Chapter I (1)

Meeting of the Brothers. — Fever in Chartum. — Travelling Projects. — Present from the Pascha. — The Divan. — A German Sultan. — Party at Soliman Effendi’s. — Preparations for Departure.

For about a year I and my youngest brother had resided at Chartum, the capital of Bellad-Sudan, in the district of Sennaar, at which place we had arrived after a journey of three months, from Cairo. Of all my brothers, Joseph was the dearest to me, and loved me in turn most devotedly. After passing his medical examinations in Berlin, he had come to pay me a visit and make himself acquainted with the remarkable diseases of Egypt, ere he settled down for life.

In the tavern of Guerra, in Cairo, he recognised me the instant he entered the room; whereas I took him for some impertinent Frenchman, when in his joyful surprise he stared at me from head to foot, and laughed at the rage I showed, and the furious look with which I strode towards him to demand what he meant, and call him to account on the spot. We had not met for eight years, and besides that he had meanwhile grown into manhood, his whole expression of countenance was changed, as a severe sabre cut he had received in a duel had severed the risible muscles of one side of his face, and the poor fellow could only laugh with the other side of it. The joy of this meeting, in another quarter of the globe, proved so overpowering to both of us, that at first the wine would not go down, for all that many congratulating friends, and especially my particular ally, Von Salis, from Switzerland, could do, though the latter, with warm tears of sympathy, exerted himself by pledging and jingling glasses with us, to arouse our cheerfulness and enable us to rally. In a short time, however, we got on better.

I now quitted the village of Tura, lying in a waste, although on the Nile, and some three miles (German, equal to twelve English) further up it than Cairo, and where I had retired to do penance, and finish my work on the White Nile, leaving also my dear friend Dr. Scheldehaus, from Osnabrück, the professor of the military school there (now Director of Military Hospitals in Alexandria), with whom my brother had been a fellow-student at Bonn, and hired for Joseph and myself a small bouse on the Eshekir Plâce, in Cairo. After undergoing an examination of some half hour, Joseph was appointed surgeon-major, with the rank of Sakulagassi (oldest Jussbaschi or captain) to the central hospital, Kasr-el Ain, with a monthly salary of 1000 piastres (or about 10_l._) and the allowances of the rank—rations for one horse and four servants. But our gaze was directed on Central Africa and its interior. I had already heard, when in Alexandria, from Achmet Capitan, the former frigate captain, Baumgartner, from Switzerland, and there an honest tailor of high skill, that preparations were making to fit out an expedition to explore the source of the Nile (though gold was the spring sought); but, until this came off, we lived in the happiest brotherly unity in the ancient city of the Caliphs. Our love of travelling was aroused; my office in the Prussian Consulate at Alexandria was sacrificed to the love of adventure, and Joseph was appointed surgeon to the 1st regiment in Sennaar, in addition to his office as surgeon of the Central Hospital at Chartum. Our friends were alarmed for us on account of the dangerous climate; but, full of high heart, we sailed past the fair Isle of Roda, with pleasing remembrances of the happy hours spent on it, and up the Nile, feeling more and more rejoiced as, free from the tumults of the city, we advanced to fresh views and new places. In Tura our stout Dr. Schledehaus awaited us, along with the kind-hearted Schley, from Hamburgh, who, as instructor, was quartered with his regiment in the camp near. The sorrows of parting, like the joys of meeting, were drowned in wine. These were the last friends to wish us a happy return. With outfit for some years that had cost us much money, and in our lately assumed Turkish dress and arms, we looked boldly and firmly towards the future and its unknown dangers; and now and then, by the Prussian flags flying from the mast-head and stern of our Dahabie[1], our thoughts were turned back to our distant fatherland; but no fears of home-sickness—never could this overtake us! The powerful impressions of this splendid voyage, and the responses of our minds to these most magnificent views of the world’s wonders, I must for the present drive forcibly from my recollection, and will only mention how my poor brother, near the cataracts of Ariman, in Upper Nubia, where our bark was nearly dashed to pieces on the rocks, received a _coup de soleil_, and that after ten days of delirium, during which his sufferings tortured my anxious mind, I cured him by the application of blisters. I then fancied him as not yet acclimated; but I, too, who had already passed many years in the East, was, after a few days’ residence at Chartum, a sufferer under a similar attack of this dreadful malady, which, alas! after my return from the White Nile, was the disease that put an end to my brother’s young and promising life.

During our whole residence in Chartum, we were ever in a most pitiable state, suffering almost continually from attacks of intermittent and other fevers, there so malignant. Gracious Heaven, however, so ordered it, that we were always laid up at different times, once only excepted, when, as about to sit down to dinner, we both felt so overpowered, as we fancied by the smell of the viands, as to fall back nearly unconscious on the divan, where more than likely we had then met our fate, had not two Italian doctors seen us through the window, and, coming to our aid, bled us freely. Our fears, therefore, of being at last compelled, struggle as we might against it, to sink under the influence of a climate that slowly saps man’s health, and even destroys his mind, could not be looked on as cowardly, or founded on improbable grounds.

