Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/305

 TOPOGRAPHY— FAZOOL, FAMATA. 289 tribute was raised ; but the hcuvy tuxes at last exhausted the patience of the Beja nomads, and a general insurrection against the Khedive's power spread throughout Eastern Sudan. It has recently been seen with what courage and absolute con- tempt for death the Beni-Amers, the Iladendoas, and the Bish&rins have hurled themselves against the English squares, opening a path of blood with their lances up to the cannon's mouth. Topography. Under the Egj'ptian rule, Upper Nubia was divided into provinces which partially coincide with the natural divisions of the countrj'. At the outlet of the Abyssinian mountains the riverain countries of the Blue Nile constituted FazogL Lower down this name has been pre8er^ed by the central part of the ancient kingdom of Senaar, beyond which follow the provinces of Khartum and Berber. To the east Taka comprises the hills and the plains bounded on one side by the Atbara, and on the other by the Barka. The coast regions were divided between the provinces of Massawah and Suakin, the former of which has been partly occupied by the Italians, the latter by the English. Lastly, a few independent states, republics, or chiefdoms still occupy the borderlands between Abyssinia and the Sudan. Fazogl, Famata. Fazogly which has given its name to the upper province of the Blue Nile, and was, before the Eg3'ptian rule, the residence of a powerful king, is now little more than a mere hamlet. As a capital it has been replaced by the town of Famaka, where Mohammed Ali had a palace built at the time of his visit to his southern possessions in 1839 ; a few scattered bricks are now all that remains of it. Famaka would be well situated as a commercial town if slave-hunting had not driven all the surrounding peoples into the mountains. The houses, built on a gneiss rock, skirt the right bank of the Blue Nile, near the confluence of a khor and a little above the point where the river Tumat forms a junction with the Bahr-el-Azraq. Facing it to the south stands Mount Fazogl, the first high crest commanding the river to be met with on coming from Khartum ; hence it appears more imposing than many eminences of greater height, while the rich vegetation which clothes it« slopes seems marvellous to those who come from the desolate northern wastes. The valley of the Tumat had already long ceased to be Egyptian territory before the great insurrection of the Sudan peoples burst forth. Nevertheless, Mohammed Ali considered that this province was one day destined to become the treasure of his empire ; he counted on the gold washed down with the sands of the Tumat and its afiluents to pay his armies and to free himself from the galling suzerainty of the Padishah. In consequence of these ambitious views he caused the upper basin of the Tumat to be explored by the Europeans Cailliaud, Tremaux, Kovalevskiy, and Russegger. But the expenses of the occupation of the countrj',