| By Author | [ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z | Other Symbols ] |
| By Title | [ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z | Other Symbols ] |
| By Language |
|
Download this book: [ ASCII ] Look for this book on Amazon Tweet |
Title: Narrative of travels and discoveries in Northern and Central Africa, in the years 1822, 1823, and 1824
Author: Brown, Robert, Clapperton, Hugh, Denham, Dixon, Oudney, Walter
Language: English
As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available.
Copyright Status: Not copyrighted in the United States. If you live elsewhere check the laws of your country before downloading this ebook. See comments about copyright issues at end of book.
*** Start of this Doctrine Publishing Corporation Digital Book "Narrative of travels and discoveries in Northern and Central Africa, in the years 1822, 1823, and 1824" ***
DISCOVERIES IN NORTHERN AND CENTRAL AFRICA, IN THE YEARS 1822, 1823, AND
1824 ***
[Illustration: Drawn by Major Denham.
Engraved by E. Finden.
ALAMEEN-BEN MOHAMMED EL KANEMY.
SHEIKH OF BORNOU.
_Published by John Murray, London. Feb. 1826._]
=NARRATIVE=
OF
=TRAVELS AND DISCOVERIES=
IN
=NORTHERN AND CENTRAL AFRICA,=
IN THE YEARS 1822, 1823, AND 1824,
BY MAJOR DENHAM, CAPTAIN CLAPPERTON, AND THE
LATE DOCTOR OUDNEY,
EXTENDING ACROSS THE
GREAT DESERT TO THE TENTH DEGREE OF NORTHERN LATITUDE, AND FROM
KOUKA IN BORNOU, TO SACKATOO, THE CAPITAL OF THE FELLATAH EMPIRE.
WITH
=AN APPENDIX,=
PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EARL BATHURST, ONE OF
HIS MAJESTY’S PRINCIPAL SECRETARIES OF STATE, AND DEDICATED BY
PERMISSION TO HIS LORDSHIP,
BY MAJOR DIXON DENHAM,
OF HIS MAJESTY’S 17TH REGIMENT OF FOOT,
AND
CAPTAIN HUGH CLAPPERTON,
OF THE ROYAL NAVY,
THE SURVIVORS OF THE EXPEDITION.
* * * * *
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET.
* * * * *
MDCCCXXVI.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY THOMAS DAVISON, WHITEFRIARS.
TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
THE EARL BATHURST, K.G.
HIS MAJESTY’S PRINCIPAL SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES,
THIS VOLUME,
CONTAINING
AN ACCOUNT OF THEIR DISCOVERIES
MADE UNDER THE AUSPICES OF HIS LORDSHIP,
IS INSCRIBED,
WITH THE GREATEST RESPECT AND GRATITUDE,
BY HIS OBLIGED AND FAITHFUL SERVANTS,
THE AUTHORS.
=PREFACE.=
* * * * *
By the death of Dr. Oudney, it has fallen to the lot of Captain
Clapperton and myself to render an account to the public of our
expedition into the interior and central parts of Northern Africa.
The sudden departure of my surviving companion, on a second mission,
has necessarily thrown the greater part of the burden on myself.
I believe, however—for I have not seen any of his papers—that Captain
Clapperton, during the lifetime of Dr. Oudney, made but few remarks
himself beyond the construction of the chart of our route, from daily
observations of the latitude, and of lunars for the longitude, whenever
favourable opportunities occurred; but, subsequently to the death of
his travelling companion, which happened at an early stage of their
journey into Soudan, a journal of his proceedings and remarks appears
to have been regularly kept; and this, together with other documents
connected with that journey, were left at his departure in the hands
of Mr. Barrow, with a request that he would see them through the press.
It may naturally enough be asked, Why something more than a short
excursion to the westward of Mourzuk, and a few notes, do not appear
from the pen of Dr. Oudney in the present volume? I can only answer the
question by the fact, that the only papers placed in my hands consist
of “An Itinerary from Mourzuk to Bornou;” and “An Excursion to the
Westward of Mourzuk;” neither of which have been deemed fit for
publication _in extenso_, from their imperfect state, and containing
very little beyond what will be found in my own journals. I have,
however, printed in foot notes such parts of them as have been pointed
out to me. Not a paper of his, to my knowledge, has been lost or
destroyed; and I can only account for the unsatisfactory state in which
they have been found, from the circumstance of his ill health, which
became extremely precarious from the moment of our departure from
Mourzuk, where he had caught a cold, which settled on his lungs, and
never left him. On our arrival at Kouka, and frequently afterwards, he
experienced so many attacks of fever, that there appeared little hope
of his surviving to return to England, which was indeed his own
opinion; and when he set out on his last journey towards Soudan, he was
so exhausted, and in a state so unfit for such an undertaking, that he
fell a martyr to his zeal very soon after his departure, though, had he
remained at Kouka, the melancholy event would not, in all probability,
have been prolonged many days.
My own expeditions in various parts of Bornou, in Mandara, and Loggun,
and the two fruitless attempts I made to complete the tour of the great
lake Tchad, will be found to occupy a considerable portion of the
volume; and being made in countries, and among a people unknown to
Europeans,—many of them even by name or report,—it is hoped that
observations, faithfully and circumstantially minuted down at the time
and spot, will not be found tedious or uninteresting to the reader.
It will, perhaps, be thought by some, that I have been more minute than
necessary in the account of our journey across that tremendous desert
which lies between Mourzuk and Bornou, and which, generally speaking,
is made up of dark frowning hills of naked rock, or interminable
plains, strewed in some places with fragments of stone and pebbles, in
others of one vast level surface of sand, and, in others again, the
same material rising into immense mounds, altering their form and
position according to the strength and direction of the winds. But,
even in the midst of this dreary waste, towns, villages, wandering
tribes, and kafilas, or caravans, sometimes occur to break the solitude
of this dismal belt, which seems to stretch across Northern Africa,
and, on many parts of which, not a living creature, even an insect,
enlivens the scene. Still, however, the halting places at the wells,
and the wadeys or valleys, afford an endless source of amusement to the
traveller, in witnessing the manners, and listening to the
conversation, of the various tribes of natives, who, by their singing
and dancing, their story telling, their quarrelling and fighting, make
him forget, for a time, the ennui and fatigue of the day’s journey.
As for the rest, I have to trust to its novelty, for its recommendation
to the public, rather than to any powers of writing, which I pretend
not to possess; and it is now a source of great satisfaction to me
that, under all my difficulties, and they were not few, I was able to
adhere to the resolution I set out with, of recording, at the end of
each day, the occurrences, however trifling, that had taken place.
To Sir Robert Ker Porter, my friend since the days of boyhood, I am
indebted for having perfected several drawings, with his experienced
pencil, from my hasty, but yet faithful sketches, of the people and
scenery of Central Africa. His eye was nearly as familiar as my own
with the picturesque objects they display; and, indeed, all who are
acquainted with the published narrative of his Researches amongst the
Remains of Ancient Persia and Babylonia, might readily recognise the
same hand, in these his spirited delineations of African costume and
character.
DIXON DENHAM.
ALBANY, LONDON,
Jan. 1st. 1826.
[Illustration: MAP _of the_ Travels and Discoveries _made in_ NORTHERN
& CENTRAL AFRICA, by _Dr. Oudney, Major Denham, & Captn. Clapperton,
R.N._ in the Years 1822, 3, & 4.
_J. & C. Walker Sculpt._
_Published as the Act directs Feby. 1826, by John Murray Albemarle
Street London._]
CONTENTS.
* * * * *
Page
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.—From Tripoli to Mourzuk xi
Excursion to the Westward of Mourzuk xliii
MAJOR DENHAM’S NARRATIVE.
CHAP. I.—From Mourzuk to Kouka in Bornou 1
CHAP. II.—Kouka 67
CHAP. III.—Expedition to Mandara 99
CHAP. IV.—Excursion to Munga and the Gambarou 149
CHAP. V.—Rainy Season at Kouka 181
CHAP. VI.—Excursion to Loggun, and Death of Mr. Toole 226
CHAP. VII.—Journey to the Eastern Shores of the Lake Tchad 248
Supplemental Chapter on Bornou 314
CAPTAIN CLAPPERTON’S NARRATIVE.
Prefatory notice to the Narrative, _by John Barrow_
SECT. I.—From Kouka to Murmur, where Dr. Oudney died 1
SECT. II.—From Murmur to Kano 34
SECT. III.—From Kano to Sackatoo, and Residence there 67
APPENDIX.
NO. I.—Translation of a Letter from the
Sheikh Mohammed El Kanemy 139
NO. II.—Translation of a Letter from an African Chieftain 140
NO. III.—A Letter from Yousuf, Pasha of Tripoli, to the
Sheikh of Bornou 141
NO. IV.—A Letter from the Pasha of Tripoli 143
NO. V.—A Letter from the Sheikh of Bornou to the
Sultan of Kanou 144
NO. VI.—A Letter from the Sheikh of Bornou to the
Sultan of Hoossa 145
NO. VII.—A Letter from the Chieftain Mohammed Gamsoo 146
NO. VIII.—A Document relating to the Death of Mungo Park 147
NO. IX.—A Letter from the Sheikh of Bornou to
Captain Clapperton 148
NO. X.—A Document made at the Court of Justice of Bornou 149
NO. XI.—Translation of Letters and Documents received from
the Sheikh of Bornou concerning Mr. Tyrwhit’s Death 151
NO. XII.—Translation of an Arabic MS. 158
NO. XIII.—A Narrative of the first Battle of Kadawee 167
NO. XIV.—The Song of Mohammed-Alameen ben Mohammed El Kanemy 171
NO. XV.—Translation of an extempore Arab Song 173
NO. XVI.—Translation of the Song of the Fezzanneers,
on Boo Khaloom’s Death 174
NO. XVII.—Bornou Vocabulary 175
NO. XVIII.—Begharmi Vocabulary 179
NO. XIX.—Mandara Vocabulary 180
NO. XX.—Timbuctoo Vocabulary 181
NO. XXI.—Zoology 183
NO. XXII.—Botany 208
NO. XXIII.—Letter to Major Denham on the Rock Specimens 247
NO. XXIV.—Thermometrical Journals 262
LIST OF PLATES.
* * * * *
No. Page
1. Alameen ben Mohammed El Kanemy,
Sheikh of Bornou, _Frontispiece_
2. Part of the Stony Desert, _to face page_ xvi
3. Castle at Mourzuk, from Mr. Ritchie’s Grave xxi
4. Woman of Sockna xxvii
5. _Vignette_, Arabs Meeting xlii
6. View of the Bahr Mandia lviii
7. Castle, and Salt Lake at Tegerhy 5
8. Anay Tibboo Country 17
9. Kanemboo Marketwoman,—Unmarried Woman of Soudan 46
10. Body Guard of the Sheikh of Bornou 64
11. Reception of the Mission by the Sultan of Bornou 79
12. Shouaa Women, kingdom of Bornou 94
13. Arrival at Mora, the capital of Mandara 111
14. Mandara Musicians 123
15. Plan of the Pass of Hairy, Mandara mountains 127
16. Attack on Musfeia 133
17. _Vignette_, Manner of Roasting Fish 148
18. The River Gambarou, or Yeou, near Lada 152
19. Favourite of the Seraglio, accompanying a
Military Expedition 163
20. Kanemboo Spearman,—Munga Bowman, in the service of the
Sheikh of Bornou 166
21. Abdel Gassam, a Felatah from Timbuctoo—A Bornouese
on a Journey 177
22. _Vignette_, Kanemboo Night Watch 180
23. Hut, and Carpenter’s Shop 201
24. _Vignette_, Plan of Kouka 225
25. Fishing Boats on the River Shary 229
26. River Shary, from the Walls of Kussery 235
27. _Vignette_, Negresses Pounding Corn 247
28. A Loggun Lady—Funha of Maffatai—Abdelahi of Mandara 259
29. Hager Teous, or the Footstool of Noah 261
30. Sketch of the Lake Tchad 266
31. Lancers of the Sultan of Begharmi 279
32. Manner of Fishing on the River Yeou 284
33. Encampment near Woodie 289
34. Ghirza, south face of Building 305
35. Frieze on do. _ib._
36. Town of Sangeia, in Houssa 36
37. Natives of Soudan 54
38. _Vignette_, Plan of the Town of Kano 56
39. A Reduction of Bello’s Map of Central Africa 109
40. Appendix—Fennecus Cerdo 183
41. Arms and Armour of Central Africa, brought
42. home by Major Denham,—Three Plates.
43.
44. General Map of the Routes of the Travellers.
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
BY MAJOR DENHAM.
* * * * *
FROM TRIPOLI TO MOURZUK.
Previous to any knowledge I had received of the intentions of His
Majesty’s government to follow up the mission of Mr. Ritchie and
Captain Lyon, I had volunteered my services to Lord Bathurst to
proceed to Timbuctoo, by nearly the same route which Major Laing
is now pursuing. I learnt, in reply, that an expedition had been
planned, and that Doctor Oudney and Lieutenant Clapperton, both of
the navy, were appointed; and with these gentlemen, by the kindness
of Lord Bathurst, I was, at my request, associated. My companions
left London before me; but, as soon as ready, I lost no time in
proceeding in the packet to Malta, where I found that they had left
the island for Tripoli nearly a month before. By the kindness of
Admiral Sir Graham Moore, Sir Manley Power, Sir Richard Plasket,
and Captain Woolley, commissioner of the dock-yard, all my wants
were amply supplied; and judging that the assistance of a shipwright
or carpenter might prove of essential use, and being allowed by my
instructions to engage any one, at a reasonable salary, who might
choose to volunteer to accompany the mission, William Hillman,
shipwright, a man of excellent character, immediately offered his
services, on an agreement that he should receive 120_l._ a year so
long as he should continue to be employed.
I embarked in the Express schooner, which the admiral lent me for
the purpose, and, on the 18th November, after three days’ sail,
arrived at Tripoli, and found my two companions at the house of
Mr. Consul Warrington, anxiously expecting my arrival. Of this
gentleman it is not too much to say, that by his cheerful and good
humoured disposition, his zeal, perseverance, and extraordinary good
management, we owe, in a great degree, that influence which England
possesses with this government far beyond that of any other of the
Barbary powers. The English name, in fact, is of such importance
in Tripoli, that there is scarcely a point to carry, or a dispute
to settle, in which the bashaw does not request the interference of
the British consul: and to him, indeed, is, in a great degree, owing
the origin and success of the late mission. He stated broadly to
the government at home, that the road from Tripoli to Bornou was as
open as that from London to Edinburgh; which, with a small allowance
for Oriental hyperbole, was found to be true—witness the journey
of my lamented friend Lieutenant Toole, and also of Mr. Tyrwhitt,
the latter laden with valuable presents.
But this is not all: the British flag has a peculiar power of
protection, and the roof of the English consul always affords a
sanctuary to the perpetrator of any crime, not even excepting murder;
and scarcely a day passes that some persecuted Jew or unhappy slave,
to escape the bastinado, does not rush into the court-yard of the
British consulate for protection. A circumstance occurred in returning
from one of our excursions, which shows in what high estimation the
English character is held in Tripoli. A poor wretch, who, for some
trifling offence, was sentenced to five hundred bastinadoes, having,
while on his way to receive the sentence of the law, contrived to
slip from the custody of his guards, fortunately met with the child
and servant of Doctor Dickson, a most respectable and intelligent
English physician practising in Tripoli: the condemned wretch, with
wonderful presence of mind, snatched up the child in his arms, and
halted boldly before his pursuers. The talisman was sufficiently
powerful: the emblem of innocence befriended the guilty, and the
culprit walked on uninterrupted, triumphantly claiming the protection
of the British flag.
But the following proves still more strongly to what extent the
influence of the British flag might be carried.—Since the reduction
of the refractory Arabs to submission, no chief had received such
repeated marks of kindness and attention from the bashaw, as sheikh
Belgassam ben Khalifa, head of the powerful tribe of El Gibel. At
the particular request of the former, sheikh Khalifa had quitted
his tents and flocks, resided in the city, and was high in his
prince’s confidence—fatal pre-eminence in Barbary states!—and
had been presented, but a few months before, with one of the most
beautiful gardens in the Minshea. Returning from the castle after an
evening of music and dancing in the bashaw’s private apartments,
Belgassam kissed the hand that had signed his death-warrant, and took
his leave. At his own door a pistol-shot wounded him in the arm, and
on entering the skiffa, or passage, a second entered his body. The
old sheikh, after his slave had fastened the door, staggered to his
carpet, and then, in the arms of his wife, proclaimed his assassin
to be his own nephew, sheikh Mahmoud Belgassam Wildé Sowdoweah. The
work being, however, but half done, others rushed in, and seven
stabs put an end to his sufferings, notwithstanding the screams
of his wife, who received two wounds herself, in endeavouring to
save her husband. The poor old man was almost instantly buried,
and the three persons who had undertaken the murder fled to the
British consulate for protection. Early the next morning, however,
the consul despatched his dragoman to give the bashaw notice, “that
the murderers of Khalifa would find no protection under the flag of
England.” The bashaw said, “he was shocked at the murder, and
regretted the assassins having taken refuge in the consulate, as it
was a sanctuary he could not violate, particularly as he understood
they meant to resist, and were well armed.” Our consul replied,
“that the bashaw was at liberty to send any force he pleased, and
use any means he thought best, to drag them from beneath a banner
that never was disgraced by giving protection to assassins.” The
minister also came and expressed the bashaw’s delicacy; and it was
evident he did not expect such would be the conduct of the consul:
he was, however, peremptory, and the bashaw dared not seem to favour
such an act of villany. It was sunset before he decided on taking
them away, when about sixteen of the chosen people of the castle
entered the consulate, and the wretches, although provided with arms,
which they had loaded, tremblingly resigned themselves, and were,
in less than an hour, hanging over the walls of the castle.
On a day appointed we waited on the bashaw. After passing the
court-yard, crowded with guards, and several groups of Arabs in the
passages and ante-rooms playing at cards or dice, we were introduced
to the audience chamber, where the bashaw, sitting cross-legged on
a carpet, supported by his two sons, and attended by armed negroes,
received us kindly, ordered us to be served with sherbet and coffee,
and expressed himself in the most favourable manner on the subject
of our mission, which he promised to forward in safety into the
interior of Africa. He invited us to join him in a hawking party. The
cavalcade, consisting of about three hundred, altogether presented so
novel an appearance, that I shall endeavour to give some description
of our morning’s amusement. The bashaw was mounted on a milk-white
Arabian, superbly caparisoned, with saddle of crimson velvet richly
studded with gold nails, heavy stirrups of the same, and trappings of
embroidered cloth hanging down on each side nearly to the horse’s
fetlock joint; he was preceded by six _chaoushes_, or officers, also
mounted and richly caparisoned, armed with long guns, swords, and
pistols, and a white silk barracan thrown loosely and gracefully round
their bodies. His highness was supported on each side by a favourite
black slave, whose glittering vest, light bornouse, and white turban,
formed a pleasing contrast to the costume of the Arabs. We proceeded
in a westerly direction; and on arriving at the desert, parties of
six and eight dashed forward, with the rapidity of lightning, several
hundred paces, fired, immediately halted in a most surprising manner,
and with loud cries rushed back again to the main body, when instantly
the same ceremony was repeated by another party. Their superior
skill in the management of their horses is really beautiful; and
the way they manœuvre their long musket, by repeatedly spinning it
over their heads at full speed, has a most picturesque effect. Near
the bashaw’s person rode Sidy Ali, his third son, although second
in succession, in consequence of the banishment of the eldest; he
also was attended by his particular guard of Arabs, distinguished
not only by their superior and determined appearance, but by their
figured muslin bornouses. Sidy Ali is the bashaw’s favourite son,
and is particularly handsome, although what we should call too fat,
and is said to resemble very much what the bashaw was at his age:
he is allowed great privilege and liberty, which is indeed proved
by his saying, the other day, to his father, “I shall succeed you
as bashaw.” “How do you mean?” “How? why, by taking the same
steps you did yourself,” said the youth.
I was invited, with my colleagues, to pass a day about five miles
from Tripoli, at the garden of Mahomed D’Ghies, to whom I brought
letters from his son, who was residing in London, much noticed
and respected. This old gentleman had been minister for foreign
affairs to the bashaw, but had retired from office some time, on
account of a complaint in his eyes. He is a most respectable man,
and particularly kind to all European travellers who visit Tripoli;
and so well known throughout Northern Africa, that letters of
credit from him are sure to be duly honoured. Nothing could exceed
the hospitality and attention with which we were received: having
regaled ourselves with sherbet, coffee, and tobacco, several times
in the course of the day, and partaken of an excellent dinner,
_à la Turque_, in a grove of lemon and orange trees, we returned
in the evening to Tripoli, well pleased with our day’s excursion.
Tripoli has been so often described, that I shall pass it over in
silence. Its Jews, its Arabs, its Moors, and Maraboots; the slave
population, and the bashaw’s family; are all so well painted to
the life in “Tully’s Letters,” as to require no further notice
from me as a casual visitor. Neither is it my intention to enter
into a minute description of the country between Tripoli and Mourzuk;
the surface of which is not essentially different from that between
Mourzuk and Bornou, and has already been noticed by Captain Lyon,
and in the communications to the African Association.
On the 5th March, 1822, I left Tripoli for Benioleed[1], to join my
two companions, who had proceeded thither with our servants, horses,
camels, and baggage. They had gone on to Memoom, a very pretty valley,
which, at this season of the year, was green with herbage, and adorned
by flowers of various hues and colours, richly scattered in beautiful
disorder;—but it was the last of the kind we were fortunate enough
to meet with between this place and Bornou; and here the consul
and his son, who had accompanied us from Tripoli, took their leave,
with many hearty good wishes for our success and prosperity.
[Illustration: Drawn by Major Denham.
Engraved by E. Finden.
PART OF THE STONY DESERT.
NEAR SOCKNA.
_Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London._]
On the day previous to our approach to Sockna, a town about half way
between Tripoli and Mourzuk, which we reached in fourteen days, the
uniformity of the journey was somewhat enlivened, by meeting with a
kafila of slaves, from Fezzan, in which were about seventy negresses,
much better looking, and more healthy, than any we had seen near
the sea-coast. They were marching in parties of fifteen or twenty;
and on our inquiring of one of those parties from whence they came,
the poor things divided themselves with the greatest simplicity,
and answered, “Soudan, Begharmi, and Kanem,” pointing out the
different parcels, from each country, as they spoke: those from
Soudan had the most regular features, and an expression of countenance
particularly pleasing.
Passing a small wadey and plantation of date trees, we had soon
a view of Sockna, and were met on the plain, on which it stands,
by the governor and principal inhabitants, accompanied by some
hundreds of the country people, who all crowded round our horses,
kissing our hands, and welcoming us with every appearance of
sincerity and satisfaction; and in this way we entered the town:
the words “Inglesi! Inglesi!” were repeated by a hundred voices
from the crowd. This, to us, was highly satisfactory, as we were the
first English travellers in Africa who had resisted the persuasion
that a disguise was necessary, and who had determined to travel in
our real character as Britons and Christians, and to wear, on all
occasions, our English dresses; nor had we, at any future period,
occasion to regret that we had done so. There was here no jealousy,
nor distrust of us as Christians; on the contrary, I am perfectly
satisfied that our reception would have been less friendly had we
assumed a character that could have been at best but ill supported. In
trying to make ourselves appear as Mussulmans, we should have been
set down as real impostors.
The dates of Sockna are excellent, and in abundance: our animals were
liberally supplied with this fruit of fruits; and after the first
two days appeared to eat them nearly as well as corn. The population
of Sockna must be considerably more than three thousand. The town is
walled, and about a mile in circumference: has eight gates; and wears
altogether a clean and neat appearance that surprised us. The women
are certainly very pretty, and are said to be remarkable for their
love of intrigue. This may be true, or not; but we had no opportunity
of ascertaining it from our own knowledge. Of their affability and
good humour, however, we had many proofs; and while only two of us
were walking through the town one morning, with a little army of
ragged boys following us, two, of rather the better order, quickly
dispersed them; and invited us to enter a house, saying that a _mara
zene_ (a beautiful woman) wished to see us. We put ourselves under
their guidance, and entering a better sort of dwelling-house, were
quickly surrounded by at least half-a-dozen ladies, most of them aged;
but who asked us a thousand questions, and, when satisfied we were
not dangerous, called several younger ones, who appeared to be but
waiting for permission to appear. Our dresses and ourselves were
then minutely examined. The yellow buttons on our waistcoats, and
our watches, created the greatest astonishment; and a pair of loose
white trowsers that I wore, into the pockets of which I accidentally
put my hands, raised their curiosity to a wonderful degree: my hands
were pulled out, and those of three or four of the ladies thrust in,
in their stead: these were replaced by others, all demanding their
use so loudly and violently, that I had considerable difficulty in
extricating myself, and was glad to make my escape. The dress of
the Sockna women is nearly that of the Tripoline: they wear striped
shirts, of silk or linen, large silver ear-rings, with leg-lets and
arm-lets of the same: the lower classes wear those of glass or horn.
The remaining half of our journey to Mourzuk was over pretty nearly
the same kind of surface as that we had passed before; in some places
worse. Sometimes two, and once three days, we were without finding
a supply of water; which was generally muddy, bitter, or brackish:
nor is this the worst that sometimes befalls the traveller. The
overpowering effects of a sudden sand-wind, when nearly at the close
of the desert, often destroys a whole kafila, already weakened by
fatigue; and the spot was pointed out to us, strewed with bones and
dried carcasses, where the year before fifty sheep, two camels,
and two men, perished from thirst and fatigue, when within eight
hours’ march of the well which we were anxiously looking out for.
Indeed the sand-storm we had the misfortune to encounter in crossing
the desert gave us a pretty correct idea of the dreaded effects
of these hurricanes. The wind raised the fine sand with which
the extensive desert was covered, so as to fill the atmosphere,
and render the immense space before us impenetrable to the eye
beyond a few yards. The sun and clouds were entirely obscured,
and a suffocating and oppressive weight accompanied the flakes and
masses of sand, which, I had almost said, we had to penetrate at
every step. At times we completely lost sight of the camels, though
only a few yards before us. The horses hung their tongues out of
their mouths, and refused to face the torrents of sand. A sheep,
that accompanied the kafila, the last of our stock, lay down on the
road, and we were obliged to kill him, and throw the carcass on a
camel. A parching thirst oppressed us, which nothing alleviated. We
had made but little way by three o’clock in the afternoon, when
the wind got round to the eastward, and refreshed us something:
with this change we moved on until about five, when we halted,
protected a little by three several ranges of irregular hills,
some conical, and some table-topped. As we had but little wood,
our fare was confined to tea; and we hoped to find relief from our
fatigues by a sound sleep. That was, however, denied us; the tent
had been imprudently pitched, and was exposed to the east wind,
which blew a hurricane during the night: the tent was blown down,
and the whole detachment were employed a full hour in getting it
up again; and our bedding and every thing that was within it was,
during that time, completely buried by the constant driving of the
sand. I was obliged, three times during the night, to get up for
the purpose of strengthening the pegs; and when, in the morning,
I awoke, two hillocks of sand were formed on each side of my head,
some inches high.
On the 7th April we arrived at a village in the midst of a
vast multitude of palm trees, just one day’s journey short of
Mourzuk. As it was to be the last day’s march, we were all in good
spirits at the prospect of rest; and had we made our arrangements
with judgment, every thing would have gone on well. We had, however,
neglected sending on to advise the sultan of our arrival—a constant
practice, and consequently our reception was not what it ought to
have been. We arrived at D’leem, a small plantation of date trees,
at noon, and finding no water in the well, were obliged to proceed;
and it was three in the afternoon before we arrived at the wells
near Mourzuk. Here we were obliged to wait until the camels came
up, in order that we might advance in form. We might, however, have
saved ourselves the trouble:—no one came out to meet us, except
some naked boys, and a mixture of Tibboos, Tuaricks, and Fezzanese,
who gazed at us with astonishment, and no very pleasant aspect.
We determined on not entering the town in a manner so little
flattering to those whom we represented: and retiring to a rising
ground, a little distance from the gates of the town, waited
the return of a chaoush, who had been despatched to announce
our arrival. After half an hour’s delay, the sheikh El Blad
(the governor of the town) came out, and, in the sultan’s name,
requested we would accompany him to the house which had been prepared
for us; and he added, to our great surprise, the English consul is
there already. The fact was, a very ill-looking Jew servant of mine,
mounted on a white mule, with a pair of small canteens under him,
had preceded the camels, and entered the town by himself: he was
received with great respect by all the inhabitants—conducted through
the streets to the house which was destined to receive us; and from
the circumstance of the canteens being all covered with small brass
shining nails, a very high idea of his consequence was formed. He
very sensibly received all their attentions in silence, and drank
the cool water and milk which was handed to him: and we always had
the laugh against them afterwards, for having shown so much civility
to an Israelite—a race they heartily despise. “We thought the
English,” said they, “were better looking than Jews—Death to
their race! but then God made us all, though not all handsome like
Mussulmans, so who could tell?” As we were all this time exposed
to a burning sun, we were well inclined to compromise a little of
our dignity, and determined on entering the town, which we did by
the principal gate. The walls are well built, at least twenty feet
high; and the gate sufficiently wide to admit, with care, a loaded
camel. You pass through the fsug, slave-market, a wide street, with
houses on each side, three hundred yards in length. It leads into an
open space, in the centre of which the castle stands, surrounded by
a second wall. In the inside of this inner wall, in the castle yard,
are a few houses, originally built for the Mamelukes, and particular
followers of the late sultan, when they were subject to the occasional
attacks of the Arabs. In one of these, the house occupied by the
late Mr. Ritchie and Captain Lyon, arrangements were made for our
reception. Almost as soon as the camels were unloaded, we paid our
respects to the sultan: he received us with a great deal of affability
and good nature, and made an impression in his favour, which, however,
his subsequent conduct tended but little to strengthen.
[Illustration: Drawn by Major Denham.
Engraved by E. Finden.
CASTLE AT MOURZUK.
FROM MR. RITCHIE’S GRAVE.
_Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London._]
Our interview with the sultan of Mourzuk was any thing but
encouraging: he told us that there was no intention, as we had been
led to expect, of any expedition to proceed to the southward for some
time to come; that an army could only move in the spring of the year;
that the arrangements for moving a body of men through a country
where every necessary must be carried on camels, both for men and
horses, were so numerous, that before the following spring it was
scarcely possible to complete them: that two camels were required
for every man and horse, and one for every two men on foot. And as
to our proceeding to Bornou, it would be necessary, had the bashaw
instructed him to forward us, that we should be accompanied by an
escort of two hundred men. He said he would read to us the bashaw’s
letter, and we should see the extent to which he could forward
our wishes. The letter was then handed to his fighi, or secretary;
and we found that to the protection of the sultan of Fezzan were we
intrusted, who was to charge himself with our safety, and so insure
our being treated with respect and attention by all his subjects;
that we were to reside at Sebha, or Mourzuk, or where we chose in
the kingdom of Fezzan, and to await his return from Tripoli. With
this our audience ended, and we returned to our habitation.
It is quite impossible to express the disheartening feelings with
which we left the castle. The heat was intense; the thermometer at
97° in the coolest spot in the house, during the middle of the day;
and the nights were scarcely less oppressive: the flies were in such
myriads, that darkness was the only refuge from their annoyance. All
poor Mr. Ritchie’s sufferings and disappointments were brought to
our recollections; and although, from the arrangements which we had
been able to make, we were better provided with necessaries than those
who had gone before us,—yet did we consider our stock as a very
sacred charge, applicable only to the grand objects of our expedition.
We received visits from all the principal people of Mourzuk the day
after our arrival; and remarking a very tall Tuarick, with a pair
of expressive, large, benevolent-looking eyes, above the black mask
with which they always cover the lower part of their face, hovering
about the door, I made signs to him to come near, and inquired
after Hateeta, the chief Captain Lyon had spoken so highly of, and
for whom, at his request, I was the bearer of a sword. To my great
surprise, striking his breast, he exclaimed, “I am Hateeta! are you
a countryman of Said[2]?—how is he? I have often longed to hear of
him.” I found Hateeta had been but once in Mourzuk since Captain
Lyon’s departure, and was now only to remain a few days. On the
following morning he came to the house, and the sword was presented
to him. It would be difficult to describe his delight; he drew
the sword and returned it, repeatedly; pressed it to his breast,
exclaimed “Allah, Allah!” took my hand, and pressing it, said
“_Katar heyrick yassur yassur_” (thank you very very much);
nearly all the Arabic he could speak. It was shortly reported all
over the whole town, that Hateeta had received a present from Said,
worth one hundred dollars.
12th.—We had been several times visited, and our hopes and spirits
raised, by a person called Boo-Bucker Boo-Khaloom. He said that it
was in the sultan’s power to send us on to Bornou if he pleased: he
even hinted that a bribe for himself might induce him to do so—this,
however, we found was not the case. Boo-Khaloom was represented to us,
and truly, as a merchant of very considerable riches and influence
in the interior. He was on the eve of starting for Tripoli, with
really superb presents for the bashaw. He had five hundred slaves,
the handsomest that could be procured, besides other things. He stated
to us, secretly, that his principal object in going to Tripoli was
to obtain the removal of the present sultan of Fezzan; and wished
that we should make application to the bashaw for him to accompany
us farther into the interior: we were not, however, to hint that
the proposition had come from him. Boo-Khaloom said that he should
be instantly joined by upwards of one hundred merchants who waited
but for his going, and no further escort would be necessary; that
he should merely remain a few weeks in Tripoli, and, on his return,
we could instantly move on. The substance of all these conversations
was transmitted to Colonel Warrington.
Boo-Khaloom left Mourzuk for Tripoli, with his slaves and presents;
loading upwards of thirty camels, apparently reconciled to, and upon
good terms with, the sultan. It was, however, very well known that
Sultan Mustapha had set every engine at work to have Boo-Khaloom’s
head taken off on his arrival in Tripoli; and that the other was
willing to sacrifice all he was worth to displace and ruin Mustapha
in the bashaw’s favour.
It was not till the 18th, that the sultan, after attending the
mosque, started for Tripoli; all his camels and suite had marched
in divisions, for three days previous,—in slaves he had alone
more than one thousand five hundred. He was attended by about ten
horsemen, his particular favourites, and four flags were carried
before him through the town. The inhabitants complained dreadfully
of his avarice, and declared that he had not left a dollar, or an
animal worth one, in all Fezzan.
Nothing was now to be done but to make our arrangements for a
favourable start the following spring. By the sultan’s departure,
every necessary for our proceeding was withdrawn from the spot
where we were. Not a camel was to be procured, and every dollar,
that he could by any means force from his subjects, was forwarded
to Tripoli. To Tripoli, therefore, were we to look for supplies
of every kind; and it was decided by us all, that my departure had
better follow his as soon as possible.
In pursuance of our determination to represent to the bashaw of
Tripoli how necessary it was that something more than promises should
be given us for our sterling money, on Monday, the 20th May, I left
Mourzuk, with only my own negro servant Barca, three camels, and
two Arabs; and, after a most dreary journey of twenty days, over the
same uninteresting country I had already traversed,—the more dreary
for want of my former companions,—I arrived at Tripoli on the 12th
June, where I was received by the consul with his usual hospitality
and kindness, and he assigned me apartments in the consulate.
12th.—I requested an immediate audience of the bashaw, which in
consequence of the Rhamadan was not granted me until the following
evening. The consul, Captain Smyth of the navy, and myself,
attended: I represented, in the strongest terms, how greatly
we were disappointed at the unexpected and ruinous delay we had
experienced in Mourzuk, and requested a specific time being fixed for
our proceeding to Bornou; stating, also, that were the answer not
satisfactory, I should proceed forthwith to England, and represent
to the government how grievously we had been deceived. The bashaw
denied having intentionally broken his word, and solemnly declared
that the will of God, in visiting the sultan of Fezzan with sickness,
had alone prevented our being now on the road to Bornou.
A voyage to Marseilles, on my way to England, was the consequence
of our altercation with the bashaw; and the promptitude with which
it was decided upon, and carried into effect, by means of a small
French vessel which, at the time, most fortunately lay in the harbour,
was not without its good effects. The bashaw sent three despatches
after me, by three different vessels, to Leghorn, Malta, and the
port I had sailed to, which I received in quarantine, informing me,
that Boo-Khaloom was appointed with an escort to convey us forthwith
to Bornou. This was every thing I wished for; and immediately
re-embarking, a seven days’ passage brought me once more to the
shores of Barbary. Boo-Khaloom and part of the escort were already
at the entrance to the desert; and on the 17th of September we
re-entered the pass of Melghra in the Tarhona mountains. Hope and
confidence had taken possession of my mind, in the place of anxiety
and disappointment; there was now an air of assurance and success
in all our arrangements; and I felt my health and spirits increase
with this conviction. But little beyond the casualties attendant on
desert travelling occurred, previous to our arriving again at Sockna,
which we did on the 2d of October.
I found the great failing of my friend, Boo-Khaloom, was pomp and
show; and feeling that he was, on this occasion, the bashaw’s
representative, he was evidently unwilling that any sultan of
Fezzan should exceed him in magnificence. On entering Sockna, his six
principal followers, handsomely attired in turbans and fine barracans,
and mounted on his best horses, kept near his person, whilst the
others, at a little distance, formed the flanks. I rode on his right
hand, dressed in my British uniform, with loose Turkish trowsers,
a red turban, red boots, with a white bornouse over all, as a shade
from the sun; and this, though not strictly according to order, was by
no means an unbecoming dress. Boo-Khaloom was mounted on a beautiful
white Tunisian horse, a present from the bashaw, the peak and rear
of the saddle covered with gold, and his housings were of scarlet
cloth, with a border of gold six inches broad. His dress consisted
of red boots, richly embroidered with gold, yellow silk trowsers, a
crimson velvet caftan with gold buttons, a silk benise of sky blue,
and a silk sidria underneath: a transparent white silk barracan was
thrown lightly over this, and on his shoulders hung a scarlet bornouse
with wide gold lace, a present also from the bashaw, which had cost,
at least, four hundred dollars; a cashmere shawl turban crowned the
whole. In this splendid array, we moved on until, as we approached
the gates of the town, the dancing and singing men and women met us;
and, amidst these, the shouts and firing of the men, who skirmished
before us, and the “loo! loo!” of the women, we entered Sockna.
We found that houses were provided for us in the town; but the kafila
bivouacked outside the gates. It had always been our intention
to halt at Sockna, for three or four days; and here we expected
to be joined by a party of the Megarha Arabs, whom their sheikh,
Abdi Smud ben Erhoma, had left us, for the purpose of collecting
together. Hoon and Wadan were also to furnish us with another
quota. My house consisted of a court-yard eighteen feet square,
and a small dark room, leading out of it by two steps: the court,
however, was the greater part of the day shaded; and here, on a
carpet, I received my visitors. The Arabs, as they arrived, were
all sent to me by Boo-Khaloom; and their presentation has a form in
it, not much in character with their accustomed rudeness: they all
came armed with their long guns; and the same girdle which confines
their barracan contains also two long pistols. The chief enters,
and salutes, dropping on one knee, and touching the stranger’s
right hand with his, which he carries afterwards to his lips; he then
says, “Here are my men, who are come to say health to you.” On
receiving permission, they approached me, one by one, saluting in
the same manner as their chief, who continued to remain at my side:
they then sat down, forming a sort of semicircle round me, with
their guns upright between their knees; and, after a little time,
on the sheikh making a signal, they all quitted the presence.
Boo-Khaloom, who had suffered very considerably from fever, cold,
and ague, now became so seriously ill, that our departure was of
necessity postponed, and he insisted upon my prescribing for him,
saying, “he was quite sure that I could cure him, if it was the
will of God that he should live: if not, that nobody could.” His
confidence in me gave me some confidence in myself: but alone, with
very few medicines, and less skill, my situation was really one of
great anxiety; for no one could foresee what might have been the
consequence, had any thing serious happened to him while under my
hands. He became alarmingly ill, and for two days and nights I had
great doubts of his recovery; to my great satisfaction, however,
on the third morning, after a night of pain and delirium (and which
I had passed in watching by his side), a violent eruption appeared
on his skin, with some little moisture, produced by covering him up
the whole day with blankets, and suffering no one to come into the
room but his favourite female slave. By the evening, he became much
better.—Hajamad, or charms, are what the Arabs have most faith in,
when they are ill. All the fighis (writers) and maraboots in Sockna
were employed on this occasion by my friend’s friends, and one
night the tassels of his cap were literally loaded with them. He
assured me, when alone, that he had no faith in such things, and
smiled when he said his friends would think ill of him, were he to
refuse; his faith, however, was stronger than he chose to acknowledge,
and entering, unexpectedly, one morning, I found him with a dove
that had been just killed and cut open lying on his head, which,
as he assured me, was because a very great maraboot had come from
Wadan on purpose to perform the operation.
During our stay at Sockna, the marriage of the son of one of the
richest inhabitants, Hadgi Mohammed-el-Hair-Trigge, was celebrated in
the true Arab style. There is something so rudely chivalric in their
ceremonies (so very superior to the dull monotony of a Tripolitan
wedding), where from one to five hundred guests, all males, assemble,
covered with gold lace, and look at one another, from the evening of
one day until daylight the next, that I cannot help describing them.
The morning of the marriage-day (for the ceremony is always performed
in the evening, that is, the final ceremony; for they are generally
betrothed, and the fatah read, a year before) is ushered in by the
music of the town or tribe, consisting of a bagpipe and two small
drums, serenading the bride first, and then the bridegroom, who
generally walks through the streets very finely dressed, with all
the town at his heels; during which time, the women all assemble
at the bride’s house, dressed in their finest clothes, and place
themselves at the different holes in the wall which serve as windows,
and look into the court-yard. When they are so placed, and the bride
is in front of one of the windows with her face entirely covered
with her barracan, the bridal clothes, consisting of silk shifts,
shawls, silk trowsers, and fine barracans, to show her riches,
are hung from the top of the house, quite reaching to the ground:
the young Arab chiefs are permitted to pay their respects; they are
preceded from the skiffa, or entrance, by their music, and a dancing
woman or two advances with great form, and with slow steps, to the
centre of the court, under the bride’s window: here the ladies
salute their visitors, with “loo! loo! loo!” which they return
by laying their right hand on their breasts, as they are conducted
quite round the circle. Ample time is afforded them to survey the
surrounding beauties; and there are but few, who, on these occasions,
are so cruel as to keep the veil quite closed. Such an assemblage
of bright black eyes, large ear-rings, and white teeth, are but
rarely seen in any country, I should suppose. After having made
the circuit, the largess is given, and exposed to view by the chief
_danseuse_, and, according to its amount, is the donor hailed and
greeted by the spectators. Previous to their departure, all visitors
discharge their pistols, and then again the ladies salute with the
“loo! loo!” So far from being displeased at my asking permission
to pay my respects, they considered it as a favour conferred; and
the bridegroom, although he could not himself be admitted, attended
me to and from the house of his mistress. This ceremony being ended,
a little before sunset, the bride prepares to leave her father’s
house: a camel is sent for her with a jaafa[3], or sedan chair of
basket-work, on its back, covered with skins of animals, shawls from
Soudan, Cairo, and Timbuctoo: she steps into this, and so places
herself as to see what is going forward, and yet to be entirely
hid from the view of others. She is now conducted outside the town,
where all the horsemen and footmen who have arms are assembled. Our
escort on this occasion added greatly to the effect, as they were
all, by Boo-Khaloom’s order, in the field, consisting of sixty
mounted Arabs; and when they all charged and fired at the foot of
the bride’s camel, I really felt for the virgin’s situation;
but it was thought a great honour, and that, I suppose, consoled
her for the fright. They commenced by skirmishing by twos and fours,
and charging in sections at full speed, always firing close under the
bride’s jaafa: in this manner they proceeded three times round the
town, the scene occasionally relieved by a little interlude of the
bridegroom’s approaching the camel, which was surrounded by the
negresses, who instantly commenced a cry, and drove him away, to the
great amusement of the bystanders, exclaiming, “_Burra! Burra!_
be off! be off! _mazal shouia!_ a little yet!” With discharges
of musketry, and the train of horsemen, &c. she is then conveyed
to the bridegroom’s house; upon which it is necessary for her to
appear greatly surprised, and refuse to dismount: the women scream,
and the men shout, and she is at length persuaded to enter; when,
after receiving a bit of sugar in her mouth from the bridegroom’s
hand, and placing another bit in his, with her own fair fingers,
the ceremony is finished, and they are declared man and wife.
[Illustration: A WOMAN OF SOCKNA.
Drawn by Captn. Clapperton. R.N.
Engraved by E. Finden.
_Published by John Murray, London. Feb. 1826._]
We had now to pass the Gibel Assoud, or Black Mountains: the
northernmost part of this basaltic chain commences on leaving
Sockna. We halted at Melaghi, or the place of meeting immediately
at the foot of the mountain, the well of Agutifa; and from hence
probably the most imposing view of these heights will be seen. To the
south, the mountain-path of Niffdah presents its black overhanging
peaks, and the deep chasm, round which the path winds, bearing a
most cavern-like appearance: a little to the west, the camel path,
called El Nishka, appears scarcely less difficult and precipitous;
the more southern crags close in the landscape, while the foreground
is occupied by the dingy and barren wadey of Agutifa, with the well
immediately overhung by red ridges of limestone and clay: the whole
presenting a picture of barrenness, not to be perfectly described,
either by poet or painter.
Large masses of tabular basalt, and irregular precipices, common to
this formation, are scattered over this range of hills, and extend
over all the plains which environ them. The most lofty hills are those
which present the most massive façades of tabular basalt; the sides
sometimes exhibit a step-like appearance, and in many instances
are overhung by pillars, curved, inclined, and perpendicular:
these produce a singular effect, not devoid of grandeur. The lower
stratum of all these hills is invariably limestone, mixed with a
reddish clay. Hills of the same are found bordering upon, and in
some cases joining, the basaltic ones; some of these are strewed
over with a covering of basalt stones of various sizes and forms,
none of them large, from three to eighteen inches in circumference,
but still showing the colour and structure of the soil on which
they are spread. Other hills of limestone are also indiscriminately
found without the slightest particle of basalt on them, although in
the immediate vicinity of what could easily be imagined the ancient
crater of a volcano, which had showered a sombre covering heaved
from the very bowels of the earth, on all the then existing hills
and plains which surrounded it. Some of these limestone hills have
been cut through, either by the falling of masses of rock from the
higher hills, or by violent watercourses; and a section of them
reveals nothing but pure limestone mixed with clay.
The Souda, or Gibel Assoud[4], extend from north to south, three
days’ journey, but in so winding a direction, as not to exceed
thirty-five miles at the utmost in a straight line: to the west,
as far as the well called Assela, on the road to the Shiati, where
the red clay hills continue alone, and join the hills at Benioleed:
to the east, they extend three days on the road to Zella, or Bengagi,
to a wadey called Temelleen.
The first four days of our journey, after leaving Agutifa, were
all dreariness and misery. This was the third time that I passed
these deserts: but no familiarity with the scenery at all relieves
the sense of wretchedness which the dread barrenness of the place
inspires. We marched from dawn until dark, for the sake of getting
over them as quickly as possible; and as scarcely sufficient fuel
was to be found to boil a little water, a mess of cold tumuta was
usually our supper. On leaving Tingazeer, we had the blessing of
a rainy day; for such it was to all, but particularly to the poor
negroes who accompanied the kafila, although Boo-Khaloom always
gave them to drink from his skins once in the day (an unusual
kindness), yet marching as they were for twelve and fourteen hours,
once scarcely satisfied nature. In consequence of the rain, we found
water fresh and pure during almost every day’s march, and arrived
at Zeghren[5] with the loss of only one camel. On the last day,
previous to arriving at the well, Omhul Abeed, a skeleton of a man,
with some flesh still hanging about him, lay close to the road;
but it was passed by the whole kafila, with scarcely a remark.
After these dreary wastes, it was no small pleasure to rest a day at
Zeghren, the native town of a considerable merchant who accompanied
our kafila. When we first left Sockna for Mourzuk, Abdi Zeleel
had before taken me to his house, and presented me to his mother
and sister; and he now insisted on my taking up my quarters there
altogether. Almost the first person that presented herself was my
friend the merchant’s sister, I had almost said the fair, Omhal
Henna[6]. She had a wooden bowl of haleeb (fresh milk) in her hand,
the greatest rarity she could offer, and holding out the milk with
some confusion towards me with both her hands, the hood which should
have concealed her beautiful features had fallen back; as my taking
the milk from her would have prevented the amicable salutation we
both seemed prepared for, and which consisted of four or five gentle
pressures of the hand, with as many _aish harlecks_, and _tiebs_,
and _ham-dulillahs_, she placed the bowl upon the ground, while the
ceremonies of greeting, which take a much longer time in an African
village than in an English drawing-room, were, by mutual consent,
most cordially performed. I really could not help looking at her with
astonishment, and I heartily wish that I had the power of conveying
an idea of her portrait. It was the _Jemma_ (Friday), the Sabbath,
and she was covered, for I cannot call it dressed, with only a blue
linen barracan, which passed under one arm, and was fastened on
the top of the opposite shoulder with a silver pin, the remaining
part thrown round the body behind, and brought over her head as a
sort of hood, which, as I remarked, had fallen off, and my having
taken her hand when she set down the milk had prevented its being
replaced. This accident displayed her jet black hair in numberless
plaits all round her expressive face and neck, and her large sparkling
eyes and little mouth, filled with the whitest teeth imaginable. She
had various figures burnt on her chin with gunpowder: her complexion
was a deep brown; and round her neck were eight or ten necklaces of
coral and different coloured beads. So interesting a person I had
not seen in the country; and on my remaining some moments with my
eyes fixed on her, she recommenced the salutation, “How is your
health,” &c. and smiling, asked, with great naiveté, “whether I
had not learnt, during the last two months, a little more Arabic.”
I assured her I had. Looking round to see if any body heard her—and
having brought the hood over her face—she said, “I first heard
of your coming last night, and desired the slave to mention it to my
brother. I have always looked for your coming, and at night, because
at night I have sometimes seen you: you were the first man whose
hand I ever touched—but they all said it did not signify with you,
an _Insara_ (a Christian). God turn your heart!—but my brother says
you will never become Moslem—won’t you, to please Abdi Zeleel’s
sister? My mother says God would have never allowed you to come, but
for your conversion.” By this time, again the hood had fallen back,
and I again had taken her hand, when the unexpected appearance of Abdi
Zeleel, accompanied by the governor of the town, who came to visit
me, was a most unwelcome interruption. Omhal-henna quickly escaped;
she had, however, overstepped the line, and I saw her no more.
Besides our own people, and the followers of Boo-Khaloom, we had a
number of liberated slaves who were returning to their homes. The
bashaw had given freedom to twenty-four from the castle, sixteen
of whom were females. Our friend, Mohammed D’Ghies, had also
liberated three young women, all under twenty, natives of Begharmi,
the evening previous to our leaving Tripoli, telling them, in my
presence, that his friends the English wishing to visit their country,
was the cause of their being set at liberty. There are circumstances
attached to this act of D’Ghies beyond the mere liberation of three
healthy negresses, so creditable to the feelings of this excellent
old man, that they must not be omitted. Two of these girls only had
fallen into his hands, and on his intimating to them his intention of
giving them their liberty, they told him that another sister had been
brought to Tripoli with them, and sold, like themselves, to slavery;
but they knew not what was become of her. Mohammed D’Ghies, after
much inquiry, succeeded in finding out who had been the purchaser,
paid the price demanded for her liberation, and provided the means
for enabling all the sisters to return together to their own country
with Boo-Khaloom.
On the 20th October, in a date grove a short distance from the town of
Temenhint, we found a kafila from Mourzuk, and some of the Mamelukes
who had come from Darfoor and Waday. I visited them with Boo-Khaloom:
their tents scarcely held together, and they gave a deplorable account
of their sufferings: two of them had been beys, and one, Mohammed
Bey, was still in the prime of life, and conversed with spirit; the
other, Ali Bey, appeared weighed down by his misfortunes, and was
between fifty and sixty years of age: they had left Cairo fifteen
years, and had passed the greater part of their exile in and near
Dongala. On the approach of the army of Mohammed Ali, three hundred
and fifty of them mustered at Dongala, and determined on passing
to Kordofan, and from thence to Darfoor. At Darfoor they refused to
receive them, and they then moved on to Wara, the capital of Waday,
where also they were refused permission to remain. For four months
they had been in great distress, the Waday people refusing to sell
them any thing for themselves, or forage for their horses, all of
which they were consequently obliged to part with: taking slaves
for them, which they again exchanged for ostrich feathers, and any
thing they could get. At Waday, all but twenty-six determined on
proceeding to the south; they, however, afterwards altered their
minds, and took the direction of the army of Mohammed Ali, meaning
to claim protection there. The twenty-six left Waday just before
the _Rhamadan_ (May), and followed the tracks of camels until they
came to a kafila of Fezzaneers proceeding to Mourzuk: this kafila
they joined; but in passing through the Tibboo Borgoo country,
one of their camels strayed and tore a branch from a date tree,
for which the Borgoo people beat and wounded one of the Mameluke
slaves: this was resented by the Mamelukes, and a quarrel ensued,
which the Fezzaneers in vain attempted to arrange. They also became
sufferers: the Borgoo people attacked and followed the kafila for
five days, during which time twenty of the Mamelukes were killed,
and thirteen of the Fezzaneers; the six remaining Mamelukes were now
on their way to Tripoli, in the hope of obtaining from the bashaw
permission to pass the remainder of their lives in his regency:
they had lost forty thousand dollars since leaving Egypt.
Mohammed Bey describes the people of Borgoo and Waday as savages of
the worst description, abhorring even the sight of a white man. I
told him it was my intention to proceed in the direction of Darfoor,
if possible: he replied, placing my hand in Boo-Khaloom’s, “Do
not leave this good man, Sidi-Rais, if you hope to return.”—But
rarely a kafila passes from Dongala to Darfoor; to Bornou, never. The
army of Egypt had been repulsed with considerable loss at Darfoor;
the people of which country, Mohammed Bey said, could muster one
hundred thousand men, armed, in the field, equipped with artillery
and mortars. The beys of Egypt had sent the King of Darfoor, many
years ago, eight pieces of ordnance; they had made others, and worked
them, as well as the people of Egypt themselves. The army had gone
south, and meant to over-run all the Kordofan, when it was thought,
if they had no reinforcement, that they would return to Egypt:
with their present strength, they could do nothing with Darfoor,
but the people of Darfoor wished for peace with Mohammed Ali, and
feared him; on this account it was that they would not receive the
Mamelukes. Affecting my own plans so materially as this information
appeared to do, it was listened to by me with the deepest interest.
On Thursday, the 24th of October, we halted at Sebha, and remained
there until Saturday the 26th, gathering our escort and collecting
our supplies.
On Wednesday, the 30th October, we made our entrée into Mourzuk with
all the parade and show that we could muster. By Boo-Khaloom’s
presents to the bashaw, but chiefly on account of his having
undertaken to conduct us to Bornou, he had not only gained the
bashaw’s favour, but had left Tripoli with strong proofs of his
master’s consideration. Boo-Khaloom, naturally liberal, had, by
successful trade, been enabled early in life to gratify his charitable
and benevolent inclinations. This made him so popular in Mourzuk,
that nearly half the inhabitants came out to meet him, at a short
distance from the town, although not any of the authorities, and we
entered the gates amidst the shouts of the people, preceded by singing
and dancing women; and the Arabs who formed our escort made such
repeated charges upon their jaded and tired animals, that I really
expected some of them would “fall to rise no more.” No living
creatures can be treated worse than an Arab’s wife and his horse,
and if plurality could be transferred from the marriage bed to the
stable, both wives and horses would be much benefited by the change.
I could not quite resist a sensation of disappointment that no friends
came out to meet me: but as the sun was insufferably powerful,
and as I had received a message by Boo-Khaloom’s brother, from
Doctor Oudney, that he was unwell, and that Clapperton had the ague,
I did not much expect it; I was, however, by no means prepared to
see either of them so much reduced as they were. Both my companions
and Hillman I found had been confined to their beds with _hemma_
(fever and ague), had been delirious, and the Doctor and Hillman
only a little recovered. Clapperton was still on his bed, which for
fifteen days he had not quitted. Doctor Oudney was suffering also from
a severe complaint in his chest, arising from a cold caught during
his excursion to Ghraat, and nothing could be more disheartening
than their appearance. The opinion of every body, Arabs, Tripolines,
and our predecessors, were unanimous as to the insalubrity of its
air. To account physically for the sickliness of the place, was beyond
the powers of wiser medical heads than mine, but facts are stubborn
things. Mr. Ritchie had fatally felt the baneful influence of the
climate of Mourzuk, and Captain Lyon had suffered extremely during
his stay there: every one of us, some in a greater or less degree,
had been seriously disordered; and amongst the inhabitants themselves,
any thing like a healthy looking person was a rarity.
Notwithstanding Boo-Khaloom made every exertion in his power
to get away from Mourzuk as early as possible, yet, from the
numerous arrangements which it was necessary for him to make,
for the provisioning so many persons during a journey through a
country possessing no resources, it was the 29th November before
those arrangements were complete. Doctor Oudney and Mr. Clapperton,
from a most praiseworthy impatience to proceed on their journey, and
at the same time, thinking their health might be benefited by the
change of air, preceded him to Gatrone by ten days. I had remained
behind to urge Boo-Khaloom and expedite his departure, and we thought
by these means to obviate any wish which he might have to delay on
account of his private affairs, even for a day. Our caution was,
however, needless; no man could be more anxious to obey the orders
he had received, and forward our views, than himself: indeed so
peremptory had been the commands of the bashaw, in consequence of the
representations of our consul general, when complaining of former
procrastination, that Boo-Khaloom’s personal safety depended on
his expedition, and of this he was well aware.
It may not be unacceptable to the reader, if I here give some account
of the strength of our party.
I had succeeded in engaging, on my return to Tripoli, as an attendant
to accompany me to Bornou, a native of the island of St. Vincent,
whose real name was Adolphus Sympkins; but who, in consequence of
his having run away from home, and in a merchant vessel traversed
half the world over, had acquired the name of Columbus; he had been
several years in the service of the bashaw, spoke three European
languages, and perfect Arabic. This person was of the greatest service
to the mission, and so faithful an attendant, that His Majesty’s
government have since employed him to accompany my former companion
and colleague, Captain Clapperton, on the arduous service he is
now engaged in: we had besides three free negroes, whom we had
hired in Tripoli as our private servants; Jacob, a Gibraltar Jew,
who was a sort of store-keeper; four men to look after our camels;
and these, with Mr. Hillman and ourselves, made up the number of our
household to thirteen persons. We were also accompanied by several
merchants from Mesurata, Tripoli, Sockna, and Mourzuk, who gladly
embraced the protection of our escort to proceed to the interior
with their merchandize.
The Arabs in the service of the bashaw of Tripoli, by whom we were
to be escorted to Bornou, and on whose good conduct our success
almost wholly depended, were now nearly all assembled, and had been
chosen from the most obedient tribes; they gained considerably in
our good opinion, each day we became better acquainted with them:
they were not only a great and most necessary protection to us,
breaking the ground as we were for any Europeans who might follow
our steps, but enlivened us greatly on our dreary desert way
by their infinite wit and sagacity, as well as by their poetry,
extempore and traditional. We had several amongst our party who
shone as orators in verse, to use the idiom of their own expressive
language, particularly one of the tribe of Boo Saiff Marabooteens,
or gifted persons, who would sing for an hour together, faithfully
describing the whole of our journey for the preceding fortnight,
relating the most trifling occurrence that had happened, even
to the name of the well, and the colour and taste of the water,
with astonishing rapidity and humour, and in very tolerable poetry;
while some of his traditionary ballads were beautiful. The names of
the chiefs who were to accompany us were as follows:—
Of the tribe of M’Garha, Sheikh Abdi Smud ben Erhoma, from the
Syrtis, with seventy men. He often said that his father’s name
was renowned in song, for having killed one hundred men with his
own hand in battle, and please God! he should exceed him, for he
was but thirty-five, and had brought forty to the ground already.
The M’Garhas are at this time in great favour with the bashaw,
and entirely exempt from tribute of any sort, from having assisted
him very materially in annihilating the Waled Suleyman: I must,
therefore, give some account of them.
They principally inhabit the Syrtis, where a considerable body always
remain; tribes of them, with their flocks, pitch their tents for
the months of pasture wherever they can find forage, and in times of
peace even to within a few leagues of Tripoli. When the present bashaw
determined on putting a finishing stroke to the Waled Suleyman, by the
extermination of the tribe, he, like a wily politician, sent offers
of peace and protection to the M’Garha, the ancient and inveterate
enemies of the Seffenusser[7]. In their occasional skirmishes, no
quarter was given; and a Waled Suleyman literally sucked the blood
of a M’Garha, after giving him the finishing blow: children were
even called upon to follow the parent’s example, so that they might
imbibe all the hatred felt by their ancestors, and vice versa. The
tribe of M’Garha readily accepted the bashaw’s offers; and with
their assistance, about six years back, the Waled Suleyman struggled
with the power of the bashaw for the last time. It was near the
borders of Fezzan, in one of those extensive upland plains called
Hormut Mahulla, that the grandsons of Seffenusser, the last of the
house, returned from Egypt, and headed the remaining followers of
their ancestors. The Orfilly, and several other tribes, flocked to
the standard: the M’Garha marched from the eastward to assist the
bashaw, who came from the side of Tripoli; the rebels were surrounded,
and the Orfilly capitulated, promising an enormous tribute. No terms
were, however, granted to the Waled Suleyman; they were followed
with fire and sword to their very huts—Seffenusser’s children
fell into the hands of their enemies; they were, however, spared,
and two of them sent to Mourzuk. Since that time, the name of Waled
Suleyman is scarcely breathed; indeed the tribe has ceased to exist,
with the exception of some few who escaped to Egypt. A solitary
being, who thinks himself unobserved, is sometimes pointed out to
you as having been one; but his misery protects him. So complete
an overthrow of the most numerous tribe that inhabited the regency
of Tripoli, and one whose riches and influence were so well known,
has had the effect of humbling the turbulent spirit of the Arabs to
a wonderful degree: the bashaw rules them literally with a rod of
iron, and for the slightest cause he has the heads of their sheikhs
over the gates of his palace in a few hours. He makes it his policy
to keep up their feuds and ancient enmities, by which means he
prevents that unanimity which might make them dangerous. The name
of Seffenusser is, however, still the tocsin of revolt; it is in
itself a thousand strong; and the bravery displayed by Abdi Zeleel,
the eldest survivor of the name, during the late campaign in the
negro country, has not a little contributed to strengthen the feeling.
Abdallah Bougeel, a chief and a warrior, from the Shiati, whose
father and grandfather died because they would not fly; who never
attended to flocks, but were chief in fight—twenty men.
Sheikh Sultan ben Kaid, from the Shiati, a great warrior, who had
a terrible wound in his face, which had nearly demolished his nose,
from the sword of a Tuarick—ten men.
Hamed el Geide, Shiati—ten men.
Hamed Bendou el Hothmani, Shiati—ten men.
Sheikh Boo Bucker Saakhi, Shiati—ten men.
Salem Asheneen Hashnuowy, Shiati—thirty men.
The Maraboot Sid Hassan ben Eran—ten men.
Il R’baiah—ten men.
Boo Ahgoom, Osfilly—twenty men.
Futhaem—ten men.
Arabs are generally thin meagre figures, though possessing expressive
and sometimes handsome features, great violence of gesture and
muscular action. Irritable and fiery, they are unlike the dwellers
in towns and cities: noisy and loud, their common conversational
intercourse appears to be a continual strife and quarrel; they are,
however, brave, eloquent, and deeply sensible of shame. I have
known an Arab of the lower class refuse his food for days together,
because in a skirmish his gun had missed fire: to use his own words,
“Gulbi wahr,” “My heart aches;” “Bindikti kedip hashimtni
gedam el naz;” “My gun lied, and shamed me before the people.”
Much has been said of their want of cleanliness; I should, however,
without hesitation, pronounce them to be much more cleanly than
the lower order of people in any European country. Circumcision,
and the shaving the hair from the head, and every other part of the
body; the frequent ablutions which their religion compels them to
perform; all tend to enforce practices of cleanliness. Vermin, from
the climate of their country, they, as well as every other person,
must be annoyed with; and although the lower ranks have not the means
of frequently changing their covering (for it scarcely can be called
apparel), yet they endeavour to free themselves as much as possible
from the persecuting vermin. Their mode of dress has undergone no
change for centuries back; and the words of Fenelon will at this
day apply with equal truth to their present appearance[8].
The fondness of an Arab for traditional history of the most
distinguished actions of their remote ancestors is proverbial:
professed story-tellers are ever the appendages to a man of rank:
his friends will assemble before his tent, or on the platforms with
which the houses of the Moorish Arabs are roofed, and there listen,
night after night, to a continued history for sixty, or sometimes
one hundred nights together. It is a great exercise of genius,
and a peculiar gift, held in high estimation amongst them. They
have a quickness and clearness of delivery, with a perfect command
of words, surprising to a European ear: they never hesitate, are
never at a loss; their descriptions are highly poetical, and their
relations exemplified by figure and metaphor, the most striking and
appropriate: their extempore songs are also full of fire, and possess
many beautiful and happy similes. Certain tribes are celebrated for
this gift of extempore speaking and singing; the chiefs cultivate
the propensity in their children; and it is often possessed, to an
astonishing degree, by men who are unable either to read or write.
Arabic songs go to the heart, and excite greatly the passions: I have
seen a circle of Arabs straining their eyes with a fixed attention
at one moment, and bursting with loud laughter; at the next, melting
into tears, and clasping their hands in all the ecstacy of grief
and sympathy.
Their attachment to pastoral life is ever favourable to love. Many
of these children of the desert possess intelligence and feeling,
which belong not to the savage; accompanied by an heroic courage,
and a thorough contempt of every mode of gaining their livelihood,
except by the sword and gun. An Arab values himself chiefly on his
expertness in arms and horsemanship, and on hospitality.
Hospitality was ever habitual to them. At this day, the greatest
reproach to an Arab tribe is, “that none of their men have the
heart to give, nor their women to deny.” Nor does this feeling of
liberality alone extend to the chiefs, or Arabs of high birth: I have
known the poor and wandering Bedouin to practise a degree of charity
and hospitality far beyond his means, from a sense of duty alone.
Notwithstanding all the savageness of an Arab, there are sometimes
noble thoughts which seem to cross over his powerful mind; and then
again to leave him choked up with weeds of too strong a growth to
be rooted out.
The M’Garha sheikhs were, after the defeat of Waled Suleyman,
all taken into the bashaw’s service; and are now amongst his most
faithful and favoured followers. Abdi Zeleel ben Seffenusser, upon
his submission, had been assigned some portion of his grandsire’s
extensive lands at Sebha in Fezzan; and on his being ordered to
repair with a certain number of camels to Mourzuk, and to accompany
the Sultan of Fezzan into the negro country, he was reported to have
delayed obeying the order: his enemies attributed his reluctance to
disaffection and want of courage. The bashaw’s judgment was summary;
and Hamet Ghreneim, the brother of my chaoush, was despatched with
a letter to Abdi Zeleel, and orders to stab him while he read it,
and return with his head. The M’Garha had five hundred miles
to ride, previous to executing his bloody commission; and, by his
account to me, it was the sixteenth of the same kind that he had
been intrusted with: he seldom failed either in the execution or
in receiving the reward, which always follows: “they were his
master’s orders—with Bis milla! (in God’s name) he struck,
and struck home!” His victim, in this case, was of more consequence
than any of his former ones, and his reward would have been greater
in proportion: Hamet was withal the descendant of the old enemy
of his clan; but there was still some magic in the name of the
Seffenusser. They were a race of heroes—cowardice could not be a
crime for any of the blood to be guilty of; and the chance of being
strangled on his return appeared to him preferable to assassinating
Abdi Zeleel, and he determined on hesitating before he executed
the bashaw’s orders. On arriving at the hut of the Arab chief,
notwithstanding his fallen state, friends enough remained to warn
him of his approaching fate: he met Hamet at the door, kissed the
signet of the bashaw, and desired him to perform his office; adding,
“You are a M’Garha, and an enemy to our house.” “I am,”
replied the other, “and therefore not capable of assassinating a
Seffenusser: if you are guilty, fly—mine be the risk.”
Cowardice is ever visited in an Arab by the most disgraceful
punishments; he is often bound, and led through the huts of the whole
tribe, with the bowels and offal of a bullock, or some other animal,
tied round his head; and amongst a people who only desire to be
rich in order to increase the number of their wives, probably the
greatest punishment of all is, that could even any woman be found
who would receive him as a husband, which would be an extraordinary
circumstance, no Arab would allow him to enter into his family with
such a stain on his character as cowardice.
The _amor patriæ_ discoverable in even the wildest inhabitant
of the most barren rock is not felt by the wandering Arab, or the
Moor. He wanders from pasture to pasture, from district to district,
without any local attachment; and his sole delight is a roving,
irregular, but martial life. I have met with several, mostly Moors
of Mesurata and Sockna, who have made three times the pilgrimage to
Mecca; visited severally all the ports in the Red Sea; had been in
Syria, from St. Jean d’Acre to Antioch; had traded to Smyrna and
Constantinople, visiting Cyprus, Rhodes, and most of the islands in
the Archipelago; had penetrated to the west of Nyffe, in Soudan,
and every other part of the black country; had been two or three
times stripped and robbed of every thing in the Negro country,
escaping only with life, after receiving several wounds. Some of
them had not seen their families for fifteen or twenty years, yet
were still planning new expeditions, with as much glee as if they
were just beginning life, instead of tottering on the brink of death.
Arabs have always been commended by the ancients for the fidelity of
their attachments, and they are still scrupulously exact to their
words, and respectful to their kindred; they have been universally
celebrated for their quickness of apprehension and penetration, and
the vivacity of their wit. Their language is certainly one of the most
ancient in the world; but it has many dialects. The Arabs, however,
have their vices and their defects; they are naturally addicted to
war, bloodshed, and cruelty; and so malicious as scarcely ever to
forget an injury.
Their frequent robberies committed on traders and travellers, have
rendered the name of an Arab almost infamous in Europe. Amongst
themselves, however, they are most honest, and true to the rites
of hospitality; and towards those whom they receive as friends into
their camp, every thing is open, and nothing ever known to be stolen:
enter but once into the tent of an Arab, and by the pressure of his
hand he ensures you protection, at the hazard of his life. An Arab
is ever true to his bread and salt; once eat with him, and a knot
of friendship is tied which cannot easily be loosened.
Arabs have been truly described as a distinct class of mankind. In
the bashaw’s dominions, they have never been entirely subdued:
violent attempts at subjugation have often deprived them of tracts
of their vast territories; whole tribes have been annihilated; but,
as a people, they have ever remained independent and free.
The few fertile spots of scanty verdure, called “oases,” which
now and then refresh the languid senses of the weary traveller, and
which are desolate, beyond the wildest wastes of European land, are
the tracts inhabited by the eastern Arabs. Masses of conglomerated
sand obstruct the path which leads to these oases or wadeys; nothing
relieves the eye, as it stretches over the wide expanse, except where
the desert scene is broken by a chain of bleak and barren mountains:
no cooling breezes freshen the air: the sun descends in overpowering
force: the winds scorch as they pass; and bring with them billows
of sand, rolling along in masses frightfully suffocating, which
sometimes swallow up whole caravans and armies, burying them in
their pathless depths!
“Their hapless fate unknown!”
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: Benioleed, a rich valley, bounded on all sides by whitish
brown hills, capped in many places with green stone and amygdaloid,
or vesicular lava, rugged villages, and ruinous castles, on every
point, some overtopping the columnar green stone, and scarcely
distinguishable from it.
The hills possess a very interesting structure. The height does not
exceed 400 feet, and limestone is the prevailing rock. On the north
side the whole of the range, till within a mile of the western
extremity, is limestone: at that point above the limestone is a
thick bed of columnar greenstone, with thick layers of vesicular lava.
On the southern side, most of the hills have their tops covered with
lava and columnar green stone, and have a structure similar to that
of the one I have delineated. A little difference is here and there
observable, but not so much as to be worthy of notice. The tops of
the hills on this side form an extensive, black, dreary-looking plain,
strewed over with loose stones, extending eastwardly as far as the eye
can discern. The upper, or, as I would call it, the lavaceous crust,
appears as if a layer left by a flowing fluid, and therefore of more
recent formation than the rock on which it rests. This is seldom
more than a few feet in thickness, and spread over the subjacent rock.
The rocks dip in various directions, but generally at an angle
of 18°.
The Jibel Gulat is one of the highest hills we have yet come to. It
is about six hundred feet high: its top is tabular, and its sides
exceedingly rugged, from an amazing number of detached pieces. The
lowest exposed stratum is a calcareous tufa, containing, or indeed
almost formed of sea-shells; the most abundant are a species of oyster
and limpet, in a very entire state. Above, beds of soft carbonate of
lime, like whiting, and falling into dust on the slightest touch,
and in which is imbedded a large quantity of lamellar calcareous
spar. Above, and apparently extending to the summit, tolerably
fine marble. The quantity of debris, and the size and appearance of
the masses, might make one believe that an earthquake had been the
cause of that rent state; but it appears to me more probable that
the undermining, by the mouldering of the soft stratum underneath,
accounts well for the state and appearance of the side of the
hill. The hill is about three miles long, and runs from east to
west. It is inhabited by a solitary family; a man, his wife, and
several children. We were told that he had resided in this dreary
and barren place for eleven years, and it is said lives chiefly
by plunder.
Near Niffud, the hills are of lime, and in structure and form not
unlike those of the Tarhona range.
In the vicinity of the long range there are a number of small
conical hills, of a soft whiting-like substance, appearing as if
recently thrown up, although, from every thing around, that is not
at all probable. The range runs parallel to that near the coast;
but we had no opportunity of determining how far it extends to the
eastward and westward. There are several passes, into one of which
we entered. It is rugged, from the number of masses that have fallen
from the sides of the hills. Several tumuli of stones are observable,
marking the burial-places of unfortunate travellers, who have been
murdered here, it was said, by large rocks rolled from the overhanging
heights. When I was examining the rocks, in the dry bed of a river,
these monuments were pointed out, to make me aware my presence
there was not free from danger. This led to a valley, with some
thick groves of acacias, and a plant like a mespilus, with pleasant
small astringent berries: it is called by the natives butomo. From
this we passed over a low hill, into the valley Niffud. This valley
has been the seat of much fighting, as our conductors informed us,
among the Arabs of different tribes.
We left the valley, by a pass to the southward, and entered an
extensive plain, named Ambulum: in this we travelled the whole
day. The surface, in some places, a firm sand, with here and there
rocky eminences, and patches of gravel: the latter was fine, and
mixed with fragments of shells. Often, for a considerable extent,
not the least vestige of vegetation; and in no place was the ground
completely covered, except in a few small oases, where there was a
species of grass, of the genus festuca. The feniculum duter, and a
beautiful genista, which extends all the way from the coast, were
common. The butum occurred in abundance, and its shade was a defence
to us at times. We found some beautiful fragments of striped jasper,
and some small pieces of cornelian.
Bonjem.—We had no opportunity of examining any of these; but
from the strewed masses they appear to be limestone. The wadey
of Bonjem has characters different from any of the other valleys
we have passed through. This valley is strewed over with gypsum
in different states, with numerous shells, of the genus pecten,
and several terebrellæ. There are here and there sand, and many
incrustations of the carbonate, mixed with crystals of the sulphate,
of lime, that gives to the surface a shining white appearance, which,
in place of being pleasing, is disagreeable, by the power of the
reflected light. There are small ranges of low hills, composed of
soft white chalk (whiting), covered with a crust of gypsum. In this
structure we found one large pit, about forty feet deep, and nearly
as much in diameter. These low hills are bounded by much higher,
and of a dark brown colour: the low hills are numerous, some are
separate, but in general they are in short ridges, and have, at
a distance, very much the appearance of fortifications. A small
senecio, a geranium, and a statice, were the principal beings of
the vegetable creation. Barometer 30.020. temperature 72.
Near the wells, the _arundo phragmites_ grows in abundance; it has
long creeping roots, the first true roots of that kind I have seen
in North Africa. Plants of this kind would soon make considerable
encroachments on the desert, and render habitable where it is
difficult even to travel over. This quarter is poor in the grasses,
for I think I have not seen above eight different kinds. Our course
was among sand-hills, and over a gravelly road, strewed with masses
of common opal, with small portions of botroidal iron ore, and thick
layers of gypsum, with their edges appearing above ground. The low
hills presented the same features as those near which we remained
in the wadey: one, detached on the road, had a curious appearance,
and was called, by the natives, “The Bowl of Bazeen.” It is
about forty feet high, and formed above of a calcareous crust,
with sulphate of lime, and below of soft chalk.
The higher ridge was observable on each side of us, running
south-south-east on the east side, and south-south-west on the west:
some of those to the westward have detached hills, and one has the
name of the “Salt Hill.” W. O.]
[Footnote 2: Captain Lyon’s travelling name.]
[Footnote 3: This is only called jaafa when a bride is conveyed in
it—at other times a caramood.]
[Footnote 4: Gibel Assoud and the hills on this side have the same
name. The valley is bounded on both sides by hills, from 400 to 600
feet high—tops in general tabular; but a few are irregular, and
two or three end in conical peaks; the sides of all are covered with
much debris. The colour of the hills gives a very peculiar character
to the valley; the tops of a shining black, as if covered over with
black lead, that often extends some way down the sides, which are of
a light brown, mixed with a dirty yellow: this is often observable
in patches in the black, which gives to the whole a very striking
appearance. The lower strata are limestone, of a yellowish colour,
almost entirely formed of marine remains: this, although hard, is
easily acted on by the air, and the exposed surface mouldering away
leaves cavities in the rock, which, undermining the superincumbent
ones, gives rise to the quantity of detached fragments. There are
several thin strata of earthy gypsum: above that, limestone, with
a fine fibrous-looking external surface, something like wood: this
has the jingling sound of burnt lime; above is the shining basalt,
of a fine texture, mixed with amygdaloid.
About six miles from where we halted, are a range of low white hills,
running about west by north, of the same name as the plains. The
top is a fine shining white, from thick beds of a milk-white marble,
the base of porphyritic limestone. W. O.]
[Footnote 5: The hills of Zeghren opened: a low range, running
nearly east and west; their appearance different from any we had
yet seen, long, oval, and truncated at the top—colour black,
with white streaks.
About the same time a detached rock came in view: it was about a
hundred feet high, and 200 from the land from which we descended.
This is the geological structure of the neighbouring land, which
has at no very distant period been joined to this. W. O.]
[Footnote 6: The mother of peace.]
[Footnote 7: The name of their sheikh or chief; also often used when
speaking of the tribe.]
[Footnote 8: Leurs habits sont aisés à faire, car en ce doux
climat on ne porte qu’une piece d’étoffe fine et lègère,
qui n’est point taillée et que chacun met à longs plis autour
de son corps pour la modestie; lui donnant la forme qu’il veut.]
EXCURSION TO WESTWARD OF MOURZUK,
IN JUNE, JULY, AND AUGUST, 1822,
BY WALTER OUDNEY, M.D.
* * * * *
Saturday, June 8, 1822.—At a little after sunrise departed
from Mourzuk. Lieutenant Clapperton, Mr. William Hillman and I
were accompanied by Hadje Ali, brother of Ben Bucher, Ben Khullum,
Mahommed Neapolitan Mamelouk, and Mahomet, son of our neighbour Hadje
Mahmud. It was our intention to have proceeded direct to Ghraat,
and laboured hard to accomplish our object. Obstacle after obstacle
was thrown in our way, by some individuals in Mourzuk. Several came
begging us not to go, as the road was dangerous, and the people
not at all under the bashaw’s control. We at length hired camels
from a Targee, Hadje Said; but only to accompany us as far as the
Wadey Ghrurby.
Our course was over sands skirted with date trees; ground strewed
with fragments of calcareous crust, with a vitreous surface, from
exposure to the weather. About mid-day, after an exhausting journey
from oppressive heat, we arrived at El Hummum, a straggling village,
the houses of which are mostly constructed of palm leaves. We remained
till the sun was well down, and then proceeded on our course. The
country had the same character. At eight we arrived at Tessouwa.
The greater number of inhabitants are Tuaricks. They have a
warlike appearance, a physiognomy and costume different from the
Fezzaneers. More than a dozen muzzled up faces were seated near our
tent, with every one’s spear stuck in the ground before him. This
struck us forcibly, from being very different from what we had been
accustomed to see. The Arab is always armed, in his journey, with
his long gun and pistols; but there is something more imposing in
the spear, dagger, and broad straight sword.
About eight, we departed: several wadeys in our course, with numerous
small acacias, a few gravelly and sandy plains, and two or three
low white alluvial hills. About three, halted at a well of good water.
Our course lay over an extensive high plain, with a long range
of hills, running nearly east and west. Distance, about fourteen
miles. We entered them by a pass which runs north and south, in
which are numerous recesses, evidently leading to more extensive
wadeys. Before reaching the hills, we found some people digging a
well. It was about a hundred feet deep.
The hills are at about a hundred yards’ distance. Their form
is that of a table top, with a peak here and there. The structure
sandstone, finely stratified with beds of blue and white pipeclay,
and alum slate.
The pass led to another, the finest we have seen, and the only part
approaching to the sublime we have beheld in Fezzan. It is rugged
and narrow; its sides high, and overhanging in some places. The
whole exposed rock is a slaty sandstone, with thin strata of alum
slate. The path has several trunks of petrified trees, with branches
going out from them; the stem very similar to the acacia. They
appear as if precipitated from the top. Near the end of the pass,
the Wadey Ghrurby opens, with groves of date palms, and high sand
hills. The change is sudden and striking; and instead of taking away,
added to the effect of the pass we were descending. The hills from
the wadey have rugged, irregular, peaked tops, as if produced by
some powerful cause; although it appeared, on examination, that all
was produced by the mouldering away of the lower strata.
The hills are composed of thick beds of blue clay, alternating with
sandstone, beds of alum slate, and thick strata of porphyritic clay
stone, and all the tops of finely stratified sandstone.
Wednesday, June 12. Moved up the valley for about four miles,
and halted at a small town, Kharaik, having passed two in our
course. Valley, fine groves of palm trees, with cultivated patches;
water good, depth of the wells as about Mourzuk; hills bound the
valley on the south side, and sand hills on the north. The number
of date trees in the eastern and western division of the valley is
said to be 340,000. The first division, or Wadey Shirgi, extends
from near Seba to within a few miles of Thirtiba; the other, from
the termination of Shirgi to Aubari.
In the evening saw some of the preparatory steps for a marriage. The
woman belonged to this, and the man to the next town. A band of
musicians, accompanied by all the women of the village, dancing and
singing, with every now and then a volley of musketry. One woman
carried a basket on her head, for the purpose of collecting gomah,
to form a feast and pay the musicians. They came from the village
of the bridegroom, which was about a mile distant. The marriage was
not to take place till the feast after Rhamadan.
There are very few plants here. A species of asclepias, with
milky juice; the agoul, apparently a species of ulex, has a fine
red papilionaceous flower; species, with small obovate leaves,
pod small and obtuse at the apex. A species of sweet-smelling rue,
and two other plants in fruit, one like a veronica, and the other
I have not seen a similar one before.
Friday, June 14. Rain sometimes falls in the valley, sufficient
to overflow the surface, and form mountain torrents. But it has no
regular periods; five, eight, and nine years frequently intervening
between each time. Thus no trust can be placed in the occurrence of
rain, and no application made in agricultural concerns. The sheikh
of this town is Ali, a good natured Tiboo, exceedingly poor, but
very attentive, and always in good humour. The place is so poor,
that we had sometimes to wait half a day before we could get a
couple of fowls, or a feed of dates or barley for our horses. We
are in hourly expectation of camels from friends of Hateeta, for
the purpose of conveying us to Ghraat.
There are a number of ants, of a species different from any I have
seen in North Africa. Colour, a light shining brown, speckled with
a silvery white, a strong pair of nippers, like the large claws of
a crab. They run with great swiftness.
Saturday, June 15. No camels have arrived, and we are obliged
to remain; much against our inclination. Hateeta was conversing
yesterday on the difficulty we experienced in getting away from
Mourzuk, from obstacles thrown in our way by the people. He said
that the dread they had of the Tuaricks was unfounded, and we
would soon be convinced of it. He further added, that he could,
by his influence alone, conduct us in perfect safety to Timbuctoo,
and would answer with his head. He was indignant at the feelings
the people of Mourzuk had against the Tuaricks, who, he said, pride
themselves in having but one word, and performing what they promise.
Sunday, June 16. Our camels have not yet arrived; but we were able to
hire two from one Mahomet El Buin, and with these we proceeded on to
Germa. Our course lay along the wadey, which grew finer and finer as
we advanced, the number of gummah and gussub fields and date groves
increasing. The hills formed some small recesses; the tops of most
were level, and all of the same height. Passed several villages built
all in the same manner. Notwithstanding the nearness and fitness of
the stone, the salt mould is preferred; perhaps from the want of lime,
and the ease with which the house is erected. Another thing: so very
little rain falls, that there is no danger of the fabric falling. Near
Break passed some imperfect inscriptions, apparently Arabic.
About eleven arrived at Germa, a larger town than any in the wadey,
but both walls and houses have the marks of time. We waited in the
house of the kaid till our camels came up. The sheikh, Mustapha
ben Ussuf, soon visited us. He is an old man, a Fezzaneer, dark
complexion, arch of nose small, tip depressed, and alæ expanded,
lips a little thick, but mouth not large, hair black, and from the
appearance of the beard, woolly. His ancestors are natives of this
place; and his features may be considered as characteristic of the
natives of Fezzan.
Monday, June 17. We had many accounts of inscriptions being here,
which the people could not read. We were conducted to-day by Sheikh
Mustapha to examine a building, different, as he stated, from any
in the country. When we arrived, we found, to our satisfaction,
it was a structure which had been erected by the Romans.
There were no inscriptions to be found, although we carefully turned
up a number of the stones strewed about, but a few figures and letters
rudely hewn out, and evidently of recent date. We imagined we could
trace some resemblance to the letters of Europe, and conjectured that
they had been hewn out by some European traveller at no very distant
period. Our thoughts naturally went back to Hornemann; but again we
had no intelligence of his having been here. In short, to confess the
truth, we did not know what to make of them, till we afterwards made
the discovery of the Targee writing. This building is about twelve
feet high, and eight broad. It is built of sandstone, well finished,
and dug from the neighbouring hills. Its interior is solid, and of
small stones, cemented by mortar. It stands about three miles from
Germa, and a quarter of a mile from the foot of the mountain. It
is either a tomb or an altar: those well acquainted with Roman
architecture, will easily determine which. The finding a structure
of these people proves, without doubt, their intercourse here. It is
probable they had no extensive establishment; otherwise we should see
more remains. As we went along we passed by, and saw to the westward,
the remains of ancient Germa. It appeared to occupy a space more
extensive than the present town. We were not able to learn from the
old sheikh whether any old coins were ever found, or any building
similar to this, in the vicinity. Was this the track merely of the
Romans into the interior, or did they come to the valley for dates?
Tuesday, June 18. Hateeta arrived during the night; but our departure
was delayed on account of his being sick. He has a severe fever,
and it is likely it may be of some continuance. The ague is very
prevalent in the wadey; and, if we can believe the natives, the water
is a very powerful agent in inducing bilious affection. The town
is surrounded by a ditch, now nearly dry, and its site covered with
a thick crust of the muriate of soda, evidently containing a large
quantity of the muriate and sulphate of magnesia. This crust extends
to a considerable distance from the town, and is five or six inches
thick in several places. There are several wells, not two feet deep,
containing excellent water. The date trees are close to the vicinity
of the town, and most are heavily loaded with fruit. It is lamentable
to see the number of houses in ruin, and the marks of poverty in
the dress of the inhabitants. We could scarcely get a fowl to buy;
and a sheep was out of the question.
Wednesday, June 19. Struck our tents at daylight, and commenced our
journey about seven. We now sent our horses home, under charge of my
servant Adam, and set out on foot. We intended mounting the camels;
but the loads were so ill arranged, that we could not venture as
yet. Our course lay through groves of date trees growing on the salt
plain. These extended for about four miles; and two miles farther
west was a small Arab town. We saw several of the Arabs as we passed
along; but merely gave the usual compliments. The country for several
miles was a loose sand, and heavy travelling for those on foot. The
hills of the same shape, forming several large bays, with projecting
headlands; the sides, to within fifty or sixty feet of the top,
having gentle but rugged ascents; but above almost perpendicular. We
passed three wells, one about fifty feet deep, temp. 22. 6. at which
two women were watering goats belonging to Tuaricks. The other two
were holes in the ground; the water of all good. We halted about
an hour under the shades of date trees, waiting for the camels. I
then mounted, and about three, entered the date groves of Oubari,
where we halted. Hateeta joined us in the evening, with considerable
fever. We had numerous Tuarick visitors, some residents of the town,
and others belonging to a kafila about to depart for the Tuarick
country. They are an independent-looking race. They examine with
care every thing they see, and are not scrupulous in asking for
different articles, such as tobacco, powder, and flints. The sheikh,
and a number of the other inhabitants of the town, soon came out;
and he procured what we wished.
Thursday, June 20.—Intended starting this morning; but the
camel-men did not come forward with their camels. Hateeta still
very ill. Took advantage of our detention to visit the neighbouring
hills. One part appeared at a distance as an artificial excavation,
which disappeared as we approached; and we found it to be a smooth
surface, with a portion so removed, as to give rise to the delusion.
In ascending this by the tract of a mountain torrent, we fell in
with numerous inscriptions, in characters similar to those on the
Roman building. Some were evidently done centuries ago, others
very recently.
The hill is of fine sandstone, which has not been used for
building. There are also several thick strata of a fine blue clay,
containing embedded masses of iron ore. The summit is formed of
a dark bluish red clay stone, which gives a dreary cast to the
hills. We ascended with difficulty, as it is one of the highest and
steepest hills of the range. It commands an extensive view of the
whole neighbouring wadey. The sand hills are much lower than to the
eastward; and, from this position, all to the northward appears an
extensive sandy plain.
The palms of Oubari are like paltry shrubs; and from viewing them
here, one would not believe them to be half 7000, the estimated
number. To the southward, another portion of the same range. When we
got to the top, we were perspiring copiously, and had to take care
that the perspiration was not checked too suddenly, as a strong
cool breeze was blowing on the top. Many spaces were cleared away
for prayer, in the same manner as we have observed in places on all
the roads we have travelled along. The form in general is an oblong
square, with a small recess in one of the longer sides looking to
the rising sun, or it is semicircular, with a similar recess. On the
top of a steep precipice, the King’s Anthem was sung with great
energy and taste by Hillman.
The new moon was seen this evening, to the great joy of all the
followers of Mahomet. Muskets and pistols were discharged, and all the
musicians began their labours. This sport was continued all night. A
party of musicians came out to visit us; but several were so drunk
that they could scarcely walk. The fast is kept by all with a bad
grace; and scarcely one is to be seen who has not a long visage. It
is even laughable to see some young men going about the streets with
long walking sticks, leaning forward like a man bent with age. As
soon as the maraboot calls, not a person is to be seen in the streets;
all commence, as soon as he pronounces “Allah Akbar;” all pretend
to keep it; and if they do not, they take care no one shall know:
but from the wry faces and great pharasaical shows, the rigidity
may be called in question. None of our party kept it, except for a
day now and then; for all travellers after the first day are allowed
exemption; but they have to make up at some other time.
For the first time, we found out the writings on the rocks were
Tuarick; and we met one man that knew a few of the letters; but could
not find one that knew all. The information was satisfactory to us,
and put our minds to rest on the subject of the writing.
We were amused with stories of the great powers of eating of the
Tuaricks. We were told that two men have consumed three sheep at one
meal; another eating a kail of bruised dates, with a corresponding
quantity of milk, and another eating about a hundred loaves, of about
the size of our penny loaves. We had many inquiries respecting our
females. A notion prevailed, that they always bore more than one child
at a time, and that they went longer than nine calendar months. On
being told that they were the same in that respect as other women,
they appeared pleased. We were also asked how they were kept; if
locked up as the Moorish woman, or allowed to go freely abroad. The
Tuarick women are allowed great liberties that way, and are not a
little pleased at having such an advantage.
The greater number of Tuaricks follow the nomade life, moving from
place to place as they find pasturage. They appear to delight in
solitary abodes; and the different mountain recesses in the vicinity
appear to have been often the residences of these people. The houses
are of the skin of the camel, and have something of the form of
the Arab.
I had a great many female Tuarick patients to-day. They are free
and lively; and there is no more restraint before men than in the
females of our own country; and they are greatly noticed by the
men. They have a copper complexion; eyes large, black, and rolling;
nose plain; but two or three had fine ancient Egyptian shaped noses;
hair long and shedded, not plaited like the Arab women; neither did
there appear to be any oil.
Tuesday, June 25.—There are several roads to Ghraat; and the upper
one, where we had to enter the hills, was last night fixed on for
us. There is plenty of water, but more rough than the lower, which
is said to be a sandy plain, as level as the hand, but no water for
five days.
It is not necessary among the Tuaricks that the woman should bring
a portion to the husband, although she generally brings something:
but it is almost always requisite that the man pay so much to the
father for permission to marry his daughter. The price, when the
parties are rich, is generally six camels.
The customs and manners of our country, which we related to our
friends, were so similar to some of theirs, that an old Targee
exclaimed in a forcible manner, “That he was sure they had the
same origin as us.” We are getting on amazingly well with them,
and would, no doubt, soon be great friends. The women here have full
round faces, black curling hair, and, from a Negro mixture, inclined
to be crispy; eyebrows a little arched, eyes black and large, nose
plain and well-formed. The dress, a barracan neatly wrapped round,
with a cover of dark blue cloth for the head; sometimes that comes
over the lower part of the face as in the men. They are not very fond
of beads, but often have shells suspended to the ears as ear-drops.
Thursday, June 27. Hateeta is really so unwell, that he is not
able to go; we in consequence have put off our departure for ten
days, and have determined during that time to visit wadey Shiati,
&c.; and Mr. Hillman goes up to Mourzuk to send down supplies and
take charge of our property. It would have been unkind to Hateeta
to have proceeded on; for he is so anxious, that, rather than be
left behind, he would have ordered himself to have been bound to
a camel. We arranged about the fare for our camels, and prepared
ourselves to depart to-morrow morning. We left our spare baggage,
which our Tuaricks deposited in one of their mountain recesses.
Friday, June 28.—Before we could set out, a guide for the sands was
necessary. For that purpose we engaged an old Targee, who professed
to know every part of our tract. When all things were ready, it was
near eight in the evening; but we were determined to start. Now
Mr. Hillman left us for Mourzuk, I felt glad and satisfied, as I
had always since our departure been uneasy respecting our property;
but with Hillman every thing would be taken care of, and as safe
as if we were all present. The interest he took in the mission,
and the important duty in taking care of all our concerns, deserve
the highest praise from every one.
We travelled by moonlight over a sandy soil, with numerous tufts of
grass and mound hillocks, covered with shrubs, the surface in many
places hard and crusty, from saline incrustation. The old man told
us that the mounds of earth were formed by water, as the wadey,
at the times of great rain, was covered with water. He further
added, that in former times a large quantity of rain used to fall,
information agreeing with what we had before received.
Saturday, June 29.—At daylight resumed our journey; and a little
after sunrise entered among the sand hills, which are here two or
three hundred feet high. The ascending and descending of these proved
very fatiguing to both our camels and ourselves. The precipitous
sides obliged us often to make a circuitous course, and rendered it
necessary to form with the hands a tract by which the camels might
ascend. Beyond this boundary of the sand hills of the wadey Ghrurbi,
there is an extensive sandy plain, with here and there tufts of
grass. We observed, for the first time, a plant with leaves like
those of an equisetum, and a triginious grass.
In the afternoon our tract was on the same plain. There were
observable several furrows with strips of grass in tufts. Near sunset
began ascending high sand hills; they were as if one heaped upon
another. Our guide ran before to endeavour to find out the easiest
tract with all the agility of a boy. The presence of nothing but deep
sandy valleys and high sand hills strikes the mind forcibly. There
is something of the sublime mixed with the melancholy. Who can
contemplate without admiration masses of loose sand, fully four
hundred feet high, ready to be tossed about by every breeze, and not
shudder with horror at the idea of the unfortunate traveller being
entombed in a moment by one of those fatal blasts, which sometimes
occur. On the top of one of these hills we halted for the night. It
was near full moon. Her silvery rays, contrasted with the golden
hue of the sand, and the general stillness, gave rise to a diversity
of reflections.
Sunday, June 30.—At sunrise began our journey through valleys of
sand, bounded on each side, and every where intersected by high
sand hills. We had to pass over several of these, to our great
annoyance. Our water was low, half a gerba only was left, and we
began to be a little uneasy at the chance of losing our way, or the
well being filled up. Our fears were soon removed. We saw the well
at a distance, and found it full of good water on our arrival. The
name of the valley is Tigidafa. Much of the equisetum-leaved plant
grows here, and four or five date trees overshadow the well.
We halted during the heat of the day. The Mamelouk very unwell with
ague and affection of the liver, probably arising from the want of
his usual quantity of sour lackbi. In Mourzuk we were told he used
to drink all he could procure.
About four we moved along the summits of several of the highest
ridges, and descended some of the most difficult passes. About
sunset arrived at a large plain, with a little feeding for the
camels. Here we halted. The grasses have long tapering roots, but
not finely divided into fibres; each fibre descends perpendicularly,
and does not creep along the surface. It is covered with a fine
velvety epidermis, and that again with fine particles of sand, so
as to give it the appearance and elasticity of twine finely coiled
up. None of the plants I saw had creeping roots, but all long and
tapering; thus forming but a weak barrier to the fixing of the sand.
Tuesday, July 2.—Our course over and among the sand hills, and
sandy walls, or barriers, like falls in a river, every here and
there running across the valleys. Our guide, whom we now styled
Mahomet ben Raml, or son of the sand, was almost always on before,
endeavouring to find out the best way. We could detect in the sand
numerous foot-marks of the jackal and fox, and here and there a
solitary antelope. In some of the wadeys there were a great many
fragments of the ostrich egg. Clapperton and Mahomet ben Hadje
went a long way out of the tract. They followed the footsteps of
some camels, and went on ahead of us. Our road lay in a different
direction from theirs: we were therefore separated a considerable
distance from each other. When we saw no appearance of them we
halted, and sent the servants in search. The moment was trying:
they were in the midst of sand hills, without provisions or water;
but, luckily, it was not long; our searchers soon detected them
from the heights. About mid-day halted in a valley, and remained
under the shade of some date trees for a few hours. Set out again
in the afternoon. The heat was oppressive, and our travelling was
difficult. We next came to an extensive level plain, which was
some refreshment; for we were completely tired of ascending and
descending sand hills. Our servants strayed; they went on a tract
which was pointed out to them as the right one, and, before we were
aware of the error, they went so far that we were not able to send
after them. They, as well as ourselves, thought the town was near,
and they went with the intention of getting in before us. We felt
exceedingly uneasy respecting them, as they might so easily lose
themselves in such intricate travelling. We halted in low spirits,
and, after a little refreshment, went to sleep with heavy hearts.
Wednesday, July 3.—Strong breeze in the night. Our trunks and
bedclothes were all covered with sand in the morning. We heard
nothing of our servants, and consoled ourselves that they had found
some place before now. We commenced our journey early. The hills of
wadey Shiati were seen stretching east and west, and the date palms
in several groves; but between us and them some high sand hills
were seen. We wished our old guide to take us a more direct course,
as we conceived; but, notwithstanding our desire and even threats,
he persevered in having his way; and, to do the old man justice,
we afterwards found it would have been almost impossible for the
camels to have gone the way we wished. After passing the base of
some high sand hills, we came to a stony pass, of gentle descent,
covered with loose fragments of quartz rock, a yellowish feltspar,
and iron ore, very similar to the rocks in the Sebah district. From
this place the town opened to our view. It is erected on a hill about
three hundred feet high. This stands in the middle of the valley
nearly, and has the appearance, at a distance, of a hill studded
over with basaltic columns. I had no idea the town was built on the
hill, and, consequently, that the deception was produced by it. The
approach from this side is over large plains of salt, and through
fields of gomah and date groves. The different divisions of the
fields did not appear to us so neat as near other towns; but that
may be owing to the grain having mostly been cut and all in. There
is no necessity here for wells, as there are a number of springs
near the surface that open into large basins, from which channels
are cut to the different fields. Temperature of the water 30 cent.;
but the basins are so exposed, and so large, that the temperature
of the water is influenced by the soil and sun’s rays.
The soil is dark, and mixed with a large quantity of salt. In the
salt plain here there are a number of small conical hills, the base
composed of pipeclay, above that of a fine grained yellow sandstone,
and the top a conglomerate, the principal ingredient of which is
ironstone.
The most of the inhabitants soon visited us, and all appeared
pleased at our arrival. The kadi of the two neighbouring towns paid
us many compliments, and pressed us hard to spend a few days in his
towns. We could not take advantage of his offer, which was no doubt
of a selfish nature; for I had not conversed long with him before
he began to beg a shirt. I told him mine could be of no use to him,
as it was very different from those of the country. On that he asked
for a dollar to buy one, which I took care to refuse; and said to
him, that I only gave presents of money to the poor. The people
made numerous urgent demands for medicines; and, in a very short
time, our large tent was surrounded with sick: the female part
formed the majority. Some beautiful faces and forms were clothed
in rags: the plaited hair and necks of these even were loaded with
ornaments. The physiognomy of the women, as well as of the men,
is of two kinds,—that of the Bedouin Arab and Fezzaneer, with
mixtures also which it would puzzle a physiognomist to discover
and describe. The females are rather under the middle stature,
stoutly built, and possess considerable vivacity and liveliness:
complexion of those not much exposed to the sun of a dirty white.
Thursday, July 4.—Numbers of patients greatly augmented, and
several of the applicants brought small presents for medicines, such
as a bowl of liban. I was also applied to in a new capacity—that
of a charm writer. A man came and offered me two fowls if I would
give him a charm for a disease of the belly; but I was obliged
to decline the office of charm writer, and confine myself to cure
diseases by medicine. A buxom widow applied for medicine to get her
a husband. It is not good to pretend ignorance: I therefore told
her I had no such medicine along with me. The same worthy personage
took my friend Clapperton for an old man—from his light coloured
beard and mustachios—to my great amusement, and his chagrin. He
had prided himself on the strength and bushiness of his beard, and
was not a little hurt that light colour should be taken as a mark of
old age. None of them had ever seen a light coloured beard before,
and all the old men dye their grey beards with henna, which gives
them a colour approaching that of my friend.
We went a little before sunset to visit the town. The houses are of
mud, and built on the sides of the hill. They appear as if one was
pulled on another. The passages or streets between them are narrow,
and, in two or three instances, excavations through the rock. The
exposed rocks denote the same composition as the insulated hills on
the salt plain. The ascent was steep in some places, and we had to
pass through the mosque before we arrived at the highest portion. From
this we had a fine view of wadey Shiati in every direction. The
wadey runs nearly east and west: in the former direction it is well
inhabited as far as Oml’abeed: this is the westernmost town; and
although, from this position, the soil appears favourable, there are
no inhabitants between this and Ghadamis. A range of hills forms the
northern boundary: these run as far as Ghadamis, and end easterly, in
the hills about Oml’abeed. A low range forms the southern boundary;
and between them and the wadey Ghrurbi all is sand. Many houses are
in ruins, and many more are approaching to that state. Still it is
called the new town, although its appearance little entitles it to
that appellation; but the ancient inhabitants lived in excavations
in the rocks, the remains of which are very distinct. We saw numerous
recesses, but thought they were produced by the present race digging
for pipe-clay, and the natural mouldering away of the soft rock. When
we had finished our visit, we were told the former people lived
in these holes. At the bottom of the hill we entered several, not
much decayed by time. Most of them are oblong spaces, about ten or
twelve feet long, and seven feet high. The entrances of all these had
mouldered away very much. At a hundred yards, however, from the base
of the hill, and now used as burying ground, there is a subterranean
house of large dimensions, and probably the residence of the great
personage. The entrance was more than half filled up with sand and
small stones that had been thrown in. Clapperton and I entered, and
found three extensive galleries, which communicated only by small
openings, in passing through which we had to stoop considerably. But
the galleries were high (nearly seven feet), and of considerable
length (about 150 feet), and each had several small recesses, like
sleeping rooms. The whole had neatness about it, and showed a taste in
the excavators. There are no traces of similar abodes in Fezzan. The
present race are entirely ignorant of the ancient occupiers. The
people are so afraid, and so superstitious, that scarcely one of
the town had ever entered it. They were astonished when we entered
without ceremony; and two, encouraged by our example, brought us a
light, by which we were enabled to look into the different recesses.
Saturday, July 6.—At 2. 40. started with a beautiful moonlight,
over a sandy plain, with a great many small hillocks. We stopped at
Dalhoon, a well nearly filled up with sand, and containing water
so brackish that we were unable to drink it. We started again,
and got in among the sand hills. Our new guide proved neither such
an active man nor experienced pilot as our old Tuarick, as we had
several times to retrace our steps.
Monday, July 8.—We entered the wadey Trona early this morning, on
the north-east side. Near where we entered there are a cluster of date
palms, and a small lake, from which impure trona is obtained. On the
western side the trona lake is surrounded with date trees, and its
marshy borders are covered on almost all sides by grass, and a tall
juncus. It is about half a mile long, and nearly two hundred yards
wide. At present it is of inconsiderable depth, from the evaporation
of the water; for many places are dry now, which are covered in
the winter and spring. The trona crystallizes at the bottom of the
lake, when the water is sufficiently saturated; for when the water
is in large quantities it eats the trona, as the people say. The
cakes vary in thickness, from a fine film to several inches (two or
three). The thickest at present is not more than three-fourths of
an inch; but in the winter, when the water begins to increase, it
is of the thickness I have mentioned. The surface next the ground
is not unequal from crystallization, but rough to the feel, from
numerous small rounded asperities. That next the water is generally
found studded with numerous small, beautiful vertical crystals of
muriate of soda; the line of junction is always distinct, and the
one is easily removed from the other. When not covered with muriate
of soda, the upper surface shows a congeries of small tabular pieces
joined in every position. When the mass is broken there is a fine
display of reticular crystals, often finely radiated. The surface of
the water is covered in many places with large thin sheets of salt,
giving the whole the appearance of a lake partially frozen over: film
after film forms, till the whole becomes of great thickness. Thus may
be observed, on the same space, trona and cubical crystals of muriate
of soda, and, on the surface of the water, films accumulating, till
the whole amounts to a considerable thickness. The soil of the lake
is a dark brown sand, approaching to black, of a viscid consistence,
and slimy feel; and, on the lately uncovered surface of the banks, a
black substance, something like mineral tar, is seen oozing out. The
water begins to increase in the winter, and is at its height in
the spring. In the beginning of the winter the trona is thickest
and best, but in the spring it disappears entirely. The size of
the lake has diminished considerably within the last nine years;
and, if care be not taken, the diminution will soon be much more
considerable; for plants are making rapid encroachments, and very
shallow banks are observable in many places. On making inquiry,
I found the quantity of trona has not sensibly diminished for the
last ten years. Perhaps it may appear so from there always being
sufficient to answer every demand. The quantity annually carried
away amounts to between 400 and 500 camel loads, each amounting
to about 4 cwt.,—a large quantity, when the size of the lake is
taken into account. It is only removed from the lake when a demand
comes. A man goes in, breaks it off in large pieces, and those on
the banks remove the extraneous matter, and pack it in large square
bundles, and bind it up with the retecious substance observable on
the roots of the leaves of the date tree, and, bound up in that way,
it is taken to the different places,—the greatest to Tripoli,
but a considerable quantity is consumed in Fezzan. The price of
each load here is two dollars. The water in the valley is good, and
very free from saline impregnation. The whole is taken care of by an
old black Fezzaneer, Hadje Ali, an unassuming but sensible man. He
treated us with every kindness, and showed the greatest readiness
to give us every information. He resides here the whole year, and
only comes up to Mourzuk occasionally to settle money affairs. When
we asked him if he felt his residence solitary, he answered, he
was now an old man, and he gained a comfortable livelihood by it,
which he could not elsewhere. He possesses great energy; and in his
younger years few could cope with him. Since his charge of this place,
which is about nine years, it happened Mukni wished more money. He
told him decidedly he would give him no more, on which Mukni began
to bluster in his usual manner. The old man quietly took up his
staff and walked off. The matter was soon settled in the Hadje’s
favour; for he is, as our relators informed us, of only one speech;
and Mukni, although he speaks harshly, has a good heart. The worms,
so much used in Fezzan, are found in this lake in the spring. About
twenty camels of the Waled Busafe were waiting for their loads.
Clapperton was sitting on the top of a high sand hill, and so pleased
with the view, that he called out several times for me to dismount
from my camel to enjoy the treat. The appearance was beautiful. A deep
sandy valley, without vegetation, and containing only two large groves
of date trees; within each a fine lake was enclosed. The contrast
between the bare lofty sand hills, and the two insulated spots, was
the great cause of the sensation of beauty. There is something pretty
in a lake surrounded with date palms; but when every other object
within the sphere of vision is dreary, the scene becomes doubly so.
The worms so celebrated in this kingdom are found in these
lakes. They are small animals, almost invisible to the naked eye,
and surrounded with a large quantity of gelatinous matter. They
are of a reddish-brown colour, and have a strong slimy smell. When
seen through a microscope, the head appears small and depressed,
the eyes two large black spots, supported on two long peduncles;
the body a row of rays on each side, like the fins of fishes, but
probably perform the action of legs; they have a continual motion
like the tail of fish.
These animalculæ abound in the spring; they are to be found at all
times, but in particularly large quantities in high winds. They are
caught in a long hand net, by a man going some way into the lake,
and after allowing the net to remain some time at the bottom, it is
taken up, or drawn a little along the ground; and in this manner
several pints are sometimes caught at one time. It is found to be
almost impossible to preserve them alive for a few hours after they
are taken from the lake. An animal that evidently preys on them is
found in considerable numbers. It is about an inch long, annulose,
has six feet on each side, and two small corniform processes at the
tail. It was past sunset before we saw any of the people of the town;
but by the promise of a dollar, a small basin full of the insects
was procured for us before daylight in the morning.
[Illustration: Drawn by Captn. Clapperton.
Engraved by E. Finden.
VIEW OF THE BAHIR MANDIA.
FROM THE NORTH.
_Published by John Murray, London. Feb. 1826._]
The other lakes of these worms are at two days’ journey from this,
situated in valleys almost inaccessible from the highness of the
sand hills, and frequented only by the Dowedee, or men that fish
for the insects only, at the riper season. They are placed in the
sun’s rays for a few hours to dry, and in that state sell at a
high rate in the different towns in Fezzan.
Wednesday, July 10. We departed at sunrise, and had a much more
pleasant journey. The tract was much more free from sand hills,
although some of a great height were observable on each side.
The sheikh was very civil, and all our wants were speedily supplied.
We had two marriages to-night. The brides were brought out on a
camel, decorated with gaudy dresses, and concealed from public view
by awnings. Both brides were on one camel, for the purpose, we were
told, of saving expense. Another camel went behind, for receiving
the presents of the people, as wheat or barley, by which a feast is
made. They went a considerable distance from the town, surrounded by
almost all the inhabitants, both male and female. The men, dressed
in their best, amused themselves firing muskets and pistols, while
the women were singing. The musicians preceded the procession, and
exhibited signs of having paid their devotions to Bacchus. They were
nearly two hours amusing themselves, before the brides were carried
home to their husbands’ houses. The ceremony was announced by the
yelling of the women, and the discharge of musketry.
Friday, July 12. We departed early in the morning, and arrived
about mid-day at Oubari, where we were obliged to remain a day,
for the camel men to arrange their affairs, and rest their camels.
Tuesday, July 16. We had directed the camels to be brought
before daylight; but it was after sunrise when they made their
appearance. After six we departed. Our course was over a level
gravelly valley, with the mountains to the south, and sand hills
to the north. The tulloh trees in abundance; some large patches of
calcareous crust. We were accompanied by Mahomet, a black Tuarick,
that resides in the vicinity of Biar Hadje Ahmut. Halted at Biar.
Wednesday, July 17. Early in the forenoon, a kafila of Tuaricks, most
of them Hadjes, arrived from Ghraat. Hateeta rose to salute them,
and paid them great respect. One was a maraboot, much respected
by the Tuaricks. He is an oldish man, of pleasing countenance and
free manner. They were muffled up to near the eyes; but they talked
freely with us, and appeared a little prepossessed in our favour;
no doubt from the account Hateeta had given them. One was able to
give some account of the Targee letters; but no information on the
ancient history of his nation. They were anxious we should profess
Islamism; but it was only the lips, not the heart they wished to
make any impression on. It is sufficient if a man says, “There is
no God but one, and Mahomet is his prophet,” and goes through a
few forms of prayers. There is some pleasure in beholding a number
at one and the same time at their devotions; but when reason is
called into action, when the whole is considered as outward show,
the beauty and the loveliness lose themselves.
Thursday, July 18. Started, an hour before sunrise. Our course
the same as yesterday, over a wide level valley, bounded by the
same mountain range, which all along forms shallow bays with bluff
extremities. Tops of the hills level. Almost the whole range, from
Biar Hadje Ahmut, as free from inequality as the valley. Scattered
acacias mostly in flower, and large drops of fine gum arabic hanging
from the branches. Notwithstanding the strong prickles, the camels
browse on this tree with great avidity and rapidity, and apparently
little inconvenience.
Friday, July 19. Form of hills becoming a little different; in
place of the regular table tops, peaks and rugged inequalities are
making their appearance. At an hour after sunset halted in Wadey
Elfoo, or Valley of Cool Breezes. This was a long and fatiguing
day for us. We travelled from sunrise till near eight o’clock,
and advanced twenty-nine miles without halting. The mid-day heat
was oppressive; but would have been doubly so, had it not been for
fine cool breezes. The heat, since we left Mourzuk, has generally
been moderated by a fine breeze springing up about eight or nine in
the morning, and following the sun’s course. It came at times in
strong puffs; and according to the state of the skin, appeared cold
or hot. When perspiring, cold; when dry, hot. The idea of the want
of water made us perhaps more desirous of it. The distance from the
one well to the other is four days, which at this season is not small.
Saturday, July 20. Tract, almost entirely destitute of vegetation,
till mid-day. Our course among low hills of sandstone and
claystone. Here we arrived at a beautiful small wadey, winding
among the hills; the last, we are told, we come to, till we arrive
at Ludinat. The hills are taking a more southerly direction. We were
told they run a considerable distance in the Soudan road, take a bend
to the eastward, and pass into the Tibboo country, and down to near
Bornou. It is along these hills the Tuaricks make their ghrassies
into the Tibboo country. These two nations are almost always at war,
and reciprocally annoy each other by a predatory warfare, stealing
camels, slaves, &c. killing only when resistance is made, and never
making prisoners.
Monday, July 21. About half an hour before sunrise, resumed our
journey. We came to alum slate hills, and early in the morning
passed a small conical hill called Boukra, or Father of the Foot,
where the people of kafilas passing amuse themselves by hopping over
it; and he who does that best, is considered least exhausted by the
journey. Near this there are a few hills, among which a serpent as
large as a camel is said to reside. The Targee is superstitious and
credulous in the extreme; every hill and cave has something fabulous
connected with it. About mid-day entered the boundaries of the Tuarick
country. It is by a small narrow pass over alum slate hills into a
sterile sandy valley. At a distance the Tuarick hills, running north
and south, not table-topped like those we have left, but rising in
numerous peaks and cones. There are here in the vicinity a number of
sand hills; and all the valleys are bounded by low alum slate hills,
and recently formed fixed sand hills. Sulphate of barytes in several
places. About eight, arrived at Ludinat.
The name of the wadey is Sardalis. On a small eminence near us is
an old ruinous building, foolishly thought by the people here to
be of Jewish origin; although from its structure, it is evidently
Arabian. A large spring issues from the middle, and pours out water
sufficient to irrigate a large space of ground. It opens into a large
basin; the temperature of the water is consequently influenced by the
soil and the sun’s rays. Abundant crops of grain might be reared
by an industrious people; but the Tuaricks are no agriculturists,
and the small cultivated spots are wrought by Fezzaneers. The
Tuaricks of the country have a sovereign contempt for inhabitants
of cities and cultivators of ground. They look upon them all as
degenerated beings. A wide-spreading tree grows near this castle,
under which gold is said to be deposited. The accounts are, that
the father of the present maraboot, a man renowned for his sanctity,
destroyed the writings that pointed out the place. The grave of this
Mahometan saint is near, and so revered, that people passing deposit
what they consider superfluous; and always find it safe on their
return. Thus there is not to be found a Tuarick or Arab so courageous
as to violate this sanctuary. The inhabitants are thinly scattered;
and we could only observe here and there a few grass houses. The
water of the spring is excellent. A few sheep are in the valley,
and we were able to buy a tolerably good one from the maraboot.
Thursday, July 24. Camel men long in starting; it was near seven
before we were on our journey. Passed near several springs, and on
the bank of one found some beautiful bog iron ore. The west side of
the wadey had the appearance of a rugged sea coast, and the exposed
ledges of rock, that of the beach washed by the waves. The rock is
a fine grained sandstone, lying on aluminous slate, which mouldering
into dust by exposure to the weather, undermines the sandstone, and
gives rise to the rugged appearance. It is rendered more dreary and
awful by the black colour of the external surface. At a distance we
took the whole to be a basaltic formation, and were not a little
deceived on our examination. We entered a narrow pass with lofty
rugged hills on each side; some were peaked. The black colour of
almost all with white streaks, gave them a sombre appearance. The
external surface of this sandstone soon acquires a shining black
like basalt: so much so, that I have several times been deceived,
till I took up the specimen. The white part is from a shining
white aluminous schistus, that separates into minute flakes like
snow. The ground had in many places the appearance of being covered
with snow. It blew a strong gale as we passed through the different
windings; sand was tossed in every direction; the sky was sometimes
obscured for several minutes. These, conjoined with the white of
the ground and hills, brought forcibly to our minds a snow storm;
but the hot wind as speedily convinced us of our error. The pass
led to a valley, with a few tulloh trees; this we traversed, and
soon entered on a large sandy plain, with the hills of Tadrart on
the east, and the high sand hills on the west. This range has a
most singular appearance; there is more of the picturesque in this,
than in any hills we have ever seen. Let any one imagine ruinous
cathedrals and castles; these we had in every position and of every
form. It will not be astonishing, that an ignorant and superstitious
people should associate these with something supernatural. That
is the fact; some particular demon inhabits each. The cause of the
appearance is the geological structure. In the distance, there is
a hill more picturesque and higher than the others, called Gassur
Janoun, or Devil’s Castle. Between it and the range, there is
a pass through which our course lies. Hateeta dreads this hill,
and has told us many strange stories of wonderful sights having
been seen: these he firmly believes; and is struck with horror,
when we tell him we will visit it.
Friday, July 25. Kept the range of hills in the same direction. We
were much amused by the great diversity of forms. One is called
the Devil’s House; and when Clapperton thought he perceived the
smell of smoke last night, Hateeta immediately said that it was
from the Devil’s House. Another is called the Chest, and under
it a large sum of money is supposed to have been deposited by the
ancient people, who are said to have been giants of extraordinary
stature. At a considerable distance to the southward, a part of the
same range is seen taking to the westward, and is continued, we are
told, as far as Tuat. Another branch is said to take a bend to the
southward and eastward, and join the mountain range of Fezzan. About
mid-day halted in the pass between the range and Devil’s Castle.
Made an excursion to Janoun. Our servant Abdullah accompanied me. He
kept at a respectable distance behind. When near the hill, he said in
a pitiful tone, there is no road up. I told him we would endeavour
to find one. The ascent was exceedingly difficult, and so strewed
with stones, that we were only able to ascend one of the eminences:
there we halted, and found it would be impossible to go higher,
as beyond where we were was precipice. Abdullah got more bold,
when he found there was nothing more than what is to be seen in any
other mountain. The geological structure the same as the range that
is near. When Hateeta found I was gone, he got amazingly alarmed;
and Clapperton was not able to allay his fears: he was only soothed,
when I returned. He was quite astonished I had seen nothing, and
began relating what had happened to others.
On the 26th, about half an hour after sunset, arrived at Ghraat;
and were soon visited by a number of Hateeta’s relations, one
of whom was his sister. Some were much affected, and wept at the
sufferings that had detained him so long from them. A number of
his male relations soon came, and many of the inhabitants of the
town. The ladies were a free and lively set. They were not a little
pleased with the grave manner we uttered the various complimentary
expressions. Hateeta was not well pleased with something that he had
heard. He told us not to be afraid; for he had numerous relations. We
said that fear never entered our breasts, and begged him not to be
uneasy on our account.
Saturday, July 27. Early in the morning numerous visitors paid their
respects to Hateeta, and were introduced in due form to us. We felt
the length of time spent in salutations quite fatiguing, and so absurd
in our eyes, that we could scarcely at times retain our gravity. Our
visitors were mostly residents of the city, and all were decorated
in their best. There was a sedateness and gravity in the appearance
of all, which the dress tended greatly to augment. There were three
natives of Gadames, one of whom knew us through our worthy friend
Mahomet D’Ghies; another we had seen in the house of Dr. Dickson;
and the third was well acquainted with European manners, having been
over at Leghorn.
In the afternoon we visited the sultan. Mats had been spread in the
castle, in a small ante-chamber. The old man was seated, but rose
up to receive us and welcome us to his city. He apologized for not
waiting on us; but said he was sick, and had been very little out
for some time. He had guinea-worm, and a cataract was forming in his
eyes. He was dressed in a nearly worn out tobe, and trowsers of the
same colour; and round his head was wrapped an old piece of yellow
coarse cloth for a turban. Notwithstanding the meanness of the dress,
there was something pleasing and prepossessing in his countenance,
and such a freeness as made us soon quite as much at home as if in
our tents. We presented him with a sword, with which he was highly
pleased. Hateeta wished it had been a bornouse; but we had none with
us we considered sufficiently good. We were led away by the title,
sultan. We had no idea the Tuaricks were so vain; for they used to
be filling us with high notions of the wealth and greatness of the
people here.
Our interview was highly interesting; and every one seemed much
pleased with us. The old sultan showed us every kindness; and we
had every reason to believe him sincere in his good wishes. After
our visit we called at the house of Lameens, son of the kadi. He is
a young man of excellent character, and universally respected. His
father is now in Ghadames, arranging with some of the other principal
inhabitants the affairs of the community. He had left directions
with his son to show us every attention. His house was neatly
fitted up, and carpets spread on a high bed, on which we seated
ourselves. Several of the people who were in the castle came along
with us, and by the assistance of those that could speak Arabic, we
were able to keep up a tolerably good conversation. On inquiring about
the Tuarick letters, we found the same sounds given them as we had
before heard from others. We were here at the fountain head, but were
disappointed in not being able to find a book in the Tuarick language;
they told us there was not one. Some only of the Tuaricks speak the
Arabic. We were the more astonished to find this, when we considered
the great intercourse between them and nations that speak Arabic only.
It was near sunset before we returned to our tents, which were now
tolerably clear of visitors. All had retired to pray and eat. Stewed
meat, bread, and soup, were again sent us by the sultan.
In the evening Hateeta’s kinswomen returned. They were greatly
amused, and laughed heartily at our blundering out a few Tuarick
words. It may be well supposed we were very unfit companions for
the ladies, as they could speak no other language than their own,
and we knew very little of it. Still, however, we got on well, and
were mutually pleased. I could scarcely refrain laughing several
times at the grave manner Clapperton assumed. He had been tutored by
Hateeta, and fully acted up to his instructions; no Tuarick could
have done better. Our friend Hateeta was anxious we should shine,
and read a number of lectures to Clapperton. He is naturally lively,
and full of humour. He was directed not to laugh or sing, but look
as grave as possible, which Hateeta said would be sure to please
the grave Tuaricks. As for myself, I had a natural sedateness,
which Hateeta thought would do. The liveliness of the women, their
freeness with the men, and the marked attention the latter paid them,
formed a striking contrast with other Mahommedan states. Thus the
day passed over well, and we had every reason to be pleased with
the demeanour of the people, and the attention they paid us.
Violent gale from the northward, which almost smothered us with sand.
About four we went to visit the spring we had heard so much about,
and to make a circuit round the town. The water is contained in
a large reservoir, surrounded with palm trees; and the banks are
covered with rushes, except when the people go to draw water. There
is not that bubbling up we saw in the spring of Shiati and Ludinat,
but apparently an oozing from a large surface, as in those of
Traghan. The water is clear, well tasted, and in abundance: a large
extent of soil is supplied by it, through channels cut in the ground;
and all the town is supplied from this place. Good water and plenty
of it is a great blessing in every quarter of the globe, but much
more in a hot climate. The people are sensible of it; for you hear
this place and that praised for the abundance of this water, and the
healthiness of its quality; and you often hear them say that it does
not engender bile, as the waters of such a place. Some small spots
here are really beautiful, from the diversity of scenery in a small
compass. Here and there patches of grass and beds of water melons,
in the edge of the water channels, fine palms loaded with ripe fruit,
small squares of gufolly and cassoub, and beautiful vines clinging
to the trees; in the brakes, the town and black tinted low hills. We
observed platforms, of palm leaves, raised about five feet from the
ground, for the purpose of sleeping, and defending the person from
scorpions, which are very common.
We now came in sight of the town, and were well pleased with the
appearance. The houses neat and clean; and the mosque, finer than any
thing of the kind in Fezzan. All was neat and simple. It is built at
the foot of a low hill, on the summit of which the former town stood;
but it, as we were told, was destroyed, and the greater part of the
inhabitants, by the giving way of the portion of hill on which it
was erected. The hills, composed as those about here, are very apt
to fall down in large masses. Indeed, none of the hills appear of
their original height. It was not long since a large portion of a
neighbouring mountain gave way, and the noise of its fall was heard
at a great distance. When the melancholy event of the destruction
of the town took place, we could not learn.
The town is surrounded with walls, in good repair, formed of sand
and whitish clay, that gives a clean and lively appearance to the
whole. There is only one gate opening to the east; formerly there
were more, that are now blocked up. The houses are built of the same
substance as the walls, and the external form and internal arrangement
the same as those of Mourzuk and other Mahommedan towns. The town
appears to be about the size of Oubari, and perhaps contains about
1000 inhabitants. The burying-ground is outside the town; it is
divided into two departments, one for those arrived at maturity,
the other for children,—a distinction not observable in Fezzan.
In our walk we fell in with a number of females, who had come out
to see us. All were free and lively, and not at all deterred by
the presence of the men. Several had fine features; but only one
or two could be called beautiful. Many of the natives came out of
their houses as we passed along, and cordially welcomed us to their
town. It was done in such a manner, that we could not but feel
pleased and highly flattered.
In the evening we heard a numerous band of females singing at a
distance, which was continued till near midnight. The women were
principally those of the country. This custom is very common among
the people, and is one of the principal amusements in the mountain
recesses. Hateeta said they go out when their work is finished in
the evening, and remain till near midnight in singing and telling
stories, return home, take supper, and go to bed.
The language of the Tuaricks is harsh and guttural; but it has great
strength, and is evidently expressive. That at least is the opinion
we were led to form, with our imperfect knowledge. The want of books,
and the little attention paid to cultivating a language, must tend to
keep it in a very imperfect state. The sedate character of the Tuarick
seems to be a firm barrier against the muses. The males seldom sing;
it is considered an amusement fit only for females. Their songs were
described to us as sweet. We never heard one repeating any poetical
lines. The people have good sound sense, and give more distinct
accounts of what they have seen than I have received from the Moorish
merchants. They would be a shining people, were they placed in more
favourable situations. On almost every stone in places they frequent,
the Tuarick characters are hewn out. It matters nothing whether the
letters are written from the right to the left, or _vice versa_,
or written horizontally.
LETTERS.
[Symbol: ⵜ] Yet. [Symbol: ⵌ] Yuz.
[Symbol: ⵗ] Yuk. [Symbol: ⵣ] Iz.
[Symbol: ⵆ] Yugh. [Symbol: H-like]
[Symbol: ⵓ] Yow [Symbol: W-like] Yew.
[Symbol: ⴰ] A. [Symbol: ⴷ] Yid.
[Symbol: ⵀ] Yib. [Symbol: northern (square) variant of ⵔ] Yir.
[Symbol: ⵙ] Yes. [Symbol: ⵢ] Yei.
[Symbol: ⵎ] Yim. [Symbol: ⴶ] Yigh.
[Symbol: ⴺ] Yish. [Symbol: ⵏ] Yin.
[Symbol: ⵍ] Yill.
These characters will be sufficient to enable the learned to trace the
connexion of the language with others that are now extinct. Here we
have no opportunity of making inquiries into this important subject.
Note. The rest of the Journal, describing their return to Mourzuk,
is wholly uninteresting, and is therefore omitted.
=RECENT DISCOVERIES=
IN
=AFRICA.=
* * * * *
CHAPTER I.
FROM MOURZUK TO KOUKA IN BORNOU.
On the evening of the 29th of November we left Mourzuk, accompanied
by nearly all those of the town, who could muster a horse: the
camels had moved early in the day, and at Zezow we found the tents
pitched—there are here merely a few huts. From Zezow to Traghan
there is a good high road, with frequent incrustations of salt,
and we arrived there before noon. It is a clean walled town, one
of the best of one hundred and nine, of which Fezzan is said to
boast. Traghan was formerly as rich as Mourzuk, and was the capital
and residence of a sultan, who governed the eastern part of Fezzan,
whose castle, in ruins, may still be seen.
A maraboot, of great sanctity, is the principal person in Traghan,
as his father was before him. During the reign of the present
bashaw’s father, when the Arab troops appeared before the town,
the then maraboot and chief went out to meet them; and, from his
own stores, paid sixty thousand dollars to prevent the property of
his townspeople from being plundered. They make carpets here equal
to those of Constantinople. There are some springs of good water
in the gardens near the town, the only ones in Fezzan, it is said,
except the tepid one at Hammam, near Sockna.
After being crammed, as it were, by the hospitality of the maraboot,
we left Traghan for Maefen, an assemblage of date huts, with but
one house. The road to this place lies over a mixture of sand and
salt, having a curious and uncommon appearance: the surface is full
of cracks, and in many places it has the effect of a new ploughed
field: the clods are so hard, that it is with great difficulty they
can be broken. The path by which all the animals move for some miles
is a narrow space, or stripe, worn smooth, bearing a resemblance,
both in hardness and appearance, to ice: near Maefen, it assumes a
new and more beautiful shape, the cracks are larger, and from the
sides of cavities several feet deep hang beautiful crystals, from
beds of frost of the purest white[9]. I broke off a large mass,
but the interior was as brittle as the exterior was difficult to
break; the frost work was fine salt, and fell away in flakes on
being lightly shaken. It extends more than twenty miles, east and
west. The water of Maefen, though strongly tinctured with soda,
is not disagreeable to the taste, or unwholesome.
Quitting Maefen, we quickly entered on a desert plain; and, after
a dreary fourteen hours march for camels, we arrived at Mestoola,
a maten, or resting place, where the camels find some little grazing
from a plant called Ahgul. Starting at sun-rise, we had another
fatiguing day over the same kind of desert, without, I think, seeing
one living thing that did not belong to our kafila—not a bird,
or even an insect: the sand is beautifully fine, round, and red. We
now arrived at Gatrone. The Arabs watch for a sight of the high date
trees, which surround this town, as sailors look for land; and after
discovering these landmarks, they shape their course accordingly.
I here joined my companions, whom I found in a state of health but
ill calculated for undertaking a long and tedious journey. During
my stay at Mourzuk, I had suffered from a severe attack of fever,
which had kept me for ten days in my bed; and although considerably
debilitated, yet was I strong in comparison with my associates. Doctor
Oudney was suffering much from his cough, and still complaining of
his chest. Mr. Clapperton’s ague had not left him, and Hillman
had been twice attacked so violently as to be given over by the
doctor. We all, however, looked forward anxiously to proceeding,
and fancied that change of scene and warmer weather would bring us
all round. Gatrone is not unpleasingly situated: it is surrounded
by sandhills, and mounds of earth covered with a small tree, called
athali. Huts are built all round the town for the Tibboos.
Though encamped on the south side of the town, we had cold north and
north-east winds, and the thermometer in the tent was from 43 to 45
in the mornings. The person of the greatest importance at Gatrone
is one Hagi-el-Raschid, a large proprietor and a maraboot. He is a
man of very clear understanding and amiable manners, and as he uses
the superstition of the people as the means of making them happy and
turning them from vicious pursuits, one becomes almost reconciled
to an impostor.
Much necessary arrangement had been made here by laying in a stock
of dates, &c. for our long journey: and at eleven A.M. we left
Gatrone. The maraboot accompanied Boo-Khaloom outside the town, and
having drawn, not a magic circle, but a parallelogram, on the sand,
with his wand he wrote in it certain words of great import from the
Koran; the crowd looking on in silent astonishment, while he assumed
a manner both graceful and imposing, so as to make it impossible
for any one to feel at all inclined to ridicule his motions. When
he had finished repeating the fatah aloud, he invited us singly to
ride through the spot he had consecrated, and, having obeyed him,
we silently proceeded on our journey, without even repeating an adieu.
We passed a small nest of huts on the road, prettily situated,
called El-Bahhi, from whence the women of the place followed us
with songs for several miles. Having halted at Medroosa, we moved
on the next morning, and leaving an Arab castle to the south-east,
and some table-top hills, bearing south and by east, we arrived at
Kasrowa by three in the afternoon.
Kasrowa has tumuli of some height all round the town, covered with the
plant athali, and there is a well of good water: a road from hence
branches off to the south-east, which goes to Kanem and Waday. It
is also said to be the shortest road to Bornou, but there is a great
scarcity of water.
On the 9th, we were to arrive at Tegerhy; and the Arabs commenced
skirmishing as soon as we came within sight of it, and kept it up
in front of the town for half an hour after our arrival.
We were here to halt for a day or two, for the purpose of taking
in the remainder of our dates and provisions, and never was halt
more acceptable. Hillman, our carpenter, and two of our servants,
were really too ill to be moved; two of them had fevers, and one
the ague. Hillman had been so weakened by previous attacks, as to
be lifted on and off his mule: indeed we were all sickly. Doctor
Oudney’s complaint in his chest, and his cough, had gradually become
worse; and going only a few hundred yards to see a _dome_ date tree
so fatigued him that, after lying down, he was obliged to return,
supported by Mr. Clapperton. As our servants were all ill, one of the
negro women made us a mess of kouscasou, with some preserved fat,
which had been prepared in Mourzuk: it was a sorry meal, for the
fat was rancid; and although tired, and not very strong, I could not
refuse an invitation, about nine at night, after I had lain down to
sleep, to eat camel’s heart with Boo-Khaloom: it was wofully hard
and tough, and I suffered the next morning from indulging too much
at the feast.
[Illustration: Drawn by Major Denham.
Engraved by E. Finden.
CASTLE AND SALT LAKE AT TEGERHY.
_Published by John Murray, London. Feb. 1826._]
The Tibboos and Arabs kept us awake half the night with their
singing and dancing, in consequence of the bousafer, or feast,
on entering the Tibboo country. Boo-Khaloom gave two camels, and
we gave one. Our sick seemed to gain a little strength; and as we
had succeeded in purchasing a sheep, a little soup seemed to revive
them much; but we feared that Hillman and one of the servants must
be left behind. However distressing would such an event have been,
it was impossible for men who could not sit upright on a mule to
commence a journey of fifteen days over a desert, during which
travellers are obliged to march from sunrise until dark.
The 12th December was a beautifully mild morning, the thermometer at
eight being at 56. After breakfast, all seemed revived; but it was
with pain I observed the exceeding weakness of Doctor Oudney and
Hillman. I managed to get a sketch of the castle of Tegerhy from
the south side of a salt pool close to the town; the entrance to
which is small, low, and arched, something resembling a sally-port:
within a second wall and gateway, there are loop-holes which would
render the entrance by the narrow passage before mentioned extremely
difficult: above the second gateway, there is also an opening from
whence missiles and firebrands, of which the Arabs formerly made great
use, might be poured on the assailants. Wells of water are within
the walls, and tolerably good; and with supplies, when in a state
of repair, I have no doubt Tegerhy might make a very good defence.
The sultans of Fezzan probably think that the only means of keeping
these people in order is by keeping them poor. Their only produce
is dates, but those are of excellent quality. No vegetables are
raised here, and we could not even procure an onion. Almost every
town in Africa has its charm or wonder, and Tegerhy is not without
one. There is a well just outside the castle gates, the water of
which, we were told most gravely, “always rose when a kafila was
coming near the town! that the inhabitants always prepared what they
had to sell on seeing this water increase in bulk, for it never
deceived them!”—In proof of this assertion, they pointed out
to me how much higher the water had been previous to our arrival
than it was at the moment we were standing on the brink. This I
could have explained by the number of camels that had drank at it,
but I saw it was better policy to believe what every body allowed
to be true: even Boo-Khaloom exclaimed, “Allah! God is great,
powerful, and wise! How wonderful! Oh!” Over the inner gate of
the castle there is a large hole through to the gateway underneath,
and they tell a story of a woman dropping from thence a stone on
the head of some leader who had gained the outer wall, giving him,
by that means, the death of Abimelech in sacred history.
The situation of Tegerhy is rather pleasing than otherwise: it is
surrounded by date trees, and the water is excellent; a range of low
hills extends to the eastward; and snipes, wild-ducks, and geese,
frequent the salt-pools, which are near the town. The natives are
quite black, but have not the negro face: the men are slim, very
plain, with high cheek bones, the negro nose, large mouth, teeth much
stained by the quantity of tobacco and _trona_ (or muriate of soda)
which they eat; and even snuff, when given to them, goes directly
into their mouths.
The young girls are most of them pretty, but less so than those of
Gatrone. The men always carry two daggers, one about eighteen inches,
and the other six inches, the latter of which is attached to a ring
and worn on the arm or wrist. A Tibboo once told me, pointing to the
long one, “this is my gun; and this,” showing the smaller of the
two, “is my pistol.” The women make baskets and drinking-bowls
of palm leaves with great neatness.
On the 13th, we left Tegerhy, and proceeded on the desert: it was
scattered with mounds of earth and sand, covered with athila (a plant
the camels eat with avidity), and other shrubs. After travelling six
miles we arrived at a well called Omah, where our tents were pitched,
and here we halted three days. On the 16th, after clearing the palm
trees, by which Omah is surrounded, we proceeded on the desert. About
nine we had a slight shower of rain. At three in the afternoon,
we came to a halt at Ghad, after travelling ten miles. Near the
wells of Omah, numbers of human skeletons, or parts of skeletons,
lay scattered on the sands. Hillman, who had suffered dreadfully
since leaving Tegerhy, was greatly shocked at these whitened skulls,
and unhallowed remains; so much so, as to want all the encouragement
I could administer to him.
Dec. 17.—We continued our course over a stony plain, without
the least appearance of vegetation. Coarse opal and sand-stone[10]
strewed the path. We saw Alowere-Seghrir, a ridge of hills, bearing
east by south; Alowere-El-Kebir, a still higher ridge, lies more to
the east, but was not visible. These, by the accounts of the natives,
are the highest mountains in the Tibboo country, with the exception
of Ercherdat Erner. More to the south, the inhabitants are called
_Tibboo-Irchad_ (the Tibboos of the rocks). Through passes in both
these mountains, the road lies to Kanem. About sunset, we halted near
a well, within a half mile of Meshroo. Round this spot were lying
more than one hundred skeletons, some of them with the skin still
remaining attached to the bones—not even a little sand thrown over
them. The Arabs laughed heartily at my expression of horror, and said,
“they were only blacks, _nam boo_!” (damn their fathers!) and
began knocking about the limbs with the butt end of their firelocks,
saying, “This was a woman! This was a youngster!” and such like
unfeeling expressions. The greater part of the unhappy people, of
whom these were the remains, had formed the spoils of the sultan of
Fezzan the year before. I was assured that they had left Bornou with
not above a quarter’s allowance for each; and that more died from
want than fatigue: they were marched off with chains round their necks
and legs: the most robust only arrived in Fezzan in a very debilitated
state, and were there fattened for the Tripoli slave market.
Our camels did not come up until it was quite dark, and we bivouacked
in the midst of these unearthed remains of the victims of persecution
and avarice, after a long day’s journey of twenty-six miles, in
the course of which, one of our party counted 107 of these skeletons.
Dec. 19[11].—Moved round a winding pass to the west, and after an
ascent of three hundred feet descended a sandy steep to the east. This
was rather a picturesque spot, looking back upon Thenea. Our road
lay over a long plain with a slight ridge. A fine naga (she-camel)
lay down on the road this day, as I thought from fatigue. The Arabs
crowded round, and commenced unloading her, when, upon inquiry,
I found that she was suddenly taken in labour: about five minutes
completed the operation,—a very fine little animal was literally
dragged into light. It was then thrown across another camel;
and the mother, after being reloaded, followed quietly after her
offspring. One of the skeletons we passed to-day had a very fresh
appearance; the beard was still hanging to the skin of the face,
and the features were still discernible. A merchant, travelling
with the kafila, suddenly exclaimed, “That was my slave! I left
him behind four months ago, near this spot.”—“Make haste! take
him to the fsug” (market), said an Arab wag, “for fear any body
else should claim him.” We had no water, and a most fatiguing day.
Dec. 20 was also a dreary day of most uninteresting country; and it
was 5. 30. when we arrived at the Hormut-el-Wahr. These were the
highest hills we had seen since leaving Fezzan: the highest peak
might be five or six hundred feet. They had a bold black appearance,
and were a relief to the eye, after the long level we had quitted. We
entered the pass, which is nearly two miles in width, and wound round
some high hills to the south: the path was rugged and irregular in
the extreme, and bordered by bold conical and table-topped detached
hills. We blundered and stumbled on until ten at night, when we found
the resting-place, after a toilsome and most distressing day. We were
several times foiled in our attempt to find a path into the wadey,
under these hills, by which the camels might move, and where the
water was. Hillman was exceedingly ill this night, and Dr. Oudney
too fatigued to render him any assistance. El-Wahr is a wadey of
loose gravel, and has a well of good water. This was the eighth day
since our camels had tasted water: they were weak and sore-footed,
from the stony nature of the passes in these hills of El-Wahr. At
night it blew a hurricane.
It is three miles from where we halted to the end of the wadey; where,
to the west, there is a high hill called El-Baab. These hills extend
away to the east, and form part of the range which are found near
Tibesty, where they become higher and bolder. We had now a stony
plain, with low hills of sand and gravel, till we reached El-Garha,
which is a detached conical hill to the west, close to our road;
and here we halted for the night[12].
Dec. 22.—We moved before daylight, passing some rough sand hills,
mixed with red stone, to the west, over a plain of fine gravel, and
halted at the maten, called El-Hammar, close under a bluff head, which
had been in view since quitting our encampment in the morning. Strict
orders had been given this day for the camels to keep close up,
and for the Arabs not to straggle—the Tibboo Arabs having been
seen on the look out. During the last two days, we had passed on an
average from sixty to eighty or ninety skeletons each day; but the
numbers that lay about the wells at El-Hammar were countless: those
of two women, whose perfect and regular teeth bespoke them young,
were particularly shocking; their arms still remained clasped round
each other as they had expired; although the flesh had long since
perished by being exposed to the burning rays of the sun, and the
blackened bones only left: the nails of the fingers, and some of
the sinews of the hand, also remained; and part of the tongue of
one of them still appeared through the teeth. We had now passed
six days of desert without the slightest appearance of vegetation,
and a little branch of the souak was brought me here as a comfort
and curiosity. On the following day we had alternately plains of
sand and loose gravel, and had a distant view of some hills to the
west. While I was dozing on my horse about noon, overcome by the
heat of the sun, which at that time of the day always shone with
great power, I was suddenly awakened by a crashing under his feet,
which startled me excessively. I found that my steed had, without any
sensation of shame or alarm, stepped upon the perfect skeletons of
two human beings, cracking their brittle bones under his feet, and,
by one trip of his foot, separating a skull from the trunk, which
rolled on like a ball before him. This event gave me a sensation
which it took some time to remove. My horse was for many days not
looked upon with the same regard as formerly.
Dec. 24.—When the rains fall, which they do here in torrents in
the season, a sort of grass quickly springs up many feet high. In
passing the desert, a few remaining roots of this dried grass, which
had been blown by the winds from Bodemam, were eagerly seized on by
the Arabs, with cries of joy, for their hungry camels. The plain
was this day covered with slight irregularities, and strewed with
various coloured stones—thick beds of gypsum, stones resembling
topazes, and pieces of calcareous spar, which, reflecting the rays
of the setting-sun, displayed a most beautiful variety of tints. An
incrustation of fine whiting lay in patches, at no great distance
from the well: and soon after the sun had retired behind the hills
to the west, we descended into a wadey, where about a dozen stunted
bushes (not trees) of palm marked the spot where the water was to be
found. Even these miserable bushes were a great relief to the eye,
after the dreary sameness of the preceding days; and at day-break
in the morning, I could not help smiling at seeing Hillman gazing
at them with pleasure in his look, while he declared they reminded
him of a valley near his own home in the West of England. The
wells are situated under a ridge of low white hills of sandstone,
called Mafrasben-Kasarettsa, where there are also beds and hills
of limestone. The wells were so choked up with sand, that several
cart-loads of it were removed previous to finding sufficient water;
and even then the animals could not drink until near ten at night.
One of our nagas had this day her accouchement on the road; and
we all looked forward to the milk which the Arabs assured us she
had in abundance, and envied us not a little our morning draughts,
which we were already quaffing in imagination. However, one of the
“many slips between the cup and the lip” was to befall us. The
poor thing suddenly fell, and as suddenly died: the exclamations of
the Arabs were dreadful.—“The evil eye! the evil eye!” they
all exclaimed—“She was sure to die, I knew it.”—“Well! if
she had been mine, I would rather have lost a child, or three
slaves!”—“God be praised! God is great, powerful, and
wise! those looks of the people are always fatal.”
Dec. 25.—This was a beautiful mild morning: the thermometer
54. at 6. 30. Our skins were here filled with water which was not
disagreeable, although strongly impregnated with sulphur. The
camels moved at eight. The head of a range of high hills bore
west-south-west, called Tiggerindumma: they resemble in shape and
structure those we had passed nearer: they extend to the west, as
far as the _Arooda_, five days hence, where there is a well; and
ten days beyond which is Ghraat. At the distance of four miles from
Mafras, we came to a small wadey, where we saw the first dome date
trees: they were full of fruit, though green. We continued winding
amongst a nest of hills,—crossed two water-courses, in which were
tulloh and dry grass (_ashub_), until seven. These hills are bold
and picturesque, composed of black and coloured sandstone. No water.
Dec. 26[13].—We emerged from the hills, and broke into a plain,
extending to the east as far as the eye could reach; to the west,
Tiggerindumma sweeps off, and forming nearly a semi-circle, appears
again to the south, a very handsome range, though not exceeding six
hundred feet at any part in height. After passing between two low
ridges of dark hills, we opened on a plain bounded with flat-topped
and conical hills, called La Gaba. We found pieces of iron ore this
day, kidney-shaped, and of various other forms. We travelled till
nine at night, when some of us were nearly falling from our horses
with fatigue. After a narrow stony pass, we came to a halt in a
wadey called Izhya.
Here we had a gale of wind from the north-east for three days. Our
tents were nearly buried in sand, and we were obliged to roll
ourselves up in blankets nearly the whole time.
Dec. 30.—Izhya is called by the Tibboos Yaat. There are here four
wells, which resemble troughs cut in the sand, two or three feet
deep; and it is said, that by thus digging, water may be found in
any part of the wadey. We were encamped nearly west of the wells,
about one hundred yards between them and a raas, or head, which had
been in sight for some time. This head is a land-mark to kafilas,
coming in all directions, who wish to make the wadey. We passed
Ametradumma about four hours; from which, to the north-west, is a
wadey of palms, called Seggedem, with sweet water: here is generally
a tribe of plundering Tibboos, who are always on the look out for
small kafilas. No water.
Dec. 31.—A cold shivering morning. At 7. 30. thermometer 49.,
and we had a long day’s march over a plain, varying but little
from Izhya. The Arabs had no knowledge of the road; and the Tibboo
guide was all we had to rely on. We kept on until late, when the
Tibboo acknowledged he had lost the road, that the well was not far
off, but where he knew not; we therefore halted under some low brown
sandstone hills, and determined on waiting for the daylight. We lost
a camel this day from fatigue.
1823.
On the 1st January, after six miles’ travelling, we came to the
wadey Ikbar, and rested on the 2d. The Arabs here caught an hyæna
(dhubba), and brought it to us: we, however, had no wish beyond
looking at it. They then tied it to a tree, and shot at it until
the poor animal was literally knocked to pieces. This was the most
refreshing spot we had seen for many days; there were dome trees
loaded with fruit, though not ripe, which lay in clusters, and grass
in abundance; and I could have stayed here a week with pleasure,
so reviving is the least appearance of cultivation, or rather a
sprinkling of Nature’s beauty, after the parching wilds of the
long dreary desert we had passed.
Jan. 3.—Looking back with regret at leaving the few green branches
in Ikbar, with nothing before us but the dark hills and sandy desert,
we ascended slightly from the wadey, and leaving the hills of Ikbar,
proceeded towards a prominent head in a low range to the east of
our course, called Tummeraskumma, meaning “you’ll soon drink
water;” and about two miles in advance, we halted just under
a ridge of the same hills, after making twenty-four miles. Four
camels knocked up during this day’s march: on such occasions the
Arabs wait, in savage impatience, in the rear, with their knives
in their hands, ready, on the signal of the owner, to plunge them
into the poor animal, and tear off a portion of the flesh for their
evening meal. We were obliged to kill two of them on the spot; the
other two, it was hoped, would come up in the night. I attended the
slaughter of one; and despatch being the order of the day, a knife is
struck in the camel’s heart while his head is turned to the east,
and he dies almost in an instant; but before that instant expires,
a dozen knives are thrust into different parts of the carcass,
in order to carry off the choicest part of the flesh. The heart,
considered as the greatest delicacy, is torn out, the skin stripped
from the breast and haunches, part of the meat cut, or rather torn,
from the bones, and thrust into bags, which they carry for the
purpose; and the remainder of the carcass is left for the crows,
vultures, and hyænas, while the Arabs quickly follow the kafila.
