CHAP. III.

Rejoin the Army. — Arab Sheiks. — Ruins of Herrerem. — The Mirage. — A Country March. — Corn Stores. — A Sheik of the Hallenga. — False Alarms. — A Skirmish.

25th March.—Before sunrise we were off again. Coffee we could not prepare, for want of wood; one of the Schaigies milked his female camel, and gave us some of its milk, which tasted fresh and excellent. We now again struck the way the army had taken. Numerous wild Kurbisse (Colocynthi) covered the ground in many places. The braying of an ass was plainly heard in this soundless waste; on we went, and came to a female ass with broken leg,—seemingly the field-piece had gone over it; a newly-dropped foal stood by the mother, over whom already circled in air the vultures; from these she seemed to call on us to protect her. The young beast was placed in a net, slung on a camel, and the old one, at our express order, shot, to save her from a lingering death. By noon we were in the camp on the Atbara.

The Pascha, seated on the ground, in the shade before his tent, had remarked us when at some distance, though we could have dispensed with seeing him ere we had first taken some rest. He was, from exposure to the sun during these last few days, much burnt, seemed ill, and suffering; he nevertheless received us with commiserating kindness, and said he had already received a message telling him of our welfare. Tired as we were, we must mount again at two hours after noon. Many gazelles were started; the Pascha, gun in hand, galloped his Arabian stallion into the midst of them; almost all the mounted people galloped like a wild hunt after him, and we also advanced at a sharp trot, to behold nearer the extempore chasse. We fancied our chief had fallen from his horse, so speedily had he swung himself to the ground, and with three shots he brought down three gazelles, of which, in the evening, we received a good portion roasted. The river is here pretty broad; on the opposite bank we next morning, when looking about us, perceived some crocodiles. On the river’s edge were many very beautiful pebbles; the banks are rocky and of sandstone, as is also the bed; pieces of decaying Thorn-mussel were scattered about here and there, but we saw no other shells. In spite of the day being fearfully warm, the march was continued all day till evening. My brother, from his great exertions, was taken ill, had violent headache, and felt as if drunk, but luckily slept all night. The plain we had ridden over was monotonous, covered with reedlike mimosas; the soil most sandy.

27th March.—Joseph cannot rise, has dreadful thirst, and complains that his hair is on fire on his head. We wisely halted here till after mid-day, let the army march on before us, remaining on the river bank till the cooler evening, and then hastened on after the Pascha. On the river’s right bank was to be seen the gebl (hill) Job, or Joc, rising up, all isolated, like a pyramid: this hill was visible yesterday. To-day two other large hills have come into sight, one in the east, the other to the south. We have remarked that the birds gradually return after the army has passed on, and we only remain. The left side of the river is not cultivated, the right very much so; many large fields of durra and doggen (Sorghum saccharatum). Topschi Baschi lent my brother his easy-going mule, which gave him great relief. Gazelles were seen in large herds, hurrying back from the desert, here very sandy and deep, to the river, by paths worn by their own feet. At our camping-place to-day the heat was so great, that guns and sabres, even under the tent, could hardly be laid hold of. For the first time, the soldiers had flesh served out to them, and each captain got a sheep; on every camel and ass flesh was to be seen hanging, and the birds of heaven often approached most near to these, in their nostrils, sweet-smelling scaffolds. The right bank of the river, for the last two days’ march, was the habitation of the tribe of the Haddenda, hostile to us; to its west are the Schukurie, who live in perpetual feud with them. Two hours after sunset a halt was made, and the many fires of the camp, glittering among the trees, offered a pretty scene. Many scorpions showed themselves here, as if attracted by the heat of the fires; some we saw were a finger and a half in length, of a bright colour, one half of the tail a brown black, and covered with hair. Around us were huge flats, overgrown with long, thick, rank grasses, and in these the rain-water must stand long, probably dammed back there by the raised banks of the Atbara. The wind is warm, and by no means refreshing. For the last two evenings there have been continuous flashes of lightning in the south.