Under such uncomfortable circumstances, it was little wonder our departure from Chartum for Egypt was determined on; eternal illnesses, despondency, and increasing dislike to an unbearable climate, as well as spirits and bodies dying of ennui of a life of quarantine, united to a devouring longing for the healthy, white-skin-producing North, urged us as soon as possible to quit for ever this unhealthy city, as well as the arid steppes of the Bellad-Sudan. Our purpose was still more strengthened by the first expedition to the source of the White Nile, having sailed while we lay on sick couches, and with it went the main object of our journey. At this time, the Grand Cadi paid us a visit, while his attending Faki remained standing at the doors. We fancied he had come to have a talk with us, or hold a small court of inquiry as to a matter in which I was principally concerned. The case was this: we had allowed the poor mother and sisters of our two servants to occupy one of our out-buildings, and for some days I had observed a tall young Faki, in white garments, and with an immense rosary round his neck, creep over the court to the window, and write some characters on the ground before her door. I asked the sons what the priest did there, and was told by them, with sad faces, that he wrote charms, or amulettes, for the women, and that they had to give up their wages to pay him; that he was a greedy miser, and had already received so much that they had nothing left for themselves. This angered me, and I went across the court to him, and asked, “Amiè è?” (What do you?) but without honouring me with a glance, or even rising for a Nasrani, or Kafr (Infidel), he replied, “Di schogie betai!” (That’s my business!) Next moment I had him by the arm, and, pointing to the gate, desired him to quit our court; but he would not, and striking his breast, exclaimed, “Ana Faki!” (I am a priest), and I retorted by “Ente uachet Faki misaur!” (You are a cheating priest and robber!) and only on my laying hold of a piece of stout stick lying handy, did he, with many threats, quit the court. Hardly had I again sat down and cooled somewhat, when a violent knocking was made at our gates, before which a crowd of Faki and other rabble had gathered. Our servants, who had not been long under my training, retreated in terror, and would not venture to open the court gates, until I, double-barrelled gun in hand, went to our house door, and in loud voice, ordered the gates, with an “Hab ekta el hal!” to be opened. “Stand still!” said my sick brother, in feeble voice, as he laid his double rifle over my left shoulder; and a lad of the name of Sale, from Mahaff, who was anxious to enter our service, also laid hold of a rifle. The cowardly priest-rabble now drew off as fast as they had come; and in the bazaars the Turks had great rejoicings, that we had here thus asserted the sacredness of Europeans’ dwellings. But our good Cadi Effendi had no such matters in his head; but told us with kind, friendly, but sly look, how much the Effendina (Excellency Achmet Pascha, Governor General of Bellad-Sudan) had been pleased to hear of two stout brothers like us, each attending to the other during our illnesses, and advised us from time to time to appear at his Excellency’s divan, &c. &c. Although in our own hearts we felt that we had been merely doing our duty, still the acknowledgment of it by strangers much pleased us; for, as the Italians say, “questi sono fratelli!” We also received tidings from the Pascha, that the private physician of Abbas Pascha, who was no other than our old friend Dr. Gand, was coming to Chartum. The Cadi also spoke of the pleasant taste of the Spanish wines, which he, as a Magrabian (Maugrabin), and unprejudiced Mussulman, was aware of, on which my brother at once prescribed and administered to him a glass of Cardinal, as medicine to strengthen his stomach.

Dr. Gand, an old friend of our Pascha Achmet, with whom he had made a campaign in Arabia, arrived; and as the Doctor was also an old fellow campaigner of mine, we having served together as Philhellenists in Greece, in 1822, my intimacy with the Pascha became more repeated and friendly. He had much raised the Pascha’s expectations as to us, and had not hesitated, in Eastern style, to recommend us as universal geniuses, and as honest, honourable men, to whom he, the Pascha, might trust life and limb. Dr. Gand confided to us that the Pascha meditated a campaign into Darfur, during which we might be of much service to him, and where he would look upon us as his two eyes, as he could not confide fully in any of his own people. On this news, that much excited and interested us, we at once gave up all thoughts of so immediate a departure, and the more willingly, as other inducements were held out to us. My brother was to be made, in place of Soliman Effendi (the renegade Baron de Pasquali, from Palermo), inspector-general of the medical department of all Bellad-Sudan, as the Pascha no longer could employ a man who had already been guilty of so many poisonings, both in Arabia and here.[2] This office of inspector had a salary of six purses, or 3000 piastres, per mensem, attached to it; and the Pascha was also to appoint Joseph his own physician, and that of his harem, and give him from his own pocket a monthly gratification of 1000 piastres. I, who, as my old comrade had told him, had been a captain in the Greek wars of liberty, was to be at his side as Maëndes (engineer), have the rank of Bimbaschi (major), with five purses, free table, and all I could wish for. On my reminding my friend Gand that I was nothing more than a lawyer, he laughed heartily, and replied, that in these lands a man must know everything; that he himself (he had served under Napoleon) had filled here military and various other posts. Besides, he added, that it was the Pascha’s wish, that agreeably to Turkish etiquette, I, a free Frank, should want nothing that would raise my greatness in their eyes.

