Q. Sheikh Ibrahim, I hope you are well.
A. Perfectly well, and most happy to have the honour of seeing you
again.
Q. You have travelled much since I saw you at Cairo. How far did you
advance into the negro country?
To this question I replied, by giving a short account of my journey in
Nubia.
Q. Tell me, how are the Mamelouks at Dongola?
I related what the reader will find in my Nubian Travels.
Q. I understand that you treated with two of the Mamelouk Beys at Ibrim;
was it so?
The word treated (if the dragoman rightly translated the Turkish word),
startled me very much; for the Pasha, while he was in Egypt, had heard
that, on my journey towards Dongola, I had met two Mamelouk Beys at
Derr; and as he still suspected that the English secretly favoured the
Mamelouk interest, he probably thought that I had been the bearer of
some message to them from government. I therefore assured him that my
meeting with the two Beys was quite accidental that the unpleasant
reception which I experienced at Mahass was on their account; and that I
entertained fears of their designs against my life. With this
explanation the Pasha seemed satisfied.
Q. Let us only settle matters here with the Wahabys, and I shall soon be
able to get rid of the Mamelouks. How many soldiers do you think are
necessary for subduing the country as far as Senaar?
A. Five hundred men, good troops, might reach that point, but could not
keep possession of the country; and the expenses would scarcely be
repaid by the booty.
Q. What do those countries afford?