BOOK VIII. (continued 5)

I resolved at all events to leave Sennaar, but I had not yet sounded Hagi Belal as to money-affairs. It was now the 20th; and, for several days since Adelan's departure, no provisions were sent to my house, as before was usual. Money therefore became absolutely necessary, not only for daily subsistence, but for camels to carry our baggage, provisions, and water, across the desert.

I now despaired absolutely of assistance of any kind from the king; and an accident that happened made me lay all thoughts aside of ever troubling him more upon the subject. There are at Mecca a number of black eunuchs, whose services are dedicated to that temple, and the sepulchre at Medina. Part of these, from time to time, procure liberty to return on a visit to their respective homes, or to the large cities they were sold from, on the Niger, Bornou, Tocrur, and Tombucto, where they beg donations for the holy places, and frequently collect large sums of gold, which abounds in these towns and territories. One of these, called Mahomet Towash, which signifies Eunuch, had returned from a begging voyage in Sudan, or Nigritia, and was at Sennaar exceedingly ill with an intermitting fever. The king had sent for me to visit him, and the bark in a few days had perfectly recovered him. A proportional degree of gratitude had, in return, taken place in the breast of Mahomet, who, going to Cairo, was exceedingly desirous of taking me with him, and this desire was increased when he heard I had letters from the sherriffe of Mecca, and was acquainted with Metical Aga, who was his immediate master.

Nothing could be more fortunate than this rencounter at such a time, for he had spare camels in great plenty, and the Arabs, as he passed them, continued giving him more, and supported him with provisions wherever he went, for these people, being accounted sacred, and regarded with a certain religious awe, as being in the immediate service of their prophet, till now used to pass inviolate wherever they were going, however unsettled the times, or however slenderly attended.

Every thing was now ready, my instruments and baggage packed up, and the 25th of August fixed when we should begin our journey for Atbara. Mahomet, who passed a great part of his time at my house, had not been seen by us for several days, which we did not think extraordinary, being busy ourselves, and knowing that his trade demanded continual attendance on the great people; but we were exceedingly surprised at hearing from my black Soliman, that he and all his equipage had set out the night of the 20th for Atbara. This we found afterwards was at the earnest persuasion of the king, and was at that time a heavy disappointment to us, however fortunate it turned out afterwards.

The night of the 25th, which was to have been that of our departure, we sat late in my room up stairs, in the back, or most private part of the house. My little company was holding with me a melancholy council on what had so recently happened, and, in general, upon the unpromising face of our affairs. Our single lamp was burning very low, and suggested to us that it was the hour of sleep, to which, however, none of us were very much inclined. Georgis, a Greek, who, on account of the soreness of his eyes had staid below in the dark, and had fallen asleep, came running up stairs in a great fright, and told us he had been wakened by the noise of men endeavouring to force open the door; that he hearkened a little, and found there were many of them. Our arms were all ready, and we snatched them up and ran towards the door; but I stopt, and planted them upon the first landing-place in the staircase, as I wished not to fire till the enemy was fairly in the house, that no excuse might remain for this their violation of hospitality.

I stationed Ismael at the outer door of the house, intending that he should fire first, as it would be less odious in him, being a Turk and a sherriffe, than for us Christians. I then went out to the outer gate, and Soliman with me. The entry into the yard was through a kind of porters lodge, where servants used to sit in the day-time, and sleep at night. It had a door from the street, and then another into the yard, the latter small, but very strong. They had forced the outer gate, and were then in the lodge, endeavouring to do the same by the inner, having put a handspike under it to lift it up from the hinges. "Are you not madmen, said I, and weary of your lives, to attempt to force Adelan's house, when there are within it men abundantly provided with large fire-arms, that, upon one discharge through the door, will lay you all dead where you now stand?" "Stand by from the door, cries Ismael, and let me fire. These black Kafrs don't yet know what my blunderbuss is." They had been silent from the time I had spoken, and had withdrawn the handspike from under the door. "Ullah! Ullah! cries one of them softly, how sound you sleep! we have been endeavouring to waken you this hour. The king is ill; tell Yagoube to come to the palace, and open the door instantly." "Tell the king, said I, to drink warm water, and I will see him in the morning." Ah! Mahomet, cries Soliman, is that you? I thought you had had a narrow enough escape in the palace the other day, but stay a little, a servant is gone over the back wall to call the Gindi, and we are here numerous enough to defend this house till morning against all the servants the king has, so do not attempt to break the door, and Yagoube will go to the king with the Gindi.

At this time one of my servants fired a pistol in the air out of an upper window, upon which they all ran off. They seemed to be about ten or twelve in number, and left three handspikes behind them. The noise of the pistol brought the guard, or patrole, in about half an hour, who carried intelligence to the Sid el Coom, our friend, by whom I was informed in the morning, that he had found them all out, and put them in irons; that Mahomet, the king's servant, who met us at Teawa, was one of them; and that there was no possibility now of concealing this from Adelan, who would order him to be impaled.

Things were now come to such a crisis that I was determined to leave my instruments and papers with Kittou, Adelan's brother, or with the Sid el Coom, while I went to Shaddly to see Adelan. But first I thought it necessary to apply to Hagi Belal to try what funds we could raise to provide the necessaries for our journey. I shewed him the letter of Ibrahim, the English broker of Jidda, of which before he had received a copy and repeated advices, and told him I should want 200 sequins at least, for my camels and provisions, as well as for some presents that I should have occasion for, to make my way to the great men in Atbara. Never was surprise better counterfeited than by this man. He held up his hands in the utmost astonishment, repeating, 200 sequins! over twenty times, and asked me if I thought money grew upon trees at Sennaar, that it was with the utmost difficulty he could spare me 20 dollars, part of which he must borrow from a friend.

This was a stroke that seemed to insure our destruction no other resource being now left. We were already indebted to Hagi Belal twenty dollars for provision; we had seven mouths to feed daily; and as we had neither meat, money, nor credit, to continue at Sennaar was impossible. We had seen, a few nights before, that no house could protect us there; and to leave Sennaar was, in our situation, as impossible as to stay there. We had neither camels to carry our provisions and baggage, nor skins for our water, nor, indeed, any provisions to carry, nor money to supply us with any of these, nor knew any person that could give us assistance nearer than Cairo, from which we were then distant about 17° of the meridian, or above 1000 miles in a straight line; great part of which was thro' the most barren, unhospitable deserts in the world, destitute of all vegetation, and of every animal that had the breath of life. Hagi Belal was inflexible; he began now to be weary of us, to see us but seldom, and there was great appearance of his soon withdrawing himself entirely.

My servants began to murmur; some of them had known of my gold chain from the beginning, and these, in the common danger, imparted what they knew to the rest. In short, I resolved, though very unwillingly, not to sacrifice my own life and that of my servants, and the finishing my travels now so far advanced, to childish vanity. I determined therefore to abandon my gold chain, the honourable recompence of a day full of fatigue and danger. Whom to intrust it to was the next consideration; and, upon mature deliberation, I found it could be to nobody but Hagi Belal, bad as I had reason to think he was. However, to put a check upon him, I sent for the Sid el Coom, in whose presence I repeated my accusation against Belal; I read the Seraff's letter in my favour, and the several letters that Belal had written me whilst I was at Gondar, declaring his acceptance of the order to furnish me with money when I should arrive at Sennaar; and I upbraided him in the strongest terms with duplicity and breach of faith.

But all that I could say was very far short of the violent expostulation from the Gindi that immediately followed. He gave Hagi Belal many not obscure hints, "that he looked upon this injury as done to himself, and would repay him; that though he had done this to please the king, the time might not be far off when that favour would be of very little use to him; on the contrary, might be a reason for stripping him of all he had in the world." The force of these arguments seemed to strike Hagi Belal's imagination very powerfully. He even offered to advance 50 sequins, and to see if he could raise any more among his friends. The Gindi (a rare instance in that country) offered to lend him fifty. But the dye was now cast, the chain had been produced and seen, and it was become exceedingly dangerous to carry such a quantity of gold in any shape along with me. I therefore consented to sell it to Hagi Belal in presence of the Gindi, and we immediately set about the purchase of necessaries, with this proviso, that if Adelan, upon my going to Shaddly, did furnish me with camels and necessaries, so much of the chain should be returned.

It was the 5th of September that we were all prepared to leave this capital of Nubia, an inhospitable country from the beginning, and which, every day we continued in it, had engaged us in greater difficulties and dangers. We flattered ourselves, that, once disengaged from this bad step, the greatest part of our sufferings was over; for we apprehended nothing but from men, and, with very great reason, thought we had seen the worst of them.