28th March.—We encamped for this night on the river, here in some places dried up. Its high banks were evidently never hereabouts overflowed, and so no Dom-palms were visible. Mohammed Defalla, a great Sheik of the neighbourhood of Wollet-Medina, arrived with many followers. He wore a suit of double-chain armour, under this a quilted shirt, arm-braces, and handsome worked steel gauntlets. His helmet fitted to his head like a shell, having in front, instead of a visor, an iron bar coming down over the nose, and behind, to cover the neck, a small guard or curtain formed of steel rings. His sword, the most common here, was one of the horsemen’s straight swords, made in Sennaar, with plain bent hand-guard, golden hilt, with a thick crown-like knob cut out on its end. This equipment came from India, and he has forty or fifty such suits; his relations of the old royal family have whole heaps of such. Two Sheiks of the land of Taka have also arrived: handsome, tall men. Many people from the neighbourhood of Gos-Rajeb have also come to meet the Pascha, and have just dismounted from their dromedaries in the camp; they have their hair anointed and whitened with camel’s fat, which the sun’s heat has melted, and set trickling down their backs. For three hours during to-day’s march we passed over a plain extending farther than eye could reach, with long withered grass, few trees, many gazelles, and some hares. In the morning we had remarked near, and on the river, thousands of partridges, various kinds of snipes, and numerous water-fowl. Our camping-place is two hours distant from water: during the night a strong cold wind blew on us from the south.

29th March.—To-day we were to make our entrance into Gos-Rajeb, and we were in motion before sunrise. The infantry formed two columns, the Turkish cavalry the right wing, the Schaigies and Magrabins the left. About eleven o’clock we found ourselves in this order, and deafened by drums, kettle-drums, and all kinds of Janissary music, in the wide and almost naked plain to the east of Gos-Rajeb. The guns that had been in front did not retain that position, but were passed over to the right side of the here shallow Atbara, where, at the feet of the two rocks of Herrerem, our camp was formed, in a stony, almost treeless plain. Gos-Rajeb (Hill Rajeb) is some 400 paces distant from the river bank, consists of 150 or 200 tokul and loam houses, the former of these being unusually large, and displaying on their pointed tops ostrich eggs as ornaments. The inhabitants of this trading city are of various tribes: Bischari, Haddenda, &c. The few of them we saw were rather red in colour than black or brown; but most of its inmates had fled at our approach. Gos-Rajeb lies in a desert, or nearly so; the goods come from India to Sauakim on the Red Sea, and are brought thence on camels. On a dromedary the journey can be made in seven or eight days. Caravans take ten or eleven; though the Sheik of Gos-Rajeb said seventeen days were required to Sauakim, but only five or six to Kataref. According to him, the inhabitants of Gos-Rajeb are a race of themselves, who have been located there since time immemorial; though he allowed that another race, not of the same descent as them, had settled down there in later times. The Pascha has instructed the Sheik to give me all and every information as to country and people, and to accompany me to all most worthy of being seen, and all remarkable points.

30th March.—Our expectations had been highly raised as regarded the ruins we hoped to find in this city of the rocks, for we, as well as the honoured Burckhardt before us, had heard much of Kenisse betal kuf’r, and of memorials of a Christian race. So in the morning we climbed up both hills, and found a grotesque formation of granite rocks, worn by the action of weather and other causes into the most fantastic shapes, and here and there towered up on one another as if some giant’s hand had piled them. The grey whitish granite also shows in its refts round holes smoothed out by rain, and, in some places, crusts of red granite as at Assuan; but ruins there were none to explore. We saw much dried grass, and some small green trees like wild pear-trees, called Sammer: this shows the rain here must be abundant. A crowd of flints and pebbles of all colours were scattered round above, but almost all were broken in pieces, like those placed on graves here to prevent the wild beasts digging up the corpses. It is possible, however, these stones had been broken up to discover the precious stones supposed to be hid in the coarser casket.

