Page 332
After the troops had again collected, order was once more restored, and the march was continued ; in the course of a few days several hills were taken, and the prisoners duly forwarded to Lobeid. The expedition now moved in a southern direction from the Nuba mountains, towards a country inhabited by a different race of men. The tribe now attacked differs from the natives of Nuba, both in language and manners ; they are easily recognized by the number of brass ear-rings, which they do not pass through the appendix of the ear, but wear in the upper part of the cartilage, by which means the whole ear is distorted, so that the superior portion covers the interior. Almost all the men wear the tooth of some animal, one inch and a half to two inches in length, above their chin; it is passed through a hole in the under lip when they are very young, and acquires a firm adhesion with the integument. In their habits they differ but little from the other negro tribes, but it is rather remarkable that they do not, like the negroes, Turks, or Arabs, convey food to their mouths with their fingers, but make use of a shell, or piece of wood, shaped like a spoon, for this purpose. The dwelling place of this tribe was very advantageously situated on the summit of a hill, and very difficult of access ; the commanding officer, therefore, on hearing that it was not supplied with water, to avoid a loss, decided upon surrounding the hill, and forcing the negroes by thirst to surrender. The siege lasted eight days, and the poor creatures, who felt themselves too weak for a sortie, had not a drop of water left on the fourth day. as was subsequently heard. The cattle was slain in the early part of the blockade to diminish the consumption of water: on the sixth day, several children and old people had perished of thirst: and on the seventh day the mortality became so frightful, that they determined to surrender. Several of them advised a silly, but exhausted as they were, they saw the futility of this movement ; and when, on the eighth day, hundreds had fallen in the most fearful torments of unsatisfied thirst, and many of the negroes, in the horrors of despair, had put an end to their miseries by ripping open their abdomins with their double-edged knives, the small body of survivors delivered itself up to the enemy. Of more than two thousand souls, one thousand and forty-nine were only found living, the rest had all perished by thirst, or had committed suicide. On entering the village, the huts were seen filled with the dead, and the few unfortunate survivors were so exhausted by fatigue, and overpowered by thirst, that they could scarcely stand upon their feet ; yet with blows with the butt-end of the musket, or with the whip, these poor wretches were driven from the huts, dragged into camp, with every description of cruelty, and thence despatched for Lobeid, on which march more than one hundred and fifty souls perished from ill-usage. On the fourth day of the march of this transport, after the caravan had halted, and whilst the prisoners were forming detachments to take up their quarters for the night, it so happened that an aged woman, worn out with the fatigues of the long march, or overcome by the mental sufferings she had endured, was incapable of reaching the spot assigned to her with sufficient alacrity, and a barbarous Turk dealt her a blow with the butt end of his musket, which laid her nearly lifeless on the sand. Her son, who witnessed this gratuitous act of cruelty, no longer master of his feelings, rushed with fury towards the soldier, struck him a blow with the sheba round his neck, and felled him to the ground. This was the signal for attack; all the slaves, who bore a sheba, threw themselves upon the troops, and knocked them down, before they could take to their arms, or fix their bayonets; thus fifty-six negroes took to flight during the confusion in the camp, and aided by the darkness of night, succeeded in effecting their escape. The natives, attached to this transport, remained quiet spectators of the fray, a proof of the interest they feel in these sanguinary hunts. The body of the expedition had, in the meantime, continued its march and taken another hill by storm, but not without loss. This village was situated on a steep declivity, accessible only on the one side, and so well supplied with water that a blockade was out of the question. A storm was, therefore, commanded. On both sides, the men fought with desperate bravery. The storming party purchased dearly with their blood every inch of ground they advanced. The negroes had barricaded every available spot ; each tree and every stone formed an ambush whence they rushed forth upon their enemies, who were scaling the heights under severe difficulties. The muskets were of no avail, for the soldiers were forced to creep upon their hands and feet and could not use their arms ; thus, many were stabbed by the spears of the natives, before they could rise on their feet, and, in their fall, tore several of their advancing comrades down with them into the precipice and ravines below. The cannonade employed against the village was ineffective, and forced to be silenced to avoid injuring their own men. The struggle was fearful, and the event for some time doubtful, the soldiers, however, at last succeeded in obtaining a footing on the heights, and were able to employ their