi was sent with three hundred men across the Nile, to secure that part of the kingdom of Sennaar which lies on the east side of the Nile.[57]

Seven days after our arrival in Sennaar I put in execution a resolution the state of my health obliged me to determine on, and demanded of the Pasha permission to return to Cairo. I represented to him, that all the critical operations of the campaign were now happily concluded, and crowned with the fullest success; and that, therefore, he could have no particular need of me any longer. I stated to him that repeated sickness during the campaign had rendered my health very infirm, and that a residence of four months at Sennaar, during the rainy season, would probably destroy me; and as my presence for that time at least could be no ways necessary, I requested him to grant the permission demanded, telling him that if, after the rainy season was finished, he should think proper to recall me to camp that I would obey the summons. The Pasha hesitated, and for several days declined granting my request; but on its being represented to him that the reasons I had stated were really just and sufficient causes for my return, his Excellence finally told me, that on the return of Cogia Achmet he should dispatch a courier to Cairo, and that I should accompany him.

On the third day of the Feast of Bairam I saw the Sultan of Sennaar parade the town in great ceremony. He was mounted on a superb horse, and clothed in green and yellow silks, but his head was bare of every thing but its natural wool. Over his head an officer carried a large umbrella of green and yellow silks in alternate stripes. He was accompanied by the officers of his palace, and his guard, beautifully mounted, and followed by the native population of Sennaar, both men and women, who uttered shrill cries, which were now and then interrupted by the sound of a most lugubrious trumpet which preceded the Sultan, and which was blown by a musician who, judging from the tones he produced, seemed to be afflicted with a bad cough.

On the 7th of the moon Shawal, the Divan Effendi returned to Sennaar, having crushed all attempts to oppose the establishment of the Pasha's authority in the eastern part of the kingdom of Sennaar, and bringing with him three of the chiefs of the refractory, and three hundred and fifty prisoners, as slaves. The events of this expedition were related to me as follows: "We marched without resistance for eight days, in the direction of the rising sun, through a country fine, fertile, and crowded with villages, till we came to some larger villages near a mountain called 'Catta,' where we found four or five hundred men posted in front of them to resist our march They were armed with lances, and presented themselves to the combat with great resolution. But on experiencing the effects of our fire-arms, they took to flight toward the mountain; two hundred of them were hemmed in, and cut to pieces, and three of their chiefs were taken prisoners, as well as all the inhabitants we could find in their villages; after which we returned."

On my demanding if water was plentiful at a distance from the river, my informant replied, that "there were wells in abundance in all the numerous villages, with which the country abounds; and also numerous rivulets and streams, which at this season descend from the mountains. The troops, he said, had forded two small rivers (probably the Ratt and the Dandar); he added, that the country abounded in beautiful birds and insects, one of the latter he brought with him; it was a small scarabeus, covered with a fine close crimson down, exactly resembling scarlet velvet. The people of the country he described as very harmless, and exceedingly anxious to know what had brought us to Sennaar to trouble them."

Two of these Chiefs taken prisoners the Pasha ordered to be impaled in the market-place of Sennaar. They suffered this horrid death with great firmness. One of them said nothing but "there is no God but God, and Mohammed is his Apostle," which he frequently repeated before impalement; while the other, named Abdallah, insulted, defied, and cursed his executioners, calling them "robbers and murderers," till too weak to speak, when he expressed his feelings by spitting at them.[58] The third Chief was detained prisoner, in order to be sent to Cairo.

During my stay in Sennaar, I endeavored to get information of the people of the country, and of the few caravan merchants found in the market-place of Sennaar, relative to the Bahar el Abiud and the Nile. The information I received was as follows: "The source of the Adit (so the people of Sennaar call the river that runs by their city) is in the Gibel el Gumara, (i.e. that great range of mountains called the Mountains of the Moon,) about sixty days march of a camel from Sennaar. in a direction nearly south. It receives, at various distances above Sennaar, several smaller rivers which come from Abyssinia and from the mountains south of Sennaar. The general course of the Bahar el Abiud (they said) was nearly parallel with that of the Adit, but its source was much farther off, among the Gibel el Gumara, than that of the Adit. The Bahar el Abiud, they said, appears very large at the place where the Pasha's army crossed it, because it is augmented from the junction of three other rivers, one from the south-west, and two others from the east, running from the mountains south of Sennaar."[59] On my asking them, "whether the Bahar el Abiud was open and free of shellals or rapids?" they said, "that at a place called Sulluk, about fifteen days march above its junction with the Adit, (i.e. above the place where we crossed the Bahar el Abiud,) there was a shellal, which they believed that boats could not pass.[60] On my asking whether, by following the banks of the Bahar el Abiud and the river that empties into it from the west, it was not possible to reach a city called Tombut or Tombuctoo?" They said, that "they knew nothing of the city I mentioned, having never been farther west than Kordofan and Darfour."

This was all I could learn: but I am disposed to believe, that the main stream of the Bahar el Abiud cannot have its source in the same latitude with that of the Adit, because it commenced its rise, at least, this year, about twenty days sooner than did the Adit, and the different color of its waters proves that it flows through a tract differing in quality of soil from that through which passes the Adit. The interesting question, "whether the Niger communicates with the Bahar el Abiud?" will, however, very probably be determined before the close of another year, as the Pasha will probably send an expedition up that river.

Secondly, I am further disposed to believe that the main stream of the Adit, or Nile of Bruce, does not take its rise in Abyssinia, but in the mountains assigned as the place of its origin by the people of Sennaar. For on viewing the mass of water that runs by Sennaar even now, when the river has not attained two-thirds of the usual magnitude it acquires during the rainy season, I can by no means believe that the main source of such a river is only about three hundred miles distant from Sennaar.

The tract of country included between the Adit and the Bahar el Abiud is called El Gezira, i.e. the island: because, in the season of the rains, many rivers running from the mountains in the south into the Bahar el Abiud and the Adit, occasion this tract to be included by rivers.

