You insisted upon speaking kindly, and telling
her that she is not a slave, now she thinks that she
Is one of
your WIVES!" This was the real fact; the unfortunate Barrake had
deceived herself; 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 to Wat el Negur, we found the whole country in
alarm, Mek Nimmur having suddenly made a foray. He had crossed
the Atbara, and 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;--he had removed our tents and
baggage to his own house for protection. Not only had he thus
protected our effects, but he had taken the opportunity of
delivering the polite message to Mek Nimmur that I had entrusted
to his charge--expressing a wish to pay him a visit as a
countryman and friend of Mr. Mansfield Parkyns, who had formerly
been so well received by his father.
In a few days the whole country was up. Troops of the Dabaina
Arabs, under the command of Mahmoud Wat Said (who had now assumed
the chieftainship of the tribe after the death of his brother
Atalan), gathered on the frontier, while about 2,000 Egyptian
regulars marched against Gellabat, and attacked the Abyssinians
and Tokrooris, who had united. Several hundreds of the Tokrooris
were killed, and the Abyssinians retreated to the mountains.
Large bodies of Egyptian irregulars threatened Mek Nimmur's
country, but the wily Mek was too much for them. The Jalyn Arabs
were his friends; and, although they paid tribute to the Egyptian
Government from their frontier villages, they acted as spies, and
kept Mek Nimmur au courant of the enemy's movements. The Hamran
Arabs, those mighty hunters with the sword, were thorough
Ishmaelites, and although nominally subject to Egypt, they were
well known as secret friends to Mek Nimmur; and it was believed
that they conveyed information of the localities where the
Dabaina and Shookeryha Arabs had collected their herds.
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