# Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile/Volume 4/Book 8/Chapter 12

CHAP. XII.
Distress in the Desert — Meet with Arabs — Camels die — Baggage abandoned — Come to Syene.
ON the 17th of November, at half past ten in the forenoon, we left the valley and pool of Chiggre, Ismail, and Georgis the blind Greek, had complained of shivering all night, and I began to be very apprehensive some violent fever was to follow. Their perspiration had not returned but in small quantity ever since their coming out of the water, and the night had been excessively cold, the thermometer standing at 63°. The day, however, was insufferably hot, and their complaints insensibly wore off to my great comfort. A little before eleven we were again terrified by an army (as it seemed) of sand pillars, whose march was constantly south, and the favourite field which they occupied was that great circular space which the Nile makes when opposite to Assa Nagga, where it turns west to Korti and Dongola. At one time a number of these ​pillars faced to the eastward, and seemed to be coming directly upon us; but, though they were little nearer us than two miles, a considerable quantity of sand fell round us. I began now to be somewhat reconciled to this phenomenon, seeing it had hitherto done us no harm. The great magnificence it exhibited in its appearance, seemed, in some measure, to indemnify us for the panic it had first occasioned: But it was otherwise with the simoom; we all of us were firmly persuaded that another passage of the purple meteor over us would be attended with our deaths.
At half past four we alighted in a vast plain, bounded on all sides by low sandy hills, which seemed to have been transported hither lately. These hillocks were from seven to thirteen feet high, drawn into perfect cones, with very sharp points and well-proportioned bases. The sand was of an inconceivable fineness, having been the sport of hot winds for thousands of years. There could be no doubt that the day before, when it was calm, and we suffered so much by the simoom between El Mout and Chiggre, the wind had been raising pillars of sand in this place, called Umdoom; marks of the whirling motion of the pillars were distinctly seen in every heap, so that here again, while we were repining at the simoom, Providence was busied keeping us out of the way of another scene, where, if we had advanced a day, we had all of us been involved in inevitable destruction.
On the 18th we left Umdoom at seven in the morning, our direction N. a little inclined to W.; at nine o'clock we passed through a sandy plain, without trees or verdure. About 300 yards out of our way, to the left, among ​5(54 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
fofne fanrly hillocks, where the gi^ound feems to be more' filevated than the reft, Idris the Hybeer told me, that one of the largeft caravans which ever came out of Egypt, under the condu(5t of the Ababde and the Bilhareen Arabs, was there covered with land, to the number of fome thoufands of camels. There are large rocks of grey granite fcattered through this plain. Ac ten o'clock we alighted at a place called trboygi, where are fome trees, to feed, our camels. The trees I have fo often mentioned in our journey thro' the defert are not timber, or tall- growing trees ; there are none of thefe north of Sennaar, except a few at Chendi. The trees 1 fpeak of, which the camels eat, are a kind of dwarf acacia, growing only to the height of bufhes ; and the wood fpoken of likewife is only of the defert kind, ate almoft bare by the camels- There are fome high trees, in-- deed, on the banks of the Nile. At half paft one o'clock we left Erboygi, and came to a large wood of doom (Palma Guciofera). Here, for the firft time, we faw a flirub which very much refembled Spanifh broom. The whole ground is dead fand, with fome rocks of reddiili granite.. Exactly at five o'clock we alighted in the wood, after having tra- velled a moderate pace,. The place is called El Cowie, and' is a ftation of the Bilhareen in the fummer months ; but thefe people were now eaft of us, three days journey, towards the Red Sea, where the rains had fallen, and there was plen- ty of pafture. At forty minutes pail twelve we left Ei Cowie, and at five o'clock in the evening alighted in a wood, called Terfowey, full of trees and grafs. The trees are the talleft and largeil we had feen fince leaving the Nile. We had this day enjoyed, as it were, a holiday, free from the terrors of the fand, or dreadful influence of the fimoom. Ihis poifonous wind had made feveral attempts to prevail
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fliis day, but was always overpowered by a cool breeze ati north.
On the 19th we left the weft end of the wood, or rather continued the whole length of it, and at a quarter paft eight; in the evening arrived at the. well. It is about four fa- thoms deep, but the fpring. not very abundant. We drain^- ed it feveral times, and were obliged to wait its. filling again.. Thefe laft two days, fince we were at El Cowie, we had feeii more verdure than we had altogether fince we left Barbar. Here, particularly at Teffowey, the acacia- trees are tall and verdant, but the mountains on each. fide appear black and; barren beyond imagination..
As foon as we alighted at Terfowey, and had chofen 3 proper place where our camels could feed, we unloaded our baggage near them, and fent the men to clean the well, and wait the filling of the fkins. We had lighted a large fire. The nights were exccflively cold, though the thermo- meter was at S3° ; and that cold occafioned me inexprefilble pain in my feet, now fwelled to a monftrous fize, and eve- rywhere inflamed and excoriated. I had taken upon me the charge of the baggage, and Mahomet, Idris's young man, the care of the camels ; but he too was gone to the well, though expeded to return immediately, .