I am disposed to believe, that the representations made of the climate of this country are much exaggerated; as, except during the rainy season, and immediately after it, the country is a high and dry plain,[61] by no means excessively hot, because the level of the countries on the Nile being constantly ascending from Egypt, occasions Sennaar to be many hundred feet higher than the level of Egypt, which is proved by the rapid descent of the waters of the Nile toward the latter country. The east and south winds also are, in Sennaar, cool breezes; because they come either from the mountains of Abyssinia, or the huge and high ranges which compose the Gibel el Gumara. I was in Sennaar at Midsummer, and at no time found the heat very uncomfortable, provided I was in the open air, and under a shade. In the cottages and houses, indeed, on account of their want of ventilation, the heat was excessive.

I made during my stay in Sennaar frequent inquiries about the fly mentioned by Bruce; the people of Sennaar said they knew nothing of it;[62] but, in reply to my inquiries, referred to a worm, which they say comes out of the earth during the rainy season, and whose bite is dangerous.

The reptile species in Sennaar are numerous. The houses are full of lizards, which, if you lie on the floor, you may feel crawling or running over you all night. I saw at Sennaar a serpent of a species, I believe, never before mentioned. It was a snake of about two feet long, and not thicker than my thumb, striped on the back, with a copper colored belly, and a flat head. This serpent had four legs, which did not appear to be of any use to him, as they were short and hanging from the sides of his belly. All his motions, which were quick and rapid, were made in the usual manner of serpents, i.e. upon its belly.[63]

I do not feel authorized to give an opinion as to the national character of the people inhabiting the kingdom of Sennaar; but I am obliged to consider the inhabitants of the capital as a very detestable people. They are exceedingly avaricious, extortionate, faithless, filthy and cruel.[64] The men are generally tall and well shaped, but the females are, almost universally, the ugliest I ever beheld; this is probably owing to their being obliged to do all sorts of drudgery.

The children of these people, and indeed of all the tribes on the Upper Nile, go quite naked till near the age of puberty. A girl unmarried is distinguished by a sort of short leather apron, composed of a great number of leather thongs hanging like tassels from a leather belt fastened round the waist: and this is all her clothing, being no longer than that of our mother Eve after her fall. The married women, however, are generally habited in long coarse cotton clothes, which they wrap round them so as to cover their whole person, except when they are at work, when they wrap the whole round the waist.

As to the manufactures of the people of the Upper Nile, they are limited, I believe, to the following articles, Earthenware for domestic uses and bowls for pipes; cotton cloths for clothing; knives, mattocks, hoes and ploughs, for agriculture, water-wheels for the same; horse furniture, such as the best formed saddles I ever rode on, very neatly fabricated; stirrups in the European form, made of silver for the chiefs, and not like those of the Turks; large iron spurs, bits with small chains for reins, to prevent them from being severed by the stroke of an enemy's broadsword; long and double edged broadswords, with the guard frequently made of silver; iron heads for lances, and shields made of the hide of the elephant; to which may be added, that the women fabricate very beautiful straw mats.

There is a general resemblance, in domestic customs, among all the peoples who inhabit the borders of the Nile from Assuan to Sennaar. They differ, however, somewhat in complexion and character. The people of the province of Succoot are generally not so black as the Nubian or the Dongolese. They are also frank and prepossessing in their deportment. The Dongolese is dirty, idle, and ferocious. The character of the Shageian is the same, except that he is not idle, being either an industrious peasant or a daring freebooter. The people on the third cataract are not very industrious, but have the character of being honest and obliging. The people of Berber are by far the most civilized of all the people of the Upper Nile. The inhabitants of the provinces of Shendi and Halfya are a sullen, scowling, crafty, and ferocious people; while the peasants of Sennaar inhabiting the villages we found on our route, are a respectable people in comparison with those of the capital. Throughout the whole of these countries there is one general characteristic, in which they resemble the Indians of America, namely, courage and self-respect. The chiefs, after coming to salute the Pasha, would make no scruple of sitting down facing him, and converse with him without embarrassment, in the same manner as they are accustomed to do with their own Maleks, with whom they are very familiar. With the greatest apparent simplicity they would frequently propose troublesome questions to the Pasha, such as, "O great Sheck, or O great Malek; (for so they called the Pasha) what have we done to you, or your country, that you should come so far to make war upon us? Is it for want of food in your country that you come to get it in ours?" and others similar.

On the 14th of the moon Shawal, Cogia Achmet returned to Sennaar, bringing with him about two thousand prisoners as slaves, consisting almost entirely of women and children. The events of his expedition were related to me as follows: He marched rapidly for ten days in a direction about south-west of Sennaar, (the capital) without resistance, through a well-peopled country, without meeting with any opposition till he came to the mountains of Bokki, inhabited by Pagans, the followers of the chief who had rejected the Pasha's letter. They were posted on a mountain of difficult access; but their post was stormed, and after a desperate struggle, they found that spears and swords, though wielded by stout hearts and able hands, were not a match for fire-arms. They fled to another mountain, rearward of their first position. They were again attacked by cannon and musketry, and obliged to fly toward a third position: in their flight, they were in part hemmed in by the cavalry of Cogia Achmet, and about fifteen hundred of them put to the sword. Those who escaped took refuge in a craggy mountain, inaccessible to cavalry. Cogia Achmet, believing he had made a sufficient proof to them that resistance on their part was unavailing, and the troops having suffered great distress by reason of the almost continual rains, after sweeping the villages of these people of all the population they could find in them, resumed his march for Sennaar. On their return, they had to ford several deep streams, at this season running from the mountains, and both horse and man were almost worn out before they reached Sennaar.

