Drawn by Major Denham.Engraved by E. Finden.ARRIVAL AT MORA.THE CAPITAL OF MANDARA.Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London.
Drawn by Major Denham.Engraved by E. Finden.ARRIVAL AT MORA.THE CAPITAL OF MANDARA.Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London.
ARRIVAL AT MORA.
THE CAPITAL OF MANDARA.
Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London.
The parley was carried on in the Mandara language, by means of an interpreter; and I understood that we were to visit the sultan in the course of the day, and hear his determination.
Boo-Khaloom was, as usual, very sanguine: he said “he should make the sultan handsome presents, and that he was quite sure a Kirdy[25]town full of people would be given him to plunder.” The Arabs were all eagerness; they eyed the Kirdy huts, which were now visible on the sides of mountains before us, with longing eyes; and contrasting their own ragged and almost naked state with the appearance of the sultan of Mandara’s people in their silk tobes, not only thought, but said, “if Boo-Khaloom pleased, they would go no further; this would do.” Boo-Khaloom and the Arab sheikhs hadrepeatedly exclaimed, when urging El Kanemy to send them to some country for slaves, “Never mind their numbers! arrows are nothing! and ten thousand spears are of no importance. We have guns! guns!” exclaiming, with their favourite imprecations, “Nakalou-e-kelab fesaa,” (We’ll eat them, the dogs, quickly)—“eich nu, abeed occul,” (what! why, they are negroes all!) I fancied I could see the keen features of El Kanemy curl at these contemptuous expressions, which equally applied to his own people; and certainly nothing could be more galling than for him to hear them from such a handful of Arabs: his own people wereabeed occul, and their only arms spears and arrows, and this he could not but feel and remember.
Towards the evening Barca Gana sent to desire me to mount, for the purpose of visiting the sultan. We entered the town, Boo-Khaloom and myself riding on his right and left; and at the farther end of a large square was the sultan’s palace. As is usual on approaching or visiting a great man, we galloped up to the skiffa at full speed, almost entering the gates. This is a perilous sort of salutation, but nothing must stop you; and it is seldom made except at the expense of one or more lives. On this occasion, a man and horse, which stood in our way, were ridden over in an instant, the horse’s leg broke, and the man killed on the spot. The trumpets sounded as we dismounted at the palace gate; our papouches, or outward slippers, were quickly pulled off; and we proceeded through a wide skiffa, or entrance, into a large court, where, under a dark blue tent of Soudan, sat the sultan, on a mud bench, covered however with a handsome carpet and silk pillows: he was surrounded by about two hundred persons, all handsomely dressed in tobes of silk and coloured cotton, with his five eunuchs; the principal men of the country sitting in front, but all with their backs turned towards him. The manner of saluting is curious: Barca Gana, as the sheikh’s representative, approached to a space in front of the eunuchs, his eyes fixed on the ground; he then sat down,with his eyes still fixed on the earth, with his back to the sultan, and, clapping his hands together, exclaimed, “Engouborou dagah!(May you live for ever!)—Allah kiaro!(God send you a happy old age!)—La, lai, barca, barca. (How is it with you? blessing! blessing!)” These words were repeated nearly by the sultan, and then sung out by all the court. The fatah was then said, and they proceeded to business. Boo-Khaloom produced some presents, which were carried off by the eunuchs unopened; the sultan then expressed his wish to serve him; said he would consider his request, and in a day or two give him his decision.
The sultan, whose name was Mohamed Bucker, was an intelligent little man of about fifty, with a beard dyed of a most beautiful sky-blue; he had been eyeing me for some time, as I sat between Boo-Khaloom and Barca Gana, and first asking Boo-Khaloom his name, inquired who I was? The answer that I was a native of a very distant and powerful nation, friends of the bashaw of Tripoli and the sheikh, who came to see the country, did not appear much to surprise him; and he looked gracious as he said, “But what does he want to see?” A fatal question however followed, and the answer appeared to petrify the whole assembly:—“Are they Moslem?” “La! la!(No! no!)” Every eye, which had before been turned towards me, was now hastily withdrawn, and, looking round, I really felt myself in a critical situation. “Has the great bashaw Kaffir friends?” said the sultan. The explanation which followed was of little use: they knew no distinctions; Christians they had merely heard of as the worst people in the world, and, probably, until they saw us, scarcely believed them to be human. We shortly after returned to our camp, and I never afterwards was invited to enter the sultan of Mandara’s presence.
Our tents had been pitched but a short distance from the town of Mora, and on our return upwards of forty slaves, preceded by one of the sultan’s eunuchs, came to the camp, bearing wooden bowlsfilled with paste of the gussub flour, with hot fat and pepper poured over it, mixed with a proportionate seasoning of onions. This was considered as the very acmè of Mandara cooking; it was savoury, and not very unpleasant; but a few sides of mutton roasted, which came for the chiefs, was the better part of our fare. Malem Chadily betook himself to another bowl, because on Barca Gana’s putting the mess towards me, I had, as usual, plunged my right hand in without any ceremony. Barca Gana saw that I observed it, and his dread of the sheikh’s displeasure induced him to make some observation in Bornouese, which drove the fighi out of the tent: this distressed me, and I determined on adopting some measures for preventing the repetition of these disagreeables.
On the 23d we halted; but I was so dreadfully bitten by the ants and other insects, which beset us in myriads, that my hands and eyes were so swelled that I could scarcely hold a pen, or see to use one: added to this, the heat was again insufferable; for several hours in the middle of the day, the thermometer was as high as 113°. Covering myself up with all the blankets I could find afforded me the greatest relief—these defending me as well from the flies as the power of the sun: occasionally making my negro pour cold water on my head was another undescribable comfort. I passed the greater part of the evening with Boo-Khaloom, who had seen the sultan of Mandara in the day. He complained of being delayed; but was, nevertheless, still sanguine, and believed the sultan was endeavouring to find him a Kerdy country, which he was to attack; it, however, never was the intention of the sultan of Mandara to take any such steps, or the sheikh’s wish that he should. It was against people who would create in the Arabs a little more respect for spears and arrows, that the sheikh wished them to be sent; and this he thought could not better be accomplished than by consigning them to the sultan of Mandara, whose natural enemies, as well as his own, were the Felatahs, the most warlike people in the whole country.
Mandara had been several times conquered by these Felatah tribes, which extend over an immense space of country: they are found through the whole of Soudan, quite to Timbuctoo, and at D’jennie on the Quolla they form the greatest part of the population. A very populous town, Conally, to the west of D’jennie, is inhabited wholly by Felatahs[26]. They are a very handsome race of people, of a deep copper colour, who seldom mix their blood with that of the negroes, have a peculiar language of their own, and are Moslem. They bear some resemblance to the Shouaas, although they are quite a distinct race. South-west of Mandara is a country called Karowa; and these two countries were formerly governed by one sultan (Kerdy), until Mandara was wrested from them by the Felatahs of Musfeia and Kora. The son of the sultan of Karowa, the present sultan, succeeded in recovering Mandara out of their hands, and has since been able to keep possession, as they aver, from his having become Moslem—be that as it may, he is now a Musselman, and an intelligent one for his situation: his resources are great, and his country by nature easy to defend. About ten years ago, he found so little defence from the walls of his then residence Delow, against the attacks of the Felatahs, that he built the new town Mora, nearly facing the north, and situated under a semicircular ridge of very picturesque mountains. These natural barriers form a strong rampart on every side but one, and he has hitherto withstood the attempts of his enemies. It is rather a curious circumstance that no Shouaas are to be found in the Mandara dominions, nor any where to the south of them.
