Said The Autobiography Of Nicholas Said

1. Auflage 2014
ISBN: 978-3-8496-4392-8
Verlag: Jazzybee Verlag
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 224 Seiten

The narrative of Nicholas Said is one of the most impressive among slaves' accounts. Said was born as a free man in Africa, enslaved when 14 years old and traveled to five continents and countless countries. He learned seven languages and finally settled in Alabama. This is an autobiography of his incredible life.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Said, Nicholas

Leseproben

Chapter VI. Pilgrimage To Mecca.

At length the time arrived for the commencement of the pilgrimage to Mecca, and, Hadji Daoud having previously made all necessary preparations, we embarked on a sailing vessel bound for Alexandria, and called the Abu-Bekr. This was the first vessel I had ever been on board of, and I was much interested in the examination of the rigging, and all the different appointments of the craft.

She carried twenty souls, passengers and all, the latter consisting of seven or eight men, all negroes; and, after a ride of three or four uneventful days, we made the port of Bengazi; where we discharged our cargo, and were freshly laden with bales of wool, cheese, and goods, for the Alexandrian market.

During the forty-eight hours devoted to effecting this change, the passengers remained on shore, and I had an opportunity of exploring the town.

Bengazi is the capital of Barca, a country lying eastward of Tripoli, and is finely located on a fertile plain, extending back to the mountains, but is miserably constructed, filthy, and possessing a harbor so shallow that only vessels of light draught can enter.

The Emir of Barca, resides here in a strong castle.

Having stowed our new cargo, we set sail for Alexandria; but, on the third day out, we encountered a terrible gale, and suffered severely from its effects.

Our main-mast was twice struck by lightning, and, for a time, we were left disabled, almost at the mercy of the seas which continually broke over us. On the second day of our helplessness, however, we were sighted by a steamer bound for Valletta (Malta), and by her towed to Alexandria.

We arrived at this port in the night and anchored off the building which does double duty as castle and light house, until morning, when we were towed into the harbor.

Alexandria does not present the appearance of a Mohammedan city, except in the Mohammedan quarter. Here the streets are narrow and filthy and the houses generally mean; but the Christian quarter, which is next the bay, is clean, well-built and contains a number of fine hotels and merchants' residences. There are some fine Mohammedan edifices, at the head of which is the Khedive's palace, the arsenal, and an extensive marine hospital. Outside the city, on both sides of the Nile, may be seen some elegant Christian villas or country seats; and the Khedive also has a very handsome country residence.

During the weeks that we remained in Alexandria, we were boarded and lodged, free of expense, at the house of Mahmoud Bey, a rich Albanian friend of my master's and a leading dry goods merchant and property owner.

After the expiration of this time, we left Alexandria for Cairo, by the then new railroad, at night, arriving at the latter place before day-break. I cannot say that I was much surprised at the novel conveyance I then saw for the first time. Truth told, I had seen so many wonderful and unexpected sights within the few previous years, that I think my organ of marvellousness had gone to sleep from sheer surfeit and exhaustion, and I took everything as a matter of course. In fact I don't think my pulse would have been quickened had I been transported from one part of the country to another in an a?rial car, or shot across a river from a bomb mortar.

Early the next morning we went to Boulak, a suburb of the city, about two miles from the city proper, and the place where the boats navigating the Nile receive and discharge their cargoes.

Here Hadji Daoud took his lodging in one of the caravansaries. During our stay here, my master visited all the mosques in the city, taking me with him. There are six principal mosques in Cairo, the principal of which is that of Sultan Hassan, said to be the finest work of the kind in Africa, and a short distance from this, at Shoobrâ, the new palace of the Khedive. There were also many elegant private buildings in Boolak, the country residences of the Egyptian grandees; and from its streets could be plainly seen, towering blue against the south-western horizon, the gigantic Pyramids of the desert. At first, I thought the pyramids were natural objects, but soon having become satisfied, from their regular outlines, that they were not, I appealed to Hadji Daoud for information concerning their origin; who, in response to my inquiries, told me that they were constructed by the heathens many years ago, but for what purpose he knew not.

At Boolak, we took passage on a steamer for Kartoum, up the Nile, in company with three companies of black soldiers, from Kordoffan, and Darfour, destined for the garrison at that place. Having reached Philah, a small town, a few miles below the first (or last), cataract on the Nile, we disembarked, and proceeded to Kartoum by land with a caravan.

During this journey, which occupied a considerable time, we were one night attacked by a party of robbers, who evidently were not aware of our strength; for we repulsed them after a brief but spirited conflict. Their loss was seven killed and eleven prisoners, who were turned over to the Egyptian authorities at Kartoum. They proved to be fellahs, or Egyptian peasants, who preferred highway robbery to the peaceable avocation of agriculture. They were summarily executed. In this engagement we had several wounded, but none killed: among the former was Hadji Daoud, who was shot through the calf of the leg, but his wound was not dangerous, and caused him only a little inconvenience.

Our road lay through a small town situated on the right bank, the name of which I have forgotten, a place remarkable for its inland commerce and the numerous relics of antiquity to be found in its vicinity. From its picturesque location may be seen to the southward, the ruins of another town, built (so said Hadji Daoud) by the Arabs in the days of Caliph Omar, and here the antiquarian might spend many profitable hours, exploring and examining the crumbling monuments of primeval grandeur.

When we reached Kartoum, we found it to be a very regularly built town, with some pretensions to style, and situated upon the tongue of land formed by the junction of the two branches of the Nile. It is the capital of Nubia, and enjoys a large trade in slaves, from Abyssinia and Soudan, and gold-dust, ivory, ostrich feathers, etc., from various parts of Central Africa.

We waited here about five weeks, organizing a party of sufficient strength to venture into the mountain country, and my master purchased a number of horses, asses and camels, to transport his personal property.

Having got together a party of forty in number, the most of whom were traders from Gondar in Abyssinia, with the exception of five or six Turks who were also regular traders back and forth in that section, we, at the expiration of the time mentioned, set out for the town of Gondar in Abyssinia.

The trajet between these two places is exceedingly perilous and difficult, owing to the dangerous places among the mountains, where one misstep may send the unfortunate traveller, a mangled mass of broken bones and flesh, to the bottom of some deep chasm; to the wild beasts, which lurk by the way side; and to the danger of being ambuscaded by the Gallas a tribe of wild and ferocious natives, who rob, plunder, and murder, on every possible occasion, and, it was whispered, ate their slain enemies.

Lions, hyenas, and jackals were constantly prowling round our encampments, only kept at bay by the immense fire we kept burning all night; and, on one occasion, when we left a broken down ass behind us, we saw the Jackals tearing his flesh before we were five hundred yards from him. We met with no serious accident, however, and arrived at Gondar in between four and five weeks after we left Kartoum. Gondar is situated upon the summit and sides of an isolated hill, and has, in days past, been a place of some importance. It consists of a great many dilapidated houses, a number of ill constructed churches and other buildings devoted to religious purposes, and has the one redeeming quality of producing a species of fine cotton cloth from its looms. The male inhabitants, with few exceptions, live in a state of habitual intoxication, on a fiery liquor of native manufacture, and seldom exert themselves farther than to beat the women and make them do all the work, for their drunken masters.

We remained here about two months, when having procured a number of native guides, we directed our course to Massawa, a seaport on the Red Sea.

These faithful Abyssinian guides of ours, while piloting us through the wilderness, frequently appropriated articles of my master's property, almost openly. He was afraid to say anything to them about it, however, lest they should kill him; and this system of...