New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-05-31
FROM NETWORK TO NlNEVEH.
XXI.
THE COMMERCE OF SOUDAN-GOvERNMENT,
PEOPLE he

COMMERCE OF SOUDAN-oO' Ih-'H1<S'Af
PEOPLE he
Editorial Correspondence OF The N. Y. Tribune
KHARrorM in soudan, Wednesday, Feb. 4, ls52
reached here four days ago, without &C
cident, after having made in nine days voyage
which at this time of the year usually occupies
three weeks. This is very fortunate eircum-
stance as the weather in the meantime has wholly
changed. and everything denotes the approach oil
the hot and sicky season. The Thermometer
stand. at 1862 in the shade, at noon, and there IS
an intensely hot wind from the south ii have kept
of the languor and depression consequent upon
such heat by the preparations for my bome"aru
tourney and the interest Of q few more African
feasts and pageants. Among the latter have been;
The departure of Lattf Efendi's expedition up
the White Nile, which we accompanied whole
night, and had sheep served up by moonlight on
the sand the departure Of Abd-el-kader Bey Tor
Kordofan, previous to which all the Beys ana
Arab Chiefs pic-ncked together on an Island IN
the White Nile and the arrivals OF Abou SIN, the
great Shekh of the Shukorees, and Melek Dyaao,
King of Oar FL Mahass. | should like to enter
tain you with an account of these semi-Orental
semi-barbarc shows but as take leave OF MAR
toum tomorrow, have only time to redeem my
PROMISE with regard to the commerce OF Soudan
can give but outline regards the traffic be-
tween the Mediterranean coast and the interior,
but where nothing, comparatively is known, even
an outline is, as the Arabs say, ahhsan min balash-
better than nothing.
European goods reach Soudan through two prn-
cipal channels: by the port of Sowakn, on the
Red Sea, and the caravan route up the Nile and
across the Great Nubian Desert. Oflate years the
latter has become the principal thoroughfare, as
winter is the commercial season, and the storms on
the Red Sea are very destructive to the sinai
Arab craft. The merchants leave Cairo through
the autumn, principally between the lst OF Octo-
Der and the lst of December as they travel slow
" and rarely make the journey in less than two
months and half The great proportion of them
take the same route | followed, from kOroskO
to Berber, where they ship again for khartoum.
Those who buy their own camels at Assouan,
make the whole trip by land but it is more usual
for them to buy camels in Soudan for the return
Journey, as they can sell them in Upper Egypt at
| advanced prices. In fact the trade in cames
| alone is not inconsderable. On my way to this
| place met many thousands in droves of from one
to five hundred on their way to Egypt.
! The merchants who make this yearly trip to
| Soudan are mostly Egyptians and Nubians. There
are number of Syrians established here, but they
| are for the most part connected with houses IN
| Cairo, and their caravans between the two places
are in charge of agents, natives, whose character
has been proved by long service. There are also
| three or four French and Italian merchants and one
Englis.lman, (Mr. Petherick, in Kordofan,) who
| carry on their business in the same manner. 1t IS
no unusual thing for Nubians WHO have amassed
| two or three thousand piastres by household SER
vice in Cairo, to form partnerships, invest their
money in cotton goods and after year or two on
/ the Journey flor time is anything but money TO
them,) return to Egypt with Il few hundred weight
/ of gum or half dozen camels. They earn a few
piastres, perhaps, in return for the long tolls and
priyations they have endured but their pride Is
g,ati6od by the title of DJeiiabidt-merchants
1t is reckoned good school, and not without rea-
son, for young Egyptians who devote themselves
to Commerce. have met even the sons OF Beys
among this class. Those who are prudent, and
have a fair capital to start upon, can generally
c,;p enough in two or three wears to establish
themselves respectfully in Egypt.
The goods brought into CentralAfica consist
principally of English muslins and callcocs, the
light red wooden stuifs of Barbary, cutlery, beads
and trinkets. Cloths, silks, powder, tobacco, and
arakee are also brought in considerable quantities.
while in the large towns there is always a good
sale for sugar rice, coffee and spices. The Turk
ish officials and the Franks very fond of the
aniseed cordial of Scio, maraschino rosoglo, and
the other Levantine liquors; and even the heavy,
resinous wines of Smyrna and Cyprus find their
way here. The natives prefer for clothing the
coarse, unbleached cotton stuits OF their own
manufacture, one mantle OF which is sufficient for
years. As may readily be supposed, the market
is frequently glutted with goods OF this descrlp-
ton. whence the large houses often send money
from Cairo for the purchase of gum and ivory, in
preference to running any risk. At present, all
sorts of muslms and calicoes may be had here at
very slight advance OH Cairo prices, and the mer
chants who are daily arriving with additional bales.
complain that the sale will not pay the expenses of
their Journey. The remarkable success of the
caravans last year has brought crowd of adven-
turers into the lists very few of whom will realize
their expectations. 1t is the California experience
in another form. No passion is half so blind as
the greed for gain.
khartoum is the great metropolis of all this re-
/ gion. Some few caravans strike directly through
! the Beyooda Desert, from Dongoa to kordofan,
but the great part come directly to this place,
where they dispose OF their goods, and then pro-
coed to Kordofan for gum, wait the return o
the yearly expedition up the White Nile, to stock
themselves with ivory. On both these articles
there is generally good, sometimes a great profit.
The gum comes almost entirely from hordotan,
where the quantity annually gathered amounts to
10000 cOatar, or cwt Ii IS collected by the ma.
tives from that variety Of the mimosa called the
asha5a and sold BY them at from % To 90 piastres