The Sheikh El Kanemy, very shortly after his successes and elevation,saw the advantage of a powerful ally, such as the sultan of Mandara, against the Felatahs, who were equally the dread of both these potentates; the vicinity of Mandara to the Kerdy nations, as well as the ease with which slaves are obtained from thence, was also another consideration. The tribes of Shouaas, bordering on the Mandara frontier to the north and north-east, had always been in the habit of sending marauding parties into that part of the country nearest to them, which the sultan had never been able to prevent; and the sheikh no sooner saw the necessity of bringing these dwellers in tents into subjection to the sultan of Bornou than he determined also on making a stipulation for the discontinuance of their inroads into the Mandara country, the peace of which they had so long disturbed. This treaty of alliance was confirmed by the sheikh’s receiving in marriage the daughter of the sultan of Mandara, and the marriage portion was to be the produce of an immediate expedition into the Kerdy country, called Musgow, to the south-east of Mandara, by the united forces of the sheikh and the sultan. The results were as favourable as the most savage confederacy could have anticipated—three thousand unfortunate wretches were dragged from their native wilds and sold to perpetual slavery; while, probably, double that number were sacrificed to obtain them. These nuptials are said to have been celebrated with great rejoicing, and much barbarian splendour: the blood, however, which had been shed in the path to the altar, one would almost think, was sufficient to have extinguished the hymeneal torch, and annihilated the bearers.
This treaty of alliance left the sultan of Mandara no other enemies than the Felatahs to contend with; and his power had increased too much for him to fear any offensive measures on their part: on the contrary, he had been at the time of our expedition for some months seeking for an opportunity to commence hostilitieshimself[27]. The Mandara force consists principally of cavalry, which, as their horses are of a superior breed, have a very imposing appearance. Some of the Kerdy towns occasionally furnish a few bowmen; but as their only object is plunder in the event of a victory, on the least appearance of a contrary result they quickly betake themselves to their mountain habitations. The principal Mandara towns are eight in number, and all stand in the valley: these, and the smaller ones by which they are surrounded, all profess Islamism. The Kerdies are far more numerous; and their dwellings are seen every where in clusters on the sides, and even at the top, of the very hills which immediately overlook the Mandara capital. The fires which were visible in the different nests of these unfortunates threw a glare upon the bold peaks and bluff promontories of granite rock by which they were surrounded, and produced a picturesque and somewhat awful appearance. The dread in which they hold the sultan has been considerably increased by his close alliance with the sheikh; and the appearance of such a force as that which accompanied Barca Gana, bivouacked in the valley, was a most appalling sight to those who occupied the overhanging heights: they were fully aware, that for one purpose alone would such a force visit their country; and which of them were to be the victims, must have been the cause of most anxious inquietude and alarm to the whole. By the assistance of a good telescope, I could discover those who, from the terms on which they were with Mandara, had the greatest dread stealing off into the very heart of the mountains; while others came towards Mora, bearing leopard skins, honey, and slaves, plundered from a neighbouring town, as peace-offerings; also assesand goats, with which their mountains abound: these were not, however, on this occasion destined to suffer. The people of Musgow, whose country it was at first reported (although without foundation) that the Arabs were to plunder, sent two hundred head of their fellow-creatures, besides other presents, to the sultan, with more than fifty horses. Between twenty and thirty horsemen, mounted on small, fiery, and very well formed steeds of about fourteen hands high, with a numerous train, were the bearers of these gifts—and a most extraordinary appearance they made. I saw them on their leaving the sultan’s palace; and both then, and on their entrance, they threw themselves on the ground, pouring sand on their heads, and uttering the most piteous cries. The horsemen, who were chiefs, were covered only by the skin of a goat or leopard, so contrived as to hang over the left shoulder, with the head of the animal on the breast; and being confined round the middle, was made to reach nearly half way down the thigh, the skin of the tail and legs being also preserved. On their heads, which were covered with long woolly, or rather bristly, hair, coming quite over their eyes, they wore a cap of the skin of the goat, or some fox-like animal; round their arms, and in their ears, were rings of what to me appeared to be bone; and round the necks of each were from one to six strings of what I was assured were the teeth of the enemies they had slain in battle: teeth and pieces of bone were also pendant from the clotted locks of their hair, and with the red patches with which their body was marked in different places, and of which colour also their own teeth were stained, they really had a most strikingly wild, and truly savage, appearance. What very much increased the interest I felt in gazing upon these beings, who, to appearance, were the most savage of their race, was the positive assertion of Boo-Khaloom that they were Christians. I had certainly no other argument at the moment to use, in refutation of his position, but their most unchristian-like appearance anddeportment; in this he agreed, but added, “Wolla Insara, they are Christians!” Some of them, however, begging permission to regale themselves on the remains of a horse, which had died during the night in our camp, gave me, as I thought, an unanswerable argument against him. I can scarcely, however, at this moment forget how disconcerted I felt when he replied, “That is nothing: I certainly never heard of Christians eating dead horse-flesh, but I know they eat the flesh of swine, and God knows that is worse!” “Grant me patience!” exclaimed I to myself; “this is almost too much to bear, and to be silent.”
I endeavoured, by means of one of the Mandara people, to ask some questions of some of these reputed Christians, but my attempts were fruitless; they would hold no intercourse with any one; and, on gaining permission, carried off the carcass of the horse to the mountains, where, by the fires which blazed during the night, and the yells that reached our ears, they no doubt held their savage and brutal feast.
April 24.—The sultan of Mandara had given no intimation whatever of his intentions with regard to Boo-Khaloom’s destination, and in consequence the impatience and discontent of the latter were extreme. Offerings poured in, from all the Kerdy nations; and the sultan excused himself to Boo-Khaloom for the delay, on account of the extreme tractability of the people around him, who, he said, were becoming Musselmans without force. Again Musgow was mentioned; adding, that the warlike arm of the Arabs, bearing the sword of the Prophet, might turn their hearts. This hypocrisy, however, Boo-Khaloom inveighed against most loudly to me, declaring that the conversion of the Kerdy people would lose him (the sultan) thousands of slaves, as their constant wars with each other afford them the means of supplying him abundantly.
My own patience, also, this morning underwent a severe trial. I applied to Barca Gana, by dawn of day, for one of his men to accompanyme to the mountains; and after some conversation a chief was sent with me to the house of the suggamah (chief of the town), who sent me to another, and he begged I might be taken to a third. They all asked me a hundred questions, which was natural enough; begged powder—looked at my gun—snapped the lock so often, that I feared they would break it, exclaiming, “Y-e-o-o-o! wonderful! wonderful!” when the fire came. At last, however, when I once got it in my hand, I loaded both the barrels, and after that I could not induce one of them to put their hands within five yards of it. The last great man whose house I was taken to cunningly begged me to fire, calling his slaves to stand round him while I complied with his request: immediately after he asked for the gun, and carried it into an inner court. I was kept full half an hour waiting; when about ten slaves rushed out, gave me the gun, and told the guide to carry me to the palace. I complained that they had stolen both my flints. Every body came to look—crowded round me, exclaiming, “Y-e-o-o-o!” and this was all the redress I could obtain. I soon after found out that the flints were not my only loss; my pocket handkerchief also, which several had petitioned for without success, had been stolen.