The people of Bokki are a hardy race of mountaineers—tall, stout, and handsome. They are Pagans, worshippers of the sun, which planet they consider it as profane to look at. The prisoners brought in by Cogia Achmet resembled in their dress the savages of America; they were almost covered with beads, bracelets, and trinkets, made out of pebbles, bones, and ivory. Their complexion is almost black, and their manners and deportment prepossessing. The arms of these people gave me great surprise: they consisted of well-formed and handsome helmets of iron, coats of mail, made of leather and overlaid with plates of iron, long and well fashioned lances, and a hand-weapon exactly resembling the ancient bills formerly used in England by the yeomanry. They were represented to me by the Turks as dangerous in personal combat. They had never seen fire-arms before, and they nevertheless withstood them with great intrepidity. They said, I was informed, that a fusee was "a coward's weapon, who stands at a safe distance from his enemy, and kills him by an invisible stroke."[65]

On the 17th, the courier carrying the information to Cairo of this expedition and its results, embarked in a canja to descend the river as far as Berber, from whence he would proceed by the desert to Egypt. Agreeably to the promise of the Pasha, I accompanied him. We arrived at Nousreddin in Berber in five days and nights. Having the favor of the current, and sixteen oarsmen on board, we descended with great rapidity. The view of the country from the river is not pleasing, as the villages lie almost invariably far off from the river; the country, therefore, has the appearance of being almost uninhabited. We saw great numbers of hippopotami, who, in the night, would lift their heads out of the water at no great distance from the canja. They were sometimes fired at, but without apparent effect. We stopped, during the night, for an hour at Shendi, to leave orders from the Pasha to a small garrison of Turkish troops stationed there.[66] The river Nile, below the point of junction with the great Bahar el Abiud, presents a truly magnificent spectacle.[67] Between Halfya and Shendi, the river is straitened and traverses a deep and gloomy defile formed by high rocky hills, between which the Nile runs dark, deep, and rapidly for about twelve or fifteen miles. On emerging from this defile, the river again spreads itself majestically, and flows between immense plains of herbage, bounded only by the horizon: its banks nearly full, but not yet overflowed. About thirty miles above Nousreddin, we passed the mouth of the Bahar el Iswood (on the eastern shore); it is the last river that empties into the Nile. I estimated it at about two-thirds of a mile broad at its embouchure. The Nile, below the point of junction with this river, is more than two miles from bank to bank, at this season. During the two first days of our voyage, we had some severe squalls and very heavy rains; but after passing the territory of Sennaar, we had a sky almost without a cloud.

On our arrival at Nousreddin, no more dromedaries could be immediately obtained than were sufficient to mount the courier and his two guides. I was, therefore, obliged to tarry five days in Nousreddin before I could find a caravan journeying to Egypt.

On the 28th of Shawal, I quitted Nousreddin, along with a caravan on its way to Egypt from Sennaar, conducted by a soldier attached to the Cadilaskier of the army of Ismael Pasha, who was conducting to Egypt twenty-two dromedaries and camels, and some slaves, belonging to the Cadilaskier, and four fine horses belonging to the Pasha.

We started at about three hours before noon, and after marching for three hours, stopped at a village named Sheraffey, to obtain rations for the horses and camels to subsist them through the desert. Our route lay on the outside of the villages, and on the border of the desert. The villages are numerous and well built of sun-dried bricks, and the face of the country, on our side of the river, perfectly level.

We stayed at Sheraffey until the next morning: the conductor of the caravan not being able to obtain at this place the durra he wanted for his cattle, we proceeded to a village called Hassah, which is about an hour's march from Sheraffey. We stayed there till next morning.

On the 30th of the Moon, at day-light, we mounted our camels, and proceeded on our road, which lay on the skirts of the desert. We passed a continual succession of large, well-built and populous villages, lying about a mile distant from the river; the weather serene and cool, as it has been since our arrival in Berber. We halted at about the middle of the forenoon, by a village called Abdea, until an hour and a half before sunset, when we again set forward, and after marching for three hours and a half, halted for the remainder of the night in a small village, half in ruins. The reason of our short marches and frequent stoppages was, to give the conductor of the caravan opportunities to make provision for passing the desert. He might have done it at any of the villages, had he been content to pay the price demanded; but as he was a man who seemed to hold hard bargains in horror, and to love money with great affection, he did not give the latter for durra till he was absolutely obliged to make the afflictive exchange.

On the 1st of Zilkade we started at daylight, and marched till about two hours after sunrise, when we stopped at some villages called Gannettee. The country we passed since yesterday is the desert, which comes down close to the river's bank, presenting but few spots fit for cultivation. We were informed last night, that the camp of Mehemmet Bey, who is on his way from Egypt with five thousand men, to take possession of Darfour and Kordofan, is on the other side of the river.[68] The weather continues serene and not very hot. Stayed at Gannettee till about the middle of the afternoon, when we proceeded on our journey through a a desert and dreary country, without either habitations or cultivation, as the desert comes here down to the river. The rocks and stones of the desert are generally of black granite. No verdure was to be seen, except on the margin of the river. The river hereabouts is much impeded by rocks and rapids, but contains many beautiful islands, some of them very large, fertile, populous, and well cultivated. Malek Mohammed el Hadgin commands this country. His province, called "El Raba Tab," contains eighty-eight large and fertile islands, and the shores of the river adjacent. He has a very high character for courage, morals, and generosity; he resides on the great island of Mograt, which is said to be about sixty miles long.[69]

We halted at about three hours before midnight on the bank of the river, within hearing of a Shellal, where the river forms a regular cataract, except a small pass on the easterly shore. After reposing the camels an hour and a half, and refreshing ourselves with bread and the muddy water of the Nile, we recommenced our march, which was continued without cessation till an hour before noon next morning, always through the desert, in order to cut a point of land formed by an angle in the river, when we stopped under the shade of some fine date trees on the bank of the river, and in view of one of its large and ever verdant isles, called Kandessee, in a small island adjoining which Khalil Aga, my companion, says he saw, when he ascended the third cataract,[70] a pyramid more modern and fresh than any he had seen in these countries. Possibly the island of Kandessee takes its name from the celebrated Candace, who, in the reign of Nero, repulsed and defeated the Roman legions, and this pyramid may be her tomb. Under the date trees, on the bank of the river opposite to this island, we refreshed ourselves with our usual repast, bread and water, as the people of a village close by would give us meat neither for love, money, nor soap,[71] of which latter article they stand in great but unconscious need.

