Chapter 12

FORT ARCHINARD.

With Bluzet the keynote of the decorations was art. He had draperies of velvet, a little faded and frayed perhaps, at nine-pence or so a yard, with others of native manufacture. Dr. Taburet’s speciality was medicine-bottles, with a horrible smell of iodoform, or, to be more accurate, of all the disinfectants known to science, and carefully protected in a tin case set on a what-not, a souvenir he never parted with, and often gazed upon, the portrait of the lady he was to marry on his return home.

Fili Kanté, a boy in the service of Bluzet, who was not only cook but blacksmith and clown to the expedition, concocted a cocked hat for each of our pointed huts, which after a few tornadoes had passed over them were worn, so to speak, over one ear!

The huts of the men were all very much alike, but two on the side of the longest wall were of course rather larger than the others, and of a rectangular shape. Lastly, we had a big watertight store made, in which we stowed away all our valuables. The canvas sail of the foremast of theAubefastened to the ground served as a kind of shelter for the interpreters, merchants, supernumeraries, etc., and everything was covered over to the best of our ability with our tents, awnings, etc.

Well, we were under shelter now, and you know what kind of shelter, from the inclemency of the rainy season and the bullets of the Toucouleurs. We had still storms to expect, and against them we were less well provided. We had already encountered a few of them unprotected. We had had plenty of tents, of course, but we knew from experience, that when we saw the preliminary fantasia of the dried leaves on the left bank beginning, the best thing to do was to put on as quickly as possible all the waterproofs to be had, and go outside to meet the hurricane, turning our backs to it, and at the same time tightening the ropes of the tents. It was really the only way not to get it—I mean the tent, not the hurricane—on our shoulders!

It took us a good month of hard work without any rest to establish our camp. Every morning one party went to fetch straw, whilst the rest of us kept guard at home and worked at thetata. We were all glad enough when everything was done, but at the same time we were rather afraid of theennuiof inaction, as the following quotation from my notes will show—

“May 16.—Thetatawas finished this morning, the huts, a dining-room, and agurbior servants’ hall, a kitchen, and an oven of a sort. There is nothing left to do now, for Suzanne is the only member of our expedition still without a shelter.Mon Dieu, how dull it will be!”

OSMAN.

Truth to tell, we did have some dull days, and no mistake; but of course we should have had them in garrison or on board ship. Fortunately, however, to relieve the monotony of our stay, a regular world in miniature gathered about us, for we had eager visitors, courtiers, accredited traders, not to speak of other guests we might have had if we had chosen.

I must now introduce a few of these people. Two men played a very important part in our existence at Fort Archinard. These two were Osman and Pullo. The former was the man from Say, the Koyrabero who had been waiting for us before we reached Sansan-Haussa, no doubt to spy on us, and who had come down to Say with us on theDavoust; a vulgar fellow, without either dignity or intelligence, he played the ignoble rôle of go-between all the time we were in the neighbourhood. Of Songhay race, with a dash of the Fulah in his composition, he had the duplicity of the latter, whilst retaining all the stupidity of the former.

He was physically a handsome fellow, with fine features, as black as a crow, but he was getting old now, and was afflicted not only with tubercular disease, but also with a kind of leprosy, which did not prevent him from shaking hands with us three times a day.

He often came with a marabout named Ali, who was further gone in consumption than himself.

Pullo, or Pullo Sidibé, to give his full title, was a very different kind of man. Tall, thin, with a comparatively pale complexion, he wore a filthychechiaor native cap a little on one side. He had a way of moving his arms up and down like a semaphore, and really rather resembled a big scarecrow in rags. With a mysterious air, such as a Sibyl might wear, he was constantly taking one or another of us aside to some corner, or to an ant-hill or mound, far from indiscreet listeners, to impart in a solemn manner some utterly incredible false news of which we shall have an example to give presently. I must mention, too, the way in which he used to smile when we pointed out to him in a friendly way the mistakes he had made. “Ah,” he would say to me laughing, “I shall never go back to my fields as long as you are here, I shall neverlook after my flock again. You are my milch cow, you are my greatlugan.”

He was at no pains to disguise the true motives for his devotion, and we were at least able to hope to bind him to us by self-interest.

Osman and Pullo had certain qualities in common, for both were equally covetous of presents, and equally ready to tell lies with imperturbable seriousness; but whereas Pollo carried on his deceptions with the air of a grand seignior and the smile of a superior man, such as a Fulah might wear who had been brought in contact with the Tuaregs, Osman showed his avarice and venality without the slightest attempt at disguise.

The two enjoyed a monopoly of the news, generally false, as I have already said, brought to us from the Say market. They hit upon another dodge too, and a very lucrative one; this was to introduce to us envoys more or less genuine, and more or less interesting, from the chiefs of the outlying districts and villages. At first Pullo or Khalifa, as he was also called, worked at this trade alone, and it would be our first amusement in the morning to climb the ant-hill in front of the fort and look out for him. We generally saw him pretty soon, his approach heralded by a red spot on the horizon.