Next morning we all three waited on the Pascha, who expressed himself highly pleased at our decision, and repeated himself to us the promises he had made through Dr. Gand, and gave orders to procure the sanction of his father-in-law, the Viceroy, to our appointments. After a time he even offered to make me a bey, if I would, as he said, turn Mussulman, not on his own account, for he was an unprejudiced Circassian, but to please the Turkish asses; I laughed, and he said no more about it. He asked our advice as to how he had better carry out his advance into Darfur, and he was Turk enough himself to select the time of the Chariff, or rainy season, for it; and when I also represented to him that from the well-known sensibility of the troops to the effects of wet, one half of his army would give in, he replied by a contemptuous “Malesch!” (It matters not!) I voted for the dry season, as water was to be had here and there, and for the establishment of wells under the protection of block-houses, thus to supply the army, when in the steppes, with the needful water. Such doings were beyond his comprehension; and he boasted of his 700 dromedaries, each of which could, on an emergency, carry three soldiers. On our departing, he sent his Mameluke to call me back, and said, “Musju, ente masduht, musch doggeri?” (Sir, you are discreet and silent; is it not so?) and adding, after looking for a time inquiringly at me, “Taib!” (Good!) he again dismissed me. Soon after this Dr. Gand became seriously unwell, and so irritable, that no one save we two brothers dared approach him; to us he continually talked, and in German, paying no regard to his Italian and French visitors, and on purpose that they might not understand him. Unheeding my brother’s well-meant advice to quit Chartum without delay, he lingered there too long, and died at Abu Hamet, on his way back to his former station. For a year his body lay in the wilderness, covered with the dry sand, ere his family could have it disinterred to be conveyed to France. During his life, the kind Doctor had been little better than skin and bone, and the warm sand had converted his corpse into a kind of mummy; but it had suffered so little change, that not a feature was altered, nor a hair gone of those long, fair moustaches, from which the Pascha and his courtiers used to call the Doctor, Abu Schennap.

When we got home after the above-mentioned audience, two handsome and fully-equipped dromedaries stood at our gates; but instead of being those of visitors, as we thought, they proved to be a present from the Pascha, and were well fitted for a campaign, both from their strength and size, and also from their having been broken to allow of firing from their backs without shying or bolting. At the Divan the Pascha had repeatedly asked me if there was anything I wished for, and Dr. Gand had admonished me in German not to be modest, but I had no wish to appear selfish or greedy; we had enough, and I was too proud to desire to divest myself of my independence by accepting presents, or putting myself under obligations of any kind. Some days after I was summoned to the Pascha; and keeping on my shoes, as I ever did, strode over the large carpet to near where he sat, and bowed to him, while he only touched with his hand his tarbusch (red cap), and did not touch either mouth or breast, the usual sign by which breath, hand, and heart are placed at another’s disposal. I, without any leave asked, sat down European fashion on the divan, and took the cup of coffee offered me, without making the usual sign of thanks for the honour conferred, by placing the hand on the breast. After some business was despatched, the Bascha dismissed all his attendants by a wave of the hand, and turning to me, said with a most dark and lowering face, “I have had letters; first Darfur, and now Taka, will pay no tribute, nor have they done so since Churschid Bascha was in the Chaaba (the forests where he was defeated); and so nothing comes in to the chasne (public purse). I need money, much money,—want it most badly. So come along with me, and on the journey we all will recover our healths (he had also been ill of fever); yonder there are woods, and waters, and many high hills, as in Germany and Circassia.” On my showing my pleasure at his proposal, he went on more cheerfully, and told me, that as soon as he had brought Taka back to its duty, he would open the gate of Habesch, and then that of Darfur, and thus again restore the old trading communication, and compel the caravans to pass through Bellad-Sudan. When I remarked to him that the English cabinet had announced, by an energetic note to Mahomed Ali, that it would at once declare war against him, and lay siege to Alexandria, if he encroached on the limits of Abyssinia, he smiled, and said in most meaning tones, that Egypt was far off, and he was not likely to see it again. ’Twas true he had been minister of war there (Divan Gehadie), and plenty of trouble he had had as such; but that he was now exiled to Bellad-Sudan, and it was his country, where he, as Egyptian general and judge (Miraloa), would follow his own will: as for the English, he was no friend to them, nor would be to those who had been such bitter foes to Napoleon; and he rather fancied he could conquer all Habesch ere an enemy’s ship showed itself; then he would be in a position to make conditions, and I should be his envoy, &c.

My brother was again ill, desponding, and spoke of quitting the country; but he smiled more cheerfully as I produced the map, and spreading it before him, requested him to place his finger on the spot where I should found for him a dukedom, or at least a countship, during the expedition of the Crescent, or anti-Crusade. We again discussed a former plan of ours of going to Bagdad, where Joseph was to set up as a physician, and I, _nolens volens_, qualify myself as apothecary, there to win heathen gold; as some Turks, whose homes were there, had told us wonders of the delights of their fat Mesopotamians, and the splendid dates of Bassora. We therefore resolved to take our passports with us, in case we should determine to cross the Red Sea. By this time I had thoroughly seen through the Pascha, and resolved at once to propose to him a scheme I had formed in favour of these oppressed races, viz., that he should place himself at their head, and declare them and himself independent of the Egyptian Vampire; and ere long I actually did so, and all, in the end, might have gone right, had he not, instead of gaining in every way the confidence of the principal persons and heads of tribes, and most influential people about him, tyrannised over all in the most shameful manner. Gold and regiments was his motto.