In the evening I received a message from the king to come directly to the palace. I accordingly obeyed, taking two servants along with me, and found him sitting in a little, low chamber, very neatly fitted up with chintz, or printed callico curtains, of a very gay and glaring pattern. He was smoaking with a very long Persian pipe through water, was alone, and seemed rather grave than in ill-humour. He gave me his hand to kiss as usual, and, after pausing a moment without speaking, (during which I was standing before him) a slave brought me a little stool and set it down just opposite to him; upon which he said, in a low voice, so that I could scarcely hear him, "Fudda, sit down," pointing to the stool. I sat down accordingly. "You are going, I hear, says he, to Adelan." I answered, "Yes." "Did he send for you?" I said, "No; but, as I wanted to return to Egypt, I expected letters from him in answer to those I brought from Cairo." He told me, Ali Bey that wrote these letters was dead; and asked me if I knew Mahomet Abou Dahab? Yagoube. "Perfectly; I was well acquainted with him and the other members of government, all of whom treated me well, and respected my nation." King. "You are not so gay as when you first arrived here." Ya. "I have had no very great reason." Our conversation was now taking a very laconic and serious turn, but he did not seem to understand the meaning of what I said last. K. "Adelan has sent for you by my desire; Wed Abroff and all the Jehaina Arabs have rebelled, and will pay no tribute. They say you have a quantity of powerful fire-arms with you that will kill twenty or thirty men at a shot." Ya. "Say fifty or sixty, if it hits them." K. "He is therefore to employ you with your guns to punish those Arabs, and spoil them of their camels, part of which he will give to you." I presently understood what he meant, and only answered, "I am a stranger here, and desire to hurt no man. My arms are for my own defence against robbery and violence." At this instant the Turk, Hagi Ismael, cried from without the door, in broken Arabic, "Why did not you tell those black Kafrs, you sent to rob and murder us the other night, to stay a little longer, and you would have been better able to judge what our fire-arms can do, without sending for us either to Abroff or Adelan. By the head of the prophet! let them come in the day-time, and I will fight ten of the best you have in Sennaar."

K. "The man is mad, but he brings me to speak of what was in my head when I desired to see you. Adelan has been informed that Mahomet, my servant, who brought you from Teawa, has been guilty of a drunken frolic at the door of his house, and has sent soldiers to take him to-day, with two or three others of his companions." Ya. "I know nothing about Mahomet, nor do I drink with him, or give him drink. About half a score of people broke into Adelan's house in the night, with a view to rob and murder us, but I was not at the pains to fire at such wretches as these. Two or three servants with sticks were all that were needful. I understand, indeed, that Shekh Adelan is exceedingly displeased that I did not fire at them, and has sent to the Gindi, ordering him to deliver two of them to him to-morrow to be executed publicly before the door of his house on the market-day. But this, you know, is among yourselves. I am very well pleased none of them are dead, as they might have been, by my hands or those of my people." K. "True; but Adelan is not king, and I charge you when you see him to ask for Mahomet's life, or a considerable deal of blame will fall upon you. When you return back, I will send him to conduct you to the frontiers of Egypt." Upon this I bowed, and took my leave. I went home perfectly determined what I was to do. I had now obtained from the king an involuntary safe-guard till I should arrive at Adelan's, that is, I was sure that, in hopes I might procure a reprieve for Mahomet, no trap would be laid for me on the road. I determined therefore to make the best use of my time; and every thing being ready, we loaded the camels, and sent them forward that night to a small village called Soliman, three or four miles from Sennaar; and having settled my accounts with Hagi Belal, I received back six links, the miserable remains of one hundred and eighty-four, of which my noble chain once consisted.

This traitor kept me the few last minutes to write a letter to the English at Jidda, to recommend him for the service he had done me at Sennaar; and this I complied with, that I might inform the broker Ibrahim that I had received no money from his correspondent, and give him a caution never again to trust Hagi Belal in similar circumstances.

CHAP. X. Journey from Sennaar to Chendi.

After leaving Sennaar I was overtaken on the road by a black slave, who at first gave me some apprehension, as I was alone with only one Barbarian, a Nubian servant, by the side of my camel, and was going slowly. Upon inquiry I found him to be sent from Hagi Belal, with a basket containing some green tea and sugar, and four bottles of rack, in return for my letter. I sent back the messenger, and gave the care of the basket to my own servant; and, about ten o'clock in the evening of the 5th of September, we all met together joyfully at Soliman.

Before my departure from Sennaar I had prevailed on a Fakir, or Mahometan monk, servant to Adelan, to write a letter to his master, unknown to any other person whatever, to let him know my apprehensions of the king, and that, in the uncertainty how far his occupations might oblige him to move from Shaddly, my way was directly for Herbagi, and requesting that he would give me such recommendations to Wed Ageeb as should put me in safety from the king's persecution, and insure me protection and good reception in Atbara. I begged him, in the most serious manner, to consider, however slightly he had thought of the king of Abyssinia's recommendatory letters, he would not treat those of the regency of Cairo, and of the sherriffe of Mecca, in the same manner; that my nation was highly respected in both places; and that it was known, by letters written from Sennaar, that I actually was arrived there; that they should take care therefore, and not by ill-usage of me expose their merchants, either at Mecca or Cairo, to a severe retaliation that would immediately follow the receiving bad news of me, or no news at all. My faithful Soliman, who was now to leave me, was charged to carry the answers they should choose to return to the letters I brought from Abyssinia, and I sent him that very night, together with the Fakir, to Adelan at Shaddly, fully instructed with every particular of ill-usage I had received from the king, of which he had been an eye-witness.

Although my servants, as well as Hagi Belal, and every one at Sennaar but the Fakir and Soliman, did imagine I was going to Shaddly, yet their own fears, or rather good sense, had convinced them that it was better to proceed at once for Atbara than ever again to be entangled between Adelan and the king. Sennaar sat heavy upon all their spirits, so that I had scarce dismounted from my camel, and before I tasted food, which that day I had not done, when they all intreated me with one voice that I would consider the dangers I had escaped, and, instead of turning westward to Shaddly, continue north through Atbara. They promised to bear fatigue and hunger chearfully, and to live and die with me, provided I would proceed homeward, and free them from the horrors of Sennaar and its king. I did not seem to be convinced by what they said, but ordered supper, to which we all sat down in company. As we had lemons enough, and Hagi Belal had furnished us with sugar, we opened a bottle of his rack and in punch (the liquor of our country) drank to a happy return thro' Atbara. I then told them my resolution was perfectly conformable to their wishes; and informed them of the measures I had taken to insure success and remove danger as much as possible. I recommended diligence, sobriety, and subordination, as the only means of arriving happily at the end proposed; and assured them all we should share one common fare, and one common fortune, till our journey was terminated by good or bad success. Never was any discourse more gratefully received; every toil was welcome in flying from Sennaar, and they already began to think themselves at the gates of Cairo.

As I had recommended great diligence and little sleep, before four in the morning the camels were loaded, and on their way, and it was then only they came to awake me. The camels were abundantly loaded, and we had then but five, four of which carried all the baggage, the other, a smaller one, was reserved for my riding. This I told them I willingly accepted at the beginning of the journey, and we should all of us take our turn, while water and provisions were to be procured, and that Ismael the Turk, an old man, and Georgis the Greek, almost blind, required an additional consideration, so long as it possibly could be done with safety to us all; but, when we should advance to the borders of the desert, we must all resolve to pass that journey on foot, as upon the quantity of water, and the quantity of provisions alone, to be carried by us, could depend our hopes of ever seeing home.

On the 8th of September we left the village of Soliman, and about three o'clock in the afternoon came to Wed el Tumbel, which is not a river, as the name would seem to signify, but three villages situated upon a pool of water, nearly in a line from north to south. The intermediate country between this and Herbagi is covered with great crops of dora. The plain extends as far as the sight reaches. Though there is not much wood, the country is not entirely destitute of it, and the farther you go from Sennaar the finer the trees. At Wed el Tumbel there is great plenty of ebony-bushes, and a particular sort of thorn which seems to be a species of dwarf acacia, with very small leaves, and long pods of a strong saccharine taste. This is here in great abundance, and is called Lauts, or Loto, which I suspect to be the tree on whose fruit, we are told, the ancient Libyans fed. At a quarter past three we left Wed el Tumbel, and entered into a thick wood, in which we travelled till late, when we came to the Nile. We continued along the river for about 500 yards, and alighted at Sit el Bet, a small village about a mile's distance from the stream. Here we saw the tomb of a Shekh, or saint, built of brick in a conical form, much after the same figure as some we had seen in Barbary, which were of stone.

On the 12th, at ten minutes past six we set out from Sit el Bet, and a few minutes after came to a village called Ageda, and five miles further to another, whose name is Usheta. At half past nine we passed a third village, and at half after eleven encamped near a pool of water, called Wed Hydar, or the River of the Lion. All the way from Wed el Tumbel to this village we were much tormented with the fly, the very noise of which put our camels in such a fright that they ran violently into the thickest trees and bushes, endeavouring to brush off their loads. These flies do not bite at night, nor in the cool of the morning. We were freed from this disagreeable companion at Wed Hydar, and were troubled with it no more.

