CHAPTER XIV

The expansion of Bornu under Dunama II in the thirteenth century had, in the course of the conquest of the Fezzan, brought about the occupation of Kawar and other points on the Murzuk-Chad road. This could not but have had a serious effect on the economics of Air on accountof the Bilma salt trade, and there is a tradition of a war with Bornu in aboutA.D.1300. Raiding on a large scale across the desert no doubt also took place. By the middle of the fourteenth century, however, the greatness of Bornu had commenced to decline; the reigning dynasty was suffering severely at the hands of the “Sô people,” who were the original pagan inhabitants of the country. They had succeeded in defeating and killing four successive Kanuri rulers, and only twenty years after Ibn Batutah’s journey there were sown in the reign of Daud the germs of that internal strife which led to the complete expulsion of the Bornu dynasty from Kanem and continuous warfare between these two countries.In the west, on the other hand, the power of the empire of Melle was still, if not quite at its height, at least unmenaced by any serious rival. With the death of Ibn Ghania inA.D.1233 the Sanhaja Confederation had come to an end. There then arose on the Upper Niger a leader called Mari Jatah I. After making himself master of two of the greatest negroid peoples of the west, he was succeeded by Mansa Musa, the founder of the empire of Melle. Mansa Musa, or, as he was also called, Mansa Kunkur Musa, after adding to his dominions all the famous countries of Western Sudan, turned eastwards and conquered Gao, on the Middle Niger. He also subjected Timbuctoo, which had been founded about the yearA.D.1000 by the Tuareg of the Idenan and Immedideren tribes during the Sanhaja period, but its conquest only served to increase its prosperity as a trading centre. It was visited and inhabited by merchants from all over North Africa.It is interesting, in considering the history of Melle, to observe an attempt which was made at this early period, in a country so long considered by Europeans as savage and barbarous, to solve a problem of government on more rational lines than has ever been tried in modern Europe. A dual system of administration was organised to deal with races foreign to the authority of the central government.There was a national and a territorial bureaucracy: the feature of the government was that Melle was divided territorially into two provinces, or vice-royalties, concurrently with which there were three separate ethnic or national administrations. It almost goes without saying that the military administration was kept strictly apart from the civil.With the death of Mansa Musa and the succession of his son Mansa Magha, in 1331, the fabric of the empire began to fall in pieces. Timbuctoo had been successfully attacked in 1329 by the King of Mosi, who expelled the Melle garrison. A little later the prince, Ali Killun, son of Za Yasebi, of the original Songhai dynasty of Gao, escaped with his brother from the court of Mansa Magha, where they had been living as political prisoners in the guise of pages. They acquired some measure of independence and, though again subjected by the succeeding king of Melle, Mansa Suleiman, in about 1336 commenced to lay the foundations of the later Songhai empire on the Middle Niger. Mansa Suleiman recaptured Timbuctoo, which at this time, inhabited by the Mesufa, had begun to take the place of the older Tuareg centre, Tademekka, further east. The Mesufa, whom we last saw south of Air, were doubtless being pushed back west again by the pressure of the Aulimmiden and migrants from the East.In 1373 the Vizier of Melle, another Mari Jatah, usurped the power from the grandson of Mansa Magha and reconquered Tekadda, but it was the last flicker of life in the old empire. The opening years of the fourteenth century saw a succession of weak kings and powerful governors who were not strong enough to resist the incursions of the Tuareg from the desert. Timbuctoo was conquered in 1433 from the Mesufa by some other Tuareg, probably from the west or north-west, under Akil (Ag Malwal), who declined to abandon his nomadic life and installed as governor Muhammad Nasr el Senhaji from Shingit in Mauretania. The Tuareg at this time were everywhere victorious but destructive.They never succeeded in consolidating their power into an empire. In this era of their ascendancy Agades was founded in about the year 1460, just as Sunni Ali, the son of Sunni Muhammad Dau, ascended the throne of Gao and changed the whole political map of North Africa by prostrating the small surviving kingdom of Melle