arms ; the bayonet now decided the victory in their favour, and the village was soon taken, in spite of the most obstinate resistance on the part of the negroes. The havoc became frightful : everyone who offered the slightest resistance was cut down, chil- dren, women, and old men were put to the bayonet, the huts were fired, and the whole place was pillaged ; in short, every species of cruelty was perpetrated on these ill-fated victims. Those who fell into the hands of the victorious enemy were immediately dragged down into the camp ; whilst those who endeavoured to escape, by concealing themselves in caverns and ravines, were either hunted out by fire and smoke, or suffocated in their place of shelter ; every description of atrocity was practised, nor did the carnage cease until the very last man of this ill-starred tribe was exterminated or led away in captivity. All the inconsiderable property of the natives which the troops could not carry away with them as plunder was destroyed, and the whole village sacked and levelled with the ground. These were not all the sufferings which fell to the lot of these unfortunate men, for severer tortures awaited them during their march to Kordofan. I was unfortunately, during some few days, an eye-witness of the misery these poor prisoners endured. No pen can describe the cruelties these miserable men were made to suffer, in addition to the mental torment consequent on their loss of freedom ; for laden with the heavy sheba round their necks, or bound together with tight straps or handcuffs, the poor negroes were driven on like cattle, but treated with far less care or forbearance. The greater number of them, covered with the wounds they had received in battle, or excoriated by the sheba, or the straps, and handcuffs, were put to yet severer trials on the road, and, if too exhausted to keep pace with the transport, the most cruel punishment awaited them ; the piercing cry of complaint of these unfortunate beings, and the tears and sobs of the children who had either lost their parents in the capture of the village, or were too tired to follow their exhausted mothers, would have melted a heart of stone to pity. On these ruthless executioners, however, even this scene of misery produces no effect ; they march with unconcern by the side of the prisoners, and are only anxious to further the progress of the convoy, by urging on those who may be so weak that they cannot follow the rest with blows and stripes. As they dragged every- one away with them whom they found living, there was, of course, a large number of lame, blind, and old men, and persons afflicted with other infirmities, among the complement of slaves, who were sure to perish on the road, or who would be of no value on their arrival in Lobeid. But, even this circumstance was not deemed worthy of consideration ; without mercy all were driven from their homes, and delivered up to their fate ; for the sole object is, to furnish the number of slaves demanded by the government. Every morning, at about ten o'clock, a halt was ordered, whereupon the prisoners were formed according to their age into divisions, to receive their rations, consisting of boiled dokn. Salt was out of the question, and the dokn so hard that the full- grown men experienced difficulty in masticating it. Children, who are too weak in the jaw to reduce the grain, swallow it as they would pills, and are frequently put to the most excruciating agony in consequence ; for, not being able to digest the food, their bodies swell, and they suffer from flatulence and spasm. I have seen mothers chewing the victuals for their children, and then offering it to them. In forming these detachments according to age, children who anxiously cling to their parents are torn by force from their arms, that they may eat alone. The condition of sick and wounded was not considered ; their wounds were not even dressed, and they received the same allowance ; many of them threw themselves on the sand, and, refusing all food, preferred to rest their weary limbs. When one of these poor wretches was so debilitated that it became a matter of doubt whether he could be dragged on any further, or when he was drawing his last breath, he was thrown, like a piece of wood, aside, either to languish in despair, or to be torn to pieces by the wild beasts. Bread is unheard of on these marches, although they have every convenience for baking; this would be too great a luxury, however, for the poor slaves, who must content themselves with food not even good enough for cattle. As soon as the signal for the march was given, the slaves were forced to join their detachments, and, in case of delay for one minute only, the whip and butt-end of the musket were again at work. Old men and infirm women, bent down with the weight of years and care, who could scarcely creep along, suffered like treatment, and when too weak to move on were left to perish on the sand. Children were not allowed to take leave of their nearest relatives ; a tear and a look of sorrow was "the only tribute they could pay to the unfortunate beings delivered over to their doom. To prevent a father or a mother from perishing in this miserable manner, their wives or daughters, who were unfettered, would take one of these wretches between two of them, who, passing his arms round the neck of both, was thus dragged on, or even at times carried.