When either my brother or I wished to pay a visit to the Pascha (and this Joseph, as private physician, should have done every morning, but cunningly avoided it, under the plea of not daring to interrupt him in the multiplicity of matters which the Pascha had to attend to, though the sly doctor never omitted his morning’s visit to the Pascha’s wife, a daughter of Mahomed Ali, and to his harem), we went first to the chasnadar’s (treasurer’s), a Circassian, who had been manumitted by the Pascha, and who could always produce a good breakfast from the great man’s cellar and kitchen; and such visits, at which there was generally a merry party, we used, among ourselves, to call “antichambriren” (antechambering). Others who had not the entrée of our small divan, had often to stand for hours at the doors of the great divan, as there all business is so far public, that any one who has a report or request to make, may without announcement enter, and remain standing till the Pascha makes a sign to him to advance, and permits him, with the before- mentioned movements of the hands and deepest reverence, to say, “Good morning, your Excellency!” (Salbacheer, Saba-el-chair Effendina!) and perchance to kiss the hem of his robe, and then, according to his rank, tell him, either by slightest sign, or in words, to be seated (fadl ochaut), _i.e._ to kneel with the feet under the hinder part of the body, which, resting on them, is bent, however, forward in the attitude of prayer, and so to remain till the great man, by another sign, allows of a seat being taken in a somewhat more comfortable position, viz., that of the well-known Turkish fashion, comfortable enough to them indeed, but far from it to Europeans.

At one of these meetings at the Treasurer’s, we heard from him that the Pascha had said that a German sultan was coming to Chartum, and ordered him to have the kandschia (row boats) ready to send out to meet him. How the word sultan, or sultana, was now used here, though properly only designating a prince of the reigning family, we well knew, from its being bestowed on Prince Puckler Muscau, who figured here as Sultan belal Moscow, and had even been taken, by some wise persons, to be the Tzar of Muscovy, although he here, as in other places, tried to avoid giving the everlasting and indispensable Bakschish, that men might not suppose that gold was to be had in Germany for the gathering. However, we proceeded to pay our respects to the Pascha, and learn from him the name of this expected and noble guest; he drew from under the carpet he sat on, the letters of introduction from Cairo, though rather, as it seemed, annoyed at our asking. The name was not given, but the guest was a German.[3]

The Pascha sent us a message, “the German was come,”—nothing more. It was evening, but our curiosity was too highly excited to rest contented, for the messenger knew no more than that he was a fat handsome sultan (semmin keweiss). The great curtain of the divan door was down, a sign that public business was over, and entrance forbidden the profane; so we reached the saloon by a side entrance, and here I at once recognised one of the Janissaries of the Russian Consulate in Alexandria, by his large silver badge. On my “Chi?” I heard “Principe di Wurtemberg,” and the secret was out. The stout gentleman was delighted when he heard himself saluted in German. For the first time we beheld the Pascha seated on a chair; he was in full uniform, a red jacket covered with gold, the large crescent richly set with diamonds, and three brilliant stars on his left breast, and sabre at his side; the Prince, Duke Paul William of Mergentheim, was also dressed in a sort of half Turkish style, a red cap on his head, a shawl round his white trowsers, and his broad sabre at his side. Soliman Effendi, who had got there before us, had taken on himself the office of interpreter, although the Prince could only converse with him in French, and this he often misunderstood. The institutions of Mahomed Ali seemed to have struck the noble traveller as exceeding all his expectations. The Pascha listened and was silent; but on the conversation being turned on European, and at last on German affairs, love of country, and a feeling of insulted nationality burst from me, and now German was the language; happily our views and opinions agreed, and ere long, all again went on quietly and pleasantly. The Duke rose, so did the Pascha, and all the rest of us; the curtain was drawn back by the numerous attendants, and I plainly observed how the proud Circassian drew himself up, and hardly bent his handsome head as our good countryman, on coming to the head of the steps, took a wordless leave with many low bows and reverences, at which the Pascha could not conceal his laughter and great amusement. On the stairs the Prince took my arm, which gave the Pascha afterwards reason for a well-founded remark on respect due to difference of ranks, though Turkish etiquette carries it rather too far.