3d of Zilkade quitted our station about two hours after midnight, and went on our way. Our route continued to lie through the desert, but not far from the bank of the river; about three hours before noon in the morning came to a small village, named Haphasheem, lying on the margin of the river, opposite a verdant island it was delightful to look at. The river on the third cataract, Khalil Aga tells me, contains a continual chain of such.[72] I could not get any thing to relish our usual repast of bread and water, except some dates.

My eyes to-day were much inflamed by the reflection of the sun's rays from the sand, and at night were very painful and running with matter. Stayed here till about the same hour after midnight as yesterday, when we again set forward. The country the same as yesterday, except that we saw several stony mountains in the desert, some of them at no great distance from the river. Some of these mountains must contain ruins, as at the village where we halted to-day, which we did at about noon, we found a very large and well-fashioned burnt brick, which the peasants said was brought from one of these mountains. The whole of the country through which we have passed for four days contains no cultivable land on this side of the river, except on its margin; but in compensation for this sterility, the islands in this part of the river, which are numerous, very large, and very beautiful, are without a superior for luxuriance of vegetation. Every day when we have come to the river to halt and refresh ourselves, we found one or more in view. At this last station I was lucky enough to purchase a small kid at the enormous price of twelve piasters, the first meat we had eaten for four days. Applied at night a poultice of dates to my eyes, which were much inflamed by today's march, and found some relief from the remedy. At about three hours after midnight we again resumed our travel, and marched till an hour before noon of to-day, the 5th of Zilkade expecting to arrive at the place where the road quits the river, and plunges into the great eastern desert of Africa; but the weather becoming close and very hot, and the camels fatigued, we halted to repose them and ourselves on the bank of the river. Shortly after our arrival two of the camels of the caravan died. Our route still lay through plains and over hills of rock and sand, which come down to the river's edge, but the river, as usual, presented a continual succession of beautiful islands.

The death of the two camels having alarmed the conductor of the caravan for the others, we stayed in this place till the middle of the second day after to repose and refresh them previous to entering the desert. During our stay here I engaged a man to swim over to the island opposite, to purchase some durra flour and dates. He could, however, obtain only some dates. I was obliged, in consequence, to reconcile myself to entering the desert short of provisions. I had made provision in Berber for fifteen days, being assured that in twelve days we should have passed the desert, and arrive at the villages on the bank of the Nile four days march above Assuan. The unexpected retardments of our march from Berber had, however, made us nine days in arriving at the place where the road turns into the desert. On the 7th of the moon, at about two hours before sunset, we quitted our halting-place, and after only one hour's march by the border of the river came to a place where the Nile suddenly turns off toward the south-west.[73] At this place the guide told us we were to fill our waterskins, and to quit the river for the desert.

We stayed here till the afternoon of the 8th of the moon.

The two last nights we have kept watch, and only slept with our hands upon our arms, robbers being, we were told, in this neighborhood, who had lately pillaged some caravans. We were not, however, molested. The desert, on the border of the river hereabouts, abounds with doum trees, which are inhabited by great numbers of monkeys. Its fruit furnishes their food. This fruit consists in a large nut, on the outside covered with a brown substance almost exactly resembling burned gingerbread. It is, however, so hard that no other teeth and jaws, except those of a monkey or an Arab, are well capable of biting it. About one hour's march below our present position is an encampment of Bedouins and the tomb of a Marabout. The people of the country and the caravans had piled his grave with camels' and asses saddles, probably intended as offerings to interest his good offices in the other world.

At about four hours after the noon of the 8th, we quitted the banks of the Nile, and turned into the desert, carrying as much water as we well could, myself taking four water-skins for myself, Khalil Aga, and a black slave of mine. We marched till about an hour before midnight, when we halted for an hour to breathe the camels and to eat a morsel of bread, after which we continued our way till nearly day-break, when one of the Pasha's horses falling down and refusing to rise, it was necessary to wait till the animal had taken a little rest. We threw ourselves upon the sand, and slept profoundly for two hours, when we were roused to continue our journey. We proceeded till about two hours before noon, when we halted in a low sandy plain, sprinkled here and there with thorny bushes. These bushes afforded food for the camels, and a miserable shelter from the sun for ourselves. We shoved embodies under them as closely to their roots as the thorns would admit, to sleep as well sheltered as possible from the burning rays of the vertical sun. But sound sleep in this condition was impossible, as every half-hour the sun advancing in his course contracted or changed the shadow of the bush, and obliged us to change our position; as to sleep in his rays in this climate is not only almost impossible but dangerous, it almost infallibly producing a fever of the brain.

The country we traversed this first day's journey is a level plain of sand and gravel, with scattered mountains of black granite here and there in view, where no sound is heard but the rush of the wind. The weather was cool enough during the day, and coldish in the night.[74] In the afternoon we again set forward, proceeding and halting as yesterday, viz. once for an hour about two hours before midnight, and once again a little before day-break for an hour and a half. The desert continued to exhibit the same aspect as before till about midnight, when we quitted the plains to enter among gloomy defiles, winding between mountains of black granite. We passed one chain, and at a little beyond the entrance of another, lying about two leagues to the north of the first, the guide told us that we were near the well Apseach; soon after we arrived at a place containing bushes. Here the caravan halted, and those who wanted fresh water filled their water-skins from the well which lies in the mountains, about an hour's march from the place where we halted. This well is at the bottom of an oblique passage leading into one of the mountains, at the termination of which is found no great quantity of sweet water deposited by the rains which fall in this country about the time of the summer solstice.[75] During the last two days I traveled in great pain; the reflection of the sun from the sand, and the strong wind from the north (prevalent at this season in the desert), which blew its finer particles into my eyes, in spite of all my precautions to shelter them, exasperated and inflamed their malady to a great degree, which the want of sufficient shelter from the sun, during the time of repose, contributed to aggravate.

