194 An Account of Mr. Brown’s Travels 
near the court a man even of feeming liberality and good 
jenfe, to whom his projects might be fafely opened. 
During the fummer of 1794, five men who had exercifed 
confiderable authority in fome of the provinces, were brought 
to El Father’as prifoners ; it was faid that they had been de- 
tected in a treafonable correfpondence with the hoftile leader, 
Hafthem, in Kordofan. They did not undergo any form of 
trial; but as the Sultan chofe to give credit to the depofitions 
made againft them, his command was iffued for their execu- 
tion. Three of them were yery young men, the youngeft not 
appearing to be more than feventeen years of age. A little 
after noon they were brought, chained and fettered, into the — 
market-place, before one of the entrances of the palace, ef- 
corted by a few of the royal flaves armed with fpears. Se- 
veral of the Meleks, by the monarch’s exprefs order, were 
prefent, to witnels, as he termed it, what they might expeét 
to fuffer if they failed in their fidelity. The executioner al- 
lowed them time only to utter a fhort prayer, when he plunged 
his knife into the neck of the oldeft, exaétly in the fame 
manner as they kill a fheep. The operation, too, is marked 
by the fame term, dhebbah. He fell, and ftruggled for fome 
time, The reft fuffered in their turn. The three laft were 
much agitated, and the youngeft wept. The two firft had 
borne their fate with becoming firmnefs. The crowd that 
had affembled had fearcely fatiated itfelf with the fpectacle 
of their convulfive motions while proftrate in the duft, when 
the flaves of the executioner coolly brought a fmall block of 
wood and began mangling their feet with an axe. Having 
cut off their feet, they carried away the fetters which had been 
worn by the criminals, though of Jittle value, and left the 
bodies where they-were. Private humanity, and not public 
order, afforded them fepulture. 
Near the end of the year 1795 a body of troops was muf- 
tered and reviewed, intended to replace thofe who had died 
of the fmall-pox in Kordofan, which, it was faid, amounted 
to more than half the army. The fpoils which had been 
taken from Hafhem were alfo oftentatioufly difplayed on this 
occafion. They confifted of eighty flaves, male and female, 
but the greater proportion of the latter, many of whom were 
exceedingly 
. 