Arrived at the palace, I was desired to wait in the skiffa. I began to walk about, but was told that was not allowed, that I must sit down on the ground: after waiting nearly an hour, during which time I was desirous more than once to return, but was told by my guide that it was impossible until the sultan gave orders, I was conducted into the presence of the chief eunuch; he desired me to stop within about twelve yards of him, and then said, “The sultan could not imagine what I wanted at the hills? Did I wish to catch the Kerdies alone?—that I had better buy them,—he would sell me as many as I pleased.” He then made some remark, which was not interpreted, and which created a loud laugh in all the bystanders: the joke was evidently at my expense, although I was not aware ofits point. I assured him, “that I did not wish to go at all to the hills if the sultan had the slightest objection, that it was purely curiosity, and that as to catching Kerdies, I would not take them if given to me.” This put us all to rights; I gave him some powder, and he was as civil as he could be to such a kafir as myself.
Six men, armed with large clubs and short daggers, were now desired to go with me. The sultan’s anxiety for my safety, the eunuch assured me, was the only reason I had found any difficulty. What directions these, my satellites, had received, I know not, but they watched me so closely, appeared so jealous of every stone I picked up, that I did not venture to sketch the shape of a single hill. It was now nearly mid-day, and we proceeded about three quarters of a mile along the valley, which is on the south-west side of the town, and advanced a little into two of the chasms, which appear in the southernmost ridge of the chain. In one of these we found a beautiful stream of water, bubbling from a bed of glittering sand, under two immense blocks of granite, which seemed to form a rude arch over the spot. Several naked people, chiefly women and girls, ran from the place as we approached, and scrambled up the side of the mountain with the most monkey-like agility. I was abundantly assured that this chain of mountains, the highest parts of which, in the neighbourhood of Mandara, do not exceed two thousand five hundred feet, extends nearly south for more than two months’ journey—how much beyond that they know not. The only communication, in this direction, is by means of a few venturesome freed slaves, who penetrate into these countries with beads and tobes, which are eagerly bought up, as well as turkadies from Soudan, and slaves and skins are given in exchange. The nations are very numerous; generally paint, and stain their bodies of different colours, and live in common, without any regard to relationship. Large lakes are frequently met with, plentifully supplied with fish.Mangoes, wild figs, and ground nuts, are found in the valleys. It does not appear that any other metal besides iron, which is abundant, has been discovered in these hills: near Karowa, to the south-west of Mandara, it is most plentiful.
The sound of the sultan’s trumpets, now heard at a distance, created a strong sensation amongst my attendants; they all declared we must return instantly; and when I very gently attempted to remonstrate a little, one of them took hold of the reins of my horse without any ceremony, turned him round, and led him on, while all the rest followed towards the town; of course I very quietly submitted, wondering what was the cause of alarm: it was, however, nothing but that the Sultan was giving audience, and these gentlemen of the chamber did not choose to be absent. They left me as soon as we approached the houses, and I was then instantly surrounded by at least a hundred others, who were so anxious to put their hands into, and examine, every thing about me, that I put spurs to my horse, and made the best of my way to the camp. I was exceedingly fatigued with my morning’s work, and crept into my tent, where I endured three hours of misery from a degree of excessive heat, surpassing all I could have supposed mankind were born to suffer here below.
Barca Gana sent to me soon after, and I found him preparing to receive one of the chief eunuchs of the sultan in his outward tent; his people all sitting round him on the sand, with their backs towards their chief, and eyes inclined downwards. Nothing can be more solemn than these interviews; not an eye is raised, or a smile seen, or a word spoken, beyond “Long life to you! A happy old age! Blessing! Blessing! May you trample on your enemies! Please God! Please God!” then the fatah, which is seldom or never omitted. The great man first inquired, “why I went to the hills; and what I wanted with the stones I had picked up, and put in a bag which I carried nearmy saddle?” Barca Gana applied to me for information, and the bag was sent for. My specimens were not more than fifteen in number, and the eunuch, laying his hand on two pieces of fine grained granite, and some quartz, asked, “how many dollars they would bring in my country?” I smiled, and told him, “Not one: that I had no object in taking them beyond curiosity—that we had as much in England as would cover his whole country, and that I was pleased to find similar natural productions here. Assure the sultan,” added I, to Barca Gana, “that to take any thing from any of the inhabitants of these countries is not the wish of the English king: the sheikh knows our intentions, which are rather to make them acquainted with European produce; and if useful to them, send more into their country.” “True, true!” said Barca Gana: “what have you brought for the sultan?”—and here I was again in a dilemma. I had only one small looking-glass of my own; neither knives, scissors, nor beads, although we had cases of them at Bornou. Something, however, was necessary to be given; I therefore sent for my trunk, and gave the sultan two French red imitation shawls, which I had bought for my own use, my own razor, and a pair of scissors; while for himself the eunuch took my two remaining pocket-handkerchiefs, and a coloured muslin one, with which he appeared to be highly delighted.
From a Sketch by Major Denham.Engraved by E. Finden.MANDARA MUSICIANS.Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London.
From a Sketch by Major Denham.Engraved by E. Finden.MANDARA MUSICIANS.Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London.
MANDARA MUSICIANS.
Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London.
April 25.—The news of the presents I had produced brought early this morning fifteen of the sultan’s sons, with double the number of followers, to my tent: they all wanted gunpowder, knives, and scissors; I had however neither one nor the other to give them. Two or three of the oldest of the princes got a French silk handkerchief each, and one a pair of cotton socks, and, of course, the others went away sadly discontented. I this morning ventured to make two attempts at sketching, but my apparatus and myself were carried off without ceremony to the sultan. My pencils markingwithout ink, created great astonishment, and the facility with which its traces were effaced by India rubber seemed still more astonishing. My old antagonist, Malem Chadily, was there, and affected to treat me with great complaisance: he talked a great deal about me and my country, which made his hearers repeatedly cry out, “Y-e-o-o-o!” but what the purport of his observations were I could not make out. I endeavoured, however, to forget all his former rudeness, took every thing in good part, and appeared quite upon as good terms with him as he evidently wished to appear to be with me. Several words were written both by him and the others, which the rubber left no remains of; at length the fighi wroteBismillah arachmani aracheme(in the name of the great and most merciful God), in large Koran characters; he made so deep an impression on the paper, that, after using the Indian rubber, the words still appeared legible: “This will not quite disappear,” said I. “No, no!” exclaimed the fighi, exulting; “they are the words of God, delivered to our Prophet! I defy you to erase them!” “Probably so,” said I; “then it will be in vain to try.” He showed the paper to the sultan, and then around him, with great satisfaction; they all exclaimed, “Y-e-o-o-o!La illah el Allah! Mohammed rassoul Allah!”—cast looks at me expressive of mingled pity and contempt, and I was well pleased when allowed to take my departure.