I read in my notes of May 16—“At about eight o’clock, far away on the borders of the wood in the direction of Say, we see approaching the thin figure of Pullo Sidibé, surmounted by his dirty fez, balanced in an uncertain kind of way upon his head. He is followed by a gentleman in a clean whitebubu. ‘Page, pretty page,’ we cry, ‘what news do you bring?’

With this extraordinary personage everything is possible. I expect some morning to hear him announce with the air of some herald of a great embassy, “Amadu Cheiku!the Emir el Munemin, or perhaps even the Grand Turk, or her Majesty the Queen!”

All went well for some time with Pullo, but when Osman realized the rewards to be obtained by bringing news or envoys, he set up as a rival to our first friend. The envoys, who were generally picked up in the Friday market at Say, now came in pairs, each with his own showman.

PULLO KHALIFA.

After this opposition was set up, a syndicate was of course sure to follow. I suspect, however, that if Osman sometimes got the chestnuts out of the fire, it was generally Khalifa who ate them.

I had to dwell rather fully on these two fellows, theyplayed such a very preponderant part in our lives, but there were others of secondary rank, so to speak, of whom I must say a few words.

To begin with, there was the acting chief of the opposite village named Mamadu, as at least half of his fellow-believers are. With a clear complexion and an intelligent expression, he was still a regular scamp, ready to lend himself to any treachery. In the Fulah language there is a word which means “give a little present so as to get a very big one.” I am not sure whether there is any word corresponding to this in Songhay, but there is not the slightest doubt that the Koyraberos know how to practise the manœuvre suggested by the word, and Mamadu was an adept at it. On one occasion, however, his hopes of a present were disappointed, and he was guilty of a very great mistake. We simply had to turn him out of the camp, and from that moment he became all submission to us. Our coolies in their free-spoken way nicknamed him the blackguard Mamadu, and no doubt he had well merited the epithet by some dastardly deed they knew of.

A TYPICAL KOURTEYE.

Amongst our constant visitors was one quite small boy, the son of the famous Abd el Kader of Timbuktu, who had been the guest of the French Geographical Society there, a corresponding member of that of Paris, the great diplomatist who had been made a plenipotentiary in spite of himself, and who had acted as guide to my friend Caron in his grand journey. Abd el Kader, when driven from Timbuktu, wandered about in the districts near thebend of the river. No doubt under pretence of making a pilgrimage to Mecca, he lived like a true marabout at the expense of the natives, seducing many women, and leaving many children behind him whose mothers he had deserted. It is said that he is now with Samory.

THE ARABU.

His little son to whom I referred above was called “the Arabu.” He was very proud of his parentage, and looked upon his father as a saint. Though small for his age, he had a big head of the shape known as hydrocephalic, and was a very sensible, intelligent little fellow, with quite refined instincts. From our first arrival at Say he had bravely come to see us on our barges, and though he was trembling in all his limbs as he spoke, he explained his position clearly to us. We made a great fuss over him, giving him sugar to eat. The gamins of Say looked upon him as partly a white, and partly what they call atubabu. Strange to say, when there was any difficulty with the market-women, who sometimes made a great noise, singing seditious songs and dancing to their accompaniment, shouting out praises of Aliburi or Amadu, it was always the little Arabu who was deputed to go and pacify them. As he expressed it, “the son of an ambassador, I too am an ambassador!”

This child grew quite fond of us. Being on his father’s side of more or less Twat origin, he considered himselfa white man like ourselves, and of all our guests he was perhaps the only disinterested one, if we say nothing about the sugar.

Amongst the Koyraberos, it is the children, boys or girls, who are the most attractive. The little negroes are innocent enough up to twelve or thirteen years old, and are often very bright and intelligent. But when they reach the age at which they are considered men and women, the indulgence of their passions brutalizes the males, whilst the females are worn out by the number of children they all have. The fatalism of the Mahommedans gives them also something of the wan expression of oxen who expect they know not what. I believe the negro race might be very greatly improved by the careful selection of children before they are subjected to evil influences. A careful education of such selected boys and girls would, in the course of a few generations, result in the growing up of useful citizens and intelligent workers for the common good.

It may be that the decline in the intelligence of negroes is partly the result of the way the children are carried about in infancy by their mothers. They ride pig-a-back all day long, kept in place by a cotton band fastened above the breasts of the mother, who takes no notice of them even when they cry. The women do everything, wash, beat the linen, cook and pound the grain, with their children tied to them in this fashion. The head of the poor little one comes out above the bandage, and is shaken and flung backwards and forwards at every blow of the pestle. It really is very likely that this perpetual motion injures the brain of the growing child, and accounts for the degeneration of the race.