A DOUBT had arifen in my mind by the way, which was then giving me great uneafinefs. If Syene is under the fame meridian with Alexandria, (for fo Eratoflhenes con- ceived when he attempted to meafure the. circumference of
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the earth), in this cafe, Alexandria being fuppofed to lye in long. 30°, Syene miifl: be in 30° likevvife ; but Gooz being in 34°, it is impoflible that Syene can be within a trifle north of Gooz ; and therefore we mufl have a much greater quan- tity of welling to travel than Idris the Hybeer imagines, who places Syene a very little weft of the meridian of Gooz, or immediately under the fame meridian, and due north from it
Our cajnels were always chained by the feet, and the chain fccured by a padlock, left they fliould wander in the night, or be liable to be ftolen and carried off. Mufmg then upon the geographical difficulties juft mentioned, and gazing before me, without any particular intention or fuf- picion, I heard the chain of the camels clink, as if fome- body was unloofmg them, and then, at the end of the gleam made by the fire, I law diftinctly a; man pafs fwiftly by, Hoop- ing as he went along, his face almoll to the ground. A lit- tle time after this I heard another clink of the chain, as if from a pretty fharp blow, and immediately after a move- ment among the camels. I then rofe, and cried in a threaten- ing tone, in Arabic, *' I charge you on your life, whoever you are, either come up to me dire(5lly, or keep at a diftancc till day, but come that way no more; why fliould you throw your life away?" In a minute after, he repafTed in the fhade among the trees, pretty much in the manner he had done before. As I was on guard between the baggage and the camels, I was confequently armed, and advanced deliberate- ly fomc fteps, as far as the light of the fire fhone, on purpofe to difcovcr how many they were, and was ready to fire up- on the next I faw. " If you are an honeft man, cried I aloud, and want any thing, come up to the fire and fear not, I am I alone ; ​THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 567
alone; but if you approach the camels or the baggage a- gain, the world will not be able to fave your life, and your blood be upon your own head." Mahomet, Idris's nephew, who heard me cry, came running up from the well to fee what was the matter. We went down together to where the camels were, and, upon examination, found that the links of one of the chains had been broke, but the opening not large enough to let the correfponding whole link through to feparate it. A hard blue Hone was driven through a link of one of the chains of another camel, and left flicking there, the chain not being entirely broken through; we faw, befides, the print of a .man's feet on the fand. There was no need to tell us affer this that we were not to lleep that night; we made therefore another fire on the other fule of the camels with branches of the aca- cia-tree, which we gathered. I then fent the man back to Idris at the well, defiring him to fdl his flcins with water before it was light, and tranfport them to the baggage where I was, and to be all ready armed there by the dawn of day; foon after which, if the Arabs were fufficiently llrong, we were very certain they would attack us. This agreed perfectly with Idris's ideas alfo, fo that, contenting themfelves with a leller quantity of water than they firil intended to have taken, they lifted the fkins upon the camels I fent them, and were at the rendezvous, near the baggage, a. little after four in the morning.
The Barbanns, and, in general, all the lower fort of Moors and Turks, adorn their arms and wrills with amulets; thefe are charms, and are fome favourite verfe of the Koran wrapt in paper, neatly covered with Turkey leather. The two Barbarins that were with me had procured for themfelves-
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new ones at Sennaar, which were to defend them from the fimoom and the fand, and all the dangers of the defert. That they might not foil thefe in filling the water, they had taken them from their arms, and laid them on the brink of the well before they went down. Upon looking for thefe after the girbas were filled, they were not to be found. This double attempt v/as an indication of a number of people being in the neighbourhood, in which cafe our prefcnt fituaiion was one of the moft defperate that could be figured. We were in the middle of the moft barren, inhofpitable defert in the world, and it was with the utmoft difficulty that, from day to day, we could carry wherewithal to afi^uage our thirft. We had with us the only bread it was pofilble to procure for fome hundred miles ; lances and fwords were not ne- ceflary to deftroy us, the burfiing or tearing of a girba, the lamencfs or death of a camel, a thorn or fprain in the foot which might difable us from walking, were as certain death to us as a fliot from a cannon. There was no flaying for one another ; to lofe time was to die, becaufe, with the ut- moft exertion our camels could make, we fcarce could cany along with us a fcanty provifion .of bread and water fuffi- ,cient to keep us alive.
That defert, which did not afford inlialiitants for the at fiftance or relief of travellers, had greatly more than fufii- cient for deftroying them. Large tribes of Arabs, two or three thotifand, cncam.ped together, were cantoned, as it were, in different places of this defert, where there was wa- ter enough to fcrve their numerous herds of cattle, and thefe, as their occafion required, traverfed in parties all that wide expanfe of folitude, frcm the mountains near the Red Sea ,eaft, to the ba^ks of the Nile on the wtft, according as their ^ feveral ​THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 569
feveral defigns or neceflities required. Thefe v/cre Jaheleen Arabs, thofe cruel, barbarous fanatics, that deliberately (hed fo much blood during the time they were eftablifliing the Mahometan religion. Their prejudices had never been re- moved by any mixture of ftrangers, or foftened by fociety, even with their own nation after they were poliflied ; but buried, as it were, in thefe wild deferts, if they were not grown more favage, they had at leaft preferved, in their full vigour, thofe murdering principles which they had brought with them into that country, under the brutal and inhuman butcher Kaled Ibn el Waalid, impioufly called n^be Sword of God. If it fliculd be our lot to fall among thefe people, and it was next to a certainty that we were at that very inftant furrounded by them, death was certain, and our only comfort was, that we could die but once, and that to die like men was in our own option. Indeed, without confidering the bloody character which thefe wretches na- turally bear, there could be no reafon for letting us live.: We could be of no fervice to them as flaves ; and to have fent us into Egypt, after having firfl rifled and deftroyed our goods, could not be done by them but at a great expence, to which well-inclined people only could have been induced from charity, and of thatlaft virtue they had not even heard .the name. Our only ciiance then remaining was, that their number might be fo fmall, that, by our great fuperiority in fire-arms and in courage, we might turn the misfortune upon the aggreiTors, deprive them of their camels and means of carrying water, and leave them fcattered in the defert, to that death which either they or we, without al- ternative, mufl: fuifer.
