d placed in
the palace of Ismael Pasha, where is also a school, at the Viceroy's
expense, for the instruction of the Mussulman youth in the Italian
language and the sciences of the Franks. To which establishments has
been lately added a printing press, for printing books in the Turkish,
Arabic and Persian languages, and a weekly newspaper in Arabic and
Italian. The library and the press are under the superintendence of
Osman Noureddin Effendi, a young Turk of great good sense, and who
is well versed in the literature of Europe, where he has resided for
several years, by order of the Viceroy, for his education: he is at
present engaged in translating into Turkish some works on tactics, for
the use of his countrymen.
For several years past the inland commerce of this favored land had
suffered great interruptions from the confusion and discord to which the
countries on the Upper Nile have been a prey. The chiefs of Shageia had
formed themselves into a singular aristocracy of brigands, and pillaged
all the provinces and caravans within their reach, without mercy and
without restraint; while the civil wars, which have distracted the
once powerful kingdom of Sennaar for these last eighteen years, had
occasioned an almost entire cessation of a commerce, from which Egypt
had derived great advantages.
His Highness the Viceroy, in consequence, determined, as the most
effectual means of putting an end to these disorders, to subject those
countries to his dominion.
Four thousand troops were accordingly put under the command of Ismael
Pasha, the youngest son of the Viceroy, with orders to conquer all the
provinces on the Nile, from the Second Cataract to Sennaar inclusive.
Through the influence of the recommendation of Henry Salt, Esq., His
Britannic Majesty's Consul General in Egypt, I was ordered by the
Viceroy to accompany this expedition, with the rank of Topgi Bashi,
i.e. a chief of artillery, and with directions to propose such plans of
operation to the Pasha Ismael as I should deem expedient, but which the
Pasha might adopt or reject as he should think proper.
This expedition has been perfectly successful; and the conquest of
the extensive and fertile countries, which, in the reign of Candace,
repulsed the formidable legions of Rome, has been effected at an expense
not greater than the blood of about two hundred soldiers.
The principal cause of a success so extraordinary, at such a price,
has been the humanity an
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