and finally setting up in its place the Songhai empire.The incessant bickering and local feuds had driven the Tuareg of Air to come to some arrangement by which, nominally at least, they could consolidate themselves against the powers of the Sudan. They had agreed to have a Sultan, and he was installed, and not long afterwards the Amenokalate was set up in Agades, at a most eventful period in Central African history. The empire of Songhai on the Niger seemed invincible. By 1468 Timbuctoo had been overwhelmed and the governor driven out; Akil, the Tuareg, was forced to flee westwards. The city was plundered and the occupation of Western Negroland commenced. In the meanwhile the Portuguese had planted the factory of Elmina on the Guinea coast, and Alfonso V was succeeded by João II, who sent an embassy to Sunni Ali.Sunni Ali met his death by drowning in 1492, and was followed by his son Abu Bakr Dau, and at a short interval by Muhammad ben Abu Bakr, called Muhammad Askia, the greatest of all the kings of the Sudan, and one of the greatest monarchs in the world of the fifteenth century. He appears to have ruled with great wisdom, depending on careful administration rather than on force to maintain his prestige. In addition to Melle itself and Jenne, which had already fallen, Ghana and Mosi in the far west were added to Songhai. After a pilgrimage of great pomp across Africa and through Egypt, Haj Muhammad Askia turned his attentions to the east. Katsina was occupied in 1513 as well as the whole of Gober and the rest of Hausaland. It was inevitable, to stop the Tuareg raiding down in the settled country, that Air should be added to his dominion as well.In 1515 Askia marched against Al Adalet, or Adil, oneof the twin co-Sultans of Agades, and drove out the Tuareg tribes living in the town,[423]replacing them with his own Songhai people, a colonisation from which the city has not recovered to this day. He remained in occupation a year, and was called the “Cursed.” The conquest is unfortunately not mentioned by Leo,[424]who only refers to the expedition against Kano and Katsina; and this is all the more unpardonable, for he had accompanied his uncle on an official visit to Askia himself. Leo clearly regards Agades at the time he was writing as a negro settlement. According to traditions current in the city, numbers of Tuareg were massacred by Askia’s men, but however many Songhai may have been planted there, and however many Tuareg expelled, there is no doubt that considerable numbers remained behind to mix with the southerners and form the present Emagadesi people. The town must have been in a very flourishing state at that time: “the greatest part of the citizens are forren merchants” who paid “. . . large custom to the king . . . on their merchandise out of other places.” But apart from the yearly tribute of 150,000 ducats due to the King of Gao, the conquest of Air does not seem to have affected the independence of the Tuareg, as no mention is made of a Songhai governor, while the King of Agades, already within a few years of the time of Leo’s journey, is reported to have kept a military force of his own.The contemporaries of Askia in Kanem and Bornu were Ali, the son of another Dunama, and later, Ali’s son, Idris, both kings of such renown that their country appears on European maps as early as 1489. Not to be outdone by the Songhai kings, whose emissaries had reached Portugal, Idris sent an embassy to Tripoli in 1512. Under the son of Idris, Muhammad, who ruled from 1526 to 1545, the kingdom of Bornu reached the summit of its greatness. This remarkable century in Central Africa deserves examination in greater detail, but lack of space makes it impossible.Agades was perhaps at the height of its prosperity before and immediately after the conquest of Muhammad Askia. The scale of life in which Air shared is shown by the description of Muhammad Askia’s pilgrimage in 1495. He was accompanied by 1000 men on foot and 500 on horseback, and in the course of which he spent 300,100 mithkal of gold. The prosperity of Agades continued until the commencement of the nineteenth century, but in a form far different from what it must have been in the sixteenth century, when it served as an advanced trading-post or entrepôt for Gao, at that time the centre of the gold trade of the Sudan and probably the most flourishing commercial city in Central Africa. The gradual desertion of Agades, almost complete by 1790, when the bulk of the population migrated to Katsina, Tasawa, Maradi and Kano, commenced in 1591, at which date Gao, the parent city from the commercial point of view, had fallen to be a