The view over the plains covered with small trees and stretching out farther than eye can reach, is monotonous; and here the Atbara is very small, and resembles a brook with naked banks. To the N.W. is Gos-Rajeb with its tokuls and decaying roofs; to the N.N.E. a day and a half’s journey off, is the Hill of Job. N.N.E. and by N. one day’s journey off, is the Hill of Ofrek; the smaller hills of Derra, Tokul, and Aried, the centre one of which has three pointed tops, lie from W. by N. to W.N.W. The Hill of Sabath, W.S.W. is about half a day’s journey from Gos; behind the Hill of Job to the N.N.W. is a yet higher mountain, with a smaller neighbour, and a chain of hillocks. The distance as the crow flies to the hills of Kassela in the E. may be some thirty hours. The other rock of Herrerem lies southward of the first, and may be some 400 feet high. At the foot of it is a quantity of débris rolled down from it, and large pieces of rock also lie about. On this rough ground are many graves of later time; some old bricks red outside, black inside and very hard, lie about. A quarter of an hour N.E. of this Rockery, in a spot to which the Sheik led me, I saw some broken and burnt bricks; hereabouts must once have stood a town as large as Massr (Cairo) and inhabited by Christians. The ground is now level, and neither grave-hill nor bone-house to be seen. There must indeed have been a fearful conflagration here, as the bricks at one spot are melted down into a black glassy mass. Most probably, the city was on both hills, and principally on the first, round which many isolated mounds or hillocks may be seen; but these are covered either with stones or small pieces of granite, and seem to have been used as sepulchres; they have a round or oval form, and some are large and of good height. Often are six or eight such hillocks connected with each other, and on these we found some red bricks. The present inhabitants know not whether they are graves or what they are, and this alone testified to their belonging to older times. On the second hill lie blocks of rocks having much resemblance to colossal sarcophagi; and why these masses were so placed on it cannot be accounted for, unless to serve as memorials. The first hill runs up into two blunt points, on the foremost of which starts up a high rock like a monument, which, perhaps, may have misled Burckhardt. Above this, in the rivers here, mussels and small shells are to be found, similar to those in the Nile, and much petrified wood.

This morning has come in the son of Mohammed Din, the great Sheik of the Haddenda; but the Pascha has again dismissed him, with the necessary orders to his father. Almost all the inhabitants of Gos-Rajeb have fled from it, carrying off their herds, flocks, &c., so that nothing is to be got there, not even milk. In the rainy season there is much life and bustle on both sides of the river, as most of the Arabs from the lower and overflowed lands then gather up here, especially those of Sauachinn (Sauakim) and Kataref, when on both banks there are large fairs, much bartering, and considerable business is done by the greater merchants (chawagat, from chawagi) and the slave dealers (djellabi or haddaiba). Only a small stripe on the left bank is planted with cotton; all else is barren wilderness. All the birds have also retired from this neighbourhood, save cranes and vultures. The ants here cause much pain by their bites; they are black in colour, carry the hinder part of their bodies upright, and are most rapid in their movements. Ever at night a strong cold breeze gets up; and even during the day the cold winds raised a feeling of the Chamsin. Tobacco we have never seen on all our journey, and this accounts for the everlasting begging of the natives for it. Much thieving goes on in the open camp, and the soldiers sell many things under the rose to the inhabitants, especially durra, of which 2000 ardips out of the magazine have been issued to the army. To-morrow is to be a grand review, to dazzle and impose on the Sheiks present.

1st April.—At two o’clock P.M., we were marched off in an easterly direction, and kept at it till three hours after sunset, without coming on the promised water. All level, good soil, little or no wood. Mimosas almost vanished; but, on the other hand, much Arrac or Tundo with its bright green, its small red flowers and branches, very similar to our roses, only with longer thorns and thicker more shrub-like stems, growing more closely together, and of greater circumference, but not a leaf; many Sammer trees also, the leaves of which contain no sap. On the dried grass covered plain, gazelles, antelopes, and hares abound. From the distance, the two hills of Herrerem with their grotesque blocks of rocks still looked after us. At dawn we were again on foot, and marched for two hours, till we struck the Atbara. Over the ground in all directions stretched long runs made by the heavy rains. Nowhere was man or beast to be seen; all seemed to have hidden themselves; the very flocks of birds visible on our arrival we instantly frightened away. Towards midday, many of the Sheiks who accompanied the camp assembled in our tent, but being Faki they did not smoke; they could not comprehend that our magnet-needle pointed ever to the north. The Hill of Kassela, now to the east of us, was some two hours distant: this was the end of our journey, at least for a time, as from thence the Pascha intended to carry out his conquests, and spoke of founding a city there.