We stayed near the well till about sunset, when we resumed our travel, and at about three hours after sunrise on the morning of the 10th, came to a rock in a sandy plain, where the conductor of the caravan ordered a halt. We distributed ourselves round this rock as well as we could, in order to repose;[76] Khalil Aga and myself making a covering from the sun by means of my carpet, propped up by our fusees and fastened by the corners to stones we placed upon the rock, by means of our shawls and sashes. We stayed here till the middle of the afternoon, when we mounted our camels in order to reach the well Morat as soon as possible, in order to water those patient and indispensable voyagers of the desert.[77] We traversed a tolerably level but rocky tract till about two hours after midnight, when we reached the well. It lies in a valley between two high chains of mountains of black granite. Its water is somewhat bitter, as its name imports, and is not drank by travelers except when their water-skins are exhausted. It serves, however, for the camels of the caravans, and for the inhabitants of two Arab villages in the vicinity, named "Abu Hammak" and "Dohap" who brought their camels to water here the morning after our arrival. These poor but contented people are obliged to subsist, for the most part, upon their camels' milk, their situation affording little other means of nourishment. They are, however, independent, and remote from the tyranny and oppression which afflicts the people of most of the countries of the east.[78]

On the rocks near the well we saw some rude hieroglyphics, representing bulls, horses, and camels, cut in the granite, in the manner of those found in the rocks near Assuan, on the south side of the cataract. Our guide tells us that such cuttings in the rocks are found in many of the mountains of the desert.

During our stay at Morat a violent dispute had arisen among the Arabs of our caravan about some money which had been stolen from one of them. The man suspected of the theft endeavored to justify himself by much hard swearing, but circumstances being strong against him, I told the man who had been robbed, that if the money was not restored previous to our arrival at Assuan, I would speak to the Cacheff about the affair, who would take the proper measures to detect and punish the thief. In consequence of this menace, the man robbed, next morning had the satisfaction to find unexpectedly that his money had been secretly restored and deposited among the baggage, from whence it had been stolen.

On the 13th, at sunset, we quitted Morat; and after a winding march among the hills for five hours, we arrived at a broad valley, surrounded by high mountains and abounding in doum trees, the first we had seen since we quitted the river. This place is called "El Medina." It contains an Arab village, whose inhabitants gain something by supplying the caravans with goats, of which they have many, and by furnishing them with water, of which they possess several reservoirs filled by the rains. We reposed for the rest of the night under the doum trees, and in the morning regaled ourselves with the pure and wholesome water of El Medina, which was to me particularly grateful after being obliged to drink, for several days, either the muddy water we had brought from the river, or that of Apseach, which had become heated by the sun, and impregnated with a disgusting smell, derived from the new leather of the water-bags which contained it. I bought here a fat goat and some milk, which made us a feast, which hunger and several days fasting on bad bread made delicious.

We stayed here to water and repose the camels till the afternoon of the second day after our arrival, when we recommenced our march for the river, whose distance we were told was three days march from El Medina. During our stay at El Medina, Khalil Aga my companion was taken very ill with vomiting and purging, occasioned by having drank of the water of Morat, against which I had remonstrated without effect. He did not get quit of the consequences of his imprudence for several days.

On the 15th, in the afternoon, we commenced our march for the river. The desert hereabouts resembles that we passed the two first days after our quitting the river, being a sandy plain studded with hills and mountains of granite. We proceeded till about three hours after midnight, when we lay down to repose till day-break, when we again mounted and continued our journey till two hours before noon, when we stopped at a rock which had some holes in it, where we sheltered ourselves from the sun, and dined with appetite on some coarse durra bread baked upon camel's dung.

By the middle of the afternoon we were again on our way, which led through the deep and winding valleys of three mountains of calcareous stone, which indicated the proximity of the river, and over hills of deep sand, with which the eddies of the wind had in many places filled those valleys. Since we left Morat till we came to these mountains the granite hills had become rarer, others of calcareous stone here and there presented themselves, and the level of the desert was constantly ascending[79] I have no doubt that the level of the interior of the desert is lower than the bed of the river.

During the passage over these hills several of the camels gave out, that of my black slave among the rest.[80] Four hours after sunrise we came to a valley, where there was here and there some herbs of the desert, where we stopped to let the camels eat, they having fasted since we left El Medina.

We were obliged to look among the rocks for shelter from the sun, each one arranging himself as well as he could to eat durra bread and drink warm water, and sleep as soundly as possible. During the course of last night we fell in with a caravan coming from Assuan; we pressed round them to buy something to eat; we asked for dates and flour to make bread, but they had nothing of the kind that they could afford to part with.

We stayed at the rock before mentioned till the middle of the afternoon. On awaking from sleep, I observed two of the Arabs of our caravan busily employed about our guide. They were a long time engaged in frizzing and plaiting his hair, and finished the operation by pouring over it a bowlful of melted mutton suet, which made his head quite white. I asked for the meaning of this operation at this time; they told me that we should be at the river to-morrow morning, and that our guide was adorning himself to see and salute his friends there. He appeared to be highly satisfied with the efforts of his hair-dressers to make him look decent, and it must be confessed that he made a very buckish appearance.