¥0L. IV. 4 G I EXPLAINED ​I explained myself to this purpose, briefly to the people, on which a great cry followed, "God is great! let them come!" Our arms were perfectly in order, and our old Turk Ismael seemed to move about and direct with the vigour of a young man. As we had no doubt they would be mounted on camels, so we placed ourselves a little within the edge of the trees. The embers of our two fires were on our front; our tents, baggage, and boxes, on each side of us, between the opening of the trees; our camels and water behind us, the camels being chained together behind the water, and ropes at their heads, which were tied to trees. A skin of water, and two wooden bowls beside it, was left open for those that should need to drink. We had finished our breakfast before day-break, and I had given all the men directions to fire separately, not together, at the same set of people; and those who had the blunderbusses to fire where they saw a number of camels and men together, and especially at any camels they saw with girbas upon them, or where there was the greatest confusion.
The day broke; no Arabs appeared; all was still. The danger which occurred to our minds then was, left, if they were few, by tarrying we should give them time to send off messengers to bring assistance. I then took Ismael and two Barbarins along with me, to see who these neighbours of ours could be. We soon traced in the sand the footsteps of the man who had been at our camels; and, following them behind the point of a rock, which seemed calculated for concealing thieves, we saw two ragged, old, dirty tents, pitched with grass cords.
OUR people had come to see what had passed, and I sent the women away, ordering them to be kept separate, out of the hearing of one another, to judge if in their answers they did not prevaricate. The woman desired to have her child with her, which I granted. The little creature, instead of being frightened, crowed, and held out its little hands as it passed me. We fastened the Arab with the chain of the camels, and so far was well; but still we did not know how near the Bishareen might be, nor who these were, nor whether they had sent off any intelligence in the night. Until we were informed of this, our cafe was little mended. Upon the man's appearing, all my people declared, with one general voice, that no time was to be lost, but that they should all be put to death as soon as the camels were loaded, before we set out on our journey; and, indeed, at first view of the thing, self-preservation, the first law of nature, seemed strongly to require it. Hagi Ismael was so determined on the execution that he was already seeking a knife sharper than his own. "We will stay, Hagi Ismael, said I, till we see if this thief is a liar also. If he prevaricates in the answers he gives to my questions, you shall then cut his head off, and we will consign him with the lie in his mouth, foul and body to hell, to his master whom he serves." Ismael answered, "The truth is the truth; if he lies, he can deserve no better.
THE reader will easily understand the necessity of my speaking at that moment in terms not only unusual for a Christian, but even, in any society or conversation; and if the ​ferocity and brutality of the discourse should shock any, especially my fair readers, they will remember, that these were intended for a good and humane purpose, to produce fear in those upon whom we had no other tie, and thereby extort a confession of the truth; which might answer two purposes, the saving the effusion of their blood, and providing for our own preservation. "You see, said I, placing the man upon his knees, your time is short, the sword is now drawn which is to make an end of you, take time, answer distinctly and deliberately, for the first trip or lie that you make, is the last word that you will utter in this world. Your wife shall have her fair chance likewise, and your child; you and all shall go together, unless you tell me the naked truth. Here, Ismael, stand by him, and take my sword, it is, I believe, the sharpest in the company."
"Now I ask you, at your peril, Who was the good man your wife reproached you with having murdered? where was it, and when, and who were your accomplices?" He answered trembling, and indistinctly, through fear, "It was a black, an Aga from Chendi." "Mahomet Towash, says Ismael; Ullah Kerim! God is merciful!" "The same," says the Bishareen. He then related the particulars of his death in the manner in which I shall have occasion to state afterwards. "Where are the Bishareen? continued I; where is Abou Bertran? how soon will a light camel and messenger arrive where he now is?" "In less than two days; perhaps, says he, in a day and a half, if he is very diligent and the camel good." "Take care, said I, you are in danger. Where did you and your women come from, and when?" "From Abou Bertran, says he; we arrived here at noon on the 5th ​day, but the camels were all she-camels; they are favourite camels of Shekh Seide; we drove them softly; the two you saw at the tents are lame; besides there were some others unsound; there were also women and children." "Where did that party, and their camels, go to from this? and what number of men was there with them?" "There were about three hundred camels of all sorts, and about thirty men, all of them servants; some of them had one lance, and some of them two; they had no shields or other arms." "What did you intend last night to do with my camels?" "I intended to have carried them, with the women and child, to join the party at the Nile." "What must have become of me in that case? we must have died?" He did not answer. "Take care, said I, the thing is now over, and you are in my hands; take care what you say." "Why, certainly, says he, you must have died, you could not live, you could not go anywhere else." "If another party had found us here, in that case would they have slain us?" He hesitated a little, then, as if he recollected himself, said, "Yes, surely, they murdered the Aga, and would murder any body that had not a Bishareen with them." A violent cry of condemnation immediately followed. "Now attend and understand me distinctly, said I, for upon these two questions hangs your life: Do you know of any party of Bishareen who are soon to pass here, or any wells to the north, and in what number? and have you sent any intelligence since last night you saw us here?" He answered, with more readiness than usual, "We have sent nobody ​anywhere; our camels are lame; we were to follow, as soon as they could be able to travel, to join those at the Nile. The parties of the Bishareen are always passing here, sometimes more, sometimes less; they will not come till they hear from the Nile whether the grass is grown. They have with them two dromedaries, who will carry the news from the Nile in three days, or they will come in small parties like the last, for they have no fear in these parts. The wells to the north belong to the Ababdé. When they pass by them with cattle they are always in great numbers, and a Shekh along with them; but those wells are now so scanty they have not water for any number, and they must therefore all pass this way."