province of the Moroccan empire.The heritage of Muhammad Askia was beyond the power of his successors to maintain. Intestine wars and intrigues broke down the authority of the central government. Revolts took place in Melle, and the covetous eyes of Mulai Ahmed, the Sultan of Morocco, in 1549, were turned towards Negroland. He demanded the cession of the Tegaza salt-mines, and though this insult was avenged by an army of 2000 Tuareg invading Morocco in 1586, Tegaza was captured by the Moors soon afterwards and the deposits of Taodenit, north of Timbuctoo, were opened instead. The final blow fell three years later, when Gao was entered by Basha Jodar, the eunuch-general of Mulai Hamed, with a Moroccan army. The final struggles of Ishak Askia in 1591 were unavailing. Henceforth Moroccan governors reigned over the Western Sudan with garrisons in Jenne, Timbuctoo, Gao and elsewhere. In 1603 Mulai Hamed el Mansur of Morocco died, with the whole of Western Africa under his rule.Power in the west thus passed once more from the negroidto the northern people, but traditions of empire persisted in the centre. In 1571 there came to the throne of Bornu, Idris Ansami, known more usually from the place of his burial as Idris Alawoma. His mother seems from her name—’Aisha-Kel Eghrarmar—to have been a Tuareg; she had the reputation of great beauty. After consolidating his empire to the east, Idris conquered Hausaland as far west as and including Kano, where he must have come into contact with the Songhai empire, just then in process of passing under the rule of Morocco. So Idris Alawoma[425]turned his attention to the north-west, and undertook three expeditions against the Tuareg, the last one of which was against Air itself, the first two presumably being against more southern tribes. The chronicle of Idris’ expeditions is not clear enough to identify the exact areas of his operations. The first one was described as a raid, and the second, an expedition against a tribe. The operations against Air started from Atrebisa and passed Ghamarama, doubtfully identified with Gamram in Northern Damergu, after which a host of Tuareg was overtaken in the open desert between the town, Tadsa, and Air, and many were slaughtered. Idris returned to Munio by way of Zibduwa and Susubaki. At an earlier date than these expeditions his vizier had fought a battle with the Tuareg, who had come with a numerous host of Tildhin (?)[426]and others to attack him at Aghalwen, which is Eghalgawen in Southern Air, on the road to the Southland.Having broken the power of the Air Tuareg, Idris Alawoma ordered the Kel Yiti, or Kel Wati, who were living in his dominions, to raid north and north-west in order to keep the tribes in a properly chastened frame of mind, until they were obliged to sue for peace and acknowledge their allegiance to the kingdom of Bornu. Barth thinks the Kel Wati are to be identified with the Kel Eti, or Jokto,a mixed Tebu and Tuareg people in the parts near Lake Chad. This is probably the period of raids in South-eastern Air, previously referred to, which obliged the Itesan to abandon their eastern settlements and move west into the heart of the mountains. The supposition is borne out by the record of Idris’ expedition against the Tebu of Dirki and Agram, or Fashi, which was followed by a long stay at Bilma and the opening up of relations with the north. All these events fall into the first twelve years of Idris Alawoma’s reign: of the last twenty-one we know little.In 1601 at Agades, Muhammad ben Mubarak ibn el Guddala, or Ghodala, deposed the Amenokal Yussif ben el Haj Ahmed ibn el Haj Abeshan, and reigned in his stead for four months. Yussif recaptured the power and ben Mubarak fled to Katsina and Kano, but returning to Air entered Agades with a body of men from Bornu. He went on to Assode, and then retired within a short time to Gamram in Damergu. Yussif in the meanwhile had collected men in the Southland of Kebbi and returned to the charge. Ben Mubarak again fled to Bornu, but was later captured, and died in prison. This period of hostility between Air and Bornu led Idris Alawoma’s grandson Ali ben el Haj Omar ben Idris to wage several wars against the Sultan of Agades, though he was once himself besieged in his own capital by the Tuareg and their allies. To the wars in this reign, lasting from 1645 to 1684 or 1685, belong the events which Jean has recorded incorrectly as occurring in 1300,[427]in the reign of the eighth Sultan before Lamini.