As soon as our guide had finished his toilette, he mounted his dromedary and took his post in front, and we set forward. We marched all night without stopping, which was necessary, as our water was nearly spent,[81] but which distressed greatly that part of our caravan who had no beast to ride.[82] These wretched men had hitherto accompanied us all the way on foot, with little to eat and less to drink. At present they were almost exhausted with fatigue, hunger and thirst. Every now and then, one or more of them would throw himself on the sand in despair. The repeated assurance that the river was near, hour after hour, became less and less capable of rousing them to exertion, and the whip was at length applied to make them get up and go on.[83] They demanded water immediately, which we were too short of ourselves to give them, as we feared every minute that our camels would drop, which would render every drop of water we had as precious as life.

One unfortunate lad, who had joined the caravan before it entered the desert, I suspect a domestic who had fled from the distresses that had found us in the upper countries, made pathetic applications to me for water; I twice divided with him a bowlful I was drinking, "in the name of God, the protector of the traveler."

This young man, in the course of this toilsome night, had disappeared, having doubtless laid himself down in despair. We unfortunately did not miss him till it was too late.[84] About two hours before day-break we reached the entrance of a deep ravine, between ridges and hills of rocks. We marched in it for six hours. It zigzagged perpetually, and its bottom was covered with fragments of the rocks that enclosed it, and which had apparently been displaced by strong currents of water. This phenomenon surprised me, as the entrance into this ravine being from the plain, it was evident that the currents which had produced these displacements could not at any era have come from thence. But at the termination of this ravine, which ended nearly at the river, the cause became evident. An ancient canal, now nearly filled up, leads from the river into this ravine, and the rush of the current during the seasons of inundation, has loosened and displaced fragments of the bordering mountains.

It was about two hours before noon on the 18th of Zilkade, when, emerging from this ravine, we came upon the bank of the beautiful and blessed river, which is the very heart and life's blood of all north-eastern Africa. It was with the most grateful feelings toward "the Lord of the universe," that I laid myself down under the date trees by its brink to cool and to wash my swollen and inflamed eyes, whose disorder was greatly increased by fatigue, a dazzling sun, and want of sleep.

Immediately after our arrival at the little village of Seboo,[85] which stands on the canal leading to the ravine before mentioned, myself and Khalil Aga addressed ourselves to the people of the village to engage some one to go and bring to the river the unfortunate lad who had been missed. I told them that, in two hours, a man mounted on a dromedary could reach the place where he had disappeared, and save his life: I appealed to their humanity, to their sense of duty towards God and man, to engage them to go and save him. Finding them deaf to my entreaties, I offered them money, and Khalil Aga his musket, to bring him safe and sound to the river. I appealed to their humanity in vain, and to their avarice without effect.[86] We told them that the Christians, in a case of this kind, would send not one but forty men, if necessary, to go and save a fellow creature from the horrible death of desert famine; and that heaven would surely require at their hands the life of this young man, if they neglected to save him At length the Sheck of the village promised me to send a dromedary to the place to-morrow morning. He made the promise probably to appease my reproaches, for he did not fulfill it.

On the second day after my arrival, I dipped my feet and slippers into the Nile, and bequeathing the village of Seboo my most hearty curse, (which God fulfill!) embarked on board a boat on its way from Dongola to Egypt, and in three days reached Assuan.[87]

THE END

London Printed by C. Roworth Bell Yard, Temple Bar



FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: For instance, a navigable passage has been cut through the rocks of the First Cataract, and a canal is at present constructing, by order of the Pasha, round some of the most difficult passes of the Second. He has completed a broad and deep canal from the Nile to Alexandria, by which commerce is liberated from the risk attending the passage of the Boghaz of Rosetta. Large establishments for the fabric of saltpeter, gunpowder, cannon and small arms, others for the fabric of silks, cotton and sugar, have been erected by the Viceroy, and are in operation under the superintendence of Europeans.]

[Footnote 2: Their names are as follows:—Succoot, Machass, Dongola, Shageia, Monasier, Isyout, Rab-a-Tab, Berber, Shendi, Halfya, the kingdoms of Sennaar, Darfour, and Kordofan; at present, all subject to the conqueror of Egypt and Arabia.]

[Footnote 3: Mr. Frediani, an Italian*, and Messrs. Caillaud and Constant, the latter sent out by His Most Christian Majesty, have accompanied our camp to Sennaar, where I left them in good health. To Messrs. Caillaud and Constant, particularly, I am indebted for much cordiality and friendship, which it is a pleasure to me to acknowledge. The geographical positions of the most important places on the Upper Nile have been ascertained by Mr. Constant, who is provided with an excellent set of instruments, with great care and the most indefatigable pains, of which I myself have been a witness. His observations will doubtless be a most valuable acquisition to geography.]

* Since dead in Sennaar, This unfortunate man died a chained maniac, in consequence of violent fever.]

[Footnote 4: Corresponding to the end of September, or the former part of October, A.C. 1820.]

[Footnote 5: This force may be thus enumerated: ten pieces of field artillery, one mortar 8 inch caliber, and two small howitzers, attached to which were one hundred and twenty cannoneers; three hundred Turkish infantry and seven hundred Mogrebin ditto; the remainder of the army Turkish and Bedouin cavalry, together with a corps of Abbadies mounted on dromedaries.]

[Footnote 6: Called the Shellal of Semne.]

[Footnote 7: Called the Shellal of Ambigool.]

[Footnote 8: Called the Shellal of Tongaroo.]

[Footnote 9: Called the Shellal of Dal.]

[Footnote 10: I have been informed that about two miles northward of this place, on the west side of the river, is to be seen a curious vaulted edifice, having the interior of its walls in many places covered with paintings. My informants believed that it was anciently a Christian monastery. This is possible, as the ruins of several are to be seen on the Third Cataract, and, as I have been told, on the Second also.]

[Footnote 11: About seventy miles above Wady Haifa.]

[Footnote 12: I cannot help smiling in copying off this part of my journal, at the little account I made of "bread rice and lentils," at the commencement of the campaign. Before I left Sennaar, I have been more than once obliged to take a part of my horse's rations of durra to support nature. He ate his portion raw and I boiled mine. The causes of such distress were that the natives of the Upper country would frequently refuse to sell us any thing for our dirty colored piastres of Egypt, and the Pasha would allow nobody to steal but himself. "Steal" a fico for the phrase. The wise "convey it call," says ancient Pistol, an old soldier who had seen hard times in the wars.]