Next evening we supped with the Pascha. In vain had we been amusing ourselves with the idea of beholding the fat Prince seated on the ground and eating with his fingers, the table was set out and all arranged European fashion. Some Franks and Turks had been also invited; my brother sat by the Duke, I by the Pascha at the opposite side of the table, and each had before him a different kind of wine. The Pascha did not fail to continually fill my glass, something unheard of, as here this is a servant’s business, and to insist on my being helped before himself; “Keddi el tartibb Frengk” (Such are European customs), he said to me. The Duke first proposed a health to the Viceroy; the Pascha drank it, and gave the Duke; and then came the Pascha’s own health, and it was also drunk. I was again filling the Pascha’s glass, when I felt, under the table, an ice-cold hand laid on mine, and he whispered to me that he was suffering under an attack of the fever, but to say nothing about it. Although my brother was most assiduously performing the part of cup- bearer to the Duke, and doing honour to his name of Joseph, still the Pascha every moment kept calling on me to urge him to fulfil his office. The rest of the party at table, though impressed, drank stoutly; and when from a side table a number of bottles of champagne were brought into play (though, in spite of all I could say, each was well shaken by the stupid attendants, and on the corks being sprung, all was froth and foam), then did the noise and jubilee begin, and a perfect Babel of tongues arose, as the half dozen different languages of our party came into contact with each other; and only with difficulty could I make out what the Duke, in great glee, shouted to me in his loud, commanding officer like tones, or translate to the Pascha all the pretty complimentary speeches his German Highness gave vent to, in praise of the Pascha and brave Circassians. He would make the campaign to Taka with the Pascha; would manage all; overthrow and defeat all before him. The Pascha smiled, and accepted his offers; and when I told him that the Duke was a cavalry general, he laughing said, “Such troops as he has been used to command I have not, but still it were well he went with me; but he jests.”

The morning of this party the Duke told us, that as he travelled incognito, he wished to be treated as a private gentleman. We asked him to dinner for next day; he accepted, and declared himself decidedly opposed to water drinking in tropical climates, and to a certain degree he was right, as the stomach there much more requires stimulants. At dinner he was wonderfully eloquent, told us tales of his travels in America, and that he had served as major in the Prussian army, and was aware he yet retained somewhat of his old commanding officer’s tones. The wine, added to the effects of the previous evening’s carouse with the Pascha, put his princely corpulence into a fearful state of heat, and the warmth of the day also conduced to his feverish state, so that my brother Joseph gazed on him with alarm, and in case bleeding should be necessary laid out his apparatus all ready in the next room; but his Highness’s strong constitution held firmly out, not only then, but also during his further tour, which in spite of my brother’s advice, and that of his own private physician, Dr. Veit, an old friend of Joseph’s, he undertook and luckily completed in safety. His train, besides the kawass, before mentioned, consisted of a lot of Yagers, and an American of Spanish blood. He passed most of his time with us, and took in our garden the latitude of Chartum, which he laid down as 15° 41′ 25″ N. He also selected from our small collection of birds the most curious specimens, and a good many too, for his rich museum at Mergentheim, from which we were in return to be allowed to choose other things. Soliman Effendi asked me if he might venture to invite the Duke, as this “Altezza tedesca” much pleased him; and more, he would like to give him the German national dish of “Fava.” I delivered the invitation, along with some remarks as to this gentleman’s poisoning habits, though I feared much less for the Duke than for my brother, who had already been named the Baron’s successor. This mattered not to the Prince, and as I had before now placed myself on a decided footing with Soliman, I told him plainly he must reserve his revengeful feelings and poisoning abilities for some others, as both my brother and myself would come with loaded pistols to his feast, and if any of our party felt even a belly- ache, shoot him through the head (brucciare il cervello). His table was served in the German manner, and much to our surprise he kept his promise as to the Fava (large beans shelled). All invited appeared save Vaissière—formerly a captain in the French service, now a slave-dealer, and with the cross of the Legion of Honour—who would not trust himself at the Baron’s table, as the latter had, after trying to purchase over his head a favourite female slave, managed, out of revenge, to poison her. All appetites were sharp, but we rose all sound. After a time the Duke altered his mind and plans as to Taka, but promised, however, on his return from Faszogl, to take a part in the campaign. I had to promise the Pascha, in his name, a rifle peculiarly adapted for crocodile shooting, and a hundred bottles of champagne.

* * * * *

On the 1st of March, 1840, my brother returning from the Pascha, told me that the vessels were again all in readiness for Karreri, that he had to accompany the Pascha, and we would meet again at Damer, the place of rendezvous of the army intended for Taka. Karreri (by the Turks called Chirreri), a village some three hours below Chartum, and the residence of the friend and countryman of the Pascha’s, Soliman Kaschef, has a healthy climate, and on this account Joseph had advised the Pascha to hasten there as soon as possible, for the latter was again suffering from fever, and would hear nothing of quinine, but insisted on bleeding; and that, Joseph in his turn, with equal stern pertinacity, would not allow of, let the other fume and look as fierce as he chose. Often have I admired the Pascha’s composure during illness. The curtain of the great door was down, and I therefore entered by a side one, and there he sat as usual, occupied with various affairs, and all kinds of business; but at such times the Circassian lion was tamed and mild as a lamb.

