In the year 1782 the Shageea overthrew the government of the Funge, and reigned peaceably in their stead, under three meleks,—Melek Shouish, Melek Omar, and Melek Zebair. The account Burckhardt gives of the treacherous conduct of the Mamelukes towards Mahmoud el Adalenab is very correct, as far as it goes. Hadji Mahmoud Sheakh received them with every mark of hospitality, ministered to all their wants, and was in return barbarously murdered at Maraka, this very place which is now called El Ourde, or The Camp. The following particulars of this circumstance, which I received from the best sources at Dongolah, may not be perhaps uninteresting to the reader. The Mamelukes arrived at Captot; and Sheakh Mahmoud, the chief of the Shageea, descended the river on the opposite side, with a numerous suite. He bade the Mamelukes welcome to his kingdom, and informed them that, if they wished for grain, he would furnish them gratis with any quantity they desired. He told them, also, that whatever they asked for, which he possessed, should be immediately sent to their camp; and if they were anxious, as they professed to be, to proceed up the country to Sennaar, he would supply them with provisions for the journey, but if they chose to remain at Captot Marabat, they were welcome. Four days afterwards, fifteen Mamelukes, or katshefs, as they are called, rode up and stopped at the door of the house of the grand Cadi Mahomet, having learnt that the Sheakh Mahmoud was with him. The sheakh having come out to salute them, they complained that they had no grain for their horses. The sheakh sent immediately for a bag for each horse, and ordered his people to fill a boat with grain, and convey it to the camp. The Mamelukes appeared still dissatisfied, and would not dismount whilst their horses were feeding. But their object was soon accomplished; for, as the sheakh approached the horse of one of them, to arrange the bag of corn it was eating, and said, “This is sufficient for your horses now, and I will send you as much as you desire,” the Mameluke, who had his carabine on one side of his saddle, without putting it to his shoulder, pointed it at the sheakh, pulled the trigger, and wounded him in the breast. The sheakh had scarcely drawn his sword a few inches from the scabbard, when another fired a blunderbuss at him, containing six balls, and he fell dead: another instantly separated his head from his body, and they afterwards mangled the corpse in a horrid manner with their sabres. The Cadi Mahomet, who was with him, was killed also by a blow of a sabre, and a black slave, who was in attendance, met a similar fate. Ten of the Shageea peasants, his servants, were present at this murder, but being unarmed they could not attempt to revenge the death of their chief, and therefore fled.