From a Sketch by Major Denham.Engraved by E. Finden.ABDEL GASSAM.A BORNOUESE.A FELLATAH FROM TIMBOCTOO.ON A JOURNEY.Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London.
From a Sketch by Major Denham.Engraved by E. Finden.ABDEL GASSAM.A BORNOUESE.A FELLATAH FROM TIMBOCTOO.ON A JOURNEY.Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London.
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 fatigueand 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]
[Illustration]
FOOTNOTES:[28]Gaadeen, kafir.[29]The feudal law exists here in full force; and a man unwilling to serve, provides one or more substitutes according to his means.[30]Birnie means Medina, the capital, in the Bornou language.[31]From these ruins the sheikh procures the greater part of the nitre used in preparing his gunpowder.[32]There are two species of the bamboo, one called Kayay, and the other Gummary.[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 artTo taint with deadly drugs the barbed dart.”He was now, however, about to be humbled.
FOOTNOTES:
[28]Gaadeen, kafir.
[28]Gaadeen, kafir.
[29]The feudal law exists here in full force; and a man unwilling to serve, provides one or more substitutes according to his means.
[29]The feudal law exists here in full force; and a man unwilling to serve, provides one or more substitutes according to his means.
[30]Birnie means Medina, the capital, in the Bornou language.
[30]Birnie means Medina, the capital, in the Bornou language.
[31]From these ruins the sheikh procures the greater part of the nitre used in preparing his gunpowder.
[31]From these ruins the sheikh procures the greater part of the nitre used in preparing his gunpowder.
[32]There are two species of the bamboo, one called Kayay, and the other Gummary.
[32]There are two species of the bamboo, one called Kayay, and the other Gummary.
[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 artTo taint with deadly drugs the barbed dart.”He was now, however, about to be humbled.
[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 artTo taint with deadly drugs the barbed dart.”
“· · · · · · · · · · · · ·The dreadful artTo taint with deadly drugs the barbed dart.”
“· · · · · · · · · · · · ·The dreadful artTo taint with deadly drugs the barbed dart.”
“· · · · · · · · · · · · ·The dreadful art
To taint with deadly drugs the barbed dart.”
He was now, however, about to be humbled.
Thesheikh 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 adeep 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 insix 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 theg’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 considerableemotion 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 twentyor 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 orFezzan 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 entirelyon 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. Europeangoods 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 thecousie(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 thesheikh-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 themlately 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 Bornoufriends, 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 thousanddollars 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 ofthe 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 heconquers. 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 atan 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 canreach 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. Nothinghad 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 samemanner 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’sdirections.” Doctor Oudney replied, “My wish is to see the country—I cannot live here—I shall die. While travelling, I am always better.”