About noon, when the heat was greatest, off went the great gun, the signal for marching. A mere quarter of an hour’s halt, as a rest towards evening, and then on for four hours longer. All were tired out, and not so much by the heat, which was bad enough, but by the hot wind, that threatened, on these immense level lands, to dry us up into mummies; and here the water-resembling Devil’s lakes (Bacher el Scheitan—the mirage) were constantly deceiving us. In these the trees were reflected as in clear water, although the soil is good, and not mere sand and stones, as in the Desert. The frontiers of Taka are very ill defined, but it was said that our camping-place was in that land, which seems to be remarkable for its thick grass overgrown pasturage.

3rd April.—Two hours before sunrise the army was under arms, and in battle order pursued an eastward march, in which direction the hill of Kassela and the blue mountains of Abyssinia were plainly visible; but, as road there was none, the column of march soon fell into confusion. The soil was of a dark colour, and looked as if it had been rained on but yesterday, and this morning’s sun had called up on its surface a coating of slime of an inch thick. The durra fields still threw out fresh shoots from their ten feet high stems. To the left extended an impenetrable forest of uschar (Asklepias procera), which, with its fresh narcotic green, its verdant hues, and white violet-tinged flowers, was a most pleasing and refreshing sight. After a ride of some three hours, we arrived at a settlement of a Kabyle of Soggilabs, under the Sheik Haddab, some thirty mat huts, enclosed in a seriba (thorn-hedge); a little distance to the east many tents and some Tokuls showed over the green stalks. The larger village is called Soggilab, from the race of that name. A crowd of men, each with the lance or sword, dressed and frizzed out like the other Arabs, were assembled to gaze at us and receive the Pascha, but still no cattle were to be seen; it was plain enough they were all driven away. As far as eye could reach, all the ground was covered with a species of arborescent lucerne (loid) some five or six feet high, on which the camels feasted with delight. The richness of the soil is most evident, from the great luxuriance of all its herbage and shrubs; running water there is none, but the twenty or twenty-five feet deep wells give good drinking water in copious supply. Of such wells I counted forty-eight, which denotes a considerable population. There were many birds, especially pigeons; but, as usual, very shy. Both to-day and yesterday I had shot some hares, smaller and brighter in colour than ours, and with much larger ears. Many lions were said to be about, and we were warned to refrain from hunting. A great part of the bushes were fired and burnt down, to give open space round the camp, as the inhabitants of Soggilab were not to be trusted; and this conflagration made all so clear, that we did not require to kindle any lights at night.

4th April.—To-day is a day of rest. Some horsemen from the village of Soggilab arrived to salute us; their horses, mostly stallions, were small, but of great speed, seemingly a cross of the Arab breed. The saddles small, and of wood; stirrups as ours, some having shoes fixed on them for the lance, as with our lancers. Our poor soldiers are without tents, having nothing to eat but belila, i.e. durra boiled in water, without salt or grease; even with us salt is scarce. Up to this date flesh has been served out but once. The Schaigies are ever the first, form the advance guard, and is any thing to be got, or any booty made, it falls of course to their share, as they are first in the field. Often at night thirty or forty of them in all secrecy quit the camp, surprising any village they can hit on, lay hands on all they can, and ere morning are again returned to the neighbourhood of the camp, and assume the demeanour of men bringing in their horses from pasturing.

5th April.—Contrary to all hope, the signal gun awoke us to-day at dawn, calling on us to march, though we had fully trusted that this day would also be a halt. Ere long we joined the Pascha’s motley train, and found ourselves, along with other Europeans, mixed up among former kings, little and great Sheiks, and their armour-bearers, officers, scribes, and body-guards; and equally singular must we have appeared to the others as they to us. We wore over our Turkish dresses, loose wide blouses, with doubly padded hoods as a protection from the sun’s rays. Right and left surrounded us the wild crowd of Schaigies, on horseback; and little peace or concord was there among their horses and the timid camels and dromedaries; so that at length the Pascha ordered all riding the latter to move on in advance. We did so, and at once found ourselves in a thickly overgrown underwood, where the thorny mimosas ere long again raised their heads, putting our tarbooshes in much danger. Besides these, we observed tombu-bushes (hombuck), with rose-red round fruit, with a gelatinous sweet inside, about the size of a common gooseberry; high heaths, and sammer of brightest green, as also a profusion of uschars overloaded with flowers, and great green seed pods.