[Illustration: Drawn by Captn. Clapperton.
Engraved by E. Finden.
ANAY.
TIBBOO COUNTRY.
_Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London._]
Jan. 4.—We crossed the ridge before us by eight this morning, and
proceeded between a conical hill to the east and one to the west,
called Gummaganumma. We had a fine open space of a mile in width
between these hills, and about noon we came to a large mass of dark,
soft sandstone, one hundred feet in height; about twenty yards from
this stone is a rising well of water, only a few inches deep, and a
sprinkling of coarse grass. Arabs call the spot “Irchat,” Tibboos,
“Anay.” The sultan’s army halted here two days, on its return
from Begharmi.
The town of Anay consists of a few huts built on the top of a
similar mass of stone to the one we had just left; round the base
of the rock are also habitations, but their riches are always kept
aloft. The Tuaricks annually, and sometimes oftener, pay them a most
destructive visit, carrying off cattle and every thing they can lay
their hands on. The people on these occasions take refuge at the top
of the rock; they ascend by a rude ladder, which is drawn up after
them; and as the sides of their citadel are always precipitous,
they defend themselves with their missiles, and by rolling down
stones on the assailants. The people who came out to meet us had
each four short spears and one long one.
Jan. 5.—The Sultan Tibboo, whose territory extends from this place
to Bilma, was visiting a town to the south-west of Anay, called
Kisbee, and he requested Boo-Khaloom to halt there one day, promising
to proceed with him to Bilma; we accordingly made Kisbee this day,
distant five miles. Our animals got some pickings of dry grass.
Kisbee is a great place of rendezvous for all kafilas and merchants;
and it is here that the sultan always takes his tribute for permission
to pass through his country. It is eight days distant from Aghadis,
twenty-four from Kashna, and, by good travelling by the nearest road,
twenty-seven from Bornou[14]. The sultan had neither much majesty nor
cleanliness of appearance: he came to Boo-Khaloom’s tent accompanied
by six or seven Tibboos, some of them really hideous. They take a
quantity of snuff both in their mouths and noses; their teeth were
of a deep yellow; the nose resembles nothing so much as a round
lump of flesh stuck on the face; and the nostrils are so large,
that their fingers go up as far as they will reach, in order to
ensure the snuff an admission into the head. My watch, compass,
and musical snuff-box, created but little astonishment; they looked
at their own faces in the bright covers, and were most stupidly
inattentive to what would have excited the wonder of almost any
imagination, however savage: here was the “os sublime,” but
the “spiritus intus,” the “mens divinior,” was scarcely
discoverable. Boo-Khaloom gave the sultan a fine scarlet bornouse,
which seemed a little to animate his stupid features. We had a dance
by Tibboo-men performed in front of our tents, in the evening: it is
graceful and slow, but not so well adapted to the male as the female;
it was succeeded by one performed by some free slaves from Soudan,
who were living with the Tibboos, enjoying their liberty, as they
said. It appears most violent exertion: one man is placed in the
middle of a circle, which he endeavours to break, and each one whom
he approaches throws him off, while he adds to the impetus by a leap,
and ascends several feet from the ground:—when one has completed
the round, another takes his place.
An Arab returned this evening, whom I had sent the night before for
the purpose of finding a poodle dog which had accompanied me from
Malta, and had remained behind from fatigue, the day we left Ikbar:
he was unsuccessful, and said that some of the wandering Tibboos must
have eaten him; he had found marks in the sand of the footsteps of
these people, and the remains of the two camels we had left on the
road were carried off: he traced their steps to the east, but was
afraid to follow them. It is from these wanderers that small kafilas,
or single merchants, have to dread attack. Generally speaking,
the regular sheikhs are satisfied by levying a tax, while these are
contented with nothing short of the whole.
Jan. 6.—At seven the thermometer was 42° in the tent.—About
five miles from Kisbee we left a wadey called Kilboo, by the Tibboos
Trona to our left, and coming close under the ridge of hills at
a point called Ametrigamma, we proceeded to Ashenumma, which is
about four miles beyond, with the high hills to the east, and a
very pleasing wadey to the west, producing palm and other trees. A
violent disturbance arose this morning on the road among our Arabs;
one of them having shot a ball through the shirt of another of the
Magarha tribe: the sheikh of the Magarha took up the quarrel, and
the man saved himself from being punished, by hanging to the stirrup
leather of my saddle. The Arab sheikh made use of some expressions
in defending his man, which displeased Boo-Khaloom, who instantly
knocked him off his horse, and his slaves soundly bastinadoed him.
Tiggema, near which we halted, is one of the highest points in the
range, and hangs over the mud houses of the town: this point stands
at the south extremity of the recess, which the hills here form, and
is about four hundred feet high; the sides are nearly perpendicular,
and it is detached from the other hills by a chasm. On the approach
of the Tuaricks the whole population flock to the top of these
heights, with all their property, and make the best defence they
can. The insides of some of the houses are neat and tidy; the men
are generally travelling merchants, or rather pedlers, and probably
do not pass more than four months in the year with their families,
for the Tibboos rarely go beyond Bornou to the south, or Mourzuk
to the north; they appeared light-hearted, and happy as people
constantly in dread of such visitors as the Tuaricks can be, who
spare neither age nor sex. A wadey, comparatively fertile, extends
several miles parallel to the heights under which the village stands,
producing dates and grass in abundance, and a salt water or trona lake
is within two miles of them, in which are wild fowl. Mr. Clapperton
shot two of the plover species, with spurs on their wings. A general
caution was given for no person to go out of the circle after sunset.
Jan. 8[15].—Our course was still under the range of hills, and at
five miles distance we came to another town called Alighi, and two
miles beyond that another called Tukumani: these towns were built
to the south of, and sheltered by slight projections from, the hills
under which they were placed. The people always came out to meet us,
and when within about fifty paces of the horses, fell on their knees
singing and beating a sort of drum, which always accompanies their
rejoicing. To the west of both these towns is a salt lake resembling
the one near Ashenumma, but rather smaller. We proceeded from hence
nearly south-west, leaving the hills, and while resting under the
shade of some gourd trees, which are here abundant, we had the
agreeable, and to us very novel, sight of a drove of oxen: the bare
idea of once more being in a country that afforded beef and pasture
was consoling in the extreme, and the luxurious thought of fresh milk,
wholesome food, and plenty, was most exhilarating to us all. At two
we came to a halt at Dirkee. A good deal of powder was here expended
in honour of the sultan, who again met us on our approach: his new
scarlet bornouse was thrown over a filthy checked shirt, and his
turban and cap, though once white, were rapidly approaching to the
colour of the head they covered; when, however, the next morning his
majesty condescended to ask me for a small piece of soap, these little
negligences in his outward appearance were more easily accounted for.
We had rather a numerous assembly of females, who danced for some
hours before the tents: some of their movements were not inelegant,
and not unlike the Greek dances as they are represented. The sultan
regaled us with cheese, and ground nuts from Soudan, the former of
a pleasant flavour, but so hard that we were obliged to moisten it
with water previous to eating. Dirkee is of a different description
from the Tibboo towns we had seen: it stands in a wadey, is a mile
in circumference, and it has two trona lakes, one to the east, and
the other to the west. Of this saline substance an account will be
found in the Appendix.—It is generally supposed that these lakes
were originally caused by taking from the spot they now occupy the
earth which was required for building the town, and its surrounding
walls. Water, as we have before observed, is found in many parts of
this country, at the depth of from six inches to six feet, and the
soil near the surface, particularly in the neighbourhood of these
Tibboo towns, is very powerfully impregnated by saline substances; so
much so, that incrustations of pure, or nearly pure, trona are found
sometimes extending several miles. The borders of these lakes have
the same appearance: they are composed of a black mud, which almost
as soon as exposed to the sun and air becomes crisp like fresh dug
earth in a frosty morning. In the centre of each of these lakes is a
solid body or island of trona, which the inhabitants say increases in
size annually: the one in the lake to the east is probably fourteen or
fifteen feet in height, and one hundred in circumference: the edges
quite close to the water are solid, nor is there any appearance of
mud or slime; it breaks off in firm pieces, but is easily reduced
to powder[16]. There are several wells in the town of tolerably good
water very slightly impregnated with the trona taste.
Dirkee, from its situation in the wadey, is more exposed to the
attacks of the Tuaricks than the towns nearer the hills, and on this
account, they say, it is so thinly peopled. The houses have literally
nothing within them, not even a mat; and a few women and old men
are the only inhabitants: the men, they said, were all on journeys,
or at Kisbee, Ashenumma, or Bilma, where they go themselves after
the date season. During the time we halted here, the women brought
us dates fancifully strung on rushes in the shape of hearts with
much ingenuity, and a few pots of honey and fat.
We halted two days. So many of Boo-Khaloom’s camels had fallen
on the road, that notwithstanding all their peaceable professions,
a marauding party was sent out to plunder some maherhies, and
bring them in; an excursion that was sanctioned by the sultan,
who gave them instructions as to the route they were to take. The
former deeds of the Arabs are, however, still in the memory of the
Tibboos, and they had increased the distance between their huts and
the high road by a timely striking of their tents. But nine camels
of the maherhy species were brought in, yet not without a skirmish:
a fresh party was despatched, and did not return at night. We were
all ordered to remain loaded, and no one was allowed to quit the
circle in which the tents were pitched.
On the 11th we proceeded along the wadey. The thickly scattered
mimosa trees afforded some very delightful varieties of shade. Our
course was nearly two miles distant from the hills[17], which are all
here called Tiggema. After our march, while waiting for the coming
up of the camels, the Tibboos tried their skill with the spear, and
were far more expert than I expected to see them; the arm is bent,
and the hand not higher than the right shoulder, when they discharge
the spear: as it leaves the hand, they give it a strong twist with
the fingers, and as it flies it spins in the air. An old man of
sixty struck a tree twice at twenty yards; and another, a powerful
young man, threw the spear full eighty yards: when it strikes the
ground, it sometimes bends nearly double: all who travel on foot
carry two. Another weapon, which a Tibboo carries, is a sword of a
very peculiar form, called hungamunga; of these they sometimes carry
three or four. The Arabs, who had been out foraging, returned with
thirteen camels, which they had much difficulty in bringing: the
Tibboos had followed them several miles. We had patroles the whole
night, who, to awaken us for the purpose of assuring us they were
awake themselves, were constantly exclaiming Balek-ho, the watchword
of the Arabs. We had near us a well of very good water amidst high
grass and agoul. On the surface was a saline incrustation of several
inches in thickness; below, a sandstone rock, and at a depth of two
feet, water clear and good. We had also this day a dish of venison,
one of the Arabs having succeeded in shooting two gazelles; many
of which had crossed our path for the last three days. On finding
a young one, only a few days old, the tawny, wily rogue instantly
lay down in the grass, imitated the cry of the young one, and as
the mother came bounding towards the spot, he shot her in the throat.
On the 12th we reached Bilma[18], the capital of the Tibboos, and
the residence of their sultan, who, having always managed to get
before and receive us, advanced a mile from the town attended by
some fifty of his men at arms, and double the number of the sex we
call fair. The men had most of them bows and arrows, and all carried
spears: they approached Boo Khaloom, shaking them in the air over
their heads; and after this salutation we all moved on towards
the town, the females dancing, and throwing themselves about with
screams and songs in a manner to us quite original. They were of a
superior class to those of the minor towns; some having extremely
pleasing features, while the pearly white of their regular teeth
was beautifully contrasted with the glossy black of their skin, and
the triangular flaps of plaited hair, which hung down on each side
of their faces, streaming with oil, with the addition of the coral
in the nose, and large amber necklaces, gave them a very seducing
appearance. Some of them carried a sheish, a fan made of soft grass,
or hair, for the purpose of keeping off the flies; others a branch
of a tree, and some fans of ostrich feathers, or a bunch of keys:
all had something in their hands, which they wave over their heads
as they advance. One wrapper of Soudan tied on the top of the left
shoulder, leaving the right breast bare, formed their covering,
while a smaller one was thrown over the head, which hung down to
their shoulders, or was thrown back at pleasure: notwithstanding the
apparent scantiness of their habiliments, nothing could be farther
from indelicate than was their appearance or deportment.
On arriving at Bilma, we halted under the shade of a large tulloh
tree while the tents were pitching; and the women danced with great
taste, and, as I was assured by the sultan’s nephew, with skill
also. As they approach each other, accompanied by the slow beat of
an instrument formed out of a gourd, covered with goat’s skin,
for a long time their movements are confined to the head, hands,
and body, which they throw from one side to the other, flourish
in the air, and bend without moving the feet; suddenly, however,
the music becomes quicker and louder, when they start into the most
violent gestures, rolling their heads round, gnashing their teeth,
and shaking their hands at each other, leaping up, and on each side,
until one or both are so exhausted that they fall to the ground:
another pair then take their place.
I now, for the first time, produced Captain Lyon’s book in Boo
Khaloom’s tent, and on turning over the prints of the natives
he swore, and exclaimed, and insisted upon it, that he knew
every face:—“This was such a one’s slave—that was his
own—he was right—he knew it. Praised be God for the talents
he gave the English! they were shater, clever; wolla shater, very
clever!” Of a landscape, however, I found that he had not the
least idea; nor could I make him at all understand the intention
of the print of the sand-wind in the desert, which is really so
well described by Captain Lyon’s drawing; he would look at it
upside down; and when I twice reversed it for him, he exclaimed,
“Why! why! it is all the same.” A camel or a human figure was
all I could make him understand, and at these he was all agitation
and delight—“Gieb! gieb! Wonderful! wonderful!” The eyes
first took his attention, then the other features: at the sight
of the sword, he exclaimed, “Allah! Allah!” and on discovering
the guns instantly exclaimed, “Where is the powder?” This want
of perception, as I imagined, in so intelligent a man, excited at
first my surprise; but perhaps just the same would an European have
felt under similar circumstances. Were an European to attain manhood
without ever casting his eye upon the representation of a landscape
on paper, would he immediately feel the particular beauties of the
picture, the perspective and the distant objects? Certainly not:
it is from our opportunities of contemplating works of art, even
in the common walks of life, as well as to cultivation of mind,
and associations of the finer feelings by an intercourse with the
enlightened and accomplished, that we owe our quick perception in
matters of this kind, rather than from nature.
To the south of Bilma are marshes with pools of stagnant water,
which our horses could scarcely drink. The town stands in a hollow,
and is surrounded by low mud walls, which, with the houses within,
are mean and miserable. About two miles north of the town are a few
huts, and near them several lakes, in which are great quantities
of very pure crystallized salt: some was brought to us for sale in
baskets, beautifully white, and of an excellent flavour. On visiting
the two most productive lakes, which lay between low sand hills,
I expressed my surprise at the difference between that which the
Tibboos were carrying away from the heaps by the side of the water,
and that which I had seen the day before: I however found that their
time for gathering the salt was at the end of the dry season, when
it was taken, in large masses, from the borders of the lake. This
transparent kind they put into bags, and send to Bornou and Soudan;
a coarser sort is also formed into hard pillars, and for which a
ready market is found. In Soudan, a single pillar weighing eleven
pounds brings four or five dollars. The Tuaricks supply themselves
with salt entirely from the wadeys of the Tibboos. Twenty thousand
bags of salt were said to have been carried off during the last
year by the Tuaricks alone. The Tibboos say, “It is hard to rob
us, not only for their own consumption, but for the purposes of
commerce too; and in consequence of paying nothing for the commodity,
undersell us likewise in the Soudan market.” But the Tibboos must
be another people before they can keep the Tuaricks from plundering
their country: a people who neither plant nor sow; whose education
consists in managing a maherhy, and the use of the spear; and who
live by plundering those around them, as well as those whom necessity
or chance may lead to pass through their own country.
About a mile from Bilma is a spring of beautiful clear water, which
rises to the surface of the earth, and waters a space of two or three
hundred yards in circumference, which is covered with fresh grass:
but passing this, the traveller must bid adieu to every appearance of
vegetable production, and enter on a desert which requires thirteen
days to cross. Near the first hill of sand I succeeded, with the
assistance of two Arabs, in catching a small beautiful animal, nearly
white, much resembling a fox in make and shape, although not larger
than a moderate-sized cat. It was of the species called fitchet:
the belly was white, and the back and rest of the body of a light
brown colour; the tail was bushy like that of the fox, nearly white,
and the end of the hair tipped with black.
Jan. 16.—Our road lay over loose hills of fine sand, in which
the camels sank nearly knee-deep. In passing these desert wilds,
where hills disappear in a single night by the drifting of the
sand, and where all traces of the passage, even of a large kafila,
sometimes vanish in a few hours, the Tibboos have certain points in
the dark sandstone ridges, which from time to time raise their heads
in the midst of this dry ocean of sand, and form the only variety,
and by them they steer their course. From one of these landmarks
we waded through sand formed into hills from twenty to sixty feet
in height, with nearly perpendicular sides, the camels blundering
and falling with their heavy loads. The greatest care is taken by
the drivers in descending these banks: the Arabs hang with all their
weight on the animal’s tail, by which means they steady him in his
descent. Without this precaution the camel generally falls forward,
and, of course, all he carries goes over his head. We halted at
Kaflorum (where the kafila stops), which is a nest of hills of coarse,
dark sandstone: an irregular peak to the east is called Gusser,
or the castle. At the end of these hills, about two miles from the
road, lies a wadey called Zow Seghrir, in which grows the suag tree,
and also grass. Our course was south; but we were obliged to wind
round the different sand hills in order to avoid the rapid descents,
which were so distressing to the camels. We bivouacked under a head
called Zow (the Difficult), to the east, where we found several wells.
Jan. 18.—The sand hills were less high to-day, but the animals
sank so deep, that it was a tedious day for all. Four camels of Boo
Khaloom’s gave in; two were killed by the Arabs, and two were left
to the chance of coming up before morning. Tremendously dreary are
these marches: as far as the eye can reach, billows of sand bound
the prospect. On seeing the solitary foot passenger of the kafila,
with his water-flask in his hand, and bag of zumeeta on his head,
sink at a distance beneath the slope of one of these, as he plods
his way alone, hoping to gain a few paces in his long day’s work,
by not following the track of the camels, one trembles for his
safety:—the obstacle passed which concealed him from the view,
the eye is strained towards the spot in order to be assured that he
has not been buried quick in the treacherous overwhelming sand.
An unfortunate merchant of Tripoli, Mohamed N’diff, who had suffered
much on the road from an enlarged spleen, was here advised to undergo
the operation of burning with a red-hot iron, the sovereign Arab
remedy for almost every disorder: he consented; and, previous to
our move this morning, he was laid down on his back, and, while five
or six Arabs held him on the sand, the rude operators burnt him on
the left side, under the ribs, in three places, nearly the size of
a sixpence each. The iron was again placed in the fire, and while
heating, the thumbs of about a dozen Arabs were thrust in different
parts of the poor man’s side, to know if the pressure pained him,
until his flesh was so bruised, that he declared all gave him pain:
four more marks with the iron were now made near the former ones,
upon which he was turned on his face, and three larger made within two
inches of the back bone. One would have thought the operation was now
at an end; but an old Arab, who had been feeling his throat for some
time, declared a hot iron, and a large burn, absolutely necessary just
above the collarbone, on the same side. The poor man submitted with
wonderful patience to all this mangling, and after drinking a draught
of water, moved on with the camels. We made this day twenty-one
miles, and halted at Chukœma, which means half way. We lost more
than twenty of our camels this day, by their straying out of the path.
Jan. 20.—We were promised to find water early; and as the animals
had not drank the night before, we pushed on with our horses:
we were told the wells were near; but it was a long twenty miles,
over loose rolling sand hills. At less than half way, we passed two
hills of dark sandstone, called Geisgae (_Dhubba_—the hyena), which
had been in sight great part of yesterday; and at 1. 30. arrived at a
wadey called Dibla (_Inchat tegeel_—heavy stone). In the wadey near
is a little sprinkling of rusty grass, which the animals devoured
with an avidity that would have done credit to better fare. The
water was extremely brackish, and strongly impregnated with trona;
but it was fresh and cool, and therefore a delightful beverage to us.
In the wadey Dibla stands a detached conical table-topped hill: the
summit had a black rugged appearance from below, and was formed of
a sort of bituminous earth, dry and crumbling to the touch. Under
this were layers or strata of thin plates, almost resembling foil,
of brittle schistose clay, of black, yellow, and green: these also
crumbled on receiving the pressure of the hand[19]. About ten miles
from Dibla we came to Chegarub, and four miles further to Kersherma,
where we rested for the night. No wood or water.
Jan. 22.—A tedious day over sandy deserts, without even the relief
of a dark hill to look forward to. About sun-set we came to a spot
with some little sprinkling of a grass called _sbeet_, and some
fine grass, with a flower called _nisse_. Made twenty-four miles,
and halted at Kasama-foma-hamse, or the five trees. No wood nor
water. Alarm of Tibboos,—all mounted and turned out.
Jan. 23.—Desert as yesterday. High sand hills[20]. Burmenmadua (all
sand). At three in the afternoon, we arrived at an extensive wadey,
called Aghadem. Here are several wells of excellent water, forage,
and numbers of the tree called suag, the red berries of which are
nearly as good as cranberries. We broke in on the retreats of about
a hundred gazelles, who were enjoying the fertility of the valley. It
was, however, with great difficulty, from their extreme shyness, that
we shot one, which afforded us an ample meal. A road here branched
off to the westward, leading to the Tuarick country, and Soudan,
but not frequented by kafilas. Aghadem is a great rendezvous, and
the dread of all small kafilas and travellers. It is frequented by
freebooters of all descriptions.
Jan. 24, we halted. The thermometer, in the shade of my tent, was
101°. at half-past two. The animals were all enjoying the blessings
of plenty in the ravines, which ran through the range of low black
hills, extending nearly north and south, quite across the valley. The
camels, in particular, feasted on the small branches of the suag,
of which they are fond to excess. The tracks of the hyæna had been
numerous for the last three days; and last night they approached in
droves quite close to our encampment.
My telescope this evening afforded great delight to Boo-Khaloom,
the brother of the kadi at Mourzuk, Mohamed Abeedeen, and several
others, for more than an hour. I usually passed some time every
evening in Boo-Khaloom’s tent, and had promised them a sight of
the moon _grib_ (near), for some time. One old hadje, who obtained
a sight by my assistance, for he could not fix the glass on the
object, after an exclamation of wonder, looked me fully in the face,
spoke not a word, but walked off as fast as he could, repeating
words from the Koran. This conduct, I was pleased to see, brought
down the ridicule of the others, who were gratified beyond measure,
and asked a hundred questions. The night was beautifully serene and
clear, and the three splendid constellations of Orion, Canis Major,
and Taurus, presented a coup d’œil truly impressive and sublime.
Jan. 25.—The camels moved off soon after eight; and we took shelter
from the sun under the shade of some clumps, covered with high grass,
near the wells, in order that the horses might drink at the moment
of our departure. We had three or four long days to the next water;
and the camels were too fatigued to carry more than one day’s
food for the horses. While we were in this situation, two Arabs,
who had gone on with the camels, came galloping back, to say that
they had encountered two Tibboo couriers, on their way from Bornou
to Mourzuk. They soon made their appearance, mounted on maherhies,
only nine days from Kouka. They brought news that the Sheikh Kanemy
had just returned from a successful expedition against the sultan of
Begharmi; that he had attacked and routed a powerful tribe of Arabs,
called la Sala; and that the sultan, on hearing this, had fled as
before to the south side of the Great River, amongst the Kirdies.
We proceeded on our route, which was along a continued desert;
and at sun-set halted on the sand, without either wood or water,
after twenty-four miles. The courier from Bornou to Mourzuk assured
us, that he should not be more than thirty days on the road from
where we left him. Since Sheikh Kanemy’s residence at Kouka,
couriers have occasionally passed between Bornou and Mourzuk,—a
circumstance before that event unknown. One of Kanemy’s wives
and three children were in Mourzuk; and the Bashaw, in order to
secure his perfect submission, refused to allow them to leave that
place. The Tibboos are the only people who will undertake this most
arduous service; and the chances are so much against both returning in
safety, that one is never sent alone. The two men we had encountered
were mounted on two superb maherhies, and proceeding at the rate of
about six miles an hour. A bag of zumeeta (some parched corn), and
one or two skins for water, with a small brass basin, with a wooden
bowl, out of which they ate and drank, were all their comforts. A
little meat, cut in strips and dried in the sun, called _gedeed_,
is sometimes added to the store, which they eat raw; for they rarely
light a fire for the purpose of cooking, although the want of this
comfort during the nights, on approaching Fezzan, where the cold
winds are sometimes biting after the day’s heat, is often fatal to
such travellers. A bag is suspended under the tail of the maherhy,
by which means the dung is preserved, and serves as fuel on halting
in the night. Without a kafila, and a sufficient number of camels
to carry such indispensables as wood and water, it is indeed a
perilous journey.
On the 27th we appeared gradually approaching something resembling
vegetation: we had rising sands and clumps of fine grass the
whole way; and the country was not unlike some of our heaths in
England. Towards evening the trees increased greatly in number; and
where we halted, the animals found abundance of food. The tulloh
trees, the kossom (a very beautiful parasitical plant), and the
herbage, were most refreshing to our parched feelings, although in
reality they were of the most dingy green and stunted appearance. A
herd of more than a hundred gazelles crossed us towards the evening;
and the foot-marks of the ostrich, and some of its feathers, were
discovered by the Arabs. The spot where we halted is called Geogo
Balwy.
Jan. 28.—We met two Tibboos this day, who informed us that the
Tuaricks had been to Kanem, eight hundred strong, and had carried
off every thing from two towns. The Arabs were all anxiety to fall
in with them, and rob the true rogues. The route resembled that
of yesterday. Early in the day we made Beere-Kashifery. The well
here was of great depth; Arabs were obliged to descend into it, and
throw out several loads of sand, before any water could be drawn,
and which occupied them the greater part of the night. By daylight
the next morning, Mina Tahr, or the black bird, the sheikh of the
Gunda Tibboos, attended by three of his followers, approached the
camp. Beere-Kashifery lay within his territories, and no kafilas
pass without paying tribute, which, as he is absolute, sometimes
amounts to half what they possess. In our case, his was a visit of
respect: Boo-Khaloom received him in his tent, and clothed him in a
scarlet bornouse of coarse cloth, and a tawdry silk caftan, which was
considered as a superb present. The Tibboos are smart active fellows,
mounted on small horses, of great swiftness: their saddles are of
wood, small and light, open along the bone of the back; the pieces
of wood of which it is composed are lashed together with thongs of
hide; the stuffing is camel’s hair, wound and plaited, so as to be
a perfect guard; the girth and stirrup leathers are also of plaited
thongs, and the stirrups themselves of iron, very small and light;
into these four toes only are thrust, the great toe being left to
take its chance. They mount quickly, in half the time an Arab does,
by the assistance of a spear, which they place in the ground, at
the same time the left foot is planted in the stirrup; and thus they
spring into their saddle. The bridle is light, but severe; the reins
and head-stall of strips of hide, fancifully twisted and plaited.
Our camels had not finished drinking until the sun was full six
fathom high, as the Arabs say; and as we were in want of fresh meat,
and, indeed, every thing, Mina Tahr proposed that we should go to a
well nearer his people—a well, he assured us, which was never yet
shown to an Arab. At eleven, therefore, on the 29th of January, we
moved on, accompanied by the Tibboos, nine miles nearly south; where,
about half a mile west of the road, we came to the well Duggesheinga:
here were the marks of immense herds, which had been drinking in the
morning. This was a retired spot, undiscoverable from the ordinary
route of travellers, from which it was completely hid by rising
sand hills. Here the Tibboos left us, promising to return early
the day after with sheep, an ox, honey, and fat. This was joyful
news to persons who had not tasted fresh animal food for fourteen
or fifteen days, with the exception of a little camel’s flesh. We
were terribly annoyed the whole of the day by a strong easterly wind,
and such volumes of sand, as quite obscured the face of nature.
Jan. 30.—The wind and drifting sand were so violent, that we were
obliged to keep our tents the whole day; besides this, I was more
disordered than I had been since leaving Mourzuk. I found a loose
shirt only the most convenient covering, as the sand could be shaken
off as soon as it made a lodgment, which, with other articles of
dress, could not be done, and the irritation it caused produced a
soreness almost intolerable: a little oil or fat from the hand of
a negress (all of whom are early taught the art of shampooing to
perfection), rubbed well round the neck, loins, and back, is the best
cure, and the greatest comfort, in cases of this kind; and although,
from my Christian belief, I was deprived of the luxury of possessing
half a dozen of these shampooing beauties, yet, by marrying my
negro Barca to one of the bashaw’s freed women slaves, as I had
done at Sockna, I became, to a certain degree, also the master of
Zerega, whose education in the castle had been of a superior kind;
and she was of the greatest use to me on these occasions of fatigue
or sickness. It is an undoubted fact, and in no case probably better
exemplified than in my own, that man naturally longs for attentions
and support from female hands, of whatever colour or country, so
soon as debility or sickness comes upon him.
Towards the evening, when the wind became hushed and the sky
re-assumed its bright and truly celestial blue, the Tibboo Sheikh,
and about thirty of his people, male and female, returned, but their
supplies were scanty for a kafila of three hundred persons. The
sweet milk turned out nothing but sour camel’s milk, full of dirt
and sand, and the fat was in small quantities and very rancid. We,
however, purchased a lean sheep for two dollars, which was indeed a
treat. Great precaution must always be taken on procuring meat, after
long abstaining from animal food: eating more than a very moderate
quantity ever disorders the stomach, which is often succeeded by
fever, ague, and all its attendant evils: although not gormandizers,
some of us suffered from too great an indulgence in the luxuries
of boiled mutton. Illness here should be the more avoided, from its
being altogether of a nature different from illness elsewhere: the
attacks are sudden, and render a person incapable of any exertion,
leaving him in a state of weakness and debility scarcely credible
to those who have not been eye-witnesses of the fact.
Some of the girls who brought the milk, &c. were really pretty
as contrasted with the extreme ugliness of the men: they were
different from those of Bilma; were more of a copper colour, with
high foreheads and a sinking between the eyes: they have fine teeth,
and are smaller and more delicately formed than the Tibboos who
inhabit the towns. The men brought, as a present to Boo-Khaloom,
two beautiful maherhies; one of them was a most superb animal,
and measured nine feet and a half from the ground to the middle of
the back: they also brought a horse or two for sale. Their animals
are their only riches; and Mina Tahr told me, that their tribe had
more than five thousand camels: on the milk of these animals they
entirely live for six months in the year, and for the remaining half
year they manage to raise from their barren soil sufficient _gussub_
(a species of millet) to satisfy their wants. Formerly, when they had
little or no communication with Fezzan and Bornou, they were nearly
naked, as their crops of cotton were scarcely sufficient, from the
dryness and poverty of the soil, to afford them covering. Now the
Kafilas bring them indigo, cotton, and ready-spun linen in strips,
with which they make tobes and wrappers: for these, when they are
not given as tribute, the Tibboos exchange the skins and feathers
of the ostrich, with dried meat of gazelles and bullocks.
Two of the horses were very handsome, though small; and on remarking
their extreme fatness, I was not a little surprised at learning that
they were fed entirely on camels’ milk, corn being too scarce
and valuable an article for the Tibboos to spare them: they drink
it both sweet and sour; and animals in higher health and condition
I scarcely ever saw. It is quite surprising with what terror these
children of the desert view the Arabs, and the idea they have of
their invincibility; while they are smart active fellows themselves,
and both ride and move better and quicker: but the guns! the guns! are
their dread; and five or six of them will go round and round a tree,
where an Arab has laid down his gun for a minute, stepping on tiptoe,
as if afraid of disturbing it, talking to each other in a whisper,
as if the gun could understand their exclamations; and I dare say,
praying to it not to do them an injury, as fervently as ever man
Friday did to Robinson Crusoe’s musket.
None of the Gunda Tibboos were above the middle size, slim, well made,
with sharp, intelligent, copper-coloured faces, large prominent eyes,
flat noses, large mouth and teeth, regular, but stained a deep red,
from the immoderate use of tobacco; the forehead is high; and the
turban, which is a deep indigo colour, is worn high on the head,
and brought under the chin and across the face, so as to cover all
the lower part from the nose downwards: they have sometimes fifteen
or twenty charms, in red, green, and black leather cases, attached
to the folds of their turbans.
Most of them have scars on different parts of their faces: these
generally denote their rank, and are considered as an ornament. Our
sheikh had one under each eye, with one more on each side of his
forehead, in shape resembling a half moon. Like the Arabs of the
north, their chieftainships are hereditary, provided the heir
is worthy; any act of cowardice disqualifies, and the command
devolves upon the next in succession. Our Gunda sheikh, Mina
Tahr-ben-Soogo-Lammo, was the seventh in regular succession. This
tribe is called Nafra Gunda, and are always near Beere-Kashifery.
My watch pleased him wonderfully at first; but after a little time,
I found that looking at himself in the bright part of the inside of
the case gave him the greatest satisfaction: they are vainer than
the vainest. Mina Tahr had the finest clothes on that had ever been
brought to Beere-Kashifery; and what to him could be so agreeable
as contemplating the reflection of his own person so decked out? I
could not help giving him a small looking-glass; and he took his
station in one corner of my tent for hours, surveying himself with
a satisfaction that burst from his lips in frequent exclamations of
joy, and which he also occasionally testified by sundry high jumps
and springs into the air.
Jan. 31.—After regaining the road, we moved until noon, when
our horses were watered at a well called Kanimani (or the sheep’s
well), where some really sweet milk was brought us in immensely large
basket bottles, some holding two gallons and more. We had drank,
and acknowledged its goodness, and how grateful it was to our weak
stomachs, before finding out that it was camels’ milk.
No traveller in Africa should imagine that _this_ he could not bear,
or _that_ could not be endured. It is wonderful how a man’s taste
conforms itself to his necessities. Six months ago, camels’ milk
would have acted upon us as an emetic; now we thought it a most
refreshing and grateful cordial. The face of the country improved
in appearance every mile. We passed along to-day what seemed to us
a most joyous valley, smiling in flowery grasses, tulloh trees, and
kossom. About mid-day, we halted in a luxurious shade, the ground
covered with creeping vines of the colycinth in full blossom, which,
with the red flower of the kossom which drooped over our heads,
made our resting-place a little Arcadia. Towards the evening, we
saw two very large black vultures (_aglou_, in Bornou), but were
not near enough to shoot them; and at sun-set we pitched the tents,
surrounded by forage for our horses, while the half-famished camels
fed on the young branches of the tulloh. The place was called Auoul
Mull (before Mull).
Feb. 1.—By three in the morning our people commenced packing,
and by daylight we moved off. The herbage, almost resembling wild
corn, was often up to our horses’ knees. We killed to-day one of
the largest serpents we had seen: it is called _liffa_ by the Arabs,
and its bite is said to be mortal, unless the part is instantly cut
out. It is a mistaken idea, that all the serpent tribe are called
liffa; this species alone bears the name: it has two horns, and is of
a light brown colour. My old Choush Ghreneim had a distorted foot,
which was of but little use to him except on horseback, from the
bite of one of these poisonous reptiles, notwithstanding the part
infected was cut out: he was for thirteen months confined to his hut,
and never expected to recover.
Arabs are always on the look out for plunder: “’Tis my vocation,
Hal!”—none are ashamed to acknowledge it; but they were on
this occasion to act as an escort to oppose banditti, not play
the part of one. Nevertheless, greatly dissatisfied were they, at
having come so far, and done so little: they formed small parties
for reconnoitring on each side of the road, and were open-mouthed
for any thing that would offer. One fellow on foot had traced the
marks of a flock of sheep to a small village of tents to the east of
our course, and now gave notice of the discovery he had made, but
that they had seen him, and he believed struck their tents. I felt
that I should be a check upon them in the plunderings. Boo-Khaloom,
myself, and about a dozen horsemen (who had each a footman behind
him), instantly started for their retreat, which lay over the hills
to the east. On arriving at the spot, in a valley of considerable
beauty, where these flocks and tents had been observed, we found
the place quite deserted. The poor frighted shepherds had moved off
with their all, knowing too well what would be their treatment from
the Naz Abiad (white people), as they call the Arabs. Their caution,
however, was made the excuse for plundering them, and a pursuit was
instantly determined on. “What! not stay to sell their sheep,
the rogues! We’ll take them now without payment.” We scoured
two valleys without discovering the fugitives, and I began to hope
that the Tibboos had eluded their pursuers, when, after crossing a
deep ravine, and ascending the succeeding ridge, we came directly
on about two hundred head of cattle, and about twenty persons, men,
women, and children, with ten camels laden with their tents and
other necessaries, all moving off. The extra Arabs instantly slipped
from behind their leaders, and with a shout rushed down the hill;
part headed the cattle to prevent their escape, and the most rapid
plunder I could have conceived quickly commenced. The camels were
instantly brought to the ground, and every part of their load rifled:
the poor women and girls lifted up their hands to me, stripped as
they were to the skin, but I could do nothing for them beyond saving
their lives. A sheikh and a maraboot assured me it was quite lawful
(_hallal_) to plunder those who left their tents instead of supplying
travellers. Boo-Khaloom now came up, and was petitioned. I saw he was
ashamed of the paltry booty his followers had obtained, as well as
moved by the tears of the sufferers. I seized the favourable moment,
and advised that the Arabs should give every thing back, and have a
few sheep and an ox for a bousafer (feast): he gave the order, and
the Arabs from under their barracans threw down the wrappers they
had torn off the bodies of the Tibboo women; and I was glad in my
heart, when, taking ten sheep and a fat bullock, we left these poor
creatures to their fate, as, had more Arabs arrived, they would most
certainly have stripped them of every thing. We halted, after dark,
at a place called Mull.
Feb. 2.—Our road, as yesterday, was an extensive valley, bounded to
the right and left by low hills; about noon we descended slightly, and
found ourselves in a productive plain of great extent, thickly planted
with trees and underwood, not unlike a preserve in England. About an
hour before sun-set, we came to what had the appearance of the bed of
a lake, and here was the wished-for well of water. The horses had not
drank since noon on the 31st, and although ready to drop on the road
from faintness, were, on reaching the well, quite unmanageable. The
name of the well was Kofei.
On the 31st, Boo-Khaloom had thought it right to send on a Tibboo with
the news of our approach to the sheikh El-Kanemy, who, we understood,
resided at Kouka, and one was despatched with a camel and a man of
Mina Tahr: the Gundowy accompanied him on the arrival at Kofei of
the Arabs, who preceded us for the purpose of clearing the well. The
Tibboo who had been despatched was found alone and naked; some Tibboo
Arabs, of a tribe called Wandela, had met them near the well on the
preceding evening and robbing him even to his cap, and taking from him
the letters, saying, they cared not for the sheikh or Boo-Khaloom,
tied him to a tree, and then left him. In this state was he found
by our people; and Mr. Clapperton coming up soon after, gave him,
from his biscuit-bag, wherewithal to break his fast, after being
twenty-four hours without eating. Eighteen men had stripped him,
he said, and taken off the camel and Mina Tahr’s man, who, they
also said, should be ransomed, or have his throat cut. Mina Tahr
represented these people as the worst on the road in every sense of
the word: “They have no flocks,” said he, “and have not more
than three hundred camels, although their numbers are one thousand
or more; they live by plunder, and have no connexion with any other
people. No considerable body of men can follow them; their tents
are in the heart of the desert, and there are no wells for four
days in the line of their retreat. Giddy-ben-Agah is their chief,
and I alone would give fifty camels for his head: these are the
people who often attack and murder travellers, and small kafilas,
and the Gundowy, who respect strangers, have the credit of it.”
The men of Traita, with their chief, Eskou-ben-Coglu, came in the
evening to welcome us: the well Kofei belongs to them; and greatly
enraged they appeared to be at the conduct of the Wandelas. This
chief returned to Boo-Khaloom his letters, which, he said, “the
chief of the Wandelas had sent him that morning, begging that he
would meet the kafila at the well, and deliver them to Boo-Khaloom:
had he known then what had taken place, the slave,” he said,
“should have been stabbed at his father’s grave before he
would have delivered them.” Boo-Khaloom was greatly enraged;
and I was almost apprehensive that he would have revenged himself
on the Traita chiefs. However, the Tibboo courier was again clothed
and mounted, and once more started for Bornou. The Traita Tibboos
are more important-looking fellows than the Gunda, but they want
their quickness and activity: they are said not to be more than
eight hundred strong in males.
Feb. 3.—Our course, during the early part of the day, was due south,
and through a country more thickly planted by the all-tasteful hand
of bounteous Nature. We disturbed a flock of what we at first thought
were deer, but they were only a large species of antelope; they are
of a deeper fawn colour, and have black and white stripes under the
belly. The Guinea fowl were in great numbers, but extremely shy. The
whole day our route lay through most pleasing forest scenery. It
was near sunset when we arrived at Mittimee, which, in the Bornou
language, means warm, tepid: the wells exceed fifty in number,
and lie in a woody hollow, where there are clumps of the tulloh and
other species of the mimosa tribe, encircled by kossom and various
parasitical and twining shrubs, which, embracing their stems, wind to
the extremities of their branches, and climb to the very tops, when,
falling over, they form weeping bowers of a most beautiful kind:
it was indeed a lovely and a fair retreat.
Boo-Khaloom, myself, and about six Arabs, had ridden on in front:
it was said we had lost the track, and should miss the well: the day
had been oppressively hot, my companions were sick and fatigued, and
we dreaded the want of water. A fine dust, arising from a light clayey
and sandy soil, had also increased our sufferings: the exclamations of
the Arab who first discovered the wells were indeed music to our ears;
and after satisfying my own thirst, with that of my weary animals,
I laid me down by one of the distant wells, far from my companions;
and these moments of tranquillity, the freshness of the air, with
the melody of the hundred songsters that were perched amongst the
creeping plants, whose flowers threw an aromatic odour all around,
were a relief scarcely to be described. Ere long, however, the noisy
kafila, and the clouds of dust which accompanied it, disturbed me
from the delightful reverie into which I had fallen.
Feb. 4.—Previously to arriving at Lari, we came upon two encampments
of the Traita Tibboos, calling themselves the sheikh’s people:
their huts were not numerous, but very regularly built in a square,
with a space left in the north and south faces of the quadrangle,
for the use of the cattle. The huts were entirely of mats, which,
excluding the sun, yet admitted both the light and the air: these
habitations, for fine weather, are preferable to the bete shars, or
tents, of the Arabs of the north. The interior was singularly neat:
clean wooden bowls, with each a cover of basket-work, for holding
their milk, were hung against the wall. In the centre of the inclosure
were about one hundred and fifty head of cattle feeding from cradles:
these were chiefly milch cows, with calves and sheep. The Tibboos
received us kindly at first, but presumed rather too much on sheikh
Kanemy’s protection, which they claim or throw off, it is said,
as it suits their purpose. The modest request of a man, with two
hundred armed Arabs, for a little milk, was refused; and ready as
the Arabs are to throw down the gauntlet, a slight expression of
displeasure from their leader was followed by such a rapid attack on
the Tibboos, that before I could mount, half the stock was driven off,
and the sheikh well bastinadoed. Boo-Khaloom was, however, too kind
to injure them; and after driving their cattle for about a mile, he
allowed them to return, with a caution to be more accommodating for
the future. Accustomed as these people are to plunder one another,
they expect no better usage from any one who visits them, provided
they are strong enough, and _vice versa_; they are perfect Spartans
in the art of thieving, both male and female.
An old woman, who was sitting at the door of one of the huts, sent a
very pretty girl to me, as I was standing by my horse, whose massy
amber necklace, greased head, and coral nose studs and ear-rings,
announced a person of no common order, to see what she could pick up;
and after gaining possession of my handkerchief and some needles,
while I turned my head, in an instant thrust her hand into the pocket
of my saddle-cloth, as she said, “to find some beads, for she knew
I had plenty.”
Another and much larger nest of the Traitas lay to the east of our
route, a little further on, with numerous flocks and herds. About
two in the afternoon we arrived at Lari, ten miles distant from
Mittimee. On ascending the rising ground on which the town stands,
the distressing sight presented itself of all the female, and most of
the male inhabitants, with their families, flying across the plain
in all directions, alarmed at the strength of our kafila. Beyond,
however, was an object full of interest to us, and the sight of
which conveyed to my mind a sensation so gratifying and inspiring,
that it would be difficult in language to convey an idea of its force
or pleasure. The great lake Tchad, glowing with the golden rays of
the sun in its strength, appeared to be within a mile of the spot on
which we stood. My heart bounded within me at this prospect, for I
believed this lake to be the key to the great object of our search,
and I could not refrain from silently imploring Heaven’s continued
protection, which had enabled us to proceed so far in health and
strength, even to the accomplishment of our task.
It was long before Boo-Khaloom’s best endeavours could restore
confidence: the inhabitants had been plundered by the Tuaricks
only the year before, and four hundred of their people butchered;
and but a few days before, a party of the same nation had again
pillaged them, though partially. When, at length, these people
were satisfied that no harm was intended them, the women came in
numbers with baskets of gussub, gafooly, fowls, and honey, which were
purchased by small pieces of coral and amber of the coarsest kind,
and coloured beads. One merchant bought a fine lamb for two bits
of amber, worth, I should think, about twopence each in Europe;
two needles purchased a fowl; and a handful of salt four or five
good sized fish from the lake.
Lari is inhabited by the people of Kanem, who are known by the name
of Kanemboo: the women are good-looking, laughing negresses, and all
but naked; but this we were now used to, and it excited no emotions
of surprise. Most of them had a square or triangular piece of silver
or tin hanging at the back of the head, suspended from the hair,
which was brought down, in narrow plaits, quite round the neck.
Feb. 5.—By sun-rise I was on the borders of the lake, armed for
the destruction of the multitude of birds, who, all unconscious of
my purpose, seemed as it were to welcome our arrival. Flocks of geese
and wild ducks, of a most beautiful plumage, were quietly feeding at
within half pistol shot of where I stood; and not being a very keen
or inhuman sportsman, for the terms appear to me to be synonymous,
my purpose of deadly warfare was almost shaken. As I moved towards
them they only changed their places a little to the right or left,
and appeared to have no idea of the hostility of my intentions. All
this was really so new, that I hesitated to abuse the confidence with
which they regarded me, and very quietly sat down to contemplate the
scene before me. Pelicans, cranes, four and five feet in height,
grey, variegated, and white, were scarcely so many yards from my
side, and a bird, between a snipe and a woodcock, resembling both,
and larger than either; immense spoonbills of a snowy whiteness,
widgeon, teal, yellow-legged plover, and a hundred species of (to
me at least) unknown water fowl, were sporting before me; and it
was long before I could disturb the tranquillity of the dwellers on
these waters by firing a gun.
[Illustration: From a Sketch by Major Denham’s.
Engraved by E. Finden.
KANEMBOO MARKET WOMAN.
UNMARRIED WOMAN OF SOUDAN.
_Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London._]
The soil near the edges of the lake was a firm dark mud; and, in proof
of the great overflowings and recedings of the waters, even in this
advanced dry season, the stalks of the gussub, of the preceding year,
were standing in the lake, more than forty yards from the shore. The
water is sweet and pleasant, and abounds with fish; which the natives
have a curious way of catching. Some thirty or forty women go into
the lake, with their wrappers brought up between their legs, and tied
round their middles, as I should say, by single files, and forming
a line at some distance in the water, fronting the land, for it is
very shallow near the edges, and absolutely charge the fish before
them so close, that they are caught by the hand, or leap upon the
shore. We purchased some, and the best flavoured was a sort of bream.
A circumstance happened whilst I was on the margin of the lake,
which was a further proof that the little kindnesses I had shown
the Arabs were not lost upon them; and which supported my favourite
position, that no people on earth are so savage, but that gentle kind
treatment, with a frank and liberal manner, will gain their confidence
and regard. A lamb, the most harmless thing that breathes, alarms
a child who for the first time sees such an animal. I had suffered
my horse to go loose, in order to approach close to the flights of
birds around me, and he probably thinking the tents might afford
him better fare than where I left him, first rubbed off his bridle,
and then quietly returned to the encampment. About the same time
one of the freed women found my bornouse, which had fallen from the
saddle, and brought it to Boo Khaloom. All this created an alarm,
and it was then found out, that two boats or canoes had been seen
coming from the south-east, in which direction are islands inhabited
by the Biddoomah, a people who live by plundering on the main land,
and carry off any thing they can pick up. This was quite enough to
make Boo Khaloom think I was already gone, or in great danger; and not
only several Arab chiefs armed themselves, and mounted, to seek me,
but some of the merchants also. They found me, after a long search,
on the lake among the gussub stalks, loaded with more birds than
I could carry, and would scarcely believe that I had seen neither
enemies nor boats. The dread which the natives appear to have of these
koorie, or islanders, is almost equal to their fear of the Tuaricks;
but the former are less rapacious and bloody in their visits. Their
habitations are three or four days distant to the southward of east,
towards the centre of the lake.
In the evening I visited the town of Lari: it stands on an eminence,
and may probably contain two thousand inhabitants. The huts are built
of the rush which grows by the sides of the lake, have conical tops,
and look very like well thatched stacks of corn in England. They
have neat inclosures round them, made with fences of the same reed,
and passages leading to them like labyrinths. In the inclosure is a
goat or two, poultry, and sometimes a cow. The women were almost all
spinning cotton, which grows well, though not abundantly, near the
town and lake. The interior of the huts is neat: they are completely
circular, with no admission for air or light, except at the door,
which has a mat, by way of safeguard. I entered one of the best
appearance, although the owner gave me no smiles of encouragement,
and followed close at my heels, with his spear and dagger in his
hand. In one corner stood the bed, a sofa of rushes lashed together,
and supported by six poles, fixed strongly in the ground. This
was covered by the skins of the tiger-cat and wild bull; round the
sides were hung the wooden bowls, used for water and milk: his tall
shield rested against the wall. The hut had a division of mat-work,
one half being allotted to the female part of the family. My host,
however, continued to look at me with so much suspicion, and seemed
so little pleased with my visit, notwithstanding all my endeavours
to assure him I was a friend, that I hurried from the inhospitable
door, and resumed my walk through the town.
Feb. 6.—A gratifying scene took place this morning, in the departure
of nearly thirty freed slaves, natives of Kanem, who here left us
for their homes, three days’ journey to the eastward. I had been
applied to, the night before, to intercede with Boo Khaloom for this
indulgence; for as he had heard that the sheikh was at war with some
of the chiefs of Kanem, he had determined on first taking them to
Bornou, for fear of their being plundered on the road of the little
they had saved in slavery. These poor creatures had, however, found
one or two of their countrymen at the market of Lari, who assured them
of their safety on the road between that place and their homes. The
good man complied with evident reluctance on their own account, and
they took leave, kissing his hand, with tears and blessings. They had
most of them been in the service of the bashaw, some for a term of
years, and were returning to die at home at last. One poor deaf and
dumb woman, whom the rapacity of Mukni, the former sultan of Fezzan,
who spared neither age, sex, nor infirmity, had induced him to march
to Tripoli, had shed torrents of tears ever since she had been made
acquainted, by signs, that she was to go to Bornou. She had left
two children behind her; and the third, which was in her arms when
she was taken by the Arabs, had been torn from her breast after the
first ten days of her journey across the desert, in order that she
might keep up with the camels. Her expressive motions in describing
the manner in which the child was forced from her, and thrown on the
sand, where it was left to perish, while whips were applied to her,
lame and worn out as she was, to quicken her tottering steps, were
highly eloquent and interesting. They had all been my friends for
more than five months, and to some I had rendered little services by
carrying their bag of zumeeta, or salt. They were not ungrateful, and
our parting had something in it affecting, which, considering negroes
in the degraded light they do, seemed greatly to astonish the Arabs.
On quitting Lari, we immediately plunged into a thickly-planted
forest of acacias, with high underwood; and at the distance of only
a few hundred yards from the town, we came upon large heaps of the
elephants’ dung, forming hillocks three and four feet in height,
and marks of their footsteps: the tracks of these animals increased
as we proceeded. Part of the day our road lay along the banks of the
Tchad, and the elephants’ footmarks, of an immense size, and only
a few hours old, were in abundance. Whole trees were broken down,
where they had fed: and where they had reposed their ponderous
bodies, young trees, shrubs, and underwood, had been crushed
beneath their weight. We also killed this day an enormous snake,
a species of coluber; it was a most disgusting, horrible animal,
but not however venomous. It measured eighteen feet from the mouth
to the tail; it was shot by five balls, and was still moving off,
when two Arabs, with each a sword, nearly severed the head from
the body. On opening the belly, several pounds of fat were found,
and carefully taken off by the two native guides who accompanied
us. This they pronounced a sovereign remedy for sick and diseased
cattle, and much prized amongst them. Scarcely a mile further, a
drove of wild red cattle, which I at first took for deer, were seen
bounding to the west. I had no gun, but got extremely close to them,
and found they were what the Arabs call “bugra-hammar-wahash”
(red cow wild). They appeared to partake of the bullock and buffalo,
with a tuft or lump on the shoulder.
We bivouacked near a small parcel of huts, called Nyagami, in
a beautiful spot, so thick of wood, that we could scarcely find
a clear place for our encampment. While the tents were fixing, an
alarm was given of wild boars: one of our party followed the scent,
and, on his return, said he had seen a lion, and near him seven
gazelles. I could not, however, find from the natives, that lions
were ever seen here: numerous other animals appeared to abound,
and that confirmed the opinion.
Feb. 7.—We moved for Woodie about eight, accompanied by two
Arabs of Boo-Saif. I left the kafila, and proceeded a little to the
westward, making a parallel movement with the camels. Birds of the
most beautiful plumage were perched on every tree. Guinea fowls were
in flocks of eighty or one hundred; and several monkeys chattered
at us so impudently, that, separating one from the rest, we chased
him for nearly half an hour: he did not run very fast, or straight
forward, but was constantly doubling and turning, with his head over
his shoulder, to see who was close to him. He was a handsome fellow,
of a light brown colour, and black about the muzzle. About noon we
came on a village of huts, called Barrah; and although only three in
number, the natives flew in all directions. On our approaching the
town, we beckoned to them, and got off our horses, for the purpose
of giving them confidence, and sat down under the shade of a large
tamarind tree. An old negro, who spoke a little Arabic, was the
first who ventured to approach: seeing that he was not ill-treated,
the others soon followed his example. I begged a little leban (sour
milk), a most refreshing beverage after a hot ride, but none was
to be found, until they were assured that I should pay for it; and
at the sight of the dollar they all jumped and skipped like so many
monkeys. Some biscuit, which I carried in my saddle-cloth pocket, and
now began to eat, created much astonishment, and the first to whom
I gave some, refused to eat it. One, rather bolder than the rest,
put a small piece into his mouth, and pronounced it good, with such
extravagant gestures, that my visitors all became so clamorous, that
my stock was speedily demolished. I refused for a long time the man
who had been suspicious at first, to the great amusement of the rest,
who seemed to like the joke amazingly.
I had promised the Arabs to share with them a sheep, provided they
did not help themselves, and now made signs of my wish to purchase
one. Two men went off to bring, as they said, a fat one. After a
short time had elapsed, during which they had been delighted with the
opening and shutting of my pocket-knife, a very miserable sheep was
brought to me, which they seriously endeavoured to make me understand
was a very fine one. The Arabs declared it to be good for nothing;
and, therefore, though unwilling to be displeased, I quickly returned
my dollar to my pocket, and made a motion towards my horse. The whole
tribe, to my great astonishment, shouted out, and began to push about
the vender of the sheep, and dance round me. Another very fine fat
sheep was now brought forward from behind the crowd: offering the
other first seemed a trick, in order to try whether I should find out
the lean from the fat one; and although much sagacity was not required
for this, it appeared to have raised me very much in their estimation.
The little nest of thatched huts in which they lived was most
beautifully situated on a rising spot, in the midst of a rich
and luxuriant, though not thick forest, about three miles to the
north-east of Woodie; and the wells, which stand in a dell, thickly
planted with palms (the first we had seen on this side of the desert),
had troughs for more than a hundred and fifty cattle to drink at. One
of the old men accompanied us, while his son carried the carcass of
the sheep to Woodie, for which service he was rewarded by two coral
beads, and a little snuff.
Close to the town we found the tents. Our party had made about
fourteen miles, without leaving the banks of the lake at any great
distance. Two elephants were seen swimming in the lake this day;
and one, belonging to a drove at a distance, absolutely remained
just before the kafila. Hillman had gone on in front on his mule,
suffering sadly from weakness and fatigue, and had laid himself
down in what appeared a delightful shade, to await the arrival of
the camels, not expecting to see an elephant. He was absolutely
reposing within a dozen yards of a very large one, without being
aware of it; and on an Arab’s striking the animal with a spear,
he roared out and moved off. Poor Hillman’s alarm was extreme.
Feb. 8.—On walking to the shores of the lake this morning, soon
after sunrise, I was surprised to see how the water had encroached
since the day before. More than two miles of the wood was entirely
overflowed—the cotton plantations were covered with water. Were
the lands cleared of wood, which would not be a laborious task, as
the trees are mostly tulloh, and not large, almost any thing might
be produced.
Feb. 9.—The courier had been sent off a second time, after being
re-clothed and re-mounted, to receive the sheikh’s orders, and we
were not to proceed beyond Woodie until his pleasure was known. So
jealous and so suspicious are these negro princes of the encroachment
of the Arabs, that divers were the speculations as to whether the
sheikh would, or would not, allow them to proceed with us nearer
his capital.
A weekly fsug, or market, was held about a mile from the town;
and the women flocking from the neighbouring negro villages,
mounted on bullocks, who have a thong of hide passed through the
cartilage of the nose when young, and are managed with great ease,
had a curious appearance: a skin is spread on the animal’s back,
upon which, after hanging the different articles they take for sale,
they mount themselves; milk, sour and sweet, a little honey, fowls,
gussub, gafooly, are amongst their wares, fat and _meloheea_ (ochra),
a green herb, which, with bazeen, all negroes eat voraciously, and
indeed Christians too, as I afterwards found out. The men brought
oxen, sheep, goats, and slaves: the latter were few in number,
and in miserable condition.
Woodie is a capital, or as they say, Blad Kebir, and is governed by
a sheikh, who is a eunuch, and a man of considerable importance:
they appear to have all the necessaries of life in abundance, and
are the most indolent people I ever met with. The women spin a little
cotton, and weave it into a coarse cloth of about six inches’ width;
the men either lie idling in their huts all day, or in the shade of
a building, formed by four supporters and a thatched roof, which
stands in an open space amongst the huts: this is also the court
of justice and place of prayers. The men are considerably above the
common stature, and of an athletic make; but have an expression of
features particularly dull and heavy. The town stands about one mile
west of the Tchad, four short days’ march from Bornou. Game of
all descriptions comes to within a stone’s-throw of their doors,
and the lake abounds with fish and water-fowl; yet have they so
little exertion, that a few fish was almost the only produce of
their labour which was offered for sale.
The women, like the Tibboo, have a square piece of blue or white
cloth, tied over one shoulder, which forms their whole covering: their
hair is however curiously and laboriously trained, and I observed
that no one of tender years had any thing like a perfect head of
hair. From childhood the head is shaved, leaving only the top covered;
the hair from hence falls down quite round from the forehead to the
pole of the neck, and is then formed into one solid plait, which in
front lying quite flat just over the eyes, and behind being turned
up with a little curl, has just the appearance of an old-fashioned
coachman’s wig in England: some of them are, however, very pretty.
Feb. 10.—I this morning went to the eastward, in order to see the
extent of the forest, and also, if possible, to get a sight of the
herd, of upwards of one hundred and fifty elephants, which some of
the Arabs had seen the day before while their camels were feeding. I
was not disappointed. I found them about six miles from the town,
in the grounds annually overflowed by the waters of the lake,
where the coarse grass is twice the height of a man: they seemed
to cover the face of the country, and, I should think, exceeded
the number I had expected to see. When the waters flow over these
their pasturages, they are forced by hunger to approach the towns,
and spread devastation throughout their march; whole plantations,
the hopes of the inhabitants for the next year, are sometimes
destroyed in a single night. Nothing, however, more ferocious than
large antelopes, with a fox and wild hog or two, was to be seen,
besides elephants, although I beat every thicket. We had followed
about half a dozen of these antelopes for more than three hours,
who merely changed their place without ever getting out of sight,
but never allowed us to get near enough to hazard a shot. When quite
fatigued, I determined on making for some distant huts, and begging a
little milk, sweet or sour. No knowing landlady of a country inn ever
scanned the character of her customer more than did this untaught,
though cunning negro, whom we found there. He first denied that he
had any, notwithstanding the bowls were full scarcely ten paces
behind him; and then asked, what I had got to pay for it? I had
really nothing; and after offering my pocket-handkerchief, which
was returned to me as not worth any thing, I was about to depart,
though ten long miles from the tents, thirsty as I was, when the Arab
pointed to a needle, which was sticking in my jacket: for this and a
white bead which the Arab produced, we had a bowl of fine milk and
a basket of nuts, which refreshed us much; and we returned home by
the lake, where I shot two birds—one a very fine crane, and the
other of the woodpecker species, and saw a flock of at least five
hundred pelicans, but could not get near enough to fire at them.
The whole surface of the country for the last eighteen days had been
covered with a grass which produced a calyx so full of prickles as
to annoy us almost to misery: these prickles were of the finest and
most penetrating sharpness that can be imagined; they attached to
every part of our dress; and so small were the points, that it was
impossible to extract them without their breaking and leaving a part
behind: if we walked, at every step we were obliged to clear them
from our feet—mats, blankets, trowsers, were filled with these
irritating annoyances, so that there was no getting rid of them, by
day or night; in short, no part of the body was free from them. The
seed from this grass is called kashcia, and is eaten[21].
Feb. 11.—Two of the sheikh’s officers arrived last night, with
letters, and a present of goroo nuts of Soudan: they have a pleasant
bitter taste, and are much esteemed by all the Tripoli people. After
eating these nuts, water has a grateful flavour, be it ever so
bad: the Arabs call them the coffee of the black country. These
letters pressed Boo Khaloom to continue his march towards Kouka,
with all his people—a very great proof of his confidence in the
peaceable disposition of our chief. The men were clothed with a
bornouse each, a turban, and a red cap; and after giving us fifteen
bullocks, six sheep, and seventeen kail of gussub, returned home,
promising that fresh supplies should be prepared for his people at
Yeou, two days’ march nearer Bornou. It was nearly dark when we
reached a town called Burwha. We had travelled at a considerable
distance from the lake after the first four miles of our journey,
which here sweeps off greatly to the east.
Burwha is a walled town, and the first negro one we had seen: it may
be called in this country a place of some strength; in proof of which
the inhabitants have always defied the Tuarick marauders, who never
entered the town: the walls may be about thirteen or fourteen feet
high, and have a dry ditch, which runs quite round them. The town
probably covers an extent equal to three square miles, and contains
five or six thousand inhabitants. There is a covered-way, from which
the defenders lance their spears at the besiegers, and instantly
conceal themselves: there are but two gates, which are nearly east
and west; and these being the most vulnerable parts for an enemy
to attack, are defended by mounds of earth thrown up on each side,
and carried out at least twenty yards in front of the gate, and have
nearly perpendicular faces. These advanced posts are always thickly
manned, and they conceive them to be a great defence to their walls:
they cannot, however, calculate upon their being abandoned, as an
enemy once in possession of them would so completely command the
town, that from thence every part of it may be seen. Nevertheless,
Burwha is a strong place, considering the means of attack which the
Arabs have; and we were much struck with its appearance.
Feb. 12.—I rode through the town early this morning, previous
to our move. All the principal huts had their little inclosure,
with a cow or two, some goats and fowls; and I saw a very fine fish,
apparently roasted, or broiled, carried into one of them, on which I
could have breakfasted with great pleasure. Gussub, in large baskets,
and in the straw, was every where to be seen, and the women were
spinning at the doors of most of the huts.
I rode nearly the whole of this day with Min Ali Tahar, the Gundowy
Tibboo sheikh, who was accompanying us to Bornou: he had some little
difference with the sheikh, of whom he was perfectly independent, and
Boo Khaloom, ever politic, undertook to make up the misunderstanding;
thereby not only showing his influence, but securing, in a manner,
the future friendship of Tahar, whose district was always considered
as the most dangerous part of the Tibboo country on the road to
Mourzuk. Tahar was a sharp, intelligent fellow, spoke a little Arabic,
and had often asked me many questions about my country, and my sultan;
but to-day he was more inquisitive than usual.—“Rais Khaleel,”
said he, “what would your sultan do to Min Ali, if he was to go to
England? Would he kill me, or keep me there a prisoner? I should like
to be there for about a month.” I answered, “Certainly neither one
nor the other: he would be much more inclined to make you a handsome
present, and send you back again.” Min Ali. “Oh! I should take
him something; but what could I give him? nothing but the skins of
a dozen ostriches, some elephants’ teeth, and a lion’s skin.”
Ans. “The value of the present could be of no importance to my
sultan; he would look at the intention: befriend his people—remember
the Inglezi that you have seen; and should any more ever find their
way to your tents, give them milk and sheep, and put them in the road
they are going: promise me to do this, and I can almost promise you,
that my sultan shall send you a sword, such a one as Hateeta had on
my return, without your going to England, or giving him any thing.”
Min Ali. “Is he such a man? Barak Allah! What’s his name?”
“George.” “George! Health to George; much of it! _Salam Ali:
George Yassur_. Tell him, Min Ali Tahar wishes him all health and
happiness; that he is a Tibboo who can command a thousand spears, and
fears no man. Is he liberal? Is his heart large? _Gulba Kebir_. Does
he give presents to his people?” “Very much so, indeed; some of
his people think him too generous.” Min Ali. “By the head of
my father! _Raas el Booe!_ they are wrong; the sultan of a great
people should have a large heart, or he is unworthy of them. Who
will succeed him when he dies?” “His brother.” “What is
his name?” “Frederick.” “_Barak Allah!_ I hope he will be
like George, _matlook_, liberal. _Salem Ali! Frederick._ Health to
Frederick! How many wives have they?” “No Englishman has more than
one,” said I. “_A gieb! a gieb!_ Wonderful! wonderful! why they
should have a hundred.” “No! no! we think that a sin,” replied
I. “Wallah! really (literally, by G—!) why I have four now; and
I have had more than sixty. Her I like best, however, always says,
one would be more lawful: she may be right. You say she is. You are a
great people. I see you are a great people, and know every thing. I,
a Tibboo, am little better than a gazelle.”
The road to-day was thickly scattered with trees—saw flocks of
red cattle, and killed a wild hog. The hyænas came so close to
the tents last night, that a camel, which lay about a hundred yards
from the enclosure, was found nearly half-eaten. A lion first made a
meal on the poor animal; when the hyænas came down upon what he had
left. We had fires the whole night; and notwithstanding the continued
howlings which these animals kept up until daylight, our rest was
but little disturbed.—Halted near a water, called Chugelarem. We
had now about eleven miles to make, previous to arriving at Yeou.
13th.—Chugelarem, though said to be a branch of the Tchad, was
merely a still water, increased considerably by the overflowings of
that lake in the wet season: the bottom was muddy, and nowhere deeper
than two feet. The camels, horses, and followers of the kafila,
waded through it without being much above their knees: it takes
a zigzag direction, going first to the east, then to the north,
and then to the east again.
We proceeded south, passing several very neat negro villages;
and after about eleven miles, came to a very considerable stream,
called the Yeou, in some parts more than fifty yards wide, with a
fine hard sandy bottom, and banks nearly perpendicular, and with
a strong current running three miles and a half in an hour to the
eastward. As I expected, every one of the Arabs said this was the
Nile, and that it ran into the great water the Tchad. A town of the
same name stands on the south side of the river, which the inhabitants
were unanimous in saying came from Soudan. It is at times double the
width, and considerably deeper, and two canoes now lay upon the sand,
in which the goods and passengers of kafilas passing in the wet season
are conveyed across. The camels and horses swim with their heads made
fast to the canoes. These canoes were of the rudest manufacture,
and were formed of planks, rudely shaped by a small hatchet, and
strongly fastened together by cords passed through holes bored
in them, and a wisp of straw between, which they say effectually
keeps out the water: they have high poops like the Grecian boats,
and would hold twenty or thirty persons. The air from a running
stream of clear water, and the freshness it imparted to all around,
was such a relief after a march through sandy deserts, that both
man and beast were in a manner renovated by its effects. The men,
and even the women, bathed and washed, and the negroes swam all the
horses. We here received ten bullocks by the sheikh’s order, to
make up the fifteen which he had directed to be given to Boo Khaloom,
and the remainder of the seventeen kail (loads) of gussub which was
to accompany them.
Feb. 14.—Visited Yeou, which is a neat town of huts, walled,
but not above half the size of Burwha, and proceeded fourteen
miles, when we came to a well. Here we should have remained with
our tired camels and horses; but the numerous negro parties, with
from two to twelve laden oxen, all said another well was _grieb_
(near). Boo Khaloom, therefore, determined on proceeding to the next
_maten_, or halting-place: some of the group were picturesque in the
extreme; the women all laden with some purchase at the market, and
the naked black children mounted on the tops of the loaded bullocks;
and after twelve additional miles, an hour and a half after sunset,
we came to a halt, but without arriving at the well. The branches
of the trees hung so much over the road, and impeded the movements
of the camels so greatly, that it was past ten o’clock at night
before some of them came up.
Feb. 15.—We found the well, _kalielwa_, just off the road,
nearly four miles nearer Bornou, and we were to push the camels
on as far as possible, in order that the day after we might enter
Kouka, the residence of the sheikh, in Arab form, and at an early
hour. The road branched off in two directions: the one to the west
led towards Kouka. Soon after this we came to a well and small town,
and after sunset another; near the latter of which a Fezzaneer in
the service of the sheikh met us, with a request that we would pitch
our tents near a dead water called Dowergoo, a few miles further
on, and remain the next day, as the huts that had been preparing
were not ready. About eight we came to this piece of still water,
abounding with wild fowl, having a village near it, called Gurdawa.
Feb. 16.—Halted. Our visitors here were not very numerous, although
we were not above one hour’s journey from the sheikh’s residence,
Kouka. Various were the reports as to the opinion the sheikh formed
of the force which accompanied Boo-Khaloom: all agreed, however,
that we were to be received at some distance from the town, by a
considerable body of troops; both as a compliment to the bashaw,
and to show his representative how well prepared he was against any
attempt of those who chose to be his enemies.
One of the Arabs brought to me this day a Balearic crane; it measured
thirteen feet from wing to wing.
Feb. 17.—This was to us a momentous day, and it seemed to be equally
so to our conductors. Notwithstanding all the difficulties that had
presented themselves at the various stages of our journey, we were at
last within a few short miles of our destination; were about to become
acquainted with a people who had never seen, or scarcely heard of,
a European; and to tread on ground, the knowledge and true situation
of which had hitherto been wholly unknown. These ideas of course
excited no common sensations; and could scarcely be unaccompanied
by strong hopes of our labours being beneficial to the race amongst
whom we were shortly to mix; of our laying the first stone of a work
which might lead to their civilization, if not their emancipation from
all their prejudices and ignorance, and probably, at the same time,
open a field of commerce to our own country, which might increase
its wealth and prosperity. Our accounts had been so contradictory of
the state of this country, that no opinion could be formed as to the
real condition or the numbers of its inhabitants. We had been told
that the sheikh’s soldiers were a few ragged negroes armed with
spears, who lived upon the plunder of the Black Kaffir countries,
by which he was surrounded, and which he was enabled to subdue by
the assistance of a few Arabs who were in his service; and, again,
we had been assured that his forces were not only numerous, but to
a certain degree well trained. The degree of credit which might
be attached to these reports was nearly balanced in the scales
of probability; and we advanced towards the town of Kouka in a
most interesting state of uncertainty, whether we should find its
chief at the head of thousands, or be received by him under a tree,
surrounded by a few naked slaves.
These doubts, however, were quickly removed. I had ridden on a
short distance in front of Boo-Khaloom, with his train of Arabs,
all mounted, and dressed out in their best apparel; and, from the
thickness of the trees, soon lost sight of them, fancying that the
road could not be mistaken. I rode still onwards, and on approaching
a spot less thickly planted, was not a little surprised to see in
front of me a body of several thousand cavalry drawn up in line,
and extending right and left quite as far as I could see; and,
checking my horse, I awaited the arrival of my party, under the
shade of a wide-spreading acacia. The Bornou troops remained quite
steady, without noise or confusion; and a few horsemen, who were
moving about in front giving directions, were the only persons out
of the ranks. On the Arabs appearing in sight, a shout, or yell,
was given by the sheikh’s people, which rent the air: a blast was
blown from their rude instruments of music equally loud, and they
moved on to meet Boo-Khaloom and his Arabs. There was an appearance
of tact and management in their movements which astonished me: three
separate small bodies, from the centre and each flank, kept charging
rapidly towards us, to within a few feet of our horses’ heads,
without checking the speed of their own until the moment of their
halt, while the whole body moved onwards. These parties were mounted
on small but very perfect horses, who stopped, and wheeled from their
utmost speed with great precision and expertness, shaking their spears
over their heads, exclaiming, “_Barca! barca! Alla hiakkum cha,
alla cheraga!_—Blessing! blessing! Sons of your country! Sons of
your country!” and returning quickly to the front of the body, in
order to repeat the charge. While all this was going on, they closed
in their right and left flanks, and surrounded the little body of
Arab warriors so completely, as to give the compliment of welcoming
them very much the appearance of a declaration of their contempt
for their weakness. I am quite sure this was premeditated; we were
all so closely pressed as to be nearly smothered, and in some danger
from the crowding of the horses and clashing of the spears. Moving
on was impossible; and we therefore came to a full stop: our chief
was much enraged, but it was all to no purpose, he was only answered
by shrieks of “Welcome!” and spears most unpleasantly rattled
over our heads expressive of the same feeling. This annoyance was
not however of long duration; Barca Gana, the sheikh’s first
general, a negro of a noble aspect, clothed in a figured silk tobe,
and mounted on a beautiful Mandara horse, made his appearance; and,
after a little delay, the rear was cleared of those who had pressed
in upon us, and we moved on, although but very slowly, from the
frequent impediment thrown in our way by these wild equestrians.
The sheikh’s negroes, as they were called, meaning the black chiefs
and favourites, all raised to that rank by some deed of bravery, were
habited in coats of mail composed of iron chain, which covered them
from the throat to the knees, dividing behind, and coming on each
side of the horse: some of them had helmets, or rather skullcaps,
of the same metal, with chin-pieces, all sufficiently strong to ward
off the shock of a spear. Their horses’ heads were also defended
by plates of iron, brass, and silver, just leaving sufficient room
for the eyes of the animal.
At length, on arriving at the gate of the town, ourselves,
Boo-Khaloom, and about a dozen of his followers, were alone allowed
to enter the gates; and we proceeded along a wide street completely
lined with spearmen on foot, with cavalry in front of them, to the
door of the sheikh’s residence. Here the horsemen were formed up
three deep, and we came to a stand: some of the chief attendants came
out, and after a great many “Barca’s! Barca’s!” retired,
when others performed the same ceremony. We were now again left
sitting on our horses in the sun: Boo-Khaloom began to lose all
patience, and swore by the bashaw’s head, that he would return
to the tents if he was not immediately admitted: he got, however,
no satisfaction but a motion of the hand from one of the chiefs,
meaning “wait patiently;” and I whispered to him the necessity
of obeying as we were hemmed in on all sides, and to retire without
permission would have been as difficult as to advance. Barca Gana now
appeared, and made a sign that Boo-Khaloom should dismount: we were
about to follow his example, when an intimation that Boo-Khaloom was
alone to be admitted again fixed us to our saddles. Another half hour
at least passed without any news from the interior of the building;
when the gates opened, and the four Englishmen only were called for,
and we advanced to the skiffa (entrance). Here we were stopped most
unceremoniously by the black guards in waiting, and were allowed,
one by one only, to ascend a staircase; at the top of which we were
again brought to a stand by crossed spears, and the open flat hand
of a negro laid upon our breast. Boo-Khaloom came from the inner
chamber, and asked “If we were prepared to salute the sheikh as we
did the bashaw?” We replied “Certainly:” which was merely an
inclination of the head, and laying the right hand on the heart. He
advised our laying our hands also on our heads, but we replied,
“the thing was impossible! we had but one manner of salutation
for any body, except our own sovereign.”
[Illustration: From a Sketch by Major Denham.
Engraved by E. Finden.
BODY GUARD OF THE SHEIKH OF BORNOU.
_Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London._]
Another parley now took place, but in a minute or two he returned,
and we were ushered into the presence of this Sheikh of Spears. We
found him in a small dark room, sitting on a carpet, plainly dressed
in a blue tobe of Soudan and a shawl turban. Two negroes were on
each side of him, armed with pistols, and on his carpet lay a brace
of these instruments. Fire-arms were hanging in different parts
of the room, presents from the bashaw and Mustapha L’Achmar,
the sultan of Fezzan, which are here considered as invaluable. His
personal appearance was prepossessing, apparently not more than
forty-five or forty-six, with an expressive countenance, and a
benevolent smile. We delivered our letter from the bashaw; and after
he had read it, he inquired “what was our object in coming?” We
answered, “to see the country merely, and to give an account of
its inhabitants, produce, and appearance; as our sultan was desirous
of knowing every part of the globe.” His reply was, “that we
were welcome! and whatever he could show us would give him pleasure:
that he had ordered huts to be built for us in the town; and that we
might then go, accompanied by one of his people, to see them; and
that when we were recovered from the fatigue of our long journey,
he would be happy to see us.” With this we took our leave.
Our huts were little round mud buildings, placed within a wall, at
no great distance from the residence of the sheikh: the inclosure was
quadrangular, and had several divisions formed by partitions of straw
mats, where nests of huts were built, and occupied by the stranger
merchants who accompanied the kafila: one of these divisions was
assigned to us, and we crept into the shade of our earthy dwellings,
not a little fatigued with our entré and presentation.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 9: The surface is of a dark colour, with here and there
patches and streaks of a snowy white. It is uneven from the heaping,
as it were, of large flat clods on each other: these are all hollow
underneath, and have a very uneven surface, from the number of
projections. What I have remarked was observed in all the salt fields
we have seen. The heaping of the salty clods, and the circulation of
air underneath, are phenonema attending this formation which it is
difficult to explain—Are they the production of art, or of nature
alone? In the numerous gardens at Traghan, and other places left
fallow, we observe, on the small scale, an appearance like this,
and the earthy clods soon became strongly impregnated with salt: the
degree is not comparable to what is seen in the large salt plain. The
salt is of two kinds; one a white snowy-looking efflorescence, that
is often several inches thick, the other with an earthy-coloured
shining surface.—W. O.]
[Footnote 10: The sand of a fine cream colour: yesterday it had many
particles of a black substance mixed with it.
Exposed rocks, sandstone of different kinds, mostly red, and a black
kind like basalt from iron; fine specimens of petrified wood; the
centre, sap, vessels and knots filled with a calcareous matter,
the woody fibre changed into a siliceous substance; beautiful
conical layers, and lines running like rays, from the centre to the
circumference. Many columnar mounds of clay in the first basin,
about ten feet high—the clay as if semi-baked: many are round,
and the one we went to about thirty feet in circumference; these
were probably the original height of the surface: the present form
arises from the other part being washed away.
The depth of the well at Meshroo is from sixteen to twenty feet: the
water good, and free from saline impregnations: the ground around is
strewed with human skeletons, the slaves who have arrived exhausted
with thirst and fatigue. The horrid consequences of the slave trade
were strongly brought to our mind; and, although its horrors are not
equal to those of the European trade, still they are sufficient to
call up every sympathy, and rouse up every spark of humanity. They
are dragged over deserts, water often fails, and provisions scarcely
provided for the long and dreary journey. The Moors ascribe the
numbers to the cruelty of the Tibboo traders: there is, perhaps,
too much truth in the accusation. Every few miles a skeleton was
seen through the whole day; some were partially covered with sand,
others with only a small mound, formed by the wind: one hand often lay
under the head, and frequently both, as if in the act of compressing
the head. The skin and membranous substance all shrivel up, and dry
from the state of the air: the thick muscular and internal parts
only decay.
Course through basins, having low, rugged, conical hills to the
eastward. The hills have a great similarity of geological structure
to those of western Fezzan and Ghraat.
[Illustration:
_a_ _b_ Sandstone of fine texture, of a black colour, giving it the
appearance of basalt.
_c_ Aluminous shistus.
_d_ Clay iron stone, with here and there strata of bluish clay.
_e_ Fine white sandstone, mixed with a large quantity of lime.]
There is a fine blue, very hard stone, with slender white lime
streaks, forming the surface of many of the lower grounds, evidently
of recent formation. A similar formation is seen in the large sterile
plain between the hills of Fezzan to the westward, and the Tuarick
range: the fine white sandstone is found deep in the same hills;
the aluminous slate in abundance. The kind of sandstone, the other
rocks and similarity of appearance, show a sameness of geological
structure as far as we have gone.
From a fine pass between two of the hills, the view from above had
something of the grand. A rocky and sandy space, about two hundred
yards broad, bounded on each side by a high rugged black hill, below
a fine level plain, with low hills in the distance. The descent of
the camels fine, and accomplished without an accident.
[Illustration:
_a_ sandstone.
_b_ red and yellow iron ore, in very thick beds.
_c_ sandstone.
_d_ white shistus.
_e_ white sandstone.]
The surface of the plain has strata of a slatiform blue stone;
frequently, however, massive, and so hard as not to be scratched by
iron; imbedded in it is a large quantity of periform iron ore. After
traversing this plain, we ascended a low hilly range, and passed
across its stony surface. From here we saw El-Wahr, or Difficult: it
is between two high hills. We passed many skeletons, both of human
beings and camels, which always kept us in mind of the dangers we
were exposed to.—W. O.]
[Footnote 11: El-Wahr. The surface sandy till we approached
the hills, then it changed to stony. The black hills with cones,
peaks, and a columnar-looking cap, reminded us of what we had seen
before. The gloom of these places in the dusk has something grand
and awful. We winded up, with the light of a moon not a quarter
old, and that lessened by a cloudy sky. Some sandy and pebbly beds,
as of a stream, and in one place high clayey banks, with iron ore
underneath. Skeletons lay about, mangled in a shocking manner; here
a leg, there an arm, fixed with their ligaments, at considerable
distances from the trunk. What could have done this? Man forced by
hunger, or the camels? The latter are very fond of chewing dried
bones, but whether they ever do so to those with dried flesh on them,
I cannot say.—W. O.]
[Footnote 12: Several of our camels are drunk to-day: their eyes are
heavy, and want animation; gait staggering, and every now and then,
falling as a man in a state of intoxication. It arose from eating
dates after drinking water; these probably pass into the spirituous
fermentation in the stomach.—W. O.]
[Footnote 13: Our road by the side of detached hills, and several
small chains, having rocky and sandy windings among them. The detached
hills were mostly conical, with fine columnar tops, as if capped
with basalt,—all, however, was of sandstone. The sombre appearance
and solitariness of the situations, the form of the hills, and the
dreariness of nature around, gave a gloomy cast to every object, which
the beauty and life of a large kafila could not eradicate.—W. O.]
[Footnote 14: The Tibboos were positive as to this distance, which
we could scarcely credit; they must mean, however, Tuarick days,
or a _maherhy_, equal to forty miles at least.]
[Footnote 15: We passed two salt water lakes at a short distance
on the west, which add much to the beauty of the scenery. There
is something to-day quite cheering: large groves of palm trees,
many beautiful acacias both in flower and fruit, and two fine,
small salt lakes. The lakes are about two miles in circumference,
have salt islands, and marshy borders: no salt, I believe, is taken
from them. They are the abodes of a beautiful bird of the plover
species.—W. O.]
[Footnote 16: The lakes have marshy borders, and high salt islands,
as if formed by man, which however are natural, and, the people say,
have existed since their remembrance. The saline materials are a
carbonate and muriate of soda: we saw no incrustations on the bottom
or surface: at this season, the same is the case in the Bahr-Trona,
in Fezzan. Each lake is not more than half or three-fourths of a
mile in circumference.—W. O.]
[Footnote 17: The hills run nearly north and south, edging a
little to the westward; they have numerous small bays or recesses,
which produce a fine echo; many places with saline incrustations,
and some of the large black patches like the frozen surface of a
recently ploughed field. Almost all the salt formations are in low,
protected situations; the water is near; and, often in the very
centre, you have fine fresh springs.—From whence is this salt
derived? I have already suggested that the air has a powerful effect,
and is a principal agent. There is no reason to believe there are
large subterranean salt beds; if these existed to any great extent,
we should not have the fresh springs so prevalent.—W. O.]
[Footnote 18: We had a fine wadey the greater part of the way,
and many patches of saline incrustations; some exposed beds of red
sandstone, containing numerous nodules of iron ore. Hills of much
blacker colour; and a few have the appearance as of ruins of towns and
castles, on their summits. Passed three springs, like the oozings at
Traghen. A large tract of black surface, as if the situation of an
extensive salt bed, from which the salt had only been removed a few
years; it extends more than four or five miles to the eastward, and
was more than a mile across, on our road. It is black and crispy,
but has none of the irregular heapings taken notice of in other
salt plains.
There is another small town about two miles to the westward, of the
same name. Round it are a number of mud elevations, which appear as
if produced by mud volcanoes; but these are artificial, and made for
the preparation of salt. I had long wished to see the extensive salt
plain that afforded such copious supplies: originally, no doubt,
the large spaces I have several times noticed afforded abundance,
but the re-production could not keep up with the quantity taken
away. Art was employed to _obtain_ Nature; shallow pits were dug,
which soon filled with water, and its evaporation left thick layers
of salt: high embankments were raised round these, evidently to
prevent currents of air. These places have much the look of our
tanyards, with small pits partitioned from each other. The water is
now strongly impregnated; in summer a thick crust is formed, which
is the salt in use. One of these works apparently yields a large
quantity of salt every year. When removed, the sordes are heaped
up on the embankments. In the recesses there are many stalactites,
of a beautiful white colour, which consist of muriate and carbonate
of soda.
The great mystery is, the origin of the salt in all situations in
which the water is near the surface, and the inclemency of the _water_
prevented by shelter. It is highly probable all this vast country was
once a salt ocean; its height is nothing, considering its distance
inland. What effect has the want, or almost want of rain,—for, as
far as I can learn, no salt formations exist within the boundaries of
the rains? There are many fine fresh springs issuing from the soil,
and none of the wells are brackish; when the water, however, remains
some time stagnant, it gets impregnated with saline matter.—W. O.]
[Footnote 19: Some curious tubular, hollow, coralliform productions
were picked up in the sand: they appear of very recent formation,
and evidently produced by rain and wind acting on the sand. The
particles are most minute; when broken, the substance has a shining
glassy appearance: some lie horizontally, but the general position is
perpendicular. The external surface is rough: the size varies, both
in length and circumference, from a few lines to an inch and a half
in the latter, and from an inch to a foot in the former direction.
The wells are holes, about eighteen inches deep: the water has
a slight taste of carbonate of soda, that was strong at first,
but diminished greatly after some water had been drawn. The holes
fill very fast. The saline impregnation arises, very probably, from
the earth around falling, and being blown into the holes. Dibla is
bounded on the north by black sandstone and quartz hills, which
extend some way to the eastward; on the south by sand hills, and
by a winding wadey on the east. In the middle there are several
small conical hillocks with table-tops: the lower part is formed
of a fine schistus, of different colours, that next the base light
and white; over that, green, exactly resembling large well-dried
leaves of plants, which separate into the finest layers; the top is
a black bituminous matter, which crumbles into small pieces by the
slightest touch: these hillocks are from thirty to forty feet high,
the probable height of the valley in former days; and it is not
unlikely that the bituminous matter is a vegetable deposit. There
are a few acacias, but so few, that we could procure no firewood,
and the camels very little food.
A number of round semi-vitrified small stones were found on the
sands, which the people collected to use as bullets. The mode of
formation appears the same as the coralliform substances I have
mentioned. These substances, in great quantities, are said to be
formed after the rains that every now and then occur in this quarter.]
[Footnote 20: There is grass in abundance, and small mounds covered
with a tetrandrous plant, called suag: its fruit a small _drupa_,
which is in great request in Bornou and Soudan, for removing sterility
in females. Boo Khaloom related one instance of a female, who had
been in that state eighteen years, but was cured by the fruit. It
is sweetish and hot to the taste, approaching to the Sisymbrium
nasturtium. In passing the plant, a heavy narcotic smell is always
perceived.—W. O.]
[Footnote 21: There is a very common grass which is grievously
annoying from the prickles on its husk: it adheres to the dress
and penetrates the skin. There is not one prickle, but the calyx is
studded round, and they fasten themselves like grappling irons. These
prickles may be considered one of the pests of the country: there is
scarcely a place free from them. Our dog Niger is unable to walk,
for they have got between his toes, and are adhering to every part
of his long silken hair.]
CHAPTER II.
KOUKA.
Our huts were immediately so crowded with visitors, that we had not
a moment’s peace, and the heat was insufferable. Boo-Khaloom had
delivered his presents from the bashaw, and brought us a message of
compliment, together with an intimation that our own would be received
on the following day. About noon we received a summons to attend the
sheikh; and we proceeded to the palace, preceded by our negroes,
bearing the articles destined for the sheikh by our government;
consisting of a double-barrelled gun, by Wilkinson, with a box, and
all the apparatus complete, a pair of excellent pistols in a case,
two pieces of superfine broad cloth, red and blue, to which we added
a set of china, and two bundles of spices.
The ceremony of getting into the presence was ridiculous enough,
although nothing could be more plain and devoid of pretension than
the appearance of the sheikh himself. We passed through passages
lined with attendants, the front men sitting on their hams; and
when we advanced too quickly, we were suddenly arrested by these
fellows, who caught forcibly hold of us by the legs, and had not the
crowd prevented our falling, we should most infallibly have become
prostrate before arriving in the presence. Previous to entering into
the open court, in which we were received, our papouches, or slippers,
were whipped off by these active though sedentary gentlemen of the
chamber; and we were seated on some clean sand on each side of a
raised bench of earth, covered with a carpet, on which the sheikh
was reclining. We laid the gun and the pistols together before him,
and explained to him the locks, turnscrews, and steel shot-cases
holding two charges each, with all of which he seemed exceedingly
well pleased: the powder-flask, and the manner in which the charge
is divided from the body of powder, did not escape his observation;
the other articles were taken off by the slaves, almost as soon as
they were laid before him. Again we were questioned as to the object
of our visit. The sheikh, however, showed evident satisfaction at our
assurance that the king of England had heard of Bornou and himself;
and, immediately turning to his kaganawha (counsellor), said, “This
is in consequence of our defeating the Begharmis.” Upon which,
the chief who had most distinguished himself in these memorable
battles, Bagah Furby (the gatherer of horses) seating himself in
front of us, demanded, “Did he ever hear of me?” The immediate
reply of “_Certainly_” did wonders for our cause. Exclamations
were general; and, “Ah! then, your king must be a great man!”
was re-echoed from every side. We had nothing offered us by way of
refreshment, and took our leave.
I may here observe, that besides occasional presents of bullocks,
camel-loads of wheat and rice, leathern skins of butter, jars of
honey, and honey in the comb, five or six wooden bowls were sent
us, morning and evening, containing rice, with meat, paste made of
barley flour, savoury but very greasy; and on our first arrival,
as many had been sent of sweets, mostly composed of curd and honey.
In England a brace of trout might be considered as a handsome present
to a traveller sojourning in the neighbourhood of a stream, but at
Bornou things are done differently. A camel-load of bream, and a
sort of mullet, was thrown before our huts on the second morning
after our arrival; and for fear that should not be sufficient,
in the evening another was sent.
We had a fsug, or market, in front of one of the principal gates of
the town. Slaves, sheep, and bullocks, the latter in great numbers,
were the principal live stock for sale. There were at least fifteen
thousand persons gathered together, some of them coming from places
two and three days distant. Wheat, rice, and gussub, were abundant:
tamarinds in the pod, ground nuts, ban beans, ochroes, and indigo;
the latter is very good, and in great use amongst the natives, to
dye their tobes (shirts) and linen, stripes of deep indigo colour,
or stripes of it alternately with white, being highly esteemed by
most of the Bornou women: the leaves are moistened, and pounded
up altogether when they are formed into lumps, and so brought to
market. Of vegetables there was a great scarcity—onions, bastard
tomatoes, alone were offered for sale; and of fruits not any: a
few limes, which the sheikh had sent us from his garden, being the
only fruit we had seen in Bornou. Leather was in great quantities;
and the skins of the large snake, and pieces of the skin of the
crocodile, used as an ornament for the scabbards of their daggers,
were also brought to me for sale; and butter, leban (sour milk),
honey, and wooden bowls, from Soudan. The costumes of the women,
who for the most part were the vendors, were various: those of Kanem
and Bornou were most numerous, and the former was as becoming as the
latter had a contrary appearance. The variety in costume amongst the
ladies consists entirely in the head ornaments; the only difference,
in the scanty covering which is bestowed on the other parts of the
person, lies in the choice of the wearer, who either ties the piece
of linen, blue or white, under the arms, and across the breasts,
or fastens it rather fantastically on one shoulder, leaving one
breast naked. The Kanemboo women have small plaits of hair hanging
down all around the head, quite to the poll of the neck, with a roll
of leather or string of little brass beads in front, hanging down
from the centre on each side of the face, which has by no means an
unbecoming appearance: they have sometimes strings of silver rings
instead of the brass, and a large round silver ornament in front of
their foreheads. The female slaves from Musgow, a large kingdom to
the south-east of Mandara, are particularly disagreeable in their
appearance, although considered as very trustworthy, and capable of
great labour: their hair is rolled up in three large plaits, which
extend from the forehead to the back of the neck, like the Bornowy;
one larger in the centre, and two smaller on each side: they have
silver studs in their nose, and one large one just under the lower lip
of the size of a shilling, which goes quite through into the mouth;
to make room for this ornament, a tooth or two is sometimes displaced.
The principal slaves are generally intrusted with the sale of such
produce as the owner of them may have to dispose of; and if they
come from any distance, the whole is brought on bullocks, which are
harnessed after the fashion of the country, by a string or iron run
through the cartilage of the nose, and a saddle of mat. The masters
not unfrequently attend the fsug with their spears, and loiter about
without interfering; purchases are mostly made by exchange of one
commodity for another, or paid for by small beads, pieces of coral
and amber, or the coarse linen manufactured by all the people, and
sold at forty gubka[22] for a dollar. Amongst other articles offered
to me for sale by the people (who, if I stood still for an instant,
crowded round me) was a young lion and a monkey; the latter appeared
really the more dangerous of the two, and from being a degree or
two lighter in complexion than his master, he seemed to have taken
a decided aversion to me.
The lion walked about with great unconcern, confined merely by a small
rope round his neck held by the negro, who had caught him when he was
not two months old, and having had him for a period of three months,
now wished to part with him: he was about the size of a donkey colt,
with very large limbs, and the people seemed to go very close to him
without much alarm, notwithstanding he struck with his foot the leg
of one man who stood in his way, and made the blood flow copiously:
they opened the ring which was formed round this noble animal as I
approached; and, coming within two or three yards of him, he fixed
his eye upon me in a way that excited sensations I cannot describe,
from which I was awakened by the fellow calling to me to come
nearer, at the same time laying his hand on the animal’s back;
a moment’s recollection convinced me that there could be no more
danger nearer than where I was, and I stepped boldly up beside the
negro, and I believe should have laid my hand on the lion the next
moment; but after looking carelessly at me, he brushed past my legs,
broke the ring, and pulled his conductor away with him, overturning
several who stood before him, and bounded off to another part where
there were fewer people.
Feb. 22.—Boo-Khaloom came to us this morning, after seeing the
sheikh, and said, “that he had explained to him our anxiety to
see every thing, and take home the skins of birds, and gather the
plants that appeared most interesting to us, and to take notes of
what we saw.” The sheikh’s reply was, that “we, or any of our
countrymen, whom the bashaw thought proper to send, should be welcome
to see any part of his dominions, but that out of them he could not
suffer us at present to go.” Boo-Khaloom, who was fully aware of
the ulterior objects we had in view, and whose advice I always found
dictated by an anxious desire to serve us, was of the greatest use,
from his intimate acquaintance with the dispositions of the people;
and he was of opinion that we should, in the first instance,
be satisfied with this offer of the sheikh, and not alarm him,
by declaring too abruptly all our intentions. Accustomed as they
are to plunder, and to be plundered, at the sight of strangers,
apparently possessing superior powers, and superior weapons to
themselves, their alarm is not to be wondered at; and when these
strangers were represented to them as having come from a distance
almost beyond their belief, for purposes they could not in the least
comprehend the importance of, it required extreme delicacy and great
management to tranquillize their minds, and obtain their confidence.
A report had gone abroad, that one of our purposes was to build ships,
in which we should embark on the lake, return to our own country,
and then that the white people would come and destroy them all. For
these reports we had, I have no doubt, to thank some of the Mourzuk
merchants who had preceded us; and whose frequent visits were as
injurious to our stores as their advice would have been to our
interests, had not circumstances prevented the latter from being
acted upon.
Boo-Khaloom assured us “these reports had gained considerable
ground, but that he had explained to the sheikh how unfounded they
were; and what we proposed doing here was what had been done during
the last year by the bashaw’s permission, in many parts of the
regency of Tripoli.”
All the Arabs, who had formed our escort, were in great glee by the
report of the approach of the sultan of Begharmi, with a large force,
to within four short days of Kouka. The sheikh-el-Kanemy had, in
former expeditions, laid waste his whole country, each time driving
the sultan from Kermuk, or the capital. On the last occasion he had
destroyed, by fire, the towns which the natives had deserted, and
had remained nearly three months in the country. The sultan, with all
his family and slaves, had, as before, retired to the other side of
a large river, to the south of his dominions, inhabited by Kaffirs
or savages; but who, nevertheless, always afforded him shelter and
protection. This people were described as resembling the sands of the
desert in number; and they had now accompanied him to revenge himself
on the sheikh of Bornou. The prospect of plunder, and making slaves,
which these reports held out to the Arabs, raised their spirits to
such a degree, that they passed half the night in debating how their
booty was to be conveyed across the desert: without remembering
that their enemies were first to be conquered. A gun being merely
presented, they all declared sufficient to drive away a thousand
negroes. Could these poor creatures but once be made to understand
the real state of an Arab’s pouch, with seldom more than one or
two loads of bad powder, and the little dependence to be placed in
his firelock, a miserable French piece, of the original value of
about twelve shillings, that misses fire at least every other time,
how much more justly would they estimate the Arabs’ strength!
Feb. 24.—We heard this day that the Begharmis had halted at a place
called Gulphi, on hearing that Boo-Khaloom was here with a party of
Arab warriors; but it was strongly reported that the sheikh would
immediately send a force into their country, in order to punish the
sultan for even thinking of revenge.
Feb. 26.—Boo-Khaloom was to have seen the sheikh, in order to
convince him that all, and more than the presents destined for him
by our government, had been delivered to him; and we were afterwards
to see him ourselves, and request permission to visit some of the
neighbouring towns. After this interview, Boo-Khaloom came to our
huts, and explained to us that the sheikh had mentioned merely to
his chief attendant, that he had heard of a watch being intended for
him as well as the powder, and that as he had not seen it, he was
disappointed—he, however, desired us to visit him the next day. The
sheikh had given all Boo-Khaloom’s people a blue tobe, and himself
two very handsome female slaves from Soudan, of a deep copper colour,
under twenty years of age, with two others, negresses, to attend
on them. We had news this day that the people of Begharmi had left
Gulphi on their return home, and were about to rebuild their capital.
Feb. 27.—We attended the sheikh, about three hours before noon. He
received us with considerable affability, and appeared satisfied
that his presents were all delivered to him: when the explanation
was given, he said nothing was necessary to secure his good will; but
they told him the articles he mentioned were brought, and therefore he
asked for them. Indeed, if the things had been properly delivered at
first, no question, I am sure, would have arisen on the subject. He
again inquired what were our wishes; no mention was however made
of the orders of our government, that any one should remain for any
time near him. He made numberless inquiries, wished that the nature
of a map should be described to him, and begged that Ali (as Hillman
the carpenter was called) should make some boxes for him.
We asked to see the Tchad and the Shary, both of which waters,
with the old town of Bornou, he promised us we should visit in a few
days. He asked many questions about our manner of attacking a walled
town; and on our explaining to him that we had guns which carried ball
of twenty-four and thirty-two pounds weight, with which we breached
the wall, and then carried the place by assault, his large dark
eyes sparkled again, as he exclaimed, “Wonderful! wonderful!”
He inquired if we had any thing with us like wild-fire, which could
be thrown into a place and burn it; and was greatly disappointed on
our answering in the negative. I could not help however consoling
him by an assurance that what we had brought him was that which we
considered as likely to be most acceptable; that before our coming he
was a stranger; that now we should see what he was most in need of;
and that two camel-loads of gunpowder were easier for us to send him
than the like quantity of dates from Fezzan. We promised at night
to show him two rockets; and we had scarcely eaten our dinner when
Karawash, one of his chiefs, came to say the sheikh was impatient,
and very fortunately there were in the town several of the hostile
Shouaas—a dangerous race of Arab origin, who occupy the frontier
of his kingdom, and he was anxious they should see the effect of
these terrible fire-engines. Mr. Clapperton fixed them on a rest of
three spears in front of the sheikh’s residence, before a crowd
of persons; and the shrieks of the people, both there assembled
and in their huts, were heard for some seconds after the rockets
had ascended.
Feb. 28.—There was a disturbance in the camp this morning that
nearly approached to direct mutiny, amongst Boo-Khaloom’s Arabs. He
had brought with him a very large assortment of valuable merchandize,
for which there was but little sale at either Kouka or Angornou,
and he was anxious to proceed to Soudan. The tghrees, or infantry,
refused to accompany him: they said the bashaw had ordered them to
come thus far with the English, and that Soudan was bhaid (distant),
and go they would not. Some one had hinted to them that the sheikh
wished to send a ghrazzie (marauding expedition) to Begharmi, and that
Boo-Khaloom opposed such wish, as not consistent with his orders; and
their profit being greater by an expedition of plunder and cruelty,
than by one of peace and commerce, they preferred the east to the
west. Boo-Khaloom certainly had refused to proceed on one of these
marauding expeditions, much to the credit of his humanity, and highly
complimentary to the English nation; whose servant, he often assured
me, he felt himself to be on this mission. The Arabs, however, knew
the sheikh’s wishes, and things remained in a very unsettled state.
I paid a visit this evening to Sooloo, one of the sheikh’s principal
Shouaas, to whom I had given a silk handkerchief in the morning:
his habitation consisted of two inclosures, besides one for his
two horses, cow, and goats, and may be taken as a sample of the
best residences in Kouka. In the first of these divisions was a
circular hut, with a cupola top, well thatched with gussub straw,
something resembling that of the Indian corn: the walls were of the
same materials; a mud wall, of about two feet high, separated one
part from the rest, and here his corn was kept; and a bench of like
simple composition, at the opposite side, was his resting-place: this
was covered with mats; and his spears, and wooden bowls for water
and milk, hung on pegs, completed the furniture: here was his own
apartment. In the second division there were two huts, rather smaller,
about ten paces from each other, in which dwelt his two wives: they
were called to the door, and desired to salute me; but on looking
up, uttered a scream, and hiding their faces with their hands, crept
back again so quickly, as to make me almost ashamed of my complexion.
March 1.—A few yams were sent us by the sheikh, the only ones
we had seen, and a great treat they proved to us, for it was
the only vegetable we had tasted for many months. A meeting took
place this morning at day-break, under a large tree in front of the
sheikh’s residence, and in his presence, between the Arab sheikhs
and Boo-Khaloom. The Arabs had appealed to him as their umpire;
and although he appeared not to take any part in their disputes,
yet I thought a disposition was very apparent in him to increase the
feud: he offered to mount one hundred of the Arabs, and send one of
his chiefs, under Boo-Khaloom’s orders, to Begharmi, with fifteen
hundred or two thousand horsemen; and great part of the produce of
this expedition was to be sent as a present to the bashaw. Nothing
could be more distressing than Boo-Khaloom’s situation; he knew the
disposition of his master too well not to feel what his fate would
be, if he refused such an opportunity of taking him at least two
thousand slaves,—his own inclinations led him to proceed to Soudan;
but he was still anxious to avoid becoming the scourge of one people,
to gratify the revenge of another. The Arabs were also divided. The
people of Begharmi had, on the last expedition, nearly foiled their
invaders by abandoning their towns, driving off their flocks and
cattle, and obliging the sheikh’s people to subsist entirely,
for twenty-five days, on a little prepared paste made of flour and
curd, which they always take with them to the field. This the mounted
Arabs dreaded a repetition of, while the more adventurous infantry,
who had nothing to trade with but their gun, and consequently nothing
to lose but their lives, exclaimed loudly for the ghrazzie.
March 2.—Boo-Khaloom went this day to Birnie, for the purpose
of paying his respects to the sultan, who resides there, and we
accompanied him. Angornou, a very large and populous town, where the
sheikh resided previous to his building Kouka, is about sixteen miles
from that place, and two miles from Birnie. Boo-Khaloom took with
him presents to the amount of about one hundred and twenty dollars,
but by some strange mistake we went empty-handed.
On our arrival at Birnie, which is a walled town, with huts of
the same description as those in Kouka, and probably contains ten
thousand inhabitants, we were first conducted to the gate of the
sultan’s mud edifice, where a few of the court were assembled to
receive us; and one, a sort of chamberlain, habited in eight or ten
tobes, or shirts, of different colours, the outside one of fine white
tufted silk of the manufacture of Soudan. In his hand he carried an
immense staff, like a drum-major’s baton, and on his head he bore
a turban exceeding in size any thing of the kind we had before seen;
this was however but a trifling one to those we were destined to
behold at the audience on the following morning. After salutations,
_Barca l’affia el hamdalilla!_ (Blessing!—Are you well? Thank
God!) which lasted for some minutes, we were conducted to some huts
destined for our resting-place for the night: they were not, however,
of a tempting description; and Boo-Khaloom proposed that a large
tent should be pitched any where, which would be preferable. These
wishes were quickly complied with; a large marquee was in a very
short time ready for our reception, with a screen of linen running
all round it, which, although it kept out the crowds of people
who were assembled round the place, admitted the air, and formed a
most inviting retreat from the burning sun that shone above us. The
sultan shortly after sent word, that by sunrise the next morning he
would receive us. In the evening a most plentiful, if not delicate,
repast was brought to us, consisting of seventy dishes, each of which
would have dined half-a-dozen persons with moderate appetites. The
sultan himself sent ten, his wives thirty, and his mother thirty;
and for fear the English should not eat like the Bornowy, a slave or
two was loaded with live fowls for our dinner. The meats consisted
of mutton and poultry, and were baked, boiled, and stewed.
March 3.—Soon after daylight we were summoned to attend the Sultan
of Bornou. He received us in an open space in front of the royal
residence: we were kept at a considerable distance while his people
approached to within about 100 yards, passing first on horseback;
and after dismounting and prostrating themselves before him, they
took their places on the ground in front, but with their backs to
the royal person, which is the custom of the country. He was seated
in a sort of cage of cane or wood, near the door of his garden,
on a seat which at the distance appeared to be covered with silk or
satin, and through the railing looked upon the assembly before him,
who formed a sort of semicircle extending from his seat to nearly
where we were waiting. Nothing could be more absurd and grotesque
than some, nay all, of the figures who formed this court. Here was
all the outward show of pomp and grandeur, without one particle
of the staple commodity, power, to plead its excuse; he reigns and
governs by the sufferance of the sheikh: and the better to answer
his views, by making him more popular with all parties, the sultan
is amused by indulging in all the folly and bigotry of the ancient
negro sovereigns. Large bellies and large heads are indispensable
for those who serve the court of Bornou; and those who unfortunately
possess not the former by nature, or on whom lustiness will not
be forced by cramming, make up the deficiency of protuberance by a
wadding, which, as they sit on the horse, gives the belly the curious
appearance of hanging over the pummel of the saddle. The eight, ten,
and twelve shirts, of different colours, that they wear one over
the other, help a little to increase this greatness of person: the
head is enveloped in folds of muslin or linen of various colours,
though mostly white, so as to deform it as much as possible; and
those whose turban seemed to be the most studied had the effect of
making the head appear completely on one side. Besides this they are
hung all over with charms, inclosed in little red leather parcels,
strung together; the horse, also, has them round his neck, in front
of his head, and about the saddle.
[Illustration: From a Sketch by Major Denham.
Engraved by E. Finden.
RECEPTION OF THE MISSION.
BY THE SULTAN OF BORNOU.
_Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London._]
When these courtiers, to the number of about two hundred and sixty
or three hundred, had taken their seats in front of the sultan,
we were allowed to approach to within about pistol-shot of the
spot where he was sitting, and desired to sit down ourselves,
when the ugliest black that can be imagined, his chief eunuch,
the only person who approached the sultan’s seat, asked for the
presents. Boo-Khaloom’s were produced, inclosed in a large shawl,
and were carried unopened to the presence. Our glimpse was but a
faint one of the sultan, through the lattice-work of his pavilion,
sufficient however to see that his turban was larger than any of
his subjects’, and that his face, from the nose downwards, was
completely covered. A little to our left, and nearly in front of
the sultan, was an extempore declaimer shouting forth praises of
his master, with his pedigree; and near him one who bore the long
wooden frumfrum, on which he ever and anon blew a blast, loud and
unmusical. Nothing could be more ridiculous than the appearance of
these people squatting down in their places, tottering under the
weight and magnitude of their turbans and their bellies, while the
thin legs that appeared underneath but ill accorded with the bulk
of the other parts.
Immediately after this ceremony we took our departure for
Angornou. Angornou is the largest and most populous town of Bornou,
and is situated a few miles from the Tchad. This town contains at
least thirty thousand inhabitants: it is large and straggling, but
not walled. The huts are also larger and more commodious than those
of Kouka; some of them having four mud walls, and two chambers. All
our friends the merchants, who had accompanied the kafila from
Tripoli and Mourzuk, had removed here, after paying their respects
to the sheikh at Kouka, this being the fsug, or market town: they
visited us immediately on our arrival. The only traders to Soudan
are Moors. I found here a native of Loggun, who had just returned
from Sennaar; he had been, however, two years on the journey. This
man I was extremely anxious to see, but he was purposely moved away;
and when, on the following day, I followed him to Kouka, he sent me
word, that until he had seen the sheikh he dared not come to the hut.
The public market day is on a Wednesday, and attended sometimes by
eighty or a hundred thousand persons, as the natives say, in peaceable
times; but there was a very good market this day in an open space in
the centre of the town, which is held every evening. Fish, flesh,
and fowls, were in abundance, dressed and undressed, and tomatas,
and onions, but no other vegetables.—Again my excessive whiteness
became a cause of both pity and astonishment, if not disgust: a
crowd followed me through the market, others fled at my approach;
some of the women oversetting their merchandize, by their over
anxiety to get out of my way; and although two of them were so struck
with astonishment as to remain fixed to the spot, unconscious of
the escape of their companions, they no sooner perceived me quite
close to them, than they too ran off irresistibly affrighted. The
day had been insufferably hot, and the night was little less so:
indeed I think Kouka the better air of the two. I preferred this
night sleeping in the open air.
March 4.—Linen is so cheap that most of the males in Angornow
indulge in the luxury of a shirt and a pair of trowsers: several
beggars stood near the fsug, and holding the remains of an old
pair of the latter in their hand, while they held up their shirt,
in proof of their assertion, kept exclaiming, “But breeches,
there are none! But breeches, there are none!” This novel mode of
drawing the attention of the passers-by so amused me, that I could
not help laughing outright.
The principal demand at Angornou was for amber and coral; a large
round piece of the former brought four dollars in money, and a
string, eighty or one hundred. Pieces of brass and copper were also
much sought after: all other kinds of merchandize were paid for in
slaves or tobes; but these brought money, and were readily sold. The
inhabitants are mostly Bornowy. The strangers, however, are numerous;
and many Tibboos and Kanemboos reside here for certain months in
the year. The men are well grown, but not so well-looking as the
people of Kanem: the large mouth, and thick lips, are strikingly
ugly features; the men’s heads are, in general, closely shaved,
and those of the lower orders uncovered. The only persons armed near
the sultan’s person were some hundreds of negroes, in blue tobes,
who were outside the court circle. These bore immense clubs, with a
large round head: bows and arrows were slung at their backs, and a
short dagger placed along the inside of the right arm. A footman, in
attendance on a chief mounted, ran behind him, carrying four spears.
March 5.—I had proposed making an excursion, for a few days, to a
large river to the southward of Kouka, called the Shary, as the only
way to gain authentic information about it; and Dr. Oudney wished to
accompany me. We were, however, obliged to put off our journey, first,
in consequence of his illness, and, secondly, from the unsettled
state of Boo-Khaloom’s affairs with the Arabs. Boo-Khaloom paid
us a visit after seeing the sheikh; and from what I could gather,
although nothing was freely communicated, the probability of the
ghrazzie’s going was increased. Hillman had made two wooden boxes
for the sheikh, the workmanship of which surprised him exceedingly,
and, during our absence, he had sent for him, and requested he
would commence making a sort of litter, to go between two camels,
or mules, such as he had heard were used by the sultans of Fezzan:
our carpenter very frankly said, that any thing he could do should
be done with pleasure, but he could not work in the sun, and that a
shed must be built for him, and wood must be found for him, as he had
seen none in the country that would make the keel of a jolly-boat. As
much as was necessary of this reply was interpreted to the sheikh,
who promised him that negroes should make mats directly for his shed,
and that others should go into the wood and bring the largest trees
they could find; and in the evening a present came for the carpenter
of wheat, rice, honey, and butter.
March 6.—The sheikh sent this morning to say, that he wished
for some of our rockets, in order that the Shouaas, his enemies,
might see what the English had brought him. On Monday, the day of
the fsug or market, when they would be in the town, we promised
him six; but reminded him, at the same time, that we had but few,
and that here we could make no more. He also sent a very fine young
lion, about three months old, not above half the size of that I had
seen before: this was a very tame good-natured fellow, and I could
not help regretting the necessity we were under of refusing him a
corner of our huts, as he was ordered to be immediately killed in
consequence of our declining to accept him.
March 7.—Doctor Oudney’s illness increased, and he had daily fits
of the ague, which, in his weak state, became alarming. I had made
it my business, as I thought it my duty, to cultivate the friendship
and good-will of Boo-Khaloom, and by his means I hoped to be made
acquainted with the sheikh’s real intentions towards us. The man
of Loggun, who had returned from Senaar, I used every means to get
a sight of, but I found it impossible, and he sent me word privately
that he dared not come.
March 8 and 9.—Both these days the numbers of persons who crowded
my hut, from morning to night, were greater, and consequently
their visits more pestering than common. Every little thing, from
the compass to the pen and ink, from the watch to the tin cup out
of which I drank, excited their curiosity; and as they now became
bolder, they seized hold of every thing which they formerly only
eyed at a distance. It was not, however, their curiosity alone that
was excited—the possession was coveted, either for themselves or
the sheikh, of every article: a looking-glass, and a small lantern,
I rescued out of the hands of at least a dozen, a dozen times. A
copy of Captain Lyon’s book, the fame of which had preceded us, in
consequence of Doctor Oudney’s having shown it to some merchants
at Mourzuk, was demanded twenty times a day, and it required all
my patience to go over and explain the pictures as often as they
required. It produced very different effects, but in all astonishment
and in most suspicion. The sheikh had heard of it, and one of his
slaves borrowed it for him of my servant, by stealth, as he did
not wish it to be known that he had a desire to see it. For three
days after this I was again and again applied to by all his chief
people to see what I had drawn, or written, as they express it, of
Bornou. I repeatedly assured them, that those in the book were not
mine, that the person who wrote them was far away. It would not do;
they shook their heads, and said I was cunning, and would not show
them. They then changed their tone, and very seriously begged that
I would not write them, that is, _draw_ their portraits; that they
did not like it, that the sheikh did not like it, that it was a sin;
and I am quite sure, from the impression, that we had much better
never have produced the book at all.
The sheikh expressed a wish that two rockets might be started,
on a signal being made from the top of his house. I gave Karowash
a blue light, with instructions how to make the signal: his heart,
however, failed him when he got to the spot, and the signal was made
by a wisp of straw. The first rocket went off nearly perpendicular,
and with beautiful effect. I lessened very much the elevation of the
second, and it flew over the town not more than a hundred yards higher
than the tops of the huts; and bursting in its course, occasioned a
universal scream, that lasted for some seconds. Its consequences I
believe were not so serious as the first display of fire-works was
at Mourzuk: there several ladies lost all present hopes of blessing
their husbands with little pledges of love; and in one house the
favourite slave of a particular friend of ours was put instantly to
bed of a seven months’ child.
March 10.—We had now been in Kouka nearly a month—had seen
the sheikh but three times; and we discovered, that people coming
from the east and from the south, of which there were but few,
were carefully prohibited from visiting us. I found out also that
a conversation had taken place between Boo-Khaloom and the sheikh,
in which the latter had mentioned, that he had heard the Doctor
wished, or rather intended, to proceed to Soudan, but that he could
not allow of such a proceeding, for that the bashaw’s despatch
had not mentioned such being the wish of the English king.
This day I had a little respite, my visiting list being much
reduced in consequence of its being market-day; there was, as usual,
an abundance of all necessaries, though but few luxuries; and as
the people got more accustomed to my appearance, they became more
familiar: and one young lady, whose numerous bracelets of elephants’
teeth, heavy silver rings on each side of her face, coral in her nose,
and amber necklace, proclaimed her a person of wealth, nimbly jumped
off her bullock, and tore the corner from my pocket-handkerchief,
as she said, for a souvenir. I could do no less than request her to
accept the remainder of so useful an appendage, and I was happy to
see that this piece of gallantry was not lost even upon savages. They
all clapped their hands, and cried, “Barca! barca!” and the lady
herself, whose hands and face were really running down with grease,
so regardless was she of expense, generously poured into the sleeve
of my shirt nearly a quart of ground nuts.
March 11.—Doctor Oudney was still confined to his bed, and I
received a summons from the sheikh, to whom a report had been made of
a musical box of mine, which played or stopped merely by my holding up
my finger. The messenger declared he was dying to see it, and I must
make haste. The wild exclamations of wonder and screams of pleasure
that this piece of mechanism drew from the generality of my visitors
were curiously contrasted in the person of the intelligent sheikh:
he at first was greatly astonished, and asked several questions,
exclaiming “_A gieb! gieb!_” “Wonderful! wonderful!” but
the sweetness of the Swiss Ranz-des-Vaches which it played, at last
overcame every other feeling: he covered his face with his hand and
listened in silence; and on one man near him breaking the charm by a
loud exclamation, he struck him a blow which made all his followers
tremble. He instantly asked, “if one twice as large would not be
better?” I said “Yes; but it would be twice as dear.” “By
G—!” said he, “if one thousand dollars would purchase it,
it would be cheap.” Who will deny that nature has given us all a
taste for luxuries?
During this short conversation we became better friends than we had
ever been before, during our three former visits. To his surprise,
he now found that I spoke intelligible Arabic, and he begged to see
me whenever I chose: these were just the terms upon which I wished
to be with him; and thinking this a favourable moment for adding
strength to his present impressions, I could not help begging he
would keep the box. He was the more delighted as I had refused it
before to Karouash, when he had requested it in the sheikh’s name.
March 12.—I had another interview this day with the sheikh, in his
garden, about four in the afternoon: we were only three persons,
Barca Gana, his first general, Karouash, and myself. We had the
musical box playing until he understood its stops as well as myself;
and after really a pleasant interview of an hour’s duration, we
separated, improved considerably in each other’s good opinion. I
asked to visit the Tchad next day, and he gave immediate orders to
Barca Gana, that some one should attend me who knew the roads, and
that a hut and food might be in readiness for me at night. I lost no
time in availing myself of this permission; and soon after daylight
on the next day my guides were at the door,—Fajah, a Kanemboo, high
in the sheikh’s favour, and Maramy, a sort of half-cast Felatah,
who was sent merely because he could speak a little Arabic. We
proceeded about ten miles, to a town called Bree; where the _kaid_
(governor), after hearing the orders, came to my horse’s side,
and said he should be ready in an instant to accompany me: he
also proposed that we should return that night to the town, where
a supper and hut, with dancing-girls, should be ready for me. I,
however, refused this, and said I was prepared with my blanket, and
that we would sleep near the lake. We now went eastward for about
five miles, when we came to the banks of the Tchad. I had seen no
part of the lake so unencumbered by trees as this, and there were
evident proofs of its overflowings and recedings near the shores;
but beyond was an uninterrupted expanse of waters, as far as the
eye could reach east and south-east. A fine grass grew abundantly
along the marshy shores, and thousands of cattle belonging to the
sheikh, the produce of his last expedition to Begharmi, were grazing,
and in beautiful condition. The sun was now at its greatest power,
and, spreading my mat under the shade of a clump of tulloh trees,
I was just preparing a repast of some bread and honey, when two or
three black boys who had accompanied us from Bree, and whom I had
seen rushing about in the water, brought me five or six fine fish
resembling a mullet, and which they had driven into the shallow water
almost in as many minutes: a fire was quickly made, and they roasted
them so well and expeditiously, that their manner of cooking deserves
to be noticed:—A stick is run through the mouth of the fish, and
quite along the belly to the tail; this stick is then stuck in the
ground, with the head of the fish downwards, and inclined towards
the fire: our negroes had quickly a circle of these fish round a
clear flame, and by turning them constantly by the tail, they were
most excellently dressed. These fish are called by the Kanemboo,
kerwha; in Arabic, turfaw;—the name of fish in general in the
Bornou language is boonie.
I told my satellites that here would be my quarters for the night:
they assured me that the musquitoes were both so numerous and
so large, that I should find it impossible to remain, and that
the horses would be miserable. They advised our retiring with the
cattle to a short distance from the water, and sleeping near them;
by which means the attention of these insects would be taken off
by the quadrupeds. Englishman-like, I was obstinate; and very soon
falling asleep, although daylight, I was so bitten by musquitoes,
in size equalling a large fly, that I was glad, on awaking, to take
the advice of my more experienced guides. Towards the evening we
mounted our horses and chased some very beautiful antelopes, and
saw a herd of elephants at a distance, exceeding forty in number;
two buffaloes also stood boldly grazing, nearly up to their bodies
in water; on our approaching them they quickly took to the lake:
one of them was a monstrous animal, at least fourteen feet in length
from the tail to the head. The antelopes are particularly beautiful,
of a light brown colour, with some stripes of black and white about
their bellies; they are not very swift, and are only to be found in
the neighbourhood of the Tchad, and other large waters.
The tamarind and locust-trees were here abundant, and loaded with
fruit; the former of a rich and fine flavour. The horses now became
so irritated by the shoals of insects that attacked them, the white
one of Fajah being literally covered with blood, that we determined
on seeking the cattle herd, and taking up our quarters for the night
with them. A vacant square was left in the centre, and ourselves and
horses were admitted: mats were spread, and about thirty basket jars
of sweet milk were set before me, with another of honey; this, in
addition to some rice which I had brought with me, made a sumptuous
repast; and although, previous to leaving the lake, my face, hands,
and back of the neck, resembled those of a child with the small-pox,
from the insects, yet here I slept most comfortably, without being
annoyed by a single musquito.
March 14.—A very heavy dew had fallen this night, a thing we had
not felt since leaving Gatrone, and then but very slightly: in the
morning my bornouse, which lay over me, was completely wet through;
and on the mat, after daylight, crystalline drops were lying like
icicles. On arriving at the lake, Maramy left us, as he said, to look
for the elephants, as the sheikh had desired him to take me close to
them; and I commenced shooting and examining the beautiful variety of
waterfowl that were in thousands sporting on the water, and on its
shores. I succeeded in shooting a most beautiful white bird of the
crane kind, with black neck and long black bill; and some snipes,
which were as numerous as swarms of bees: and in three shots killed
four couple of ducks, and one couple of wild geese—these were very
handsomely marked, and fine specimens. While I was thus employed,
Maramy came galloping up, saying that he had found three very large
elephants grazing, to the south-east, close to the water: when we
came within a few hundred yards of them, all the persons on foot,
and my servant on a mule, were ordered to halt, while four of us,
who were mounted, rode up to these stupendous animals.
The sheikh’s people began screeching violently: and although
at first they appeared to treat our approach with great contempt,
yet after a little they moved off, erecting their ears, which had
until then hung flat on their shoulders, and giving a roar that
shook the ground under us. One was an immense fellow, I should
suppose sixteen feet high; the other two were females, and moved
away rather quickly, while the male kept in the rear, as if to guard
their retreat. We wheeled swiftly round him; and Maramy casting a
spear at him, which struck him just under the tail, and seemed to
give him about as much pain as when we prick our finger with a pin,
the huge beast threw up his proboscis in the air with a loud roar,
and from it cast such a volume of sand, that, unprepared as I was
for such an event, nearly blinded me. The elephant rarely, if ever,
attacks; and it is only when irritated that he is dangerous: but he
will sometimes rush upon a man and horse, after choking them with
dust, and destroy them in an instant.
As we had cut him off from following his companions, he took the
direction leading to where we had left the mule and the footmen:
they quickly fled in all directions; and my man Columbus (the mule
not being inclined to increase its pace) was so alarmed, that he did
not get the better of it for the whole day. We pressed the elephant
now very close, riding before, behind, and on each side of him;
and his look sometimes, as he turned his head, had the effect of
checking instantly the speed of my horse—his pace never exceeded a
clumsy rolling walk, but was sufficient to keep our horses at a short
gallop. I gave him a ball from each barrel of my gun, at about fifty
yards’ distance; and the second, which struck his ear, seemed to
give him a moment’s uneasiness only; but the first, which struck
him on the body, failed in making the least impression. After giving
him another spear, which flew off his tough hide without exciting
the least sensation, we left him to his fate.
News was soon brought us that eight elephants were at no great
distance, and coming towards us: it was thought prudent to chase them
away, and we all mounted for that purpose. They appeared unwilling
to go, and did not even turn their backs until we were quite close,
and had thrown several spears at them; the flashes from the pan
of the gun, however, appeared to alarm them more than any thing:
they retreated very majestically, first throwing out, as before,
a quantity of sand. A number of the birds here called tuda were
perched on the backs of the elephants; these resemble a thrush in
shape and note, and were represented to me as being extremely useful
to the elephant, in picking off the vermin from those parts which
it is not in his power to reach.
When the heat of the sun was a little diminished, we followed the
course of the water; and had it not been for the torment which the
mosquitoes and flies occasioned, there were spots in which I could
have pitched my tent for a week. I saw several Balearic cranes,
but I was too far off to get a shot at them. Having proceeded
nearly eight miles along the shores of the Tchad, in which there
is no sort of variety either in appearance or vegetable production,
a coarse grass, and a small bell-flower, being the only plants that
I could discover, about an hour before sunset we left these banks,
and arrived at Koua, a small village to the north; where, the kaid of
the town being absent, we were glad to take up our quarters within the
fence of rushes that went round his hut, and after making some coffee,
I laid myself down for the night: about midnight he returned, and we
then got corn for our horses, and fowls and milk for ourselves. Both
this town and Bree were quite new, and peopled by the Kanemboos,
who had emigrated with the sheikh from their own country; and I
never saw handsomer or better formed people.
When I appeared in the town, the curiosity and alarm which my hands
and face excited almost inclined me to doubt whether they had not
been changed in the night. One little girl was in such agonies of
tears and fright at the sight of me, that nothing could console her,
not even a string of beads which I offered her—nor would she put
out her hand to take them. I must, however, do the sex the justice
to say, that those more advanced in years were not afflicted with
such exceeding diffidence—at the sight of the beads they quickly
made up to me; and seeing me take from the pocket of a very loose
pair of Turkish trowsers a few strings, which were soon distributed,
some one exclaimed, “Oh! those trowsers are full of beads, only
he won’t give them to us.” This piece of news was followed by a
shout, and they all approached, so fully determined to ascertain the
fact, that although I did not until afterwards understand what had
been said, Fajah, my guide, thought it right to keep the ladies at a
distance, by what I thought rather ungentle means. Had I been aware
of all the circumstances, I do not think that I should have consented
to their being so harshly treated, as I have no doubt they would,
like their sisterhood, those beautiful specimens of red and white
womankind in our own country, have been reasoned into conviction,
without absolutely demanding ocular demonstration.
March 15.—A little after noon, we arrived again at Kouka. Although
much fatigued by the excessive heats, yet I was greatly gratified
by the excursion: no information was, however, on this occasion
to be obtained, as to the inhabitants of those islands which are
said to be far away to the eastward, up the lake. These Kerdies,
as they are called, come, at certain times, to the spot where I
had been, and even close to Angornou; plunder sometimes a village,
and carry off the cattle in their canoes. These plunderers continue
their depredations, without any means being taken to oppose them.
I was not at all prepared for the news which was to reach me on
returning to our inclosure. The horse that had carried me from Tripoli
to Mourzuk and back again, and on which I had ridden the whole journey
from Tripoli to Bornou, had died, a very few hours after my departure
for the lake. There are situations in a man’s life in which losses
of this nature are felt most keenly; and this was one of them. It
was not grief, but it was something very nearly approaching to it;
and though I felt ashamed of the degree of derangement which I
suffered from it, yet it was several days before I could get over
the loss. Let it be however remembered, that the poor animal had
been my support and comfort—may I not say companion?—through
many a dreary day and night; had endured both hunger and thirst in
my service with the utmost patience; was so docile, though an Arab,
that he would stand still for hours in the desert, while I slept
between his legs, his body affording me the only shelter that could
be obtained from the powerful influence of a noon-day sun: he was yet
the fleetest of the fleet, and ever foremost in the race. My negro lad
opened his head, and found a considerable quantity of matter formed
on the brain. Three horses at the Arab tents had died with similar
appearances; and there can be little doubt but that it was the effect
of climate, the scarcity and badness of the water, and the severe
exposure to the sun which we had all undergone. The thermometer was
this day in the hut 103°; the hottest day we had yet felt in Bornou.
I made it a rule to show myself among the people and merchants at
some part of each market-day, in order to make myself familiar
to the strangers who attended from the neighbouring towns, and
to-day I was eminently successful—the young and the old came
near me without much apparent alarm; but stretching out my hand,
a smile, or any accidental turn of the head, always started them
from my side: there seemed to be, however, a reciprocal feeling of
better acquaintance between us, and I was rather surprised at the
complacency, nay, even satisfaction, with which I began to survey the
negro beauties—frequently exclaiming to Boo-Khaloom’s brother,
who was with me, “What a very fine girl! what pretty features!”
without even remarking that “toujours noir” which had previously
accompanied any contemplation of what might otherwise have struck
me as a pleasing countenance.
March 18.—Doctor Oudney thinking himself a little improved in
health, he determined on seeing the sheikh the next day, on the
subject of his departure for Soudan; for myself, I was but too happy
for the present in having received no refusal from the sheikh to my
proposition of accompanying the ghrazzie. I had previously determined,
whether I should succeed in this object or not, that I would as yet
ask no other favour; as I felt assured that only by slow degrees and
a patient cultivation of the friendship of El Kanemy, our ultimate
objects could be accomplished. I was not, therefore, greatly surprised
to find that the sheikh gave this morning a decided refusal to Doctor
Oudney’s request of accompanying the kafila to Soudan.
A Shouaa chief, Dreess-aboo Raas-ben-aboo-Deleel, whose people had
their tents close to the Shary, visited me to-day. I found him a
very intelligent cunning fellow: he put a hundred questions, and,
strange to say, asked for nothing as a gift. I, however, gave him
a looking-glass, with which he was much pleased. He and his people
had passed over from the service of the sultan of Waday to that of
our sheikh, three years ago: he told me that the Sultan of Begharmi
was preparing to rebuild his capital, Kernuck; and from this man
I obtained a route and plan of the branches of the Shary, close
to Begharmi.
March 26.—I had another visit from my new ally this morning,
who came alone, and assured me the sheikh was not willing that
we should see any of the country to the south of the Shary; that
my liberality to him yesterday had made him take an oath to be my
friend; and that if I would lay my hand on that book, pointing to my
own journal, that holy book, he said he would tell me what order the
sheikh had given him with respect to his conduct on our arriving in
his district,—which was, that we were not to cross the river. He,
however, added, that if I chose to pass the Shary and come to his
tents, which were at a place called Kerga, he would find means of
sending me still farther south. “If you leave the Shary,” said
he, “when the sun is three fathoms high, you will be with me
by sunset.” I questioned him as to the danger of incurring the
sheikh’s displeasure; but he did not prevaricate, and his reply
was “there were three brothers of them, and the sheikh wanted to
bring them all over to his service, and that it was not his interest
to quarrel with them.”
March 28.—Doctor Oudney was getting worse and worse: he had
applied a blister to his chest in consequence of the violence of his
cough; but he was so weak as not to be able to move from one hut to
another. His principal food was a little flour and water paste, and
sometimes a little soup at night. Boo-Khaloom saw us after prayers;
he said that he had determined on dismissing about thirty of the
most rebellious Arabs, and they were about to return to Mourzuk.
March 29 to April 8.—Tuesday. Drees paid me a third visit previous
to his leaving Kouka, and pressed me to come over the Shary, and at
least stay some time at his tents. It was night when he came; and he
either affected, or really had great fear, of any one’s noticing
him. “Do not mention my coming to you,” said he; “every body
who visits your hut is a spy on your actions. Every thing you say is
repeated to the sheikh.” “—And yourself,” said I. “Very
good,” said he; “you have no reason to trust me. Say nothing;
I have made you the offer. Come, if you think proper; but do not
commit yourself. I have spoken to you as I would to my own bowels.”
The Shouaas Arabs are a very extraordinary race, and have scarcely
any resemblance to the Arabs of the north: they have fine open
countenances, with aquiline noses and large eyes; their complexion
is a light copper colour: they possess great cunning with their
courage, and resemble in appearance some of our best favoured
gypsies in England, particularly the women, and their Arabic is
nearly pure Egyptian.
[Illustration: From a Sketch by Major Denham.
Engraved by E. Finden.
SHOUAA WOMEN.
KINGDOM OF BORNOU.
_Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London._]
The disputes between the Arabs had arrived at such a height,
that all idea of an amicable arrangement between them seemed
at an end. Abdallah Bougiel had obtained the support of most of
the sheikh’s people, and was therefore favoured by the sheikh
himself: he succeeded in getting away nearly half of the Arabs
from Boo-Khaloom; and they pitched their tents at a few miles’
distance from the town. The chiefs, however, were in Kouka every
day, always with loaded pistols under their barracans, fearing
assassination from the intrigues of each other. Abdallah Bougiel
charged Boo-Khaloom with wasting his time in Kouka, for the purpose
of disposing of his merchandize; while the Arabs were starving, and
might have been employed in a marauding expedition for the benefit of
the bashaw. Boo-Khaloom very boldly, and with great truth, accused
Abdallah of mutinous and disorderly conduct, in opposing him on all
occasions,—taking the part of those refractory Arabs whom he had
thought it right to punish on the road for robbery, and seducing them
from under his command, where the bashaw had placed both them and
himself: he most properly declared, that they came as an escort to
the English, and he as a merchant—that if a ghrazzie was advisable,
he was to judge when the proper time would be for undertaking it.
The sheikh, however, without lessening his attentions to Boo-Khaloom,
whom he now promised to send with his own people to the country
beyond Mandara, encouraged Abdallah to pursue his plan of quitting
Boo-Khaloom. The occupation of making up our despatches, as well
as the continued weakness of Doctor Oudney, had prevented our
attempting any movement during the last ten days: I say attempting,
for we were upon such ticklish ground, that success seemed more
than doubtful. Doctor Oudney was, however, a little better, though
not fit to accompany an expedition of this nature; and I declared
my intention of proceeding with Boo-Khaloom, begging him to make
known my wish to the sheikh.
Thus were we situated on the 8th of April, after ten days of repeated
disappointment, great anxiety, and excessive heat, the thermometer
being some days at 106°. Mr. Clapperton’s horse had died on the
5th, of the same complaint as my own. Both the Arab expeditions
were on the eve of departing, but without our having any knowledge
of their destination. Bougiel had been repeatedly to my hut, and
endeavoured to convince me of the uprightness of his conduct, and
his great love for the English: “Only say, _sidi reis_, (my lord
captain) where you will go, and I will bring you a hundred men,
who will accompany you, and die by your side.” I told him, “I
had no occasion for such an escort, and no money to reward them;
that he had better return to the tents, be reconciled to Boo-Khaloom,
and, as he had left Tripoli with him, return with him, and then make
his complaint to the bashaw.” He said, “No: Boo-Khaloom had once
d——d his father and his faith! that it was deep in his heart;
_Ikmish fi gulbi_, and he could never forgive him. But would I write
to the bashaw, and the consul at Tripoli, and say that he had always
been my friend?” I replied, “Certainly not! That, if I wrote at
all, it would be to say that he was decidedly wrong in every thing
that he had done.”
Boo-Khaloom left Kouka this afternoon on an expedition, without
coming to take leave of us: this was a sufficient proof to me that
our application to accompany the ghrazzie had been met by a denial
on the part of the sheikh. The disappointment this occasioned me was
very great indeed, for I had always reckoned on being at least left
to my own arrangements for this expedition; and I felt confident that
by such means only could we get to the southward—which conclusion
subsequent events proved to be a just one.
April 10.—Soon after daylight we were summoned to appear before
the sheikh, and our request of visiting the Shary complied with.
The sheikh produced some uncouth ornaments for the front of the head
and breast, of gold and silver, with a number of paste and glass
imitations of ruby and other precious stones. He thought these real,
and asked their value; and, showing him the little bit of yellow
metal which gave the glass bead the colour of the topaz, amazed him
greatly: the person who gave him these as real will meet with but
a sorry reception on his next visit, as what he had thought worth
one hundred dollars were probably dear at as many pence.
April 11 and 12.—The ghrazzie, under Boo-Khaloom, remained these
two days at Angornou with Barca Gana, the sheikh’s kashella (or
general), to collect people for the expedition. Abdallah Bougiel
had left Kouka the day before, in the direction of Kanem. This day
five of his horsemen, and twenty of his men on foot, redeserted,
and passed through Kouka in their way to rejoin Boo-Khaloom. One of
the sheikh’s eunuchs, of whom he had six, the only males who were
allowed to enter that division of his house where the women resided,
came to me on the part of his favourite wife begging for a bead,
as she called it, similar to the one she sent for me to look at,
adding, that his mistress would give any price for it, for the like
was never seen in Bornou. On this curiosity being taken out of a
beautiful silk handkerchief, to my surprise I saw one of the glass
drops of a chandelier, diamond-shaped, which I suppose had been
brought by some of the freed female slaves from Tripoli. “He was
not at all astonished,” he said, “at my not having any thing
like it: Ah! he was afraid not; it was wonderfully beautiful! His
mistress would be very unhappy at the news he would take back.”
No glass beads, or such as are brittle, and likely to break, can be
sold for any thing: strength in these articles is looked for even
more than beauty, and the sterling weight of this crystal drop,
added to its clearness, made it invaluable in the eyes of the sultana.
April 13.—I had thought it prudent to send as a present to the
sheikh my remaining horse. I had mounted him but once for two months;
a sore on his back, from a small size became inflamed, with a deep
hole in the middle, surrounded with proud flesh: his blood was in
a sad state, and he got thinner and thinner. I hinted, at the same
time, that a horse of the country would be very acceptable to me in
exchange. The sheikh very handsomely sent me word that I should have
as good a one as the country afforded—and a very active powerful
little iron-grey was sent me.
Boo-Khaloom, we heard, was to quit Angornou on his expedition on
the 14th: the losing this opportunity of both seeing the country
and in what manner these people could lead 3000 men into action,
for his ghrazzie was to consist of that number, vexed me more than I
can express. It was an opportunity, I felt, that was not to be lost:
the sheikh’s promised expedition might never take place; it would
certainly be in a different direction; and at any rate I knew that
with Boo-Khaloom I could follow my own plans, which most likely
with the sheikh I could not. In this state of dilemma I determined
on applying to the sheikh’s chief karouash, who professed himself
greatly my friend, and to offer him fifty dollars if he could obtain
the sheikh’s permission. The request instantly opened my eyes as
to which quarter the wind of the court blew from. “Could not you
make the sheikh,” said he “some pretty present? At the same time
he is only afraid of your getting into danger: _egal rais khaleel
rajal meliah yassur_ (he says the rais is an excellent person).”
I replied, “that was impossible; that we had already given many
handsome presents, and had written to England for others; for himself
he should have fifty dollars if he succeeded.”—Karouash left me
with, I am sure, every wish to succeed in my behalf.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 22: _Gubka_, about a yard English.]
CHAPTER III.
EXPEDITION TO MANDARA.
It was late in the evening of the 15th April before my mind was made
up as to the practicability of accompanying the ghrazzie. I had an
interview with the sheikh, when he said, “I must refuse, because I
know not how to ensure your safety: still I wish that I could comply
with your request. The application by Boo-Khaloom for all your party
to go was out of the question; your king could not wish that a mission
sent out so far should run such risks—it was an imprudent request,
and the bashaw would never have forgiven me if I had complied with
it. You are differently situated; your sultan expressly orders you to
accompany any military expeditions: but although you are a soldier,
you will scarcely know how to take care of yourself, in an expedition
of this nature, should Boo-Khaloom meet with a repulse; and on this
account alone I cannot sanction your departure.” I replied, “that
I could not be otherwise than sensible of the anxiety he evinced
for our safety, but that the orders of my sultan must be obeyed if
possible: that although he refused his approbation, I trusted he
would not prevent my accompanying Boo-Khaloom. Indeed,” added I,
smiling, “if that is your intention, I give you notice that the
_silsel_[23] had better be put on—I shall certainly go, for I dare
not lose such an opportunity of seeing the country.”
Here ended our conference; and some time after midnight, the
negro who was to accompany me to Angornou, where I had previously
intended awaiting the arrival of Doctor Oudney, roused me to
commence my journey, adding, “We shall scarcely reach Angornou
before daylight.” My baggage and necessaries were easily carried
by one camel. My sole companion was my own negro Barca, whom I
mounted on a mule, with my small canteens under him, containing
a scanty supply of coffee: this, and a bag of rice, were all my
provisions—and I trusted to Providence for the rest. To join the
ghrazzie I was determined; but in what way it was to be accomplished,
I was not yet decided. Boo-Khaloom had left Angornou the day before;
and it was reported that he would halt one day about thirty-five
miles south of that place: the destination of the expedition still
remained a secret. Maraymy ben Soudanee, the negro whom the sheikh
had appointed to accompany me, was the same that had attended me
before in my excursion to the Tchad: he was born a slave in Mohamed
el Soudanee’s family, the sheikh’s first cousin, who was now on
his way to Mecca. As he took with him but a small retinue, Maraymy
and many others were left behind, and served as an askar, or soldier,
to the sheikh. His character amongst the sheikh’s people was one
of great bravery; his daring manner of approaching the elephants,
in our former trip, had not been unobserved by me; and during our
present excursion he gave such proofs of gallantry and goodness of
heart, at the same time laying me under obligations to him of the
most serious kind,—no less, eventually, than the preservation
of my life—that he merits every praise that it is in my power to
bestow. Maraymy spoke broken Arabic, of which he was not a little
proud: I had discovered that taciturnity was not among the number of
his failings, and we had not proceeded many miles before he began to
gratify his natural propensity with great volubility. For myself I
was unusually disinclined to conversation; many circumstances combined
to render me dissatisfied with the situation of our affairs. I felt,
at the moment, more than ever the want of a companion and friend, in
whose head and heart I could place some confidence; and Maraymy’s
account of his battles, and hair-breadth escapes from the Kerdies,
was almost unnoticed by me.
I was at length, however, roused by his question of “Does the rais
go with the ghrazzie?” “How can I,” said I, “when the sheikh
objects to it?” “But will you go, or not?” said he. “Whether
I do or do not accompany it, at present is uncertain,” replied I:
“you will proceed with me as far as Angornou, and leave me at Abde
Nibbee’s hut. I should have thought much better of the sheikh’s
conduct if he had desired you to be my companion, and sent me on
to join Boo-Khaloom.” “If the rais will tell me whether he is
determined, at all events, to proceed with the ghrazzie or not, I
will then tell him what the sheikh’s orders are to me,” added
Maraymy. “No, no!” rejoined I, “you know me well enough to
be satisfied that no service done, or information given, ever goes
unrewarded.—Tell me, if you choose, your directions; I cannot make
you acquainted with my determination.”
Maraymy held out no longer; and it was to me most gratifying to
learn, that the sheikh desired him not on any account to leave me;
that if he found I was obstinate in persisting to join the expedition,
he was to conduct me to their camp as quick as possible, and give me
in charge to Barca Gana, the sheikh’s black Mameluke, who commanded
the whole, with every possible charge to take care of me. I was not
long now in making Maraymy acquainted with my intentions. I was lavish
in my praises of the sheikh, whom my companion thought nearer a god
than any other mortal; and we entered Angornou while twilight still
spread its grey tint around, planning our departure from thence,
as soon as daylight should return.
April 16.—The whole of this day Angornou was filling fast with
strangers, in consequence of the great fsug the day following—and
it had the appearance of a bustling town of business. Abde Nibbe, at
whose hut I passed the day, was a merchant we had known at Mourzuk,
and here made good his professions of service, which had never before
been put to the test. On a clean mat, placed in a shady corner of
his hut, I slept away the heat of the day; and besides a supper of
_giddeed_ (meat dried in the sun) and rice, he regaled me with a very
pleasant drink, composed of milk, red pepper, and honey. The evening
was so sultry, that I determined on waiting until after midnight;
and about an hour before sunrise we mounted our horses.
April 17.—Our course was south, near a number of gardens; but the
only vegetable produced in them appeared to be onions. For many miles
our road was over one continued plain, covered with wheat and gussub
stubble; and a little before noon we arrived at Yeddie, twenty-one
miles from Angornou, a considerable town, walled, and governed by a
kaid. A hut was pointed out to us, after some altercation, where we
were to pass the heat of the day. I, however, took my place in the
skiffa or entrance, the coolest place I could find.
The kaid soon after paid me a visit, who it seemed was asleep
when I arrived. He was extremely desirous that I should come to
his habitation, and was greatly distressed at not having better
provided for my convenience; moving was, however, quite out of
the question. The heat was excessive; and I merely begged a little
sweet milk, and that the crowd round the door, which I was obliged to
keep open, might, if practicable, be in part dispersed; and I added,
“They are all men—pray are there no women in your town?” The
kaid, who evidently wished to make up for his former inattention,
immediately answered, “Yes, yes! plenty; and they also would like
to come and look at you, if you will give them leave.” This I was
not disposed to refuse; and the kaid, sitting by me, and Maraymy
keeping the door, so that not more than three or four came in at a
time, I received upwards of one hundred of the softer sex. Some of
them were beautiful unaffected children of nature. I had nothing to
show them but a looking-glass, and probably nothing could have pleased
them more. One insisted upon bringing her mother, another her sister,
in order to see the face she loved best reflected by the side of her
own, which appeared to give them exquisite pleasure; as on seeing the
reflection they repeatedly kissed the object of their affection. One
very young and intelligent girl asked if she might bring her child,
and on gaining permission quickly returned with an infant in her
arms: she absolutely screamed with joy; and the tears ran down her
cheeks when she saw the child’s face in the glass, who shook its
hand in token of pleasure on perceiving its own reflected image.
By four in the afternoon we were again on the road, and Maraymy
had raised my spirits by saying, “that if they had not moved on,
we should reach the camp of the Arabs, and the sheikh’s troops,
soon after sunset.” Fortunately they had not moved; and after
fourteen miles we made Merty, and to the west of the town we saw
the tents of the Arabs. Maraymy now told me, “that the sheikh
wished I should put myself under the protection of Barca Gana;
that Boo-Khaloom’s responsibility ceased on arriving at Bornou;
that _he_ was now bound to provide for my safety, and that with
his people he wished me to remain.” I should have been better
pleased to have pitched my tent close to that of my tried friend,
and amongst my old companions the Arabs; but as Maraymy assured me
the sheikh would be highly displeased, I instantly gave up the idea.
Barca Gana received me with a great deal of civility in his tent,
although he kept me several minutes waiting outside, until he had
summoned his fighi, or charm-writer—an indispensable person—and
one or two of his chiefs, to attend him. “If it was the will of
God,” he said, “I should come to no harm, and that he would
do all in his power for my convenience.” A spot was appointed
for my tent near his own; and I took my leave in order to visit the
Arabs. The cheers they all gave me, and the hearty shake of the hand
of Boo-Khaloom, made me regret that I was not to be amongst them, in
spite of all their bad qualities. Boo-Khaloom repeatedly exclaimed,
“I knew you would come; I said you would by some means or other
join us.” One of Barca Gana’s people now brought word that
we should move on by daybreak. I retired to my tent after making
Boo-Khaloom acquainted with the sheikh’s arrangements, first to
write to Doctor Oudney of my proceedings, and then to sleep off my
fatigue. Sleep, however, was my only refreshment: I was as it were
between two stools; one of my friends did not think it necessary,
and the other never intended, to send me any supper.