I got up, and called on Ismael. The poor fellow thought he was to die. Life is sweet even to the most miserable. He was still upon his knees, holding his hands clasped round the back of his neck, and already, I suppose, thought he felt the edge of Ismael's knife. He swore that every word he had spoken was truth; and if his wife was brought she could not tell another story.
I thereupon left him, and went to his wife, who, when, she saw Hagi Ismael with a drawn sword in his hand, thought all was over with her husband, and fell into a violent fit of despair, crying out, "That all the men were liars and murderers, but that she would have told the truth if I had asked her first." "Then go, Hagi Ismael, said I, tell them not to put him to death till I come, and now you have your chance, which if you do not improve by telling the truth, I will first slay your child with my own hand before your face, and then order you all to be cruelly put to
Though I understood Arabic well, I did not, till that day, know it had such powers, or that it contained expressions at once so forcible and so simple. I found myself so much moved, and my tears came so fast, that it was in vain to endeavour to carry on a farce under such tragical appearances, "Woman, said I, I am not a Turk, nor do I make slaves, or kill children. It is your Arabs that force me to this; it was you that attacked me last night, it was you that murdered Mahomet Towash, one of your own religion, and busied in his duty. I am a stranger, seeking my own safety, but you are all murderers and thieves."—"It is true, says she, they are all murderers and liars, and my husband, not knowing, may have lied too. Only let me hear what he told you, and I will tell you whether it is truth or not." Day was now advancing apace, and no resolution taken, whilst our present situation was a very unsafe one. We
I stated fairly, in a council held among ourselves, the horror of slaughtering the women and child, or even leaving them to starve with hunger by killing their camels, from whom they got their only sustenance; for, though we should not stain our hands with their blood, it was the same thing to leave them to perish: that we were strangers, and had fallen upon them by accident, but they were in their own country. On the contrary, suppose we only slew the man, any of the women might mount a camel, and, travelling with diligence, might inform the Bishareen, who would send a party and cut us off at the next well, where we must pass, and where it would be impossible to escape them. I must say, there was a considerable majority for sparing the women and child, and not one but who willingly decreed the death of the man, who had confessed he was endeavouring to steal our camels, and that he intended to carry them to his party at the Nile; in which case the loss of all our lives was certain, as we should have been starved to death, or murdered by the Arabs.
The very recital of this attempt so enraged Hagi Ismael that he desired he might have the preference in cutting off his head. The Barbarins, too, were angry for the loss of their bracelets. Indeed every one's opinion was, that the Arab should die, and especially since the account of their behaviour to Mahomet Towash, whose death I, for my own part, cannot say I thought myself under any obligation to revenge. "Since you are differing in your opinions, and
It was easy to see, that fear of their own lives only, and not cruelty, was the reason they sought that of the Arab. They answered me, two or three of them at once, "That it was all very well; what should they do? should they give themselves up to the Bishareen, and be murdered like Mahomet Towash? was there any other way of escaping?" "I will tell you, then, since you ask me what you should do: You shall follow the duty of self-defence and self-preservation, as far as you can do it without a crime. You shall leave the women and the child where they are, and with them the camels, to give them and their child milk; you shall chain the husband's right hand to the left of some of yours, and you shall each of you take him by turns till we shall carry him into Egypt. Perhaps he knows the desert and the wells better than Idris; and if he should not, still we have two Hybeers instead of one; and who can foretell what may happen to Idris more than to any other of us? But as he knows the stations of his people, and their courses at particular seasons, that day we meet one Bishareen, the man that is chained with him, and conducts him, shall instantly stab him to the heart, so that he shall not see, much less triumph in, the success of his treachery. On the contrary, if he is faithful, and informs Idris where the danger is, and where we are to avoid it, keeping us rather by scanty wells than abundant ones, on the day I arrive safely in Egypt I will cloath him anew, as also his women, give him a good camel for himself, and a load of dora for them all. As for
An universal applause followed this speech; Idris, above all, declared his warmest approbation. The man and the women were sent for, and had their sentence repeated to them. They all subscribed to the conditions chearfully; and the woman declared she would as soon see her child die as be an instrument of any harm befalling us, and that, if a thousand Bishareen should pass, she knew how to mislead them all, and that none of them should follow us till we were far out of danger.
I sent two Barbarins to lame the camels effectually, but not so as to make them past recovery. After which, for the nurse and the child's sake, I took twelve handfuls of the bread which was our only food, and indeed we could scarecly spare it, as we saw afterwards, and left it to this miserable family, with this agreeable reflection, however, that we should be to them in the end a much greater blessing than in the beginning we had been an affliction, provided only they kept their faith, and on their part deserved it.
At half past eight in the evening we alighted at a well called Naibey, in a bare, sandy plain, where there were a few straggling acacia-trees. We had all this day seen large blocks of fossile salt upon the surface of the earth where we trod. This was the cause, I suppose, that both the spring at Terfowey, and now this of Naibey, were brackish to the taste, and especially that of Naibey. We found near the well the corpse of a man and two camels upon the ground. It was apparently long ago that this accident happened, for the moisture of the camel was so exhaled that it seemed to
ON the 21st, at six in the morning, having filled the girbas with water, we set out from Naibey, our direction due north, and, as we thought, in a course almost straight upon Syene. The first hour of our journey was through sharp-pointed rocks, which it was very easy to foresee would very soon finish our camels. About eight we had a view of the desert to the westward as before, and saw the sands had already begun to rise in immense twisted pillars, which darkened the heavens. The rising of these in the morning so early, we began now to observe, was a sure sign of a hot day, with a brisk wind at north; and that heat, and the early rising of the sands, was as sure a sign of its falling calm about mid-day, and its being followed by two hours of the poisonous wind. That last consideration was what made the greatest impression, for we had felt its effects; it had filled us with fear, and absorbed the last remnant of our strength; whereas the sand, though a destruction to us if it had involved us in its compass, had as yet done us no other harm than terrifying us the first days we had seen it.
