authority in the eastern part of the kingdom of Sennaar, and bringing
with him three of the chiefs of the refractory, and three hundred and
fifty prisoners, as slaves. The events of this expedition were related
to me as follows: "We marched without resistance for eight days, in
the direction of the rising sun, through a country fine, fertile, and
crowded with villages, till we came to some larger villages near a
mountain called 'Catta,' where we found four or five hundred men posted
in front of them to resist our march They were armed with lances,
and presented themselves to the combat with great resolution. But on
experiencing the effects of our fire-arms, they took to flight toward
the mountain; two hundred of them were hemmed in, and cut to pieces,
and three of their chiefs were taken prisoners, as well as all the
inhabitants we could find in their villages; after which we returned."

On my demanding if water was plentiful at a distance from the river,
my informant replied, that "there were wells in abundance in all the
numerous villages, with which the country abounds; and also numerous
rivulets and streams, which at this season descend from the mountains.
The troops, he said, had forded two small rivers (probably the Ratt and
the Dandar); he added, that the country abounded in beautiful birds
and insects, one of the latter he brought with him; it was a small
scarabeus, covered with a fine close crimson down, exactly resembling
scarlet velvet. The people of the country he described as very harmless,
and exceedingly anxious to know what had brought us to Sennaar to
trouble them."

Two of these Chiefs taken prisoners the Pasha ordered to be impaled in
the market-place of Sennaar. They suffered this horrid death with great
firmness. One of them said nothing but "there is no God but God,
and Mohammed is his Apostle," which he frequently repeated before