Out Of 4,000 Black Troops, Only A Remnant Below 400
Remained Alive!
This frightful malady, that had visited our boat, had revelled in the
filth and crowded alleys of the Soudan capital.
The Blue Nile was so low that even the noggurs drawing three feet of
water could not descend the river. Thus, the camels being dead, and the
river impassable, no corn could be brought from Sennaar and Watmedene:
there was a famine in Khartoum - neither fodder for animals, nor food for
man. Being unable to procure either camels or boats, I was compelled to
wait at Khartoum until the Nile should rise sufficiently to enable us to
pass the cataracts between that town and Berber.
[The want of water in the Blue Nile, as here described, exemplifies the
theory that Lower Egypt owes its existence during the greater portion of
the year entirely to the volume of the White Nile.]
We remained two months at Khartoum. During this time we were subjected
to intense heat and constant dust-storms, attended with a general plague
of boils. Verily, the plagues of Egypt remain to this day in the Soudan.
On the 26th June, we had the most extraordinary dust-storm that had ever
been seen by the inhabitants. I was sitting in the courtyard of my
agent's house at about 4:30 P.M.: there was no wind, and the sun was as
bright as usual in this cloudless sky, when suddenly a gloom was cast
over all, - a dull yellow glare pervaded the atmosphere. Knowing that
this effect portended a dust-storm, and that the present calm would be
followed by a hurricane of wind, I rose to go home, intending to secure
the shutters. Hardly had I risen, when I saw approaching, from the S.W.
apparently, a solid range of immense brown mountains, high in air. So
rapid was the passage of this extraordinary phenomenon, that in a few
minutes we were in actual pitchy darkness. At first there was no wind,
and the peculiar calm gave an oppressive character to the event. We were
in "a darkness that might be felt." Suddenly the wind arrived, but not
with the violence that I had expected. There were two persons with me,
Michael Latfalla, my agent, and Monsieur Lombrosio. So intense was the
darkness, that we tried to distinguish our hands placed close before our
eyes; - not even an outline could be seen. This lasted for upwards of
twenty minutes: it then rapidly passed away, and the sun shone as
before; but we had FELT the darkness that Moses had inflicted upon the
Egyptians.
The Egyptian Government had, it appeared, been pressed by some of the
European Powers to take measures for the suppression of the slave-trade:
a steamer had accordingly been ordered to capture all vessels laden
with this in famous cargo. Two vessels had been seized and brought to
Khartoum, containing 850 human beings! - packed together like anchovies,
the living and the dying festering together, and the dead lying beneath
them.
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