At four o'clock we again set out through an extensive plain, quite destitute of wood, and all sown with dora, and about five miles further we encamped at a place named Shwyb, where there is a Shekh called Welled Abou Hassan. While at Abou Hassan, we were surprised with a violent storm of rain and wind, accompanied with great flashes of lightning. This storm being blown over, we proceeded to a village called Imsurt. At one mile and a half further we joined the river. The Nile here is in extreme beauty, and winds considerably; it is broader than at Sennaar, the banks flat, and quite covered with acacia and other trees in full bloom. The thick parts of this wood were stored with great numbers of antelopes, while the open places were covered with large flocks of cattle belonging to the Arabs Refaa, who were returning from the sands to their pastures to the southward. Large flocks of storks, cranes, and a variety of other birds, were scattered throughout the plain, which was overgrown with fine grass, and which even the multitude of cattle that thronged upon it seemed not capable of consuming. At three quarters past six in the evening we came to a large village called Wed Medinai, close upon the side of the river, which here having made a large turn, comes again from the S. E. This town or village belongs to a Fakir, who received us very hospitably.

On the 14th, at six in the morning we set out from Wed Medinai in a direction N. W. and at three quarters past eight arrived at the village Beroule. We then entered a thick wood, and thence into a very extensive and cultivated plain, sown with dora and bammia; a plant which makes a principal article in their food all over the southern part of the kingdom of Sennaar, which is described, and the figure of it published, by Prosper Alpinus[42]. At a quarter past eleven we arrived at Azazo, about a mile and a half distant from the Nile. The corn seemed here much more forward than that at Sennaar, and in several places it was in the ear. It rained copiously in the night of the 14th, but before this there had been a very dry season, and very great scarcity the preceding year. At ten minutes past four in the afternoon we left Azazo, our journey, like that of the day before, partly through thick woods, and partly through plains sown with dora. Our direction was nearly north, and the river about two miles and a half distant, nearly parallel to the road we went. At six we came to a small village called Sidi Ali el Genowi.

On the 16th, at half past six in the morning we left Sidi Ali el Genowi, and a few minutes after passed two villages on our left along the river side, not fifty yards from the water, after which we went through the village of El Mensy. The next to this were two tombs of Fakirs, nothing different from the former ones. At a quarter past ten we arrived at Herbagi, a large and pleasant village, but thinly inhabited, placed on a dry, gravelly soil. The people told us, that the greatest part of the townsmen were at some distance looking after their farms. Herbagi is the seat of Wed Ageeb, hereditary prince of the Arabs, now subject to the government of Sennaar, whose lieutenant he is according to treaty. He raises the tribute, and pays it to the Mek, or his ministers, from all those Arabs that live in the distant parts of the kingdom, as far as the Red Sea, who do not pass by Sennaar to the sands, in the season of the fly; for these, as I have mentioned, are taxed by the chief minister, or the person who hath the command of the troops of that capital. The revenue arising from this is very large, and more than all the rest put together. The Refaa, one tribe of Arabs who had compounded at this time with Shekh Adelan, were said to possess 200,000 she-camels, every one of which, at a medium, was worth half an ounce of gold, each ounce being about ten crowns. The tribute then which that Arab paid was 100,000 ounces of gold, or 1,000,000 dollars or 250,000l. There were at least ten of these tribes with which Adelan was to account, and at least six times that number that fell to the share of Wed Ageeb, whose composition is the same as that paid to Sennaar, besides whatever extraordinary sum he imposes for himself. There is also a tax upon the male camels; but this is small in comparison of the others, and the young ones pay no duty, till they are three years old.

Camels flesh is the ordinary food of the Arabs; but there is still room to inquire what becomes of the prodigious numbers of this animal annually consumed. The caravan of Mecca requires a large supply, and vast numbers are employed in the service of Damascus, of Syria and Persia, and especially of Sudan, whose caravans traverse Africa from east to west with Indian commodities, which they carry from the Arabian Gulf to the Atlantic Ocean. These, and this vast inland trade of which they were masters, the gold, ivory, pearls, and tortoise shells, that served for returns to India, were the source of the riches and power of those Shepherds, of which so many things are recorded in ancient history almost exceeding belief.

Immediately upon entering Herbagi, I went to wait upon Wed Ageeb. He had a very good house, considered as such, though but a very indifferent palace for a prince. He seemed to be a man of very gentle manners; was about 30 years of age; had a thick black beard and whiskers, large black eyes, and a long thin face, which marked his constitution not to be a strong one. We found, indeed, afterwards, that he had been very much addicted to drinking, which he had often endeavoured in vain to leave off, by substituting opium in its place. He had never before seen an European, and testified great surprise at my complexion. He sent us abundance of provisions, two sheep and two goats, and begged I would give him advice about his health in the evening. He inquired very particularly about my reception at Sennaar, which I told him only in part, and, among other circumstances, the report at Sennaar, that he was gathering his forces to the assistance of the king against Adelan and Abou Kalec. He answered with a sneer, "Gehennim el Kafr," i. e. The Pagan may go to hell. He spoke contemptuously of the king of Sennaar, but very respectfully of Adelan and Abou Kalec, any one of whose little fingers, he said, was sufficient to crush the Mek, and all who adhered to him. I then took my leave, and went home to rest.

On the 17th, at noon, I observed the meridian altitude of the sun, and found the latitude of the place to be 14° 30´ N. but this observation was made with Hadley's quadrant, that I might save time, being willing to advance to as great a distance as possible from Sennaar, so there may be perhaps a minute of error, and more there ought not to be, as it was confirmed by several observations at night. The instrument, inspected and rectified by day light, was examined, and I found it to be without alteration before using it at night.

About eight o'clock in the evening I went to see Wed Ageeb, who had supped, and was drinking sorbet made of tamarinds, I believe rather to sweeten his breath than from thirst, for he had apparently drunk of stronger liquor before he took the sorbet. He told me that a servant of Adelan was arrived that evening from the camp, who had brought him a letter and messages on my account, and bade me be of good courage, for I should be safer in my tent than in Adelan's house at Sennaar; that two men had been executed for attempting to rob Adelan's house; and that Mahomet, the king's servant, was destined to suffer upon a stake, as soon as ever Adelan should move at a greater distance from Shekh Shaddly's tomb, where such executions could not be performed with decency.

I made him a small present of fine muslin, which I had bought at Sennaar; and, in the course of conversation, he told me that the Moorish troops from Ras el Feel had burnt Teawa; that the Daveina were with them, and had plundered the Jehaina, and forced Fidele to fly to Beyla. I asked if any Christian troops were among them? suspecting much Ayto Engedan and Ayto Confu. He said there were none but the Moors of Ras el Feel, the Ganjar horse of Kuara, and the Arabs Daveina. As I did not wish to be known in this matter, I pushed my inquiries no further: I asked him to provide me with one of his men for fear of the Shukorea Arabs, with which he complied, adding, that he was himself going out to the Shukorea, and would send a man to Halfaia, where I was to consider, and acquaint him, whether I was to pass the Nile at Gerri, and go by the desert of Bahiouda and Dongola, or by the more unfrequented way of Chendi, Barbar, and the great desert, the fatigues and dangers of which he thought it impossible for a European to suffer, but would give me a letter to Sittina his sister, to whom that country belonged. After Chendi, he assured me there was no protection to be relied upon but that of Heaven. This sensible discourse was of great service to me, as it set me all the rest of the journey upon the inquiry as to the proper steps for performing this dangerous expedition.

On the 18th, at seven o'clock I left Herbagi, after writing a letter to Adelan, thanking him for his punctuality and care of me, and giving the servant that had come on the errand a small present. He told me it would be ten days before he returned to the camp; with which last intelligence I was very well pleased, as thereby no information could arrive where I was, till I was forgot, or out of their power. At ten minutes past eleven we arrived at Wed el Frook, a small village close upon the Nile. Nothing could be more beautiful than the country we passed that day, partly covered with very pleasant woods, and partly in lawns, with a few fine scattered trees. The Nile is a short quarter of a mile from the village, and is fully half a mile broad. It runs smooth, and when in inundation, overflows the small space of ground between its present banks and Wed el Frook. It was now considerably lower than it had been, and was confined within its banks.

