42 ./oMr«ff/ o/'Mr. Burckhardt's 



a character infinitely more savage, as well as more treacherous 

 and wicked Uian the Bedouins of Syria, or those on the borders 

 of Egypt. Ibrahim's reasons for not visiting Sennaar and 

 Abyssinia, were, that both these countries had been already visited 

 by Bruce, and could offer less novelty, (more particularly the 

 latter, since the excursions of Captain Rudland and Mr. Salt,) 

 than his traversing a tract of country perfectly unknown ; he 

 therefore wisely preferred the latter, both for his own individual 

 satisfaction, as well as for the opportunity of presenting the 

 African Association with information entirely new. In this jour- 

 ney he possessed a boy slave, purchased at Shandy for sixteen 

 dollars, but he was too young to be of any assistance to him in 

 the most fatiguing duties of travelling, and served him only as a 

 cook to prepare his coffee, and bake his cakes. At the evening 

 halt, he told us, when the hour of supper was past, the cries 

 of women were to be heard throughout jthe camp, the merchants 

 having always among their stock, a number of young female 

 slaves, whom they treat in the most brutal manner, and with 

 whose society they solace themselves, during the hours devoted 

 to repose from the fatigues of the journey. 



On reaching Suakin, a further delay was occasioned by the 

 want of boats, and therefore Ibrahim's stay at that place was also 

 longer than he wished it to have been. He described it as a 

 miserable assemblage of dwellings, with few inhabitants, though 

 presided over by a most despotic governor, who exacts heavy 

 duties on all kinds of merchandise passing through his port, and 

 this despotism he exercises without any other aid than that of 

 four soldiers in his pay : so indisposed, or so incapable are the 

 traders, of offering any resistance to his arbitrary power. 



Crossing at length from Suakin to Jedda, Ibrahim reached the 

 latter place in excellent health and spirits, but wretchedly clad, 

 and without money. His appearance stood in the way of his 

 receiving assistance from Jellani, the British agent here, who 

 being an Arabj like all his countrymen, regard appearances only 

 as the criterion of a man's worth or credit. His applications to 

 the Pasha's physician, Signior Giovanni Bozari, was equally un- 