until she sank herself exhausted under this triple load. The officers commanding on these expeditions
are more especially to blame for the cruelty of the troops, for, riding at a distance in front, or in the
rear of the transport, they do not trouble themselves about the condition of their prisoners, but
leave them entirely to the mercy of a ruthless soldiery. If an officer of more feeling should happen
to be in command, the circumstance is instantly known by the diminished mortality on the road. I once met with one of them who feelingly attended to the children and the sick ; who ordered them to be mounted on the beasts of burden when too weak to proceed, and I saw him even take one or even two of the children on his own horse. This man may lay his head on his pillow in peace, free from
the reproach of having augmented the sufferings of his unfortunate fellow-creatures, whilst many
of his comrades must quail under the pangs of a guilty conscience for the fearful death of hundreds
of human beings. An hour before sunset a halt was again ordered, and rations of boiled dokn were once more served. But in the night the misery of the slaves reached its very climax. In the month of January, when the changes of temperature are ordinarily very perceptible, and the thermometer generally falls below 4 Reaumur (41 Fahrenheit), the cold is felt as severely as when at 4 or 5 below of Reaumur (23 to 20, 25 Fahrenheit), in the northern parts of Germany. Imagine, now, the poor negroes in a state of absolute nudity, without the means of covering themselves, and debilitated by hunger and fatigue, when some idea may be formed of the sufferings they had to endure ; fires were certainly lighted, but the scanty supply of wood rendered it impossible to defend these poor wretches from the effects of cold. The shrieks and sobs of the children, the cries of the wounded, and the groans of the sick, were perfectly horrifying, and in the morning an infant was once found dead and stiff with the cold at its mother's breast. It is true that the negroes have no covering in their own villages beyond a girdle or a piece of linen passed round their loins, but then they lie at night in their huts, or cover themselves with the skins of animals, none of which they can find on their march. Those who wore the sheba could not sleep at night for pain, as it so severely compresses the neck that
it impede every movement, and thus not one man was free from suffering. A woman far advanced in pregnancy was delivered in the night without assistance. I gave the poor mother a shirt. in which she wrapped her infant, and thus safely carried it to Lobeid, and in compassion for her weak state I lent her my ass to ride. I am unequal to the task of narrating all the horrors I witnessed during the few days I attached myself to the convoy ; no words are sufficiently expressive to describe the sufferings of the slaves, and no tongue can tell the painful sensations of a man of feeling who witnesses these atrocities. I did all in my power, with entreaties and presents, to make the troops, and the irregular natives forming the escort, more compassionate, and thus many a man was induced to take a child who could not move its jaded feet along the burning sand upon his back, or to relieve a mother exhausted by its weight, and carry it during the whole of the day. Unfortunately, however, I was not able to put a stop to all acts of cruelty, and was forced on one occasion to see an unfeeling soldier fell a man to the ground with the butt end of his musket because unable to keep pace with the rest : his feet, in fact, refused their office : he had been wounded in that part during the siege, the wound had inflamed, and the pain had quite overpowered him. I lost all command of my feelings on witnessing this brutal act, drew my sword, and should have cut down the inhuman barbarian, if my servant had not seized my arm and wrested my sword and pistols from my hand ; nor did he return my arms to me before he saw that my passion had cooled. On the eighth day the expedition arrived at Lobeid. The di*trilmtioii, described in the former chapter, now took place, and this is, properly speaking, the chief cause of the harsh and merciless behaviour of the soldiery towards the slaves ; for they know, that they will be compelled to receive them in liquidation of their arrears of pay, at a value far above the price they will obtain from the slave-merchants ; that the slaves, moreover, frequently die before they can dispose of them, in which case the loss falls upon them, and they must serve the government for months gratuitously. Hence they do all in their power to rid themselves of the old and infirm slaves before they reach Lobeid, in order to avoid the inconvenience of being forced to take one of these men in lieu of their pay. If the payment of the troops in the Belled-Soodan were effected in cash, as it is in the other provinces, I am convinced that the unfortunate slaves would meet with more humane treatment. But thanks to the noble Queen Victoria of England, whose eye of compassion has penetrated into these distant realms, and cheered the hearts of the dejected and oppressed inhabitants, at whose earnest representations, in fine, these slave-hunts have been put an end to by Mehemed Ali himself, thousands of these poor negroes, who from year to year trembled under the fear of a similar fate, may now live in peace and tranquillity; and the prayers of the emancipated, offered up to the throne of the Almightly for this truly great monarch can- not fail to reward her humanity by a prosperous and happy reign. According to reports from Kordofan, no expedition for kidnapping slaves was ordered in the year 1839, and the troops were paid in cash ; but those, unfortunately, of 1840 and 1841 sound very differently, for Mehemed Ali, in spite of his solemn promise to put an end to all further slave-hunts, had again commenced these revolting expeditions.
No comments:
Post a Comment