On the 19th we set out from Wed el Frook at half past five in the morning, and about four miles from it came to a large village, and the tomb of a Fakir, the Nile running all the way parallel to our road. At ten o'clock we came to another village called Abouascar; and a little way east of it, in the river, there is a large island considerably above the water, where shrubs and grass grow abundantly. The village is placed upon a small hill, and there are a great many of the same size and shape scattered about the country on the banks of the river, which add greatly to the beauty of it, as we had not yet seen such since our leaving Sennaar. At three quarters past one we came to the village of Kamily. The country here is more open, the soil lighter, the grass short and thin; it is all laid out in pasture, and there is here plenty of goats, as well as black cattle. This day we met a caravan from Egypt, last from Chendi, who brought us word that Ali Bey was deposed, and Mahomet Abou Dahab was made Bey in his place. They said, one part of the caravan, that went before them, had been attacked and cut off by the Bishareen under Abou Bertran; that they had escaped by a few hours only, and that all the road was so infested with robbers, that it was a miracle if any one could pass.

On the 20th we left Kamily at a quarter past five in the morning, and at about six miles (the distance between that and Wed Tyrab) we passed a bare and sandy country, interspersed with small coppices, and three quarters past ten came to Bishaggara. This is a large village, something above a mile's distance from the Nile, which space is entirely taken up with brush-wood, without any timber trees. We begin now to see the effects of the quantity of rain having failed. There was little sown, and that so late as to be scarcely above the ground. It seems the rains begin later as they pass northward. Many people were here employed in gathering grass seeds[43] to make a very bad kind of bread. These people appear perfect skeletons, and no wonder, as they live upon such fare. Nothing increases the danger of travelling, and prejudice against strangers, more than the scarcity of provisions in the country through which you are to pass.

At fifty minutes past three in the afternoon we left Bishaggara, and at seven came to Eltie, a straggling village, about half a mile from the Nile, in the north of a large, bare plain, all pasture, except the banks of the river, which are covered with wood. We now no longer saw any corn sown: The people here were at the same miserable employment as those we had seen before, that of gathering grass-seeds; yet, though starving, they brought us plenty of milk in exchange for tobacco, a commodity very much in request in these parts. At half past ten we arrived at Gidid; the houses were built of clay, with terrassed roofs: on our way we passed through several little cantonments of Nuba. All this country is sand, interspersed with thick coppices and acacia-trees that seemed not to thrive. On the other side are large, dead, sandy plains, but both sides of the river are covered with wood. The ferry over the Nile is here from the west to the east. The country about Gidid, especially to the westward, is very bare and barren, and scarcely produces any thing saving grass and bent, of which the poor people use the seed for bread. This is the case all to the westward of El-aice; and the country here, for want of rain, is fast dwindling into a desert, and the soil is changed to sand. There is no corn, though, from the vicinity of two large rivers, it produces grass enough for cattle, sheep, and goats, and there is as yet plenty of milk: but as soon as the sun shines constantly, no herbage will remain that can be food for any other cattle but goats, and at last the whole becomes a perfect desert, capable of nourishing nothing but antelopes and ostriches.

On the 21st, at seven in the morning we left Gidid, and near three miles further we came to the passage, and descended a long way with the current before we landed. The manner they pass the camels at this ferry is by fastening cords under their hind quarters, and then tying a halter to their heads. Two men sustain these cords, and a third the halter, so that the camels, by swimming, carry the boat on shore. One is fastened on each side of the stern, and one along each side of the stem. These useful beasts suffer much by this rude treatment, and many die in the passage, with all the care that can be taken, but often through malice, or out of revenge. These boatmen privately put salt in the camels ears, which makes the animal desperate and ungovernable, till, by fretting and plunging his head constantly in the water, he loses his breath, and is drowned; the boatmen then have gained their end, and feast upon the flesh. But the Arabs, when they pass their camels, use a goat's skin, blown with wind like a bladder, which they tie to the fore part of the camel, and this supports him where he is heaviest, while the man, sitting behind on his rump, guides him, for this animal is a very bad swimmer, being heaviest before. The boats here are larger and better made than in any other part on the river. All between the Nile and Halifoon is bare ground, interspersed with acacia-trees. The loss of a camel is very considerable, but the price of ferrying very moderate; it is only three mahalacs for each camel, with his merchandise and every thing belonging to him. The river is something more than a quarter of a mile broad, but is double that measure in the rainy season, the current very violent, and strong at all times.

Notwithstanding our boatmen had a very bad character at this time, we passed with our camels and baggage without loss or accident. They seemed indeed to shew a very indifferent countenance at first, but good words, and a promise of recompence, presently rendered them tractable. By half past twelve we were all safe on the other side, and at thirty-five minutes past three we arrived at Halifoon, about five miles from the ferry on the east side of the Nile. One mark of the boatmen's attention I cannot but mention: The weather was very hot, and we had plenty of time; the water being clear and tempting, I proposed swimming over to the other side for the pleasure of bathing; but they, one and all, opposed my design with great violence, and would not suffer me to undress. They said there was a multitude of crocodiles in the river near that place, and although they were not large enough to kill, or carry off a camel, they very often wounded them, and it would be a wonder if we passed without seeing them; indeed the last boat had not reached the shore before two of them rose in the middle of the stream. I made what haste I could to get a gun, and fired at the largest, but, as far as I could judge, without effect.

On the 22d, at three o'clock in the afternoon we left Halifoon, and by ten at night came to Halfaia, a large, handsome, and pleasant town, although built with clay. The houses are terrassed at the tops, their inhabitants being no longer afraid of the rains, which have been for some time here very inconsiderable. The Battaheen were encamped near Umdoom, a large village on the side of the river, about seven miles from Halifoon. They are a thievish, pilfering set, and we passed them early in the morning, before it was light. The road is very pleasant, through woods of acacia-trees, interspersed with large fields covered with bent grass. At Umdoom we found troops of women going to their morning occupation, that of gathering seeds to make bread.

The command of Mahomet Wed Ageeb is very extensive. It reaches from this passage of the river at Halifoon on the south, as far as Wed Baal a Nagga on the north, and to the east as far as the Red Sea, though a great part of those Arabs have been in rebellion, and have not paid their tax for some years. His command on the westward of the river reaches to Korti, all over the desert of Bahiouda, though lately the Beni Gerar, Beni Faisara, and Cubba-beesh, have expelled the ancient Arabs of Bahiouda, who pretend now only to be the subjects of Kordofan. He has also the charge of levying the tribute of horses from Dongola, in which consists the great strength of Sennaar.

Halfaia is the limit of the rains, and is situated upon a large circular peninsula surrounded by the Nile from S. W. to N. W. that is, at all the points of W. It is half a mile, or something more, from the river. This peninsula contains all their sown land, and is not watered by the river, but by what is raised from the stream by wheels turned by oxen. Halfaia consists of about three hundred houses; their principal gain is from a manufacture of very coarse cotton cloth, called Dimour, which serves for small money through all the lower parts of Atbara. There are palm-trees at Halfaia, but they produce no dates. The people here eat cats, also the river-horse and the crocodile, both of which are in great plenty. Halfaia, by many altitudes of the sun and stars, was found to be in lat. 15° 45´ 54´´, and in long. 32° 49´ 15´´ east from the meridian of Greenwich.

On the 29th, at six o'clock in the morning we left Halfaia, and continued our journey about 3 miles and a half further, when we came to two villages, a small one to the north and a large one to the west. The Nile here runs N. E. of us. This whole day was spent in woods of a very pleasant kind; there were large numbers of birds of various colours, but none of them, so far as I could hear since we left Sennaar, endowed with the gift of song. Sakies[44] in the plain, all between the Nile and the road, lift the water from the stream, and pour it on the land, in hopes that it may produce some miserable crops of dora; for the river overflows none of this country, and it is very precariously and scantily watered with rain.

In a little time, continuing our journey, we came to Shekh Atman's, the tomb of a Fakir on the road. There is a high ridge of mountains on our left, west of the Nile about five miles, and a low ridge on our right, about eight miles distant; our direction was straight north. At half past eight, about five miles further, we came to the village Wed Hojila. The river Abiad, which is larger than the Nile, joins it there. Still the Nile preserves the name of Bahar el Azergue, or the Blue River, which it got at Sennaar. The village was once intended to be built at the junction of the two rivers, but the Fakir's tomb being on the side of the Nile, the village likewise was placed there. The Abiad is a very deep river; it runs dead and with little inclination, and preserves its stream always undiminished, because rising in latitudes where there are continual rains, it therefore suffers not the decrease the Nile does by the six months dry weather. Our whole journey this day was through woods, with large intervals of sandy plains producing nothing except some few spots of corn sown in time of the showers, while the sun returned over the zenith, but still looking very poorly. At half past twelve we arrived at Suakem, under trees, near a sakia. At four o'clock in the afternoon we left Suakem, the mountains of Gerri bearing N. E. of us, and, five miles further, alighted in a wood near the Arabs Abdelab.