IT was this day more magnificent than any we had as yet seen. The sun shining through the pillars, which were thicker, and contained more sand apparently than any of the preceding days, seemed to give those nearest us an appearance as if spotted with liars of gold. I do not think at any time they seemed to be nearer than two miles. The most remarkable circumstance was, that the sand seemed to keep in that vast circular space surrounded by the Nile ​on our left, in going round by Chaigie towards Dongola, and seldom was observed much to the eastward of a meridian, passing along the Nile through the Magiran, before it takes that turn; whereas the simoom was always on the opposite side of our course, coming upon us from the south-east.
A little before twelve our wind at north ceased, and a considerable quantity of fine sand rained upon us for an hour afterwards. At the time it appeared, the description of this phænomenon in Syphax's speech to Cato was perpetually before my mind:—
So, where our wide Numidian wastes extend, Sudden th' impetuous hurricanes descend, Wheel through the air, in circling eddies play, Tear up the sands, and sweep whole plains away. The helpless traveller, with wild surprise, Sees the dry desert all around him rise, And smother'd in the dusty whirlwind dies." Addison.
These lines are capital, and are a fine copy, which can only appear tame by the original having been before our eyes, painted by the great master, the Creator and Ruler of the world.
The simoom, with the wind at S. E. immediately follows the wind at N. and the usual despondency that always accompanied it. The blue meteor, with which it began, passed over us about twelve, and the rustling wind that followed it continued till near two. Silence, and a desperate kind ​of indifference about life, were the immediate effects upon us; and I began now, seeing the condition of my camels, to fear we were all doomed to a sandy grave, and to contemplate it with some degree of resignation. At half past eight in the evening we alighted in a sandy flat, where there was great store of bent grass and trees which had a considerable degree of verdure, a circumstance much in favour of our camels. We determined to stop here to give them an opportunity of eating their fill where they could find it.
On the 22d, at six o'clock we set out from the sandy flat, and one of the Tucorory was seized with a phrenzy or madness. At first I took it for a fit of the epilepsy, by the distortions of his face, but it was soon seen to be of a more serious nature. Whether he had been before afflicted with it I know not. I offered to bleed him, which he refused; neither, though we gave him water, would he drink, but very moderately. He rolled upon the ground, and moaned, often repeating two or three words which I did not understand. He refused to continue his journey, or rise from where he lay, so that we were obliged to leave him to his fortune. We went this day very diligently, not remarkably slow nor fast; but though our camels, as we thought, had fared well for these two nights, another of them died about four o'clock this afternoon, when we came to Umarack.
I here began to provide for the worst. I saw the fate of our camels approaching, and that our men grew weak in proportion; our bread, too, began to fail us, altho' we had plenty of camels flesh in its stead; our water, though in all appearance we were to find it more frequently than in
Our camels were now reduced to five, and it did not seem that these were capable of continuing their journey much longer. In that case, no remedy remained, but that each man should carry his own water and provisions. Now, as no one man could carry the water he should use between well and well, and it was more than probable that distance would be doubled by some of the wells being found dry; and if that was not the case, yet, as it was impossible for a man to carry his provisions who could not walk without any burden at all, our situation seemed to be most desperate.
The Bishareen alone seemed to keep up his strength, and was in excellent spirits. He had attached himself, in a particular manner, to me, and with a part of that very scanty rag which he had round his waist he had made a wrapper, very artificially, according to the manner his countrymen the Bishareen practice on such occasions. This had greatly defended my feet in the day, but the pain occasioned by the cold in the night was really scarce sufferable. I offered to free him from the confinement of his left
hand, which was chained to fome one of the company night and day ; but he very fenfibly refufed it, faying, " Unchain my hands when you load and unload your camels, I can- not then run away from you ; for tho' you did not fhoot me, I ihould itarve with hunger and thirft ; but keep me to the end of the journey as you began with me, then I cannot mifbehave, and lofe the reward which you fay you are to give me."
At forty minutes paft three o'clock we faw large ftratas of fofhle fait everywhere upon the furl-ace of the ground. At five we found the body of Mahomet Towafh, on the fpot where he had been murdered, ftript naked, and lying on his face unburied. The wound in the back-fmew of his leg was apparent ; he was, befides, thruft through the back with a lance, and had two wounds in the head with fwords. We followed fome footlleps in the fand to the right, and there faw three other bodies, whom Idris knew to be his principal fervants. Thefe, it feemed, had taken to their arms upon the Aga's being firft wounded, and the cowardly, treacherous Bifliareens had perfuadcd them to capitulate upon promife of givmg them camels and pro- vifion to carry them into Egypt, after which they had murdered them behind thefe rocks.