The whole of this scene was repeated to Barca Gana in his tent in the evening, and they all exclaimed “Wonderful! Wonderful!” and as I did not contradict any part of his account, the fighi thus addressed me: “Rais, you have seen a miracle! I will show you hundreds, performed alone by the words of the wonderful book! You have a book also, you say, but it must be false.—Why? Because it says nothing of Saidna Mohammed, that is enough.—Shed! Shed!turn! turn! say ‘God is God, and Mohammed is his prophet.’ Sully (wash), and become clean, and paradise is open to you: withoutthis, what can save you from eternal fire? Nothing!—Oh! I shall see you while sitting in the third heaven, in the midst of the flames, crying out to your friend Barca Gana and myself, ‘Malem, saherbi!(friend), give me a drink or a drop of water!’ but the gulf will be between us, and then it will be too late.” The Malem’s tears flowed in abundance during this harangue, and every body appeared affected by his eloquence.
I felt myself, at this period, extremely uncomfortable; and Barca Gana, who saw my distress, called me into the inner tent, where nobody accompanied him, except by invitation. “The fighi,” said he, “is arajal alem(clever man).” “Very likely,” said I; “but he surely might leave me to my own belief, as I leave him to his.” “Staffer Allah!” (God forbid!) said he. “Do not compare them.” “I do not,” said I, “God knows; but you, Kashella, should protect me from such repeated annoyances.” “No,” replied Barca, “in this I cannot interfere. Malem is a holy man. Please God! you will be enlightened, and I know the sheikh wishes it; he likes you, and would you stay amongst us, he would give you fifty slaves of great beauty, build you a house like his son’s, and give you wives from the families of any of his subjects you choose!” “Were you to return to England with me, Kashella, as you sometimes talk about, with the sheikh’s permission, would it not be disgraceful for you to turn Christian, and remain? Were I to do as you would have me, how should I answer to my sultan who sent me?” “God forbid!” said he; “you are comparing our faiths again. I propose to you eternal paradise, while you would bring me to ——.” “Not a word more,” said I.—“Good night!” “Peace be with you! I hope we shall always be friends,” said he. “Please God!” returned I. “Amen!” said the kashella.
This night we had a more dreadful storm than I ever remember being out in. The top of my Egyptian tent, which I had preferred bringing on account of its portability, was carried completely off, andthe pole broken. The brightness of the lightning rendered it more like noon than midnight: a tamarind-tree was torn up by its roots in the valley near us; huge masses of stone rolled down the sides of the mountain; and I crept into a corner of Barca Gana’s outer tent, where slept his guard; and, although every rag about me was drenched with water, I was in a short time insensible to the storm which raged around me.
In the morning, however, I suffered considerably from pains in all my limbs and head. The Arabs, also, were full of complaints, and extremely dissatisfied with their situation; they loudly exclaimed against their delay. They had, for days, eaten nothing but a little flour and water, without fat: the sultan of Mandara would grant them no supply, and they demanded of Boo-Khaloom to go on, or turn back. The rain again fell in torrents, which is an Arab’s greatest dread, and they assembled round Boo-Khaloom’s tent, almost in a state of mutiny. Boo-Khaloom himself was excessively ill, more, I believe, from vexation than sickness. He had a long interview with the sultan, and returned very much irritated: he merely told me, as he passed, “that we should move in the evening;” and when I asked, “if every thing went well?” he merely answered, “In shallah!” (please God). The Arabs, from whom he kept his destination a secret, received him with cheers. Whom they were going against they cared but little, so long as there was a prospect of plunder, and the whole camp became a busy scene of preparation.
Two hours after noon we commenced our march through a beautiful valley to the east of Mora, winding round the hills which overhang the town, and penetrating into the heart of the mass of mountains nearly to the south of it. About sunset we halted in a very picturesque spot, called Hairey, surrounded by a superb amphitheatre of hills. Barca Gana’s tent was pitched under the shade of one side of an immense tree, called gubberah, much resembling a fig-tree, although wanting its delicious fruit; and the remnants ofmy tent, which had been mended by his people, and now stood about three feet from the ground, were placed on the opposite side. The trunks of these trees commonly measure ten and twelve yards in circumference near the root, and I have seen them covering more than half an acre of ground with their wide-spreading branches.
Pass of Hairyin theMandara Mountains.D. Denham.J. & C. Walker Sculp.(Large-size)Published as the Act directs Feby. 1826, by John Murray Albemarle St. London.
Pass of Hairyin theMandara Mountains.D. Denham.J. & C. Walker Sculp.(Large-size)Published as the Act directs Feby. 1826, by John Murray Albemarle St. London.
Pass of Hairyin theMandara Mountains.
(Large-size)
Published as the Act directs Feby. 1826, by John Murray Albemarle St. London.
Soon after our arrival, the sultan’s trumpets announced his approach, and he took up his station, at no great distance, under a tree of the same kind: he never used a tent, but slept in an open space, surrounded by his eunuchs. At Hairey are the remains of a Mandara town, long since destroyed by the Felatahs; parts of the mud walls were still standing, and under shelter of these the troops bivouacked. The scorpions, however, made their appearance in the course of the night in great numbers, and several men were stung by them: on hearing the disturbance, and learning the cause, I called my negro, and, striking a light, we killed three in my tent; one of them was full six inches in length, of the black kind, exactly resembling those I had seen in Tripoli.
In consequence of Boo-Khaloom’s illness, it was after daylight when we broke up from our encampment, and probably the mountain scenery, by which we were surrounded, could scarcely be exceeded in beauty and richness. On all sides the apparently interminable chain of hills closed upon our view: in rugged magnificence, and gigantic grandeur, though not to be compared with the Higher Alps, the Apennines, the Jura, or even the Sierra Morena, in magnitude, yet by none of these were they surpassed in picturesque interest. The lofty peaks of Vahmy, Savah, Joggiday, Munday, Vayah, Moyung, and Memay, with clustering villages on their stony sides, appeared to the east and west of us; while Horza, exceeding any of her sister hills in height, as well as in beauty, appeared before us to the south, with its chasm or break through which we were to pass; and thewinding rugged path we were about to tread was discernible in the distance. The valley in which I stood had an elevation superior to that of any part of the kingdom of Bornou, for we had gradually ascended ever since quitting Kouka; it was in shape resembling a large pentagon, and conveyed strongly the idea of its having been the bed or basin of some ancient lake, for the disappearance of which all hypothesis would be vain and useless. There were the marks of many outlets, some long and narrow fissures, through which the waters might have broken; the channel by which we had entered appearing most likely to have carried off its contents.
On proceeding through the pass of Horza, where the ascent continued, its perpendicular sides exceeding two thousand five hundred feet in height, hung over our heads with a projection almost frightful; the width of the valley did not exceed five hundred yards, and the salient and re-entering angles so perfectly corresponded, that one could almost imagine, if a similar convulsion of nature to that which separated were to bring its sides again together, they would unite, and leave no traces of their ever having been disjoined.