The whole burden of our unfinished preparations now fell to my lot. For provisions, clothes, arms, ammunition, tent, &c., were already 6,000 piastres gone. As far as food and drink went, we might perchance have saved ourselves somewhat, as the Pascha had assured us of places at his table; but we could not depend on the Turkish complimentary style of promising, knowing the hungry state of his dependants, and were particularly anxious to reserve perfect liberty to ourselves. I still required ten camels for the conveyance of our baggage, as the golden cupolas of Bagdad yet held a place in our minds, and had bought, at a high price, two pack-camels (hamln) that had escaped the searching eyes of the soldiery, when Khaimakan (Lieutenant-colonel) Sorop Effendi offered me eight camels from government (belik), their price to be deducted from our allowances. Now came the puzzle, what was I to do with our animals? Our great pride, a young lion without a mane, was dead. Soliman Effendi, who was in terror of it even when it was shut up, had dared to poison it, as I afterwards learned from our servants, but not until the renegade himself was dead; but still there were the birds I had trapped, all in their cages, and these I turned out into the garden, and scattered about a good supply of food for them. Still there were the larger carnivorous birds, an eagle, and our special pet the black horn bird, Abu Goru (Buceros abyss. _L._) who answered to the name of “Hans,” came hopping up on being so called, took in his long bent beak the piece of meat offered him, threw it up in the air, catching it again as it descended, and so swallowed it, as nature had only bestowed on him an apology for a tongue (this performance especially delighted his Highness of Wurtemberg), but who did not, however, despise frogs or lizards, and every morning at daybreak aroused us by his cry of “Hum! Hum!” till we replied to it by “Hans;” also two king-cranes (Gornu, grue royale, Grus Pavonia _L._), a snake-devouring secretary, with handsome eagle’s head, long tail, and heron-like legs; curious wild ducks, geese, and other much prized birds, some having been shot unable to fly, but others were perfectly cured of their wounds by my brother, who was most dexterous with his pincers, extracting with them the shot pellets, and not seldom making a perfect cure. Under these circumstances, equally pleasant and flattering was the visit of the Chasnadar, who came with the Princess’s request that our birds might be confided to her care during our absence. Many a time before now had this lady, with her female slaves and eunuchs, been in our garden,—at such times, as a matter of course, we had to retire into our innermost apartment,—to visit our plants and flowers, that reminded her of Cairo; and much did it please her when requested to pluck or take with her such as pleased her, as the Pascha’s great garden produced nothing equal to them, no attempts having been made there to raise flowers from seeds, and all I had having been grown from seed I had brought with me from Cairo. In this way she knew of our beasts and birds, and felt that they might help her to pass her time, as she, a well-informed woman, suffered much from the fearful ennui of comfortless Chartum, and even advised my brother to leave it, and go with letters of recommendation, and also her petitions to her father, Mahomed Ali, at Cairo, she not daring to place so dangerous a trust in any one else, for she did not live on the best footing with the obstinate head-strong Pascha. When the Treasurer asked how the bird with the horn was called, I answered, Abdallah Effendi, and this was the name of the Vakul or deputy of the Pascha, a good-humoured Turk, with a splendid nose, but a mere tool of his master’s. As our pet Hans now went to the harem under the name of Abdallah Effendi, it became a habit at the Treasurer’s divan, when any one asked where Abdallah Effendi was, to reply, “Hue fi Charim belal Effendi,” which might be taken either in jest or earnest by the asker.

We had, in addition to poultry, bought for eighty piastres, or about 16_s._, a young ox, had him killed, salted, and along with a lot of ox- tongues gradually picked up, placed in our chimney to smoke, a simple enough business, but one unknown here. The naturalist Kotchi, from Austrian Silesia, had come with eleven people, from Kordofan, and joined us; and these for a fortnight kept up such an immense fire on our hearth, that all our smoking meat was singed and burnt so as to be useless, save two tongues, which proved excellent. Our house was ever a perfect _hospitium_; and now, when I had to look after and pack up everything, as nothing could be trusted to the servants, I had to run in and out in the sun, till I was completely done up. For some weeks back, Dr. Windgratzhofer, from Austria, had been with us, waiting till a boat was provided by government to convey him to his station at Faszogl. This good-humoured and droll _medico_, who had been nicknamed by some of us “Dicksack,” and which name he ever insisted on being called, I seated on our divan as guard over the numerous goods and chattels that lay open and exposed all round, knowing from experience the losses that were to be feared from the many curious callers, under excuses of paying farewell visits. Did I go out, there he sat, like a pagoda, on his post, grim, gruff, and surly (as far as his German went, for he spoke no other language) if any one only looked at an article, and on my return was ever ready with some humorous story, as to how faithfully and well he had filled his post, and how he had kept an eye at the same time on both sides, squinting most fearfully, to display his capability of doing so. But, alas! his jovial mood was checked in Faszogl, as his sorrowing letters told us. He had with him, as interpreter, the Pole Michel, a tailor, formerly in the Russian service, but who had been, for a long series of years, well known in Cairo, and was now a man over sixty. Besides these, we had also in our inn the unfortunate goldsmith, Erno, from Swabia, who wished to settle at Chartum, though he had sold all his instruments at Cairo. He, as well as old Michel, fancied that here, so near the gold hills, they would merely require to scrape with their hands the gold-dust from the Nile’s sand, and at once be _made men_. Both afterwards died on the journey homewards. The dragoman discharged by Dr. Belloti, a Nubian, also remained with us, as he was now and then employed by my brother; and at last, so that I might not have one corner to call my own, there came now on us Dr. Bellotti, a Bolognese, and the apothecary Dumont, from the neighbourhood of Marseilles, who had established himself at Wollet-Medine, with baggage and servants, having been ordered to follow their regiments on the chasua, or campaign.

* * * * *

CHAP. II.