However that may be, the constant pressure on the breasts of the mother leads to their rapid disfigurement;they look quite old before they have reached middle life. Every one knows that negresses often give the breast to their babies over their shoulders or even from under the arm-pit.

So far the French have taken no steps for the effective occupation of Say, and Amadu Cheiku has been undisputed master of the country ever since the breaking at Sinder of the power of Madidu over the Tuaregs. Dunga was the first place in which the Toucouleurs settled for any time. After their exodus many circumstances combined in favour of their chief. Driven from Sego, Nioro, and Massina by the French, as a punishment for his many crimes and treacheries, he took refuge at Duentza near Dori, but as, like a good marabout, he tried (from religious motives of course) to poison the chief and reign in his stead, he was expelled from the town and had once more to flee for his life. Many of his people deserted him and returned to Massina. Wandering as a fugitive from village to village he passed his days begging from hut to hut, trying in vain to win back the deserters.

The Toucouleurs found it difficult to get a living now, for no one would treat them as marabouts any longer. The Fulahs of Torodi refused to let them pass. Ibrahim Galadio, whose influence was preponderant throughout the country, was not favourable to the Toucouleurs, and they now took possession of Larba in independent Songhay, but the Logomaten, or the Tuaregs of Bokar Wandieïdu, defeated them with much bloodshed and took three hundred of them prisoners.

The toils were closing in upon Amadu Cheiku, who, taught caution by experience, expected to find the French skirmishers at his heels before they were really there. Things did indeed look black for him, when a saviour suddenly arose in the person of the chief of Say, who hadwon back Galadio and Amiru of Torodi to the cause of the true religion, and at the very time that he was signing a treaty with the French, gave passage to Amadu, against whom he had been pretending to need our help.

Amadu crossed the river, and was hospitably received by the people of Djerma, who gave him the village of Dungu for himself and his people.

Profiting by family quarrels, the wily chief soon became master, and presently took possession of the big village of Karma, and it was not until they were all taken prisoners, that the Djermankobes discovered that they had been warming and feeding a serpent.

Now Amadu is once more a great marabout in right of his inheritance from his father, El Hadj Omar. He is also a formidable military chief, able to put five hundred guns into the field, for he has that number of Toucouleur warriors under him. His word is paramount from Sinder to Kibtachi. Unfortunate circumstances, including the blood shed by the Christians, have won to his side the whole of the Mussulman population, and besides his five hundred guns, he can dispose of from ten to twenty thousand so-called archers or men armed with spears.

His aim, or rather that of his principal adviser, Aliburi, who is really the organizer of everything, seems to be to join hands on the one side with Samory, and on the other with the Sultan of Sokoto, from whom, however, he is divided by the Kebbi, Mauri, and Gober. Moreover, Samory has a brother who was the leader of the column which took to flight after the French success at Nioro. He will achieve his ends unless we can prevent it, for his confederation is strengthened by the fact that all are united in devotion to the Mussulman faith, whilst the various native tribes combined against him, though they are individuallybraver and stronger, have nothing to bind them together or to lead them to act in concert.

If this union be brought about, the three great slave-dealers of Western Africa—Samory, Amadu, and the Emir el Munemin of Sokoto, will be combined against all comers, and we may expect to see the complete depopulation of the Niger districts above Say. Amadu has already begun his operations down-stream, where the banks are deserted, the villages in ruins, and, where once the Toucouleurs women came to draw water and to wash their clothes, grow quantities of wild flowers and creepers.

Let us hope, however, that the recent occupation of Fandu, and the French policy of establishing an effective protectorate over the negro races may produce a salutary effect.[10]

The only man in a position to make head against Amadu was Ibrahim Galadio, a stranger to the country, whose father had fled there, chased from Massina by the Fulahs of Amadu, the great founder of the ephemeral dynasty of Hamda-Allahi. Galadio has guns, Galadio has atata, he is as strong as the Toucouleurs, and no one would be able to understand his rallying to the cause of Amadu Cheiku, and submitting to him, if it were not for the prestige still attached to the name of that chief’s father, El Hadj Omar. Yet the former Sultan of Sego is, as every one knows, a Mussulman, with neither faith nor belief in any law, stained with numerous crimes, a traitor to hisfather, cursed even by him, cruel to his women, the murderer of his brothers, avaricious in dealing with hissofas, and above all the founder of a heresy.

The Torodi are hand and glove with the Tuaregs, and the people of Say side with them, but the latter are not of much account as warriors. Say is really nothing more than a hot-house for breeding second-rate and intolerant marabouts. Notam-tams, no games are allowed in it, and only on account of its past has it some little historic importance.

A FEMALE TUAREG BLACKSMITH IN THE SERVICE OF IBRAHIM GALADIO.