April 18.—Before sunrise the tents were struck, and we were all in
motion. Barca Gana, who commanded the sheikh’s people, about two
thousand strong, was a native of a town called Sankara, in Soudan,
and had fallen into the sheikh’s hands about seventeen years
before, when only nine years of age. The sheikh had always been
extremely attached to him, and had raised him with his fortunes,
to the rank he now held, as kaid, or governor, of Angala, part
of Loggun, and all the towns on the Shary, besides making him
kashella, or commander-in-chief of his troops: he was a powerful
negro, of uncommon bravery, possessing a _charm_ which he imagined
rendered him invulnerable to either balls or arrows. He was keen,
possessed great quickness of observation, and from being so long in
the sheikh’s confidence, had acquired his manner, which was gentle,
and particularly pleasing: added to this, he was a bigoted Musselman.
As I have before said, the morning of the 18th saw me riding by the
side of Barca Gana, in full march for Mandara. Two hours before noon
we made Alla, a town fourteen miles from Merty: here our tents were
pitched until the afternoon, when we again moved, and after five
hours’ march arrived at Deegoa, twenty miles from Alla. Deegoa
is a large walled town, governed by a sultan subject to the sheikh,
and may boast a population of thirty thousand. With the exception of
the immediate neighbourhood of the town, the country has been less
cleared of wood than the neighbourhood of Angornou, and consequently
is less productive. There is a very large wadey, or water-course,
full a quarter of a mile in breadth: to the south of Deegoa we found
it perfectly dry; but a large canoe, which was laid up by the side,
to be used by travellers proceeding to Mandara in the wet season.
We had here a violent thunder-storm, accompanied by heavy rain
during the night, which made its way plentifully into my Egyptian
tent. Before daylight on the 19th, we broke up our encampment,
and passing the wadey, continued our course through a very close
country; the road consisted of several narrow paths, passable only
for one horse at a time, and these greatly obstructed by the branches
of tulloh, and other prickly trees, which hang over them. We made
Affagay, another very large and populous town, early in the day:
this is also subject to the sheikh, and governed by a kaid. Affagay,
with the towns around it, Sogama, Kindacha, Masseram, and Kingoa,
may be said to possess upwards of twenty thousand inhabitants. To
the westward of Kingoa are the ruins of a very large town called
Dagwamba: the country for many miles round formerly bore that name,
and was governed by a sultan. The people were then all Kerdies,
and, being conquered by the former sultans of Bornou, became
Musselmans. Previous to arriving at Deegoa, we came upon a nest of
Shouaas of the tribe of Waled Salamat: this race extends to the east
quite as far as the Tchad.
Chiefs in this part of Africa are accompanied by as many personal
followers as they think proper to maintain, both as horse and footmen:
some of them form the band, if I may so call it. Barca Gana had five
mounted, who kept close behind him, three of whom carried a sort of
drum, which hung round their necks, and beat time while they sang
extempore songs; one carried a small pipe made of a reed, and the
other blew, on a buffalo’s horn, loud and deep-toned blasts, as we
moved through the wood: but by far the most entertaining and useful
were the running footmen, who preceded the kashella, and acted as
pioneers; they were twelve in number, and carried long forked poles,
with which they, with great dexterity, kept back the branches,
as they moved on at a quick pace, constantly keeping open a path,
which would without them really have been scarcely passable; they,
besides this, were constantly crying aloud something about the road,
or the expedition, as they went on. For example: “Take care of
the holes!—avoid the branches!—Here is the road!—take care of
the tulloh!—its branches are like spears—worse than spears! Keep
off the branches!” “For whom?” “Barca Gana.”—“Who in
battle is like rolling of thunder?” “Barca Gana!”—“Now for
Mandara!—now for the Kerdies!—now for the battle of spears!—Who
is our leader?” “Barca Gana.”—“Here is the wadey, but no
water.”—“God be praised!”—“In battle, who spreads terror
around him like a buffalo in his rage?” “Barca Gana[24]”.
This sort of question and answer, at once useful and exhilarating,
is constantly kept up until the time of halting. We did not move from
Affagay until the next morning, when the whole army were supplied with
bullocks and sheep. This was the first meal I had made since leaving
Angornou, and the following is their method of roasting the meat:
the sheep were killed, cut in half, and laid upon a frame-work of
wood made of strong stakes, and having four supporters; under it was
a strong fire, and by this means the meat was roasted better than I
ever saw it done in any part of Europe except my own country. Towards
the evening I received a summons from Barca Gana, and in his tent
found five or six of the chiefs assembled: half of a roasted sheep
was laid on green boughs placed on the sand before us; the black
chiefs then stripped off the dark blue shirt, their only covering;
the sharpest dagger in the party was searched for, and being given
to one who acted as carver, large slices of the flesh were cut,
distributed about, and quickly devoured without either bread or salt:
when we arrived at the bones, another side shared the same fate,
and our repast closed by huge draughts from a large wooden bowl
of rice water, honey, tamarinds, and red pepper, which nobody was
allowed to drink of but myself and the kashella.—I expressed my
satisfaction at this plentiful feast. Barca Gana said, “What the
country afforded he always lived on; that he never carried any thing
with him in these expeditions but a kind of paste, made of rice,
flour, and honey, which, mixed with water, he took, morning and
evening, when no better fare was to be had.”
On the 20th at noon we reached Delahay, our road lying through a
thick wood. Delahay is a spot surrounded by large wide-spreading
acacias, affording a delightful shade; and here there are between
thirty and forty wells of very sweet water: the huts of a numerous
tribe of Shouaas, called Hajainy, are near this place. It was a
cloudy day, sultry and oppressive; the thermometer in my tent, in the
afternoon, was at 109°. In the evening we made another halting-place,
called Hasbery, where we found no water; having come a distance of
thirty-four miles.
The whole of this country is covered with alluvial soil; has a
dark clayey appearance. Cracks, several inches in width, make the
roads difficult, and, in the wet season, the water which falls
remains on the ground for several months after. This evening,
Boo-Khaloom’s camels, unable to keep pace with the light-footed
maherhies of the Bornou people, were so long in coming up, that
he came to Barca Gana’s tent, and a few unfortunate questions
put to him, on the subject of my religion, sank me wofully in
the opinion of my Bornou friends. Boo-Khaloom had been a great
traveller, and was extremely liberal in his religious opinions for
a Musselman; more so than he dared to acknowledge to these bigoted
followers of the Prophet. The kashella’s fighi, Malem Chadily,
had always eyed me with a look of suspicion, and had once said,
when the whole army halted, at dawn, “Do you wash and pray?”
“Yes,” said I. “Where?” rejoined the fighi. “In my tent,”
I replied. This fighi, who continued throughout my mortal enemy and
annoyance, now asked Boo-Khaloom “what these English were? were
they Hanafy or Maleki?” still believing, that as we appeared a
little better than the Kerdies, or savages, that we must be Moslem
in some way or other. Boo-Khaloom answered, with some hesitation,
“No: that we were mesquine (unfortunate); that we believed not
in ‘the _book_,’ the title always given to the Koran; that we
did not _sully_, or pray, as they did, five times a day; that we
were not circumcised; that we had a book of our own, which did not
mention Saidna Mohamed, and that, blind as we were, we believed in
it: but _In sh’ allah_,” added he, “they will see their error,
and die Musselmans, for they are _naz zein zein Yassur_ (good people,
very good).” This account was followed by a general groan; and the
fighi clasped his hands, looked thoughtful, and then said, “Why
does not the great bashaw of Tripoli make them all Musselmans?”
This question made Boo-Khaloom smile: “Why!” replied Boo-Khaloom,
“that he could not very well do, great as he is; these people are
powerful, very powerful, and an affront to even one of these might
cost the bashaw his kingdom:—they are also rich, very rich.”
“May it please the Lord quickly to send all their riches into
the hands of true Musselmans,” said the fighi; to which the whole
assembly echoed “Amen.” “However,” continued Boo-Khaloom,
“there are _insara Yassur fi denier_ (a great many Christians in the
world), but the English are the best of any; they worship no images;
they believe in one God, and are almost Moslem.” This was as much
as he could say, although it raised me but little in the fighi’s
estimation; and as he decided, so every body was obliged to think.
Our rice water, and honey, was always brought in a brass basin tinned
on the inside, such as are only used by sultans and people of the
highest rank, wooden bowls being always drunk out of by the people;
and out of this basin Barca Gana and myself only were allowed to
drink. To-night, while I was drinking, the fighi made some remark;
what I left in the bowl was instantly thrown away, and soon after
a separate vessel was assigned me.
We continued our course to Ally Mabur, where there is a large lake
of still water. The horses, who had not drunk the night before,
rushed into the lake by hundreds, and, in consequence, the water
we got to drink was nearly as thick as pease-soup. The day was
dreadfully sultry. My camel not coming up, I could not pitch my
tent, and I became nearly exhausted by the intolerable heat. The
thermometer was at 113° in the best shade I could find, and covered
completely with a cloth, besides a thick woollen bornouse, I kept
up some little moisture by excluding entirely all external air;
still it was almost insupportable.
Ally Mabur, in the afternoon, and at night, halted at an open spot
in the wood called Emcheday. The trees we had seen within the last
two days were of a much larger kind, and the underwood less. We had
no water but the muddy beverage we had brought with us. Through an
open space, or break in the wood, I had this day seen part of the
Mandara hills, and had passed an extensive line of huts belonging
to the Beni-hassan Shouaas. We were now but a few miles from the
capital of Mandara, and several persons had arrived from the sultan,
within the last two days, to welcome Barca Gana; but this evening
one of his chiefs came, attended by about twenty horsemen, saying,
“that the sultan would himself meet us the next day, on the road
to Mora, his residence.” Our force had been increased, during the
march, by several Shouaa sheikhs joining us, with their followers,
both from the banks of the Tchad and from the west. We always found
them drawn up on a certain spot on the road; and their salutation
was by charging rapidly up, and shaking the spear at the kashella,
wishing he might “crush his enemies as an elephant tramples on
his victim,” and such like expressions.
By these accessions we were now upwards of three thousand strong,
all cavalry, with the exception of about eighty Arabs on foot. We
continued to approach a noble chain of hills, which were now full
in our view, of considerable height and extent, with numerous trees
growing on their steep and rugged sides. Delow, the first town
we arrived at in Mandara, formerly the residence of the sultan,
containing at least 10,000 inhabitants, has springs of beautiful
fresh water; and in the valleys fig-trees; and trees, which bore a
white flower resembling the zeringa, possessing a grateful odour,
were plentiful.
At about a mile from this town, we saw before us the sultan of
Mandara, surrounded by about five hundred horsemen, posted on a rising
ground ready to receive us, when Barca Gana instantly commanded a
halt. Different parties now charged up to the front of our line,
and wheeling suddenly round, charged back again to the sultan. These
people were finely dressed in Soudan tobes of different colours; dark
blue, and striped with yellow and red; bornouses of coarse scarlet
cloth; with large turbans of white or dark coloured cotton. Their
horses were really beautiful, larger and more powerful than any
thing found in Bornou, and they managed them with great skill. The
sultan’s guard was composed of thirty of his sons, all mounted on
very superior horses, clothed in striped silk tobes; and the skin of
the tiger-cat and leopard forming their shabracks, which hung fully
over their horses’ haunches. After these had returned to their
station in front of the sultan, we approached at full speed in our
turn, halting with the guard between us and the royal presence. The
parley then commenced, and the object of Boo-Khaloom’s visit having
been explained, we retired again to the place we had left; while
the sultan returned to the town, preceded by several men blowing
long pipes, not unlike clarionets, ornamented with shells, and two
immense trumpets from twelve to fourteen feet long, borne by men on
horseback, made of pieces of hollow wood, with a brass mouth-piece,
the sounds of which were not unpleasing.
[Illustration: Drawn by Major Denham.
Engraved by E. Finden.
ARRIVAL AT MORA.
THE CAPITAL OF MANDARA.
_Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London._]
The parley was carried on in the Mandara language, by means of an
interpreter; and I understood that we were to visit the sultan in
the course of the day, and hear his determination.
Boo-Khaloom was, as usual, very sanguine: he said “he should make
the sultan handsome presents, and that he was quite sure a Kirdy[25]
town full of people would be given him to plunder.” The Arabs were
all eagerness; they eyed the Kirdy huts, which were now visible on the
sides of mountains before us, with longing eyes; and contrasting their
own ragged and almost naked state with the appearance of the sultan of
Mandara’s people in their silk tobes, not only thought, but said,
“if Boo-Khaloom pleased, they would go no further; this would
do.” Boo-Khaloom and the Arab sheikhs had repeatedly exclaimed,
when urging El Kanemy to send them to some country for slaves,
“Never mind their numbers! arrows are nothing! and ten thousand
spears are of no importance. We have guns! guns!” exclaiming,
with their favourite imprecations, “_Nakalou-e-kelab fesaa_,”
(We’ll eat them, the dogs, quickly)—“_eich nu, abeed occul_,”
(what! why, they are negroes all!) I fancied I could see the keen
features of El Kanemy curl at these contemptuous expressions, which
equally applied to his own people; and certainly nothing could be
more galling than for him to hear them from such a handful of Arabs:
his own people were _abeed occul_, and their only arms spears and
arrows, and this he could not but feel and remember.
Towards the evening Barca Gana sent to desire me to mount, for the
purpose of visiting the sultan. We entered the town, Boo-Khaloom
and myself riding on his right and left; and at the farther end of
a large square was the sultan’s palace. As is usual on approaching
or visiting a great man, we galloped up to the skiffa at full speed,
almost entering the gates. This is a perilous sort of salutation,
but nothing must stop you; and it is seldom made except at the expense
of one or more lives. On this occasion, a man and horse, which stood
in our way, were ridden over in an instant, the horse’s leg broke,
and the man killed on the spot. The trumpets sounded as we dismounted
at the palace gate; our papouches, or outward slippers, were quickly
pulled off; and we proceeded through a wide skiffa, or entrance,
into a large court, where, under a dark blue tent of Soudan, sat
the sultan, on a mud bench, covered however with a handsome carpet
and silk pillows: he was surrounded by about two hundred persons,
all handsomely dressed in tobes of silk and coloured cotton, with
his five eunuchs; the principal men of the country sitting in front,
but all with their backs turned towards him. The manner of saluting
is curious: Barca Gana, as the sheikh’s representative, approached
to a space in front of the eunuchs, his eyes fixed on the ground;
he then sat down, with his eyes still fixed on the earth, with his
back to the sultan, and, clapping his hands together, exclaimed,
“_Engouborou dagah!_ (May you live for ever!)—_Allah kiaro!_
(God send you a happy old age!)—_La, lai, barca, barca_. (How
is it with you? blessing! blessing!)” These words were repeated
nearly by the sultan, and then sung out by all the court. The fatah
was then said, and they proceeded to business. Boo-Khaloom produced
some presents, which were carried off by the eunuchs unopened; the
sultan then expressed his wish to serve him; said he would consider
his request, and in a day or two give him his decision.
The sultan, whose name was Mohamed Bucker, was an intelligent little
man of about fifty, with a beard dyed of a most beautiful sky-blue;
he had been eyeing me for some time, as I sat between Boo-Khaloom
and Barca Gana, and first asking Boo-Khaloom his name, inquired
who I was? The answer that I was a native of a very distant and
powerful nation, friends of the bashaw of Tripoli and the sheikh,
who came to see the country, did not appear much to surprise him;
and he looked gracious as he said, “But what does he want to
see?” A fatal question however followed, and the answer appeared
to petrify the whole assembly:—“Are they Moslem?” “_La! la!_
(No! no!)” Every eye, which had before been turned towards me,
was now hastily withdrawn, and, looking round, I really felt myself
in a critical situation. “Has the great bashaw Kaffir friends?”
said the sultan. The explanation which followed was of little use:
they knew no distinctions; Christians they had merely heard of as
the worst people in the world, and, probably, until they saw us,
scarcely believed them to be human. We shortly after returned to
our camp, and I never afterwards was invited to enter the sultan of
Mandara’s presence.
Our tents had been pitched but a short distance from the town of
Mora, and on our return upwards of forty slaves, preceded by one
of the sultan’s eunuchs, came to the camp, bearing wooden bowls
filled with paste of the gussub flour, with hot fat and pepper poured
over it, mixed with a proportionate seasoning of onions. This was
considered as the very acmè of Mandara cooking; it was savoury,
and not very unpleasant; but a few sides of mutton roasted, which
came for the chiefs, was the better part of our fare. Malem Chadily
betook himself to another bowl, because on Barca Gana’s putting the
mess towards me, I had, as usual, plunged my right hand in without
any ceremony. Barca Gana saw that I observed it, and his dread of
the sheikh’s displeasure induced him to make some observation in
Bornouese, which drove the fighi out of the tent: this distressed
me, and I determined on adopting some measures for preventing the
repetition of these disagreeables.
On the 23d we halted; but I was so dreadfully bitten by the ants
and other insects, which beset us in myriads, that my hands and eyes
were so swelled that I could scarcely hold a pen, or see to use one:
added to this, the heat was again insufferable; for several hours in
the middle of the day, the thermometer was as high as 113°. Covering
myself up with all the blankets I could find afforded me the greatest
relief—these defending me as well from the flies as the power of
the sun: occasionally making my negro pour cold water on my head
was another undescribable comfort. I passed the greater part of
the evening with Boo-Khaloom, who had seen the sultan of Mandara
in the day. He complained of being delayed; but was, nevertheless,
still sanguine, and believed the sultan was endeavouring to find
him a Kerdy country, which he was to attack; it, however, never was
the intention of the sultan of Mandara to take any such steps, or
the sheikh’s wish that he should. It was against people who would
create in the Arabs a little more respect for spears and arrows,
that the sheikh wished them to be sent; and this he thought could
not better be accomplished than by consigning them to the sultan of
Mandara, whose natural enemies, as well as his own, were the Felatahs,
the most warlike people in the whole country.
Mandara had been several times conquered by these Felatah tribes,
which extend over an immense space of country: they are found
through the whole of Soudan, quite to Timbuctoo, and at D’jennie
on the Quolla they form the greatest part of the population. A very
populous town, Conally, to the west of D’jennie, is inhabited
wholly by Felatahs[26]. They are a very handsome race of people,
of a deep copper colour, who seldom mix their blood with that of the
negroes, have a peculiar language of their own, and are Moslem. They
bear some resemblance to the Shouaas, although they are quite a
distinct race. South-west of Mandara is a country called Karowa; and
these two countries were formerly governed by one sultan (Kerdy),
until Mandara was wrested from them by the Felatahs of Musfeia and
Kora. The son of the sultan of Karowa, the present sultan, succeeded
in recovering Mandara out of their hands, and has since been able to
keep possession, as they aver, from his having become Moslem—be
that as it may, he is now a Musselman, and an intelligent one for
his situation: his resources are great, and his country by nature
easy to defend. About ten years ago, he found so little defence
from the walls of his then residence Delow, against the attacks of
the Felatahs, that he built the new town Mora, nearly facing the
north, and situated under a semicircular ridge of very picturesque
mountains. These natural barriers form a strong rampart on every
side but one, and he has hitherto withstood the attempts of his
enemies. It is rather a curious circumstance that no Shouaas are to
be found in the Mandara dominions, nor any where to the south of them.
The Sheikh El Kanemy, very shortly after his successes and elevation,
saw the advantage of a powerful ally, such as the sultan of
Mandara, against the Felatahs, who were equally the dread of both
these potentates; the vicinity of Mandara to the Kerdy nations,
as well as the ease with which slaves are obtained from thence,
was also another consideration. The tribes of Shouaas, bordering
on the Mandara frontier to the north and north-east, had always
been in the habit of sending marauding parties into that part of
the country nearest to them, which the sultan had never been able
to prevent; and the sheikh no sooner saw the necessity of bringing
these dwellers in tents into subjection to the sultan of Bornou than
he determined also on making a stipulation for the discontinuance
of their inroads into the Mandara country, the peace of which they
had so long disturbed. This treaty of alliance was confirmed by
the sheikh’s receiving in marriage the daughter of the sultan
of Mandara, and the marriage portion was to be the produce of an
immediate expedition into the Kerdy country, called Musgow, to the
south-east of Mandara, by the united forces of the sheikh and the
sultan. The results were as favourable as the most savage confederacy
could have anticipated—three thousand unfortunate wretches were
dragged from their native wilds and sold to perpetual slavery; while,
probably, double that number were sacrificed to obtain them. These
nuptials are said to have been celebrated with great rejoicing, and
much barbarian splendour: the blood, however, which had been shed
in the path to the altar, one would almost think, was sufficient to
have extinguished the hymeneal torch, and annihilated the bearers.
This treaty of alliance left the sultan of Mandara no other enemies
than the Felatahs to contend with; and his power had increased too
much for him to fear any offensive measures on their part: on the
contrary, he had been at the time of our expedition for some months
seeking for an opportunity to commence hostilities himself[27]. The
Mandara force consists principally of cavalry, which, as their horses
are of a superior breed, have a very imposing appearance. Some of
the Kerdy towns occasionally furnish a few bowmen; but as their only
object is plunder in the event of a victory, on the least appearance
of a contrary result they quickly betake themselves to their mountain
habitations. The principal Mandara towns are eight in number, and all
stand in the valley: these, and the smaller ones by which they are
surrounded, all profess Islamism. The Kerdies are far more numerous;
and their dwellings are seen every where in clusters on the sides,
and even at the top, of the very hills which immediately overlook
the Mandara capital. The fires which were visible in the different
nests of these unfortunates threw a glare upon the bold peaks and
bluff promontories of granite rock by which they were surrounded,
and produced a picturesque and somewhat awful appearance. The dread
in which they hold the sultan has been considerably increased by his
close alliance with the sheikh; and the appearance of such a force
as that which accompanied Barca Gana, bivouacked in the valley, was
a most appalling sight to those who occupied the overhanging heights:
they were fully aware, that for one purpose alone would such a force
visit their country; and which of them were to be the victims,
must have been the cause of most anxious inquietude and alarm to
the whole. By the assistance of a good telescope, I could discover
those who, from the terms on which they were with Mandara, had the
greatest dread stealing off into the very heart of the mountains;
while others came towards Mora, bearing leopard skins, honey, and
slaves, plundered from a neighbouring town, as peace-offerings; also
asses and goats, with which their mountains abound: these were not,
however, on this occasion destined to suffer. The people of Musgow,
whose country it was at first reported (although without foundation)
that the Arabs were to plunder, sent two hundred head of their
fellow-creatures, besides other presents, to the sultan, with more
than fifty horses. Between twenty and thirty horsemen, mounted on
small, fiery, and very well formed steeds of about fourteen hands
high, with a numerous train, were the bearers of these gifts—and
a most extraordinary appearance they made. I saw them on their
leaving the sultan’s palace; and both then, and on their entrance,
they threw themselves on the ground, pouring sand on their heads,
and uttering the most piteous cries. The horsemen, who were chiefs,
were covered only by the skin of a goat or leopard, so contrived
as to hang over the left shoulder, with the head of the animal on
the breast; and being confined round the middle, was made to reach
nearly half way down the thigh, the skin of the tail and legs being
also preserved. On their heads, which were covered with long woolly,
or rather bristly, hair, coming quite over their eyes, they wore a cap
of the skin of the goat, or some fox-like animal; round their arms,
and in their ears, were rings of what to me appeared to be bone;
and round the necks of each were from one to six strings of what I
was assured were the teeth of the enemies they had slain in battle:
teeth and pieces of bone were also pendant from the clotted locks
of their hair, and with the red patches with which their body was
marked in different places, and of which colour also their own
teeth were stained, they really had a most strikingly wild, and
truly savage, appearance. What very much increased the interest I
felt in gazing upon these beings, who, to appearance, were the most
savage of their race, was the positive assertion of Boo-Khaloom
that they were Christians. I had certainly no other argument at
the moment to use, in refutation of his position, but their most
unchristian-like appearance and deportment; in this he agreed,
but added, “Wolla Insara, they are Christians!” Some of them,
however, begging permission to regale themselves on the remains of
a horse, which had died during the night in our camp, gave me, as
I thought, an unanswerable argument against him. I can scarcely,
however, at this moment forget how disconcerted I felt when he
replied, “That is nothing: I certainly never heard of Christians
eating dead horse-flesh, but I know they eat the flesh of swine,
and God knows that is worse!” “Grant me patience!” exclaimed
I to myself; “this is almost too much to bear, and to be silent.”
I endeavoured, by means of one of the Mandara people, to ask some
questions of some of these reputed Christians, but my attempts
were fruitless; they would hold no intercourse with any one; and,
on gaining permission, carried off the carcass of the horse to the
mountains, where, by the fires which blazed during the night, and
the yells that reached our ears, they no doubt held their savage
and brutal feast.
April 24.—The sultan of Mandara had given no intimation whatever
of his intentions with regard to Boo-Khaloom’s destination,
and in consequence the impatience and discontent of the latter
were extreme. Offerings poured in, from all the Kerdy nations;
and the sultan excused himself to Boo-Khaloom for the delay,
on account of the extreme tractability of the people around him,
who, he said, were becoming Musselmans without force. Again Musgow
was mentioned; adding, that the warlike arm of the Arabs, bearing
the sword of the Prophet, might turn their hearts. This hypocrisy,
however, Boo-Khaloom inveighed against most loudly to me, declaring
that the conversion of the Kerdy people would lose him (the sultan)
thousands of slaves, as their constant wars with each other afford
them the means of supplying him abundantly.
My own patience, also, this morning underwent a severe trial. I
applied to Barca Gana, by dawn of day, for one of his men to accompany
me to the mountains; and after some conversation a chief was sent with
me to the house of the suggamah (chief of the town), who sent me to
another, and he begged I might be taken to a third. They all asked me
a hundred questions, which was natural enough; begged powder—looked
at my gun—snapped the lock so often, that I feared they would
break it, exclaiming, “Y-e-o-o-o! wonderful! wonderful!” when
the fire came. At last, however, when I once got it in my hand,
I loaded both the barrels, and after that I could not induce one
of them to put their hands within five yards of it. The last great
man whose house I was taken to cunningly begged me to fire, calling
his slaves to stand round him while I complied with his request:
immediately after he asked for the gun, and carried it into an inner
court. I was kept full half an hour waiting; when about ten slaves
rushed out, gave me the gun, and told the guide to carry me to the
palace. I complained that they had stolen both my flints. Every
body came to look—crowded round me, exclaiming, “Y-e-o-o-o!”
and this was all the redress I could obtain. I soon after found out
that the flints were not my only loss; my pocket handkerchief also,
which several had petitioned for without success, had been stolen.
Arrived at the palace, I was desired to wait in the skiffa. I began
to walk about, but was told that was not allowed, that I must sit
down on the ground: after waiting nearly an hour, during which time
I was desirous more than once to return, but was told by my guide
that it was impossible until the sultan gave orders, I was conducted
into the presence of the chief eunuch; he desired me to stop within
about twelve yards of him, and then said, “The sultan could not
imagine what I wanted at the hills? Did I wish to catch the Kerdies
alone?—that I had better buy them,—he would sell me as many as
I pleased.” He then made some remark, which was not interpreted,
and which created a loud laugh in all the bystanders: the joke was
evidently at my expense, although I was not aware of its point. I
assured him, “that I did not wish to go at all to the hills if the
sultan had the slightest objection, that it was purely curiosity,
and that as to catching Kerdies, I would not take them if given to
me.” This put us all to rights; I gave him some powder, and he
was as civil as he could be to such a kafir as myself.
Six men, armed with large clubs and short daggers, were now desired
to go with me. The sultan’s anxiety for my safety, the eunuch
assured me, was the only reason I had found any difficulty. What
directions these, my satellites, had received, I know not, but they
watched me so closely, appeared so jealous of every stone I picked
up, that I did not venture to sketch the shape of a single hill. It
was now nearly mid-day, and we proceeded about three quarters of a
mile along the valley, which is on the south-west side of the town,
and advanced a little into two of the chasms, which appear in the
southernmost ridge of the chain. In one of these we found a beautiful
stream of water, bubbling from a bed of glittering sand, under two
immense blocks of granite, which seemed to form a rude arch over the
spot. Several naked people, chiefly women and girls, ran from the
place as we approached, and scrambled up the side of the mountain
with the most monkey-like agility. I was abundantly assured that this
chain of mountains, the highest parts of which, in the neighbourhood
of Mandara, do not exceed two thousand five hundred feet, extends
nearly south for more than two months’ journey—how much beyond
that they know not. The only communication, in this direction,
is by means of a few venturesome freed slaves, who penetrate into
these countries with beads and tobes, which are eagerly bought up,
as well as turkadies from Soudan, and slaves and skins are given
in exchange. The nations are very numerous; generally paint, and
stain their bodies of different colours, and live in common, without
any regard to relationship. Large lakes are frequently met with,
plentifully supplied with fish. Mangoes, wild figs, and ground nuts,
are found in the valleys. It does not appear that any other metal
besides iron, which is abundant, has been discovered in these hills:
near Karowa, to the south-west of Mandara, it is most plentiful.
The sound of the sultan’s trumpets, now heard at a distance, created
a strong sensation amongst my attendants; they all declared we must
return instantly; and when I very gently attempted to remonstrate
a little, one of them took hold of the reins of my horse without
any ceremony, turned him round, and led him on, while all the rest
followed towards the town; of course I very quietly submitted,
wondering what was the cause of alarm: it was, however, nothing
but that the Sultan was giving audience, and these gentlemen of
the chamber did not choose to be absent. They left me as soon as
we approached the houses, and I was then instantly surrounded by at
least a hundred others, who were so anxious to put their hands into,
and examine, every thing about me, that I put spurs to my horse,
and made the best of my way to the camp. I was exceedingly fatigued
with my morning’s work, and crept into my tent, where I endured
three hours of misery from a degree of excessive heat, surpassing
all I could have supposed mankind were born to suffer here below.
Barca Gana sent to me soon after, and I found him preparing to
receive one of the chief eunuchs of the sultan in his outward tent;
his people all sitting round him on the sand, with their backs
towards their chief, and eyes inclined downwards. Nothing can be
more solemn than these interviews; not an eye is raised, or a smile
seen, or a word spoken, beyond “Long life to you! A happy old
age! Blessing! Blessing! May you trample on your enemies! Please
God! Please God!” then the fatah, which is seldom or never
omitted. The great man first inquired, “why I went to the hills;
and what I wanted with the stones I had picked up, and put in
a bag which I carried near my saddle?” Barca Gana applied to
me for information, and the bag was sent for. My specimens were
not more than fifteen in number, and the eunuch, laying his hand
on two pieces of fine grained granite, and some quartz, asked,
“how many dollars they would bring in my country?” I smiled,
and told him, “Not one: that I had no object in taking them beyond
curiosity—that we had as much in England as would cover his whole
country, and that I was pleased to find similar natural productions
here. Assure the sultan,” added I, to Barca Gana, “that to take
any thing from any of the inhabitants of these countries is not the
wish of the English king: the sheikh knows our intentions, which
are rather to make them acquainted with European produce; and if
useful to them, send more into their country.” “True, true!”
said Barca Gana: “what have you brought for the sultan?”—and
here I was again in a dilemma. I had only one small looking-glass of
my own; neither knives, scissors, nor beads, although we had cases
of them at Bornou. Something, however, was necessary to be given;
I therefore sent for my trunk, and gave the sultan two French red
imitation shawls, which I had bought for my own use, my own razor,
and a pair of scissors; while for himself the eunuch took my two
remaining pocket-handkerchiefs, and a coloured muslin one, with
which he appeared to be highly delighted.
[Illustration: From a Sketch by Major Denham.
Engraved by E. Finden.
MANDARA MUSICIANS.
_Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London._]
April 25.—The news of the presents I had produced brought early
this morning fifteen of the sultan’s sons, with double the number
of followers, to my tent: they all wanted gunpowder, knives, and
scissors; I had however neither one nor the other to give them. Two
or three of the oldest of the princes got a French silk handkerchief
each, and one a pair of cotton socks, and, of course, the others
went away sadly discontented. I this morning ventured to make two
attempts at sketching, but my apparatus and myself were carried
off without ceremony to the sultan. My pencils marking without ink,
created great astonishment, and the facility with which its traces
were effaced by India rubber seemed still more astonishing. My old
antagonist, Malem Chadily, was there, and affected to treat me with
great complaisance: he talked a great deal about me and my country,
which made his hearers repeatedly cry out, “Y-e-o-o-o!” but
what the purport of his observations were I could not make out. I
endeavoured, however, to forget all his former rudeness, took every
thing in good part, and appeared quite upon as good terms with him
as he evidently wished to appear to be with me. Several words were
written both by him and the others, which the rubber left no remains
of; at length the fighi wrote _Bismillah arachmani aracheme_ (in the
name of the great and most merciful God), in large Koran characters;
he made so deep an impression on the paper, that, after using
the Indian rubber, the words still appeared legible: “This will
not quite disappear,” said I. “No, no!” exclaimed the fighi,
exulting; “they are the words of God, delivered to our Prophet! I
defy you to erase them!” “Probably so,” said I; “then
it will be in vain to try.” He showed the paper to the sultan,
and then around him, with great satisfaction; they all exclaimed,
“Y-e-o-o-o! _La illah el Allah! Mohammed rassoul Allah!_”—cast
looks at me expressive of mingled pity and contempt, and I was well
pleased when allowed to take my departure.
The whole of this scene was repeated to Barca Gana in his tent in
the evening, and they all exclaimed “Wonderful! Wonderful!” and
as I did not contradict any part of his account, the fighi thus
addressed me: “Rais, you have seen a miracle! I will show you
hundreds, performed alone by the words of the wonderful book! You
have a book also, you say, but it must be false.—Why? Because it
says nothing of Saidna Mohammed, that is enough.—_Shed! Shed!_
turn! turn! say ‘God is God, and Mohammed is his prophet.’ Sully
(wash), and become clean, and paradise is open to you: without this,
what can save you from eternal fire? Nothing!—Oh! I shall see
you while sitting in the third heaven, in the midst of the flames,
crying out to your friend Barca Gana and myself, ‘_Malem, saherbi!_
(friend), give me a drink or a drop of water!’ but the gulf will
be between us, and then it will be too late.” The Malem’s tears
flowed in abundance during this harangue, and every body appeared
affected by his eloquence.
I felt myself, at this period, extremely uncomfortable; and Barca
Gana, who saw my distress, called me into the inner tent, where nobody
accompanied him, except by invitation. “The fighi,” said he,
“is a _rajal alem_ (clever man).” “Very likely,” said I;
“but he surely might leave me to my own belief, as I leave him
to his.” “_Staffer Allah!_” (God forbid!) said he. “Do not
compare them.” “I do not,” said I, “God knows; but you,
Kashella, should protect me from such repeated annoyances.”
“No,” replied Barca, “in this I cannot interfere. Malem is a
holy man. Please God! you will be enlightened, and I know the sheikh
wishes it; he likes you, and would you stay amongst us, he would
give you fifty slaves of great beauty, build you a house like his
son’s, and give you wives from the families of any of his subjects
you choose!” “Were you to return to England with me, Kashella,
as you sometimes talk about, with the sheikh’s permission, would it
not be disgraceful for you to turn Christian, and remain? Were I to
do as you would have me, how should I answer to my sultan who sent
me?” “God forbid!” said he; “you are comparing our faiths
again. I propose to you eternal paradise, while you would bring me
to ——.” “Not a word more,” said I.—“Good night!”
“Peace be with you! I hope we shall always be friends,” said
he. “Please God!” returned I. “Amen!” said the kashella.
This night we had a more dreadful storm than I ever remember being
out in. The top of my Egyptian tent, which I had preferred bringing on
account of its portability, was carried completely off, and the pole
broken. The brightness of the lightning rendered it more like noon
than midnight: a tamarind-tree was torn up by its roots in the valley
near us; huge masses of stone rolled down the sides of the mountain;
and I crept into a corner of Barca Gana’s outer tent, where slept
his guard; and, although every rag about me was drenched with water,
I was in a short time insensible to the storm which raged around me.
In the morning, however, I suffered considerably from pains in all
my limbs and head. The Arabs, also, were full of complaints, and
extremely dissatisfied with their situation; they loudly exclaimed
against their delay. They had, for days, eaten nothing but a little
flour and water, without fat: the sultan of Mandara would grant
them no supply, and they demanded of Boo-Khaloom to go on, or turn
back. The rain again fell in torrents, which is an Arab’s greatest
dread, and they assembled round Boo-Khaloom’s tent, almost in a
state of mutiny. Boo-Khaloom himself was excessively ill, more,
I believe, from vexation than sickness. He had a long interview
with the sultan, and returned very much irritated: he merely told
me, as he passed, “that we should move in the evening;” and
when I asked, “if every thing went well?” he merely answered,
“_In shallah!_” (please God). The Arabs, from whom he kept his
destination a secret, received him with cheers. Whom they were going
against they cared but little, so long as there was a prospect of
plunder, and the whole camp became a busy scene of preparation.
Two hours after noon we commenced our march through a beautiful valley
to the east of Mora, winding round the hills which overhang the town,
and penetrating into the heart of the mass of mountains nearly to
the south of it. About sunset we halted in a very picturesque spot,
called Hairey, surrounded by a superb amphitheatre of hills. Barca
Gana’s tent was pitched under the shade of one side of an immense
tree, called gubberah, much resembling a fig-tree, although wanting
its delicious fruit; and the remnants of my tent, which had been
mended by his people, and now stood about three feet from the ground,
were placed on the opposite side. The trunks of these trees commonly
measure ten and twelve yards in circumference near the root, and I
have seen them covering more than half an acre of ground with their
wide-spreading branches.
[Illustration: _D. Denham._
_J. & C. Walker Sculp._
PASS OF HAIRY in the _Mandara Mountains_.
_Published as the Act directs Feby. 1826, by John Murray Albemarle
St. London._]
Soon after our arrival, the sultan’s trumpets announced his
approach, and he took up his station, at no great distance, under
a tree of the same kind: he never used a tent, but slept in an
open space, surrounded by his eunuchs. At Hairey are the remains
of a Mandara town, long since destroyed by the Felatahs; parts of
the mud walls were still standing, and under shelter of these the
troops bivouacked. The scorpions, however, made their appearance
in the course of the night in great numbers, and several men were
stung by them: on hearing the disturbance, and learning the cause,
I called my negro, and, striking a light, we killed three in my
tent; one of them was full six inches in length, of the black kind,
exactly resembling those I had seen in Tripoli.
In consequence of Boo-Khaloom’s illness, it was after daylight when
we broke up from our encampment, and probably the mountain scenery,
by which we were surrounded, could scarcely be exceeded in beauty
and richness. On all sides the apparently interminable chain of hills
closed upon our view: in rugged magnificence, and gigantic grandeur,
though not to be compared with the Higher Alps, the Apennines, the
Jura, or even the Sierra Morena, in magnitude, yet by none of these
were they surpassed in picturesque interest. The lofty peaks of Vahmy,
Savah, Joggiday, Munday, Vayah, Moyung, and Memay, with clustering
villages on their stony sides, appeared to the east and west of us;
while Horza, exceeding any of her sister hills in height, as well as
in beauty, appeared before us to the south, with its chasm or break
through which we were to pass; and the winding rugged path we were
about to tread was discernible in the distance. The valley in which
I stood had an elevation superior to that of any part of the kingdom
of Bornou, for we had gradually ascended ever since quitting Kouka;
it was in shape resembling a large pentagon, and conveyed strongly
the idea of its having been the bed or basin of some ancient lake,
for the disappearance of which all hypothesis would be vain and
useless. There were the marks of many outlets, some long and narrow
fissures, through which the waters might have broken; the channel
by which we had entered appearing most likely to have carried off
its contents.
On proceeding through the pass of Horza, where the ascent continued,
its perpendicular sides exceeding two thousand five hundred feet
in height, hung over our heads with a projection almost frightful;
the width of the valley did not exceed five hundred yards, and the
salient and re-entering angles so perfectly corresponded, that one
could almost imagine, if a similar convulsion of nature to that which
separated were to bring its sides again together, they would unite,
and leave no traces of their ever having been disjoined.
It was long after mid-day when we came to the mountain stream called
Mikwa, and it afforded an indescribable relief to our almost famished
horses and ourselves: the road, after quitting the Horza pass, had
been through an extensive and thickly-planted valley, where the tree
gubberah, the tamarind, a gigantic wild fig, and the mangoe (called
by the Mandaras _ungerengera_, and _comonah_ by the Bornouese),
flourished in great numbers and beauty. This was the first spot I had
seen in Africa where Nature seemed at all to have revelled in giving
life to the vegetable kingdom; the leaves presented a bright luxuriant
verdure, and flowers, from a profusion of climbing parasitical plants,
winding round the trunks of the trees, left the imagination in doubt
as to which of them the fair aromatic blossoms that perfumed the
air were indebted for their nourishment. The ground had frequent
irregularities; and broken masses of granite, ten and twelve feet in
height, were lying in several places, but nearly obscured by the thick
underwood growing round them, and by the trees, which had sprung up
out of their crevices. The nearest part of the hills, to which these
blocks could have originally belonged, was distant nearly two miles.
When the animals had drunk we again moved on, and after eighteen
miles of equally verdant country, more thickly wooded, we came, after
sunset, to another stream, near some low hills, called Makkeray,
where we were to halt for a few hours to refresh, and then move
again, so as to commence an attack on the Felatahs, who were said
to be only about sixteen miles distant, with the morning sun.
Our supper, this night, which indeed was also our breakfast,
consisted of a little parched corn pounded and mixed with water,
the only food we had seen since leaving Mora. Nothing could look
more like fighting than the preparations of these Bornou warriors,
although nothing could well be more unlike it than the proof they gave
on the morrow. The closely-linked iron jackets of the chiefs were
all put on, and the sound of their clumsy and ill-shapen hammers,
heard at intervals during the night, told the employment of the
greater part of their followers.
About midnight the signal was given to advance. The moon, which was
in her third quarter, afforded us a clear and beautiful light, while
we moved on silently, and in good order, the sultan of Mandara’s
force marching in parallel columns to our own, and on our right. At
dawn, the whole army halted to sully: my own faith also taught me
a morning prayer, as well as that of a Musselman, though but too
often neglected.
As the day broke on the morning of the 28th of April, a most
interesting scene presented itself. The sultan of Mandara was close
on our flank, mounted on a very beautiful cream-coloured horse,
with several large red marks about him, and followed by his six
favourite eunuchs, and thirty of his sons, all being finely dressed,
and mounted on really superb horses; besides which, they had each
from five to six others, led by as many negroes: the sultan had at
least twelve. Barca Gana’s people all wore their red scarfs, or
bornouses, over their steel jackets, and the whole had a very fine
effect. I took my position at his right hand, and at a spot called
Duggur we entered a very thick wood, in two columns, at the end of
which it was said we were to find the enemy.
During the latter part of the night, while riding on in front with
Maramy, the sheikh’s negro, who had accompanied me from Kouka, and
who appeared to attach himself more closely to me as we approached
danger, we had started several animals of the leopard species,
who ran from us so swiftly, twisting their long tails in the air,
as to prevent our getting near them. We, however, now started one
of a larger kind, which Maramy assured me was so satiated with the
blood of a negro, whose carcass we found lying in the wood, that
he would be easily killed. I rode up to the spot just as a Shouaa
had planted the first spear in him, which passed through the neck, a
little above the shoulder, and came down between the animal’s legs;
he rolled over, broke the spear, and bounded off with the lower half
in his body. Another Shouaa galloped up within two arms’ length, and
thrust a second through his loins; and the savage animal, with a woful
howl, was in the act of springing on his pursuer, when an Arab shot
him through the head with a ball, which killed him on the spot. It
was a male panther (zazerma) of a very large size, and measured,
from the point of the tail to the nose, eight feet two inches; the
skin was yellow, and beautifully marked with orbicular spots on
the upper part of the body, while underneath, and at the throat,
the spots were oblong and irregular, intermixed with white. These
animals are found in great numbers in the woods bordering on Mandara:
there are also leopards, the skins of which I saw, but not in great
numbers. The panthers are as insidious as they are cruel; they will
not attack any thing that is likely to make resistance, but have been
known to watch a child for hours, while near the protection of huts
or people. It will often spring on a grown person, male or female,
while carrying a burthen, but always from behind: the flesh of a child
or of a young kid it will sometimes devour, but when any full-grown
animal falls a prey to its ferocity, it sucks the blood alone.
A range of minor hills, of more recent formation than the granite
chain from which they emanate (which I cannot but suppose to form a
part of El Gibel Gumhr, or Mountains of the Moon), approaches quite
to the skirts of the extensive wood through which we were passing;
and numerous deep ravines, and dry water-courses, rendered the passage
tedious and difficult. On emerging from the wood, the large Felatah
town of Dirkulla was perceivable, and the Arabs were formed in front,
headed by Boo-Khaloom: they were flanked on each side by a large body
of cavalry; and, as they moved on, shouting the Arab war-cry, which is
very inspiring, I thought I could perceive a smile pass between Barca
Gana and his chiefs, at Boo-Khaloom’s expense. Dirkulla was quickly
burnt, and another smaller town near it; and the few inhabitants that
were found in them, who were chiefly infants, and aged persons unable
to escape, were put to death without mercy, or thrown into the flames.
We now came to a third town, in a situation capable of being defended
against assailants ten times as numerous as the besieged: this town
was called Musfeia. It was built on a rising ground between two low
hills at the base of others, forming part of the mass of the Mandara
mountains: a dry wadey extended along the front; beyond the wadey
a swamp; between this and the wood the road was crossed by a deep
ravine, which was not passable for more than two or three horses at a
time. The Felatahs had carried a very strong fence of palisades, well
pointed, and fastened together with thongs of raw hide, six feet in
height, from one hill to the other, and had placed their bowmen behind
the palisades, and on the rising ground, with the wadey before them;
their horse were all under cover of the hills and the town:—this was
a strong position. The Arabs, however, moved on with great gallantry,
without any support or co-operation from the Bornou or Mandara troops,
and notwithstanding the showers of arrows, some poisoned, which
were poured on them from behind the palisades, Boo-Khaloom, with his
handful of Arabs, carried them in about half an hour, and dashed on,
driving the Felatahs up the sides of the hills. The women were every
where seen supplying their protectors with fresh arrows during this
struggle; and when they retreated to the hills, still shooting on
their pursuers, the women assisted by rolling down huge masses of the
rock, previously undermined for the purpose, which killed several of
the Arabs, and wounded others. Barca Gana, and about one hundred of
the Bornou spearmen, now supported Boo-Khaloom, and pierced through
and through some fifty unfortunates who were left wounded near the
stakes. I rode by his side as he pushed on quite into the town, and a
very desperate skirmish took place between Barca Gana’s people and
a small body of the Felatahs. These warriors throw the spear with
great dexterity; and three times I saw the man transfixed to the
earth who was dismounted for the purpose of firing the town, and as
often were those who rushed forward for that purpose sacrificed for
their temerity, by the Felatahs. Barca Gana, whose muscular arm was
almost gigantic, threw eight spears, which all told, some of them at
a distance of thirty or thirty-five yards, and one particularly on
a Felatah chief, who with his own hand had brought four to the ground.
· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · “Incidet ictus,
Ingens ad terram duplicato poplite Turnus.”
Had either the Mandara or the sheikh’s troops now moved up boldly,
notwithstanding the defence these people made, and the reinforcements
which showed themselves to the south-west, they must have carried
the town with the heights overlooking it, along which the Arabs were
driving the Felatahs by the terror their miserable guns excited;
but, instead of this, they still kept on the other side of the wadey,
out of reach of the arrows.
[Illustration: From a Sketch by Major Denham.
Engraved by E. Finden.
ATTACK ON MUSFEIA.
_Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London._]
The Felatahs seeing their backwardness, now made an attack in their
turn: the arrows fell so thick that there was no standing against
them, and the Arabs gave way. The Felatah horse now came on; and
had not the little band round Barca Gana, and Boo-Khaloom, with a
few of his mounted Arabs, given them a very spirited check, not one
of us would probably have lived to see the following day: as it was,
Barca Gana had three horses hit under him, two of which died almost
immediately, the arrows being poisoned, and poor Boo-Khaloom’s
horse and himself received their death-wounds by arrows of the same
description. My horse was badly wounded in the neck, just above the
shoulder, and in the near hind leg: an arrow had struck me in the
face as it passed, merely drawing the blood, and I had two sticking
in my bornouse. The Arabs had suffered terribly; most of them had
two or three wounds, and one dropped near me with five sticking
in his head alone: two of Boo-Khaloom’s slaves were killed also,
near his person.
No sooner did the Mandara and Bornou troops see the defeat of the
Arabs, than they, one and all, took to flight in the most dastardly
manner, without having once been exposed to the arrows of the enemy,
and in the utmost confusion. The sultan of Mandara led the way, who
was prepared to take advantage of whatever plunder the success of
the Arabs might throw in his way, but no less determined to leave the
field the moment the fortune of the day appeared to be against them.
I now for the first time, as I saw Barca Gana on a fresh horse,
lamented my own folly in so exposing myself, badly prepared as I was
for accidents. If either of my horse’s wounds were from poisoned
arrows, I felt that nothing could save me: however there was not much
time for reflection; we instantly became a flying mass, and plunged,
in the greatest disorder, into that wood we had but a few hours
before moved through with order, and very different feelings. I had
got a little to the westward of Barca Gana, in the confusion which
took place on our passing the ravine which had been left just in our
rear, and where upwards of one hundred of the Bornowy were speared
by the Felatahs, and was following at a round gallop the steps of
one of the Mandara eunuchs, who, I observed, kept a good look out,
his head being constantly turned over his left shoulder, with a face
expressive of the greatest dismay—when the cries behind, of the
Felatah horse pursuing, made us both quicken our paces. The spur,
however, had the effect of incapacitating my beast altogether,
as the arrow, I found afterwards, had reached the shoulder-bone,
and in passing over some rough ground, he stumbled and fell. Almost
before I was on my legs, the Felatahs were upon me; I had, however,
kept hold of the bridle, and seizing a pistol from the holsters,
I presented it at two of these ferocious savages, who were pressing
me with their spears: they instantly went off; but another who came
on me more boldly, just as I was endeavouring to mount, received the
contents somewhere in his left shoulder, and again I was enabled to
place my foot in the stirrup. Remounted, I again pushed my retreat;
I had not, however, proceeded many hundred yards, when my horse
again came down, with such violence as to throw me against a tree
at a considerable distance; and alarmed at the horses behind him,
he quickly got up and escaped, leaving me on foot and unarmed.
The eunuch and his four followers were here butchered, after a very
slight resistance, and stripped within a few yards of me: their
cries were dreadful; and even now the feelings of that moment are
fresh in my memory: my hopes of life were too faint to deserve the
name. I was almost instantly surrounded, and incapable of making
the least resistance, as I was unarmed—was as speedily stripped,
and whilst attempting first to save my shirt and then my trowsers,
I was thrown on the ground. My pursuers made several thrusts at me
with their spears, that badly wounded my hands in two places, and
slightly my body, just under my ribs on the right side: indeed, I saw
nothing before me but the same cruel death I had seen unmercifully
inflicted on the few who had fallen into the power of those who now
had possession of me; and they were alone prevented from murdering
me, in the first instance, I am persuaded, by the fear of injuring
the value of my clothes, which appeared to them a rich booty—but
it was otherwise ordained.
My shirt was now absolutely torn off my back, and I was left
perfectly naked. When my plunderers began to quarrel for the spoil,
the idea of escape came like lightning across my mind, and without
a moment’s hesitation or reflection I crept under the belly of
the horse nearest me, and started as fast as my legs could carry
me for the thickest part of the wood: two of the Felatahs followed,
and I ran on to the eastward, knowing that our stragglers would be
in that direction, but still almost as much afraid of friends as
foes. My pursuers gained on me, for the prickly underwood not only
obstructed my passage, but tore my flesh miserably; and the delight
with which I saw a mountain-stream gliding along at the bottom of
a deep ravine cannot be imagined. My strength had almost left me,
and I seized the young branches issuing from the stump of a large
tree which overhung the ravine, for the purpose of letting myself
down into the water, as the sides were precipitous, when, under my
hand, as the branch yielded to the weight of my body, a large liffa,
the worst kind of serpent this country produces, rose from its coil,
as if in the very act of striking. I was horror-struck, and deprived
for a moment of all recollection—the branch slipped from my hand,
and I tumbled headlong into the water beneath; this shock, however,
revived me, and with three strokes of my arms I reached the opposite
bank, which, with difficulty, I crawled up; and then, for the first
time, felt myself safe from my pursuers.
Scarcely had I audibly congratulated myself on my escape, when the
forlorn and wretched situation in which I was, without even a rag
to cover me, flashed with all its force upon my imagination. I was
perfectly collected, though fully alive to all the danger to which my
state exposed me, and had already begun to plan my night’s rest,
in the top of one of the tamarind-trees, in order to escape the
panthers which, as I had seen, abounded in these woods, when the
idea of the liffas, almost as numerous, and equally to be dreaded,
excited a shudder of despair.
I now saw horsemen through the trees, still farther to the east,
and determined on reaching them, if possible, whether friends
or enemies; and the feelings of gratitude and joy with which
I recognised Barca Gana and Boo-Khaloom, with about six Arabs,
although they also were pressed closely by a party of the Felatahs,
was beyond description. The guns and pistols of the Arab sheikhs
kept the Felatahs in check, and assisted in some measure the retreat
of the footmen. I hailed them with all my might; but the noise and
confusion which prevailed, from the cries of those who were falling
under the Felatah spears, the cheers of the Arabs rallying and their
enemies pursuing, would have drowned all attempts to make myself
heard, had not Maramy, the sheikh’s negro, seen and known me at a
distance. To this man I was indebted for my second escape; riding up
to me, he assisted me to mount behind him, while the arrows whistled
over our heads, and we then galloped off to the rear as fast as his
wounded horse could carry us: after we had gone a mile or two, and
the pursuit had something cooled, in consequence of all the baggage
having been abandoned to the enemy, Boo-Khaloom rode up to me, and
desired one of the Arabs to cover me with a bornouse. This was a
most welcome relief, for the burning sun had already begun to blister
my neck and back, and gave me the greatest pain. Shortly after, the
effects of the poisoned wound in his foot caused our excellent friend
to breathe his last: Maramy exclaimed, “Look, look! Boo-Khaloom
is dead!” I turned my head, almost as great an exertion as I was
capable of, and saw him drop from the horse into the arms of his
favourite Arab—he never spoke after. They said he had only swooned;
there was no water, however, to revive him; and about an hour after,
when we came to Makkeray, he was past the reach of restoratives.
About the time Boo-Khaloom dropped, Barca Gana ordered a slave to
bring me a horse, from which he had just dismounted, being the
third that had been wounded under him in the course of the day;
his wound was in the chest. Maramy cried, “_Sidi rais!_ do not
mount him; he will die!” In a moment, for only a moment was given
me, I decided on remaining with Maramy. Two Arabs, panting with
fatigue, then seized the bridle, mounted, and pressed their retreat:
in less than half an hour he fell to rise no more, and both the
Arabs were butchered before they could recover themselves. Had we
not now arrived at the water as we did, I do not think it possible
that I could have supported the thirst by which I was consuming. I
tried several times to speak in reply to Maramy’s directions to
hold tight, when we came to breaks or inequalities in the ground;
but it was impossible; and a painful straining at the stomach and
throat was the only effect produced by the effort.
On coming to the stream, the horses, with blood gushing from their
nostrils, rushed into the shallow water, and, letting myself down
from behind Maramy, I knelt down amongst them, and seemed to imbibe
new life by the copious draughts of the muddy beverage which I
swallowed. Of what followed I have no recollection: Maramy told me
afterwards that I staggered across the stream, which was not above my
hips, and fell down at the foot of a tree on the other side. About
a quarter of an hour’s halt took place here for the benefit of
stragglers, and to tie poor Boo-Khaloom’s body on a horse’s back,
at the end of which Maramy awoke me from a deep sleep, and I found
my strength wonderfully increased: not so, however, our horse, for
he had become stiff, and could scarcely move. As I learnt afterwards,
a conversation had taken place about me, while I slept, which rendered
my obligations to Maramy still greater: he had reported to Barca Gana
the state of his horse, and the impossibility of carrying me on,
when the chief, irritated by his losses and defeat, as well as at
my having refused his horse, by which means, he said, it had come
by its death, replied, “Then leave him behind. By the head of the
Prophet! believers enough have breathed their last to-day. What
is there extraordinary in a Christian’s death?” “_Raas il
Nibbe-Salaam Yassarat il le mated el Yeom ash min gieb l’can e mut
Nesserani Wahad_.” My old antagonist Malem Chadily replied, “No,
God has preserved him; let us not forsake him!” Maramy returned to
the tree, and said “his heart told him what to do.” He awoke me,
assisted me to mount, and we moved on as before, but with tottering
steps and less speed. The effect produced on the horses that were
wounded by poisoned arrows was extraordinary: immediately after
drinking they dropped, and instantly died, the blood gushing from
their nose, mouth, and ears. More than thirty horses were lost at
this spot from the effects of the poison.
In this way we continued our retreat, and it was after midnight when
we halted in the sultan of Mandara’s territory. Riding more than
forty-five miles, in such an unprovided state, on the bare back of
a lean horse, the powerful consequences may be imagined. I was in a
deplorable state the whole night; and notwithstanding the irritation
of the flesh wounds was augmented by the woollen covering the Arab
had thrown over me, teeming as it was with vermin, it was evening
the next day before I could get a shirt, when one man who had two,
both of which he had worn eight or ten days at least, gave me one,
on a promise of getting a new one at Kouka. Barca Gana, who had no
tent but the one he had left behind him with his women at Mora, on
our advance, could offer me no shelter; and he was besides so ill,
or chagrined, as to remain invisible the whole day. I could scarcely
turn from one side to the other, but still, except at intervals when
my friend Maramy supplied me with a drink made from parched corn,
bruised, and steeped in water, a grateful beverage, I slept under
a tree nearly the whole night and day, of the 29th. Towards the
evening I was exceedingly disordered and ill, and had a pleasing
proof of the kind-heartedness of a Bornouese.
Mai Meegamy, the dethroned sultan of a country to the south-west of
Angornou, and now subject to the sheikh, took me by the hand as I had
crawled out of my nest for a few minutes, and with many exclamations
of sorrow, and a countenance full of commiseration, led me to his
leather tent, and, sitting down quickly, disrobed himself of his
trowsers, insisting I should put them on. Really, no act of charity
could exceed this! I was exceedingly affected at so unexpected a
friend, for I had scarcely seen, or spoken three words to him; but
not so much so as himself, when I refused to accept of them:—he shed
tears in abundance; and thinking, which was the fact, that I conceived
he had offered the only ones he had, immediately called a slave,
whom he stripped of those necessary appendages to a man’s dress,
according to our ideas, and putting them on himself, insisted again
on my taking those he had first offered me. I accepted this offer,
and thanked him with a full heart; and Meegamy was my great friend
from that moment until I quitted the sheikh’s dominions.
We found that forty-five of the Arabs were killed, and nearly
all wounded; their camels, and every thing they possessed,
lost. Some of them had been unable to keep up on the retreat,
but had huddled together in threes and fours during the night,
and by showing resistance, and pointing their guns, had driven the
Felatahs off. Their wounds were some of them exceedingly severe,
and several died during the day and night of the 29th; their bodies,
as well as poor Boo-Khaloom’s, becoming instantly swollen and
black; and sometimes, immediately after death, blood issuing
from the nose and mouth, which the Bornou people declared to be
in consequence of the arrows having been poisoned. The surviving
Arabs, who had now lost all their former arrogance and boasting,
humbly entreated Barca Gana to supply them with a little corn to save
them from starving. The sultan of Mandara behaved to them unkindly,
though not worse than they deserved, refused all manner of supplies,
and kept Boo-Khaloom’s saddle, horse-trappings, and the clothes
in which he died. He also began making preparations for defending
himself against the Felatahs, who, he feared, might pay him a visit;
and on the morning of the 30th April we left Mora, heartily wishing
them success, should they make the attempt.
Boo-Khaloom’s imprudence in having suffered himself to be persuaded
to attack the Felatahs became now apparent, as although, in case
of his overcoming them, he might have appropriated to himself
all the slaves, both male and female, that he found amongst them;
yet the Felatahs themselves were Moslem, and he could not have made
them slaves. He was, however, most likely deceived by promises of a
Kerdy country to plunder, in the event of his success against these
powerful people, alike the dreaded enemies of the sheikh and the
sultan of Mandara.
My wounded horse, which had been caught towards the evening of the
fight by the Shouaas, and brought to me, was in too bad a state for
me to mount, and Barca Gana procured me another. My pistols had been
stolen from the holsters; but, fortunately, my saddle and bridle,
though broken, remained. Thus ended our most unsuccessful expedition;
it had, however, injustice and oppression for its basis, and who
can regret its failure?
We returned with great expedition, considering the wretched state we
were in. On the sixth day after our departure from Mora, we arrived
in Kouka, a distance of one hundred and eighty miles: the wounded
Arabs remained behind, being unable to keep up with the chief, and
did not arrive until four days after us. I suffered much, both in
mind and body, but complained not; indeed all complaint would have
been ill-timed, where few were enduring less than myself. My black
servant had lost mule, canteens, and every thing, principally from
keeping too near me in the action; and, by his obeying implicitly
the strict orders I had given him not to fire on the Felatahs, he had
narrowly escaped with his life. Bruised and lame, he could render me
no assistance, and usually came in some hours after we had halted
on our resting-ground. In the mid-day halts I usually crept under
Mai Meegamy’s tent; but at night I laid me down on the ground,
close to that of Barca Gana, in order that my horse might get a feed
of corn. I always fell into a sound sleep at night, as soon as I lay
down, after drinking Maramy’s beverage, who had supplied me with a
little bag of parched corn, which he had procured at Mora; and about
midnight a slave of the chief, whose name was, most singularly like my
own, Denhamah, always awoke me, to eat some gussub, paste, and fat,
mixed with a green herb called _meloheia_ in Arabic. This was thrust
out from under Barca Gana’s tent, and consisted generally of his
leavings: pride was sometimes nearly choking me, but hunger was the
paramount feeling: I smothered the former, ate, and was thankful. It
was in reality a great kindness; for besides myself and the chief,
not one, I believe, in the remnant of our army, tasted any thing but
_engagy_, parched corn and cold water, during the whole six days of
our march. On the night of the 4th of May we arrived at Angornou.
The extreme kindness of the sheikh, however, was some consolation
to me, after all my sufferings. He said, in a letter to Barca Gana,
“that he should have grieved had any thing serious happened to me;
that my escape was providential, and a proof of God’s protection;
and that my head was saved for good purposes.” He also sent me
some linen he had procured from our huts at Kouka, and a dress of the
country; and the interest taken by their governor in the fate of such
a kaffir, as they thought me, increased exceedingly the respect of
his servants towards me. The next morning we arrived at the capital.
I presented Barca Gana with a brace of French ornamented pistols,
and with pink taffeta sufficient for a tobe, which he received with
great delight. The sheikh sent me a horse in lieu of the wounded
one which I had left at Merty, with but small hopes of his recovery;
and my bruises and wounds, which were at first but trifling, got well
so surprisingly quick, from the extreme low diet I had from necessity
been kept to, that I was not in so bad a condition as might have been
expected. My losses, however, were severe; my trunk with nearly all my
linen, my canteens, a mule, my azimuth compass, my drawing-case, with
a sketch of the hills, were also lost, although I obtained another
sketch the morning of our quitting Mora. Such events, however, must
sometimes be the consequence of exploring countries like these. The
places I had visited were full of interest, and could never have
been seen, except by means of a military expedition, without still
greater risk. The dominions of the sheikh, in consequence of his
being so extraordinarily enlightened for an inhabitant of central
Africa, appear to be open to us; but on looking around, when one
sees dethroned sultans nearly as common as bankrupts in England;
where the strong arm for the time being has hitherto changed the
destiny of kings and kingdoms; no discoveries can be accomplished
beyond this, without the greatest hazard both of life and property.
The sheikh laid all the blame of the defeat upon the Mandara troops,
and assured me that I should see how his people fought when he was
with them, in an expedition which he contemplated against Munga, a
country to the west. I told him that I was quite ready to accompany
him; and this assurance seemed to give him particular satisfaction.
Of the Mandara chain, and its surrounding and incumbent hills,
though full of interest, I regret my inability to give a more perfect
account. Such few observations, however, as struck me on my visiting
them, I shall lay before the reader. It is on occasions like this,
that a traveller laments the want of extensive scientific knowledge. I
must therefore request those under whose eye these remarks may come
to regard them in the light they are offered, not as pretensions
to knowledge, but merely very humble endeavours at communicating
information to the best of my ability.
The elevation gradually increases in advancing towards the equator;
and the soil, on approaching Delow, where the northernmost point
of the Mandara chain commences, is covered with a glittering
micaceous sand, principally decomposed granite, which forms a
productive earth. The hills extend in apparently interminable ridges
east-south-east, south-west, and west; while to the south several
masses or systems of hills, if I may so express myself, spread
themselves out in almost every picturesque form and direction that
can be imagined. Those nearest the eye apparently do not exceed
2500 feet in height; but the towering peaks which appear in the
distance are several thousand feet higher. They are composed of
enormous blocks of granite, both detached and reclining on each
other, presenting the most rugged faces and sides. The interstices
and fissures appeared to be filled with a yellow quartzose earth, in
which were growing mosses and lichens: trees of considerable size also
grow from between them. On almost all the hills that I approached,
clusters of huts were seen in several places towards the centre,
and sometimes quite at the summit; generally on the flats of the
ridges. At the base of these mountains, and also at a considerable
elevation on their sides, are incumbent masses of what appeared
to be the decomposed fragments of primitive rocks recompounded,
and united anew by a species of natural cement. At some distance
from the base of those which I ascended from the valley of Mora,
were collections of quartzose rocks, of great variety and colour;
fragments of hornblende, and several large abutments of porphyroidal
rocks. About one hundred yards above the spring which I have before
mentioned, in a space between two projecting masses of rock, were
numerous shells, some petrified and finely preserved, while others
were perforated by insects, worm-eaten, and destroyed: they were
confusedly mixed with fragments of granite, quartz, sand and clay;
and in some cases adhered to pieces of the composition rocks: the
greater part were of the oyster kind. Various specimens of these,
with pieces of every variety of the structure of the hills, I had
collected, but they were all lost in the general confusion of the
battle; and on the return of the army I was unable to do more than
procure a few specimens of the northernmost part of the mountains;
and the half of these were lost by my negro.
Of the extent of this chain, or rather these groups of mountains,
I can form no idea, except from the information of the Mandara
people. I have met with a man who (by the way) wanted to persuade
me that he was a son of Hornemann by his slave, although, from his
appearance, he must have been born ten years before that unfortunate
traveller entered this country. He said he had been twenty days south
of Mandara, to a country called Adamowa, which he described as being
situated in the centre of a plain surrounded by mountains ten times
higher than any we could see; that he went first to Mona or Monana,
which was five days, and then to Bogo, which was seven more; and
here, for one Soudan tobe, the sultan gave him four slaves. After
eight days’ travelling from this latter country, he arrived at
Adamowa. These people, he says (that is, the Kerdies on the hills;
for Adamowa itself is occupied by Felatahs), eat the flesh of
horses, mules, and asses, or of any wild animal that they kill:
nobody but the sultans and their children are clothed; all the rest
of the nation go naked; the men sometimes wear a skin round the loins,
but the women nothing. This man, who was called Kaid-Moussa-ben-Yusuf
(Hornemann’s name), spoke to me of several extensive lakes which he
had seen in this journey, and also described with great clearness
a river running between two very high ridges of the mountains,
which he crossed previous to arriving at Adamowa. This river he
declared to run from the west, and to be the same as the Quolla or
Quana at Nyffe, Kora, and at Raka, but not the same as the river
at Kano, which had nothing to do with the Shary, and which ran
into the Tchad; but the main body of the water ran on to the south
of Begharmi, was then called the D’Ago, and went eastward to the
Nile. Kaid-Moussa was a very intelligent fellow, had visited Nyffe,
Raka, Waday, and Darfur; by which latter place also, he said this
river passed. He was most particularly clear in all his accounts,
and his statement agreed in some points with the information a Shouaa
named Dreess-boo-Raas-ben-aboo-Deleel had given me; therefore I was
the more inclined to pay attention to it. To the south of this river,
the population is entirely Kerdy, until the Great Desert. This desert
is passed several times in the year by kafilas with white people,
not Christians, who bring goods from the great sea: some of these
reach Adamowa. He himself saw white loaf sugar, such as the merchants
brought here from Tripoli to the sheikh, and a gun or two, with
metal pots and pans, and arrack (rum). The inhabitants were unanimous
in declaring these mountains to extend southward for two months’
journey; and in describing them, Yusuf called them “kou kora, kora,
kantaga,”—mountains large, large, moon mountains. And from the
increased love of enterprise apparent in our rising generation, we
may one day hope to be as well acquainted with the true character
of these stupendous mountains as with the lofty peaks of the Andes.
The extreme southern peak which I could discern was that called
Mendify, which rose into the air with singular boldness. It was said
to be a distance from Musfeia of two long days’ journey,—say
thirty-five miles. At that distance, it had all the character of an
alpine peak, of a most patriarchal height. I could perceive with
a glass other mountains extending from its sides, the forms of
which bore a tranquil character, compared with the arid and steep
peaks which overlooked them. It resembled very much in appearance
“Les Arguilles,” as they appear looking at them from the
Mer-de-Glace. The following outline may serve to show their shape
and character.
[Illustration]
Iron is found in abundance in all the Mandara hills; but no other
metal, that I was informed of. All the houses or huts at Mandara have
outer doors to the court, which are made of pieces of wood, hasped
together with iron. They make hinges, small bars, and a sort of hoe
used to weed the corn, and send them for sale to the Bornou towns. The
iron they use is mostly brought from the west near Karowa. I went
to the house of a blacksmith, for the purpose of seeing some of the
metal in its natural state, and found four men with a very rude forge,
formed by a hole in the sand: the bellows were two kid skins, with
an iron tube fixed in each, which tubes were conveyed underneath the
fire. The wind was produced by a man blowing these skins, which were
open at the top to let in the air. Their hammers were two pieces of
iron, weighing about two pounds each, and a coarse piece of the same
metal for an anvil; and considering their implements, they worked
with some tact. I regretted much that I had not an English hammer
to give them. Large masses of the iron, as nature produces it, were
lying about; and they appeared to me as so many rusty earthy masses.
In appearance, the people of Mandara differ from the Bornouese,
or Kanoury (as they call themselves); and the difference is all in
favour of the former. The men are intelligent and lively, with high
though flat foreheads, large sparkling eyes, wiry curled hair, noses
inclining to the aquiline, and features altogether less flattened
than the Bornouese. The women are proverbial for their good looks,—I
cannot say beauty. I must allow them, however, all their acknowledged
celebrity of form: they are certainly singularly gifted with the
Hottentot protuberance; their hands and feet are delightfully small;
and as these are all esteemed qualifications in the eye of a Turk,
Mandara slaves will always obtain an advanced price. Certainly I never
saw so much of them as when sporting in their native wilds, with not
so much covering on as one of Eve’s fig-leaves. A man who took me
to be a Moorish merchant led me to his house, in order to show me
the best looking slaves in Mandara. He had three, all under sixteen,
yet quite women; for these are precocious climes; and certainly,
for negresses, they were the most pleasing and perfectly formed I had
ever seen. They had simply a piece of blue striped linen round their
loins, yet they knew not their nakedness. Many of these beauties
are to be seen at Kouka and Angornou: they are never, however,
exposed in the fsug, but sold in the houses of the merchants. So
much depends on the magnitude of those attractions for which their
southern sisters are so celebrated, that I have known a man about
to make a purchase of one out of three, regardless of the charms
of feature, turn their faces from him, and looking at them behind,
just above the hips, as we dress a line of soldiers, make choice of
her whose person most projected beyond that of her companions.
The day before the Rhamadan, which commenced on the 13th instant
(May), I had an interview with the sheikh, who mentioned his intended
departure for Munga; and after some conversation, it was agreed that
I should proceed to Old Bornou or Birnie; and after seeing that part
of the country, the ruins of the town of Gambarou, and the river of
that name, which is said to come from Soudan; that I should follow
its course, and join him at a place called Kabshary on the same
river, to which he was about to proceed by a different route. The
whole population was in confusion at the departure of this ghrazzie,
and nearly all the people of Kouka, with the exception of the kadi,
were to accompany the sheikh. Previously, however, to his departure,
he had determined on sending off a courier to Tripoli, with an account
of Boo Khaloom’s death, and we availed ourselves of the opportunity
by writing to England. On the 17th of May the courier departed; and
on the 18th the sheikh began his march, and bivouacked at Dowergoo.
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 23: _Silsel_: irons placed round the necks of refractory
slaves.]
[Footnote 24: The band also sang some extempore verses on my joining
them, of which the following is nearly a literal translation, and
delighted their chief excessively.
Christian man he come,
Friend of us and sheikhobe;
White man, when he hear my song,
Fine new tobe give me.
Christian man all white,
And dollars white have he;
Kanourie like him come,
Black man’s friend to be.
See Felatah, how he run;
Barca Gana shake his spear:
White man carry two-mouthed gun,
That’s what make Felatah fear.]
[Footnote 25: A general term for unbelievers.]
[Footnote 26: Abdul Kassum-ben-Maliki came from this town, and speaks
of his people as having great influence with the sultan of Timbuctoo:
their language is alike; and he conversed as freely with a Felatah
slave from Musfeia, as if she had been his countrywoman, although they
were born probably fifteen hundred miles distant from each other.]
[Footnote 27: A deputation of twenty-seven from Musfeia and Zouay
had but a short time before arrived at Mora, for the purpose of
arranging some detention of property belonging to them, which had
been seized by the Mandara people. They were admitted to a parley;
but had no sooner quitted the presence of the sultan, than the throats
of all of them were instantly cut by the eunuchs and their slaves.]
CHAPTER IV.
EXCURSION TO MUNGA AND THE GAMBAROU.
May 21.—Ever since my return from Mandara, an expedition,
to be commanded by the sheikh in person, had been in agitation
against a numerous people to the west called Munga. These people
had never thoroughly acknowledged the sheikh’s supremacy, and the
collecting of their tribute had always been attended with difficulty
and bloodshed. They had, however, now thrown off all restraint, and
put to death about one hundred and twenty of the sheikh’s Shouaas,
and declared they would be no longer under his control, as the sultan
of Bornou was their king; and headed by a fighi of great power, had
begun to plunder and burn all the sheikh’s towns near them. It was
reported, and with some truth, that they could bring 12,000 bowmen
into the field; by far the most efficient force to be found in the
black country. To oppose these, the sheikh assembled his Kanemboo
spearmen (who had accompanied him from their own country, and assisted
him in wresting Bornou from the hands of the Felatahs), to the amount
of between eight and nine thousand. These, with about five thousand
Shouaas and Bornou men, composed the force with which he meant to
subdue these rebels. Another complaint against the Mungowy was,
“That they were kaffering[28], and not saying their prayers! the
dogs.” This is, however, a fault which is generally laid to the
charge of any nation against whom a true Musselman wages war, as it
gives him the power of making them slaves. By the laws of Mohammed,
one believer must not bind another.
Rhamadan, the period generally chosen for these expeditions, had
commenced, since the 13th May; and on the 8th, meaning to take
the town of Yeou, with the many others on the banks of the river
of that name in his way, both for the purpose of collecting forces
and tribute[29], the sheikh left Kouka for Dowergoo, a lake about
six miles distant, his women, tents, &c. having preceded him in
the morning.
Dr. Oudney and myself accompanied him outside the gates; and at our
request, he left Omar Gana, one of his chief slaves, to be our guide
to the old city of Bornou, which we were anxious to see; and from
whence we were to proceed to Kabshary, still farther to the west,
on the Gambarou, or Yeou, and there await his arrival.
May 22.—We left Kouka with five camels and four servants for Birnie,
halting in the middle of the day, and making two marches, of from ten
to fourteen miles, morning and evening. The country all round Kouka
is uninteresting and flat, the soil alluvial, and not a stone of any
kind to be seen, but thickly scattered with trees, mostly acacias. We
sometimes came to a few huts, and a well or two of indifferent water;
and a mess of rice from our stores was our usual supper.
On the 24th, about noon, we arrived at the river Yeou, and halted at
a rather large nest of huts called Lada. We were now seventy miles
from Kouka. The river here makes a bend resembling the letter S,
the water extremely shallow, and a dry path over the bed of the
river appeared close to our halting-place, although the banks were
high, and capable of containing a very large stream. I walked out,
following the easterly course of the stream in search of game; but
within four hundred yards of the banks, the ground was so choked with
high grass and prickly underwood, that I was obliged to take a path
more inland, where a partial clearance had been made for the sake of
some scanty cotton plantations. Pursuing some Guinea fowl across one
of these, I was assailed by the cries of several women and children,
who having thrown down their water-jugs, were flying from me in
the greatest alarm. I however went on, but had not proceeded above
a quarter of a mile, when my negro pointed out several men peeping
from behind some thick bushes, and evidently watching our motions. I
desired him to be on his guard, as he carried a carbine loaded with
slugs; and we called repeatedly to them without any effect. They had
been alarmed by the women, who had represented us to be Tuaricks,
of whom they are constantly in dread, as their country is not more
than seven days distant from where these marauders are often seen;
and the extreme points of the Bornou dominions they visit without
fear. The inhabitants of these wilds cannot be induced to quit their
present homes; and they patiently submit to have their flocks and
children taken from them, and their huts burnt, rather than seek
a more secure residence in the larger towns. They have, however,
a manner of defending themselves against these cruel invaders,
which often enables them to gratify their revenge: the ground is
covered by the high grass and jungle close to the banks of the
rivers, and they dig very deep circular holes, at the bottom of
which are placed six or eight sharp stakes, hardened by the fire,
over the top of which they most artfully lay the grass, so as to
render it impossible to discover the deception. An animal with its
rider stepping on one of these traps is quickly precipitated to the
bottom, and not unfrequently both are killed on the spot.
In returning to the tents with the people whom I had alarmed, and
who cautioned me not to proceed farther in that direction, I quite
trembled at the recollection of the various escapes I had had, as
some of these blaqua, as they are called, were not a yard distant
from the marks of my former footsteps.
The country near the banks of the river to the west is ornamented by
many very large tamarind and other trees, bearing a fruit resembling
a medlar, green and pleasant to the taste, and many of the Mimosa
tribe flourished in uncontrolled luxuriance. The Googooroo, or Jujube,
abounded; and these varieties of green gave a life to the landscape
that was quite new to us. The wild fruits even were palatable;
and selecting those on which the monkeys were feeding, we devoured
them fearlessly and eagerly,—their freshness supplying the want
of either flavour or sweetness. The monkeys, or as the Arabs say,
“men enchanted,”—“Ben Adam meshood,” were so numerous, that
I saw upwards of one hundred and fifty assembled in one place in the
evening. They did not at all appear inclined to give up their ground,
but, perched on the top of the bank some twenty feet high, made a
terrible noise; and rather gently than otherwise, pelted us when
we approached to within a certain distance. My negro was extremely
anxious to fire at them; but they were not, I thought, considering
their numbers, sufficiently presuming to deserve such a punishment.
May 25.—About two miles from Lada, we left the river, and halted
at noon near a small still water. Here were several flocks of geese,
and some of the species of bird called adjutant. These mid-day halts,
with only partial shade, were dreadfully sultry and oppressive. We
moved on in the afternoon, and passing another lake of the same
description, by nine in the evening came to one much larger, called
Engataranaram. Nothing could be more wild than the country we had
passed through this day; and compared with the sterile plains I had
lately been accustomed to, seemed rich and picturesque: it was one
continued wood, with narrow winding paths, to avoid the overhanging
branches of the prickly tulloh. The frequent foot-marks of lions,
the jackal, and hyena, gave us a pretty good idea of the nature of
the inhabitants; and their roarings at night convinced us that they
were at no great distance.
We had this morning met a kafila from Soudan, consisting of about
twenty persons, and bringing one hundred and twenty slaves; and some
hours after we saw the place where they had passed the preceding
night. They had lit their fires in the very centre of the path, and
made a good fence all round them of large branches of trees and dry
wood. This fence is sometimes set fire to, when their four-footed
visitors are numerous, and approach too near. Camels and animals of
every description are placed in the centre, and should one stray in
the night, he is seldom again recovered. Kafilas never travel after
dusk, particularly those on foot; and our negroes had such a fright
during the latter part of this day’s march, that they declared on
coming up with the camels, that their lives were in danger from such
late marches, an immense lion having crossed the road before them
only a few miles from where we halted. There can be little doubt,
that by their singing and number they had disturbed the lion from
his lair, as we must have passed within ten paces of the foot of the
tree from which he broke forth on their approach: they said that
he had stopped, and looked back at them, and if they had not had
presence of mind sufficient to pass on without at all noticing him,
or appearing alarmed, some one of the party would have suffered.
[Illustration: Drawn by Major Denham.
Engraved by E. Finden.
THE RIVER GAMBAROU OF YEOU.
NEAR LADA.
_Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London._]
Previous to pitching our tents at night, the sheikh’s negro examined
the ground, and, after dismounting and listening attentively for an
instant, he declared some people to be near. We fired a gun, which,
after a little time, was answered by a shout, and at no great distance
we found about half a dozen Kabsharians, who said they were on their
way to Kouka, and near them we fixed ourselves for the night. In
these woods kafilas from Soudan are often robbed, and the runaway
negroes, who are good bowmen, pick off the leaders from behind the
trees, and then plunder the baggage: ten men from one kafila had,
we were informed, been so murdered during the last year.
May 26.—We pursued a westerly course for eight miles to a lake
called Gumzaigee, about a mile in length, between which and another
called Gumzaigee-gana, the road lies; seven miles beyond which is
still another lake of considerable extent, called Muggaby, or the lake
of the sultan of Bornou: this is nearly three miles long, and full
half a mile broad; its banks are beautifully green, and its depth is
very great; it contains hippopotami in great numbers, and every now
and then their black heads appeared above the surface of the water.
A few straggling parties of Kanemboo infantry had occasionally
crossed our path, for several days, on their way to join the sheikh,
but here we found about a hundred and fifty Shouaas, or Arabs of
Beni Wah’l. After our tents were pitched, and we had refreshed
ourselves by a mess of ducks and rice, we determined on riding to
visit the remains of Old Birnie[30], which extended nearly to this
lake. We proceeded by the high road to Soudan, and after about two
miles came to the spot on which once stood the capital of Bornou,
and the ruins of the city certainly tended more strongly to convince
us of the power of its former sultans than any of the tales we had
heard of their magnificence: we had seen upwards of thirty large towns
which the Felatahs had completely razed to the ground at the time they
destroyed the capital, and we were now arrived at the ruins of that
capital itself[31]. Old Birnie covered a space of five or six square
miles, and is said to have had a population of two hundred thousand
souls: the remains of the walls were in many places still standing,
in large masses of hard red brick-work, and were from three to four
feet in thickness, and sixteen to eighteen feet in height. From
the top of one of these we obtained a sight of the river Gambarou,
running nearly east, notwithstanding its windings, and only a few
miles distant. At sunset we returned to our huts.
Crossing the head of the lake Muggaby, we took a north-westerly
direction, for the purpose of seeing the remaining ruins of this once
populous district, and particularly those of a favourite residence
of the former sultan, called Gambarou, situated on the banks of the
river, four miles distant, which comes from Soudan: this district
gave its name to the waters during their passage through it. After
wading through low grounds, occasionally overflowed, where the
wild grass was above our horses’ heads, and disturbing a herd
of fourteen elephants, whose retired haunts were seldom so broken
in upon, we came to the river, which is here a very noble stream,
nearly a quarter of a mile in breadth, and situated between two
high banks thickly overgrown with jungle, bushes, and bamboo[32]:
we endeavoured to ascertain if there was any current, but the water
appeared perfectly stationary. Omar Gana, however, and the Shouaas
who had accompanied us, were unanimous in declaring that after the
rains a very strong current from west to east constantly flowed.
We determined on remaining here the next day, and ordered the tents
to be pitched under the shade of an immense tamarind tree, about two
hundred and fifty yards from the bank of the river. The water was
sweet and palatable, and very gratifying to us after the lake water
we had been drinking for the last few days, though that was nectar
in comparison with the well-water near Kouka. The shoals of fish
that rushed quite close to, and sometimes on, the shore, exceeded
any thing I ever could have supposed, both as to size and numbers:
we waded, nearly up to our knees, to a little island or sand-bank
about ten yards from the land, and found the marks of two good-sized
crocodiles quite fresh.
Close to the bank, and just at the hollow of a slight curve in the
river’s course, fourteen years ago stood the town of Gambarou,
the chosen place of residence of the late and former sultans of
Bornou; and the ruins now standing give a proof of the buildings
having been, for this country, of a princely kind: the walls of a
mosque, which were more than twenty yards square, are still visible,
and those of the sultan’s house, with gates opening to the river,
still remain; a private mosque appears also to have been attached to
the sultan’s residence: the buildings were all of brick, and must
have had a superior appearance to any town we had seen in Africa:
the situation was beautiful, and although labyrinths of thickets and
brambles now overspread the banks of the river, while wild plants and
useless grass were in the meadows, yet I was assured that the whole
neighbourhood of Gambarou was once in a superior state of cultivation;
and that in the old sultan’s time, boats were constantly moving
to and from Kabshary and other towns to the west. Kouka was at that
time not in being, and Angornou but a small parcel of huts.
May 28.—Dr. Oudney and myself mounted our horses this morning, and
followed the course of the river to the eastward, nearly three miles:
there being no pathway, we were obliged to break through the high
grass, trees, and thickly scattered bamboo, which made it a fatiguing
excursion, and after all, we could only now and then get a sight of
the water by following the track of the elephants and other animals,
whose ponderous bodies beat down every thing before them. Our negro,
Omar Gana, was alarmed, and would willingly have turned back more
than once; we, however, urged him on, and at length came to an open,
dry shoal of sand, the bed of the river extending more than two
hundred yards; here was the fresh impression of the foot of a very
large lion, and we found that the stream was here again called the
Yeou. To Omar Gana’s great satisfaction, we now returned by a more
direct path through the wood to our tents: these wilds, from their
not leading to any high road or inhabited spot, are perhaps never
visited, the whole country having been abandoned ever since the
Felatahs commenced their inroads. Wild animals of all descriptions
here abound therefore in greater numbers than in any other part of
the kingdom of Bornou: several parcels of wood tied up with oziers,
and large trees stripped of their bark and afterwards deserted,
showed how the wood-cutter had been disturbed at his work by the
ferocious inhabitants; and some whitened bones, and the remains
of a hatchet in one place, made us shudder and conclude, that some
one still less fortunate had here met a miserable death. Straggling
bands of Tuaricks also sometimes scour the country about the banks
of the river, and carry off whatever suits their purpose.
On our return to the tents, we found that our situation was by no
means so comfortable as we could have wished. Kabshary, to which
place we intended proceeding, and there awaiting the arrival of
the sheikh, had been attacked and partly burnt by the Munga people
since our leaving Kouka, and deserted by the inhabitants; and while
we were debating on what steps we should take in consequence of this
intelligence, two Kanemboo spearmen came to us in great consternation,
with news that the Munga horse had been reconnoitring all around us,
had even visited the part of the river we had been exploring in the
morning, and after murdering several Kanemboos, who were proceeding to
join the sheikh, had carried off the bullocks and whatever they had
with them. The sheikh’s delay in coming up had made them bold, and
their approach had caused all the Shouaas we had left at Muggaby to
beat a retreat; we were therefore left quite alone, and, as it seemed,
might expect every minute to be surrounded, taken prisoners, and with
an iron round our necks, with which slaves are coupled like greyhounds
in slips, marched off to Munga. Omar Gana was greatly alarmed, and
dressing himself in his steel jacket, with red _giboon_ (waistcoat)
over it, and black turban, calmed our fears but little, by leaving
us for a full hour to see if the Shouaas had really left Muggaby;
notwithstanding he at the same time assured us, that the sight of
his red jacket would frighten a hundred Mungowy. On his return,
which we looked for with much anxiety, we found the alarming reports
in part confirmed; no Shouaas were near the lake, and he was quite
sure the enemy had been there. He proposed going to Kabshary, along
the banks of the river to the west; but acknowledged that the sheikh
was not there, and that the people had moved off towards Angornou:
we considered this bad advice, and determined on returning at least
to the Kouka road; that was, however, no easy task; and after some
consideration it was determined that we were to keep close to the
bank of the river, and creep through the woods as well as we could,
avoiding all beaten paths. We moved at three in the afternoon, and
crossed about two miles distant to the north bank of the river,
our road being extremely intricate, and overgrown with trees and
underwood.
Just before sunset we came upon a herd of elephants, fourteen or
fifteen in number; these the negroes made to dance and frisk like
so many goats, by beating violently a brass basin with a stick; and
as night now began to cast over us its gloomy veil, we determined
on fixing ourselves until morning in a small open space, where a
large tree, destroyed by the attacks of the white ant, had fallen,
and afforded us fire-wood to prepare our supper: to seek it at any
distance would have been dangerous at that time in the evening, on
account of the lions, and the little grass which was gathered for
our horses was furnished by the space within sight of our tents. Our
animals were brought as close to us as possible, and we kept up
fires the greater part of the night; a few roaring salutations,
and those principally from the elephant and jackal, were the only
disturbance that we met with.
We proceeded on our course on the following day, winding with the
river; in several places we had the bank clear of trees and covered
with verdure for some hundreds of yards, and the stream nearly as
broad as the Thames at Richmond. Towards noon the wood became much
thicker, no pathway was to be discovered, and our guide declared,
that where we were he had not the least idea. A little further
on, we came to a complete stoppage; brambles were wound round the
before thickly-clustered branches of tulloh and prickly acacias;
and on removing, with great difficulty, some of those, we found the
treacherous grass underneath merely covering blaquas, large, deep,
and well staked, capable of receiving and destroying a Tuarick with
his maherhy. In endeavouring to find a passage at a short distance,
Dr. Oudney was very nearly precipitated, horse and all, into one of
these graves for the quick. We were absolutely afraid to move; and
Omar Gana, who declared these fortifications indicated our being near
to some town, which was thus prepared against the Mungowy, desired
me to fire a gun, in order to bring some of the inhabitants to serve
as our guide: accordingly two sturdy negroes came to our assistance,
who, after eying us through the trees and ascertaining who we were,
conducted us to the village, which, although at no great distance,
would have foiled all our efforts to discover: the avenues were
completely barricadoed on every side, the paths cut up, and these
blaquas so scattered in all directions, that even with a guide, and
going one by one, it was with the greatest difficulty we avoided them.
Arrived at the village, which was called Wallad, of so miserable
a description that it could not even furnish a jar of milk,
notwithstanding we produced both needles and beads,—a new difficulty
arose; for although the camels were sought after and brought in safe
by the people, yet my servant Columbus, who was behind on a mule,
did not make his appearance: we were in considerable anxiety, both on
account of the wild beasts and these pits, which were almost equally
frightful. Our alarm was a good deal increased when, after having sent
people in every direction, giving them pistols, and desiring them to
fire signals, and not return without him, the people of the village
came running to the jujube tree under which we were resting, to tell
us that Columbus and the mule had fallen into one of these blaquas,
and that they believed the mule was dead. We hastened to the spot,
and found the poor mule indeed very near it: she was sticking on
four stakes, one in her flank, and two in her hind quarter, with
her knees dreadfully torn by struggling. Had she been a larger and
heavier animal, nothing could have saved her: the man had, by a
violent exertion, thrown himself out, how he knew not, almost as
soon as he fell in, and had escaped with his leg only bruised. He
said he had lost his way hours before, and had climbed to the top of
several tamarind-trees, in order to discover traces of our route,
without success: once he thought he heard a gun, but having only
two charges of powder with him, he kept them as a defence against
the wild animals at night, and was afraid to answer the signal.
After all our difficulties, it was some comfort at length to find
that the sheikh was within only a few hours’ march of us, on
the south side of the river; and in the evening we determined on
joining him. Again, therefore, crossing the Yeou at a dry spot, we
came to the outskirts of the Bornou camp, on the banks of a large
water called Dummasak, about five miles distant from the ford: at
the river we again saw the footmarks of a very large lion, and also
those of a hippopotamus. It was after sunset when we arrived, and
passing through numerous groups of the Kanemboo spearmen, who were
lying about without any tents or covering, we came to the open space
where the sheikh’s tent and the huts of his principal people were
fixed. On learning that we had arrived, he desired our tents might
be placed near Mady Gana, the manager of his household, who brought
us his congratulations, and at the same time a very good supper of
Guinea fowl, and a kind of paste, made of wheat flour, called _ftat_,
which is considered a great delicacy. Our joy can with difficulty be
imagined at learning here the arrival of a package from England,
by a kafila of merchants from Fezzan. The pleasure of hearing
of our country and friends, the greatest enjoyment our situation
allowed us, we had been for a length of time deprived of; and this,
added to our being entirely destitute of provisions of every kind,
determined us to return to Kouka on the following morning. This our
decision we desired might be made known to the sheikh, but, from
some cause or other, the information was not communicated to him;
and, to our great surprise, by daylight he moved off, and we found
ourselves again alone without a guide, and without even knowing what
the sheikh’s wishes were with respect to our proceedings. This
was a fresh dilemma; and upon the whole we were worse off than the
day before, for the sheikh’s negro was always a protection, and we
were now at the tail of an undisciplined army, at least demi-savage,
without any knowledge of the road. After three hours’ deliberation,
and no intelligence arriving from the sheikh, we decided on making
our way to Kouka alone; and having picked up a straggler, who assured
us he knew the country, and left our wounded mule in the care of some
people in the neighbouring village of huts, we loaded our fire-arms
afresh, and commenced our route. We had proceeded, however, but a
few hundred yards on our road, when Omar Gana, mounted on a miserable
horse and in great distress, came up to us, entreating that we would
follow the sheikh as quickly as possible; that on inquiring of him
where we were, and finding that he had quitted us, he, the sheikh,
had been in a violent passion; had struck him from his horse, which
he desired might be taken from him; had directed him to return and
bring us up to the army without delay.
We had now nothing to do but to obey; and, therefore, turning round
our camels, after a four hours’ march in the heat of the day, we
arrived a second time at the lake Muggaby, which we had left only
three days before. Some spots on the road were extremely picturesque,
by nature; and this beauty of the scene was increased by the groups
of naked warriors, with their shields, resting in different places
on the borders of the lake; while hundreds of others were in the
water, spearing the fish, which they struck, and brought to shore
with very surprising dexterity: some of the fish were as large as
good-sized salmon, but shaped like a bream. Fires were lighted by
their companions on the shore, and rows of from fifty to one hundred
were staked, or strung on a line made of grass, extended from two
sticks, and most excellently and expeditiously roasted.
Muggaby, with its still dark-blue surface, had, at the time we came
on it, an appearance highly interesting: the margin, and the shallow
waters, were crowded with horses feeding, and men bathing. In the
centre, the hippopotami were constantly throwing up their black
muzzles, spouting with water; and the wood, which at the south-west
end had caught fire, and blazed to the very clouds, gave a glare to
all around which made the scene almost terrific.
We now commenced our march with the Bornou army, in which but little
order is preserved previous to coming near the enemy: every one
appears to know, that at a certain point the assembly is to take
place; and the general instructions seem to be to every one to
make the best of his own way. The sheikh takes the lead, and close
after him comes the sultan of Bornou, who always attends him on
these occasions, although he never fights. The former is preceded
by five flags, two green, two striped, and one red, with extracts
from the Koran written on them in letters of gold, and attended by
about a hundred of his chiefs and favourite slaves. A negro, high in
confidence, rides close behind him, bearing his shield jacket of mail,
and wearing his skull-cap of steel; he also bears his arms. Another,
mounted on a swift maherhy, and fantastically dressed with a straw
hat and ostrich feathers, carries his timbrel or drum, which it is the
greatest misfortune and disgrace to lose in action. On the expedition
which cost the sultan Denhamah, the late sultan of Bornou, his life,
the timbrel and the sheikh were supposed to have fallen in a sudden
rush of Begharmis; almost every one near him suffered. The people,
however, firmly believe that he was saved by a miracle; they say,
“he became invisible; that the Begharmi chiefs scoured the field,
calling out for the sheikh; that his drum sounded at intervals,
but could not be seen, any more than their leader.” Close in the
rear of the maherhies follow the eunuchs and the harem; the sheikh
takes but three wives, who are mounted, astride, on small trained
horses, each led by a boy-slave, or eunuch,—their heads and figures
completely enveloped in brown silk bornouses, and a eunuch riding
by the side of each.
[Illustration: From a Sketch by Major Denham.
Engraved by E. Finden.
A FAVORITE OF THE SERAGLIO ACCOMPANYING A MILITARY EXPEDITION.
_Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London._]
The sultan of Bornou has five times as many attendants, and his harem
is three times as numerous: he is attended, also, by men bearing
trumpets (frumfrum), of hollow wood, ten and twelve feet long; with
these a kind of music is constantly kept up. As this instrument is
considered an appendage of royalty alone, the sheikh has no frumfrums;
the keigomha, or standard-bearer, rides in front of him, carrying a
very long pole, hung round, at the top, with strips of leather and
silk of various colours, in imitation, probably, of the bashaw’s
tigue, or tails; and two ride on each side of him called Meestrumha
Dundelmah, carrying immense spears, with which they are supposed to
defend their sultan in action, whose dignity would be infringed upon
by defending himself; but the spears are so hung round with charms,
and the bearers so abominably unwieldy, that the idea of such weapons
being of any use in the hands of such warriors is absurd. Indeed
the grotesque appearance of the whole of this prince’s train,
with heads hung round with charms, and resembling the size and
shape of a hogshead; their protruding stomachs, and wadded doublets,
are ridiculous in the extreme.
The town of Kabshary, where we halted, had been nearly destroyed by
the Mungowy. On attacking a place, it is the custom of the country
instantly to fire it; and as they are all composed of straw huts
only, the whole is shortly devoured by the flames. The unfortunate
inhabitants fly quickly from the destructive element, and fall
immediately into the hands of their no less merciless enemies, who
surround the place: the men are quickly massacred, and the women
and children lashed together, and made slaves. Rhamadan, one of the
sheikh’s chiefs, a slave from Soudan, had been stationed here for
the last fifteen days, and under his protection the survivors of the
attack had returned, and were already rebuilding their dwellings. The
huts are convenient, and, from the abundance of long straw which the
overflowed grounds near the river furnished them, are better built,
and withstand the rain better, than those of Kouka: they are divided
on the inside by mats, which the women make with great neatness;
they have all of them a door of plaited straw in a frame of wood;
and some of the habitations of the principals have a wall of mats
round them, leaving an inclosure, in which is sometimes a second
hut for the female slaves, and the cow or goats which supply them
with milk. These unfortunate people seldom think of defending their
habitations, but rather give them up, and by that means gain time to
escape themselves, should the attack not be made in the night, and
the whole set fire to, before they have time to fly. The Kabsharians
had long been in dread of a visit from the people of Munga, and,
on their approach, the greater part of them had retreated to the
banks of the river, to the north-west of the town, which are there
extremely high; and they had made a strong post, by digging blaquas,
and placing pointed crossed stakes in trenches, which rendered their
retreat nearly inaccessible.
June 1.—The sun had scarcely risen this morning, when the sheikh
was on horseback inspecting his favourite troops, the Kanemboo
infantry: a hollow space under some sandhills, called Cornamaree,
was chosen, about a quarter of a mile from the camp, and the whole
was conducted with a good deal of order and system. He was attended
to the ground by the four sultans who accompanied the expedition
under his orders, and a circle was formed by the Arabs and the Bornou
horse. The sheikh’s principal slaves and commanders were dispersed
in different parts, habited in their scarlet bornouses with gold
lace, and surrounded also by their followers. His own dress was, as
usual, neat and simple: two white figured muslin tobes, very large,
with a bornouse of the same colour, and a Cashemere shawl for a
turban, composed his dress; over the whole, across his shoulders,
hung the sword which, as he repeatedly said, “the sultan Inglese
had sent him.” He was mounted on a very beautiful bright bay horse
from Mandara, and took his station on the north side of the circle;
while the Kanemboos were drawn up on the opposite extremity in close
column, to the number of nine thousand. On the signal being made
for them to advance, they uttered a yell, or shriek, exceeding any
thing in shrillness I ever heard; then advanced, by tribes of from
eight hundred to one thousand each. They were perfectly naked, with
the exception of a rather fantastical belt of the goat or sheep’s
skin, with the hair outwards, round their middles, and a few gubkas
(narrow strips of cloth, the money of the country), round their heads,
and brought under the nose; their arms are a spear and shield, with a
dagger on the left arm reversed, secured by a ring which goes on the
wrist, the point running up the arm, and the handle downwards. The
shields are made of the wood of the fogo, a tree which grows in the
shallow waters of the great lake, and are so extremely light, as to
weigh only a few pounds; the pieces of wood of which it is formed are
bound together by thongs of the hide of bullocks with the hair on,
which is also carried along the edge of the outside of the shield
in vandykes and forms an ornament; they are something the shape of
a gothic window, and most of them slightly convex. Under cover of
these, the Kanemboo attack the bowmen with great order, and at a
slow pace. Their leaders are mounted, and are distinguished merely
by a tobe of dark blue, and a turban of the same colour.
On nearing the spot where the sheikh had placed himself they quickened
their pace, and, after striking their spears against their shields for
some seconds, which had an extremely grand and stunning effect, they
filed off to the outside of the circle, where they again formed, and
awaited their companions, who succeeded them in the same order. There
appeared to be a great deal of affection between these troops and
the sheikh; he spurred his horse onwards into the midst of some of
the tribes as they came up, and spoke to them, while the men crowded
round him, kissing his feet, and the stirrups of his saddle. It was a
most pleasing sight; he seemed to feel how much his present elevation
was owing to their exertions, while they displayed a devotion and
attachment deserving and denoting the greatest confidence. I confess
I was considerably disappointed at not seeing these troops engage,
although more than compensated by the reflection of the slaughter
that had been prevented by that disappointment.
On seeing the sheikh after this inspection, he asked me what I thought
of his Kanemboos: I could not help expressing my pleasure at their
orderly and regular appearance, and he smiled when I assured him
that I thought with such troops as these he need fear but little
the attempts of the Arabs and Fezzaneers. Rhamadan, who had been
stationed at Kabshary since the burning of the town, gave me an
account of a second attack made by the Mungowy since his arrival. He
had about two hundred and fifty people with him, amongst whom were
about a dozen Arabs in the sheikh’s service, who had guns. Eight
or nine hundred of Munga people made their appearance by daylight
one morning, principally to try the strength of their enemies,
which it was, of course, Rhamadan’s business to prevent their
ascertaining. He succeeded in driving them back, although not without
some loss, quite to the inclosed country, where they had greatly the
advantage of him, and killed nearly thirty of his men with their
arrows. Rhamadan now practised a _ruse de guerre_, by which means
he destroyed nearly half the force of his enemies:—He appeared
to give up the chase, and retired with his party; towards evening,
however, he moved round by the river to a watering-place, where he
expected the Mungowy would go to drink and refresh themselves, and
rushing upon them unperceived, slaughtered upwards of four hundred.
[Illustration: From a Sketch by Major Denham’s.
Engraved by E. Finden.
KANEMBOO SPEARMAN.
MUNGA BOWMAN.
IN THE SERVICE OF THE SHEIKH OF BORNOU.
_Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London._]
June 3.—A reconnoitring party of cavalry went out soon after
daylight with Rhamadan and Dauood (David) at their head. About three
in the afternoon they began to return, bringing with them women and
children of both sexes, to the amount of eight hundred: one Shouaa,
a friend of mine, brought a poor woman with four children, two in
her arms, and two on the father’s horse, who had been stabbed for
defending those he held most dear upon earth. They also brought
a number of very fine horses, and several hundred bullocks and
sheep. The poor wretches, on being brought to the sheikh’s tents,
uttered the most piteous cries, and, after looking at them, he desired
that they might all be released: saying,—“God forbid that I
should make slaves of the wives and children of any Musselman! Go
back; tell the wicked and powerful chiefs, who urge your husbands
to rebel and to kafir, that I shall quickly be with them; and it is
them I will punish, not the innocent and the helpless.”
June 4.—We found to the south a very pretty lake, embosomed in a
thick wood, and the town Bassecour, with from fifteen hundred to two
thousand inhabitants; and, on crossing it, saw two other populous
towns, called Caroom and Batily; and again, nearer the river, which
was about four miles from Bassecour, several others. I did not return
until after sunset, when the positions of the Kanemboo, who always are
on duty on the side nearest the enemy, afforded some very picturesque
groups. They have a regular chain of posts, or pickets, consisting
of five or six men each, extending from the main body to some one of
the tribes, who always act as an advance, about two miles in front,
and cover the whole front of the army. They lie very snugly under
the shelter of their shields, which protect them both from wind
and rain, as well as the arrows of their foes. One or two of each
party are always on the look out, and their peculiar watch-cry is
passed from one sentry to the other, at every half hour or oftener,
the whole night through. On the least disturbance taking place in
the camp, or horses breaking loose, after a sudden storm, the whole
body strike their shields, and set up a yell, to show that they are
awake to the circumstance: this also is their tattoo, may be heard
for miles, and answers the blowing of the sheikh’s horn for the
last prayers at Ashèa.
June 5.—Many hundreds of the Munga people now came in, bowing
to the ground, and throwing sand upon their heads, in token of
submission. At night every thing was prepared for our marching to
the capital, leaving the women, camels, and baggage, at this place;
but the people sent word, that if the sheikh remained where he was,
they would come to him, and surrender themselves.
June 6.—Several towns sent their chiefs, and submitted in this
manner,—bringing peace-offerings, on the sheikh’s swearing
solemnly not to molest them farther; but Malem Fanaamy, a fighi of
great talent, the cause of the rebellion of these people, refused
to come, because he feared to lose his head, and offering, at the
same time, two thousand slaves, one thousand bullocks, and three
hundred horses, to the sheikh, as the price for peace[33]. The
offer was refused: the sheikh’s object being the subjection of
this rebellious chief, and not his death or plunder.
We had, the night before, attempted to send off two rockets, but
which, to my great disappointment, as well as the sheikh’s, had
failed: they had been carelessly carried, and the composition had
fallen out of them. This evening he sent “to beg that I would try
two more, and, please God, make them go better.” I replied, “that
I would do my best;” and, most fortunately, they succeeded to my
wish. They were, indeed, a beautiful sight, as the night was extremely
dark, and created exceeding wonder. Some of the messengers, who had
come from the towns to the west, fell on their faces, and began to
pray most fearfully when the rockets burst in their descent. This
evening, also, Malem Fanaamy had sent his son, a man of about thirty,
handsomely attended, who also witnessed this wonderful exhibition.
The following day, Malem Fanaamy himself made his appearance. His
people had become clamorous, and, having no alternative, he came
superbly mounted on a white horse, with full one thousand followers,
and, dismounting at the door of the sheikh’s tent, humbled himself
to the dust, and would have poured sand on his head, but this was
by the sheikh’s order prevented, and the fighi brought into his
presence. As is the custom on these occasions, he came in poor
habiliments, and with an uncovered head. The sheikh received his
submission, and, when he really expected to hear the order for his
throat to be cut, he was clothed with eight handsome tobes, and his
head made as big as six with turbans from Egypt.
June 11.—The feast of the Aide having arrived, and the Rhamadan
finished, the new moon was ushered in by loud shouts, and by the
firing of guns, and our last rocket was sent up in honour of the
feast. It was preceded by a volley fired by my negroes with two
carabines, and two brace of pistols, with my own gun, which gave great
pleasure; for certainly never were people so enamoured of gunpowder
and smoke. By sunrise all the troops were under arms, and the sheikh
and all the chiefs mounted, and dressed in their finest bornouses,
rode round the camp, and prayed at a short distance. The chiefs of
two Munga towns came in to-day, but brought no tribute. We visited
the sheikh in the evening, to congratulate him on the Rhamadan being
over. He asked a great many questions, particularly about printing;
and, addressing me, said:—“Why did you not bring plenty of
rockets? They are the most wonderful things I ever saw.” At night
we had a dreadful storm, and we were witnesses of a curious custom
which the natives have, of digging an immense hole immediately after
rain, and, when they come to the dry sand, getting into the hole,
and lying down to avoid the damp earth.
June 15.—To avoid the excessive heat of the tents, as we were
still to be stationary, we rode to the town Gomsee, before the sun
had gained sufficient power to be oppressive, and passed nearly the
whole of the forenoon in the corner of the hut of a woman, who had
come to the tents the day before for medicine. She had been troubled
with ringworms for ten years: she recognised me on my entering the
town, which I merely intended passing through, in order to gain the
shade of some large tamarind-trees and mangoes that grow close to the
lake; but she was so anxious that I should come to her house, that
I could not refuse. Her husband was one of the principal persons,
and their huts rather superior to the rest. In an inclosure of mats
were three huts, one for the man, and the two others for his wife and
slaves. I took possession of the former; when, after a repast of milk,
and a kind of thick drink, made of a paste from the gussub flour,
with honey and pepper, I had visits from at least one hundred of the
inhabitants, male and female. This is nearly the last of the Bornou
towns westwards. Although the men of Bornou are not warriors, nor the
women favoured by nature, they are certainly a kind, inoffensive race;
and in one hour were as intimate with me, as if I had been amongst
them for years. It was decreed, however, that we were not to part
quite such good friends. At noon my host brought in a very beautiful
wild bull-skin, with water, on which he begged I would “sully”
(pray), and, on my refusal, the usual investigation took place,
which ended in my attendant explaining to them, “that I did not
sully;” that is, “that I was not Mislem:” upon which, “Kerdie,
Kerdie,” was whispered about. The women held up their hands, and the
men retired to a distance, and I found my popularity rapidly decrease.
No kafila is permitted to enter Kouka during the sheikh’s absence,
nor dare the merchants offer any goods for sale till they have
his permission. On this account, one consisting of ten merchants
from Soudan was ordered to encamp at a short distance from us, and
await the movements of the army. They had nearly a hundred slaves,
the greater part female, and girls of from twelve to eighteen years
of age, some of them from Nyffee, and still further to the west,
of a deep copper colour, and beautifully formed; but few of these
were ironed. The males, who were mostly young, were linked together
in couples, by iron rings round their legs; yet they laughed, and
seemed in good condition.
It is a common practice with the merchants to induce one slave to
persuade his companions, that on arriving at Tripoli they will be
free, and clothed in red, a colour all negroes are passionately
fond of; by which promises they are induced to submit quietly,
until they are too far from their homes to render escape possible
but at the risk of starvation. If the hundreds, nay thousands, of
skeletons that whiten in the blast between this place and Mourzuk,
did not, of themselves, tell a tale replete with woe, the difference
of appearance in all slaves here (where they are fed tolerably),
and the state in which they usually arrive in Fezzan, would but
too clearly prove the acuteness of the sufferings which commence on
their leaving the negro country.
A circumstance happened during the last two days, which created
a great sensation amongst the chiefs; and while it proved that
absolute power in the person of the sheikh was not unaccompanied by
a heart overflowing with feelings of mercy and moderation, it also
displayed many amiable qualities in his untutored and unenlightened
subjects. Barca Gana, his general, and his favourite, a governor of
six large districts, the man whom he delighted to honour, who had more
than fifty female slaves, and twice the number of male, was taught a
lesson of humility that made me feel exceedingly for him. In giving
presents to the chiefs, the sheikh had inadvertently sent him a horse
which he had previously promised to some one else, and on Barca Gana
being requested to give it up, he took such great offence, that he
sent back all the horses which the sheikh had previously given him,
saying that he would in future walk or ride his own. On this the
sheikh immediately sent for him, had him stripped in his presence,
and the leather girdle put round his loins; and, after reproaching
him with his ingratitude, ordered that he should be forthwith sold
to the Tibboo merchants, for he was still a slave. The favourite,
thus humbled and disgraced, fell on his knees, and acknowledged the
justness of his punishment. He begged for no forgiveness for himself,
but entreated that his wives and children might be provided for, out
of the riches of his master’s bounty. But on the following day, when
preparations were made for carrying this sentence into effect, the
Kaganawha (black Mamelukes), and Shouaa chiefs about the sheikh’s
person, fell at his feet, and notwithstanding the haughtiness of
Barca Gana’s carriage to them since his advancement, entreated
to a man pardon for his offences, and that he might be restored to
favour. The culprit appearing at this moment to take leave, the sheikh
threw himself back on his carpet, wept like a child, and suffered
Barca Gana, who had crept close to him, to embrace his knees, and
calling them all his sons, pardoned his repentant slave. No prince
of the most civilized nation can be better loved by his subjects
than this chief; and he is a most extraordinary instance, in the
eastern world, of fearless bravery, virtue, and simplicity. In the
evening, there was great and general rejoicing. The timbrels beat;
the Kanemboos yelled, and struck their shields; every thing bespoke
joy: and Barca Gana, in new tobes and a rich bornouse, rode round
the camp, followed by all the chiefs of the army.
June 18.—We commenced our return to Kouka, after an expedition
to me very interesting, and one in which the sheikh had displayed a
vast deal of tact and good management; for although he threatened the
extermination of the Munga people, yet nothing could have been more
injurious to his interests than carrying such threats into execution,
had he, indeed, been sufficiently strong to have done so. They are
a powerful people, and can bring twelve thousand bowmen into the
field; their arrows are much longer than those of the Felatahs, and
they have a way of poisoning them more fatally than those people. A
nation possessing such a force as this amongst his own people,—who,
from their situation on the frontier, were constantly exposed to the
attacks both of the Felatahs and the Tuaricks, and by being more
accustomed to warfare, were consequently better troops than any
in the kingdom of Bornou,—it became a matter of great importance
to the sheikh to conciliate by fair means, if it were practicable,
and he was perfectly alive to the policy of such a proceeding. The
Mungowy nearly all fight on foot, while Bornou may not improperly be
called an equestrian nation. The infantry here, however, as in our
own quarter of the globe, most commonly decide the fortune of war;
and the sheikh’s former successes may be greatly, if not entirely,
attributed to the courageous efforts of the Kanem spearmen, in leading
the Bornou horse into the battle, who, without such a covering attack,
would never be brought to face the arrows of their enemies. No use
had ever yet been made of the accession of strength to Bornou by its
junction with the Munga people, and the sheikh had this in view when
he planned the present expedition. All these considerations had their
weight with him, as well as the numerical force with which he had to
contend, and he availed himself of the superstition of the people,
and his own fame as a Malem (writer), to do that which, probably,
by the effect of his arms alone, it might have been difficult to
accomplish. He is reported to have spent three successive nights in
writing charms: the effects of which were, that the spears of some of
the enemies’ chiefs were found in the morning blunted and hacked,
whole quivers of arrows were found broken also, and their arms changed
from one hut to another; other chiefs were seized with sickness,
and all with fear. My rockets are also said to have struck terror
indescribable into the hearts of the Mungowy. Their chief, Malem
Fanaamy, declared, “that to withstand a sheikh of the Koran who
performed such miracles was useless, and, at the same time, _haram_
(sin).” This confession of his inability to contend with El Kanemy
determined the people to submit.
Some of the Munga people were brought to me; they were completely
Bornou, and had all the simplicity, good nature, and ugliness, which
are the particular characteristics of that people. Malem Fanaamy
himself was a sort of lusus naturæ; Nature had set a peculiar mark
upon him, by covering one side of his face with a thick beard, while
on the other not a hair was to be seen. This of itself, amongst a
people so utterly ignorant, was sufficient to gain him disciples,
who were ready to believe him gifted with superior powers. In these
untraversed climes, a very little learning indeed is sufficient to
raise a man’s fame and fortune to the highest pitch. Persons who
have been to Mecca, of the meanest capacities, who amuse them with
tales of the countries and people they have seen on the road, are
treated with the greatest respect, and always provided for; indeed
every house is open to them: and any European travelling in these
countries might acquire an influence by these means, which would
enable him to carry all his objects into effect with great facility.
On the 19th of June we returned to Kabshary, and found that great
progress had been made in rebuilding the town. The sheikh gave a sum
of money towards completing the work, and exempted the inhabitants
from tribute for a season; and all, therefore, was rejoicing. The
Alowany Shouaas are here in very great force. We had some visits from
the women in the evening, who were really beautiful; and although of
a sort of dingy copper colour, are here called white, and consequently
held in but little estimation by the natives—black, and black only,
being considered by them as desirable. I bathed this morning in the
Gambarou, while poor Dr. Oudney rested on the banks: live muscles
are in plenty, and we found some very pearly oyster-shells at the
bottom of the river.
While we remained at Kabshary, we encountered another violent
storm, and were much amused at the economy of the Shouaas when the
storm approached. I saw all were extremely busy digging holes in
the sand with their spears, evidently too small for them to get
into themselves, and we were not a little surprised at seeing them
presently bury their shirts and trowsers two or three feet deep in
the sand, which, on the rain subsiding, they dug up, and put on,
quite dry, with an air of great comfort and satisfaction. They never
are affected by thus exposing their naked bodies to the fury of
the tempest, while we, who were always covered, had colds, agues,
and pains, that they were entirely free from.
We had news to-day that the people of Waday had, with a large army,
visited Begharmi, that persecuted country, and again pillaged all
the towns; and also that our huts had been broken into at Kouka,
and some, if not all, of our property stolen. The first report turned
out a false one, but the second, to our sorrow, was too true. Hillman
had been confined fifteen days to his bed with ague, and during this
time, in the night, the robbery was effected.
June 23.—We proceeded on our return, and again pitched our tents on
the banks of the Muggaby. In all the woods are flocks of wild animals,
called by the Bornouese korookoo, and by the Arabs el buger-achmer,
the _red bullock_: some of these were disturbed to-day, and one got
into the midst of our horsemen; it has immense horns, and is something
between the ox and the antelope. Spears were struck at him without
number, but he effected his escape, carrying off several sticking
in his flesh. The horses were exceedingly alarmed, and many of their
riders measured their lengths on the sand. The two kafilas from Soudan
passed us to-day, on their way to Kouka; they consisted of one hundred
and fifty slaves, with about twenty merchants and their servants,
and thirty camels. Most of the people ran to the outskirts of the
camp to see them pass, it being the custom, on these occasions, to
dress out these poor victims of the most cruel avarice that certainly
ever entered into the breast of man, in rags of different colours,
only to be taken from them again on the procession being over. The
merchants, who gratify their vanity the most in this way, lose, it
is said, fewer slaves; but I observed several of these before me,
whose unbidden tears flowed down their cheeks as they drew their
mantle close round them, seeming to wish by that means to stifle
their misery with the appearance of it.
It was intended this evening to have killed an hippopotamus, an
animal which exists in great numbers in the lake on the borders of
which we were encamped, but a violent thunder-storm, to our great
disappointment, prevented our witnessing so novel a species of
sport. The flesh is considered a great delicacy. On the morrow we had
a full opportunity of convincing ourselves that these uncouth and
stupendous animals are very sensibly attracted by musical sounds,
even though they should not be of the softest kind: as we passed
along the borders of the lake Muggaby at sunrise, they followed
the drums of the different chiefs the whole length of the water,
sometimes approaching so close to the shore, that the water they
spouted from their mouths reached the persons who were passing along
the banks. I counted fifteen at one time sporting on the surface;
and my servant Columbus shot one of them in the head, when he gave
so loud a roar, as he buried himself in the lake, that all the others
disappeared in an instant.
[Illustration: From a Sketch by Major Denham.
Engraved by E. Finden.
ABDEL GASSAM. A FELLATAH FROM TIMBOCTOO.
A BORNOUESE. ON A JOURNEY.
_Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London._]
We made a long march to Dummasak, when we halted until the afternoon
of the next day. The army here dispersed, and the Shouaas and Kanemboo
went off to their respective homes.
By daylight we began to move. The sheikh sent for us to ride near him,
and, accompanied by nearly all the people who had remained behind,
and who came out thus far to welcome the successful return of their
prince, we arrived once more at the capital, amidst the shouts of
the men, and the shrieks of the women, to take possession of our
old habitations.
The kafila which came from Soudan during this expedition brought a
young fighi from Timboctoo, the son of a Felatah chief of D’jennie,
named Abdel Gassam ben Maleky. He was on his way to Hage, and had left
Timboctoo, as is the custom, without any thing beyond the shirt on his
back, the rags of which he exchanged on the road for a sheep’s skin,
subsisting entirely on charity. He was a very fine and intelligent
lad, of about sixteen, of a deep copper colour, but with features
extremely handsome and expressive. He was five months from D’jennie,
and greatly exhausted by fatigue and the want of nourishing food:
his whole wardrobe was his sheep’s skin; and although the sheikh
gave him a tobe, he said he almost thought it a sin to indulge in
the luxury of putting it on. We were on the expedition to Munga when
he arrived, and about the time of our evening meal, Abdel Gassam
generally made his appearance at our tents: bad as the fare was,
he found it preferable to the cold mess of flour and water he got
elsewhere. He knew little or nothing of the road by which he had come
to Kano, not even the names of the places he had halted at. Abdel
Gassam said he could scarcely believe such good people as we were
could be any thing but Moslem: but he had heard of Christians before;
and when I asked how, and where, he gave the following account:—
“Many years ago, before I was born, white men, Christians, came from
Sego to D’jennie, in a large boat, as big as two of our boats. The
natives went out to them in their canoes; they would not have done
them any harm, but the Christians were afraid, and fired at them with
guns, and killed several in the canoes that went near their boat:
they proceeded to Timboctoo, and there the sultan sent to them one
of his chiefs, and they held a parley. The Christians complained that
the people wanted to rob them. The sultan was kind to them, and gave
them supplies. Notwithstanding this, they went off suddenly in the
night, which vexed the sultan, as he would have sent people with them,
if they had not been afraid of them a little: and he now sent boats
after them, to warn them of their danger, as there were many rocks
in the belly of the river, all pointed. However the Christians went
on, and would not suffer the sultan’s people to come near them,
and they all perished.” My informant never heard that any thing
belonging to them was saved, but remembers himself seeing a man
often with his father, who was in one of the canoes that followed
them, and who had seen them strike against the rocks—indeed he
brought the news to Timboctoo. Their appearance excited a great
sensation amongst the people;—had frequently heard people talk
about the Christians, and the large boat, for a whole day, at his
father’s;—to this day they talk about them. They had guns fixed
to the sides of the boat, a thing never seen before at Timboctoo,
and they alarmed the people greatly.
Abdel Gassam was a sort of prodigy, and could repeat the Koran from
the beginning to the end. I repeatedly asked him what they would
do to us, if we were to go to Timboctoo? “Why,” answered he,
“do by you as you now do by me, feed you. The sultan is a great
man, with a large heart, and is kind to strangers. Many whites, but
not like those in the great boat, come to D’jennie, and also the
servants of these people, who he thinks were Christians, but they do
not go to Timboctoo: they come from the great water; and the Felatahs
at D’jennie, by their means, supply Timboctoo with cloth and silk,
yellow and red, and guns, which are much sought after. Does not know
what these white people take back, but always heard, slaves and gold
dust. The sultan of Timboctoo is a very great man, never goes out
to ghrazzie; but his slaves go, and bring back many slaves, mostly
females, from the Kerdy countries, by which he is surrounded. At
D’jennie and Melli, which are both subject to Timboctoo, the
population is mostly Felatah. The whole road to Timboctoo is inhabited
by Moslems; but to the north and south of the route are Kerdies, who
sometimes attack kafilas; but they are very much afraid of Bello, who
protects merchants. Kashna, Kano, Houssa,—one language; Timboctoo,
D’jennie,—one language; but they also speak Felatah. At Sego the
population is Negro, Kerdy, Kaffir. All communication between Sego,
D’jennie, and Timboctoo, is by water: the river is very large, and
called Qualla; and Kabra is the place where every thing going from,
or coming to, Timboctoo, is embarked or disembarked. Kabra is five
hours distant only from Timboctoo: always understood that this great
river, which has many names and branches, went from Nyffé south,
between high mountains. The river at Kano is not the same; indeed,
believes it is only a lake, and no river.”
This information, as far as it goes, may, I conceive, be relied
on. Unlike nearly all the Moorish traders, who are often tutored by
others, who have been rewarded for describing probably what even
they never saw, and come prepared to say any thing that will best
please you, this lad undoubtedly had never been questioned by any one
previous to his answering my inquiries: he knew but little Arabic,
and had scarcely been noticed in his long journeys, during which he
had been handed over from one kafila to another.
He left Kouka in the month of August, in company with an old fighi,
for Waday, with a small leather bag of parched corn, and a bottle
for his water. I gave him a dollar to pay for his passage across
the Red Sea, which he sewed up in his sheep’s skin: I however
heard afterwards, that he had been drowned in crossing one of the
branches of the Tchad. My informant was a Waday Shouaa: but if they
found out that he had the dollar, he was most likely murdered for
the sake of such a booty.
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 28: Gaadeen, kafir.]
[Footnote 29: The feudal law exists here in full force; and a man
unwilling to serve, provides one or more substitutes according to
his means.]
[Footnote 30: Birnie means Medina, the capital, in the Bornou
language.]
[Footnote 31: From these ruins the sheikh procures the greater part
of the nitre used in preparing his gunpowder.]
[Footnote 32: There are two species of the bamboo, one called Kayay,
and the other Gummary.]
[Footnote 33: This fighi was a most extraordinary person, and his
fame for knowledge and charm-writing was by some thought to exceed
that of the sheikh himself, of whom he was jealous to a degree. He
had passed years amongst the Kerdies to the south, and knew
“· · · · · · · · · · · · · The dreadful art
To taint with deadly drugs the barbed dart.”
He was now, however, about to be humbled.]
CHAPTER V.
RAINY SEASON AT KOUKA.
The sheikh gave us an interview in his garden this afternoon:
the lemon and fig trees exhibited some fruit, the appearance of
which was gratifying. Knowing we had news from England, he asked
several questions about the Morea, where the Greeks and Turks had
been fighting. He had read some account of the former splendour of
that country, and he was pleased with some of the corroborations we
gave him of their truth. He again started the subject of the shape
of the globe, and wished to be acquainted with the method in which
its shape had been ascertained: some of his books, he said, made it
square. A phosphorus box, which had been brought him from Tripoli,
and of which he knew not the use, was now produced, and on the match
coming out lighted, himself and all the spectators were delighted
beyond measure. I was this morning going on a hunting excursion to
the Tchad with some Shouaas of Beni Hassan, but as it was Sunday
I postponed my sport: they however went, and brought back a very
young elephant, not more than two feet and a half high, and yet so
powerful, that three men were obliged to hold him for the purpose
of pouring a little milk down his throat. Achmet-ben-Sheneen,
an Arab of Augela, a wretched sufferer, came constantly to the
Doctor for medicine; and on seeing him we could not refrain from
blessing God’s providence in our misery, for sparing us from such
afflictions as had fallen upon him. Nearly two years before, in an
action with La Sala Shouaas, whom the sheikh conquered, this poor
fellow had received three dreadful wounds; one in the head, which
had left a deep scar; another in the arm, which, as the spear was
poisoned, had never healed, but was still an open wound, extending
several inches from the elbow downwards; and in the third, the spear
had gone in at his mouth as he lay on the ground, and carrying away
part of the jaw and teeth, had penetrated quite through his cheek. A
short time after his return from the expedition, he was seized with
what the Doctor called the Greek leprosy, covering great part of his
body with a foul black eruption, and from which he was now suffering,
accompanied by an irritation almost insupportable.
Doctor Oudney and Hillman were now both too ill to join us at meal
times; the heat of the day, and dampness of the evenings, affected us
all greatly. I used, notwithstanding, to go out in the morning and
shoot a couple of ducks or a goose, which helped us out at dinner,
although they were dreadfully tough and fishy. The country was now
assuming a more interesting appearance from the crops of gussub
that had sprung up all round Kouka, on which the slaves of all the
inhabitants had been busily employed during the last month, as they
sow at the commencement of the rainy season.
In a country where so little is cultivated, there is always an
abundant choice of land; and a planter takes possession of any spot
that has not been occupied the preceding year, and it then becomes
exclusively his property. In two months from the time of sowing they
gather the harvest, and this is the only labour of the year.
We had a curious trial this morning before the sheikh, the result of
which furnishes a singular proof of his simplicity and submission to
the word of the Prophet. The circumstances were these: a Shouaa had
stabbed a man the night before, upon some disagreement, and death
was the consequence. The brother of the defunct demanded blood,
and on application to the kadi, it came out in evidence that the
Shouaa had desired the deceased to quit his door, three several
times, if he had any faith in the Prophet; but he still continued
to resist, and aggravate him, till at last he stabbed him in six
places. The kadi’s decision was, that upon so solemn a caution,
the unfortunate man should have retired;—that his not doing so was a
proof he had no faith in the Prophet; was a Kafir, and was the cause
of his own death, and therefore that the murderer should not suffer
punishment. The accuser, however, appealed to the sheikh, who told
him, that, certainly, by God’s law, communicated to the Prophet,
and written in the _g’tab_ (the book), an eye for an eye, a tooth
for a tooth, and life for life, should be given—but recommended his
taking a fine instead of blood. The sturdy Arab, however, was unmoved,
and called loudly for justice; and the sheikh then said, he had the
law in his own hands, and he might do as he pleased. The prisoner was
then taken outside of the walls, and the brother of the deceased beat
his brains out with an iron-headed club, which the Shouaas sometimes
carry. This was considered a very extraordinary occurrence in Bornou.
I continued to work at the Arabic and Bornou languages; and, besides
this, I usually visited Barca Gana two or three times a week, and
sometimes he came to me, so that my time rarely hung heavy on my
hands; but he always came mounted, and with so many attendants,
that my little hut was put in disorder for the whole day after. I
believe he entered no person’s habitation in the town but my own,
except the sheikh’s. No great man here ever visits his inferior,
or moves from his own house to the sheikh’s, without a retinue
agreeable to his rank; and the kashella, on remonstrating with me for
coming through the streets alone, was surprised when I told him that
even our king did the same; and, often habited like his subjects,
rode attended only by a single servant. Convinced as he was before
of his importance, this astonished him greatly. “Why,” said he,
“were the sheikh to do so, nobody would respect him:”—and
replied I, “in England the oftener the king does this the more he
is both loved and respected.”
Two decisions of the sheikh lately had created a considerable emotion
amongst the people. The slave of one man had been caught with the wife
of another, a free man, and the injured husband demanded justice. The
sheikh condemned both the man and the woman to be hanged side by
side: the owner of the slave, however, remonstrated, and said that
the decision, as far as respected the woman, was just; for she was
always endeavouring to seduce his slave from his work, and that if he
(the sheikh) condemned his slave to death, the man, whose wife was
the cause of it, ought to give him the value of his slave, as he was
poor: this the husband objected to. “Ah!” exclaimed the sheikh,
“how often is a man driven to his destruction by woman; yet of
all his happiness, she is the root, or the branch.” He himself
paid the value of the slave to the owner, and the next morning the
guilty pair were suspended outside the walls.
August 8.—Last night a man brought a large bird, called oubara,
a smaller species of which the bashaw’s sons hunt daily, in the
neighbourhood of Tripoli, with their hawks: this was exceedingly
large, weighing as much as twelve pounds; and we gave him about
two shillings for his present, in coarse cloth (gubbuk); and
before breakfast this morning, he brought another still larger;
but finding we had spoiled the market, for this I only gave him half
as much. These birds are peculiar for the brilliancy of their large
eyes, which exceeds that of the gazelle[34], and the flesh very much
resembles our pheasants in flavour.
In these southern climes, all matters of business, as well as
pleasure, are transacted before the generality of people in England
have well finished their night’s rest, and this morning I rode
out by daylight to see the ceremony of a Bornou wedding. The lady
was from Angornou; and the bridegroom’s friends, to the number of
twenty or thirty, all mounted and in their best clothes, went to give
her welcome: she was mounted on a bullock, whose back was covered
with blue and white turkadees, and followed by four female slaves,
laden with straw baskets, wooden bowls, and earthen pots; while
two other bullocks carried the rest of the dowry, which consisted
of a certain number of turkadees and tobes. She was attended by her
mother, and five or six young ladies, who acted as bride’s maids. We
galloped up to them repeatedly, which is the mode of salutation. The
women cover their faces, and scream their thanks; the men, however,
wheel their horses quickly, and return with their eyes cast to the
ground, it being considered as extremely indelicate for them to look
upon the bride. The lady, after this, proceeds to the bridegroom’s
house with her mother, and there remains shut up until the evening,
when she is handed over to her justly impatient lord: for the whole
day he is obliged to parade the streets with a crowd after him,
or sit on a raised seat, _à la sultan_, in his house, dressed in
all the finery he can either borrow or buy; while the people crowd
in upon him, blowing horns, beating drums, and crying “_Engouboron
degah! Alla Kabunsho! Alla Kiara!_” “May you live for ever! God
prosper you! Grey hairs to you!” to all which he makes no answer;
but looks more foolish than one could suppose it possible for any
man in so enviable a situation as that of a bridegroom to do.
August 11.—The sheikh sent this morning to say, that, as we
mentioned yesterday the state of our funds, any money that we stood
in need of he would immediately furnish us with—that while we were
under his protection, we should want for nothing: we, however, said
with every feeling of gratitude, that, as we were not quite pennyless,
we would wait a few days, until all the people arrived from Soudan.
It is quite impossible to describe the value of his kindness to us
on all occasions; and this last proof of his liberality to poor
wanderers, whose country he scarcely knew the name of before our
arrival, surpassed all we could have expected. Knowing us through
the medium of the bashaw of Tripoli only, his disinterested conduct
could have been alone the dictation of a generous confidence; and
his own penetration and sagacity had long since convinced him of
the perfect innocence of our intentions in visiting his country,
notwithstanding the injurious reports to the contrary, which had been
communicated to his subjects, through the ill will or ignorance of
some of the Fezzan merchants: he had sent me apparel from his own
house on hearing the news of my forlorn state, after escaping out
of the hands of the Felatahs, and had astonished the people about
him by his exclamations of sorrow on the first report reaching him
of my death. Kaffir as they thought me, he mentioned my escape in
his letter to Barca Gana—which met us on our return—as a proof
of the protection of God’s providence, in a manner which made a
visible alteration in the conduct, not only of the chief, but of
the whole army, towards me; and every part of his conduct tended
to convince us, that his protection and confidence proceeded more
from the opinions he had formed of the grandeur and generosity of
the English nation (and, we were willing to flatter ourselves, from
his approbation of our conduct), than from any hope of repayment or
remuneration from his ally the bashaw.
The constant sickness of Doctor Oudney, who, nearly ever since
our return from Munga, had been confined to his hut;—Hillman’s
frequent attacks of ague and delirium, and the uncertainty as to
the manner in which any supplies were to be obtained, to enable
us either to proceed or return, tended but little to keep up our
spirits;—my eyes had for some months been too weak to allow of my
reading in the evening, or, indeed, of bearing the light in the hut
for any length of time together; and we separated, from a mutual
repugnance to conversation, from the dreariness of our prospects,
almost immediately after our evening meal.
We had frequent and violent showers of rain, with thunder, and
most vivid lightning; the waters covered the face of the country
in extensive lakes, and our excursions in search of game were now
confined to the immediate neighbourhood of our residence. The gussub
had increased in height greatly; and, at this season of the year,
there are other reasons besides the falls of rain which induce people
to remain in their habitations—when the great lake overflows the
immense district which, in the dry season, affords cover and food by
its coarse grass and jungle to the numerous savage animals with which
Bornou abounds, they are driven from these wilds, and take refuge in
the standing corn, and sometimes in the immediate neighbourhood of
the towns. Elephants had already been seen at Dowergoo, scarcely six
miles from Kouka; and a female slave, while she was returning home
from weeding the corn to Kowa, not more than ten miles distant, had
been carried off by a lioness: the hyænas, which are every where in
legions, grew now so extremely ravenous, that a good large village,
where I sometimes procured a draught of sour milk on my duck-shooting
excursions, had been attacked the night before my last visit, the
town absolutely carried by storm, notwithstanding defences nearly
six feet high of branches of the prickly tulloh, and two donkies,
whose flesh these animals are particularly fond of, carried off in
spite of the efforts of the people. We constantly heard them close
to the walls of our own town at nights, and on a gate being left
partly open, they would enter, and carry off any unfortunate animal
that they could find in the streets.
There are a particular class of female slaves here, to whom the
duty of watching and labouring in the fields of grain is always
allotted. I have before said, that all laborious work is performed
by that sex we consider as the weakest, and whom we employ in the
more domestic duties only—and it is to them this perilous work
is assigned. The female slaves from Musgow, a description of whom
I have somewhere else given, are never bought by the Tripoli or
Fezzan traders: their features, naturally large and ugly, are so
much disfigured by the silver stud which they wear in the under lip,
that no purchaser would be found for them; besides the loss of the
two front teeth, which are punched out to make way for the silver
which goes quite through into their mouths, the weight of the metal,
after a year or two, drags the lip down so as to make it quite lie
on the chin, and gives a really frightful appearance to the face:
these poor creatures, therefore, who are generally of a strong make,
and patient under their sufferings, guard the crops, and collect
the harvest, and a year seldom passes without several of them being
snatched away by the lions, who, crouching under cover of the ripening
corn, spring on their prey and bear it off.
August 18.—The twelfth day of the new moon, which was the 17th of
the month, was a day of general feasting and rejoicing. Garments,
according to the estimation in which the giver holds the receiver, are
distributed by all great people to their followers: the sheikh gave
away upwards of a thousand tobes, and as many bullocks and sheep. It
is the custom, on the morning of the Aid-Kebir[35], for the sovereign
with his suite to mount, and, after praying at a certain distance
from the town, to return to it with all his people skirmishing before
him. The sheikh had been suffering from an attack of the ague, and,
therefore, this ceremony did not take place; the people, however,
drew bad omens from the circumstance, and said, that the sheikh not
having mounted and prayed with his people was not right.
On the day after, the sheikh sent us word that Hadgi Ali Boo-Khaloom
was on his way from Kano, and within two or three days of Kouka:
this was the most gratifying intelligence that could have reached us,
as our funds were all but exhausted, and we lived entirely on the
provisions furnished us by the sheikh, with the exception of a little
milk and a few fowls, which we purchased. On the 21st he arrived,
and very much altered in appearance for the worse, as well as most of
the people who had accompanied him; the Fezzaneers had all suffered
exceedingly from the ague and fever, which disorders had carried
off a greater number of the Fezzan and Tripoli merchants than any
preceding year. The sheikh appeared pleased at Hadgi Ali’s return,
said he hoped all would be now soon arranged, and that the courier
from Tripoli would not long delay making his appearance; he had
calculated upon his returning by the Aid-Kebir, and his non-arrival
gave him uneasiness on many accounts. Private information, it was
said, had by several channels reached the sheikh, that the bashaw had
it in contemplation to send an expedition for the purpose of taking
possession of Bornou, under the joint command of Mukni the late,
and Mustapha the present, sultan of Fezzan: this intelligence was
also accompanied by an assurance, that while the English remained he
was safe. Scarcely any line of policy could be more injurious to the
interests of the bashaw of Tripoli, or his subjects, than a measure
of this nature. He obtained slaves almost exclusively through the
medium of the sheikh’s territory, which, since he had held the
reins of government, was sufficiently safe for travellers, to induce
merchants with large capitals for this country to proceed by way
of Bornou to Soudan. The numbers of kafilas between that country
and Fezzan had, within the last five years, greatly exceeded any
former period; and in an equal proportion did the respectability of
those traders who now accompanied them exceed that of the merchants
previously in the habit of passing through Bornou. By an intercourse
with these travellers, a great variety of merchandise was brought
into the interior—the ideas of the natives became enlarged, and,
consequently, their desires increased. Trade was, in fact, but just
beginning to be prosecuted with vigour by the inhabitants of eastern
Soudan. European goods of all descriptions, used by the Soudanees,
were becoming every day in greater request, and the whole of their
country might, by the bashaw’s constantly keeping up an amicable
understanding with the sheikh, have been supplied exclusively by
the Tripoli merchants.
With a knowledge of these facts, it was almost impossible to believe
that the reports of the bashaw of Tripoli’s intended expedition
could have any real foundation; yet the report, credited as it was
by the majority of the Bornou people, was of itself sufficient to
excite in us excessive alarm, both for our own safety, as well as for
the success of our mission. The sheikh caused it to be understood,
both here and at Angornou, that the kafila, about to leave Kouka for
Fezzan, would be the last in the present state of affairs; at the same
time, he relaxed nothing of his personal kindness and attention to us.
The violent rains and stormy nights continued, as did our sickness and
loss of appetite. Hillman and myself were suffering constantly from
a prickly heat upon the skin, which was almost insufferable during
the day, and prevented our sleeping at night. All the quadrupeds,
as well as bipeds, transplanted from the countries bordering upon
the great ocean, appeared to suffer alike. Within the last ten days,
three of our camels, Doctor Oudney’s mule and his horse, the last
of our Tripoli animals but one, had died, and the remaining three
camels, out of the nineteen we brought here, were turned into the
inclosure to take their chance, while the man was discharged who
had hitherto been paid for taking care of them.
August 27.—These things were cheerless and discouraging indeed. We
had still excessive rains; and notwithstanding the great power of
the sun for some hours in the middle of the day, so damp was the air,
that for several days together my blankets were never dry, the rain
always coming through the roof of the _cousie_ (hut) at night.
I had been for some time waiting for a favourable day to accompany
two or three Shouaas of Tirab to the Tchad, in search of buffalos:
they went several times, and usually killed one, although I never
could persuade them to bring me the head: some of the meat, and a
piece of the skin, was all they would load their horses with for so
many miles. Their manner of killing these animals is curious, and
rather perilous—they chase them in the swamps, where they now feed,
in preference to nearer the lake, and as their horses are trained
so as to go quite close to them as they run, the rider is enabled
to get his foot well fixed on the buffalo’s back: with singular
skill, he then strikes, just behind the animal’s shoulder, one or
two spears, if he can place them; pierced with these, the animal is
able to run but a short distance, then, with the assistance of his
companion, but frequently alone, he dismounts and despatches his prey:
it sometimes happens, that the buffalo, by quickly turning his head
before they strike, oversets both horse and rider. A Shouaa friend
of mine had his horse completely ripped open, and killed on the spot,
only a few days since, by the sudden twist which the animal gave his
head, catching the horse with his pointed horn. Yesterday I was again
disappointed, from the badness of the weather: three Shouaas went,
and narrowly escaped being caught by the Biddomahs—as two hundred
boats made their appearance at different places on the banks of the
Tchad, carrying from ten to fifteen men each, and the sportsmen
were very nearly caught by the crews of two that came near the
town of Koua. News came in this morning that they had carried off
upwards of thirty persons from the neighbourhood of Woodie, and
amongst them the nephew of the _sheikh-el-Blad_ (governor of the
town). On these occasions, when any person of rank gets into their
hands, they demand a ransom of from two to three thousand bullocks,
or a proportionate number of slaves. No sultan has any power over
these islanders; they will pay no tribute to any one, nor submit
to any prescribed government: some of them lately paid a visit to
the sheikh, and although they brought him only a few slaves, that
they had stolen from the Begharmi side of the water, yet he received
them kindly, and gave them fine tobes and red caps. Their visit was
principally to see if the reports of the sheikh’s power were true;
but notwithstanding their kind reception, on returning they carried
off three girls from within ten miles of Kouka. These islands lie on
the eastern side of the Tchad, and on embarking from the west, they
described the voyage as five days of open sea previous to arriving
at the islands, which are numerous; the two largest are named Koorie
and Sayah. They have a language of their own, although resembling
that of Kanem. Their arms are spears and shields, and they fight
with every body around them, Waday, Begharmi, and Bornou. They
believe in a divine power, which rules every thing, but are not
Musselmans. They have a strong arm, they say, and a cunning head,
instead of a large country, and much cattle; therefore they must
take from those who are richer than themselves. The Bornou people
say, “the waters are theirs; what can we do?” It is said they
have nearly one thousand large canoes. They are not a sanguinary or
cruel people; and when prisoners are taken in battle and wounded,
they do not kill, but cure them; and if no ransom is offered, they
give them wives, and they remain as free as themselves.
Aug. 30.—Hadgi Ali Boo-Khaloom had been now returned more than a
week, and nothing satisfactory had ever been extracted from him as
to the money left in his brother’s hands. I had great fears of his
honesty from the first, and urged the necessity of our taking some
decided measures with him. We accordingly summoned him to appear
before the sheikh; the result of which was, our failure for want
of sufficient documents, and the tergiversation of the Arabs. The
official document of this trial, translated from the Arabic, will
be found in the Appendix.
We received visits of condolence from several of our Bornou friends,
who were all extravagant in their abuse of Hadgi Ali. “Are these
your Mourzuk friends,” said they, “who were to assist you with
every thing? Why, this is robbing you. However, they called God to
witness to a lie, and they will die soon: only wait a day or two.”
Sept. 1.—Dr. Oudney now cupped himself on the chest for the second
time, and found some little relief. Feeling that our situation
required an appearance of spirit and determination, I sent for Abdal
Wahad, an Arab of Zehren, distantly related to Boo-Khaloom, and to
whom, on two occasions of distress, I had been kind, and upbraided
him with his falsehood and ingratitude; nor was my remonstrance
altogether without effect. He acknowledged that “his heart had
been too big for his stomach ever since he left the palace: that
his eyes had been dim, and he had enjoyed no rest; for,” said he,
“I swore to myself to be as faithful to you as to a brother!”
“All this is very fine,” said I; “but what proof will you
give of this remorse?” “Every proof,” he replied; “Hadgi Ali
will come this very day and acknowledge the debt—that must be the
consequence. I have been to the sheikh, and said how you had assisted
me; and that I had sworn, and could not see you wronged.” Even as
Abdal Wahad predicted, so it happened. Karouash came in the course
of the day to say that Abdal Wahad had been at his house, and told
him the debt was just, and that he had reported the conversation to
the sheikh. The sheikh’s answer was, “He is quite right; after
what the rais Khaleel said, every one would have known where the
justice lay; for the English have not many words, but they are true;
and the Arabs, you know, will lie a little (_kidip shouie shouie_).”
In the evening Hadgi Ali came himself; he made, however, but a
blundering excuse, saying he had never inquired into it—did not
even know whether we gave any money or not to Boo-Khaloom; but that
now he knew, and God forbid he should ever be otherwise than friendly
with the English, and that not only two, but five thousand dollars
were at our service. All this, however, ended in his begging us to
wait until he had sent off his kafila to Mourzuk, and that then he
would try to give us eight hundred or one thousand dollars in tobes,
or gubbuk[36], for not ten dollars in money had he; and the rest he
hoped we would wait for, until he sent to Soudan. Unsatisfactory as
this was, we thought it better not to make objections, merely saying
that we were without money, and begging that he would settle it as
soon as he possibly could.
Mr. Clapperton was again seized with fever, so violent as to give us
all great uneasiness, and render him delirious for twenty-four hours;
and from an idea that the disorder was infectious, the Bornou people
could scarcely be persuaded to come near our huts. Doctor Oudney each
day became weaker and weaker; Hillman was gaining a little strength:
while I might be considered as the best of the party, although often
suffering from headaches, and pains in the chest, with what gave me
more uneasiness than all, increasing dimness of sight. I, however,
kept up my spirits, visited Barca Gana and Mai Meigamy, nearly every
day; and found amusement in entering into all their troubles and
fears lest the bashaw should send a ghrazzie into the country.
Since the feast day of the Aid Kebir there had been on an evening
an assembly of persons before the sheikh’s gate; when the most
athletic and active of the slaves came out and wrestled in the
presence of their masters, and the sheikh himself, who usually
took his post at a little window over the principal gate of the
palace. Barca Gana, Ali Gana, Wormah, Tirab, and all the chiefs,
were usually seated on mats in the inner ring, and I generally
took my place beside them. Quickness and main strength were
the qualifications which ensured victory: they struggled with a
bitterness which could scarcely have been exceeded in the armed
contests of the Roman gladiators, and which was greatly augmented
by the voices of their masters, urging them to the most strenuous
exertion of their powers. A rude trumpet, of the buffalo’s horn,
sounded to the attack; and the combatants entered the arena naked,
with the exception of a leathern girdle about the loins; and those
who had been victorious on former occasions were received with loud
acclamations by the spectators. Slaves of all nations were first
matched against each other; of these the natives of Soudan were the
least powerful, and seldom victors. The most arduous struggles were
between the Musgowy and the Begharmi negroes: some of these slaves,
and particularly the latter, were beautifully formed, and of gigantic
stature; but the feats of the day always closed by the matching of
two Begharmis against each other—and dislocated limbs, or death,
were often the consequence of these kindred encounters. They commence
by placing their hands on each other’s shoulders; of their feet
they make no use, but frequently stoop down, and practise a hundred
deceptions to throw the adversary off his guard; when the other will
seize his antagonist by the hips, and after holding him in the air,
dash him against the ground with stunning violence, where he lies
covered with blood, and unable to pursue the contest. A conqueror of
this kind is greeted by loud shouts, and several vests will be thrown
to him by the spectators; and, on kneeling at his master’s feet,
which always concludes the triumph, he is often habited by the slaves
near his lord in a tobe of the value of thirty or forty dollars;
or, what is esteemed as a still higher mark of favour, one of the
tobes worn by his chief is taken off, and thrown on the back of the
conqueror. I have seen them foam and bleed at the mouth and nose
from pure rage and exertion, their owners all the time vying with
each other in using expressions most likely to excite their fury:
one chief will draw a pistol, and swear by the Koran that his slave
shall not survive an instant his defeat, and, with the same breath,
offer him great rewards if he conquers. Both of these promises are
sometimes too faithfully kept; and one poor wretch, who had withstood
the attacks of a ponderous negro, much more than his match, from
some country to the south of Mandara, for more than fifty minutes,
turned his eye reproachfully on his threatening master, only for
an instant; when his antagonist slipped his hands down from the
shoulders to the loins, and by a sudden twist raised his knee to his
chest, and fell with his whole weight on the poor slave (who was from
Soudan), snapping his spine in the fall. Former feats are considered
as nothing after one failure; and a slave, that a hundred dollars
would not purchase to-day, is, after a defeat, sold at the fsug,
maimed as he is, for a few dollars, to any one who will purchase him.