The main road had been here and there widened by hewing away some of the trees, but it had already been taken by the cavalry and infantry on their asses; so we had to make our way through the thick close bush as well as we could. All was now indescribable confusion, and had the foe set on us here with their javelins, things would certainly have gone ill with us. We came, even in the bush, to some spots cleared by fire, probably for the cultivation of durra. After a good hour, the ground became more favourable, a halt was at last made, and some order restored to us. The soil here seemed excellent, all covered with grasses, and very deep two or three inch wide water runs intersecting it in all directions, plainly showing by these deep and wide excavations, how heavy the rain torrents must be here. The Pascha we found already encamped, in full security and utmost unconcern, while for a long time the forest kept throwing out his soldiery in beautiful disorder. Each took up his position as he pleased,—cavalry and camel-mounted infantry followed the example,—while a much longer tail of the ass-mounted came slowly creeping out of the defile. Our confidence in the Pascha’s generalship had been much shaken, and it now fell off much more at this sample of Turkish indolence, to which it never occurred to take any measures, or make any proper disposition of his forces.

On pursuing our march we came again to forest, but much opener, and we were now free from crowd and confusion; but from this all the more likely to fall a prey to the foe. Soon there stretched out before us a long wide field, full of numerous holes; these seemed, above, one and a half to two feet in diameter; but below, some four or six, with a depth of the same. They were pear-shaped, and said to be used by the natives to store their grain in. A town must once have been here. Before now we had observed such open spaces;—a sign that this fruitful stretch of land, on which we had now some days been marching, was at times inhabited in certain places by some nomade tribes; and we also remarked, especially at Soggilab, ditches and walls, though not of the most artful structure, to retain the rain water and guide it in irrigating the soil. The soil is lighter than that of the Nile, but covered with the same crust of some fine substance most similar to Nile slime, and must from its lightness be looked on as of vegetable origin; the more so as this is only to be found in the neighbourhood of the Atbara, and the deposit left by the rain floods from the mountains can only be looked for in their channels, or where such gather in the low grounds.

After a further march of three good hours we arrived at some wells, which, like those at Soggilab, ran in a line or course from south-east to north-west, and which might lead one to suspect a subterraneous river, or river bed, as here no great fall of the ground is to be seen. Near the wells were flocks of handsome birds, called Honey-birds (Nectarinia lucida); but they were soon frightened away by the numerous noises. Here were, as at Gos-Rajeb, and more so at Soggilab, many cotton fields; the Asclepias, also, again grew in full luxuriance, covered in greatest profusion with their pendant green air-bottles.

Achmet Pascha had galloped on in advance to look about him, and now off went a cannon as a signal for the army to encamp, or, rather, for each to throw himself down where he pleased. But soon, at my persuasion, came contrary orders; viz., to get clear of the bush, and encamp somewhat farther east, in the open ground. Now, again, all fell into somewhat better order. The infantry enclosed the camp towards the eastward woods; the cavalry faced the south; the Schaigies, Schukuries, and Magrabins the wells towards the west and north. Our two field-pieces were before the infantry; the few tents, along with the baggage camels and asses, were in the centre of our rather irregular square.