The Gaberos, the revolted vassals of the Awellimiden, are also on Amadu’s side. They rallied round him voluntarily from the first, but one day when they were beating theirtabalasor war-drums, an envoy from Dungu ran through the villages and staved in those drums, which amongst negroes is considered the greatest insult. Withhim went a herald shouting—“Henceforth there is notabalain the land, but that of Amadu Cheiku, the son of El Hadj Omar!”

At the invocation of that name so full of prestige, the Gaberos bowed their heads, and very soon afterwards they had to pay taxes like every one else.

The Sidibees soon joined them, for they and the Gaberos both belong to the Fulah race.

Other tribes such as the Sillabees, like the Wagobes of Sinder and the Sarracolais of the Senegal districts, had emigrated here, after intestine quarrels with the Djanaru of Nioro, whilst the Kurteyes, who are Fulahs of Massina, joined the Rimaibes or domestic slaves, and the Bozos or emigrants from Fituka, in the time of the Ardos of Massina under the last of the Askias.

This fact of their mixed origin will explain the courage of these warrior tribes, for the Fulahs of pure descent are by no means remarkable for bravery.

Even during our stay at Say, the Wagobés, the Kurteyes, and the Sillabees were certainly on Amadu’s side, though their devotion was rather lukewarm. Perhaps if they had known that we meant to stay in the country, and had not been afraid of reprisals after we left, they would have declared themselves on our side; in a lukewarm way of course. It is in fact on these mixed tribes, which are neither entirely Songhay nor Fulah, though they are all Mussulmans, that we shall have to depend in our future occupation of the districts under notice.

In the present state of Say politics we must also take the Gurma, the Fandu, and the Mossi people into account. They are all heathens, but unfortunately the Mahommedan religion daily wins recruits amongst these people, who were once devoted to fetichism alone. True heathens, as heathens, are not worth much, for they are cruel, addicted to drink,and credulous of the delusions their sorcerers teach them; but they are worth a great deal more than the Mussulmans, for fetichism may be improved upon and turned to account, but you can do nothing with a Mahommedan.

The policy which ought to be followed in the districts round Say is to oppose the marabout coalition which has rallied about Amadu, with the fetich-worshipping people of Gurma and the lukewarm Mussulmans of Dendi and Kebbi. They can be made a defence against the intrusion of fanaticism and intolerance.

Having now, as I hope, given something of an idea of our surroundings, let me relate how we passed the day at Fort Archinard.

At about half-past five in the morning, the one of us five whites who happened to be on duty, shouted the order as if we were on board ship, “Clear the decks!” There was rarely any delay in giving that order, for it ended the watch for the night, and when one has been walking the quarter-deck for some hours, one hastens to go and get a little sleep before daybreak, for in these stifling nights the only refreshing rest is that obtained in the early morning.

The coolies now lazily bestir themselves. Digui, who is the first to get up, makes them put away their bedding and take down the mosquito-nets, etc., shouting a kind of parody of orders on board ship, “Roll up your kits, roll up your kits!” for they all love to fancy themselves sailors, and are proud of the name.

Then when all are up and dressed, and everything is stowed away, all turn towards the rising sun to perform their devotions, for most of our men are Mussulmans. Some of them, who were but lukewarm believers when in their homes on the Senegal, become more and more devout the further they are from their country. Much of it is mereshow, of course. Others really have a kind of instinctive religion, a sort of superstitious terror of the unseen—what may be called the natural religion of fear. In every other respect however, they are brave enough: we have had plenty of proof of that.

I must add here, however, that I have remarked rather a singular fact, namely, that great religious zeal and endless prostrations, with much posing and genuflexion, generally coincide with fits of dishonesty, lying, and treacherous behaviour. One of our fellows, who had hitherto been honest enough, took simultaneously to prayer and pilfering our beads; and a man in whom I had before had great confidence strutted about wearing strings of stolen property on his neck and arms without any attempt at disguise. This put me on my guard. Of course he had every reason to ask pardon of God for his sins and to keep on muttering, “Astafar wallaye, astafar wallaye!—Pardon, pardon!” At the same time he had taken to filching goods in the market, an aggravating circumstance of this crime being that he was trusted to look after our purchases.

There were of course some really devout Mahommedans amongst our men. Samba Ahmady, our quarter-master, for instance, always performed his devotions in private, and was a model of probity. Digui too was a true believer, but perhaps I should say of him that he was a philosopher rather than a blinded Mahommedan. He knew how to return thanks to Allah without any ostentation when we had safely got through some difficulty or danger, and whilst admitting that there were such people as bad marabouts, he sometimes talked in a manner alike naïve, touching, and elevated, of the dealings of Providence with man, which is indeed rare, especially amongst illiterate negroes.

Then Ahmady Mody, another trustworthy fellow, had a theory of his own about salaams, and all that. I said tohim one day, “Why don’t you perform your salaam when the others do?”

“Commandant,” he replied, “I am too small; I will do it when I am married.”