The skin of a noble lion was sent me by the sheikh, which had been
taken near Kabshary, measuring from the tail to the nose fourteen feet
two inches. He had devoured four slaves, and was at last taken by the
following stratagem: the inhabitants assembled together, and with loud
cries and noises drove him from the place where he had last feasted;
they then dug a very deep blaqua, or circular hole, armed with sharp
pointed stakes; this they most cunningly covered over with stalks of
the gussub; a bundle of straw, enveloped in a tobe, was laid over the
spot, to which a gentle motion, like that of a man turning in sleep,
was occasionally given by means of a line carried to some distance. On
their quitting the spot, and the noise ceasing, the lion returned
to his haunt, and was observed watching his trap for seven or eight
hours—by degrees approaching closer and closer,—and at length he
made a dreadful spring on his supposed prey, and was precipitated
to the bottom of the pit. The Kabsharians now rushed to the spot,
and before he could recover himself, despatched him with their spears.
Mr. Clapperton’s illness had increased to an alarming height:
he had upwards of twenty-four hours’ fever, and delirium without
cessation. These attacks, just about the time the rainy season is
at an end, are very prevalent, and often fatal to the white people
from the sea, as the Arabs are called. How much more violently must
they effect the natives of more temperate lands?
Mr. Hillman was again assailed by ague, and disordered intellect,
which threw him back into his former state of weakness. For two days
out of the last three, I had alone appeared at our mess bench for the
evening meal. Two of my companions were quite delirious in bed; and
Dr. Oudney, who had for a month taken nothing but a little sour milk,
three times a day, never left his hut except from necessity. These
were very trying moments, and sufficient to destroy the appetite of
a more healthy person than myself: still I had much to be thankful
for, and I endeavoured to bless God, and ate with cheerfulness.
We had now been five days without rain; the thermometer was as
high as 89° in the middle of the day in the shade, and we began
to think summer was again coming. It may appear incredible, that
with such a temperature we should wish for an increase of heat;
but the dampness of the atmosphere, and the millions of flies and
musquitoes, beyond all conception, that accompanied it, rendered it
almost impossible to enjoy any thing like repose, either by day or
night. The annoyance of these insects I had experienced at Lisbon,
Naples, and in the other parts of Italy and Sicily, but neither in
numbers, nor in peace-disturbing powers, were they to be compared
with these. Towards the evening, a fire in the hut, made of damp
straw and weeds, was sometimes the means of procuring a few hours’
tranquillity; but the remedy was in itself so disagreeable, that
it was only resorted to in despair: a fire of this kind, however,
seldom fails to expel the intruders, from the thick and suffocating
vapours which arise from it.
The horses also suffered dreadfully from the same annoyance; and
to keep them from injuring themselves, wherever they can reach with
their teeth, the negroes are obliged to keep a fire the greater part
of the day, particularly at the hours of feeding, close to their
heads; and notwithstanding the natural dislike those animals have
to flames and smoke, they will hang their heads over the fire, so
as to suffer themselves to be all but scorched, in order to obtain
a little rest from their persecutors. Of scorpions we had seen but
few, but the white and black ants were like the sands in number: the
white ones made their way into every trunk, of whatever sort of wood
they were made, as if it had been paper. And on the late expedition,
during a halt of three days, in a spot where they were more than
usually numerous, a mat and a carpet on which I slept were completely
destroyed by them. They tell a story of an Arab having lain down to
sleep near old Birnie, just over a nest of these destructive insects,
covered up in a barracan, and that in the morning he found himself
quite naked, his covering having been eaten to the last thread. The
wooden supports of a sort of shade which I had erected in the front of
my hut, in a little more than three months these destructive insects
had perforated with so many millions of holes, as to reduce it to
a powder, and a new one was obliged to be placed in its room. The
black ant was no less persevering in attacks upon our persons; her
bite was nearly as bad as a scorpion, and so sharp as to excite an
involuntary exclamation from the sufferer; indeed, for weeks together,
my skin had, from these insects alone, more resembled that of a person
afflicted with the measle than any thing else that I can compare it
to. Oil, unfortunately, we had none, which is both a preventive and
a cure; the only substitute I could obtain was a little fat rubbed
over the body, and this seldom failed of giving me relief.
The kafila for Mourzuk left Kouka on the 13th: several Arabs, who
had determined on remaining here some time, took their departure
in consequence of their fears of the bashaw’s visit. Nothing had
arrived, and, in the absence of authentic intelligence, all was alarm
and confusion, and reports of every kind arose: they said the kafila,
which had been expected more than two months, could not be delayed
from any other cause than the hostile intentions of the sultan:
trusty persons were accordingly stationed at the commencement of the
desert to give the earliest information of any thing approaching,
and no assurances of ours had the least effect in calming the fears
of the natives.
Mr. Clapperton’s illness increased; and one night, while all were
asleep, he made his way to the hut where the only servant slept who
was not sick, begging for water; his inside, he said, was burning;
the delirium had just then left him; he was too weak to return to his
hut without the assistance of Columbus, who supported him in his arms;
he was still dangerously ill; and four persons of our establishment,
besides Doctor Oudney, were confined to their beds at this time with
this same disorder: the symptoms of all were similar.
Sep. 25.—After a most restless night, I rose by daylight, and
taking my old negro, Barca, rode in the direction of Dowergoo. The
harvest was abundant, and they had already begun to lop off the heads
of the long gussub: the tamarind trees, which lose all their leaves
at the commencement of the rains, were budding with great beauty,
and had a bright carnation colour; the waters had already decreased
very considerably; and the season appeared highly favourable for an
expedition in some previously untrodden path: every thing else was,
however, against the attempt; for, added to our poverty, I was the
only one of our party capable of mounting a horse. On my return I
visited my patients, for Doctor Oudney could not move from his hut;
and the small-pox raged amongst the slaves of two of our friends,
added to the fever of the season. Out of twelve slaves who were
seized, two had died; and the only child of Mohamed-el-Wordy had
now taken it from his slave. They are not ignorant of inoculation,
and it is performed nearly in the same manner as amongst ourselves,
by inserting the sharp point of the dagger, charged with the disease;
they never give any medicine, but merely roll the invalid in a
barracan, and lay him in a corner of the hut until the disorder
takes a turn.
The castor tree is found in this neighbourhood, and is commonly used
as a medicine. There is also another tree, of which they either chew
the blossom or steep it in water, which has the effect of an emetic.
The weather continued to improve upon us, though the heat increased;
and some days the thermometer was at 97° and 98°, but we had
fewer mosquitoes, and a clearer atmosphere. Doctor Oudney had been
violently attacked, first in his right, and then in his left eye,
with an inflammation, which left him no rest by day or night;
he, however, within the last two days, got out for an hour in the
evening. Mr. Clapperton also, who had been in a state of extreme
danger for many days, appeared to have passed the crisis of his
attack—cool blood flowed once more in his veins, and consciousness
was restored to his mind: he was however emaciated, and in a dreadful
state of weakness, and his eyes could scarcely be said to have life
or expression in them; he had been supported outside his hut for
the last two days, and we began to hope he would recover.
Sep. 28.—During the confinement of Doctor Oudney, I had occasionally
seen the sheikh about every seven days; he was always anxious in
his inquiries after him, and seemed much surprised that, having such
excellent medicines for other people, he should not be able to cure
himself: and as this day the doctor seemed to think himself a little
better, we went together to the sheikh. Dr. Oudney at once told
him that he wished to go to Soudan; and as he had not given me the
slightest intimation of this being his intention, I was really as much
surprised as the sheikh himself. “What is your object?” said he:
“why, the courier has not yet brought the bashaw’s directions.”
Doctor Oudney replied, “My wish is to see the country—I cannot
live here—I shall die. While travelling, I am always better.”
[Illustration: From a Sketch by Major Denham.
Engraved by E. Finden.
HUT AND CARPENTER WORK SHOP.
_Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London._]
Hillman had been for a long time employed in making a gun-carriage
for a four-pounder, which the sultan of Fezzan had formerly brought
as a present to the sheikh: the scarcity of iron, the awkwardness of
the negro blacksmiths, and clumsiness of their work when finished,
were so distressing to the correct eye of an English shipwright,
that even after the carriage was completed—and considering the
means he had, it was very well done—Hillman was far from being
satisfied with his work: not so, however, the sheikh. We took it to
him this afternoon, and he was greatly pleased and surprised at the
facility with which its elevation could be increased or decreased:
both this and the wheels were subjects of great wonder. During the
work, on several occasions, the sheikh had sent Hillman presents of
honey, milk, rice, wheat, and sweet cakes, all of which he had shared
with his companions. On one occasion, after he had finished a large
chair, which pleased the sheikh excessively, he sent him a bag of
gubbuk (money of the country): this, after inquiring what it was,
he returned, with the true and honest pride of an English seaman,
saying, “No! the king of England pays me—I don’t want that;
but I am much obliged to the sheikh, nevertheless.”
The season seemed now to prove very unhealthy both to the natives and
ourselves, and from six to ten bodies were seen carried out daily from
the city gates. My poor friend Mai Meegamy was attacked, among the
rest, by this dreadfully prevalent complaint, and he sent for me by
daylight. I found him in an alarming state of fever, with a fit of the
ague on him at the time: after consulting with Doctor Oudney, who was
unable to visit him, I gave him a strong dose of emetic tartar, and
in two days had the pleasure of seeing him quite recovered. The effect
of the emetic tartar was to him a matter of the greatest astonishment:
at the first sight of the dose he was unwilling to take it, and asked
what a little white powder like that could do for him: he was very
shortly, however, convinced, that the quantity I had prescribed was
quite sufficient. “What wonderful medicine!” said he: “why,
if I had swallowed so much,” taking up a little sand in his hand,
“what would have become of me! Wonderful! wonderful! the English
know every thing: why are they not Musselmen?”
This day, a large guana and a young crocodile were brought to me by
one of the Shouaas: they had been killed on the banks of the Shary,
five days distant, and were in pretty good preservation. I proceeded
to dry them in the way mentioned by Mr. Burchell; and although
this was a matter I had never before had the least experience in,
or taste for, yet I became every day more and more interested in
the collections and preservations of our specimens of birds and
other animals.
The sheikh sent us three birds[37], which had been taken in their
nests at Loggun: they are very scarce, and much esteemed, their
flesh being used as a medicine for many disorders, placed hot to the
part affected, particularly for an enlargement of the spleen. They
feed on insects, fish, snakes, and serpents, the latter of which
they have a particular instinct of discovering. This bird discovers
their vicinity while yet many feet under ground, digs on the spot,
destroys the nest, and feeds on the venomous inhabitant and its
eggs: although larger than a turkey-cock, they were so young as to
be unable to walk; indeed, the feathers were not all perfect, and
I determined on endeavouring to rear one of them to more mature age
and beauty. I had, indeed, already a little menagerie, which, if I
would have allowed it, the sheikh would have added to daily, and I
found in them great amusement—I might almost say much comfort. My
collection consisted, besides my Loggun bird, of two monkeys,
five parrots, a civet cat, a young ichneumon, and a still younger
hyæna: they had all become sociable with each other, and with me,
and had their separate corners allotted them in the inclosure that
surrounded my hut, except the parrots and the monkeys, who were at
liberty; and while sitting in the midst of them of a morning, with
my mess of rice and milk, I have often cast my thoughts to England,
and reflected with deep interest on the singular chances of life by
which I was placed in a situation so nearly resembling the adventurous
hero of my youthful sympathies, Robinson Crusoe.
Our whole household now began to revive, and on Sunday we all met in
the evening about sun-set, before the doors of our huts, and enjoyed
the cool breeze for more than half an hour; even Doctor Oudney, whose
eyes had ceased to be so painful, joined us—we had not enjoyed such
a coterie for many months. A very hale strong negro woman, the mother
of Mr. Clapperton’s servant, had taken the fever from her son,
who had been more than a month laid on his back, and reduced her
almost to death’s door. She was a Koorie from one of the islands
to the east of the Tchad, and had sent for several fighis, who,
after writing mysterious words, decided on her case as hopeless. At
last an old Hadgi, more than seventy years of age, was requested to
come to her:—he was a miserable old wretch, carrying nothing but an
ink-bottle, made of a small gourd, and a few reed pens; but he set
about his business with great form, and with the air of a master;
and, in the evening, Zerega, my negro’s wife, came to me, quite
in raptures at the following wonderful story: he said the woman was
certainly enchanted, probably by the _kaffirs_, meaning the English,
but, “By the head of the prophet,” he should drive the devil
out of her, and which he called _shetan_ (the devil). He wrote a
new _gidder_ (wooden bowl) all over sentences from the Koran; he
washed it, and she drank the water; he said “Bismullah” forty
times, and some other words, when she screamed out, and he directly
produced two little red and white birds, which he said had come from
her. “What did you do in that poor woman? she is not young,”
said the fighi; “why perplex her? why did not you come out of her
before?” “We did not wish to hurt her much,” said the birds;
“but she has been kaffiring, old as she is, and must be punished:
there are others in her yet who will not come out so easily; but
now, since you are come, she will not die, but she had better take
care for the future: we jumped into her when she went to the market;
and she knows what she did there.” The poor woman shed an abundance
of tears, and acknowledged that she had been a little thoughtless on
the preceding market-day. The fighi was rewarded with her best Soudan
shift, and they were all made happy at the news of her recovery.
October 7.—About three thousand of the sheikh’s _spaheia_
(horsemen) had lately come in from the Tchad, Shary, and the different
towns south and west of Angornou, in order that they might undergo a
general inspection: their horses were in good condition. An extremely
careful inspection took place by the sheikh himself, and punishment
was instantly inflicted on any one who had a young horse, if it
appeared to have been neglected: but those whose horses were old
were excused, and the animal changed.
October 8.—A circumstance happened yesterday, which I acknowledge a
good deal irritated my feelings. A Tripoli merchant had intrusted to
one of the Mesurata a parcel of coral, to take for him to Angornou:
it was, however, never forthcoming, and he declared that he had
lost it on the road. The Koran law would not, in that case, oblige
the loser to make good the loss—a thing lost is God’s will,
and nobody’s fault. A servant of the owner, however, unluckily
saw the coral afterwards in the Mesurata’s house; the merchant,
therefore, appealed to the kadi, as, if he succeeded in proving this,
the value would be recoverable. This servant had been for some time
out of employ, and had assisted at our huts during the time that
we had so many of our party sick. The kadi took this man’s oath,
and was about to decide, when some one said, “Why, he eats bread
and salt with the Christians.” “How!” said the kadi; “is
that true?” “Yes,” replied he, “I have eaten their bread,
but it was because no one else would feed me; but I don’t hate them
the less for that.” “Turn him out,” said the kadi: “_Staffur
allah!_ God forbid that any one who has eaten with Christians should
give justice by the laws of Mahommed!” His evidence was accordingly
refused, and the merchant lost his cause. A Bornouese, a friend
of mine, who was present, asked the kadi, with much simplicity,
whether really these Christians were such bad people: “they seem
kind,” said he; “and if they are so very bad, why does God suffer
them to be so rich, and to know things so much better than we do?”
“Don’t talk about them,” said the kadi, “don’t talk about
them—please God, those who are here will die Mislem: as to their
riches, let them enjoy them. God allows them the good things of
this world, but to Mislem he has given paradise and eternity.”
“_Geree! geree!_” (true! true!) was re-echoed from each; and
the fatah was immediately recited aloud.
We had now received intelligence that the kafila which had left this
place from Mourzuk, nearly a month since, was detained at Woodie,
in consequence of the Tibboos having filled the wells between that
place and Billma. Such of the Arabs as remained of our escort, after
their return from Munga, left Kouka with the first kafila for Tripoli:
they were all my professed friends; but, notwithstanding the miserable
state in which they were, I had not the means of assisting them; the
few dollars each man had received from the bashaw on quitting Tripoli,
and all they possessed besides, being lost at Mandara, and they knew
I was precisely in the same situation. One man in three or four sold
his gun, an Arab’s greatest treasure, to provide them with water,
skins, and corn, for their journey. Added to this, they were all
weakened by sickness and wounds: the fancied riches they were to
be masters of, by Boo-Khaloom’s victories over the Kerdies, had
vanished into air, and they were about to return to their families
after a year’s absence, even poorer than they left them.
That the desperation natural to an Arab should be excited by such
circumstances was not to me a matter of surprise. I cautioned them,
however, against returning to Tripoli with unclean hands: they
promised fair enough, and even shuddered when I reminded them of
the bashaw’s summary mode of punishing; all was, however, without
effect; for, on arriving at the Tibboo country, they proceeded to the
well Daggesheinga, a retreat which had been shown to Boo-Khaloom in
confidence, on his last journey, by Mina Tahr, the road to which they
too well remembered, and surprising the flocks of the Tibboos, and
killing three of their people, marched off four hundred and upwards
of their best maherhies: this had exasperated the Tibboos almost to
madness; and they filled up all the wells, swearing they would be
repaid, or that no kafilas should pass through their country. This
news made us tremble for our supplies; but evils seemed to be crowding
thick upon us, from all quarters. We discovered too, or thought we
discovered, that the people now treated us with less respect, and
were more lavish of the contemptuous appellations of kaffir, kelb,
insara, unbeliever, dog, Christian, both to me and to our servants
than formerly; and as the opinion of the _oi polloi_ in all these
countries is usually governed by authority, I concluded we had also
lost ground in the estimation of the chief. A Bornou boy whom I had
taken some notice of, and who used to come to me almost every day
to talk Bornouese, was hooted in the streets, and called insara; and
when we turned him from the huts for stealing nearly two dollars in
strips of cloth, the money of the country, the people all exclaimed
against such an act, as, by kaffiring with Christians, they said
that the misfortune of being supposed a thief had come upon him.
October 10.—We had to-day a fresh breeze from the north-west,
which was delightfully invigorating, and the natives promised us
some few days of cold dry weather, which was to carry off all the
fever and agues. This strongly reminded me of the Spanish villagers
in Old Castile, who, during the sickly months of July and August,
were, upon an average, three out of four confined to their beds with
a very similar complaint: like these people, they took no medicines,
but always said, “When the cold winds come we shall be better.”
The winds in Bornou are regular and periodical: previous to our going
to Munga, east and south-east winds were nearly constant; when the
rainy season commenced, we had them from the south-west, with a thick
atmosphere, a sultry, damp, and oppressive air. Previous to a storm,
gusts of wind would accompany the black clouds which encompassed us,
and blow with great force from the north-east; these winds, however,
were not accompanied by such violent or lasting rains; but when the
clouds formed themselves to the south-east, they were tremendous,
accumulating, as it were, all their force, and gradually darkening
into a deeper and more terrific black, with frequent and vivid
forked lightning, accompanied by such deafening and repeated claps of
thunder, as shook the ground beneath our feet like an earthquake. The
rain always at these times burst upon us in torrents, continuing
sometimes for several hours; while blasts of wind, from the same
quarter, drove with a violence against our unsheltered huts, that
made us expect, every instant, low as they were, to see the roofs fly
from over our heads, and deprive us of the trifling protection they
afforded. After these storms, the inclosures round our huts were often
knee deep in water, and channels were formed, with all possible speed,
in order to prevent the huts themselves from being inundated. At
the full and change of the moon these storms were always most violent.
Oct. 16.—“How use doth breed a habit in a man.” Miserably
solitary as were all my pursuits, disheartening as were my prospects,
and demi-savage as was my life altogether, I was incapable of
accounting, even to myself, for the tranquillity in which my days
glided away. The appetite with which I generally devoured the rice or
paste, which formed my lone repasts, for no one could endure the smell
of food but myself, so heavy was sickness upon them; the satisfaction
felt in my morning and evening visits to Barca Gana, and the plans,
full of hope of further progress, which floated in my imagination,
when at night I laid my head upon my pillow, frequently excited in
my mind the most proud and grateful sensations.
I had been fully employed (convinced that I was best consulting the
interests of the mission, the primary object of all my thoughts,
by cultivating the favour and good will of the sheikh), during the
two last days in superintending the manufacture of cartridges, for
the two field-pieces, which were now both mounted, as we had plenty
of very good paper for the purpose with us. In this I succeeded to
my wishes; but the providing of balls was a great difficulty; and
after trying a number of musket-balls in a small linen bag, which
would not answer, I succeeded in getting from the negro blacksmith,
by means of a paper model, a small tin canister, the size of the
mouth of the piece, and holding sixteen musket balls. The sheikh’s
delight was extreme at this acquisition to his own implements of
war, and he became impatient to see the guns exercised. I offered,
if he would appoint six of his best slaves, three to each gun, that I
would instruct them as well as I was able—as firing them quick was
a very material augmentation of their utility; and I at the same time
strongly recommended his holding forth to his people the promise of
reward, in the event of their being brought safe out of battle; and
that the punishment would be most severe in case they were deserted,
and fell into the hands of an enemy. The sheikh’s preparation for
war had been carried on for the last two months with great vigour; his
whole armoury had been renovated; and he told me, exultingly, that he
had two hundred guns, pistols, and carbines—although from the locks
of full fifty it would have been in vain to attempt producing fire.
The sheikh had, in the beginning of his conquests, seen the advantage
of encouraging the discontented of other countries to settle in
his new towns; and, besides the Kanemboo who accompanied him,
he had Tuaricks, Tibboos, Arabs, and Begharmis,—and on those he
appeared to rest his chief reliance. To check this warlike spirit
was far from his wish or interest; for by indulging it, he not
only enriched himself, and his people, and strengthened his power,
but might also hope to render it eventually a source of strength,
prosperity, and permanency to his kingdom.
Notwithstanding the business of war appeared so fully to occupy the
sheikh’s thoughts, yet his anxiety for a reformation, as despotic
as it was impracticable, amongst the frail of his woman-kind, was
still uppermost in his mind; an instance of which occurred when
two of these unfortunates fell into his hands, whose sinnings were
placed beyond all doubt by the activity of the spies he employed to
watch over this department; and although his decisions on ordinary
occasions were ever on the side of mercy, these poor girls were
sentenced to be hanged by the neck until they were dead[38]. The
agitation and sorrow which the threatened execution of these
two girls, who were both of them under seventeen, excited in the
minds of all the people, were most creditable to their feelings;
and although on other occasions their submission to the decrees
of their chief was abject in the extreme, yet on this (to say the
least of it) rigorous sentence being made public, loud murmurs were
uttered by the men, and railings by the women. The lover of one of
the girls swore that he would stab any man who attempted to place the
rope. He had offered to read the fatah with her[39], which offer had
been refused. The general feeling was pity, and the severity of the
punishment caused the sin to be almost forgotten, which would not
have been the case had the penalty been of a more lenient nature:
indeed, it was natural that pity should be felt—notwithstanding
all one’s morality, it was impossible to feel otherwise. The day
after (for punishments are summary in eastern countries) was fixed
for the expiation of their crime, but a fighi, nearly equal to the
sheikh in skill, took upon himself to remonstrate, and declared
such punishments were themselves _haram_ (sins), for in no part
of the Koran could an authority be found for such a sentence. To
disgrace or set a mark on such culprits was the law of the Prophet,
not death;—and that should these poor offenders suffer, God would
avenge their death on the country, and sickness, with bad crops,
would come upon them. The sheikh for a long time continued inexorable,
and observed that riches, plenty, and prosperity, without virtue,
were not worth possessing—the punishment of the two girls, however,
was eventually commuted to that of head-shaving, a heavy disgrace,
and which was performed in the public street.
The ceremony of the trial of the brass guns, for which, after
consulting Mr. Clapperton, who was too ill to undertake it himself, I
had succeeded in making charge and wadding, took place this afternoon,
before the sheikh and a thousand spectators. The distance to which
they threw the balls, and the loudness of the report, created the
greatest astonishment: but I could not persuade the sheikh to suffer
a second canister to be shot: “No, no!” said he, “they are too
valuable; they must not be thrown away: curses on their race! how
these will make the Begharmis jump!” I had cut them out a harness
in paper as a pattern, which had been tolerably made in leather:
this was attached to each gun, with a man mounted on the mule that
drew it; and altogether the guns had a far better appearance and
effect than I expected. The carriages answered extremely well—were
very steady; and I much regretted that poor Hillman, to whom all
the credit of mounting them belonged, was confined to his mattress,
and unable to see how well they answered: but the sheikh’s anxiety
would not brook delay.
Nov. 9.—The cool winds which had prevailed for the last fifteen
days had so purified the air, that disease appeared to be taking its
departure, and a season of health about to succeed in its turn. These
long-wished-for breezes generally came on about ten in the forenoon,
and continued until two hours after mid-day. They had a great
effect on the natives, and appeared considerably to invigorate
ourselves. Both Mr. Clapperton and Hillman were now able to walk
about with the assistance of a stick: they were both, however,
sadly pulled down, and enfeebled.
The two expeditions, one for Kanem and the other to Begharmi,
were now said to be in readiness for departing after the feast, or
Aid-of-Milaud, which was to be kept on the 16th and two following
days. I had determined on accompanying one of them, whether a
supply of money arrived or not, as the season of the year was too
valuable to be wasted. This was the first opportunity that had
offered of a movement to the eastward in any direction, and it was
not to be lost. I had one camel and one horse, and, as before, I
was determined on taking my chance with the ghrazzie, and faring as
well as circumstances would allow me. The feast was ushered in with
all the customary rejoicings, and gifts were distributed by all the
great people; nor were we forgotten by the sheikh, who sent us two
bullocks[40] and three sheep, and two jars of honey, which in our
situation was no mean present; for as sickness began to subside
amongst us, our appetite increased.
Nov. 21.—The feast, Aid-of-Milaud (the birth-day of Mohammed)
is attended with nearly similar rejoicings to the other feast
days; but instead of wrestlings amongst the men, the ladies, on
this occasion, dance according to the fashion of their country. The
motions of the Kouka women, though the least graceful, are certainly
the most entertaining; all, however, form a striking contrast to
the lascivious movements of the Arab and Barbary dancers—every
thing here is modest, and free from any indelicacy. To commence
with those of the capital, who also first appear in the circle, the
Koukowy advance by twos and threes, and after advancing, retiring,
and throwing themselves into various attitudes, accompanied by
the music from several drums, they suddenly turn their backs to
each other, and suffer those parts which are doomed to endure the
punishment for all the offences of our youth to come together with
all the force they can muster, and she who keeps her equilibrium
and destroys that of her opponent, is greeted by cheers and shouts,
and is led out of the ring by two matrons, covering her face with
her hands. They sometimes come together with such violence as to
burst the belt of beads which all the women of rank wear round their
bodies just above the hips, and showers of beads would fly in every
direction: some of these belts are twelve or sixteen inches wide,
and cost fifteen or twenty dollars. Address is, however, often
attended, in these contests, with better success than strength;
and a well managed feint exercised at the moment of the expected
concussion, even when the weight of metal would be very unequal,
oftentimes brings the more weighty tumbling to the ground, while
the other is seen quietly seated on the spot where she had with
great art and agility dropt herself. The Shouaas were particularly
happy in these feints, which were practised in different ways,
either by suddenly slipping on one side, sitting or lying down. I
had not seen so many pretty women together since leaving England,
for, as compared with the negresses, the Shouaas are almost white,
and their features particularly handsome; such an assembly was to
us novel and gratifying. I was, however, sometimes surprised to
find how much I became accustomed to the sight of these swarthy
beauties, even so as to be able to look at them with pleasure. The
women of Bornou and Begharmi danced with a much slower motion, and
accompanied themselves by singing: the former wear simply a blue
wrapper or scarf over the shoulders, and holding each end of the
wrapper with the arms extended, frequently threw themselves into very
pleasing and graceful, if not elegant, attitudes; while the latter,
with their hands before them, sometimes clasped together, sometimes
crossed on the breast, and sometimes with only just the tips of the
fingers meeting à la Madonna, appeared to sing a tale of extreme
interest to the bystanders; this was accompanied by sinkings of the
body, and bendings of the head, from side to side—all finished
by sitting down and covering their faces, when they were led out of
the circle by the elder women.
The Arabs and chiefs from Angornou and the neighbouring towns came
into Kouka in the evening, and the sheikh, accompanied by full one
thousand horsemen, rode round the walls, preceded by seven flags,
and after praying at some distance, returned to the palace: his
new-trained footmen with guns were present, who skirmished with the
horse: and on asking me how they fired, he said, “I have full two
hundred guns—where are the Begharmis now?—the dogs!” This
was repeated the two following days: blessings were asked on the
expedition about to depart, and the disposition made. Two days out
of three I accompanied them, and rode for a short time by his side,
and very much pleased he appeared to be by the attention. We had no
news, however, of the courier, and our spirits were greatly depressed
by the report of his being lost on the road.
Nov. 25.—The season of the year had arrived when the sovereigns of
these countries go out to battle, and the dread of the bashaw’s
expedition had prevented the sheikh from making an inroad into the
Begharmi country; they, in consequence, took the opportunity of
attacking him, notwithstanding their discomfiture in five different
former expeditions, when at least twenty thousand poor creatures
were slaughtered, and three-fourths of that number at least driven
into slavery. The Begharmis had once more come down to the south
side of the Shary, and induced the people of Loggun to declare for
them. The boats of Loggun were to bring the Begharmis over the river,
and then all were to pour into the sheikh’s dominions. We were in
sad confusion at Kouka on hearing the news, and the sheikh prepared
to muster his forces with all despatch.
Nov. 29.—At our audience this morning we were detained for some
time, while a case was decided in which several Kanemboo chiefs
were charged with not having, on some former occasions, treated
the sheikh’s people with kindness. The disaffected sheikhs were
buffeted even in the presence, by the Bornouese, taken out, and
three of the worst of them strangled in the court-yard[41].
Dec. 3.—Although, by the arrival of a messenger from Munga,
the immediate alarm of the Felatah attack from the south-west was
considerably abated, yet they continued increasing in force, and at
not more than five days distance. The Begharmis were also still on
the south bank of the Shary, close to the river, and unless alarmed
by the sheikh’s preparations, were confidently reported to have the
intention of attacking him when the waters had sufficiently subsided
to render it practicable, which was expected in less than a month. The
expedition for Kanem accordingly left this day, under the charge of
Ali Gana, the sheikh’s kaganawha[42], and next in command after
Barca Gana, and another was said to be intended to the south-west.
The news of the last month, both from the Begharmi side and the Kanem,
from the south-east and the east, had been of the worst description:
a direful war of extermination had been for years carried on between
Bornou and Begharmi, the fury of which had not in the least abated. No
males were spared on either side, except on terms worse perhaps than
death. The sultan of Bornou had more than two hundred youths under
twenty, from Begharmi, in his harem, as eunuchs; while the sultan
of Begharmi (who was said to have nearly one thousand wives) had
treble that number of unfortunate Bornouese and Kanemboo eunuchs,
chosen out of the most healthy young men who had fallen into his
hands as prisoners, and spared from the general massacre for the
purpose of serving him in that capacity. Even the moral, and in many
respects the amiable, sheikh had more than thirty Begharmi lads thus
qualified to enter the apartments of his wives and princesses.
As I was one day taking shelter, in the portico of the sheikh’s
garden, from the violence of a sudden storm of rain, the chief of
those privileged persons brought me to see about a dozen of this
corps, who were just recovering from the ordeal of initiation, which
they had gone through: thin and emaciated, though fed and taken
the greatest care of (for they become extremely valuable, and will
sell to any Turkish merchant for two hundred and fifty or three
hundred dollars), these poor remnants of promising healthy young
men passed before me. I could not contain my emotion, or disguise
the distress which was apparent in my countenance, so that the old
hardened chief of the seraglio, who seemed happy that so many of
his fellow-creatures were reduced to the same standard as himself,
exclaimed, “Why, Christian, what signifies all this? they are only
Begharmis! dogs! kaffirs! enemies!—they ought to have been cut
in four quarters alive, and now they will drink coffee, eat sugar,
and live in a palace all their lives.”
The late intelligence from Waday side, by which route I had always
indulged hopes of advancing, some distance at least, very much tended
to weaken those hopes. The contention between Waday and the sheikh,
for the possession and government of Kanem, had, for the last year
or two, been violent; and now open hostilities had commenced between
him and the sultan. It was true, that no kafila had passed between
Bornou and Waday for five years, and the only person that had left the
former place, since our arrival, for Waday, had been the young Fighi
from Timbuctoo, on his way to _Musser_ (Cairo), who had accompanied
a _Fakeer_[43] on his return to Waday. A party of Shouaas had once,
indeed, since our residence at Kouka, come from the borders of
the Waday country, beyond Kanem, to sell a few camels; but it was
generally supposed here, they came merely as spies: they were the
most lawless set themselves; and the account they gave of the road
was merely to induce some of the Arab merchants to take their advice,
when they would have been the first to plunder them[44]. Since the
death of the good sultan Sabon, as he was called, no intercourse
had been attempted either from hence, or even from Fezzan. The only
man who escaped from the last kafila, five years ago, was now here,
and gave the following account of the treatment he received: he
was named Abde Nibbe, the confidential servant of the _kaghia_[45]
of the bashaw; and had gone from Tripoli to Waday, by the way of
Mourzuk, having been intrusted with a very considerable sum of the
kaghia’s, with which he was to trade: they arrived at Waday in
safety, and at Wara the capital; and after residing there more than
twenty days, during which time he had purchased thirty-seven slaves,
and was apparently upon friendly terms with the natives, one morning
they entered his hut, seized all his property, stripped and bound
him, and, when naked, he was carried before the chief who acted as
regent, Sabon’s son the sultan being but an infant. Abde Nibbe
there found forty persons, consisting of his fellow-travellers and
their followers, bound in the same manner as himself: after being
insulted in every possible way, they were taken outside the town,
in order to have their throats cut. Abde Nibbe, who was a powerful
fellow from Towergha[46], after seeing many of his companions suffer
themselves patiently to be massacred, feeling the cord with which his
hands were tied but loosely fastened, determined on making an attempt,
at least, to save his life: he burst the cord asunder, and ran towards
the hills; twice they caught him, and twice he escaped from their
keeping, carrying with him three wounds from spears, and one from
a knife, which very nearly severed his right hand from his body:
night, however, came on, and creeping into a hole, which had been,
and still might be, the habitation of a brood of hyænas; there he
remained three nights and three days, until raging hunger forced him
to quit his retreat—where, however, to go was the question—who
could he trust amongst so barbarous a people? One person alone came
to his mind as likely to assist him in this extremity—in whose
hands alone he conceived his life would be safe. Was it his brother,
or his sworn bosom friend? No: it was man’s never failing, last,
and best consolation, woman: one to whom he had been kind in his
prosperity, whom he had been intimate with; and he felt assured that
she would not be ungrateful, and never betray his confidence. Was
he mistaken? No: she received him, fed him, washed his wounds, and
for seven days concealed him; when, at last, he was discovered,
and carried again before the chief. After asking how he escaped,
the governor said, “I will keep you in my service, give you a
horse, and see whether you will fight as well for me as you did
for yourself.” Abde Nibbe remained more than two months in this
situation, drawing water, carrying wood, &c. when he heard that a
kafila was about to leave Waday, consisting of a few merchants only,
the remains of his own, and former ones, who had bought their lives
at a very high price: taking advantage, therefore, of a dark night,
he once more escaped and joined them. They lent him a gun and some
ammunition to protect him from the wild beasts, which were very
numerous, and advised his quitting the kafila before day for the
woods: he moved nearly parallel with the kafila, and at night again
joined them. In this way he moved for five days, when the Waday
horsemen gave up the pursuit, and returned without him.
December 14.—Doctor Oudney and Mr. Clapperton left Kouka this
day, for Kano, with a kafila of nearly twenty merchants, beside
servants: this was the eighth kafila that had gone to Soudan, since
our arrival here; and as no other was expected to go for many months
in consequence of the non-arrivals from Mourzuk, and the other parts
of Fezzan, Doctor Oudney, notwithstanding the extremely debilitated
state to which he was reduced, determined on accompanying this,
if the sheikh would allow him. El Kanemy not only gave his instant
permission, but did his utmost to forward his views, and to secure
his safety: he charged Mohammed-el-Wordee, the principal person of
the kafila, to assist them in every way, and gave them letters to
the sultan of Kattagum, to the sultan of Kano, and also to a Moor,
residing at Kano, named Hat-Salah, with whom he had great influence,
and to whose care he confided them as friends of his own, and the
best of Christians.
December 16.—Yesterday Barca Gana, with an expedition nearly twelve
hundred strong, marched to the south-west, to a place called Kaka;
from whence he was to proceed against a Felatah town, called Monana,
which was said to be the rendezvous for the sheikh’s enemies: his
orders, however, were more to ascertain in what strength the Felatah
really were, and what were their intentions, than to attack them.
December 21.—To my inexpressible delight, Karouash came with
intelligence that a small kafila had arrived at Woodie from Mourzuk,
that an Englishman accompanied them, and that this was followed by
another, a more numerous one, which they had quitted at Zow.
The following was a day of great anxiety; and on the 23d instant,
very soon after daylight, I was overjoyed at seeing, instead of
Mr. Tyrwhit, whose bodily infirmities made me always consider his
joining me doubtful, a robust, healthy-looking young man, with a
double-barrelled gun slung at his back. When he presented himself at
the door of my hut, his very countenance was an irresistible letter
of introduction, and I opened the packages which were to account for
his appearance with considerable eagerness. Mr. Tyrwhit, I found,
had been prevented by sickness from profiting by the consul’s
recommendation; and that on application being made to the governor of
Malta for a substitute, Mr. Toole, an ensign in the 80th regiment, had
volunteered to join me, and left Malta at twenty hours’ notice. He
had made the long, dangerous, and difficult journey from Tripoli
to Bornou, in the short space of three months and fourteen days,
having left that place on the 6th of September; and overcoming all
obstacles by perseverance and resolution, both at Mourzuk and in the
Tibboo country, had arrived here with only the loss of five camels.
The arrival of this kafila with Mr. Toole, and the supplies which
he brought, gave a most favourable turn to my situation at Kouka. I
had now money, health, and a desirable companion: even an attack
might lead to our pursuing an enemy, and by that means getting
out of the sheikh’s dominions; and “God send the fair goddess,
deep in love with us,” was our constant prayer, as, on the least
favourable opportunity offering, I had determined to make a start
in one direction or another. At one time, indeed, Pandora’s sealed
casket seemed literally to have burst over our heads,—strife, war,
famine, falsehood, and a thousand other evils, surrounded us. Still,
however, hope remained in the box; so did we attach ourselves to
this never-failing sheet-anchor, and despondency took wing as we
abandoned ourselves without reserve to the sympathies she inspired.
Jan. 3, 1824.—My friend Tirab, the Shouaa generalissimo, had
long promised to kill me an elephant, as he expressed himself; and
this day, about noon, a messenger came to our huts, saying, that,
after hunting an enormous male elephant for five hours, they had at
length brought him to a stand, near Bree, about ten miles north-east
of Kouka. Mr. Toole and myself instantly mounted our horses, and,
accompanied by a Shouaa guide, we arrived at the spot where he had
fallen, just as he breathed his last.
Although not more than twenty-five years old, his tusk measuring
barely four feet six inches, he was an immense fellow. His dimensions
were as under:
ft. in.
Length from the proboscis to the tail 25 6
Proboscis 7 6
Small teeth 2 10
Foot longitudinally 1 7
Eye 2 by 1½
From the foot to the hip-bone 9 6
From the hip-bone to the back 3 0
Ear 2 by 2 6
I had seen much larger elephants than this alive, when on my last
expedition to the Tchad; some I should have guessed sixteen feet in
height, and with a tusk probably exceeding six feet in length. The
one before me, which was the first I had seen dead, was, however,
considered as of more than common bulk and stature; and it was not
until the Kanemboo of the town of Bree came out, and by attracting
his attention with their yells, and teasing him by hurling spears
at his more tender parts, that the Shouaas dared to dismount; when,
by ham-stringing the poor animal, they brought him to the ground,
and eventually despatched him by repeated wounds in the abdomen and
proboscis: five leaden balls had struck him about the haunches, in
the course of the chase, but they had merely penetrated a few inches
into his flesh, and appeared to give him but little uneasiness. The
whole of the next day the road, leading to the spot where he lay,
was like a fair, from the numbers who repaired thither for the sake of
bringing off a part of the flesh, which is esteemed by all, and even
eaten in secret by the first people about the sheikh: it looks coarse,
but is better flavoured than any beef I found in the country. Whole
families put themselves in motion, with their daughters mounted on
bullocks, on this occasion, who, at least, hoped as much would fall to
their share as would anoint their heads and persons plentifully with
grease at the approaching fsug. The eyes of this noble animal were,
though so extremely small in proportion to his body, languid and
expressive even in death. His head, which was brought to the town,
I had an opportunity of seeing the next day, when I had it opened;
and the smallness of the brain is a direct contradiction to the
hypothesis, that the size of this organ is in proportion to the
sagaciousness of the animal. His skin was a full inch and a half
in thickness, and dark gray, or nearly black, hard, and wrinkled:
his ears, large and hanging, appeared to me the most extraordinary
part about him, particularly from the facility with which he moved
them backwards and forwards: his feet are round, undivided, and have
four nails, or hoofs, for they cannot be called toes, two in the
front of the foot, about an inch in depth, and two inches in length,
which join each other, with two smaller ones on each side of the
foot. In Africa they are scarcely ever taken alive, but hunted as
a sport, for the sake of their flesh; and also in order to obtain
their teeth, which, however, as they are generally small, are sold
to the merchants for a very trifling profit. The manner of hunting
the elephant is simply this: from ten to twenty horsemen single out
one of these ponderous animals, and, separating him from the flock
by screaming and hallooing, force him to fly with all his speed;
after wounding him under the tail, if they can there place a spear,
the animal becomes enraged. One horseman then rides in front, whom
he pursues with earnestness and fury, regardless of those who press
on his rear, notwithstanding the wounds they inflict on him. He is
seldom drawn from this first object of his pursuit; and, at last,
wearied and transfixed with spears, his blood deluging the ground,
he breathes his last under the knife of some more venturesome hunter
than the rest, who buries his dagger in the vulnerable part near
the abdomen: for this purpose he will creep between the animal’s
hinder legs, and apparently expose himself to the greatest danger:
when this cannot be accomplished, one or two will ham-string him,
while he is baited in the front; and this giant of quadrupeds then
becomes comparatively an easy prey to his persecutors.
Jan. 12.—Karouash came to us this evening, with his dark Arab eyes,
sparkling with somewhat more than vivacity; and it was not long
before we found out the cause. The people of Gulphi, who inhabited a
town close to the banks of the Shary, had no other means of raising
their grain (the land surrounding their walls being all tributary
to the sheikh) than by planting it on the south bank of that river;
reaping in the season, and carrying the produce to their city by
means of their flat-bottomed boats. They had, of late, been so
little interrupted in their agricultural pursuits, by the boats
of the neighbouring towns, that a village of huts had sprung up
on this portion of land; and labourers, to the number of three or
four hundred, resided there constantly. The hostile movements of
the Begharmis had, however, made the sheikh’s people more on the
alert than formerly; and passing over the river in their own boats,
accompanied by several deserters from Gulphi, who, traitor-like,
consented to bear arms against the land that gave them birth, and
lead its enemies to the pillage of their brethren, the people of
Maffatai and Kussery had, a few nights before, made an attack on
this village, putting to death all the males, even while they slept;
and, as usual, dragging the women and children to their boats,
returned to their homes without the loss of a man, after setting
fire to all the huts, and more than four hundred stacks of wheat
and gussub. The effects produced by this midnight expedition, and
which was celebrated by singings and rejoicings throughout Kouka,
were indeed of a nature favourable to my prospects, notwithstanding
the shock humanity received from the cause. The Begharmis, who had
occupied the southern banks of the Shary for months, obliging even
the Loggun people to supply them with provisions, took such alarm at
this attack of the sheikh’s people, that they struck their camp,
and retired immediately on the news reaching them; and the Loggun
nation as quickly sent off to the sheikh a deputation, with sixty
slaves, and three hundred bullocks, congratulating him on the event.
I determined on making immediate application for permission to visit
this country; so full of interest, both from its situation, and the
waters by which it was reported to be bounded. No time was to be
lost, for the return of the enemy might be as sudden as his flight;
and again I might have my intentions frustrated. I had been eleven
months endeavouring to visit this country—but to climb steep hills
requires a slow pace at first.
Jan. 18.—The sheikh, who had never, on any one occasion,
neglected making every possible arrangement for carrying my wishes
into execution, had not only instantly complied with my request to
seize this opportunity of visiting Loggun, but sent this morning
Karouash to advise with me as to my proceedings, and to recommend my
going without loss of time. “Bellal shall go with you,” said he;
“who has been in my confidence for seventeen years, and to whom I
could trust my own life, or that of my children, who are even dearer
to me than life itself.”
But in the morning we found a brown horse, which had carried Mr. Toole
from Tripoli, dead within our inclosure: both this and a black one,
which his Arab had been mounted on by the bashaw, had scarcely eaten
any thing since their arrival here. Our departure was therefore put
off for this day. Troubles, however, never come alone. In the evening
the camels I intended to take with me were missing; and although the
people were out looking for them until midnight, we had no tidings. In
the night I was called up, as Mr. Toole’s other horse was dying:
no blood could be got from him; and after staggering about, in a
way resembling intoxication, he died before daylight.
Jan. 22.—Karouash, Ben Taleb, and even the sheikh, now exclaiming
against our going out, “Wonderful! Wonderful!” said they, “it is
written you are not to go.” The delay perplexed me, although to go,
and quickly, I was determined; the time was precious, for I did not
wish the news of my intentions to precede me. Towards night my camels
were found; and the sheikh, hearing that we had been inquiring for
a horse to purchase, sent a very smart black galloway to Mr. Toole
as a present. We had now seen die on our hands, in the space of nine
months, thirty-three camels, six horses, and one mule.
On the 23d I intended being off by daylight; but it was the afternoon
before I could accomplish my wish. The sheikh had given me Bellal:
“He will obey your orders in every thing,” said he; “but you
are going amongst people with whom I have but little influence.”
Bellal, who was one of the handsomest negroes I almost ever saw,
and a superior person, was attended by six of his slaves, two of
whom were mounted; these, with ourselves and two camels, formed our
party. While I was waiting to take leave of the sheikh, a note was
brought me from Dr. Oudney, by a Bornouese from Katagum: it had no
date, and was indeed his last effort. The acknowledgment of being
weak and helpless assured me that he was really so; for during the
whole of his long sufferings a complaint had scarcely ever escaped
his lips. On the sheikh’s saying to him, when he first expressed
his wish to accompany the kafila, “Surely your health is not such
as to risk such a journey?” he merely replied, “Why, if I stay
here, I shall die, and probably sooner, as travelling always improves
my health.”
His letter, though short, expresses great satisfaction at the
treatment he had met with on his journey, and also from the
inhabitants of the country.
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 34: The most beautiful Jewess in Tripoli is called
Mesrouda-eyum el Oubara (Mesrouda, with the eye of the Oubara).]
[Footnote 35: The anniversary of Abraham’s offering up Isaac,
or the meeting of Pilgrims at Mecca.]
[Footnote 36: Strips of cotton, so many fathoms of which go to
a dollar.]
[Footnote 37: Abyssinian hornbill.]
[Footnote 38: In Tripoli, the father or mother is generally the
executioner, to avenge the sin, and at the same time wipe the stain
from the family, and prevent public execution.]
[Footnote 39: Marry her.]
[Footnote 40: The horn of one of these animals measured two feet,
six inches, and three-quarters, in circumference.]
[Footnote 41: On these occasions the sheikh merely moves his finger,
which is the signal for immediate execution.]
[Footnote 42: Black Mameluke.]
[Footnote 43: A religious mendicant: the name is nearly the Arabic
for poverty.]
[Footnote 44: Soon after this, I made an offer to two Arabs, both
of whom had formerly been at Waday, that I would give them each
two hundred dollars, if they would accompany me: this is a sum for
which an Arab will almost do any thing; but they refused, saying
“No! no! what is money without life? the Waday people will kill
us all.”]
[Footnote 45: Governor of the palace.]
[Footnote 46: A town near Mesurata.]
CHAPTER VI.
EXCURSION TO LOGGUN, AND DEATH OF MR. TOOLE.
Jan. 1824.—We passed the night of the 24th at Angornou, and
proceeded, without leaving the lake at any great distance,
for two days, when we arrived at Angala, one of the ancient
governments subject to Bornou. The present sultan was the first
friend and supporter of El Kanemy; and, twenty-five years ago,
when he was only a merchant, betrothed to him his daughter Miram
in marriage, with a large dower in slaves and cattle. The sultan,
a most benevolent-looking old black, received us with great kindness
and hospitality; and as soon as we were lodged in the house of the
delatoo (prime minister), bowls of milk, rice, flour, and honey,
were brought to us; an abundance of eatables were also sent in the
evening, and the next morning a very fine live sheep.
Miram (princess in the Bornou language), now the divorced wife
of the sheikh El Kanemy, was residing at Angala, and I requested
permission to visit her. Her father had built for her a very fine
house, in which she constantly resided: her establishment exceeded
sixty persons. She was a very handsome, beautifully formed negress,
of about thirty-five, and had imbibed much of that softness of manner
which is so extremely prepossessing in the sheikh. Seated on an
earthen throne, covered with a turkey carpet, and surrounded by twenty
of her favourite slaves, all dressed alike, in fine white shirts,
which reached to their feet, their necks, ears, and noses thickly
ornamented with coral; she held her audience with very considerable
grace, while four eunuchs guarded the entrance; and a negro dwarf,
who measured three feet all but an inch, the keeper of her keys, sat
before her with the insignia of office on his shoulder, and richly
dressed in Soudan tobes. This little person afforded us a subject of
conversation, and much laughter. Miram inquired whether we had such
little fellows in my country, and when I answered in the affirmative,
she said, “_Ah gieb!_ what are they good for? do they ever have
children?” I answered “Yes; that we had instances of their being
fathers to tall and proper men.” “Oh, wonderful!” she replied:
“I thought so; they must be better then than this dog of mine;
for I have given him eight of my handsomest and youngest slaves,
but it is all to no purpose. I would give a hundred bullocks, and
twenty slaves, to the woman who would bear this wretch a child.”
The wretch, and an ugly wretch he was, shook his large head, grinned,
and slobbered copiously from his extensive mouth, at this flattering
proof of his mistress’s partiality.
We left Angala the following day, to the great distress of our
host, the delatoo, who would have feasted us for a week. A child
had been borne by one of his wives, just about the time Dr. Oudney
had passed through on his visit to Showy; which, in return for
his prescriptions, the delatoo had named _Tibeeb_, the Doctor’s
travelling name. Indeed, there was a liberality of feeling and
toleration about our host deserving most honourable mention; and
when, on my return from Loggun, worn out by fatigue and anxiety, I
really required nursing, he introduced his sister, a female of most
matronly deportment, who superintended the process of shampooing,
which was performed by one of her best looking and most accomplished
handmaids. On my expressing my thanks to the delatoo for these
unlooked-for attentions, he replied, “It grieved us all to see so
great a man as yourself, so far from home, a stranger and without
women; when in your own country, ‘gray hairs to you!’ you have,
at least, a hundred, I dare say!”
On the 23d we reached Showy, on the banks of the river Shary: the
magnitude of the stream drew from us both an involuntary exclamation
of surprise; it appeared to be full half a mile in width, running
at the rate of two to three[47] miles an hour, in the direction
nearly of north. In the centre of the river is a beautiful island,
nearly a mile in length, in front of the town. Showy forms part of
the district of Maffatai, and is governed by a kaid: and this person,
who treated us with great attention, proposed that we should proceed
down the stream to the Tchad, according to the sheikh’s directions.
On the 2d of February we embarked, accompanied by the kaid and eight
canoes, carrying ten and eleven men each: ploughing the stream with
their paddles, for nearly eight hours, they brought us, by sunset,
to a spot called Joggabah (or island, in the Mekkari language),
about thirty-five miles from Showy. The river, full as it is of
water at this season, had a highly interesting appearance: one
noble reach succeeded another, alternately varying their courses
by handsome sweeps, some of them three and four miles in length;
the banks were thickly scattered with trees rich in foliage, and all
hung over with creeping plants, bearing various coloured and aromatic
blossoms, amongst which the purple convolvolus flourished in great
beauty: several crocodiles, from eight to fifteen feet in length,
were slumbering on the banks, which, on our near approach, rolled
into the stream, and disappeared in an instant. The natives appeared
to fear them but little in shallow water, but dived in with great
boldness after the ducks we shot, and a large iguana that we struck
while sleeping on a tamarind tree, and which fell headlong into the
river. Joggabah is a beautiful feature in the scenery, as well as a
prominent one; and is seen for nearly six miles in proceeding down
a very wide, handsome reach, which we called Belle-vue Reach. The
river is here quite as wide as at Showy, which, with this exception,
I take to be the widest part.
[Illustration: Drawn by Captn. Clapperton.
Engraved by E. Finden.
FISHING BOATS ON THE SHARY.
_Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London._]
This island is high ground, with steep and nearly perpendicular banks,
and a depth of ten feet water close to the edge: the canoes moor up
to the shore; the stream runs strong and clear; and the landing is on
a fine dry sandy beach: it extends to the Tchad north, a distance of
twelve or fifteen miles, and has two handsome streams bounding it,
which run north-east and north-west, and by which the Shary takes
its way into that immense lake. It abounds with game: and we had
fish in abundance, venison, the flesh of a buffalo, and wild ducks,
for supper, all roasted on wooden spits.
We pitched our tent on the jutting head, where, a few years ago,
stood a negro town: the inhabitants, however, were refractory,
committed piracies on the Showy people, and in consequence the
sheikh determined on exterminating them. They were in league with
the Biddoomah, who were now kept to their own islands. Joggabah we
found uninhabited, and covered with jungle and prickly underwood,
in that part where we passed the night: we saw thirty porcupines,
and killed a centipede and two scorpions under our mats. We had two
canoes rowing guard the whole night on account of the Biddoomah. By
daylight we re-embarked, and proceeded by the north-west branch for
more than two hours, keeping nearly the same direction: we passed
several marshy floating islands, covered with rushes, high grass,
and papyrus, apparently dividing the water into different streams,
when we found ourselves in that sea of fresh water, the Tchad, which
we named Lake Waterloo, and into which the Shary empties itself. It
was my intention to have proceeded quite round the island to the east,
and to have returned by the other branch; but after making about two
miles in the open lake, a heavy swell from the north-east caused so
much water to come into the canoes, and so much labour to the men,
that we gave up that idea. After our return to the south side of the
island we followed the north-east branch, and found it vary but little
in appearance. During our passage, by keeping the deepest water,
and avoiding the convexities of the stream, we, at this season,
met with no impediments; and had nowhere less than three feet
water. We passed many small islands, all of which, near the mouth,
were destitute of trees, but covered with reeds (among which was the
papyrus), bamboos, and very tall grasses: the quantity of water-fowl
was immense, of great variety, and beautiful plumage. The nearest
Biddoomah island is said to be three days voyage on the open lake,
from the mouth of the river, in a north-east direction, say ninety
miles, during two of which these canoes lose sight of land: with an
excellent telescope I could discern nothing but the waste of waters to
the north or east. The Biddoomah are a wild and independent people,
who carry on a piratical war with all their neighbours: they send
out fleets of sixty or one hundred canoes; and they are reported as
terrible kaffirs.
We now commenced our return, and a laborious business it was,
rowing or paddling against the stream: the paddles were only
resorted to when, now and then, a headland sheltered them from the
wind and current; and so cautious were the men of Showy, that it was
near midnight before we landed on a spot named Buffalo Bank. We had
endured two days of burning heat and exposure to the sun, and a night
of watchfulness and torture from the insects; added to this, we had
lived entirely on Indian corn, boiled in the canoes during the day:
we were also constantly ankle deep in water, from the leaking of the
canoes. The banks were here, for some miles inland, thickly clothed
with handsome trees encompassed by creeping shrubs in full blossom,
while large antelopes and buffaloes were starting from the thickets
where they had fixed their lairs. We disturbed a flock of several
buffaloes on our making the shore; and hippopotami came so close
to us as to be struck by the paddles: here, and at the confluence
of the two branches, we found the greatest depth of water. The most
desirable route for us now to have pursued would have been to have
gone from hence to Loggun by water, but Gulphi lay in our way, and
it was impossible. To follow the direction of the river, therefore,
as nearly as we could, by moving in a line parallel to its banks,
became our next anxiety.
Previously, however, we again embarked, and visited a spot
called Dugheia, within a day’s journey of Gulphi, higher up the
stream. Dugheia is a ford and a ferry, where the sheikh, with all his
people, pass the stream on their expeditions against the Begharmis:
the ford is in a slanting direction, and between two sinuosities. When
the river is at its greatest height, the water reaches up to the
neck; it was now not above the arm-pits of a good sized man. The
infantry, placing their spears and bags of corn on their heads,
in their shields, cross with ease: the cavalry are moved over in
canoes, and the horses swam at the sterns. The appearance of the
river is similar both above and below Showy: excepting that above
there are more picturesque islands; on one of which we passed the
night, and named it Red Heron Isle, as my poor friend shot there a
bird of that species.
On the 8th of February we returned to Showy, and the day following
pursued our route by Willighi and Affadai. Willighi is a walled town
of considerable strength; indeed the Begharmis always pass it by on
their predatory excursions. The walls are nearly fifty feet high,
with watch-towers erected on the salient angles, where there are
constant sentinels. The sultan also lives in a sort of citadel with
double walls, and three heavy gates in each wall, strongly bound
with iron. Borgomanda, the reigning sultan of Begharmi, and Cheromah
(which means heir-apparent), send annual presents to Mai Dundelmah,
the sultan of Willighi; but he is a hadgi, and holds the sheikh
of Bornou in too high estimation to forsake his fortunes. Before
arriving at Willighi, which is only a day’s journey from Gulphi,
we recrossed the Gurdya, a considerable stream running from the
Shary into the great lake.
Feb. 10.—We left Willighi, after presenting the sultan with two
knives, two pairs of scissors, a turban, and a red cap, and in about
two hours arrived at another ford of the water Maffatai. These
fords are known by the natives of the neighbouring towns only,
who are always hired as guides. The water was up to the body of the
horse; and a weak camel, by encountering the load of another, was
thrown off the causeway into twelve or fourteen feet of water. We
crossed, this day, three deep marshes, besides the river, which,
the Willighi guide informed us, extended to the river, at one of
which we were detained nearly an hour before we could venture a
passage: the water reached to our saddles. After the rainy season,
canoes come from Showy to the neighbourhood of Willighi, for a wood
which is here abundant, called by the natives kagam, and another
called korna, with which they build their canoes, and make their
paddles. The fruit, also, of a species of locust tree, which the
natives call kadellaboo, is here gathered. We rested under the shade
of a beautiful large tree of this description, bearing a flower of
a deep crimson colour; a yellow jessamine, with a delicious odour,
was creeping around it, while other delicate aromatic plants grew
in wild profusion. Nevertheless, the paths through these woods,
though literally strewed with flowers, were nearly impassable from
the overhanging branches of thorny shrubs, which not only tore our
shirts and cloaks, but were sufficiently strong to drag the loads
from the backs of the camels: we were nearly twelve hours in making
twenty-two miles. When we arrived at the town of Affadai, our people
were too tired to cook the rice we had with us, and the kadi merely
sent us flour and water paste, and _leban_ (sour milk): at the same
time promising to kill a sheep the next day, if we would stay. We,
however, departed early on the following morning, and came, towards
evening, to a place called Kala, a wretched nest of huts, although
surrounded by a wall, and having strong gates.
On the 12th we moved on, and, after crossing a long and deep marsh, we
halted, about noon, for an hour or two, at a town called Alph, which
stood on a foundation of earth artificially raised in the midst of a
swamp extending for miles in every direction. We shot several cranes;
one of a beautiful white, with a yellow beak, and dark hazel eyes,
with a yellow rim. We now began to approach Kussery, and again came to
the banks of the river Shary, leaving Gulphi to the eastward. This
route is but seldom traversed: it is a continued succession of
marshes, swamps, and stagnant waters, abounding with useless and rank
vegetation: flies, bees, and mosquitos, with immense black toads,
vie with each other in a display of their peace-destroying powers.
I had, with grief, for several days, observed in my companion symptoms
which gave me great uneasiness: his stomach constantly refused our
coarse food of fish and paste; but as he complained but little, I
hoped a day or two at Kussery would restore his wonted good health
and spirits. Kussery, however, unfortunately, was the last place one
should have chosen for rest and tranquillity: during several hours in
the day, the inhabitants themselves dare not move out, on account of
the flies and bees. The formation of the houses, which are literally
one cell within another, five or six in number, excited my surprise;
which was not a little increased when I found that they were built
expressly as a retreat from the attacks of these insects. Still I
was incredulous, until one of our people, who had carelessly gone
out, returned with his eyes and head in such a state, that he was
extremely ill for three days. Kussery is a strong walled town,
governed by an independent sultan, named Zarmawha, who has twice
been in rebellion against the sheikh. Bellal was obliged to take
off his red cap and turban, and enter the presence with his head and
feet bare—a ceremony which had previously been dispensed with on
our journey. The sultan merely peeped at us through a lattice-work
of bamboo, but inquired particularly, why I turned my face towards
him as I sat. I, of course, replied, that turning my back would be,
in my country, a gross affront; at which he laughed heartily. We
had a separate letter to this prince from the sheikh: he seemed,
however, to pay but little respect to it, or the bearer, Bellal,
while to me he was most attentive. We had ten dishes of fish and
paste, which regaled our attendants sumptuously; and one of his own
household took up his residence at our huts. The fish was stale, and
offensive to more senses than one, which the natives rather prefer,
as we do game that has hung some time. The sultan’s officer,
however, seeing that I could not touch these Kussery delicacies,
quickly brought me a mess made of fresh fish, which, though a little
oily, was not unpalatable, with a large bowl of leban. Salt is here
scarcely known, and therefore not eaten with any of their meals:
out of the small stock I had brought, the townspeople were always
begging little lumps, which they put into their mouths, and sucked
with as much satisfaction as if it had been barley sugar.
I gave the sultan, in the morning, a parcel of beads, two pairs of
scissors, a knife, two turkadees, and a turban; on which he said
“we were a great people, a race of sultans, and would bring good
fortune to his dominions!” I must not omit to mention a visit
which I received from the sultan’s sister. She had been some time
divorced from her husband, who had gone over to the Begharmis. The
officer in attendance on us announced her with great secrecy,
about ten o’clock at night. For the only light in our hut we were
indebted to the pale moonbeams which shone through the door-way,
as we had neither candles nor lamp; and I had been some time fast
asleep when she arrived. Her attendants, three in number, waited for
her at the entrance, while she advanced and sat herself down beside
my mat: she talked away at a great rate, in a sort of whisper, often
pointing to my sick friend, who was at the further end of the hut;
and did not appear at all to wish for any reply. After remaining
nearly half an hour, and feeling and rubbing repeatedly my hands,
face, and head, which she uncovered by taking off my cap and turban,
she took her leave, apparently much gratified by her visit.
[Illustration: Drawn by Major Denham.
Engraved by E. Finden.
THE RIVER SHARY, FROM THE WALLS OF KUSSERY.
_Published by John Murray, London. Feb. 1826._]
The river here is a wide, handsome stream, and the walls extend quite
to the banks, and have two water-gates; the character is the same as
nearer its embouchure. I passed one of these water-gates at sunset,
and was much struck by the beauty of the landscape, with the fishing
canoes just returning towards Loggun: the stream sweeps off to the
south-south-west, and then to the south. Loggun was said to be thirty
miles distant by the river. Here my poor friend declared it impossible
to remain, and we moved on towards Loggun the next morning. We
could advance, however, but a few miles. Mr. Toole’s sufferings
were most acute; he twice fainted, and we lifted him on and off his
horse like an infant, so helpless had he become. What added also to
our distress was, that from this time until the evening of the 16th,
the Shouaa Arabs, who occupy the frontier of the Loggun country,
refused to allow us to pass until the sultan had been consulted,
and a number of his questions answered as to the purpose of our
visit. We were now close to the river, and notwithstanding the
heat, the only means we had of defending either ourselves or our
animals from the torture of the millions of insects that beset us,
was by lighting fires at the entrance of our tent, and constantly
supplying them with weeds and wet straw: the thick suffocating
smoke arising from this description of fire afforded us temporary
relief. I rode down to the river, which here flows with great beauty
and majesty past the high walls of this capital of Loggun; it comes
direct from the south-west, with a rapid current. We entered the
town by the western gate, which leads to the principal street:
it is as wide as Pall Mall, and has large dwellings on each side,
built with great uniformity, each having a court-yard in front,
surrounded by walls, and a handsome entrance, with a strong door
hasped with iron: a number of the inhabitants were seated at their
doors for the purpose of seeing us enter, with their slaves ranged
behind them. At first they took but little notice of us: indeed, our
appearance could not have been very imposing: one of our party was
laid on a camel, and another supported on his horse by two persons,
who walked on each side of him, while he raved most incoherently
from the violence of the fever by which he was consuming. At length,
however, a person of apparent consequence advanced towards my horse,
bending nearly double, and joining his hands (the first salutation of
the kind that I had seen), followed by his slaves stooping still lower
than himself. After explaining that he was deputed by the sultan to
welcome _kab n’jaffy_ (the white man), and repeating frequently
that he was _kaffama_ (my friend), he preceded our party; and,
as we moved on, each assembly that we passed rose from the ground,
advanced towards us, and saluted us in the same manner as I have
already described. We were at length conducted to our habitation,
which consisted of four separate huts, well built, within an outer
wall, with a large entrance hall for our servants: in the most
retired and quiet spot I spread the mat and pillow of my patient,
who was in a sad state of exhaustion and irritation.
The next morning I was sent for to appear before the sultan:
ten immense negroes, of high birth, most of them gray-bearded,
bare-headed, and carrying large clubs, preceded me through the
streets, and I was received with considerable ceremony. After passing
through several dark rooms, I was conducted to a large square court,
where some hundred persons were assembled, and all seated on the
ground: in the middle was a vacant space, to which they led me, and
I was desired to sit down also. Two slaves, in striped cotton tobes,
who were fanning the air through a lattice-work of cane, pointed out
the retirement of the sultan. On a signal, this shade was removed,
and something alive was discovered on a carpet, wrapped up in silk
tobes, with the head enveloped in shawls, and nothing but the eyes
visible: the whole court prostrated themselves, and poured sand on
their heads, while eight frumfrums and as many horns blew a loud
and very harsh-sounding salute.
My present, a red bornouse, a striped cotton caftan, a turban, two
knives, two pairs of scissors, and a pair of red trowsers, was laid
before him: he again whispered a welcome, for it is considered so
extremely ill-bred in a Loggun gentleman to speak out, that it is
with difficulty you can catch the sound of their voices.
He examined me very minutely, when the shade was again drawn. I
begged for permission to embark on the Shary, and was told he would
consider of it. He particularly inquired if I wished to purchase
_b’lowy_, or handsome female slaves, which I assured him I did
not; “because,” said he, “if you do, go no farther: I have
some hundreds, and will sell them to you as cheap as any one.”
Loggun, the capital of which country (Kernuk) is on the banks
of the Shary, and in 11° 7′ north latitude, is a very populous
country. Kernuk has fifteen thousand inhabitants at least. They speak
a language nearly Begharmi. The Shouaas are all round them, and to
them they are indebted for the plentiful supply of bullocks, milk,
and fat, with which the market abounds: these necessaries are paid
for by tobes, and blue cotton in stripes, which the Loggun people
make and dye of a very beautiful colour. They have, also, a metal
currency in Loggun, the first I had seen in Negroland: it consists
of thin plates of iron, something in the shape of the tip with which
they shoe race-horses: these are made into parcels of ten and twelve,
according to the weight, and thirty of these parcels are equal in
value to ten rottola, or a dollar.
[Illustration]
The money market, however, of Loggun, has its fluctuations: the value
of this “circulating medium” is settled by proclamation, at the
commencement of the weekly market, every Wednesday; and speculations
are made, by the bulls and bears, according to their belief of its
rise or fall. Previous to the sultan’s receiving tribute or duty
on bullocks or indigo, the delatoo generally proclaims the currency
to be below par; while, on the contrary, when he has purchases
to make for his household, preparatory to one of their feasts,
the value of the metal is invariably increased. The proclamation
of the value of the metal always excites an amazing disturbance,
as if some were losers and some gainers by the variation.
They are a much handsomer race than the Bornouese, and far more
intelligent—the women particularly so; and they possess a superior
carriage and manner to any negro nation I had seen. The ladies of
the principal persons of the country visited me, accompanied by
one or more female slaves. They examined every thing, even to the
pockets of my trowsers; and more inquisitive ladies I never saw in
any country: they begged for every thing, and nearly all attempted
to steal something; when found out, they only laughed heartily,
clapped their hands together, and exclaimed, “Why, how sharp he
is! Only think! Why he caught us!” If they may be said to excel
my Bornou friends in accomplishments, they fall far behind them in
modesty. They are passionately fond of cloves, which, when pounded
and mixed with fat, they rub over their hair and skin. To give them
their due, they are the cleverest and the most immoral race I had
met with in the Black country.
I was not a little surprised the next day at hearing that there were
two sultans, father and son, both at the head of strong parties,
and both equally fearing and hating each other: that I had seen
the son, but that it was absolutely necessary to give the elder
at least as much as I had given the younger one. I remonstrated;
but Bellal assured me that his slaves were the most expert thieves
in the kingdom—that no walls could stop them if the sultan once
gave the word “Forage.” There was no alternative; so putting ten
dollars in a stocking, and tying up in a French silk handkerchief
two strings of coral, and a few cloves, with six gilt basket-buttons,
I presented him with them, and had the pleasure of hearing that his
majesty was highly gratified by the present. Of the bad terms on
which these rival sultans were, notwithstanding their consanguinity,
I had pretty good proofs, by their both sending to me for poison in
secret; “that would not lie,” to use their own expression. The
_mai n’bussa_, the young sultan, as the son was called, sent me
three female slaves, under fifteen years of age, as an inducement;
whom I returned, explaining, in pretty strong terms, our abhorrence
of such proceedings; for which I had the satisfaction of hearing
myself, and all my countrymen, pronounced fools a hundred times over.
On the 19th, my poor colleague seemed a little better: he had slept,
and was more calm and easier. I left him in the morning for the
purpose of proceeding up the river, and returning the next day, or
the day after that. The Shary, after leaving Kussery, makes a sweep
nearly due south, when it winds to the south-west; and nearly on the
apex of the sinuosity, if I may so express myself, stands the capital
of Loggun. The river is here not more that 400 yards in breadth. The
canoes are different from those of Showy, measuring nearly fifty feet
in length, and capable of carrying twenty or twenty-five persons:
they are built of two fine-grained woods, called kagam and birgam,
which grow in abundance along the banks from Williky to Loggun:
the planks are often from two to three feet wide.
It was near noon, when we had ascended but a few miles, that a canoe
was seen following our track, with a speed denoting some extraordinary
occurrence; and on their reaching us, and reporting the cause of
this haste, such confusion took place amongst my party, that out of
seven canoes which accompanied me, not one remained; all made for
the shore; and it was with some difficulty that we could persuade
our own to return with us to Loggun. We now found that the Begharmis
were again on the Medba, and coming towards Loggun. The sultan, on
our return, sent for us, and desired the sheikh’s people to quit
his dominions _instanter_. I told him that I came expressly to remain
some time; that Bellal might return; but that for myself, I was his
subject, and must remain under his protection; added to which I had
a sick friend, and a sick servant, and that I could not move. This,
however, he would not hear of. Bellal was desired to quit Loggun,
and to take all of us with him. “More than half my people are
Begharmi,” said the sultan; “I have no protection to give—go,
go! while you can.” Obliged to obey, I raised my suffering friend,
who was unable to assist himself in any way: we set him on a horse,
and with no provisions but a sack of parched corn, which the sultan
gave us, at four o’clock the same day we quitted the walls, when
the three gates were shut upon us, one after the other, with great
satisfaction, by an immense crowd of people.
It was late at night when we halted near some deserted cattle sheds,
of the Shouaa Arabs, who had fled; and in one of which we laid my
exhausted companion, while I kept watch on the outside. From this
time, until the night of the 21st, when we came to a small village
called Tilley, on the banks of Gambalarum, we had scarcely any rest,
and but little food. Bellal and his slaves becoming impatient, I had
ridden on with him in front, for the purpose of keeping him always
in sight, while I left Mr. Toole in charge of Columbus, who was
sufficiently recovered to attend to all his wants; occasionally,
however, going back myself, and urging them to keep up as much
as possible. It had now been dark for four hours, and the road
was winding, thickly wooded, and intricate. Bellal proceeded to
search for the ford, preparatory to crossing the stream: to this I
decidedly objected, until our companions and baggage came up; knowing
that our doing so must depend on the state of my patient. He made
various objections, but as I dismounted, and began gathering wood
for a signal-fire, he gave up the point: they answered immediately
the glare of the flame, and curling smoke, by a shot; and Bellal
and I proceeded in the direction of the sound, for the purpose
of conducting them to the spot we had rested on: a second and
a third shot, however, were necessary before we could meet, so
intricate were the paths. I found Mr. Toole perfectly senseless,
and we laid him on a bed of unripe indigo, near our fire, wrapped
up in his blanket, while a little warm tea was prepared for him,
and he soon after fell into a sound sleep. Bellal now recommenced
searching for the ford, which I allowed him to do; fully determined,
however, not to disturb my companion until morning, unless the danger
of our situation should increase: he returned soon after midnight,
and pronounced the river not fordable, either above or below the
town. We were obliged, therefore, to load instantly, and proceed by
a more northerly route, where our danger was greater. My companion
allowed himself to be moved, with great patience; and Bellal, of
whose bravery and kind-heartedness I had seen many proofs, shed tears
on observing the sad change, which disease had effected in my once
lively and active comrade. He declared that his anxiety was more on
our account than on his own, as he never would see the sheikh’s
face, or Kouka, if any thing happened to us. We passed the walls of
Affadai soon after daylight, from whence the people were flying in
all directions, and rested for the night at Yrun, after fording the
river at Solon: here the natives had determined on making a stand;
and three of the four gates were built up, while the fourth had only
space sufficient left for a man to force himself through. The kaid
sent to invite us to remain; and furnished us with milk, and fresh
fish, as well as with corn for our half-famished animals. We raised
a tent over Mr. Toole, where he lay on the ground, and twice, during
the night, gave him rice and tea; after which, to my inexpressible
delight, he slept. On the following day we reached Angala, a place
of comparative safety, and where we were sure of protection. On
passing over the plain which leads to this city, I shot a very
large korrigum, a species of antelope, with long annulated horns,
nearly as large as a red deer. At Angala we took up our old quarters,
at the house of the delatoo; and Mr. Toole, on being told where he
was, exclaimed “Thank God! then I shall not die!” And so much
better was he for the two following days, that I had great hopes of
his recovery: about four o’clock, however, on the morning of the
26th of February, those hopes were at an end. A cold shivering had
seized him, and his extremities were like ice. I gave him both tea
and rice-water; and there was but little alteration in him, until
just before noon, when, without a struggle or a groan, he expired,
completely worn out and exhausted.
The same afternoon, just as the sun was sinking below the horizon,
I followed his remains to their last resting-place, a deep grave,
which six of the sultan of Angala’s slaves had prepared, under
my direction, to the north-west of the town, overhung by a clump of
mimosas in full blossom. The delatoo, or prime minister, attended the
procession with his staff of office, and a silent prayer breathed over
all that remained of my departed friend, was the best funeral service
circumstances allowed me to perform. After raising over the grave a
pile of thorns and branches of the prickly tulloh, several feet high,
as a protection against the flocks of hyænas, who nightly infest
the burying-places in this country, I returned to the town. In the
course of my life, I had seen many of my less fortunate companions
pay the great debt of nature—their deaths generally caused by
severe and painful battle wounds; but the recollections left on my
mind by the calm departure of my amiable and suffering companion
exceeded all former ones in acuteness—proving, that in grief,
as in pleasure, sensations of the more quiet and gentle kind often
make a deeper impression on the heart than those of a fiercer or
more violent nature. Not by me alone, however, was he lamented even
here; so pleasing were his manners, and so various his acquirements,
that his friends and relations have much to regret in his loss;
but they may also be proud of having had him for a connexion.
Mr. Toole possessed qualifications which rendered him particularly
useful on a service of this nature. He was persevering and intrepid,
and of a most obliging, cheerful, and kind disposition: only once
did he declare his incapability to proceed, and refused to be
lashed on the camel; but when I sat down on the ground beside him,
and Bellal and the sheikh’s people prepared to leave us, he cried
out, “No! no! heed me not: tie me on once more; but, pray, gently:
you will not leave me alone! and I shall be the cause of others
falling into unnecessary peril.”
If the readiness with which he volunteered his services to the
government of Malta, to join me at Bornou, entitles him to praise,
his manner of performing the journey from Tripoli gives him a claim to
still greater. Including his delays, which were several and vexatious,
he arrived in one hundred and eight days at Kouka, which, considering
the people he had to deal with, required very extraordinary efforts,
great temper, and good management. Notwithstanding the expedition
he used, but five camels died on this long journey, which, for
a commencement, was a very severe campaign; and his constitution,
though strong, was not sufficiently seasoned to support the fatigues
and privations to which he was from necessity exposed.
Mr. Toole had scarcely completed his twenty-second year, and was
in every sense a most amiable and promising young officer. To his
fate he was perfectly resigned; and on the day previous to that of
his death, when I mentioned to him his return to Kouka, he smiled,
shook his head, and said, “No! no! it is all over.” Nearly his
last words were expressive of hopes that, through Earl Bathurst’s
recommendation, his next brother might succeed to the ensigncy in the
80th regiment, which would become vacant in the event of his death;
and this request was no sooner made known to his lordship than it
was immediately complied with.
An immediate return to Kouka became, on the death of my companion,
the most desirable step to be taken; and, during the evening of
the next day, accompanied by Bellal, I left Angala. The Begharmis
were now scouring the country in every direction; notwithstanding,
we arrived at Angornou on the 1st of March, with only the loss of
two camels. Here I met the sheikh with a large force, which he had
hastily collected for the purpose of attacking these invaders. He
was, as usual, full of kindness, and sent word to the person whom
he had left in charge at Kouka, to do every thing for me that
I requested. All his people were in alarm, and seemed to doubt
greatly what would be the issue of the approaching contest. On the
2d of March I returned to Kouka; and, on the following day, had
an attack of fever myself, which, though a slight one, confined me
for ten days to my mat: my illness, however, I do not consider at
all attributable to climate—deprivation of rest, fatigue, heat,
and anxiety of mind, brought on the attack, from which I speedily
recovered. My greatest suffering had ever been in my eyes; and a
violent discharge from them greatly relieved me.
Although success had certainly not attended my endeavours in this
instance, yet the excursion had not been without its advantages. Our
knowledge of the country, and the people by whom it was inhabited,
was considerably increased: the district we had penetrated was
one where kafilas do not go, or where straggling Moorish merchants
ever venture to present themselves; and treacherous indeed must the
character of that people be, where the love of gain will not induce
the avaricious and persevering Moor to carry on his traffic. The
being foiled in my attempt to get up the stream from Loggun, was a
circumstance I much regretted; but from the confirmation received
there of the report I had previously heard, of a more southerly
branch of the Shary, running through a mountainous country to
the eastward, I have no doubt of that being the fact; and had not
events beyond the power of human control prevented my residence
for a short time at Loggun, this stream would, I am inclined to
think, have been found to extend to Adamowa, and from thence to the
lake Fittre. Loggun itself is more healthy and abundant than any
other part of the banks of the Shary. Gussub, gafooly, ground nuts,
mangoes, and onions, are in great plenty, as well as honey, butter,
milk, and beef. There is a market every evening, where fish and
flesh may be purchased in any quantities. Salt is extremely scarce,
and apparently but little esteemed, or the want of it regretted:
they sometimes use, as a substitute, fine trona, which is, however,
dreadfully bitter and nauseous. The trees are numerous, and much
larger than those of Bornou, although most of them are acacias:
the locust, with its blood-red blossom, is the most striking, with
the exception of the kuka, or kukawha, and this I never saw in flower.
The inhabitants of Loggun, of both sexes, are industrious, and
labour at the loom more regularly than in any part of the sheikh’s
dominions; almost every house has its rude machinery for weaving,
and the finer and closer linen is here produced; the width, however,
is invariably the same as the Bornou gubka, not exceeding six
or seven inches. In one house I saw five looms at work: the free
people usually perform this labour, while the female slaves prepare
the cotton, and give it the deep blue dye so esteemed amongst them,
by their incomparable indigo: the glazing is also another and very
important part of their manufacture: the linen, which, previous to
its being dyed, is generally either made up into tobes, or large
shirts, or into lengths of fifteen or sixteen yards, which is equal
to the size of a turkadee, is, after three steepings, and as many
exposures to the sun, laid in a damp state on the trunks of large
trees, cut to a flat surface for the purpose, and are then beaten
with a wooden mallet, being at the same time occasionally sprinkled
with cold water and powdered antimony, _kohol_; by this means, the
most glossy appearance is produced: the constant hammering attending
this process during the whole day, really sounds like the busy hum
of industry and occupation.
Neutrality has been the policy of Loggun during the whole of the wars
that have laid waste Bornou: she has, at times, made great sacrifices
to preserve it, but peace has been her reward; and should confidence
and tranquillity be established by El Kanemy’s exertions in those
provinces bordering on the great track of kafilas, Loggun will be
a profitable resort for merchants: they are any one’s people who
can gain an influence over them, and appeared to care as little
about the Mohammedan forms of religion as we did ourselves. The
surrounding country abounds with cattle, and wild animals of
every description found in Africa. They are a remarkably handsome,
healthy, and good-looking race. In the immediate neighbourhood of
the great river, some of the towns are extremely healthy; Showy in
particular; and from thence to its embouchure, the banks are high
and seldom overflowed: the current runs with great strength along the
perpendicular sides of what I have called Buffalo bank, where there
is great depth of water, and a firm sandy bottom. Towards Kussery,
again, they are said to be sickly; but this is accounted for by the
marshy nature of the country round about them; and the windings of
the river, which here, by causing a convexity, gives shallow water,
a languid current, and low marshy ground. The overflowings, also, of
the smaller streams, leave here stagnant lakes, of several miles in
extent, which are filled with unsightly useless shrubs: the woods
are not cleared; and the wind has therefore but little power to
disperse the foul exhalations, which arise from these unwholesome
fens. The innumerable hosts of flies and insects appear to cause the
inhabitants of the banks of this river to complain more than either
the heat or the climate. Chickens are frequently destroyed by them,
soon after they are out of the shell: a chief told me, near Kussery,
that, during the last two years, he had lost two children, who were
literally stung to death; and from our own observation and sufferings,
this does not appear to be an exaggeration.
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 47: In a subsequent visit I had an opportunity of measuring
the river just below Shary, and found it 650 yards.]
CHAPTER VII.
JOURNEY TO THE EASTERN SHORES OF THE LAKE TCHAD.
March 7, 1824.—The courier which I had sent to Kano, with a supply
of necessaries for my countrymen, on Mr. Toole’s arrival, returned
to Kouka, bringing a confirmation of the report which had before
reached me, of the death of Dr. Oudney, at a place called Murmur,
near Katagum, on the 12th of January.
I had left the sheikh in full march to drive back the Begharmis,
and he now took up a position near Angala, within five miles of the
enemy, who had commenced plundering in their rear, and were moving off
all they could gather to the south side of the river: their force,
also, it was said, increased daily, and the alarm of the people,
both here and at Angornou, lest the enemy should be victorious, was
excessive. We were able to muster about seven guns, and three pair
of pistols—had plenty of powder and ball; and as our huts were
inclosed within a wall, we had determined on defending ourselves to
the last. Our determination was no sooner known than I had messages
from the wives of all the sheikh’s chiefs who were my friends,
saying that they should come to me, if the Begharmis came, as I had
guns and plenty of powder; so that I might have had as numerous,
and almost as formidable, an army as the sheikh himself, for, from
what I had seen of both sexes in Bornou, I believe, in my heart,
the women would have fought better than their husbands. The enemy
came on several times, and offered battle; but as the sheikh could
not get them in the situation he wished for, he refused the combat.
On the 28th, however, the struggle commenced. The Begharmis became
bold in consequence of the sheikh’s apparent unwillingness to
fight, and they at length ventured to attack him in the plain to the
south-east of Angala, on the edge of which he had halted. The kafila,
which had departed for Soudan, had deprived him of at least thirty of
his Arabs; and the few that remained, with some forty Musgow slaves,
who had been trained to the firelock, being his great dependence,
he placed them on his flanks. No sooner had the Begharmis cleared
the wood, than the sheikh, hoisting his green flag in the centre, and
surrounded by his Kanemboo spearmen, moved rapidly on: the two guns
in front, which Hillman had mounted, with the Arabs and musketeers,
right and left of them. The Begharmis, also, came on with great
coolness in a solid mass, five thousand strong, with two hundred
chiefs at their head: they made directly for the centre, where the
sheikh had raised the standard of the Prophet, but were repulsed by
a discharge from his artillery: they now fell upon Barca Gana’s
flank, which was attacked with such determined bravery, that all,
except himself and a chosen band, gave way: and here fell my friend
and preserver Maramy, who, while in the act of drawing his spear
from the body of one of their chiefs, received a thrust in his own,
which went quite through him. The Bornouese horse, who, on occasions
of this kind, when the road is opened for them, are most active,
now took up the pursuit of the routed Begharmis: the Arabs, also,
mounted and joined them; and of the two hundred chiefs of Begharmi
one only is said to have escaped alive. Seven sons of the sultan were
amongst the killed, and seventeen hundred of less note; whilst great
numbers were put to death by the people of the towns to which they
fled, who now, as if by magic, all became the stanch friends of the
sheikh. The water of the little stream, Gambalarum, near which the
battle was fought, also lent its aid in destroying these invaders;
and many were drowned in attempting its passage: but above all,
“The guns! the guns! the guns! Oh, wonderful! how they made the
dogs skip!—Oh, the guns!” were words in every body’s mouth. My
friend, the sheikh, however, thought there was a little too much of
this, for on the second day, he said, “True, the guns are wonderful,
’tis true!—but I lifted my hands, and said, _Sidi absolam, sidi
abdel garda!_ and from that moment the victory was yours.” It is
said that, on the morning of the battle, the sheikh appeared at the
door of his tent, with the English double-barrelled gun in his hand,
and his English sword slung over his shoulders, clothed in the dress
of a simple trooper, saying it was his intention to fight on foot,
at the head of his Kanemboos;—that he expected all the Arabs to
follow his example, and encourage the slaves, who were but young
in the use of the firelock: that if it pleased God to grant their
enemies the victory, flight was out of the question; they had nothing
left but to die before their wives and children were torn from them,
and escape so appalling a sight.
April 4.—Nothing could exceed the joy of the people at having
obtained the victory: the men walked about all day in their new tobes,
and the women danced, sang, and beat the drum, all night. My hut was
thronged with visitors, all recounting their own feats, and bewailing
their friends—sending the Begharmis to the devil, and asking for
presents on their return, all in the same breath. I had a private
interview with the sheikh, and offered him my hearty congratulations:
he was as kind and friendly as ever, talked a good deal about the
signal manner in which the Kaffirs had been delivered into his hands,
and mentioned most feelingly the death of my poor companion Mr. Toole,
whom he was very partial to—asked if his mother and father were
living, and turning to Tirab, who was near him, said, “How could
they send him so far off?”
The plunder was said to have amounted to four hundred and eighty
horses, and nearly two hundred women, with two eunuchs, and the
baggage of the princes, which was carried on bullocks and asses. Fifty
of their women were _sirias_[48] of great beauty, belonging to the
sultan’s sons, and these were all given up to the sheikh. But
while all these rejoicings were going on without, the climate was
at work within. Omar, an Arab who had lived several years in the
service of the consul at Tripoli, and had accompanied Mr. Toole, at
his recommendation, a hearty lively fellow, was so severely attacked
by the fever, that in seven days we laid him in the earth. Columbus,
who had been ill ever since he caught the fever from Mr. Toole,
again took to his bed, and seemed to be more debilitated than ever.
April 15.—Although my funds did not exceed eight hundred dollars,
yet I determined to see and talk to the sheikh on the subject of
an eastern journey[49]. “It is not in my power to send you to the
eastward,” said he, “or you should not want my assistance. You
have seen enough yourself of the dispositions of the inhabitants
of the countries towards me, and their power, to know that this is
true. It has pleased God to grant me a victory now, which may lead to
quieter times; even the pilgrims have not for years gone by the Lake
Fittre to Hadge. I am as anxious as you are, and with more reason,
to open a road with Egypt from hence: I cannot, nor can my people,
now go to Mecca, without passing through the bashaw of Tripoli’s
territories, and there are reasons which make that disagreeable. Why
not try it from Egypt, where you have many friends, and return from
this way by Fezzan?—that would be easier.” The sheikh has a most
singular manner of delivery, and I scarcely ever met with any person
who expressed himself so clearly, and with so few words. I replied,
“that if I could not proceed in the way I wished, I should return,
and either take his advice about Egypt, or wait till better times:
that the King of England, upon hearing from me of his kindness,
his willingness to assist us, and his friendship, would send some
other Englishmen, with proofs of his good will, who would claim his
assistance in getting to Sennaar.” “God keep you from evil!”
said he; “but tell your great king to send you again: here you are
known, and loved by the people; and know them, and their language: we
all will wish to see you again—what shall we do with a stranger?”
The sheikh sent this day for Columbus: “You have lived greatly,”
said he, “amongst Mussulmans; why do not you say, _La il la ilallah:
shed, shed_, and paradise is open to you?” Columbus, who knew Turks
perfectly, replied, “If it is written, so it will be:” “True,”
said the sheikh, “but death is near. I, however, still think you
love Mussulmans, and are a believer in your heart: true, the time may
not be yet come;—pray God it may come, and quickly, both for you
and Sahaby Khaleel (meaning me). I have sent to speak to you, and I
think you will tell me the truth:—what is this wish of Khaleel’s
to go to Egypt? I think he is my friend, and I think the English
are my friends; but a man’s head is always his best friend. I fear
they wish to overthrow the Mussulman power altogether.” The reply
of Columbus was, “As far as I know they want to do no such thing:
they wish to see, and to describe the country, with its inhabitants;
and if the English are the first to do so, they will pride themselves
greatly in consequence.” “And is that all?” replied the sheikh;
“Oh! wonderful: no one would believe it,—no one does here but
myself, but I do, because they say so, and they are not liars.”
April 30.—Every thing had been in preparation for a ghrazzie, upon
an extensive scale: its destination was a secret; but I inquired of
the sheikh, and added, that I hoped he would allow me to accompany
him. To this he consented; and, in the evening, sent me word that
they should pass the river at Showy, and proceed north-east towards
Fittre, for the purpose of annihilating, if possible, the Shouaas La
Sala of Amanook, who were in that direction, and allies of the sultan
of Begharmi. Amanook was a determined warrior, as well as a terrible
fighi. In his escape, after the late fight, his horse had fallen with
him, and some followers of Maffatai came upon him; they were about
to finish him, when he discovered himself, and by a promise of one
thousand bullocks was allowed to escape, one of the men giving him
a horse: this horse also knocked up previous to reaching the river,
and Amanook saved himself by creeping into the warren of some wild
hogs (foul disgrace to a believer!) when after remaining a night
and a day, he ventured out, and escaped by swimming across.
The story got to the sheikh’s ears, and the Maffatai Sultan was
sent for. These worthies having quarrelled in the division of the
spoil, one of them betrayed the rest: and all of them were hanged
accordingly, even he who informed; and the sultan, having been kept
in a state of great alarm for several days, was at length released,
on the payment to the sheikh of twenty bullock loads of tobes,
nearly one thousand dollars, for having such people in his kingdom.
On the 4th of May we left Kouka for Angornou, for the purpose
of proceeding on the ghrazzie. Rhamadan had now begun two days,
and strong objections were made by the Kanemboos and Shouaas to
proceeding: they had been nearly two months in the field already,
and they were most anxious to prepare for the sowing season, which was
now approaching; the difficulty, however, of fasting from sunrise to
sunset, while on a campaign at this hot season, for the thermometer
was 102° and 104° each day, and the sin of breaking the Rhamadan,
by doing otherwise, were made the grounds of objection, and could not
fail of having their weight with the sheikh. On the 8th, therefore,
we all returned, and the expedition was put off for a month.
From this time, until the 19th instant, we were in a state of great
tranquillity: every body was suffering from the severity of the
Rhamadan, which was unusually oppressive this year—the days were
thirteen hours long, and the heat excessive.
On the 19th instant I had news of Mr. Tyrwhit’s arrival at the river
Yeou, and on the 20th I went out to meet him at the resting place,
called Dowergoo. This gentleman His Majesty’s Government had kindly
sent out to strengthen our party, without knowing how fatally the
climate had weakened us: he was the bearer of presents to the sheikh,
in acknowledgment of the kind reception we had experienced, and was
also accompanied by the sheikh’s children, so long detained at
Mourzuk by the intrigues and contrivances of the late bey, Mustapha,
the sultan of Fezzan.
On the 22d instant we delivered the presents from his Majesty in
full form, consisting of two swords, of very beautiful workmanship,
two pair of pistols, a dagger, and two gold watches: the delight,
nay ecstasy, with which these well-selected specimens of our
manufactories were received by El Kanemy, was apparent in every
feature of his intelligent countenance, and in the quick glances of
his sparkling and penetrating eye. The dagger, and the watch with the
seconds movement, were the articles which struck him most forcibly;
and when I mentioned, that, agreeably to his request, a parcel of
rockets had also been forwarded, he exclaimed, “What, besides all
these riches! there are no friends like these! they are all truth;
and I see, by the Book, that if the Prophet had lived only a short
time longer, they would have been all Moslem!”
June 1.—The Rhamadan was now over, and we had, in the place of
fasting and complainings, feastings and rejoicings: the oftener in
the twenty-four hours a man could afford to eat meat, the greater
person he was considered. The heat had been very oppressive, and the
people complained dreadfully, as the sheikh admitted of no excuse for
breaking the Rhamadan: any man who was caught suffering his thirst
to get the better of him, or visiting his wives between sunrise and
sunset, was sentenced to four hundred stripes with a whip made of
the skin of the hippopotamus—a dreadful punishment. An hour or
two before the sun went down, sometimes more than a dozen of the
class to whom labour rendered the deprivation of liquid for so many
hours far more insufferable, would lay themselves near the well, and
have buckets of water thrown over them, the only relief that could
be allowed, and which appeared greatly to revive them, even when
almost fainting with thirst. With the feast of the Aid, however,
finished all their sufferings, and also the recollection of them;
for the wrestlings now took place in front of the sheikh’s house,
as before, and the evening dances at the gates of the town were
crowded with many picturesque groups. I had, several times during
the fast, paid the sheikh a visit by his desire, soon after sunrise,
the only time in the day, at this season, that he is visible: our
meeting was always in his garden, which a few pomegranate and lime
trees made really here a refreshing spot, which was not a little
increased by the troughs of water which reached from the well all
round this miserable, though royal, nursery-ground, and refreshed the
roots of the languid and drooping trees. Our conversation chiefly
related to the war with Tunis, which he seemed to think of great
importance, and added, that, friends as we were with all Mussulmans,
our taking up the cause of their enemies seemed very unaccountable. I
endeavoured to explain it to him, that we were enemies to cruelty
and blood-shedding, let who would be the perpetrators; that we as
often prevented Greeks from massacring Turks, and always released
prisoners of either faith, whenever our cruisers found them confined
in the ships of their enemies. I do not know that I should have
succeeded in satisfying him entirely of our disinterested conduct,
had it not been for Shrief Hashashy, a very respectable Moor,
who, having been robbed of every thing on the road from Soudan,
was now recovering himself a little by the sheikh’s liberality
to the distressed: he was present, and certainly helped me out
greatly. “Will my lord listen to me?” said he: “what the rais
has just told my lord, I can vouch for the truth of. My lord knows,
that the brother of my heart, my youngest brother, Ab’deen, trades
to Smyrna and Suez: he fell into the hands of these worst of kaffirs,
and with twenty others, Moslem, was taken out of a Greek vessel,
with their hands bound ready for execution, by an English captain,
who fed and clothed them, and landed them at Smyrna. In short, the
English, as I have heard, and believe, made war for twenty years,
for no other purpose but to obtain peace.” “Wonderful!” said
the sheikh; “but where is the profit of all this?” “That,
my lord must inquire of themselves: their wars cannot bring them
profit, but, on the contrary, must cost them great sums.” “But
what will they do with Tunis?” said the sheikh, turning to me;
“they have many large-mouthed guns, and plenty of gunpowder:—can
three or four ships force them to do as you wish?—No charms will
have any effect, believe me, for they have a fighi of great power
and knowledge.” “Probably so,” returned I; “we seldom fight
with such weapons—indeed it is probable there will be no fighting
at all. If these four ships prevent all intercourse between them
and the other nations with whom they trade, will they not be glad
to listen to reason for the sake of obtaining peace, and a renewal
of their trade and free intercourse?” “True, true,” said the
sheikh, “most true; you are a thinking people.”
June 4.—This afternoon, I was sent for to the palace in a most
violent hurry, as one of the young princes had swallowed a fish-bone,
or a piece of wood, and was choking. I hurried on my bornouse,
and made the best haste I could; and although the distance was
not above five hundred yards, the sand, which is always nearly up
to the ancles in the streets, prevented the possibility of moving
very quick; and the Aga Gana, and Mady Sala, two of the sheikh’s
negro chamberlains, who had been sent for me, soon got some way in
advance: they made signs, and called out to me, in great distress,
to come on; which I answered with, the perspiration flowing down my
cheeks, “Softly! softly!” This answer, it seems, did not accord
with their impatience, which was in proportion to that their master
had displayed in despatching them for me; without a word, therefore,
they both came running back to me, seized me in their arms, and in
about three minutes placed me on the steps leading to the sheikh’s
terrace. Had they desired any of the four slaves by whom they were
each of them followed to have done this, I certainly should have been
inclined to rebel; but when these lords of the bedchamber themselves
condescended to bear me in their arms, which they did with great
gentleness, I took it, as I have no doubt it was meant, in good part.
I found the young prince with something or other in his throat, which
would neither come up nor go down. I at first thought of covering
a pistol ramrod with rag, and introducing that, but I afterwards
determined to try some large pills of wax candle, of which I was
first obliged to swallow three myself, to show the little fellow
how; and at last, by dipping them in honey, I did get him to gulp a
couple, when, to my great joy, the obstruction was removed, and the
sheikh highly delighted. I had already acquired the name of _tibeeb_
(doctor), but this operation raised my fame exceedingly.
While I was waiting in the palace, in consequence of this accident,
a punishment took place, probably only equalled in severity by that of
the knout in Russia, and which, as is often the case in that country,
caused the death of the culprit before the morning. In this instance
the unfortunate man had been found, by the spies of the kadi (who are
always on the alert), slumbering in his amours, and was now to pay
the penalty of his carelessness. In the middle of the day, during
the Rhamadan, he had been seen asleep in his hut, and the wife of
another man (a merchant), who had been some time absent in Soudan,
stretched by his side; they were therefore, without any hesitation,
presumed guilty of having broken the Rhamadan. He was sentenced to
receive four hundred stripes, and his partner half that number. Her
head was first shaved, her dress and ear-rings, arm-lets, leg-lets,
&c. were given to the informer; she was taken up by four men, with
only a cloth round her middle, by means of which she was suspended,
in a manner not to be described, while a powerful negro inflicted the
full number of lashes she was condemned to receive. This took place
inside the court-yard of the palace: she was afterwards carried home
senseless. The man received his punishment in the dender, or square,
suspended in the same manner, but with eight men, instead of four,
to support him: an immense whip, of one thick thong cut off from the
skin of the hippopotamus, was first shown to him, which he was obliged
to kiss, and acknowledge the justness of his sentence. The fatah was
then said aloud, and two powerful slaves of the sheikh inflicted the
stripes, relieving each other every thirty or forty strokes: they
strike on the back, while the end of the whip, which has a knob or
head, winds round, and falls on the breast or upper stomach: this it
is that renders these punishments fatal. After the first two hundred,
blood flowed from him upwards and downwards, and in a few hours
after he had taken the whole four hundred, he was a corpse. The agas,
kashellas, and the kadis, attend on these occasions. I was assured
the man did not breathe even a sigh audibly. Another punishment
succeeded this, which, as it was for a minor offence, namely,
stealing ten camels and selling them, was trifling, as they only
gave him one hundred stripes, and with a far less terrific weapon.
June 16.—Every thing was now prepared for the expedition to
the eastern side of the Tchad, and Mr. Tyrwhitt determined on
accompanying me.
On the 17th of June we reached Angornou, and from thence the sheikh
despatched the ghrazzie, with Barca Gana, the chief, Ali Gana, the
second, and Tirab, the third in command. At an interview which I
had this morning, he called them all towards him, and said, “This
is the duty of you all, take care of these strangers: they wish to
go round by Kanem, which must be done, if possible: let them have
twenty horsemen, or more, if necessary.”
[Illustration: A LOGGUN LADY.
ABDALLAH OF MANDARA.
FUNHA OF MAFFATAI.
From Drawings by Major Denham.
Engraved by E. Finden.
_Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London._]
On entering the town of Angala, on the 19th, Bellal, who had
accompanied Mr. Toole and myself on the excursion to Loggun, again
pointed out the place where we had deposited my unfortunate friend. I
went to the spot to see that it was not disturbed; and a peaceful
depository it had proved for his remains: every thing remained just
as I had left it, even to the branches which covered his grave, and
I was fearful, by exciting observations, to risk their disturbance.
On the 20th we reached Maffatai, and took possession once more of my
old quarters in Birmah’s house. The host, however, was from home,
getting his gussub into the ground; his eldest wife did the honours:
she also gave me a little more of her company than before, and told
me, very good-naturedly, that she could do many things now, that she
could not when the lord was at home. Nothing, indeed, could exceed
the kindness with which my hostess, who was called Ittha, did all she
could to show how welcome a visitor I was. “Birmah,” she said,
“must stay and get in the corn, but she hoped I should not miss
him.” During the first day she came repeatedly with her sister
Funha, a negress with an expression of countenance more pleasing than
I had ever before seen, of about eighteen, who, Ittha said, was most
anxious to see me, from what she had told her formerly. Luckily,
she added, Funha had divorced her husband only two days before, or
she could not have had that pleasure. Ittha, with all the familiarity
of an old acquaintance, uncovered my hands, arms, and breast, to show
to her sister my extraordinary whiteness. It seemed to surprise her
greatly; but nevertheless I was pleased to observe that it did not
appear to excite either much alarm or disgust: but what certainly
seemed to both the greatest wonder, was the sight and touch of my
head, which had just been shaved; it was literally passed from the
hands of one to the other, with so many remarks, that some minutes
elapsed ere I could be allowed to replace my turban. When, at length,
they left me, Ittha exclaimed, pressing my hand with both hers,
that I was fit to be a sultan, _mai, mai, wolla!_ and that Funha
should shampoo me, and try to bring on sleep, as I must be tired and
fatigued by the heat of the sun. This, however, was not all: towards
evening, more than a dozen of Ittha’s friends, the principal ladies
of the town, came, in consequence of the liberty she enjoyed while
the goodman was away, to have a look at the _bulfulk_ (white man),
each bringing me something—a few onions, a little rice, or a bowl
of milk, as a present. Funha performed all the duties imposed on
her to perfection. I had a supper of pounded rice, milk, and honey,
with something like bread made into cakes: and verily I began to
think, like Ittha herself, that I not only deserved to be a sultan,
but that I had really commenced my reign.
We moved to Showy, and crossing the Gurdya by a slanting ford, came
more to the eastward than before, and by a nearer route. I was here
greatly amused with seeing a party of girls skipping in a long rope,
just as we do in England, and the fear of losing my dignity alone
prevented my speedily joining them. They performed well; but then
it must be recollected that they were totally unincumbered with
drapery or any covering whatever, although good-sized young ladies
of twelve or thirteen years old. The inhabitants of Showy are a most
indolent happy people: half the night is passed in fishing, which
is their sole support; and towards evening, each day, the sound of
the drum calls them to the open space in the centre of their huts,
when the men form themselves into circles, and dance in a most
uncouth though joyous manner. The women all assemble at a certain
part of the circle, sitting on the ground with their faces covered,
and salute the most active with loud screams of approbation.
[Illustration: _D. Denham._
_J. & C. Walker Sculp._
_Hager Teous called by the Natives the Foot Stool of Noah._
_Published by J. Murray, Albemarle Street London. March 1826._]
June 24.—We crossed the Shary with but little less water than we
had found six months before, and passing the day on the east bank,
we moved again in the evening: we saw twelve crocodiles basking on
the banks. A large party of Shouaas were passing on rafts, swimming
their sheep and bullocks, which they drive over in flocks, one
being first forced into the river, and dragged over by a line run
through the cartilage of the nose. Women often perform this duty,
showing great strength and agility in swimming and curbing these
powerful animals. We made nine miles, passed quantities of _ghrwka_
(castor-nut tree), and at noon arrived at lake Hamese, which is part
of the Tchad, and halted at some Shouaa huts of the Beni Hassan tribe,
at a place called Zeabra. In continuation of our course, we halted,
in the afternoon, at Berbeeta, where we encountered a terrible storm,
and were sadly bitten by mosquitoes.
A little to the northward of the road, and at the head of the
lake Hamese, are some very curious rocks of red granite standing
in an immense plain, at a great distance from any mountains of
a corresponding structure: one is of a conical form, and distant
about three hundred yards from the others, which are connected. The
space between Kou Abdallah, the name of the first, and the other
three is covered with loose fragments of rock of different sizes,
and it is natural to suppose they were all formerly united: the
three are called Hager Teous by the Bornouese, and by the Shouaa
Bete Nibbe Mohammed. I had dismounted for the purpose of approaching
nearer to the base of the single rock, over the broken fragments by
which it was surrounded, principally for the purpose of procuring
some specimens, when those who were waiting in the plain exclaimed,
“A lion! a lion! a lion!” I began to look around me with great
anxiety, and quickly perceived a large female panther, big with young,
bursting from the shade of the loose fragments just before me, and,
frightened at the cries of the negroes, was running up the rock. These
are the most dangerous animals that are here met with, although they
never attack when several persons are together; my being in advance
was what alarmed the rest. The animal, however, passed quietly away.
June 26.—We still kept near the swamps which surround the Tchad,
and halting as usual for two hours in the heat of the day, by sunset
we had made nineteen miles, winding, and arrived at the huts of the
Biddomassy Shouaa, where Barca Gana was encamped.
June 27.—Proceeded fifteen miles, and found the Dugganah Shouaa
were about three miles before us, with Malem Chadely, and a small body
of the sheikh’s people who had preceded us. We forded to-day eight
waters, branches of the lake, some up to the body of the horse; while
the camels took a more circuitous route, and passed beyond the waters
on perfectly dry ground. Amanook’s people, we found, had fled.
June 28.—Although on our arriving at the camp of the Dugganah
a long parley was held, and a number of questions asked of sheikh
Hamed, as to Amanook’s numbers, and his hiding-place, yet the first
object of the expedition did not appear until just before daylight
this morning, when the whole body mounted, and in fifteen minutes
were moving towards Kanem Mendoo, one day from Maou, the capital;
from whence the Waday’s had driven the sheikh’s friends. Mendoo
had thrown off the sheikh’s government, and Edershi Gebere, nephew
of the Fugboo, that had been put to death by the order of Mustapha
L’Achmar the sultan of Fezzan, now ruled as khalifa. The sheikh’s
object had been to catch him by surprise; and for this reason Amanook
and La Sala were always held out as the sole destination of the
army. Mendoo was nearly in my road, and it was therefore necessary
that it should be cleared first of these rebels. Barca Gana sent
in the night for Bellal, and desired him to acquaint me with his
intention, and that as he should merely halt to sully (pray) and water
the horses, from his starting until the sun should be three fathoms
high on the following day, when he should surround Mendoo; that the
sheikh wished me to remain where I then was until his return, which
would be in four days, when he trusted I should be able to proceed
in safety. I should have preferred going on, and leaving Mendoo to
him, have passed on round the Tchad; but he would not hear of such
an arrangement, and as I was kept in ignorance of this plan until
the whole army was actually in motion, I had no alternative. Not a
camel went with them, and all the baggage and siriahs were left in
the camp. Bellal now became the chief, and with the assistance of the
Shouaas and Arabs, the camp was intrenched, trees were cut down, and
a sort of abbattis quickly formed for our protection. Our situation
was, however, one of jeopardy and inconvenience, as nothing but
their ignorance of our movements could save us from an attack from
Amanook’s people, to whom we should have been a fine booty and an
easy prey. From our vicinity to the Tchad, the swarms of flies in the
day, and mosquitoes at night, were so great, that we were obliged to
resort to our old remedy of lighting fires, and living in the smoke,
in order to obtain a little peace.
June 29.—The Dugganah chief, Tahr, came to my tent to-day, attended
by about twenty people, who all sat down behind him bareheaded, while
he had on a dark blue cotton cap. He had a fine, serious, expressive
countenance, large features, and a long bushy beard: these are the
particular characteristics of these Shouaas—they differ from the
Shouaas to the west, who have mixed more with the natives. Tahr might
have sat for the picture of one of the patriarchs; and an able artist
would have produced a beautiful head from such a study. Their mode
of salutation is by closing their hands gently several times—as
we applaud—and then extending the palms of both flat towards you,
exclaiming, “_L’affia?_—Are you well and happy?”
Tahr, with his followers, after looking at me with an earnestness
that was distressing to me for a considerable time, at last gained
confidence enough to ask some questions, commencing, as usual,
with “What brought you here? they say your country is a moon from
Tripoli.” I replied, “to see by whom the country was inhabited;
and whether it had lakes, and rivers, and mountains like our own.”
“And have you been three years from your home? Are not your eyes
dimmed with straining to the north, where all your thoughts must
ever be? Oh! you are men, men, indeed! Why, if my eyes do not see
the wife and children of my heart for ten days, when they should be
closed in sleep they are flowing with tears.”
I had bought a sheep for a dollar, a coin with which he was not
conversant; and he asked if it was true that they came out of the
earth? The explanation pleased him. “You are not Jews?” said
he. “No,” said I. “Christians, then?” “Even so,” replied
I. “I have read of you: you are better than Jews,” said he. “Are
Jews white, like you?” “No,” replied I; “rather more like
yourself, very dark.” “Really;” said the sheikh: “Why, are
they not quite white? They are a bad people.” After staying a full
hour, he took my hand, and said, “I see you are a sultan: I never
saw any body like you. The sight of you is as pleasing to my eyes,
as your words are to my ear. My heart says you are my friend. May you
die at your own tents, and in the arms of your wives and family.”
“Amen,” said I; and they all took their leave.
June 30.—Tahr paid me another visit to-day. The Dugganahs were
formerly Waday, and were strong enough to have great influence with
the sultan; but by quarrelling among themselves, they lost their
influence, and became subject to the Waday sultans. They generally
passed one part of the year in the Bahr-al-Ghazal, and the other part
by lake Fittre: in these two spots had been the regular frigues, or
camps, for several generations. Sheikh Hamed his father, the present
chief, who had more than one hundred children, found that another
tribe of Dugganah had been intriguing with the sultan of Waday against
him, and that he was to be plundered, and his brethren to share in
the spoil. On learning this, he fled with his flocks and his wives,
offered himself to the sheikh, El Kanemy, and had since lived in his
dominions. The account he gave of the Tchad was this—it formerly
emptied itself into the Bahr-el-Ghazal by a stream, the dry bed of
which still remained, now filled with large trees and full of pasture:
it was situated between the N’Gussum and Kangarah, inhabited by
Waday Kanemboos. “I could take you there,” said he, “in a day;
but not now—spears are now shining in the hands of the sons of Adam,
and every man fears his neighbour.” He had heard his grandfather,
when he was a boy, say, “that it there gradually wasted itself in
an immense swamp, or, indeed, lake[50]: the whole of that was now
dried up. They all thought,” he said, “the overflowings of the
Tchad were decreasing, though almost imperceptibly. From hence to
Fittre was four days: there was no water, and but two wells on the
road. Fittre,” he said, “was large; but not like the Tchad. His
infancy had been passed on its borders. He had often heard Fittre
called the Darfoor water and Shilluk. Fittre had a stream running
out of it—was not like the Tchad, which every body knew was now
a still water; a river also came from the south-west, which formed
lake Fittre; and this and the Nile were one: he believed this was
also the Shary; but he knew nothing to the westward: it, however,
came from the Kerdy country, called Bosso, and slaves had been
brought to Fittre by it, who had their teeth all pointed and their
ears cut quite close to their heads.” Tahr wished to purchase
our water skins, “for,” said he, “we can get none like them;
and either to Fittre, or Waday, we pass a high country, and find but
few wells.” The Biddoomah sometimes pay them a visit; and although
generally professing friendship, always steal something. The last
time, they sold them a woman and a boy; which by Barca Gana’s
people were recognized as the same they, the Biddomahs, had stolen
from the neighbourhood of Angornou six months before: they were of
course restored without payment. The hyænas were here so numerous,
and so bold, as to break over the fence of bushes in the middle
of a thunder-storm, and carry off a sheep from within five yards
of my tent. We had news that Barca Gana had found Mendoo deserted,
and was disappointed in catching the khalifa.
The Shouaas live entirely in tents of leather, or rather of rudely
dressed hides, and huts of rushes, changing but from necessity, on the
approach of an enemy, or want of pasturage for their numerous flocks:
they seldom fight except in their own defence. The chiefs never leave
their homes, but send bullocks to the markets at Maffatai and Mekhari,
and bring gussub in return: their principal food, however, is the
milk of camels, in which they are rich, and also that of cows and
sheep; this they will drink and take no other nourishment for months
together. Their camps are circular, and are called dowera[51], or
frigue, with two entrances for the cattle to enter at and be driven
out. They have the greatest contempt for, and hatred of, the negro
nations, and yet are always tributary to either one black sultan or
another: there is no example of their ever having peopled a town,
or established themselves in a permanent home.
[Illustration: Sketch of the LAKE TCHAD.
_D. Denham._
_J. & C. Walker Sculpt._
_Published as the Act directs Feby. 1826, by John Murray Albemarle
Street London._]
For several days we were kept in the greatest suspense. No news
arrived from the army. Reports varied: it was said Barca Gana
had pushed on to Maou and Waday; again, that he was gone to the
islands. We had thunder and rain, with distressing heat, and flies,
and mosquitoes to torture. Bellal would not go on, and I would not
go back: we were consuming daily our store of rice, with eight days
before us to Woodie, through a country without supplies.
July 6.—On the evening of yesterday, Barca Gana, with the chiefs,
and about half their force, returned; the remainder had been obliged
to halt on the road, to refresh their horses. He had pushed on to
Maou after Edirshe Gebere, a Shouaa chief of Korata Mendooby. Fugboo
Kochamy, as he was called, was the fourth khalifa whom the sheikh
had placed at Maou (his three predecessors having been strangled by
the Waday people); he was first cousin to Edirshe, who, affecting
friendship for him, lulled his suspicions, and one night attacked
him in his capital. Kochamy made a gallant defence; he killed nine
of them with his spear, but was at length overcome, and died, with
eleven others of the sheikh’s allies. Fugboo Jemamy, his brother,
alone escaped: to assist Jemamy was the object of Barca Gana. Edirshe
had news of their movements, notwithstanding they went nearly fifty
miles in a day and night, and appeared first at Mendoo, and then
at Maou, on the day after they left us. Edirshe had fled with all
his cattle and women: they found them about ten miles from Maou,
entrenched within a circular camp, with all their cattle, women,
and children, strongly defended with stakes; their bowmen were all
distributed between the stakes, and in front of the entrenchment:
they saluted their enemies with shrill cries on their approach,
and the sheikh’s people, after looking at them for a day and a
night, without any provisions for either men or horses, dared not
attack them. Disappointed, therefore, in their hopes of plunder and
revenge, the whole returned here, their horses and men nearly in a
state of starvation.
July 10.—We were all anxiety this day. Barca Gana was nearly one
thousand strong, and about four hundred Dugganahs joined him, besides
furnishing him with nearly one hundred horses. Amanook was one of
the sheikh’s most troublesome remaining enemies; the sheikh had, on
various occasions, and lastly, when he joined the Begharmis in their
attack on Bornou, very severely crippled him, and destroyed more than
half his force: the design now was to annihilate the remainder, and
secure, if possible, the person of this inveterate foe, who kept alive
the hostile feeling both on the Begharmi and Waday side. Amanook,
however, was not to be taken by surprise, and he gave the sheikh’s
troops such a proof of what might be done by a handful of men,
bold of soul, and determined to defend an advantageous situation,
that they will not easily forget. Just before sunset a Fezzanneer,
who had lately entered into the sheikh’s service, returned to the
camp, giving an account of Barca Gana’s complete discomfiture,
and Bellal and myself immediately mounted our horses in order to
learn the particulars. The Tchad[52], which in this part forms
itself into innumerable still waters, or lakes of various extents,
and consequently leaves many detached spaces of land or islands,
always afforded the La Sala Shouaas, and the Biddomah, natural
defences, which their enemies had ever found it extremely difficult
to conquer. In one of these situations, these very La Salas, with
Amanook at their head, kept the sultan of Fezzan, with two thousand
Arabs, and all the sheikh’s army, several days in check, and killed
between thirty and forty of the Arabs before they surrendered. On
this occasion Amanook had taken possession of one of these islands,
which, to attack with horsemen alone, in front of an opposing enemy,
was the height of imprudence. A narrow pass led between two lakes
to a third, behind which Amanook had posted himself with all his
cattle, and his people, male and female: the lake, in front of
him, was neither deep nor wide, but full of holes, and had a muddy
deceitful bottom on the side from whence the attack was made.
The sight of the bleating flocks, and lowing herds, was too much
for the ravenous troops of the sheikh, irritated by their recent
disappointment; and notwithstanding the declaration of Barca Gana,
that he wished to halt on the opposite side of the water, and send
for spearmen on foot, with shields, who would lead the attack, the
junior chiefs all exclaimed, “What! be so near them as this, and
not eat them? No, no! let us on! This night these flocks and women
will be ours.” This cry the sheikh’s Shouaas also joined in, ever
loud in talk, but rearmost in the fight, as the sequel proved. The
attack commenced: the Arabs, of whom there were about eighty, led
the way with the Dugganah. On arriving in the middle of the lake the
horses sank up to their saddle-bows, most of them were out of their
depth, and others floundered in the mud: the ammunition of the riders
became wet, their guns useless, many even missed the first fire, and
they were unhorsed in this situation. As they approached the shore,
the La Sala hurled at them, with unerring aim, a volley of their
light spears, a very formidable missile, which they followed up by a
charge of their strongest and best horse, trained and accustomed to
the water; while, at the same time, another body, having crossed the
lake higher up, came by the narrow pass, and cut off the retreat of
all those who had advanced into the lake. The Shouaas, on the first
appearance of resistance, had, as usual, gone to the right about,
and left those, under whose cover they meant to plunder, to fight it
out by themselves: the slaughter now became very desperate amongst
the sheikh’s people. Barca Gana, although attacking against his
own judgment, was of the foremost, and received a severe spear
wound in his back, which pierced through four tobes, and an iron
chain armour, while attacked by five chiefs, who seemed determined
on finishing him; one of whom he thrust completely through with
his long spear. By crowding around him, and by helping him quickly
to a fresh horse, his own people and chiefs saved him, and thirty
of them remained either killed or in the hands of the La Sala: but
few of those who were wounded in the water, or whose horses failed
them there, escaped. We found Barca Gana, with the other chiefs,
seated near the second water; he was in great pain from his wound,
and the whole army dreadfully disheartened: they had not more than
forty followers in all. We vainly waited until sunset, in the hopes
of the missing making their appearance, but we were disappointed, and
returned to the camp. By this desertion of the sheikh’s Shouaas,
the Dugganahs suffered severely: anxious to show their sincerity
to the sheikh, they had gone on boldly, and their loss exceeded one
hundred; eighteen of the Arabs were also missing. The night was passed
in a state of great anxiety, from the fear of an attack on our camp;
and the sense of our unjoyous situation was constantly awakened by
the melancholy dirges which the Dugganah women were singing over
their dead husbands, really so musically piteous, that it was almost
impossible not to sympathize in their affliction.
The Dugganah, from being the humblest of allies, now became rather
dictatorial, and told the general very plainly that they could fight
better without him than with him: they refused him both bullocks and
sheep, and said they must keep them to pay the ransom of their people.
Amanook, who it seems had no idea of following up his victory
by an attack on our camp, which he might have done successfully,
and carried off all the chiefs, siriahs, and camels, sent word this
evening that he would now treat with nobody but the sheikh himself;
that he had declared to the general, before he attacked him, that he
feared no one but God, the Prophet, and the sheikh, and wished for
peace: “They would not listen to me,” said he, “but attempted
to take by force what was their master’s before; for all we had was
the sheikh’s, and is still. By God’s help my people overcame them,
but that is nothing; I am to the sheikh, in point of strength, as an
egg is to a stone: if he wishes peace, and will no more molest me in
my wilds, peace be with us—I will give up his people, his horses,
and his arms, that have fallen into my hands; if not, I will keep
them all, and may be add to their number. We are not easily beaten:
by the head of the Prophet, I can and will, if I am forced, turn
fish, and fly to the centre of the water; and if the sheikh comes
himself against me, I will bring Waday against him.”
July 8.—The chiefs all refused to withdraw their forces on this
offer of Amanook: they sent word that he was not to be depended on,
so often had he deceived them. Nothing but an unconditional return of
all the spoil would satisfy them. In a long conversation which I had
with Barca Gana, whose wound was now fast healing from the dressing
of burnt fat and sulphur, which I had applied, he assured me that
they should not make another attempt on this bold chieftain: he,
however, advised my returning to Kouka. “The excursion,” said he,
“you wish to make was always dangerous, it is now impracticable; we
must wait for the sheikh’s appearance before we can do any thing,
and I think, from the advanced state of the season, as the rains
have now begun to fall, you will find that the sheikh will not come,
and that we shall all return.”
By being ten days encamped[53] close to the frigue of the Dugganah
Shouaas, we had a better opportunity of observing these curious
people: they were a superior class to any I had met with; they
were rich in cattle, and in camels, and seemed to live in plenty,
and patriarchal simplicity. The sheikh had greatly encouraged
their taking refuge with him on their disagreement with Waday,
and had promised them protection, tribute free, provided they were
faithful. Both the men and women were comely, particularly the latter,
who, when they found that we paid for what we wanted in little bits
of coarse _karem_ (amber), with which I had provided myself, brought
us, night and morning, frothy bowls of milk, which formed by far the
best part of our repasts. There is something so curious and singularly
interesting and expressive in the Shouaa manners and language, that I
am at a loss how to describe it. A girl sits down by your tent with
a bowl of milk, a dark blue cotton wrapper tied round her waist,
and a mantila of the same thrown over her head, with which she hides
her face, yet leaves all her bust naked; she says, “A happy day
to you! Your friend has brought you milk: you gave her something
so handsome yesterday, she has not forgotten it. Oh! how her eyes
ache to see all you have got in that wooden house,” pointing to a
trunk. “We have no fears now; we know you are good; and our eyes,
which before could not look at you, now search after you always:
they bid us beware of you, at first, for you were bad, very bad;
but we know better now. How it pains us that you are so white!”
As we had not more than four days’ provision, I determined on
returning after another interview with Barca Gana: we left Tangalia,
and returned to the spot where we had left the Biddomassy, and had
scarcely pitched our tents when a storm came on, which lasted till
midnight: but bad as it was, it was preferable to the stings of the
musquitoes and flies which succeeded it. Notwithstanding we had fires
inside the tent, which nearly stifled us, no sleep was to be obtained.
On the 11th we arrived at Showy, after a very tedious march, and
losing our way for three hours: the woods are, indeed, most intricate
and difficult; and as all the Shouaas had moved up towards Barca
Gana, we could get no guides. We saw five _giraffees_ (cameleopards)
to-day, to my great delight; they were the first I had seen alive,
and notwithstanding my fatigue and the heat, Bellal and myself chased
them for half an hour: we kept within about twenty yards of them. They
have a very extraordinary appearance from their being so low behind,
and move awkwardly, dragging, as it were, their hinder legs after
them: they are not swift, and unlike any figure of them I ever met
with. Passing the Shary was attended with very great difficulty;
the stream was extremely rapid, and our horses and camels were
carried away from the sides of the canoe, to which they were lashed:
we lost a camel by this passage; these animals have a great dislike
to water, and after swimming a stream are often seized with illness,
and are carried off in a few hours.
July 12.—Left Showy, and once more found ourselves at Maffatai. The
rest, and fish bazeen, with which we were here regaled, with the
deep shade of Burmah’s spacious mansion, greatly recovered us. The
skin of my face all came off, and I slept nearly the whole day after
our arrival: the sun, rain, flies, and musquitoes, altogether had
fatigued me more than any former journey.
On the 15th we pursued our route homeward by a new course, and halted
close to the Gambalarum, on the ground the Begharmis had escaped
over, after their rencontre with the sheikh: the ground was strewed
with skeletons.
July 16.—After a long and fatiguing march we reached some Felatah
huts, about sunset. The water, after crossing Maffatai, is all sad
muddy stuff; and the nearer you approach Angornou, the blacker the
soil is, and the worse it becomes. We to-day crossed the Molee,
a small stream which runs to the Tchad. The whole of this road,
indeed the whole country from Angala, is an inclined plane towards
the Great Lake, and during the rains it is impassable: they were now
every where sowing their grain, and in many places they were reaping
the Indian corn. Since leaving Maffatai, we had nothing besides a
little rice, to which I added a duck or two, which I made it part
of my business to search after, and shoot.
July 17.—We this day reached Angornou, very much fatigued with
our journey; we had a drenching night of it, and crept into our
friend Abdi Nibbe’s hut, with great joy: the worst of these storms
were that they spoiled the only meal we could get time to cook in
the twenty-four hours; and our tents, which rarely withstood the
blasts, on falling, exposed all our stores as well as ourselves to
the pelting of the storm.
On my arrival again at Kouka I found that Captain Clapperton,
with a small kafila, had returned from Soudan: it was nearly eight
months since we had separated, and although it was midday I went
immediately to the hut where he was lodged; but so satisfied was
I that the sun-burnt sickly person that lay extended on the floor,
rolled in a dark blue shirt, was not my companion, that I was about
to leave the place, when he convinced me of my error, by calling me
by my name: the alteration in him was certainly most striking. Our
meeting was a melancholy one: he had buried his companion, and I
had also closed the eyes of my younger and more robust colleague,
Mr. Toole. Notwithstanding the state of weakness in which I found
Captain Clapperton, he yet spoke of returning to Soudan after
the rains.
July 28.—I had now determined on proceeding by Woodie to Kanem, and
approaching as near as possible to Tangalia, the spot where I had left
Barca Gana, when I had passed by the southern extremity of the lake;
and if I succeeded, and returned before the departure of the kafila
after the Aid Kebir, I fostered a hope of retracing my steps across
the desert, with all the satisfaction of a man who had accomplished
to the full the duties that had been assigned him. Yagah Menamah,
the chief eunuch of the sheikh’s favourite wife, came to me soon
after daylight, and presented me with two _kansara_, or fly-flappers,
made of the tail of the camelopard; and in her name said that she
had burnt salt for my departure, praying that neither the devil nor
any of his imps might be able to play me any malicious tricks on
my journey. The sheikh had consented to Mr. Tyrwhitt’s remaining
as consul: and on my inquiring whether he would protect one or
two English merchants, if they came to his country—“Certainly:
why not?” said he, “and assist them to the extent of my power;
but they must be small traders, or the journey will never pay
them.” He expressed his wish to write to the king, and added,
“whatever I can do in Soudan, remember I am ready. I have influence
there certainly, which may increase, and probably shortly extend to
Nyffé. As to yourself, I shall write to beg the king will send you
here, with any English whom he may wish to visit Bornou. You are
known, and might now go any where in Bornou without fear. Even the
Shouaas on the frontiers, and the Duggenah, all know Rais Khaleel:
but this has not been done hastily; you have been nearly eighteen
months amongst us, and you remember when you could not go to Angornou
without inconvenience. I then thought you would never be as much at
liberty here as you are. Time and yourself may be thanked for this,
not me; for I could not, by any orders I might have given, have done
for you what your mixing freely with the people, and gaining their
good will, has brought about—and yet you are a Christian!”
July 30.—This morning the sheikh sent to Mr. Clapperton,
Mr. Hillman, and myself, as a present, a very fine camel, a horse,
and two water-skins, two leopard skins, and two dressed-leather
sacks. In the course of the morning another cargo was brought to me,
consisting of eight elephants’ tusks, with the horns of three other
animals. The horns were, first, the maremah, a long horn similar to
one I had seen at Kabshary—the animal has two, bending backwards
at the point; kirkadan, a two-horned animal; another animal, with one
long horn and a second shorter just above it, nearly between the eyes
of the animal, was described to me as having, on the sheikh’s late
expedition to Gulphi, carried a man and horse, spiked on his horn,
more than one hundred yards, when, frightened by the cries of the
people, he dropped them, and made his escape: the man was unhurt,
but the horse died.
Aug. 6.—This was the Aide Kebir, the principal feast of the
Mussulmans during the year, in commemoration of God’s staying the
hand of Abraham in the place Jehovah-jireh, when about to sacrifice
his son Isaac: all who can muster a sheep or a goat kill it on this
day, after prayers. The sheikh sent the day before, to know if we
kept the feast; and when we met, repeated his question. I replied,
that we believed the interposition of the Divine Power in saving
Isaac to be a signal proof of God’s mercy and love to all his
creatures; “for remember,” said I, “he is the God of many,
not of Mussulmans alone; and that our father Abraham’s great and
implicit faith in the existence of that mercy, was what obtained
for him all the blessings God promised him.”
He sent us two very fine sheep, and we killed and feasted with
the rest. Early in the morning, the sheikh, with his sons and
all his court, mounted, according to custom, to welcome the Aid,
by praying outside the town, and firing and skirmishing on their
return: the assembly was not so large as on former occasions,
in consequence of the absence of the chiefs in Kanem; indeed every
thing went off extremely flat, owing to the defeat of the sheikh’s
people. Contrary to custom, no presents were made by him, and no
dresses were distributed to the slaves: instead of the glossy new
tobes which on former occasions shone on the persons of the footmen
who ran by the side of his horse, they were now clothed with torn,
discoloured ones, and every thing wore the appearance of gloom
and disgrace. On these days, the custom is also for the women to
assemble, dressed in all their finery, in the street, before the
doors of their huts, and scream a salutation to the passing chiefs:
it was one of the best parts of the ceremony, but this year it was
omitted. The sheikh, whose unamiable trait was, as I have before
observed, visiting the weaknesses of the female part of his subjects
with too great severity, had, during my absence, given an order
which would have disgraced the most absolute despot that ever sat
on a throne: the gates of his town were kept shut at daylight one
morning, and his emissaries despatched, who bound and brought before
him sixty women who had a bad reputation; five were sentenced to be
hanged in the public market, and four to be flogged; which latter
punishment was inflicted with such severity, that two expired under
the lash. Those who were doomed to death, after being dragged,
with their heads shaved, round the market on a public day, with a
rope round their necks, were then strangled, and thrown, by twos,
into a hole previously prepared, in the most barbarous manner. This
diabolical act, for it deserves no better name, armed all tongues
against him. The Bornouese, who are a humane and forgiving people,
shuddered at so much cruelty: and so much influence had the ladies
in general with their husbands, that more than a hundred families
quitted Kouka, (to which place they were before daily flocking),
to take up their abodes in other towns where this rigour did not
exist. In Kouka, they declared there was no living, where only to
be suspected was sufficient to be doomed to a cruel and ignominious
death; and where malicious spies converted “trifles light as air,
into confirmation strong.” Those who remained, though the women of
his particular attendants, refused flatly to scream him a welcome,
and the procession passed through the streets in silence.
Aug. 7.—I was now on the eve of departing for Kanem, to proceed
by Woodie to the north-east of the lake. Mr. Clapperton had been ill
with sore legs and an attack of dysentery, but was better. Mohammed
Bousgayey, an Arab, who left this place with Doctor Oudney and
Mr. Clapperton, came to my hut: he had gone on from Kano, with four
or five Arabs, to Yeouri and to Nyffé, and had stayed some time at a
place called Gusgey on the Quolla, two days west-south-west nearly,
from Yeouri. The Quolla he described to be here as wide as to the
market outside the walls and back, which must have been nearly two
miles: they were all kaffirs, he said, but not bad people. The sultan
Mahmoud had several hundred guns, and powder, which were brought from
the _bahr kebir_ (great water), and _arrack_ (rum), in plenty; which
was brought in large glass bottles. At eight days distance only from
Yeouri, large boats came to a place called Yearban, but it is not
on the _bahr kebir_. Katungah is the great port, which is at some
distance: to both of these places people he called Americans came;
they were white, and Christians: they always demand gum arabic and
male slaves, for which they will pay as high as sixty and seventy
dollars each. Sultan Mahmoud produced to him two books, which he said
were like mine; and told him, that a man, whose beard was white,
had lived nearly three years with no money; that he wished to go,
but had no means, and that he died. Bousgayey said the sultan had
offered him the book; which he refused, as he did not know what he
could do with it; but that now he was going back, and should bring it.
In the afternoon we went to pay our respects to the sheikh, in
honour of the feast. He received us but coolly: and I was scarcely
seated on the sand, when I saw near me a little shrief from Marocco,
named Hassein, who, though once or twice our friend, I was always in
fear of, being aware both of his cunning and his influence. Almost
the first question of the sheikh’s was, as to the distance of our
country from India: and when told it was four months by sea, he said,
“What could induce you to go so far from home—to find it out, and
fight with the people?” We replied, “that we had plenty of ships,
and were great lovers of discovery; that the French and the Dutch had
been there before us; and we were always jealous of our neighbours
doing more than ourselves.” “And now it is all yours,” said he,
“and governed by your laws!” Our reply was, “that we only kept
possession of the part near the sea—that their own laws were in
full force—but that even Mussulmans often preferred the English
laws to their own.” “Wonderful!” said he, “and you went
at first with only a few ships, as friends?” “We are friends
now,” said I, “and by trade have not only made ourselves rich,
but the natives also.” “By God!” said the Marroquin, “they
eat the whole country—they are no friends: these are the words of
truth.” We had then a few remarks (not good-natured ones) as to the
right of dictating to Algiers and the other Barbary powers. Algiers we
described as unfaithful to their word, and little better than pirates.
[Illustration: Sketch by Major Denham.
Engraved by E. Finden.
LANCERS OF THE SULTAN OF BEGHARMI.
_Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London._]
Aug. 11.—Soon after daylight, Karouash, with Hadgi Mustapha,
the chief of the Shouaas, and the sheikh’s two nephews, Hassein
and Kanemy, came to our huts. Hadgi Mustapha had been one of the
original four hundred who commenced the liberation of Bornou from the
Felatahs. They were attended by more than a dozen slaves, bearing
presents for us, for King George, and the consul at Tripoli. I
had applied for a _lebida_[54], after seeing those taken from the
Begharmis: the sheikh now sent a man, clothed in a yellow wadded
jacket, with a scarlet cap, and mounted on the horse taken from
the Begharmis, on which the sultan’s eldest son rode. He was one
of the finest horses I had seen; and covered with a scarlet cloth,
also wadded. “Every thing,” Hadgi Mustapha said, “except the
man, is to be taken to your great king.” He also brought me twelve
very beautiful tobes, of every manufacture, from Nyffé to Loggun and
Waday, four parrots, and a box of zibet. For the consul he also sent
six tobes, and a small box of zibet, worth thirty or forty dollars,
with two parrots.
August 13.—The long expected kafila arrived from Soudan, which
was a signal for our departure: they had been fifty days on the
road from Kano, in consequence of the waters; and had they been
delayed much longer, the season would have been so far advanced
as to have prevented the departure of all those merchants that had
many slaves: going, as they do, poor creatures, nearly naked, the
cold of Fezzan, in the winter season, kills them by hundreds. With
the Soudan kafila came Khalifa, a Moor and a fighi; he had been at
Saralo, as he called Sierra Leone, and desired to be brought to me,
as he knew English. He certainly knew enough to convince me of his
truth, when he asserted that he had met my countrymen. “Gun, cap,
and water!” he kept continually saying: and my Bornou friends were
not a little surprised when I told them it was the language of my
country. He spoke greatly of some person he called the Doctor[55],
whom he had seen at Bammakoo and Bunjalow, a good looking man, with
a red beard, and long projecting nose, with bad front teeth. He
gave away many things, wrote a great deal, and was much liked by
all the people. Two persons were with the Doctor, whom he believed
were French, and had come from Ender; one was called Gentleman, and
the other Fausta, or Forster; “but they held their heads down, and
did not talk to the people like the Doctor,” said Khalifa. “The
Doctor,” he said, “wanted to go to Sego, but the sultan would
not allow him to come to his country, and would not even look at the
presents he sent him, as he feared they had charms which would kill
him, either by the sight or smell. He, however, sent him slaves, and
horses, which he, the Doctor, also returned, saying that he wanted
nothing but to see the country and the rivers. The sultan of Sego
replied, he had heard that his (the doctor’s) king had water all
round his country, and he might go and look at that. Khalifa said the
Sego people were Kaffirs, and knew not God, therefore were afraid
of Christians; but the Moors knew them, and liked them. When the
present king of Sego’s father was alive, he, Khalifa, then a boy,
remembered Christians going to D’Jennie and Timboctoo, and hearing
that the Tuaricks killed them in their boat near Nyffé[56].”
On Monday, the 20th of the Mohamedan month _del Khadi_, and the
16th of August, we took our final leave of Kouka, and not without
many feelings of regret, so accustomed had we become, particularly
myself, to the people. In the morning I had taken leave of the
sheikh in his garden, when he had given me a letter to the king,
and a list of requests: he was all kindness, and said he had only
one wish, which was that I might find all my friends well, and once
more return to them. He gave me his hand at parting, which excited
an involuntary exclamation of astonishment from the six eunuchs and
Karouash, who were the only persons present.
I preceded the kafila for the following reason: I had, ever since
my return from Tangalia, determined to attempt the east side of
the Tchad, by Lari, previous to returning home. Many had been the
objections, many the reports of danger from the Waday people and
Amanook, who had now boldly forsaken the lake, and was encamped at
no great distance from Barca Gana, to whom he twice paid a night
visit, and had been beaten back. I, however, told the sheikh I could
take no present, or promise to the execution of any commission,
unless this duty was accomplished, or at least until I had done my
utmost, and that I would take care not to go into danger. Bellal,
my old companion, was once more appointed to attend me, and we moved
with two camels, lightly laden; for the more train, always the more
trouble and the more expense. All my friends then in Kouka mounted
to escort me from the town: the women assembled outside the gate,
and screamed an adieu; and I am persuaded our regrets were mutual.
About midnight, while we were all asleep at Dowergoo, a despatch
came to say, that the skin of a camelopard had been brought to Kouka,
which the sheikh had procured for me. Columbus, therefore, returned
to prepare it for preservation, while we moved on to N’Gortooah:
he came up again in the evening, and reported, that though small,
it was a fine specimen. On Wednesday we slept at Kaleeluwha, and
on the 23d came once more on the Yeou, now a considerable stream,
full of water, and running towards the Tchad, at the rate of three
miles an hour[57]. My feelings on seeing this river for a second
time were very different to what they had been when I first looked
on its waters. We then had an escort of two hundred men, and yet
could not feel ourselves in perfect safety one hundred yards from our
tents. Now I had only one attendant—the people about me were all
natives, and I wandered about the banks of the river with perfect
freedom, and slept with my tent door open, in as great security
as I could have done in any part of England, had I been obliged
so to travel. Other feelings also obtruded themselves; I was about
to return home, to see once more dear friends, and a dear country,
after an absence of nearly three years, on a duty full of perils and
difficulties: two out of four of my companions had fallen victims
to climate and disease, while those who remained were suffering,
in no small degree, sickness and debility from the same causes: I
was in health, and notwithstanding the many very trying situations,
in which we had all been placed, some of them of great vexation and
distress, yet had we been eminently successful.
In the afternoon Bellal accompanied me down the river, about nine
miles, where, increasing in width to about one hundred yards, it
flows into the Tchad, with a strong and deep current of water. On its
banks are five considerable villages of Kanemboos, called Ittaquoi,
Belagana, Afaden, Yeougana, and Boso. At Belagana, the sheikh has a
large inclosure of huts, within a wall, where he generally has from
five hundred to eight hundred slaves of both sexes, under the charge
of four eunuchs, who are employed in preparing cotton, and spinning
the linen (_gubbok_), of which the tobes are made.
The manner of fishing in the Yeou, a very considerable source of
commerce to the inhabitants of its banks, must not be omitted: dried
fish from the Yeou is carried to all the towns to the south-west,
quite as far as the hills; and at this season they are usually taken
in great numbers. The Bornouese make very good nets of a twine spun
from a perennial plant called _kalimboa_: the implements for fishing
are ingenious, though simple: two large gourds are nicely balanced,
and then fixed on a large stem of bamboo, at the extreme ends; the
fisherman launches this on the river, and places himself astride
between the gourds, and thus he floats with the stream, and throws
his net. He has also floats of cane, and weights, of small leathern
bags of sand: he beats up against the stream, paddling with his
hands and feet, previous to drawing the net, which, as it rises from
the water, he lays before him as he sits; and with a sort of mace,
which he carries for the purpose, the fish are stunned by a single
blow. His drag finished, the fish are taken out, and thrown into
the gourds, which are open at the top, to receive the produce of his
labour. These wells being filled, he steers for the shore, unloads,
and again returns to the sport.
25th.—At Woodie I met Barca Gana, Ali Gana, and Tirab, with their
forces, on their return from Kanem: they had been out, some of them
five months, had made the complete tour of the lake, and were in a
sad plight, with scarcely thirty horses left, having literally fought
their way: Amanook had twice attacked them, and had sent off all his
flocks and women to Begharmi, but had not gone himself, and they were
so reduced as not to be able to do any thing to prevent him. They were
so badly off for every thing, that they were obliged to come down on
Kanem for supplies: the people refused them any assistance, and after
being half starved, they were obliged to make a running fight of it,
and get home as well as they could. The Kanem people were all in a
state of mutiny, and the Dugganah had gone off towards Waday. This
was sorry news; Bellal wanted to turn back. I saw Barca Gana, who
said, “It is dangerous, but I think you may go on if you wish
it. I would give you eighteen men, but you are better without them:
they expect the sheikh, and going with Bellal, wanting but little,
and paying for that, for the crops have failed them, you will have
little to fear; but you cannot go beyond the Bornou Kanemboos with
less than one hundred men.”
[Illustration: From a Sketch by Major Denham.
Engraved by E. Finden.
MANNER OF FISHING IN THE RIVER YEOU.
_Published June 1826, by John Murray, London._]
With this advice I determined on going on, and after halting the whole
of Sunday, on the 27th I proceeded. Barca Gana had, on his return,
bivouacked in the wadey where once the Bahr-al-Ghazal ran from the
Tchad; the valley is now filled with trees and grass. This was the
fourth time Barca Gana had raised his tents in the same place[58],
as the sheikh had before informed me. This valley runs between
Kangara and N’Gussum, less than twenty miles from Tangalia. We were
overtaken by so dreadful a storm, that we halted, and pitched the
tent on a high sand-hill within five miles of N’Gygami. Near this
hill we had a beautiful view of the open lake, with several floating
islands, when the storm cleared away. The Biddomahs are constantly
landing hereabouts; and we met some poor people who had been robbed
of their whole flock of goats, with their daughter, only the day
before—indeed no single travellers can pass this road. Towards
evening, we saw their canoes in the offing; and below us, in the
low grounds, three Biddomahs making for the lake:—they saw us,
and quickened their pace. For safety we all slept outside the huts
of N’Gygami: this ground is the highest part of the borders of the
lake, and here deep water commences immediately off the shore, while,
in some parts, miles of marsh are to be waded through previous to
arriving at the lake. Tuesday, we made Lari, where we were to find
a Malem fighi, whom the sheikh had ordered to proceed with us.
Aug. 29.—Moved from Lari. Here we found four men, with a chief whom
Barca Gana had left at Kuskoua, returning, as the people would give
them no provisions. It was near sunset when we reached Zogany, thirty
miles; the country was quite a flat, covered with a plant resembling
a heath which I had seen nowhere else; and in many parts I observed
incrustations of trona. This heath is called kanuskin: the camels
eat it; and in the neighbourhood of trona it is generally found.
Aug. 30.—After a night of intolerable misery to us all, from flies
and mosquitoes, so bad as to knock up two of our blacks, we mounted
and advanced; and leaving our tents, for Bellal would not carry them
on, we proceeded to Garouah and Mabah;—which are full of people, and
though annually pillaged by Tuaricks and Tibboo Arabs, yet still they
will not quit their native soil. The character of the country here,
which is different to the south or west sides of the lake, extends to
Gala, where the land is again varied, and a little higher: for many
miles on this side we had one continued marsh and swamp. I was at
the northernmost part of the lake, and pursuing a course first to the
west, and then to the eastward of south, for five or six miles, nearly
up to the body of the horse in water, and with reeds and high grass
overtopping our heads, I at last got a sight of the open lake. We
disturbed hippopotami, buffaloes, enormous fish, and innumerable
hosts of insects. At the commencement of the water it had a taste
of trona, which, as we advanced, became gradually sweeter: indeed,
all the people say, when you ask if this water you drink so strong
of trona is the lake? _La! la! inki kora kora kitchi engobboo tilboo
baco_. (No! no! the water of the great lake is very sweet, no trona).
Completely fatigued, we returned to the village of Chirgoa, near
which our tents were pitched: this was a most distressing day, and
we had been on our horses nearly thirteen hours. Garouah is twelve
miles from Zogany, and Mabah twenty. We were some way in advance of
the latter, but to Kuskoua I could not induce my guide to venture;
and so many proofs had I seen, not only of his bravery, but his
desire to satisfy my curiosity, that I could not doubt his fears
were just. Notwithstanding our fatigue, no rest could we obtain, and
another night was passed in a state of suffering and distress that
defies description: the buzz from the insects was like the singing
of birds; the men and horses groaned with anguish; we absolutely
could not eat our paste and fat, from the agony we experienced in
uncovering our heads. We at last hit upon an expedient that gave us
a little relief: as they came at intervals, in swarms, we thought
they might also be driven off in the same quantities; and we found,
by occasionally lighting a line of fires with wet grass, to windward
of our tents, that the smoke carried off millions, and left us a
little at ease. I do not think our animals could have borne such
another night; their legs and necks were covered with blood, and
they could scarcely stand, from the state of irritation in which
they had been kept for so many hours.
On Friday we returned to Lari by the lower road, where there are
frequent large detached pieces of water, strongly impregnated with
trona. On the road, to-day, we fell in with a tribe of the Biddomah,
who had, during the last three months, taken up their abode on the
sheikh’s land, and asked for what was instantly granted them,
permission to remain. Internal wars cause these fallings off of
one tribe from another, which the sheikh encourages: only one of
their chiefs could ever be induced to proceed so far as Kouka. The
sheikh takes no notice, and suffers them to do as they please: he
sent them tobes, and a fighi, and desired they would learn to pray:
and they are now beginning, as my guide said, to have the fear of
God. They were the most savage beings I had seen in the shape of men,
except the Musgowy; and we had sat some time under a tree before they
would come near us. The men, until they are married, wear their hair,
and collect as many beads and ornaments as they can, which they wear
round their necks; their hair is long and plaited, or twisted in
knots; they have ear-rings also: and this collection of beads and
metal is always given to the wife on their marriage. The upper part
of the face is very flat, and the eye sunk; they have large mouths,
and long necks; a sulky, reserved look about them, any thing but
agreeable: they have no style of salutation like other negroes, who
greet strangers over and over again, sitting down by them:—these
stand up, leaning on a spear, and look steadfastly at you without
speaking. I gave a little boy some white beads, which were directly
tied round his neck, I suppose as the commencement of his marriage
portion. They, however, at length, produced some sour milk; and some
of them came round my horse when I mounted, and nodded their heads
at me when I rode off, which I returned, much to their amusement.
When we arrived at Lari, which was comparatively free from flies, the
horses lay down, and, stretching themselves out, fell asleep in a way,
and with an expression of enjoyment, I never saw animals do before,
and did not look for their nose-bags until after midnight. We here
found that one of Barca Gana’s people had the night before lost his
horse, which had been stolen by the Biddomahs we saw on the look out.
Kanem, the most persecuted and unfortunate of negro countries, was
daily becoming more miserable; they were pillaged alternately by the
Fezzaneers, the Tuaricks, and the Waday people. Between the latter
and the sheikh they hung for protection, and from neither could
they obtain what they sought: the country was becoming abandoned,
and the villages deserted, part taking refuge in Waday, and part in
the sheikh’s dominions: the land communication between Bornou and
Kanem was too difficult and distant, either by the south or north,
for the sheikh to render them any effectual support. An army almost
every year went to Kanem for this purpose, but they usually returned
with the loss of horses, camels, and men, and were seldom able much
to annoy their enemies, the Wadays. This year his expedition had
been upon a larger scale, and his losses were greater than on any
former occasion.
In consequence of the waters, which fill the rivers at this season,
the ford across the Shary had become impassable, and they were
therefore obliged to return home through Kanem. Not the least
assistance would any of the towns give them, except Gala, and a
more wretched state I never saw men in: some of the chiefs on foot,
without horses; and those who were mounted, bestriding sorry animals,
with torn appointments: they all said, fighting without the sheikh
was useless, as he alone could lead them to victory.
[Illustration: Drawn by Major Denham.
Engraved by E. Finden.
ENCAMPMENT NEAR WOODIE.
AND PART OF THE LAKE TCHAD.
_Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London._]
Sept. 3.—I had now been six days at Woodie, waiting the arrival
of my companions with our camels, and the kafila of merchants whom
we were to accompany to Fezzan. Woodie is no very pleasant place
of sojourn, as the Biddomah have a sort of agreement with the kaid
to be allowed to plunder all strangers and travellers, provided the
property of the inhabitants is respected. We were, however, told to
be on our guard, and not without reason. Our tents were pitched near
each other, and a look-out kept up the whole night, notwithstanding
which they paid us a visit, during a storm of thunder and rain, and
from the entrance of Bellal’s tent, only eight paces from my own,
stole both his horses. Although six or seven negroes were sleeping
quite close to them, they got completely off, and had an hour’s
start before even the loss was discovered. Bellal pursued them, with
about a dozen people, quite to the lake, tracing their footsteps in
the sand, which was not difficult after the rain; but finding here
that they had embarked, the pursuit was given up.
At length, however, on Tuesday the 14th, we had assembled our kafila,
and we moved on towards the desert: on the 22d of September, in the
afternoon, we halted half way to the well of Beere Kashifery.
Sept. 23.—We made the well soon after mid-day; and fortunately
for us we brought some water with us, for the power of our friend
Mina Tahr here began to appear. This well was guarded, and we were
told, that until the sheikh Mina appeared, not a drop was to be
drawn. It required some exertion of patience and forbearance, in a
sultry oppressive day, with the thermometer at 110° in the tent,
to be obliged to drink muddy water from goat skins, when a well of
the best water between Kouka and Bilma was under our feet: but we
were inured to hardships and contradictions, and submitted, I hope,
like good Christians. Towards evening the Tahr appeared on the hills
to the north-west, attended by his troop: he seemed vastly glad to
see us; said “the well was ours—that our water-skins should
be filled, and camels watered, before any body, and for nothing;
and then,” said he, “sultan George the Great must be obliged
to Mina Tahr, the wandering chief of Gunda, and that will give more
pleasure to Tahr’s heart than payment: and who knows,” said he,
“but when sultan George hears this, he may send me a sword?”
Sept. 24.—In consequence of the number of camels to be watered,
and the large flocks of the Tibboo, it was not until the evening
that our animals could drink; and even then we were almost obliged to
take possession of the well by force. Our old Maraboot was struck by
a spear, as well as our servants; and it was not until after I had
mounted a horse and repaired to the well myself, accompanied by the
Tahr, that we could complete this most important business of the day.
In the evening Tahr came for his present. I gave him a tobe from
Soudan, a red cap, and a turkodie: the tobes and cap he looked at,
and said, “Ah! this is very well for me; I am one, but my wives
are three:—what shall I do with one turkodie?” Tahr now began a
speech: he was greatly distressed that he had nothing to send sultan
George. “By the head of Mustapha!” said he, “I consider him as
much my master as the bashaw;—ay and more—for you say he sent you
to see me, which is more than the bashaw ever did. I can send him a
tiger-skin, and I will write him a letter—for Tahr’s enemies are
never quiet, and he has no time to kill ostriches now. The well Beere
Kashifery, whose waters are here like gold, and better than gold,
and all that Kashella Tahr and the Gunda Tibboos have to give, shall
always be, as long as he or his children govern, at the service of
sultan George Inglesi.” He now asked for water, and began washing
the ink from a paper which had previously been ornamented with a
charm, drinking the dirty water, and rubbing it over his head and
neck: when this was finished, he laid the paper in the sun; and I
was a little amused when I found, that it was on this dirty scrap
that he intended writing to king George.
Sept. 25.—In the afternoon of this day we left Beere Kashifery,
taking a very hearty leave of Tahr. In order to save my camels, who
had seventeen skins of water to carry in addition to their loads,
as we were to be four days on our road to Aghadem, I hired a maherhy
to carry two heavy boxes to Bilma, for seven dollars. The moon,
which was in its first quarter, assisted us after sunset, but we
were obliged to move on for at least two hours after she had sunk
quietly to rest. We halted for a few hours, at a spot called Geogo
Balwy (honey spot), and a little after midnight proceeded on our
dreary way. There was great difference of opinion as to our route,
which, probably, by following our own back bearings, we might have
found better ourselves: but we were not yet quite so bold in the
desert as on the main; and I insisted on the Mina Hamedee, the
guide whom the sheikh had given us, being allowed his own way, and
my confidence was not misplaced. By daylight on Sunday we discovered
the foot-marks of the camels and slaves of Hadge-Boo-Said, a Fezzan
merchant, who had absolutely been in the right track, but had turned
back, and gone southerly. Numbers now exclaimed that we were wrong:
there appeared, however, no sort of timidity about our guide; he
looked confident, and bore the abuse that was levelled at him on
all sides, with great coolness: and there was a sort of conscious
ability about him that determined me to rely completely on _his_
judgment alone. No man is ever afraid of doing what he knows he can
do well; and in most cases a sense of power gives confidence: so
it proved with my Tibboo. We continued travelling another night and
day in these most dreary wastes, with nothing but the wide expanse
of sand and sky to gaze upon.
On Monday the 27th of September, a little before noon, we observed
something in the distance, which had the appearance of a body of
men moving towards us; but from the effect of the mirage assuming
different shapes, and sometimes appearing twelve or fifteen feet
above the surface of the desert, the Arabs declared it to be a
Tuarick party on the forage, and all our followers loaded and
prepared for action. On their approach, however, we found to our
great joy that it was a kafila from Fezzan: they had been as much
alarmed at us as we at them, and were all formed, in front of their
camels several hundred yards, in extended order, as the Arabs always
fight: they gave us some Fezzan dates, which were a great luxury;
and some of the traders who were short of water exchanged a jar of
butter, worth at least two dollars, for every full skin they could so
purchase. They told us the road was perfectly safe, although their
fears of falling in with the Tuaricks had detained them seventy-two
days on the journey from Mourzuk.
It is scarcely possible to convey an idea of the sensations of all
parties on a meeting of this nature on the desert. The Arabs were
equally alive to these feelings as ourselves; and, in their usual
wild expressive manner, sang, for days after such a rencontre,
ballads descriptive of the event[59].
We halted at noon, at a place called Gassooma-foma. In the afternoon
we moved again; and the guides told me that the road was so difficult
that, until the moon fell, we should make the best of our way,
and then rest. On these occasions we pitched no tents, but laid
the boxes together; and, either with a little boiled kouskosou,
or still oftener without, soon forgot our fatigues in sleep. When
we saw the black ridge that extends along the wadey of Aghadem,
the negroes, female slaves, and followers, set up screams of joy,
and began dancing and singing with all their might. It was almost
noon when we got to the well, and several slaves, belonging to an
old Shouaa who was going to Hage, were speechless from want of water;
yet they ran several miles to reach the well, like things distracted,
with their mouths open, and eyes starting from their heads.
On the 2d of October we left Aghadem, and by the help of a blessed
moon we were enabled to travel until near midnight, without losing
our way. A very sharp storm of wind from the east obliged us to halt;
and we had scarcely time to shelter ourselves with the skins and
boxes, before it came on with most disagreeable force: this detained
us until daylight, when we rose from between the hillocks of sand
that had formed on each side of us in the night.
We had the satisfaction throughout our journey to find, that, young as
we were at desert travelling, yet we got on as well, if not better,
than our companions; and though children of the soil, they always
looked to us, instead of us to them, both for safety and protection,
as well as for the direction of the route. It was noon on Thursday
the 7th, when we made Zow, an oasis situated under some high black
sandstone hills, where there is good water and _ahgul_ in abundance
for the camels, who had scarcely broken their fast since leaving
Dibla. Zow is most appropriately named “difficult,” from the road
which leads to it—a frightful sandy waste of moveable sand hills,
exceeding fifty miles. Some little girls, and children of the kafila,
panting with thirst, augmented by fever and illness, were scarcely
able to creep along the deep sand: the whip shaken over the head urged
them on—for in justice it must be said, the Arabs use it but rarely
in any other way—and not to urge them on would be still more cruel,
for the resolution and courage of these poor things would never carry
them through; they would lie down, and if sleep once overcame them,
so as to be left behind, death would be inevitable.
Oct. 11.—We arrived at Bilma. Without the supply of dates, which are
procured here, kafilas would often suffer extreme hunger, so scarce
are provisions, and so difficult is the transport: all followers from
hence agree to have one meal per day of dates, and one of flour and
fat; while, previous to arriving at Bilma, they are obliged to have
two of flour and fat. Slaves of poor merchants will for twenty days
together be fed by a handful of dates, night and morning, and they
generally thrive well on this nourishing food.
Oct. 15.—We laid in a stock of dates for the next fourteen days,
and man and beast were nearly subsisted upon them: a camel-load is
worth from four to five dollars; they will, however, take camels’
flesh eagerly instead of money, or Soudan goods at one hundred per
cent. profit. Our tents were surrounded by daylight with women and
men; the former to sell us their commodities, and the latter to
look on.
Oct. 17.—We had another day of rest, and were pretty tranquil. The
women came in throngs to our tents, and were willing to sell us corn
and dates, for either dollars or Soudan tobes, at one hundred and
fifty per cent. profit: two lean goats they asked me four dollars
for; and for a sheep, six. A great deal of bustle was made about the
settlement of the dispute with the Mesurata Arabs, and the Tibboo:
“The Book” was to be referred to, but Hadge Mohammed Abedeen,
the brother of the kadi at Mourzuk, would not open the leaves until
the relations of the deceased swore to rest satisfied with his
decision. This preliminary being arranged on Monday morning, the
parties all assembled: the kadi, Hadge Ben Hamet, and Ben Taleb,
the chief merchants of our kafila, were present: they found,
by the Koran, that if any man lifts his hand higher than his
shoulder, in a menacing attitude, though he should not be armed,
the adversary is not to wait the falling of the blow, but may strike
even to death. The law was, of course, in favour of the Arab, as he
proved the Tibboo’s having his hand, armed with a spear, raised
above his head, when he shot him dead. On this being declared, the
Arabs ran about, throwing their guns over their heads, shouting and,
what we should call crowing, to such a degree, that I fully expected
the Tibboos would be aggravated to renew hostilities.
Oct. 25.—From hence we were to proceed by a different route to
that by which we went to Bornou: crossing, therefore, another part
of the range, we moved until night, and halted in what appeared to
us a beautiful oasis, under a ridge of dark sand hills. This spot of
dingy fertility extended several miles to the west, and afforded us
water, grass, and wood, for that and the two following days, which
were to be passed in deserts. A few miserable inhabitants had fixed
themselves here, for the sake of a small crop of dates, yielded by
a few palms: they were all anxious to exchange the produce of their
valley for a blue or a white shirt of the coarsest kind,—a luxury
they were the more in want of from possessing no other clothing. This
is by far the best road; soft sand gravel, instead of rough broken
stones; and the kafilas prefer it on account of the wells. The oasis
is called Seggedem. From hence, eight days’ distance, is a Tibboo
town, and by this road kafilas sometimes pass to Ghraat.
Oct. 26.—We left Seggedem after a blowing night, which either
overset the tents, or buried them several feet in the sand. Towards
evening we rested, and starting again at daylight, made the wells
of Izhya by noon next day.
From El Wahr to Meshroo are three very fatiguing days without water,
or a single vestige of verdure. We were not able to reach the well,
and halted short of the Beeban el Meshroo, the pass leading to the
well, nearly four miles. On Sunday, the 8th of November, we arrived
at the well,—watered our weary camels, and our more weary men,
and again pursued our route until night, when we pitched westward
of the well of Omhah; and after one more dreary day, at night
(Nov. 9th) we slept under the palm trees which surround Tegerhy,
the most miserable inhabited spot in Fezzan, nay, in the world,
I might almost say, and yet we hailed it with inexpressible joy,
after the pitiless deserts we had passed.
The fatigue and difficulty of a journey to Bornou is not to
be compared with a return to Fezzan: the nine days from Izhya
to Tegerhy, without either forage or wood, is distressing beyond
description, to both camels and men, at the end of such a journey
as this. The camels, already worn out by the heavy sand-hills,
have the stony desert to pass; the sharp points bruise their feet,
and they totter, and fall under their heavy loads: the people, too,
suffer severely from the scanty portion of provisions, mostly dates,
that can be brought on by these tired animals,—and altogether it is
nine days of great distress and difficulty. There is something about
El Wahr surpassing dreariness itself: the rocks are dark sandstone,
of the most gloomy and barren appearance; the wind whistles through
the narrow fissures, which disdain to afford nourishment even to a
single blade of wild grass; and as the traveller creeps under the
lowering crags, to take shelter for the night, stumbling at each
step over the skeleton of some starved human being, and searching
for level spots on the hard rock, on which to lay his wearied body,
he may fancy himself wandering in the wilds of desolation and despair.
On the day of our making El Wahr, and the two following days, camels
in numbers dropped and died, or were quickly killed, and the meat
brought on by the hungry slaves. Kafilas are obliged to rely on the
chance of Tibboos and Arabs from Mourzuk hearing of their having
passed the desert, and bringing them supplies; should these fail,
many poor creatures must fall a sacrifice for the salvation of the
rest. These bringers of supplies usually sell their dates and corn
to eager buyers, at about four times the price they could obtain
for them in Fezzan; besides which, the merchants gladly hire their
unburthened camels to quicken their passage to a better country.
A Tibboo trader, who was returning to his own country from Fezzan,
gave me a gratifying proof of the confidence he was willing to place
in the word of an Englishman. It was nearly night, and I was in
front of the camels: he had dates to sell, and mine were expended,
but I told him that my money was in my trunk, and that my camels
were too tired for me to unload them: “God bless you!” said he,
“why, I wish you would buy all I have, camels and all: I know
who the English are! Are they not almost Mislem, and people of one
word? Measure the dates, and go on:—pay the kaid at Mourzuk.”
We here voraciously bought up a few bad onions, to give a little
flavour to our insipid meal of flour and water; and soon after, the
kaid brought me a sheep, the only one in the town, which we cut up
and divided, so that we had a sumptuous meal about nine o’clock
in the evening.
On Sunday the 14th of November, by easy journeys we reached Gatrone,
which, before so miserable in our eyes, now really seemed a little
Paradise; and the food which the old hadge who governs there sent us,
of the same kind we before thought so unpalatable on our outward
voyage, now seemed delicious. I literally got up at daylight to
feast on a mess of hot broth and fresh bread, most highly peppered,
and made as good a meal as ever I did in my life.
At Gatrone, as well as at Tegerhy, our tents were pitched in a palm
grove, the trees shading us during the day from the sun-beams, and
at night from the easterly winds: the gentle moaning of the breeze
through its slowly-waving branches was to us a most pleasing novelty;
and the noble, nutritious, and productive palm, seemed in our eyes
fully to merit the beautiful lines of Abulfeda:
“The stately date, whose pliant head, crowned with pendent clusters,
languidly reclines like that of a beautiful woman overcome with
sleep.”—_Abulfeda Descr. Egypt, a Michaelis_, p. 6.
To do them justice, the Fezzan people seemed as glad we were come
back, as we were ourselves. “To go and come back from the black
country! Oh, wonderful!—you English have large hearts!—God bless
you!—the poor doctor to die too, so far from home!—Health to
your head! it was written he was to die, and you to come back.—God
is great!—and the young Rais Ali too! (Mr. Toole)—Ah! that was
written also:—but he was a nice man—so sweet spoken. Now you are
going home: well, good fortune attend you! How all your friends will
come out to meet you with fine clothes—and how much gunpowder they
will fire away!”
At the mosque of Sidi Bouchier the usual prayer was offered for
our safe arrival in our own country; and on the 21st of November,
Sunday, we made our entry into Mourzuk, and took possession of our
old habitation.
Nov. 21.—All welcomed our return: we had bowls of _bazeen_ and
_kouskosou_ night and morning, and visitors from daylight until
long after sunset, notwithstanding we had no tea, coffee, or sugar,
to regale them with, as on our former residence amongst them. The new
sultan, Sidi Hassein, who succeeded Mustapha, had only arrived the day
before us; and as he had entered in mourning on account of the death
of the bashaw’s wife, the Lilla Gibellia[60], no rejoicings were
allowed on the occasion: he however sent us two fat sheep, a large pot
of olives, and two sacks of wheat; we had therefore a little rejoicing
of our own. The two Lizaris, Mohammed and Yusuf, Captain Lyon’s
friends, were amongst the foremost to pay us attention, as well as
old Hadge Mahmoud, who exclaimed continually, “Thank God, you are
come back!—who would have thought it!—how great and good God is,
to protect such kaffirs as you are! Well! well! notwithstanding all
this, I love you all, though I believe it is _haram_ (sin).”
Though many degrees nearer our own fair and blue-eyed beauties
in complexion, when moderately cleansed and washed, yet no people
ever lost more by comparison than did the white ladies of Mourzuk,
with the black ones of Bornou and Soudan. That the latter were
“black, devilish black,” there is no denying; but their beautiful
forms, expressive eyes, pearly teeth, and excessive cleanliness,
rendered them far more pleasing than the dirty half-casts we were
now amongst. A single blue wrapper (though scarcely covering) gave
full liberty to their straight and well-grown limbs, not a little
strengthened, perhaps, by four or five daily immersions in cold
water; while the ladies of Mourzuk, wrapped in a woollen blanket,
with an under one of the same texture, seldom changed night or day,
until it drops off, or that they may be washed for their wedding;
hair clotted, and besmeared with sand, brown powder of cloves, and
other drugs, in order to give them the popular smell; their silver
ear-rings, and coral ornaments, all blackened by the perspiration
flowing from their anointed locks, are really such a bundle of filth,
that it is not without alarm that you see them approach towards you,
or disturb their garments in your apartments.
The bashaw was said to have had an engagement with the Arabs, who were
in rebellion against him, and to have defeated them; after which they
had fled all to the Gibel, which had been long the rendezvous of the
disaffected; we therefore determined on our immediate departure,
after having sold the six remaining camels, out of twenty-four,
which I had brought with me from Kouka, for twenty-one dollars—sore
backed miserables that they were! The Maherhies, though handsomer
and more fleet, do not bear fatigue like the Salamy or Tripoli camels.
On the 12th of December we were ready for our departure, and on
the 13th we took our leave, the sultan having given us an order,
or teskera, on all the towns of Fezzan, for every thing we might
stand in need of. The cold of Mourzuk had pinched us all terribly;
and notwithstanding we used an additional blanket, both day and night,
one of us had colds, and swelled necks, another ague, and a third,
pains in the limbs—all, I believe, principally from the chillness
of the air; yet the thermometer, at sunrise, was not lower than 42°
and 43°.
On the 18th we reached Sebha, and found our old friend, sheikh
Abdallah-ben-Shibel, whose hospitality we had before experienced;
with abundance of kouskousou and meat, with highly peppered broth,
prepared for us. The daughter of my friend Abdallah, who was now
married, and a mother, and to whom I had two years before given a
very simple medicine but once, which she was convinced had cured her
of the jaundice, sent me two very pretty straw fans for the flies;
they were made of the date leaf, in diamonds, coloured red, black,
and yellow; the red is produced by _foor_, or madder root; the yellow
with dried onion leaves, steeped in water; and the black by _nil_,
or indigo.
At Sebha, Timinhint, and Zeghren, we were fed with the best produce
of their _cuisine_. Omul Hena, by whom I was so much smitten on
my first visit to this place, was now, after a disappointment by
the death of her betrothed, with whom she had read the fatah just
before my last visit, only a wife of three days old. The best dish,
however, out of twenty which the town furnished, came from her; it was
brought separately, inclosed in a new basket of date leaves, which
I was desired to keep; and her old slave who brought it inquired,
“Whether I did not mean to go to her father’s house, and _salaam_,
salute, her mother?” I replied, “Certainly;” and just after dark
the same slave came to accompany me. We found the old lady sitting
over a handful of fire, with eyes still more sore, and person still
more neglected, than when I last saw her. She however hugged me most
cordially, for there was nobody present but ourselves: the fire was
blown up, and a bright flame produced, over which we sat down, while
she kept saying, or rather singing, “_Ash harlek? Ash ya barick-che
fennick?_”—“How are you? How do you find yourself? How is it
with you?” in the patois of the country, first saying something
in _Ertana_, which I did not understand, to the old slave; and I was
just regretting that I should go away without seeing Omul-hena, while
a sort of smile rested on the pallid features of my hostess, when in
rushed the subject of our conversation. I scarcely knew her at first,
by the dim light of the palm wood fire; she however threw off her
mantle, and, kissing my shoulder (an Arab mode of salutation), shook
my hand, while large tears rolled down her fine features. She said
“she was determined to see me, although her father had refused.”
The mother, it seems, had determined on gratifying her.
Omul-hena was now seventeen: she was handsomer than any thing I had
seen in Fezzan, and had on all her wedding ornaments: indeed, I should
have been a good deal agitated at her apparent great regard, had she
not almost instantly exclaimed, “Well! you must make haste; give
me what you have brought me! You know I am a woman now, and you must
give me something a great deal richer than you did before: besides, I
am Sidi Gunana’s son’s wife, who is a great man; and when he asks
me what the Christian gave me, let me be able to show him something
very handsome.” “What!” said I, “does Sidi Gunana know then
of your coming?” “To be sure,” said Omul-hena, “and sent
me: his father is a Maraboot, and told him you English were people
with great hearts and plenty of money, so I might come.” “Well,
then,” said I, “if that is the case, you can be in no hurry.”
She did not think so; and my little present was no sooner given, than
she hurried away, _saying_ she would return directly, but not keeping
her word. Well done, simplicity! thought I: well done unsophisticated
nature! no town-bred coquette could have played her part better.
After a day’s halt, on the 22d we moved to Omhul Abeed, distant
only a few miles, where water and wood are collected for the desert
between that place and Sockna, which usually, at this season, when
the days are short and nights cold, occupies five or six days.
Dec. 25.—On our fourth Christmas day in Africa, we came in the
evening to Temesheen, where, after the rains, a slight sprinkling
of wormwood, and a few other wild plants were to be seen, known only
to the Arabs, and which is all the produce that the most refreshing
showers can draw from this unproductive soil. We had here determined
on having our Christmas dinner, and we slaughtered a sheep we had
brought with us, for the purpose; but night came on, before we could
get up the tents, with a bleak north-wester; and as the day had
been a long and fatiguing one, our people were too tired to kill and
prepare the feast. My companions, however, were both something better:
Hillman had had no ague for two days; and we assembled in my tent,
shut up the door, and with, I trust, grateful and hopeful hearts,
toasted in brandy punch our dear friends at home, who we consoled
ourselves with the idea, were, comparatively, almost within hail.
The next day, before we had loaded our camels, a pelting rain came
on, with a beating cold wind from the north-west, which pinched
us severely; however, we started; but scarcely had we entered the
wadey, at the approach to which we had passed the night, than the
slaves kindled fires under the trees, round which, indeed, we all
took shelter: they, however, poor creatures, complained bitterly;
and as the camels had not eaten any thing for three days previous,
we determined on suffering them to enjoy such pasturage as the wadey
afforded, while we slaughtered our sheep, and kept the feast.
Every thing was so cold and damp, that the poor slaves, who
accompanied our kafila, half-clothed as they were, crowded round
the fires in preference to sleeping: they were, however, always gay
and lively on the march, when the warm sun and exercise had given
a little circulation to their blood; the Arabs, to do them justice,
fed them to their hearts’ content, and, even to this, we usually
added something.
Arrived at Sockna, I was lodged in the house of Hadge Mohammed
Boofarce, a place with four whitewashed walls and date beams; but
by the help of a brass pan, and a hole in the ground, I managed to
keep a pretty good fire, without much smoke. I had neither host nor
hostess. The house was in the charge of one Begharmi slave, who had
been twenty-four years in bondage: he was pleased greatly when he
found that I had been near his home, and the names of some of the
towns made him clap his hands with pleasure; but when I asked him
whether he should like to return, he had sense enough to answer,
“No! no! I am better where I am. I have no home now but this;
and what will my master’s children do without me? He is dead;
and his son is dead: and who will take care of the garden for his
wives and daughters, if Moussa goes?—No! he is a slave still,
and so much the better for him; his country is far off, and full
of enemies. Here he has a house, and plenty to eat, thank God! and
two months ago they gave him a wife, and kept his wedding for eight
days.” The siriah of a Sockna merchant, who had gone to Soudan,
leaving her pregnant, had, by becoming a mother, gained her freedom,
and taking Moussa for a husband, they were put in charge of his
mistress’s unoccupied house for a residence.
Jan. 5.—We left Sockna, passed El Hammam on the 6th, slept in
Wadey Orfilly, and on the morning after, Mr. Clapperton and myself
separated, as I wished to return by Ghirza, while he was rather
desirous of keeping the old road by Bonjem. A continuation of wadeys
furnished us at this time of the year with food for camels and horses;
and, close under low hills of magnesian limestone, at Jernaam,
we filled our water-skins for five days’ march.
[Illustration: From a Sketch by Major Denham.
Engraved by E. Finden.
GHIRZA.
SOUTH FACE OF BUILDING. No. 1.
_Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London._]
[Illustration: From a Sketch by Major Denham.
Etched by E. Finden.
GHIRZA.
FRIEZE ON THE WEST, EAST, & SOUTH FACES OF THE BUILDING. No. 1.
_Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London._]
Jan. 11.—A cold morning, with the thermometer at 42°, delayed
us till nine o’clock before we could make a start. We passed two
wadeys before coming to that where we were to halt: near one of these,
called Gidud, were heaps of stones, denoting the resting-place of
two Arabs, who had died in a skirmish, about two months before,
and some characters, which to me were hieroglyphics, were marked
out distinctly in the gravel near their graves; and upon inquiry,
I found they told the tale of death, and the tribes to which they
belonged. At sunset we halted at Bidud.
Nothing particular, till our arrival at Ghirza on the 13th. We
found here the remains of some buildings, said to be Roman, situated
about three miles west-south-west of the well, and which appeared
to me extremely interesting: there must have been several towns,
or probably one large city, which extended over some miles of
country, and the remains of four large buildings, which appear to
have been monuments or mausoleums, though two of them are nearly
razed to the earth. Those which I thought interesting and capable of
representation, I sketched: the architecture was rude, though various:
capitals, shafts, cornices, and entablatures, lay scattered about;
some of curious, if not admirable, workmanship.
[Illustration: No. 1.]
[Illustration: No. 2.]
[Illustration: No. 3.]
[Illustration: No. 4.]
The inscription[61], No. 1, was on a tablet fixed on the east face
of the building, of which the elevation gives the south side. The
entrance to all the buildings was from the east, and by fourteen steps
to the base of the upper range of pillars, now totally destroyed. The
other inscriptions were found on the loose fragments which lay
scattered around.
Jan. 17.—Moved along Shidaf, a beautiful wadey, extending ten miles
between limestone rocky hills, through which we passed. After this
we came to Hanafs, and halted fifteen miles to the east, where we
found some other ruins, of a character similar to those of Ghirza:
two inscriptions were perceivable, but perfectly unintelligible,
and obscured by time.
On the 20th we once more saw Benioleed, and on the 24th, passed
Melghra, and the plain of Tinsowa. Melghra was the place where we
had taken leave of Mr. Carstensen, the late Danish consul-general
at Tripoli, and many of our friends, who accompanied us thus far
on our departure for the interior; and our return to the same spot
was attended by the most pleasing recollections. Our friend, the
English consul, we also expected would have given us the meeting, as
he had despatched an Arab, who had encountered us the night before,
with the information that he was about to leave Tripoli a second
time to welcome our arrival.
On the day after, we reached a well, within ten miles of Tripoli;
and previous to arriving there, were met by two chaoushes of the
bashaw, with one of the consul’s servants: we found the consul’s
tents, but he had been obliged to return on business to the city;
and the satisfaction with which we devoured some anchovy toasts,
and washed them down with huge draughts of Marsala wine, in glass
tumblers—luxuries we had so long indeed been strangers to—was
quite indescribable. We slept soundly after our feast, and on the
26th of January, a few miles from our resting-place, were met by the
consul and his eldest son, whose satisfaction at our safe return
seemed equal to our own. We entered Tripoli the same day, where a
house had been provided for us. The consul sent out sheep, bread, and
fruit, to treat all our fellow-travellers; and cooking, and eating,
and singing, and feasting, were kept up by both slaves and Arabs,
until morning revealed to their happy eyes, and well filled bellies,
the “roseate east,” as a poet would say.
We had now no other duties to perform, except the providing for our
embarkation, with all our live animals, birds, and other specimens of
natural history, and settling with our faithful native attendants,
some of whom had left Tripoli with us, and returned in our service:
they had strong claims on our liberality, and had served us with
astonishing fidelity in many situations of great peril; and if either
here or in any foregoing part of this journal it may be thought that
I have spoken too favourably of the natives we were thrown amongst,
I can only answer, that I have described them as I found them,
hospitable, kind-hearted, honest, and liberal: to the latest hour
of my life I shall remember them with affectionate regard; and many
are the untutored children of nature in central Africa, who possess
feelings and principles that would do honour to the most civilized
Christian. A determination to be pleased, if possible, is the wisest
preparatory resolution that a traveller can make on quitting his
native shores, and the closer he adheres to it the better: few are
the situations from which some consolation cannot be derived with
this determination; and savage, indeed, must be that race of human
beings from whom amusement, if not interesting information, cannot
be collected.
Our long absence from civilized society appeared to have an effect
on our manner of speaking, of which, though we were unconscious
ourselves, occasioned the remarks of our friends: even in common
conversation, our tone was so loud as almost to alarm those we
addressed; and it was some weeks before we could moderate our voices
so as to bring them in harmony with the confined space in which we
were now exercising them.
Having made arrangements with the Captain of an Imperial brig,
which we found in the harbour of Tripoli, to convey us to Leghorn,
I applied, through the consul-general, to the bashaw for his seal
to the freedom of a Mandara boy, whose liberation from slavery
I had paid for some months before: the only legal way in which a
Christian can give freedom to a slave in a Mohammedan country. The
bashaw immediately complied with my request[62]; and, on Colonel
Warrington’s suggesting that the boy was anxious to accompany
me to England, he replied, with great good humour, “Let him go,
then; the English can do no wrong.” Indeed, on every occasion,
this prince endeavoured to convince us how rejoiced he was at our
success and safe return. He desired Colonel Warrington to give him
a fête, which request our hospitable and liberal consul complied
with, to the great satisfaction of the bashaw. The streets, leading
from the castle to the consulate, were illuminated, and arched over
with the branches of orange and lemon trees, thick with fruit. The
bashaw arrived at nine in the evening, accompanied by the whole of his
court in their splendid full dresses, and, seated on a sort of throne,
erected for him, under a canopy, gazed on the quadrilles and waltzes,
danced by the families of the European consuls, who were invited to
meet him, with the greatest pleasure. He took the English and the
Spanish consul-generals’ wives into the supper-room, with great
affability: and calling Captain Clapperton and myself towards him,
assured us he welcomed our return as heartily as our own king and
master in England could do. No act of the bashaw’s could show
greater confidence in the English, or more publicly demonstrate his
regard and friendship, than a visit of this nature.
Very shortly after this fête we embarked for Leghorn, and after
experiencing heavy and successive gales, from the north-west, which
obliged us to put into Elba, we arrived in twenty-eight days. Our
quarantine, though twenty-five days, quickly passed over. The miseries
of the Lazaretto were sadly complained of by our imprisoned brethren;
but the luxury of a house over our heads, refreshing Tuscan breezes,
and what appeared to us the perfect cookery of the little _taverna_,
attached to the Lazaretto, not to mention the bed, out of which
for two days we could scarcely persuade ourselves to stir, made
the time pass quickly and happily. On the 1st of May we arrived at
Florence, where we received the kindest attention and assistance
from Lord Burghersh. Our animals and baggage we had sent home by
sea, from Leghorn, in charge of William Hillman, our only surviving
companion. Captain Clapperton and myself crossed the Alps, and on
the 1st of June following, we reported our arrival in England to
Earl Bathurst, under whose auspices the mission had been sent out.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 48: Slaves worthy of being admitted into the seraglio.]
[Footnote 49: The best information I had ever procured of the road
eastward was from an old hadgi, named El Raschid, a native of the
city of Medina: he had been at Waday and at Sennaar, at different
periods of his life; and, amongst other things, described to me a
people east of Waday, whose greatest luxury was feeding on raw meat,
cut from the animal while warm, and full of blood: he had twice made
the attempt at getting home, but was each time robbed of every thing;
yet, strange to say, he was the only person I could find who was
willing to attempt it again.]
[Footnote 50: Sidi Barca, a holy man, was killed by the Biddomahs
at the mouth of this river; and from that moment the Bahr-el-Ghazal
began to dry, and the water ceased to flow. A Borgoo Tibboo told us
at Mourzuk, that the Bahr-el-Ghazal came originally from the south,
and received the waters of the Tchad; but that now it was completely
dried up, and bones of immense fish were constantly found in the dry
bed of the lake. His grandfather told him that the Bahr-el-Ghazal
was once a day’s journey broad.]
[Footnote 51: Dowera is the plural of dower, a circle.]
[Footnote 52: There is a prevailing report amongst the Shouaas that
from a mountain, south-east of Waday, called Tama, issues a stream,
which flows near Darfoor, and forms the Bahr el Abiad; and that
this water is the lake Tchad, which is driven by the eddies and
whirlpools of the centre of the lake into subterranean passages;
and after a course of many miles under ground, its progress being
arrested by rocks of granite, it rises between two hills, and pursues
its way eastward.]
[Footnote 53: During the whole of this time both ourselves and
our animals drank the lake water, which is sweet, and extremely
palatable.]
[Footnote 54: Horse covering.]
[Footnote 55: This was, no doubt, Doctor Docherd, sent by Major Gray.]
[Footnote 56: This man informed me that Timboctoo was now governed
by a woman, a princess, named Nanapery: this account was confirmed
by Mohammed D’Ghies, after my return to Tripoli, who showed
me two letters from Timboctoo. He also gave me some interesting
information about Wangara, a name I was surprised to find but few
Moors at all acquainted with. I met with two only, besides Khalifa,
who were able to explain the meaning of the word: they all agreed that
there was no such place; and I am inclined to believe the following
account will be found to be the truth. All gold countries, as well
as any people coming from the gold country, or bringing Goroo nuts,
are called _Wangara_. Bambara is called Wangara. All merchants from
Gonga, Gona-Beeron, Ashantee, Fullano, Mungagana, Summatigilia, Kom,
Terry, and Ganadogo, are called Wangara in Houssa; and all these
are gold countries.]
[Footnote 57: An intelligent Moor of Mesurata again told me, this
water was the same as the Nile; and when I asked him how that could
be, when he knew that we had traced it into the Tchad, which was
allowed to have no outlet, he replied, “Yes, but it is nevertheless
_Nile water-sweet_.” I had before been asked if the Nile was not in
England; and subsequently, when my knowledge of Arabic was somewhat
improved, I became satisfied that these questions had no reference
whatever to the Nile of Egypt, but merely meant running water, sweet
water, from its rarity highly esteemed by all desert travellers.]
[Footnote 58: Each time Barca Gana had encompassed the lake, he
had with him a force of from four hundred to eight hundred cavalry;
the passage of a river, therefore, or running stream, could never
have escaped his observation.]
[Footnote 59: The following lines may be taken as a sample, at least,
if not a literal translation, of their poetical sketches on these
ocean meetings.
THE Arab rests upon his gun,
His month of labour scarce begun
Of passing deserts drear:
Straining his eyes along the sand,
He fancies in the mist, a band
Of plunderers appear.
Again he thinks of home and tribe,
Of parents, and his Arab bride
Betrothed from earliest years:
Then high above his shaven head,
The gun that fifty had left dead
Rallies his comrade’s fears.
“Yeolad boo! yeolad boo!
“Sons of your fathers! which of you
“Will shun the fight and fly?”
They rush towards him, bright in arms,
Thus calming all his false alarms
By promising to die.
The sounds of men, as objects near,
Strike on the listening Arab’s ear
Laid close upon the sand:
He hears his native desert song,
And plunges forth his friends among
To seize the proffered hand.
Asalam? Asalam? from every mouth;
What cheer? what cheer? from north and south,
Each earnestly demands:
And dates and water, desert fare,
While all their news of home declare,
Are spread upon the sands.
But, soon! too soon! the kaf’las move;
They separate again, to prove
How desolate the land!
Yet, parting slow, each seeks delay,
And dreading still the close of day,
They press each other’s hand.]
[Footnote 60: She was taken prisoner in an expedition against the
people of Khalifa Belgassum, in the Gibel, by Bey Mohamed, who,
though in love with her himself, was obliged to give her up to his
father, who was struck with her _eyun kebir_ (large eyes). She also
loved the bey, but was obliged to give herself to the bashaw. This
is said to have been the cause of the first disagreement with his
father. She, by her influence, made Belgassum, her old master,
kaid over eight provinces.]
[Footnote 61: Dr. Young has been so good as to examine these
inscriptions, but has not succeeded in ascertaining their probable
date. He observes, that the two principal inscriptions, Nos. 1 and 2,
are clearly tributes of children to the memory of their parents. They
seem, from the legal expression “discussi ratiocinio,” to be
of the times of the lower empire, these words being applied in
the pandect to the settlement of accounts: they each allude to the
expenses of some public entertainment. The termination is remarkable
for the prayer, that their parents might revisit their descendants
on earth, and _make them like themselves_. The names seem to be
altogether barbarous: the second character, like a heart, is not
uncommonly found in inscriptions standing for a point.
No 1.
M. CHULLAM et * VARNYCHsan
PATER ET Mater MARCHI
NIMMIRE Et C. CURASAN
QUI EIS HAEC MEMORIAM
FECERUNT . DISCUSSIMUS
RATIOCINIO; AD
EA EROGATUM EST SUMI
praetER C . . . . . S IN
NUMMO * AEDILIS familIARES
NUMERO OVA lactiCINIA
OVINa . . . . . deCEM
ROSTRATAE . . . . . OPE
nAVIBUS E . . . . .
VISITENT Et taLES faciaNt.
No. 2 must be read nearly thus:—
M. FUDEI ET P. PHESULCUM
PATER ET MATER M. METUSANIS
QUI EIS HAEC MEMORIAM FECIT.
DISCUSSI RATIOCINIO; AD EA ERO-
GATUM EST SUMI . . . .
IN NUMMO * AEDILIS A FAMILIA
PRAETER CIBARIAS OMniBUS
FELICITER LEGAtas . VISITENT
FILIOS ET NEPOTES MEOS
ET TALES FACIANT.
No. 3.
MUNAS II ET MUMAI
filii MATRIS MNIMIRA
HAEDILEHS.
No. 4.
NHIABH JUre
JURANDO tene-
AMUR QUIriTUUM.]
[Footnote 62: The following is a loose translation of the
document:—“Praise be to the only God, and peace to
our Prophet Mohamed, and his followers!—Made free by Rais
Khaleel-ben-Inglise, a young black, called Abdelahy, of Mandara,
from the hands of Abdi Nibbe-ben-Attaia Towerga, for the sum
of thirty-six Spanish dollars, which the said Abdi Nibbe has
received—Rais Khaleel giving freedom to the said slave,
over whom he has no power, nor any other person whatever; and
the said Abdelahy is in full enjoyment of all the privileges of
Musselmans. In the presence of us, the parties being in possession
of their senses and faculties. Given this 16 Rabbia-attani, 1240, di
Hegira—Mohamed-ben-Zein-Abeedeen-ben-Hamet-Ben-Mohamed-Ben-Omeran,
Mahmoud-ben-Hagi, Solyman.”]
SUPPLEMENTAL CHAPTER ON BORNOU.
* * * * *
Bornou, a kingdom of Central Africa, is comprehended, in its present
state, between the 15th and 10th parallel northern latitude, and
the 12th and 18th of east longitude. It is bounded on the north
by part of Kanem and the desert; on the east, by the Lake Tchad,
which covers several thousand miles of country, and contains many
inhabited islands; on the south-east by the kingdom of Loggun and
the river Shary, which divides Bornou from the kingdom of Begharmi,
and loses itself in the waters of the Tchad; on the south by Mandara,
an independent kingdom, situated at the foot of an extensive range
of primitive mountains; and on the west by Soudan. The heat is
excessive, but not uniform; from March to the end of June being the
period when the sun has most power. At this season, about two hours
after noon, the thermometer will rise sometimes to 105 and 107;
and suffocating and scorching winds from the south and south-east
prevail. The nights are dreadfully oppressive; the thermometer
not falling much below 100°, until a few hours before day-light;
when 86 or 88 denote comparative freshness. Towards the middle of
May, Bornou is visited by violent tempests of thunder, lightning,
and rain. Yet in such a dry state is the earth at this time, and so
quickly is the water absorbed, that the inhabitants scarcely feel
the inconvenience of the season. Considerable damage is done to the
cattle and the people by the lightning. They now prepare the ground
for their corn; and it is all in the earth before the end of June,
when the lakes and rivers begin to overflow; and from the extreme
flatness of the country, tracks of many miles are quickly converted
into large lakes of water. Nearly constant rains now deluge the land
with cloudy, damp, sultry weather. The winds are hot and violent,
and generally from the east and south.
In October the winter season commences; the rains are less frequent,
and the harvest near the towns is got in; the air is milder and more
fresh, the weather serene: breezes blow from the north-west, and
with a clearer atmosphere. Towards December, and in the beginning
of January, Bornou is colder than from its situation might be
expected. The thermometer will, at no part of the day, mount higher
than 74 or 75; and in the morning descends to 58 and 60.
It is these cold fresh winds from the north and north-west that
restore health and strength to the inhabitants, who suffer during
the damp weather from dreadful attacks of fever and ague, which
carry off great numbers every year. The inhabitants are numerous;
the principal towns or cities are thirteen. Ten different languages,
or dialects of the same language, are spoken in the empire. The
Shouaas have brought with them the Arabic, which they speak nearly
pure. They are divided into tribes, and bear still the names of
some of the most formidable of the Bedouin hordes of Egypt. They
are a deceitful, arrogant, and cunning race; great charm writers;
and by pretending to a natural gift of prophecy, they find an easy
entrance into the houses of the black inhabitants of the towns,
where their pilfering propensities often show themselves. The strong
resemblance they bear, both in features and habits, to some of our
gipsy tribes, is particularly striking. It is said that Bornou can
muster 15,000 Shouaas in the field mounted. They are the greatest
breeders of cattle in the country, and annually supply Soudan with
from two to three thousand horses. The Bornou people, or Kanowry,
as they are called, have large unmeaning faces, with fat Negro
noses, and mouths of great dimensions, with good teeth, and high
foreheads. They are peaceable, quiet, and civil: they salute each
other with courteousness and warmth; and there is a remarkable
good-natured heaviness about them which is interesting. They are no
warriors, but revengeful; and the best of them given to commit petty
larcenies, on every opportunity that offers. They are extremely timid;
so much so, that on an Arab once speaking harshly to one of them,
he came the next day to ask if he wished to kill him.
As their country produces little beside grain, mostly from a want
of industry in the people, so are they nearly without foreign trade.
In their manner of living, they are simple in the extreme. Flour
made into a paste, sweetened with honey, and fat poured over it,
is a dish for a sultan. The use of bread is not known; therefore but
little wheat is grown. Indeed it is found only in the houses of the
great. Barley is also scarce; a little is sown between the wheat, and
is used, when bruised, to take off the brackish taste of the water.
The grain most in use amongst the people of all classes, and
upon which also animals are fed, is a species of millet called
_gussub_. This grain is produced in great quantities, and with
scarcely any trouble. The poorer people will eat it raw or parched in
the sun, and be satisfied without any other nourishment for several
days together. Bruised and steeped in water, it forms the travelling
stock of all pilgrims and soldiers. When cleared of the husk,
pounded, and made into a light paste, in which a little _meloheia_
(the _eboo ochra_ of Guinea) and melted fat is mixed, it forms a
favourite dish, and is called _kaddell_. _Kasheia_ is the seed of
a grass, which grows wild and in abundance near the water. It is
parched in the sun, broken, and cleared of the husk. When boiled,
it is eaten as rice, or made into flour; but this is a luxury.
Four kinds of beans are raised in great quantities, called _mussaqua_,
_marya_, _kleemy_, and _kimmay_, all known by the name of _gafooly_,
and are eaten by the slaves, and poorer people. A paste made from
these and fish was the only eatable we could find in the towns near
the river. Salt they scarcely knew the use of. Rice might have been
cultivated in Bornou, before it became the scene of such constant
warfare as has for the last fifteen years defaced the country. It is
now brought from Soudan, in the neighbourhood of Maffatai: in Bornou,
it is scarce, and of an inferior quality. Indian corn, cotton,
and indigo, are the most valuable productions of the soil. The two
latter grow wild, close to the Tchad and overflowed grounds. The
senna plant is also found wild, and in abundance. The indigo is of
a superior quality, and forms a dye which is used in colouring the
tobe (the only dress the people wear) dark blue, which probably is
not excelled in quality in any part of the world. The only implement
of husbandry they possess is an ill-shaped hoe, made from the iron
found in the Mandara mountains; and the labours of their wretched
agriculture devolve, almost entirely, on women. Most of their grain is
reaped within two or three months of its being scattered on the earth
(for it can scarcely be called sowing); and probably there is no spot
of land between the tropics, not absolutely desert, so destitute
of either fruit or vegetable as the kingdom of Bornou. Mangoes are
only found growing in the neighbourhood of Mandara and to the west;
and with the exception of two or three lemon, or rather lime trees,
and as many fig trees, in the garden of the sheikh at Kouka, raised
on a spot of ground watched by himself, the care and culture of
which give employment to about fifty negroes, not a fruit of any
description can be found in the whole kingdom. Date trees there are
none south of Woodie, four days north of Kouka, where they are sickly,
and produce but an indifferent fruit. Onions are to be procured near
the great towns only, but no other vegetable. The people indeed have
nothing beyond the bare necessaries of life; and are rich only in
slaves, bullocks, and horses. Their dress consists of one, two, or
three tobes, or large shirts, according to the means of the wearer:
a cap of dark blue is worn on the head by persons of rank. Others,
indeed generally all, go bare-headed; the head being kept constantly
free from hair, as well as every other part of the body. They carry
an immense club, three or four feet in length, with a round head
to it, which they put to the ground at every step, and walk with
great solemnity, followed by two or three slaves: they have what
we should call a rolling gait. Red caps are brought by the Tripoli
and Mesurata merchants; but are only purchased by sultans and their
immediate attendants. They are Musselmans, and very particular in
performing their prayers and ablutions five times a day. They are
less tolerant than the Arabs; and I have known a Bornouese refuse to
eat with an Arab, because he had not _sully’d_ (washed and prayed)
at the preceding appointed hour.
They seldom take more than from two to three wives at a time,
even the rich, and divorce them as often as they please, by paying
their dower. The poorer class are contented with one. The women are
particularly cleanly, but not good-looking: they have large mouths,
very thick lips, and high foreheads. Their manner of dressing the
hair is also less becoming than that of any other Negro nation I
have seen: it is brought over the top of the head in three thick
rolls; one large, one in the centre, and two smaller on each side,
just over the ears, joining in front on the forehead in a point,
and plastered thickly with indigo and bees’ wax. Behind the point
it is wiry, very finely plaited, and turned up like a drake’s
tail. The _Scarin_, or tattoos, which are common to all Negro nations
in these latitudes, and by which their country is instantly known,
are here particularly unbecoming. The Bornouese have twenty cuts or
lines on each side of the face, which are drawn from the corners of
the mouth, towards the angles of the lower jaw and the cheek-bone;
and it is quite distressing to witness the torture the poor little
children undergo who are thus marked, enduring, not only the heat,
but the attacks of millions of flies. They have also one cut on the
forehead in the centre, six on each arm, six on each leg and thigh,
four on each breast, and nine on each side, just above the hips. They
are, however, the most humble of females, never approaching their
husbands except on their knees, or speaking to any of the male sex,
otherwise than with the head and face covered, and kneeling. Previous
to marriage, there appears to be more jealousy than after.
Adultery is not common: the punishment is very severe, if caught in
the fact, and secured on the spot; and this is the only evidence on
which conviction is granted. The guilty couple are bound hand and
foot, cast on the ground, and their brains dashed out by the club
of the injured husband and his male relations.
Girls rarely marry until they are fourteen or fifteen; often not so
young. The age of puberty does not arrive here at so early a period
as in Barbary; females there not unfrequently becoming mothers at
the age of twelve, and even eleven. In Bornou, such a circumstance
is unknown: for a woman to have twins is extremely rare; and to make
them believe that more were ever brought into the world at one time,
in any country, would be difficult.
The domestic animals are dogs, sheep, goats, cows, and herds of oxen,
beyond all calculation. The Shouaas on the banks of the Tchad have
probably 20,000, near their different villages; while the shores of
the great river Shary could furnish double that number. They also
breed multitudes of horses, with which they furnish the Soudan market,
where this animal is very inferior.
The domestic fowl is common, and is the cheapest animal food that
can be purchased: a dollar will purchase forty. They are small,
but well flavoured.
The bees are so numerous, as in some places to obstruct the passage
of travellers. The honey is but partially collected. That buzzing
noisy insect, the locust, is also a frequent visitor. Clouds of
them appear in the air; and the natives, by screams and various
noises, endeavour to prevent their descending to the earth. In the
district where they pitch, every particle of vegetation is quickly
devoured. The natives eat them with avidity, both roasted and boiled,
and formed into balls as a paste.
The game is abundant, and consists of antelopes, gazelles, hares,
an animal about the size of a red deer, with annulated horns,
called _koorigum_, partridges very large, small grouse, wild
ducks, geese, snipes, and the ostrich, the flesh of which is much
esteemed. Pelicans, spoonbills, the Balearic crane, in great numbers,
with a variety of other large birds of the crane species, are also
found in the marshes. The woods abound with the Guinea fowl.
The wild animals are, the lion, which in the wet season approaches to
the walls of the towns, panthers, and a species of tiger-cat, are in
great numbers in the neighbourhood of Mandara, the leopard, the hyena,
the jackal, the civet cat, the fox, hosts of monkeys, black, grey,
and brown, and the elephant, the latter so numerous as to be seen
near the Tchad in herds of from fifty to four hundred. This noble
animal they hunt, and kill for the sake of his flesh, as well as the
ivory of his tusk. The buffalo, the flesh of which is a delicacy,
has a high game flavour. The crocodile and the hippopotamus are
also numerous; and the flesh of both is eaten. That of the crocodile
is extremely fine: it has a green firm fat, resembling the turtle,
and the callipee has the colour, firmness, and flavour of the finest
veal. The giraffe is seen and killed by the buffalo hunters in the
woods and marshy grounds near the Tchad. Reptiles are numerous;
they consist of scorpions, centipedes, and disgusting large toads,
serpents of several kinds, and a snake said to be harmless, of the
congo kind, sometimes measuring fourteen and sixteen feet in length.
The beasts of burden used by the inhabitants are the bullock and
the ass. A very fine breed of the latter is found in the Mandara
valleys. Strangers and chiefs, in the service of the sheikh or sultan,
alone possess camels. The bullock is the bearer of all the grain and
other articles to and from the markets. A small saddle of plaited
rushes is laid on him, when sacks made of goats-skins, and filled
with corn, are lashed on his broad and able back. A leather thong
is passed through the cartilage of his nose, and serves as a bridle,
while on the top of the load is mounted the owner, his wife, or his
slave. Sometimes the daughter or the wife of a rich Shouaa will be
mounted on her particular bullock, and precede the loaded animals;
extravagantly adorned with amber, silver rings, coral, and all sorts
of finery, her hair streaming with fat, a black rim of _kohol_, at
least an inch wide, round each of her eyes, and I may say, arrayed
for conquest at the crowded market. Carpets or tobes are then spread
on her clumsy palfrey: she sits _jambe deçà jambe delà_, and with
considerable grace guides her animal by his nose. Notwithstanding
the peaceableness of his nature, her vanity still enables her to
torture him into something like caperings and curvetings.
The price of a good bullock is from three dollars to three dollars
and a half.
The Bornou laws are arbitrary, and the punishment summary. Murder
is punished by death: the culprit, on conviction, is handed over
to the relations of the deceased, who revenge his death with their
clubs. Repeated thefts by the loss of a hand, or by burying the
young Spartan, if he be a beginner, with only his head above ground,
well buttered or honeyed, and so exposing him for twelve or eighteen
hours, to the torture of a burning sun, and innumerable flies and
mosquitoes, who all feast on him undisturbed. These punishments are,
however, often commuted for others of a more lenient kind. Even
the judge himself has a strong fellow-feeling for a culprit of this
description. When a man refuses to pay his debts, and has the means,
on a creditor pushing his claims, the cadi takes possession of the
debtor’s property, pays the demand, and takes a handsome per centage
for his trouble. It is necessary, however, that the debtor should
give his consent; but this is not long withheld, as he is pinioned
and laid on his back until it is given; for all which trouble and
restiveness, he pays handsomely to the cadi; and they seldom find
that a man gets into a scrape of this kind twice. On the other hand,
should a man be in debt, and unable to pay, on clearly proving his
poverty, he is at liberty. The judge then says, “God send you the
means;”—the bystanders say, “Amen:” and the insolvent has
full liberty to trade where he pleases. But if, at any future time,
his creditors catch him with even two tobes on, or a red cap, on
taking him before the cadi, all superfluous habiliments are stripped
off, and given towards payment of his debts.
The towns generally are large, and well built; they have walls,
thirty-five and forty feet in height, and nearly twenty feet in
thickness. They have four entrances, with three gates to each, made
of solid planks eight or ten inches thick, and fastened together
with heavy clamps of iron. The houses consist of several court-yards,
between four walls, with apartments leading out of them for slaves;
then a passage, and an inner court, leading to the habitations of the
different wives, who have each a square space to themselves, enclosed
by walls, and a handsome thatched hut. From thence also you ascend a
wide stair-case of five or six steps, leading to the apartments of
the owner, which consist of two buildings like towers or turrets,
with a terrace of communication between them, looking into the
street, with a castellated window. The walls are made of reddish
clay, as smooth as stucco, and the roofs most tastefully arched
on the inside with branches, and thatched on the out with a grass
known in Barbary by the name of _lidthur_. The horns of the gazelle
and the antelope serve as a substitute for nails or pegs. These are
fixed in different parts of the walls, and on them hang the quivers,
bows, spears, and shields of the chief. A man of consequence will
sometimes have four of these terraces and eight turrets, forming
the faces of his mansion or domain, with all the apartments of
his women, within the space below. Not only those _en activité_
(as the French would say), but those on the superannuated list, are
allowed habitations. Horses and other animals are usually allowed an
enclosure near one of the court-yards forming the entrance. Dwellings,
however, of this description are not common. Those generally used
by the inhabitants are of four kinds:—
_Coosie_, which is a hut built entirely of straw.
_Bongo_, a hut with circular mud walls, thatched with straw.
_N’Geim kolunby_, and _fatto-sugdeeby_,—huts of coarse mats,
made from the grass which grows near the lake. Our dwellings were
called _bongos_, and were about eight feet in diameter inside, about
the shape of a hay-stack, and with a hole at the bottom, about two
feet and a half high, which we used to creep in and out at. Air,
or light holes, we were obliged to dispense with, as they admitted
both flies and mosquitoes, which were worse than darkness.
Their utensils are few, and consist of earthen pots, which they
make beautifully for cooking, and wooden bowls for dishes. Water,
which is their only beverage, is drunk from a large calabash, which
grows wild near the rivers, after being cooled in earthen jars. They
sleep on mats covered with the skins of animals. Married women are
extremely superstitious, in having their beds covered with the skins
of particular animals when their husbands visit them; and never fail
to predict the fate and fortune of a child, in consequence of these
arrangements. A panther or a leopard’s skin is sure to produce a
boy, or nothing. Should the father be a soldier, and a chief, the
boy will be a warrior, bold, but bloody. A lion’s skin is said
to prevent child-bearing altogether; yet exceptions to this rule
sometimes occur. It is then always a boy, and a wonderful one. He
puts his foot on the necks of all the world, and is alike brave,
generous, and fortunate. Leather cushions of various colours, and
fancifully ornamented, are brought from Soudan, and are used as
pillows by persons of superior rank; who also have a small Turkey
carpet, on which they sit or sleep, and the price of which is a
young female slave.
The amusements of the people consist in meeting together in the
evening, either in the court-yard of one of the houses of the great,
or under the shades formed with mats, which are in the open places
of the town, where prayers are said at the different appointed
hours by the Iman or priest. Here they talk, and sometimes play
a game resembling chess, with beans, and twelve holes made in the
sand. The Arabs have a game similar to this, which they play with
camels’ dung in the desert; but the Bornouese are far more skilful.
Like the birds, their day finishes when the sun goes down; but very
few, even of the great people, indulge in the luxury of a lamp,
which is made of iron, and filled with bullocks’ fat. They have no
oil. A few jars are brought by the Tripoli merchants from the valleys
of the Gharian, as presents only. Soap is also an article they are
greatly in want of. An oily juice, which exudes from the stem of
a thorny tree, called _Kadahnia_, or _mika dahniah_, resembling a
gum, enables the people of Soudan to make a coarse soap, by mixing
it with bullocks’ fat and trona. It is something like soft soap,
and has a pleasant smell. This is brought in small wooden boxes,
holding less than half a pound, which sell for seven rottala each,
two-thirds of a dollar. From this tree is also procured a nut, from
which a purer oil is extracted, which they burn in Soudan, and is
also used by the women, to anoint their heads and bodies. This tree
is not found in Bornou.
The skin of their sheep is covered with a long hair; wool therefore
they have none. Brass and copper are brought in small quantities from
Barbary. A large copper kettle will sell for a slave. The brass is
worked into leglets, and worn by the women.
A small brass basin tinned is a present for a sultan, and is used
to drink out of. Four or five dollars, or a Soudan tobe, will
scarcely purchase one. Gold is neither found in the country, nor
is it brought into it. The Tuaricks are almost the only merchants
visiting Soudan who trade in that metal, which they carry to Barbary
and Egypt. It is said the sheikh has a store, which is brought him
directly from Soudan.
Iron is procured in the Mandara mountains, but is not brought in
large quantities, and it is coarse. The best iron comes from Soudan,
worked up in that country into good pots and kettles. The money
of Bornou is the manufacture of the country. Strips of cotton,
about three inches wide, and a yard in length, are called gubbuk;
and three, four, and five of these, according to their texture,
go to a rottala. Ten rottala are now equal to a dollar.
The government of Bornou has ever been, until during the last
fifteen years, an elective absolute monarchy, the brother sometimes
succeeding, to the exclusion of the son. Achmet Ali, who, descended
from a royal line of ancestors, was sultan in 1808, contended for
several years with a powerful people from the westward, called the
Felatah. These people had gradually been increasing in power for more
than half a century, had established themselves firmly in Soudan;
where Bello their chief, assuming the government, dictated laws to
a numerous and powerful black population.
Soon after the conquest of Bornou by the Felatahs, El Kanemy formed
a plan for delivering that country from the bondage into which it
had fallen; and, stirring up the Kanemboo to assist him by a well
planned tale of having been called by a vision to this undertaking,
he made his first campaign with scarcely 400 followers, and defeated
an army of the Felatahs nearly 8,000 strong. He followed up this
victory with great promptitude and resolution, and in less than ten
months had been the conqueror in forty different battles.
He refused the offer of being made sultan; and placing Mohammed,
the brother of sultan Achmet, on the throne, he, first doing homage
himself, insisted on the whole army following his example. The
sheikh built for Sultan Mohammed his present residence, New Birnie,
establishing himself at Angornou, three miles distant, and retaining
the dictatorship of the kingdom, _pro tempore_. Such a commencement
was extremely politic, on the part of the sheikh; but his aspiring
mind was not calculated to rest satisfied with such an arrangement.
The whole population now flocked to his standard, and appeared willing
to invest him with superior power, and a force to support it. One
of the first offers they made was to furnish him with twenty horses
per day, until a more regular force was organized, which continued
for four years[63]. He now raised the green flag, the standard of the
Prophet, refused all titles but that of the “servant of God!” and
after clearing the country of the Felatahs, he proceeded to punish
all those nations who had given them assistance, and with the slaves,
the produce of these wars, rewarded his faithful Kanemboo and other
followers for their fidelity and attachment.
Even in the breasts of some of the Bornouese, successful war had
raised a passion for conquest: their victories, no less a matter of
surprise than delight, crest-fallen and dispirited as they were,
gave a stimulus to their exertions, and they became accustomed to
warfare and regardless of danger.
For the last eight years the sheikh has carried on a very desperate
and bloody war with the sultan of Begharmi, who governs a powerful
and warlike people, inhabiting a very large tract of country south of
Bornou, and on the eastern bank of the Shary. Although meeting with
some reverses, and on one occasion losing his eldest son in these
wars, who was greatly beloved by the people, he has, upon the whole,
been successful; and is said to have, from first to last, destroyed
and led into slavery more than thirty thousand of the sultan of
Begharmi’s subjects, besides burning his towns and driving off
his flocks.
The late sultan of Bornou, who always accompanied the sheikh to the
field, also lost his life in these wars: his death was attributable to
his immense size and weight; the horse he rode refused to move on with
him from fatigue, although at the time not more than 500 yards from
the gates of Angala, and he fell into the hands of the enemy. He died,
however, with great dignity, and six of his eunuchs and as many of his
slaves, who would not quit him, shared his fate. A sultan of Bornou
carries no arms, and it is beneath his dignity to defend himself:
sitting down, therefore, under a tree, with his people around him,
he received his enemies, and hiding his face in the shawl which
covered his head, was pierced with a hundred spears.
Ibrahim, his brother, succeeded him, who is now not more than
twenty-two years old. The sultanship of Bornou is but a name: the
court still keeps up considerable state, and adheres strictly to its
ancient customs, and this is the only privilege left them. When the
sultan gives audience to strangers, he sits in a kind of cage, made
of the bamboo, through the bars of which he looks on his visitors,
who are not allowed to approach within seventy or eighty yards of
his person.
Their dresses are extremely rich, and consist of striped silks and
linens of various colours, from Cairo and Soudan. When they take the
field, their appearance is truly grotesque: the sultan is preceded
by six men, bearing frum-frums (trumpets) of cane, ten feet long:
an instrument peculiar to royalty, but which produces a music neither
agreeable nor inspiring. Their own heads, and those of their horses,
are hung round with charms, sewed up in leather cases, red, green,
and white; and altogether, with their wadded doublets and large heads,
they would be more apropos in a pantomime than in a field of battle.
At the present moment there is but one power in central Africa to
be at all compared to the sheikh of Bornou in importance,—that
of Bello, the Felatah chieftain; and from the sensation created
throughout the neighbourhood of Kano and Kashna, on his late
defeat of the Begharmi force, I imagine he would find but little
difficulty in extending his empire in that direction: he has turned
all his victories to the advantage of those for whom he conquered,
by attending to their improvement in moral and religious duties. His
subjects are the most strict Mussulmans in all the black country,
and their respect for us gradually increased on ascertaining that
we really had a religion of our own, and obeyed its ordinances
by praying, if not by fasting,—which they at first doubted. Our
determination to travel fearlessly and boldly in our own characters,
as Englishmen and Christians, mistrusting no one, so far from proving
an impediment to our progress, as we were assured from all quarters
it would do, excited a degree of confidence to which we may, in a
great measure, attribute the success which has attended our steps.
Wherever El Kanemy has power, Europeans, and particularly Englishmen,
will be hospitably and kindly received.
Bornou was always infested by robbers, who way-laid and plundered
travellers within sight of the walls of the capital: such an event
now never occurs, and the roads through the sheikh’s government
are probably as safe as any even in happy England itself.
Although harassed by the constant wars in which he has been engaged,
yet has not the sheikh been unmindful of the benefits which an
extended commerce would confer upon his people, nor of the importance
of improving their moral condition, by exciting a desire to acquire,
by industry and trade, more permanent and certain advantages than are
to be obtained by a system of plunder and destructive warfare. Arab or
Moorish merchants, the only ones who have hitherto ventured amongst
them, are encouraged and treated with great liberality. Several
of them are known to have returned, after a residence of less than
nine years, with fortunes of fifteen and twenty thousand dollars;
and which might, perhaps, by a more intelligent trader, have been
doubled, as the commodities with which they barter are mostly European
produce, purchased at Tripoli, at prices full two hundred and fifty
per cent. above their prime cost.
The usual calculation of a Moorish merchant is, that a camel load
of merchandize, bought at Mourzuk for 150 dollars, will make a
return, in trading with Bornou, of 500 dollars, after paying all
expenses. Persons in Fezzan will send three camel loads in charge
of one man, and, after paying all the expenses out of the profits,
give him a third of the remainder for his labour.
From the circumstance, however, of there being no direct trade from
this country with Tripoli, or, I believe, with any of the ports of
Barbary, English goods (the demand for which is daily increasing
amongst a population of not less than five millions), within six
hundred miles of the coast, are sold at enormous prices, although
frequently of the very worst description[64].
The principal return which Moorish merchants obtain for their goods
consists in slaves; but Bornou is scarcely any thing more than a
mart or rendezvous of kafilas from Soudan. These unhappy victims are
handed over to the Tripoli and Fezzan traders, who are waiting with
their northern produce to tempt the cupidity of the slave merchants
of Soudan. I think I may say, that neither the sheikh himself, nor
the Bornou people, carry on this traffic without feelings of disgust,
which even habit cannot conquer. Of the existence of a foreign slave
trade, or one which consigns these unfortunates to Christian masters,
they are not generally aware at Bornou; and so contrary to the tenets
of his religion—of which he is a strict observer—would be such a
system of barter, that one may easily conclude, the sheikh of Bornou
would be willing to assist, with all the power he possesses, in any
plan which might have for its object the putting a final stop to a
commerce of this nature.
Already the desire of exchanging whatever their country produces, for
the manufactures of the more enlightened nations of the North, exists
in no small degree amongst them: a taste for luxury, and a desire of
imitating such strangers as visit them, are very observable; and the
man of rank is ever distinguished by some part of his dress being of
foreign materials, though sometimes of the most trifling kind. It is
true that these propensities are not yet fully developed; but they
exist, and give unequivocal proof of a tendency to civilization,
and the desire of cultivating an intercourse with foreigners.
Every approach which the African has made towards civilization, even
to the knowledge of, and the belief in, the existence of a Supreme
Being, is attributable to the intrepid Arab spirit, which, despising
the dread of the apparently interminable deserts that separate the
Black from the White population, has alone penetrated to any extent
into the country of these before unenlightened savages,—carrying
with him his religion and his manners, and converting thousands to
the Mohammedan faith.
The eagerness with which all classes of people listened to our
proposals for establishing a frequent communication by means of
European merchants, and the protection promised by the sheikh to such
as should arrive within the sphere of his influence, particularly if
they were English, excites an anxious hope that some measures will
be adopted for directing the labours of a population of millions
to something more congenial to the humanity and the philanthropy
of the age we live in, than the practice of a system of predatory
warfare, which has chiefly for its object the procuring of slaves,
as the readiest and most valuable property to trade with, on every
appearance of the merchants from the north at their markets.
Every probability is against such a barter being preferred by the
African black. Let the words of the sheikh himself, addressed to
us in the hearing of his people, speak the sentiments that have
already found a place in his bosom:—“You say true, we are all
sons of one father! You say, also, that the sons of Adam should
not sell one another, and you know every thing! God has given you
all great talents, but what are we to do? The Arabs who come here
will have nothing else but slaves: why don’t you send us your
merchants? You know us now; and let them bring their women with
them, and live amongst us, and teach us what you talk to me about so
often, to build houses and boats, and make rockets.” The reader
will conceive with what exulting hearts we heard these words from
the lips of a ruler in the centre of Africa.
The return which European traders might, in the first instance,
obtain, would not, probably, be sufficient to employ large capitals,
but that would annually improve; and the great profits would, in
some measure, compensate for the deficiency. The propensity in the
natives to war upon and plunder their neighbours, from the profit
arising from such a system, would gradually subside, when other more
profitable occupations were encouraged amongst them. The Kanemboos
who inhabit the northern and eastern borders of the lake Tchad are
a bold and hardy people, extremely expert with the spear, swift of
foot, and practised hunters.
The tusk of the elephant, the horns of the buffalo, both which may
be obtained at a very low price, and in exchange for English goods,
are eagerly bought even at Tripoli, and at all the European ports in
the Mediterranean, at high prices: the cultivation of indigo, also,
of a very superior kind, might be carried to any extent, as it now
grows wild, as well as senna, in many parts of the country. The zibet,
or musk from the civet cat, is also to be procured, about two hundred
per cent. lower than it will sell for in Tripoli.
The following are the prices in Bornou, of some of those articles
which would be most esteemed in Europe, viz.—
Ostrich skins, from three to six dollars each.
Elephants’ teeth, two dollars the 100 lbs.
Raw hides may also be purchased, at about two dollars for 100 skins.
Probably the strong desire of the sheikh to improve the state of his
country, and the habits of his people, cannot be better exemplified
than in his having given me the designs for three coins, which he
entreated might be laid before the king of England, with his request
to have the stamp and apparatus for striking money, so that he might
introduce a more convenient medium of exchange than the one at present
in use amongst them; one of these pieces of money he intended should
be of gold, a second of silver, and the third of iron. This chief,
also, as well as all the principal people, entreated that some one
of our party should remain in their country, “to receive,” as
they said, “the English merchants that were coming.” And it was
under the idea of securing to ourselves the great advantages we had
gained, by so firm a footing in the very centre of Africa, as the
sheikh’s friendship enabled us to boast of, that I recommended
Mr. Tyrwhitt’s remaining at Kouka, with all the privileges granted
to Barbary consuls, until the pleasure of His Majesty’s Government
should be known.
I consider the establishment of a friendly intercourse with this
potentate beyond the Great Desert, by whose means the unknown parts
of Africa may at no distant period be visited, of the greatest
importance, in every point of view. By encouraging a commercial
intercourse, all the objects of African discovery must be advanced:
not alone will the cause of science and research be benefited,
but the real philanthropist must see, that an opening is now made,
by means of which, with judicious arrangements, thousands of his
fellow beings may be saved from slavery.
Until introduced by the Moors, the trading in slaves was little
known amongst them; the prisoners taken in battle served them,
and were given as portions to their children, on their marriage,
for the same duties; but they were seldom sold. Even now the greater
part of the household of a man of rank are free, with the exception
of the women, who often die in the service of the master of their
youth. They are treated always like the children of the house, and
corporal punishment is a rare occurrence amongst them. I have more
than once known a Bornouese, on his morning visit to my hut, say,
with tears, that he had sent a slave to be sold, who had been three
years a part of his family: then he would add, “but the devil has
got into her, and how could I keep her after that?”
In short, it is to the pernicious principles of the Moorish traders,
whose avaricious brutality is beyond all belief, that the traffic for
slaves in the interior of Africa not only owes its origin, but its
continuance. They refuse all other modes of payment for the articles
which they bring with them; they well know the eagerness with which
these articles are sought after; and by offering what appears to the
natives an amazing price, tempt them to sell their brethren, to the
most inhuman of all human beings, while they gain in Fezzan, Bengazi,
and Egypt, sometimes a profit of 500 per cent. I am not, however,
without hopes, that a more extended intercourse with Barbary might
detach even the proverbially unfeeling Moor from dealing in human
flesh; and it was with feelings of the highest satisfaction that I
listened to some of the most respectable of the merchants, when they
declared, that were any other system of trading adopted, they would
gladly embrace it, in preference to dealing in slaves: knowing, too,
how often we interfered to ameliorate the situation of any of these
unfortunates, when they were oppressed or ill-treated, they would
continually point out to us, as if to excite our approbation, how
well dressed, and well fed, their own slaves were, in comparison with
those of others, as we traversed the Desert, on our return to Tripoli.
D. D.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 63: Tirab, his favourite Shouaa chief, was intrusted with
this duty, and acquired the name of Bagah-furby, Gatherer of horses.
A horse of the best breed in this country, which was sent by
the Sheikh of Bornou as a present to His Majesty, is described by
Mr. Sewell as possessing great strength, to be supple, and extremely
active. He also adds, “His movements remind me strongly of the
brown Dongala horse, whose picture I have.”]
[Footnote 64: The articles most in request amongst the Negro nations
are:—
Writing paper, on which the profit is enormous.
Coral barrelled, and imitation coral.
Printed cottons of all kinds, with a great deal of red and yellow in
the pattern.
Coloured silks, in pieces for large shirts and shifts, of the most
gaudy patterns.
Imitations of damask, worked with gold thread, and flowers.
Common red cloth.
Green do.
White barracans, purchased in Tripoli.
Small looking-glasses.
White bornouses, purchased in Tripoli.
Small carpets, five or six feet long, purchased in Tripoli.
English carpets of the same size would sell better, and might be
bought at one-third of the price of Turkish ones.
Ornamented cheap pistols, with long barrels.
Common razors.
Red caps, purchased in Tripoli.
Turbans of all descriptions, large amber, for the Kanemboo women, and
the Shouaas.
Common China basins, much esteemed.
Coffee cups.
Brass basins, tinned in the inside.
Red breeches, made up.
Cotton caftans, striped, made up.
Pieces of striped cotton.
Handkerchiefs, and coarse white muslin.
Large shirts or tobes, ready made, of striped cottons, and white
calico.
Coarse white calico. }
} much esteemed.
Fine do. do. }
Frankincense, }
}
Ottaria, } purchased of the Jews in Tripoli,
} or Leghorn.
Spices, }
The beads most in demand, indeed the only ones that they
will purchase, are:—
H’raz-el mekka, white glass beads, with a flower.
Merjan tiddoo, mock coral.
Quamur, white sand beads.
Quamar m’zein, small black beads, with yellow stripes.
H’raz-el pimmel, ant’s head bead, with black stripes.
Contembali, red and white.
Hazam el bashaw, the bashaw’s sash.
Sbgha m’kerbub, red pebble, from Trieste.
Sbgha toweel, long bead.
H’shem battura, Arab’s nose, a large red bead.
Arms of all descriptions, of an inferior quality, will always meet
with a ready sale, as well as balls of lead, and what we call
swan-shot.
]
=JOURNAL=
OF
=AN EXCURSION,=
ETC. ETC.
PREFATORY NOTICE
TO THE
_Narrative of Captain Clapperton’s Journey from Kouka to Sackatoo._
* * * * *
The Manuscript of the following Journal was placed in my hands by
Captain Clapperton, on his departure from England, with a request that
I would see it through the press, whenever the account of the recent
mission to Central Africa should be published. In complying with
this request, I have carefully abstained from altering a sentiment,
or even an expression, and rarely had occasion to add, omit, or
change, a single word; so that my easy task has been confined to
the mere ordinary correction of the press.
Captain Clapperton, like Major Denham, as will appear from his
Journal, makes no pretensions to the systematic knowledge of
natural history. They were both excellent pioneers of discovery, and
capable of ascertaining the latitude by observations of the heavenly
bodies; and also to compute, to a certain degree of accuracy, the
longitudes of the various places which they visited: and even this
is no trifling advantage to geography, though it has but too commonly
been neglected by travellers. By a strict attention to these points,
by comparing them with the courses and distances travelled, and by
Captain Clapperton’s frequent endeavours to verify the estimated
results by lunar observations (though not much to be depended on by
_one_ observer, _on shore_), we may now be pretty well assured of the
actual and relative positions of many places, which have hitherto
been wholly dislocated and scattered at random on our best maps of
Africa,—all of them bad enough,—and the situation of cities and
towns have also been ascertained, whose names even had never before
reached us.
The only traveller of the party, who was supposed to possess a
competent knowledge of natural history, was Doctor Oudney; and he was
unfortunately disabled from the pursuit of it by a protracted illness,
which terminated in death. As so little appears in the present volume
from the pen of Doctor Oudney, and as Captain Clapperton has stated
(page 5) a wish expressed by that gentleman, a short time previous
to his death, that “his papers should be put into the hands of
Mr. Barrow, or Professor Jameson, provided the request meets with
Earl Bathurst’s approbation,” I feel it necessary to say a few
words on this subject. Nothing could have been more gratifying to me
than to have undertaken and executed, to the best of my power, such
a task: it is quite natural that I should have willingly done so,
were it for no other reason than my having been instrumental in his
appointment, from the strongest testimonials in his favour which I
had received from Professor Jameson, whose acquirements in natural
history stand so deservedly high in public estimation, as to entitle
any recommendation from him to immediate attention. Unfortunately,
however, for this branch of science, Doctor Oudney, at a very early
stage of their journey, caught a severe cold, which fell on his lungs,
and which rendered him, on their arrival in Bornou, nearly incapable
of any exertion. It will be seen from Major Denham’s Narrative,
how frequently and how seriously, not to say alarmingly, ill, he
became from the first moment of their arrival in Bornou. In a letter
addressed to Mr. Wilmot Horton, of the date of the 12th September,
1823, Doctor Oudney says, “I send you a simple itinerary from
Fezzan here; that to the river Shary, and the borders of Soudan,
and my remarks on Bornou, I must leave till another time. I cannot
write long; one day’s labour in that way makes me ill for a week.”
No account of these journeys to the river Shary, and the borders
of Soudan, appear among his papers; nor any materials respecting
them, beyond what are contained in a very general account of the
proceedings of the Mission, in an official letter addressed to the
Secretary of State. The papers, delivered to me by Captain Clapperton,
consisted of an account of an excursion, jointly performed by these
gentlemen, from Mourzuk to Ghraat, the first town in the Tuarick
country:—some remarks on the journey across the Great Desert,
which appear not to have been written out fair:—and the rest,
of mere scraps of vocabularies, rude sketches of the human face,
detached and incomplete registers of the state of the temperature,
and a number of letters to and from the Consul at Tripoli, respecting
the pecuniary and other affairs of the mission, wholly uninteresting,
and of which no use whatever could be made.
The Journey to Ghraat above mentioned, I have caused to be printed
at the end of the Introductory Chapter, with which it appears to be
partly connected, omitting some trifling details, of no interest
whatever; and I requested Major Denham to add a few foot-notes,
chiefly geological, to his own Journal across the Great Desert. It
seems to have been well known to the party that Doctor Oudney could
not possibly survive the journey into Soudan; and, indeed, he was
well aware of it himself; but his zeal to accomplish all that could
be done, would not suffer him to remain behind. It was that zeal
which led him to undertake the journey to Ghraat, which not a little
increased his disorder; for, to say the truth, he evidently was
labouring, while in England, under a pectoral complaint; but when
I told him so, and strongly advised him not to think of proceeding
(as I had before done to his unfortunate predecessor Ritchie), he,
like the latter, persisted that, being a medical man, he best knew
his own constitution, and that a warm climate would best agree with
it. Neither of them, however, seem to have calculated on the degree
of fatigue, and the sudden changes of temperature, to which they
were necessarily to be exposed.
With every disadvantage of collecting, preserving, and bringing home
from so great a distance, and over so dreary a desert of twelve
hundred miles, specimens of natural history, it will be seen, by
reference to the Appendix, that this department of science has not
been neglected.
_JOHN BARROW._
=JOURNAL=
OF
=AN EXCURSION,=
ETC. ETC.
* * * * *
SECTION I.
FROM KOUKA TO MURMUR, WHERE DR. OUDNEY DIED.
From our first arrival in Bornou, we intended to avail ourselves
of the earliest opportunity of exploring Soudan. Our preparations
being at length completed, and the sheikh having consented to our
departure, although with some degree of reluctance, Dr. Oudney,
notwithstanding the infirm state of his health, and myself, were
ready to set out on the 14th December, 1823. Accordingly we sent
off our camels and servants in the morning, and went in person to
take leave of the sheikh. On this occasion we found him in an inner
apartment, attended by two or three servants only. He asked us,
as he had often done before, if, in the course of our travels, we
proposed going to Nyffee. We answered, yes, if the road was open. He
replied, it was a great distance; and he feared we were not likely
to return to Kouka. We told him we hoped to return, if possible,
before the rains set in; but however that might be, we assured
him we should ever retain a grateful sense of his exceeding great
kindness towards us. He bade us farewell in the most affectionate
manner. About noon we left the town, accompanied by our comrade,
Major Denham, and most of the principal inhabitants. Even Hadje Ali
Boo Khaloom, with whom we had frequent occasion to be dissatisfied,
joined the train: they attended us to the distance of four or five
miles, and then took leave; our friend, the cadi Hadje Mohamed Zy
Abedeen, having first repeated the Fatha, or first chapter of the
Koran. We halted at the village of Fuguboo Thorio, where our servants
had pitched our tents, being distant from Kouka about ten miles.
Our party consisted of Dr. Oudney and myself, two servants, Jacob
the Jew, a sort of major domo, and three men of Fezzan. We had three
saddle horses, and four sumpter camels; the servants, except Jacob,
were on foot. There were also in the kafila (commonly pronounced
_goffle_) twenty-seven Arab merchants, two of whom were shreefs,
or descendants of the Prophet, one from Tunis, the other from
Houn, near Sockna, and about fifty natives of Bornou. The Arabs
were mostly mounted on horses, which they intended for sale; some
having besides a led horse. The Bornouese were on foot; one of them,
a hadje or Mahometan pilgrim, who had visited Mecca, would on no
account stay behind at Kouka, but persisted in accompanying us,
for the express purpose of having his hand regularly dressed by
Dr. Oudney: he had been wounded by the accidental bursting of a gun;
he invariably pitched his tent close to that of the Doctor, whom he
always regarded with the utmost respect.
Dec. 15.—We started at seven o’clock. The road was the same we
had travelled on a former visit to Old Birnee. We were no longer
annoyed with the noise and confusion in pitching the tents, or with
the clamours of obstreperous camel drivers; which we had formerly
experienced when under the guidance of Boo Khaloom. The weather too
was clear, cool, and pleasant. A little after mid-day we halted at
the wells of Budjoo; distance, north-west by north, seventeen miles.
Dec. 16.—We met several kafilas from Gubsharee and the surrounding
country, going to Kouka. Their heavy goods were carried on bullocks;
the smaller packages, weighing from twenty to thirty pounds, were
borne on men’s heads. The bearers poise their burdens with much
dexterity and ease to themselves, by cords hanging from the sides
of the packages, which are carried lengthwise on the head; by this
simple contrivance they avoid the fatiguing posture of keeping the
arm raised. We halted about three o’clock in the afternoon.
We still pursued the Old Birnee road: we saw several of the large red
and white antelopes, called by the Arabs mohur. We encamped on the
margin of one of the lakes, formed by the overflowing of the Yow;
the river was only about a quarter of a mile distant from us, to
the north. It had now fallen fully six feet, and its current might
be about three miles an hour.
Dec. 18.—We travelled along the banks of a chain of small lakes
formed by the Yow, once, perhaps, its original channel. I observed,
by the roadside, the tracks of various wild animals,—among others
of the hippopotamus and lion. We passed one of the country fairs,
held on a small hill, near the ruins of a large town which had been
destroyed by the Felatahs. We halted at Damasak, near an encampment of
the sheikh’s cowherds; who, on hearing that we were in the kafila,
brought us an abundant supply of milk.
Dec. 19.—As the low grounds from Damasak to Mugabee, about ten
miles distant, were inundated, we were obliged to make a long
circuit by an upper road, frequently wading across hollows filled
with water. At noon we had to halt on the banks of one of those
temporary rivers which are formed during the wet season: it still
contained a considerable body of water, which was running at the
rate of about two miles an hour. We met here several kafilas of
loaded bullocks, on their way from Gubsharee and Soudan. The people
were busily floating their goods over the river on rafts, made of
bundles of reeds; but there being too few in number to transport
our baggage, it was necessary to make new rafts for ourselves. We
therefore pitched our tents; and one man was sent by each of the
Arab merchants to cut long reeds, which are readily made into rafts,
by lashing bundles of them across two long poles.
I proceeded two or three miles up the banks of the river, which last
summer did not contain a drop of water. The lower road certainly
exhibited the appearance of being overflowed during the rains;
but nobody, from merely seeing it in that state, could suppose
that for nearly one half of the year it is a broad sheet of water,
or that the upper road itself is traversed, for the same period,
by several large streams falling into the Yow. The ferry-dues, paid
to the people who swim over with the rafts, are a rotal for every
camel load of goods: the rotal is now merely nominal, and represents
a pound of copper, eight or ten of which are equivalent to a Spanish
dollar. The bullocks, horses, and camels, are made to swim over,
together with the negro slaves.
Dec. 20.—Hitherto the atmosphere had been clear and serene,
but to-day it became hazy, and was particularly cold about
day-break. Hadje Ali, the invalid alluded to, having a very large
raft, we ferried over our baggage upon it without the smallest
accident, by means of a rope fastened to each end. It was far
otherwise with the Arabs a little lower down the river; there was
nothing but hubbub and bustle among them: many, through ignorance or
obstinacy, had their goods much damaged. The greatest difficulty was
with the camels and female slaves; the women screamed and squalled
with great vehemence; several of the men seemed almost in as great a
panic as the ladies, especially those of Fezzan, none of whom could
swim; and some of them jumped off the raft into the water three or
four times, before they could muster courage to cross. The camels
occasioned a great deal of trouble, one man having to swim before
with the halter in his teeth, while another kept beating the animal
behind with a stick, which every now and then attempted to turn back,
or bobbed its head under water. Before all had crossed, it was too
late to continue our journey that day; we therefore encamped on the
west bank for the night.
Dec. 21.—We still travelled along the upper grounds, on account
of the extent of the inundation. Yet the earth itself was so dry,
that we were put in some slight danger by a kafila, near Old Birnee,
carelessly setting the grass on fire in the course of the night: the
fire advanced rapidly, like a sea of flame, and must have put us all
to flight had we not had the good fortune to obtain shelter within
the ruined walls of the city, which checked a little the progress
of the conflagration. We did not halt, however, but continued our
route to a town called Bera, on the banks of a beautiful lake,
likewise formed by the overflowing of the Yow. Immediately there
was quite a fair in our camp, the townswomen coming with gussule or
Guinea corn, bean straw, cashew nuts, and milk; which they offered
in exchange for glass beads and gubga, or native cloth. The beads
in greatest request are pretty large, of a chocolate colour, with
a small spiral white ring round the middle, and are called by the
natives conteembalee, or Muckni; the latter appellation is derived
from a sultan of Fezzan of that name, who was originally a merchant,
and first brought these beads into fashion. A single bead exchanged
for a quart of Guinea corn. The gubga is narrow cotton cloth, of
native manufacture, about a palm in width; forty fathoms of which
are usually valued at a dollar. The value of commodities in barter
seems to be maintained with a certain stability, somewhat like the
money rate of exchange in Europe, by fixing a local standard price
for those articles in greatest demand, in lieu of the fictitious par
of exchange, which, with us, powerfully influences and indirectly
regulates all money transactions.
Dec. 22.—We crossed over a neck of land formed by a bend of the
river to a town called Dugamoo, where we halted. The banks of the
river are every where studded with towns and villages.
Dec. 23.—The morning was cold. Dr. Oudney had been very unwell
during the night, and felt himself extremely weak. At eight o’clock
we left Dugamoo, and, following a winding path, nearly due west, we
reached Deltago, having passed a number of towns and villages, one
of which, called Kukabonee, was of considerable size, and contained
perhaps 5000 or 6000 inhabitants. The country to the west of Old
Birnee rises in gentle undulations of hill and dale. There are very
few trees, except on the banks of the Yow. The soil is chiefly a
red clay. The inhabitants raise great quantities of Guinea corn, and
beans something like calavances. We had a very plentiful market. The
people here preferred coral, and the beads called conteembalee,
in exchange for grain, &c. to native cloth. Gunpowder was much
sought after as a medicine. To-day we gave a sheep as a boozafer
or gift, by way of footing, which all pay who travel this way for
the first time; a practice akin to our usage on doubling capes, or
crossing the tropics and line. Cotton seed bruised is very much used
for feeding sheep, bullocks, asses, and camels. These animals soon
become extremely fond of it: it is an excellent food for fattening
them. In the evening gussule was sent for our horses and camels,
as had been done in the other towns: we passed as soon as the people
learned we were the friends of the sheikh.
Dec. 24.—Dr. Oudney felt himself much better. We halted to-day, on
account of one of the merchants’ camels falling lame; the owner was
obliged to send to Dugamor to buy another. The kafila kept a grand
boozafer day, and all merchant new-comers paid a dollar apiece, or
gave its value in goods.—Time is to these people of no importance:
whatever accidental occurrence takes place to detain them, they bear
the delay with perfect indifference.
Dec. 25.—The weather clear and cool. We left Deltago, and, winding
along the banks of the river, or occasionally cutting off a bend by
a cross path, we reached Bedeekarfee. There is more wood here than
we had yet seen, and the soil is still a strong red clay. Villages
and towns are numerous; the inhabitants principally belong to the
Alluanee tribe of Shouah Arabs. The town of Bedeekarfee is large and
populous. The governor, commonly called in this and other African
towns Sultan, although holding a subordinate command, had seen us when
we were on the expedition to Munga with the sheikh of Bornou. On
our arrival he came out to meet us, and gave us a very cordial
reception. He was an elderly man, much afflicted with a urinary
disorder, for which he consulted Dr. Oudney. His dwelling, large,
extremely clean, and constructed after the manner of the country,
consisted of a spacious quadrangular enclosure, surrounded with mats
fixed to high poles, within which were several small round huts,
also of matting, with thatched conical roofs, each surmounted by an
ostrich egg. In outward appearance, these huts somewhat resemble our
bee-hives. Their walls are frequently made of clay. The ostrich egg
is a distinctive mark of the occupant being a man of rank. The floor
inside is covered with sand; and the only furniture is a bench to
supply the place of a bedstead, and a few mats for squatting upon,
besides some carved or coloured gourds and wide-mouthed earthen
jars, piled above one another, and intended to combine ornament with
utility. There is but one opening or door-way, which is round at the
top, and closed by a wicket. The door always faces to the west, on
account of the prevailing rains coming from the opposite quarter. The
grand entrance of the enclosure is often a hut erected at the western
side of the square, with an open thoroughfare, where a black slave
officiates as porter. Each separate hut is called a coozee.
The Arab women of this place are really beautiful; they wear their
hair differently from their countrywomen elsewhere: the fashion of it
is such, that at a distance it might be mistaken for a helmet,—a
large braid on the crown having some semblance to a crest, and the
side tresses being neatly plaited and frizzled out at the ends. There
are also many women of Bornou among them, who imitate the same style.
Guinea fowls abound in this part of the country: I went out
after we halted, and shot five of them, besides a wild duck and a
quail. Mohamoud El Wordee, one of two Fezzanee merchants, to whom we
were particularly recommended by the sheikh of Bornou, and who had
always appeared to me to be a man of strong natural sense, was thrown
into a sad fright by losing a charm or amulet off his horse’s neck,
with a number of which almost all are equipped. This charm is nothing
more than a short sentence from the Koran. Had he lost an only child
he could scarcely have been more afflicted. I gave him a scrap of
paper to make another, which Hadje promised to write out for him.
Dec. 26.—This morning after sunrise, Fahrenheit’s thermometer
stood at 49°. The merchants were busily employed firing off their
guns and putting them in order for the Bedites, an ancient race of
native Bornouese, who have not embraced Islamism, and who occupy an
adjoining territory, chiefly protected by its natural fastnesses. They
are held both in dread and abhorrence by all the faithful. Every
thing being ready at eleven o’clock, we broke up our encampment. Our
kafila was now of an immense size. We had been joined at Bedeekarfee
by 500 people at least, who were waiting there for an Arab kafila to
pass through the Bedee country; for all Arabs are esteemed by the
natives here extremely formidable, as well from the possession of
fire arms, as from their national intrepidity. Their muskets, however,
in comparison of those of Europe, are of the meanest quality; and so
uncertain in their fire, that they are hardly worth more than their
weight as old iron. The courage, too, of most of these Arabs is very
questionable. When successful they are overbearing and cruel in the
extreme, and in bad fortune are in like degree servile and abject.
The natives of Haussa carry their merchandise on the head, and go
armed with bows and arrows. Those of Bornou convey their goods chiefly
on asses and bullocks, and are armed with spears. The Haussa merchants
deal in tobacco, Goora nuts, Koghelor or crude antimony, cotton cloth
in the web, or made into dresses called tobes and turkadees, and
tanned goat skins. Goora nuts are the produce of Ashantee and other
parts near the west, and are chewed by all people of consequence, on
account of their agreeable bitter taste, not unlike that of strong
coffee, and the supposed virtue of curing impotency. They are even
in great esteem as far as Fezzan and Tripoli, where they bring the
exorbitant price of two dollars a score. Crude antimony in powder
is applied by both sexes to the eye-lashes, to render them dark and
glossy. Native cloth, or gubga, as before mentioned, is extremely
narrow, seldom more than four inches in width. The tobe is a large
shirt with loose hanging sleeves like a waggoner’s frock, generally
of a dark blue colour, and is an indispensable part of male attire
throughout central Africa. The turkadees are articles of female dress,
commonly of blue cotton cloth, about three yards and a half long and
one broad. Sometimes they are made of alternate stripes of blue and
white (of the breadth of African cloth), or are all white, according
to fancy. Women of better circumstances commonly wear two turkadees,
one round the waist, and another thrown over the shoulders. These
articles are bartered in Bornou for trona or natron, common salt
and beads; which, together with coarse tobes, are also carried by
Bornouese adventurers to Haussa. Our road lay over an elevated clayey
plain, with low trees, most of them mimosas. We passed the ruins of
several towns, and such of our travelling companions as were best
acquainted with the country informed us it was well peopled before
the Felatah invasion. At sunset we halted, being already in the
Bedee country.
Dec. 27.—The temperature this morning was remarkably low, and the
water in our shallow vessels was crusted with thin flakes of ice. The
water skins themselves were frozen as hard as a board[65]. These
water skins, by the way, are goat skins, well tanned and seasoned,
stripped from the carcass over the animal’s head. They are extremely
convenient on a tedious journey over arid wastes and deserts. The
horses and camels stood shivering with cold, and appeared to suffer
much more than ourselves. The wind during the night was, as usual,
from the north, and north-north-west. Dr. Oudney was extremely ill,
having become much worse from catching a severe cold. We now travelled
south-south-west, over a country of much the same kind of soil as
that above described. As we approached the low grounds it was better
wooded, and the trees were of greater size and variety. Of these,
the most remarkable were the kuka and the goorjee.
The kuka is of immense size, erect and majestic; sometimes measuring
from twenty to twenty-five feet in circumference. The trunk and
branches taper off to a point, and are incrusted with a soft, glossy,
copper-coloured rind, not unlike a gummy exudation. The porous spongy
trunk is straight, but the branches are twisted and tortuous. The
leaves are small, somewhat like the young ash, but more pulpy, and
growing in clusters from the extremities of the lesser twigs. The
tree is in full leaf and blossom during the rainy months of June,
July, and August. The flowers are white, large, and pendulous,
somewhat resembling the white garden lily. The fruit hangs by a
long stalk, and is of an oval shape, generally larger than a cocoa
nut, with a hard shell full of a powdery matter, intermixed with
reddish strings and tamarind-like seeds. In its unripe state it is
of a beautiful velvety dark green colour, and becomes brown as it
approaches maturity. The tree, whether bare of its leaves, in flower,
or in full bearing, has a singularly grotesque naked appearance; and,
with its fruit dangling from the boughs like silken purses, might,
in the imagination of some Eastern story-teller, well embellish an
enchanted garden of the Genius of the Lamp. The leaves are carefully
gathered by the natives, dried in the sun, and used for many culinary
purposes. Boiled in water they form a kind of clammy jelly, giving
a gelatinous consistence to the sauces and gravies in most common
use. I have also eaten them boiled with dried meat, according to the
custom of the country, but did not much relish such fare. Both leaves
and fruit are considered, to a certain degree, medicinal. The leaves,
mixed with trona and gussub, are given to horses and camels, both for
the purpose of fattening these animals, and as a cooling aperient:
they are administered to the former in balls, and to the latter
as a drench. The white mealy part of the fruit is very pleasant to
the taste, and forms, with water, an agreeable acidulous beverage;
which the natives, whose libidinous propensities incline them to
such remarks, allege to possess the virtue of relieving impotency.
The goorjee tree much resembles a stunted oak, with a beautiful
dark red flower, when in full blow rather like a tulip. The natives
make use of the flower to assist in giving a red tinge to the mouth
and teeth, as well as in seasoning their food. These two trees are
generally found on a strong clayey soil, and are peculiar to Haussa
and the western parts of Bornou.
At noon, we came in sight of a lake called Tumbum, apparently formed
by some river in the rainy season. All the country to the southward
and westward, as far as the eye could reach, was a dismal swamp. Just
as we arrived within a short distance of the lake,—at the very
spot in which of all others the Arabs said we were most likely to
encounter the Bedites,—two men made their appearance. They were
dressed in the Bornouese costume; a loose tobe and drawers, with a
tight cap, all of blue cotton cloth. Each carried on his shoulder
a bundle of light spears, headed with iron. I was a little way in
front of our party, and first met them; they saluted me very civilly,
and I passed on without further notice, when the other horsemen
meeting them, and putting some questions, which the strangers did
not answer to their satisfaction, immediately seized, stripped, and
bound them. Considering it a matter in which I had no authority to
interfere, I merely requested that their drawers might be returned
to them, remarking, it was better not to treat them ill, as they
might prove to be honest men. “Oh! d——n their fathers,” (the
strongest imprecation in Africa), replied the captors, “they are
thieves; what would they be doing here if they were honest men?”
I still urged the propriety of taking them to Bedeguna, at least,
to afford them a chance of being recognised by the townspeople,
before treating them as robbers. I now rode off to water my horse;
when I returned, I found the magnanimous El Wordee guarding the two
unfortunate wretches, one of whom was a Shouah Arab, and the other a
Negro. The latter, while I was absent, had received a dreadful cut
under the left ear from a Bornouese, who pretended that the Negro
had attempted to escape; an attempt little likely in his desperate
situation. Notwithstanding the wound, they were leading the poor
fellow by a rope fastened round his neck. He was covered with blood,
and Dr. Oudney assured me, if the wound had been a little lower
down it must have caused instant death. I could not refrain from
beating the merciless Bornouese; and I obliged him to use his own
tobe in binding up the wound, at the same time threatening to lodge
the contents of my gun in his head, if he repeated his cruelty. The
occasion prompted me to impress on the minds of the Arabs generally
how unworthy it was of brave men to behave with cruelty to their
prisoners, and to suggest, that it would be far better to sell
them, or even to put them to death, than wantonly to inflict such
barbarities. The Arabs threw the blame on the Bornouese, and although
evidently exulting in secret over their captives, they were fairly
shamed into good behaviour, and promised to liberate the men if
innocent, or, if guilty, to surrender them to justice at Bedeguna.
Our road skirted the border of the great swamp, and we arrived at
Bedeguna at sunset. The galadema, literally “gate-keeper,” or
governor, was a Felatah, and a particular friend of Mohamoud El
Wordee, by whom we were introduced to him. He was tall and slender,
with a high arched nose, broad forehead, and large eyes; and, indeed,
altogether as fine a looking black man as I had ever seen. His
behaviour, too, was at once kind and dignified. Besides his native
language, he spoke with fluency Arabic, and the tongues of Bornou
and Haussa. He asked us a great many questions about England, of
which he had heard; and said his master, the Sultan of the Felatahs,
would be glad to see us. He applied to Dr. Oudney for medicines,
on account of a urinary obstruction, a disease very prevalent in
this country. We made him a present of a small paper snuff-box full
of cloves; he sent us, in return, a plentiful supply of milk.
The territory of Bedeguna, or little Bede, formerly belonged
to Bornou. The inhabitants are Bornouese, and speak their native
language. The territory includes many towns and villages, and produces
much gussub, Indian corn, wheat, and cotton. Herds of cattle are
also numerous. The principal implement of agriculture is a hoe made
of native iron, of their own manufacture. They reap with a crooked
knife, and merely cut off the ears of corn, which they store in round
thatched huts of clay, or matting, raised on wooden blocks from the
ground. The grain is cleaned from the husk by hand rubbing, and ground
into flour between two stones. We saw no plough to the southward of
Sockna, a town between Tripoli and Fezzan. I inquired of the governor
about the source of the swollen river we crossed on a raft between
Gateramaran and old Birnee, which again presented itself close to
our present encampment. He told me it rose in the country of Yacoba,
among rocky hills, and, running to the eastward of old Birnee, soon
afterwards entered the Yow. On questioning him further about Yacoba,
the name of the country, he said it was the sultan’s name; for
the people were infidels, and had no name for their own country. The
river, he added, was distinguished by the appellation of the Little
River, and in these parts did not dry up throughout the whole year.
The country to the south-east and south-west appears to be an entire
swamp, overflowed of course in the rainy season. Felatahs are in
features, and in the manner of wearing the turban, very like the
inhabitants of Tetuan in Morocco. They are here much esteemed by the
people whom they rule for the impartial administration of justice,
and were uniformly kind and civil to us. Our two prisoners happened
to be well known, having only left the town that morning. They were
accordingly liberated, but their clothes were not restored.
We were not a little indebted to the Arab merchants for the good name
they gave us. They almost looked upon us as of their own nation; and
although Kafirs, we, as Englishmen, were allowed to rank at least
next to themselves. I really believe they would have risked their
lives in our defence. Travelling in a kafila was much more pleasant
than any mode we had hitherto tried; all being ready to oblige one
another, and all vying in attention to us. The lake Zumbrum is about
twelve miles south-south-west from Bedeguna.
Dec. 28.—At sunrise to-day the thermometer was at 45°. Our new
friend, the governor, accompanied us two or three miles out of
town. At parting he prayed God to bless us; and, laying his hand on
his forehead, said he hoped we should ever continue friends. The
road at first followed the borders of the marsh, by the side of
the Little River, which suddenly breaks off to the southward, at a
town called Goobeer. There we filled our goat skins with water. We
continued our course, and shortly came to a strong red clay soil,
densely covered with grass so long that it actually overtopped our
heads, although on horseback. At sunset we halted in the woods for
the night. The horses and beasts of burden were last watered, when
we filled our water skins. Dr. Oudney was attacked with ague, but
luckily the evening proved very mild. For two or three nights past he
has had a fire in his tent, which seemed to abate the violence of his
cough. This evening, addressing me with resigned composure, he said,
“I feel it is all over with me. I once hoped to conduct the mission
to a successful termination, but that hope has vanished. Whenever
my death takes place, I wish my papers to be put into the hands of
Mr. Barrow, or Professor Jameson, provided the request meets with Earl
Bathurst’s approbation.” As this was a painful subject, I did
not encourage its renewal, and, according to this solemn injunction
of my lamented friend, I have delivered all his papers to Mr. Barrow.
Dec. 29.—After toiling two hours through a thickly wooded country,
we came in view of a large plain, with numerous towns and villages. We
found the towns by no means so neat as in Bornou, the coozees,
or huts, being much smaller, and often in bad repair. The people
raise great quantities of grain, principally gussub. We saw five
ostriches, which made off from us with great speed. Dr. Oudney was
a great deal better. In the afternoon we arrived at Sansan. Our
horsemen skirmished a little in front of the caravan before entering
the town, and then galloped up in pairs to the governor’s door,
firing off their muskets. This is the common compliment paid by
kafilas in such cases. The governor was absent on an expedition,
headed by the governor of Katagum, against the Bedites, who are in
the immediate neighbourhood. As before observed, the Bedites have
never received the doctrines of Mahomet; and, although speaking the
language of Bornou, and acknowledging a kind of nominal sovereignty
of the Bornouese sultan, they are every where regarded as a race of
outlaws, whom it is incumbent on every good Mussulman, Bornouese, or
Felatah, to enslave or murder. This race is said to have no religion;
but their common practice of first holding up to heaven the carcass
of any animal, killed for food, belies their being atheists—a
reproach attributed to them solely by their enemies. On the contrary,
it harmonizes with those universal feelings of reverence and awe
for a Supreme Being, which have ever existed among all nations,
and in all ages. The favourite food of this persecuted tribe is
said to be dogs, which they fatten for the purpose. Their country
is of small extent, defended by impenetrable morasses and forests,
by which alone they preserve a precarious and dangerous independence.
At Sansan we were waited upon by the principal native inhabitants,
and the resident Arabs. Among the Arabs there was a cousin of
the sheikh of Bornou, Hadje El Min El Hanem. The reports of our
travelling companions, the merchants, contributed very much to exalt
our character wherever we went.
Dec. 30.—At noon I found the latitude of our encampment to be 12°
20′ 48″ north by meridian alt. of lower limb of sun. Sansan in
Arabic signifies “the gathering,” where the scattered parties of
an army assemble previous to an expedition. The town had its name
from a late sultan of Bornou, making it the rendezvous of his army
when he went to conquer Haussa. The place where he pitched his tent is
still held in great veneration, and the buildings around it were first
erected by his army. The neighbouring district also abounds in towns
and villages, which, together with Bedeguna and Sansan, are under
the governor of Katagum, who is himself subordinate to the governor
of Kano. Sansan is formed of three distinct towns, called Sansan
Birnee, Sidi Boori, and Sansan Bana. The principal one, in which
the governor resides, is Sansan Birnee, or Sansan Gora, signifying
“the walled,” from a low clay wall in ruins, surrounded by a dry
ditch almost filled up. The mosque is without a roof, and the huts
and houses of the inhabitants are old and dilapidated. Sidi Boori,
another of the three towns, having a signification so indecent that
I must forbear to translate it, is about half a mile west of Sansan
Birnee, and inhabited by Shauah Arabs. The third town, called Sansan
Bana, or, “of the banners,” where the sultan’s tent stood,
is about a mile distant from Sansan Birnee, and is inhabited by
Bornouese, who are here in great numbers, and were first brought by
force from Old Birnee, and other towns of Bornou. At present they
are quite reconciled to the change, and now remain from choice.
The sister of the sultan of Bornou, having been made captive by
the Felatahs, was living here with her husband in great obscurity,
although her brother, the sultan, is surrounded by all the barbaric
magnificence of central Africa. She came out to meet the kafila,
along with several of her countrywomen, from whom she was nowise
distinguished in attire. The dress of Bornouese women consists of one
or two turkadees, blue, white, or striped, as before described. The
turkadee is wrapped rather tightly round the body, and hangs down from
the bosom, below the knees. If a second is worn, as by women of some
consideration, it is commonly flung over the head and shoulders. Their
sandals are the same as those of men, of tanned leather, or of the
undressed hide, according to their circumstances. The hair is plaited
in five close tresses,—one like a crest along the crown, and two at
each side, and thickly bedaubed with indigo. They dye their eyebrows,
hands, arms, feet, and legs of the same colour, except the nails of
the fingers and toes and the palms of the hands, which are stained
red with henna. They blacken the eyelashes with crude antimony
in powder. The ornaments for the ear are not pendent like ours,
but little green studs, or buttons, fixed in the lobe. The very
poorest wear strings of glass beads round the neck, and the wealthy
are adorned with armlets and anklets of horn or brass. Ornaments of
silver are very rare, and of gold hardly ever seen.
Dec. 31.—At sunrise the thermometer was 42°. Being market day,
I took a stroll to see what was going on. The market-place was on a
rising ground, a little to the south of Sansan Birnee. The place of
itself is a little village. The goods were exposed for sale in booths,
or houses, open at the side next the street. The different wares were
arranged each in its particular quarter,—knives, scissors, needles,
and beads; silken cords and pieces of silk; sword slings and koghel
cases; gubga tobes and turkadoes; beef, mutton, and fowls; gussub,
beans, Indian corn, &c. They have four different kinds of Indian
corn,—the yellow, the red, the white, and the Egyptian. The last is
reckoned the best. There were stalls, besides, for making and mending
every thing in common use. Bands of music, composed of drums, flutes,
and a kind of guitar, with strings of horsehair, called the Erbale,
each after its own rude fashion, were parading from booth to booth,
to attract the attention of customers.
Jan. 1, 1824.—Dr. Oudney was now very unwell. This morning we had
a visit from an ex-governor, of the name of Jesus, who had left the
army last night. He told us the commanders would to-day commence
their return to their different governments, as they were unable
to penetrate into the Bede territory. This person gave us several
broad hints to make him a present; but we found ourselves too poor
to understand him. At eight o’clock in the morning we resumed our
journey, over a level country. The winding road was little broader
than a footpath. We passed numerous small towns and villages, with
plantations of cotton, gussub, and Indian corn. There was more wood
as we re-approached the Yow, and the villages and cotton plantations
were also more numerous. We halted at a village called Obenda, not
above a quarter of a mile distant from the Yow. We could procure no
milk for Dr. Oudney, and his appetite was much worse. We had nothing
but kouskasoo and dweeda. The former is a well known preparation of
wheaten flour steamed over meat, and in very general use among the
Moors and Arabs. The dweeda is also of wheaten flour, and a kind of
coarse macaroni.
Jan. 2.—Dr. Oudney was this morning in a very weak state. I bought
a pound of coffee for three dollars from one of the merchants of
our kafila, as a cup of coffee was all that he could take. To-day we
followed a very troublesome zigzag track, for regular road there was
none. We passed many villages, adjoining to which were long double
rows of granaries. At first we were much puzzled with the novelty
of their appearance; but on a closer examination we found they
were constructed of matting in the usual way, and raised on poles
to prevent white ants and grubs from getting at the grain. Near
the Yow there were large fields of wheat, and plantations of
cotton. The people were then raising the second crop of wheat,
by means of irrigation.
A little before mid-day we crossed the Yow. Its channel is here
about 150 yards in breadth; but the stream of water was almost
dry. In order to take fish, the river was barricadoed by a row of
fish-pots, made of split bamboos. They are of a conical shape, about
five feet in diameter at the mouth, and secured by poles and spars
at the distance of three feet from one another, the interval being
filled up with reeds to prevent the escape of fish. At this period
not more than a third of the aperture was covered with water. The
city of Katagum stands about half a mile from the river, which we
had no sooner crossed than we were met by a servant of the governor
on horseback. He presented us with a small basket of Goora nuts,
called, by the Arabs, the coffee of Soudan. After delivering the
present, the servant returned at full speed to a party of horsemen
at a little distance, who appeared to be the attendants of some
great personage. The party then came to us at a gallop, brandishing
their spears. Their leader remained behind, as well as their band of
music. The horsemen, after saluting us, wheeled round, and rode on
before us, the drummers beating their drums, and two bards singing
the praises of their master in the following ditty, which I took
down in writing; one responding in a clear shrill voice the words
of the chorus, while the other sang, or rather bawled aloud:—
Bi, kora, nama, da birkin safay:
Ah! mi tuga yumma.
Bokri mi tugiamasso:
Ah! mi tuga yumma.
Manoganinka wykigani:
Ah! mi tuga yumma.
My daikee ya fruss undunga:
Ah! mi tuga yumma.
Fuda da goma baka soranko.
Ah! mi tuga yumma.
Kazibda goma bindiga da bia:
Ah! mi tuga yumma.
Gewa nagege avana do dona:
Ah! mi tuga yumma.
Camaraka hamen sirkino:
Ah! mi tuga yumma.
Girtho magaje wali:
Ah! mi tuga yumma.
Allahu Akber you do dona:
Ah! mi tuga yumma.
Allahu Akber you Zaramina:
Ah! mi tuga yumma.
Which may be thus translated:—
Give flesh to the hyenas at day-break:
Oh! the broad spears.
The spear of the sultan is the broadest:
Oh! the broad spears.
I behold thee now—I desire to see none other.
Oh! the broad spears.
My horse is as tall as a high wall:
Oh! the broad spears.
He will fight against ten, he fears nothing:
Oh! the broad spears.
He has slain ten—the guns are yet behind:
Oh! the broad spears.
The elephant of the forest brings me what I want:
Oh! the broad spears.
Like unto thee—so is the sultan:
Oh! the broad spears.
Be brave! be brave! my friends and kinsmen:
Oh! the broad spears.
God is great!—I wax fierce as a beast of prey:
Oh! the broad spears.
God is great!—To-day those I wished for are come:
Oh! the broad spears.
Meanwhile, the leader with his horsemen proceeded before us to
the city. We halted at a place allotted to us and the Arabs, the
Bornouese having left us to pursue their journey, as the dangers
of the road were past. About three in the afternoon, we saw the
governor, with all his attendants, coming to visit us. Mohamoud
El Wordee had mats spread under a tree for his reception, and
requested us to remain a few minutes in our tents. When sent for,
we found the governor sitting on the mats, surrounded by the Arab
merchants and his armed attendants. He received us in the kindest
manner, and said it was quite an ayd, or feast, for him to see us,
and would also prove highly gratifying to his master, the Sultan of
the Felatahs, who had never seen an Englishman before. He assured
us, we should find every thing here the same as at Kouka, with the
sheikh of Bornou. Dr. Oudney now presented the sheikh’s letter,
which he handed to one of his attendants. The Arab merchants were
loud in our praises, and particularly expatiated on the circumstance
of our nation being ever in strict alliance with the Sublime Porte,
and of having frequently assisted the Grand Signor. The governor, who
was named Duncowa, was a stout, tall fellow, blunt and good natured,
and lavish in his promises. We shook hands at parting, which is the
custom of the Felatahs, or Felanees, as they call themselves. On his
return home he sent us some wheat, of which we were in great want,
with honey, and Goora nuts. By the advice of Mohamoud El Wordee, we
sent a present of a few cloves, and a little cinnamon, in return;
which, however small, is every where the proper acknowledgment on
such occasions. On account of the scantiness of our own stock of
every thing, we now heartily wished for no more presents.
After the governor left us, we were waited upon by a Tripoline
merchant, of the name of Hameda, a good-looking, civil sort of
man, and extremely rich. He possessed no less than five hundred
slaves, and had a great number of horses. He was second only to the
governor in all Katagum, and had served with the Felatahs in most
of their wars. Referring to the result of the recent expedition,
I remarked it would have been better if the Felatahs had not gone
at all against the Bedites, who would now be emboldened in their
depredations. He replied, the Felatahs had become rich, and were now
afraid of blows: it was otherwise with them when poor; their head
men then led them to battle, dauntlessly braving danger and death,
whereas now-a-days their chiefs lagged behind, and sent their people
forward to the combat, who, in turn, dreaded a broken head as much as
their superiors, and would no longer fight, if it might anywise be
avoided.—Hameda had occasion to consult Dr. Oudney, who strongly
recommended his immediate return to Tripoli, to undergo a surgical
operation. He seemed very grateful, and offered us his house, and
whatever the country afforded. He sent milk for Dr. Oudney, and
bazeen, or flour-pudding, for me. Bazeen is made of wheat, barley,
or Guinea corn, and eaten with butter or sauce.
Dr. Oudney underwent here, as usual, much fatigue,—more, indeed,
than his strength was equal to; for the news of our arrival spread
before us, and at the different towns and villages through which we
passed, they brought to us all the sick to be cured. Nor was it the
sick alone who sought advice, but men and women, of all descriptions;
the former for some remedy against impotency, and the latter to remove
sterility. Many came for preventives against apprehended or barely
possible calamities; and, in anticipation of all the imaginable
ills of life, resorted to us in full hope and confidence of our
being able to ward them off. The women were particularly fanciful in
these matters, and were frequently importunate to receive medicines
that would preserve the affections of their gallants, ensure them
husbands, or, what was highly criminal, effect the death of some
favoured rival. The governor made us a present of three sheep,
and sent the Arab merchants eight bullocks.
Jan. 3.—Dr. Oudney was a little better, but still very weak. Having
early prepared our presents, which consisted of one of our tea-trays,
ten yards of red silk, an Indian palempore, or bed coverlet, a piece
of white linen cloth, with gold stripes, of Egyptian manufacture, a
pound of cinnamon, and a pound of cloves, we waited on the governor at
eight o’clock in the morning, accompanied by Mohamoud El Wordee. We
stopped about a quarter of an hour in the house of Hameda, till the
governor was ready to receive us. When introduced, we found no parade
of armed men, as at Kouka, and the other towns in Bornou. Duncowa
was sitting under a rude canopy, on a low bank of earth about six
feet square. There were only three old men with him. We shook hands,
and sat down on the floor before him. He importunately laid hold
of me, and wished me to sit by his side. I, however, declined so
high an honour. We were presented with Goora nuts, and he repeated
the promises he had made yesterday. When we displayed our presents,
and explained the use of the tray, and what it was made of, he was
highly delighted; and asked us if we wanted slaves, or what else,
for every thing he had or could procure was at our disposal. With
regard to slaves, we told him a slave was unknown in England, and
the moment one set foot on our shores, he was instantly free. We also
explained our great endeavours to put a stop to the slave trade on the
seacoast, and that our king and master (to use the African idiom) had
given immense sums to have it abolished; besides sending, every year,
several large ships to capture vessels engaged in that traffic, and to
set the slaves at liberty. “What, then, do you want?” he asked,
with some surprise. We answered, we only desired his friendship,
and condescending permission to collect the flowers and plants of
the country, and to visit its rivers. “Wonderful!” he exclaimed,
“you do not want slaves, you do not want horses, you do not want
money, but wish only to see the world? You must go to the sultan
Bello, who is a learned and pious man, and will be glad to see men
who have seen so much. You shall have all, and see all, that is in my
province; and I am sure my master will grant every thing you wish.”
He then descended from the seat of honour, sat down on the floor by
our side, and shook hands with us. This is the greatest compliment
one man of rank can pay to another in this country.
One of their lucky omens took place at the moment. My servant,
who had assisted in bringing the presents, got up to receive the
Goora nuts presented to me by the governor’s orders, and in rising
he overturned a pot of honey which had also been given to us, but
without breaking it, the honey running out on the floor. Had the
pot been broken, the omen would have been unfortunate. As it was,
the governor was highly elated, and graciously ordered the poor
to be called in to lick up the honey. They immediately made their
appearance, equally rejoiced at the lucky omen, and upon their
knees quickly despatched the honey, not without much strife and
squabbling. One man came off with a double allowance, happening to
have a long beard, which he carefully cleaned into his hand for a
_bonne bouche_, after the repast on the ground was finished.
We took leave of the governor and returned to our tents, where a great
concourse of men and women flocked to Dr. Oudney for medicines. In the
evening we had boiled dried meat, with bazeen, and excellent bread,
sent us by our friend Hameda; also milk from the governor, and a
live sheep from a black shreef, who had applied to Dr. Oudney for
advice. To-day the Doctor felt himself very weak, in consequence of a
diarrhœa, and the want of proper comforts in his infirm condition. At
noon I took an observation of the sun. At first the natives eagerly
crowded round me, but sat down very quietly at a little distance,
on telling them they were in my way. I was asked the old question
every where repeatedly, if I was looking at my country. I explained
to them, as well as I was able, that I merely ascertained in this
manner how far south I had come from home.
Jan. 4th.—The weather cold and hazy,—thermometer 48°. Mohamoud
El Wordee having gone to a city called Hadeeja, one day’s journey
to the northward, where he was to remain a day or two, it was agreed
beforehand we should go into the town and live in Hameda’s house
until El Wordee’s return, as the kafila was to proceed to Kano the
following day. At sunrise the governor sent to us to come into town,
but on account of Dr. Oudney’s illness, we waited till the heat of
the day. About noon we had the camels loaded, and Dr. Oudney and I
rode forward, accompanied by the governor’s people and Hadje ben
Hamed, the sheikh of the kafila, or chief who regulates its march,
stage, and route. On entering the town, we were conducted to a house
that adjoined Hameda’s, which we supposed to be his. The people
around us, after consulting together, told us we had better go and see
the governor. Dr. Oudney assented, but wished first to wait for our
baggage. The people, however, urged us to go without further delay;
and we complied with their entreaties. The governor met us at the
gate of his residence, took us by the hand, and led us first to one
coozee, then to another, saying, “This is for you,—that is for
the Doctor,—there is a place for your horses.” Seating himself
on a mat, he bade us sit down. Our baggage was brought to us in a
few minutes. “Abdullah,” said he, addressing me by my travelling
name, “show me the glass with which you look at the sun.” It
seemed the people had told him what they saw me doing yesterday. I
had now to explain to him the use of my compass, sextant, spy-glass,
and other instruments. He begged of me a little of the quicksilver
used for an artificial horizon in taking observations. This was like
asking me to part with my heart’s blood; but as he was a governor,
and evidently a man of considerable influence, I could not refuse
him. I took much pains to make him understand the use of the watch
and sextant. I easily made him comprehend the latter, by telling him
it was to enable me to find out the distance north or south, from any
other place: illustrating the matter, by telling him the north star
was higher in the heavens at Mourzuk than here, and still higher at
Tripoli; a circumstance the natives of these countries all confirmed,
to whom I shifted the trouble of making further explanations. The
telescope next was an object of surprise. He said all the places
he saw were brought near to him, and ascended the walls and house
tops to have a better view. Each of his attendants also had a peep;
but an old shreef would on no account look through it, but ran away
as if from a serpent ready to sting him. As to these shreefs, or
alleged descendants of the Prophet, some of whom are as black as
jet, I wonder what Mahomet, were he to rise from the dead, would
say to his sable progeny, not merely black in colour, but with the
true Negro features! The phenomenon, however, is less wonderful,
when we consider how soon an intermixture, whether black or white,
is lost in the course of a few generations, although the lineal
descent continue uninterrupted.
We received a plentiful supply of provisions from Hameda. The governor
also sent us fish and ficcory. The latter consists of pounded Guinea
corn dried in the sun, mixed with water or milk, and seasoned with
pepper, but has a sour, disagreeable taste.
Katagum, the capital of a province of the same name, is in lat. 12°
17′ 11″ north, and in long. about 11° east. This province formed
the frontier of Bornou before the Felatah conquest. At present it
includes the subject provinces of Sansan and Bedeguna. It extends
nearly one day’s journey to the northward, and five days’ journey
to the southward, where it is bounded by an independent territory,
called after the inhabitants Kurry-kurry. On the east it is bounded by
the kingdom of Bornou, and on the west by the neighbouring province
of Kano. From the best information I could obtain, the whole province
can send into the field about 4,000 horse and 20,000 foot, armed with
bows, swords, and spears. The principal productions are grain and
bullocks, which, with slaves brought from the adjoining territories of
the Kafirs, are the staple articles of trade. Here we found, for the
first time, kowrie shells in circulation as money; for hitherto native
cloth, or some other commodity of standard price, had been the common
medium of exchange. This city was the strongest we had seen since
we left Tripoli. It is in the form of a square, the sides facing the
cardinal points of the compass, with four corresponding gates, which
are regularly opened and shut at sunrise and sunset. It is defended by
two parallel walls of red clay, and three dry ditches, one without,
one within, and the third between the two walls, which are about
twenty feet high and ten feet broad at the base, gradually decreasing
upwards to a breadth just sufficient for a narrow footpath. This is
protected by a low parapet, and is ascended by flights of steps at
convenient distances. Both walls are of the same height, without
loopholes or towers, and, instead of being crenelated, terminate
in a waving line. The gates are defended by a platform inside over
the entrance, where a body of townsmen take their station to repel
assailants. The three ditches are of equal dimensions, each about
fifteen feet deep and twenty feet wide. There is only one mosque,
and this almost in ruins. The governor’s residence is in the centre
of the city, and occupies a space of about 500 yards square. The
governor and principal inhabitants have houses made entirely of
clay, besides the coozees already described. They are flat-roofed,
in the Turkish style, and sometimes of two stories, with square
or semicircular openings for windows. The city may contain from
7,000 to 8,000 inhabitants; including all merchants and tradesmen,
together with the servants or slaves of the governor.
Not far to the southward of Katagum is the country of Yacoba, of
which I shall mention a few particulars, collected from natives who
were here in slavery, as well as from Hameda. It is called by the
Mahometan nations Boushy, or country of infidels. It is extremely
hilly: the hills, consisting of limestone, are said to yield antimony
and silver. The inhabitants have received the name of Yemyems,
or cannibals; but with what justice I know not. Most probably the
imputation is an idle Arab tale, and undoubtedly the more suspicious,
from the well known Moslem abhorrence of Kafirs. On interrogating
the Arabs more strictly, they allowed they had never witnessed the
fact; but affirmed they had seen human heads and limbs hung up in
the dwellings of the inhabitants. At Mourzuk, when we first arrived,
a similar report was circulated to our defamation; whether in jest
or earnest, I could not ascertain; but the prejudice soon wore off
when we were better known.
The river Yow, which is within a quarter of a mile of Katagum, is said
to take its rise to the southward among the hills of Boushy, between
Adamowa and Jacoba, and after passing Katagum, to turn abruptly to the
eastward; it finally empties itself into the Tshad. Its waters were
dull and sluggish, as far as we observed; and during the middle of the
dry season the naked channel and a few pools of water, sometimes far
apart, are all that remain of the river. The breadth of the channel,
at the place where we last crossed, was, as above mentioned, about
150 yards; and this may be taken as a fair average breadth from
that spot downwards as far as the lake, where, however, the depth
seemed considerably increased. There is a prevalent opinion among
the inhabitants and Arab merchants that, during the rainy season,
the waters of this river rise and fall alternately every seven days;
which notion, perhaps, originates in a kind of vicissitude in the fall
of rain that I have remarked myself during my residence in Bornou.
Jan. 5.—Dr. Oudney thought himself a little better, but the
diarrhœa still continued. The kafila left us this morning for
Kano. We had a visit from the governor; I happened to be from home,
and was sent for. On my return the governor was gone, and had left a
message for me to follow him with the compass, spy-glass, &c. as he
wished me to show them to some men of rank: I followed, and found
him seated in the company of two or three Felatahs, to whom I had
to explain the use of the instruments over again; but a good deal
of trouble was taken off my hands by the governor himself, and his
Fezzanee servants. I was then taken to visit his favourite wife,
who pretended, of course, to be much frightened at the sight of a
Christian; she was a jolly, good looking, black wench. The governor
had a great number of other women besides, whose dwellings were all
very clean and neat. I was next conducted through other quarters of
the residence; and, on reaching the stables, we all sat down in an
open court, where the cadi and another learned Felatah joined us. The
same explanations had again to be repeated. The cadi, who had made the
pilgrimage of Mecca, and was acquainted with Arabic learning, appeared
to be a man of sense and discernment, and explained the use of the
watch to his countrymen with much perspicuity; he was a Felatah, about
fifty years of age,—his complexion coal black,—with a hook nose,
large eyes, and a full bushy beard. The office of cadi or judge,
I may remark, is frequently hereditary, and there is one in every
town to administer justice: his sole qualification is a competent
knowledge of the Koran, although his decisions can be reversed only
by the governor of the province, or the sultan of the country.
The governor resides in a large square, surrounded by a wall of red
clay, at least thirty feet high, and divided by lower walls into
four principal quarters: besides several flat-roofed houses of clay,
it contained a number of coozees, for the most part ranged in a single
row, just within the great walls. These are principally for the slaves
and guards attached to the governor’s establishment; it was here
we were lodged, the entrance being guarded night and day. Near the
eastern gate there was a sort of council or audience hall, from which
a passage led to the women’s apartments, on the north side of the
square. The stables occupied one quarter, each horse having a hut to
itself. The pillars that supported a room over the western gate were
superior to any I had seen in central Africa; they were formed of the
trunks of the palm tree, fashioned into columns, with rude pedestals
and capitals of no inelegant appearance, all incrusted with clay.
Jan. 6.—Dr. Oudney was much better to-day. In the afternoon we
had a visit from the governor: I had again to show him the sextant
and other instruments. He was particularly inquisitive about the
rockets we had given to the sheikh of Bornou; he persisted we had
still some of them remaining, and when convinced of the contrary,
seemed exceedingly desirous I should make him a few. I assured him,
with regret, of my inability; while I professed it to be an express
duty imposed on me by the king my master, to instruct him and his
countrymen in every thing useful and curious. Among many other
questions, he asked me if I ever prayed; I said, I should not be
a good man if I did not pray, but that we usually prayed alone:
at which answer he was highly amused.
Hadje Ali Boo Khaloom (the brother of the late commander of our
escort from Mourzuk) arrived here to-day, with a kafila from Kouka:
they left that place seven days after us. I heartily wished never
to see the face of this arrant rogue.
Jan. 7.—The governor paid us an early visit this morning; he came
at once into my tent, while I was writing, and I was again obliged
to show him my instruments. On opening my chest, there was a small
box of powder I had brought from England, still untouched; I was
very loth to tell him what it was, but it attracted his attention,
and I was compelled to yield to his solicitations for a small
supply. To humour him further, I attended him to fire at a mark;
I fired twice with my rifle, and happened to hit the mark both
times, at a distance of sixty or seventy yards, when he called out
“Ouda billa min Sheateen a rajeem,”—“The Lord preserve me
from devils!” yet, in token of his approbation, he threw over my
shoulders, with his own hands, a very handsome tobe.
Jan. 8.—I was indisposed all day, having caught cold.
Jan. 9.—This morning Hadje Ali Boo Khaloom left us for Kano. He
tried all in his power to induce us to accompany him, but we knew
him too well of old: he even asked the governor to send one of his
people with him, but was only laughed at for his assurance.
Our servants caught a female rat, or bandicoot, as it is called in
the East Indies, which measured two feet seven inches from the nose
to the tip of the tail. The colour of the body was light grey, the
tail black, and covered with long hairs, and the head much rounder
than that of the common rat.
The diarrhœa of Dr. Oudney had ceased, but the cough was no better,
and he was otherwise extremely ill: he had himself cupped on the
left side of the chest by one of the natives. This operation is
dexterously performed by them; they make the scarifications with a
razor, and afterwards apply a perforated horn, from which they first
extract the air by suction, and then stop the aperture with the thumb.
We had a visit from the wife of the cadi, a sister of Duncowa,
I gave her a brass ring, a pair of scissors, and some beads.
In the afternoon, I was not a little astonished at a message from
the governor, brought us by El Wordee, acquainting us that Hadje Ali
had told him we were spies and bad people, and wishing to know from
us if it was true. I did not think proper to disturb Dr. Oudney by
relating to him this calumny, and merely desired El Wordee to say to
the governor, that as we were in his power he could do with us as he
pleased; at the same time referring him particularly to the letter
of the sheikh of Bornou. El Wordee came back almost immediately,
and assured me the governor was satisfied.
Jan. 10.—To-day we left Katagum; the governor having furnished us
with a guide. We had a bassoor, or frame of wood, put on a camel,
and spread Dr. Oudney’s bed upon it, as he was now too weak to ride
on horseback; I also felt myself unwell. The governor accompanied us
four miles out of town. At half past three o’clock in the afternoon
we were obliged to halt, on account of Dr. Oudney’s weakness;
he was quite worn out, and could proceed no further; the road, too,
being crooked and entangled, and lying along a large swamp to the
south. We passed a number of villages.
Jan. 11.—At eight o’clock in the morning we proceeded on our
journey; but, at noon, were obliged to stop at the town of Murmur,
on account of the alarming situation of Dr. Oudney, who had now
become so feeble and exhausted, that I scarcely expected him to
survive another day. He had been wasting away in a slow consumption,
ever since we left the hills of Obarree, in Fezzan; where he was
seized with inflammation of the chest, in consequence of sitting
down in a current of cold air after being overheated.
Jan. 12.—Dr. Oudney drank a cup of coffee at day-break, and, by
his desire, I ordered the camels to be loaded. I then assisted him
to dress, and, with the support of his servant, he came out of the
tent; but, before he could be lifted on the camel, I observed the
ghastliness of death in his countenance, and had him immediately
replaced in the tent. I sat down by his side, and, with unspeakable
grief, witnessed his last breath, which was without a struggle
or a groan. I now sent to the governor of the town to request his
permission to bury the deceased, which he readily granted; and I had
a grave made about five yards to the north of an old mimosa tree,
a little beyond the southern gate of the town. The body being first
washed, after the custom of the country, was dressed by my directions,
in clothes made of turban shawls, which we were carrying with us
as presents. The corpse was borne to the grave by our servants,
and I read over it the funeral service of the church of England,
before it was consigned to the earth; I afterwards caused the grave
to be enclosed with a wall of clay, to keep off beasts of prey,
and had two sheep killed and distributed among the poor.
Thus died, at the age of 32 years, Walter Oudney, M. D., a man of
unassuming deportment, pleasing manners, stedfast perseverance,
and undaunted enterprise; while his mind was fraught at once with
knowledge, virtue, and religion. At any time, and in any place,
to be bereaved of such a friend, had proved a severe trial; but to
me, his friend and fellow traveller, labouring also under disease,
and now left alone amid a strange people, and proceeding through
a country which had hitherto never been trod by European foot,
the loss was severe and afflicting in the extreme.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 65: It is much to be regretted that the state of the
thermometer was not here noted; more particularly as a question has
arisen as to the correctness of this statement, which is however
repeated by Dr. Oudney almost in the same words.]
SECTION II.
FROM MURMUR TO KANO.
At day-break, on the following morning, I resumed my journey,
trusting to the salutary effects of change of air and abstinence,
as the best remedies both for mind and body. The road was swampy,
and we crossed a narrow stream called Shashum, that falls into the
Yow, near the town. There were numerous villages on all sides.
Jan. 14.—Thermometer 52°. Our road lay through a well cultivated
country; at nine o’clock, A.M., we came to the town of Digoo,
having an indifferent double wall, and a triple ditch nearly filled
up. The town contained very few houses, but date trees were in great
abundance; outside the walls, however, there were several villages,
or rather detached clusters of houses. The country afterwards began
to rise into ridges, running nearly east and west; our road lying
along one of them, gave me an excellent view of beautiful villages
all around, and herds of cattle grazing in the open country. In
the evening we halted under the walls of a town called Boogawa;
this is the last town in the province of Katagum: I did not enter it.
Jan. 15.—The road to-day was through a thickly wooded
country. Before mid-day, we again crossed the Shashum, which here
runs nearly due north. The camel-drivers brought me a quantity of
wild figs, which they found on the trees by the road side, near
the river. We next entered an open, well cultivated country, and in
the evening halted at a town called Katungwa, which is surrounded
by a wall, and has a number of fine date trees. This was the first
town I entered in the kingdom of Haussa Proper. I was visited by
a Felatah, who had been at Bagdad, Constantinople, Jerusalem, and
Mecca, and belonged to the order of Dervishes. He was a chattering
little fellow, and told me he had seen the Wahabees at Mecca, who,
he said, were the same people and spoke the same language as the
Felatahs. I made him a present of a pair of scissors and a snuff-box,
of which he seemed very proud, and sent me a bowl of bazeen in the
evening. I here saw a range of low rocky hills, stretching nearly
south-west. They are called, in the language of Haussa, Dooshee,
or The Rocks, from which a large town on one of the roads leading
from Katagum to Kano takes its name. Since we left the Wells of
Bellkashiffra, on the southern borders of the great desert, we had not
met with rocks, or even pebbles, till now, the very channels of the
rivers being destitute of stones, and the whole country consisting
of soft alluvial clay. The camels were missing, and I sent all the
servants after them; they were not brought back before midnight,
being found on their return to Bornou.
Jan. 16.—The country still open and well cultivated, and the
villages numerous. We met crowds of people coming from Kano with
goods. Some carried them on their heads, others had asses or bullocks,
according to their wealth. All were armed with bows and arrows,
and several with swords; the Bornouese are known by carrying spears.
El Wordee and I having advanced before the cavalcade were waiting
for it under a tree, near a town called Zangeia, when a man from
Katagum went, of his own accord, and told the governor of Zangeia
that a friend of the governor of Katagum was close at hand. The
governor of Zangeia sent the man to tell us he would come and
meet us on horseback, and show us a proper place to pitch our
tents. We mounted our horses, and, led by the Katagumite who was
so anxious for the honour of the friend of his master, we met the
governor, about a quarter of a mile from the tree under which we
had reposed ourselves. He was mounted on a very fine white horse,
gaily caparisoned, and had seven attendants behind him, also
on horseback, besides being accompanied by several men on foot,
armed with bows and arrows. He advanced to us at full gallop, and,
after many courteous welcomes, placed himself at our head, and rode
before us into the town. On reaching his own house, he desired us to
pitch our tents before his door, observing, “Here is a place of
great safety.” The camels arriving with the baggage, I presented
him with a razor, a knife, a pair of scissors, and some spices. He
sent me, in return, some milk and bazeen, with grass and gussub for
the horses. Although a governor, I found out he was only a eunuch,
belonging to the governor of Kano. He was in person fat, coarse,
and ugly, with a shrill squeaking voice, and kept me awake half the
night, laughing and talking among his people.
Zangeia is situate near the extremity of the Dooshee range of hills,
and must have been once a very large town, from the extensive walls
which still remain. The inhabitants were slaughtered or sold by the
Felatahs, and plantations of cotton, tobacco, and indigo now occupy
the place where houses formerly stood. Indeed the town may be said to
consist of a number of thinly scattered villages. Within the walls
there is a ridge of loose blocks of stone, connected with the range
of hills in the neighbourhood. These masses of rock may be about two
hundred feet high, and give a romantic appearance to the neat huts
clustering round the base, and to the fine plantations of cotton,
tobacco, and indigo, which are separated from one another by rows
of date trees, and are shaded by other large umbrageous trees, of
whose names I am ignorant. The prospect to the south was bounded
by high blue mountains. It was market day; plenty of beef, yams,
sweet potatoes, &c. for sale.
[Illustration: Drawn by Captn. Clapperton.
Engraved by E. Finden.
VIEW INSIDE THE TOWN OF SANGIA.
IN HOUSSA.
_Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London._]
Jan. 17.—The country still highly cultivated, and now diversified
by hill and dale. We passed a remarkable range of little hillocks of
grey granite; they were naked rocks, flattened or rounded at top,
and appeared like detached masses of stone rising singly out of
the earth. We also passed several walled towns quite deserted, the
inhabitants having been sold by their conquerors, the Felatahs. Women
sat spinning cotton by the road side, offering for sale, to the
passing caravans, gussub water, roast meat, sweet potatoes, cashew
nuts, &c. In the afternoon, we halted in a hollow, to the west of
a town, or rather a collection of villages, called Nansarina, where
it was also market day. The governor, when he heard of my arrival,
sent me milk and bazeen. I sent him, in return, a pair of scissors
and a snuff-box.
Jan. 18.—When I ascended the high ground this morning, I saw a
range of hills to the south-west, which, I was told, were called
Dul, from a large town at their base. They appeared to be 600 or 700
feet high, not peaked, but oval topped, and running in a direction
nearly north and south. I could not learn how far southward they
extended. We crossed a little stream, flowing to the north. The
country continued beautiful, with numerous plantations, as neatly
fenced as in England. The road was thronged with travellers, and
the shady trees by the road side served, as yesterday, to shelter
female hucksters. The women not engaged in the retail of their wares
were busy spinning cotton, and from time to time surveyed themselves,
with whimsical complacency, in a little pocket mirror. The soil is a
strong red clay, large blocks of granite frequently appearing above
the surface.
At eleven in the morning we halted at a walled town called Girkwa,
through which I rode with El Wordee. The houses were in groups,
with large intervening vacancies, the former inhabitants having also
been sold; the walls are in good repair, and are surrounded by a
dry ditch. It was market day, and we found a much finer market here
than at Tripoli. I had an attack of ague,—the disease that chiefly
prevails in these parts,—and was obliged to rest all day under the
shade of a tree. A pretty Felatah girl, going to market with milk
and butter, neat and spruce in her attire as a Cheshire dairy-maid,
here accosted me with infinite archness and grace. She said I was
of her own nation; and, after much amusing small talk, I pressed
her, in jest, to accompany me on my journey, while she parried my
solicitations with roguish glee, by referring me to her father and
mother. I don’t know how it happened, but her presence seemed
to dispel the effects of the ague. To this trifling and innocent
memorial of a face and form, seen that day for the first and last
time, but which I shall not readily forget, I may add the more
interesting information to the good housewives of my own country,
that the making of butter such as ours is confined to the nation of
the Felatahs, and that it is both clean and excellent. So much is this
domestic art cultivated, that from a useful prejudice or superstition,
it is deemed unlucky to sell new milk; it may, however, be bestowed
as a gift. Butter is also made in other parts of central Africa,
but sold in an oily fluid state something like honey.
A native of Mourzuk who resides here sent me some kouskousoo and
fowls. I received a visit from a black shreef, who informed me he
had seen the sea, and that a river I should cross on the morrow
communicated between the Kowara and the Yow. By the Kowara,
I understood him to mean the river that passes Timbuctoo, and
which, of late years, has been so much talked of in Europe, under
the name of Niger. This was a piece of gratuitous information,
for on cross-questioning him he could furnish no authority for his
opinion. But I soon discovered the whole trick, by El Wordee strongly
recommending me to give my informant a present. The country to the
south and south-west was very hilly.
Jan. 19.—We crossed a water-course called Girkwa, from the name
of the town in its immediate vicinity. It is the channel of the
same river the black shreef alluded to, but did not now contain
a drop of water. Indeed the channel itself is extremely shallow,
and only about sixty or seventy yards across. The guide furnished
me by the governor of Katagum told me, that the river took its rise
in the mountains of Dul, and falling into another river, which we
should soon come to, and which rose among the mountains of Nora,
their united waters flowed into the Yow, to the north of Katagum.
The country was much the same as yesterday; clear of wood, well
cultivated, and divided into plantations. At noon we crossed the river
Sockwa, alluded to above, and forming a junction with the Girkwa. The
water was not above ankle deep in the middle of the stream, which
did not now fill one twentieth part of the channel, and both rivers,
I have no doubt, are at all times fordable, even during the rainy
season. About a mile from the banks of the river, we passed the town
of Sockwa, which is defended by a high clay wall. Being very unwell,
I did not enter the town, but rode on through a clear, open country,
to the town of Duakee, where I halted under a tree until the camels
came up. This town is also walled, but contains few inhabitants,
although the walls, made of clay like all the others, are of great
extent, and in good repair. Before four o’clock the camels arrived,
and we pitched our tents under the tree where I had lain down. The
road was still crowded, from sunrise to sunset, with people going
to or coming from Kano.
Jan. 20.—By El Wordee’s advice, I prepared myself this morning
for entering Kano, which was now at hand. Arrayed in naval uniform,
I made myself as smart as circumstances would permit. For three miles
to the north of Duakee, the country was open and well cultivated. It
then became thickly covered with underwood, until we ascended a rising
ground, whence we had a view of two little mounts within the walls of
Kano. The soil here is a tough clay mixed with gravel, the stones of
which appear to be clay ironstone. The country was now clear of wood,
except here and there a few large shady trees, resorted to as usual
by the women of the country selling refreshments. The villages were
numerous, and the road was thronged with people of all descriptions.
At eleven o’clock we entered Kano, the great emporium of the
kingdom of Haussa; but I had no sooner passed the gates, than I felt
grievously disappointed; for from the flourishing description of it
given by the Arabs, I expected to see a city of surprising grandeur:
I found, on the contrary, the houses nearly a quarter of a mile
from the walls, and in many parts scattered into detached groups,
between large stagnant pools of water. I might have spared all the
pains I had taken with my toilet; for not an individual turned his
head round to gaze at me, but all, intent on their own business,
allowed me to pass by without notice or remark.
I went with El Wordee directly to the house of Hadje Hat Salah, to
whom I had a letter of recommendation from the sheikh of Bornou. We
found Hat Salah sitting under a rude porch in front of his house
amid a party of Arabs, Tuaricks, and people of the town. When
El Wordee presented me, and told him of the sheikh’s letter of
recommendation, he bade me welcome, and desired me to sit down by
his side. After exchanging many compliments, I inquired for the house
he had hired for me, as El Wordee had sent a messenger on horseback
the day before, to inform him of my approach, and to request him to
have a house ready for my reception. Hat Salah now sent one of his
slaves to conduct us to the house.
We had to retrace our steps more than half a mile through the
market-place, which is bordered to the east and west by an extensive
swamp covered with reeds and water, and frequented by wild ducks,
cranes, and a filthy kind of vulture. The last is extremely useful,
and by picking up offal serves as a sort of town scavenger. The
house provided for me was situated at the south end of the morass,
the pestilential exhalations of which, and of the pools of standing
water, were increased by the sewers of the houses all opening into
the street. I was fatigued and sick, and lay down on a mat that the
owner of the house spread for me. I was immediately visited by all the
Arab merchants who had been my fellow travellers from Kouka, and were
not prevented by sickness from coming to see me. They were more like
ghosts than men, as almost all strangers were at this time, suffering
from intermittent fever. My house had six chambers above, extremely
dark, and five rooms below, with a dismal looking entrance or lobby, a
back court, draw-well, and other conveniences. Little holes or windows
admitted a glimmering light into the apartments. Nevertheless this
was here thought a handsome mansion. I paid at first a rent of three
dollars a month; but it was afterwards reduced to two dollars. El
Wordee was my next door neighbour.
In the evening Hat Salah sent me a sheep, some honey, and a dinner
ready cooked. I received a similar present from Michah Eben Taleb,
the brother of an Arab merchant of Sockna, residing at Kouka, to
whom I had a letter of introduction, with an order for the payment
of a hundred dollars.
Jan. 21.—The weather cool and clear. This afternoon I delivered
to Hadje Hat Salah the sheikh’s letter, and accompanied it with
a present of two turban shawls, made of wool and cotton, one white,
the other red, both of French manufacture, a scarlet Turkish jacket,
lined with silk and trimmed with gold lace, that had belonged to the
late Dr. Oudney, two clasp knives, two razors, two pair of scissors,
two paper snuff-boxes, and one of tin, about a pound of spices, and a
parcel of thin brass ornaments for children’s caps. These are of the
size of a sixpence, stamped with fancy heads, and made at Trieste for
the Barbary market. He was much pleased with my present, and promised
to present me to the governor in two days. In the evening provisions
were sent me as before, both by Hat Salah and Michah Eben Taleb.
Jan. 22.—I had a visit from Hat Salah to-day, when I presented
him with half a pound of French gunpowder and a few flints. Being
very unwell, I remained at home all day.
Jan. 23.—I was still confined to the house by indisposition. In
the evening I overheard a conversation concerning the river Quarra,
between my servant and the man the governor of Katagum sent with
me. The latter described it as running into the sea at Baka, and
added the following particulars. The country is called Yowriba by
the natives. The ships of Christians visit the town, which is only
twenty-four days’ journey from Nyffee at a quick rate of travelling,
or thirty-two days at a leisurely pace. The river is there as wide as
from Kano to Katagum, and the waters salt. Although I think proper
to notice this incident, I must at the same time observe, that I
place little dependence on such accounts. Next morning I put several
questions to him, but he told me quite a different story; for it is
commonly believed among them that strangers would come and take their
country from them, if they knew the course of the Quarra. Nyffee, as I
afterwards learned, is distant from Kano about twelve days’ journey.
Jan. 24.—At seven in the morning I set out, accompanied by El Wordee
and Hat Salah, to visit the governor, who was at the sansan, or camp,
five miles east of Kano. I took with me the sheikh’s letter and
a present I had prepared the day before, consisting of a sword, a
tea-tray, a spy-glass, twenty yards of yellow silk, a white turban,
a French shawl, three snuff-boxes, two razors, four clasp knives,
two pair of scissors, a few brass trinkets for children’s caps,
as already described, and two pounds of spices, besides a broken
thermometer, which I understood would be very acceptable. Of course,
I could not spare either of the only two thermometers which had
hitherto escaped accidents. A thermometer is descriptively named
by the natives “a watch of heat,” and was every where regarded
as a great curiosity. I also took a present for the wan-bey, or
governor’s chief minister, of a French shawl, a large Egyptian
shawl, a pound of cloves and cinnamon, a razor, a clasp knife,
a pair of scissors, and two snuff-boxes. The sansan, where the
governor now was, is a rendezvous for the army. The governor then
intended to march against Dantanqua, a former governor of Kano who
was deposed, and who, having rebelled, had seized upon a large town
and territory called Doura, only distant one day’s journey, or
about twenty-two English miles, according to the common allowance
for a day’s journey. I was not a little surprised to find this
sansan a walled town of considerable extent. El Wordee and Hat Salah
informed me it had been built these five years, the governor of Kano
having made for that period a yearly excursion against the rebels,
without ever bringing them to a decisive engagement.
We proceeded immediately to the governor’s house, which is about
500 or 600 yards from the gate. At the outer guard house, I found
all the Arab merchants in attendance, with the horses they had for
sale. The governor is always entitled to the first choice; but if he
declines them at the price affixed, any other person may become the
purchaser. We were shown into the house of the wan-bey, until the
governor was ready to receive us. In a short time he sent for me:
I was accompanied by El Wordee and Hat Salah; but as he does not
usually admit Arab merchants into his presence, El Wordee was in
this instance specially favoured on my account. When introduced,
we had to pass through three coozees or guard houses, the walls
of which were covered with shields, and the doors guarded by black
eunuchs. These coozees were connected by screens of matting covered
over head. The governor was seated at the entrance of an inner
coozee. After shaking hands with him, he desired us to sit down:
I then produced the presents, explaining to him particularly the use
of the spy-glass, and commending the sword, by acquainting him that
such were worn by the great nobles of England, when they attended on
the king. He seemed highly pleased, and bade me a thousand welcomes
to the country. I next delivered the sheikh El Kanemy’s letter. He
read it, and told me he expected to return to Kano in fifteen days,
and would then send me to his master Bello, who, he knew, would be
very glad to see me. We shook hands again at parting. The governor
is a Felatah, of a dark copper colour and stout make, and has the
character of being very devout and learned. Except El Wordee and Hat
Salah, the wan bey was the only person present, at this interview,
whom we next accompanied to his house, where I gave him his present
without any ceremony. He was a thin, slender man, of a pretty
fair complexion, with only one eye, and was clad in a rather dirty
tobe. He was said to be the father of fifty sons—a circumstance
which is here regarded as a matter of much respect and honour. I
returned immediately to Kano; but Hat Salah and El Wordee remained
behind to sell some horses. Hat Salah had two horses belonging to
the late Dr. Oudney to dispose of; one of which was given to him
by the sheikh of Bornou, and the other was palmed upon us at Kouka
by Hadje Ali Bookhaloom for eighty dollars. The governor of Kano
frequently gives from 100 to 120 dollars for a good horse. Mares
are seldom for sale, and are highly prized, both for breeding, and
because they do not neigh on approaching other horses—a quality
that especially fits them for predatory inroads. Geldings are unknown.