On the 30th, at five o'clock in the morning we left this station, and after having gone eight miles N. E. we came to a village, which is, as it were, the suburb of Gerri. The Acaba of Gerri is a low ridge of rocks that seems first to run from both sides across the bed of the river, as if designed to stop it; and it is impossible to look at the gap through which it falls down below, without thinking that this passage was made by the Nile itself when first it began to flow. Gerri is built on a rising ground, consisting of white, barren sand and gravel, intermixed with white alabaster like pebbles, which, in a bright sun, are extremely disagreeable to the eye. It consists of about 140 houses, none of them above one storey high, neat, well built, flat-roofed, and all of one height, composed with the same coloured earth as that on which it stands, and, for this reason, it is scarcely visible at a distance. It is immediately at the foot of the Acaba, something more than a quarter of a mile from the Nile. Gerri is situated at the end of the tropical rains, in lat. 16° 15´, and the Acaba seems to answer those mountains of Ptolemy, beyond which (that is to the N.) he says it is [Greek: diammon kai abrochon chôran][45], that is, a country full of sand and without rain; it is but a small spot immediately on the Nile, which is all cultivated, as it enjoys the double advantage both of the overflowing of the river and the accidental showers. It is also called Beladullah, or the Country of God, on account of this double blessing. The dates of Gerri are sent to the Mek, and are reserved on purpose for him. They are dry, and never ripen, nor have any of the moist and pulpy substance of the dates of Barbary. They are firm and smooth in the skin, and of a golden colour.

On the 1st of October, at half past five in the morning we left Gerri, the Acaba continuing on the east and west, but the two extremities curving like a bow or an amphitheatre. This ridge of mountains is composed of bare, red stone, without any grass. At ten minutes after eight we changed our road to N. E. endeavouring to turn the point of the Acaba about three miles off, and at ten o'clock alighted among green trees to feed our camels. At three o'clock in the afternoon we left our resting-place in the wood. The mountains, which were then on our left hand, are those of the Acaba of Gerri; but those on the right still ran parallel to our course, and ended in the Acaba of Morness: we were now two miles from the river, its course due north. About twenty minutes past four we came to the Acaba of Morness, a ridge of bare, stony hills, and half an hour after we passed it. There is very little ascent, and the road is only loose, broken stones, which last about a quarter of an hour.

At six o'clock in the evening we came to Hajar el Assad, or Hajar Serrareek, the first signifying the Lion's Stone, the next the Stone of Thieves, a beggarly, straggling village, where there is a sakia, and small stripes of dora, as if sown in a garden, and watered from the well at pleasure. Hajar el Assad is the boundary between Wed Ageeb and the Mek of Chendi; it is a yellow stone set upon a rock, which they imagine has the figure of a lion. We now alighted near half a mile from the river, in a small plain, where was only one shepherd with his cot and flock. At some distance, near the river, there was a house or two with sakies. September is the seed-time in this country. When the Nile is at its height, the flat ground along the side of the water, which is about a quarter of a mile broad, is sown with dora, as far as water can be conducted in rills to it, but after this short space, the ground rises immediately; there the harvest-time is in November; and the seed-time at Sennaar is in July, and their harvest in September; both regulated by the height of the Nile at the respective places.

On the 2d of October, at half past five in the morning we left Hajar el Assad; for the two last days past our journey lay through woods and desert, without water or villages; we rested upon the Nile, which soon receded from us. After having gone about two miles we saw some small houses and sakies, with narrow stripes of corn on both sides of the river. About a mile further, we began, instead of the sandy desert, to see large stratums of purple, red and white marble, and also alabaster. It seems as if those immense quarries, which run into Upper Egypt 10° N. from this, first take their rise here. This day we journied through woods of acacia and jujebs. At twenty minutes past eight we alighted in a wood to feed our camels. The sun was so immoderately hot that we could not travel. The Nile from Gerri declines almost insensibly from the E. of N. The whole country is desert and without inhabitants, saving the banks of the river; for there are here no regular rains that can be depended upon at any certain time for the purpose of agriculture; only there fall violent showers at the time the sun is in the zenith, on his progress southward from the tropic of Cancer towards the Line, and the grass grows up very luxuriantly in all the spots watered by these accidental showers; but all the rest of the country is dry and burnt up.

Near Gerri, a little north, is the large rock Acaba, full of caves, the first habitations of the builders of Meroë. A little below it is the ferry over which those who go by the west side of the Nile to Dongola, through the desert of Bahiouda, must all pass. It is five days journey before you come to Korti, where travellers arrive the morning of the sixth, that is, going at the rate of fifteen miles a-day. Near Korti you again meet the Nile, which has taken a very unnatural turn from Magiran, or where it meets the Tacazzè from Angot. The way through this desert, which was that of Poncet, is now rendered impassable, as I have already said, by the Beni Faisara, Beni Gerar, and Cubba-beesh Arabs, three powerful clans, which come from the westward near Kordofan from fear of the black horse there, and which have taken possession of all the wells in that desert, so that it is impossible for travellers to avoid them. The Cubba-beesh are so called, from kebsh[46], a sheep, because they wear the skin of that animal for cloathing. They are very numerous, and extend far into the great desert Selima and to the frontiers of Egypt. These tribes have cut off the last three caravans coming from Dongola and Egypt. This ferry, and the Acaba beyond it, belongs to Wed Ageeb; and here all goods, passing to and from Egypt, Dongola, and Chendi, pay a duty, which is not regulated as to its extent, but is levied arbitrarily, according to circumstances of the times, and paid to the Shukorea, or other Arabs, who are in the neighbourhood, which happens from February to July. The Mek, or prince of the Arabs, passes them by fair means or force. After the rains become constant, these go eastward to Mendera and Gooz, and then the road from Sennaar to Suakem through these places becoming dangerous on account of all the other Arabs assembling there to avoid the fly, the caravan of Suakem is obliged to pass through Halfaia to Barbar, and from thence to Suakem, so that this was the most frequented road in the kingdom. Now, indeed, the communications on all sides are obstructed by the anarchy that prevails among the Arabs, so that he who passes to or from Egypt must depend solely upon his own exertions and the protection of Heaven.

The Acaba of Gerri, and the banks of the Nile there, are inhabited by tribes of Arabs, called Beni Hamda, and Hassani. They are all poor and miserable banditti, and would not suffer a man to pass there at the ferry were it not for the extraordinary dread they have of fire-arms. The report of a gun, even at a distance, will make a hundred of them fly and hide themselves. We gave them several vollies of blunderbusses, and double-barrelled guns, fired in the air, from the time of our entering their territory till near Wed Baal a Nagga; we saw them upon the tops of the pointed rocks as far distant as we could wish, nor did they ever appear nearer us, or descend into the plain.

At Halfaia and Gerri begins that noble race of horses justly celebrated all over the world. They are the breed that was introduced here at the Saracen conquest, and have been preserved unmixed to this day. They seem to be a distinct animal from the Arabian horse, such as I have seen in the plains of Arabia Deserta, south of Palmyra and Damascus, where I take the most excellent of the Arabian breed to be, in the tribe of Mowalli and Annecy, which is about lat. 36°; whilst Dongola and the dry country near it seems to be the center of excellence for this nobler animal, so that the bounds within which the horse is in its greatest perfection seems to be between the degrees of lat. 20°, and 36°, and between long. 30° east from the meridian of Greenwich to the banks of the Euphrates. For this extent Fahrenheit's thermometer is never below 50° in the night, or in the day below 80°, though it may rise to 120° at noon in the shade, at which point horses are not affected by the heat, but will breed as they do at Halfaia, Gerri, and Dongola, where the thermometer rises to these degrees. These countries, from what has been said, must of course be a dry, sandy desert, with little water, producing short, or no grass, but only roots, which are blanched like our cellery, being always covered with earth, having no marshes or swamps, fat soapy earth, or mould.

I never heard of wild horses in any of these parts. Arabia Deserta, where they are said to be, seems very ill calculated to conceal them, it being flat without wood or cover, they must therefore be constantly in view; and I never heard any person of veracity say they ever saw wild horses in Arabia. Wild asses I have frequently seen alive, but never dead, in neck, head, face, and tail very like ours, only their skins are streaked, not spotted. The zebra is found nowhere in Abyssinia, but in the S. W. extremity of Kuara among the Shangalla and Guba, in Narea and Caffa, and in the mountains of Dyre and Tegla, and to the southward near as far as the Cape.

What figure the Nubian breed would make in point of fleetness is very doubtful, their make being so entirely different from that of the Arabian; but if beautiful and symmetrical parts, great size and strength, the most agile, nervous, and elastic movements, great endurance of fatigue, docility of temper, and seeming attachment to man, beyond any other domestic animal, can promise any thing for a stallion, the Nubian is, above all comparison, the most eligible in the world. Few men have seen more horses, or more of the different places where they are excellent, than I have, and no one ever more delighted in them, as far as the manly exercise went. What these may produce for the turf is what I cannot so much as guess, as there is not, I believe, in the world one more indifferent to, or ignorant of, that amusement than I am. The experiment would be worth trying in any view. The expence would not be great, yet there might be some trouble and application necessary, but, if adroitly managed, not much even of that.