Well, the morning devotions over, we used to go to work, for there was always something to do; the boats needed repair, or we had to add to thetata, to unpack and repack the bales, send out parties to cut wood or straw, and last, not least, to drill the men, and make them practice shooting at a target. We used to hear our carpenter Abdulaye singing as he conscientiously worked at oar-making, and his song did not vary by an iota all the time we were at Say. It was a very monotonous rhythm consisting of one word,Sam-ba-la-a-bé-é-é-é-é-é-é-. Samba Laobé, be it understood, was one of the heroes of the native resistance of the French in Cayor, and was killed in single combat with Sub-Lieutenant Chauvey of the Spahis in 1886. I don’t thinkAbdulaye knew more of the song about this Samba than the word forming part of his name, and though it was a seditious composition we could not be angry with him, as he evidently had not the least idea what it all meant.

REPAIRING THE ‘AUBE.’

Abdulaye, who was a big, well-built Wolof, had but one ambition during our stay at Fort Archinard, and that was to be allowed to go and smash in the jaw of his fellow-countryman Aliburi, a native of his own village. This Aliburi is a tool of Amadu, chief champion of the war to the death with the French, so Abdulaye wishes to kill him if his master is not to be got at. “Aliburi,” he would say, “is a bad Wolof.”

When the camp was cleaned and tidied up, the native traders, male and female, came with their wares, for we had started a market at Fort Archinard. When our occupation began, one of our chief fears was that we should suffer from famine through Amadu’s declared hostility to us. True, there was a village opposite to our camp, and if the worst came to the worst, we could always make an armed requisition in Say itself. But I was very averse to any such measures. They would have been far too great a departure from the pacific tactics we had so far pursued, and which were enjoined by our instructions. I was anxious to preserve that attitude, and to carry out my instructions to the letter. The people at Say seemed at the first very unwilling to sell us anything. They, of course, ran considerable risk of being robbed on their way to us, indeed this really did happen more than once, and the chief of Say, though he did not forbid their coming to our camp, did not encourage it, so that those who did venture asked extortionate prices, thirty-five to forty cubits, or about twenty-one yards of stuff for a sheep, for instance; but we were able to buy good food for ourselves and our men, which was the most important thing after all.

The first thing in the morning we used to see the native traders squatting on the bank opposite Fort Archinard waiting for the little barge worked by a few men, to go over and fetch them. Most of these merchants I must add were women, and I really do think that before they left Say they must have passed an examination in ugliness, for I never saw such frights anywhere as our first lady visitors here. As time goes on I know many discover something like beauty in native women, and there are some who think them as good-looking as their sisters of pale complexions. Even those who do not exactly admire them are interested in them because they are types of a race, but for all that, negresses, like English women when they are ugly at all, are really revoltingly ugly.

OUR MARKET AT FORT ARCHINARD.

Well, ugly or not, our market-women soon set out their wares on a kind of platform a little up-stream from thecamp. Thebugnul, or negro trader, has his own particular mode of proceeding; he does not expect to be spoken to, everything is done by gesture. Thedjula, or merchant, crouches on the ground, with his wares spread out in front of him. The buyer passes along, looks at the wares, and offers his cowries or cloth in exchange. If the price is suitable the bargain is concluded, if not thedjulashakes his head, making a sign, signifying “No,” and the would-be buyer goes away or squats down himself to await his time. Sometimes the price is lowered, or the purchaser adds a few cowries to his original offer. There is none of the noise usual in European markets, none of the flow of language so characteristic of them. Each party to a bargain tries to tire out the other, but neither of them wastes any words.

MARKET AT FORT ARCHINARD.

The first price asked by a negro is never the same as thathe means to take. A reduction of at least half, sometimes much more, is made.

Not knowing what attitude the Koyraberos might assume towards us in the future, our first care on our arrival at the site of Fort Archinard was to take advantage of their present good-will, and buy in a good store of cereals and animals.

We soon made up our minds what prices we would give, for the circumstances were exceptional, and we wanted rice or millet and sheep enough to last us for three months. That once accomplished, we could afford to think of economy and fix our own prices. The currency employed was white cloth, and my private opinion is that certain commercial arrangements were agreed upon amongst the notables of Say, showing no mean intelligence on their part. They meant to buy up all our merchandise, whether cloth, copper, or beads.

This is what actually happened; as we only gave one or two cubits of cloth for objects of little value, no real use could be made of them, so they were sold again to speculators, who bought them at a very low price from their needy owners, and then hid them away. Nothing more was seen of them during our stay, but when we were gone they meant to produce them, and ask extortionate prices for them.

Our average prices fluctuated in an extraordinary way. We presently superseded Suleyman, who was too much of a talker, and tried other men as buyers, but we really had not a single coolie who was a gooddjula; at last in despair Baudry was obliged to take the task upon himself, and every morning he went to market to lay in a supply of provisions, buying grain and sheep, milk and butter. He was probably the only buyer who took no perquisites for himself.