We brothers were just trying to gain some strength by a midday siesta, when some shots were fired, followed by a loud confused shouting of “Arab, arab ketir!” The Pascha at once threw himself on his horse, and, followed by all the mounted, galloped on, while the soldiery in the utmost confusion ran to the quarter where all looked for the “numberless enemy,” who had already three times defeated the Turks, and where about again to, or had risked an attack. We also loaded our rifles, buckled on our swords, and set out on our way, but had not advanced far in the thick underwood, when there advanced from it to meet us the so-called “Old Knight,” the Bischari Sheik Wood Naja, in full suit of armour, but his grey head bare, riding a most splendid black stallion, with tidings that it was only a magazine that had been discovered, where durra and lubia were stored in immense quantities, in the midst of numberless holes dug in the earth, belonging to the Haddenda Arabs, who had fled from hence only the night before, under their great Sheik Mohammed Din, into the Chaaba, making with all possible speed their way out of the Pascha’s reach, whose arrival they had not so soon expected. On the discovery of the corn a fight had arisen between the Turks and the row-loving Schaigies, our friends, the expert goat milkers, but of the enemy not one was to be seen. The Pascha had given orders that every one might help himself at will from the prize; and when we arrived at the spot, we found all in the fullest activity with hands, bayonets, spears, sabres, hooks, axes, sticks, groping in the pits; and as each found anything, in it went to sack, bag, or dress, and on horse, camel, or ass-back away off with it to camp; and left there, the finder was instantly back again to try his luck once more. The army might have been subsisted for over two months on this store of durra, although the Haddenda had before carried off all they could. Besides the grain, the soldiers found beans, wood, mats, supports for mat huts, and many such things. As we returned to camp, all the army were going to or coming from the plunder, and again we were in a critical state; but the Pascha trusted to his lucky star. The Sheiks, put in action by the false alarm, in their full iron panoplies, their swords in hand, and horses covered with ornamental saddlecloths, looked proudly and splendidly out among the thickly dusted and sweat drenched soldiery, laden like mill-asses. We ourselves got back to our huts as if drenched in water, but, in spite of the midday-sun’s heat, we were not there long ere we felt a thrill of frost all over our bodies.

6th April.—All rejoiced that to-day was a day of rest. We learned we were in the neighbourhood of the now deserted tent-villages or camps of the Arabs of Issi and Teschum. The soldiers could now, by aid of their hand-mills (tachuhn), slowly grind their grain; and the Khaimakan, that they might not altogether want meat, did not fail, in his high humanity, to sell them for 60 paras the heads and entrails of every sheep he killed, probably thinking these were too small matters to make a present of. This generous man was the Circassian Sorop Effendi. But even while eating this meat, the purchaser had to keep an eye on his dearly won prize, as the numerous vultures, hawks, and ravens were daring enough to have carried it off from under his very nose, and these bold birds repeatedly succeeded in snatching the flesh away from its possessor, especially from the small slaves of eight and ten years old, a number of whom were in the camp. How these little beings held out under the great fatigues is to me incomprehensible, nor less did the soldiers’ power of endurance astonish me, as no arrangements or provisions were made for such as fell sick, neither tents for their reception nor attendants provided, and the medicines laid in were not sufficient for an eighth of them. We rejoiced that we had bought at Cairo a small travelling medicine chest; this had already done us good service in Chartum, and we had brought it with us: the Pascha also had a similar one with him for his own use, and lucky it was so, as all the medicines furnished by government were bad, and the quinine, here so necessary, fearfully adulterated. Although a breeze does occasionally blow here, and one may as much as he can shelter himself by branches, mats, cloaks, &c., from the sun’s rays, still the glowing heat will not long delay to make its unhealthy effects fearfully felt. The black soldiers have taken the wiser course, as many have been daily deserting, and the day before yesterday fifteen of them left us.

To-day the Sheik of the Hallenga, Mohammed Eli, has arrived to meet the Pascha. He looks a man of some forty years, is of stately, warrior-like bearing, with a noble expression of countenance; his hair, greyish about the temples, is there cut short, but long at the sides, and behind hangs down at its full length; he had by his side a small Turkish sabre, probably some present of honour, but most wisely had slung on his saddle behind him his more trusty long-sword. But Mohammed Din, the most dreaded of all, alone came not in; indeed, he has had the Pascha informed, that he will give such grain and beasts as are required, but he will not visit him. He had already, as I mentioned, sent his only son as an hostage to meet the Pascha at Soggilab, but the latter, either from generous pride or some other motive, in my own presence again dismissed him. As his not coming to meet the Pascha is not the most peacelike sign, Achmet has repeatedly warned us not to go far from the camp. Doubtless these Arabs, in larger numbers, lie hidden in the impenetrable bush, and that they know right well how to throw their javelins they have more than once shown. In the meantime the all undertaking and the all attacking Schaigies have to-day slain some of them, though in the skirmish many of themselves have been wounded.