At fix o'clock we alighted at Umarack, fo called from a number of rack- trees that grow there, and which feem to afifecfl a faltifti foil; at Raback and Mafuah I had fcen them growing in the fea. When I ordered a halt at Um- arack, the general cry was, to travel all night, fo that we might be at a diftance from that dangerous, unlucky fpot. The fight of the men murdered, and fear of the like fate,
liad ​THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 587
had got the better of their other fenfations. hi iliort, there was nothing more vifible, than that their apprehenfions were of two forc-^, and produced very different operations. The fimoom, the talking pillars of fand, and probability of dying with thirft or hunger, brought on a torpor, or in- difference, that made them inaftive; but the difcovery of the Arab at Terfowey, the fear of meeting the Bifhareen at the wells, and the dead bodies of the Aga and his unfor- tunate companions, produced a degree of adtivity and irri- tation that refembled very much their fpirits being elevated by good news. I told them, that, of all the places in the defert through which they had pafled, this was by far the fafeft, becaufe fear of being met by troops from AlTouan, feeking the murderers of Mahomet Towafla would keep all the Bifliareen at a diftance. Our Arab faid, that the next well belonged to the Ababde, and not the Bifliareen, and that the Bifliareen had flain the Aga there, to make men believe it had been done by the Ababde. Idris contributed his morfel of comfort, by afTuring us, that the wells now, as far as Egypt, were fo fcanty of water, that no party above ten men would truft their provifion to them, and none of us had the leaft apprehenfion from marauders of twice that number. The night at Umarack was exceflively cold as to fenfation ; Falirenheit's thermometer was however at 49° an hour before day-light.
On the 23d we left Umarack at fix o'clock in the morn- ing, our road this day being between mountains of blue ftones of a very fine and perfecfl quality, through the heart of which ran thick veins of jaiper, their llrata perpendicu- lar to the horizon. There were other mountains of marble of the colour called Ifabella. In other places the rock feem-
4 E 2 ed ​ed of petrified wood, such as we had seen in the mountains near Cosseir. At a quarter past eleven, going due N. we entered a narrow valley, in which we passed two wells on our left, and following the windings through this valley, all of deep sand, we came to a large pool of excellent water, called Umgwat, sheltered from the rays of the sun by a large rock which projected over it, the upper part of which was shaped like a wedge, and was composed all of green marble, without the smallest variety or spot of other colour in it.
Through this whole valley, to-day, we had seen the bodies of the Tucorory who had followed Mahomet Towash, and been scattered by the Bishareen, and left to perish with thirst there. None of them, however, as far as we could observe, had ever reached this well. In the water we found a bird of the duck kind called Teal, or Widgeon. The Turk Ismael was preparing to shoot at it with his blunderbuss, but I desired him to refrain, being willing, by its flight, to endeavour to judge something of the nearness of the Nile. We raised it therefore by sudden repeated cries, which method was likely to make it seek its home straight, and abandon a place it must have been a stranger to. The bird flew straight west, rising as he flew, a sure proof his journey was a long one, till at last, being very high and at a distance, he vanished from our sight, without descending or seeking to approach the earth; from which I drew an unpleasant inference that we were yet far from the Nile, as was really the case.
Here we threw away the brackish water that remained in our girbas, and filled them with the wholesome element
At a quarter past three we left the well, and continued along a sandy valley, which is called Waadi Umgwat. This night it was told me that Georgis, and the Turk Ismael, were both so ill, and so desponding, that they had resolved to pursue the journey no farther, but submit to their destiny, as they called it, and stay behind and die. It was with the utmost difficulty I could get them to lay aside this resolution, and the next morning I promised they should ride by turns upon one of the camels, a thing that none of us had yet attempted. They had, indeed, often desired me to do so, but I well knew, if I had set them that example, besides destroying the camels, it would have had the very worst effect upon their dastardly spirits; and, indeed, we very soon saw the bad effects of this humane consideration for the two invalids.
On the 24th, at half past six in the morning we left Umgwat, following the windings of sandy valleys between stony hills. At half past nine we found Mahomet Aga's horse dead. The poor creature seemed, without a guide, to
On the 25th, at half past seven in the morning we left the well El Haimer, and at ten o'clock alighted among some acacia-trees, our camels having ate nothing all night, except the dry bitter roots of that drug, the senna. While we were attending the camels, and resting ourselves on the grass, we were surprised at the appearance of a troop of Arabs all upon camels, who looked like a caravan, each camel having a small loading behind him. They had two gentle ascents before they could arrive at the place where we were. The road is between two sandy hills, at the back of which our camels were feeding in a wood; and near the road was the well El Haimer, where our skins were lying full of water. It was necessary then to understand one another before we allowed them to pass between the sandy hills. Upon the first alarm, my people all repaired to me,
The first question was, what to do with the Bishareen? None of us had any suspicion of him. We unchained him from the Barbarin, and fastened his other hand, then gave him to the Tucorory, and made them stand behind to increase the appearance of our number. I then advanced to the edge of the hill, and cried out with a loud voice, "Stop! for you cannot pass here." Whether they understood it I do not know, but they still persisted in mounting the hill. I again cried, shewing my firelock, "Advance a step farther and I'll fire." After a short pause they all dismounted from their camels, and one of them, with his lance in his hand, came forward till within twenty yards, upon which Idris immediately knew them, and said, they were Ababdé. "Ababdé or not, said I, they are seventeen men, and Arabs, and I am not of a disposition, without further surety, to put myself in their hands as Mahomet Aga did. I am sure they are perfectly in our power now, as long as they stand where they are." Idris then told me that he was married to one of the Ababdè of Shekh Ammer, and he would go and get a sure word from them. Tell them from me, said I, that I, too, am the friend of Nimmer their Shekh, and his two sons, and of Shekh Hammam of Furshout; that I am going into Egypt, have been followed by the Bishareen, and trust nobody; have twenty men armed with firelocks, and will do them no harm, provided they consent to pass, one by one, and give a man for a hostage.