It was long after mid-day when we came to the mountain stream called Mikwa, and it afforded an indescribable relief to our almost famished horses and ourselves: the road, after quitting the Horza pass, had been through an extensive and thickly-planted valley, where the tree gubberah, the tamarind, a gigantic wild fig, and the mangoe (called by the Mandarasungerengera, andcomonahby the Bornouese), flourished in great numbers and beauty. This was the first spot I had seen in Africa where Nature seemed at all to have revelled in giving life to the vegetable kingdom; the leaves presented a bright luxuriant verdure, and flowers, from a profusion of climbing parasitical plants, winding round the trunks of the trees, left the imagination in doubt as to which of them the fair aromatic blossoms that perfumed the air were indebted for their nourishment.The ground had frequent irregularities; and broken masses of granite, ten and twelve feet in height, were lying in several places, but nearly obscured by the thick underwood growing round them, and by the trees, which had sprung up out of their crevices. The nearest part of the hills, to which these blocks could have originally belonged, was distant nearly two miles.
When the animals had drunk we again moved on, and after eighteen miles of equally verdant country, more thickly wooded, we came, after sunset, to another stream, near some low hills, called Makkeray, where we were to halt for a few hours to refresh, and then move again, so as to commence an attack on the Felatahs, who were said to be only about sixteen miles distant, with the morning sun.
Our supper, this night, which indeed was also our breakfast, consisted of a little parched corn pounded and mixed with water, the only food we had seen since leaving Mora. Nothing could look more like fighting than the preparations of these Bornou warriors, although nothing could well be more unlike it than the proof they gave on the morrow. The closely-linked iron jackets of the chiefs were all put on, and the sound of their clumsy and ill-shapen hammers, heard at intervals during the night, told the employment of the greater part of their followers.
About midnight the signal was given to advance. The moon, which was in her third quarter, afforded us a clear and beautiful light, while we moved on silently, and in good order, the sultan of Mandara’s force marching in parallel columns to our own, and on our right. At dawn, the whole army halted to sully: my own faith also taught me a morning prayer, as well as that of a Musselman, though but too often neglected.
As the day broke on the morning of the 28th of April, a most interesting scene presented itself. The sultan of Mandara was closeon our flank, mounted on a very beautiful cream-coloured horse, with several large red marks about him, and followed by his six favourite eunuchs, and thirty of his sons, all being finely dressed, and mounted on really superb horses; besides which, they had each from five to six others, led by as many negroes: the sultan had at least twelve. Barca Gana’s people all wore their red scarfs, or bornouses, over their steel jackets, and the whole had a very fine effect. I took my position at his right hand, and at a spot called Duggur we entered a very thick wood, in two columns, at the end of which it was said we were to find the enemy.
During the latter part of the night, while riding on in front with Maramy, the sheikh’s negro, who had accompanied me from Kouka, and who appeared to attach himself more closely to me as we approached danger, we had started several animals of the leopard species, who ran from us so swiftly, twisting their long tails in the air, as to prevent our getting near them. We, however, now started one of a larger kind, which Maramy assured me was so satiated with the blood of a negro, whose carcass we found lying in the wood, that he would be easily killed. I rode up to the spot just as a Shouaa had planted the first spear in him, which passed through the neck, a little above the shoulder, and came down between the animal’s legs; he rolled over, broke the spear, and bounded off with the lower half in his body. Another Shouaa galloped up within two arms’ length, and thrust a second through his loins; and the savage animal, with a woful howl, was in the act of springing on his pursuer, when an Arab shot him through the head with a ball, which killed him on the spot. It was a male panther (zazerma) of a very large size, and measured, from the point of the tail to the nose, eight feet two inches; the skin was yellow, and beautifully marked with orbicular spots on the upper part of the body, while underneath, and at the throat, the spots were oblong and irregular, intermixed with white.These animals are found in great numbers in the woods bordering on Mandara: there are also leopards, the skins of which I saw, but not in great numbers. The panthers are as insidious as they are cruel; they will not attack any thing that is likely to make resistance, but have been known to watch a child for hours, while near the protection of huts or people. It will often spring on a grown person, male or female, while carrying a burthen, but always from behind: the flesh of a child or of a young kid it will sometimes devour, but when any full-grown animal falls a prey to its ferocity, it sucks the blood alone.
A range of minor hills, of more recent formation than the granite chain from which they emanate (which I cannot but suppose to form a part of El Gibel Gumhr, or Mountains of the Moon), approaches quite to the skirts of the extensive wood through which we were passing; and numerous deep ravines, and dry water-courses, rendered the passage tedious and difficult. On emerging from the wood, the large Felatah town of Dirkulla was perceivable, and the Arabs were formed in front, headed by Boo-Khaloom: they were flanked on each side by a large body of cavalry; and, as they moved on, shouting the Arab war-cry, which is very inspiring, I thought I could perceive a smile pass between Barca Gana and his chiefs, at Boo-Khaloom’s expense. Dirkulla was quickly burnt, and another smaller town near it; and the few inhabitants that were found in them, who were chiefly infants, and aged persons unable to escape, were put to death without mercy, or thrown into the flames.
We now came to a third town, in a situation capable of being defended against assailants ten times as numerous as the besieged: this town was called Musfeia. It was built on a rising ground between two low hills at the base of others, forming part of the mass of the Mandara mountains: a dry wadey extended along the front; beyond the wadey a swamp; between this and the wood the road was crossed by a deep ravine, which was not passable for more than two or three horses at a time. The Felatahs had carried a verystrong fence of palisades, well pointed, and fastened together with thongs of raw hide, six feet in height, from one hill to the other, and had placed their bowmen behind the palisades, and on the rising ground, with the wadey before them; their horse were all under cover of the hills and the town:—this was a strong position. The Arabs, however, moved on with great gallantry, without any support or co-operation from the Bornou or Mandara troops, and notwithstanding the showers of arrows, some poisoned, which were poured on them from behind the palisades, Boo-Khaloom, with his handful of Arabs, carried them in about half an hour, and dashed on, driving the Felatahs up the sides of the hills. The women were every where seen supplying their protectors with fresh arrows during this struggle; and when they retreated to the hills, still shooting on their pursuers, the women assisted by rolling down huge masses of the rock, previously undermined for the purpose, which killed several of the Arabs, and wounded others. Barca Gana, and about one hundred of the Bornou spearmen, now supported Boo-Khaloom, and pierced through and through some fifty unfortunates who were left wounded near the stakes. I rode by his side as he pushed on quite into the town, and a very desperate skirmish took place between Barca Gana’s people and a small body of the Felatahs. These warriors throw the spear with great dexterity; and three times I saw the man transfixed to the earth who was dismounted for the purpose of firing the town, and as often were those who rushed forward for that purpose sacrificed for their temerity, by the Felatahs. Barca Gana, whose muscular arm was almost gigantic, threw eight spears, which all told, some of them at a distance of thirty or thirty-five yards, and one particularly on a Felatah chief, who with his own hand had brought four to the ground.
· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·“Incidet ictus,Ingens ad terram duplicato poplite Turnus.”
· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·“Incidet ictus,Ingens ad terram duplicato poplite Turnus.”
· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·“Incidet ictus,Ingens ad terram duplicato poplite Turnus.”
· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·“Incidet ictus,
Ingens ad terram duplicato poplite Turnus.”
Had either the Mandara or the sheikh’s troops now moved up boldly, notwithstanding the defence these people made, and the reinforcements which showed themselves to the south-west, they must have carried the town with the heights overlooking it, along which the Arabs were driving the Felatahs by the terror their miserable guns excited; but, instead of this, they still kept on the other side of the wadey, out of reach of the arrows.
From a Sketch by Major Denham.Engraved by E. Finden.ATTACK ON MUSFEIA.Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London.