I could not refrain from attempting a drawing of one of them, which I since, and but very lately, unfortunately mislaid. It was a horse of Shekh Adelan, which with some difficulty I had liberty to draw. It was not quite four years old, was full 16 hands high: I mean this only as an idea; I know the faults of my drawing, and could correct many of them; but it is a rule I have invariably adhered to in this, as well as in description, to correct nothing from recollection when the object is out of my sight. This horse's name was El Fudda, the meaning of which I will not pretend to explain. In Egypt this is the name of a small piece of money clipped into points, otherwise called a parat; but, very probably, the name of horses in Nubia may have as little allusion to the quality of the animal as the name which our race-horses have in England; they are, however, very jealous in keeping up their pedigree. All noble horses in Nubia are said to be descended of one of the five upon which Mahomet and his four immediate successors, Abou Becr, Omar, Atman, and Ali, fled from Mecca to Medina, the night of the Hegira. From which of these El Fudda was descended I did not inquire; Shekh Adelan, armed, as he fought, with his coat of mail and war saddle, iron-chained bridle, brass cheek-plates, front-plate, breast-plate, large broad-sword, and battle-ax, did not weigh less upon the horse than 26 stone, horseman's weight. This horse kneeled to receive his master, armed as he was, when he mounted, and he kneeled to let him dismount armed likewise, so that no advantage could be taken of him in those helpless times when a man is obliged to arm and disarm himself piece by piece on horseback. Adelan, in war, was a fair-player, and gave every body his chance. He was the first man always that entered among the enemy, and the last to leave them, and never changed this horse. The horses of Halfaia and Gerri do not arrive at the size of those in Dongola, where few are lower than 16 hands. They are black or white, but a vast proportion of the former to the latter. I never saw the colour we call grey, that is, dappled, but there are some bright bays, or inclining to sorrel. They are all kept monstrously fat upon dora, eat nothing green but the short roots of grass that are to be found by the side of the Nile, after the sun has withered it. This they dig out where it is covered with earth, and appears blanched, which they lay in small heaps once a-day on the ground before them. They are tethered by the fetlock joint of the fore-leg with a very soft cotton rope made with a loop and large button. They eat and drink with the bridle in their mouth, not the bridle they actually use when armed, but a light one made on purpose to accustom them to eat and drink with it: If you ask the reason, they tell you of many battles that have been lost by the troops having been attacked by their enemy when taking off the bridles to give their horses drink. No Arab ever mounts a stallion; on the contrary, in Nubia they never ride mares; the reason is plain: The Arabs are constantly at war with their neighbours, (for so robbery in that country is called) and always endeavour to take their enemies by surprise in the grey of the evening, or the dawn of day. A stallion no sooner smells the stale of the mare in the enemy's quarters, than he begins to neigh, and that would give the alarm to the party intended to be surprised. No such thing ever can happen when they ride mares only; on the contrary, the Funge trust only to superior force. They are in an open, plain country, must be discovered at many miles distance, and all such surprises and stratagems are useless to them.

The place where we alighted is called Hajar el Dill, and is a mile east from where we halted in the wood to feed our camels. We continued along the Nile at about a mile's distance from it, and, after advancing near three miles, came in sight of a large village called Derreira; on the opposite side of the Nile, and beyond that, about four miles on the same side, is Deleb, a large village, with the shrine of a famous saint of that name. The country here is more cultivated and pleasant than that which we had passed; there is a low ridge of hills in the way. At half past six in the evening of the 2d of October we arrived at Wed Baal a Nagga. The village is a very large one, belonging to a Fakir, a saint of the first consideration in the government of Chendi. All this country, except immediately upon the Nile, is desert and sandy. All along the plain we saw numbers of people digging pits, and taking out the earth, which they boil in large earthen vases or pans. This is the only way they procure themselves salt, of which they send great quantities to Halfaia, where is a market, and from whence it is sent to Sennaar.

On the 3d, at five o'clock, we left Wed Baal a Nagga, and continued along the Nile, which is about a quarter of a mile off; and seven miles further to the N. E. we passed a tomb of the Fakir el Deragi, close to the road on our left hand. All from Wed Baal a Nagga, on both sides of the Nile, is picturesque and pleasant, full of verdure, and varied with houses in different situations till we come to the tomb of this Fakir. Immediately from this all is bare and desolate, except one verdant spot by the side of the river, shaded with fine trees, and full of herbage, and there we alighted at nine o'clock. This place is called Maia; a few trees appear on the other side, but beyond these all the country is desert. It is inhabited at present by the Jaheleen Arabs of Wed el Faal; as they have had violent showers in the high country, and their pools were still full of water, they staid by them longer than ordinary feeding their cattle. Idris Wed el Faal, governor of Chendi, nephew to Wed Ageeb, and son to Sittina his sister, to whom this country belongs, was then with them, so we did not fear them, otherwise there is not a worse set of fanatical wretches, or greater enemies to the name of Christian, than these are.

As we are here speaking of Arabs and their names, I shall once for all observe, that Wed, a word which I have frequently made use of in the course of this history, and which in this sense is peculiar to the kingdom of Sennaar, does not mean river, though that is its import in Arabic. Here it is an abbreviation of Welled, peculiar to the inhabitants of this part of Atbara, who seem to have an aversion to the letter l; Wed el Faal, the son of Faal; Wed Hydar, the son of Hydar, or the lion; Wed Hassan, the son of Hassan, and so of the rest. For the same reason, Melek Sennaar, the king of Sennaar, called Mek, by throwing out the l; Abd el Mek, the slave of the king, instead of Abd el Melek. Here also I had the pleasure to find the language of the Koran that of the whole people in common conversation; and as this was the book in which I first studied the Arabic, I found now a propriety and facility of expression I had not been sensible of before; for that of the Koran, in Arabia, is a kind of dead language, rarely understood but by men of learning.

At Wed Baal a Nagga there is a ferry for those who go to Dongola by the desert of Bahiouda. Derreira is the landing-place on the other side; I suppose it is to avoid these Jaheleen that caravans ferry over at Gerri rather than come so low as Wed Baal a Nagga. We left Maia at half past three in the afternoon, and, after going three miles, we came to Gooz, a small village on our left, where we found plenty of good food for our camels. At six we alighted at Fakari. Chendi was now five miles east of us, where we arrived at eight o'clock in the morning of the 4th of October.

CHAP. XI. Reception at Chendi by Sittina—Conversations with her—Enter the Desert—Pillars of moving Sand—The Simoom—Latitude of Chiggre.

Chendi, or Chandi, is a large village, the capital of its district, the government of which belongs to Sittina, (as she is called) which signifies the Mistress, or the Lady, she being sister to Wed Ageeb, the principal of the Arabs in this country. She had been married, but her husband was dead. She had one son, Idris Wed el Faal, who was to succeed to the government of Chendi upon his mother's death, and who, in effect, governed all the affairs of his kindred already. The governor of Chendi is called in discourse Mek el Jaheleen, prince of the Arabs of Beni Koreish, who are all settled, as I have already said, about the bottom of Atbara, on both sides of the Magiran.

There is a tradition at Chendi, that a woman, whose name was Hendaqué, once governed all that country, whence we might imagine that this was part of the kingdom of Candace; for writing this name in Greek letters it will come to be no other than Hendaqué, the native, or mistress, of Chendi, or Chandi. However this may be, Chendi was once a town of great resort. The caravans of Sennaar, Egypt, Suakem, and Kordofan, all were in use to rendezvous here, especially since the Arabs have cut off the road by Dongola, and the desert of Bahiouda; and though it be not now a place of great plenty, yet every thing here is at a cheaper rate, and better than at Sennaar; we must except the article fuel, for wood is much dearer here than in any part of Atbara; the people all burn camels dung. Indeed, were it not for dressing victuals, fire in a place so hot as this would be a nuisance. It was so sultry in the end of August and beginning of September, that many people dropt down dead with heat, both in the town and villages round it; but it is now said to be much cooler, though the thermometer at noon was once so high as 119°.

Chendi has in it about 250 houses, which are not all built contiguous, some of the best of them being separate, and that of Sittina's is half a mile from the town. There are two or three tolerable houses, but the rest of them are miserable hovels, built of clay and reeds. Sittina gave us one of these houses, which I used for keeping my instruments and baggage from being pilfered or broken; I slept abroad in the tent, and it was even there hot enough. The women of Chendi are esteemed the most beautiful in Atbara, and the men the greatest cowards. This is the character they bear among their countrymen, but we had little opportunity of verifying either.