We got to know personally all the frightful negresseswho served us. We talked to them at first by signs, every one using a kind of language of his own. Father Hacquart became very popular amongst them, for he could speak the Arabic employed by the so-called marabouts, and haggle in Songhay with the Koyraberos, whether male or female. Some of the negresses hit upon a very clever dodge, for instead of selling, they gave. They brought presents to the Father, to the Commandant, and to the other officers, such various gifts as calabashes of honey, eggs, milk, poultry, etc., but the principle was always to give a little to receive much. Truth to tell, it is very difficult to refuse to fall in with the idea when the presents are offered in such an insinuating way.

A YOUNG GIRL OF SAY.

By these means we started a fine poultry farm, and our chickens lived in the abattis of our enceinte. Their life was not altogether a happy one at Fort Archinard; they became too familiar, and, poor things, this cost them dear. Bluzet and I—this is a merciless age—used to shoot at them from a little bow with arrows made of bits of bamboo pointed with a pin, waging pitiless war on those who came to drink at our well, or who dared to go so far as to disturb us when we had gone to snatch a little rest and coolness in our huts.

We made rather an important discovery in connection with this shooting of our poultry. Osman had secretly smuggled some poisoned arrows into our camp, and we drove the point of one of them into the head of a hen which had already been wounded by Bluzet. The result was astonishing, for the next day the hen was cured of her first hurt, and able to run about as if nothing had happened.

This must not, however, lead any one to be careless about wounds from poisoned arrows: some are always mortal. The stuff with which they are smeared consists of wax andkuna, or extract of a common gum, forming a very strong poison which, however, quickly loses its efficacy. The best thing to do when struck by such an arrow is to burn the wound immediately, or to inject chloride of gold all round it under the skin. A simpler treatment still is just to fill the wound with gunpowder and set fire to it; but this is rather too Spartan a remedy for everybody.

Our market was the chief excitement of the morning, for in it we could study typical natives, and note the special peculiarities of each. The population of Say and the surrounding districts is very mixed, including Songhays, Fulahs, Haussas, Djermankobes, Macimankes, Mossi, Gurunsi,Kurteyes, etc., each with cicatrized wounds of a different kind on their faces, as is the case with so many African tribes.

The market, too, is the best place for getting reliable news, and besides, the very attitude of the different traders towards each other is a revelation of the state of feeling in the country. If a great many assembled it was a sign that all was going on well for us, that the report of the French Expedition was spreading, and that Amadu Saturu was likely to come to his senses about us. If the attendance at the market fell off, however, it was a sign that hostile columns were being called together, why we could not tell, but probably to attack us; or again some new check was to be put upon our buying or selling. Once indeed Amadu made a feeble effort to reduce us by famine, and our supply of sheep was stopped for a time. But a threat made toOsman on purpose that he should repeat it, that we would go and fetch the sheep from Say for ourselves, was immediately successful, for the next day the best and cheapest animals we had yet procured were brought to us. We never ate better mutton before or since.

TYPICAL NATIVES AT THE FORT ARCHINARD MARKET.

Whilst the market was going on, Taburet used to prescribe for many natives who came to consult him. But carelessness and ignorance work terrible havoc among the negroes everywhere. There would be plenty for a doctor to do who cared to study diseases now become rare in civilized countries. From amongst the patients who came to Taburet, a grand or rather terrible list of miraculous cures might have been drawn up. These patients included men and women suffering from tubercular and syphilitic diseases, which had been allowed to run their dread course unchecked by any remedies whatever; many too were blind or afflicted with goitre and elephantiasis, whilst there were numerous lepers. Few, however, were troubled with nervous complaints. It was indeed difficult to prescribe for such cases as came before the good doctor; indeed it would often have been quite impossible for his instructions to be carried out. Many poor cripples came from a long distance to consult the white doctor, expecting to be made whole immediately, when they were really incurable. Where, however, would have been the good of prescribing cleanliness, when one of their most used remedies is to smear any wound with mud and cow-dung mixed together, the eyes of ophthalmic patients even being treated with the horrible stuff? Where would be the good of ordering them nourishing food such as gravy beef, when they are too poor to get it? Good wine? Even if we could have supplied them with it, they would have flung it away with horror, for they are Mussulmans. Quinine then? Its bitterness would have made them suspect poison. They all came expectingmiracles, and all that could be done for them was to paint their sore places with iodine, and to give them various lotions and antiseptic dressings, or a solution of iodide of potassium, and so on, from the use of which they would, most of them, obtain no benefit at all.