Jan. 25 and 26.—I was solicited by some merchants of Ghadamis,
settled here, to take supplies of goods or money to any amount,
for my bill on our Tripolitan consul; but, having no occasion for
advances, I declined this unexpected offer of accommodation, which was
frequently and urgently tendered. Ghadamis—the ancient Bydamus—is
an inland town in the state of Tripoli, and its merchants are famed
over all central Africa for fair dealing and the extent of their
commercial transactions.
Jan. 27 and 28.—The governor sent me a present of a sheep; an
immense gourd, upwards of two feet in diameter, filled with wheat;
and two other gourds of the same dimensions, filled with rice. A
kafila from Bornou arrived to-day. It brought a letter from the sheikh
to Hat Salah, warning him not to purchase any slaves, as they would
not be allowed to pass through Bornou, on account of the detention
of the sheikh’s children in Fezzan, who had been sent there for
protection during a recent invasion by the people of Begharmi.
Jan. 29.—A courier to-day, from Major Denham at Kouka, brought
me letters and newspapers from England; also gunpowder, coffee,
tea, and sugar, Peruvian bark, and three bottles of Port wine;
three silver watches, and some articles of dress, such as red caps
of Tunis, red Turkish trowsers, and Bornouses, or woollen cloaks,
with hoods from Tripoli. Mr. Warrington, our consul at Tripoli, also
forwarded a teskara, or order from the bashaw, which Major Denham
took care to have enforced by a letter from the sheikh of Bornou,
both addressed to Hadje Ali, requiring him to pay the money due
by his deceased brother. The sheikh likewise wrote to Hat Salah,
requesting him to exert all his influence to overcome the scruples
of Hadje Ali; for Hadje Bos Zaid, the other executor, never once
hesitated about the matter. The newspapers first apprised me of
Belzoni’s attempt to penetrate to Timbuctoo by the way of Fez.
Jan. 30.—Ill with ague.
Jan. 31.—A little better.
Feb. 1. 1824.—After breakfast I accompanied Hat Salah, the
sheikh’s agent, to the sansan, which, since it became a town,
is also called Fanisoe, and presented the governor with one of the
watches. He was highly pleased with it, and requested me to teach Hat
Salah the use of it, that he might give lessons to the wan-bey, who
would in turn instruct him. I also showed him the sheikh’s letter
to his master Bello. He read it, and told me I should be sent forward
to Sackatoo without delay in a kafila which was then assembling.
On my return I met two governors with troops repairing to the
sansan. They had each about five hundred horse and foot. The foot
were armed with bows and arrows. The quiver is slung over the left
shoulder, together with a small, highly ornamented leathern pouch
for little necessaries, and a canteen of dried grass, so compactly
plaited, that it is used for holding water. The bow unstrung is
sometimes carried in the hand as a walking stick. Many carried on the
head a little triangular bag, filled with bruised Guinea corn. Others
wore a little conical grass cap, with a tuft of feathers. The rest
of their dress consists solely of a tanned skin, strung with coarse
shells, or fringed with tassels, girt round the loins, and a pair
of sandals of very simple workmanship.
The cavalry were armed with shields, swords, and spears, and
otherwise more sumptuously accoutred. The spear is about six feet
long, the wooden shaft slender, and the point of iron. The swords are
broad, straight, and long, but require no particular description,
as, by a vicissitude somewhat singular, they are in fact the very
blades formerly wielded by the knights of Malta. These swords are
sent from Malta to Bengazee, in the state of Tripoli, where they are
exchanged for bullocks. They are afterwards carried across the desert
to Bornou, thence to Haussa, and at last remounted at Kano, for the
use of the inhabitants of almost all central Africa. The shields,
covered with the hides of tame or wild animals, are generally plain
and round. There is, however, a remarkable variety, not uncommon, of
an oval shape, somewhat broader below than above, with an edging of
blue cloth, forming six little lappets, one above, one below, and two
on each side. In the centre of the shield there is a stripe of scarlet
cloth fastened by the same studs that clinch the iron handle, and
around it is scored a perfect Maltese cross. This kind of shield is
borne by horsemen only; but it is found of the same shape and figure,
equally among Tibboes, Tuaricks, Felatahs, and Bornouese. A cross of
the same form, moulded in a sort of low relief, is not an unfrequent
ornament on the clay plaster of their huts. Crosses of other forms
also are sometimes cut in the doors of their houses. Several camels,
loaded with quilted cotton armour, both for men and horses, were in
attendance. One of the governor’s slaves wore a quilted helmet of
red cloth, very unwieldy, not unlike a bucket in shape, only scooped
out in front for the face, and terminating on the crown in a large tin
funnel, full of ostrich feathers. He was also clad in a red quilted
corslet of the same cumbrous materials. The other articles of this
armour are trunk hose for the rider, and a head piece, poitrel,
and hausing, all quilted and arrow proof, for the horse. Armour,
however, is hardly ever worn, except in actual combat, and then it
must very much impede the quickness of their military evolutions. The
saddles have high peaks before and behind. The stirrup irons are in
the shape of a fire-shovel, turned up at the sides, and so sharp as
to render spurs superfluous. This body of heavy horse protects the
advance and retreat of the army, the bowmen being drawn up in the
rear, and shooting from between the horsemen as occasion offers.
Feb. 2.—This morning I was visited by a nephew of sultan Bello, who
arrived yesterday from Sackatoo. He was a lad of a dark copper colour,
and of a thin active make, like all the Felatahs. I ordered tea to
be presented to him; but he would not taste it, till the brother
of El Wordee set him the example, when he ventured to drink a cup,
and soon became very fond of it. Before this visit he considered
a Christian little better than a monster, as he confessed to me,
though, perhaps, with some degree of flattery. I showed him all my
instruments, and the presents intended for his uncle, the sultan.
Feb. 3.—I had a visit from another nephew of the sultan, one of the
finest and most intelligent young men I had seen in this country. He
read and spoke Arabic with ease and fluency, and was very anxious
to see every thing, and to hear all about my country. He assured
me the sultan would be delighted to see me, and said he had a large
collection of books, which he made him read aloud. He told me there
was a camel road from Sackatoo to Timbuctoo, which, however, was
rendered dangerous by the Kafirs of Cobee, a country lying between
the two towns.
Feb. 4.—The governor sent back the two horses he had on trial; but
this was to be expected, one of them having galled withers, and the
other being nothing but skin and bone. He returned, at the same time,
a number of the horses belonging to the Arab merchants, who came
to me with loud clamours against this alleged act of injustice. I
warily answered, in one of their own hypocritical exaggerations,
“Whatever the sultan does is beautiful;” for I knew they only
wanted to entrap me into an unguarded expression, which would be
repeated to the governor, either to my disadvantage, or to induce
him to take all the horses at the price first demanded. Accordingly
I was no more troubled with their complaints on this subject.
Feb. 5 and 6.—I had a conversation with Abdelgader, a relation of
sultan Bello, at the house of a Ghadamis merchant. Abdelgader was
particularly inquisitive about our religious observances, prayers,
the worship of images, and the eating of pork. I told him we were
commanded by our religion to pray without ceasing; but as no people
on earth does as it ought, we generally prayed at stated times. The
worship of images, with which I was repeatedly charged, I indignantly
abjured. Of course I represented the eating of pork as a mere matter
of policy. My Mahomedan catechist next inquired, with some degree
of ridicule, as to the doctrine of the Trinity; and turning to his
countrymen who were present, without waiting for my reply, exclaimed,
in allusion to the three persons of the God-head:—“Father,
Son, and Uncle.” In this way Mahometans are wont to turn to scorn
the pure morals inculcated by Christianity, both in precept and in
practice. Abdelgader next expressed great curiosity to have my Jew
servant, Jacob, sent for. I declined; explaining to him that it was
utterly inconsistent with the toleration to which I had ever been
accustomed, to have any man interrogated by constraint respecting
his religious opinions; but that, with his own consent, he might
be asked any questions Abdelgader pleased. I left the party soon
after, and Jacob was prevailed upon to undergo a similar examination;
but his holy zeal was quickly fired, for he soon returned home in a
storm of passion. To put a stop to such acrimonious and dangerous
discussions, I afterwards hinted to the Ghadamis merchant that a
repetition of such conduct, in regard to my servants, would oblige
me to complain to the bashaw of Tripoli.
Feb. 7.—Rather sick to-day.
Feb. 8.—The governor returned to the sansan with his army; and the
current report was, that they had entered the capital of the enemy;
and, supposing Duntungua to have fled to the forest, they began to
enjoy themselves in banquets and carousals, when Duntungua suddenly
fell upon them with his army, and killed fifteen thousand men,
the rest flying in the greatest confusion to Fanisoe.
Feb. 9.—Again unwell.
Feb. 10.—Kano is the capital of a province of the same name, and
one of the principal towns of the kingdom of Soudan, and is situate
in 12° 0′ 19″ north latitude by observation, and 9° 20′ east
longitude by dead reckoning, carried on from a lunar observation at
Kouka, in Bornou.
Kano may contain from 30,000 to 40,000 resident inhabitants, of
whom more than one half are slaves. This estimate of the population
is of course conjectural, and must be received with due allowance,
although I have studiously under-rated my rough calculations on the
subject. This number is exclusive of strangers who come here in crowds
during the dry months from all parts of Africa, from the Mediterranean
and the Mountains of the Moon, and from Sennar and Ashantee.
The city is rendered very unhealthy by a large morass, which almost
divides it into two parts, besides many pools of stagnant water,
made by digging clay for building houses. The house gutters also open
into the street, and frequently occasion an abominable stench. On
the north side of the city are two remarkable mounts, each about 200
feet in height, lying nearly east and west from one another, and a
trifling distance apart. They are formed of argillaceous iron-stone,
mixed with pebbles, and a rather soft kind of marl. The city is of
an irregular oval shape, about fifteen miles in circumference, and
surrounded by a clay wall thirty feet high, with a dry ditch along
the inside, and another on the outside. There are fifteen gates,
including one lately built up. The gates are of wood, covered
with sheet iron, and are regularly opened and shut at sunrise and
sunset. A platform inside, with two guardhouses below it, serves to
defend each entrance. Not more than one fourth of the ground within
the walls is occupied by houses: the vacant space is laid out in
fields and gardens. The large morass, nearly intersecting the city
from east to west, and crossed by a small neck of land, on which
the market is held, is overflowed in the rainy season. The water of
the city being considered unwholesome, women are constantly employed
hawking water about the streets, from the favourite springs in the
neighbourhood. The houses are built of clay, and are mostly of a
square form, in the Moorish fashion, with a central room, the roof
of which is supported by the trunks of palm trees, where visitors
and strangers are received. The apartments of the ground floor open
into this hall of audience, and are generally used as store-rooms. A
staircase leads to an open gallery overlooking the hall, and serving
as a passage to the chambers of the second story, which are lighted
with small windows. In a back courtyard there is a well and other
conveniences. Within the enclosure in which the house stands,
there are also a few round huts of clay, roofed with the stalks of
Indian corn, and thatched with long grass. These are usually very
neat and clean, and of a much larger size than those of Bornou. The
governor’s residence covers a large space, and resembles a walled
village. It even contains a mosque, and several towers three or four
stories high, with windows in the European style, but without glass
or frame-work. It is necessary to pass through two of these towers in
order to gain the suite of inner apartments occupied by the governor.
The soug, or market, is well supplied with every necessary and luxury
in request among the people of the interior. It is held, as I have
mentioned, on a neck of land between two swamps; and as this site
is covered with water during the rainy season, the holding it here
is consequently limited to the dry months, when it is numerously
frequented as well by strangers as inhabitants: indeed, there is
no market in Africa so well regulated. The sheikh of the soug lets
the stalls at so much a month, and the rent forms a part of the
revenues of the governor. The sheikh of the soug also fixes the
prices of all wares, for which he is entitled to a small commission,
at the rate of fifty whydah or cowries, on every sale amounting to
four dollars or 8,000 cowries, according to the standard exchange
between silver money and this shell currency. There is another
custom regulated with equal certainty and in universal practice:
the seller returns to the buyer a stated part of the price, by way
of blessing, as they term it, or of luck-penny, according to our
less devout phraseology. This is a discount of two per cent. on
the purchase money; but, if the bargain is made in a hired house,
it is the landlord who receives the luck-penny. I may here notice
the great convenience of the cowrie, which no forgery can imitate;
and which, by the dexterity of the natives in reckoning the largest
sums, forms a ready medium of exchange in all transactions, from
the lowest to the highest. Particular quarters are appropriated to
distinct articles; the smaller wares being set out in booths in the
middle, and cattle and bulky commodities being exposed to sale in
the outskirts of the market-place: wood, dried grass, bean straw
for provender, beans, Guinea corn, Indian corn, wheat, &c. are in
one quarter; goats, sheep, asses, bullocks, horses, and camels, in
another; earthenware and indigo in a third; vegetables and fruit of
all descriptions, such as yams, sweet potatoes, water and musk melons,
pappaw fruit, limes, cashew nuts, plums, mangoes, shaddocks, dates,
&c. in a fourth, and so on. Wheaten flour is baked into bread of three
different kinds; one like muffins, another like our twists, and the
third a light puffy cake, with honey and melted butter poured over
it. Rice is also made into little cakes. Beef and mutton are killed
daily. Camel flesh is occasionally to be had, but is often meagre;
the animal being commonly killed, as an Irish grazier might say, to
save its life: it is esteemed a great delicacy, however, by the Arabs,
when the carcass is fat. The native butchers are fully as knowing as
our own, for they make a few slashes to show the fat, blow up meat,
and sometimes even stick a little sheep’s wool on a leg of goat’s
flesh, to make it pass with the ignorant for mutton. When a fat bull
is brought to market to be killed, its horns are dyed red with henna;
drummers attend, a mob soon collects, the news of the animal’s
size and fatness spreads, and all run to buy. The colouring of
the horns is effected by applying the green leaves of the henna
tree, bruised into a kind of poultice. Near the shambles there is
a number of cook-shops in the open air; each consisting merely of
a wood fire, stuck round with wooden skewers, on which small bits
of fat and lean meat, alternately mixed, and scarcely larger than
a pennypiece each, are roasting. Every thing looks very clean and
comfortable; and a woman does the honours of the table, with a mat
dish-cover placed on her knees, from which she serves her guests,
who are squatted around her. Ground gussub water is retailed at hand,
to those who can afford this beverage at their repast: the price,
at most, does not exceed twenty cowries, or about two farthings and
⁴⁄₁₀ of a farthing, English money, estimating the dollar
at five shillings. Those who have houses eat at home; women never
resort to cook-shops, and even at home eat apart from men.
The interior of the market is filled with stalls of bamboo, laid
out in regular streets; where the more costly wares are sold,
and articles of dress, and other little matters of use or ornament
made and repaired. Bands of musicians parade up and down to attract
purchasers to particular booths. Here are displayed coarse writing
paper, of French manufacture, brought from Barbary; scissors and
knives, of native workmanship; crude antimony and tin, both the
produce of the country; unwrought silk of a red colour, which they
make into belts and slings, or weave in stripes into the finest
cotton tobes; armlets and bracelets of brass; beads of glass, coral,
and amber; finger rings of pewter, and a few silver trinkets, but
none of gold; tobes, turkadees, and turban shawls; coarse woollen
cloths of all colours; coarse calico; Moorish dresses; the cast off
gaudy garbs of the Mamelukes of Barbary; pieces of Egyptian linen,
checked or striped with gold; sword blades from Malta, &c. &c. The
market is crowded from sunrise to sunset every day, not excepting
their Sabbath, which is kept on Friday. The merchants understand
the benefits of monopoly as well as any people in the world; they
take good care never to overstock the market, and if any thing falls
in price, it is immediately withdrawn for a few days.—The market
is regulated with the greatest fairness, and the regulations are
strictly and impartially enforced. If a tobe or turkadee, purchased
here, is carried to Bornou or any other distant place, without
being opened, and is there discovered to be of inferior quality,
it is immediately sent back, as a matter of course,—the name of
the _dylala_, or broker, being written inside every parcel. In this
case the _dylala_ must find out the seller, who, by the laws of Kano,
is forthwith obliged to refund the purchase money.
The slave market is held in two long sheds, one for males, the other
for females, where they are seated in rows, and carefully decked out
for the exhibition; the owner, or one of his trusty slaves, sitting
near them. Young or old, plump or withered, beautiful or ugly, are
sold without distinction; but, in other respects, the buyer inspects
them with the utmost attention, and somewhat in the same manner as
a volunteer seaman is examined by a surgeon on entering the navy:
he looks at the tongue, teeth, eyes, and limbs, and endeavours to
detect rupture by a forced cough. If they are afterwards found to be
faulty or unsound, or even without any specific objection, they may
be returned within three days. When taken home, they are stripped
of their finery, which is sent back to their former owner. Slavery
is here so common, or the mind of slaves is so constituted, that
they always appeared much happier than their masters; the women,
especially, singing with the greatest glee all the time they are at
work. People become slaves by birth or by capture in war. The Felatahs
frequently manumit slaves at the death of their master, or on the
occasion of some religious festival. The letter of manumission must
be signed before the cadi, and attested by two witnesses; and the
mark of a cross is used by the illiterate among them, just as with
us. The male slaves are employed in the various trades of building,
working in iron, weaving, making shoes or clothes, and in traffic;
the female slaves in spinning, baking, and selling water in the
streets. Of the various people who frequent Kano, the _Nyffuans_
are most celebrated for their industry; as soon as they arrive,
they go to market and buy cotton for their women to spin, who, if
not employed in this way, make _billam_ for sale, which is a kind
of flummery made of flour and tamarinds. The very slaves of this
people are in great request, being invariably excellent tradesmen;
and when once obtained, are never sold again out of the country.
I bought, for three Spanish dollars, an English green cotton umbrella,
an article I little expected to meet with, yet by no means uncommon:
my Moorish servants, in their figurative language, were wont to
give it the name of “the cloud.” I found, on inquiry, that
these umbrellas are brought from the shores of the Mediterranean,
by the way of Ghadamis.
[Illustration: NATIVE OF KASUNA IN SOUDAN.
NEGRESS OF JACOBA.
NEGRESS OF NYFFEE.
UMBURUM SOUTH OF KANO.
GOOBUR AND ZAMFRA.
Drawn by Captn. Clapperton. R.N.
Etched by E. Finden.
_Published by John Murray, London. Feb. 1826._]
A large kafila of Tuaricks, loaded solely with salt, arrived here
from Billma. The Arabs told me it consisted of 3,000 camels; at all
events, the kafila was extremely numerous.
Feb. 11.—A Felatah of respectability having arrived from the sultan,
with offers of every accommodation on my journey, I visited the
governor to compliment him on his return, and to inquire about my
departure for Sackatoo. He received me with much civility, and,
addressing me like an old acquaintance by my travelling name,
Abdallah, he assured me I should set out in six days.
Feb. 12.—The weather was cold, and we had a fire all day. Indeed
it is the invariable practice here to have fires all the year round,
both in the wet and dry season, although generally I did not find
one necessary.
Feb. 13 and 14.—I had a visit from the governor’s eldest son,
a stupid fellow, who was afraid to taste a cup of tea with which I
presented him. He bluntly told me, I possessed the power of changing
people into rats, cats, dogs, and monkeys. I made a servant drink
the tea he had refused, and then remarked, “Thank God, neither I,
nor any one else, was able to work such wonders, otherwise both of us
probably had been long ago metamorphosed into asses, and compelled
to bear burdens on our backs.” He affected to blame the people of
the town for these reports, and told me they were further persuaded,
that, by reading in my book, I could at any time turn a handful of
earth into gold. I easily refuted this absurdity, by asking him why
I applied to Hadje Hat Salah for money if I knew such a secret. He
now became somewhat tranquillized, and sipped a little of the tea,
but with fear and trembling. He afterwards begged for a black-lead
pencil, which I did not choose to give him. A son of Sultan Bello,
named Abdelgader, also paid me a visit. He returns, early to-morrow
morning, to Sackatoo.
Feb. 15.—This afternoon I ascended the eastern mount (one of the
two already described) to take an eye sketch of the plan of the town,
which, as nearly as I could guess it, may be represented as under. By
way of precaution, I was accompanied by Hat Salah’s eldest son,
to prevent the people fancying I was going to perform some magical
feat. On the eastern side of the mount, the young man gravely pointed
out to me the print of the foot of the she-camel on which the Prophet
rode to heaven. It was certainly very like the print of a camel’s
foot, only much larger, and seemed to be a hole where two stones had
been picked out. I asked my companion, if the prophet’s naga, or
she-camel, had only one leg. “Oh!” said he, “it had four.”
Where are the other three? “Oh!” he replied, “God has done
it:” an unanswerable argument, which with them settles all points
of religious controversy. He added, “All the faithful of Soudan
believe in the truth of this story.” The mount I found to consist
of strata of clay iron-stone, and conglomerate, lying on a bed of
soft light clay, apparently mixed with vegetable remains.
[Illustration]
Feb. 16.—Early this morning two massi dubu, or jugglers, came to
my door. Two snakes were let out of a bag, when one of the jugglers
began to beat a little drum. The snakes immediately reared themselves
on their tail, and made a kind of sham dance. The juggler afterwards
played various tricks with them, sometimes wreathing them round
his neck, coiling them in his bosom, or throwing them among the
people. On pointing his finger at their mouth, they immediately
raised themselves up in an attitude to spring forward; but after
having exasperated them to the utmost, he had only to spit in their
face to make them retreat quite crestfallen. I measured one of them:
it was six feet three inches long; the head large, flat, and blunted,
and, along the neck, a kind of gills fully two inches in breadth,
and five inches in length, which they elevated when angry. The
back and belly were of a dull white, and the sides of a dark lead
colour. Between the gills there were five red stripes across the
throat, decreasing in size from the mouth downwards. The venomous
fangs had been extracted; but still, to guard against all possible
injury, the fellow who played tricks with them had a large roll of
cloth wound round the right arm. Their bite is said to be mortal,
and to prove fatal to a horse or a cow in half an hour.
Having heard a great deal of the boxers of Haussa, I was anxious
to witness their performance. Accordingly I sent one of my servants
last night to offer 2000 whydah for a pugilistic exhibition in the
morning. As the death of one of the combatants is almost certain
before a battle is over, I expressly prohibited all fighting in
earnest; for it would have been disgraceful, both to myself and
my country, to hire men to kill one another for the gratification
of idle curiosity. About half an hour after the massi dubu were
gone, the boxers arrived, attended by two drums, and the whole
body of butchers, who here compose “the fancy.” A ring was
soon formed, by the master of the ceremonies throwing dust on the
spectators to make them stand back. The drummers entered the ring,
and began to drum lustily. One of the boxers followed, quite naked,
except a skin round the middle. He placed himself in an attitude as
if to oppose an antagonist, and wrought his muscles into action,
seemingly to find out that every sinew was in full force for the
approaching combat; then coming from time to time to the side of
the ring, and presenting his right arm to the bystanders, he said,
“I am a hyena;” “I am a lion;” “I am able to kill all
that oppose me.” The spectators, to whom he presented himself,
laid their hands on his shoulder, repeating, “The blessing of
God be upon thee;” “Thou art a hyena;” “Thou art a lion.”
He then abandoned the ring to another, who showed off in the same
manner. The right hand and arm of the pugilists were now bound with
narrow country cloth, beginning with a fold round the middle finger,
when, the hand being first clinched with the thumb between the fore
and mid fingers, the cloth was passed in many turns round the fist,
the wrist, and the fore arm. After about twenty had separately gone
through their attitudes of defiance, and appeals to the bystanders,
they were next brought forward by pairs. If they happened to be
friends, they laid their left breasts together twice, and exclaimed,
“We are lions;” “We are friends.” One then left the ring,
and another was brought forward. If the two did not recognise one
another as friends, the set-to immediately commenced. On taking their
stations, the two pugilists first stood at some distance, parrying
with the left hand open, and, whenever opportunity offered, striking
with the right. They generally aimed at the pit of the stomach, and
under the ribs. Whenever they closed, one seized the other’s head
under his arm, and beat it with his fist, at the same time striking
with his knee between his antagonist’s thighs. In this position,
with the head _in chancery_, they are said sometimes to attempt to
gouge or scoop out one of the eyes. When they break loose, they
never fail to give a swinging blow with the heel under the ribs,
or sometimes under the left ear. It is these blows which are so
often fatal. The combatants were repeatedly separated by my orders,
as they were beginning to lose their temper. When this spectacle was
heard of, girls left their pitchers at the wells, the market people
threw down their baskets, and all ran to see the fight. The whole
square before my house was crowded to excess. After six pairs had gone
through several rounds, I ordered them, to their great satisfaction,
the promised reward, and the multitude quietly dispersed.
Both Hat Salah and Benderachmani, another Fezzan merchant residing
here, had been with the late Mr. Hornemann at the time of his
death. They travelled with him from Mourzuk to Nyffee, where he died
of dysentery, after an illness of six days. He passed himself off as
an English merchant, professing the Mahometan faith, and had sold
two fine horses here. At my instance, Benderachmani sent a courier
to Nyffee, to endeavour to recover Mr. Hornemann’s manuscripts,
for which I offered him a reward of a hundred dollars; but, on my
return from Sackatoo, I found the messenger come back with the
information, that Jussuf Felatah, a learned man of the country,
with whom Mr. Hornemann lodged, had been burned in his own house,
together with all Mr. Hornemann’s papers, by the negro rabble, from
a superstitious dread of his holding intercourse with evil spirits.
All the date trees, of which there is a great number, as well as
the fig and pappaw trees, &c. together with the waste ground, and
fields of wheat, onions, &c. bordering on the morass, belong to
the governor. The date trees bear twice a year, before and after
the annual rains, which fall between the middle of May and the end
of August.
Cotton, after it is gathered from the shrub, is prepared by the
careful housewife, or a steady female slave, by laying a quantity of
it on a stone, or a piece of board, along which she twirls two slender
iron rods about a foot in length, and thus dexterously separates the
seeds from the cotton wool. The cotton is afterwards teazed or opened
out with a small bone, something like an instrument used by us in the
manufacture of hat felt. Women then spin it out of a basket upon a
slender spindle. The basket always contains a little pocket mirror,
used at least once every five minutes, for adjusting or contemplating
their charms. It is now sold in yarn, or made into cloth. The common
cloth of the country is, as formerly stated, only three or four inches
broad. The weaver’s loom is very simple, having a fly and treadles
like ours, but no beam; and the warp, fastened to a stone, is drawn
along the ground as wanted. The shuttle is passed by the hand. When
close at work, they are said to weave from twenty to thirty fathoms
of cloth a day. Kano is famed over all central Africa for the dyeing
of cloth; for which process there are numerous establishments. Indigo
is here prepared in rather a different manner from that of India and
America. When the plant is ripe, the fresh green tops are cut off,
and put into a wooden trough about a foot and a half across, and one
foot deep, in which, when pounded, they are left to ferment. When
dry, this indigo looks like earth mixed with decayed grass, retains
the shape of the trough, and three or four lumps being tied together
with Indian corn-stalks, it is carried in this state to market. The
apparatus for dyeing is a large pot of clay, about nine feet deep,
and three feet broad, sunk in the earth. The indigo is thrown in,
mixed with the ashes of the residuum of a former dyeing. These are
prepared from the lees of the dye-pot, kneaded up and dried in the
sun, after which they are burned. In the process of dyeing cold water
alone is used. The articles to be dyed remain in the pot three or
four days, and are frequently stirred up with a pole; besides which,
they are well wrung out every night, and hung up to dry till morning,
during which time the dye-pot is covered with a straw mat. After the
tobes, turkadees, &c. are dyed, they are sent to the cloth-glazer,
who places them between mats, laid over a large block of wood,
and two men, with wooden mallets in each hand, continue to beat the
cloth, sprinkling a little water from time to time upon the mats,
until it acquires a japan-like gloss. The block for beating the
tobes is part of the trunk of a large tree, and when brought to the
gates of the city, the proprietor musters three or four drummers,
at whose summons the mob never fails to assemble, and the block is
gratuitously rolled to the workshop. The price of dyeing a good tobe
of the darkest blue colour is 3000 cowries, or a dollar and a half;
and for glazing it, 700 cowries. The total price of a tobe is 5000
cowries, and of a turkadee, from 2000 to 3000 cowries.
The women of this country, and of Bornou, dye their hair blue as
well as their hands, feet, legs, and eyebrows. They prefer the
paint called shunee, made in the following manner:—They have an
old tobe slit up, and dyed a second time. They make a pit in the
ground, moistening it with water, in which they put the old tobe,
first imbedded in sheep’s dung, and well drenched with water, and
then fill up the pit with wet earth. In winter the fire for domestic
purposes is made close to the spot, and the pit remains unopened for
ten days. In summer no fire is required; and after seven or eight
days the remnants of the old tobe, so decayed in texture as barely
to hang together, are taken out and dried in the sun for use. This
paint sells at 400 cowries the gubga, or fathom; for this measure
of length commonly gives name to the cloth itself. A little of the
paint being mixed with water in a shell, with a feather in one hand,
and a looking-glass in the other, the lady carefully embellishes her
sable charms. The arms and legs, when painted, look as if covered
with dark blue gloves and boots.
They show some ingenuity in the manufacture of leathern jars,
fashioning them upon a clay mould out of the raw hide, previously
well soaked in water: these jars serve to contain fat, melted butter,
honey, and bees’ wax.
They are also acquainted with the art of tanning; in which they make
use of the milky juice of a plant called in Arabic _brumbugh_, and
in the Bornouese tongue _kyo_. It is an annual plant, and grows in
dry sandy situations to the height of five or six feet, with a stem
about an inch in diameter. It has broad thick leaves, and bears a
small flower, in colour and shape not unlike a pink. The fruit is
green, and larger than our garden turnip. It contains a fine white
silky texture, intermixed with seeds like those of the melon, and
becomes ripe some time before the rains commence, during which the
plant itself withers. The juice is collected in a horn or gourd, from
incisions made in the stem. It is poured over the inner surface of the
skin to be tanned, which is then put in some vessel or other; when,
in the course of a day or two, the smell becomes extremely offensive,
and the hair rubs off with great ease. They afterwards take the beans
or seeds of a species of mimosa, called in Arabic _gurud_. These,
when pounded in a wooden mortar, form a coarse black powder, which
is thrown into warm water, wherein the skin is steeped for one day;
being frequently well pressed and hard wrung, to make it imbibe the
liquor. It is then spread out in the sun, or hung up in the wind,
and when half dry, is again well rubbed between the hands, to render
it soft and pliant for use. To colour it red, they daub it over with
a composition, made of trona and the outer leaves of red Indian corn,
first beaten into a powder and mixed up with water.
The negroes here are excessively polite and ceremonious, especially
to those advanced in years. They salute one another, by laying the
hand on the breast, making a bow, and inquiring, “Kona lafia? Ki ka
kykee. Fo fo da rana?” “How do you do? I hope you are well. How
have you passed the heat of the day?” The last question corresponds
in their climate to the circumstantiality with which our honest
countryfolks inquire about a good night’s rest.
The unmarried girls, whether slaves or free, and likewise the
young unmarried men, wear a long apron of blue and white check,
with a notched edging of red woollen cloth. It is tied with two
broad bands, ornamented in the same way, and hanging down behind
to the very ancles. This is peculiar to Soudan, and forms the only
distinction in dress from the people of Bornou.
Both men and women colour their teeth and lips with the flowers of
the goorjee tree, and of the tobacco plant. The former I only saw
once or twice; the latter is carried every day to market, beautifully
arranged in large baskets. The flowers of both these plants, rubbed
on the lips and teeth, give them a blood red appearance, which is here
thought a great beauty. This practice is comparatively rare in Bornou.
Chewing the goora nut, already described, or snuff mixed with trona,
is a favourite habit. This use of snuff is not confined to men
in Haussa, as is the case in Bornou, where the indulgence is not
permitted to women. Snuff is very seldom taken up the nostrils,
according to our custom. Smoking tobacco is a universal practice,
both of negroes and Moors. Women, however, are debarred this
fashionable gratification.
The practitioners of the healing art in this country, as formerly
in Europe, officiate likewise as barbers, and are very dexterous in
the latter capacity, at least.
Blindness is a prevalent disease. Within the walls of the city,
there is a separate district or village for people afflicted with
this infirmity, who have certain allowances from the governor, but
who also beg in the streets and market-place. Their little town is
extremely neat, and the coozees well built. With the exception of
the slaves, none but the blind are permitted to live here, unless on
rare occasions a one-eyed man is received into their community. I was
informed the lame had a similar establishment; but I did not see it.
When a bride is first conducted to the house of the bridegroom,
she is attended by a great number of friends and slaves, bearing
presents of melted fat, honey, wheat, turkadees, and tobes, as
her dower. She whines all the way—“Wey kina! wey kina! wey
Io.” “Oh! my head! my head! oh! dear me.” Notwithstanding
this lamentation, the husband has commonly known his wife some
time before marriage. Preparatory to the ceremony of reading the
“Fatha,” both bridegroom and bride remain shut up for some days,
and have their hands and feet dyed, for three days successively,
with henna. The bride herself visits the bridegroom, and applies
the henna plasters with her own hand.
Every one is buried under the floor of his own house, without
monument or memorial; and among the commonalty the house continues
occupied as usual; but among the great there is more refinement,
and it is ever after abandoned. The corpse being washed, the first
chapter of the Koran is read over it, and the interment takes place
the same day. The bodies of slaves are dragged out of town, and left
a prey to vultures and wild beasts. In Kano they do not even take
the trouble to convey them beyond the walls, but throw the corpse
into the morass or nearest pool of water.
Feb. 22.—At seven in the morning I waited on the governor. He
informed me that the sultan had sent a messenger express, with orders
to have me conducted to his capital, and to supply me with every
thing necessary for my journey. He now begged me to state what I
stood in need of. I assured him that the King of England, my master,
had liberally provided for all my wants; but that I felt profoundly
grateful for the kind offers of the sultan, and had only to crave
from him the favour of being attended by one of his people as a
guide. He instantly called a fair-complexioned Felatah, and asked
me if I liked him. I accepted him with thanks, and took leave. I
afterwards went by invitation to visit the governor of Hadyja,
who was here on his return from Sackatoo, and lived in the house
of the wan-bey. I found this governor of Hadyja a black man, about
fifty years of age, sitting among his own people at the upper end of
the room, which is usually a little raised, and is reserved in this
country for the master of the house or visitors of high rank. He was
well acquainted with my travelling name; for the moment I entered,
he said laughing, “How do you do, Abdullah? Will you come and see me
at Hadyja on your return?” I answered, “God willing,” with due
Moslem solemnity. “You are a Christian, Abdullah?”—“Yes.”
“And what are you come to see?”—“The country.” “What do
you think of it?”—“It is a fine country, but very sickly.” At
this he smiled, and again asked, “Would you Christians allow us to
come and see your country?” I said, “Certainly.”—“Would
you force us to become Christians?” “By no means; we never
meddle with a man’s religion.”—“What!” says he, “and
do you ever pray?”—“Sometimes; our religion commands us
to pray always; but we pray in secret, and not in public, except
on Sundays.” One of his people abruptly asked what a Christian
was? “Why a Kafir,” rejoined the governor. “Where is your
Jew servant?” again asked the governor; “you ought to let me
see him.” “Excuse me, he is averse to it; and I never allow
my servants to be molested for religious opinions.” “Well,
Abdullah, thou art a man of understanding, and must come and see me
at Hadyja.” I then retired, and the Arabs afterwards told me he
was a perfect savage, and sometimes put a merchant to death for the
sake of his goods; but this account, if true, is less to be wondered
at, from the notorious villany of some of them. In the afternoon
I went to Hadje Hat Salah’s, and made an arrangement with him
to act as my agent, both in recovering the money due by Hadje Ali
Boo Khaloom, and in answering any drafts upon him. In the event
of my death, I also agreed with him to have my Jew servant Jacob,
who was to remain here with my books and papers, sent with them to
the sheikh of Bornou, and so to the English consul at Tripoli. I
left Jacob here, partly on account of his irritable temper, which,
presuming on my countenance and support, was apt to lead him into
altercations and squabbles, as well as to take care of my effects. I
made this arrangement at Hat Salah’s particular recommendation,
who strongly impressed upon me the dangers of the journey I had
undertaken. According to a custom which the late Dr. Oudney had
always followed at every principal town where we made a short stay,
I had two bullocks slaughtered and given to the poor.
SECTION III.
FROM KANO TO SACKATOO, AND RESIDENCE THERE.
Feb. 23.—At day-break all the Arab merchants of my acquaintance
waited upon me to wish me a prosperous journey. Hadje Hat Salah
and Hadje Ben Hamed accompanied me four miles beyond the gate
Kooffe. Before they left me I had a return of fever, and lay down
under the shade of a tree to wait for Mohammed Jollie, as my conductor
was named. My two camels being evidently overladen, and my servant
Abraham unable to walk from sickness, I requested Hat Salah to buy
another camel and send it after me.
At one in the afternoon, Mohammed Jollie, with two loaded camels and
a handsome led horse of Tuarick breed, sent as the weekly present
or tribute from Kano to the sultan, joined me. He also brought
with him a beautiful Felatah girl for his travelling chere amie,
who was placed astride on a light dromedary, according to the custom
of the country. My fever having abated, we proceeded on our journey,
and by sunset reached the village of Yaromba; where I was provided
with a house for myself and another for my servants, and with food
and provender in abundance. The country had much the same appearance
as on the other side of Kano, but was not quite so well cultivated.
Feb. 24.—We traversed a woody country, and crossed the dry beds of
several small streams, the course of each being to the eastward. In
the afternoon we passed a walled town called Toffa, when the country
became still more thickly wooded. There were many villages in ruins
which had been destroyed by the rebel Duntungua, and the inhabitants
sold as slaves. A little after mid-day, we halted at the town of Roma
or Soup; where we found the inhabitants very civil, and were furnished
with houses and provisions. I was here joined by a she-camel, which
Hat Salah had sent by a native of Kano, of the name of Nouzama,
whom I also engaged as a servant.
Feb. 25.—The country very woody, the road zigzag, and crossed
sometimes by dikes, or ridges of white quartz, running north and
south, sometimes by ravines and the dry channels of rivers. We saw
many Felatah villages, and numerous herds of horned cattle, and flocks
of sheep and goats. The cattle are remarkably fine, and of a white
or whitish grey colour; the horns are not disproportionately large
in size, in which circumstance they differ from the cattle of Bornou:
they have also a hump on the shoulders. The bull is very fierce, and,
as in England, the king of the herd; while in Bornou he is tamer,
and generally weaker than the cow. The shepherd with his crook
usually goes before the flock, and leads them to fresh pasture, by
merely calling with a loud but slow voice, “Hot, hot;” while the
sheep keep nibbling as they follow. I was well supplied with milk,
but only got it fresh from the cow when they understood I was a
stranger going to visit the sultan; for, as I have already mentioned,
they hold it unlucky to drink or sell milk before it has been churned.
We stopped at the town of Gadania or Kadania, which is surrounded by
a wall and dry ditch. The governor was out warring with Duntungua,
who had committed dreadful havoc in this neighbourhood. I was
accommodated with an excellent house; so were also El Wordee and
a shreef named Hassan, a native of Houn in the regency of Tripoli,
who had joined my party, and was going a begging to the sultan. This
is a very common custom with the shreefs, who sometimes realize a
little fortune by visiting all the governors and sultans within their
reach. Hassan was blind, but a great rogue, and gifted with a ready
wit. He frequently amused us on the road with stories of his younger
days, when he had his eyesight. I had another attack of fever to-day,
and could not walk three paces without assistance.
Feb. 26.—I was detained to-day on account of the disappearance of
El Wordee and Shreef Hassan’s camels: we did not know whether they
had been stolen, or had only strayed during the night. I availed
myself of this opportunity of taking a large dose of calomel, and
administered another to my servant.
Feb. 27.—The camels were still missing; and had it been otherwise,
I could not have continued my journey, for I found myself excessively
weak. In the evening El Wordee offered a reward of two dollars to
a Tuarick to bring back the camels, to which I added two dollars
more. Kadania is very thinly peopled, the inhabitants, as in most
other captured towns, having been sold by the Felatahs. The houses
are scattered up and down; but there is a good daily market, supplied
by the people of the adjoining country. The soil around is a strong
red clay. The trees were higher here than in Bornou; and the fields
of Indian corn, gussub, cotton, and indigo, were neatly enclosed
with fences, and kept free of weeds.
Feb. 18.—No news of the lost camels. I determined to proceed, and
had my camels loaded with the baggage of El Wordee and the shreef;
the former remaining behind, to await the return of the Tuarick. The
country was still thickly wooded, with a few cultivated patches
of land. The soil was a red and white clay, mixed with gravel,
and traversed by ridges of schistus. We crossed the dry beds of
several rainy-season streams, whose banks were lined with rocks,
and covered with majestic trees. In the little glens and nooks,
there were small plots of onions and tobacco; which the inhabitants
water from holes dug in the dry channel of the river, by means of a
bucket and long bar or lever. At noon we halted at the walled town
of Faniroce or “White Water,” the walls of which are extensive,
but the houses few and mean. I was shown into one of the best of
them; but my servants had much ado to render it habitable. Soon
after El Wordee arrived, but without the camels. In the evening I
was visited by the governor, a very good-natured fellow, who, when
he saw that I was ill, went and brought some fine trona, of which
he recommended me to take a little every evening. On inquiring
about the course of the streams whose dry channels I had passed,
he informed me that all between this place and Kano run eastward;
but that to-morrow I should cross the first that runs to the west,
and divides the provinces of Kano and Kashna. At eight in the evening,
the Tuarick brought back the camels of El Wordee and the shreef.
Feb. 29.—The governor and some of his friends accompanied us a
short distance out of the town. The country was still very woody,
and the road extremely crooked. At eleven in the forenoon we crossed
the bed of the stream that separates Kano from Kashna, the channel
being here about twenty feet broad, and perfectly dry; and at noon
we halted at the town of Duncamee. The stream near this town assumes
the same name, and, after passing Zirmie, the capital of Zamfra,
it bends northward, and traverses the province of Goobeer; then,
turning again to the west, it washes the city of Sackatoo, and, at
the distance of four days’ journey, is said to enter the Quarra
at Kubby.
March 1.—At six in the morning we left Duncamee, and travelled
through a thickly wooded country; and at noon we passed a walled
town, of considerable size, called Geoza, after which we came to
ridges of granite, running in a north-easterly direction. At three
in the afternoon we halted at the town of Ratah, whose site is
very remarkable. It is built amidst large blocks of granite, which
rise out of the earth like towers, and form its only defence on the
northern side, some of the houses being perched like bird-cages on
the top of the rocks. The south side is enclosed by a wall about
twenty feet high, but in bad repair. The inhabitants are numerous,
and the women are the tallest and fattest I ever saw.
March 2.—We rode through a beautiful and well cultivated country,
rendered extremely romantic by ledges of rocks, and clumps of
large shady trees. We passed a number of villages, the inhabitants
of which are mostly Felatahs, who, when they knew I was going to
visit the sultan, presented me with new milk. At noon we halted
at the town of Bershee, which is situate amongst large blocks of
granite, and is the first town with suburbs I had seen in Haussa,
although, from the ruinous state of the walls, this was no very
important distinction. The governor of Ongooroo was here, on his way
from Sackatoo to his province; but, through the care of my guide,
Mohammed Jollie, this circumstance did not prevent me from obtaining
the best house in the town, and abundance of provisions for myself
and servants.
March 3.—The weather clear and fine: we rode to-day through little
valleys, delightfully green, lying between high ridges of granite;
and, to add to the beauty of the scenery, there were many clear
springs issuing out of the rocks, where young women were employed
drawing water. I asked several times for a gourd of water, by way of
excuse to enter into conversation with them. Bending gracefully on
one knee, and displaying at the same time teeth of pearly whiteness,
and eyes of the blackest lustre, they presented it to me on horseback,
and appeared highly delighted when I thanked them for their civility:
remarking to one another, “Did you hear the white man thank
me?” After leaving this beautiful spot, the land rose gently
into hill and dale, and we had to cross the dry bed of the same
rainy-season stream no less than four times in the course of three
hours. The country also became more wooded, and worse cultivated;
and the soil in most places was of a strong red and blue clay. There
were numerous herds of cattle. At two in the afternoon we halted
at the village of Kagaria, situate on the brow of a sloping hill,
and inhabited by Felatahs. Here, for the first time, I found some
difficulty in procuring lodgings. The chief of the village, an old
venerable-looking Felatah, told my guide, that when they went to
Kano, the governor turned up his nose at them, and, if ever he came
there, they were determined not to receive him. Then, addressing
me, he said, “You are a stranger, from a far distant country;
you and your servants shall have a house, but none of the others.”
I was accordingly conducted to a very excellent house, but took my
fellow travellers with me; and, in due time, provisions were sent,
with the usual attention.
March 4.—At six in the morning left Kagaria, but not without
giving the old Felatah a present of a turkadee, of which he was
very proud. Our road lay through a beautiful country, highly
cultivated. At nine o’clock we passed through many villages,
romantically situate amongst ridges of granite. From the fertility
and beauty of the country, it appeared like an ornamental park in
England, shaded with luxuriant trees. We now entered a forest,
where the road became both difficult and dreary. Here our guide
enjoined my servants not to stray from the caravan, as the woods
were infested with banditti, who murdered every one they seized too
old for the slave market. The soil was composed of clay and gravel:
in the hollows I frequently saw rocks of granite, and mica slate. The
trees upon the high grounds were low and stunted, amongst which I
remarked several wild mangoes. We halted at the Felatah village of
Bobaginn, where the country is again open. The inhabitants were kind
and attentive in procuring me a house and provisions.
Mar. 5.—The country was now highly cultivated. The road was crowded
with passengers and loaded bullocks, going to the market of Zirmie;
which town we passed a little to the southward, about noon, when
the country became more woody. At two in the afternoon we entered
an opening in a range of low hills; this proved to be the dry bed
of the river we had crossed at Duncamee, which is here joined by
another watercourse from the southward. The land rises into hills
on each side, and, as our road lay at some distance to the west,
we had a beautiful view along the red sandy bed of the river, which
formed a striking contrast with the green hills on each side. The
banks were planted with onions, melons, cotton, indigo, and some
wheat; and watered, by means of a basket and lever, out of holes
dug about two feet deep in the bed of the river, in which water is
always found in abundance. On the eastern bank there is a town called
Kutri, apparently large and populous, with a number of dye-pots
in its outskirts. At four in the afternoon we crossed the bed of
another small river, coming from the south-west, and falling into
the forementioned river, a mile and a half to the east of a town,
on its northern bank, called Quari, or Quoli, where we halted. I
waited on the governor, who was an aged Felatah: after the usual
compliments, he anxiously inquired for Dr. Oudney, and was much
disappointed when I informed him of his death. He complained of being
grievously afflicted with rheumatic pains; and said he had already
outlived most of the people of this country, having attained the age
of seventy-two years. We remained with him until houses were prepared
for us; and he told me that the river, which flows to the eastward
(mentioned before as dividing the provinces of Kano and Kashna),
after the junction of some other streams, takes the name of Quarrama.
March 6 and 7.—The weather clear and warm. This morning I exchanged
a turkadee, worth about two dollars and a quarter, for a sheep,
and gave a feast to El Wordee and the shreef, along with all our
servants. About a hundred Tuaricks came to see me, having learned I
had visited Ghraat, and was acquainted with their countrymen. The
women and children of the town every where peeped at me through
the matting of their houses, with eager curiosity: although some
of the Tuaricks were nearly as white as myself. The Tuaricks here
have a beautiful breed of horses, full of fire; but they do not
stand so high as the barbs of Tripoli. In the evening I despatched
a courier with a letter to Sultan Bello, as I had been recommended
by the governor of Kano to remain here until a guard was sent from
Sackatoo to conduct me through the provinces of Goober and Zamfra,
which were in a state of insurrection. I found by observation the
town of Quarro to be in lat. 13° 7′ 14″ north.
I was unluckily taken for a fighi, or teacher, and was pestered,
at all hours of the day, to write out prayers by the people. My
servants hit upon a scheme to get rid of their importunities,
by acquainting them if I did such things, they must be paid the
perquisites usually given to the servants of other fighis. To-day
my washerwoman positively insisted on being paid with a charm, in
writing, that would entice people to buy earthen-ware of her; and no
persuasions of mine could either induce her to accept of money for
her service, or make her believe that the request was beyond human
power. In the cool of the afternoon, I was visited by three of the
governor’s wives, who, after examining my skin with much attention,
remarked, compassionately, it was a thousand pities I was not black,
for I had then been tolerably good-looking. I asked one of them, a
buxom young girl of fifteen, if she would accept of me for a husband,
provided I could obtain the permission of her master the governor. She
immediately began to whimper; and on urging her to explain the cause,
she frankly avowed she did not know how to dispose of my white
legs. I gave each of them a snuff-box, with a string of white beads
in addition, to the coy maiden. They were attended by an old woman,
and two little female slaves, and during their stay made very merry,
but I fear their gaiety soon fled on returning to the close custody
of their old gaoler.
Mar. 8 and 9.—Thermometer in the shade 91°. To-day I was visited
by several females, who evinced much discernment in their curious
manipulation of my person. One of them, from Zirmee, the capital of
Zamfra, was with difficulty prevailed on to leave me.
Mar. 10.—We had a shower of rain during the night. Two messengers
arrived from Sackatoo, going their rounds with orders for all Felatahs
to repair to the capital, as the sultan was going on an expedition,
but where they did not know.—Both myself and servants have had
a return of the same fever we had at Koka. This was almost always
the case whenever we remained two or three days together in any
town. In vain I tried every thing in my power to induce my guide
to proceed without waiting for the escort; but El Wordee and the
shreef, who were the most pusillanimous rascals I ever met with,
effectually dissuaded him from it.
I was much amused with a conversation I overheard between the
blind shreef and his servant, respecting myself and my intended
journey. “That Abdullah,” says the servant, “is a very bad man;
he has no more sense than an ass, and is now going to lead us all
to the devil, if we will accompany him: I hope, master, you are not
such a fool.” “Yes!” ejaculates the shreef, “it was a black
day when I joined that Kafir, but if I don’t go with him I shall
never see the sultan, and when I return to Kano without any thing,
the people will laugh at me for my pains.” Says the servant, “Why
do you not talk to him about the dangers of the road?” “Damn his
father!” replies the shreef, “I have talked to him, but these
infidels have no prudence.” I now called out,—“A thousand
thanks to you, my lord shreef.” “May the blessing of God be upon
you!” he exclaimed. “Oh! Rais Abdullah, you are a beautiful man;
I will go with you wherever you go. I was only speaking in jest to
this dog.” “My lord shreef, I was aware of it from the first; it
is of no importance, but if the escort does not arrive to-morrow, I
may merely mention to you I shall certainly proceed, without further
delay, to Kashna.” This I said by way of alarming the shreef,
who liked his present quarters too well, from the number of pious
females who sought edification from the lips of a true descendant of
the Prophet: besides the chance such visits afforded of transmitting
to their offspring the honour of so holy a descent.
March 11.—Small-pox is at present very prevalent. The patient
is treated in the following manner:—When the disease makes its
appearance, they anoint the whole body with honey, and the patient
lies down on the floor, previously strewed with warm sand, some of
which is also sprinkled upon him. If the patient is very ill, he is
bathed in cold water early every morning, and is afterwards anointed
with honey, and replaced on the warm sand. This is their only mode
of treatment; but numbers died every day of this loathsome disease,
which had now been raging for the last six months.
I had my baggage packed up for my journey to Kashna; to the great
terror of El Wordee, the shreef, and all my servants, who earnestly
begged me to remain only one day longer.—A party of horse and foot
arrived from Zirmee last night. It was the retinue of a Felatah
captain, who was bringing back a young wife from her father’s,
where she had made her escape. The fair fugitive bestrode a very
handsome palfrey, amid a group of female attendants on foot. I was
introduced to her this morning, when she politely joined her husband
in requesting me to delay my journey another day, in which case they
kindly proposed we should travel together. Of course it was impossible
to refuse so agreeable an invitation, to which I seemed to yield with
all possible courtesy; indeed I had no serious intention of setting
out that day. The figure of the lady was small, but finely formed, and
her complexion of a clear copper colour; while, unlike most beautiful
women, she was mild and unobtrusive in her manners. Her husband, too,
whom she had deserted, was one of the finest-looking men I ever saw,
and had also the reputation of being one of the bravest of his nation.
A hump-backed lad, in the service of the gadado, or vizier, of Bello,
who, on his way from Sackatoo, had his hand dreadfully wounded by
the people of Goober, was in the habit of coming every evening
to my servants to have the wound dressed. Last night he told me
he had formerly been on an expedition under Abderachman, a Felatah
chief. They started from the town of Labojee in Nyffee, and crossing
the Quarra, travelled south fourteen days along the banks of the
river, until they were within four days’ journey of the sea,
where, according to his literal expression, “the river was one,
and the sea was one but at what precise point the river actually
entered the sea he had no distinct notion.
March 12.—The weather clear and warm. The Felatah chief again
waited upon me to-day, and handsomely offered to conduct me himself
to Sackatoo, if my escort did not arrive in time. The town of Quarra
is surrounded by a clay wall about twenty feet high, and may contain
from 5000 to 6000 inhabitants, who are principally Felatahs. It lies
in a valley environed by low hills, the river Quarrama flowing a
little to the south of the town, and two or three miles lower down
joining the river before-mentioned that passes Kutri. During the
dry season, a number of Tuaricks, who come with salt from Bilma,
lodge in huts outside the walls.
March 13.—At half-past six o’clock I commenced my journey,
in company with the Felatah chief. El Wordee and the shreef were
evidently in much trepidation, as they did not consider our present
party sufficiently strong in case of attack. Our road lay through a
level country, clear of wood, with large fields of indigo, cotton,
and grain. At nine in the morning, we were agreeably surprised by
meeting the escort I expected. It consisted of 150 horsemen, with
drums and trumpets. Their leader, with his attendants, advanced to
me at full gallop, and bade me welcome to the country in the name of
his master, the sultan; who, he said, was rejoiced to hear I was so
near, and had sent him to conduct me to his capital. Nothing could
now equal the joy of El Wordee and the shreef, who had both been
cursing my temerity the whole morning. During the time we halted with
the escort, a party of boxers from a neighbouring village passed us,
on their way to challenge “the fancy” of Quarra. They were fine
looking men, carrying muffles for the hands over their shoulders, and
were attended by drummers and a large posse of women. They offered
to exhibit before me, but I declined, and we proceeded to a village
called Burdarawa, where the commander of the escort begged me to
halt for one day, as both his men and horses were much fatigued by
their journey from Sackatoo. I was provided with the best house in
the village, and supplied with every thing the place afforded. El
Wordee, the shreef, and my people, fared equally well. There is a
ridge of low hills to the north-east.
March. 14.—At six in the morning left Burderawa, and traversing
a thickly wooded country we arrived at the bed of the river Fulche,
which in many places was quite dry. The channel was only thirty or
forty yards wide where we crossed. We halted on the opposite bank,
and sent the camels out to graze. The servants here filled our
water-skins. This river joins the river of Zirmee, half a day’s
journey to the north. Several people were very busy fishing in the
pools left by the river; while assistants, floating on a stick buoyed
up at each end with gourds, were splashing in the water with spears to
drive fish into the nets. I treated the chief of the escort and his
friends with tea, of which they had heard many exaggerated reports
from people that had been at Kano.
At two in the afternoon we left the banks of the river Fulche,
at the quickest pace it was possible to make the camels travel. We
were previously joined by an immense number of people, some bearing
burdens on their heads, others with loaded asses and bullocks. Our
road, for two or three miles, lay through an open country; we then
entered a thick wood, by a narrow winding path, where the shreef,
and others who rode on camels, suffered severely from the overhanging
branches. Bullocks, asses, and camels; men, women, and children, were
now all struggling to be foremost; every person exclaiming, “Wo to
the wretch who falls behind; he is sure to meet an unhappy end at
the hands of the Gooberites.” Had it not been for the care of my
escort, I must have run great risk of being thrown down, and trampled
to death, by the bullocks which frequently rushed furiously past me
on the narrow path. The horsemen, however, rode on each side of me,
to protect my person. We were now on the confines of the provinces
of Goober and Zamfra; and a place better adapted for land pirates,
as the Arabs name robbers, is scarcely to be conceived. Till sunset
we continued to thread a thick wood, the road being overrun with long
grass, and apparently covered with water during the rainy season. The
soil now became more gravelly, the trees stunted, and the country
altogether more open. The pebbles were of clay ironstone, which in
some places was seen in large masses. There were numerous tracks of
elephants, and other wild animals. From the great care the escort
took of me, I was often almost suffocated with dust in riding over
dry clay grounds, for I had horsemen continually on each side of me;
while from time to time a reconnoitring party would pass at full
speed, then halt, and say prayers, and so skirr past me again and
again. During the day a drum was beat every ten minutes, in the rear
of our line of march, and at night this was repeated every two or
three minutes, and also answered by the trumpets in front.
At half-past two in the morning we stopped at the lake Gondamee, to
water our horses and beasts of burden, and to give the foot passengers
and slaves time to fill their gourds and water-skins. The place is
reckoned the most dangerous in the whole road, as it is only one
day’s journey to the north of Kalawawa, the capital of the province
of Goober, which has been for some time in a state of open rebellion.
The appearance of the country was much the same as before. At four
in the morning we came to a large lawn in the woods, where we again
halted for an hour. I felt quite refreshed by this short rest. The
country to the westward of the lake of Gondamee rises into ridges,
running north-north-east, with loose gravelly stones and clay on the
surface. We continued to travel with the utmost speed, but the people
soon began to fag; and the lady of the Felatah chief, who rode not far
distant from me, began to complain of fatigue. At noon we halted at
the side of a hollow, said to be the haunt of lions, where water is
generally found, but this year it was dry. Tracks of elephants were
every where visible, but I perceived no marks of lions. We stopped
here only half an hour, and set off again, through a country rising
into low hills, composed of red clay and loose stones, the descent
of some of which proved both difficult and dangerous to the loaded
camels. At eight in the evening we halted at the wells of Kamoon,
all extremely fatigued. I ordered a little kouskousoo for supper, but
fell asleep before it was ready. When I awoke at midnight, I found it
by my side; never in my whole life did I make a more delicious repast.
March 16.—At day-break I discovered our camels had strayed in quest
of food, nor could I be angry with their keepers, feeling so tired
myself from our rapid journey. Indeed my ankles were considerably
swelled and inflamed. Here again I experienced the civility of the
escort, as all the horsemen were immediately despatched after the
camels, with which they returned about eight o’clock. I gave the
man who found them a Spanish dollar, and to the commander of the
escort, and his two principal officers, I made each a present of
a cotton kaftan, or loose gown, a knife, looking-glass, snuff-box,
razor, and some spices.
I now left the wells of Kamoon, followed by my escort and a numerous
retinue, amid a loud flourish of horns and trumpets. Of course this
extraordinary respect was paid to me as the servant of the king
of England, as I was styled in the sheikh of Bornou’s letter. To
impress them further with my official importance, I arrayed myself in
my lieutenant’s coat, trimmed with gold lace, white trowsers, and
silk stockings, and, to complete my finery, I wore Turkish slippers
and a turban. Although my limbs pained me extremely, in consequence
of our recent forced march, I constrained myself to assume the utmost
serenity of countenance, in order to meet with befitting dignity the
honours they lavished on me, the humble representative of my country.
Near Kamoon the country is hilly, but seemed to yield much grain. The
soil is red clay, mixed with gravel, the stones of which looked as
if covered with iron rust. We passed some beautiful springs on the
sloping declivities of the hills, which in general are low, and run
in broken ridges in a north-east direction. The valleys between the
hills became wider as we approached Sackatoo, which capital we at
length saw from the top of the second hill after we left Kamoon. A
messenger from the sultan met us here, to bid me welcome, and to
acquaint us that his master was at a neighbouring town, on his return
from a ghrazie, or expedition, but intended to be in Sackatoo in the
evening. Crowds of people were thronging to market with wood, straw,
onions, indigo, &c. At noon we arrived at Sackatoo, where a great
multitude of people was assembled to look at me, and I entered the
city amid the hearty welcomes of young and old. I was conducted to
the house of the gadado, or vizier, where apartments were provided
for me and my servants. After being supplied with plenty of milk,
I was left to repose myself. The gadado, an elderly man named Simnou
Bona Lima, arrived near midnight, and came instantly to see me. He
was excessively polite, but would on no account drink tea with me,
as he said I was a stranger in their land, and had not yet eaten of
his bread. He told me the sultan wished to see me in the morning, and
repeatedly assured me of experiencing the most cordial reception. He
spoke Arabic extremely well, which he said he learned solely from
the Koran.
March 17.—After breakfast the sultan sent for me; his residence was
at no great distance. In front of it there is a large quadrangle,
into which several of the principal streets of the city lead. We
passed through three coozees, as guardhouses, without the least
detention, and were immediately ushered into the presence of Bello,
the second sultan of the Felatahs. He was seated on a small carpet,
between two pillars supporting the roof of a thatched house, not
unlike one of our cottages. The walls and pillars were painted blue
and white, in the Moorish taste; and on the back wall was sketched
a fire-screen, ornamented with a coarse painting of a flower-pot. An
arm-chair, with an iron lamp standing on it, was placed on each side
of the screen. The sultan bade me many hearty welcomes, and asked me
if I was not much tired with my journey from Burderawa. I told him
it was the most severe travelling I had experienced between Tripoli
and Sackatoo, and thanked him for the guard, the conduct of which
I did not fail to commend in the strongest terms.
He asked me a great many questions about Europe, and our religious
distinctions. He was acquainted with the names of some of the
more ancient sects, and asked whether we were Nestorians or
Socinians. To extricate myself from the embarrassment occasioned by
this question, I bluntly replied we were called Protestants. “What
are Protestants?” says he. I attempted to explain to him, as well
as I was able, that having protested, more than two centuries and a
half ago, against the superstition, absurdities, and abuses practised
in those days, we had ever since professed to follow simply what was
written “in the book of our Lord Jesus,” as they call the New
Testament, and thence received the name of Protestants. He continued
to ask several other theological questions, until I was obliged
to confess myself not sufficiently versed in religious subtleties
to resolve these knotty points, having always left that task to
others more learned than myself. He now ordered some books to be
produced which belonged to Major Denham, and began to speak with
great bitterness of the late Boo Khaloom, for making a predatory
inroad into his territories; adding, in his own words, “I am
sure the bashaw of Tripoli never meant to strike me with one hand,
while he offers a present with the other: at least it is a strange
way for friends to act. But what was your friend doing there?” he
asked abruptly. I assured the sultan, that Major Denham had no other
object than to make a short excursion into the country. The books
being brought in, proved to be the Nautical Almanack, two Reviews,
Lord Bacon’s Essays, and Major Denham’s Journal; all which the
sultan returned to me in the most handsome manner. Before taking
leave, however, I had to explain the contents of each, and was set to
read them, in order to give him an opportunity of hearing the sound
of our language, which he thought very beautiful. The sultan is a
noble-looking man, forty-four years of age, although much younger in
appearance, five feet ten inches high, portly in person, with a short
curling black beard, a small mouth, a fine forehead, a Grecian nose,
and large black eyes. He was dressed in a light blue cotton tobe,
with a white muslin turban, the shawl of which he wore over the nose
and mouth in the Tuarick fashion.
In the afternoon I repeated my visit, accompanied by the gadado,
Mahomed El Wordee, and Mahomed Gumsoo, the principal Arab of the city,
to whom I had a letter of introduction from Hat Salah at Kano. The
sultan was sitting in the same apartment in which he received me in
the morning. I now laid before him a present, in the name of His
Majesty the King of England, consisting of two new blunderbusses
highly ornamented with silver, the double-barrelled pistols,
pocket-compass, and embroidered jacket of the late Dr. Oudney; a
scarlet bornouse trimmed with silver lace, a pair of scarlet breeches,
thirty yards of red silk, two white, two red, and two Egyptian turban
shawls, the latter trimmed with gold; four pounds each of cloves
and cinnamon; three cases of gunpowder, with shot and balls; three
razors, three clasp-knives, three looking-glasses; six snuff-boxes,
three of paper, and three of tin; a spy-glass, and a large English
tea-tray, on which the smaller articles were arranged. He took them
up one by one. The compass and spy-glass excited great interest;
and he seemed much gratified when I pointed out that by means of the
former, he could at any time find out the east to address himself
in his daily prayers. He said, “Every thing is wonderful; but you
are the greatest curiosity of all!” and then added, “What can I
give that is most acceptable to the King of England?” I replied,
“The most acceptable service you can render to the King of England,
is to co-operate with His Majesty in putting a stop to the slave
trade on the coast: as the King of England sends every year large
ships to cruise there, for the sole purpose of seizing all vessels
engaged in this trade, whose crews are thrown into prison; and of
liberating the unfortunate slaves, on whom lands and houses are
conferred, at one of our settlements in Africa. “What!” said he,
“have you no slaves in England?” “No. Whenever a slave sets
his foot in England, he is from that moment free.”—“What do
you then do for servants?” “We hire them for a stated period,
and give them regular wages: nor is any person in England allowed
to strike another; and the very soldiers are fed, clothed, and paid
by Government.” “God is great!” he exclaimed; “You are
a beautiful people.” I next presented the sheikh of Bornou’s
letter. On perusing it, he assured me I should see all that was
to be seen within his dominions, as well as in Youri and Nyffee,
both of which, I informed him, I was anxious to visit. He expressed
great regret at the death of Dr. Oudney, as he wished particularly
to see an English physician, who might instruct his people in the
healing art. In the evening I made a present to the gadado of a
scarlet bornouse, a pair of scarlet breeches, a red Turkish jacket,
two white, and one red turban shawls, three razors, three knives,
three paper snuff-boxes, and three of tin, three looking-glasses,
two pounds of cloves, and two pounds of cinnamon. The gadado is an
excellent man, and has unbounded influence with the sultan, to whose
sister he is married.
March 18.—Weather clear and warm. Although I was very ill all day,
the courtyard of my house was crowded with people, from sunrise to
sunset; all of whom I had to see with the greatest patience, and
to answer their numberless questions, such as, “Have you rain in
your country?” “Have you wheat?” “Have you goats, sheep,
and horses?” But the obvious and favourite interrogatory was,
“What are you come for?” This I always attempted to explain to
their satisfaction; telling them, “I came to see the country, its
rivers, mountains, and inhabitants, its flowers, fruits, minerals,
and animals, and to ascertain wherein they differed from those
in other parts of the world. When their friends travelled among
strange nations, did they not on their return ask them what they
had seen? The people of England could all read and write, and were
acquainted with most other regions of the earth; but of this country
alone they hitherto knew scarcely any thing, and erroneously regarded
the inhabitants as naked savages, devoid of religion, and not far
removed from the condition of wild beasts: whereas I found them,
from my personal observation, to be civilized, learned, humane,
and pious.”
March 19.—I was sent for by the sultan, and desired to bring
with me the “looking-glass of the sun,” the name they gave
to my sextant. I was conducted farther into the interior of his
residence than on my two former visits. This part consisted of
coozees, pretty far apart from each other. I first exhibited a
planisphere of the heavenly bodies. The sultan knew all the signs
of the Zodiac, some of the constellations, and many of the stars,
by their Arabic names. The “looking-glass of the sun” was then
brought forward, and occasioned much surprise. I had to explain all
its appendages. The inverting telescope was an object of intense
astonishment; and I had to stand at some little distance, to let
the sultan look at me through it; for his people were all afraid of
placing themselves within its magical influence. I had next to show
him how to take an observation of the sun. The case of the artificial
horizon, of which I had lost the key, was sometimes very difficult
to open, as happened on this occasion: I asked one of the people
near me for a knife to press up the lid. He handed me one much too
small, and I quite inadvertently asked for a dagger for the same
purpose. The sultan was instantly thrown into a fright: he seized
his sword, and half drawing it from the scabbard, placed it before
him, trembling all the time like an aspen leaf. I did not deem it
prudent to take the least notice of his alarm, although it was I
who had in reality most cause of fear; and on receiving the dagger,
I calmly opened the case, and returned the weapon to its owner with
apparent unconcern. When the artificial horizon was arranged, the
sultan and all his attendants had a peep at the sun; and my breach
of etiquette seemed entirely forgotten. After the curiosity of all
was satisfied, I returned to my house. I had now a severe headach,
and was seized with violent vomiting. In the evening the sultan
sent me two sheep, a camel-load of wheat and rice, some plantains,
and some of the finest figs I had ever tasted in Africa.
March 20.—I returned the visit of Mahomed Gomsoo, the chief of
the Arabs; taking him a present of a scarlet bornouse, jacket and
breeches, two white turbans, two razors, two knives, two snuff-boxes
of paper, and two of tin, a pound of cinnamon, and two cases of
gunpowder, with some balls and flints. I was warned at Kano of his
excessive greediness; but at the same time recommended to make him
a handsome present, and to endeavour by all means to keep him in
good humour, on account of his great influence. On receiving the
presents, Gomsoo promised to give me a letter to the sultan of
Youri, who was his particular friend, and with whom he had lived
many years. He also said he was there when the English came down in
a boat from Timbuctoo, and were lost; which circumstance he related
in the following manner:—They had arrived off a town called Boosa,
and having sent a gun and some other articles as presents to the
sultan of Youri, they sent to purchase a supply of onions in the
market. The sultan apprised them of his intention to pay them a visit,
and offered to send people to guide them through the ledges of rock
which run quite across the channel of the river a little below the
town, where the banks rise into high hills on both sides. Instead
of waiting for the sultan, however, they set off at night, and by
day-break next morning, a horseman arrived at Youri, to inform the
sultan that the boat had struck on the rocks. The people on both
sides of the river then began to assail them with arrows, upon which
they threw overboard all their effects; and two white men arm in
arm jumped into the water, two slaves only remaining in the boat,
with some books and papers and several guns: one of the books was
covered with wax-cloth, and still remained in the hands of the sultan
of Youri. He also told me, and his account was confirmed by others,
that the sultan of Youri was a native of Sockna in the regency of
Tripoli, and prided himself extremely on his birth; but that he was
such a drunkard, whenever any person of consequence came to visit him,
that nothing proved so acceptable a present as a bottle of rum.
I learned, besides, from Gomsoo, that he had been detained a prisoner
three years, in a country called Yoriba, on the west side of the
Quarra; which, he said, entered the sea at Fundah, a little below
the town of Rakah. The latter is opposite to Nyffee; is a place of
great trade between the interior and the coast, and all kinds of
European goods, such as beads, woollen and cotton cloth, pewter and
copper dishes, gunpowder, rum, &c., are to be had there in exchange
for slaves. The inhabitants of Yoriba he represented to be extremely
ill disposed. I may here mention, that during my stay in Sackatoo,
provisions were regularly sent me from the sultan’s table on pewter
dishes, with the London stamp; and one day I even had a piece of
meat served up in a white wash-hand basin, of English manufacture.
On my return home from Gomsoo’s, I found a message had been left
for me to wait on the sultan, with which I complied immediately after
breakfast. He received me in an inner apartment, attended only by a
few slaves: after asking me how I did, and several other chit-chat
questions, I was not a little surprised when he observed, without a
single question being put by me on the subject, that if I wished to
go to Nyffee, there were two roads leading to it—the one direct,
but beset by enemies; the other safer, but more circuitous: that by
either route I should be detained, during the rains, in a country at
present in a state of open rebellion, and therefore that I ought to
think seriously of these difficulties. I assured him I had already
taken the matter into consideration, and that I was neither afraid
of the dangers of the road nor of the rains. “Think of it with
prudence,” he replied, and we parted. From the tone and manner
with which this was spoken, I felt a foreboding that my intended
visit to Youri and Nyffee was at an end. I could not help suspecting
the intrigues of the Arabs to be the cause; as, they know well,
if the native Africans were once acquainted with English commerce
by the way of the sea, their own lucrative inland trade would from
that moment cease. I was much perplexed the whole day how to act, and
went after sunset to consult Mohamed Gomsoo: I met him at the door of
his house on his way to the sultan, and stopped him, to mention what
had passed, and how unaccountably strange it appeared to me that the
sultan, after having repeatedly assured me of being at liberty to
visit every part of his dominions, should now, for the first time,
seem inclined to withdraw that permission; adding, that before I
came to Sackatoo, I never heard of a king making a promise one day,
and breaking it the next. All this, I knew, would find its way to
the sultan. Gomsoo told me I was quite mistaken; for the sultan,
the gadado, and all the principal people, entertained the highest
opinion of me, and wished for nothing so much as to cultivate the
friendship of the English nation. “But it is necessary for me to
visit those places,” I remarked, on leaving him; “or how else
can the English get here?” As I anticipated, he repeated to the
sultan every word I had said; for I was no sooner at home than I was
sent for by the sultan, whom I found seated with Mahomed Gomsoo, and
two others. He received me with great kindness, and Mahomed Gomsoo
said he had made the sultan acquainted with our conversation. I
thanked him, and expressed my earnest hope I had neither said nor
done any thing to offend him. The sultan assured me that my conduct
had always met with his approbation, and that, although he was freely
disposed to show me all the country, still he wished to do so with
safety to myself. An army, he added, was at this moment ravaging the
country through which I had to pass, and, until he heard from it, it
would be unsafe to go; but he expected farther information in three
or four days. He drew on the sand the course of the river Quarra,
which he also informed me entered the sea at Fundah. By his account
the river ran parallel to the sea coast for several days’ journey,
being in some places only a few hours’, in others a day’s journey,
distant from it. Two or three years ago the sea, he said, closed up
the mouth of the river, and its mouth was at present a day or two
farther south; but, during the rains, when the river was high, it
still ran into the sea by the old channel. He asked me if the King of
England would send him a consul and a physician, to reside in Soudan,
and merchants to trade with his people; and what I had seen among
them, which I thought the English would buy? Here again I enforced the
discontinuance of the slave trade on the coast, as the only effectual
method of inducing the King of England to establish a consul and a
physician at Sackatoo; and that, as the sultan could easily prevent
all slaves from the eastward passing through Haussa and Nyffee,
it would be the consul’s duty to see that engagement faithfully
fulfilled. With respect to what English merchants were disposed to
buy, I particularized senna, gum-arabic, bees’ wax, untanned hides,
indigo, and ivory. I also endeavoured to impress on his mind that
Soudan was the country best situate in all Central Africa for such a
trade, which would not only be the means of enriching himself, but,
likewise, all his subjects; and that all the merchandise from the
east and from the west would be conveyed through his territories to
the sea. “I will give the King of England,” says he, “a place
on the coast to build a town: only I wish a road to be cut to Rakah,
if vessels should not be able to navigate the river.” I asked him
if the country he promised to give belonged to him? “Yes:” said
he, “God has given me all the land of the infidels.” This was
an answer that admitted of no contradiction.
He then spoke of Mungo Park, and said, that had he come in the rainy
season, he would have passed the rocks; but that the river fell so
low in the dry season, boats could only pass at a certain point. He
told me, that some timbers of the boat, fastened together with nails,
remained a long time on the rocks; and that a double-barrelled gun,
taken in the boat, was once in his possession; but it had lately
burst. His cousin, Abderachman, however, had a small printed book
taken out of the boat; but he was now absent on an expedition to
Nyffee. The other books were in the hands of the sultan of Youri,
who was tributary to him. I told the sultan, if he could procure these
articles for the King of England, they would prove a most acceptable
present, and he promised to make every exertion in his power.
March 21.—Confined to my bed all day with headach and bilious
vomiting. In the afternoon I was visited by Mahomed Gomsoo, who was
going on a journey to Kano. He casually mentioned, that it was a
fortunate circumstance we did not accompany Hadje Ali Boo Khaloom,
when he brought the bashaw’s present last year; as the rogue had
opened the bashaw’s letter before presenting it to Bello, and
erased out of the list several of the presents named in it, which he
embezzled, and substituted for them some of inferior quality. The news
of his brother’s wanton inroad into the sultan’s territories,
with the bashaw’s forces arriving at the same time, Bello sent
Hadje Ali back without any present, and would not even admit him into
his presence. His conduct, he assured me, had exasperated the sultan
against all the Arabs in the bashaw’s dominions. Both Bello and his
father have, it seems, been much cheated by the Arabs in all their
dealings, twenty sometimes coming at a time on a begging excursion,
with the story of being poor shreefs; and, if not presented with
thirty or forty slaves, besides food and camels, they were sure to
bully the Felatahs, telling them they were not Mussulmans, and would
never see paradise, on account of the number of the faithful they
had put to death in the conquest of Soudan.
March 22.—Clear and warm. My fever a little abated. In the afternoon
the sultan sent for me again, to discuss the advantages and best
method of establishing a permanent intercourse with England. I
expressed myself exactly in the same terms I had done before,
carefully avoiding the mention of any thing which might awaken the
jealousy of the Arabs.
The direct road to Youri is only five days’ journey; but, on
account of the rebellious state of the country, it was necessary
to take a circuitous route of twelve days. Numbers of the principal
people of Sackatoo came to me, to advise me to give up the idea of
going; all alleging that the rains had already commenced at Youri,
and that the road was in the hands of their enemies. They repeated
the same tales to the servants who were to accompany me, and threw
them all into a panic at the prospect of so dangerous a journey.
March 23.—Very ill all day. I discovered that the Arabs were
also tampering with my servants. One of them, named Absalom, was
accosted to-day in the market by one of the merchants of that nation,
who told him, if ever he arrived at Youri, without meeting with
disasters by the way, the sultan there would assuredly sell him,
and that he would never be allowed to return.
March 24.—I felt much better. The sultan sent for me this forenoon
about the guide who was to accompany me to Youri. One man had already
refused, and I had to tempt another with a promise of 40,000 cowries,
unknown to the sultan; who kindly took much pains to impress upon me
the necessity of my return within twenty-six days, on account of the
capricious character of the people of that place. From every person
here dissuading me from the attempt, I had too good reason to fear
that a regular plan was laid to obstruct my further progress. Even El
Wordee went so far as to say, that it was contrary to the wishes of
the sheikh that we should either go to Youri or Nyffee, and complained
sadly of being afflicted with a dysentery, which very opportunely
made its attack the instant I expressed a wish to visit Youri; and,
although I protested against his accompanying me, I have no doubt he
both practised on my servants, and used his influence with the gadado
to oppose my departure. At last El Wordee, and Mahomed Sidi sheikh,
a native of Tuat, and fighee to the sultan, came to tell me, that no
person would venture to accompany me, from the road to Youri being
infested with Kafirs, and that it was impossible to travel in safety
without an army. I remained silent; for had I once begun to give vent
to my feelings, I might have committed myself. I thank God I had never
once lost my temper amid all these crosses and vexations, and in spite
even of this deathblow to all my hopes of reaching Youri. The whole
tissue of dangers, however, I believed to be a mere fabrication;
for the Arabs, having learned what the sultan said with respect to
the English opening a trade with his people by the way of the sea,
and well knowing how fatal this scheme would prove to their traffic
in the interior, probably now attempted to persuade both the sultan
and the gadado that the English would come and take the country from
them: by which insinuations they induced the sultan to embrace this
disingenuous expedient to disengage himself from his promise.
March 25.—Clear and warm. Early this morning I was sent for by the
sultan, and, although suffering from fever, I went immediately. He was
seated in an inner coozee, with only one eunuch in attendance. The
conversation again commenced concerning the projected trade with
England, when I repeated the same arguments. He inquired if the King
of England would give him a couple of guns, with ammunition and some
rockets? I assured him of His Majesty’s compliance with his wishes,
if he would consent to put down the slave trade on the coast. I
further pointed out to him that Sackatoo was the best situate town in
all Northern Africa for commerce, without which a nation was nothing;
that rich merchants make rich kings; and that it was in the power of
the King of England to make him one of the greatest princes in Africa,
when all the trade from the east and west of that continent would
centre in his dominions: at the same time advising him strongly to
have a port on the sea coast, where he might have ships, and where
his people would be taught by the English the art of ship-building,
unless he preferred to send some of them to our settlements on the
coast to learn to work as carpenters or blacksmiths, where their
religion would be respected, and, after learning these trades from
us, they would be enabled to instruct their countrymen. By weighing
these important considerations in his mind, he would see that it
was both his own interest, and the interest of his people, to form
a strict friendship with the English; for when once he had ships,
his people might trade to every part of the world, and could even
make the pilgrimage to Mecca by a much safer route than at present
by land, being able to go there and return in six months; and,
at the same time, bring with them all the produce of the East.
March 26.—I was much better. Being Friday, the Mahommedan Sabbath,
a crowd of people from the country came to see me, after being at the
mosque, and the square in front of my house was completely filled. I
was sitting in the shade, on a mat spread on the ground, and Mahomed
El Wordee with me: both he and my servants were in great fright at
the increasing numbers of country people, and El Wordee begged of
me either to have my guns loaded, or to threaten to fire among the
multitude, if they did not go away; or else to send a message to
the gadado to have them dispersed. By way of aggravating his alarm,
I said to him, with provoking indifference, “Let them look at me,
and welcome; they are like all other country people, and will do me no
harm.” A number of boys squeezing through the crowd, whenever they
caught a glimpse of me, called out to their companions, “Wishod
en ila hullah ila hullah wahod Mohamoud wa rhasoul illah, hada el
Kaffir;” or more briefly, “ila el ullah Mohamoud wa rhasoul illah,
hada el Kaffir,”—“I bear witness there is no God but one God,
and Mahomet is his prophet; there is the Infidel,” and immediately
took to their heels. At last one of my servants stole through the
crowd and informed the gadado, who sent and dispersed the people,
to the great satisfaction of El Wordee; when I was allowed to enjoy
the remainder of the day undisturbed.
March 27.—Clear and warm. In the morning I was very ill with ague,
and at eleven the sultan sent for El Wordee and me, with a request
to bring my English saddle along with me. We were conducted farther
into the interior of his residence than I had ever been before:
the sultan was sitting reading in one corner of a square tower:
on showing him my English saddle, he examined it very minutely, and
said it was exactly like the ancient Arab saddle, described in one
of his books. It was a second-hand saddle which we bought at Malta,
and having often also served myself and my servant for a pillow, I
had it re-stuffed at Kano: on seeing the maker’s card, “Laurie,
Oxford-Street, London,” under the saddle lap, the sultan, surmising
perhaps that it was a charm, requested me to explain its meaning;
upon which I told him, that in England a tradesman generally attached
his name to the articles made by him, which, if of superior quality,
brought him into notice.
He again renewed the subject of the establishment of an English consul
and physician at Sackatoo, as well as of the likelihood of receiving
guns and rockets from England, which he now recommended to be sent by
the way of Tripoli and Bornou, under the escort of El Wordee. To the
latter part of this proposal I gave a direct negative: I assured him,
that unless he undertook to convey them to Rakah at his own expense,
they would not be sent at all, as the expense and delay by the other
route were obstacles of too serious a nature to be repeated; besides,
should the bashaw of Tripoli even allow the guns to pass, the sheikh
of Bornou, who was famed for prudence and foresight, would forfeit
all claim to that character, if he did not seize them on reaching
his territory. “Oh! no,” said the sultan, “he will never do
that; he is my friend.” I again expatiated on the futility of this
mistaken confidence, so opposite to sound policy. At this discourse
El Wordee seemed to be quite crest-fallen; and it plainly appeared
that this was his own device, in order that he might be sent by the
bashaw along with another English mission; and after fleecing them
throughout the route, have another opportunity here of playing the
same game over again. All my former suspicions were now confirmed;
and I attribute, in a great measure, to his machinations the necessity
of abandoning my journey to Youri. I once more assured the sultan,
that it was only by the sea-coast he must expect to maintain an
intercourse with England. He then promised, that if I would wait
till after the rains, he would send me to the governor of Zeg Zeg,
with orders to convey me to the coast.
Having heard of our newspapers, he desired me to send for them,
calling them the “Huber el dineah,” or “News of the world.”
Being set to read extracts from them, I happened to mention that
thousands of them were printed daily, when he exclaimed, “God
is great; You are a wonderful people.” He asked me about the
Greeks, and inquired if they were joined by any other Christians;
the discussion of which subject I contrived to evade. He then
remarked, “You were at war with Algiers, and killed a number of
the Algerines.” I assured him that they were a ferocious race,
never at peace amongst themselves (having even killed three of their
own deys in one month), and persisting in the practice of making
slaves of Europeans, until forcibly compelled by us to relinquish it.
In this conversation, he repeated “You are a strange people,
the strongest of all Christian nations: you have subjugated all
India.” I said, we merely afforded it our protection, and gave it
good laws. I mentioned, particularly, that many Mahometan states
had put themselves under our protection, knowing we were a people
that never interfered with the rights of others, whether civil or
religious, but caused the laws to be impartially administered among
all sects and persuasions. The King of England, I often told him,
had, in fact, as many Mahometan subjects as the Grand Signor; and
I took care to enlarge upon the favourite topic of several ships
conveying the inhabitants of India annually to Mecca.
The sultan again drew on the sand the course of the Quarra, with the
outline of the adjoining countries. I now requested him to order
one of his learned men to make me a chart of the river, on paper,
which he promised to have done. The sultan re-stated that Fundah
is the name of the place where the Quarra enters the sea, during
the rainy season; and that Tagra, a town on the sea-coast, where
many Felatahs reside, is governed by one of his subjects, a native
of Kashna, named Mohamed Mishnee. In the evening I saw him again,
when he told me that he was going on an expedition against some of
his enemies, but would not be away more than five days, desiring me
not to be uneasy during his absence, and assuring me that I should
want for nothing.
To announce to the people any public measure, such as the present
expedition, the city crier is sent round, who first proclaims,
“This is the will of the sultan;” the people replying “Whatever
the sultan does, is good; we will do it:” the crier stops in like
manner at the end of every sentence, when the people renew the same
assurances of submission. The crier always commences at the sultan’s
gate, from which he proceeds to the market-place. It was proclaimed
on this occasion, that all those who were to accompany the expedition
must provide themselves with eight days’ provisions. At eight in
the evening, the sultan left the capital with his army.
March 28.—This forenoon I had a visit from a famous Marauboot, or
holy man: he was accompanied by a great retinue, and repeated the
Fatha at his entrance, for the first time this ceremony had been
performed before me in Haussa. He began by asking me, abruptly,
to become a Moslem: I said, “God willing, I might; but I require
much previous instruction in religious matters before I can think of
changing my faith.” At this answer the bystanders began to laugh
immoderately, to the evident discomposure of the holy man’s gravity:
for my part, I could not discover any wit in what I said, although
it had the effect of relieving me from further impertinent questions
on religious subjects; and he soon left me, rather disconcerted at
his want of success. After sunset I had a visit from Ateeko, the
brother of the sultan, to whom I had sent a present of a scarlet
jacket, breeches, and bornouse: when he was seated, and the usual
compliments were over, I apologized on the score of ill health,
and the remoteness of his abode, for not having already paid him
a visit. He now told me he had a few things which belonged to the
Englishman who was at Musfia, with the late Boo Khaloom, but as
no person knew what they were, he would gladly sell them to me,
ordering his servant at the same time to produce a bundle he held
under his arm. The servant took from the bundle a shirt, two pair
of trowsers, and two pieces of parchment, used for sketching by
Major Denham. The only other articles, Ateeko said, were a trunk,
a broken sextant, and a watch; but the watch had been destroyed, as
he alleged, in their ignorant eagerness to examine its structure. He
then invited me to visit him the following morning, when we might
fix the price of what I wished to buy, to which I assented; and he
bade me good night; but, on re-considering the matter, I thought
it prudent first to consult the gadado, particularly as the sultan
was absent. I began to fear lest a bad construction might be put
upon my visit to this mean prince, who, on the death of his father,
Bello the first, had aspired to the throne, and had even had himself
proclaimed sultan in Sackatoo; from the mere circumstance of his
brother Bello, the present sultan, having expressed the intention,
during his father’s lifetime, of resigning the splendour of
sovereignty for the tranquillity of a learned and holy life. Ateeko
even had the audacity to enter his brother’s house, preceded by
drums and trumpets; and when Bello inquired the cause of the tumult,
he received the first intimation of his brother’s perfidy, in the
answer “The sultan Ateeko is come.” Bello, nowise disconcerted,
immediately ordered the usurper into his presence, when Ateeko
pleaded, in vindication of his conduct, his brother’s proposed
disinclination to reign; to which the sultan only deigned to reply,
“Go and take off these trappings, or I will take off your head:”
Ateeko, with characteristic abjectness of spirit, began to wring his
hands, as if washing them in water, and called God and the Prophet
to witness that his motives were innocent and upright; since which
time, he has remained in the utmost obscurity.
March 29.—I visited the gadado very early, and informed him of what
had taken place last night. He told me by no means to go while the
sultan was absent, as my visit at this juncture might be regarded
with a very jealous eye by the people; who would not hesitate to
charge me with a plot to place prince Ateeko on the throne, by
the assistance of England. The gadado undisguisedly expressed his
contempt of Ateeko’s conduct, and assured me that it was entirely
without the sanction of the sultan.—In the afternoon I was again
seized with bilious vomiting.
March 30.—Cloudy and warm. El Wordee came to-day in the name
of the gadado, to ask me to sell him a silk tobe and some other
articles, although it was well known to him I had nothing of the
kind in my possession; and had it been otherwise, he was also aware
I would not sell them. I suspected that he was manœuvring in some
way for himself; and as soon as he was gone, I went to the gadado,
and asked him if he had sent any message to me, when it turned out
as I conjectured. The good old gadado said he felt quite ashamed
that any thing should have been asked in his name; and shaking his
head, he said he feared El Wordee was —— then checking himself,
he earnestly requested me to take no further notice of it.
March 31.—I was confined to the house all day with ague. During
the time I had been in Sackatoo, I had, at the recommendation
of both the sultan and gadado, ridden out every morning for the
benefit of my health; but instead of choosing the high grounds,
I had generally taken my rides by the banks of the river, where
there were many stagnant pools of water, and the land was low and
swampy. To this I attributed my ague. The Arabs are likewise much
afflicted with it at this season of the year. With the gadado’s
advice, I took my morning rides in future on the high grounds.
April 1.—Morning cool and clear. I discovered that one of my bags
of cowries had been cut open; and having good reason to suspect my
servant Absalom of the theft, as he was known to have made a number
of extravagant presents to one of the gadado’s female slaves, of
whom he was passionately enamoured, I was obliged to dismiss him my
service, although both a smart and a brave fellow, uniting at once
in his person the important functions of barber and butler.
April 4.—Cool and clear. My ague had left me. In the evening the
sultan returned to town.
April 5.—This morning Hadje Ali Boo Khaloom arrived from
Kano. Although he left the town of Quarra with a large kafila,
consisting of a thousand people, and protected by an escort of fifty
horsemen, yet they were attacked between the lake of Gondamee and
the wells of Kamoon, by the people of Goober and Zanfra, who after
killing one shreef, two Arabs of Tripoli, and seventeen Felatahs,
and taking the negroes prisoners, captured all the baggage except
that of Hadje Ali. He fortunately escaped with his camels, though
less by his own bravery than through the address of one of his
slaves, who kept cheering up his master’s spirits, and urging the
camels to their utmost speed, until they completely outstripped their
pursuers. The shreef who was killed left two young children, to whom
I sent ten dollars, by way of encouraging others to contribute to
their relief.—In the afternoon I paid my respects to the sultan,
on his return from the army. Hadje Ali Boo Khaloom accompanied me;
but the sultan did not deign to look towards the place where he sat,
although he was extremely kind to me, inquiring how I did, and if
any thing had happened in his absence.
A slave belonging to Mahomed Moode, the gadado’s brother,
whose duty it was to run with his spears by his horse’s side,
had feigned lameness, to be excused attending his master. For this
offence his legs were heavily shackled, in which miserable plight
he often contrived to crawl to the square before my door, and at
length begged me to intercede with his master for his release. In
the evening, when his master came as usual to see me, I asked him
to pardon the slave, who was immediately sent for, and his fetters
taken off. It is but justice to say, his master appeared as grateful
to me for affording him the opportunity of liberating his slave, as
if I had done him a personal favour. The mode of punishing slaves
in Sackatoo is by putting them in irons, and throwing them into a
dungeon under the common prison of the city. The dungeon is reported
to be extremely filthy and abominable. Here they remain without
any food, but what is gratuitously supplied by their fellow slaves,
until their master releases them. This punishment is much dreaded,
and its duration depends entirely on the caprice of the master.
April 6.—Clear and cool.
April 7.—Having obtained the permission of the gadado to purchase
from Ateeko the sorry remains of Major Denham’s baggage, I went
early this morning with El Wordee to the prince’s house, which is
situate at the west end of the town. After waiting some time in the
porch of a square tower, we were introduced into an inner coozee
hung round with blue and yellow silk, in sharp pointed festoons,
not unlike gothic arches. Ateeko soon made his appearance, and
after a few compliments, we proceeded to business. He brought out a
damaged leathern trunk, with two or three shirts and other articles
of dress, much the worse for wear, and the sextant and parchment
already mentioned. The sextant was completely demolished, the whole
of the glasses being taken out, or where they could not unscrew them,
broken off the frame, which remained a mere skeleton. He seemed to
fancy that the sextant was gold, in which I soon undeceived him;
and selecting it with the parchment and one or two flannel waistcoats
and towels, likely to be useful to Major Denham, I offered him 5000
cowries, at which he appeared much surprised and mortified. El
Wordee whispered in my ear,—“Remember he is a prince, and
not a merchant.” I said, loud enough for his highness to hear,
“Remember that when a prince turns merchant, he must expect no
more than another man; and as that is the value of the articles,
it is a matter of indifference to me whether I buy them or not.”
Ateeko frequently repeated his belief of the sextant being gold;
but at length the bargain seemed to be concluded, and I requested
him to send a slave to my house with the articles I had picked out,
to whom I would pay the money. The slave, however, was recalled
before he got half way, and his suspicious master took back the
sextant frame, in dread of being overreached by me in its value,
which I did not fail to deduct from the price agreed on.
The prince’s residence, like those of other great men in this
country, is within a large quadrangular enclosure, surrounded by a
high clay wall, with a high tower at the entrance, in which some
of the slaves or body-guard lounge during the day, and sleep at
night. The enclosure is occupied by coozees, some of them in a very
ruinous condition. He told me that he possessed a great number of
slaves; and I saw many females about his person, most of them very
beautiful. He also stated, that he kept two hundred civet cats,
two of which he showed me. These animals were extremely savage,
and were confined in separate wooden cages. They were about four
feet long, from the nose to the tip of the tail; and with the
exception of a greater length of body and a longer tail, they
very much resembled diminutive hyenas. They are fed with pounded
Guinea corn, and dried fish made into balls. The civet is scraped
off with a kind of muscle shell every other morning, the animal
being forced into a corner of the cage, and its head held down
with a stick during the operation. The prince offered to sell any
number of them I might wish to have; but they did not appear to
be desirable travelling companions. Ateeko is a little spare man,
with a full face, of monkey-like expression. He speaks in a slow
and subdued tone of voice; and the Felatahs acknowledge him to be
extremely brave, but at the same time avaricious and cruel. “Were
he sultan,” say they, “heads would fly about in Soudan.”
After taking leave of the prince, we rode by appointment to view
a new mosque, which was building at the expense of the gadado,
not far distant from Ateeko’s house. Like all mosques, it was of
a quadrangular form, the sides facing the four cardinal points,
and about 800 feet in length. On the eastern side there were two
doors. The western entrance had a small square apartment on the right
hand in entering, where the people perform their ablutions before
prayers. The roof of the mosque was perfectly flat, and formed of
joists laid from wall to wall, the interstices being filled up with
slender spars placed obliquely from joist to joist, and the whole
covered outside with a thick stratum of indurated clay. The roof
rested on arches, which were supported by seven rows of pillars, seven
in each row. The pillars were of wood, plastered over with clay, and
highly ornamented. On the south side of the body of the building there
was a small recess appropriated solely to the sultan’s use. Some
workmen were employed in ornamenting the pillars, others in completing
the roof; and all appeared particularly busy, from the circumstance
of the gadado himself being here to receive me. The gadado was very
inquisitive to know my opinion, every two or three minutes asking me
what I thought of the building. The master builder, a shrewd looking
little man, continually laughing, was seated in a position whence
he could conveniently overlook all the workmen. He informed me he
was a native of Zeg Zeg, and that his father having been in Egypt,
had there acquired a smattering of Moorish architecture, and had
left him at his death all his papers, from which he derived his only
architectural knowledge. He was particularly solicitous to possess
a Gunter’s scale, which I afterwards sent to the sultan.
April 8.—Clear and cool. I was confined to the house all day with
ague. Hadje Ali Boo Khaloom, who has paid me two or three visits,
which I never return, sent me half a sheep, and accompanied the
present with great offers of his services, of which I took no notice,
but ordered the present to be given to the poor. I always treated
this man with civility; but took good care never to follow any of his
suggestions, or to allow myself the smallest freedom of conversation
before him.
A number of poor children came to ask alms every morning, to whom I
was in the habit of giving two or three cowries a piece. Their cry
was, “Allah attik jinne,” or “God give you paradise;” a style
of begging that a kafir like me could not withstand; and when almost
all Africa doomed me to eternal perdition, I considered it obtaining
their suffrages at a cheap rate. Amongst the older beggars, there was
one, a native of Bornou, who had once been governor of a town called
Sockwa near Katagum, and had come to Sackatoo in consequence of having
made certain complaints against Duncowa, which being on investigation
found to be untrue, he had been degraded. He was said to be rich;
but in order to save his wealth, now feigned madness. Every night
after sunset, he used to sing extempore before the gadado’s door;
and I was frequently the subject of his songs, particularly if I
had given him any thing in the course of the day. He generally set
the people around him in a roar of laughter.
April 9.—This morning I paid the gadado a visit, and found
him alone, reading an Arabic book, one of a small collection he
possessed. “Abdullah,” said he, “I had a dream last night,
and am perusing this book to find out what it meant. Do you believe
in such things?” “No, my lord gadado; I consider books of dreams
to be full of idle conceits. God gives a man wisdom to guide his
conduct, while dreams are occasioned by the accidental circumstances
of sleeping with the head low, excess of food, or uneasiness of
mind.” “Abdullah,” he replied, smiling, “this book tells me
differently.” He then mentioned, that in a few days the sultan was
going on another expedition, and wished him to join it, but that he
preferred remaining, in order to have the mosque finished before the
Rhamadan, lest the workmen should idle away their time in his absence.
To-day Mahomed Moode, the gadado’s brother, lost an adopted son,
who died of the small-pox. I paid him a visit of condolence, which
seemed to gratify him exceedingly. The Felatahs here, and indeed
almost all the principal people of Soudan, bury their dead in the
house where they die, as before-mentioned. Poor Moode’s grief
was inconsolable; after the burial was over, he came and sat down
alone in the shade before my door, and spreading his tobe over his
knees as if he was reading a book, repeated in a low broken tone of
voice several verses of the Koran, his eyes all the time streaming
with tears. In this woful state of dejection he remained at least
two hours. I could not help admiring the affectionate warmth of his
feelings, so indicative of a good heart, and I sincerely sympathized
in his sorrow. The child was the son of his brother the gadado. The
practice of adopting children is very prevalent among the Felatahs,
and though they have sons and daughters of their own, the adopted
child generally becomes heir to the whole of the property.
April 10.—At three in the afternoon I waited on the sultan, to
wish him success on the present expedition, and a happy return. We
conversed on different subjects, but ended, as usual, about the trade
with England; when I again endeavoured to impress on his mind, that
we should be able to supply his subjects with all kinds of goods at
a very cheap rate,—that his dominions were better situated for the
gum trade than any other country in Africa,—and that many other
valuable articles would be brought here from Timbuctoo, Bornou,
and Wadey, and easily carried by the Felatahs to the sea-coast, to
be disposed of to the English. He dwelt much on receiving in return
cloth, muskets, and gunpowder; and asked me if I would not come back,
and if the King of England would be induced to send out a consul
and a physician, should he address a letter to His Majesty on the
subject. He now asked in what time they would come: I told him they
could be upon the coast in two months after his wishes were known
in England. He resumed,—“Let me know the precise time, and my
messengers shall be down at any part of the coast you may appoint,
to forward letters to me from the mission, on receipt of which I will
send an escort to conduct it to Soudan.” He also assured me he was
able to put an effectual stop to the slave trade, and that the chart
I asked for was nearly ready. At the close of this interview, the
sultan kindly requested me not to be uneasy in his absence. At five
in the afternoon, the sultan and gadado joined the army at the Sansan.
April 11, 12, and 13.—A refreshing breeze for the last two or
three days. I received a present of two large baskets of wheat,
which the sultan had ordered me before his departure. I was sitting
in the shade before my door, with Sidi Sheikh, the sultan’s fighi,
when an ill-looking wretch, with a fiend-like grin on his countenance,
came and placed himself directly before me. I asked Sidi Sheikh who
he was? He answered, with great composure, “The executioner.”
I instantly ordered my servants to turn him out. “Be patient,”
said Sidi Sheikh, laying his hand upon mine: “he visits the first
people in Sackatoo, and they never allow him to go away without
giving him a few Goora nuts, or money to buy them.” In compliance
with this hint, I requested forty cowries to be given to the fellow,
with strict orders never again to cross my threshold. Sidi Sheikh now
related to me a professional anecdote of my uninvited visitor. Being
brother of the executioner of Yacoba, of which place he was a native,
he applied to the governor for his brother’s situation, boasting
of superior adroitness in the family vocation. The governor coolly
remarked, “We will try;—go, fetch your brother’s head!” He
instantly went in quest of his brother, and finding him seated at
the door of his house, without noise or warning he struck off his
head with a sword, at one blow; then carrying the bleeding head to
the governor, and claiming the reward of such transcendent atrocity,
he was appointed to the vacant office. The sultan being afterwards
in want of an expert headsman, sent for him to Sackatoo, where a
short time after his arrival he had to officiate at the execution
of 2000 Tuaricks, who, in conjunction with the rebels of Goober,
had attempted to plunder the country, but were all made prisoners;
this event happening about four years ago. I may here add, that the
capital punishments inflicted in Soudan are beheading, impaling,
and crucifixion; the first being reserved for Mahometans, and the
other two practised on Pagans. I was told, as a matter of curiosity,
that wretches on the cross generally linger three days, before death
puts an end to their sufferings.
April 14.—Clear and warm. The gadado’s harem having paid me
repeated visits, I was much struck with the beauty of some of the
female slaves. To-day an Arab belonging to a kafila that left Quarra
on the 10th instant made his escape here, all his fellow travellers
having been taken by the people of Goober and Zamfra, who fell upon
the kafila near the lake Gondamee.
April 15.—Notwithstanding that I had an attack of fever to-day,
I received a visit from the females of the gadado’s household,
who during their stay seemed to evince much sympathy, but as soon as
they reached the outer square, their unrestrained gaiety and noisy
mirth soon convinced me that they only frequented my house as a
place where they could with security amuse themselves.
April 16.—I took an emetic of ipecacuanha, with immediate relief
of my bilious symptoms.
April 17.—At day-break the sultan returned with the army,
having made a large capture of sheep, bullocks, asses, &c. in the
neighbourhood of the new capital of Zamfra.
April 18.—This morning I went to congratulate the sultan and the
gadado on their safe return. In the evening we had rain, thunder,
and lightning.
April 19.—The gadado’s favourite son, by Bello’s sister,
died to-day of small-pox, after being considered convalescent, in
consequence of riding out too early to visit his grandfather. This
lad was buried in the house, as usual, a few hours after death,
amid the loud lamentations of the female slaves of the family.
April 20.—I went this morning to condole with the gadado on the
death of his son. He was sitting in an inner apartment, and smiling
mournfully at my entrance, he said: “This is very kind of you,
Abdullah; I have met with a great misfortune, but it is the will of
God.” I endeavoured to reconcile him to this severe dispensation
of Providence, and expressed my hope that he might yet have another
son in room of him he had lost. He shook his head, and said, “God
willing, but I am an old man:” then covering his face with his
hands, we sat together nearly an hour in silence, when, unable to
alleviate his grief, I took him by the hand; he pressed mine in
return; and I left this disconsolate father with heaviness of heart.
April 21.—News arrived this morning, that the Tuaricks of the
tribe of Kilgris had taken and plundered the town of Adia, six
days’ journey to the northward of Sackatoo; in consequence of
which a proclamation was issued, that all the Tuaricks belonging
to that tribe should depart from Bello’s dominions in three days,
under the penalty of death. The gadado informed me to-day, that he
should not be able to accompany me to Kano before the rains, as he
once intended, in consequence of all the horses being worn out from
want of water during the last expedition. In the afternoon I had a
severe attack of ague, with bilious vomiting.
April 22.—Thunder and lightning all night.
April 23.—We heard that another kafila had been seized by the
Gooberites, and six Felatah women taken amongst the spoil, besides
300 slaves.
[Illustration: _A Reduction of Bello’s Map of Central Africa._
_J. & C. Walker Sculpt._
_Published as the Act directs Jany. 1826, by John Murray Albemarle
Street London._]
April 27.—To-day a party which had gone on a marauding expedition
to Kulee sent word that they had made a large capture of bullocks
and slaves.
April 30.—Ill all day. The sultan sent for me in the afternoon. I
was taken to a part of his residence I had never before seen: it was
a handsome apartment, within a square tower, the ceiling of which
was a dome, supported by eight ornamental arches, with a bright
plate of brass in its centre. Between the arches and the outer wall
of the tower, the dome was encircled by a neat balustrade in front
of a gallery, which led into an upper suite of rooms. We had a long
conversation about Europe: he spoke of the ancient Moorish kingdom
in Spain, and appeared well pleased when I told him that we were in
possession of Gibraltar. He asked me to send him, from England, some
Arabic books and a map of the world: and, in recompense, promised
his protection to as many of our learned men as chose to visit his
dominions. He also spoke of the gold and silver to be obtained in
the hills of Jacoba and Adamowa; but I assured him that we were
less anxious about gold mines than the establishment of commerce,
and the extension of science. He now gave me a map of the country,
and after explaining it to me, he resumed the old theme of applying
by letter to the King of England, for the residence of a consul and
a physician at Sackatoo; and again expressed his hope that I would
revisit his dominions. He next inquired to what place on the coast the
English would come, that he might send an escort for the guns; when
I promised to write to his Highness on that subject from Kouka. He
proposed to have two messengers waiting at the place I should select,
at whose return he would send down an escort to the sea-coast.
May 1.—I began to make preparations for my return to Bornou, for
various reasons which it is unnecessary to detail. The Rhamadan
commenced to-day, and the Felatahs keep the fast with extreme
rigour. The chief people never leave their houses, except in the
evening, to prayer, and the women frequently pour cold water over
their backs and necks, under the idea that the greater thirst they
appear to endure, the better entitled they become to Paradise;
although I am inclined to believe that they make a parade of
these privations, in a great measure, to obtain the reputation of
extraordinary sanctity.
May 2.—Ill all day. I sent for the steward of the gadado’s
household, and all the female slaves, who had daily performed
the duty of bringing me provisions from the time of my arrival:
these provisions were, about a gallon of new milk every morning,
in a large bowl, for myself, and two gallons of sour milk and
ticcory for my servants, at noon; in return for each of which I
always gave fifty cowries: at three o’clock, three roast fowls,
with doura or nutta sauce, for which I sent fifty cowries; again,
after sunset, two bowls of bazeen were brought by two female slaves,
to whom I gave one hundred cowries, and about two quarts of new milk
afterwards, for which I gave fifty cowries more. As an acknowledgment
for their attention during my residence in Sackatoo, I now presented
the steward of the household with 10,000 cowries, and the slaves
with 2,000 each. The poor creatures were extremely grateful for my
bounty, and many of them even shed tears. In the afternoon, I waited
upon the sultan, who told me that he had appointed the same escort
which I had before, under the command of the gadado’s brother, to
conduct me through the provinces of Goober and Zamfra, and that an
officer of the gadado’s, after the escort left me, should accompany
me to Zirmee, Kashna, Kano, and Katagum; the governor of which would
receive orders to furnish me with a strong escort through the Bedite
territory, and to deliver me safely into the hands of the sheikh of
Bornou. He also mentioned, that the letter for the King of England
would be ready next day.
May 3.—At daylight, the camels were brought in from their pasturage,
and were sent off in the afternoon to the neighbourhood of the
wells of Kamoon. To-day I was visited by all the principal people of
Sackatoo, to bid me farewell; and at seven o’clock, in the evening,
I went to take leave of the sultan: he was at the mosque, and I had
to wait about two hours till he came out. I followed him, at a little
distance, to the door of his residence, where an old female slave
took me by the hand and led me through a number of dark passages, in
which, at the bidding of my conductress, I had often to stoop, or at
times to tread with great caution as we approached flights of steps,
while a faint glimmering light twinkled from a distant room. I could
not imagine where the old woman was conducting me, who, on her part,
was highly diverted at my importunate inquiries. After much turning
and winding, I was at last brought into the presence of Bello, who
was sitting alone, and immediately delivered into my hands a letter
for the King of England, with assurances of his friendly sentiments
towards the English nation. He had previously sent to me to know
what was His Majesty’s name, style, and title. He again expressed,
with much earnestness of manner, his anxiety to enter into permanent
relations of trade and friendship with England; and reminded me to
apprise him, by letter, at what time the English mission would be
upon the coast. After repeating the Fatha, and praying for my safe
arrival in England, and speedy return to Sackatoo, he affectionately
bade me farewell. I went next to take leave of my good old friend
the gadado, for whom I felt the same regard as if he had been one of
my oldest friends in England, and I am sure it was equally sincere
on his side: the poor old man prayed very devoutly for my safety,
and gave strict charge to his brother, who was to accompany me,
to take special care of me in our journey through the disturbed
provinces. The gadado looked very ill, owing, as I suppose, to his
strict observance of the fast, and the distress which he had recently
suffered by the loss of his son.
I shall here add a short description of the city of Sackatoo. It is
in lat. 13° 4′ 52″ N. and long. 6° 12′ E. and is situate near
the junction of an inconsiderable stream with the same river which
flows past Zirme, and which, taking its rise between Kashna and Kano,
is said to fall into the Quarra four days’ journey to the west. The
name in their language signifies “a halting place;” the city being
built by the Felatahs after the conquest of Goober and Zamfra, as
near as I could learn, about the year 1805. It occupies a long ridge
which slopes gently towards the north, and appeared to me the most
populous town I had visited in the interior of Africa; for, unlike
most other towns in Haussa, where the houses are thinly scattered,
it is laid out in regular well built streets. The houses approach
close to the walls, which were built by the present sultan in 1818,
after the death of his father; the old walls being too confined
for the increasing population. This wall is between twenty and
thirty feet high, and has twelve gates, which are regularly closed
at sunset. There are two large mosques, including the new one at
present building by the gadado, besides several other places for
prayer. There is a spacious market-place in the centre of the city,
and another large square in front of the sultan’s residence. The
dwellings of the principal people are surrounded by high walls, which
enclose numerous coozees and flat-roofed houses, built in the Moorish
style; whose large water-spouts of baked clay, projecting from the
eaves, resemble at first sight a tier of guns. The inhabitants are
principally Felatahs, possessing numerous slaves. Such of the latter
as are not employed in domestic duties reside in houses by themselves,
where they follow various trades; the master, of course, reaping
the profit. Their usual employments are weaving, house-building,
shoe-making, and iron work: many bring fire-wood to the market for
sale. Those employed in raising grain and tending cattle, of which the
Felatahs have immense herds, reside in villages without the city. It
is customary for private individuals to free a number of slaves every
year, according to their means, during the great feast after the
Rhamadan. The enfranchised seldom return to their native country, but
continue to reside near their old masters, still acknowledging them as
their superiors, and presenting them yearly with a portion of their
earnings. The trade of Sackatoo is at present inconsiderable, owing
to the disturbed state of the surrounding country. The necessaries
of life are very cheap: butchers’ meat is in great plenty, and
very good. The exports are principally civet and blue check tobes,
called sharie, which are manufactured by the slaves from Nyffee,
of whom the men are considered the most expert weavers in Soudan,
and the women the best spinners. The common imports are Goora nuts,
brought from the borders of Ashantee; and coarse calico and woollen
cloth, in small quantities, with brass and pewter dishes, and some
few spices from Nyffee. The Arabs, from Tripoli and Ghadamis,
bring unwrought silk, otto of roses, spices, and beads: slaves
are both exported and imported. A great quantity of Guinea corn
is taken every year by the Tuaricks, in exchange for salt. The
market is extremely well supplied, and is held daily from sunrise
to sunset. On the north side of Sackatoo there is a low marsh,
with some stagnant pools of water, between the city and the river:
this, perhaps, may be the cause of the great prevalence of ague,
as the city stands in a fine airy situation.
May 4.—I left Sackatoo, accompanied by one of the gadado’s
officers, named Dumbojee; and we travelled almost all night before we
came up with our servants, who had pitched our tents near Kamoon. At
daylight we moved on to the wells at Kamoon, where we halted to fill
our water skins; and at two in the afternoon, the escort arriving,
we proceeded on our journey, being also joined by four merchants
and their slaves. We took a new road, where no water is to be had,
to avoid the Tooias, as the rebels of Goobeer and Zamfra are called;
“tooia, tooia,” or “war, war,” being the national cry of
this people on entering into battle.
May 5.—We now pursued a footpath, through thick woods full of
briars, which tore our clothes; and, as I had neglected to put
on my boots, my legs were much lacerated. At midnight we passed
near to a kafila of the rebels, who were travelling between Zamfra
and Goobeer. This induced Moodie, the commander of our escort, to
continue our journey all night, in spite of my wishes to halt till
morning. “No, no; the tooias are near;” was his only reply to
my remonstrances; and, in fact, we often heard the sound of their
voices. When day dawned we discovered that we had mistaken the road
all night, and were actually within a short distance of Calawawa,
the capital of Goobeer, no one knowing the safest way to return. I
had observed, to my surprise, during the night, that we travelled in
a northerly direction; but never dreamed of interfering. Moodie now
consulted me on what was to be done, and I recommended our travelling
south-east. We accordingly set out as fast as the camels could be
driven through a thick underwood, by which my trowsers were all torn,
and my legs almost excoriated from the knees to the ancles.
In the afternoon the people on foot began to lag, and one or two
were allowed to ride on the camels; but this was soon given up,
as the applicants became too numerous to grant this indulgence
indiscriminately. A number of the poor natives on foot, who had taken
advantage of the escort to pass through this part of the country,
overcome with fatigue and thirst, sat down never to rise more. One
of my servants, a native of Kano, dropped down apparently dead,
after taking a draught of water, of which the negroes drink an
immense quantity. Indeed, I may safely say, they drink six times the
quantity that Europeans do. I had him lashed on a camel, the motion
of which brought him again to life; and, in half an hour’s time,
after vomiting a great quantity of bile, he was able to walk, and
soon appeared as fresh as ever. Before sunset we saw the high lands
over the lake Gondamee, and then bent our course to the eastward. At
sunset a female slave, belonging to Hadje Ali Boo Khaloom, calling
out that she saw two tooias, Moodie came up to me at full gallop,
and recommended me to exchange the camel on which I was riding for my
horse, and to have my firearms in readiness. Although scarcely able
to support myself from severe pain in my limbs, I placed myself,
however, at the head of the escort; but, fortunately for me, we
could see no enemies, otherwise my sorry plight would have left me
a very poor chance of success. At length, having reached a beaten
path leading eastward, we waited for the camels to come up. The water
skins being now all empty, and no one knowing exactly where we were,
but each travelling as fast as thirst and weariness would permit him,
I kept my people and camels together, and El Wordee, with two of the
Arab merchants, considered it safest for themselves not to leave me. A
fine Arab horse, belonging to Hadje Ali Boo Khaloom, died of fatigue.
May 6.—Thursday, at four in the morning, El Wordee falling ill,
and declaring he could travel no farther, I ordered a halt on his
account, but left the loads on the camels. Being separated from the
whole of the caravan, except one Arab merchant, I lay down by the
side of my horse, and my servants gave me a few small yellow plums
they had picked up, which relieved both my hunger and thirst. I
now slept soundly on the ground until daybreak, when we continued
our journey to the eastward, without following any regular track,
and soon came up with several stragglers from the caravan and
escort, who, overcome with fatigue, had lain down in the night,
and were now pursuing their way, most of them almost unable to
speak from excessive thirst. The horsemen were dismounted,—their
horses having either died, or being too weak to bear their riders,
who were driving them before them. At ten o’clock we fell in with
the road to Gondamee, and at noon halted on the south bank of the
river Futche. We found that very few had arrived there before us,
and, reposing ourselves under the shade of some trees, we despatched
some country people with water to our fellow travellers in the rear,
who continued to drop in one after another till sunset. At first we
ate and drank rather sparingly ourselves, and were also particularly
careful to prevent our cattle from injuring themselves by drinking
too much water at a time. Notwithstanding our distressed condition,
the Felatahs keep the fast of the Rhamadan so strictly, they would
not taste water till after sunset.
May 7.—On mustering the kafila at daylight, we found that nine
men and six horses had perished on the road. Of these, two were
Felatahs going to Mecca, who had come from Ginee, to the westward of
Timbuctoo; and a third was the husband of a woman now left destitute,
to whom I promised my protection as far as Kano. At noon I took leave
of Moodie and the escort, who wished to conduct me to Zirmee; but as
all danger was passed, I declined their friendly offer, and, making
them a present of a sheep and 40,000 cowries, we separated. At one in
the afternoon I arrived at Quari, and encamped outside the town, but
went and paid my respects to the governor, who complained grievously
of the privations which he suffered by keeping the Rhamadan, although
this was only the seventh day.
May 8.—At daylight I left Quari, and crossed a country intersected
by deep ravines. I halted under a large shady tree, during the
heat of the day, and, towards sunset, arrived at Zirmee, where I
was provided with good accommodation for myself and servants. The
governor had gone to reside in one of the small towns in his province
during the Rhamadan; but I was visited by his brother and the Imam,
who sent me a sheep and provisions, as well as by all the principal
people of the place.
May 9.—Warm and sultry. To-day I received a number of visitors of
both sexes.
May 10.—Zirmee, the capital of the province of Zamfra, occupies a
peninsula formed by the river, which has here very high and steep
banks, covered with mimosas and prickly bushes, through which a
narrow winding path leads to the gates of the town. It is surrounded
by a wall and dry ditch: the wall is of clay, from twenty to thirty
feet high. The governor, named Turnee, is considered a brave man,
but bears also the character of a perfect freebooter; and the
inhabitants altogether are reputed to be the greatest rogues in
Haussa. My servants were cautioned by Dumbojee not to quit the house
after sunset, as every black without a beard (to use their expression
for a young man) was liable to be seized, gagged, and carried off to
some of the neighbouring villages for sale. Runaway slaves, from all
parts of Haussa, fly to Zirmee as an asylum, where they are always
welcome; and the inhabitants in general have a remarkably reckless,
independent look. Three female slaves, belonging to Hadje Ali Boo
Khaloom, absconded here; preferring, naturally enough, liberty and
a husband, to slavery and a bad master.
May 11.—At sunrise we left Zirmee, and travelled over a well
cultivated country. During the heat of the day we again halted under
the shade of a tree, and encamped, towards evening, at a village
called Yakua, where Dumbojee wished me to lodge in one of the houses,
alleging the risk of being robbed, or even murdered, out of doors;
but as a number of other people halted outside the village, I merely
pointed to them in ridicule of his timid suggestions.
May 12.—At daybreak we left Yakua without having experienced
the smallest molestation. Our road, in the early part of the day,
lay through a forest of low stunted trees, among which I remarked a
great number of wild mangoes. The soil was clay, mixed with large
round pebbles of yellow quartz, and in the ravines there was mica
slate. After travelling for some time on gravelly heights, I halted
at Roma, where the soil is a black mould over strong clay, large
blocks of siennite running in high ridges from north-north-east to
south-south-west. There was abundance of limpid water, and on all
sides were seen fruit trees, well cultivated fields, and numerous
hamlets and towns. Being market day, the road was crowded with
people: some of whom were driving before them as fine bullocks as
I have ever seen in any country. One man usually went in front,
leading the animal with a rope round its horns, which were dyed with
henna, and two or three others followed behind with a rope fastened
to the legs. Near the channel of one of the little streams winding
among the crags of siennite, I saw five or six plantain trees growing
wild. These were the first I had seen in the country; and, on inquiry,
the inhabitants told me, that this plant did not bear fruit nearer
than Zeg Zeg. The plantains I had from the sultan at Sackatoo were
brought from Nyffee. In the afternoon we resumed our journey. The
country was open and well cultivated; but the road still winding,
and choked up with thorns. At sunset we halted at a large village
called Yanduka, the governor of which, having heard I had come from
Bello, would not allow me to take up my quarters outside the village,
but insisted that I should occupy a house he had provided for me,
where I was liberally supplied with provisions.
May 13.—At sunrise we left Yanduka, about two miles beyond which
the country became very woody, and rested at noon under the shade of
a large tamarind tree, on the banks of a rainy-season stream, which
we had already crossed four times since morning. The kuka tree,
towering over all the other trees of the forest, grew out of the
interstices of the naked rocks, among which the river slowly wound
in beautiful meanders. The water procured from pits made in the bed
of the river was of a blackish colour, and had a disagreeable smell,
seemingly as if strongly impregnated with trona. In the afternoon we
continued our route, and on ascending a rising ground we descried
the minarets of the mosque of Kashna: the country was still very
partially cleared of wood. Having sent El Wordee and Dumbojee before
me to prepare lodgings, I did not arrive at Kashna till after sunset,
when the gates were shut; but on hailing the sentinel, and telling
him who I was, he requested me to go round to a little wicket,
which I found open. I went immediately to Hadje Ahmet Ben Massoud,
who took me to the house provided for me, where I was well supplied
with provisions; but the house itself was in wretched repair, full
of ants and rats, and, I verily believe, had not been inhabited
since the Felatah conquest.
May 14.—After a sleepless night I sent for Dumbojee, desired one
of my servants to show him the house, and asked him if this was the
gadado’s. He informed me it was intended I should be lodged in
the house of Voikin Serkis, a friend of the sultan, but El Wordee
had told him I preferred staying with the Arabs. I desired him to
go immediately to the house of Voikin Serkis, and tell him I was
coming. When Hadje Ahmet and El Wordee heard of this message, they
came to me in great fright, and entreated I would go with them and
choose whatever house I pleased. Not wishing to be troublesome, I
accompanied them after breakfast. I was shown through several houses,
and fixed on one conveniently situate for astronomical observations:
the adjoining court-yard was occupied by the freed female slaves of
old Hadje Ahmet. I was ill all day, although this did not prevent me
from being tormented with the visits of almost all the principal
inhabitants. Fortunately the governor was out of town, but he
was polite enough to send me an invitation to his country-house,
where he secludes himself during the Rhamadan. Among the Arabs he
has the character of being very avaricious, and as I was rather at
a loss for a present to offer him, I thought it better to decline
the visit, notwithstanding the importunity of Hadje Ahmet with me
to see him. Hadje Ahmet, the chief of all the Arabs, had resided
there for the last thirty years; and although it was the Rhamadan,
he ran about with great alacrity, in the heat of the sun, to procure
me salt and tar for the camels, and other little necessaries for my
own use. But his liberality was unbounded: he even permitted me to
visit his seraglio, and told me to pick and choose for myself among,
at least, fifty black girls. I took notice that his countrymen would
find fault with him for giving up a Mahometan female to a Kafir:
“No, no; you must have one.” “Well, as I am sick, and want a
nurse, I will take this woman,” pointing to an elderly slave. “You
have done right,” said the Hadje; “she is an experienced woman,
and a good cook; she has seen the world; she has been in Fezzan.”
This was the first offer of the kind I had ever received from a
Moslem; and along with the old woman, two young females were sent
to assist her. During my sickness, I never before had the benefit
of female nurses, and by their care and attention I soon recovered
my health and strength.
May 15.—Cool and cloudy. I was waited upon, a little after daylight,
by Hadje Ahmet, who told me, with an air of mysterious confidence,
that he had a stone of very great value to show me, and wished my
opinion respecting it. “Well, father pilgrim, show it to me, and
I will tell you its value.” His servant now brought in a leathern
bag, from which his master took a bundle of rags; and unrolling them
carefully, one after the other, he began to make the most ludicrous
faces of mock ecstasy. At last the gem appeared, which he held
up with a cry of rapture:—“Look there! what will you give for
it?” It was a piece of rock crystal, about two inches in length,
and three-fourths of an inch in diameter. Assuming a countenance of
corresponding gravity, I affected to muse for a short time in silent
astonishment, and then drawled out, “A dollar.” The mortified
Hadje would not satisfy my curiosity about where it came from, but
in hazarding a conjecture that it was obtained in Yacoba, I fancied
he betrayed by his manner that I had hit upon the spot. Although
I wished to have the crystal, I was afraid to make another offer,
lest, supposing it to be of inestimable price, he might suspect I
wished to take an unfair advantage of him; and he again wrapped it
up, with like care and solemnity.
May 16.—Clear and warm. In the afternoon we had much rain, with
thunder and lightning.
Kashna is in lat. 12° 59′ N. by merid. alt. of Antares. According
to Hadje Ahmet, it was called Sangras about a century ago, and
afterwards Geshna, from the small underwood of that name growing
on the ridge whereon the town is built, and which is one of many
long ridges that run from north-east to south-west. The walls are of
clay, and very extensive; but, as at Kano, the houses do not occupy
above one-tenth of the space within them: the rest is laid out in
fields, or covered with wood. The governor’s residence resembles
a large village, and is about half a mile to the east of all the
other buildings. On account of the Rhamadan, I was exempted from
the ceremony of paying him a visit: his name is Omar Delogie. The
fruits here are figs, melons, pomegranates, and limes. Grapes are
said to have been plentiful in former times, but at the Felatah
conquest the vines were cut down. The houses are mostly in ruins,
the principal commerce of the country being carried on at Kano since
the Felatah conquest; nevertheless, there is still a considerable
trade. There are two daily markets, in different parts of the town,
one to the south, the other to the north. The southern market is
chiefly attended by merchants of Ghadamis and Tuat; that to the north
by Tuaricks. The Ghadamis and Tuat merchants bring unwrought silk,
cotton and woollen cloths, beads, and a little cochineal, which they
sell for cowries. These are sent to their agents at Kano, to purchase
blue tobes and turkadees, which are conveyed across the country
to supply the fair of Ghraat; and whatever they do not dispose of
there to the Tuaricks, they send to Timbuctoo in exchange for civet,
gold and slaves. The manufactures of Kashna are chiefly of leather;
such as water-skins, red or yellow cushions, and bridles of goat
skin, &c. Tanned bullocks’ hides, also, are frequently carried to
Fezzan and Tripoli. They prepare very good dried beef, with which
the Arab merchants usually provide themselves before crossing the
desert. Kashna is a favourite resort of the Tuaricks who frequent
Soudan during the dry months. The merchants of Ghadamis and Tuat never
keep camels of their own, but hire them from this singular people,
who carry their goods across the desert to Kashna, at the rate of ten
dollars a load, and likewise convey slaves at twenty-five dollars a
head, finding them in every thing. With this revenue, and the produce
of the salt they bring with them, the Tuaricks buy grain and other
necessaries here to serve them during their sojourn in the desert.
May 17.—At sunrise I left Kashna by the gate Koura, on the south
side of the town. I was accompanied so great a distance by Hadje
Ahmet, that I was obliged to entreat him to return; reminding him
it was the Rhamadan, and that riding in the heat of the sun, without
being permitted to quench his thirst, was too severe a trial of any
one’s faith. In the immediate neighbourhood of Kashna, the country
is covered with brushwood and low stunted trees; but we soon entered a
well cultivated district. The road too was good. We rested during the
heat of the day under a tree, at a cluster of villages called Miwa,
near the bed of a rainy-season stream. We afterwards passed the
ruins of a number of towns and villages, which had been destroyed
by the rebel Duntungua. At sunset we encamped for the night near
some villages called Eatowa, where a little girl came to me and told
me to look well after my baggage, as there were eight thieves in a
house which she pointed out, who, she said, plundered all around them.
May 18.—At sunrise we left Eatowa, without sustaining any loss. The
country appeared well cultivated, and the soil rich; and in the
course of an hour, we passed the walled town of Sabon Gree, the walls
of which were in bad repair, and the inhabitants few in number. At
noon we halted under a tree near to a village called Burderowa. We
were here joined by a merchant of Sockna, who left Kashna the day
after us. El Wordee having lost some civet and gold, to the value
of thirty-one dollars, suspected his servant of the theft, who,
in consequence of a guinea-worm in his foot, was allowed to ride
on his master’s camel; but he strenuously denied all knowledge of
the matter, and called on God and the Prophet to judge between him
and his master. El Wordee had searched all his baggage at Kashna,
without discovering the slightest traces of the stolen property,
and was now deploring his loss to the merchant who joined us,
whose Arab servant overhearing him, asked him if he had examined
the saddle of his camel. El Wordee replied in the negative, when
the Arab swore by the Prophet, that the stolen goods were there,
for his servant had without orders repaired the saddle at Kashna;
which being immediately ripped open, the civet was found. Seated
at a little distance under the shade of a tree, I had an excellent
opportunity of watching the countenance of the accused, who gazed
eagerly at the novel search. The moment the first box was found, he
turned round with his back to the party, and throwing himself on the
ground, concealed his face in the earth. All the civet was recovered,
but none of the gold, the thief continuing to exclaim to his master:
“God judge between you and me, I am innocent.” I called out to
El Wordee to compel him at once to produce the gold; for he could no
longer travel in my kafila, as, not content with exculpating himself,
he had basely accused one of my own servants of the theft. El Wordee
appeared very reluctant to criminate his servant, until I insisted
on it. He then proposed the following mode of detection, which is
commonly practised among Arabs. The names of each person belonging
to the kafila are written on separate pieces of paper, and put into
an empty water-skin. Each person in turn is then required to blow
until he inflates the skin, which they feign every one but the thief
can readily do. When all was prepared with much imposing formality,
the culprit called to his master, to say he need not proceed farther,
and instantly delivered up the gold, which was secreted about his
person. I asked El Wordee what he intended to do with him? He said he
would discharge him at Kano. “Do you not intend to punish him?”
“No; although he deserves it. It will not do: the man may do me
a mischief;” and he spoke and behaved to him afterwards just as
if nothing had happened. This is the uniform custom of all Arabs:
however great a vagabond a man may be, he is treated with the same
civility as if there was nothing to impeach his character. From this
indiscriminate complaisance I must except the servants of the bashaw
of Tripoli, who are in the habit of using notorious scoundrels with
very little ceremony.
After we had finished this affair, we left Burderawa, and travelled
through a fine well cultivated country. To-day we passed a great
many kafilas of Tuaricks and merchants of Ghadamis, who were leaving
Soudan before the rains. At five in the afternoon, we encamped among
high ledges of rock, near a little town called Kaffondingee. There
was a number of other towns close to it, with fine shady trees in the
valleys, among which I saw several trees described in Mungo Park’s
Travels, under the name of Nutta, but here called Doura by the
natives. This tree grows to a greater height than our apple-tree, is
proportionably longer in the trunk, but does not spread its branches
so widely: at present it was the season for gathering the fruit. The
beans of the nutta are roasted as we roast coffee, then bruised,
and allowed to ferment in water. When they begin to become putrid,
they are washed particularly clean, and pounded into powder, which
is made into cakes somewhat in the fashion of our chocolate. These,
notwithstanding they retain a disagreeable smell, form an excellent
sauce for all kinds of food. The farinaceous matter in which the
bean is imbedded is also made into a very pleasant drink; but they
say if drunk often, it causes indigestion and enlargement of the
spleen. They also make it into a sweetmeat, resembling what is
called by the children in England “lollypops.” The nutta tree,
as well as the micadania or butter tree, is always allowed to remain
on clearing the ground. The micadania was not ripe when I saw it;
but the fruit was exactly like a peach in shape, only a little more
pointed at the end. When ripe, the outer pulpy part is eaten, and
the kernels, previously well bruised, are boiled in water, when the
fat rising to the surface, is skimmed off. It is not used in food,
but only to burn in lamps, and has the appearance of dirty lard.
May 19.—The merchant, who joined us yesterday, was quite outrageous
this morning about a basket of glass armlets which a Tuarick had
stolen from under his head while he slept. I certainly gave the thief
credit for his adroitness, and could not help being somewhat amused
at the merchant’s distress. He entreated me to stop for a day,
to give him time to overtake the kafila of Tuaricks which had gone
northward; but this was out of the question. At six in the morning
we left Kaffondingee, the merchant remaining in our company, as
he was afraid to leave me. We travelled through a country that had
formerly been cleared, but was now again overgrown with large trees,
the soil being a strong black vegetable mould. We passed the ruins
of several walled towns, and halted, during the heat of the day,
under some shady trees growing amongst the ruins of one of them,
called Sofa. The country afterwards became woody, and was said to be
much infested by Duntungua’s rebel followers. We afterwards arrived
at Duncamee; but from the lateness of the hour I did not enter the
town, remaining all night in the open air, without pitching my tent.
May 20.—At sunrise I found I had caught a severe cold, from
last night’s exposure to a strong north-east wind. The road was
winding and woody, and I halted during the heat of the day outside
the walled town of Faniroa. My old friend the governor being absent
on an expedition, I rested under the shade of a tamarind-tree, on
account of its coolness and the fine air around me. We afterwards
passed the night at Gadania.
May 21.—To-day we had much thunder and lightning, and took up our
quarters for the night outside the town of Taffo.
May 22.—I sent a horseman off at daylight, for the purpose of
acquainting Hadje Hat Salah and the governor of Kano of my return,
as I anxiously expected news from Bornou and Tripoli. Meanwhile I
rested under the shade of a tree, until a messenger met me with two
letters,—one from Major Denham, sealed with black wax, apprising
me of the melancholy fate of young Toole, who dauntlessly crossed
the desert, with only a guide, to join Major Denham at Kouka. Near
sunset I entered Kano, and immediately proceeded to the house of
Hadje Hat Salah my agent, who appeared as glad to see me as if I had
been his own son. Although it was the Rhamadan, he had a sheep killed
to give me a feast; and pressed me to sit down to table the moment
I came in. It was indeed a severe punishment for him to be a mere
spectator on this occasion, but he turned it off jocularly, calling
out, “Abdullah, eat; for you are a hungry Kafir.” I found that,
during my absence, only one kafila had arrived from Bornou,—the
same which had brought me the letters, along with three bottles
of port wine, and some gunpowder, from Major Denham. Hat Salah,
among other news, mentioned that old Jacob, my servant, had been in
great distress for my safety during my absence; and that a female
slave of El Wordee’s, who was much attached to him, had lost her
reason on hearing we were gone to Youri, and in this unhappy state,
having thrown herself into a well, she had broken one of her arms.
May 23.—Cool and cloudy. I was visited by all the principal Arabs
who were in Kano; amongst the rest old Hadje Boo Zaied, who has
ever been our stanch friend, and was a very worthy man. He begged,
with great earnestness, that I would not acquaint the sheikh of
Bornou or the bashaw of Tripoli of Bello’s behaviour to Hadje
Ali at Sackatoo. For Boo Zaied’s sake, I promised to screen him,
unless questions were expressly put to me concerning his conduct,
when I must speak the truth; for he had behaved to me both like a
fool and a knave.
May 25.—To-day I paid up my servants’ wages, at the rate of four
dollars a month, but reduced them in future one half; notwithstanding
which, they were all glad to remain in my service.
May 26.—I waited on the governor, who received me with marked
kindness, and inquired particularly after the health of the sultan
and of the gadado, and how I had fared in crossing the Gondamee,
the river between Futche and Sackatoo.
May 30.—Clear and sultry. I was earnestly solicited by the people
to refer to my books, and to ascertain if the new moon would be seen
to-day; which much longed-for event, I assured them, would take place
after sunset, if the evening was clear. This anxiety was occasioned
by the fast of the Rhamadan, then terminating, and the Aid, or great
feast, immediately commencing. The evening turning out cloudy, all
were in low spirits; but at midnight a horseman arrived express to
acquaint the governor that the new moon had been visible.
May 31.—After the arrival of the horseman, nothing was heard
but the firing of musketry and shouts of rejoicing.—Paying and
receiving visits now became a serious occupation. In the morning,
accompanied by Hat Salah, I went on horseback to pay my respects
to the governor. I accepted his invitation to ride out with him,
according to their annual custom; and we proceeded to an open space
within the city walls, amid skirmishing and firing of muskets,
attended by his people on horseback, and the Arabs and principal
townsfolk dressed in their gayest raiments,—all who could possibly
muster a horse for the occasion being mounted. The most conspicuous
person in the whole procession was a man on horseback in quilted
armour, who rode before the governor bearing a two-handed sword. On
reaching the plain, the governor made a speech to the people,
declaring his intention to attack Duntungua, when he expected every
man to exert his utmost prowess. Their sons too should not, as in
times past, be left behind, but would accompany them to the war,
and learn to fight the battles of their country under the eyes of
their parents. Afterwards we rode home in the same order. All work
was laid aside for three days. Men, women, and children, in their
finest clothes, paraded through the town; a number of slaves were
also set free, according to the custom of Mahometans at this holy
season. The owner of my house freed fifteen.
June 1.—I visited the governor, to take leave. He was very kind,
and after inquiring if I should ever return, begged me to remember
him to his friend the sheikh El Kanemy, and expressed his hope I would
give a favourable account of the people I had visited. I assured him,
as to the last particular, I could not do otherwise, as I had every
where experienced the greatest civility. He then repeated the Fatha,
and I bade him farewell.
June 3.—At ten in the morning I left Kano, and was accompanied some
miles by Hadje Hat Salah and all my friends on horseback. Before Hat
Salah left me, he called all my servants before him, and told them
he trusted they would behave well and faithfully; for, as they had
seen, I was the servant of a great king, the friend of the bashaw of
Tripoli, and had been passed from one sultan to another; consequently
any misbehaviour of theirs, on a complaint from me, would be severely
punished. We only travelled a short way before halting, for the heat
of the day, under a shady tree. In the afternoon we again set forward,
and at sunset encamped outside the town of Duakee.
June 4.—This morning we passed through the walled town of Sockwa,
which is now reduced to a few huts inhabited by slaves; and halting
for the heat of the day under a tamarind tree, we pitched our tents
at sunset under the walls of Girkwa, not far from the banks of the
river. The people were dancing in honour of the Aid. The dance was
performed by men armed with sticks, who springing alternately from
one foot to the other, while dancing round in a ring, frequently
flourished their sticks in the air, or clashed them together with a
loud noise. Sometimes a dancer jumped out of the circle, and spinning
round on his heel for several minutes, made his stick whirl above
his head at the same time with equal rapidity; he would then rejoin
the dance. In the centre of the ring there were two drummers, the
drums standing on the ground. They were made of a hollow block of
wood about three feet high, with a skin drawn tensely over the top
by means of braces. A great concourse of natives were assembled to
witness the exhibition.
June 5.—Morning cloudy. At six in the morning we left Girkwa, and
reposing ourselves during the heat of the day under some tamarind
trees among the villages of Nansarina, we encamped at sunset in the
woods. The inhabitants were now very busy in the fields planting
grain. Their mode of planting it is very simple. A man with a hoe
scrapes up a little mould at regular intervals, and is followed by a
woman carrying the seed, of which she throws a few grains into each
hole, and treads down the mould over them with her feet.
June 6.—At noon we halted in the town of Sangeia, the governor of
which was at Kano; so I fortunately escaped the pain of hearing his
squeaking voice. We encamped for the night in the woods.
June 7.—At one in the afternoon we halted outside the town of
Katungwa. At sunset two horsemen arrived at full gallop, with the
news of the governor of Kano having taken a town, at a very short
distance to the north, from the rebel Duntungua.
June 8.—Every where the inhabitants were busily employed clearing
the ground, and burning the weeds and stubble, preparatory to sowing
grain. We sheltered ourselves from the mid-day heat under the shade
of a tamarind tree, in the province of Sherra, and halted for the
night outside the town of Boosuea. A son of the governor of Sherra
was here, attended by a number of horsemen, and a band of music. He
drank coffee with me, and I was in turn regaled with music the
greater part of the night. The instruments were chiefly flutes and
long wooden pipes, called by the natives frum-frum.
June 9.—At sunset we arrived at the town of Dugwa.
June 10.—At daybreak we left Dugwa, and travelled through a thickly
wooded country. It rained all day, and we also had some thunder and
lightning. At seven in the evening we arrived at Murmur. I heard,
at Kano, that a kafila of Arabs, belonging to Augela, had destroyed
the clay wall around Dr. Oudney’s grave, and made a fire over it,
telling the inhabitants he was a Kafir. This report, to my great
regret, I found to be true.
June 11.—At sunrise I sent for the governor, to inquire who had
committed the outrage, when he protested it was the Arabs, and not
the people of the town. I felt so indignant at this wanton act of
barbarity, I could not refrain from applying my horsewhip across the
governor’s shoulders, and threatened to report him to his superior,
the governor of Katagum, and also to despatch a letter on the subject
to the sultan, unless the wall was immediately rebuilt: which,
with slavish submission, he promised faithfully to see done without
delay. During my halt at noon, near Katagum, I sent Dumbojee forward
to inform Duncawa, the governor, of my return. In the afternoon I
heard that he was on his way to meet me; and I had scarcely left my
resting-place before he made his appearance, attended by about thirty
horsemen, who, when they saw me, came up at full gallop, brandishing
their spears. I presented the governor with a hundred Goora nuts,
every one of which he distributed amongst his people. He gave me many
very hearty welcomes, and made numerous inquiries about Bello, and
his behaviour to me. He and his people now galloped into the town,
yelling and skirmishing; and although the governor had been sick
for some time past, he appeared as lively and cheerful as any of
them. On entering Katagum I was lodged in my old quarters, and was
immediately visited by my old friend Hameda, the Tripoline merchant,
who was still here. I invited him to accompany me to Tripoli,
as the late Dr. Oudney had advised him; but he excused himself,
on the plea of being unable to collect his outstanding debts from
his numerous creditors, who were scattered all over the country.
June 12.—Warm and sultry. Duncawa remained with me all day,
and informed me, that he had the sultan’s orders to conduct me
to Kouka, in Bornou. This mark of respect I positively declined,
both on account of his recent illness, and also lest his presence
might give umbrage to the sheikh; but agreed to accept from him an
escort through the Bede territory. I assured him, when once in Bornou,
that I felt myself as safe as in his house. If he insisted, however,
on somebody accompanying me, he might, if he pleased, send one of his
principal people. I made a formal complaint of the insult committed
to Dr. Oudney’s grave,—enforcing, in the strongest terms, the
disgrace of disturbing the ashes of the dead, whose immortal part
was now beyond the power of malignant man. He frankly acknowledged
the enormity of the act, and faithfully promised to have the wall
rebuilt,—even offering to send for the governor of Murmur, and have
him punished; but, at the same time, begging me not to acquaint the
sultan of the occurrence. I expressed my reliance on his assurances,
but apprised him I must inform the gadado of the affair. I afterwards
spent the evening with Hameda.
June 13.—There was a fresh breeze in the morning; but it afterwards
began to rain. Duncawa being laid up from lameness, I had a day’s
rest, and again spent the evening with Hameda. The conversation
turning on the trustworthiness of slaves, he mentioned to me, that
his servants never knew in what apartment of his house he slept;
and that he even lay with a dagger, and loaded pistols, under his
pillow, lest he should be murdered by his female slaves. He also
acquainted me, that almost all the Arabs did the same; for it was
chiefly females whom they had reason to fear, the master being often
strangled at night by the women of his household.
June 14.—Duncawa visited me again, and made me a present of two
tobes, two sheep, and a large quantity of Guinea corn, and gave a
tobe to each of my servants. I presented him with six hundred Goora
nuts, having brought a large supply of them from Kano.
June 15.—I had every thing prepared for continuing my journey,
but Duncawa pressed me to spend another day with him, and I availed
myself of the delay to write to Bello and the gadado. I returned
my humble thanks to the former for his protection and favour while
I sojourned in his territories; and, in acknowledging the uniform
kindness of the latter, I did not fail to acquaint him of the outrage
committed on Dr. Oudney’s grave. I delivered these letters to the
charge of Dumbojee, who, having fulfilled his orders, took leave of
me here, having first made him a present of a couple of tobes and
forty dollars. My guide, Mahomed Dumbojee, had now become rich and
gay, having a numerous train of attendants; for at every town where
we halted, the governor was bound in courtesy to make him a present,
in token of respect for the sultan.
Having sent my camels forward, I went to bid farewell to Duncawa,
who was still confined to his house by illness. He made me breakfast
with him. Our breakfast consisted of a sheep’s head, singed in the
same manner as is practised in Scotland—a sheep’s fry—and bread
and milk. I was accompanied across the Yeou by my friend Hameda,
and Duncawa’s horsemen, who all wished to be allowed to attend
me to Sansan; but I excused myself from this guard of honour, at
once troublesome and expensive, by pretending it was unlucky to go
beyond the banks of a river with a friend. Attended only by one of
Duncawa’s principal men, I passed the thick woods on the bank of the
river, and, halting under a tamarind tree during the heat of the day,
I encamped towards evening at a village called Mica. The inhabitants
were all very busy in the fields sowing gussub. They brought me,
however, an abundant supply of milk, and repeated inquiries were made
after Bello’s health; for although they recently belonged to Bornou,
of which country they are natives, they entertain, nevertheless,
a great respect for their new sultan.
June 17.—I started at daylight, and, as the weather was cloudy
and rather windy, I did not halt before reaching Sansan. I was here
provided with very indifferent accommodation; but, on threatening
I would encamp outside the town, the governor received me into
his own house, according to Duncawa’s orders, and also made me
a present of a sheep. At night there was a violent storm, with
thunder and lightning. The poor lad Joseph, who had been hired at
Kouka by the late Dr. Oudney to tend the camels, was out all night
with them. Being a native of Fezzan, and half an idiot, he was here
considered a holy man, and I still retained him in my service out
of charity. It was he who gave me an account of the people of Bede,
as he had been a slave among them; and related his story with such
artless simplicity, that I implicitly rely on its correctness.
June 18.—Cool and cloudy. I heard to-day of a courier being delayed
on his route, by his camel’s being knocked up; and as Duncawa was
also preparing a present for the sheikh El Kanemy, I postponed my
departure yet another day.
June 19.—At eleven in the forenoon the courier arrived, bringing
a sabre as a present for the sultan Bello, and letters from Major
Denham, the consul at Tripoli, and the secretary of state. Accordingly
at mid-day I set off on my return to Katagum, in order to have the
sword forwarded to Bello by Duncawa.
At ten in the morning I entered Katagum, and immediately waited on
Duncawa to acquaint him with the cause of my return. I showed him
the sword, and explaining to him the manner of attaching the belt,
he expressed himself in terms of the highest admiration of both sheath
and sabre; and looking again and again at the ornaments, he frequently
asked, “Is not this all gold?” He sent instantly for the cadi,
who wrote a letter in my name to Bello, and a courier was despatched
with it and the sword. In the evening, another thunder-storm, with
much rain.
June 21.—At one in the afternoon I arrived again at Sansan.
June 22.—Clear and sultry. I was further detained on account of
the present for the sheikh not being ready.
June 23.—Morning cloudy. At seven in the morning I left Sansan,
attended by part of the escort which was to conduct me through the
Bede territory, and was obliged to stop about noon at the village of
Girkwa, by a violent attack of ague and bilious vomiting. Previous
to starting, I was joined by two merchants of Tripoli, who had
been at Kano, and begged to be allowed to place themselves under my
protection during this perilous part of the journey. In the afternoon
Hadje Fudor, the governor of Sansan, arrived with the remainder of
the escort, and also brought me a sheep, more in the expectation,
I think, of receiving some Goora nuts in return, than from any regard
for me. At midnight more rain, thunder, and lightning.
June 24.—Cool and cloudy. At ten in the morning halted at the
village of Boorum, to fill our water-skins, and afterwards travelled
through a thick wood, where we saw a number of karigums and elephants:
the karigum is a species of antelope, of the largest size, as high as
a full grown mule. At sunset we pitched our tents in the woods. The
night was extremely boisterous, with rain, thunder and lightning,
and violent squalls of wind; and my tent being blown down, the
baggage was drenched with water.
June 25.—Next morning we continued our route through a thick wood,
and halted at Joba during the heat of the day, when I had my baggage
dried in the sun. We still travelled through a thick wood, and at
seven in the evening encamped at a village called Gorbua. Rain,
thunder, and lightning, all night.
June 26.—Cloudy, with rain. At ten in the morning I left Gorbua,
or “the strong town,” as it is ironically called in the Bornouese
language, from being enclosed with matting. Our road, still winding
and woody, led through the Bede territory; and at sunset we reached
Guba, a small town on the south bank of the Yeou, within the dominions
of Bornou.
June 27.—The forenoon was rainy, which obliged us to remain at Guba
till one in the afternoon; when the weather clearing up, we loaded the
camels, and crossing to the north bank of the channel of the river,
which was now dry, we travelled east by south to the town of Muznee,
where we halted for the night.
June 28.—Cloudy, with rain. We travelled eastward along a crooked
path, full of holes, and overgrown with brushwood, and took up our
abode for the night at the town of Redwa. An officer of the sultan of
Bornou was here, collecting his master’s dues, and sent me milk,
onions, and six fowls; and I presented him, in return, with fifteen
Goora nuts.
June 29.—After travelling east by north, we halted at noon at
Kukabonee, or “wood and fish,” a large town on the south bank of
the Yeou. We next passed Magawin, and a number of other villages and
towns on the banks of the river, which we had not visited before,
when we accompanied the sheikh last year.
June 30.—Cool and cloudy. We halted at ten in the morning at
Dungamee, in consequence of heavy rain with thunder and lightning,
which continued without intermission all day.
July 1.—Clear. The weather was hot and sultry. At sunset we arrived
at Mugabee. I shot at a hippopotamus which was swimming in a lake,
of which there are many in this part of the country; I seemed to
hit it, but it quickly disappeared.
July 2.—Stopped for the day to allow the camels to have food
and rest.