On our arrival at Chendi we found the people very much alarmed at a phænomenon, which, though it often happens, by some strange inadvertency had never been observed, even in this serene sky. The planet Venus appeared shining with undiminished light all day, in defiance of the brightest sun, from which she was but little distant. Tho' this phænomenon be visible every four years, it filled all the people, both in town and country, with alarm. They flocked to me in crowds from all quarters to be satisfied what it meant, and, when they saw my telescopes and quadrant, they could not be persuaded but that the star had become visible by some correspondence and intelligence with me, and for my use. The bulk of the people in all countries is the same; they never foretell any thing but evil. The very regular and natural appearance of this planet was immediately converted, therefore, into a sign that there would be a bad harvest next year, and scanty rains; that Abou Kalec with an army would depose the king, and over-run all Atbara; whilst some threatened me as a principal operator in bringing about these disasters. On the other hand, without seeming over-solicitous about my vindication, I insinuated among the better sort, that this was a lucky and favourable sign, a harbinger of good fortune, plenty, and peace. The clamour upon this subsided very much to my advantage, the rather, because Sittina and her son Idris knew certainly that Mahomet Abou Kalec was not to be in Atbara that year.

On the 12th of October I waited upon Sittina, who received me behind a screen, so that it was impossible either to see her figure or face; I observed, however, that there were apertures so managed in the screen that she had a perfect view of me. She expressed herself with great politeness, talked much upon the terms in which Adelan was with the king, and wondered exceedingly how a white man like me should venture so far in such an ill-governed country. "Allow me, Madam, said I, to complain of a breach of hospitality in you, which no Arab has been yet guilty of towards me."—"Me! said she, that would be strange indeed, to a man that bears my brother's letter. How can that be!"—"Why, you tell me, Madam, that I am a white man, by which I know that you see me, without giving me the like advantage. The queens of Sennaar did not use me so hardly; I had a full sight of them without having used any importunity." On this she broke out into a great fit of laughter; then fell into a conversation about medicines to make her hair grow, or rather to hinder it from falling off. She desired me to come to her the next day; that her son Idris would be then at home from the Howat[47], and that he very much wished to see me. She that day sent us plenty of provisions from her own table.

On the 13th it was so excessively hot that it was impossible to suffer the burning sun. The poisonous simoom blew likewise as if it came from an oven. Our eyes were dim, our lips cracked, our knees tottering, our throats perfectly dry, and no relief was found from drinking an immoderate quantity of water. The people advised me to dip a spunge in vinegar and water, and hold it before my mouth and nose, and this greatly relieved me. In the evening I went to Sittina. Upon entering the house, a black slave laid hold of me by the hand, and placed me in a passage, at the end of which were two opposite doors. I did not well know the reason of this; but had staid only a few minutes when I heard one of the doors at the end of the passage open, and Sittina appeared magnificently dressed, with a kind of round cap of solid gold upon the crown of her head, all beat very thin, and hung round with sequins; with a variety of gold chains, solitaires, and necklaces of the same metal, about her neck. Her hair was plaited in ten or twelve small divisions like tails, which hung down below her waist, and over her was thrown a common cotton white garment. She had a purple silk stole, or scarf, hung very gracefully upon her back, brought again round her waist, without covering her shoulders or arms. Upon her wrists she had two bracelets like handcuffs, about half an inch thick, and two gold manacles of the same at her feet, fully an inch diameter, the most disagreeable and aukward part of all her dress. I expected she would have hurried through with some affectation of surprise. On the contrary, she stopt in the middle of the passage, saying, in a very grave manner, "Kifhalec,"—how are you? I thought this was an opportunity of kissing her hand, which I did, without her shewing any sort of reluctance. "Allow me as a physician, said I, Madam, to say one word." She bowed with her head, and said, "Go in at that door, and I will hear you." The slave appeared, and carried me through a door at the bottom of the passage into a room, while her mistress vanished in at another door at the top, and there was the screen I had seen the day before, and the lady sitting behind it.

She was a woman scarcely forty, taller than the middle size, had a very round, plump face, her mouth rather large, very red lips, the finest teeth and eyes I have seen, but at the top of her nose, and between her eye-brows, she had a small speck made of cohol or antimony, four-corner'd, and of the size of the smallest patches our women used to wear; another rather longer upon the top of her nose, and one on the middle of her chin.

Sittina. "Tell me what you would say to me as a physician."—Ya. "It was, Madam, but in consequence of your discourse yesterday. That heavy gold cap with which you press your hair will certainly be the cause of a great part of it falling off." Sitt. "I believe so; but I should catch cold, I am so accustomed to it, if I was to leave it off. Are you a man of name and family in your own country?" Ya. "Of both, Madam." Sitt. "Are the women handsome there?" Ya. "The handsomest in the world, Madam; but they are so good, and so excellent in all other respects, that nobody thinks at all of their beauty, nor do they value themselves upon it." Sitt. "And do they allow you to kiss their hands?" Ya. "I understand you, Madam, though you have mistaken me. There is no familiarity in kissing hands, it is a mark of homage, and distant respect paid in my country to our sovereigns, and to none earthly besides." Sitt. "O yes! but the kings." Ya. "Yes, and the queens, too, always on the knee, Madam; I said our sovereigns, meaning both king and queen. On her part it is a mark of gracious condescension, in favour of rank, merit, and honourable behaviour; it is a reward for dangerous and difficult services, above all other compensation." Sitt. "But do you know that no man ever kissed my hand but you?" Ya. "It is impossible I should know that, nor is it material. Of this I am confident it was meant respectfully, cannot hurt you, and ought not to offend you." Sitt. "It certainly has done neither, but I wish very much Idris my son would come and see you, as it is on his account I dressed myself to-day." Ya. "I hope, Madam, when I do see him he will think of some way of forwarding me safely to Barbar, in my way to Egypt." Sitt. "Safely! God forgive you! you are throwing yourself away wantonly. Idris himself, king of this country, dares not undertake such a journey. But why did not you go along with Mahomet Towash? He set out only a few days ago for Cairo, the same way you are going, and has, I believe, taken all the Hybeers with him. Go call the porter", says she to her slave. When the porter came, "Do you know if Mahomet Towash is gone to Egypt?" "I know he is gone to Barbar, says the porter, the two Mahomets, and Abd el Jelleel, the Bishareen, are with him." "Why did he take all the Hybeers?" says Sittina. "The men were tired and discouraged, answered the porter, by their late ill-usage from the Cubba-beesh, and, being stripped of every thing, they wanted to be at home." Sitt. "Somebody else will offer, but you must not go without a good man with you; I will not suffer you. These Bishareen are people known here, and may be trusted; but while you stay let me see you every day, and if you want any thing, send by a servant of mine. It is a tax, I know, improperly laid upon a man like you, to ask for every necessary, but Idris will be here, and he will provide you better." I went away upon this conversation, and soon found, that Mahomet Towash had so well followed the direction of the Mek of Sennaar, as to take all the Hybeers of note with him on purpose to disappoint me.

This being the first time I have had occasion to mention this useful set of men, it will be necessary I should here explain their office and occupation. A Hybeer is a guide, from the Arabic word Hubbar, to inform, instruct, or direct, because they are used to do this office to the caravans travelling through the desert in all its directions, whether to Egypt and back again, the coast of the Red Sea, or the countries of Sudan, and the western extremities of Africa. They are men of great consideration, knowing perfectly the situation and properties of all kinds of water to be met on the route, the distance of wells, whether occupied by enemies or not, and, if so, the way to avoid them with the least inconvenience. It is also necessary to them to know the places occupied by the simoom, and the seasons of their blowing in those parts of the desert, likewise those occupied by moving sands. He generally belongs to some powerful tribe of Arabs inhabiting these deserts, whose protection he makes use of to assist his caravans, or protect them in time of danger, and handsome rewards were always in his power to distribute on such occasions; but now that the Arabs in these deserts are everywhere without government, the trade between Abyssinia and Cairo given over, that between Sudan and that metropolis much diminished, the importance of that office of Hybeer, and its consideration, is fallen in proportion, and with these the safe conduct; and we shall see presently a caravan cut off by the treachery of the very Hybeers that conducted them, the first instance of the kind that ever happened.

One day, sitting in my tent musing upon the very unpromising aspect of my affairs, an Arab of very ordinary appearance, naked, with only a cotton cloth around his middle, came up to me, and offered to conduct me to Barbar and thence to Egypt. He said his house was at Daroo on the side of the Nile, about twenty miles beyond Syene, or Assouan, nearer Cairo. I asked him why he had not gone with Mahomet Towash? He said, he did not like the company, and was very much mistaken if their journey ended well. Upon pressing him further if this was really the only reason, he then told me, that he had been sick for some months at Chendi, contracted debt, and had been obliged to pawn his cloaths, and that his camel was detained for what still remained unpaid. After much conversation, repeated several days, I found that Idris (for that was his name) was a man of some substance in his own country, and had a daughter married to the Schourbatchie at Assouan. He said that this was his last journey, for he never would cross the desert again. A bargain was now soon made. I redeemed his camel and cloak; he was to shew me the way to Egypt, and he was there to be recompensed, according to his behaviour.