[Footnote 13: These were the rapids of Dall.]

[Footnote 14: In every dangerous pass, we invariably saw one or more of our boats wrecked.]

[Footnote 15: It is called Gamatee.]

[Footnote 16: The middle of the Upper Nile is generally occupied by an almost continued range of islands.]

[Footnote 17: I learned afterwards from Khalil Aga, the American, who accompanied me to Sennaar and back again to Egypt, and who visited tins spot, that this column made a part of the ruins of an ancient temple, where are to be seen two colossal statues. I set out the next day with him to visit this place, but being then only convalescent from a bloody flux which had reduced my strength, I found myself too weak to reach the place, and returned to the boat.]

[Footnote 18: The river continues in the same general direction as high up as the island of Mograt, on the Third Cataract, when it resumes a course more south and north. The length of this bend is probably not less than two hundred and fifty miles.]

[Footnote 19: i.e. The bank on our left-hand ascending the river.]

[Footnote 20: A more particular account of this battle will be given hereafter, in the course of the narrative.]

[Footnote 21: These gentlemen were Messrs. Waddington and Hanbury, who, after staying a short time in our camp, returned to Egypt. Mr. Waddington, on his return to England, published an account of his travels on the upper Nile, in which, having been misled by the tongue of some mischievous enemy of mine, he gave an account of me not a little fabulous. On my arrival in London, I wrote to Mr. Waddington what he was pleased to call a "manly and temperate letter," informing him of his error, representing to him the serious injury it might do me, and calling upon him for a justification or an apology. Mr. Waddington, in the manner best becoming an English gentleman, frankly gave me both, concluding with the following expressions—"I feel the most sincere and profound sorrow for the unintentional injustice into which I have been betrayed by too hasty a belief of false information. For this I am as anxious to make you reparation, as I am incapable of doing any person a willful injury. I will therefore cause the note in question to be erased in the following editions of my book; and in the remaining copies of the present, I will instantly insert a new page or sheet, if necessary; or should that be impossible, I will immediately destroy the whole impression." It was impossible for me, after this, to retain any of the angry feelings excited by this affair, excepting towards "the false tongue" that occasioned it, on which I cordially imprecate a plentiful portion of the "sharp arrows of the mighty and coals of juniper."]

[Footnote 22: The desperate courage of these wretched peasants was astonishing; they advanced more than once to the muzzles of the cannon, and wounded some of the cannoneers in the act of re-loading their guns. Notwithstanding their efforts, such was the disparity of their arms against cannon and fire-arms, that only one of the Pasha's soldiers was killed, and they are said to have lost seven hundred in the battle and during the pursuit.]

[Footnote 23: I say "shot down," for the saber was found an unavailing weapon, as these people are so adroit in the management of their shields that they parried every stroke. I have seen upon the field where this battle was fought several shields that had not less than ten or fifteen saber cuts, each lying upon the dead body of the man who carried it, who had evidently died by three or four balls shot into him. The soldiers have told me that they had frequently to empty their carabine and pistols upon one man before he would fall.]

[Footnote 24: When our troops approached the castle of Malek Zibarra, his daughter, a girl of about fifteen, fled in such haste that she dropped one of her sandals, which I have seen. It was a piece of workmanship as well wrought as any thing of the kind could be even in Europe. The girl was taken prisoner and brought to the Pasha, who clothed her magnificently in the Turkish fashion and sent her to her father, desiring her to tell him to "come and surrender himself, as he preferred to have brave men for his friends than for his enemies." When the girl arrived at the camp of Zibarra, the first question her father asked her was, "My child, in approaching your father, do you bring your honor with you?" "Yes," replied the girl, "otherwise I should not dare to look upon you. The Pasha has treated me as his child, has clothed me as you see, and desires that you would leave war to make peace with him." Zibarra was greatly affected, and did make several efforts to effect a peace with the Pasha, which were traversed and frustrated by the other chiefs of the Shageias.]

[Footnote 25: Khalil Aga, who has passed the whole of the third Cataract, found in several of the islands there ruins which were probably those of monasteries, as he found there many of the stones covered with Greek inscriptions, one of which he brought to me; I was obliged to abandon it on the route, on the dying of the camel that carried it.]

[Footnote 26: On my return to Egypt, I presented Mr. Salt with several specimens, which are now in his possession.]

[Footnote 27: To which all the troops had been concentrated.]

[Footnote 28: It has been found, however, possible to pass the whole of the third cataract, in boats not drawing more than three feet of water, by the aid of all the male population on its shores, who, by the aid of ropes, dragged up nine boats, which arrived in Berber before the Pasha commenced his march for Sennaar. They were fifty-seven days in getting from the island of Kendi to Berber. Every one of them was repeatedly damaged in getting through the passages.]

[Footnote 29: I have been informed that, previous to the advance of the Pasha Ismael from Wady Halfa, deputies from the chiefs of Shageia arrived in the camp to demand of the Pasha, "for what reason he menaced them with war?" The Pasha replied, "because you are robbers, who live by disturbing and pillaging all the countries around your own." They replied, "that they had no other means to live." The Pasha answered, "cultivate your land, and live honestly." They replied with great naivete, "we have been bred up to live and prosper by what you call robbery; we will not work, and cannot change our manner of living," The Pasha replied, "I will make you change it."]

[Footnote 30: The number of the old Mamalukes of Egypt was reduced, at the time of our arrival in Berber, to less than one hundred persons. They had, however, some hundreds of blacks, whom they had trained up in their discipline.]

[Footnote 31: I am happy to add that these relics of the renowned cavalry of Egypt are now residing there in ease and in honor; the promises of the Pasha Ismael having been fulfilled by his father to the letter.]