On a large scale the Pascha cannot act against these people. Roads and ways there are none; rapidly do they pack up their all on camels, and with their herds, fly into the Chaaba, where to follow them with an army is impossible. Where will the Pascha procure the heavy expenses of his expedition, where will he pass the rainy season? These and others are questions, the answers to which even he himself has not yet arrived at. His plans he holds most secret, often says the contrary to what he intends, either to do, or not to do; but the truth is, he is without any well considered plan, and the doubtful reports of the Sheiks are not sufficient to let him clearly see the outs and ins, the why and wherefore, of his proceedings. That these Sheiks who have now come in so friendlike, or that those who have accompanied him on his march, can at heart wish well to the Turks, is not to be easily credited; they who before were independent, ruled over a free people, could act and do as they willed, are now deprived of all those privileges, treated with contempt by the stupid, proud Turks,—nay, even subjected to the bastinado, loaded with heavy taxes, and hardly enabled, from diminished revenue, to live, while formerly they fed thousands. Mohammed Din sees these lords’ lot, seems determined to preserve his freedom as long, and sell it as dear as he can, should things go ill for him. But if matters come to extremities, to war itself, setting the Pascha aside, where is there an able, even a tolerable leader? Abdin Aga, the commander of the Turkish cavalry, a puffed up Arnaut; Sorop Effendi, stupidity grafted on avarice; Hassan Effendi Bimbaschi, a quiet glutton; Solimon Aga, greedy and without all or any education; Hassan Effendi of Sennaar, a Turk in the true meaning of the word, commands the Infantry; Mohammed Ladjam, a good-humoured but inexperienced youth, leads the Mograbin horsemen: all these leaders are distinguished from one another, only by the one knowing less than his fellow. What can be expected from an army under such commanders, and more, when that army knows no discipline, and where its best and bravest, the Schaigies, do and ever have done how and what they pleased, and might at a critical moment ruin all? Joined with these are the endless mob of useless rabble, idlers, slaves, and strumpets, dangerous allies, a mere burden to any army, and a fearful impediment to its powers of action. But there is comfort in “Allah Cherim!”

7th April.—To-day we were stationary, so could enjoy a small hunting excursion round the camp, during which we saw many large and small turtle-doves, crowds of guinea-fowl and partridges, and a perfect swarm of finches, but the variety of birds must be far greater in the rainy season. The thick bush is everywhere most green, everywhere bound together by square-limbed, cactus-like parasites and climbing plants, but thornless. From the earth in many places sprout out small grasses, and when it is kept in mind that from the thickness of the bush, the sun cannot exert its full withering powers, the idea of some subterraneous moisture is much strengthened, as the dew is perfectly insignificant. Stones we saw none.

The excursion did my brother no good, as, after his return to camp he felt extremely unwell, out of spirits, complained of insufferable headache, and burning heat. He had hardly lain down, when shouts of “Arab! Arab!” set all again in motion, and made all run to arms. At such a moment my brother would not even seem sick, so we hurried off to the wells, where we met the Pascha already returning with the cavalry. Some thirty thieving Arabs (Garami) had endeavoured to steal the beasts out of the asses’ pen, had thrown some lances over their guards heads, and these, though unharmed, had raised the shouts and tumult. The camp, as we, on going out of it, discovered, had neither pallisade, ditch, nor any defence towards the east. Enriched by this new proof of Turkish tactics, but unfortunately poorer by a handsome hunting-knife, which my brother lost on the way, we returned back to our tent.