[428]The latter is, of course, the famous Muhammad el Amin el Kanemi of Denham and Clapperton’s expedition, who was, in fact, the eighth Sultan before Ali ben Idris.Tradition in Air and the Agades Chronicle at this point agree tolerably well with the Bornu Chronicle. The Bornu king laid siege to Agades, where Muhammad Mubaraki (1653-87) was reigning, and defeated the Tuareg, who,after a number of engagements in the Telwa valley, retired to the fastness of Bagezan. Their resources enabled them to hold out for three years against the Bornuwi forces, who were starving in the lowlands. The war of 1685 is called in the Agades Chronicle the War of Famine. The people of Bornu eventually withdrew eastwards over the desert, hotly pursued by the Tuareg all the way to the well of Ashegur, north of Fashi, which, as will be remembered, had previously been occupied by Idris Alawoma. Deserted by their Sultan, the Bornuwi were surprised, and left 300-400 prisoners in the hands of the Tuareg, who, from now on to the present day, have exercised a paramount influence over these oases, where they developed the salt trade with the Sudan[429]through Air. The gold trade of Songhai, at one time so important in Agades that it had its own standard weight for the metal, which long after its disappearance continued to regulate the circulating medium of exchange, was replaced by the salt traffic as an asset of much value.[430]The campaigns of Idris Alawoma and of Ali repeated the effects of the earlier Kanuri pressure on the west. Evidence of the tendency of the southern Tuareg to move west has been noticed on several occasions. The effect of the Bornu campaigns was to exert pressure on the Aulimmiden, which culminated in their attacks on the Tademekkat people and eventually in the Kel Owi immigration into Air. The sequence of events in Air has already been related; the successes of the Aulimmiden contributed directly and indirectly to the decline of Agades as a commercial centre. By 1770 they had captured Gao. Under Kawa, in 1780, they established a dominion over the north bank of theNiger at Ausa; these were doubtless some factors which influenced the Kel Geres in their decision to abandon Air as a result of the arrival of the Kel Owi. The westward move of the Aulimmiden before the Kanuri of Bornu, who were suffering from the reaction which follows greatness, had left an area correspondingly free for the Kel Geres to occupy. The middle of the century had been taken up in desultory fighting between Air and the south. The next notable event had been in 1761—an attack on Kano by the Kel Owi and the defeat of the Kel Geres by the Aulimmiden in the same year. The inroads of the Fulani into Hausaland had commenced, but as yet Othman dan Fodio had not established himself in Sokoto, or the ruling families of Fulani in all the large towns of the Central Sudan.PLATE 49EGHALGAWEN AND THE LAST HILLS OF AIRThe protection of the salt trade led to continual struggles between Air and Bornu. An expedition by the Sultan of Agades, in about 1760,[431]to Kuka on Lake Chad is probably part of the war of Bilma in 1759 referred to in the Agades Chronicle as having been made by Muhammad Guma, the son of Mubarak. The Sultan was accompanied by the Kel Ferwan, and returned with a war indemnity of 2000 head of cattle and a promise that trade would not be subjected to interference.The occupation of part of Damergu by the Kel Owi Tuareg is of course recent, though it had been seized by the earlier immigrants at the same time as Air, with this difference, that the negroid inhabitants were never driven out or absorbed as in the mountains. The Kel Owi interference and immigration took the form of successful raiding or warfare to keep open the caravan road into the south. The fate of Damergu in all this long period of history was to be squeezed between the Tuareg on two sides and the Sudan empires on the other two.[432]The modern period commences with the passage through Air of the Foureau-Lamy Mission. Beyond what has already been said, it is impossible to discuss this phase, as it is still too recent, but the French version is contained in Lieut. Jean’s admirable review of French colonial policy in theTerritoires du Niger.[415]Some notes on the early history and the origins of the Tuareg race will be found in a paper by the author in the Journal of the R.G.S. for Jan. 1926.[416]Jean:op. cit., Chap. XIII; and Chudeau:Le Sahara Soudanais, p. 72.[417]Fifteen days east of Ghana in the Upper Niger country. Not to be confused with Kuka on Lake Chad, or with Gao (Gago) on the Middle Niger. Kukia is called Kugha in el Bekri and Cochia by Ca’ da Mosto (Barth,op. cit., Vol. IV., pp. 583-4).[418]As we have seen, a section of the Sanhaja, and nothing to do with the Lemta.