principal men among them approaching me without their lances, and the compliment of peace, "Salam Alicum! and Alicum Salam!" was given and returned by both sides. They seemed, however, startled at seeing the Bishareen with both his hands chained; but I told them, that had no regard to them, and desired Idris to order their camels to go on; and one of the Barbarins in the meantime brought them a gourd full of water, and bread, for eating together is like pledging your faith. They had not heard of the fate of Mahomet Aga, and seemed very ill-pleased at it, saying, that Aboil Bertran was a thief and a murderer. All the camels being past, I asked them whither they were going ? They said to Atbieh, west of Tersowey, to gather senna for the government of Cairo. I would very fain have had them to sell or exchange with me a couple of camels. They said theirs were not strong; that before they could reach home they would be much in the same condition with our own; that they were obliged to load them very heavily, as indeed the bags they had behind them to carry the senna seemed to indicate their profit was but small, so that the death of one camel was a most serious loss,
I THOUGHT myself obliged in humanity to introduce our prisoner to the two Ababde that had remained with us. They said, they intended to take water at Tersowey, and we told them briefly the accident by which we came in company with the Bishareen. They, on the contrary, thought that we had been a party of soldiers from Assouan who apprehended the Arab. Immediately after which they con​versed in the language of Beja, which is that of the Habab, Suakem, and Masuah. I told them plainly, that, though I knew that language, I would not suffer them to speak any but Arabic, understood by us all. They immediately complied, and then inquired about the position of Abou Bertran and his tribe of Bishareen. This, too, I would not suffer the Arab to inform them of, but charged them, as he did also, to tell his wives that he was well, and ate and drank as we had done, and was within two days of arriving at Assouan, whence he should be returned to them with the rewards promised. I then desired him to lay a lance in a manner that the point should be towards Syene, which they accordingly did, and with a long needle of 12 inches in a brass box, having an arch of a few degrees marked on it, I, with the utmost attention, took the direction from Haimer to Syene N. N. W. or more northerly. I would very willingly have had it in my power to have made an observation of latitude, but noon was past; I contented myself, therefore, with keeping my route as distinctly as possible till the evening.
At 40 minutes past one o'clock we left Haimer, and our friends, the Ababdé, continued their route, after giving us great praise, as well for our civility, as our keeping the watch like men, as they expressed it. At half past eight we alighted at Abou Ferege, a place where there was very little verdure of any kind. Here, for the first time on our journey, we met with a cloudy sky, which effectually disappointed my observation of latitude; but every noon and night I described, in a rough manner, my course through the day, carrying always a compass, with a needle about five
inches radius, round my neck, by a lace, and refting in my pocket. I thus found that we had kept the hne diredly upon Syene, which the Ababde Arab had Ihewed us.
On the 26th, at half after fix in the morning we fet out from Abou Ferege, continuing nearly in the fame diretftion upon Syene till eleven o'clock, when, for the purpofe of obfervation only, I alighted at a place called Abou Here- gi, without water, grafs, or food for our camels. We were exceedingly averfe to exertions, and became fo weak and fpiritlefs, that it was not poffible to prevail upon our people to take the large quadrant out of its cheil to put it together, and prepare it for obfervation. I therefore took a Hadley's quadrant, with a mixture I had made, which ferved me bet- ter than quick- filver, and made my obfervation by reflection at Abou Heregi, and found it in lat. 23°, from which I infer- red, with fome decree of comfort to myfelf, that the longi- tude of Syene in the French maps is ill laid down, and that we were now in the dire(5lion upon Syene, had no wefting to run down, but the journey mult finifli in a very few days.
At two o'clock in the afternoon we left Abou Heregi, and at four had an unexpected entertainment, which filled our hearts with a very fliort-lived joy. The whole plain before us feeraed thick-covered with green grafs and yel- low daifies. We advanced to the place with as much fpeed as our lame condition woul-d fufter us, but how terrible was our difappointment, when we found the whole of that ver- dure to confifl: in fenna and coloquintida, the moll naufeous of plants, and the moit incapable of being fubitituted as food for man or bcaft. At nine o'clock in the evening we alight- ed at Saffieha, which is a ridge of craggy mountains to the
S«- £>■ ​S. E. and N. W. The night here was immoderately cold, and the wind north. We were now very near a crisis, one way or the other. Our bread was consumed, so that we had not sufficient for one day more; and though we had camels flesh, yet, by living so long on bread and water, an invincible repugnance arose either to smell or taste it. As our camels were at their last gasp, we had taken so sparingly of water, that, when we came to divide it, we found it insufficient for our necessities, if Syene was even so near as we conceived it to be.
Georgis had lost one eye, and was nearly blind in the other. Ismael and he had both become so stiff by being carried, that they could not bear to set their feet to the ground; and I may say for myself, that, though I had supported the wounds in my feet with a patience very uncommon, yet they were arrived at that height as to be perfectly intolerable, and, as I apprehended, on the point of mortification. The bandage, which the Bishareen had tied about the hollow of my foot, was now almost hidden by the flesh swelling over it. Three large wounds on the right foot, and two on the left, continued open, whence a quantity of lymph oozed continually. It was also with the utmost difficulty we could get out the rag, by cutting it to shreds with scissars. The tale is both unpleasant and irksome. Two soles which remained from our sandals, the upper leathers of which had gone to pieces in the sand near Gooz, were tied with a cotton cloth very adroitly by the Bishareen. But it seemed impossible that I could walk further, even with this assistance, and therefore we determined to throw away the quadrant, telescopes, and time-keeper, and save our lives, by riding the camels alternately.