Embark for Damer. — Disastrous Voyage. — Reach Damer. — Joseph’s Sufferings. — The March. — Banks of the Atbara. — An Arab Village.

The troops from Sennaar and Wollet-Medine had encamped opposite Chartum in Chobba, so as to march by land to Damer. The garrison of Chartum, also, had all, save a very small force, been conveyed over to the right bank of the Blue Nile. As I felt very unwell, I proposed following them by water, but now not a boat was to be seen or heard of, all having been seized on by government, for the conveyance of military stores, munition, and provisions, and without either owner or sailor daring to claim any payment for such services. I sent our cook Achmet down the Nile to look out, and there he hit on a boat belonging to our friend Faragh Effendi, but sunk to its edge in the water, by the rais, who had also got out of the way, that he might not have to sail without a fee. However, on our offering a fair sum for the use of the boat to Damer, as the rais could not be found, his brother was dragged out to put it in order. Our traps were carried on board, the mast lowered down so as to form a tent, and we arranged our beds on our chests, placed alongside each other,—a necessary precaution in this inhospitable and innless country. Bellotti, Dumont, the merchant, Bruno Rollet, a stout Savoyard, of Chartum, and myself, formed our party, and our cook, Achmet, was to look after the kitchen and victualling department.

Our boat would not go on, and every moment we stuck on one or other of the many sandbanks of the river. Our rais had to be threatened with the kurbash (a whip made of the hide of the Nile-horse, or giraffe, both excellent), and he confessed that he expected the proper rais, his brother, to whom he had sent notice of his being compelled to sail the boat, as he himself dared not venture to take her through the cataracts. Nor were my recollections of these, as I saw them on the way up, most pleasant, although they had made a far less lasting impression on my mind than the splendid scenery had done; as when coming, as if from a prison, out of the six or seven miles long rapids (el Bad) of Geb’l Charri, all appeared so glorious, and we seemed to have arrived in a new land. Ere long the brother came down to the banks, and we got him aboard, but hardly were we again afloat, when he again ran us ashore on the rocks at the first tschellel or foaming rapids,—a special term for the white waters of rushing falls,—and instantly the whole bottom of the boat was filled with water, he howling like an old woman, as he feared for his head if he lost the boat. In consequence of my exertions during the last days in Chartum, I had, for the three days we had now been on the water, been suffering from fever, attended with vomitings and diarrhœa; weak and miserable as I was, I could not have saved myself by swimming, had it been necessary, but, as I knew that our boat could not sink deeper than the bottom, and that it was now firm and fast on the rocks, as the ark on Mount Ararat, I felt no alarm and consoled the others. The holes and splits of our really almost unserviceable craft were stopped up, and the rais and crew made desperate efforts to get it off the water-covered rocks. With much _naïveté_ the former prayed us all to get out for a single moment, which brought down on him a volley of curses and abuse from my companions, who would hear of nothing of the sort. The hot fit of my fever was past; so I took off all my upper garments, keeping, however, my shoes on, so that my feet might not be cut by the many thornmussels (etheria, Caill.), and sending Achmet first into the water, slid, feeble as I was, down after him: on this, the others followed my example, and in a few seconds we again had our heavy- laden bark afloat. Hardly had the boasting rais again begun his lies, that he was at home in Assuan, and knew the Nile as well as the palm of his hand, and had before now ascended it with Ismail Pascha, &c., &c., to all of which I calmly listened, when we again went bump on a hidden rock till all crashed again. Such was again and again our fate, till, after a long passage of eleven days, we arrived at Damer, during which we consumed various sheep, which we had forced the natives on the banks to sell to us. After my cold bath, my fever had left me, and all that remained of it was a real wolf’s appetite, which I, without feeling any trace of indigestion, indulged by most ravenous devourings. So sudden, in these climes, is the step from severe illness to perfect health.

On the morning of the 18th March, we at length landed in front of Damer, some three miles above the debouchement of the Atbara into the Nile. No longer are any remains of this hierarchical city to be seen, such as Burckhardt, in former days, beheld them:—it is now only a village, with some high, decaying, loam walls. A sudden alarm now seized me at not immediately beholding my brother, and I hurried off to the Pascha’s tent, pitched near the river’s bank, to announce my arrival, inquire for my brother, and excuse the delay caused by our perilous voyage. The Pascha received me kindly, and told me my brother had been ill, but was now recovered, and busied with the sick in a neighbouring tent. When the doctor and apothecary, having put on their uniform, entered, his face flushed with anger, and he sternly alluded to their having quitted their regiments and come by water; he then severely reprimanded them, saying, they had thrown the whole burden of looking after the sick on Hakim Jussuff (Dr. Joseph), and dismissed them with a Kedi-el-kanua (κανων, such is the law). The merchant Rollet, ever a bashful man, now crept in to receive certain commissions, but I made him a sign that he would not come off well just at this moment, and we left the tent together; but later, I so recommended him to the Pascha, that, so far as his business went, he placed full confidence in him. I found my brother perfectly recovered, after having, almost by force, made my way into his tent, where he had got over his most pressing business, having now little more to do than hand over the sick to Doctor Bellotti; most of the cases were ophthalmia and fever, from the soldiers being allowed no tents to shelter them; these having been looked to, nothing more had to be done than prepare for the morrow’s medical inspection, when the really sick and unserviceable were to be sent back to Chartum.