[419]Audaghost was for long confused by European geographers with Agades, or, as soon as the first news of Air was received, with Auderas. Audaghost was in Mauretania between Tegaza and Walata.[420]South-west of Walata and west of Timbuctoo: for all these places see Map I in Vol. I. of the Hakluyt Soc., edition of Leo Africanus.[421]Ibn Batutah, French ed., IV. p. 437.[422]Variant, Iraz, French ed., IV. pp. 442, 445.[423]Barth,op. cit., Vol. IV. p. 603; Vol. I. p. 461.[424]Leo,op. cit., Vol. III. pp. 829 seq. and 846.[425]Barth,op. cit., Vol. II. p. 653.[426]The word may be a corruption of Kindin, the Kanuri name for the Tuareg.[427]Jean,op. cit., p. 115.[428]Who did not die 400 years, but barely 100 years, ago, in 1835.[429]Jean is, of course, quite unjustified in dragging in the Kel Owi. His information, owing to the fact that the Kel Owi had always favoured the French expansion both during the Foureau-Lamy expedition and when Jean occupied Air, seems to be derived largely from this source, which is as prejudiced as the accounts given by all parvenus in the world when discussing history in which they have not been, but would have liked to have been, involved. A parallel unjustified assumption of historical responsibility is found in the Maket n’Ikelan story.[430]Barth,op. cit., Vol. I. p. 467.[431]Jean,op. cit., p. 121.[432]I cannot agree with Jean that the first occupation of Damergu, Elakkos and Damagarim by the earlier Tuareg is at all recent (op. cit., pp. 121-2). Some of the events he records are recent, but not the earlier movements of the tribes.CHAPTER XIVVALEDICTORYHeremy account of the Air Tuareg must close. No one can be better aware than myself of the shortcomings and discrepancies of my story. The task would have been easier had a general survey of an unprejudiced character of the history and ethnology of North Africa existed. Where my account has wandered from the field of the Tuareg of Air, it has had to build both a general and a particular foundation for itself, and I am conscious that the result is not as satisfactory as it should be. The subjects of script and of language have scarcely been touched upon at all; they are too large and specialised matters for this volume. If ever there should come a period of leisure for me, they might be made the subject of a separate study.I cannot conceal the pleasure that writing this account has afforded me in the course of my researches, by making the scenes which I enjoyed in Air live again before my eyes. Had the time available both in Africa and since my return been commensurate with my interest in the subject, the result would have been better. Intended originally as a book of travel, it has in places become complicated, obscure and overladen with some of the fruits of inquiry in a vast field, namely, the origin and nature of all the peoples of North Africa. I shall feel amply rewarded if another student will allow his curiosity to be sufficiently stimulated to continue the work.As the writer of a book of travel I must complete the tale of the journey. I came to an end of my wanderings where I had begun them, in Northern Nigeria. My two friends and I had started from there on 27th April, 1922; I returned there alone on the 29th December of the sameyear. After my tour in Northern Air it became apparent that the time at my disposal must prove too short to achieve the object of crossing the Sahara to the Mediterranean with my companions. At Iferuan I regretfully decided to return home by way of Nigeria. At the commencement of December I turned south and marched to Agellal, a large village of stone houses under a singularly beautiful mountain. From there I went to Tefis to see the mosque, and camped at Anu Wisheran, which means “The Old Well.” There were small deserted settlements at both places. After another camp at Garet I descended into the basin of Central Air, over a barren slope intersected by numerous north and south rivulets between bare stony ridges. I halted in the Anu Maqaran valley near the boulder on which I discovered the chariot drawing. The site of my camp had been purely adventitious, but that obscure rock may well prove to be the most important observation of my whole journey. On the following day, Bila was reached at the spur of the Azamkoran mountains, and then we passed by the sugar-loaf hill of Sampfotchi into the Arwa Mellen and familiar Assada valleys. After a long march from the Tamenzaret wells I came again to Auderas, where I rejoined my companions, but only for a day or two, to sort our belongings and part company, I to return south, they to go on north and after many tedious delays to reach Algiers. The pleasant people