nts for the women. The people of Shendi
have a bad character, being both ferocious and fraudulent. Great numbers
of slaves of both sexes, from Abyssinia and Darfour, are to be found
here, at a moderate price, a handsome Abyssinian girl selling for about
forty or fifty dollars. The chief of Shendi, the same who had come to
our camp in Berber, has done his uttermost to promote a good disposition
in his people towards the Osmanlis, and has made the Pasha a present
of several hundreds of very fine camels, within the last two days. His
house is not built of better materials than those of his people, and
differs from them only in being larger. Shendi stands about half a mile
from the easterly bank of the river. Its immediate environs are sandy;
it derives its importance solely from being the rendezvous of the
caravans of Sennaar and the neighboring countries going to Mecca or
Egypt. The territory belonging to the chief of Shendi is said to be very
large,[44] but by no means peopled in proportion to its extent. He can,
however, in conjunction with the Malek of Halfya, bring into the field
thirty thousand horsemen, mounted on steeds probably as beautiful as any
found in any country in the world.

On the 14th of the moon, some soldiers, who went to a village in
the neighborhood of the camp, to get their rations of durra from the
magazine in this village, which had been formed there by its chief,
for the service of the army, were insulted, maltreated, and two of
them killed outright with lances, and others severely wounded by the
inhabitants. On the news of this outrage reaching the camp, the soldiers
took arms, and mounted, to proceed to this village, with the full
determination to revenge the death of their comrades in the severest
manner. In five minutes nearly all the camp was upon the march for this
village, when the Pasha sent orders to stop them and leave the affair to
him. It was however impossible to prevent the greater part of them
from proceeding to the village, which they pillaged and destroyed,
sacrificing to their fury many of its inhabitants. The plunder which
they brought back was however seized by the Selictar, and by the Pasha's
orders restored to its owners.

The conduct of his Excellence on this occasion was highly laudable,
while it must be confessed that that of the soldiers was not much to
be blamed. Durra--a miserable pittance of durra, scarcely sufficient
to support nature, was all that was required from