We had mutually to confess, although now again well, that both looked as if we had undergone severe illness. We sought rest and shade, went up into the village, lay down under a tree, and he there told me how he had fared on his journey. From Karreri he had crossed over with the Pascha to Halfaia, where the latter had assembled the chiefs of the Schaigies, and reminded them to be with their men punctually at their posts. From there the untiring dromedary rider (the Pascha) would have ridden on to Schendy, but gave up the idea on my brother’s remonstrances, as he feared both for the great man and himself; so they again embarked in the small quick kandschia, arrived at Schendy, and there disembarked; the Pascha wishing to see with his own eyes how far his arrangements there were completed. Mussa Effendi, who also had been ordered from the neighbourhood of Sennaar to take part in the chasua—a friend and countryman of the Pascha—was there, but ill. Soliman Effendi, the renegade doctor, had, too, arrived there, to take his leave of the great man (el kebir); but who, being in monstrous bad humour, demanded why he had quitted Chartum without permission,—how he had contracted so many debts there, and which, did he not at once pay, he would have him bastinadoed. Mussa Effendi had continued long ill in the Loam palace of the Pascha, and my brother had only saved him by placing a sentry at his door, to prevent his madly eating and drinking all he could get, as had been his practice till now; but this was for the future in so far put a stop to, as the sentry was ordered, under pain of five hundred blows of the stick, to cut off these supplies. The Pascha would most gladly have had Mussa with him, as he had been in Taka with Churschid Pascha; though he, for this very reason, prophesied no good would come of the present expedition. In the end, my brother had got matters settled. Mussa Effendi, and the renegade Soliman, whom the Pascha had not hesitated to recommend, on his head (the Turkish style, bi Rasak), to his friend, were to return to Chartum, and there, have an eye to the Pascha’s interests. Soliman Effendi had passed us on our voyage, and we could not then understand why he so cursed and fearfully abused all Turks, exclaiming, as all renegades ever do, that he was the mere slave of a set of rascals.

On the 14th March, at two o’clock P.M., the hottest part of the day, when my poor Joseph was about to retire for a siesta, the Pascha, who almost never rested or ate, became gloomy, and ordered out the dromedaries. At once all the camp was bustle and confusion. The Pascha, once mounted, was happy,—more than my brother was, who was anxiously eyeing the beasts, and heard, with no slight thrill of alarm, the Pascha pronounce, as he pointed to a dromedary, the word “kerkab,” (mount); the more so, as he well knew the fearless style of riding of his leader, which his own native attendants much feared. Joseph now had to mount a dromedary for the first time; though in our desert-crossings we both had sat for weeks on the broad cloth-covered backs of the baggage camels. But, up he got; and there, high raised in air, he sat as if on a stool, all loose, without any hold as on a horse, and hardly had got the rope rein into his hand, when off he had to trot alongside his leader, who, of course, took no notice of his companion’s dilemma; though the latter feared every moment to lose his balance, and break his neck or limbs.

At first the ride did him good, but, from the constant shaking, and from being at every step thrown forward by the animal’s shuffling gait, ere long his bowels were set into such a state of inquietude, from the sharp ride of two hours under a burning sun, that he had to remain behind, on the thorn-covered waste near the banks of the Nile, and await the coming up of the servants and baggage, while all the others marched on and passed him. Only one pitying Ababdi-Bedouin remained by him; but, unfortunately, neither understood the other’s language.[4] Headache, convulsive vomitings, racking heat, horrible thirst, and no water, as he had no vessel to fetch any in, and the Bedouin would not leave him to fetch one, was Joseph’s lot; then delirium, but still sufficient consciousness to be aware, now and then, of men passing and asking, “Min di ajahu?” (Who is the sick man?) “Hakim Pascha” and then “Hue bimùtt” (he lies dying); and so they passed on, and still the servants came not. At last, about nine o’clock at night, came our hunter Abdallah, with coverings and cushions, and made him up a bed, on which he lay all night in violent fever, but recovered somewhat ere sunrise; and, after a six hours’ ride, again rejoined the Pascha’s camp, who had been anxiously looking out for him, and welcomed him with kind, compassionate concern. A wretched house was assigned him as a shelter against the sun’s heat, but the soldiers had already got possession of it;—smoke, fires for baking bread, the chattering of the soldiers with the women and idle, restless villagers, added to the burning pain of his galled seat, from which the blood had run down into his trowsers, soaking his drawers, stockings, and all his under clothing—as I now saw with my own eyes—allowed him to find neither rest nor peace. His only comfort was a young black-brown girl, of some twelve years of age, whom the Bedouin had brought to cool him with a fan and keep off the flies and insects. In his dreaming mood he fancied this girl was some brilliant white guardian spirit, sent to give him ease. Next day, when on leaving he would have given her some small farewell present, she whom he had seen all night through, kneeling at his head and waving her fan, had vanished, and her mother with the utmost reluctance took the money; though, from her language not being Arabic, Joseph could not say why she so long declined it.