Chendi, by repeated observations of the sun and stars, made for several succeeding days and nights, I found to be in lat. 16° 38´ 35´´ north, and at the same place, the 13th of October, I observed an immersion of the first satellite of Jupiter, from which I concluded its longitude to be 33° 24´ 45´´ east of the meridian of Greenwich. The highest degree of the thermometer of Fahrenheit in the shade was, on the 10th of October, at one o'clock P. M. 119°, wind north; the lowest was on the 11th, at midnight, 87°, wind west, after a small shower of rain.

I prepared now to leave Chendi, but first returned my benefactress Sittina thanks for all her favours. She had called for Idris, and given him very positive instructions, mixt with threats, if he misbehaved; and hearing what I had done for him, she too gave him an ounce of gold, and said, at parting, that, for knowledge of the road through the desert, she believed Idris to be as perfect as any body; but in case we met with the Bishareen, they would neither shew to him nor to me any mercy. She gave me, however, a letter to Mahomet Abou Bertran, Shekh of one of the tribes of Bishareen, on the Tacazzé, near the Magiran, which she had made her son write from the Howat, it not being usual, she said, for her to write herself. I begged I might be again allowed to testify my gratitude by kissing her hand, which she condescended to in the most gracious manner, laughing all the time, and saying, "Well, you are an odd man! if Idris my son saw me just now, he would think me mad."

On the 20th of October, in the evening, we left Chendi, and rested two miles from the town, and about a mile from the river; and next day, the 21st, at three quarters past four in the morning we continued our journey, and passed through five or six villages of the Jaheleen on our left; at nine we alighted to feed our camels under some trees, having gone about ten miles. At this place begins a large island in the Nile several miles long, full of villages, trees, and corn, it is called Kurgos. Opposite to this is the mountain Gibbainy, where is the first scene of ruins I have met with since that of Axum in Abyssinia. We saw here heaps of broken pedestals, like those of Axum, all plainly designed for the statues of the dog; some pieces of obelisk, likewise, with hieroglyphics, almost totally obliterated. The Arabs told us these ruins were very extensive; and that many pieces of statues, both of men and animals, had been dug up there; the statues of the men were mostly of black stone. It is impossible to avoid risquing a guess that this is the ancient city of Meroë, whose latitude should be 16° 26´; and I apprehend further, that in this island was the observatory of that famous cradle of astronomy. The Ethiopians cannot pronounce P; there is, indeed, no such letter in their alphabet. Curgos, then, the name of the island, should probably be Purgos, the tower or observatory of that city.

There are four remarkable rivers mentioned by the ancients as contributing to form the island of Meroë. The first is the Astusaspes, or the river Mareb, so called from hiding itself under ground in the sand, and again immerging in the time of rain, and running to join the Tacazzé.

The next is the Tacazzé, as I have said, the Siris of the ancients, by the natives called Astaboras, which forms, as Pliny has said, the left channel of Atbara, or, as the Greeks have called it, the island of Meroë.

On the west, or right hand, is another considerable river, called by the name of the White River, and by the ancients Astapus, and which Diodorus Siculus says comes from large lakes to the southward, which we know to be truth. This river throws itself into the Nile, and together with it makes the right-hand channel, inclosing Meroë or Atbara. The Nile here is called the Blue River; and Nil, in the language of the country, has precisely that signification. This too was known to the ancients, as the Greeks have called it the Blue River, and these being all found to inclose Meroë, neither Gojam, nor any place that is not so limited, can ever be taken for that island.

I will not pretend to say that any positive proof should be founded upon the astronomical observations of the ancients, unless there are circumstances that go hand in hand with, and corroborate them; but we should be at a very great loss indeed, notwithstanding all the diligence of modern travellers, were we to throw the celestial observations of the ancients entirely behind us. We have, from various concurring circumstances, fixed our Meroë at Gerri, or between that town and Wed Baal a Nagga, that is about lat. 16° 10´ north; and Ptolemy, from an observation of the Solstice, fixes it at 16° 26´, so that the error here, if any, seems to be of no consequence, as the direction of the city might extend to the northward. The observations mentioned by Pliny are not so accurate, nor do they merit to be put in competition with those of Ptolemy, for very obvious reasons; yet still, when strictly examined, they do not fail, inaccurate as they are, to throw some light upon this subject. He says the sun is vertical at Meroë twice a-year, once when he enters the 18° of Taurus, and again when he is in the 14th degree of the Lion.

Here are three impossibilities, which plainly shew that this error is not that of Pliny, but of an ignorant transcriber; for if the zenith of Meroë answered to the 18th degree of Taurus, it is impossible that the same point should answer to the 14th degree of the Lion; and if Syene was 5000 stadia from the one, it is impossible it could be no more from the other which was south of it, if they were all three under the same meridian; let us then confess, as we must, that both these observations are erroneous.

But let us suppose that the first will make the latitude of Meroë to be 17° 20´, and the second 16° 40´; taking then a medium of these two bad observations, as is the practice in all such cases, we shall find the latitude of Meroë to be 16° 30´, only 4´ difference from the observation of Ptolemy.

Vosius[48], among a multitude of errors he has committed relating to the Nile, denies that there are any islands in that river. The reader will be long ago satisfied from our history, that this is without foundation, seeing that from the island of Rhoda, where stands the Mikeas, to the island of Curgos, which we have just now mentioned, we have described several. He would indeed insinuate, that Meroë, or Atbara, is not an island, but a peninsula, though it is well known in history these words are constantly used as synonimous; but were it not so, Meroë scarcely stands in need of this excuse. If the reader will cast his eye upon the map, he will see two rivers, the Rahad and Tocoor, that almost meet in lat. 12° 40´ north. Across the peninsula, left by these rivers, is a small stripe called Falaty, running in a contrary direction from the general course of rivers in this country, that is from east to west, though part of it in dry weather is hid in the sand, and this river makes Atbara a complete island in time of rain.

Simonides the Less staid five years in Meroë; after him, Aristocreon, Bion, and Basilis[49]. It is not then probable that men of their character omitted to ascertain the fact whether or not the place where they lived was an island. Diodorus Siculus has said, that Meroë was in the form of a shield, that is, in the figure of that triangular shield called Scutum, pointed at the bottom, and growing broader towards the top where it is square. Nothing can be more exact than this resemblance of the lower part of Atbara, that is, from Gerri to the Magiran, the part we suppose Diodorus was acquainted with, and it is scarcely possible that he could have fixed upon this resemblance without having seen some figure of it delineated upon paper.

As this must suppose a more than ordinary knowledge in Diodorus, we shall examine how the measures he has given us of the island correspond with the truth. He says, that the island is 3000 stadia long, and 1000 stadia broad. Now taking 8 stadia for a mile, we have 375 miles, and measuring with the compass from the river Falaty, where, as I have said, Atbara becomes an island by the confluence of the rivers, I find that distance to be 345 miles, of 60 miles to a degree, so that without making any allowance for the disadvantages of the country, it is impossible at this day to have a more accurate estimation. As for the breadth, it is scarcely possible to guess at what part Diodorus means it was measured, on account of the figure of the shield, as I have already observed, as constantly varying. But suppose, as is most probable, that the breadth of the island was referred to the place where the city stood, then, in place of 125 miles, the produce of 1000 stadia, I find it measures 145 miles, a difference as little to be regarded as the other.

Let us now examine what information we can learn from the report of the centurions sent on purpose by Nero to explore this unknown country, whose report has been looked upon as decisive of the distances of places through which they passed.

These travellers pretend, that between Syene and the entrance into the island of Meroë was 873 miles, and from thence to the city 70 miles; the whole distance then between Syene and the city of Meroë will be 943 miles, or 15° 43´. Now Syene was very certainly in 24°, a few minutes more or less; and from this if we take 15°, there will remain 9° of latitude for the island of Meroë, according to the report of these centurions, and this would have carried Meroë far to the southward of the fountains of the Nile, and confounded every idea of the geography of Africa. The parallel which marks 11° cuts Gojam very exactly in the middle, and this peninsula may be said to resemble the shield called Pelta; but very certainly not the Scutum, to which Diodorus has very properly likened it. Besides, their own observation condemns them, for it is about Meroë where they first saw an appearance of verdure; the reason of which is very plain, if the latitude of that city was in 16°, upon the verge of the tropical rains, where, as an eye-witness, I who have passed that dreary distance on foot can testify, those green herbs and shrubs, though they begin, as is very properly and cautiously expressed, to appear there, seem neither luxuriant nor abundant.