From a Sketch by Major Denham.Engraved by E. Finden.ATTACK ON MUSFEIA.Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London.
ATTACK ON MUSFEIA.
Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London.
The Felatahs seeing their backwardness, now made an attack in their turn: the arrows fell so thick that there was no standing against them, and the Arabs gave way. The Felatah horse now came on; and had not the little band round Barca Gana, and Boo-Khaloom, with a few of his mounted Arabs, given them a very spirited check, not one of us would probably have lived to see the following day: as it was, Barca Gana had three horses hit under him, two of which died almost immediately, the arrows being poisoned, and poor Boo-Khaloom’s horse and himself received their death-wounds by arrows of the same description. My horse was badly wounded in the neck, just above the shoulder, and in the near hind leg: an arrow had struck me in the face as it passed, merely drawing the blood, and I had two sticking in my bornouse. The Arabs had suffered terribly; most of them had two or three wounds, and one dropped near me with five sticking in his head alone: two of Boo-Khaloom’s slaves were killed also, near his person.
No sooner did the Mandara and Bornou troops see the defeat of the Arabs, than they, one and all, took to flight in the most dastardly manner, without having once been exposed to the arrows of the enemy, and in the utmost confusion. The sultan of Mandara led the way, who was prepared to take advantage of whatever plunder the success of the Arabs might throw in his way, but no less determined to leave the field the moment the fortune of the day appeared to be against them.
I now for the first time, as I saw Barca Gana on a fresh horse, lamented my own folly in so exposing myself, badly prepared as I was for accidents. If either of my horse’s wounds were from poisoned arrows, I felt that nothing could save me: however there was not much time for reflection; we instantly became a flying mass, and plunged, in the greatest disorder, into that wood we had but a few hours before moved through with order, and very different feelings. I had got a little to the westward of Barca Gana, in the confusion which took place on our passing the ravine which had been left just in our rear, and where upwards of one hundred of the Bornowy were speared by the Felatahs, and was following at a round gallop the steps of one of the Mandara eunuchs, who, I observed, kept a good look out, his head being constantly turned over his left shoulder, with a face expressive of the greatest dismay—when the cries behind, of the Felatah horse pursuing, made us both quicken our paces. The spur, however, had the effect of incapacitating my beast altogether, as the arrow, I found afterwards, had reached the shoulder-bone, and in passing over some rough ground, he stumbled and fell. Almost before I was on my legs, the Felatahs were upon me; I had, however, kept hold of the bridle, and seizing a pistol from the holsters, I presented it at two of these ferocious savages, who were pressing me with their spears: they instantly went off; but another who came on me more boldly, just as I was endeavouring to mount, received the contents somewhere in his left shoulder, and again I was enabled to place my foot in the stirrup. Remounted, I again pushed my retreat; I had not, however, proceeded many hundred yards, when my horse again came down, with such violence as to throw me against a tree at a considerable distance; and alarmed at the horses behind him, he quickly got up and escaped, leaving me on foot and unarmed.
The eunuch and his four followers were here butchered, after a very slight resistance, and stripped within a few yards of me: theircries were dreadful; and even now the feelings of that moment are fresh in my memory: my hopes of life were too faint to deserve the name. I was almost instantly surrounded, and incapable of making the least resistance, as I was unarmed—was as speedily stripped, and whilst attempting first to save my shirt and then my trowsers, I was thrown on the ground. My pursuers made several thrusts at me with their spears, that badly wounded my hands in two places, and slightly my body, just under my ribs on the right side: indeed, I saw nothing before me but the same cruel death I had seen unmercifully inflicted on the few who had fallen into the power of those who now had possession of me; and they were alone prevented from murdering me, in the first instance, I am persuaded, by the fear of injuring the value of my clothes, which appeared to them a rich booty—but it was otherwise ordained.
My shirt was now absolutely torn off my back, and I was left perfectly naked. When my plunderers began to quarrel for the spoil, the idea of escape came like lightning across my mind, and without a moment’s hesitation or reflection I crept under the belly of the horse nearest me, and started as fast as my legs could carry me for the thickest part of the wood: two of the Felatahs followed, and I ran on to the eastward, knowing that our stragglers would be in that direction, but still almost as much afraid of friends as foes. My pursuers gained on me, for the prickly underwood not only obstructed my passage, but tore my flesh miserably; and the delight with which I saw a mountain-stream gliding along at the bottom of a deep ravine cannot be imagined. My strength had almost left me, and I seized the young branches issuing from the stump of a large tree which overhung the ravine, for the purpose of letting myself down into the water, as the sides were precipitous, when, under my hand, as the branch yielded to the weight of my body, a largeliffa, the worst kind of serpent this country produces, rose from its coil, as if in the very act of striking. I was horror-struck, and deprived for a moment of all recollection—the branch slipped from my hand, and I tumbled headlong into the water beneath; this shock, however, revived me, and with three strokes of my arms I reached the opposite bank, which, with difficulty, I crawled up; and then, for the first time, felt myself safe from my pursuers.
Scarcely had I audibly congratulated myself on my escape, when the forlorn and wretched situation in which I was, without even a rag to cover me, flashed with all its force upon my imagination. I was perfectly collected, though fully alive to all the danger to which my state exposed me, and had already begun to plan my night’s rest, in the top of one of the tamarind-trees, in order to escape the panthers which, as I had seen, abounded in these woods, when the idea of the liffas, almost as numerous, and equally to be dreaded, excited a shudder of despair.
I now saw horsemen through the trees, still farther to the east, and determined on reaching them, if possible, whether friends or enemies; and the feelings of gratitude and joy with which I recognised Barca Gana and Boo-Khaloom, with about six Arabs, although they also were pressed closely by a party of the Felatahs, was beyond description. The guns and pistols of the Arab sheikhs kept the Felatahs in check, and assisted in some measure the retreat of the footmen. I hailed them with all my might; but the noise and confusion which prevailed, from the cries of those who were falling under the Felatah spears, the cheers of the Arabs rallying and their enemies pursuing, would have drowned all attempts to make myself heard, had not Maramy, the sheikh’s negro, seen and known me at a distance. To this man I was indebted for my second escape; riding up to me, he assisted me to mount behind him, while the arrows whistled over our heads, and we then galloped off to therear as fast as his wounded horse could carry us: after we had gone a mile or two, and the pursuit had something cooled, in consequence of all the baggage having been abandoned to the enemy, Boo-Khaloom rode up to me, and desired one of the Arabs to cover me with a bornouse. This was a most welcome relief, for the burning sun had already begun to blister my neck and back, and gave me the greatest pain. Shortly after, the effects of the poisoned wound in his foot caused our excellent friend to breathe his last: Maramy exclaimed, “Look, look! Boo-Khaloom is dead!” I turned my head, almost as great an exertion as I was capable of, and saw him drop from the horse into the arms of his favourite Arab—he never spoke after. They said he had only swooned; there was no water, however, to revive him; and about an hour after, when we came to Makkeray, he was past the reach of restoratives.