July 3.—Between Gateramaran and Mugabee we met Malam Fanamee, the
governor of Munga, who had been to Kouka on a visit to the sheikh. He
was a dirty looking old man, preceded by a drummer beating a drum,
and attended by a parcel of ragged followers, armed with bows and
spears. We encamped at night in a wood.
July 4.—At mid-day we halted on the banks of the Yeou: in the
afternoon there was thunder, lightning, and rain. A dealer in fish,
who had joined our party, solicited me in vain to pursue a route
through a town named Sucko, where he was going, promising me a sheep,
with plenty of milk, as an inducement. We passed another night in
the woods.
July 5.—Clear and cool. At ten in the morning we halted and filled
our water-skins, and I here shot a hare and two Guinea-fowls. About
an hour after starting we had heavy squalls of wind, with thunder and
rain: the storm was so violent that the camels lay down with their
burdens, and my horse would neither move forward, nor face the storm
in spite of all I could do. It was an hour before we were able to
resume our journey, and at eight in the evening we encamped in the
woods. The dangers of the road being past, my two fellow travellers,
the merchants before mentioned, left me at midnight on account of
the want of water.
July 6.—To-day I shot a fine male mohur, or beautiful red and white
antelope; a female only of which species I had once shot at Woodie. At
noon we took shelter under the walls of Borgee from heavy squalls of
wind and sand, but without rain. At sunset we encamped near a well
where there had been a great fall of rain, and all the hollows were
filled with water. To roast our mohur a large fire was kindled in a
hole made in the sand, on which it was placed, and then covered over
with hot embers; but, in the morning, to our great disappointment,
nothing remained of our prize but the naked skeleton.
July 7.—At noon we halted at the wells of Barta, and encamped at
night at the wells and town of Calawawa.
July 8.—At eight in the morning I returned to Kouka: Major Denham
was absent on a journey round the east side of the Tchad. Hillman,
the naval carpenter, was busily employed in finishing a covered cart,
to be used as a carriage or conveyance for the sheikh’s wives:
the workmanship, considering his materials, reflected the greatest
credit on his ingenuity; the wheels were hooped with iron, and it
was extremely strong, though neither light nor handsome.
July 9.—In the afternoon I waited on the sheikh, who was very
kind in his inquiries after my health, and expressed much regret at
Dr. Oudney’s death.
July 10.—To-day the sheikh sent me three pairs of slippers, two
loaves of sugar, and a supply of coffee; and two days afterwards a
sheep, two bags of wheat, and a jar of honey.
=APPENDIX.=
TRANSLATIONS FROM THE ARABIC, OF VARIOUS LETTERS AND
DOCUMENTS, BROUGHT FROM BORNOU AND SOUDAN BY
MAJOR DENHAM AND CAPTAIN CLAPPERTON.
BY A. SALAME, ESQUIRE.
* * * * *
No. I.
_Translation of a Letter from the Sheikh Mohammed El Kanemy, Chieftain
of Bornou, in the Interior of Africa, to his Most Excellent Majesty
King George the Fourth. Brought by Major Denham._
“Praise be to God, and blessings and peace be unto the Apostle of
God (Mohammed). From the servant of the High God, Mohammed El Ameen
ben Mohammed El Kanemy,
“To the pre-eminent above his equals, and the respected among
his inferiors, the great King of the English, salutation be to him
from us:
“Whereas your messengers, the travellers through the earth, for
the purpose, as they state, of seeing and knowing its marvellous
things, have come to us, we welcomed them, and paid attention to
their arrival, in consequence of what we heard of your intercourse
with the Mùslemeen, and the establishment of your friendly relations
between you and their kings, since the time of your and their fathers
and grandfathers (ancestors).
“We have thus regarded that friendship, and behaved to them
according to its merits, as much as God the Omnipotent enabled
us. They communicated your compliments to us, and that which you
stated in your letter, that you would not object, if we should be
in want of any thing from your country, was made known to us; and
we felt thankful to you for this (offer) on your part.
“They are now returning to you, after having accomplished their
wishes; but one of them, whose period of life was ended, died. This
was the physician; and an excellent and wise man he was.
“The Rayes Khaleel (travelling name of Major Denham) desired of
us permission, that merchants seeking for elephant-teeth, ostrich
feathers, and other such things, that are not to be found in the
country of the English, might come among us. We told him that our
country, as he himself has known and seen its state, does not suit
any heavy (rich) traveller, who may possess great wealth. But if a few
light persons (small capitalists), as four or five only, with little
merchandize, would come, there will be no harm. This is the utmost
that we can give him permission for; and more than this number must
not come. If you should wish to send any one from your part to this
country again, it would be best to send Rayes Khaleel; for he knows
the people and the country, and became as one of the inhabitants.
“The few things that we are in want of are noted down in a separate
paper, which we forward to you.
“Write to the consul at Tripoli, and to that at Cairo, desiring
them, if any of our servants or people should go to them for any
affair, either on land or at sea, to assist them, and do for them
according to their desire. And peace be with you.
“Dated on the evening of Saturday, the middle of the month Fledja,
1239 of Hejra (corresponding to August 1824).
“Sealed. The will of God be done, and in God hath his faith,
his slave Mohammed El Ameen ben Mohammed El Kanemy.”
* * * * *
No. II.
_Translation of a Letter from an African Chieftain (Bello) of Soudan,
to his Majesty King George the Fourth. Brought by Mr. Clapperton._
“In the name of God, the merciful and the clement. May God bless our
favourite Prophet Mohammed, and those who follow his sound doctrine.
“To the head of the Christian nation, the honoured and the beloved
among the English people, George the Fourth, King of Great Britain;
“Praise be to God, who inspires, and peace be unto those who follow,
the right path:
“Your Majesty’s servant, Ra-yes-Abd-Allah, (Mr. Clapperton’s
travelling name,) came to us, and we found him a very intelligent
and wise man; representing in every respect your greatness, wisdom,
dignity, clemency, and penetration.
“When the time of his departure came, he requested us to form
a friendly relation, and correspond with you, and to prohibit
the exportation of slaves by our merchants to Ata-gher, Dahomi,
and Ashantee. We agreed with him upon this, on account of the good
which will result from it, both to you and to us; and that a vessel
of yours is to come to the harbour of Racka with two cannons, and
the quantities of powder, shot, &c. which they require; as also,
a number of muskets. We will then send our officer to arrange and
settle every thing with your consul, and fix a certain period for
the arrival of your merchant ships; and when they come, they may
traffic and deal with our merchants.
“Then after their return, the consul may reside in that harbour
(viz. Racka), as protector, in company with our agent there, if God
be pleased.”
“Dated 1st of Rhamadan, 1239 of Hejra.” 18th April, 1824.
* * * * *
No. III.
_A Letter from Yousuf, Pasha of Tripoli, to the Sheikh of Bornou._
“Praise be to God, and prayers be unto him who was the last of
the Prophets (Mohammed).
“To the learned and accomplished, the virtuous Iman, the jealous
and zealous defender of the Mohammedan faith, our true friend the
Sheikh Mohammed El Kanemy, Lord of the country of Barnooh[66],
and its dependencies, whom may God protect and dignify, and prolong
his life long in happiness and felicity. Peace be unto you, and the
mercy and blessings of God be upon you, as long as the inhabitants
of the world shall exist.
“It follows, my Lord, subsequent to the due inquiry we make after
your health, which may God preserve, that your esteemed letter has
reached us, and we became acquainted with its contents. You informed
us that our beloved son, Aba Bak’r Ben Khalloom, arrived in your
presence, in company with some persons of the English nation, our
friends; and that you received them with extreme kindness, and showed
them all the marvellous things that your country contains, and made
them see all the extraordinary rivers and lakes that surround it; and
that you behaved to them as becoming your high station, and indicating
your esteem and regard towards us. May God reward you for all this
kindness, and protect you from all evils. This kind treatment was
our sanguine expectation, and indeed we were already sure of it, from
what we knew of the true friendship and amity established between us.
“What we have now to acquaint you with, is to request that you will
continue your protection and assistance to the said English travellers
(though we doubt not you do not need this additional recommendation),
and cause them to proceed to the country of Soudan, to behold its
marvellous things, and traverse the seas (lakes or rivers), and
deserts therein. This being the proper desire of the great King of
the English himself, we beg of you to use your utmost endeavours,
as far as lies in your power, in their safe arrival at the country
of Soudan, accompanied either by letters of recommendation, or by
troops and guards, in order that they may obtain the accomplishment
of their wishes, and return to us safe and unhurt; and whatever
kindness you may do to them, it is done to us. Resolve therefore,
and exert yourself, as we are confident of your goodness, and let
them see all the places which they wish to visit.
“At the end there will be a splendid present, befitting your high
rank, sent to you through us, consisting of various rare and elegant
articles of value; for the delivery of which, unto your hands,
we pledge ourselves.
“This is all that we have to say at present, and if any affair
should occur to you in this country, let us know. And peace be
unto you.
“Your friend,
(Signed) “YOUSUF PASHA.”
(Dated) “28th of Sha-wal, 1238 of Hejra;”
corresponding to August, 1823.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 66: Note. This is the proper name of Bornou. A. S.]
No. IV.
_A Letter from the before named Pasha of Tripoli to Aba Bak’r ben
Khalloom, at Bornou._
“We received your letter, and comprehended all that you stated
to us. We were glad to hear that you, and our friends, the English
travellers, with whom we sent you as guide and conductor, had
arrived at Barnooh in safety; and that you were kindly received by
our friend, my Lord, the Sheikh Mohammed El Kanemy, who immediately
allowed the travellers to inspect all the deserts, and seas, lakes
and rivers, that are in his country. May God reward him for this act
of kindness. We have written to thank him for his laudable behaviour;
and we pray to God to enable us to show him equal kindness in return.
“With regard to the persons of the different tribes, who were
obstinate and disobedient to you on the road, they have been
apprehended, and taken and punished one by one.
“As long as the English travellers remain at Barnooh, you have
to attend, and be with them wherever they go, till they shall have
obtained their wishes, and accomplished their object; and when
they desire to return, you may accompany and come with them as you
went. If this letter should reach you before you leave Barnooh, you
must stay with them, as above stated; if it reach you while you are
on the road homewards, you must return to Barnooh immediately, and
only send us the slave you have with you; and if you should arrive at
Fezzan before this letter reaches you, you may then send your brother
to Barnooh, to stay with them instead of you; for we only sent you
on their account, for the purpose of facilitating their proceeding,
and all their affairs. It is, therefore, impossible that you should
leave or part with them, but in this manner; and we are sure that,
to a person like you, there is no need to add any stronger words,
especially as you know that they are in our honour, and under our
protection, both in their going and returning in safety; which is the
accomplishment of our wishes. And may you live in happiness and peace.
(Signed) “YOUSUF PASHA.”
(Dated) “2d of Ze-el-ka’da, 1238;”
corresponding to August, 1823.
No. V.
_A Letter from the Sheikh of Bornou to the Sultan of Kanou._
“Praise be to God, and prayers and peace be unto the Apostle of God
(Mohammed).
“From the slave of the high God, Mohammed El-ameen ben Mohammed
El-kanemy, to the head of his land and the leader of his people,
the learned Mohammed Daboo, lord and master of Kanou: Perfect peace,
and the mercy and blessings of God, be unto you.
“Hence, the bearer, who is going to you, is our friend Mohammed
El-wardy, in whose company he has some Englishmen; who came to the
land of Soodan for the purpose of seeing and delighting themselves
with the wonders it contains, and to examine and see the lakes and
rivers, and forests, and deserts therein. They have been sent by
their king for this purpose.
“Between their nation and the Mooslemeen, there have existed,
since the times of their fathers and great grandfathers (ancestors),
treaties of religious amity and friendship, special to themselves
out of all the other nations that have erred, and are at variance
with the doctrine of Aboo Hanifa[67]. There never was between them
and the Mooslemeen any dispute; and whenever war is declared by the
other Christians against the Mooslemeen, they are always ready to
help us, as it has happened in the great assistance they gave to our
nation when they delivered Egypt from the hands of the French. They
have, therefore, continually penetrated into the countries of the
Mooslemeen, and travelled where-ever they pleased with confidence
and trust, and without being either molested or hurt. They are, as
it is stated, descendants of the ancient Greek emperor Heraclius,
who received and esteemed the letter sent to him from the Apostle
of God (Mohammed), whom may God bless, by Dahi-yah El-kalbee,
containing his exhortation to him to embrace the Moosleman faith;
and who, on receiving that sacred epistle, preserved it in a gold
case,—though it is stated, in the books of history, that he did
not become a Mooslem.
“Thus, if God permit them to reach you in safety, be attentive
to them, and send guards to conduct them to the country of Kashna,
safe and unhurt; for they are at the mercy of God, and at the honour
of his Apostle; and you are well aware of the Alcoraanic sayings upon
the subject of the observance of honour. And peace be with you.”
Dated “Wednesday, the 6th day of Rabee-ul-thani, 1239,”
(Corresponding to January, 1824.)
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 67: Aboo Hanifa, or Imam Kanafee, was one of the four
great imams or high priests, founders of the four orthodox rites of
Mohammedanism; and whose doctrine, it seems, is followed by these
people. A. S.]
* * * * *
No. VI.
_A Letter from the Sheikh of Bornou to Mohammed Bello, Sultan
of Hoossa._
“Praise be to God, and prayers and peace be unto the Apostle of God,
(Mohammed).
“To the honoured and accomplished, the virtuous and munificent,
the pattern of goodness and the standard of benevolence, head of the
Soodanic kingdom, and ruler of the country of Hoossa, our friend,
the learned Mohammed Bello, son of the intelligent sheikh Ossman,
whose soul may God shelter with the clouds of mercy and peace.
“Our kind salutation, accompanied with affection as strong as
the odour of musk, and as perpetual as the movement of the globe,
and with the mercy and blessings of God, be unto you.
“Hence, the cause of writing this letter and the purpose of its
lines, is to acquaint you that the bearers are English travellers;
whose nation, out of all the other Christians, has maintained with the
Mooslemeen uninterrupted treaties of religious amity and friendship,
established since ancient periods, which they inherited from their
forefathers and ancestors; and, on this account, they penetrate into
the Mooslemeen countries whenever they please, and traverse all
provinces and lands, in confidence and trust, without fear. They
came to our country, sent to us by our virtuous and accomplished
friend, the Lord Yousuf Pashá, master of Tripoli, to see and
delight themselves with the wonders of the land of Soodan, and to
become acquainted with its rarities, as lakes, rivers, and forests
(or gardens); equal to which are seldom seen in any other countries.
“After having accomplished their wishes, in seeing all the things
that the land of Barnooh and its environs contained, they felt
anxious to visit your country from what they heard of the innumerable
wonders therein. I have, therefore, permitted them to proceed on their
journey, accompanying them with letters which explain their object.
“You are well aware of what is stated in the Alcoraanic sayings
upon the subject of the observance of honour, dictated by our Lord,
the Apostle of God; and that the true Mooslemeen have always avoided
shedding the blood of Christians, and assisted and protected them
with their own honour. Be then attentive to these travellers, and
cast them not into the corners of neglect; let no one hurt them,
either by words or deeds, nor interrupt them with any injurious
behaviour: but let them return to us, safe, content, and satisfied,
as they went from us to you; and may the high God bestow upon you
the best reward for your treatment to them, and insure to us and to
you the path of the righteous for our conduct in this life.
“Our salutation may be given to all who are about you, and to
those who are related to you in general. And peace be unto you.
(Sealed) “MOHAMMED EL-AMEEN BEN MOHAMMED EL-KANEMY.”
Dated “23d of Rabee-ul-thani, 1239,”
(Corresponding to January, 1824).
* * * * *
No. VII.
_A Letter from the Chieftain Mohammed Gamsoo, at Sackatoo, to the
Prince of Ya-oory._
“In the name of God, the merciful and the clement; and prayers
and peace be unto our Lord, Mohammed.
“From the slave of God, Mohammed, son of the Hadgi Omar Gamzoo,
to our friend, the dearest we have, the Prince of Ya-oory.
“Salutation without end or termination be unto you and all your
friends and relations. If you inquire after our health, and that
of the Prince of the Mooslemeen, and our friends, we are all sound
and vigorous. Our slave has reached us with the letter from you,
which I showed and read to the prince, and he was delighted with it;
and we are prevented from sending you a messenger with an answer,
only by the prince having ordered us to proceed to the eastern parts
of the country to attend to some of his affairs there. But, if God
be pleased to cause us to return in safety, you shall receive an
express messenger from me.
“The prince now sends you the English Rayes Abdallah (Captain
Clapperton’s assumed name), who is anxious to see your country
and visit you. He has been honoured and esteemed by the sheikh
(of Bornou), and by the prince of Kanoo, as also by the prince of
the Mooslemeen; and as you rank among the generous, receive him
and honour him generously. When he returns, send us a letter, and
express all your wishes in it.
“Give our salutation to our brother and all the friends, and we
exhort you to attend to the contents of this epistle for the sake of
the friendship which was established between you and our ancestors,
and is now between me and you; especially as you never behaved towards
us but very laudably. And may God bestow upon you more good sense,
in addition to that which you possess.”
* * * * *
No. VIII.
_A Document relating to the Death of Mungo Park._
“Hence, be it known that some Christians came to the town of
Youri, in the kingdom of Yaoor, and landed and purchased provisions,
as onions and other things; and they sent a present to the King
of Yaoor. The said king desired them to wait until he should send
them a messenger, but they were frightened, and went away by the sea
(river). They arrived at the town called Bossa, or Boossa, and their
ship then rubbed (struck) upon a rock, and all of them perished in
the river.
“This fact is within our knowledge, and peace be the end.
“It is genuine from Mohammed ben Dehmann.”
[In addition to the above, there is a kind of postscript appended to
the document by a different hand; which, being both ungrammatical and
scarcely legible, I had some difficulty in translating and giving
it a proper meaning. The words, however, are, I think, as follows;
though most of them have been made out by conjecture.]
“And they agreed, or arranged among themselves, and swam in the sea
(river), while the men, who were with (pursuing) them, appeared on
the coast of the sea (bank of the river), and fell upon them till
they went down (sunk) in it.”
* * * * *
No. IX.
_A Letter from the Sheikh of Bornou to Captain Clapperton._
“Praise be to God, and prayers and peace be unto the Apostle of God.
“From the slave of the high God, Mohammed El-ameen ben Mohammed
El-kanemy, to the Ra-yes Abd-allah, the Englishman. Peace be unto
him who follows the light of instruction.
“Hence, we received your letter, and comprehended its contents;
as also what you acquainted us with relative to the kindness and
friendship which the people showed you. May God bless them; and we
never doubted this behaviour on their part.
“With regard to what you stated upon the subject of the calumny
uttered by some of the Arabs against you, you need not turn your
mind to, nor think of it; as nothing shall befal you, while you are
in this land, but what God Almighty may inflict upon you, without
the instigation of any of his creatures.
“The physician your friend is dead. This is the state of the world;
and may God increase your life. Before his death, he promised to
give his pistols to us as a present; and on this condition he kept
them for his own use, as being borrowed from us, until his return
to his own country: but now, as he is dead, you may deliver them to
our friend Hadgi Saleh, to send them to us. And may God conduct you
(to your own country) in health and safety.
(Sealed) “MOHAMMED EL-AMEEN BEN MOHAMMED EL-KANEMY.”
No. X.
_A Document made at the Court of Justice of Bornou._
“Praise be to God alone. May God bless our Lord Mohammed, and all
his relations and friends.
“Whereas, at the court of (here the titles of the sheikh and
his pedigree follow,) the Lord Sheikh Mohammed El-Kanemy, Hadgi
Alij, son of Hadgi Moosa ben Khalloom, and the English physician,
with his two friends, Rayes Abdallah, and Rayes Khaleel, appeared;
the physician demanded of the said Hadgi Alij the restitution of
two thousand hard silver dollars, which he and his said friends had
lent to his late brother Abu Bakr ben Khalloom, through the English
consul at Tripoli, on condition of repaying them after their arrival
at Barnooh, according to his own acknowledgment and a bond in the
said physician’s possession; and that they demanded this debt
from Hadgi Alij, because he took possession of all his deceased
brother’s property. Hadgi Alij replied, that he knew nothing of
their claim upon his late brother: but, if they possessed a bond,
they might produce it to prove their claim. They produced a paper,
not written in Arabic, bearing the seal of the said deceased Abu Bakr;
and, as no one could read what that paper contained, the judge told
them that, notwithstanding it bore the seal of the said deceased,
it could not be valid, nor of any use to them. They then produced
one of the friends of the deceased Abu Bakr, as witness, who attested
that, while at Tripoli, he was sent by him to the consul’s house,
where he received the two thousand dollars and delivered them to him
(the deceased), knowing that they were to be repaid at Barnooh,
according to the present claim. His testimony, however, was not
approved of by the judge.
“They appeared a second time at the said court of justice, and
alleged that Hadgi Alij, after their first appearance, acknowledged,
and pledged himself to pay them the two thousand dollars which they
claimed from his late brother; that he paid them a part of the said
sum in cotton clothes to the value of six hundred dollars in Barnooh
money, and that the remaining fourteen hundred were to be repaid
to them by him at the city of Kanoo in Soodan; and they, therefore,
wished to legalize this before the judge.
“Hadgi Alij, however, said, that he gave them the six hundred
dollars, merely as an act of kindness on his part, and as a loan from
him to them, which they were to return to him at Kanoo; and that
he never acknowledged, nor promised to pay his brother’s debt;
but that, he told them, if they should be in want of more money at
Kanoo, he would advance them as much as he could afford. They then
requested the judge to restrict him from selling, or sending his
brother’s property to Kanoo (lest it should be lost on the road),
until they had proved their claim by better evidence. Hadgi Alij,
at last, agreed, either himself or through his agent, to pay them
five hundred dollars more, in addition to the six hundred, two months
after their arrival at Kanoo; and fixed a period of one year, from
the date of this document between them and him, for the proof of the
justice of their claim; and that, if they fail to prove their demand
upon his deceased brother before the lapse of the said period, they
were to repay him the eleven hundred dollars, and forego all their
claims. But if, on the contrary, they should be able to substantiate
their demand within the stipulated period, he would then repay to
them the nine hundred dollars, balance of the two thousand.
“Upon these conditions, both parties agreed and declared themselves
content and satisfied, while they were in a perfect state of health
and mind as to deserve reliance and dependence upon.
“Issued from the Court of Justice of the honoured and learned
sheikh Mohammed El-ameen ben Mohammed El-kanemy, at Barnooh, on the
27th day of Rabee-ul-a-wal, one thousand two hundred and thirty-nine
of the Prophetical Hejra, (corresponding to December, 1823); in
presence of Mohammed Zain-ul-Abedeen ben Akhmed ben Mohammed; of
Mohammed ben Akhmed ben Aba Bakr; and of Mohammed ben Hadgi Meelad
ben Taleb. And may the high God be witness upon all.”
No. XI.
_Translation of Letters and Documents received from the Sheikh of
Bornou concerning Mr. Tyrwhit’s Death._
1.—A Letter from the above-mentioned Sheikh to the British Consul
at Tripoli.
“Praise be to God, and blessings and peace be unto the Apostle of
God, (Mohammed).
“From the slave of the High God, Mohammed El Ameen ben Mohammed El
Kanemy, to the head of his people, the respected and honoured by the
children of his nation, the English Consul resident at Tripoli. After
the due salutation, and our inquiry after your health, we have to
inform you that we are, by the grace of God, enjoying perfect health
and prosperity. Your letter which you sent to Fezzan has reached
us, and we comprehended its contents; but the letter you sent by
our messengers Abraham and Abdullah has not come to our hand yet,
though we hope their arrival will be soon.
“You are well aware, that the omnipotent God hath ordained to every
man a certain age, which can neither be increased nor decreased, and
hath destined to him a grave, in which he can neither enter before
his time, nor from which he can fly when his time comes. Thus,
when you know this, it may be an alleviation to your sorrow and
grief, when you hear of the death of your friends and relations:
so that we have now to acquaint you, that your son Tair (Tyrwhit)
ended his life, and his days and hours terminated by his death, on
Monday the end of Saffar 1240[68], while we were absent in a war with
our enemies. After his death and interment, the elders and priests
of our metropolis entered his house, to ascertain and note down the
effects he left, in order, and from fear, that in the course of time,
there may be no suspicion of distrust thrown upon the trustees. They
found the property he left was not considerable: they made a list of
it, which herewith you will receive, and left the whole in the hands
of his trustees, Eben Saada of Tripoli, and the Hadje Aly El-ma-yel,
who were his servants. But God knows whether this was the whole of
his property, or some of it was fraudulently concealed by those who
were in the house at his death.
“With regard to the desire which you expressed to us, to know
the source of the inundation of the river that divides our country,
we have to inform you that this sea (river) of ours is a great and
extensive lake, the circumference of which is about twenty days’
journey, and into which various rivers empty themselves from the part
of the land of Soodan, and from the right and east of our country,
which joins the uninhabited mountains and the land of the Pagans,
to whom no one goes. And God only knows what is to be found on the
other side of these places.
“Send our salutation to the great King of the English, and to
every one who inquires after us amicably.
(Sealed) “MOHAMMED EL KANEMY.”
(Dated) “Sunday, the eve of the end of the month of
Rajab, 1240.” (About the 20th of March, 1825.)
2.—A Document containing the List of the Property left by
Mr. Tyrwhit, as alluded to in the foregoing Letter, and a Certificate
of his Death, and the Things that were found after the Return of
the Sheikh from his Expedition.
THE LIST.
“Whereas the Elders and Priests of the metropolis of the Arabs
(Barnoo), having assembled and repaired to the house of the deceased
English traveller, named Tair (Tyrwhit), who died on Monday the
last day of Saffar, 1240, to ascertain and note down what he left;
it proved, in their presence, that all his property was as follows:
“First, two swords and a sash, a musket, a pair of pistols,
another pair ditto, three . . . ., a sash, six silver spoons, a
fork, a razor, fifteen bottles of . . . . . ., eleven . . . . . .,
four coffee cups, three cupping glasses, a sun scale (quadrant), a
. . . . ., three squares of soap, a box containing some . . . . .,
four . . . . ., two pair of boots or slippers, a skull cotton cap,
a woollen ditto, an Indian looking-glass, twenty pieces of wearing
apparel, as shirts, drawers, &c. of his country, six towels, a paper
containing some cinnamon, a black napkin handkerchief for his neck,
four hand napkins, two . . . . ., a pillow of Soodan manufacture,
a silk sash, a silk cord, a . . . . ., a jacket embroidered with
silver, a yard of red cloth, a canvas bag, three gun covers, a cord
for trowsers, some boxes containing part of these things, a pair
of Constantinople slippers, a pair of Barbary ditto, or shoes,
two scrapers of pig’s hair (tooth-brushes), a looking-glass,
ten pounds of gunpowder, twenty-three bundles of . . . . ., three
looking-glasses for the nose (spectacles), a . . . . ., another hand
napkin, three empty . . . . ., a broken glass, three squares of soap
again, a . . . . three watch rings, a pair of fine razors, a pound
of antimony, a pound of coral, fifty-three beads of amber, a pair of
Soodanie boots, three pair ditto of his country, a red cloth bornouse
or cloak, a . . . . ., fifty hard dollars, fifty-two books, a coffee
waiter, two tin cans, three burning glasses, a telescope, a waistcoat,
a white bornouse of Barbary, a towel, another bornouse, a writing
desk, an umbrella, two loaves of sugar, a . . . . ., two time pieces
for the road (compasses), a nose looking-glass (spectacles), a razor,
two cork-screws, or ramrod screws, a . . . . ., five . . . . ., three
pair of trowsers, four tiger skins, two mats of Noofee, two beds,
or small Turkish carpets, a pillow of Soodan, five sacks, fifteen
water skins, or leather bags, a cooking pot, a saucepan, an ewer,
two large jars, a pan, two coffee pots, two . . . ., two hooks,
four empty . . . . ., a chisel, a hammer, a camel, a female ditto,
a horse, a mule, two saddles of Barnoo, one ditto of his country,
three wax cloth covers, a . . . . ., two sun glasses, fifty medicine
bottles, a woollen bed or carpet, a . . . . .; and Hamdo Et-tafteef
has by him a network shirt or dress, a bird called Jamaj-mak; and
he confessed that he borrowed fifty dollars from the deceased.
“Besides the above property, it was found that he has to receive
twenty dollars from one of the inhabitants of Barnoo, and thirty
from another; as likewise twenty-four dollars from the servant of
the sharif Barakat, sixty dollars from the Mamluk Bey Mohammed,
and 165 from the Mamluk Mohammed, son of Hadje Mahmood.
“His debts to various persons are as follows: fourteen and a half
dollars to Hamdo Et-tafteef for . . . . ., eight dollars to the same,
for a bed and six pounds of . . . . ., four feathers to . . . . .,
and the wages of his two servants; as likewise, three dollars to the
burying people, and two dollars to the man who watched his tomb at
night, to prevent the body from being devoured by the hyena.
“His servant Ben Saada stated that this account of the debts
owing by, and due to the deceased, were contracted through him for
his master.
“This is the whole of the property left by the deceased; and
whatever has been noted down in this document, whether of great
or little value, has been deposited in the hands of his abovenamed
servant Ben Saada of Tripoli, and his fellow-servants.”
THE CERTIFICATE.
“Whereas our Master and Lord, defender of the Moosleman faith, the
Sheikh Mohammed El Kanemy, having, after his return from subduing
his enemies, assembled the elders and priests of the inhabitants
of his metropolis, and gave them a special audience, ordered that
the foregoing list, which was written during his absence, be read
in their presence; and, after every one heard and understood it,
commanded a revisal of the property left by the deceased Englishman
to be made, to ascertain its amount afresh. Accordingly, we the
undersigned repaired to the house of the deceased, and found all the
beforementioned articles extant except the following, which have
been used or lost by his servant, Mohammed ben Saada of Tripoli,
who had the things under his care. A pair of boots, four bottles out
of the fifteen, a napkin or handkerchief for the neck, three pair of
trowsers, three . . . ., three squares of soap, a canvas bag, and
two . . . . . But a few more articles, which had not been inserted
in the list, were found. They are as follows: a piece of Egyptian
mat, two pieces of sealing-wax, a bullet mould, four charts or maps,
two travelling bags (one of which contains some of the articles, and
is deposited with his other servant Hadje Aly El-ma-yel), a cannon
ramrod screw, a pound of . . . . ., two . . . . ., two bridles,
a . . . . ., two covers, three horse-shoes, five tin canisters
for meat, a wooden bowl, a wax cloth cover, a large tin canister,
a writing box containing eight pens, two blank books, nine . . . . .,
and a bottle containing some oil.
“His horse, which is mentioned in the list, has been sold to
Mohammed Sal-ha for 172 dollars.
“His servant, Mohammed ben Saada, declared before the assembly,
that his master, the said deceased Englishman, named Tair (Tyrwhit),
on finding his life was hopeless, bequeathed the following articles to
his Excellency the Sheikh. A mule, a red bornouse, a looking-glass,
or telescope, a pair of pistols, ten canisters of gunpowder, of
which, however, eight only were found, a pair of Egyptian shoes or
slippers, a sword, though it was rusty, a . . . . ., a dining waiter
or table-cloth, and a . . . . .
“After this, the assembly agreed, by the order of our Lord the
Sheikh, to allow to each of the three servants of the deceased
(who are intrusted with the things he left), three dollars per month.
“Done on the evening of Monday, the last day of Rajab 1240,
in the presence of the noble Sheikh and his assembly, of which we
the undersigned are members, and do hereby bear witness before the
Almighty God.
(Sealed) “MOHAMMED EL AMEEN BEN MOHAMMED EL KANEMY.
(Signed) “YOUSOF BEN ABD ELKADER EL-KAKARY,
“SALEH BEN EL-HADJE HAMED,
“MOHAMMED EL WARDI BEN EL HADJE ALY,
“BEN ABD ELKADER ABA-NEARAN,
“MOHAMMED BEN IBRAHEEM ET-TAFTEEF,
and “MOHAMMED BEN EL-HADJE ISSA BEN AHMED EL-MESSRATI[69].”
3. A Letter from the Sheikh to Ra-yes-Khaleel, or Major Denham.
“Praise be to God, and blessings and peace be unto the Apostle
of God.
“From the slave of the High God, Mohammed El Ameen ben Mohammed
El Kanemy, to the honoured by the children of his nation, Ra-yes
Khaleel, the Englishman. After our salutation and inquiry after
your health, we have to inform you that we are, by the grace of God,
enjoying perfect health and prosperity. Your letter has reached us,
and we comprehended its contents.
“You are well aware, that the Omnipotent God hath ordained to every
man a certain age, which can neither be increased nor decreased; and
hath destined to him a grave, in which he can neither enter before
his time, nor from which he can fly when his time comes. Thus, when
you know this, it may be an alleviation to your sorrow and grief, when
you hear of the death of your friends and relations: so that we have
now to acquaint you that your brother Tair (Tyrwhit) ended his life,
and his days and hours terminated by his death, on Monday, the end of
Saffar, 1240, while we were absent in a war with our enemies. After
his death and interment, the elders and priests of our metropolis
entered his house, to ascertain and note down the effects he left,
in order, and from fear that, in the course of time, there might
be no suspicion of distrust thrown upon the trustees. They found
the property he left was not considerable: they made a list of it,
which herewith you will receive, and left the whole in the hands of
his trustees, Eben Saada of Tripoli, and the Hadje Aly El-ma-yel,
who were his servants. But God knows whether this was the whole of
his property, or whether some of it might have been fraudulently
concealed by those who were in the house at his death.
“The war in which we were engaged was with Aly Yamanook, who
first declared hostilities against us. We went out to him through
the Kanoom road on the last day of Moharram 1240, and arrived near
the islands in which he was intrenched on Thursday the 19th of the
month of the sacred birth of our Prophet[70].
“He entered the islands, and left between him and us seven streams;
two of which could not be crossed but in boats, two were as deep as
to cover a man to the neck, and the other three had their water as
high as the navel only, or perhaps lower.
“We besieged him till he was in great distress, suffered much
famine, and most of his animals perished; and when we had collected
canoes for the landing of our troops on the islands, he submitted,
and begged forgiveness. We at first refused; but when he repeated
his applications and solicitations, we consented, binding him by many
severe and heavy conditions, which he accepted, and restored to us,
according to our demands, all that he had taken from our people. He
then came out of the islands, humble like a camel led by his driver,
and submissive like a tender twig to the hand that roots it out.
“Thus we withdrew our army, after a siege of three months and
ten days, and after having likewise subdued all the disobedient
and disorderly Arabs, and returned to our home on Sunday the middle
of Rajab[71].
“Nothing new has happened since you left us, but every good
and happiness, and the increase of tranquillity and cheapness. We,
however, have lost our illustrious and noble friend Hassan Et-Teflati,
who died in this town; as likewise Mohammed Ben Dehman of Katacoom,
and Yakoob El-Owjal of An-karno, to whom may God show mercy and
forgiveness.
“The news from the interior is, that the ruler of Wa-da-i made an
expedition against the eastern part of the country towards Tamak; but
that he was repulsed and returned routed. The truth of this, however,
we could not ascertain, because it came from indirect channels.
“The ruler of Foor, also, sent an army against the Turks[72],
who are in Kordafal or Kordofal; and it is reported that they had
a battle at a place called Kajah, which ended with the defeat of
the army of Foor, and the death of three of their grandees, besides
what fell of the troops; but that the said chieftain is gathering a
larger army, and means to send it against them. God only, however,
knows what will be the result.
“The ruler of Bakermy, who last year fled to the land of the Pagans,
has not returned; and a brother of his from Wa-da-i has collected
what troops he could, and proceeded against him. But God knows what
will happen between them.
“Give our salutation to your sister, and all your family and
friends; and peace be with you.”
Dated and sealed as the foregoing, viz. Letter No. I.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 68: About the 22d or 23d of October 1824.]
[Footnote 69: Explanation. The blanks in this list are those of the
names of some articles which I could not make out; they being mostly
English in the Moorish character, or described according to the idea
those people have of their use. A. S.]
[Footnote 70: From this it seems, that the journey was made in
forty-nine days, viz. the last day of Moharram, which is the first
month of the year, the twenty-nine days of the following month
Saffar, and nineteen days of the month in which Mohammed was born,
which is the third in the year. Being unacquainted with the distance
and the spot, I cannot, of course, pretend to give any farther
illustration. A. S.]
[Footnote 71: The middle of Rajab is the 164th or 165th day from his
first departure; and according to this, it appears that the sheikh,
on returning home, made the journey in fifteen or sixteen days only;
whereas, on going, it took him forty-nine days. This difference may
perhaps be accounted for, on account of the incumbrances and slow
movement of the army. A. S.]
[Footnote 72: The Sheikh says “he went” through the Kanoom
(or Kanem) road, which is by the north side of the lake; and the
difference of time occupied in the journey out and home may therefore
be easily accounted for, by supposing him to have returned across
the Shary by the southern end of the lake, this road being much the
shortest, as will appear on referring to the map. Indeed, I see no
other way of accounting for the difference. D. D.]
No. XII.
_Translation of an Arabic MS. brought by Captain Clapperton from
the Interior of Africa, containing a geographical and historical
Account of the Kingdom of Tak-roor, now under the Control of Sultan
Mohammed Bello of Hoossa, extracted from a larger Work composed by
the said Sultan._
“In the name of God, the merciful and the clement, &c. &c.
“This is an extract taken from the work entitled, “Enfak
El-may-soor, fee tareekh belad Et-tak-roor,” (viz. The Dissolver of
Difficulties, in the History of the Country of Tak-roor), composed by
the ornament of his time, and the unequalled among his contemporaries,
the Prince of the faithful, and defender of the faith, Mohammed Belo,
son of the prodigy of his age, the noble Sheikh Ossman,” &c.
PART I.
THE GEOGRAPHICAL ACCOUNT.
SECTION I.
“The first province of this dominion (Tak-roor), on the east
side, is, as it is supposed, Foor (Darfoor); and, next to it, on
the west side, are those of Wa-da-i, and Baghar-mee. Foor is an
extensive country, containing woods, and rivers, and fields fit for
cultivation. Its inhabitants are partly composed of itinerants who
became settlers, and partly of Arabs who still wander about; and it
contains a great number of herdsmen, or graziers of cattle. The food
of these inhabitants is the dokhn dura (millet), and the daj’r,
or peas. Mooslemanism spread itself very much in this province, and
most of its inhabitants perform the pilgrimage; and, it is said, have
great respect for the pilgrims, and interrupt them not on their way.
“The inhabitants of Wa-da-i and Baghar-mee are nearly of the same
description. Baghar-mee, however, is now desolated. The cause of
its ruin was, as they say, the misconduct of her king, who, having
increased in levity and licentiousness to such a frightful degree,
as even to marry his own daughter, God Almighty caused Saboon, the
Prince of Wa-da-i, to march against him, and destroy him, laying
waste, at the same time, all his country, and leaving the houses
uninhabited, as a signal chastisement for his impiety.
“These provinces are bounded on the north by deserts and dry sands,
which, in the spring only, are frequented by herdsmen; and on the
south by a great many countries, inhabited by various tribes of
Soodan, each of whom speak a different language, and among whom
Mooslemanism is not much spread.
“Adjoining this country, Baghar-mee, on the west side, is the
province of Barnoo, which contains rivers, and forests, and extensive
sands. It has always been well peopled, even before the last mentioned
country, and its extent and wealth are unequalled by any part of this
tract of the earth. Its inhabitants are the Barbar, the Felateen,
the before-mentioned Arabs, and a great many of the slaves of the
Barbar. These Barbars are of the remnants of those who first inhabited
the country between Zanj and Abyssinia, and who were expelled from
Yemen by Hemeera[73], subsequent to their establishment in that
country by Africus. The cause of their being brought to Yemen was,
as it is related, as follows:—While Africus reigned over Yemen,
and the Barbars in Syria, the inhabitants of the latter country,
being oppressed by the iniquities and impiety of their rulers, applied
to Africus to deliver them from their hands, and, at the same time,
they proclaimed and acknowledged him as their legal sovereign. He
marched against the Barbars, fought and destroyed them, except the
children, whom he kept in Yemen as slaves and soldiers. After his
death, and the elapse of a long period, they rebelled against Hemeera,
who then ruled Yemen. He fought and turned them out of that country;
whence they emigrated to a spot near Abyssinia (the coast of the Red
Sea facing Mokha), where they took refuge. They then went to Kanoom,
and settled there, as strangers, under the government of the Tawarék,
who were a tribe related to them, and called Amakeetan. But they
soon rebelled against them, and usurped the country. Fortune having
assisted them, their government flourished for some time, and their
dominion extended to the very extremity of this tract of the earth;
and Wa-da-i and Baghar-mee, as well as the country of Hoosa, with
those parts of the province of Bow-sher which belong to it, were in
their possession. In the course of time, however, their government
became weakened, and their power destroyed.
SECTION II.
“Adjoining this province (Barnou), on the south side, is that of
Aáheer, which is spacious, and contains extensive plains. It is
inhabited by the Tawarék, and by some remnants of the Sonhajá, and
the Soodan. This province was formerly in the hands of the Soodan
inhabitants of Ghoobér; but five tribes of the Tawarék, called
Amakeetan, Tamkak, Sendal, Agdálar, and Ajdaraneen, came out of
Aowjal, and took it from them; and, after having settled themselves,
they agreed to nominate a prince to rule over them, in order to
render justice to the weak against the powerful. They appointed a
person of the family of Ansatfén; but they soon quarrelled among
themselves, and dismissed him. They then nominated another, and
continued upon this system, viz. whenever a prince displeased them,
they dethroned him, and appointed a different one. These Tawaréks
were of the remnants of the Barbar, who spread themselves over Africa
at the time of its conquest.
“The Barbars are a nation, descendants of Abraham;—though it
is stated that they descended from Yafet (Japhet); and others say,
from Gog and Magog, whom “the two horned” Alexander (the great)
immured[74]; but that, at the time, a tribe of them, happening to
be at Ghair-oon, remained there, and intermarried with the Turks
and Tattars.
“It is likewise stated that they (the Barbars) originated from
the children of the Jan, or Jinn (Demon), under the following
circumstances:—A company of them having gone to Jerusalem, and
slept during the night in a plain there, their women became pregnant
by the Jinn of that spot. They are, therefore, naturally inclined
to blood-shedding, plundering, and fighting. It is also said, that
they were the people who slew the prophets Zachariah and Eliah;
and that, after leaving Palestine, they proceeded westwards till
they arrived at Wa-leeba and Morakéba,—two towns in the interior,
west of Egypt, where the Nile does not reach, but the inhabitants
drink the rain water[75],—where they fixed their residence for
some time. They then divided themselves into different tribes, and
proceeded westwards in Africa. The tribes of Zedata and Magh-yala
first entered the Gharb, and inhabited the mountains. These were
followed by that of Láwata, who inhabited the country of Enttablos
(Tripoli), which is Barka. They afterwards spread themselves over
the interior of the Gharb, till they reached the country of Soossa,
where the tribe of Hawazna took possession of the city of Lebda,
and the tribe of Nafoosa entered the city of Ssabra, and expelled
the Room (Greeks or Romans) who then ruled there.
“It is again stated that they descended from Farek, son of Yonssar,
son of Ham; and that, when Yonssar conquered Africa, they spread
themselves over the Gharb, and first inhabited Tunis. Thence they
proceeded in tribes towards the southern parts of the Gharb, which
communicates with the country of Soodan, where they settled at Aowjal,
Fazaran, Ghadamess, and Ghata.
“Thus they came in five tribes from Aowjal, as before mentioned,
and conquered this province (Aáheer), as before stated.
SECTION III.
“Next to the above-mentioned province, on the right hand side,
and west of Barnoo, the country of Howssa lies. It consists of seven
provinces, to each of which a prince is appointed to superintend its
affairs, and the inhabitants of the whole speak one language. The
central province of this kingdom is Kashnah, the most extensive is
Zag-Zag, the most warlike is Ghoobér, and the most fertile is Kanoo.
“It contains rivers, woods, sands, mountains, valleys, and
thickets inhabited by the Soodans (who originated from the slaves
of the Barbars, and from the people of Barnoo), the Falateen, and
the Tawarék. It is presumed that the first father of the Soodans
of this country was a slave, named Ba-oo, belonging to one of the
former kings of Barnoo; and, on this account we said above, their
origin was from the slaves of the Barbars, and the people of Barnoo.
“My friend, the prince of the faithful, Mohammed El-bákery, son
of Sultan Mohammed El-ad-dal, informed me that the inhabitants of
Kashnah, Kanoo, Zag-Zag, Dor, or Dowry, Ranoo, and Yareem, originated
from the children of the above-named slave, Ba-oo, but that the people
of Ghoobér are free born; because their origin was from the Copts of
Egypt, who had emigrated into the interior of the Gharb, or western
countries. This tradition he found in the records which they possess.
“These seven provinces (of Howssa) contain a great many wonderful
and rare things; and the first who ruled over them was, as it is
stated, ’Amenáh, daughter of the Prince of Zag-Zag. She conquered
them by the force of her sword, and subjected them, including Kashnah
and Kanoo, to be her tributaries. She fought, and took possession
of the country of Bow-sher, till she reached the coast of the ocean
on the right hand and west side. She died at Atágára, or Ataghér.
“In consequence of these conquests, the province of Zag-Zag is
the most extensive in the kingdom of Howssa, including in it the
country of Bow-sher; which consists of various provinces inhabited
by tribes of Soodan.
“Among the provinces of Bow-sher, the following are the most
considerable:—First is Ghoo-wary, which contains seven divisions,
inhabited by seven tribes of Soodan, who speak one language, and
who have not embraced Mooslimanism. Second is Ghoondar. Third is
Reer-wa, or Rear-wee, which contains a lead mine. Fourth, fifth,
sixth, and seventh, are Yass, Kodoor, Kotoo, and Aádám. Eighth is
another Kotoo, which contains a copper mine, and one of alum. And
ninth is Kornorfa, which embraces about twenty divisions, ruled by
one king, who often sallied forth upon Kanoo and Barnoo, and caused
much desolation. A gold mine is found in it, as likewise one of
salt, and another of antimony. Near to this province there is an
anchorage or harbour for the ships of the Christians, who are sent
by two sovereigns to traffic or trade with the people of Soodan.
“The province of Atagára, or Ataghér, is likewise one of the most
extensive in the territory of Zag-Zag; and near it there is also
an anchorage or harbour for the ships of the said Christians. Both
these places are on the coast of the ocean.
“In all the above-mentioned provinces of Bow-sher and Zag-Zag,
Mohammedanism was not known before our conquest.
SECTION IV.
“West of Kashnah and Ghoobér there are seven different provinces,
extending into the territory of Howssa, which are—Zanfarah, Kabi,
Ya-ory, Noofee, Yarba, Barghoo, and Ghoorma. To each of these there
is a prince appointed as governor.
“With regard to Zanfarah, it is presumed that the first father of
its inhabitants was from Kashnah, and their mother from Ghoobér. They
had the government of the province in their own hands, and their
authority increased after the decline of the power of the people
of Kabi. They had once a very ambitious sultan, named Yá-koob
(Jacob) ben Bub, who, on coming into power, marched against Kabí,
and conquered and ruined most of its towns and villages. He likewise
went to Kashnah, and conquered the greatest part of it. Their power,
however, was destroyed by one of the sultans of Ghoobér, whose name
was Bá-bari, and who, after taking possession of their country
(Zanfarah), entailed it upon his generation for a period of fifty
years, till they were conquered by us.
“Kabí is an extensive province, containing rivers, forests, and
sands. Its inhabitants, it is supposed, had their first father from
Sanghee, and their mother from Kashnah. They ruled their own country,
and their government flourished very much during the reign of Sultan
Kantá, who, it is said, was a slave of the Falateen. He governed
with equity, conquered the country, and established peace in its
very extremities and remotest places. His conquests, it is stated,
extended to Kashnah, Kanoo, Ghoobér, Zag-Zag, and the country
of Aáheer; but having oppressed the inhabitants of some of these
places, Sultan Aly-Alij marched from Barnoo against him, through
the road leading to Simbaki, and passed north of Dowra, or Dowry,
and Kashnah, and west of Ghoobér, till he entered the country of
Kabí, and reached the fort of Soorami. The Sultan of Kabí met
him on the morning of the feast. They fought together for an hour;
at the end of which the former fled westwards, and the Sultan of
Barnoo remained there to reduce the fort. But it being very strong,
he was obliged to retire, taking the right hand road, till he arrived
at Ghandoo, from which place he returned to his own country.
“Sultan Kanta, however, soon prepared an expedition, and followed
him through the same road, till he reached Onghoor, where they met,
and fought together, and Kanta gained the battle. After making much
booty, he returned to a place called Doghool, in the province of
Kashnah, where he attempted to subdue a tribe of the Soodan who were
disobedient to him. He had a very severe battle with them, during
which he received an arrow, which wounded him mortally. On arriving at
Jir he died, whence his body was carried by his troops to his palace
at Soorami, and there interred. He had three favourite capitals,
where he had residences; the most ancient of which was Ghonghoo,
then Soorami, and, the last, Leek. His dynasty continued reigning
for about one hundred years after his death, notwithstanding the
desolation of most of their territories. There were no greater than
them in these countries, and their tradition has no equal. Their power
was only destroyed when Sultan Mohammed Ebn Shárooma of Ghoobér,
Agabba Ebn Mohammed El-mobárék, Sultan of Aáheer, and the Prince of
Zanfarah, allied together, and marched against them, taking possession
of their dominions, and destroying the three above-named capitals.
“The province of Ya-ory contains mountains and valleys, and is
situated on the coast of the river called the Nile. It is inhabited
by some tribes of the Soodan, who are mostly weakminded[76].
“Noofee is a province that has, on the right and left sides, rivers,
forests, sands, and mountains; and its inhabitants are tribes of the
Soodan of Kashnah; but their true origin is a mixture from Kashnah,
Zag-Zag, Kanoo, and other places. Their language is different from
that of the people of Howssa. They possess much knowledge in the fine
and rare arts; and from their country many elegant and marvellous
things are still exported.
“Yarba is an extensive province, containing rivers, forests, sands,
and mountains, as also a great many wonderful and extraordinary
things. In it the talking green bird, called babaga (parrot),
is found.
“By the side of this province there is an anchorage or harbour
for the ships of the Christians, who used to go there and purchase
slaves. These slaves were exported from our country, and sold to
the people of Yarba, who resold them to the Christians.
“The inhabitants of this province (Yarba), it is supposed,
originated from the remnants of the children of Canaan, who were of
the tribe of Nimrod. The cause of their establishment in the west of
Africa was, as it is stated, in consequence of their being driven by
Yaa-rooba, son of Kahtan[77], out of Arabia, to the western coast
between Egypt and Abyssinia. From that spot they advanced into the
interior of Africa, till they reached Yarba, where they fixed their
residence. On their way they left, in every place they stopped at,
a tribe of their own people. Thus it is supposed that all the tribes
of Soodan, who inhabit the mountains, are originated from them;
as also are the inhabitants of Ya-ory.
“Upon the whole, the people of Yarba are nearly of the same
description as those of Noofee.
“The province of Barghoo contains forests and sands[78], and is
inhabited by tribes of the Soodan, whose origin, it is supposed,
was from the slaves of the Falateen. They are insubordinate and
stubborn, as also very powerful in magic.
“And Ghoorma is an extensive country, larger than Barghoo, and
contains rivers, woods, sands, and mountains. Its inhabitants are
almost like those of Barghoo, and chiefly robbers and depraved.
SECTION V.
“Near the last-mentioned province, there is an extensive country
called Moo-shér, which contains rivers, trees, and a gold mine. It
is inhabited by tribes of the Soodan.
“Adjoining to it, on the north side, the province of Sanghee
lies. It is extensive, very fertile, and well peopled. Its
inhabitants are remnants of the Sonhaja, the wandering Arabs, and
the Falateen. They profess the Mohammedan faith, and their princes
ruled them always with equity and justice. A great number of learned
and pious persons have distinguished themselves from among them.
“Next to Sanghee, on the west side, and north of Barghoo, the
country of Malee is situated. It is a very extensive province,
and inhabited by the Soodan, who, it is said, originated from the
remnants of the Copts of Egypt. Among its inhabitants, some of the
Tow-rooth, the Falateen, the Arabs, the Jews, and the Christians, are
found. It is likewise supposed that their origin was from Sarankaly,
or the Persians. It contains a gold mine, and has an anchorage or
harbour for ships sent by two Christian sovereigns, since former
periods. This country has always been in a flourishing state from
times immemorial. It embraces the province of Banbara, which is very
extensive, and contains rivers, forests, and a gold mine. The Soodan
who inhabit it are very powerful, and to this time still infidels.
“Near to Banbara there is the province of the Tow-rooth, and that
of Footá; which are extensive, and inhabited by their own people,
and by those of Sarankaly, or Persians. The Tow-rooth nation, it
is said, originated from the Jews, others say from the Christians,
and others make them to be descendants of the Soodan of Banbara.
“Beyond the last mentioned countries there is only the province
of Dámlá, or Damloo, which lies on the coast of the ocean. In it
Mooslimanism is not known; and its inhabitants presume to hear the
sound of the sun on reaching the meridian at noon. This country
contains many wonderful, rare, and extraordinary things, which we
are prevented from detailing by the pressure of time.
“Thus we now conclude what we intended to insert in this extract,
for the purpose of giving an outline of the geography of the kingdom
of Tak-roor.”
END OF PART FIRST.
N. B. The next, or Second Part, contains only the details of the
actions and battles that took place when Bello’s father conquered
these countries.
OBSERVATION.—It is proper here to explain, that the only deviation
I made from the original is in dividing the Pamphlet into two parts,
and separating the geographical from the military account.—A. S.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 73: On referring to the History of Yemen, by Mass-oodi,
to ascertain the period at which these two sovereigns reigned, I
find that the author of this pamphlet has made a mistake in asserting
that Africus reigned anterior to Hemeera; whereas Hemeera ruled Yemen
many hundred years previously to Africus, and that “Africus was the
sovereign who removed the Barbars from Syria, Palestine, and Egypt,
to their present countries.”
From the above-mentioned history (if it can be relied upon) it
appears, that the reign of Hemeera was after the demise of the
Prophet Heber, and that Africus reigned soon after the death of
Alexander the Great. A. S.]
[Footnote 74: The Eastern, and all Mohammedan people, considering
Alexander the Great as the only monarch who conquered the globe from
east to west, give him the title of “the two horned,” in allusion
to his said conquests. They likewise believe that Gog and Magog
were two great nations, but that, in consequence of their wicked and
mischievous disposition, Alexander gathered, and immured them within
two immensely high mountains, in the darkest and northernmost parts
of Europe, by a most surprising and insuperable wall, made of iron and
copper, of great thickness and height; and that, to the present time,
they are confined there: that, notwithstanding they are a dwarfish
race—viz. from two to three feet in height only—they will one
day come out and desolate the world!—A. S.]
[Footnote 75: Perhaps in the Oases.—A. S.]
[Footnote 76: This expression means nothing less than that the people
of Ya-ory are chiefly light-headed; for the author, in this part of
the MS., is very clear and intelligible.—A. S.]
[Footnote 77: This was a great sovereign of Arabia, to whom the
people of that country gave the title of “Father of Arabia;”
and, according to Mass-oodi, he was the first who ruled over Yemen,
and wrote the Arabic language. His reign was, as the said historian
says, during the lifetime of the Prophet Heber.—A. S.]
[Footnote 78: This province seems to contain no rivers; because the
word “rivers” was inserted in the MS., but afterwards struck
out by the writer.—A. S.]
* * * * *
No. XIII.
NOTE BY THE TRANSLATOR.—In my translation of the first part of this
pamphlet, I stated that the second part embraced only the details
of the battles and actions that took place when Sultan Bello’s
father conquered his present dominions; which details are those of
the battles of Kashnah, Dowra, Kanoo, Kabi, and of three actions
in the province of Kadawee. These being of no general interest,
I considered it superfluous to translate the whole; but, in order
to give an idea of the military tactics of the Africans, and the
manner of their warfare, I have selected the account of the first
battle of Kadawee, which is the longest, and somewhat interesting.
_A Narrative of the first Battle of Kadawee._
“When we assembled and consulted together, respecting the conquest
of Kadawee, and our opinions agreed upon its execution, we encamped
out, with our troops, commanded by general Aly Jedo. After leaving
Manee, or Moona, we marched till we arrived at the west suburbs of
the capital, where we found the infidels prepared and intrenched
within some thickets. We fought them; and God Almighty gave us the
victory. We then proceeded till we reached Boori, about half a day’s
journey from Kadawee, where our friends, the tribes of the Falateen,
who had fought the infidels at the right side suburbs, sent and
announced to us that they (the infidels) had embraced Mooslemanism;
and that a great number, of both settlers and wanderers, who had been
beaten by our other troops, had also followed their example. The
fight continued on that day till our soldiers reached Jerwa; which
place is very near the capital. At sunset, I and my guards retired
from the western suburbs, but our people besieged the southern;
and the next morning when our brother, the pious Namooda, arrived
with his troops, they advanced upon the eastern suburbs. We then
held a council and agreed to attack the city, notwithstanding the
immense number of the enemy’s troops (whose amount God only knows)
that was collected in it. This being known, every one of our party,
who were besieged in it, and made their escape, came to us. After
encamping at Manee, and most of our friends and people had joined
us, we marched, commanded by the great vizier Abdullah, till we
arrived at Boori, where we stayed till the rest of our followers
reached us. We now marched towards Ghazik, and early in the morning
came near the capital, which was very strongly fortified, and well
protected by being situated between trees and thickets. Our general
hastened and advanced till he reached the vanguard of the enemy,
where he found that they had prepared, on each side of the town,
a company to defend it. They sallied forth, and bore upon our left;
we resisted and fought them for an hour, while their people, from the
fortifications of the city, were shooting upon our troops volleys of
arrows: so that we were attacked on one side by their troops, who came
out to us, and on the other by their archers from the town. During
this engagement my uncle was wounded in the foot. God Almighty,
however, helped us against them, and we routed their troops; and,
when we obtained this advantage of their backs, the battle became
very hot and sanguinary. I pursued them with a portion of our troops
(while the rest, on the right wing of the army, remained fighting
against the city), till I drove them towards the place where
I was encamped. I then sent to the right wing to join me; and,
while we were thus engaged, the enemy came out with a fresh body
of horsemen and followed us. On seeing this movement, I hid myself,
with a number of my cavalry, till they passed and got near our troops,
whereupon I started and bore upon them from behind; by which surprise
God dispersed and made them fly. We then returned to our troops, and
encamped till the next morning, when the enemy sent out against us an
immense number of horsemen, at whose head we thought was their prince
himself. Our cavalry started and met them; and after a severe battle,
routed them. We pursued them till we reached Zoghrob, on the right
side of the capital, where we rested three nights, and then marched
to re-attack it. On Sunday morning we fought the enemy most terribly,
till it appeared as if the city was on the point of being opened
to us. In this battle a great number of our people fell martyrs,
and we killed as many of the enemy. At sunset we retired to the camp.
“Here the Tawarek conducted themselves with treachery and deceit:
they came to us and declared their submission; but, afterwards,
they went to the infidel Soodan, and united with them against
us. They, likewise, on seeing our success in the first action,
swore and agreed among themselves, to seize upon and capture our
family. But our friend and brother, the most virtuous among them,
Ahmed ben Heeda, having written to us a detail of their design,
and cautioned us, we immediately despatched a part of our troops,
headed by the vizier, to protect our family. I remained with the
rest of the army, contending with the enemy, till the vizier returned
and brought the family safe to us.
“During his absence, however, I sent a body of soldiers to seize
upon Ackoowee; which they pillaged, and returned safely, bringing
with them an immense booty.
“In the mean time the noble shaikh, my father, moved with a
multitude of troops, and arrived at Boori; where, on hearing of his
march, I repaired to meet him.
“The Tawarek again deceived us, by writing letters, in which
they pledged themselves to meet and unite with us. But when they
assembled and joined us, and we encamped at Thunthoo, and our people
were scattered in search of provisions, while only the nobles and
leaders remained in the camp, we were surprised by the appearance of
the enemy near us. The nobles then started to encounter them with
what they could collect of our troops, while I and my company were
intrenched behind our baggage and animals. At this moment, our friend,
the pious brother of the shaikh Saado, came to our assistance, with
the royal standard in his hand, and desired that we should advance
against the enemy immediately. I told him, he had better wait till
they approached us nearer. He refused, and advanced by himself and
people. I, being very ill, was obliged to remain behind. They reached
the enemy, prepared, and darted upon them. After a severe action of
an hour, the enemy fled, but not without a great number of our people
having fallen martyrs. By this time, our uncle, the vizier, came to
our succour, followed by the noble shaikh, our father, and his party.
“They pursued the enemy, and God gave them the victory, and enabled
them to plunge their weapons into their bodies, and disperse them
in shreds (small parties). In this engagement we lost about 2,000
martyrs, most of whom were of our best soldiers, and of the most
pious and virtuous of our men: as the chief justice Mohammed Thanboo,
the noble Saado, Mahmood Ghordam, Mohammed Jamm, the learned and
intelligent poet and reciter Zaid, Aboo-bakr Bingoo, the true diviner
Es-sudani, and several others. After burying as many as we could of
them, we retired and encamped till the next morning, when we buried
the rest. This battle took place about two miles from Kadawee.”
The manuscript ends thus:
“Ended, by the grace and assistance of God, the writing of this
extract, by the hand of its writer, on Wednesday about noon, the 29th
of Rajab, 1239 of Hejra, for Rayes Abdallah, the English Christian,
in the city of Sackatoo, of the country of Houssa, residence of the
prince of the believers, Mohammed Bello; whom may God cause to be
ever victorious! Amen.”
No. XIV.
_The Song of Mohammed-Alameen ben Mohammed El-Kanemy, Sheikh of the
Koran, Lawgiver to Bornou, and Governor of Kanem, on his return from
the Begharmi Country in 1821. Translated by Major Denham._
“I return to my people, the people of my heart, and the children
of my solicitude! At break of day, fasting, coming towards Kouka,
with my morning prayer on my lips, in sight of the gate, the gate
that saw me depart! The morning wind blew fresh and cool, yet mild as
the evening breeze. The battle of spears had been long doubtful; but
had ended in glory! had covered my people with honour and victory,
God Almighty assisting us! These were our deeds; they lived in
the memory of all. Oh! glorious expedition! But the greatest joy
must be told; the joy, oh, how exquisite! the recovery of my lost
love! a part of myself. Her high and noble forehead, like the new
moon, and nose like the rainbow! Her arched eyebrows reaching to
her temples, overhanging eyes than which the moon is less bright,
as it shines through darkness! large piercing eyes, whose looks
never could be mistaken! A single glance at these her all-conquering
beauties instantly called her to my mind with all the graces of her
disposition; lips sweeter than honey, and colder than the purest
water! Oh! dearest of my wives! Heaven’s own gift! what were my
sensations when I removed the veil from thy face! Thou knewest
me not in thy alarm; animation had left thee! Thou knewest not
what was to follow; and thy large eyes had closed in despair! It
seemed that lightning had struck me with its fire! As the light
of morning dispels the blackness of night, so did she, reviving,
impart to me a gladness overpowering as the blood-red sun, when it
breaks forth in its splendour, warming the sons of earth with its
re-animating fires. I thought of the day when she was blooming in
my presence, when the news of her loss came to me like a blast from
the desert. My head was laid low with sorrow! The Spring returned
with its freshness; but its showers could not revive my drooping
head! Who shall now tell of my joy? From her shoulders to her waist,
how fair is her proportion! When she moves, she is like branches
waved by a gentle breeze! Silks from India are less soft than her
skin; and her form, though noble, is timid as the fawn! Let this
my joy be proclaimed to all my people! Let them take my blessing,
and give me congratulation! Their chief is alive, returns, and is
victorious! All my people, even little children, shall sing these
our deeds; all must share in the joy of their chief, as well those
whose age prevents their sharing my glories, as those who have yet
to learn the path of heroes! God has made us to overcome those who
stood against us! They are fallen, and their towns are in ruins! In
the open day, by the light of the sun, the children of the prophet
trod them under foot! and now we approach our homes! Towards the
rising sun, we followed them; they fled! They were destroyed! they
bled! and they were bound! On the fifth day of the week, blessed
be the day! the standards of the prophet floated in the wind! The
lightnings of my spears played around them! The neighings of my horses
seemed like thunder to the unbelievers! They fell! The earth claimed
them once more, and drank their blood! From the morning until black
night we pursued them; and their blood was as food and refreshment to
my strong-armed chiefs! Their women, their cattle, and their horses,
were amongst our spoils; and he, who was, at the rising of the sun,
surrounded by thousands of glittering spears, he, the king, was,
on the going down thereof, deprived of all! He was left alone and
deserted! David, my captain, my chosen captain, was covered with the
blood of his enemies! His garments were of blood colour! He set his
foot on the necks of the Kaffirs, as he drew out his never-failing
spear, deep as it was in their gory forms! while with his sword he
still satisfied his unappeased wrath. Forests of spears pierced our
enemies! Cowards on that day were brave! The hitherto boasting but
inactive soldier this day proved himself a hero! Who shall sing the
deeds of my brave people, and do them justice? With death before
their eyes, they embraced danger as a maiden whom they wished to
enjoy, smiling, and proud of their strength; for glory to them was
sweeter than new honey or virgin lips. The battle of spears was like
a wedding feast, so joyous were my people! Surely their rage is like
that of a furious lion in his wrath! which who shall restrain? They
are a destroying fire in the eye of their enemies! Stronger than
rocks are my followers! Spear them! spear them! till the sun sees
their bones; and let their bodies be food for the birds and hyænas,
while they resist the sword of the prophet! But oh! my people,
spare the fallen! and those who implore mercy in the name of the
One and Omnipotent! These were my words. Wading through blood,
we arrived at the palace of the sultan. What were all my defeats,
when compared to this victory!
“Lend your ears, oh my chiefs! ye who were present; for they are
your deeds I sing! and ye also who were away; for I sing of your
brethren and your children. It was on the first of the month, when
we once more came on those, who were enemies to us, and to our faith!
“Tirab, chief in fight, raged alike with the strength of an
elephant! and also his wisdom for two days! Four kingdoms towards
the declining sun had been destroyed, and one to the south, five in
number! Six months I had been from home, and on the seventh I made my
return, after humbling my enemies, and binding them as slaves! As food
is before the hyæna, so are their enemies before my people. They
are devoured! But the prophet’s children are saved by God, who
watches over true believers! As a thorn pierces whatever disturbs its
retirement, so do my spear-hurling hosts dash their pointed javelins
into the flesh of those who break our peace and our repose! When
I cheer them on, miserable are they that oppose them! But he that
submits, and acknowledges the One and Omnipotent, and his Prophet,
blessed be God and his angels, shall receive mercy! I govern by the
will of the most High, and by God’s decree, and administer the
law of God, whose servant I am; and whoever dies under such law,
paradise is his.”
* * * * *
No. XV.
_Translation of an extempore Arab Song._
“Oh! she was beauty’s self, and shone in matchless symmetry! When
shall I hear news of her? how support her absence, and her loss? My
hopes are but as the fantastic dreams of night; yet with this
hopelessness my love does but increase, even as a star shines the
brightest in the blackest night. O! Mabrooka! thy head sinks too
with sorrow at losing him, whose thoughts are still of thee; but as
the desert bird[79] drops and smooths its wing, but to display the
richness of its plumage, so will thy silent grief but cause thee to
appear with increased charms! Vain and cruel delusion! At the moment
of the possession of earthly happiness to doom us to melancholy
despair, was as if the traveller should draw water to the brink
of the well, and then see the wished-for draught snatched from his
thirsty lips!
“What she looks upon becomes graceful, enchanted by her
loveliness! Oh! she is beauty’s self, my polar star[80] of life.”
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 79: Ostrich.]
[Footnote 80: The word in the original is jiddie, which guides the
kafila in traversing the deserts, their track generally lying either
north or south.]
* * * * *
No. XVI.
_Translation of the Song of the Fezzanneers, on Boo Khaloom’s
Death._
“Oh! trust not to the gun and the sword! The spear of the unbeliever
prevails!
“Boo Khaloom, the good and the brave, has fallen! Who shall be
safe? Even as the moon amongst the little stars, so was Boo Khaloom
amongst men! Where shall Fezzan now look for her protector? Men
hang their heads in sorrow, while women wring their hands, rending
the air with their cries! As a shepherd is to his flock, so was Boo
Khaloom to Fezzan!
“Give him songs! Give him music! What words can equal his
praise? His heart was as large as the desert! His coffers were like
the rich overflowings from the udder of the she-camel, comforting
and nourishing those around him!
“Even as the flowers without rain perish in the field, so will
Fezzaneers droop; for Boo Khaloom returns no more!
“His body lies in the land of the heathen! The poisoned arrow of
the unbeliever prevails!
“Oh! trust not to the gun, and the sword! the spear of the heathen
conquers. Boo Khaloom, the good and the brave, has fallen! Who shall
now be safe?”
No. XVII.
_Bornou Vocabulary._
Good for nothing, Fussel
Good, Angala
Bad, Dibbe
Bread, Gorassa
Rice, Fergami
Come here, Arai natin
Go away, Lanai daka
Come to-morrow, Bali arai belte,
Come to-morrow night, Bali booni arai
Meat, Dha
Water, Inki
Bring water, Inki coutai
I wish to drink, Shay aski
Stay in the house, Arai fatto nemine
Sit down, Nemine
Bed, Boushe
Sheep, Anglaro
Bullock, Feea
Fowls, Koukee
Wind, Karouah
Sun, Kangal
Cold, Kakou
Hot to-day, Kow zow
Woman, Kano
Girl, Faro[81]
Fine girl, Faro angala
Rich girl, Faro sukala
Ugly girl, Faro dibbe
Father, Aba
My mother, Yany
Your mother, Yaanem
My brother, Crameny
My sister, Yaiany
Wife, Neka
Siriah, Keferoua
Hand, Musko
Leg, Segulni
White teeth, Teminy bull
Tongue, Telumny
A slave with large eyes, and Keir angala shem kora
handsome,
Great, Kora
Small, Gana
Old man, Keeary
Horse, Fur or Pur
Dog, Kree
Sweet milk, Kiam klee
Sour milk, Kyam
I wish to wash, Musco toliske
I will go to your house, Fanim laneskin
House, Fatto
God keep you in health, L’affia dagumba
How is your health? Are you Wanumba l’affia? La lay? Ba lay?
well? Are you well?
Breeches, Yangay
A pretty young slave, Keir gana angala
I give you a little physic: if Kergun gana gadishe atte keteen
that does not cure you, come baco, arai bali
to-morrow,
I am sick, Ou donde
I am a little better, Kermunga neske gana
Rains coming, Delaky goushe
Good day to you, Dibdony che l’affia
Good night to you, Booni che l’affia
Bad boy, Tetowa dibbe
Good boy, Tetowa angala
White man, Bull fulk
One, Telo
Two, Inde
Three, Yasko
Four, Dago
Five, Ooogoo
Six, Araska
Seven, Toolur
Eight, Waskoo
Nine, Lekar
Ten, Meagoo
Eleven, Meagoo lageree
Twelve, Indoore
Thirteen, Meagoo yaskun
Fourteen, Meagoo daree
Fifteen, Meagoo ouree
Sixteen, Meagoo araskee
Seventeen, Meagoo toluree
Eighteen, Meagoo waskun
Nineteen, Meagoo likareen
Twenty, Finde
Thirty, Fee askar
Forty, Fee daga
Fifty, Fee oogoo
Sixty, Fee raskee
Seventy, Fee tolur
Eighty, Fee tuskoo
Ninety, Fee lekar
One hundred, Mea
Poor man, Koua telleka
Sick man, Koua laka
Gussub, Ergum
Handsome woman, Kamoo angala
Very hot to-day, Kou dzow
Very cold, Kako ngubboo
Very dirty, Teginy kadafooa
Very clean, Teginy angala
Dead, Nuee
I, Ooma
You, Nema
Mine, Kakay
Yours, Kakanem
Sandals, Sono
Cap, Geaqua
You know every thing, Summa nunumba
I know nothing, Afeema noniskeni
I know, Noniski
Bring supper, Coutai bree
I wish to eat, Maniskin buskin
I look for food, Manimin boomin
I do not wish, Naguski baco
Have you got a little? Agoga nashe
I have nothing, Afeema baco
Honey, Kom̄agun
Wood, Kuska
At night eat supper, Booni bree boyee
Morning meal, Cheny feleski
I must go home, Oola niske fatto
Will you, or will you not? Rakami, rouanimy
I will not, Waniskee
Yes, Geree
No, Wankee
Breast, Gungy
Quick, Doua
Come, make haste, Arai doua
Black, Sellem
Red, Kemmy
White, Bull
Grass, Kajum
Straw, Soogoo
Mat, Suggady
I have many bullocks, Nanin fean’ gubboo
A great warrior, Bendugoo gubboo
I must buy a shirt, Koulko manki efeski
Tell me directly, Manany doua
I have no money, Nani gourse baco
I have no friend, Sobany baco
You are my friend, Nema sobany
You are not my friend, Ne sobany gani
I wish to sleep, Manki boniske
I do not sleep in the day, Kou boniske baco
Where is good water, very good? Indaran inki, angala lintia
This water is not good, Inki ada angalăgănĭ
Not good, Angalăgăny̆
I will give you nothing, Afeema giski baco
Call him, Booboonimin
Don’t beat him, Wata edkonimy
Strong, Kibboo
Weak, Kibboo gany
Strong slave, Keir kibboo
I wish to return to my country, Bellany laniski
Lion, Kourgilly
Ichneumon, Chorma
How many children have you? Tetoua ndago nanimin
Where is your country? Ndara bellanem
You are very handsome, Angala lintia
Come with me, Yeronemin langay
Go I cannot, Lanem baco
I am tired, M’bareski
Whip, Kourfo
Turban, Aliafo
Sword, Kazager
Looking-glass, Koutrum
Face, Fiska
My face, Fiskany
Your face, Fiskanem
His face, Fiskansa
Their faces, Fiskanday
My foot, Sheeny
Your foot, Sheenum
His foot, Sheensay
Their feet, Sheenday
All their feet, Sheenday andi summa
Beard, N’chitty
Foot, Shee
Feet, Shee ndiso
Fingers, Gulandoni
Toes, Fergamij
Who is that? N’dee aty
What is that? Aty a fee
What is your name? Nin dhu
Presently, Wakay
Wait a little, Dāgā dāgō
White trowsers, Yangay bull
White shirt, Kukoo bull
Blue shirt, Kulgoo kagi
Pillow, Beeree
Where are you going? Ndara doony min
Where are you come from? Ndara kadim
From the sheikh’s house I come, Fatto shoukobe kadisco
To-day, Kow
Yesterday, Biska
The day before yesterday, Biskada
Ass, Koro
Mule, Koro la fuddera
Handkerchief, Futtha. Not used
Crocodile, Timsa, karem
Hippopotamus, Nghroot
Many mosquitoes, Kantano n’gubboo
Hyena, Dela
Elephant, Kamāgun
Calf, Kena gana
Cow, Kena
Where are your shoes? Sononem daran
Where is your cap? Geaqua n’daran
A bad man, Koati dibbe
You are bad, Nema dibbe
Do you wish that woman? Kamo ati rakami
Not that one? This I wish, Ati waniski too raguski
Man, Kam
Woman, Kamo
A strong man, Kamqua
Two men, Kuandee
Two women, Kamundee
Camel, Kelgimmo
Camel’s saddle, Kantergue
Riding camel or maherhy, Kelgimmo serdebee
Wear your cap; the sun is Geaqua coutai kou n’gubboo
strong,
My house, Fany
The house of me, Fatto kakai
I will come at night, Ou boone leniske
It is now night, Kerama boone
Why did you not come yesterday? Afero biska issamy bah
I could not come, Issiskany
I am come to-day, Kou issisky
I am angry, Ou gergan iskana
Always, Zaar
I go on horseback, Kela furby linisky
Horse, Fur, or Pur
I go on foot, Sheenin linisky
Your house, Fanem
His house, Fansa
All their houses are one, Andi summa fanday telo
Give me this, Ougoaty orashe
A little, not much, Gana
Take care, Zebba
Now give me, Kormashee
Shut the door, Suganay tapah
Not now, Kormakany
By and by, Oo kanowaā
I will give you a handsome Koulko angala noroweskin
shirt,
I will dress you prettily, Kasamow angala noroweskin
Hear me, I say, Fanimy
God bless you, Allah kabunsho
May you live for ever, Engoubourou dagah
God send you a happy old age, Allah kiaro
literally gray hairs,
Bring water to wash my hands, Inki coutai muskowy toliske
To wash your hands, Muskonem tolei
Like a Bornowy, Kanourin kalcal
Near, Karengha
A long way off, Kiento rinta
Why are you afraid? Afero ranimin
You come directly? Kurma ma duaree
The day after to-morrow, Wagoro
Eat you, Nema booy
I can read, Rageski karaengen
Can you read? Ne karanemin bah
I cannot, Karaniskin baco
I know, Ooma nongana
You know, Nema nonema
He knows, Shema nosena
We know, Amgaso nony-enna
Ye know, Ande amgaso
They know, Nony-enna
Every body knows, Amsemma nozana
Nobody knows, Ondooma nozana baco
Gazelle, Engry
Ducks, Enguddoo
Vulture, Quogoo
Monkey, Daggel
Buffalo, Zamouse
I will not go, Laniski baco
I will come, Lazusko
Is it necessary for you? Ragumba
It is necessary, Ragiski
Now, Kurma
Not now, but in a little, Kurmagany, laga toosiny
Why is your cap off? Afero geaquanem gogo
It fell off, Oogony konusko
My horse, Furny
Your horse, Furnem
His horse, Furnsa
My hut, Engiminy
Your hut, Engiminem
His hut, Engiminsa
Onions, L’bussel
Wheat, Gomah
Gussub, Arkum
Fan of ostrich feathers, Kergeaga
Ostrich, Nham
Feathers, Riesh
I wish a man who knows the road Ooroo kam angala sidi Waday
to Waday, nosena
Do you know all the road? Sidi Waday nony mabah
All I know, Angaso nony ski
In the road, river great is Waday den komadagoo kora beetche
there?
There is, but not a great one, Beetche, gana laga
And a great deal of water, there N’gobboo gany inki enga
is not,
Gussub is there plenty? Argum beetche engubbooba
Rain little, and gussub Inki gana argum engubboo, gany
not much,
Last year rain plenty, more than Mindy inki engubboo kerma koge
at this time,
This year, Kimmindy
Last year, Mindy
Fish, Boony
Standard carried before the Yerma
Sultan of Bornou,
Fire bring, quick, quick, Kano coutai doua, doua
Fire bring, get supper, Kano coutai bree deniskin
Mount, we will go, Neebamin baa lanyée
Now I will come, Kurma mai issisky
I do not wish, Wanisky, wangy
Wait a little, now he will come, Garany gana kurma machin
Bring water, I will drink, Inki coutai yaskin
I will not come, Isiskin baco
Give grass to the horse to eat, Fena kajem furby zebbo
Nose bag, Engerky
The nose bag for the horse Engerky furby coutai
bring,
Fill it with gussub, Fegana argum
Give it him to feed, Yeshery zebbo
Does he feed? Zebbe ra-watche
He feeds, A zebbena
Feed he will not, Zebbin baco watche
Take off the nose bag, if he Zenney engerky watchea
will not,
Take him to drink, Yeati inkero
Give him well to drink, Y’eshero angeloro tsaa
Bucket none, yesterday broke, Kirfy baco biska creety
Go a bucket good buy, Lanee kerfy angala belinefay
Take care thieves don’t take it, Wata kaleny burbo gotzenu
I wish it, Oura kusku
Something I wish, Aqualaka oura kusku
What do you wish? Afferacum
Where are we going? Ainfera lanen
Near now we go? Karinga ateman lascia
Sunset before? Shall we stop? Magrubo setteny? Zubtsayu bah
We shall stop, Zubtsayu
At sunset we shall not stop, we Mugrubbo kelten zubtsay inde
shall go until Ashea; then we leesharo letzaya doo go zubtneia
shall stop,
Sunset before we shall return, Mugrubbo setteny doo goo lanem
To-day go, to-morrow come, Kou lanemya bali arai
You are very handsome, Neety angala engubboo
You than others I like best, Neety kamo gediro rakuskin ago
angalko
Speak true speeches, Mana gereby manany
It is necessary, I see the well, Kouroo garoubi ruguski,
This is my town now, Ate bellany kurma
I wish to see, Raguski rusky
Will you buy anything? Neema eefamy bah
I wish to buy, Raguski effuskin
I do not wish to buy, Wankee effeesky baco
I will not sell, Wankee ladisky baco
I wish to sell, Ragusky ladisky
Will you sell? Ladamin bah
My feet ache, Sheeny zow
Do your feet ache? Eenim zow bah
My legs, Shegul ny
My knees, Engurum grum kakai
My thighs, Dunomy
My loins, Duefurgy-ny
My belly, Suero-ny
My breast, Ingun geny
My neck, Dubboony
Woman’s breast, Tekkum
My mouth, Cheny
My nose, Kinoa-ny
My tongue, Telam-ny
My teeth, Teneeny
My cheeks, Gegaty
The eyes, Shem
The forehead, Engum
Eyebrows, Engum eshem
Ears, Summo
Head, Kla
This woman, her face is Kamo atteta feskansa angala
handsome,
Long gourd with a hole at each Zantoo
end, used by Tibboo and Bornou
as a musical instrument,
Wrapper or petticoat, Zeneh
Eggs, Gubbel
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 81: In the southern provinces of Bornou this is pronounced
_Paro_.]
* * * * *
No. XVIII.
_Begharmi Vocabulary, taken from the mouth of the late Sultan’s son,
now a slave of the Sheikh of Bornou._
One, Keddy
Two, Sub
Three, Mattāh
Four, Soh
Five, Mee
Six, Meeka
Seven, Chilly
Eight, Marta
Nine, Doso
Ten, Dokemy
Eleven, Dokemy kar keddy
Twelve, Dokemy kar sub
Thirteen, Dokemy kar muttāh
Fourteen, Dokemy kar soh
Twenty, Doke sub
Twenty-one, Doke sub kar keddy
Twenty-two, Doke sub kar sub
Thirty, Doke muttah
Thirty-one, Doke muttah
Forty, Doke soh
Forty-one, Doke soh kar keddy
Fifty, Doke mee
Fifty-one, Doke mee kar keddy
Sixty, Doke muka
Sixty-one, Doke muka kar keddy
Seventy, Doke killy
Seventy-one, Doke killy kar keddy
Eighty, Doke marta
Ninety, Doke doso
One hundred, Arrou
One hundred and one, Arrou se keddy
Two hundred, Arrou sub
One thousand, Dooboo
Two thousand, Dooboo sub
Eyes, Kammo
Leaf of a plant, Kammo
Head, Geujo
Mouth, Tara
Door of a room, Tara be
Breast, Kājā
Sun, Kājā
Nose, Amo
Belly, Ngala
Thighs, Brinjee
Knees, Kejee
Legs, Kersha
Feet, Njanja
Flesh, Nja debe
Ox, Mungho
Flesh of an ox, Nja mungho
Sheep, Batta
Goat, Angha
Water, Mane
Flour, Jumo
Bread, Tabaka
No kinds of fruit known,
all plants different.
Onions, (Good, great.) Bussara
Honey, (Quantities Tejee,
eaten.)
Elephant, Keejee
Horse, Soudah
Mule, El Feddrah
Ass, (plenty), Krow
Dog, (many), Besee
Lion, (plenty), Tobio
Lioness, Tobiony
Leopard, Nugo
Gazelle, Ngria
Rabbit, Omo
Fowls, Kenja
Cock, Kla
Father, Babma
Mother, Konuma
Brother, Monnjema
Sister, Monnjum
Son, Wonma
Daughter, Wonum
Woman, Née
Man, Gaba
Wife, Neema
Favorite, Mandama
Noon, Dooro
Night, Njow
Sleep, Tonangy
Awake, Ingra
I am hungry, Bow
I am thirsty, Mane mukago
My friend, Kaffama
Your friend, Kaffaily
Bring supper, Du gesa
Come here, Da lullo
Go away, Abey
Hot, Kaisungoh
Cold, Kooloo
Fat, Booboo
Too hot, Kaigocho
Very cold, Koolo ognio
Wind, Leélee
Rain falls, Manet kudy
Boat, large, Toko
Small boat, Toko bassa
River, Bah
Great river, Bah nungolo
Near, Bony
Distant, Aouo
Very distant, Aouo killa hudder
Bad, Kussu
I have something, Congassa saikilly
I have nothing, Ngasskoto semki
Good man, Kab
Bad man, Kab-kussu
Young, N’bussa
Old, Kaddah
Handsome woman, Nein
Ugly woman, Nein kussu
Take that, Dibena magi
Merchant, Maly ocho
Slave, Baly
Woman slave, B’llow
White man, Kab n’jaffy
Slaves, Bakee
White woman, Nee njaffy
I will not, Gaily
To kill, Tolly qua
My house, Bema
Your house, Beay
To wound, Noyalee
Wheat, Gkal kumba
Gussub, Tenghoo
Dates, Depenow
Saddle, Serdee
Fire, Peddoo
Wood, Cheree
Bring some wood quick, Den cheree, keske, keske
I am ill, Mungaly
Are you ill? Gegony
Do you wish physic? Talem kourgoonoo
Come with me, Dejab kow
I am your friend, Ma kafai
I am your servant, Ma manai
Always, Njan
All, Petta
After, Belti
Before, Dencha
Mid-day, Kaisung-oo
Gafooly, Wah
Meloheiœ, Gongonbelto
Bridle, Al jemmo
Halter, Kabboomoo
Grass straw, Moo
Teeth, Nganah
* * * * *
No. XIX.
_Mandara Vocabulary, taken from the mouth of Achmet Mandara, a slave
of the Sheikh of Bornou._
One, Mtaque
Two, Sardah
Three, Kighah
Four, Fuddah
Five, Elibah
Six, N’quaha
Seven, Vouyah
Eight, Teesah
Nine, Musselman
Ten, Klaou
Twenty, Kulboa, kulla boa
Thirty, Kullo kegah
Forty, Kullo fuddah
Fifty, Kullo elibah
Sixty, Kullo N’quaha
Seventy, Kullo Vouga
Eighty, Kullo Teesa
Ninety, Kullo Musselman
One hundred, Drimka
Two hundred, Dibboo
Water, Yowah
Bring water, Sensa yowah
Meat, Souah
Gussub, Mudjuga
Man, Geela
Woman, Mug’sa
Girl, Gala
Handsome girl, Shugra
Ugly girl, Mowgwa
Good man, Zeeriah
Mother, Mama
Father, Dada
Brother, Malay
Sister, Koudray
Mountains, Ouvra
River, Gouah
Well, Souah
Spring, Pooshay
Great, Yeakay
Little, Chequah
Great mountains, Ouvre yeakay
Little sister, Koudray Chequah
Meal, breakfast, Dafah
_or_ supper,
To eat, Zuzie
Bring to eat, Senga dafah
I will not, Wyanga
Sultan, Tsuksa
I am tired, Yaluffa luffa
Good bye, N’gea dha
Day, Vechea
Night, Véggea
I must go, Amindala
Come here, Souah sokena
My wife, Muksanga
Your wife, Muksarwa
Good road, Oungala shrugra
Bad road, Oungala mangoua
Rice, Acheiah
Butter, Wyay
Honey, Ammah
Eyes, Echey
Nose, Ukteray
Mouth, Okay
Ears, Shimmah
Head, Erey
Female slave, Quatana
Male slave, Affee
Handsome slave, Quatana mugray
Grass, Massah
My country, Uksarwa
Your country, Uksangra
I wish to sleep, Wenwyah yeksentia sah
I am your friend, Tukkatarwa
Horse, Bilsah
Ox, Tsah
Tiger-cat, Oobellah
Tiger’s skin, Ogzo oobellah
Ass, Anzouwah
Sheep, Keoay
Rich man, Tallowah
Poor man, Tszuah
* * * * *
No. XX.
_Timbuctoo Vocabulary._
Come, Kaa
Go, Koey
Quickly, Tumba
Give me to eat, Kata mung-ha
Give me to drink, Katahary mungenee
I am thirsty, Hamai egowei
I, _or_ me, Ei
You, Ee
Him, Wo
They, Oo
Good, Abooree
Bad, Affootoo
Man, Harree
Woman, Weey
Girl, Izowy
Boy, Ezahary
Handsome woman, Weey tienta
Bad man, Harree footoo
Two eyes, Moh inka
Mouth, Mey
Beard, Kabi
Head, Bong-o
Horse, Barree
Camel, Yeo
Ass, Furka
Dog, Hanshe
Sheep, Fagee
An ox, Hou foh
Oxen, Hou bobo
Meat, Hum
Sweet milk, Wah gana
Sour milk, Wah coutoo
Sultan, Gabee coin
Bread, Takoola
River, Issa
Boat, Hee
House, Hoo
Slave, Bunneea
Female slave, Kong-o
Fire, Jarree
Night, Keegee
Day, Noony
Wood, Togoolee
Elephant, Turcondu
Water, Hary
Blood, Koorie
Knife, Hoorie
Gold, Oorah
Silver, N’zurfa
Turban, Tabbai
Tobe, Tilleby-kai
Breeches, Seeby
Sandals, Tarno
Cap, Foolah
Clouds, Beenee
Earth, Gunda
Mountain, Foudee
Well, Bungo
A ghrazzie, Wongo
Spear, Yagy
Mat, Tangaree
The truth, Keemy
That man lies, Wahareeagoothangany
Eat, Ngha
Foot, Kay
Hand, Kambah
One, Affoo
Two, Nahinka
Three, Nahinza
Four, Attakee
Five, Aggoo
Six, Iddoo
Seven, Ea
Eight, Yaha
Nine, Yugga
Ten, Auwy
Eleven, Auwy kindofoo
Twelve, Auwy kindoohinka
Thirteen, Auwy kindohinza
Fourteen, Auwy kindotakee
Fifteen, Auwy kindaggoo
Sixteen, Auwy kindo iddoo
Seventeen, Auwy kindoea
Eighteen, Auwy kindo yaha
Nineteen, Auwy kindoyugga
Twenty, Warunka
Twenty-one, Warunka kindofoo
Thirty, Warunza
Thirty-one, Warunza kindofoo
Forty, Waytakkee
Forty-one, Waytakkee kindofoo
Fifty, Wayaggoo
Fifty-one, Wayaggoo kindofoo
ZOOLOGY.
No. XXI.
Having been requested by the authors of the preceding narrative to
describe the Zoological subjects collected during their journey,
we think it right, in the first place, to notice the difficulties
attending their acquisition and preservation. The European traveller,
who is transported with equal comfort over the rugged heights of
Mont Cenis, or along the level plains of Holland, can have little
conception of the privations and distresses which attend the wanderer
in the desert. The most feeble and timid may encounter the first task
without fatigue or fear; but the _robur et æs triplex_ of a strong
constitution, persevering patience, and undaunted courage, must fortify
his resolution who directs his daring course through the sands of the
Sahara.
Having arrived at the farthest point of their route, our travellers
were occupied no less than five months in their return to Tripoli,
pursuing their “weary way” almost wholly through deserts, and suffering
severely by sickness and all sorts of privations. Their means, too, of
skinning and preserving the animals they procured were of the slightest
kind; the only cutting instrument they possessed being a penknife
belonging to Major Denham, and a little arsenical soap, left from the
stores of the late Mr. Ritchie, their sole antidote to protect the
skins from moth and corruption. Such, however, was their ardour in the
pursuit of Zoological subjects, that in spite of all the difficulties
and drawbacks that beset them, they succeeded in collecting and
bringing home upwards of a hundred specimens, and some of them in
exceedingly good condition and of peculiar interest; though we regret
to say, that less than a third of that number is all that have come
into our hands, many of the subjects having fallen into utter decay.
Classis. MAMMALIA. _Auct._
Ordo. CARNASSIERS. _Cuv._
Tribus. CARNIVORES. _Cuv._
Stirps. DIGITIGRADES. _Cuv._
Genus. FENNECUS. _Lacep._
Species 1.—_Fennecus Cerdo._
Fennec. _Bruce_, vii. 231. (8vo). pl. 28.
Animal Anonyme. _Buff. Supp._ iii. 128. pl. 19. (1776).
Zerda. _Penn. Quad._ pag. 248. pl. 28.
Canis Cerdo. _Gmel. Linn._
Fennecus Brucii. _Desm. Mamm._ pl. 108. f. 4.
Canis Megalotis. _Griff. An. King._
This beautiful and extraordinary animal, or at least one of this
genus, was first made known to European naturalists by Bruce, who
received it from his drogoman, whilst consul general at Algiers. It
was brought from Biscara by a Turkish soldier, from whom the janizary
bought it, and who said it was not uncommon at that place, but was
more frequently met with in the date territories of Beni Mezzab and
Werglah, where these animals are hunted for their skins, which are
afterwards sold at Mecca, and thence exported to India. Bruce kept his
animal alive for several months, and took a drawing of it in water
colours, of the natural size; a copy of which, on transparent paper,
was clandestinely made by his servant. On leaving Algiers, Bruce gave
the animal to Captain Cleveland, of the Royal Navy, who made a present
of it to Mr. Brander, the Swedish consul. Mr. Brander, according to
Sparman, as quoted by Bruce, gave an account of the animal in “some
Swedish Transactions,” but refused to let the figure be published, the
drawing having been unfairly obtained. Bruce asserts that this animal
is described in many Arabian books, under the name of _El Fennec_, by
which, he adds, that it is known all over Africa; he conceives the
appellation to be derived from the Greek word φοινιξ, a palm, or date
tree.
[Illustration: Drawn by Major Denham.
Engraved by E. Finden.
FENNECUS CERDO.
_Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London._]
After Bruce left Algiers, he met with two other Fennecs, one of which
had been brought by the caravan of Fezzan to the Island of Gerba,
from whence it was carried to Tunis, where Bruce saw it; the other he
bought at Sennaar, but where it came from he knew not; though it seems
probable that it was a native of the date villages in the desert of
Selima. These animals exactly resembled the one first seen at Algiers,
and were known by the name of Fennec, and by no other.
The favourite food of Bruce’s Fennec was dates, or any sweet fruit;
but it was also very fond of eggs: when hungry it would eat bread,
especially with honey or sugar. His attention was immediately attracted
if a bird flew near him, and he would watch it with an eagerness that
could hardly be diverted from its object; but he was dreadfully afraid
of a cat, and endeavoured to hide himself the moment he saw an animal
of that species, though he showed no symptoms of preparing for any
defence. Bruce never heard that he had any voice. During the day he was
inclined to sleep, but became restless and exceedingly unquiet as night
came on.
Bruce describes his Fennec as about ten inches long; the tail, five
inches and a quarter, near an inch of it on the tip, black; from the
point of the fore-shoulder to that of the fore-toe, two inches and
seven-eighths; from the occiput to the point of the nose, two inches
and a half. The ears were erect, and three inches and three-eighths
long, with a plait or fold at the bottom on the outside; the interior
borders of the ears were thickly covered with soft white hair, but the
middle part was bare, and of a pink or rose colour; the breadth of the
ears was one inch and one eighth, and the interior cavity very large.
The pupil of the eye was large and black; the iris, deep blue. It had
thick and strong whiskers; the nose was sharp at the tip, black and
polished. The upper jaw was projecting; the number of cutting teeth
in each jaw, six, those in the under jaw the smallest; canine teeth,
two in each jaw, long, large, and exceedingly pointed; the number of
molar teeth, four on each side, above and below. The legs were small;
feet very broad, with four toes, armed with crooked, black, and sharp
claws on each; those on the fore-feet more crooked and sharp than
those behind. The colour of the body was dirty white, bordering on
cream-colour; the hair on the belly rather whiter, softer and longer
than on the rest of the body. His look was sly and wily. Bruce adds
that the Fennec builds his nest on trees, and does not burrow in the
earth.
Illiger, in his generic description of _Megalotis_, states the number
of molar teeth on each side of the upper jaw to be six, but gives no
account of those in the lower; nor does it appear on what authority he
describes the teeth at all, or where he inspected his type. In other
respects, his description agrees pretty closely with that given by
Bruce.
Sparman[82] took the Fennec to be of the species he has called Zerda,
a little animal found in the sands of Cambeda, near the Cape of Good
Hope; and Pennant and Gmelin have called Bruce’s animal, after Sparman,
_Canis cerdo_; Brander considered it as a species of fox; Blumenbach
rather as belonging to the Viverræ. Illiger quotes Lacépède as having
made a distinct genus of it, _Fennecus_[83], and has himself placed
it as one, under the name of Megalotis, in the order Falculata, in the
same family with, and immediately preceding the genera Canis and Hyena.
M. Geoffroy Saint Hilaire, assuming Bruce’s account to be imperfect
and inaccurate, supposes that the Fennec is neither more nor less than
a Galago; but M. Desmarest differs from him in opinion, and places it
in a situation analogous to that assigned it by Illiger, at the end of
the Digitigrades, in the order Carnassiers. Cuvier merely takes the
following short notice of this animal in a note, “Le Fennec de Bruce
que Gmelin a nommé _Canis cerdo_, et Illiger _Megalotis_, est trop peu
connu pour pouvoir être classé. C’est un petit animal d’Afrique, dont
les oreilles égalent presque le corps en grandeur, et qui grimpe aux
arbres, mais on n’en a descrit ni les dents ni les doigts.” (Reg. Anim.
I. 151. note). This eminent zoologist appears from the above to hold
our countryman’s veracity, or at least his accuracy of observation,
and fidelity of description, in the same low estimation as M. Geoffroy
Saint Hilaire; or he would hardly have talked of the ears of the Fennec
being nearly as large as its body[84], or have asserted that neither
the teeth nor toes have been described. But the illustrious foreigners
of whom we have, in no offensive tone we hope, just spoken, are not
the only persons who have hesitated to place implicit confidence in
all that Bruce has given to the world: his own countrymen have shown
at least an equal disposition to set him down as a dealer in the
marvellous. Time, however, and better experience, are gradually doing
the Abyssinian traveller that justice which his cotemporaries were but
too ready to deny him.
M. Desmarest considers all the characters which Bruce has given of the
Fennec as correct, “not conceiving it possible, that he could have
assumed the far too severe tone he adopted in speaking of Sparman and
Brander, if he had not been perfectly sure of his facts.”
Mr. Griffith has given the figures of two animals, both, as he
conceives, belonging to this genus; one of them came from the Cape of
Good Hope, and is now in the Museum at Paris; it is named by Cuvier
_Canis megalotis_, and is described by Desmarest in his Mammalogie,
(Ency. Meth. Supp. p. 538): Major Smith has called it _Megalotis
Lalandii_, to distinguish it from Bruce’s Fennec. The other animal
is from the interior of Nubia, and is preserved in the Museum at
Frankfort. Both the figures are from the accurate and spirited pencil
of Major Hamilton Smith. The first animal is as large as the common
fox, and decidedly different from Bruce’s Fennec; the second, Major
Smith considers to be Bruce’s animal.
In the fifth volume of the Bulletin des Sciences, sect. 2. p. 262., is
an extract from a memoir of M. Leuckart, (Isis, 2 Cahier, 1825), on
the _Canis cerdo_, or Zerda of naturalists, in which it is stated that
M. M. Temminck and Leuckart saw the animal in the Frankfort Museum,
which had been previously drawn by Major Smith, and recognized it for
the true Zerda; and the former gentleman, in the prospectus of his
_Monographies de Mammalogie_, announced it as belonging to the genus
Canis, and not to that of Galago. M. Leuckart coincides in opinion with
M. Temminck, and conceives that the genus Megalotis, or Fennecus, must
be suppressed, “the animal very obviously belonging to the genus Canis,
and even to the subgenus Vulpes.” He adds, “that it most resembles
the _C. corsac_; the number of teeth and their form are precisely the
same as those of the fox, which it also greatly resembles in its feet,
number of toes, and form of tail. The principal difference between
the fox and the Zerda consists in the great length of the ears of the
latter and its very small size.”
The singular controversy, not even yet decided, that has arisen
respecting this little animal, has induced us to preface our
description of the individual before us, by this sketch of its history.
FENNECUS. _Dentium formula.—Dentes primores_ 6—6 / 6—6, _laniarii_
1—1 / 1—1, _molares_ 6—6 / 7—7?
_F. supra rufescenti-albus, subtus pallidior; maculâ suboculari rufâ;
caudæ maculâ sub-basali nigrescenti-brunneâ, apice nigro._
Dimensions. Inches.
Length of the head from the extremity of the nose to
the occiput, 3⅜
Breadth between the eyes, 0⅞
Length of ears, 3⅛
Breadth of do. at the widest part, 2
Breadth of the cranium between the ears, 1⅝
Length from the occiput to the insertion of the tail, 9½
Tail, 6
[85]Height before, from the ground to the top of the
back, above the shoulder, 6⅝
[85]Height behind, to the top of the back above the
loins, 7½
Breadth of the extremity of the nose, 0⁵⁄₁₆
Length of the middle claws of the fore feet, 0⁷⁄₁₆
Exterior do. do. 0½
Middle and exterior claws of the hind feet, 0½
The general colour is white, slightly inclining to straw-yellow; above,
from the occiput to the insertion of the tail it is light rufous brown,
delicately pencilled with fine black lines, from thinly scattered hairs
tipped with black; the exterior of the thighs is lighter rufous brown;
the chin, throat, belly, and interior of the thighs and legs are white,
or cream colour. The nose is pointed, and black at the extremity;
above, it is covered with very short, whitish hair inclining to rufous,
with a small irregular rufous spot on each side beneath the eyes; the
whiskers are black, rather short and scanty; the back of the head is
pale rufous brown. The ears are very large, erect, and pointed, and
covered externally with short, pale, rufous-brown hair; internally,
they are thickly fringed on the margins with long greyish-white hairs,
especially in front; the rest of the ears, internally, is bare;
externally, they are folded or plaited at the base. The tail is very
full, cylindrical, of a rufous-brown colour, and pencilled with fine
black lines like the back; its colour is rather deeper above than on
the under part, and there is a small dark brown spot, at about an
inch below its insertion on the upper side; the ends of the hairs at
the extremity of the tail are black, forming a black tip about three
quarters of an inch long. The anterior feet are pentadactylous, the
posterior tetradactylous, and both are covered to the claws with
moderately long whitish hairs, slightly inclining to straw-yellow;
the claws are of a yellowish-white, or light horn-colour, moderately
hooked, very much compressed, and very sharp; those on the hinder toes
are most compressed, longest, and least arched. The fur is very soft
and fine; that on the back, from the forehead to the insertion of the
tail, as well as that on the upper part of the shoulder before, and
nearly the whole of the hinder thigh, is formed of tri-coloured hairs,
the base of which is of a dark lead colour, the middle white, and the
extremity light rufous brown.
The teeth of our animal are much worn, apparently by age; the incisors
in the upper jaw are nearly even, the second pair rather broader than
the rest; of those in the lower jaw, the outer pair are considerably
the largest.
The imperfect state of the teeth, and the difficulty of examining
them accurately without having the skull detached, forbids us to be
confident as to the number of grinders in either jaw. From the most
careful inspection, however, that we could make in the actual state of
the specimen, we are inclined to believe that the system of dentition
closely, if not exactly, resembles that of the dog. In the present
state of uncertainty, whilst opinions of the highest authority are so
discordant as to the genus to which this animal should be referred, we
do not feel ourselves at liberty to disturb the arrangement adopted by
Lacépède, Illiger, and Desmarest, but leave the ultimate decision of
the question to future naturalists, who may possess more unequivocal
data for its solution. One thing, indeed, is pretty obvious, namely,
that if Major Denham’s animal be not the identical species described
by Bruce, it certainly belongs to the same genus; for as it does
not appear that Bruce himself ever possessed a detached skull of
the Fennec, it is very easy to imagine that he could not accurately
ascertain the number of molar teeth in the head of a living animal
of such vivacity and quickness, and which was so impatient of being
handled, that he could not obtain a correct measurement of its ears,
or even count the number of paps on its belly. With such an animal
it is not unlikely, moreover, that the two last tubercular grinders
should escape the notice of any one attempting to examine the mouth
under circumstances so disadvantageous, those teeth being in some
measure concealed by the large projecting carnivorous tooth immediately
before them. That it cannot be a _Galago_, as M. Geoffroy Saint Hilaire
imagines, is sufficiently evident; and M. Desmarest has given no less
than six distinct, and, we think, conclusive reasons against that
opinion, through which, however, we must not follow him at present. The
subject has already grown under our hands to a far greater bulk than we
intended, and we conclude it by taking leave to question the validity
of M. Geoffroy Saint Hilaire’s argument respecting the general veracity
of Mr. Bruce, and consequently to enter our protest against his Fennec
being classed with the _Quadrumana_.
We retain, provisionally, the generic name of _Fennecus_, first
proposed by Lacépède, and the specific one of _Cerdo_, adopted by
Gmelin; but should the animal ultimately prove to be a different
species from _Canis cerdo_, M. Desmarest’s specific appellation of
_Brucii_ may with propriety be assigned to it.
Genus. RYZÆNA. _Ill._
Species 2.—_Ryzæna tetradactyla_.
Viverra tetradactyla. _Gmel._ I. 85.
Suricate. _Buff._ xiii. t. 8.
This animal was found on the banks of the rivers in the neighbourhood
of Lake Tchad.
Tribus. PLANTIGRADES. _Cuv._
Genus. GULO. _Storr._
Species 3.—_Gulo capensis_.
Gulo Capensis. _Desm. Mamm._ p. 176.
Viverra mellivora. _Gmel._ I. 91.
Ratel. _Sparman_.
Ratel weesel. _Penn. Quad._ II. 66.
The natives, from whom Major Denham had all the following particulars,
informed him, that during the rutting season the _Ratel_ is very
fierce, not hesitating to attack a man. Each male has two or three
females, whom he scarcely suffers to be a moment out of his sight; if
either of them escape his jealous vigilance, and leave him for a short
time, she is sure to receive severe chastisement at her return. This
animal is very easily killed; a single blow on the nose, which seems
peculiarly sensible of the slightest injury, instantly despatches him.
Ordo. QUADRUMANES. _Cuv._
Genus. CERCOPITHECUS. _Briss._
Species 4.—_Cercopithecus ruber_.
Cercopithecus ruber. _Geoff. Ann. du Mus._ xix. 96.
Simia rubra. _Gmel._ I. 34.
Le Patas. _Buff._ xiv. pl. 25 and 26.
Red Monkey. _Penn. Quad._ I. 208.
Ordo. RUMINANS. _Cuv._
Genus. CAMELOPARDALIS. _Gmel._
Species 5.—_Camelopardalis Giraffa_.
Camelopardalis Giraffa. _Gmel._ I. 181.
Cervus Camelopardalis. _Linn._ I. 92.
Giraffe. _Buff._ XIII. p. 1.
Camelopard. _Penn. Quad._ I. 65.
The _Giraffes_ were found on the south-eastern side of Lake Tchad,
generally in parties of from two to five or six. They are tolerably
numerous, but not very common. The motion of these animals is not
elegant; their pace is a short canter, in which they seem to drag their
hind legs after them, in an awkward fashion: their speed, however, is
such as to keep a horse at a pretty smart gallop. The skin brought
home by Major Denham is that of a young animal, not above a year and a
half or two years old; the colours are very much lighter than on the
skin of an adult animal. In its wild state, the _Giraffe_ carries its
head remarkably erect; a character which, Major Denham remarks, is not
faithfully preserved in any figure he has seen of this animal.
Genus. ANTILOPE. _Pall._
Species 6.—_Antilope Senegalensis_.
Antilope Senegalensis. _Desm. Mamm._ p. 457.
Le Koba. _Buff._ xii. pl. 32. f. 2.
Senegal Antelope. _Penn. Quad._ I. 103.
Only the head and horns of this animal were brought home by Major
Denham; it was found on the plains of central Africa. The natives call
this species _Korrigum_.
Species 7—_Antilope bezoartica_.
Antilope gazella. _Gmel._ I. 190.
Capra bezoartica. _Linn._ I. 96.
Algazelle. _Buff._ xii. pl. 33. f. 1, 2.
Algazel Antelope. _Penn. Quad._ I. 77.
Linnæus’s description of _Capra bezoartica_ speaks of the horns as
being “entirely annulated;” but Brisson, to whom Linnæus refers, says
they are annulated nearly to the end. In our specimens, a considerable
extent from the _apex_ is without the rings. This difference may
probably arise from age. In other respects, the horns before us
perfectly answer the description of those of Linnæus’s _Capra
bezoartica_. M. Gmelin seems to have made some confusion between
the _Capra Gazella_ and _C. bezoartica_ of Linnæus. He has changed
the specific name of _Gazella_ into that of _oryx_, and he has made
Linnæus’s _bezoartica_ the _Gazella_ of himself.
Only two horns of this species, and those apparently not fellows, were
sent home. This animal was found on the south side of the River Shary,
in central Africa.
Species 8.—_Antilope cervicapra_.
Antilope cervicapra. _Pall._
Capra cervicapra. _Linn._ I. 96.
Antilope. _Buff._ xii. pl. 35 and 36.
Common Antelope. _Penn. Quad._ I. 89.
We have only the horns of this animal. Its African name is _El Buger
Abiad_, or the _White Cow_.
Genus. BOS. _Linn._
Species 9.—_Bos taurus_.
Bos taurus. _Linn._ t. I. 98.
Major Denham brought home a pair of horns of enormous size, belonging
evidently, from their form, texture, and mode of insertion, to a
variety of the common Ox, of which he states that two kinds exist in
central Africa, one with a hump before, and very small horns; the other
altogether of a larger size, also with a hump, and immense horns.
The circumference of one of the horns before us, at the largest part
near the base, is twenty-three inches and a quarter; its length,
following the line of curvature, three feet, six inches and a half. It
has two curves; and weighs six pounds and seven ounces. Internally it
is extremely cellular, or rather cavernous.
Species 10.—_Bos bubalis_.
Bos bubalis. _Linn._ I. 99.
Le Buffle. _Buff._ xi. pl. 25.
Buffalo. _Penn. Quad._ I. 28.
We possess the head, with the horns. The name by which the native
Africans call this animal is _Zamouse_.
Ordo. PACHYDERMES. _Cuv._
Genus. RHINOCEROS. _Linn._
Species 11.—_Rhinoceros bicornis_.
Rhinoceros bicornis. _Gmel._ I. 57.
Rhinoceros unicornis. var. β. _bicornis._ _Linn._ I. 104.
Rhinoceros Africanus. _Cuv._
Rhinoceros d’Afrique. _Buff. Supp._ vi. pl. 6.
Two-horned Rhinoceros. _Penn. Quad._ i. 150. pl. 29.
Here again we have the horns only. The local name of this animal is
Gargatan.
Ordo. RONGEURS. _Cuv._
Genus. SCIURUS. _Linn._
Species 12.—_Sciurus Dschinschicus_.
Sciurus Dschinschicus. _Gmel._ I. 151.
Sciurus albovittatus. _Desm. Mamm._ p. 338.
Our species agrees exactly with M. Desmarest’s account of his _S.
albovittatus_, except that the tail is rather more decidedly distich
than that of the individual he describes; but the dried state of the
skin before us prevents our ascertaining its form very minutely. M.
Desmarest refers to pl. 89 of Sonnerat’s Voyage, vol. ii. for a figure
of his Ecurieul de Gingi, which he quotes as a variety of this species;
on looking into Sonnerat, we do not find any figure at all of this
animal referred to by that author. Plate 89 is a figure of the _Maquis
à Bourres_.
Genus. HYSTRIX. _Linn._
Species 13.—_Hystrix cristata_.
Hystrix cristata. _Linn._ I. 74.
Porc-épic. _Buff._ xii. pl. 51.
Crested Porcupine. _Penn. Quad._
* * * * *
Classis. AVES. _Auct._
Ordo. RAPTORES. _Ill._
Fam. VULTURIDÆ. _Vigors. in Linn. Trans._
Genus. VULTUR. _Auct._
Species 1.—_Vultur fulvus_.
Vultur fulvus. _Briss._ I. 462, sp. 7.
Gyps vulgaris. _Sav. Ois. d’Egypte_.
Le Percnoptere. _Pl. Enl._ 426.
Vautour Griffon. _Temm. Manuel d’Orn._ p. 5.
Alpine Vulture. Var. B. _Lath. Gen. Hist._ I. p. 17.
This species was observed by Major Denham in the neighbourhood of all
the large towns through which he passed. It was attracted by the offal,
and refuse of every description, which the inhabitants were accustomed
to throw out for its use. For the services which these birds thus
performed, they met with protection in return from the natives, who did
not permit them to be destroyed.
Fam. FALCONIDÆ. _Leach._
Subfam. ACCIPITRINA. _V. in Linn. Trans._
Genus. ASTUR. _Auct._
Species 2.—_Astur musicus_.
Falco musicus. _Daud. Orn._ II. 116, sp. lxxxviii.
Le Faucon chanteur. _Le Vaill. Ois. d’Afr._ I. 117, pl. 27.
Chanting Falcon. _Lath. Gen. Hist._ I. p. 178.
This beautiful Hawk was met with occasionally in most parts of central
Africa, but not in any abundance. It was the only species of the family
which the officers of the expedition were enabled to preserve and bring
home.
Ordo. INSESSORES. _V. in Linn. Trans._
Tribus. FISSIROSTRES. _Cuv._
Fam. TODIDÆ. _V. in Linn. Trans._
Genus. EURYSTOMUS. _Vieill._
Species 3.—_Eurystomus Madagascariensis_.
Coracias Madagascariensis. _Gmel._ I. 379.
Le Rolle de Madagascar. _Pl. Enl._ 501.
Madagascar Roller. _Lath. Gen. Hist._ III. p. 79.
Fam. HALCYONIDÆ. _V. in Linn. Trans._
Genus. HALCYON. _Swains._
Species 4.—_Halcyon erythrogaster_.
Alcedo erythrogaster. _Temm._
Alcedo Senegalensis, var. γ. _Lath. Ind. Orn._ 249.
Martin Pecheur du Senegal. _Pl. Enl._ 356, fig. inf.
The birds of this species were met with in abundance in those
situations near rivers which form the usual resort of the species of
this family. They were more particularly observed in the tamarind trees.
Tribus. CONIROSTRES. _Cuv_
Fam. CORVIDÆ. _Leach._
Genus. CORACIAS. _Linn._
Species 5.—_Coracias Senegalensis_.
Coracias Senegalensis. _Gmel._ I. 379.
Rollier du Senegal. _Pl. Enl._ 326.
Swallow-tailed Indian Roller. _Edw._ t. 327.
Senegal Roller. _Lath. Gen. Hist._ III. p. 75.
These splendid Rollers were very abundant in the thick underwoods
throughout central Africa.
Tribus. SCANSORES. _Auct._
Fam. PSITTACIDÆ. _Leach._
Genus. PSITTACUS. _Auct._
Species 6.—_Psittacus erythacus_.
Psittacus erythacus. _Linn._ i. 144.
Perroquet cendrée de Guinée. _Pl. Enl._ 311.
Ash-coloured Parrot. _Alb._ i. t. 12.
Several specimens of this species were brought over alive to this
country, which are now honoured with a place in His Majesty’s
collection.
Genus. PALÆORNIS. _V. in Zool. Journ._
Species 7—_Palæornis torquatus_.
Palæornis torquatus. _V. in Zool. Journ._ vol. II. p. 50.
Psittaca torquata. _Briss._ IV. 323.
La perruche à collier. _Pl. Enl._ 551.
Perruche à collier rose. _Le Vaill. Hist. des Perr._ pl. 22, 23.
This species, whose chief _habitat_ is said to be in India, which is
the main resort of the group to which it belongs, appears to have a
very wide geographical distribution. It has been found on the coast
of Senegal, as well as by the officers of the present expedition in
central Africa. The specimen before us is very much mutilated, but
enough of the bird remains to enable us to identify the species.
Ordo. RASORES. _Ill._
Fam. TETRAONIDÆ. _Leach._
Genus. PTEROCLES. _Temm._
Species 8.—_Pterocles exustus_.
Pterocles exustus. _Temm. Pl. Col._ ♂ 354. ♀ 360.
These birds were found in great numbers in the neighbourhood of Bornou.
They frequented the low sand hills which were scantily covered with
shrubs. Like most of the family, they were found to be excellent eating.
Genus. FRANCOLINUS. _Steph._
Species 9.—_Francolinus Clappertoni_.
_Franc. supra brunneus fulvo-variegatus; subtus fulvo-albidus, maculis
longitudinalibus brunneis aspersus; strigâ superciliari subocularique,
gulâ, genisque albis, his brunneo-lineatis._
_Pileus_ brunneus, ad frontem nigrescens. Striga nigra interrupta
extendit a rictu ad genas. _Genarum_ plumæ, anteriores lineis
gracilibus, posteriores maculis ovalibus brunneis in medio notatæ.
_Colli, pectoris, abdominis_que plumæ in medio brunneæ marginibus
fulvo-albidis, rhachibus pallidis. _Dorsi_ superioris, _scapularium,
tectricum_que plumæ pallido-fulvo marginatæ partimque fasciatæ.
_Dorsi_ inferioris _uropygii_que plumæ pallidè brunneæ in medio
fusco-brunneo leviter notatæ. _Remiges_ exteriores pogonio externo ad
basin fulvo-fasciato, pogonio interno ad basin brunneo, versus apicem
rufo-fulvo; interiores utrinque fulvo-fasciatæ. _Ptila_ inferiora in
medio brunnea, fulvo ad margines notata. _Pteromata_ inferiora in medio
fusca, marginibus fulvis. _Femorum_ plumæ fulvæ in medio brunneæ.
_Rectrices_ brunneæ fasciis plurimis fulvis undulatæ. _Rostrum_ superné
nigrum, infra ad basin rubro tinctum. _Pedes_, ad frontem nigri, poné
rubescentes: _tarsis_ bicalcaratis, calcare superiore obtuso, inferiore
acuto. Longitudo _corporis_, 14 unc.; _alæ_ a carpo ad remigem 5tam,
7⅕; _caudæ_, 3⅘; _rostri_, 1¹⁄₂₈; _tarsi_, 2³⁄₁₀.
This species of _Francolin_, which appears to us to be hitherto
undescribed, was met with in tolerable abundance. It frequented sand
hills, covered with low shrubs; and was very difficult to be procured
in consequence of the great speed with which it ran. We have named the
species after Captain Clapperton, R. N. the intrepid and intelligent
companion of Major Denham.
Fam. STRUTHIONIDÆ. _V. in Linn. Trans._
Genus. STRUTHIO. _Auct._
Species 10.—_Struthio camelus_.
Struthio camelus. _Linn._ I. 265.
L’Autruche. _Pl. Enl._ 457. ♀
The Black Ostrich. _Brown’s Illust. of Zool._ pl. 16.
Major Denham succeeded in bringing alive to this country four of these
noble birds, which are at present in His Majesty’s menagerie at Windsor.
Genus. OTIS. _Linn._
Species 11.—_Otis Denhami_.
_O. fusco-brunneo et pallido-fulvo undulatim punctulata, capite
brunnescenti-nigro, superciliis genis gulâque albidis, collo rufo,
pectore cinereo; pteromatibus remigibus rectricibusque nigris, istis
albo-maculatis, his albo-fasciatis; corpore subtus rufescenti-albo._
_Capitis_ pileus parsque superior _nuchæ_ brunnescenti-nigri. _Regionis
auricularis_ plumæ elongatæ, decompositæ, cinerascenti-albæ. _Colli_
inferioris plumæ frontales elongatæ. _Dorsi, uropygii, scapularium,
ptilorum_que plumæ fusco-brunneæ, pallido-fusco undulatim punctulatæ.
_Pteromata_ nigra maculis albis grandibus irregulariter notata.
_Tectrices_ inferiores albæ ad marginem alarum fusco-variegatæ.
_Rectrices_ nigræ; duæ exteriores pogonio interno fasciis duabus
albis, externo tribus, notatæ; cæteræ tribus fasciis ejusdem coloris
utrinque notatæ, fasciâ sub-apicali nigro sparsâ: duæ mediæ ad apicem
fusco-brunneæ, pallido-fusco undulatim punctulatæ. _Irides_ flavæ.
_Rostrum_ corneum. _Pedes_ nigri. Longitudo _corporis_, 3 ped. 9 unc.;
_caudæ_, 1 pes, 4 unc.; _rostri_, ad frontem, 3¾ unc., ad rictum,
4½ unc.; _tarsi_, 7 unc.; _digiti_ medii, ungue incluso, 2¾ unc.;
exterioris, 1⁷⁄₀ unc.
African Bustard? _Lath. Gen. Hist._ Vol. VIII. p. 361.
We have hitherto seen no description that exactly accords with the
bird before us. The _African Bustard_ described by Dr. Latham, in the
second edition of his “Synopsis,” lately published under the title of
“A General History of Birds,” appears to be the most allied to it. But
the head of that bird is described as being bare; and such a marked
difference prevents us from referring our bird to that species, with
which it generally agrees in other points, without some note of doubt.
Our specimen is unfortunately very defective: in the quill feathers,
and fore parts of the neck, more particularly. These latter are
described by Major Denham as singularly beautiful, being elongated and
swelling out into a kind of ruff. We are happy to have the opportunity
of distinguishing this bird by the name of the enterprising traveller
to whose zeal we are indebted for the species itself, and many other
valuable acquisitions to science.
This species was met with, in the rainy season, near the larger towns,
but not in any great abundance. It frequented moist places, where the
herbage was pure and fresh. In such places it was taken in snares by
the natives, who used it for food. It was almost invariably met with
singly, Major Denham never having observed a pair together more than
once. It is singular, also, that it was always found in company with
_Gazelles_ whenever a _Bustard_ was observed, it was certain that the
_Gazelles_ were not far distant. Major Denham describes the eye of
this bird as large and brilliant. In like manner as is recorded of the
_Gazelle_, with which this bird seems to have so close a sympathy, the
Arabs are accustomed to compare the eyes of their most beautiful women
to those of the _Oubara_[86].
Ordo. GRALLATORES. _Ill._
Fam. GRUIDÆ. _V. in Linn. Trans._
Genus. BALEARICA. _Briss._
Species 12. _Balearica pavonina_.
Ardea pavonina. _Linn._ I. 233.
Balearica. _Briss._ v. 511.
Oiseau royal. ♀ _Id. Ib._ pl. 41.
L’oiseau royal. ♂ _Pl. Enl._ 265.
Crowned African Crane. _Edw._ t. 192.
Crowned Heron. _Lath. Gen. Hist._ IX. p. 26.
These birds were found in the neighbourhood of the smaller lakes. They
were generally observed in flocks of six or eight. A single pair was
sometimes met with, but a single bird scarcely ever.
Genus. PLATALEA. _Linn._
Species 13.—_Platalea leucorodia_.
Platalea leucorodia. _Linn._ I. 231.
La Spatule. _Pl. Enl._ 405.
Spatule blanche. _Temm. Manuel d’Orn._ p. 595.
White Spoonbill. _Penn. Brit. Zool. App._ t. 9.
These birds were found in the smaller lakes, and in grounds which were
overflowed. They were met with in tolerable plenty.
Fam. ARDEIDÆ. _Leach._
Genus. ARDEA. _Auct._
Species 14.—_Ardea Coromandelensis_.
Ardea Coromandelensis. Steph, in Sharts Gen. Zool. XI. p. 577.
Ardea russata. _Temm. Manuel d’Orn._ p. 506.
Ardea affinis? _Horsf. Linn. Trans._ Vol. XIII. p. 189.
Ardea comata. var. β. _Lath. Ind. Orn._ 687.
Crabier de la côté de Coromandel. _Pl. Enl._ 910.
This bird was shot in the neighbourhood of Alph, a town situated in the
middle of a swamp, described at page 233 of these travels. They were
seen in some abundance in that neighbourhood, and were noticed by Major
Denham as remarkable for their beauty and gracefulness.
Species 15.—_Ardea melanocephala_.
_Ard. cinerea; capite cristato, colli parte posteriore lateribusque,
regione interhumerali, remigibus, rectricibusque nigris, gulâ collique
parte anteriore albis._
_Colli_ inferioris plumæ elongatæ cinerascentes. _Dorsi_ pars anterior
inter humeros nigra, posterior saturatè cinerea. _Ptila_ pallidè
cinerea. _Tectrices_ inferiores albæ. _Rostrum_ nigrum, _mandibulâ_
inferiore flavescente, apicem versus nigro marginatâ. _Pedes_ nigri.
Longitudo _corporis_, 2 ped. 9 unc.; _alæ_, 15 unc.; _rostri_, 4;
_tarsi_, 6.
We feel much hesitation in characterizing the bird before us as a
distinct species. In a family like the present, where there is so
much variation both in age and sex in the same species, it is almost
impossible to decide upon the identity or distinction of species,
unless by actual observation of the birds themselves in their native
haunts, and in their different ages and states of plumage. On the
whole, however, it is perhaps the most eligible plan to keep those
species separate which show evident marks of distinction; leaving it to
more accurate observation to ascertain whether they may be identical
with described species, and differing merely by age, sex, or the
variations of plumage according to the different seasons of the year.
The bird before us might, at first sight, be supposed to be the common
_Ardea cinerea_, Linn. But that bird, as far as we have observed, never
possesses the entirely black head which distinguishes the specimen
before us; nor has it the black on the hind part of the neck, nor on
the back between the shoulders. The younger bird of our common species
has those parts cinereous which are black in the adult: and the crest
and lower feathers of the neck are never so much elongated as in the
old bird. The strength of the black markings in Major Denham’s species,
moreover, and the developement of the crest, neck, and scapular
feathers, prevent us from concluding it to be an immature bird. If we
allow it to be adult, it is decidedly distinct from the adult of _A.
cinerea_. We know no other allied species to which we might consider it
referable.
These birds were found in great abundance in all the lakes and marshes
throughout the route of our travellers. They were met with in company
with numberless other species of the family, specimens of which
our officers were prevented from preserving, or bringing home, in
consequence of the difficulties attending the expedition, to which we
have before alluded.
Genus. SCOPUS. _Briss._
Species 16.—_Scopus umbretta_.
Scopus umbretta. _Gmel._ I. 618.
L’Ombrette du Senegal. _Pl. Enl._ 796.
The Umbre. _Brown’s Illust. of Zool._ pl. 35.
Tufted Umbre. _Lath. Gen. Hist._ Vol. IX. p. 23.
Major Denham informs us, that this bird was very rarely seen. The few
he observed were met with in the _Mimosa_ trees.
Genus. IBIS. _Lacep._
Species 17—_Ibis Æthiopicus_.
Tantalus Æthiopicus. _Lath. Ind. Orn._ 706.
Ibis religiosa. _Cuv. Regne Anim._ I. 483.
Abou Hannez. _Bruce’s Trav. Append._ pl. p. 172.
This bird, which is of exceeding interest as being one of the two
species of _Ibis_ which were the objects of sacred worship among the
Egyptians, was met with by Major Denham on the west borders of the
Lake Tchad. He observed them in flocks, and in considerable numbers.
Hitherto they have been sparingly seen by travellers, and few specimens
have reached our collections.
Genus. CICONIA. _Briss._
Species 18.—_Ciconia Marabou_.
Ciconia Argala. _Temm. Pl. Col._ 301.
This bird was met with rather plentifully in the neighbourhood of large
towns, in company with the _Vultures_, to the manners of which we have
already referred, page 195. Like them, they were protected by the
natives, in consideration of the services they performed in clearing
away all the offensive substances which were thrown out to them from
the towns. In India, we find that the corresponding species, _Ardea
Argala_, Lath., is held in equal estimation for similar services. Major
Denham mentions his having frequently been a witness of their voracious
and omnivorous habits.
M. Temminck first figured and characterized this African species as
distinct from that of India. He has given it the name of _Argala_,
while for the Indian bird, which had already received that name from
Dr. Latham, he proposes the name of _Marabou_. We have ventured to
reverse the order of these names; and while we retain for the Indian
species the original name conferred on it by Dr. Latham, which, it is
to be recollected, is an Indian word, we have assigned the African
species the title of _Marabou_, which, it is equally to be observed, is
a word peculiar to Africa.
The specimen brought home by the present expedition appears to be a
young bird, and answers to the description given of the young of this
species by M. Temminck. The colours are nearly black in the bird before
us, which are grey in the adult bird figured by that gentleman. Major
Denham mentions his having noticed some birds nearly allied to this
species, which were larger, and different in colour, and which he
conceived to be distinct. They probably were the adult birds of this
species.
Ordo. NATATORES. _Ill._
Fam. ANATIDÆ. _Leach._
Subfam. ANSERINA. _V. in Zool. Journ._
Genus. PLECTROPTERUS. _Leach._
Species 19.—_Plectropterus Gambensis_.
Plectropterus Gambensis. _Steph. in Shaw’s Zool._ XII. Part 2. p. 7.
pl. 36.
Anas Gambensis. _Linn._ I. 195.
Spur-winged Goose. _Lath. Gen. Hist._ X. 241.
This bird was found in flocks of great numbers on all the lakes. The
flesh was very coarse, and of a fishy taste, and afforded very bad
eating.
Species 20.—_Plectropterus melanonotus_.
Plectropterus melanotos. _Steph. in Shaw’s Zool._ XII. Part 2. p. 8.
Anser melanonotus. _Forst. Zool. Ind._ p. 21. t. 11.
Anas melanonotus. _Lath. Ind. Orn._ 839.
Oye de la côté de Coromandel. _Pl. Enl._ 937.
Black-backed Goose. _Penn. Ind. Zool._ p. 12. t. 11.
This species, of which fine specimens of the male and female are
preserved in the collection, was met with on the lake Tchad. It was
not seen in any abundance, and was found in company with other species
of the family. The protuberance on the bill of the male is much more
enlarged and prominent than is represented in the “Planches Enluminées.”
Subfam. ANATINA. _V. in Zool. Journ._
Genus. ANAS. _Auct._
Species 21.—_Anas viduata_.
Anas viduata. _Linn._ I. 205.
Canard du Maragnan. _Pl. Enl._ 808.
Spanish Duck. _Penn. Gen. of Birds_, p. 65. t. 13.
This species was very common, both on Lake Tchad and on all the smaller
lakes. It was excellent eating. Mr. Pennant has described the species
as an inhabitant of America and Africa. Linnæus says only, that it is
found in the lakes of Carthagena; those, it is supposed, of New Spain.
Our bird accords very accurately with his description of the species,
and also with the figure quoted above from the “Planches Enluminées.”
We have every reason to conclude with Mr. Pennant, that the species
inhabits both the Old and New Continent. The bend of the wing exhibits
the rudiments of a spur.
Fam. PELECANIDÆ. _Leach_
Genus. ONOCROTALUS. _Briss._
Species 22.—_Onocrotalus Brissonii_.
Pelicanus Onocrotalus. _Linn._ I. 215.
Le Pelican. _Pl. Enl._ 87.
White Pelican. _Edw._ t. 92.
This well known species has been described to us by Major Denham as
very abundant on the borders of Lake Tchad. The genus _Onocrotalus_
was first instituted by M. Brisson; but, according to his custom,
he left the present species without any specific name. M. Cuvier,
in his “Regne Animal,” acknowledges the genus; but neither has he
specifically distinguished the bird. We feel much pleasure in now
assigning it a name, in memory of the first characterizer of the group;
an ornithologist, whose works cannot be studied without the highest
advantage, but whose labours have never as yet been sufficiently
appreciated.
Genus. PHALACROCORAX. _Briss._
Species 23.—_Phalacrocorax pygmæus_.
Pelecanus pygmæus. _Pall. Reise._ II. 712. t. G.
Dwarf Shag. _Lath. Gen. Hist._ X. 431.
Cormoran pygmée, jun. _Temm. Man. d’Orn._ p. 901.
This bird, which agrees very accurately with M. Temminck’s description
of the young of his _Cormoran pygmée_, was met with by Major Denham on
one of the smaller lakes in central Africa. He describes the species as
very rarely occurring.
Genus. PLOTUS. _Linn._
Species 24.—_Plotus melanogaster_.
Plotus melanogaster. _Gmel._ I. 580.
Anhinga melanogaster. _Forst. Zool. Ind._ p. 22. t. 12.
Anhinga de Cayenne. _Pl. Enl._ 959.
Black-bellied Anhinga. _Penn. Ind. Zool._ p. 13. t. 12.
Black-bellied Darter. _Lath. Gen. Hist._ X. 451.
This bird was seen but once or twice during the course of the
expedition. It was met with on one of the smaller lakes. It seems to
have a very extensive geographical distribution, being found in the New
World, in the islands of Java and Ceylon, and now in the interior of
Africa.
There are remnants of several other species of birds in the collection,
consisting chiefly of bills, legs, and wings. Among them we can trace
the apparent remains of the _Ciconia alba_, Briss.; _Ardea garzetta_,
Linn.; different species of the genus _Lamprotornis_, Temm.; with
various others, of which we regret that we cannot venture to give any
description. The foregoing twenty-four species are all that we can
undertake to determine upon with accuracy.
* * * * *
Classis. REPTILIA. _Auct._
Ordo. SAURIENS. _Cuv._
Tribus. LACERTIENS. _Cuv._
Genus. MONITOR. _Cuv._
Species 1.—_Monitor Niloticus_.
Lacerta Nilotica. _Linn._ I. 360.
Varanus Dracæna. _Merr. Syst. Amph._ p. 59.
Tupinambis Niloticus. _Daud. Rept._ III. 51.
Monitor du Nile, ou Ouaran. _Cuv. Reg. Anim._ II. 25.
Tribus. CAMELEONIENS. _Cuv._
Genus. CHAMÆLEO. _Lacép._
Species 2.—_Chamæleo vulgaris_.
Chamæleo vulgaris. _Daud. Rept._ IV. 181.
Chamæleo carinatus. _Merr. Syst. Amph._ p. 162.
Lacerta chamæleon. _Linn._ I. 364.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 82: Voyage, ii. 20.]
[Footnote 83: Desmarest states, (Ency. Meth. note), that he cannot
find any work of Lacépède in which the genus Fennecus is proposed.]
[Footnote 84: Perhaps M. Cuvier was led into this mistake by an
error of the pen or press, in M. Desmarest’s translation of Bruce’s
description of the animal. Bruce says, “from the snout to the anus,
he was about ten inches long;” the translation, “Ce Fennec avoit
six pouces de longueur, depuis le bout du nez jusqu’ à l’origine de
la queue.” The same mistake occurs in M. Geoffroy Saint Hilaire’s
quotation of Bruce; but this cannot be a misprint, for the length is
not expressed by the word _six_, but by the Arabic cypher _6_.]
[Footnote 85: Taken as the stuffed specimen stands.]
[Footnote 86: _Oubara_ seems to be a general name for the _Bustards_
in Africa. A smaller species than the present, of that country, has
received this name as a specific title from M. Gmelin.]
No. XXII.
BOTANICAL APPENDIX.
BY ROBERT BROWN, ESQ. F.R.SS. L. & E., F.L.S.
The Herbarium formed during the expedition, chiefly by the late
Dr. Oudney, contains specimens, more or less perfect, of about three
hundred species. Of these one hundred belong to the vicinity of
Tripoli; fifty were collected in the route from Tripoli to Mourzuk,
thirty-two in Fezzan, thirty-three on the journey from Mourzuk to
Kouka, seventy-seven in Bornou, and sixteen in Haussa or Soudan.
These materials are too inconsiderable to enable us to judge correctly
of the vegetable productions of any of the countries visited by
the mission, and especially of the more interesting regions, Bornou
and Soudan.
For the limited extent of the herbarium, the imperfect state of
many of the specimens, and the very scanty information to be found
respecting them, either in the herbarium itself, or in the Journal
of the collector, it is unfortunately not difficult to account.
Dr. Oudney was sufficiently versed in Botany, to have formed
collections much more extensive and instructive, had the advancement
of natural history been the principal purpose of his mission. His time
and attention, however, were chiefly occupied by the more important
objects of the expedition: as a botanist he had no assistant;
and the state of his health during his residence in Bornou must,
in a great degree, have rendered him unable to collect or observe
the natural productions of that country.
For the few specimens belonging to Soudan, we are indebted to Captain
Clapperton, who, after the death of Dr. Oudney, endeavoured to
preserve the more striking and useful plants which he met with. His
collection was originally more considerable; but before it reached
England, many of the specimens were entirely destroyed. It still
includes several of the medicinal plants of the natives; but these
being without either flowers or fruit, cannot be determined.
In the whole herbarium, the number of undescribed species hardly
equals twenty; and among these not one new genus is found.
The plants belonging to the vicinity of Tripoli were sent to me
by Dr. Oudney, before his departure for Fezzan. This part of the
collection, amounting to one hundred species, was merely divided into
those of the immediate neighbourhood of Tripoli, and those from the
mountains of Tarhona and Imsalata.
It exceeds in extent the herbarium formed by Mr. Ritchie near Tripoli,
and on the Gharian hills, which, however, though containing only
fifty-nine species, includes twenty-seven not in Dr. Oudney’s
herbarium.
The specimens in Mr. Ritchie’s collection are carefully preserved,
the particular places of growth in most cases given, and observations
added on the structure of a few; sufficient at least to prove, that
much information on the vegetation of the countries he visited might
have been expected from that ill-fated traveller.
In these two collections united, hardly more than five species are
contained not already published in the works that have appeared on
the botany of North Africa; particularly in the Flora Atlantica
of M. Desfontaines, in the Flore d’Egypte of M. Delile, and in
the Floræ Libycæ Specimen of Professor Viviani, formed from the
herbarium of the traveller Della Cella.
The plants collected in the Great Desert and its oases, between
Tripoli and the northern confines of Bornou, and which somewhat exceed
a hundred, are, with about eight or ten exceptions, also to be found
in the works now mentioned. And among those of Bornou and Soudan,
which fall short of one hundred, very few species occur not already
known as natives of other parts of Equinoctial Africa.
A complete catalogue of the herbarium, such as I have now described
it, even if the number and condition of the specimens admitted of its
being satisfactorily given, would be of but little importance, with
reference to the geography of plants. Catalogues of such collections,
if drawn up hastily, and from imperfect materials, as must here have
been the case, are indeed calculated rather to injure than advance
this department of the science, which is still in its infancy,
and whose progress entirely depends on the scrupulous accuracy of
its statements. To produce confidence in these statements, and in
the deductions founded on them, it should in every case distinctly
appear, that in establishing the identity of the species enumerated,
due attention has been paid to the original authorities on which
they depend, and, wherever it is possible, a comparison actually
made with authentic specimens.
In the account which I am now to give of the present collection,
I shall confine myself to a slight notice of the remarkable known
plants it contains, to characters or short descriptions of the more
interesting new species, and to some observations on such of the
plants as, though already published, have either been referred to
genera to which they appear to me not to belong, or whose characters
require essential alteration.
In proceeding on this plan, I shall adopt the order followed in
the botanical appendix to Captain Tuckey’s Expedition to the
River Congo. And as there will seldom be room for remarks on the
geographical distribution of the species I have to notice, I shall
chiefly endeavour to make my observations respecting them of some
interest to systematic botanists.
CRUCIFERÆ. Fifteen species belonging to this family exist in the
collection, one of which only appears to be undescribed, and of
this the specimens are so imperfect, that its genus cannot with
certainty be determined. Of those already published, however,
the generic characters of several require material alterations,
some of which suggest observations relative to the structure and
arrangement of the natural order.
SAVIGNYA ÆGYPTIACA, (_De Cand. Syst._ 2. _p._ 283,) is the first of
these. It was observed near Bonjem, by Dr. Oudney, whose specimens
slightly differ from those which I have received from M. Delile,
by whom this plant was discovered near the pyramid of Saqqârah, and
who has well figured and described it in his Flore d’Egypte, under
the name of Lunaria parviflora. By this name it is also published by
M. Desvaux. Professor Viviani, in giving an account of his Lunaria
libyca, a plant which I shall presently have occasion to notice
more particularly, has remarked[87], that Savignya of De Candolle
possesses no characters sufficient to distinguish it as a genus from
Lunaria; and still more recently, Professor Sprengel has referred our
plant to Farsetia[88]. The genus Savignya, however, will no doubt be
ultimately established, though not on the grounds on which it was
originally constituted; for the umbilical cords certainly adhere
to the partition, the silicule, which is never absolutely sessile,
is distinctly pedicellated in Dr. Oudney’s specimens, the valves
are not flat, and the cotyledons are decidedly conduplicate. In
describing the cotyledons of his plant as accumbent, M. De Candolle
has probably relied on the external characters of the seed, chiefly on
its great compression, its broad margin or wing, and on the whole of
the radicle being visible through the integuments. It would appear,
therefore, that the true character of the cotyledons of Savignya has
been overlooked, chiefly from its existing in the greatest possible
degree. To include this degree of folding, in which the margins are
closely approximated, and the radicle consequently entirely exposed,
a definition of conduplicate cotyledons somewhat different from that
proposed in the “Systema Naturale” becomes necessary. I may here
also observe, that the terms Pleurorhizæ and Notorhizæ, employed
by M. De Candolle, to express the two principal modifications of
cotyledons in Cruciferæ, appear to me so far objectionable, as they
may seem to imply that in the embryo of this family, the position
of the radicle is variable, and that of the cotyledons fixed. It is
at least deserving of notice, that the reverse of this is the fact;
though it is certainly not necessary to change these terms, which
are now generally received.
On the subject of Savignya, two questions naturally present
themselves. In the first place: Is this genus, solely on account of
its conduplicate cotyledons, to be removed from Alyssineæ, where
it has hitherto been placed, to Velleæ, its affinity with which
has never been suspected, and to whose genera it bears very little
external resemblance? Secondly: In dividing Cruciferæ into natural
sections, are we, with M. De Candolle, to expect in each of these
subdivisions an absolute uniformity in the state of the cotyledons? As
far as relates to the accumbent and flatly incumbent states, at
least, I have no hesitation in answering the latter question in
the negative; and I believe that in one case, namely Hutchinsia,
these modifications are not even of generic importance; for it will
hardly be proposed to separate H. alpina from petræa, solely on that
ground. I carried this opinion farther than I am at present disposed
to do, in the second edition of Mr. Aiton’s Hortus Kewensis, where
I united in the genus Cakile plants which I then knew to differ from
each other, in having accumbent and conduplicate cotyledons; and I
included Capsella bursa pastoris in the genus Thlaspi, although I was
aware, both from my own observations, and from Schkuhr’s excellent
figure[89], that its cotyledons were incumbent. I am at present,
however, inclined to adopt the subdivision of both these genera,
as proposed by several authors, and received by M. De Candolle;
but to this subdivision the author of the Systema Naturale must
have been determined on other grounds than those referred to; for
in these four genera, in which the three principal modifications of
cotyledons occur, he has taken their uniformity for granted.
As to the place of Savignya in the natural family, I believe, on
considering the whole of its structure and habit, that it ought
to be removed from Alyssineæ to a subdivision of the order that
may be called _Brassiceæ_, but which is much more extensive than
the tribe so named by M. De Candolle; including all the genera at
present known with conduplicate cotyledons, as well as some others,
in which these parts are differently modified.
There are two points in the structure of Savignya, that deserve
particular notice. I have described the æstivation of the calyx as
valvular; a mode not before remarked in this family, though existing
also in Ricotia. In the latter genus, however, the apices of the
sepals are perhaps slightly imbricate, which I cannot perceive them
to be in Savignya.
The radicle is described by M. De Candolle as superior, with relation
to the cotyledons. I am not sure that this is the best manner of
expressing the fact of its being horizontal, or exactly centrifugal,
the cotyledons having the same direction. This position of the seed
is acquired only after fecundation; for at an earlier period the
foramen of the testa, the point infallibly indicating the place of
the future radicle, is ascendant. From the horizontal position of
the radicle in this and some other genera, especially Farsetia, we
may readily pass to its direction in Biscutella, where I have termed
it descendant; a character which I introduced to distinguish that
genus from Cremolobus. But in Biscutella the embryo, with reference
to its usual direction in the family, is not really inverted, the
radicle being still placed above the umbilicus. On the contrary,
in _Cremolobeæ_, a natural tribe belonging to South America,
and consisting of Cremolobus and Menonvillea, though the embryo at
first sight seems to agree in direction with the order generally,
both radicle and cotyledons being ascendant, it is, in the same sense,
not only inverted, but the seed must also be considered as resupinate:
for the radicle is seated below the umbilicus, and also occupies the
inner side of the seed, or that next the placenta,—peculiarities
which, taken together, constitute the character of the tribe here
proposed. It appears to me singular that M. De Candolle, while
he describes the embryo of these two genera as having the usual
structure of the order, should consider that of Iberis, in which I
can find no peculiarity, as deviating from that structure[90].
LUNARIA LIBYCA of Viviani[91] is the second plant of Cruciferæ, on
which I have some observations to offer. This species was described
and figured, by the author here quoted, in 1824, from specimens
collected in 1817 by Della Cella. The specimens in the herbarium were
found near Tripoli, where the plant had also been observed in 1819 by
Mr. Ritchie, who referred it to Lunaria, and remarked that the calyx
was persistent. Professor Sprengel, in his Systema Vegetabilium,
considers it a species of Farsetia.
That this plant ought not to be associated either with the
original species of Lunaria, or with Savignya, as now constituted,
is sufficiently evident. And if it is to be included in Farsetia,
it can only be on the grounds of its having a sessile silicule, with
compressed valves, an indefinite number of seeds in each cell, and
accumbent cotyledons. But in these respects it accords equally with
Meniocus, a genus proposed by M. Desvaux, and with some hesitation
received by M. De Candolle, and with Schivereckia of Andrzejowski,
which he has also adopted. It does not, however, agree with either
of those genera in habit, and it is easily distinguished from both
by its simple filaments and other characters, which I shall notice
hereafter. Is this plant, then, sui generis? ought it to be united
with Alyssum, the character of that genus being modified to receive
it? or does not Alyssum require subdivision, and may not our plant
be referred to one of the genera so formed? A brief result of the
examination of these questions, so far as they are connected with the
subject under consideration, will be found annexed to the character
which is given of the genus formed by the union of Lunaria libyca
with Alyssum maritimum, a plant also in the collection, from the
neighbourhood of Tripoli.
_Alyssum maritimum_, which is described both as an Alyssum and as
a Clypeola by Linnæus, is the _Konig_ of Adanson, who founded his
generic distinction on the monospermous cells and supposed want of
glands of the receptacle; and M. Desvaux, admitting Adanson’s genus,
has named it Lobularia. In the second edition of Hortus Kewensis I
included this plant in Alyssum, which M. De Candolle has also done
in his great work.
For the genus here proposed I shall adopt Adanson’s name, altering
only the termination, and wishing it to be considered as commemorating
the important services rendered to botany by my friend Mr. Konig,
of the British Museum[92]. In comparing these two species of Koniga,
their agreement is very striking in habit, in leaves, in the closely
pressed bipartite pubescence, in the calyx, petals, stamina, and
stigma. They correspond also in some other points, less obvious
but equally important, which I shall separately notice. The first
of these is in having eight glands on the receptacle; a character
peculiar, I believe, to these plants, and which first suggested
the generic name Octadenia. The glands in Alyssum maritimum were
entirely overlooked by Adanson, are not noticed by M. Desvaux,
and M. De Candolle has described only the four that subtend the
longer stamina. These certainly are much more conspicuous than the
remaining four, which, however, occupy the place of the only glands
existing in several of the most nearly related genera.
The number and position of the glands in this genus give some support,
perhaps, to the hypothesis which I have formerly advanced, of the
divisions of an hypogynous disk being in most cases formed of abortive
filaments; an opinion more strikingly confirmed, however, in this
family of plants, by their form and texture in Alyssum calycinum,
and minimum.
The second point in which the two species of Koniga agree is in the
structure of the septum. On this, which I consider as a new source
of character in Cruciferæ, I shall offer some remarks in speaking
of Farsetia.
The third point of agreement is the adhesion of the funiculi
umbilicales to the septum. This adhesion, though really existing,
is not very obvious in the monospermous cells of Koniga maritima;
but in the supposed variety of this species from Teneriffe, in which
the cells are occasionally dispermous, it is manifest, and is very
remarkable in all states of Koniga libyca.
I first introduced this adhesion of the funiculi to the septum, as
a generic character, in distinguishing Petrocallis from Draba. It
has since been advantageously employed in the character of Lunaria
by M. de Candolle, who, however, supposes this structure of much
rarer occurrence in Cruciferæ than it really is. According to
my observations, it is neither unfrequent, nor always of generic
importance. Thus, I find it to exist in some species only of Arabis,
namely A. Turrita, pendula, and canadensis, and hence I did not
introduce it into my generic character of Parrya, though I have
noticed it in my description of the species.
The principal difference existing between these two species of Koniga
is that the cells of the ovarium and silicula of _K. maritima_
are monospermous, while those of _libyca_ are polyspermous, the
number being variable, apparently indefinite, but not exceeding
six. There are, however, other instances in this family, in which
the mere difference between definite and indefinite number of seeds
is of specific importance only, as in Draba and Meniocus, in each
of which a species exists with dispermous cells; and the objection
arising from the apparently still greater difference between unity
and indefinite number in the two species of Koniga is removed by a
supposed third species or variety of K. maritima, in which two seeds
are occasionally produced in each cell. It may even be observed,
that from unity to the indefinite number in this case, where the
ovula in the different cells are alternate, the transition is perhaps
more easy than from the binary to the indefinite, in cases where,
as in Alyssum properly so called, the ovula are placed opposite in
the different cells, and are in the same cell equidistant from its
apex; this symmetry, probably, admitting of addition only by fours.
The next genus of Cruciferæ to be noticed is FARSETIA, a fragment of
the original species of which is in the collection. There are also
several specimens of a plant, found in the desert, supposed to be
new, and which, though without flowers, and considerably different
in the form of its stigma, I am inclined, from the resemblance in
habit, in pubescence, in silicula, in seeds, and especially from
the exact similarity in the structure of the septum, to refer to
the same genus[93].
