A Narrative of the Expedition to Dongola and Sennaar: Under the Command of His Excellence Ismael Pasha, undertaken; by Order of His Highness Mehemmed Ali Pasha, Viceroy of; Egypt, By An American In The Service Of The ViceroyEnglish, George Bethune
History
A Narrative of the Expedition to Dongola and Sennaar: Under the Command of His Excellence Ismael Pasha, undertaken; by Order of His Highness Mehemmed Ali Pasha, Viceroy of; Egypt, By An American In The Service Of The Viceroy
English, George Bethune
Dunqulah (Sudan) -- History; Sennar (Sudan) -- History; Sudan -- History -- 1821-1881; Sudan -- History -- To 1821
[Footnote 85: Directly opposite Seboo, on the other bank of the river,
stands an ancient Egyptian temple. Seboo is four days march of a camel
above Assuan.]
[Footnote 86: The reason for their refusal I afterwards learned, was,
that they believed that the lad was already dead, and that therefore
they should miss the reward promised.]
[Footnote 87: Three days after my arrival at Assuan I had news of the
fate of this lad, from a Nubian voyager of the desert, on his way to
Assuan, who had found him, thirty-six hours after our arrival at Seboo,
lying in the ravine leading to the river, but almost dead. He had
stopped, it seems, to sleep a few hours, believing that sleep would
refresh him, and that he could do it without danger, as the river was
not many hours off. On his awaking, he found himself so weak that it
was with great difficulty that he reached the ravine, where he fell. The
traveler gave him water, and placed him on his dromedary, and brought
him to the river, but he was too far gone; he died in a half an hour
after he reached it. The last words he spoke, this man told me, related
to his God, his prophet, and his mother: this traveler dug his grave
and buried him. I told this man that I had offered a reward at Seboo to
whoever would bring this unfortunate young man to the river, and that I
would give the money to him as a recompense for having done all he could
do in such a case. The man, to my astonishment, replied, "that it was
not money that he would take as a reward for what he had done; that he
would receive no reward for it but from the hands of God, who would pay
more for it than I could." I told him that I was happy to have found a
Mussulman mindful of the precepts of the Koran, which inculcate charity
and benevolence to all those who are in distress, and that the record
of such deeds would occupy a great space on the almost blank page of our
good actions.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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