Taburet was consulted about all sorts of things. For instance, a pretty Fulah woman from Saga with a pale complexion and engaging manners had got into trouble. She had overstepped the bounds of reserve prescribed in her tribe to young girls, and was soon to become a mother. Well, she came timidly to the doctor to ask for medicines for her case, and when it was explained to her that that case was incurable, for the French law forbids the destruction of life, she went away, only to return the next day with her mother. The latter explained that if she and her daughter returned to their village as things were, they would both be stoned to death, or at least, if their judges were merciful, be put in irons for the rest of their lives. The young girl was pretty, many men in her village had asked her in marriage, but she had refused them all. All her people were now eager to revenge themselves on her, and to apply in all their terrible rigour, the “just Mussulman laws.” She had neither father, brother, nor any one to defend her. Her seducer had deserted her, and it is not customary amongst the Fulahs to make inquiries as to the father of illegitimate children.

The people of Say had recommended the mother in mockery to take her girl to the Christians, she was good for nothing else now, they said. If we could not cure her, there was nothing left for them to do but to hide themselves in the fetich-worshipping village of Gurma, where they would lead a miserable life, unnoticed and unknown.

The two poor women with tears in their eyes knelt to the doctor imploring his help, and cryingSafarikoy!Safarikoy!and I asked myself, what would be the duty of a doctor in this bigoted land if he had had the necessary instruments for meeting the unfortunate girl’s wishes. Perhaps it was as well that in this case nothing could be done.

All the same this domestic drama was very heart-rending. I tried for a long time to console our visitors. The old woman stuck to her request for medicine, and promised to reward us with everything she could think of likely to please us. She even offered us her daughter, saying that she might remain with us, and could follow us wherever we went.

I told Digui to get rid of them as gently as possible, and gave them a good present to enable them to reach some heathen village where the people would have pity on them. They departed at last, the mother’s tears soaking her tattered garments, the daughter following her, her little feet swollen with walking, and her head drooping in her despair.

À proposof this episode, Suleyman the interpreter held forth in the following strain—“From the earliest times prophets, marabouts, and the negro chiefs who founded the religious dynasty of the country, have been terribly severe on any lapse from morality amongst their women, but it is all humbug, for most of the marabouts are the fathers of illegitimate children.

“Amongst Amadu’s people the man and woman who have sinned are deprived of all their property, but Abdul Bubakar goes still further, for he sacks the entire village to which a frail woman belongs, a capital way of getting slaves and everything else. In other districts the woman is put in irons, but the man goes free; but if the seducer comes forward and owns his crime, he can obtain remission of the punishment by payment of a large sum to the chiefof the village; generally, however, the unfortunate girl dies in her chains.

“Such are the manners and customs of the Mussulmans, and God alone knows what their women are really like.

“Samory used to kill both the guilty parties, but Tieba, his enemy and neighbour, professed an amiable kind of philosophy on the subject of the weaker sex and the ways of women. When Samory was conquered by Tieba, the chief auxiliaries of the latter were the nomad Diulas who were strangers in the land. These Diulas had come to the district by way of Sikasso, where they had met with women of free and easy manners, and had been driven by the force of circumstances to remain amongst them, adopting their ways. Now it generally happens amongst the negroes, that those who have travelled much and seensomething of the world are not only brave but sensible and free from bigotry.

WOMEN OF SAY.

“Samory, who was so fond of cutting off heads in obedience to the injunctions of the Koran, had a wife named Sarankeni, who is still his favourite, and she was the one to lay her finger on the cause of his defeat, when he was still smarting from its effects. She saw that it was the women of easy morals who prevented the strangers who had aided Tieba from deserting him in his need. Samory was open to conviction, and since then”—according to Suleyman, though I think he exaggerated—“if one of the chief’s people discovers that a woman or a daughter of his house has gone wrong, he gives a fee to the seducer, or at least offers him refreshments and speaks him fair, and this has now become the fashion throughout the districts reigned over by the great Fama. Sarankeni, the favourite, the giver of the advice which led to the change, is alone excepted from the new rule.” Probably, as she is still young, she had a very different motive for her conduct than that generally accepted.

Whilst the market was going on, we used also to make a tour of inspection in our kitchen-garden. An officer of the garrison of Timbuktu had been good enough to give us some packets of the usual seeds, and under the skilled direction of the doctor we had had a plot of ground cleared, manured, and planted. To sow seed is one thing, however, to reap results is another, and in spite of the delicate attentions of Atchino, our man from Dahomey, our gardener for the nonce, who religiously watered the seeds every morning, and in spite of the visits we paid to our plantations at dawn and eventide, no great results ensued. Probably the sheep and goats, who were greedy creatures all of them, got the pick of everything, in spite of the thorn hedge we had put up round our garden.

All we got ourselves were a few big tomatoes, some cucumbers, some little pink radishes, and two or three salads. You can just imagine our delight when on one occasion Taburet triumphantly brought in three radishes apiece.

For all that, we can’t be too grateful for our garden. If we did not get many vegetables, we always had the hope of getting some, and the pleasure of watching the growth of various weeds which we expected to turn out to be lettuces, beetroots, or cabbages, and we used to say joyfully, “When that is big enough to eat, or when this is ready,” and so on. The hope of luxuries, when we are provided with all that is absolutely necessary, is always cheering.

