A
NARRATIVE

OF THE

EXPEDITION

TO

DONGOLA AND SENNAAR,

UNDER THE

COMMAND OF HIS EXCELLENCE ISMAEL PASHA,


UNDERTAKEN BY ORDER OF

HIS HIGHNESS MEHEMMED ALI PASHA, VICEROY OF EGYPT.


BY AN AMERICAN IN THE SERVICE OF THE VICEROY.



LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1822.
London: Printed by C. Roworth, Bell Yard Temple Bar


TO
HIS BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S
CONSUL GENERAL IN EGYPT,
HENRY SALT, ESQ.

MY FATHERLY FRIEND IN A FOREIGN LAND, THIS WORK IS DEDICATED, WITH AFFECTIONATE RESPECT, BY
THE AUTHOR:

AND RECOMMENDED TO THE KIND CARE AND PATRONAGE OF

JOHN WILLIAM BANKES, ESQ.

BY HIS OBLIGED FRIEND AND SERVANT,

HENRY SALT.

By George Bethune English,

General of Artillery in the U.S. Service

Contents

PREFACE

A NARRATIVE

FOOTNOTES

PREFACE

MEHEMMED ALI PASHA, the victorious pacificator of Egypt and Arabia, is already renowned in the civilized world. Egypt, once the home of discord and the headquarters of anarchy, under his administration has long enjoyed peace and prosperity; is permeable in all directions, and in perfect safety to the merchant and the traveler, and is yearly progressing in wealth and improvement.1

The Viceroy has been particularly attentive to revive and extend those commercial relations of Egypt with the surrounding countries, which once rendered it the richest and most flourishing territory in the ancient world.

A well chosen library of the best European books on the art military, geography, astronomy, medicine, history, belles-lettres and the fine arts has been purchased from Europe by the Viceroy and placed in the palace of Ismael Pasha, where is also a school, at the Viceroy's expense, for the instruction of the Mussulman youth in the Italian language and the sciences of the Franks. To which establishments has been lately added a printing press, for printing books in the Turkish, Arabic and Persian languages, and a weekly newspaper in Arabic and Italian. The library and the press are under the superintendence of Osman Noureddin Effendi, a young Turk of great good sense, and who is well versed in the literature of Europe, where he has resided for several years, by order of the Viceroy, for his education: he is at present engaged in translating into Turkish some works on tactics, for the use of his countrymen.

For several years past the inland commerce of this favored land had suffered great interruptions from the confusion and discord to which the countries on the Upper Nile have been a prey. The chiefs of Shageia had formed themselves into a singular aristocracy of brigands, and pillaged all the provinces and caravans within their reach, without mercy and without restraint; while the civil wars, which have distracted the once powerful kingdom of Sennaar for these last eighteen years, had occasioned an almost entire cessation of a commerce, from which Egypt had derived great advantages.

His Highness the Viceroy, in consequence, determined, as the most effectual means of putting an end to these disorders, to subject those countries to his dominion.

Four thousand troops were accordingly put under the command of Ismael Pasha, the youngest son of the Viceroy, with orders to conquer all the provinces on the Nile, from the Second Cataract to Sennaar inclusive.

Through the influence of the recommendation of Henry Salt, Esq., His Britannic Majesty's Consul General in Egypt, I was ordered by the Viceroy to accompany this expedition, with the rank of Topgi Bashi, i.e. a chief of artillery, and with directions to propose such plans of operation to the Pasha Ismael as I should deem expedient, but which the Pasha might adopt or reject as he should think proper.

This expedition has been perfectly successful; and the conquest of the extensive and fertile countries, which, in the reign of Candace, repulsed the formidable legions of Rome, has been effected at an expense not greater than the blood of about two hundred soldiers.

The principal cause of a success so extraordinary, at such a price, has been the humanity and good faith of the Pasha Ismael towards those provinces that submitted without fighting. Perfect security of person and property was assured to the peaceable, and severe examples were made of those few of the soldiery, who, in a very few instances, presumed to violate it. The good consequences of this deportment toward the people of these countries have been evident. All have seen that those who have preferred peace before war have had peace without war, and that those who preferred war before peace have not had peace but at the price of ruin.

The destruction or disarmament of the brigands, who have heretofore pillaged those countries with impunity—the establishment of order and tranquility—the security now assured to the peasants and the caravans—and the annexment of so many fine provinces and kingdoms to the sway of the Viceroy of Egypt,2 are not the only consequences of this expedition that will give him glory.

This expedition has laid open to the researches of the geographer and the antiquarian a river and a country highly interesting, and hitherto imperfectly known to the civilized world. The Nile, on whose banks we have marched for so many hundred miles, is the most famous river in the world, for the uncertainty of its source and the obscurity of its course. At present this obscurity ceases to exist, and before the return of the Pasha Ismael this uncertainty will probably be no more. The countries we have traversed are renowned in history and poetry as the land of ancient and famous nations, which have established and overthrown mighty empires, and have originated the religions, the learning, the arts, and the civilization of nations long since extinct; and who have been preceded by their instructors in the common road which every thing human must travel.

This famous land of Cush and Saba, at present overawed by the camps of the Osmanii, has presented to our observation many memorials of the power and splendor of its ancient masters. The remains of cities once populous—ruined temples once magnificent—colossal statues of idols once adored, but now prostrated by the strong arms of time and truth—and more than a hundred pyramids, which entomb the bodies of kings and conquerors once mighty, but whose memory has perished, have suspended for awhile the march of our troops—have attracted the notice of the Franks, who voyage with the army with the favor and the protection of the Pasha,3 and which doubtless ere