About the time Boo-Khaloom dropped, Barca Gana ordered a slave to bring me a horse, from which he had just dismounted, being the third that had been wounded under him in the course of the day; his wound was in the chest. Maramy cried, “Sidi rais!do not mount him; he will die!” In a moment, for only a moment was given me, I decided on remaining with Maramy. Two Arabs, panting with fatigue, then seized the bridle, mounted, and pressed their retreat: in less than half an hour he fell to rise no more, and both the Arabs were butchered before they could recover themselves. Had we not now arrived at the water as we did, I do not think it possible that I could have supported the thirst by which I was consuming. I tried several times to speak in reply to Maramy’s directions to hold tight, when we came to breaks or inequalities in the ground; but it was impossible; and a painful straining at the stomach and throat was the only effect produced by the effort.
On coming to the stream, the horses, with blood gushing from their nostrils, rushed into the shallow water, and, letting myself down from behind Maramy, I knelt down amongst them, and seemedto imbibe new life by the copious draughts of the muddy beverage which I swallowed. Of what followed I have no recollection: Maramy told me afterwards that I staggered across the stream, which was not above my hips, and fell down at the foot of a tree on the other side. About a quarter of an hour’s halt took place here for the benefit of stragglers, and to tie poor Boo-Khaloom’s body on a horse’s back, at the end of which Maramy awoke me from a deep sleep, and I found my strength wonderfully increased: not so, however, our horse, for he had become stiff, and could scarcely move. As I learnt afterwards, a conversation had taken place about me, while I slept, which rendered my obligations to Maramy still greater: he had reported to Barca Gana the state of his horse, and the impossibility of carrying me on, when the chief, irritated by his losses and defeat, as well as at my having refused his horse, by which means, he said, it had come by its death, replied, “Then leave him behind. By the head of the Prophet! believers enough have breathed their last to-day. What is there extraordinary in a Christian’s death?” “Raas il Nibbe-Salaam Yassarat il le mated el Yeom ash min gieb l’can e mut Nesserani Wahad.” My old antagonist Malem Chadily replied, “No, God has preserved him; let us not forsake him!” Maramy returned to the tree, and said “his heart told him what to do.” He awoke me, assisted me to mount, and we moved on as before, but with tottering steps and less speed. The effect produced on the horses that were wounded by poisoned arrows was extraordinary: immediately after drinking they dropped, and instantly died, the blood gushing from their nose, mouth, and ears. More than thirty horses were lost at this spot from the effects of the poison.
In this way we continued our retreat, and it was after midnight when we halted in the sultan of Mandara’s territory. Riding more than forty-five miles, in such an unprovided state, on the bare back of a lean horse, the powerful consequences may be imagined. I wasin a deplorable state the whole night; and notwithstanding the irritation of the flesh wounds was augmented by the woollen covering the Arab had thrown over me, teeming as it was with vermin, it was evening the next day before I could get a shirt, when one man who had two, both of which he had worn eight or ten days at least, gave me one, on a promise of getting a new one at Kouka. Barca Gana, who had no tent but the one he had left behind him with his women at Mora, on our advance, could offer me no shelter; and he was besides so ill, or chagrined, as to remain invisible the whole day. I could scarcely turn from one side to the other, but still, except at intervals when my friend Maramy supplied me with a drink made from parched corn, bruised, and steeped in water, a grateful beverage, I slept under a tree nearly the whole night and day, of the 29th. Towards the evening I was exceedingly disordered and ill, and had a pleasing proof of the kind-heartedness of a Bornouese.
Mai Meegamy, the dethroned sultan of a country to the south-west of Angornou, and now subject to the sheikh, took me by the hand as I had crawled out of my nest for a few minutes, and with many exclamations of sorrow, and a countenance full of commiseration, led me to his leather tent, and, sitting down quickly, disrobed himself of his trowsers, insisting I should put them on. Really, no act of charity could exceed this! I was exceedingly affected at so unexpected a friend, for I had scarcely seen, or spoken three words to him; but not so much so as himself, when I refused to accept of them:—he shed tears in abundance; and thinking, which was the fact, that I conceived he had offered the only ones he had, immediately called a slave, whom he stripped of those necessary appendages to a man’s dress, according to our ideas, and putting them on himself, insisted again on my taking those he had first offered me. I accepted this offer, and thanked him with a full heart; and Meegamy was my great friend from that moment until I quitted the sheikh’s dominions.
We found that forty-five of the Arabs were killed, and nearly all wounded; their camels, and every thing they possessed, lost. Some of them had been unable to keep up on the retreat, but had huddled together in threes and fours during the night, and by showing resistance, and pointing their guns, had driven the Felatahs off. Their wounds were some of them exceedingly severe, and several died during the day and night of the 29th; their bodies, as well as poor Boo-Khaloom’s, becoming instantly swollen and black; and sometimes, immediately after death, blood issuing from the nose and mouth, which the Bornou people declared to be in consequence of the arrows having been poisoned. The surviving Arabs, who had now lost all their former arrogance and boasting, humbly entreated Barca Gana to supply them with a little corn to save them from starving. The sultan of Mandara behaved to them unkindly, though not worse than they deserved, refused all manner of supplies, and kept Boo-Khaloom’s saddle, horse-trappings, and the clothes in which he died. He also began making preparations for defending himself against the Felatahs, who, he feared, might pay him a visit; and on the morning of the 30th April we left Mora, heartily wishing them success, should they make the attempt.
Boo-Khaloom’s imprudence in having suffered himself to be persuaded to attack the Felatahs became now apparent, as although, in case of his overcoming them, he might have appropriated to himself all the slaves, both male and female, that he found amongst them; yet the Felatahs themselves were Moslem, and he could not have made them slaves. He was, however, most likely deceived by promises of a Kerdy country to plunder, in the event of his success against these powerful people, alike the dreaded enemies of the sheikh and the sultan of Mandara.
My wounded horse, which had been caught towards the evening of the fight by the Shouaas, and brought to me, was in too bad a state for me to mount, and Barca Gana procured me another. Mypistols had been stolen from the holsters; but, fortunately, my saddle and bridle, though broken, remained. Thus ended our most unsuccessful expedition; it had, however, injustice and oppression for its basis, and who can regret its failure?
We returned with great expedition, considering the wretched state we were in. On the sixth day after our departure from Mora, we arrived in Kouka, a distance of one hundred and eighty miles: the wounded Arabs remained behind, being unable to keep up with the chief, and did not arrive until four days after us. I suffered much, both in mind and body, but complained not; indeed all complaint would have been ill-timed, where few were enduring less than myself. My black servant had lost mule, canteens, and every thing, principally from keeping too near me in the action; and, by his obeying implicitly the strict orders I had given him not to fire on the Felatahs, he had narrowly escaped with his life. Bruised and lame, he could render me no assistance, and usually came in some hours after we had halted on our resting-ground. In the mid-day halts I usually crept under Mai Meegamy’s tent; but at night I laid me down on the ground, close to that of Barca Gana, in order that my horse might get a feed of corn. I always fell into a sound sleep at night, as soon as I lay down, after drinking Maramy’s beverage, who had supplied me with a little bag of parched corn, which he had procured at Mora; and about midnight a slave of the chief, whose name was, most singularly like my own, Denhamah, always awoke me, to eat some gussub, paste, and fat, mixed with a green herb calledmeloheiain Arabic. This was thrust out from under Barca Gana’s tent, and consisted generally of his leavings: pride was sometimes nearly choking me, but hunger was the paramount feeling: I smothered the former, ate, and was thankful. It was in reality a great kindness; for besides myself and the chief, not one, I believe, in the remnant of our army, tasted any thing butengagy, parchedcorn and cold water, during the whole six days of our march. On the night of the 4th of May we arrived at Angornou.