As the introduction of the structure of the dissepiment into the
generic characters of Cruciferæ is now proposed for the first time,
and as I believe that its texture and appearance should always
be attended to in constituting genera in this family of plants,
I shall here offer a few remarks respecting it.
According to the particular view which I briefly but distinctly
published in 1818, and which M. de Candolle first adopted in
1821, of the composition of the pistillum in Cruciferæ[94], the
dissepiment in this family is necessarily formed of two lamellæ,
derived from the parietes of the fruit. These lamellæ are in many
cases easily separable, and where their union is more intimate,
their existence is still evident from the want of correspondence,
and consequent decussation, of their areolæ. The lamellæ, which
are usually very thin and transparent, have their surface divided
into areolæ, in different genera of very different forms, some of
which may, with sufficient clearness, be described. In many cases no
other appearance exists; in some, however, the axis of the septum
resembles either a single nerve, or two distinct parallel nerves;
and from this axis, whether formed of one or two nerves, tubes
having the appearance and ramification of the veins of a leaf,
and which generally terminate within the margin, not unfrequently
proceed. This is remarkably the case in Farsetia, as I here propose
to limit that genus; the central vessels in both its species being
closely approximated, so as to form a single cord, extending from
the apex to the base of the septum, and the veins being numerous
and uncommonly distinct. Approaches more or less manifest to this
structure of Farsetia exist in several other genera, as in Parrya,
Savignya, and Koniga. But in this last mentioned genus the nerve,
which originates, as in all cases, at the apex, hardly extends,
even in the polyspermous species, beyond the middle of the septum,
and the veins, which are much less distinct, are descendent.
As far as my observations on this subject at present extend,
I expect, with great confidence, uniformity in the structure of
the septum of strictly natural genera, and in many cases, though
certainly not in all, I have found a resemblance in this respect
in more extensive groups. Thus Draba, Arabis, and Aubrietia, agree
in having amorphous areolæ, bounded by flexuose tubes or lines;
while Alyssum, Berteroa, and Fibigia, have narrow linear areolæ,
bounded by parallel or slightly arched lines. Capsella bursa differs
from Thlaspi and Æthionema, as Draba from Alyssum, and agrees with
Lepidium procumbens, _Linn._ improperly referred to Hutchinsia,
and which equally has incumbent cotyledons. Cochlearia differs in
like manner from Kernera. And numerous other examples of the same
agreement in nearly related plants, and of differences where the
usual sources of distinction are less available, might be noticed.
HESPERIS NITENS of Viviani is sparingly in the herbarium, both
in flower and fruit. The seeds, though not ripe, are sufficiently
advanced to show that the direction of the cotyledons is in this
stage accumbent; and, as I have found in Cruciferæ generally that
the ultimate agrees with the early state of cotyledons, I conclude
they are likewise accumbent in the ripe seed. The plant is also
abundantly different from Hesperis in other respects, and does
not appear to be referrible to any genus yet published. This new
genus[95] I have dedicated to the memory of Dr. Oudney, who found the
present species in many of the wadeys between Tripoli and Mourzuk,
and remarks that camels and mules eat it.
HESPERIS RAMOSISSIMA, which is also in the herbarium, was found in
Fezzan. This plant differs in aspect from most of the other species
of Hesperis, approaching in some points to Malcomia, in others to
Mathiola; and as its cotyledons are very obliquely incumbent, it
may form a section or subgenus, with a name, Hesperis (Plagiloba)
ramosissima, indicating that character.
CAPPARIDEÆ, of which eight species occur in the collection, is the
family next to be noticed. I consider this order as belonging to
the same natural class with Cruciferæ; and that this class includes
also Resedaceæ, Papaveraceæ, and Fumariaceæ.
M. de Candolle, in defining Capparideæ, appears to regard the ovarium
as having in all cases only two placentæ, and therefore formed of two
pistilla or carpella. But to this, which is certainly the more usual
number, there are many exceptions. These exceptions occur chiefly in
the genus Capparis, which, as it is at present constituted, includes
species differing from each other in having an ovarium with from two
to eight placentæ, and, consequently, composed of an equal number
of pistilla. Capparis spinosa is the most decided instance of the
increased number of placentæ, and this, as well as some other nearly
related species, are also remarkable in having septa subdividing
the placentæ, and uniting in the centre of the compound ovarium.
In the herbarium there are three species of the genus Cleome. Two
of these, C. pentaphylla and arabica, are in many respects well
known plants; the third I believe to be an undescribed species,
but nearly related to monophylla.
If the very natural group, formed by the Linnæan genus Cleome, is
not to be preserved entire, its subdivision must be carried much
farther, and established on other grounds, than has been done by
M. de Candolle, whose genera and sections appear to me to have been
equally founded on partial considerations. Thus, his _Polanisia_,
uniting all the Cleomes whose stamina exceed six, contains in its
first section, in addition to the species from which the genus was
formed, at least two sets of plants, having very little affinity
either with each other, or with the original species, whose only
congener is placed in a second section.
_Gynandropsis_ also consists of two groups not very intimately
connected: the first is composed of species belonging to South
America, and having the usual æstivation of the family: the
second, of which _C. pentaphylla_ may be taken as the type, is
chiefly African, and is readily distinguished by its very different
æstivation,—the great peculiarity of which consists in the petals
not covering the stamina at any period. To this mode of æstivation of
petals, which has never before been noticed, though it equally exists
in Crateva and in Resedaceæ, I shall apply the term _aperta_. It is
constantly conjoined, and, perhaps, necessarily connected with the
early opening of the calyx, whose segments are originally connivent
and slightly imbricate: for it may here be remarked, that in all the
modifications of what I have termed imbricate æstivation of petals,
they are, I believe, in the very early stage in like manner erect,
and the sexual organs equally exposed.
If the expediency of preserving the genus Cleome entire were
admitted, a question which I do not pretend at present to decide,
it would still be of the greatest importance to arrange its numerous
species according to their affinities, and carefully to distinguish
the subordinate groups that compose it. To such inferior groups,
whether termed subgenera or sections, names, in fact, have been of
late years very generally assigned, both by zoologists and botanists.
It has not yet been proposed, however, that these subgeneric names
should form an essential part of the name of the species; although,
by employing them in this manner, while the principal groups would be
kept in view, their subdivision would be carried to the same extent,
and the subordinate groups as well expressed as if they had been
actually separated into distinct genera.
The adoption of this method, which would not materially disturb names
already existing, would probably lead to a greater consistency in
the formation of genera, with reference to the natural orders of
which they are subdivisions. In this way also the co-operation of
two classes of naturalists, at present opposed to each other on the
question of the construction of genera, might to a certain extent be
expected, and greater uniformity in nomenclature consequently secured.
These advantages appear to me so important, that some expedient
for obtaining them will, I am persuaded, at no distant period,
be generally adopted.
In favour of the present plan it may be remarked, that it is analogous
to the method followed by the Romans in the construction of the
names of persons, by which not only the original family, but the
particular branch of that family to which the individual belonged
was expressed. Thus the generic name corresponds with the nomen
(Cornelius), the name of the section with the cognomen (Scipio),
and that of the species with the prænomen (Publius).
Without attempting at present to obviate the objections to which the
proposed innovation is no doubt liable, I shall proceed to apply it
to Cleome pentaphylla. According to my view the genus Cleome would
include Gynandropsis, a name which, as that of a section, may be
continued to those species of M. de Candolle’s genus belonging to
equinoctial America, and having the common æstivation of the family:
while _Gymnogonia_, derived from its remarkable æstivation, may be
employed for the section that includes C. pentaphylla, of which the
name might be given in the following manner:—
CLEOME (GYMNOGONIA) PENTAPHYLLA. This plant, the earliest
known species of Cleome, and that on which the genus was chiefly
constituted, was found in Bornou. The species is regarded by M. de
Candolle as a native of the West India islands, and he doubts whether
it may not also belong to Egypt and India. On the other hand I
consider it a native of Africa and India, and am not satisfied with
the evidence of its being also indigenous to the American islands,
where, though now very common, it has probably been introduced by
the negroes, who use it both as a potherb and in medicine. It is not
unlikely that M. de Candolle, in forming his opinion of the original
country of this plant, has been in part determined by finding several
species of his Gynandropsis decidedly and exclusively natives of
the new continent. But if I am correct in separating these species
from the section to which Cleome (Gymnogonia) pentaphylla belongs,
this argument, which I have formerly applied to analogous cases[96],
would be clearly in favour of the opinion I have here advanced; those
species of the section with which I am acquainted being undoubtedly
natives of Africa or of India.
CLEOME (SILIQUARIA) ARABICA, (_Linn. sp. pl. ed._ 2. _p._
939. _De. Cand. prodr._ 1. _p._ 240), a supposed variety of which was
found both in the neighbourhood of Tripoli and in Soudan, belongs
to another subdivision of the genus, equally natural, and readily
distinguishable. The species of this subdivision are included in M. De
Candolle’s second section of Cleome, but are there associated with
many other plants, to which they have very little affinity.
All the species of _Cleome Siliquaria_ are indigenous to North
Africa and Middle Asia, except _violacea_, which is a native of
Portugal. _Cleome deflexa_ of M. De Candolle (_prodr._ 1. _p._ 240.),
founded on specimens in Mr. Lambert’s herbarium, which were sent by
Don Joseph Pavon as belonging to Peru, seems to present a remarkable
exception to this geographical distribution of the section. But on
examining these specimens I find them absolutely identical with some
states of _violacea_. I think it probable, therefore, either that
they are erroneously stated to have come from Peru, or that this
species may have been there introduced from European seeds.
CADABA FARINOSA (_Forsk. Arab. p._ 68. _De Cand. prodr._ 1. _p._
244) is in the herbarium from Bornou. The specimen is pentandrous,
and in other respects agrees with all those which I have seen from
Senegal, and with Strœmia farinosa of my catalogue of Abyssinian
plants, collected by Mr. Salt, and published in his travels. M. De
Candolle, who had an opportunity of examining this Abyssinian plant,
refers it to his _C. dubia_, a species established on specimens
found in Senegal, and said to differ from _farinosa_, slightly in
the form of the leaves, and in being tetrandrous. Of the plant from
Abyssinia I have seen only two expanded flowers, one of which is
decidedly pentandrous, the other apparently tetrandrous. Mr. Salt,
however, from an examination of recent specimens, states it to be
pentandrous. It is probably, therefore, not different from C. farinosa
of Forskal, whose specimens M. De Candolle has not seen. And as
the form of leaves is variable in the specimens from Senegal, and
not elliptical, but between oval and oblong, in those of Abyssinia,
C. dubia is probably identical with, or a variety merely of farinosa,
as M. De Candolle himself seems to suspect.
CRATEVA ADANSONII (_De Cand. prodr._ 1. _p._ 243) is in the
collection from Bornou. This species is established by M. De
Candolle upon a specimen in M. de Jussieu’s herbarium, found in
Senegal by Adanson, and is supposed to differ from all the other
species in having its foliola equal at the base. I have examined
the specimen in M. de Jussieu’s herbarium, in which, however,
the leaves not being fully developed, I was unable to satisfy myself
respecting their form. But in a specimen, also from Senegal, which
I received from M. Desfontaines, the lateral foliola, though having
manifestly unequal sides, are but slightly unequal at the base,
and the inequality consists in a somewhat greater decurrence of the
lamina on the anterior or inner margin of the footstalk. As well as
can be determined, in very young leaves, this is also the case in
the specimen from Bornou; and it is manifestly so in my specimen of
_C. læta_, which appears to belong to the same species.
_Crateva læta_ was founded by M. De Candolle on a plant from Senegal,
communicated by M. Gay, from whom I also received a specimen in 1824,
with the remark, that it was not different from C. Adansonii. In
that specimen the flowers are male with an imperfect pistillum;
in the plant from Bornou they are hermaphrodite, with elongated
filaments; and in the specimen received from M. Desfontaines they
are also hermaphrodite, but the stamina, though apparently perfect,
are fewer in number and shorter than the stipes of the ovarium. I have
observed, however, the flowers to be in like manner polygamous in some
other species of Crateva, belonging both to India and America, a fact
which materially lessens the dependence to be placed on characters
taken from the number and length of the stamina in this genus.
Crateva Adansonii, it would appear, then, is the only known species
of the African continent, for C. fragrans does not belong to the
genus. And it will be difficult to distinguish this African Crateva
from a plant which seems to be the most general species of India;
except that in the latter, as in all the other species of the genus,
the inequality of the lateral foliola, which is also more marked,
consists in the greater decurrence of the lamina being on the
outer or posterior margin of the footstalk. This Indian species,
which may be named _C. Roxburghii_, is the Capparis trifoliata of
Dr. Roxburgh’s manuscripts, but not Niirvala of Hortus Malabaricus
(_vol._ 3. _p._ 49. _t._ 42), as he considers it. I have little
doubt of its being also the plant described as C. Tapia, by Vahl,
(_symb._ 3. _p._ 61.) his specific character well according with
it, and not applying, as far as relates to the petals, to any known
species of America. But as this character is adopted by Sir James
Smith (_in Rees’s Cyclop._), it may likewise be C. Tapia of the
Linnæan herbarium; a conjecture the more probable as Linnæus has
distinguished his Tapia by its ovate petals from gynandra, in which
they are said to be lanceolate (_Sp. pl. ed._ 2. _p._ 637). This
celebrated herbarium, however, is here of no authority, for Linnæus
was never in possession of sufficient materials to enable him to
understand either the structure and limits of the genus Crateva, or
the distinctions of its species; and the specific name in question,
under which he originally included all the species of the genus,
ought surely to be applied to an American plant, at least, and if
possible to that of Piso, with whom it originated. It is hardly to
be supposed that the plant intended by Piso can now with certainty
be determined; the only species from Brazil, however, with which I am
acquainted, well accords with his figure and short description. This
Brazilian species is readily distinguishable both from C. Adansonii
and Roxburghii, by the form of its petals, which, as in all the
other American species, are narrow-oblong or lanceolate; and from
C. gynandra by the shortness of its stipes genitalium, or torus.
Crateva Tapia so constituted, is, on the authority of a fragment
communicated by Professor Schrader, the _Cleome arborea_ of that
author, (_in Gœtt. Anzeig._ 1821, _p._ 707. _De Cand. Prodr._ 1. _p._
242.); nor is there any thing in the character of _C. acuminata_
of De Candolle (_Prodr._ 1. _p._ 243) which does not well apply to
our plant.
_C. Tapia_, as given by M. De Candolle (_op. cit._), is characterized
chiefly on the authority of Plumier’s figure, in the accuracy of
which, either as to the number or length of stamina, it is difficult
to believe, especially when we find it also representing the petals
inserted by pairs on the two upper sinuses of the calyx.
The genus Crateva agrees, as I have already stated, in the remarkable
æstivation of its flower with Cleome Gymnogonia, by which character,
along with that of its fruit, it is readily distinguished from every
other genus of the order. Although this character of its æstivation
has never before been remarked, yet all the species, referred to
Crateva by M. De Candolle, really belong to it, except _C. fragrans_,
which, with some other plants from the same continent, forms a very
distinct genus, that I shall name RITCHIEA, in memory of the African
traveller, whose botanical merits have been already noticed.
CAPPARIS SODADA _nob._ Sodada decidua, _Forsk. Arab. p._ 81. _Delile,
Flore d’Egypte, p._ 74. _tab._ 26. _De Cand. Prodr._ 1. _p._ 245.
The specimen in the herbarium is marked by Dr. Oudney as belonging to
a tree common on the boundaries of Bornou. It is probably the _Suag_,
mentioned in his journal, observed first at Aghedem, and said to
be “a tetrandrous plant having a small drupa, which is in great
request in Bornou and Soudan, for removing sterility in females:
it is sweetish and hot to the taste, approaching to Sisymbrium
Nasturtium;” and that “in passing the plant a heavy narcotic
smell is always perceived.”
I have here united Sodada with Capparis, not being able to find
differences sufficient to authorise its separation even from the
first section of that genus, as given by De Candolle.
Forskal describes his plant as octandrous, and M. De Candolle has
adopted this number in his generic character. M. Delile (_op. cit._),
however, admits that the stamina vary from eight to fifteen; and,
in the specimen which I received from M. Jomard, I have found from
fourteen to sixteen. But were the number of stamina even constantly
eight, this alone would not justify its separation from Capparis,
several octandrous species of which, belonging to the same section,
are already known.
Another species of Capparis, also from Bornou, exists in the
herbarium. It appears to be undescribed, and to belong to M. De
Candolle’s first section of the genus; but the specimen is too
imperfect to be satisfactorily determined.
Both these species have aculei stipulares, and it may here be remarked
that all the plants belonging either to Capparis, or to any of the
genera of the order whose fruit is a berry, in which these aculei
are found, are indigenous either to Asia, Africa, or Europe; while
all the aculeated Cleomes, with the exception of perhaps a single
African species, are natives of equinoxial America.
MÆRUA RIGIDA. This plant, of which flowering specimens were collected
at Aghedem, certainly belongs to Forskal’s genus Mærua, adopted
by Vahl and De Candolle; and I believe it to be a species distinct
from the three already published. It is very nearly related, however,
to a fourth species (M. Senegalensis _nob._), of which I received a
specimen from M. Desfontaines. M. De Candolle has placed the genus
Mærua at the end of Capparideæ, between which and Passifloreæ he
considers it intermediate. This view of its relation to these two
orders I cannot adopt. To me it appears truly a Capparidea, having
very little affinity with Passifloreæ, to which it seems to approach
in one point only, namely, the corona of the calyx. But of a similar
corona rudiments exist in several other African Capparideæ, and from
some of these the genus Mærua is with difficulty distinguished[97].
RESEDACEÆ. The herbarium contains two species of Reseda. The
specimens of one of these are too imperfect to be determined. The
other is probably undescribed, though very nearly related to
R. suffruticulosa, and undata of Linnæus. This supposed new
species (_Reseda propinqua_) was found near Tripoli by Mr. Ritchie,
and between Tripoli and Mourzuk by Dr. Oudney. It is remarkable in
having the ungues of all the petals simple; that is, neither dilated,
thickened, nor having any process or appendage at the point of union
with the trifid lamina, into which they gradually pass. We have
here therefore a species of Reseda with petals not different in any
respect from those of many other families of plants; and, although
this is an exception to their usual structure in the genus, I shall
endeavour to show that all the deviations existing, however complex
in appearance, are reducible to this more simple state of the organ.
RESEDACEÆ, consisting of _Reseda_, divisible into sections or
subgenera, and _Ochradenus_, which may perhaps be regarded as
only one of these subdivisions, I consider very nearly related
to Capparideæ, and as forming part of the same natural class. It
differs, in the variable number of the parts of its floral envelopes,
from the other orders of the class, in which the quaternary or binary
division is without exception; and it is especially remarkable in
having the ovarium open even in its earliest state. From Cruciferæ
and Capparideæ, the two families of the class to which they most
nearly approach, Resedaceæ also differ in the apparent relation of
the stigmata to the placentæ. The stigmata in this order terminate
the lobes of the pistillum, and as these lobes are open sterile
portions of the modified leaves, from the union of which in the
undivided part I suppose the compound ovarium to originate, they
necessarily alternate with the placentæ. I have generally found,
however, the upper part of each placenta covered by a fleshy or
fungous process, which is connected with the margins of the lobes,
and therefore with the stigmata, and is probably essential to the
fecundation of the ovula. The singular apparent transposition of the
placentæ in Sesamoides of Tournefort, so well described by M. Tristan
in his ingenious Memoir on the Affinities of Reseda[98], appears to
me necessarily connected with the extreme shortness of the undivided
base of the ovarium; for in supposing this base to be elongated, the
placentæ would become parietal, and the ovula, which are actually
resupinate, would assume the direction usual in the order.
M. De Jussieu, in his _Genera Plantarum_, has included Reseda
in Capparideæ, and to this determination I believe he still
adheres. M. Tristan, in the memoir referred to, is inclined to
separate it as a family intermediate between Passifloreæ and
Cistineæ, but more nearly approaching to the latter. M. De Candolle,
who first distinguished Reseda as an order under the name here
adopted, in 1819[99] placed it between Polygaleæ and Droseraceæ,
and consequently at no great distance from Capparideæ. He must,
since, however, have materially altered his opinion respecting it;
for the order Resedaceæ is not included in the first or second
part of his Prodromus, and I can find no observation respecting it
in these two volumes. It is probable, therefore, that he may either
intend to place it near Passifloreæ, as suggested by M. Tristan,
or, which is more likely, that he has adopted the hypothesis lately
advanced, and ingeniously supported, by Mr. Lindley, respecting its
structure and affinities[100].
According to this hypothesis, in Reseda the calyx of authors is an
involucrum, its petals neutral flowers, and the disk or nectary
becomes the calyx of a fertile floret in the centre: and, as a
deduction from this view of its structure, the genus has been placed
near Euphorbiaceæ.
The points in the structure of Reseda, which appear to have led
Mr. Lindley to this hypothesis, are the presence and appearance of
the hypogynous disk, the anomalous structure of the petals, and the
singular æstivation of the flower; but it is no slight confirmation
of the correctness of M. de Jussieu’s opinion, that all these
anomalies occur in a greater or less degree in Capparideæ, and
have been found united in no other family of plants. The remarkable
æstivation of Reseda equally exists in Crateva, and in more than one
subdivision of the genus Cleome; the hypogynous disk is developed in
as great a degree in several Capparideæ; and an approximation to
the same kind of irregularity in the petals occurs in two sections
of Cleome.
The analogical argument alone then might, perhaps, be regarded
as conclusive against the hypothesis. But the question, as far as
relates to the petals, and consequently to the supposed composition
of the flower, may be decided still more satisfactorily on other
grounds. Both M.M. Tristan and Lindley regard the upper divided
membranaceous part of the petal as an appendage to the lower, which
is generally fleshy. On the other hand, I consider the anomaly to
consist in the thickening, dilatation, and inner process of the
lower portion, and that all these deviations from ordinary structure
are changes which take place after the original formation of the
petal. To establish these points, and consequently to prove that
the parts in question are simple petals, and neither made up of
two cohering envelopes, as M. Tristan supposes, nor of a calyx and
abortive stamina, according to M. Lindley’s hypothesis, I shall
describe their gradual development, as I have observed it in the
common Mignonette; a plant in which all the anomalies that have led
to this hypothesis exist in a very great degree.
The flower-bud of Reseda odorata, when it first becomes visible, has
the divisions of its calyx slightly imbricate and entirely enclosing
the other parts. In this stage the unguis of each of the two upper
petals is extremely short, not broader than the base of the lamina,
and is perfectly simple; there being no rudiment of the inner process
so remarkable in the fully expanded flower. The lamina at the same
period may be termed palmato-pinnatifid, its divisions are all in
the same plane, the terminating or middle segment is whitish or
opake, and several times longer than the lateral segments, which
are semitransparent.
Of the remaining four petals, the two middle are dimidiato-pinnatifid,
their lateral segments existing only on the upper side; and the two
lower are undivided, being reduced to the middle segment or simple
lamina. All the petals are erect, and do not cover the stamina in
the slightest degree, either in this or in any other stage. The disk
is hardly visible. The Antheræ are longer than their filaments,
of a pale-green colour; those on the upper or posterior side of the
flower being manifestly larger, and slightly tinged with brown. The
Pistillum is very minute and open at the top. In the next stage,
the calyx is no longer imbricate, but open: the petals have their
segments in nearly the same relative proportions; the interior margin
of the unguis is just visible; but the transition from unguis to
lamina is still imperceptible; the apex of the former not being
broader than the base of the latter. It is unnecessary to follow
the development through the more advanced stages of the flower, the
facts already stated being, in my opinion, absolutely conclusive as
to the real nature of the parts in question: and I may remark, that
similar observations on certain genera of Caryophylleæ, especially
Dianthus, Lychnis and Silene, clearly establish the analogy between
their petals and those of Reseda.
I am aware that it has lately been proposed to include _Datisca_
in Resedaceæ, to which it is nearly similar in the structure of
its ovarium, as M. de Jussieu has long since remarked. But this
is the only point of resemblance between them; for the calyx of
Datisca is certainly adherent, and in most of its other characters
it differs widely both from Reseda, and from every other genus yet
published. Among the numerous discoveries made by Dr. Horsfield
in Java, there is a genus, (TETRAMELES _nob._) however, manifestly
related to Datisca, and remarkable in the regular quaternary division
of every part of its diœcious flowers. These two genera form an
order very different from every other yet established, and which
may be named DATISCEÆ.
CARYOPHYLLEÆ. Five species only of this family were collected near
Tripoli, none of which are new.
Of ZYGOPHYLLEÆ, six species exist in Dr. Oudney’s herbarium,
namely, Tribulus terrestris, found in Bornou; Fagonia cretica, from
Tripoli to Benioleed; Fagonia arabica, at Aghedem; Fagonia Oudneyi
_nob._ with Zygophyllum simplex in Fezzan; and Zygophyllum album
every where in the desert.
This family, so distinct in habit from Diosmeæ or Rutaceæ, with
which it was formerly united, is not easily characterized by any
very obvious or constant peculiarities in its parts of fructification.
The distinguishing characters in its vegetation or habit are the
leaves being constantly opposite with lateral or intermediate
stipulæ, being generally compound, and always destitute of the
pellucid glands, which universally exist in true Diosmeæ, though
not in all Rutaceæ properly so called.
M. Adrien de Jussieu, in his late very excellent Memoir on the
great order or class Rutaceæ, in distinguishing Zygophylleæ from
the other subdivisions of that class in which he has included it,
depends chiefly on the endocarp, or inner lamina of the pericarp, not
separating from the outer lamina or united epicarp and sarcocarp, and
on the texture of the albumen. His first section of Zygophylleæ,
however, is characterised by the want of albumen; and in his
second section I find exceptions to the remaining character,
especially in Fagonia Mysorensis, in which the two laminæ of the
ripe capsule separate as completely as in Diosmeæ. Another plant,
in my opinion referrible to the same order, and which, in memory of a
very meritorious African traveller, I have named _Seetzenia africana_,
has in its ripe capsule the epicarp, or united epicarp and sarcocarp,
confined to the dorsal carina of each cell, the endocarp being the
only membrane existing on the sides, which are exposed long before the
bursting of the fruit. The plant in question has indeed many other
peculiarities, some of which may, perhaps, be considered sufficient
to authorise its separation from the order to which I have referred
it; for the æstivation of its calyx is valvular, it has no petals,
its five styles are distinct to the base, and the cells of its ovarium
appear to me to be monospermous. It completely retains, however, the
characters of vegetation on which I chiefly depend in distinguishing
Zygophylleæ; and I have no doubt of its being Zygophyllum lanatum of
Willdenow[101], by whom it is stated to be a native of Sierra Leone;
I suppose, however, on insufficient authority, for the specimens
in the Banksian Herbarium, from which I have made my observations,
were found in South Africa, near Olifant’s River, by Francis Masson.
In all the species of Fagonia, and in the two species of Zygophyllum
in Dr. Oudney’s collection, a character in the fructification still
remains, which is not found in Diosmeæ or Rutaceæ, and which, were
it general in Zygophylleæ, would satisfactorily distinguish this
order from all the families it has usually been compared with. This
character consists in the direction of the embryo with relation to the
insertion of the funiculus, its radicle being seated at the opposite
extremity of the seed, or to express, in the unimpregnated ovarium,
the infallible indication of this position, the direction of the inner
membrane and nucleus of the ovulum corresponds with that of its testa.
But this character, in general very uniform in natural families,
and which, equally existing in Cistineæ, so well defines the limits
of that order, as I have long since remarked[102], would seem to be
of less importance in Zygophylleæ.
M. Adrien de Jussieu, who, in his memoir already cited, admits
its existence in Fagonia, and in both our species of Zygophyllum,
considers it as an exception to the general structure of the
latter genus, in the definition of which he retains the character
of “radicula hilo proxima.” I believe, however, that in all
the species of Zygophyllum, except Fabago, which possesses, also,
other distinguishing characters, this opposition of the radicle to
the external hilum will be found; for in addition to the two species
contained in the herbarium, in both of which it is very manifest,
I have observed it in Z. coccineum, and in all the species of South
Africa that I have had an opportunity of examining. In some of these
species, indeed, it is much less obvious, partly from the greater
breadth of the funiculus, and also from its being closely applied,
or even slightly adhering, to the testa of the seed. But hence it
is possible to reconcile the structure of these species with that
of Fabago itself, in which the raphe seems to me to be external:
and if this be really the case, Fabago differs from those Zygophylla
of South Africa alluded to, merely in the more intimate union of the
funiculus with the surface of the testa. Whether this observation
might be extended to the other genera of the order, I have not yet
attempted to ascertain.
BALANITES ÆGYPTIACA, though not belonging to Zygophylleæ, may be
here mentioned. The specimen is from Bornou, but like all the other
plants of that country, has no particular place of growth indicated,
nor is there any observation respecting it. For a very full and
interesting history of this plant, I may refer to M. Delile’s
Flore d’Egypte (_p._ 77. _tab._ 28).
Of CISTINEÆ, three species were observed between Tripoli and Mourzuk.
The GERANIACEÆ of the collection consist of four species of
_Erodium_, all of which were found on the same journey.
Of MALVACEÆ, considered as a class, there are twelve species in
the herbarium. Only two of these are particularly deserving of
notice. The first, _Adansonia digitata_, found in Soudan, where the
tree is called Kouka, is described by Captain Clapperton; the second,
_Melhania Denhamii_, a new and remarkable species of the genus,
differing from all the others in having its bracteæ regularly
verticillated, and, at the same time, longer and much broader than
the divisions of the calyx.
A single species of VITIS is in the collection, from Bornou.
NEURADA PROSTRATA, generally referred to Rosaceæ, was found in
Wady Ghrurbi.
TAMARISCINEÆ. A species of Tamarix, apparently not different from
T. gallica, is the _Attil_, common in Fezzan, where, according to
Dr. Oudney, it is the only shady tree.
LORANTHEÆ. A species of Loranthus, parasitical on the Acacia
nilotica, was observed very commonly from Fezzan to Bornou.
LEGUMINOSÆ. Of this class the herbarium contains thirty-three
species, among which there are hardly more than two undescribed,
and these belonging to a well-established genus.
Of the order or tribe MIMOSEÆ only three species occur, namely,
Acacia nilotica, Mimosa Habbas, and _Inga biglobosa_, or a species
very nearly related to it. Of this last named plant, I judge merely
from ripe fruits adhering to the singular club-shaped receptacle,
or axis of the spike. The specimens were collected in Soudan, and
belong to a tree of considerable importance to the inhabitants of
that country, by whom it is called _Doura_. According to Captain
Clapperton, “The seeds are roasted as we roast coffee, then bruised,
and allowed to ferment in water; when they begin to become putrid,
they are well washed and pounded; the powder made into cakes, somewhat
in the fashion of our chocolate; they form an excellent sauce for all
kinds of food. The farinaceous matter surrounding the seeds is made
into a pleasant drink, and they also make it into a sweetmeat.”
The Doura of Captain Clapperton is probably not specifically
different from the Nitta mentioned by Park, in his First Journey;
nor from Inga biglobosa of the Flore d’Oware of M. de Beauvois,
according to whom it is the Nety of Senegal; and he also well remarks,
that Inga biglobosa, described by Jacquin as a native of Martinico,
has probably been introduced into that island by the Negroes, as he
himself found it to have been in St. Domingo.
Inga Senegalensis of M. De Candolle (_Prodr._ 2. p. 442) may also
belong to the same species.
It is possible, however, that some of the plants here mentioned,
though very nearly related to each other, and having all the same
remarkable club-shaped spike, may be specifically distinct; for
it appears from specimens collected at Sierra Leone by Professor
Afzelius, that two plants having this form of spike are known in
that colony; and two species, with similar inflorescence, probably
distinct from those of Africa, are described in the manuscript
Flora Indica of Dr. Roxburgh. All these plants possess characters
fully sufficient to distinguish them from Inga, to which they have
hitherto been referred. The new genus which they form, one of the most
striking and beautiful in equinoxial Africa, I have named PARKIA[103],
as a tribute of respect to the memory of the celebrated traveller,
by whom the fruit of this genus was observed in his first journey,
and who, among other services rendered to botany, ascertained that
the plant producing Gum Kino is a species of Pterocarpus[104]. I
have formerly endeavoured to distinguish Mimoseæ from Cæsalpineæ,
by the valvular æstivation of both its floral envelopes, and by
the hypogynous insertion of its stamina. Instances of perigynous
insertion of stamina have since been noticed by MM. Kunth and Auguste
de St. Hilaire; but no exception has been yet pointed out to the
valvular æstivation of their calyx and corolla. Parkia, however,
differs from other Mimoseæ not only in its æstivation, which
is imbricate, but in the very manifest irregularity of its calyx,
and in the inequality of its petals, which, though less obvious,
is still observable.
_Erythrophleum_, another genus indigenous to equinoxial Africa, which
I have elsewhere[105] had occasion to notice, and then referred to
Cæsalpineæ, more properly belongs to Mimoseæ, although its stamina
are perigynous. In this genus, both calyx and corolla are perfectly
regular, and their æstivation, if not strictly valvular, is at least
not manifestly imbricate, though the flower-buds are neither acute
nor angular. In Erythrophleum and Parkia, therefore, exceptions to
all the assumed characters of Mimoseæ are found, and there is some
approach in both genera to the habit of Cæsalpineæ. It is still
possible, however, to distinguish, and it will certainly be expedient
to preserve, these two tribes or orders. Abandoning divisions strictly
natural, and so extensive as the tribes in question, merely because
we may not be able to define them with precision, while it would
imply, what is far from being the case, that our analysis of their
structure is complete, would, at the same time, be fatal to many
natural families of plants at present admitted, and among others
to the universally received class to which these tribes belong. No
clear character, at least, is pointed out in the late elaborate work
of M. De Candolle[106], by which Leguminosæ may be distinguished
from Terebintaceæ and Rosaceæ, the orders supposed to be the most
nearly related to it. It is possible, however, that such characters,
though hitherto overlooked, may really exist; and I shall endeavour
to show that Leguminosæ, independent of the important but minute
differences in the original structure and developement of its ovulum,
may still be distinguished at least from Rosaceæ.
In the character of Polygaleæ, which I published in 1814[107],
I marked the relation of the parts of the floral envelopes to the
axis of the spike, or to the subtending bractea. I introduced this
circumstance chiefly to contrast Polygaleæ with Leguminosæ, and
to prove, as I conceived, that Securidaca, which had generally been
referred to the latter family, really belonged to the former.
M. de Jussieu, who soon after published a character of Polygaleæ,
entirely omitted this consideration, and continued to refer Securidaca
to Leguminosæ. M. De Candolle, however, in the first volume of his
Prodromus, has adopted both the character and limits of Polygaleæ,
which I had proposed, though apparently not altogether satisfied
with the description he himself has given of the divisions of the
calyx and corolla.
The disposition of the parts of the floral envelopes, with
reference to the axis of the spike, in Polygaleæ, namely, the
fifth segment of the calyx being posterior or superior and the
fifth petal anterior or inferior, is the usual relation in families
the division of whose flower is quinary. This relation is in some
cases inverted; one example of which I have formerly pointed out in
Lobeliaceæ[108], as I proposed to limit it, and a similar inversion
exists in Leguminosæ. But this class also deviates from the more
general arrangement of the parts of the flower with regard to each
other. That arrangement consists, as I have long since remarked[109],
in the regular alternation of the divisions of the proximate organs
of the complete flower. To this arrangement, indeed, many exceptions
are well known; and M. De Candolle has given a table of all the
possible deviations, but without stating how many of these have
actually been observed[110].
In Leguminosæ the deviation from the assumed regular arrangement
consists in the single pistillum being placed opposite to the lower
or anterior segment of the calyx.
In these two characters, namely, the relation of the calyx and corolla
both to the simple pistillum and to the axis of the spike or to the
bractea, Leguminosæ differ from Rosaceæ, in which the more usual
arrangements are found.
But in those Rosaceæ, in which the pistillum is solitary and placed
within the anterior petal, its relation to the axis of the spike is
the same as that of Leguminosæ, in which it is within the anterior
division of the calyx. And in all families, whether dicotyledonous
or monocotyledonous, this, I believe, is uniformly the position of
the simple solitary pistillum with regard to the spike or bractea.
The frequent reduction of Pistilla, in plants having the other
parts of the flower complete in number, must have been generally
remarked. But the order in which these abstractions of pistilla take
place, or the relations of the reduced series to the other parts
of the flower, have, as far as I know, never yet been particularly
attended to. It will probably appear singular, that the observation
of these relations in the reduced series of pistilla should have
suggested the opinion, that in a complete flower, whose parts are
definite, the number of stamina and also of pistilla is equal to that
of the divisions of the calyx and corolla united in Dicotyledones,
and of both series of the perianthium in Monocotyledones.
This assumed complete number of stamina is actually the prevailing
number in Monocotyledones; and though in Dicotyledones less frequent
than what may be termed the symmetrical number, or that in which all
the series are equal, is still found in decandrous and octandrous
genera, and in the greater part of Leguminosæ. The tendency to the
production of the complete number, where the symmetrical really
exists, is manifested in genera belonging or related to those
pentandrous families in which the stamina are opposite to the
divisions of the corolla, as by Samolus related to Primulaceæ,
and by Bæobotrys, having an analogous relation to Myrsineæ; for
in both these genera, five additional imperfect stamina are found
alternating with the fertile, and consequently occupying the place of
the only stamina existing in most pentandrous families. Indications
of this number may also be said to exist in the divisions of the
hypogynous disk of many pentandrous orders.
With respect to the Pistilla, the complete number is equally
rare in both the primary divisions of phænogamous plants. In
Monocotyledones, the symmetrical number is very general, while it
is much less frequent in Dicotyledones, in which there is commonly
a still farther reduction.
Where the number of Pistilla in Dicotyledones is reduced to two, in a
flower in which both calyx and corolla are present and their division
quinary, one of these pistilla is placed within a division of the
calyx, the other opposite to a petal or segment of the corolla. In
other words, the addition to the solitary pistillum, (which is
constantly anterior or exterior), is posterior or interior. This is
the general position of the component parts of a bilocular ovarium,
or an ovarium having two parietal placentæ; and in flowers whose
division is quinary, I can recollect no other exceptions to it,
than in some genera of Dilleniaceæ.
It is particularly deserving of notice, that the common position of
the cells of the bilocular pericarpium with relation to the axis of
the spike was well known to Cæsalpinus, who expressly distinguished
_Cruciferæ_ from all other bilocular families by their peculiarity
in this respect, the loculi in that family being placed right and
left, instead of being anterior and posterior[111].
On the subject of the position of the Pistilla in the other degrees
of reduction from the symmetrical number, I shall not at present
enter. But in reference to Leguminosæ, I may remark, that it
would be of importance to ascertain the position of the Pistilla
in the pentagynous Mimosea, stated to have been found in Brazil by
M. Auguste de St. Hilaire[112]. Are these Pistilla placed opposite
to the divisions of the calyx, as might probably be inferred from the
position of the solitary Legumen in this class? Or are we to expect to
find them opposite to the petals, which is the more usual relation,
and their actual place in Cnestis, though the single ovarium of
Connarus, a genus belonging to the same family, is seated within
the anterior division of the calyx?
In the very few Leguminosæ in which the division of the flower is
quaternary, namely, in certain species of Mimosa, the ovarium is
still placed within one of the divisions of the calyx.
As to _Moringa_, which was originally referred to this class from
a mistaken notion of its absolutely belonging to Guilandina, it
is surely sufficiently different from all Leguminosæ, not only
in its compound unilocular ovarium with three parietal placentæ,
but also in its simple unilocular antheræ; and it appears to me to
be an insulated genus, or family (_Moringeæ_), whose place in the
natural series has not yet been determined.
CÆSALPINEÆ. Of this tribe, four species only occur in the
collection. One of these is _Bauhinia rufescens_ of Lamarck
(_Illustr._ 329, f. 2.); another is _Cassia_ (_Senna_) _obovata_,
which, according to Dr. Oudney, grows wild in small quantities in
Wady Ghrurbi.
PAPILIONACEÆ. Twenty-six species of this tribe are contained in the
herbarium, none of which form new genera, and the only two species
that appear to be unpublished belong to Indigofera.
_Alhagi Maurorum_, or _Agoul_, is abundant in Fezzan, where it forms
excellent food for camels.
COMPOSITÆ. Of this class, thirty-six species exist in the
collection. The far greater part of these were found in the vicinity
of Tripoli and in the Desert. All of them appear to belong to
established genera, and very few species are undescribed.
RUBIACEÆ. The herbarium contains only six species of this family,
five of which, belonging to Spermacoce and Hedyotis, were found in
Bornou and Soudan; the sixth, a species of Galium, near Tripoli.
Of ASCLEPIADEÆ only three plants occur. One of these is a new species
of Oxystelma, exactly resembling in its flowers O. esculentum of
India, from which it differs in the form of its leaves, and in that
of its fruit[113]. A species of Dœmia was found in the Desert;
but the specimens are too imperfect to be ascertained.
Of _Apocineæ_, strictly so called, there is no plant whatever in
the collection; and of Gentianeæ, a single species only of Erythræa.
SESAMEÆ. An imperfect specimen of _Sesamum pterospermum_, of the
catalogue of Mr. Salt’s Abyssinian plants[114], is in the collection
from Bornou.
SAPOTEÆ. The only plant of this family in the herbarium is the
_Micadania_, or Butter Tree of Soudan, particularly noticed by
Captain Clapperton. The specimen, however, is very imperfect,
consisting of detached leaves, an incomplete fruit, and a single
ripe seed. On comparing these leaves with the specimen of Park’s
Shea Tree[115], in the Banksian Herbarium, I have little doubt
that they both belong to one and the same species. Whether this
plant is really a Bassia, is not equally certain; and the seed at
least agrees better with Vitellaria paradoxa of the younger Gærtner,
(_Carpol. tab._ 205.) than with that of Bassia, figured by his father,
(_de Fruct. et Sem. Pl. tab._ 104.)
That the woody shell in the nuts of all Sapoteæ is really formed
of the testa or outer membrane of the seed, as I have elsewhere
stated[116], and not of a portion of the substance of the pericarpium,
according to the late M. Richard and the younger Gærtner, is
proved not only by the aperture or micropyle being still visible on
its surface, as M. Turpin has already shown in one case, (_Ann. du
Mus. d’Hist. Nat._ 7, _tab._ 11, f. 3.); but also by the course and
termination of the raphe, as exhibited in the younger Gærtner’s
figures of Calvaria and Sideroxylum, (_Carpol. tabb._ 200, 201,
et 202.) and by the origin and ramification of the internal vessels.
SCROPHULARINÆ. Only six species of this family occur, none of which
are unpublished.
OROBANCHE COMPACTA of Viviani was observed between Fezzan and Bornou.
Of CONVOLVULACEÆ there are five species, four of which belong
to Bornou; the fifth is an aquatic Ipomœa, found creeping on the
borders of a small lake near Tintuma. Possibly this plant may be
Ipomœa aquatica of Forskal, and consequently Convolvulus repens
of Vahl, (_symb._ 1, p. 17.) It is not, however, the plant so
called by Linnæus, which proves, as I have elsewhere stated,
(_Prodr. Fl. Nov. Holl._ 1, p. 483.) to be Calystegia sepium;
nor does it belong to either of his synonymes. Our plant differs
also from Vahl’s description of his Convolvulus repens, in having
constantly single-flowered peduncles, and leaves whose posterior lobes
are rather acute than obtuse, and are quite entire. It is probably,
therefore, distinct; and I have named it Ipomœa Clappertoni[117].
Among the few _Labiatæ_, there is a species of Lavandula, possibly
distinct from but very nearly related to L. multifida. It was found
on the mountains of Tarhona.
Of BORAGINEÆ, the herbarium includes eleven species, the greater
part of which were collected near Tripoli, and all of them belong
to well established genera.
PRIMULACEÆ. Of this family two species of Anagallis occur in the
collection, and of these A. cærulea was observed both near Tripoli
and in Bornou.
SAMOLUS VALERANDI was also found near Tripoli, in Wady Sardalis in
Fezzan, and in Bornou.
Of Dicotyledonous, or even of all phænogamous plants, _S. valerandi_
is perhaps the most widely diffused. It is a very general plant
in Europe, has been found in several parts of North Africa, in
Dr. Oudney’s herbarium it is from Bornou, I have myself observed
it at the Cape of Good Hope and in New South Wales, and it is also
indigenous to North America.
The geographical distribution of the genus Samolus is equally
remarkable. At present eight species are known, of which S. Valerandi
is the only one indigenous to Europe, or which, indeed, has been found
in the northern hemisphere, except the nearly related _S. ebracteatus_
of Cuba. All the other species belong to the southern hemisphere,
where _S. Valerandi_ has also a very extensive range.
Of PLUMBAGINEÆ, there are three species of _Statice Taxanthema_;
for the latter name may be preserved as belonging to a section,
though hardly as that of a genus, so far at least as depends on
inflorescence, which in both subdivisions of Statice is essentially
similar; that of _Statice Armeria_ being only more condensed. Of
the three species in the herbarium, one appears to be unpublished.
Among the plants of the _Apetalous orders_ in the collection, there
are very few remarkable, and hardly any new species.
_Gymnocarpus decandrum_ was observed by Dr. Oudney very commonly in
gravelly deserts, on the route from Tripoli to Fezzan; and _Cornulaca
monacantha_ of M. Delile is said to be widely extended from Tripoli
to Bornou, and to be excellent food for camels.
MONOCOTYLEDONES. The number of species belonging to this primary
division contained in the herbarium is altogether seventy. But
Gramineæ and Cyperaceæ being excluded, thirteen only remain, namely,
three species of Juncus, a single Commelina, three Melanthaceæ,
three Asphodeleæ, one species of Iris, and two Aroideæ, of which
Pistia Stratiotes is one.
Of these thirteen plants, two appear to be unpublished, both of
them belonging to Melanthaceae. The first, a congener of Melanthium
punctatum, which is also in the collection, was found in Fezzan.
The second is a species of _Colchicum_, very different from any
hitherto described; and which yet, by Mr. Ritchie, who first observed
it, is said to be common in the desert near Tripoli, where it was
also found by Dr. Oudney.
This species, which I have named _Colchicum Ritchii_, is easily
distinguished from all its congeners by having two cristæ or
membranous processes which are generally fimbriated, at the base
of each segment of the perianthium, parallel to each other, and to
the intermediate filament. But this character, though excellent as a
specific difference, is neither of generic importance, nor sufficient
to authorise the formation of a separate section[118].
Bulbocodium and Merendera, however, which, following Mr. Ker[119],
I consider as belonging to Colchicum, appear to me decidedly to form
subgenera or sections; and in this opinion I am confirmed by having
found a fourth section of the same genus. This fourth subgenus is
established on HYPOXIS FASCICULARIS, a plant which has been seen by
very few botanists, and which Linnæus introduced into his Species
Plantarum, and referred to Hypoxis, solely on the authority of
the figure published in Dr. Russell’s History of Aleppo. In the
Banksian Herbarium I have examined part of the original specimen of
this species, found by Dr. Alexander Russell, and figured by Ehret
in the work referred to, as well as more perfect specimens collected
by Dr. Patrick Russell; and am satisfied that its ovarium is not
in any degree adherent to the tube of the perianthium. I find,
also, that Hypoxis fascicularis differs from Colchicum merely in
having a simple unilocular ovarium with a single parietal placenta
and an undivided style, instead of the compound trilocular ovarium
with distinct or partially united styles, common to all the other
sections of that genus.
A reduction, as in this case, to the solitary simple pistillum[120],
though existing in all Gramineæ and in certain genera of several
other families of Monocotyledones, is yet comparatively rare in that
primary division of phænogamous plants, and in the great class
Liliaceæ, the present species of Colchicum offers, I believe,
the only known example. Yet this remarkable character is here so
little influential, if I may so speak, that Hypoxis fascicularis
very closely resembles some states of Colchicum Ritchii, and in the
Banksian herbarium has actually been confounded with another species
of the first or trigynous section of the genus.
To the first section, which includes _Colchicum Ritchii_, the
subgeneric name _Hermodactylum_ may, perhaps, be applied; while that
established on Hypoxis fascicularis may be called _Monocaryum_.
The position of the pistillum in _Colchicum_ (_Monocaryum_)
_fasciculare_ is not easily determined. I believe it to be placed
within the anterior segment of the outer series of the perianthium,
but, from the great length of the tube, it is difficult to ascertain
such a point in dried specimens. This, however, is the position in
which I should expect it, both in reference to the usual relation
of the solitary simple pistillum to the axis of the spike, or to the
subtending bractea in all phænogamous plants; and also with regard
to the constant relation of the parts of the compound pistillum to
the divisions of the perianthium in Monocotyledones: for it is worthy
of remark, that a difference in this relation may be said to exist in
the two primary divisions of phænogamous plants—the pistilla when
distinct, or their component parts when united, being in Dicotyledones
usually placed opposite to the petals, when these are of equal number;
while in Monocotyledones the cells of the trilocular ovarium are,
I believe, uniformly opposite to the divisions of the outer series
of the perianthium.
CYPERACEÆ. Of twelve species of this family existing in the
herbarium, six are referrible to Cyperus, three to Fimbristylis,
and three to Scirpus. Among these there is no remarkable, nor, I
believe, any undescribed species. Of C. Papyrus, which, according
to Captain Clapperton, grows in the Shary, there is no specimen in
the collection.
GRAMINEÆ. Of this extensive family, with which Dr. Oudney was more
conversant than with any other, and to which, therefore, during the
expedition, he probably paid greater attention, the herbarium contains
forty-five species: and in dividing the order into two great tribes,
as I have formerly proposed[121], thirty of these species belong
to _Poaceæ_, and fifteen to _Paniceæ_. This relative proportion
of these two tribes is considerably different from what might have
been expected, in the climates in which the collection was formed:
it seems, however, to be connected with the nature of the surface,
for in the Great Desert the reduction of Paniceæ is still more
remarkable; this tribe being to Poaceæ, in that region, in the
proportion of only five to eighteen.
Dr. Oudney remarks with respect to the grasses of the desert, that
he observed no species with creeping roots; for a species of Arundo
related to Phragmites, which he notices as the only exception,
is not properly a desert plant.
Among the very few Gramineæ deserving particular notice, the first
is AVENA FORSKALII of Vahl. The specimens in the herbarium which
were collected in the desert of Tintuma in some respects differ
from all the others that I have seen of this variable species. In
the Banksian herbarium there is an authentic specimen from Forskal;
I have received from M. Delile specimens both of his _A. Forskalii_
and _arundinacea_, described and figured in his Flore d’Egypte;
and am also in possession of others in somewhat different states,
collected in Egypt by M. Nectoux and Dr. Sieber. From a comparison
of all these specimens, I am led to believe, that A. Forskalii and
arundinacea are not specifically distinct; and it is at least evident,
that _arundinacea_ more nearly approaches to the plant of Forskal
than that to which M. Delile has applied the name _Forskalii_.
This grass, which does not belong to Avena, is referrible
to Danthonia, from the structure of the outer valve of its
perianthium. But Danthonia requires subdivision into several sections,
of which, perhaps, our plant may be considered as forming one.
The character of the section established on _Danthonia Forskalii_
would chiefly consist in the very remarkable obliquity of the
joints of the locusta, which is, indeed, so great, that after
their separation each flower seems to have at the base an almost
vertically descendent spur; and as the inferior extremity of the
upper joint is produced beyond the lower, a short calcar actually
exists before separation, and this calcar is equally manifest in the
terminal rudiment of the locusta. The present, therefore, is a case
of more remarkably oblique articulation in grasses than even that
existing in _Holcus acicularis_ (Andropogon acicularis, _Retz_) which
led to the formation of _Centrophorum_; a genus still admitted by
Professor Sprengel[122], and respecting the structure of which a very
singular explanation has been lately offered by M. Raspail[123]. In
one respect, the two cases differ. In _Danthonia_ (_Centropodia_)
_Forskalii_, the articulations being in the axis of the locusta or
spicula, each flower appears to have this spur-like process; while
in _Holcus_ (_Rhaphis_) _acicularis_, the joint being in the peduncle
or branch of the racemus, the spur is common to three locustæ.
Dr. Fischer, in whose herbarium the specimen was observed which
led to the formation of Centrophorum, will probably recollect the
communication made to him on the subject of that plant, of which
Dr. Trinius himself has since corrected the characters. He retains
it, however, as a distinct genus, for which he has adopted the name
Rhaphis, given to it by Loureiro, by whom it was originally proposed,
on other, but not more satisfactory grounds.
TRIRAPHIS PUMILIO is the second plant of this family to be noticed. It
is undescribed, and belongs to a genus of which the only two published
species were found in the intratropical part of New Holland[124]. In
several points of structure the African plant is very different
from _T. pungens_, the first of these species; in some respects
it approaches to _mollis_, the second species, especially in the
inequality of its setæ or aristæ, but it differs from both in habit,
and in having only one perfect flower in each locusta[125].
Of PENNISETUM DICHOTOMUM, (_Delile, Flore d’Egypte_, p. 15, tab. 8,
f. 1.), which, in several different states, is in the collection,
it is remarked by Dr. Oudney, that “it is a great annoyance to
man and beast, from the prickly calyx (involucrum);” and by Major
Denham, that from Aghedem to Woodie “it covered the surface of
the country, and annoyed the travellers to misery;” he observes,
also, that the seed is called _Kasheia_, and is eaten.
PANICUM TURGIDUM, (_Forsk. Arab._ p. 18; _Delile, Flore d’Egypte_,
p. 19, tab. 19, f. 2.), is also one of the most common grasses from
Tripoli to Bornou.
Of ACOTYLEDONES, the only plant in the collection is _Acrostichum
velleum_, found on the Tarhona mountains. Mr. Ritchie’s herbarium
contains, also, a single plant of the same family, namely _Grammitis
Ceterach_.
The foregoing observations have extended much beyond the limits
which the number and importance of the plants they relate to may
seem to require. I still regret, however, that I cannot add a few
remarks on such species as, although not in the herbarium, were
observed, either indigenous or cultivated, in the countries visited
by the mission, and for information respecting which I am indebted
to Major Denham and Captain Clapperton. But it being determined no
longer to delay the publication of the very interesting Narrative,
to which the observations already made will form an Appendix, I am
unable at present to enter on this part of my subject.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 87: _Floræ Libycæ Specim._ p. 35.]
[Footnote 88: _Syst. Vegetab._ 2. p. 871.]
[Footnote 89: _Handb. tab._ 180.]
[Footnote 90:
SAVIGNYA.
Savignya. _De Cand. Syst._ 2. p. 283. Lunariæ
sp. _Delile. Desvaux. Viviani._
CHAR. GEN. _Calyx_ basi æqualis; æstivatione valvata. _Silicula_
oblonga, septo conformi, valvis convexiusculis. _Semina_ biseriata
imbricata marginata. _Cotyledones_ conduplicatæ.
Herba _annua, glabra_ (_quandoque pube rara simplici_). Folia
_crassiuscula, inferiora obovata in petiolum attenuata grosse dentata,
media sæpe incisa, superiora linearia_. Racemi _oppositifolii,
ebracteati_. Flores _parvi erecti, petalis violaceis venis
saturatioribus_. Siliculæ _racemosæ, divaricatæ, inferiores
sæpius deflexæ_.
_Calyx_ erectus, æstivatione valvata, ipsis apicibus vix
imbricatis. _Petala_ unguiculata, laminis obovatis sub æstivatione
mutuo imbricatis. _Stamina_ distincta, edentula, singulum par
longiorum _glandula_ subquadrata extus stipatum; breviora, quantum
e speciminibus observare licuit, eglandulosa. _Ovarium_ brevissime
pedicellatum, ovulis adscendentibus nec horizontalibus. _Stylus_
brevis. _Stigma_ capitatum vix bilobum. _Silicula_ breviter
manifeste tamen stipitata, oblonga nunc oblongo-elliptica. _Valvulæ_
uninerviæ reticulato-venosæ. _Dissepimentum_ e lamellis duabus
separabilibus uninerviis venis anastomozantibus obsoletis: areolis
subtransversim angustato-linearibus, parietibus (tubulis) rectis
subparallelis. _Funiculi_ horizontales, dimidio inferiore septo
arcte adnato superiore libero.]
[Footnote 91: _Flor. Lib. Specim. p._ 34. _tab._ 16. _f._ 1.]
[Footnote 92:
KONIGA.
Konig. _Adans. fam._ 2. p. 420. Lobularia. _Desvaux in
Journ. de Botan. appl._ 3. p. 172. Alyssi sp. _Hort. Kew. ed._
2. vol. 4. p. 95. _De Cand. Syst. Nat._ 2. p. 318. Lunariæ
sp. _Viv. Libyc._ p. 34. Farsetiæ sp. _Spreng. Syst. Veg._ 2. p. 871.
CHAR. GEN. _Calyx_ patens. _Petala_ integerrima. _Glandulæ_
hypogynæ 8! _Filamenta_ omnia edentula. _Silicula_ subovata,
valvis planiusculis, loculis 1-polyspermis, funiculis basi septo
(venoso, nervo deliquescenti,) adnatis. _Semina_ (sæpissime)
marginata. _Cotyledones_ accumbentes.
Herbæ (_annuæ v. perennes_) _pube bipartita appressa
incanæ_. Folia _integerrima sublinearia_. Racemi _terminales,
nunc basi foliati_. Flores _albi_.
_Calyx_ basi subæqualis. _Petalorum_ laminæ dilatatæ. _Antheræ_
ovatæ. _Glandularum_ quatuor per paria filamenta longiora
lateraliter adstantes; reliquæ quatuor abbreviatæ geminatim
filamenta breviora stipantes. _Dissepimentum_, præter _areolas_
ultimas (laminæ duplicis) transversim lineares parietibus
(tubulis) rectis subparallelis, _venis_ crebre anastomozantibus a
_nervo_ descendenti e duobus arcte approximatis formato supra basin
evanescenti in monospermis obsoleto ortis descendentibus. _Funiculi_
in dispermis polyspermisque in diversis loculis alterni.
OBS. Koniga ad Alyssinearum tribum _De Cand._ pertinens, hinc Alysso
auctorum inde Farsetiæ accedit. Sed Alyssum, uti in Hort. Kew. et
De Cand. Syst. Nat. constitutum sit, certe divisionem eget.
ALYSSUM _nob._ facile distinguendum sequentibus notis. Silicula
subrotunda, disco convexo, limbo compresso, apice retuso, loculis
dispermis, funiculis basi septo adnatis et post lapsum seminum
persistentibus, supra liberis et cum iisdem deciduis, in diversis
loculis oppositis, in eodem a styli basi equidistantibus: Petalis
emarginatis: Filamentis omnibus nonnullisve appendiculatis in
speciebus omnibus præter A. calycinum in quo filamenta filiformia
simplicia sunt et glandularum loco setulæ quatuor filamenta nana
æmulantes exstant.
Ad Alyssum sic constitutum et herbas plerumque annuas pube stellari
foliisque integerrimis complectens pertinent A. campestre et calycinum
_Linn._ strigosum _Russell._ minimum _Willd._ et strictum _ejusd._
a quo densiflorum _Desfont._ vix differt; fulvescens _Smith_,
umbellatum _Desv._ rostratum _Stev._ micropetalum _Fisch._ hirsutum
_Bieb._ aliasque species ineditas.]
[Footnote 93:
FARSETIA.
Farsetia. _Turra Farsetia_, p. 5. Farsetiæ sp. _Hort. Kew._
ed. 2. vol. 4. p. 69. _De Cand. Syst._ 2. p. 286.
CHAR. GEN. _Calyx_ clausus, basi vix bisaccatus. _Filamenta_
omnia edentula. _Antheræ_ lineares. _Silicula_ ovalis v. oblonga,
sessilis, valvis planiusculis, loculis polyspermis (raro 1-2-spermis),
funiculis liberis. _Dissepimentum_ uninerve, venosum. _Semina_
marginata. _Cotyledones_ accumbentes.
Herbæ _suffruticosæ ramosæ, pube bipartita appressa incanæ_. Folia
_integerrima_. Racemi _subspicati_.
OBS. Dissepimentum in omnibus exemplaribus utriusque speciei a nobis
visis completum, sed in F. ægyptiaca quandoque basi fenestratum,
fide D. Desfontaines. (_Flor. Atlant._ 2. _tab._ 160.)
F. ægyptiaca species unica certa est, nam F. stylosa, cujus flores
ignoti, ob stigmatis lobos patentes non absque hæsitatione ad hoc
genus retuli.
FARSETIA? _stylosa_, ramosissima, siliculis oblongis polyspermis
passimque brevè ovalibus 1-2-spermis, stylo diametrum transversum
siliculæ subæquante, stigmatis lobis patentibus.
_Obs._ Exemplaria omnia foliis destituta, sed illorum cicatrices ni
fallor obviæ.]
[Footnote 94: In a work published in 1810, the following passage,
which has some relation to this subject, occurs. “Capsulas omnes
pluriloculares e totidem thecis conferruminatas esse, diversas
solum modis gradibusque variis cohæsionis et solubilitatis partium
judico.”—(_Prodr. Flor. Nov. Holl._ 1. p. 558.) This opinion,
however, respecting the formation of multilocular ovaria, might be
held, without necessarily leading to the theory in question of the
composition of the fruit in Cruciferæ, which I first distinctly
stated in an Essay on Compositæ, read before the Linnean Society in
February 1816, and printed in the 12th volume of their Transactions,
published in 1818. In this volume (p. 89), I observe that “I
consider the pistillum of all phænogamous plants to be formed on
the same plan, of which a polyspermous legumen, or folliculus, whose
seeds are disposed in a double series, may be taken as the type. A
circular series of these pistilla disposed round an imaginary axis,
and whose number corresponds with that of the calyx or corolla,
enters into my notion of a flower complete in all its parts. But
from this type, and number of pistilla, many deviations take place,
arising either from the abstraction of part of the complete series
of organs, from their confluence, or from both these causes united,
with consequent abortions and obliterations of parts in almost every
degree. According to this hypothesis, the ovarium of a syngenesious
plant is composed of two confluent ovaria, a structure in some degree
indicated externally by the division of the style, and internally by
the two cords (previously described), which I consider as occupying
the place of two parietal placentæ, each of these being made up
of two confluent chordulæ, belonging to different parts of the
compound organ.”
In endeavouring to support this hypothesis by referring to certain
natural families, in which degradations, as I have termed them,
are found, from the assumed perfect pistillum to a structure equally
simple with that of Compositæ, and after noticing those occurring
in Goodenoviæ, I add, “The natural order Cruciferæ exhibits also
obliterations more obviously analogous to those assumed as taking
place in syngenesious plants; namely, from a bilocular ovarium with
two polyspermous parietal placentæ, which is the usual structure
of the order, to that of Isatis, where a single ovulum is pendulous
from the apex of the unilocular ovarium; and, lastly, in the genus
Bocconia, in the original species of which (_B. frutescens_), the
insertion of the single erect ovulum has the same relation to its
parietal placentæ, as that of Compositæ has to its filiform cords,
a second species (_B. cordata_) exists, in which these placentæ
are polyspermous.”
From this quotation it is, I think, evident, that in 1818 I had
published, in my Essay on Compositæ, the same opinion, relative to
the structure of the pistillum of Cruciferæ, which has since been
proposed, but without reference to that essay, by M. de Candolle,
in the second volume of his “Systema Naturale;” and I am not
aware that when the essay referred to appeared, a similar opinion
had been advanced by M. de Candolle himself, or by any other
author; either directly stated of this family in particular, or
deducible from any general theory of the type or formation of the
pistillum. I am persuaded, however, that neither M. de Candolle,
when he published his Systema, nor M. Mirbel, who has very recently
adverted to this subject, could have been acquainted with the
passage above quoted. This, indeed, admits of a kind of proof; for
if they had been aware of the concluding part of the quotation, the
former author would probably not have supposed that all the species
referred to Bocconia were monospermous, (_Syst. Nat._ 2. p. 89);
nor the latter that they were all polyspermous. (_Mirbel in Ann. des
Scien. Nat._ 6. p. 267). Respecting _Bocconia cordata_, though it
is so closely allied to Bocconia as to afford an excellent argument
in favour of the hypothesis in question, it is still sufficiently
different, especially in its polyspermous ovarium, to constitute a
distinct genus, to which I have given the name (MACLEAYA _cordata_)
of my much valued friend, Alexander Macleay, Esq. Secretary to the
Colony of New South Wales, whose merits as a general naturalist,
a profound entomologist, and a practical botanist, are well known.]
[Footnote 95:
OUDNEYA.
CHAR. GEN. _Calyx_ clausus, basi bisaccatus. _Filamenta_ distincta,
edentula. _Stigmata_ connata apicibus distinctis. _Siliqua_
sessilis linearis rostrata, valvis planis uninerviis, funiculis
adnatis, septo avenio areolarum parietibus subparallelis. _Semina_
uniseriata. _Cotyledones_ accumbentes.
Suffrutex (O. Africana _nob._ Hesperis nitens, _Viv. lib. p._
38. _tab._ 5. _f._ 3.) _glaberrimus, ramosus_. Folia _integerrima
sessilia avenia, inferiora obovata, superiora sublinearia_. Racemi
_terminales, ebracteati_. Flores _mediocris magnitudinis, petalorum
laminis obovatis venosis_.
_Obs._ Oudneya ab Arabidi differt stigmatis forma, siliquæ rostro,
et dissepimenti areolarum figura. Parrya ad quam genus nostrum
accedit diversa est dissepimento binervi venoso! calyce haud clauso,
siliquæ forma, et seminibus biseriatis testa corrugata.]
[Footnote 96: _Tuckey’s Congo_, p. 469.]
[Footnote 97:
MÆRUA.
Mærua. _Forsk. Arab._ p. 104. _Vahl symb._ 1. p. 36. _De
Cand. Prodr._ 1. p. 254.
CHAR. GEN. _Calyx_ tubulosus: _limbo_ 4-partito, æstivatione simplici
serie valvata: _corona_ faucis petaloidea. _Petala_ nulla. _Stipes
genitalium_ elongatus. _Stamina_ numerosa. _Pericarpium_
(siliquiforme?) baccatum.
Frutices _inermes, pube, dum adsit, simplici_. Folia _simplicia
coriacea_: _petiolo cum denticulo rami articulato_: stipulis
_minutissimis setaceis_.
MÆRUA _rigida_, corymbis terminalibus paucifloris, foliis obovatis
crassis rigidis aveniis nervo obsoleto, corona lacero-multipartita.
DESC. Frutex? _Rami_ stricti teretes tenuissime pubescentes. _Folia_
sparsa, obovata cum mucronulo brevissimo, plana semiunguicularia,
utrinque pube tenuissima brevissima simplici, nervo obsoleto, venis
fere inconspicuis. _Petioli_ lineam circiter longi. _Stipulæ_
laterales, setaceæ, petioli dimidio breviores, ramulo appressæ,
post lapsum folii persistentes. _Ramuli floriferi_ sæpius laterales
abbreviati, e foliis confertis floribusque corymboso-fasciculatis
(3-6.), quorum exteriores folio subtensi; quandoque corymbus
ramum terminat. _Pedunculi_ teretes, tenuissime pubescentes,
ebracteati excepto foliolo florali dum adsit ejusque stipulis vix
conspicuis. _Calyx_ infundibuliformis, extus tenuissime pubescens:
_tubus_ subcylindraceus, 8-striatus striis elevatis æqualibus,
intus lineis duabus prominulis subcarnosis, cum limbi laciniis
alternantibus, altera crassiore: _limbus_ tubo paulo longior,
4-partitus laciniis æqualibus, ovatis acutiusculis, obsolete venosis,
5-nerviis, nervis extimis margini approximatis, e furcatione costarum
quatuor tubi cum laciniis alternantium ortis; æstivatione simplici
serie valvata marginibus tamen paulo inflexis. _Corona faucis_
monophylla, laciniis limbi multoties brevior, lacero-multipartita
lacinulis subulatis inæqualibus. _Stipes genitalium_ liber,
cylindraceus, glaber, altitudine tubi. _Stamina_: _Filamenta_
indeterminatim numerosa, viginti circiter, filiformia glabra,
æstivatione contortuplicata. _Antheræ_ incumbentes, ovali-oblongæ
obtusæ, basi semibifidæ, loculis parallelo-approximatis, intus
longitudinaliter dehiscentibus, æstivatione erectæ. _Ovarium_ e
centro filamentorum stipitatum, cylindraceum, glabrum, uniloculare
placentis duabus parietalibus polyspermis. _Stylus_ nullus. _Stigma_
depresso-capitatum.
OBS. Species hæcce proxime accedit Mæruæ senegalensi _nob._
quæ vix pubescens et foliis venosis distincta; in multis quoque
convenit, fide descriptionis Forskalii, cum Mærua uniflora _Vahl_,
a nobis non visa. Mærua angolensis, _De Cand._ (in Museo Parisiensi
visa) cui flores pariter corymbosi et corona lacero-multipartita,
satis diversa est foliis ovalibus.]
[Footnote 98: _Annal. du Mus. d’Hist. Nat._ 18. _p._ 392.]
[Footnote 99: _Théor. Elem. ed._ 2. _p._ 244.]
[Footnote 100: _Collect. Bot. tab._ 22.]
[Footnote 101: _Sp. plant._ 2. _p._ 564.]
[Footnote 102: In Hooker’s _Flora Scotica_, p. 284.]
[Footnote 103:
PARKIA.
ORD. NAT. _Leguminosæ-Mimoseæ_: Cæsalpineis proximum genus.
CHAR. GEN. _Calyx_ tubulosus ore bilabiato (⅔); æstivatione
imbricata! _Petala_ 5. subæqualia, supremo (paulo) latiore;
æstivatione conniventi-imbricata. _Stamina_ decem, hypogyna,
monadelpha. _Legumen_ polyspermum: _epicarpio_ bivalvi; _endocarpio_
in loculos monospermos sarcocarpio farinaceo tectos solubili.
Arbores (_Africanæ et Indiæ orientalis_) _inermes_. Folia
_bipinnata, pinnis foliolisque multijugis_; stipulis _minutis_. Spicæ
_axillares, pedunculatæ, clavatæ floribus inferioribus_ (_dimidii
cylindracei racheos_) _sæpe masculis_.
PARKIA _Africana_, pinnis sub-20-jugis, pinnulis sub-30-jugis obtusis
intervalla æquantibus, cicatricibus distinctis parallelis, glandula
ad basin petioli, rachi communi eglandulosa, partialium jugis (2-3)
summis glandula umbilicata.
Inga biglobosa, _Palis de Beauv. Flore d’Oware_,
2. p. 53. tab. 90. _Sabine in Hortic. Soc. Transact._ 5. p. 444. _De
Cand. Prodr._ 2. p. 442.
Inga Senegalensis. _De Cand. Prodr._ 2. p. 442.
Mimosa taxifolia. _Pers. Syn._ 2. p. 266. n. 110.
Nitta. _Park’s First Journey_, p. 336-337.]
[Footnote 104: _Park’s Second Journey_, p. cxxiv. where it is
stated to be an undescribed species of that genus. Soon after
that Narrative appeared, on comparing Mr. Park’s specimen,
which is in fruit only, with the figure published by Lamarck in
his Illustrations (_tab._ 602. _f._ 4.), and with M. Poiret’s
description (_Encyc. Meth. Botan._ 5. p. 728.), I referred it
to that author’s _P. erinacea_, a name which is, I believe,
adopted in the last edition of the Pharmacopœia of the London
College. Dr. Hooker has since published a drawing of the same plant
by the late Mr. Kummer, and considering it a new species, has called
it Pterocarpus Senegalensis. (_Gray’s Trav. in Western Africa_,
p. 395, tab. D.)]
[Footnote 105: _Tuckey’s Congo_, p. 430.]
[Footnote 106: _Memoires sur la Famille des Legumineuses_.]
[Footnote 107: _Flinders’s Voy. to Terra Austr._ 2. p. 542.]
[Footnote 108: _Flinders’s Austr._ 2, p. 559.]
[Footnote 109: _Prodr. Flor. Nov. Holl._ 1, p. 558.]
[Footnote 110: _Theor. elem. ed._ 2. p. 183.]
[Footnote 111: _Cæsalp. de Plantis_, p. 327. cap. xv. et
p. 351. cap. liii.]
[Footnote 112: _De Cand. Legum._ p. 52.]
[Footnote 113: OXYSTELMA _Bornouense_, floribus racemosis, corollæ
laciniis semiovatis, folliculis inflatis, foliis lanceolatis basi
cordatis.
_Obs._—Inflorescentia et corolla omnino _O. esculenti_, a quo
differt folliculis inflatis, et foliis omnibus basi cordatis.]
[Footnote 114: _Salt’s Voy. to Abyss. append._ p. lxiii.]
[Footnote 115: _Park’s First Journey_, p. 202 and 352.]
[Footnote 116: _Prod. Flor. Nov. Holl._ 1, p. 528.]
[Footnote 117: IPOMŒA _Clappertoni_, glaberrima repens, foliis
sagittatis: lobis posticis acutiusculis integerrimis, pedunculis
unifloris.]
[Footnote 118: _Colchicum_ (_Hermodactylus_) _Ritchii_, limbi laciniis
basi intus bicristatis! fasciculo 2-multifloro, foliis linearibus.
_Obs._—Spathæ 2-8-floræ; limbi laciniæ vel lanceolatæ
acutiusculæ vel oblongæ obtusæ; cristæ laciniarum omnium sæpe
fimbriato-incisæ, exteriorum nunc integerrimæ. Ovula in singulis
ovarii loculis biseriata, placentarum marginibus approximata; nec
ut in C. autumnali quadriseriata.]
[Footnote 119: Botan. Magaz. 1028.]
[Footnote 120: The late celebrated M. Richard, in his excellent
“Analyse du Fruit,” in pointing out the distinctions between a
simple and compound pericarpium, produces that of Melanthaceæ as
an example of the compound, in opposition to that of Commelineæ
or of Junceæ, which, though equally multilocular, he considers as
simple. A knowledge of the structure of Colchicum Monocaryum would,
no doubt, have confirmed him in his opinion respecting Melanthaceæ.
It has always appeared to me surprising, that a carpologist so
profound as M. Richard, and whose notions of the composition of
true dissepiments, and even of the analogy in placentation between
multilocular and unilocular pericarpia, were, in a great degree,
equally correct and original, should never have arrived at the
knowledge of the common type of the organ or simple pistillum, to
which all fruits, whether unilocular or multilocular, were reducible;
and that he should, in the instance now cited, have attempted to
distinguish into simple and compound two modifications of the latter
so manifestly analogous, and which differ from each other only in
the degree of coalescence of their component parts.]
[Footnote 121: _Flinders’s Voy. to Terra Austr._ 2. p. 582.]
[Footnote 122: _Syst. Veg._ 1. p. 132.]
[Footnote 123: _Annal. des Scien. Nat._ 4. p. 425.]
[Footnote 124: _Prodr. Flor. Nov. Holl._ 1. p. 185.]
[Footnote 125: _Triraphis Pumilio_, panicula coarctata abbreviata,
locusta glumam vix superante 3-4-flora: flosculo infimo hermaphrodito;
reliquis neutris univalvibus.]
No. XXIII.
_Letter to Major Denham, on the Rock Specimens brought from Africa. By
Charles Konig, Esq. F.R.S._
_British Museum, Feb. 25th_, 1826.
My dear Sir,
I have great pleasure in transmitting to you, for whatever use you
may think proper to make of it in the Appendix to your forthcoming
work, the little I have to advance on the geological and a few
other objects, that were collected by you, the late Dr. Oudney,
and Captain Clapperton, on your journey through the great African
desert, and are now deposited in the British Museum. It chiefly
consists of the descriptive catalogue of a small series of rock
specimens, originally drawn up by me without particular regard to
their geognostic occurrence; to which I now prefix a few desultory
remarks that occurred to me, when, with a view to its publication,
I subjected that list to a second perusal. My materials are, indeed,
very scanty; but their description may, nevertheless, (in conjunction
with the observations dispersed in the body of the work, of which
I have not been able to avail myself) lead some of your geological
readers to more or less important results relative to the structure
of the tract of country in which they were collected.
There are among the specimens I have examined none that might be
referred to the primitive formations, except those gathered south and
west of Kouka. The principal specimen of granite (No. 1.) brought
by you from the Mandara mountains strongly resembles some of the
fresh large-grained varieties of the same from the Fetish rocks in
Congo. Those from Soudan, with feldspar, in its progress to kaolin,
(No. 5.) betray the principal cause of the striking appearance of
the granite mountains in that part of central Africa. The effects
of atmospheric influence on that component, spreading chiefly in
the direction of the natural rifts of the rock, are, in the Soudan
mountains as well as in those of the Hartz, the Riesengebirge, and
other European granitic districts, manifested partly by the immense
and numberless blocks, wholly or partially detached, and confusedly
piled up on the sides of the mountains, or strewed over the plains
in fantastic groups; and partly by the almost total disintegration
of the masses into gravel at the foot of the ridges. The former of
these effects is illustrated by the sketch of a granite mountain in
Soudan, which you were so good as to show me. There are a few other
specimens of granite from Soudan; but they present no characters from
which any useful information is likely to be derived; the less so, as
they appear to be casual fragments, not found in situ. The mica slate
(No. 9.), as Captain Clapperton informed me, occurs at the upper part
of the ridges between Quarra and Zurma; and a ticket, accompanying
a micaceous rock specimen, (No. 11.) from the same locality, as I
suppose, states it to be “used for glazing earthen ware.”
These are all the specimens of primitive rocks. As to those of
secondary and tertiary formations, which have been brought home, it
will appear from the subjoined catalogue, (as, indeed, with regard to
part of the kingdoms of Tripoli and Fezzan, has already been pointed
out by Dr. Buckland), that they may be referred to three formations,
viz. 1. to the fletz-trap or basaltic formation; 2. to a formation
analogous to the Paris limestone, (calcaire grossier, grob-kalk);
and 3. to some members of the secondary formation from the chalk to
the alpine limestone inclusively.
The few specimens of the first mentioned of these formations
are specified under Nos. 14 to 18. To the second I would refer
the sandstone No. 26. with fragments of small univalve shells,
not unlike a species of Paludina, and the plastic clay of Cano,
of which, I suppose, are made the light pipe bowls, brought from
thence; together with some other specimens of clay, and also some
fragments of shells, apparently from the tertiary limestone, but
the localities of which are not mentioned.
But by far the greater proportion of the specimens brought home by
you belongs to that series of the secondary formations of which
the variegated sandstone is the principal member. Subordinate to
this is the ferruginous sandstone, (Nos. 47, &c.) with its beds
of brown hydrous oxide, into which, as also into ochrey ironstone,
(Nos. 84—90.) it appears to pass by gradual transition. The white
sandstone, called quader-sandstein by most German geologists,
and sandstone of Konigstein by Baron Humboldt, is not specified
as such in the list; I am, however, inclined to think it is not
entirely wanting in several parts of the tract you have traversed,
especially to the southward of the boundary of Fezzan. I conclude it,
from what you have mentioned to me of the picturesque and ruin-like
appearance of many of the mountain ranges in those parts, which is
peculiar to that sandstone; from the external character of some of
the specimens, which, however, have no localities affixed to them;
as also from the impressions of small bivalves on one or two of
them. No stress is perhaps to be laid on the occurrence of fibrous
limestone, which substance is known to be among the mineral contents
of quader-sandstone at the foot of the Hartz, where this link of
the fletz sandstone formation rests on the red marle sandstone,
without the intervention of shell limestone, of which latter I have
seen no specimens among those from North Africa.
More characteristic are the specimens of the variegated sandstone,
properly speaking. The varieties, which, by their patches, stripes,
and flamed delineations, are more particularly entitled to that
denomination, are Nos. 31—36. The friable sandstone of Traghen
(No. 23.) probably owes its green colour to oxide of nickel: the
colouring matter seems chiefly to reside in the clay by which the
grains are held together.
Particularly remarkable are those varieties of sandstone in which
the cement is quartz, both with and without ferruginous admixture
(Nos. 37—46). They are all (with the exception of a few of more
loose texture, which belong to a tertiary formation) referable to
the variegated sandstone series. In some of these the cement of
various colours, yellowish, red, brown, bluish, is so completely
conferruminated with the grains, that, upon breaking a specimen, the
fracturing plane invariably passes through them, producing a uniformly
smooth and frequently conchoidal surface. Sometimes both cement
and grains are united into one homogeneous quartzy mass, in which,
especially when thoroughly impregnated with oxide of iron, scarcely
the slightest vestiges of former granulation remain perceptible. Such
an extraordinary transformation of the cementing mass, observable
not only in this but likewise in the quader-sandstone, the iron sand,
and the variety of the newest sandstone called molasse, presupposes
a state of liquefaction, and is but imperfectly accounted for by
those who ascribe it to infiltration.
The result of another, equally enigmatical, liquefaction of siliceous
matter, (which is, however, generally, though gratuitously, attributed
to the agency of lightning) we see in the tubular concretions that
have been found near Drigg in Cumberland, on the Senner heath in
Westphalia, at Pillau in the vicinity of Konigsberg, at Halle upon
the Saale, and, lastly, on the plains near Dibla in the Tibbou
country. The African sand tubes differ from those of Drigg, as the
sands themselves differ from each other in the two localities;
the texture of the former is more homogeneous and pure, some
being translucent and almost colourless; and, when cylindrical, not
unlike some tubular varieties of stalactic carbonate of lime. Others
are internally of a light-grey colour, here and there marked with
white specks from semi-fused grains of sand: their outer surface
is either approaching to smooth, or studded with snow-white opaque
grains of sand, sunk in the vitrified substance; but they are not
coated by the agglutinated sand which, in the English tubes, forms
a rough crust, gradually passing into the vitreous substance of the
sides. The stem, to judge from the short fragments I have seen,
is very irregular in its circumference, and (except in the small
cylindrical tubes, whose surface is even) polymorphously jagged,
compressed, and contorted. Their interior lustre is superior to
that observable in the European _Fulgurite, Astraphyalite, Ceraunian
Sinter, Blitzröhren_,—names under which these tubular concretions
have been introduced into our systems of mineralogy.
In most of the specimens of the variegated series described in the
catalogue, the presence of common salt is obvious to the eye or
the taste, or at least discoverable on the application of chemical
re-agents. The tickets placed with No. 35. and some others, are
inscribed “Aluminous slate;” but these specimens belong to the
micaceous variety into which the red marle sandstone so frequently
passes, and which sometimes forms distinct beds in it, overlaid by
variegated and white marle slate; neither is the salt with which
they are impregnated any other than muriate of soda.
The gypsum, of which some varieties are among the specimens found in
the red marle, both at the most northern and the most southern points
where Dr. Oudney collected, is of course referable to the newer, and
some even to the newest, formation: it is mostly foliated-fibrous,
and, in several specimens, intermixed with red clay.
I have little to say on the specimens of limestone enumerated in
the list: most of them agree perfectly well with our new magnesian
limestone; but external as well as chemical characters in detached
fragments, not observed in situ, are but uncertain guides to the
determination of the various modifications of Werner’s older fletz
limestone, to which, I suppose, those specimens must all be referred.
There are only two specimens of common salt brought home, neither of
which exhibit any thing peculiar in their appearance: but were they
ever so numerous or remarkable in their exterior, they would not
contribute greatly towards illustrating the history of the saline
deposites and saliferous formations of the regions from which they
come. The excessive abundance of salt in the variegated sand all
over the central part of northern Africa, indicates either the
existence of an extensive deposition of that substance beneath the
prevailing rock formation, or the uninterrupted operation of causes
by which those superficial saline masses, crusts, and efflorescences
(the last of these observable in most specimens of sandstone brought
from thence), are produced independently of briny waters emanating
from such deposits of rocksalt. Mr. Keferstein, who has collected a
multitude of instances of the occurrence of salt springs in situations
which would seem to preclude the possibility of an immediate connexion
between them and extensive beds of rock salt, has by ingenious
reasoning and a number of interesting facts endeavoured to prove,
that, in contact with waters circulating in the earth, the members
of the saliferous formation (especially the clay to which, as an
inseparable concomitant of salt, the name of _salzthon_ has been
given) are endowed with the power of generating salt by means of a
chemical process, of which the rationale (as that of many others)
remains among the desiderata of the science.
Those who are of opinion that brine springs are, under all
circumstances, derived from great salt formations, and that their
rise and presence, in any given situation, may be satisfactorily
accounted for, by hydrostatic pressure alone, will probably find
nothing extraordinary in the peculiar occurrence of that substance
in the clay of the extensive salt fields of Mafen, Hamera, &c.; they
will consider the various forms under which it presents itself in
those tracts merely as the result of aggregation of saline particles
conveyed from the great depot to the crevices of the clay, gypsum,
and sandstone, and left there by the simple process of evaporation. I
shall not attempt examining which of the two theories derives most
support from the different phenomena relative to the production of
salt observed by you on your journey, or to the occurrence of fresh
water springs in the centre of salt hills, dwelt upon by Herodotus,
and other circumstances belonging to halurgic geology; but refer you,
for materials necessary for this inquiry, to the important facts
detailed by the abovementioned author in the second volume of his
periodical work (Teutschland, geognostisch-geologisch dargestellt,
Weimar, 1823), as also to those opposed to them by no less an
authority than Mr. V. Langsdorff in his last work (Anleitung zur
Salzwerkskunde, Heidelberg, 1824).
The specimens of trona (carbonate of soda), collected on the
expedition, exhibit this salt in various degrees of purity. In some,
it is mechanically mixed with muriate and sulphate of soda; in others,
it appears, when divested of the casually adhering substances, to be
perfectly pure. Of the latter, we have two very distinct varieties,
as far, at least, as external characters are concerned. The one
consists of layers, or crusts, of about one-third of an inch in
thickness, opaque, and of a white colour, generally with an almost
imperceptibly slight tinge of red; and yellowish stains are sometimes
observable. These layers, when broken, display distinct concretions
between lamellar and granular; the lower surface is rough, and more
or less impure, the small interstices being partly filled up with
reddish earthy matter; the distinct concretions terminate at the
upper surface, in small, slightly cuneiform, apparently four-sided
compressed prisms, acuminated by two planes which meet under an
angle of about 95°; but both the lateral and terminal edges are
constantly rounded off, and the planes uneven and striated. These
crystals, not much inferior in hardness to carbonate of lime, are
internally splendent, externally dull, and generally covered by a
fine efflorescence, and also often studded with small limpid cubical
crystals of muriate of soda. This variety is formed in the lakes of
Ghraat, apparently in the same manner as the carbonate of soda (urao)
of the Lagunilla lake of Venezuela, or that of the S. Macarius lake
in Egypt, but appears to be less contaminated with other salts than
either of these.
The other variety of carbonate of soda (the locality of which is
doubtful, two tickets having been found accompanying the specimen, the
one with “Kanem,” the other with “hills of Traghen,”) occurs
in pieces which appear to have been part of a vein or layer. They are
composed of groups of divergingly radiated acicular crystals, closely
grown together, intermixed with indeterminable capillary crystals,
confusedly aggregated. Some of these crystals appeared as very
compressed four-sided prisms, indistinctly acuminated by two planes
set on the acute lateral edges. Its fracture is lamellar-fibrous,
passing into splintery; fragments wedge-shaped. Its colour is a dingy
greenish, or yellowish-white, appearing brownish in the more compact
parts of the pieces. The internal lustre is splendent; the external
surface covered by a yellowish white powder. In the crystalline
state, both these varieties of trona appear to be perfectly pure;
it is, however, possible that they may differ from each other in
the proportion of the water and carbonic acid with which the soda
is combined in them. If, as Berthollet thinks, the origin of native
carbonate of soda is to be looked for in the decomposition of common
salt by carbonate of lime, we may farther conjecture, from the traces
of bituminous matter found with the trona, that the rock instrumental
to it is fetid limestone, beds of which are frequent concomitants
of saliferous formations.
The following is the catalogue of the specimens of which I have been
able to determine the localities.
1. Large grained granite; the deep-flesh-coloured feldspar in greater
proportion than the greyish quartz, and the black, small-scaly
mica. “From the Mandara mountains.”
2. The same; with feldspar of dirty-yellowish colour. From the Mandara
range, and two similar varieties from the “hills of Dutchie Zangia,
Soudan.”
3. Similarly coloured variety, but of smaller grain. From the
same places.
4. Large grained variety of the same; the feldspar of a yellowish
colour, and in a state of incipient decomposition, with little black
mica. Mandara.
5. Variety similar to the preceding; in a state of disintegration:
the feldspar decomposing into a reddish earth. From Quarra and
Zurmee, Soudan.
6. Granite, both fine and coarse-grained, almost entirely composed
of flesh-red feldspar, with indeterminable particles of a black
substance, apparently mica. “From the high ridges of Zurma.”
7. The same, small-grained, rather slaty, approaching to gneiss,
composed of greyish-white feldspar and quartz, with predominant
black small-scaly mica. From Nansarena, Soudan.
8. Portion of a boulder, chiefly composed of fine-grained dirty-grey
semicompact feldspar and some quartz; with disseminated particles
of magnetic iron ore (a syenitic rock). “Found near Agutefa.”
9. Greenish-grey mica slate, with little admixed quartz and
feldspar. “It forms the upper part of the ridges between Quarra
and Zurma, Soudan.”
10. Yellowish-grey, soft, and friable mica slate. “From between
Duakee and Sackwa, Soudan.”
11. A hard slaty mass, composed of brilliant silvery small scales of
mica, penetrated by, or mixed with, brown and yellow hydrous oxide
of iron. From the same.
12. White, massive, and irregularly crystallized fat quartz, stained
by oxide of iron. “From a vein in the rocks of Quarra and Zurmee.”
13. The same, out of the granite of the Mandara mountains.
13. _a._ Yellowish and bluish-white quartz in large grains, as
gravel. “From the bed of the river Yaou, seven days on the road
to Soudan[126].”
14. Greyish-black close-grained basalt. “From the hills in the
Sebha district.”
15. The same; with rarely disseminated grains of decomposing
olivine. From the same.
16. The same; vesicular (basaltic amygdaloid), cells empty. Benioleed.
17. The same as the preceding, with disseminated granular particles,
and minute acicular crystals of specular iron, which also mostly
invest the irregularly shaped cells. “Benioleed; used for
grindstones.”
18. The same, of a greyish-brown colour; cells elliptic, and partly
filled with carbonate of lime. “Black mountains near Sockna.”
19. Greenish and yellowish grey, fine-grained crumbling
sandstone. “Found with the gypsum of the hills to the northward
of Om-el-Abeed.”
20. The same, brownish-yellow; “occurring in beds near
Om-el-Abeed.”
21. The same, reddish and yellowish, fine-grained, rather
friable. Wady Kawan.
22. Similar, reddish-brown variety of sandstone, but more friable
than the preceding. Tadrart ridge.
23. The same, of a colour between grass and leek-green, fine-grained,
very crumbling. “Traghen, under a gypsum crust; often in beds of
from ten to twelve feet. It has the appearance of some of the soft
sandstone in the mountain range near Tripoli.”
24. Yellowish-white friable sandstone, and fine sand, strongly
impregnated with salt. “Under a calcareous crust, Fezzan.”
25. Similar sand of a very fine rounded grain. “From the Wady,
in which is the Trona lake.”
26. Yellowish clayey sandstone, filled with small rounded quartz
grains and minute white particles of small univalve shells,
(Paludina?) “Gaaf.”
27. Fine and close-grained yellowish-white sandstone, of a thin
stratified structure, which is distinctly seen at the disintegrated
parts of the fragment. “Wady Katefa, under the basalt; forming
fine precipitous walls in the middle of the range.”
28. Brownish-red friable sandstone; the rounded grains of various
sizes, loosely united by clay. “Sandstone of the hills of Wady
Ghrarbi. There is a finer and tender species, and also a stratiform
one; but my specimens are lost.”
29. The same, of a similar colour, intermixed with yellowish, less
crumbling, and containing pebbles. “From the hills to the westward
of Hamera, on which the town is built.”
30. Sandstone of yellowish colour and fine-grained, faintly variegated
with purple. Aghadem.
31. The same, fine-grained, white, with linear purplish streaks,
being the edges of horizontal filmy depositions of iron ochre of
that colour. Wady Kawan.
32. A similar variety, exhibiting purplish-yellow and red
variegations, thoroughly impregnated with salt, which is also seen
efflorescent on the surface. “Hills of Wady Ghrarbi.”
33. Similarly coloured sandstone, in laminar fragments, passing, by
decomposition, into soft clay variegated with the same colours. Wady
Kawar.
34. Tabular fragment of very close-grained nearly compact variegated
sandstone; colours, purplish and two shades of yellow, in irregular
stripes. “Sebha district.”
35. Purplish-brown slaty sandstone, micaceous on the planes of
separation, passing into cream yellow and white clay-stone of the same
structure. “Aluminous slate (sic) in different states, forming a
considerable part of the mountain range, Tadrart, Tuarick country.”
36. A tabular fragment, like the preceding; micaceous on the rifts,
of reddish-brown colour, being thoroughly penetrated by oxide of
iron. Aghadem.
37. Yellowish sandstone, composed of round grains of quartz, with
white clayey cement, which, towards the surface of the rolled piece,
becomes quartzy. From ditto.
38. A similar large-grained variety, of reddish-yellow colour
with brown streaks, in which the cementing clay, become quartzy,
is scarcely distinguishable from the grains. “Forming the eastern
boundary of the hills near Traghen.”
39. A large fragment of the same quartzy sandstone, of yellow colour,
with red streaks and brown nucleus, nearly compact, so as to exhibit
on its conchoidal fractural surfaces the traces only of a granular
structure. “Strewed over the plain between Ghudwa and Mourzuk.”
40. The same, brownish-red, in the shape of a rolled amorphous
fragment, having acquired a uniform glossy surface like red
jasper. From ditto.
41. Yellowish variety of the same, the granular passing into compact
structure. “Thick exposed beds from Om el Abeed to Sebha.”
42. Yellowish-grey variety of the same, as perfectly compact tabular
fragments, having their surfaces studded with small polymorphous
bodies imitating the appearance of parts of secondary fossils. From
ditto.
43. The same as the preceding, having its surface marked by small
bivalve shells, converted into the mass of the sandstone. From ditto.
44. Sharp-edged fragments, of a variety like No. 39., of a deep
chocolate-brown colour and flat conchoidal fracture. “Between
Sebha and Timinhint; rocks about 250 feet high.”
45. The same, in which the quartz grains are very firmly cemented
by dark-red or brown siliceous iron-stone, sometimes enclosing
larger rounded grains and small pebbles; the whole forming a
very hard compact conglomerate with conchoidal shining fractural
surface. “From between Om el Abeed to Sebha, and near Zuela.”
46. Fragment of a mass of quartzy sandstone and compact brown
ironstone, externally stalactic reed-like, with black glossy
surface. “From the hills of Wady Ghrarby.”
47. Brown ferruginous sandstone, nearly compact, and with drused
cavities, enclosing yellowish nodules of magnesian limestone. “Forms
the upper part of numerous low hills, and the surface of exposed
parts on the road from Hamera to Zuela.”
48. A mass of yellow and brown ferruginous sandstone with amorphous
botryoidal surface, unequally penetrated by siliceous brown oxide
of iron, which produces the appearance of a mixture of brown ochrey
clay-ironstone. “Near Timinhint, forming the summit of hills.”
49. Wood-hornstone; dark brown, with lighter coloured centre, being
part of a cylindrical stem or branch of a dicotyledonous tree. “From
between Mestoota and Gatrone.”
50. Flint composed of conchoidal distinct concretions, some of them
forming nuclei; the layers of alternating brown and white colours,
irregularly curved. “Quantities strewed over the plain from Temasta
to Bonjem.”
51. Yellowish-grey flint passing into hornstone, in irregularly
angular pieces, with brown glossy corroded surface. “La Saila;
hills of silex and opal.”
52. White hornstone; a boulder with corroded glossy
surface. “Strewed in large quantities between Wady el Beny and
Wilkna, and on the summit of gypsum hills.”
53. Yellowish-white substance intermediate between hornstone and
calcedony, in angular pieces, with cream-coloured cacholong on the
surface. “On the way from Gatrone to Tegerhy.”
54. Brownish-red carnelian; a fragment, with irregularly botryoidal
yellowish decomposed surface. From ditto.
55. Several fragments of variously shaped rough sand tubes; internal
surface highly glazed. “From the sands near Dibla.”
56. Lithomarge, reddish-brown, here and there variegated with
bluish-green and greyish, in fragments with rather tuberculated
surface. “Aghadem, beds in the sandstone.”
57. The same, but penetrated by iron ochre, and much harder; with
small imbedded pyriform concretions. From ditto.
58. Brownish-red and yellowish-grey variegated slaty clay, very soft
and unctuous to the touch. From ditto.
59. Small-foliated amorphous gypsum, confusedly crystallized, with
adhering red marl. “From the curiously formed gypsum hills of Bonjem
to Hormut and Takui, with large quantities of opal on the top.”
60. Some specimens of white, granular, and foliated gypsum; one of
the varieties composed of wedge-shaped laminæ. Bonjem.
61. Large-foliated white selenite. “Close to the Tchad, Kanem.”
62. Compact limestone, of bluish-grey colour, divisible into tabular
fragments. “Benioleed, under the basalt.”
63. Light cream-coloured nearly compact limestone, in
tabular fragments; fracture even, fractural surface slightly
glimmering. Benioleed.
64. Fragment of a similar variety of limestone, with conchoidal
fracture. “Benioleed, lowest observable stratum except one.”
65. Compact limestone, of a reddish and cream yellow colour,
variegated with pale brown, of very close texture, and
small-conchoidal fracture. “Hills to the north of Benioleed.”
66. Fragment of a greenish-grey tabular magnesian limestone, splendent
on the fractural surfaces, the lustre produced by a curved-lamellar,
though (in one direction) apparently compact structure. “On the
ridges between Meshroo and Tegerhy.”
67. Yellowish-red, close-grained, nearly compact limestone, here
and there with minute scales; external exposed surface uneven,
glossy. “Temedetan, forming thick strata.”
68. Rolled fragment, of a reddish-yellow variety of magnesian
limestone, with glossy surface, and of earthy fracture, including
some dark-coloured grains, (oxide of manganese?) “Found in the
deserts, sometimes finely dendritic.”
69. Light cream-coloured hard (magnesian) limestone, with earthy
uneven fracture; the exposed surface shining, partly corroded,
partly smooth. “Hills of Gaaf.”
70. A similar variety. “From the Assoud, Wady el Malagi.”
71. A rolled fragment of yellowish-grey compact limestone (magnesian),
of even and dull fracture; the surface shining, wrinkled by
decomposition. “To the north and south of the Wells of Mafrass.”
72. The same variety as the preceding, in the shape of a large
conical lump, with uneven and corroded glossy surface, enclosing
rounded pieces of the same limestone. From ditto.
73. A similar variety of magnesian limestone, forming a botryoidal
group of more or less globular concretions, from upwards of half an
inch to half a line in diameter, and intimately grown together with
each other. “Meshroo and El Wahr.”
74. Yellowish limestone, of curved-lamellar structure. “Forming
veins in the basaltic rocks in Agutefa.”
75. Brownish-yellow limestone, in stalagmitical irregular
layers. “On the desert, between Mushroo and El Wahr.”
76. Another fragment, apparently part of a large stalagmitic nodule,
in layers on a yellow granular mass of carbonate of lime. From ditto.
77. Greyish-brown and hair-brown fibrous limestone, in tabular
pieces; the fibres perpendicular, or in an oblique direction to the
horizontal planes, straight or slightly curved. In some specimens,
the hair-brown layer is sard-onyx and onyx-like, succeeded by a red
and a white stratum, the former generally in the form of a crust, with
superficial small acute rhombohedrons of carbonate of lime; in others,
the hair-brown layer is traversed by white veins. “Boundaries of
Fezzan and Tuarick country.”
78. Sulphate of barytes; a group of bluish and brownish prismatic
crystals, (var. rétrécie of Haüy), covered by red marle.
79. Common salt, in white, opaque, granular aggregations, externally
stained by ferruginous clay. “Road between Hamara and Zuela.”
80. A saline incrustation, of yellowish-white colour, partly solid,
in thin tables, partly in powder, composed of carbonate, muriate,
and sulphate of soda. “Near Germa.”
81. Carbonate of soda (trona), thick-fibrous foliated, in crusts of
the thickness of one-fourth to one-third of an inch, indistinctly
crystallized on the upper surface. “From the trona lakes in Wady
Trona.”
82. The same, studded on the upper surface with small limpid cubical
crystals of muriate of soda. From ditto.
83. Carbonate of soda, of yellowish and greenish-grey colour, in
masses with diverging radiated fracture. Kanem?
84. A rolled piece of nearly compact brown ironstone. “Upper strata
from Aghadem to the southward of El Wahr.”
85. Compact brown ironstone, of dark brown colour; an irregularly
tubercular nodule, with surface, particularly that of the old
fractural planes, glossy, the recent fracture exhibiting a dull
earthy surface. “From plains to the southward of Bonjem.”
86. Compact brown ironstone, of deep chesnut-brown colour, in rounded
oblong pieces of from one-half to upwards of an inch in diameter,
the whole glossy as if varnished; fracture even, earthy. From ditto?
87. Fragment of compact brown ironstone, mixed with much quartzy
matter. Wady Kawar and Aghadem.
88. Massive and granular brown ironstone, mixed with much yellow iron
ochre and sand. “In loose masses or crusts, on the top of the ridges
between Sockatoo and Kashna, and on the low hills around Sockatoo.”
89. Fragments of clayey brown ironstone with ochrey nodules. “Wady
Shiati hills.”
90. A mass, mixed, of brown ironstone and red and yellow iron
ochre. “From the soil of Wady Sandalion, Tuarick country.”
91. Cubic fragments of common galena, (sulphuret of lead). Kanem,
Soudan.
92. Pure tin, cast in moulds, in the form of thick wire. Brought
from Soudan.
I conclude this long letter with mentioning a specimen of Roman
cement, taken from the ruins of Ghirza, which, in parts where
the admixture of small stony fragments is not observable, has
very much the appearance of, and might easily be mistaken for,
a granular-crystalline variety of tertiary limestone. It has
unquestionably undergone a transformation: a circumstance which may,
in some measure, serve to justify the remark of Lepère—“C’est
le temps seul et non l’art qui manque à la pétrification absolue
de nos mortiers et cimens; nos neveux diront de nos constructions
ce que nous disons de celles des anciens.”
I have the honour to be, my dear Sir,
Yours very faithfully,
CHARLES KONIG.
To Major Denham, &c.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 126: Three very interesting bivalve shells, distinct,
it appears, from the other species of the genera to which they
respectively belong, have been discovered in the above-mentioned river
by Major Denham. The first, a species of ÆTHERIA, I distinguish as
ÆTHERIA _Denhami_: testa irregulariter rotundato-oblonga, ad
cardinem gibbosa, utriusque valvæ callo cardinali basim versus
oblique truncato.
Hab. in Africæ interioris fluvio Gammaroo.
The form of the cardinal callosity to which the semi-internal ligament
is attached affords a distinction sufficiently characteristic of
the species: its oblique truncating plane, which extends towards
the rather indistinct umbo, is, in the closed state of the shell, in
partial contact with that of the corresponding and similarly formed
callus of the other valve. The general form of the shell is oblong
or rounded, but appears to be subject to considerable variation:
one of the specimens before me exhibits the exterior of Lamarck’s
A. _transversa_, which latter is no doubt a casual variety only of
the other species described and figured by that naturalist.
These shells are externally furnished with a blackish-brown epidermis;
beneath this a white film is deposited, on the removal of which
a beautiful pearly naker appears, similar to that of the internal
surface of the valves. The blistered appearance of the interior of
both the valves is constant in all specimens, and may, as intimately
connected with the structure of the shell, be considered of sufficient
importance to be admitted into the distinctive character of the genus.
Lamarck, imagining that these shells live at the bottom of the
sea, named the genus, as he says, after one of the daughters of
Oceanus. Though the Ætheriæ are now well known to be fluviatile
shells, the emendators of zoological nomenclature may still be
exonerated from framing a new name for this genus, since the old
one is derivable from the original locality of its species; a part
of central Africa having, according to Pliny, been anciently known
by the appellation of _Ætheria_.
The second shell, a new species of IRIDINA, may be thus characterized:
IRIDINA _Oudnæi_: testa transversa ovato-lanceolata tumidiuscula,
cardine stricto sub-edentulo, basis margine sinuato.
Hab. cum priore.
This species is very distinct from E. _elongata_ in form and in the
hinge line being without crenulation; and from E. _nilotica_, which it
resembles in the latter of those characters, it differs by its form,
inferior thickness, and iridescence. The length of the specimen before
me is 4⅔, its greatest breadth at the umbo nearly two inches. Placed
on the basal edge, which is concave, the anterior side presents
a considerable slope from the umbo to the exterior margin, which
gives the valves a tapering or ovate-lanceolate form. The external
epidermis, of a greenish-brown colour, exhibits slightly undulating
striæ of growth. The interior surface is slightly uneven-undulated,
white, with delicate opalescent colours, green and faint pink; the
former chiefly disposed in spots. The muscular impressions are more
slightly marked than in the other species.
For the third shell, which I considered as a new species of ANODON,
I propose the name of
ANODON _Clappertoni_: testa transversim oblonga, antice in extremo
cardine acute excisa.
Hab. cum antecedentibus.
The notch at the anterior extremity of the hinge being always acute,
never obtusangular or rounded, I have confined myself to it in the
distinctive character of this species, which differs in several other
respects from ANODON _purpureus_ and _rugosus_ of Swainson, to both
of which it is, however, nearly related. The size of the shell, in
the several specimens before me, varies from 1½ by ¾ of an inch to
3 inches by nearly 1½. Its form is transverse-oval, with a slight
slope at the anterior end. The hinge margin is straight. Epidermis
olive-green, appearing of a reddish-brown colour, owing to the pink
colour of the surface underneath, which latter in one specimen passes
into bluish-green at the umbones. Muscular impressions three; one of
them, at the anterior end, oval, and continued in a faint tapering
form towards the hollow of the umbo; of the two other impressions,
which are both stronger marked, the one nearest to the edge of the
valve is oval, with a small rounded sinus at the inner border, and
close to it a smaller irregularly oval mark with notched margin: the
two principal marks are connected by the edge of the impression of
the mantle, the smaller mark being placed within the line. The tinge
of the internal surface is pink, imperfectly painted over as it were
with white. The several specimens, in different stages of growth,
exhibit all these characters; there is, however, among them a single
valve of rather larger dimensions and more rounded than the rest,
with a fine bronze-coloured internal surface like that of IRIDINA
_nilotica_. Whether this is to be considered as a distinct species,
or only as a variety indicative of the full grown state of the shell,
I must leave to the decision of conchologists more experienced in
discriminating the ambiguous species of this genus.]
No. XXIV.
_Thermometrical Journal kept at Kouka in Bornou._
+------------+--------+-------------------------+
| | | Fah. Thermometer. |
| Date. | Winds. +--------+-------+--------+
| | | 6 a.m. | Noon. | 3 p.m. |
+------------+--------+--------+-------+--------+
|March 1823. | | | | |
| | | | | |
| 15 | E.N.E. | 70 | 98 | 103 |
| | | | | |
| Sunday, 16 | S.S.E. | 75 | 95 | 102 |
| | | | | |
| 17 | S.S.E. | 78 | 99 | 104 |
| | | | | |
| 18 | E.N.E. | 77 | | 104 |
| | | | | |
| 19 | S.E. | | | 98 |
| | | | | |
| 20 | E.N.E. | 78 | 95 | 101 |
| | | | | |
| 21 | N.E. | 82 | 100 | 105 |
| | | | | |
| 22 | E.N.E. | 80 | 97 | 100 |
| | | | | |
| Sunday, 23 | N.E. | 78 | 90 | 94 |
| | | | | |
| 24 | N.E. | 79 | 94 | 97 |
| | | | | |
| 25 | E.N.E. | 79 | 97 | 101 |
| | | | | |
| 26 | E.N.E. | 79 | 100 | 103 |
| | | | | |
| 27 | E.N.E. | 79 | 101 | 103 |
| | | | | |
| 28 | E.N.E. | 82 | 97 | 98 |
| | | | | |
| 29 | E.N.E. | 80 | 97 | 100 |
| | | | | |
| Sunday, 30 | N.E. | 80 | 94 | 97 |
| | | | | |
| 31 | E.N.E. | 80 | 94 | 96 |
| | | | | |
| April. | | | | |
| | | | | |
| 1 | N.E. | 77 | 98 | 101 |
| | | | | |
| 2 | N.E. | 80 | 95 | 100 |
| | | | | |
| 3 | S.E. | 80 | 99 | 101 |
| | | | | |
| 7 | N.E. | 80 | 99 | 102 |
| | | | | |
| 8 | N.E. | 80 | 99 | 103 |
| | | | | |
| 9 | E.N.E. | 78 | 98 | 102 |
| | | | | |
| 10 | E.N.E. | 77 | 97 | 99 |
| | | | | |
| 11 | N.E. | 72 | 100 | 100 |
| | | | | |
| 12 | N.E. | 78 | 104 | 107 |
| | | | | |
| Sunday, 13 | N.E. | 84 | 100 | 105 |
| | | | | |
| 14 | E.N.E. | 82 | 100 | 105 |
| | | | | |
| 15 | N.E. | 87 | 103 | 105 |
| | | | | |
| 16 | E.N.E. | 86 | 95 | 105 |
| | | | | |
| 17 | E.N.E. | 87 | 99 | 106 |
| | | | | |
| 18 | E.N.E. | 86 | 103 | 109 |
| | | | | |
| 19 | N.E. | 88 | 102 | 106 |
| | | | | |
| Sunday, 20 | E.N.E. | 87 | 102 | 107 |
| | | | | |
| 21 | E.N.E. | 85 | 100 | 100 |
| | | | | |
| 22 | E.N.E. | 86 | 102 | 103 |
| | | | | |
| 23 | E.N.E. | 85 | 102 | 103 |
| | | | | |
| 24 | N.E. | 83 | 101 | 103 |
| | | | | |
| 25 | E.N.E. | 85 | 103 | 102 |
| | | | | |
| 26 | N.E. | 85 | 103 | 103 |
| | | | | |
| Sunday, 27 | N.E. | 86 | 102 | 102 |
| | | | | |
| 28 | N.E. | 83 | 101 | 103 |
| | | | | |
| 29 | E.N.E. | 81 | 103 | 103 |
| | | | | |
| 30 | E.N.E. | 82 | 103 | 103 |
| | | | | |
| May. | | | | |
| | | | | |
| 1 | E.N.E. | 85 | 106 | 106 |
| | | | | |
| 2 | N.E. | 85 | 103 | 105 |
| | | | | |
| 3 | N.E. | 83 | 105 | 98 |
| | | | | |
| Sunday, 4 | E.N.E. | 81 | 99 | 99 |
| | | | | |
| 5 | E.N.E. | 82 | 95 | 96 |
| | | | | |
| 6 | E.N.E. | 81 | 102 | 102 |
| | | | | |
| 7 | N. | 86 | 104 | 103 |
| | | | | |
| 8 | N.E. | 71 | 99 | 96 |
| | | | | |
| 9 | N.E. | 81 | 99 | 96 |
| | | | | |
| 10 | N.E. | 85 | 95 | 94 |
| | | | | |
| Sunday, 11 | N.E. | 86 | 101 | 95 |
| | | | | |
| 12 | Calm. | 81 | 99 | 95 |
| | | | | |
| 13 | W.S.W. | 75 | 98 | 98 |
| | | | | |
| 14 | W.S.W. | 75 | 95 | 98 |
| | | | | |
| 15 | W.S.W. | 74 | 97 | 97 |
| | | | | |
| 16 | W.S.W. | 72 | 92 | 95 |
| | | | | |
| 17 | S.W. | 74 | 97 | 98 |
| | | | | |
| Sunday, 18 | W.S.W. | 74 | 96 | 99 |
| | | | | |
| 19 | W.S.W. | 73 | 96 | 99 |
| | | | | |
| 20 | W.S.W. | 76 | 95 | 99 |
| | | | | |
| 21 | W.S.W. | 74 | 102 | 100 |
| | | | | |
| 22 | W.S.W. | 73 | 100 | 100 |
| | | | | |
| 23 | W.S.W. | 84 | 104 | 101 |
| | | | | |
| 24 | S.W. | 76 | 96 | 96 |
| | | | | |
| Sunday, 25 | S.W. | 73 | 96 | 96 |
| | | | | |
| 26 | S.W. | 81 | 98 | 100 |
| | | | | |
| 27 | S.W. | 76 | 99 | 100 |
| | | | | |
| 28 | S.W. | 80 | 98 | 99 |
| | | | | |
| 29 | W.S.W. | 81 | 97 | 102 |
| | | | | |
| 30 | W.S.W. | 82 | 100 | 102 |
| | | | | |
| 31 | W.S.W. | 80 | 100 | 102 |
| | | | | |
| June. | | | | |
| | | | | |
| Sunday, 1 | W.S.W. | 76 | 97 | 97 |
| | | | | |
| 2 | W.S.W. | 80 | 97 | 96 |
| | | | | |
| 3 | W.S.W. | 81 | 99 | 99 |
| | | | | |
| 4 | W.S.W. | 81 | 99 | 100 |
| | | | | |
| 5 | W.S.W. | 80 | 99 | 100 |
| | | | | |
| 6 | S.W. | 80 | 98 | 98 |
| | | | | |
| 7 | S.W. | 75 | 95 | 100 |
| | | | | |
| Sunday, 8 | S.W. | 78 | 98 | 98 |
| | | | | |
| 9 | S.W. | 79 | 95 | 97 |
| | | | | |
| 10 | S.W. | 78 | 89 | 90 |
| | | | | |
| 11 | W.S.W. | 75 | 89 | 93 |
| | | | | |
| 12 | W.S.W. | 79 | 87 | 95 |
| | | | | |
| 13 | W.S.W. | 80 | 95 | 95 |
| | | | | |
| 14 | W.S.W. | 81 | 97 | 97 |
| | | | | |
| Sunday, 15 | W.S.W. | 82 | 99 | 97 |
| | | | | |
| 16 | W.S.W. | 81 | 97 | 96 |
| | | | | |
| 17 | W.S.W. | 81 | 99 | 101 |
| | | | | |
| 18 | W.S.W. | 80 | 97 | 99 |
| | | | | |
| 19 | W.S.W. | 79 | 89 | 93 |
| | | | | |
| 20 | W.S.W. | 78 | 92 | 93 |
| | | | | |
| 21 | W.S.W. | 77 | 92 | 95 |
| | | | | |
| Sunday, 22 | W.S.W. | 78 | 98 | 99 |
| | | | | |
| 23 | S.W. | 81 | 95 | 87 |
| | | | | |
| 24 | S.W. | 76 | 95 | 87 |
| | | | | |
| 25 | S.W. | 80 | 97 | 96 |
| | | | | |
| 26 | S.W. | 81 | 94 | 95 |
| | | | | |
| 27 | S.W. | 87 | 96 | 98 |
| | | | | |
| 28 | S.W. | 81 | 97 | 92 |
| | | | | |
| Sunday, 29 | S.W. | 82 | 96 | 97 |
| | | | | |
| 30 | S.W. | | | |
| | | | | |
| July. 1 | S.W. | 82 | 97 | 99 |
| | | | | |
| 2 | S.W. | 81 | 92 | 92 |
| | | | | |
| 3 | S.W. | 82 | 93 | 94 |
| | | | | |
| 4 | S.W. | 74 | 85 | 84 |
| | | | | |
| 5 | S.W. | 78 | 89 | 94 |
| | | | | |
| Sunday, 6 | S.W. | 78 | 89 | 96 |
| | | | | |
| 7 | S.W. | 78 | 89 | 91 |
| | | | | |
| 8 | S.W. | 78 | 90 | 92 |
| | | | | |
| 9 | W.S.W. | 81 | 87 | 92 |
| | | | | |
| 10 | W.S.W. | 77 | 92 | 95 |
| | | | | |
| 11 | W.S.W. | 75 | 85 | 97 |
| | | | | |
| 12 | S.W. | 75 | 85 | 88 |
| | | | | |
| Sunday, 13 | S.W. | 71 | 79 | 82 |
| | | | | |
| 14 | S.W. | 72 | 82 | 89 |
| | | | | |
| 15 | S.W. | 75 | 83 | 90 |
| | | | | |
| 16 | S.W. | 76 | 87 | 90 |
| | | | | |
| 17 | S.W. | 72 | 84 | 93 |
| | | | | |
| 18 | S.W. | 76 | 83 | 89 |
| | | | | |
| 19 | S.W. | 75 | 86 | 90 |
| | | | | |
| Sunday, 20 | S.W. | 74 | 87 | 89 |
| | | | | |
| 21 | S.W. | 72 | 83 | 86 |
| | | | | |
| 22 | S.W. | 73 | 84 | 87 |
| | | | | |
| 23 | S.W. | 73 | 86 | 89 |
| | | | | |
| 24 | S.W. | 74 | 84 | 90 |
| | | | | |
| 25 | S.W. | 73 | 83 | 87 |
| | | | | |
| 26 | S.W. | 71 | 84 | 86 |
| | | | | |
| Sunday, 27 | S.W. | 80 | 86 | 89 |
| | | | | |
| 28 | S.W. | 76 | 86 | 90 |
| | | | | |
| 29 | S.W. | 73 | 84 | 87 |
| | | | | |
| 30 | S.W. | 76 | 85 | 95 |
| | | | | |
| 31 | W. | 76 | 85 | 92 |
+------------+--------+--------+-------+--------+
+-----------+-------------------+----------------------+
| | | Fah. Thermometer. |
| Date. | State of Weather. +-------+------+-------+
| | |6 a.m. |Noon. |3 p.m. |
+-----------+-------------------+-------+------+-------+
| 1823. | | | | |
| | | | | |
| Aug. 1 | Rain all night. | 75 | 82 | 86 |
| | | | | |
| 2 | | 73 | 78 | 79 |
| | | | | |
| 3 | Sunday. Rain in | 74 | 80 | 82 |
| | evening. | | | |
| | | | | |
| 4 | | 78 | 82 | 83 |
| | | | | |
| 5 | | 76 | 82 | 84 |
| | | | | |
| 6 | Rain much. | 73 | 77 | 78 |
| | | | | |
| 7 | | 74 | 78 | 81 |
| | | | | |
| 8 | Rain. | 76 | 80 | 81 |
| | | | | |
| 9 | | 75 | 81 | 82 |
| | | | | |
| 10 | Sunday. Rain, | 74 | 77 | 80 |
| | loud thunder. | | | |
| | | | | |
| 11 | | 76 | 81 | 83 |
| | | | | |
| 12 | Rain and thunder | 79 | 83 | 85 |
| | all night. | | | |
| | | | | |
| 13 | | 75 | 80 | 81 |
| | | | | |
| 14 | | 76 | 80 | 85 |
| | | | | |
| 15 | Rain, thunder, | 77 | 84 | 87 |
| | vivid lightning. | | | |
| | | | | |
| 16 | | 76 | 82 | 85 |
| | | | | |
| 17 | Sunday. | 78 | 83 | 85 |
| | | | | |
| 18 | | 77 | 84 | 86 |
| | | | | |
| 19 | Rain and thunder | 79 | 85 | 86 |
| | during the night. | | | |
| | | | | |
| 20 | Rainy day. | 78 | 84 | 85 |
| | | | | |
| 21 | | 75 | 82 | 83 |
| | | | | |
| 22 | Much rain. | 74 | 79 | 83 |
| | | | | |
| 23 | Morning cloudy. | 74 | 80 | 84 |
| | | | | |
| 24 | Sunday. Drizzling | 76 | 83 | 85 |
| | rain. | | | |
| | | | | |
| 25 | Night violent. | 75 | 77 | 79 |
| | | | | |
| 26 | Night. | 75 | 78 | 79 |
| | | | | |
| 27 | All night. | 74 | 78 | 79 |
| | | | | |
| 28 | Day and night, | 73 | 77 | 79 |
| | showers. | | | |
| | | | | |
| 29 | Rain. | 74 | 78 | 80 |
| | | | | |
| 30 | | 75 | 80 | 82 |
| | | | | |
| 31 | Sunday. Rain, | 74 | 78 | 80 |
| | much thunder. | | | |
| | | | | |
| Sep. 1 | | 74 | 79 | 81 |
| | | | | |
| 2 | | 76 | 84 | 86 |
| | | | | |
| 3 | | 79 | 85 | 89 |
| | | | | |
| 4 | | 80 | 85 | 88 |
| | | | | |
| 5 | Morning. Rain and | 80 | 80 | 81 |
| | thunder. | | | |
| | | | | |
| 6 | | 78 | 83 | 84 |
| | | | | |
| 7 | Sunday. | 78 | 85 | 86 |
| | | | | |
| 8 | Rain. | 79 | 80 | 81 |
| | | | | |
| 9 | | 78 | 83 | 85 |
| | | | | |
| 10 | Night, hurricane, | 80 | 86 | 88 |
| | east. | | | |
| | | | | |
| 11 | South. | 78 | 85 | 87 |
| | | | | |
| 12 | | 80 | 86 | 88 |
| | | | | |
| 13 | | 79 | 85 | 87 |
| | | | | |
| 14 | Sunday. | 78 | 86 | 89 |
| | | | | |
| 15 | | 80 | 86 | 89 |
| | | | | |
| 16 | | 81 | 87 | 89 |
| | | | | |
| 17 | Cloudy afternoon. | 81 | 88 | 89 |
| | | | | |
| 18 | | 80 | 85 | 87 |
| | | | | |
| 19 | Hurricane, east | 80 | 87 | 85 |
| | and a half south. | | | |
| | Strong 3 p.m. | | | |
| | | | | |
| 20 | | 80 | 84 | 87 |
| | | | | |
| 21 | Sunday. | 78 | 85 | 87 |
| | | | | |
| 22 | | 79 | 87 | 89 |
| | | | | |
| 23 | | 78 | 86 | 88 |
| | | | | |
| 24 | | 80 | 88 | 90 |
| | | | | |
| 25 | | 82 | 89 | 92 |
| | | | | |
| 26 | Violent storm, | 80 | 89 | 90 |
| | noon wind N. hail | | | |
| | and rain. | | | |
| | | | | |
| 27 | | 76 | 86 | 89 |
| | | | | |
| 28 | Sunday. | 80 | 86 | 88 |
| | | | | |
| 29 | | 81 | 87 | 91 |
| | | | | |
| 30 | | 80 | 86 | 91 |
| | | | | |
| Oct. 1 | Rain and wind in | 80 | 87 | 91 |
| | night. | | | |
| | | | | |
| 2 | | 78 | 84 | 85 |
| | | | | |
| 3 | | 80 | 85 | 88 |
| | | | | |
| 4 | Wind, thunder. | 81 | 87 | 90 |
| | | | | |
| 5 | Sunday, rain and | 80 | 86 | 88 |
| | wind. | | | |
| | | | | |
| 6 | | 79 | 87 | 89 |
| | | | | |
| 7 | | 80 | 88 | 90 |
| | | | | |
| 8 | | 80 | 89 | 93 |
| | | | | |
| 9 | | 79 | 89 | 92 |
| | | | | |
| 10 | Breeze N.W. | 78 | 89 | 91 |
| | | | | |
| 11 | | 77 | 90 | 92 |
| | | | | |
| 12 | Sunday, | 79 | 92 | 94 |
| | | | | |
| 13 | | 78 | 92 | 94 |
| | | | | |
| 14 | | 79 | 91 | 93 |
| | | | | |
| 15 | | 77 | 92 | 93 |
| | | | | |
| 16 | | 83 | 92 | 94 |
| | | | | |
| 17 | | 81 | 92 | 94 |
| | | | | |
| 18 | | 80 | 90 | 93 |
| | | | | |
| 19 | Sunday, | 81 | 92 | 94 |
| | | | | |
| 20 | | 79 | 92 | 94 |
| | | | | |
| 21 | | 80 | 92 | 94 |
| | | | | |
| 22 | | 81 | 93 | 95 |
| | | | | |
| 23 | | 75 | 90 | 92 |
| | | | | |
| 24 | | 76 | 85 | 88 |
| | | | | |
| 25 | | 77 | 87 | 90 |
| | | | | |
| 26 | Sunday, | 77 | 88 | 91 |
| | | | | |
| 27 | | 78 | 90 | 92 |
| | | | | |
| 28 | | 78 | 90 | 91 |
| | | | | |
| 29 | | 79 | 91 | 93 |
| | | | | |
| 30 | | 78 | 88 | 90 |
| | | | | |
| 31 | | 79 | 89 | 92 |
| | | | | |
| Nov. 1 | | 78 | 87 | 90 |
| | | | | |
| 2 | Sunday, | 76 | 89 | 91 |
| | | | | |
| 3 | | 75 | 88 | 89 |
| | | | | |
| 4 | | 76 | 88 | 90 |
| | | | | |
| 5 | | 77 | 87 | 89 |
| | | | | |
| 6 | | 77 | 88 | 90 |
| | | | | |
| 7 | | 76 | 87 | 90 |
| | | | | |
| 8 | | 75 | 86 | 88 |
| | | | | |
| 9 | Sunday, | 76 | 88 | 90 |
| | | | | |
| 10 | | 77 | 86 | 89 |
| | | | | |
| 11 | | 79 | 87 | 88 |
| | | | | |
| 12 | | 76 | 88 | 90 |
| | | | | |
| 13 | | 74 | 87 | 89 |
| | | | | |
| 14 | | 74 | 86 | 88 |
| | | | | |
| 15 | | 73 | 87 | 89 |
| | | | | |
| 16 | Sunday, | 74 | 88 | 89 |
| | | | | |
| 17 | | 74 | 83 | 86 |
| | | | | |
| 18 | | 75 | 85 | 87 |
| | | | | |
| 19 | | 75 | 86 | 88 |
| | | | | |
| 20 | | 75 | 85 | 87 |
| | | | | |
| 21 | | 75 | 86 | 88 |
| | | | | |
| 22 | | 69 | 78 | 81 |
| | | | | |
| 23 | Sunday, | 71 | 79 | 81 |
| | | | | |
| 24 | | 69 | 77 | 79 |
| | | | | |
| 25 | | 68 | 78 | 80 |
| | | | | |
| 26 | | 67 | 79 | 81 |
| | | | | |
| 27 | | 66 | 78 | 80 |
| | | | | |
| 28 | | 65 | 77 | 79 |
| | | | | |
| 29 | | 66 | 77 | 79 |
| | | | | |
| 30 | Sunday, | 67 | 79 | 80 |
| | | | | |
| Dec. 1 | | 66 | 79 | 81 |
| | | | | |
| 2 | | 67 | 78 | 80 |
| | | | | |
| 3 | | 66 | 79 | 81 |
| | | | | |
| 4 | | 65 | 78 | 80 |
| | | | | |
| 5 | | 67 | 80 | 82 |
| | | | | |
| 6 | | 68 | 80 | 82 |
| | | | | |
| 7 | Sunday, | 68 | 78 | 80 |
| | | | | |
| 8 | | 63 | 76 | 78 |
| | | | | |
| 9 | | 64 | 76 | 78 |
| | | | | |
| 10 | | 63 | 75 | 77 |
| | | | | |
| 11 | | 64 | 76 | 78 |
| | | | | |
| 12 | | 64 | 77 | 78 |
| | | | | |
| 13 | | 64 | 78 | 78 |
| | | | | |
| 14 | Sunday, | 63 | 75 | 77 |
| | | | | |
| 15 |{ }| 64 | 74 | 76 |
| |{ }| | | |
| 16 |{ }| 63 | 75 | 77 |
| |{Dull cold days. }| | | |
| 17 |{Wind N.N.E. and }| 64 | 75 | 76 |
| |{E., but a cloudy }| | | |
| 18 |{sun at noon. }| 63 | 74 | 76 |
| |{ }| | | |
| 19 |{ }| 63 | 72 | 74 |
| |{ }| | | |
| 20 |{ }| 63 | 71 | 72 |
| | | | | |
| 21 | Sunday, | 64 | 73 | 75 |
| | | | | |
| 22 | | 65 | 74 | 75 |
| | | | | |
| 23 | | 66 | 73 | 75 |
| | | | | |
| 24 | | 65 | 74 | 76 |
| | | | | |
| 25 | | 66 | 74 | 77 |
| | | | | |
| 26 | | 64 | 75 | 76 |
| | | | | |
| 27 | | 64 | 72 | 74 |
| | | | | |
| 28 | Sunday, | 65 | 73 | 75 |
| | | | | |
| 29 | | 64 | 74 | 76 |
| | | | | |
| 30 | N.E. cold. | 61 | 63 | 65 |
| | | | | |
| 31 | | 58 | 66 | 73 |
| | | | | |
| 1824. | | | | |
| | | | | |
| Jan. 1 | | 61 | 74 | 76 |
| | | | | |
| 2 | | 60 | 71 | 72 |
| | | | | |
| 3 | | 61 | 72 | 73 |
| | | | | |
| 4 | Sunday, | 60 | 70 | 74 |
| | | | | |
| 5 | | 61 | 73 | 75 |
| | | | | |
| 6 | | 63 | 75 | 77 |
| | | | | |
| 7 | | 65 | 77 | 79 |
| | | | | |
| 8 | | 65 | 82 | 84 |
| | | | | |
| 9 | | 66 | 84 | 86 |
| | | | | |
| 10 | | 65 | 83 | 85 |
| | | | | |
| 11 | Sunday, | 64 | 82 | 84 |
| | | | | |
| 12 | | 65 | 83 | 85 |
| | | | | |
| 13 | | 66 | 84 | 86 |
| | | | | |
| 14 | | 66 | 85 | 86 |
| | | | | |
| 15 | Elephant, | 70 | 85 | 87 |
| | | | | |
| 16 | | 75 | 86 | 87 |
| | | | | |
| 17 | | 74 | 85 | 86 |
| | | | | |
| 18 | Sunday, | 75 | 87 | 89 |
| | | | | |
| 19 | | 75 | 90 | 91 |
| | | | | |
| 20 | | 74 | 87 | 89 |
| | | | | |
| 21 | | 75 | 88 | 90 |
| | | | | |
| 22 | | 74 | 86 | 87 |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| Mar. 2 | | 80 | 94 | 96 |
| | | | | |
| 3 | | 77 | 94 | 95 |
| | | | | |
| 4 | | 78 | 95 | 97 |
| | | | | |
| 5 | | 78 | 95 | 96 |
| | | | | |
| 6 | | 80 | 95 | 97 |
| | | | | |
| 7 | Sunday, | 79 | 96 | 98 |
| | | | | |
| 8 | | 80 | 95 | 96 |
| | | | | |
| 9 | | 79 | 91 | 93 |
| | | | | |
| 10 | | 79 | 92 | 94 |
| | | | | |
| 11 | | 78 | 93 | 95 |
| | | | | |
| 12 | | 79 | 92 | 94 |
| | | | | |
| 13 | | 78 | 94 | 96 |
| | | | | |
| 14 | Sunday, | 80 | 95 | 97 |
| | | | | |
| 15 | | 82 | 95 | 98 |
| | | | | |
| 16 | | 80 | 94 | 96 |
| | | | | |
| 17 | | 79 | 93 | 95 |
| | | | | |
| 18 | Winds south. | 79 | 92 | 94 |
| | | | | |
| 19 | Heavy dull sky. | 78 | 91 | 93 |
| | | | | |
| 20 | | 79 | 93 | 95 |
| | | | | |
| 21 | Sunday, | 79 | 94 | 96 |
| | | | | |
| 22 | | 78 | 93 | 95 |
| | | | | |
| 23 | North breeze. | 75 | 90 | 92 |
| | | | | |
| 24 | | 76 | 89 | 91 |
| | | | | |
| 25 | | 77 | 90 | 91 |
| | | | | |
| 26 | | 78 | 94 | 97 |
| | | | | |
| 27 | | 80 | 95 | 99 |
| | | | | |
| 28 | Sunday, | 83 | 99 | 101 |
| | | | | |
| 29 | | 85 | 99 | 102 |
| | | | | |
| 30 | | 84 | 98 | 100 |
| | | | | |
| 31 | | 85 | 99 | 100 |
| | | | | |
| Apr. 1 | | 86 | 97 | 99 |
| | | | | |
| 2 | | 85 | 94 | 96 |
| | | | | |
| 3 | | 84 | 95 | 96 |
| | | | | |
| 4 | Sunday, | 79 | 93 | 95 |
| | | | | |
| 5 | | 84 | 96 | 100 |
| | | | | |
| 6 | | 86 | 99 | 101 |
| | | | | |
| 7 | | 87 | 98 | 100 |
| | | | | |
| 8 | Slight rain with | 86 | 100 | 104 |
| | lightning. | | | |
| | | | | |
| 9 | | 90 | 101 | 104 |
| | | | | |
| 10 | | 87 | 99 | 102 |
| | | | | |
| 11 | Sunday, | 88 | 100 | 103 |
| | | | | |
| 12 | | 86 | 102 | 105 |
| | | | | |
| 13 | | 87 | 103 | 105 |
| | | | | |
| 14 | | 86 | 101 | 103 |
| | | | | |
| 15 | | 87 | 101 | 102 |
| | | | | |
| 16 | | 86 | 100 | 103 |
| | | | | |
| 17 | | 85 | 100 | 104 |
| | | | | |
| 18 | Sunday, | 86 | 101 | 105 |
| | | | | |
| 19 | | 84 | 101 | 103 |
| | | | | |
| 20 | | 85 | 100 | 105 |
| | | | | |
| 21 | | 86 | 100 | 106 |
| | | | | |
| 22 | N.W. wind, | 86 | 100 | 100 |
| | | | | |
| 23 | | 85 | 100 | 102 |
| | | | | |
| 24 | Thick atmosphere. | 86 | 102 | 103 |
| | | | | |
| 25 | Sunday, | 79 | 99 | 102 |
| | | | | |
| 26 |} {| 86 | 103 | 103 |
| |} Violent {| | | |
| 27 |} N.W. {| 86 | 102 | 102 |
| |} winds. {| | | |
| 28 |} {| 83 | 102 | 103 |
| | | | | |
| 29 | | 80 | 102 | 103 |
| | | | | |
| 30 | | 82 | 103 | 103 |
| | | | | |
| May 1 | | 86 | 104 | 106 |
| | | | | |
| 2 | Dull and thick, | 83 | 100 | 104 |
| | with wind. | | | |
| | | | | |
| 3 |} {| | | |
| |} {| | | |
| 4 |} Rain, {| 83 | 100 | 100 |
| |} Thunder. {| | | |
| 5 |} {| 81 | 100 | 100 |
| |} {| | | |
| 6 |} {| | | |
| | | | | |
| 7 | | 86 | 98 | 100 |
| | | | | |
| 8 | | 85 | 99 | 101 |
| | | | | |
| 9 | Sunday, | 87 | 99 | 102 |
| | | | | |
| 10 | | 88 | 99 | 101 |
| | | | | |
| 11 | | 87 | 97 | 99 |
| | | | | |
| 12 | | 89 | 99 | 101 |
| | | | | |
| 13 | First day of | 88 | 99 | 106 |
| | summer. | | | |
| | | | | |
| 14 | | 80 | 99 | 104 |
| | | | | |
| 15 | | 81 | 100 | 104 |
| | | | | |
| 16 | Sunday, | 86 | 100 | 104 |
| | | | | |
| 17 | | 84 | 99 | 100 |
| | | | | |
| 18 | | 86 | 100 | 102 |
| | | | | |
| 19 | | 87 | 101 | 103 |
| | | | | |
| 20 | | 88 | 102 | 104 |
| | | | | |
| 21 | | 86 | 100 | 104 |
| | | | | |
| 22 | | 85 | 99 | 104 |
| | | | | |
| 23 | Sunday, | 86 | 98 | 104 |
| | | | | |
| 24 |} {| 88 | 101 | 102 |
| |} {| | | |
| 25 |} Sun rises at {| 87 | 100 | 103 |
| |} 5. 10. and {| | | |
| 26 |} the day is {| 88 | 100 | 104 |
| |} 13h. 10m. {| | | |
| 27 |} sets 6. 10. {| 87 | 101 | 103 |
| |} {| | | |
| 28 |} {| 88 | 102 | 103 |
| | | | | |
| 29 | Morning, thick | 89 | 101 | 102 |
| | hot vapours. | | | |
| | | | | |
| 30 | Sunday. Night | 91 | 100 | 101 |
| | stormy, no rain. | | | |
| | | | | |
| 31 | | 88 | 98 | 100 |
| | | | | |
| June 1 | | 90 | 101 | 102 |
| | | | | |
| 2 | | 89 | 99 | 102 |
| | | | | |
| 3 | | 90 | 103 | 105 |
| | | | | |
| 4 | | 90 | 102 | 104 |
| | | | | |
| 5 | Dull. | 89 | 103 | 104 |
| | | | | |
| 6 | Sunday, | 88 | 102 | 103 |
| | | | | |
| 7 | | 87 | 101 | 102 |
| | | | | |
| 8 | | 88 | 99 | 100 |
| | | | | |
| 9 | | 89 | 100 | 102 |
| | | | | |
| 10 | | 87 | 98 | 99 |
| | | | | |
| 11 | | 87 | 97 | 100 |
| | | | | |
| 12 | Wind S.S.E. | 89 | 99 | 102 |
| | | | | |
| 13 | Sunday, | 88 | 100 | 104 |
| | | | | |
| 14 | | 89 | 100 | 104 |
| | | | | |
| 15 | | 90 | 101 | 103 |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
| July 19 | | 80 | 87 | 90 |
| | | | | |
| 20 | | 78 | 87 | 89 |
| | | | | |
| 21 | Much rain. | 79 | 88 | 90 |
| | | | | |
| 22 | Dull. | 80 | 86 | 86 |
| | | | | |
| 23 | | 80 | 90 | 95 |
| | | | | |
| 24 | | 79 | 89 | 91 |
| | | | | |
| 25 | Sunday, | 80 | 91 | 92 |
| | | | | |
| 26 | | 80 | 90 | 92 |
| | | | | |
| 27 | | 78 | 88 | 90 |
| | | | | |
| 28 | | 79 | 87 | 91 |
| | | | | |
| 29 | | 78 | 88 | 92 |
| | | | | |
| 30 | | 80 | 89 | 91 |
| | | | | |
| 31 | | 80 | 89 | 90 |
| | | | | |
| Aug. 1 | Sunday, | 81 | 92 | 96 |
| | | | | |
| 2 | | 81 | 93 | 95 |
| | | | | |
| 3 | | 80 | 90 | 91 |
| | | | | |
| 4 | | 78 | 87 | 90 |
| | | | | |
| 5 | | 79 | 89 | 92 |
| | | | | |
| 6 | Sultry. Aide | 80 | 94 | 95 |
| | kebir. | | | |
| | | | | |
| 7 | Night, rain. | 81 | 91 | 93 |
| | | | | |
| 8 | Sunday, | 78 | 84 | 87 |
| | | | | |
| 9 | | 79 | 88 | 90 |
| | | | | |
| 10 | | 80 | 89 | 90 |
| | | | | |
| 11 | | 79 | 88 | 90 |
| | | | | |
| 12 | Much rain. | 80 | 89 | 90 |
| | | | | |
| 13 | | 78 | 80 | 82 |
| | | | | |
| 14 | | 79 | 81 | 83 |
| | | | | |
| 15 | Sunday, | 76 | 82 | 81 |
+-----------+-------------------+-------+------+-------+
* * * * *
_Thermometrical Journal kept at Kano._
+------------+--------+-------------------------+
| | | Fah. Thermometer. |
| Date. | Winds. +--------+-------+--------+
| | | 6 a.m. | Noon. | 3 p.m. |
+------------+--------+--------+-------+--------+
| January | | | | |
| 1824. | | | | |
| | | | | |
| Sunday, 25 | E.N.E. | 83 | 84 | 84 |
| | | | | |
| 26 | E.N.E. | 82 | 84 | 84 |
| | | | | |
| 27 | N.E. | 64 | 79 | 79 |
| | | | | |
| 28 | N.E. | 65 | 80 | 80 |
| | | | | |
| 29 | N.E. | 74 | 75 | 76 |
| | | | | |
| 30 | N.E. | 74 | 76 | 76 |
| | | | | |
| 31 | N.E. | 72 | 75 | 76 |
| | | | | |
| February | | | | |
| | | | | |
| Sunday, 1 | N.E. | 80 | 82 | 83 |
| | | | | |
| 2 | N.E. | 73 | 79 | 79 |
| | | | | |
| 3 | N.E. | 69 | 79 | 80 |
| | | | | |
| 4 | N.E. | 70 | 79 | 78 |
| | | | | |
| 5 | N.E. | 79 | 83 | 83 |
| | | | | |
| 6 | E.N.E. | 79 | 82 | 84 |
| | | | | |
| 7 | E.N.E. | 81 | 84 | 84 |
| | | | | |
| Sunday, 8 | N.E. | 79 | 84 | 84 |
| | | | | |
| 9 | N.E. | 75 | 79 | 80 |
| | | | | |
| 10 | N.E. | 77 | 80 | 80 |
| | | | | |
| 11 | N.E. | 74 | 74 | 74 |
| | | | | |
| 12 | N.E. | 70 | 73 | 73 |
| | | | | |
| 13 | N.E. | 69 | 73 | 74 |
| | | | | |
| 14 | N.E. | 72 | 74 | 74 |
| | | | | |
| Sunday, 15 | N.E. | 72 | 76 | 76 |
| | | | | |
| 16 | N.E. | 74 | 82 | 83 |
| | | | | |
| 17 | N.E. | 74 | 84 | 84 |
| | | | | |
| 18 | N.E. | 81 | 85 | 86 |
| | | | | |
| 19 | N.E. | 82 | 87 | 87 |
| | | | | |
| 20 | N.E. | 81 | 85 | 86 |
| | | | | |
| 21 | E.N.E. | 82 | 86 | 87 |
| | | | | |
+------------+--------+--------+-------+--------+
_Thermometrical Journal kept at Sackatoo._
+------------+--------+-------------------------+
| | | Fah. Thermometer. |
| Date. | Winds. +--------+-------+--------+
| | | 6 a.m. | Noon. | 3 p.m. |
+------------+--------+--------+-------+--------+
|March 1824. | | | | |
| | | | | |
| 16 | E.N.E. | 84 | 93 | 95 |
| | | | | |
| 17 | E.N.E. | 82 | 94 | 96 |
| | | | | |
| 18 | E.N.E. | 84 | 91 | 95 |
| | | | | |
| 19 | E.N.E. | 86 | 94 | 96 |
| | | | | |
| 20 | E.N.E. | 82 | 93 | 95 |
| | | | | |
| Sunday, 21 | E.N.E. | 83 | 94 | 96 |
| | | | | |
| 22 | E.N.E. | 84 | 94 | 95 |
| | | | | |
| 23 | E.N.E. | 82 | 93 | 96 |
| | | | | |
| 24 | E.N.E. | 84 | 95 | 98 |
| | | | | |
| 25 | E.N.E. | 83 | 96 | 97 |
| | | | | |
| 26 | E.N.E. | 82 | 94 | 96 |
| | | | | |
| 27 | E.S.E. | 82 | 94 | 99 |
| | | | | |
| Sunday, 28 | E.S.E. | 86 | 96 | 98 |
| | | | | |
| 29 | E.S.E. | 84 | 94 | 96 |
| | | | | |
| 30 | E.S.E. | 84 | 96 | 100 |
| | | | | |
| 31 | E.S.E. | 81 | 96 | 99 |
| | | | | |
| April. | | | | |
| | | | | |
| 1 | E.S.E. | 79 | 94 | 98 |
| | | | | |
| 2 | E.S.E. | 78 | 94 | 98 |
| | | | | |
| 3 | E.S.E. | 84 | 98 | 98 |
| | | | | |
| Sunday, 4 | E.N.E. | 74 | 95 | 98 |
| | | | | |
| 5 | E.N.E. | 83 | 92 | 96 |
| | | | | |
| 6 | E.N.E. | 76 | 98 | 101 |
| | | | | |
| 7 | E.N.E. | 77 | 100 | 102 |
| | | | | |
| 8 | E.N.E. | 78 | 100 | 104 |
| | | | | |
| 9 | E.N.E. | 85 | 98 | 99 |
| | | | | |
| 10 | E.N.E. | 84 | 100 | 104 |
| | | | | |
| Sunday, 11 | S.W. | 84 | 95 | 98 |
| | | | | |
| 12 | S.W. | 84 | 100 | 104 |
| | | | | |
| 13 | S.W. | 84 | 99 | 103 |
| | | | | |
| 14 | S.W. | 84 | 104 | 108 |
| | | | | |
| 15 | S.W. | 86 | 103 | 106 |
| | | | | |
| 16 | S.W. | 87 | 102 | 106 |
| | | | | |
| 17 | S.W. | 89 | 100 | 102 |
| | | | | |
| Sunday, 18 | S.W. | 87 | 97 | 102 |
| | | | | |
| 19 | S.W. | 87 | 100 | 104 |
| | | | | |
| 20 | S.W. | 88 | 99 | 100 |
| | | | | |
| 21 | S.W. | 84 | 92 | 95 |
| | | | | |
| 22 | S.W. | 85 | 91 | 97 |
| | | | | |
| 23 | S.W. | 81 | 96 | 98 |
| | | | | |
| 24 | S.W. | 78 | 81 | 82 |
| | | | | |
| Sunday, 25 | S.W. | 74 | 92 | 91 |
| | | | | |
| 26 | S.W. | 79 | 94 | 96 |
| | | | | |
| 27 | S.W. | 76 | 92 | 98 |
| | | | | |
| 28 | S.W. | 79 | 89 | 94 |
| | | | | |
| 29 | S.W. | 74 | 100 | 102 |
| | | | | |
| 30 | S.W. | 76 | 91 | 94 |
| | | | | |
| May. | | | | |
| | | | | |
| 1 | S.W. | 76 | 98 | 102 |
| | | | | |
| Sunday, 2 | S.W. | 76 | 99 | 102 |
| | | | | |
| 3 | S.W. | 78 | 100 | 102 |
+------------+--------+--------+-------+--------+
NOTE.—The observations of the height of mercury in the barometer were
mostly discontinued at Kouka, partly from the illness of Dr. Oudney,
who took charge of the instrument, and partly from the uncertainty of
its accuracy. At Tripoli it was regularly registered three times a day
for about three months, the mean height during that period being 30,39
inches. About the middle of the desert, and indeed most of the way from
Mourzuk to the Yeou, it generally stood about 28,50, and at Kouka from
28,72 to 29 inches.
THE END.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY THOMAS DAVISON, WHITEFRIARS.
[Illustration: From Sketches by Major Denham.
Etched by E. Finden.
FIG. 1. QUIVER OF ARROWS OF THE MUNGA NATION; FIG. 2. ONE
OF THE ARROWS; FIG. 3. CAP OF THE QUIVER.
FIG. 4. BOW OF THE MUNGA NATION.
FIG. 5. 6. & 7. JAVELINS OF CENTRAL AFRICA.
FIG 8. CASE SUSPENDED FROM THE SADDLE, TO RECEIVE THE POINTS
OF THE JAVELINS.
_Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London._]
[Illustration: From Drawings by Major Denham.
Engraved by E. Finden.
FIG. 1. SADDLE AND SABRE-TASCHE OF THE PRINCE OF BEGHARMI.
FIG. 2. DOUBLE-HEADED LANCE OF THE CAVALRY OF BEGHARMI.
FIG. 3. LANCE OF THE BODY-GUARD OF THE SHEIKH OF BOURNOU.
FIG. 4. JAVELIN OF CENTRAL AFRICA.
_Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London._]
[Illustration: From Drawings by Major Denham.
Engraved by E. Finden.
FIG. 1. & 2. FRONT VIEW AND PROFILE OF A CHANFRON USED BY THE
CAVALRY OF BOURNOU.
FIG. 3. & 4. HAND-BILLS CALLED BY THE NATIVES HUNGA-MUNGAS, USED
BY THE INFANTRY TO THROW AT A RETREATING ENEMY.
FIG. 5. BATTLE-AXE SUSPENDED FROM THE SADDLE-BOW.
FIG. 6. & 7. DAGGER AND ITS SHEATH, CONSTANTLY WORN ON THE
LEFT ARM BY THE CHIEFS.
FIG. 8. & 9. FRONT AND BACK OF AN IRON CUIRASS, WORN BY THE
CHIEFS OF BOURNOU.
_Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London._]
Transcriber's note:
An entry for the Prefatory notice by John Barrow has been added to
the table of contents.
pg xvi-xvii (footnote 1) Changed: poor in the grusses to: grasses
pg liii Changed: Mahomet ben Kaml to: Raml
pg lv Changed: a bowl of libau to: liban
pg 105 Changed: hung round ther necks to: their
plate 16 (caption) Changed: ATTACH IN MUSFEIA. to: ATTACK ON
MUSFEIA.
pg 220 (in table, row: Ear) Changed: 2[ft.] 2 by 2 6[in.] to:
2 by 2[ft.] 6[in.]
(changed as seen in French transl. of this edition, 1826)
pg 268 (footnote 52) Changed: flows near Darpoor to: Darfoor
After Denham's Narrative:
pg 77 Changed: expedition under Abdecachman to: Abderachman
pg 152 Changed: named Fair (Tyrwhit) to: Tair
pg 162 Changed: Amoug the provinces to: Among
pg 194 Changed: S. albovittalus to: albovittatus
pg 231 Changed: universall exist in to: universally
List of plates Changed: Salt Lake Tegishy to: Salt Lake at Tegerhy
The list of plates has been moved from the end of the book to after
the table of contents.
Minor changes in punctuation and fixes of typographical errors have
been done silently.
Other spelling inconsistencies have been left unchanged.
In the LETTERS table (Excursion to the Westward of Mourzuk),
the Tuarick characters have been indicated as [Symbol] followed by
the inferred Tifinagh equivalent, when possible.
*** End of this Doctrine Publishing Corporation Digital Book "Narrative of travels and discoveries in Northern and Central Africa, in the years 1822, 1823, and 1824" ***