Never
Having Been Free, She Could Not Understand The Use Of Freedom Unless She
Was To Be A Wife.
She had understood my little address as a proposal,
and of course she was disappointed; but as an action
For breach of
promise cannot be pressed in the Soudan, poor Barrake, although free,
had not the happy rights of a free-born Englishwoman, who can heal her
broken heart with a pecuniary plaster, and console herself with damages
for the loss of a lover.
We were ready to start, having our party of servants complete, six
Tokrooris - Moosa, Abdoolahi, Abderachman, Hassan, Adow, and Hadji Ali,
with Mahomet, Wat Gamma, Bacheet, Mahomet secundus (a groom), and
Barrake; total, eleven men and the cook.
When half way on our return from Katariff to Wat el Negur, we found the
whole country in alarm, Mek Nimmur having suddenly made a foray. He had
crossed the Atbara, plundered the district, and driven off large numbers
of cattle and camels, after having killed a considerable number of
people. No doubt the reports were somewhat exaggerated, but the
inhabitants of the district were flying from their villages with their
herds, and were flocking to Katariff. We arrived at Wat el Negur on the
3d of December, and we now felt the advantage of our friendship with the
good Sheik Achmet, who, being a friend of Mek Nimmur, had saved our
effects during our absence. These would otherwise have been plundered,
as the robbers had paid him a visit.
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