Whilst we are on the subject of food, I may as well say a little about what we lived on during our stay at Fort Archinard. In spite of our long distance from home we must be strictly accurate, and I am almost ashamed to own that we were never reduced to having to eat our dogs. Nor was the reason for this the fact that we had no dogs with us to eat. Far from that; we had three dogs, one after the other, not to speak of the cats already referred to. Our three dogs were all, I don’t know why, called Meyer. They were yellow, famished-looking beasts, who were native to the country, and rather savage. All came to a sad end and got lost, but I don’t know exactly what became of them. Once more, however, I swear by Mahomet we did not eat one of them.

Although we ate no dogs we managed to subsist, for we were never without sheep or rice. The diet was not much to boast of, and we had to keep a whole flock in our island always, for there was very little pasturage on our small domain for some twenty or thirty animals. After a few days of such nourishment as they got, our sheep became anæmic, and their flesh turned a greenish colour. Still wemanaged to eat it in semi-darkness. On the other hand, our rice was always good. That grown in the country is small, and of a slightly reddish colour. It swells less in cooking than the white rice of Cochin China or Pegu, but it has a nicer and a stronger taste. Taburet used to swear by all the heathen gods that he would never eat rice, yet very soon he could not do without it. Fili Kanté, already mentioned, turned out a first-rate cook, and he really did deserve praise for what he achieved, for we were none of us able to help him with advice. True, the Commandant had made everybody’s mouth water by saying that he would take charge of the pot as soon as the expedition arrived at Say; but he never troubled his head about the matter again.

He did, however, sometimes preside at the cooking ofmechuis, that is to say, of sheep roasted whole on the spit in the Arab style, and themechuisof Fort Archinard were celebrated—on the island!

Rice and mutton were the staples of our meals. Every morning Fili Kanté used to come to the chief of the mess and say, as if he were announcing a new discovery—“I shall give you mutton and rice to-day, Lieutenant.”—“And what else?” I would ask.—“An omelette.”—“And after that?”—“Anougatand some cheese.”

You read that wordnougat? Well now, would you like to know what it was made of? Here is the recipe (not quite the same as that for Montélimar almond cake): Take some honey; make it boil; add to it some pea-nuts shelled and ground. Turn it all out on to a cold plate—the bottom of an empty tin will do if you have nothing else—and let it stand till cold.

It makes a capital dessert, I can tell you, especially when there is nothing better to be had.

You read, too, that we were to have cheese. We couldgenerally get as much milk as we liked, and it made a first-rate cheese the second day; quite delicious, I assure you. We generally had cheese for all our mid-day meals, andnougatat supper or dinner, whichever you like to call it.

Sometimes, too, we fished, but there was not very much to be got out of the Niger near Fort Archinard; now and then, however, we succeeded in making a good haul, enough for a meal, with the use of a petard of gun-cotton.

The fish we caught in the Niger were much the same as those found in the Senegal. The kind the natives call “captains” andntébésare very delicate in flavour, and often of considerable size. We once caught a “captain” at Gurao on the Debo, weighing nearly 80 lbs. It took two men to carry it, and when it was hung from a pole it trailed on the ground. But we rarely had such luck as this at Fort Archinard.

Another kind of fish, called themachoiran, with very flat jaws, was to be found in the mud and ooze of the Niger, but beware of eating its flesh. If, it is said, you cut the fat off its tail (Heaven only knows if it has any), by mistake, at full moon, and then drink some fresh milk, and sleep out of doors for the rest of the night on a white coverlet, and then in the morning drink a basin of water, you will surely catch leprosy. I don’t suppose the lepers of Say had really taken all these precautions to ensure having the disease.

I must add that there is one thing which all travellers in Africa will find very useful. I allude to the Prevet tablets of condensed food. We can justly testify to their efficacy, whether they are Julienne, carrots, Brussels sprouts, pears, or apples. They are light, easily carried, and easily divided. To have used them once is recommendation enough, but it is necessary to know how to prepare them,and not to follow Baudry’s example, who one day served us some Prevet spinach, which tasted for all the world like boiled hay. If ever you travel with him, don’t make him chief of the commissariat.

In the morning we also worked at making our map, for we should certainly never have been able to finish it in Paris in the limited time we should be allowed for it. We made a duplicate copy of the map,grosso modo, from Timbuktu to Say, to guard against the possible loss of one of the barges. Then came the time for taking our daily dose of twenty centigrammes of quinine dissolved in two centilitres of alcohol, which, truth to tell, was anything but pleasant to the taste. Even Abdulaye himself, who could swallow anything, made a wry face at this terrible mixture; but to help us to digest the everlasting mutton and rice boiled in water, and to keep down thesymptoms of fever which threatened us all, nothing could be better.

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