8th April.—During the past night, which we spent without rest, as my brother’s sufferings were much increased by violent vomiting, incessant thirst, fearful burning in the bowels, restless dozing, and delirious raving, there all at once arose a fearful noise and a little firing; in spite of it, I, however, remained in our hut, as my brother could not move, and the infantry did not stir, trusting to their cavalry comrades. Only when I saw the Bimbaschi Hassam Effendi lead his company past our hut, and commence, in his mad zeal, firing away over the powder barrels, as if he intended to use them as a defence against hostile lances, did I rush on him, sword in hand, and threaten him both with the weapon and the Pascha; on which the idiot recovered his senses, praying me not to betray him. The whole proved a false alarm, but the tormented Pascha had again started into activity, as he never made the slightest use of his aid-de-camps, and seemed to hold that his own presence was necessary to inspire his troops with courage. Some foes had, however, been brought down, as many traces of blood ran into the bush, although all the shots during the night had been fired on the happy-go-lucky principle. The tactics of our Napoleon-honouring Pascha went so far as to leave the wells, though some 200 paces from our camp, all night totally unguarded, and these might therefore have been with the greatest ease poisoned or filled up, by an enterprising enemy. A real piece of good luck it was for us that no large stones were to be had near to fill up these wells, as we had neither tools nor any means of removing such.

As a variety, the bands were ordered by the Pascha to perform; but a fearful punishment their music proved to our European ears, and how could it be otherwise, as no two instruments were in tune, nor was there aught to soften the banging of the brass instruments. The Turkish cavalry, as well as the Magrabin, have some few small kettle-drums of four inches in diameter, which are incessantly thumped, while the Schaigies of Melik Mammud had only one great copper drum, on which were struck single blows at long irregular intervals, at the performer’s pleasure.

9th April.—The Arabs rest not; about midnight some slaves, having occasion to go to the wells, saw a crowd of them approaching, either with intent to fill up those by no means deep springs, which they ought already to have done, and which even now they could yet so easily have done, as, in spite of their high importance to the camp, their distance from it, and my urgent representations, that as usual were vain, these wells had been left all night without a guard,—or to attack the weaker side of the camp, make themselves masters of our supply of powder, or blow it and us into the air. That our whole store of powder was only guarded by a weak picquet of one sergeant and ten men, was doubtless well known to them, as well as the other arrangements of our camp, for they had many spies among the attendants of the Sheiks who accompanied us, and every day many Arabs were admitted to the camp, who brought for sale butter and honey, here very white and excellent. On this night alarm, a part of the infantry, without waiting for orders, had advanced to the wells, but the incompetency of their leaders had here again done wrong, as the Pascha immediately sent them back again. The guard over the powder store had also quitted their post to take part in the dearly loved firing, and what was yet worse, a Bimbaschi had posted himself and party close beside this powder, and set his men firing right over it towards the wells, though on that side it was totally without any protecting covering, even such as a few branches or sods of turf might have given it, and by his doings threatened death and destruction to all. Fortunately, the Pascha soon observed both these stupid tricks, and instantly replaced the guard over the powder, forbidding all firing near it; if he went a little farther, and made a small example of the offenders, we cannot say but it would certainly have been well. I now see every day more clearly, that if I would gain any point with the Pascha, I must not give him direct advice; and that by doing so, I also expose myself to be used as intercessor with him by his officers, when they wish any of their own numerous wants, or those of their men, attended to.

The Arabs had instantly retreated after the first firing, though not without loss, as some dead men were found near and about the wells; so it was boldly asserted, that their loss was not less than the round sum of sixty men, and certainly there were many more bloody traces running into the bush than yesterday. That during the skirmish some of our own men were killed and wounded by their comrades, we cannot state as fact, but it is highly probable it was so, as our people shot in any direction they fancied, and so, during future night attacks, we being more alarmed for our friends’ fire than our foe’s lances, resolved to remain quietly in our tents, and this we did even after my brother was perfectly recovered.

The blacks do not seem at all to admire the business, for with them desertion is the daily order of things, and they are in the right; the soldiers are miserably off for food, they get nothing but belila (durra boiled in water, without aught else), and the water must be allowed to stand and filter for twelve hours ere it can be drunk, so dirty is it. But the most dreadful plague is the intolerable heat, and this is doubly torturing from a hot wind, like a simoon, which suddenly fills the air with a fine sand that produces itching eruptions on the skin.