The extreme kindness of the sheikh, however, was some consolation to me, after all my sufferings. He said, in a letter to Barca Gana, “that he should have grieved had any thing serious happened to me; that my escape was providential, and a proof of God’s protection; and that my head was saved for good purposes.” He also sent me some linen he had procured from our huts at Kouka, and a dress of the country; and the interest taken by their governor in the fate of such a kaffir, as they thought me, increased exceedingly the respect of his servants towards me. The next morning we arrived at the capital.
I presented Barca Gana with a brace of French ornamented pistols, and with pink taffeta sufficient for a tobe, which he received with great delight. The sheikh sent me a horse in lieu of the wounded one which I had left at Merty, with but small hopes of his recovery; and my bruises and wounds, which were at first but trifling, got well so surprisingly quick, from the extreme low diet I had from necessity been kept to, that I was not in so bad a condition as might have been expected. My losses, however, were severe; my trunk with nearly all my linen, my canteens, a mule, my azimuth compass, my drawing-case, with a sketch of the hills, were also lost, although I obtained another sketch the morning of our quitting Mora. Such events, however, must sometimes be the consequence of exploring countries like these. The places I had visited were full of interest, and could never have been seen, except by means of a military expedition, without still greater risk. The dominions of the sheikh, in consequence of his being so extraordinarily enlightened for an inhabitant of central Africa, appear to be open to us; but on looking around, when one sees dethroned sultans nearly as common as bankrupts in England; where the strong arm for thetime being has hitherto changed the destiny of kings and kingdoms; no discoveries can be accomplished beyond this, without the greatest hazard both of life and property.
The sheikh laid all the blame of the defeat upon the Mandara troops, and assured me that I should see how his people fought when he was with them, in an expedition which he contemplated against Munga, a country to the west. I told him that I was quite ready to accompany him; and this assurance seemed to give him particular satisfaction.
Of the Mandara chain, and its surrounding and incumbent hills, though full of interest, I regret my inability to give a more perfect account. Such few observations, however, as struck me on my visiting them, I shall lay before the reader. It is on occasions like this, that a traveller laments the want of extensive scientific knowledge. I must therefore request those under whose eye these remarks may come to regard them in the light they are offered, not as pretensions to knowledge, but merely very humble endeavours at communicating information to the best of my ability.
The elevation gradually increases in advancing towards the equator; and the soil, on approaching Delow, where the northernmost point of the Mandara chain commences, is covered with a glittering micaceous sand, principally decomposed granite, which forms a productive earth. The hills extend in apparently interminable ridges east-south-east, south-west, and west; while to the south several masses or systems of hills, if I may so express myself, spread themselves out in almost every picturesque form and direction that can be imagined. Those nearest the eye apparently do not exceed 2500 feet in height; but the towering peaks which appear in the distance are several thousand feet higher. They are composed of enormous blocks of granite, both detached and reclining on each other, presenting the most rugged faces and sides. The interstices and fissures appeared to be filled with a yellow quartzose earth, inwhich were growing mosses and lichens: trees of considerable size also grow from between them. On almost all the hills that I approached, clusters of huts were seen in several places towards the centre, and sometimes quite at the summit; generally on the flats of the ridges. At the base of these mountains, and also at a considerable elevation on their sides, are incumbent masses of what appeared to be the decomposed fragments of primitive rocks recompounded, and united anew by a species of natural cement. At some distance from the base of those which I ascended from the valley of Mora, were collections of quartzose rocks, of great variety and colour; fragments of hornblende, and several large abutments of porphyroidal rocks. About one hundred yards above the spring which I have before mentioned, in a space between two projecting masses of rock, were numerous shells, some petrified and finely preserved, while others were perforated by insects, worm-eaten, and destroyed: they were confusedly mixed with fragments of granite, quartz, sand and clay; and in some cases adhered to pieces of the composition rocks: the greater part were of the oyster kind. Various specimens of these, with pieces of every variety of the structure of the hills, I had collected, but they were all lost in the general confusion of the battle; and on the return of the army I was unable to do more than procure a few specimens of the northernmost part of the mountains; and the half of these were lost by my negro.
Of the extent of this chain, or rather these groups of mountains, I can form no idea, except from the information of the Mandara people. I have met with a man who (by the way) wanted to persuade me that he was a son of Hornemann by his slave, although, from his appearance, he must have been born ten years before that unfortunate traveller entered this country. He said he had been twenty days south of Mandara, to a country called Adamowa, which he described as being situated in the centre of a plain surroundedby mountains ten times higher than any we could see; that he went first to Mona or Monana, which was five days, and then to Bogo, which was seven more; and here, for one Soudan tobe, the sultan gave him four slaves. After eight days’ travelling from this latter country, he arrived at Adamowa. These people, he says (that is, the Kerdies on the hills; for Adamowa itself is occupied by Felatahs), eat the flesh of horses, mules, and asses, or of any wild animal that they kill: nobody but the sultans and their children are clothed; all the rest of the nation go naked; the men sometimes wear a skin round the loins, but the women nothing. This man, who was called Kaid-Moussa-ben-Yusuf (Hornemann’s name), spoke to me of several extensive lakes which he had seen in this journey, and also described with great clearness a river running between two very high ridges of the mountains, which he crossed previous to arriving at Adamowa. This river he declared to run from the west, and to be the same as the Quolla or Quana at Nyffe, Kora, and at Raka, but not the same as the river at Kano, which had nothing to do with the Shary, and which ran into the Tchad; but the main body of the water ran on to the south of Begharmi, was then called the D’Ago, and went eastward to the Nile. Kaid-Moussa was a very intelligent fellow, had visited Nyffe, Raka, Waday, and Darfur; by which latter place also, he said this river passed. He was most particularly clear in all his accounts, and his statement agreed in some points with the information a Shouaa named Dreess-boo-Raas-ben-aboo-Deleel had given me; therefore I was the more inclined to pay attention to it. To the south of this river, the population is entirely Kerdy, until the Great Desert. This desert is passed several times in the year by kafilas with white people, not Christians, who bring goods from the great sea: some of these reach Adamowa. He himself saw white loaf sugar, such as the merchants brought here from Tripoli to the sheikh, and a gun or two, with metal pots and pans, and arrack (rum). The inhabitantswere unanimous in declaring these mountains to extend southward for two months’ journey; and in describing them, Yusuf called them “kou kora, kora, kantaga,”—mountains large, large, moon mountains. And from the increased love of enterprise apparent in our rising generation, we may one day hope to be as well acquainted with the true character of these stupendous mountains as with the lofty peaks of the Andes.
The extreme southern peak which I could discern was that called Mendify, which rose into the air with singular boldness. It was said to be a distance from Musfeia of two long days’ journey,—say thirty-five miles. At that distance, it had all the character of an alpine peak, of a most patriarchal height. I could perceive with a glass other mountains extending from its sides, the forms of which bore a tranquil character, compared with the arid and steep peaks which overlooked them. It resembled very much in appearance “Les Arguilles,” as they appear looking at them from the Mer-de-Glace. The following outline may serve to show their shape and character.