[Footnote 32: It is a singular circumstance, that the chiefs of Dongola, Shageia, Berber, Shendi, and Halfya; should bear the same title as used in the Hebrew bible, to designate the petty sovereigns of Canaan.]

[Footnote 33: The Shageia cavalry, however, wore these cloths cut and made into long shirts, in order, probably, to have the freer management of their lances, shields, and broad swords. It should also be stated, that the Maleks or chiefs of the Upper Nile, were generally habited in fine blue or white shirts, brought from Egypt.]

[Footnote 34: The same circumstance of dress is common also among the peasants of both sexes of Dongola, Shageia, and along the third cataract, with this addition, that they not only anoint the head, but also the whole body with butter, they say it protects them from the heat; that employed by the personages of consideration is perfumed. Every Malek has a servant charged with the particular care of a box of this ointment. On our march to Sennaar, whither we were accompanied by the Malek of Shendy, I could wind this servant of his a mile off.]

[Footnote 35: I never in my life saw such noble and beautiful specimens of the species as were these two horses; they were stallions, eighteen hands high, beautifully formed, of high courage and superb gait. When mounted, they tossed their flowing manes aloft higher than the heads of their turbaned riders, and a man might place his two fists in their expanded nostrils; they were worthy to have carried Ali and Khaled to "the war of God."]

[Footnote 36: I feel myself, however, bound in conscience to tell the whole truth of this affair. In perambulating about the town, in the course of the day, which was very hot, I got affected by a coup de soleil, which gave me a violent fever and head-ache. I have strong suspicions that this circumstance acted as a powerful "preventer stay" to my virtue, and enabled me to put the devil to flight on this trying occasion. The mother of these damsels appeared to be edified by the discourse I made to her upon the subject of her proposal, but the young women plainly told me, that I was "rajil batal," i.e. a man good for nothing. If they could have understood Latin, I should have told them,

"Quodcunque ostendes mihi sic-k Invalidus odi."]

[Footnote 37: The ordinary price of a virgin wife in Berber, is a horse, which the bridegroom is obliged to present to the father of the girl he demands in marriage. I remember asking a young peasant, of whom I bought some provisions one day in Berber, "why he did not marry?" He pointed to a colt in the yard, and told me that "when the colt became big enough, he should take a wife."]

[Footnote 38: This learned soldier somewhat surprised me, on my demanding "why he did not give the title of Caliph to the Padischah?" by answering that there had been no Caliph since Ali, and that the Padischah was only "Emir el Moumenim," i.e. "commander of the true believers."]

[Footnote 39: This word is Hebrew, and signifies "a lamb."]

[Footnote 40: Abdin Cacheff is a very brave and respectable man, of about fifty years of age. He treated me with great politeness and consideration. He distinguished himself greatly at the battle near Courty, fighting Ills way into the mass of the enemy and out again, twice or thrice on that day.]

[Footnote 41: In order to save the artillery horses for the exigencies of battle, the cannon were drawn by camels from the third cataract to Sennaar, and the horses were led harnessed by their respective guns, ready to be clapped on if necessary. I venture to recommend the same procedure in all marches of artillery in the east.]

[Footnote 42: The other side of the river, at least as often and as far as we could see it, presented the same appearance. The only mountains we saw on the other side of the river, were those of "Attar Baal," at the foot of which (they lie near the river, about three days march north of Shendi) are, as I have learned, to be seen the ruins of a city, temples, and fifty-four pyramids. This, I am inclined to believe, was the site of the famous Meroe, the capital of the island of that name. The territory in which these ruins are found is in fact nearly surrounded by rivers, being bounded on the west by the Nile, on the south by the rivers Ratt and Dander, and on the north by the Bahar el Uswood. All these three rivers empty into the Nile.]

[Footnote 43: The butter of the countries on the Upper Nile is liquid, like that of Egypt. That, however, which they use to anoint themselves is of the color and consistence of European butter. We used the latter in preference, in our cookery.]

[Footnote 44: It includes a great part of the ancient Isle of Meroe.]

[Footnote 45: Malek Shouus, on learning that the Malek of Shendi had made his peace with the Pasha, threatened to attack him. On this it is said the Malek of Shendi called out twenty thousand men to line the easterly bank of the Nile, to prevent the approach of Shouus. Shouus, however, had the whole country of Shendi on the western side entirely under his control before our arrival, he and his cavalry devouring their provisions and drinking their bouza at a most unmerciful rate. On our approach, he went up opposite Halfya, where the country, on the western shore, is desert. He demanded of the chief of Halfya, to supply him with provisions: on his refusal, Shouus, in the night, swam the river with his cavalry, fell upon the town of Halfya by surprise, and ransacked it from end to end, and then repassed the river before the chief of Halfya could collect a force to take his revenge. The cavalry of Shouus, in the course of the campaign, have swam over the Nile five times: both horse and man are trained to do this thing, inimitable, I believe, by any other cavalry in the world. Shouus, since his joining us, has rendered very important services to the Pasha, as he is thoroughly acquainted with the strength, resources, and riches of all the tribes of the Nile, from the second Cataract to Sennaar and Darfour: his horses' feet are familiar with the sod and sand of all these countries, which he and his freebooters have repeatedly traversed. On our march from Berber to Shendi, I ran some risk of falling into his hands, as Shouus was continually prowling about in our neighborhood, from the time of our quitting Berber. Two nights before we reached Shendi, I stopped on the route, at a village, to take some refreshment, letting the army go by me. About an hour and a half after, I mounted my horse to follow the troops, but, owing to the state of my eyes, I missed my way, after wandering back-wards and forwards to find the track of the troops, about two hours after midnight, I descried the rockets always thrown aloft during our night marches, to direct all stragglers to the place where the Pasha had encamped. I put my horse to his speed, and arrived there a little before dawn.]