the greatest perspicacity, the same relative topographical positions
in which the indigenous Atlantic Berbers, the exotic Arabs, and the
negro races, stand towards each other at this day.
Perfectly clear also were this learned Arab’s ethnic views about
the distinctness Of negro nations from either Berbers or Arabs. His
“ History of the kings of the negro peoples \_Soodan, i. e. the
Blacks]” begins thus: “ This portion of the human species that is
composed of negro populations has, for dwelling-place, the countries
of the second climate and of the first [His geography being that of
E d r e e s e e , who, like the Greeks, imagined that , the African continent
prolonged itself towards the east ; in order to form the southern
limit of the Indian and China Seas]. * * * They occupy these territories
in all their width, from the occident to the orient, * * * The
negro species subdivides itself into several races, tribes, and ramifications;
of which the best known, in the last, are the Zendj (natives of
Zanzibar and Mozambique), the Eabasiia (Abyssinians), and the Nouba
(Nubians).” He describes some nineteen peoples of the black race;
and relates two curious facts showing the danger of arming negroes
as soldiers :—1st, how in Hedjra 252 — a . d . 8 6 6 , the Zendj “ slaves
revolted at Basra (Bassora, on the Euphrates) :—2nd, how in Hedjra
468, the corps of Turkish Memlooks, in the service of El-Mostanser,
had many sanguinary engagements, at Cairo, with the negro “ slave”
troops belonging to the same KMlif. The Ketamians (i. e. Berber,
or Moghrabee, mercenaries) ranged themselves on the side of the
Memlooks; and, in one of their conflicts, 40,000 of their black adversaries
were slaughtered. The same troubles recurred during my
own time in Egypt,, when Mohammed Ali imagined that he could
form a regular army of negro soldiers, imported as slaves from the
Belàd-es-Soodàn along the Hpper Nile. Out,of some 12,000,who
tured him, and in time sent him to Brassa, .and afterwards, where he resides now, to Damascus)
than any Plenipotentiary ever perpetrated before ! Without the Arabic text it
cannot be made very clear, but here it is from Pascal Duprat (Op. cit., pp. 291-2). The
words run:—“ cl Ameer Âbd-el-QÀder yiâref hukm Sooltànat.Fratisa fi Afrikeeya”—supposed
by the French protocol-maker to mean, “ le Prince Abd-el-Kadér reconnaît le gouvernement
du Roi des Français en Afrique.” Nothing of the kind! The astute Shemite
overreached the Dragoman (interpreter) in the two main points,—1st, by getting himself
recognized as an Ameer, prince, when he was previously but a mere hadjee, pilgrim to
Mecca ; and 2nd, by recognizing French sovereignty, nftt in Algeria at all, but away to
the eastward (where neither party had any rights) in Tunis, Tripoli, &c. ! This is the
literal sense—“ the prince Âbd-el-Qàder knows the government of a king of France in
Afrikeeya!”
Russia for a century, France for twenty-five years, England for some twenty-five months,
and the United States Executive not even yet—have comprehended that diplomatists ought
to be at least acquainted with the vernacular of those countries to which, at enormous cost,
and frequent inutility, they are commissioned.
were drilled in Hpper Egypt, 1823-5, all those who did not die of
consumption before the expeditions386 sailed to the Morea (1824-5),
586 “ Hand «Wiviscendum ” by his first-born is all that need here accompany reference to my
Father,—who unostentatiously manumitted, at Alexandria, every one of our slaves, between
the years 1821 and 1827. This is a fact I desire to speak upon.
J o h n G u d d o n — bom at Exeter, Devonshire, 28th February, 1784-left England in 1811
was a known^Mediterranean merchant at Malta for seven years; and-thence settling in
Egypt with his family (August, 1818), became not unknown for influential position and
generous deeds during the apogee of Mohammed Ali’s career; especially whilst holding
from 183-, to 1844, the honorary incumbency of the U. S. Consulship, first at Alexandria
and subsequently at Cairo. He died_at Malta-Mmjeen« 3d July, 1844.
[I say “ honorary” Ü. S. Consul, for the especial purpose of contradicting, once and forever,
one of many other falsehoods printed last summer, viz : “ Our first Consul- General in
Egypt was a Yorkshireman, who owed the station to missionary patronage.' He received
$2000 a year, and was free to continue his own vocation as a merchant.”
( The anonymous, though by myself unmistakeable, signature of a “ Traveler” more notorious.
for ubiquity than for veraciousness.or discretion,—taken in conjunction with the
coincidence that his he» found utterance in a “ daily” whose head manager and editorial
principles are too vile for durable advertisement from my own pen—render it merely necessary
here to record that, in the North American (Philadelphia, February 10, 1847) may be
found a “ Letter ’ of mine, setting forth, then as now, all relations of GmnnoN?renomina
with the various administrations of the United States during my lifetime, so far. Speaking
merely as an ethnologist, I myself have only read or heard of, and never cared about what
executive may have happened to strut, quadrennially, over the Washingtonian platforms
Each of us felt proud to serve the United State»-, none of us being ever minions of a faction.
The pending Congressional committee of investigation into “ Lobby” membership (amply
commented on m the New York Herald, Dec. 1856-Feb. 1857), absolves me from adding
my experiences of political probity in “ Uncle Sam’s ” domain. I will, therefore, merely
challenge con radiction, at the United States’ State Department, of these facts, viz: that
my Fatherfor12 myself for 8, my brother William for2,my brother-in-law Alexander Todfor
6, and all of us during 17 years that we upheld gratuitously the honor of the flag in Egypt
ever received compensation, personally, in a single United States’ “ red cent.” We have
severally been the mere channels of payment (less than $500 a year at Alexandria, during
perhaps-17,- a n d far less than another $500 per annum at Cairo during 3 years) to native
employés whom the State Department’s “ printed regulations” compelled us to maintain
and stipend! for the United States’ service in that Pashalic. On the contrary, there hang on
file, at the State Department (as mentioned in the North American aforesaid), documents to
prove that, were equity in Congress not notoriously measured by the ratio of discounts to
*2000 T’tv. 7 . rea% °WeS’ aDd 0Ught t0 P ^ ’ Father’s “ tate something over
•2000 at this moment, interests for 20 years exclusive, - which claim, now as formerly I
hereby abandon'to the fate of “Amy Darden’s horse.’’] j
We landed in Egypt before the “ Emancipation Act,” which has ruined the British West
ndies, was passed ; wherefore my Father then considered it no sin to purchase, for domes-
ation, such slaves as suited our family requirements. The first was, 1819, Fâtima—nurse
IRdnf lame“ ‘ed br0ther Charles (died suddeilly of cholera at Dacca, Bengal, 27th Nov
face h reddls] l-“ aok Galla-girl, rivalling the Venn» de Medici» in form and strikingly in
W . u °nS’ S ™V7 hair’ smaU “ °uth%; in short, no negress. She was
dTV" 1821’ dyiDg Sh0rt,y after °f the P,agUe- The neXt We™’ 1822’ ooraU T V, T Dàr-foor negresses, and a fine negro boy named Muryiàn (i. e . Margaritu»,
denartnr r “ 7 ° " 7 eman01pated’ dowried and married out in 1823, owing to the
taught rl ^ 7 P M °f US at S0h001 “ Engknd- The latt“ ’ “fier being
readlng and baPtized and vaccinated, underwent, at the age of puberty)