On the 27th, at half past five in the morning we attempted to raise our camels at Saffieha by every method that we could devise, but all in vain, only one of them could get upon his legs, and that one did not stand two minutes till he kneeled down, and could never be raised afterwards. This the Arabs all declared to be the effects of cold; and yet Fahrenheit's thermometer, an hour before day, stood at 42°. Every way we turned ourselves death now stared us in the face. We had neither time nor strength to waste, nor provisions to support us. We then took the small skins that had contained our water, and filled them as far as we thought a man could carry them with ease; but after all these shifts, there was not enough to serve us three days, at which I had estimated our journey to Syene, which still however was uncertain. Finding, therefore, the camels would not rise, we killed two of them, and took so much flesh as might serve for the deficiency of bread, and, from the stomach of each of the camels, got about four gallons of water, which the Bishareen Arab managed with great dexterity. It is known to people conversant with natural history, that the camel has within him reservoirs in which he can preserve drink for any number of days he is used to. In those caravans, of long course, which come from the Niger across the desert of Selima, it is said that each camel, by drinking, lays in a store of water that will support him for forty days. I will by no means be a voucher of this account, which carries with it an air of exaggeration; but
The small remains of our miserable stock of black bread and dirty water, the only support we had hitherto lived on amidst the burning sands, and our spirits likewise, were exhausted by an uncertainty of our journey's end. We were surrounded among those terrible and unusual phænomena of nature which Providence, in mercy to the weakness of his creatures, has concealed far from their sight in deserts almost inaccessible to them. Nothing but death was before our eyes; and, in these terrible moments of pain, suffering, and despair, honour, instead of relieving me, suggested still what was to be an augmentation to my misfortune; the feeling this produced fell directly upon me alone, and every other individual of the company was unconscious of it.
The drawings made at Palmyra and Baalbec for the king, were, in many parts of them, not advanced farther than the outlines, which I had carried with me, that, if leisure or confinement should happen, I might finish them during my travels in case of failure of other employment, so far at least, that, on my return through Italy, they might be in a state of receiving further improvement, which might carry them to that perfection I have since been enabled to con
I would be understood not to mean by this, that my thoughts were at such a time in the least disturbed with any reflection on the paltry lies that might be propagated in malignant circles, which has each its idol, and who, meeting, as they say, for the advancement of learning, employ themselves in blasting the fame of those who must be allowed to have surpassed them in every circumstance of intrepidity, forethought, and fair achievement. The censure of these lion-faced and chicken-hearted critics never entered as an ingredient in my sorrows on that occasion in the sadness of my heart; if I had not possessed a share of spirit enough to despise these, the smallest trouble that occurred in my travels must have overcome a mind so feebly armed. My sorrows were of another kind, that I should, of course, be deprived of a considerable part of an offering I meant
About three o'clock in the afternoon of the 27th we saw two kites, or what are called Haddaya, very numerous in Egypt; about a quarter of an hour afterwards, another of the same sort, known to be carrion-birds, probably going in search of the dead camels. I could not conceal my joy at what I regarded as a happy omen. We went five hours and a half this day, and at night came to Waadi el Arab, where are the first trees we had seen since we left El Haimer.
On the 28th, at half past seven in the morning we left Waadi el Arab, and entered into a narrow defile, with rugged, but not high mountains on each side. About twelve o'clock we came to a few trees in the bed of a torrent. Ill ​as I was, after refreshing myself with my last bread and water, I set out in the afternoon to gain a rising ground, that I might see, if possible, what was to the westward; for the mountains seemed now rocky and high like those of the Kennouss near Syene. I arrived, with great difficulty and pain, on the top of a moderate hill, but was exceedingly disappointed at not seeing the river to the westward; however, the vicinity of the Nile was very evident, by the high, uniform mountains that confine its torrent when it comes out of Nubia. The evening was still, so that sitting down and covering my eyes with my hands, not to be diverted by external objects, I listened and heard distinctly the noise of waters, which I supposed to be the cataract, but it seemed to the southward of us, as if we had passed it. I was, however, fully satisfied that it was the Nile.
Just before I left my station the sun was already low, when I saw a flock of birds, which, in Syria, where they are plenty, are called the Cow Bird. In Egypt they are also numerous upon the Nile, but I do not know their name. They are a small species of the heron, about a third of the size of the common one, milk-white, having a tuft of flesh-coloured feathers upon their breast, of a coarser, stronger, and more hairy like quality than the shorter feathers. A flock of these birds was flying in a straight line, very low, evidently seeking food along the banks of the river. It was not an hour for birds to go far from their home, nor does this bird feed at a distance from its accustomed haunt at any time. Satisfied then that, continuing our courfe N. W. we should arrive at or below Syene, I returned to join my Companions, but it was now dark, and I found Idris and ​the Barbarins in some pain, endeavouring to trace me by my footsteps.
I communicated to them this joyful news, which was confirmed by Idris, though he did not himself know the just distance from this place (Abou Seielat) as his usual way had been to Daroo, not to Assouan, which he did not choose to approach, for fear of the vexations from the Turkish garrison. A cry of joy followed this annunciation. Christians, Moors, and Turks, all burst into floods of tears, kissing and embracing one another, and thanking God for his mercy in this deliverance, and unanimously in token of their gratitude, and acknowledgment of my constant attention to them in the whole of this long journey; saluting me with the name of Abou Ferege, Father Foresight, the only reward it was in their power to give.
On the 29th, at seven o'clock in the morning we left Abou Seielat; about nine, we saw the palm trees at Assouan, and a quarter before ten arrived in a grove of palm-trees on the north of that city.