of Auderas came to say good-bye. My companions walked a mile or so along my road, over the valley and hill, till we reached the plain sloping down to Taruaji. There they turned back. With me were only Sidi my guide, Amadu my servant, and one camel boy. Sidi had not been to Nigeria for many years and I was anxious for him to see modern Kano. We travelled fast, stopping only one day on the way in order to try to save a camel which had caught pneumonia during the bitterly cold nights in Azawagh. We went by Inwatza, the pool of Tizraet near Turayet, Akaraq, Eghalgawen, Milen, Hannekar and Tanut, and then straight into Nigeria without going to Zinder. On29th December, the thirty-third day after leaving Iferuan, I reached Kano again after a journey of some 550 miles in twenty-nine marches. Even the Tuareg admitted that it was fast travelling. The camels arrived very fit indeed and were sold. A fortnight later I was embarking at Lagos for England.PLATE 50MT. BILA AT SUNSETMy guide, Sidi, was astonished at the prosperity and development of Kano. I gave him some small presents and a few things to take back to Ahodu of Auderas. He left Kano before I did, as he had found a caravan returning north and did not want to miss the opportunity of travelling with friends. He came to see me in the morning of the day he was due to leave, and we walked round the European quarter of Kano together. I happened to be with a French officer at the time. We met Sidi waiting where I had told him to be, under a certain tree in front of a well-known merchant’s store in the European town of Kano. Sidi got up and greeted me. His hand and mine brushed over one another’s, the fingers being withdrawn with a closing snap. I gave him the usual greeting: “Ma’-tt-uli,” and he replied very solemnly, “El Kheir ’Ras”; which mean, “How do you fare?” and “Naught but good.” When Tuareg meet these hand-clasps and greetings continue to punctuate their conversation for a long time. They are varied with the question, “Iselan?” meaning, “What news?” to which the right answer is, “Kalá, kalá,” “No, no!” since for them any news must be bad news. Then, as I have said, Sidi and I and the Frenchman walked together; the latter looked wonderingly at the demeanour of my friend, whom he did not know. At last it was time for Sidi to join the camels of his caravan. Their number had been increased by one camel which I had given to him. He turned to say good-bye, but did not speak at all. He took my hand and held it with both of his, and then bowed his forehead till his veil touched my fingers. I gave him the thanks of the Lord in Arabic, and he murmured something incomprehensible. My French friend looked on curiously. Andthen Sidi without glancing at him turned quickly and walked away like a Prince of the Earth striding over the land. He walked erect and swiftly till I lost him to sight. He never turned his head again.He was in many ways rather a ruffian, but, like his folk, patient, long-suffering and unforgiving. He was a true specimen of the Tuareg race.These people never become angry or speak loud: I have rarely seen them excited, but they have an indomitable spirit and for that reason will perhaps survive. They say, “Kiss the hand you cannot cut off,” and again, “The path, though it be winding, and the King, though he be old.” So they may have patience after all to wait for the fulfilment of their fate and not throw themselves fruitlessly again on rifles or machine-guns. I remember sitting at Gamram one evening on the ruins of the walls of the town where once their rulers lived as wardens of the marches of the desert on that great Saharan road. In my diary I wrote:“Last night I sat on the old walls looking west towards the yellow sunset under a blue-black cloud of rain hanging low in the sky. A man had lit a fire which smoked very much, and the west wind was carrying the smoke away over the wall in a horizontal streak between me and the sunset. They have gone, the Tuareg, from history like that streak of smoke. Even the Almoravids are only a name. I wonder why. They have fought with a losing hand so long. They were driven down from the north by the Arabs and by Europe, and harried by everyone. They have also harried others well. Finally, the French have come and have occupied their country. For long it was thought that the Tuareg would be untamable. They fought well and hard. The fire of old remained. In Air it broke again into flame in 1917 with Kaossen’s revolt, but in the end the force of European arms prevailed. The French killed many and punished the people of Air very hardly, too hardly as some of their own officers think, in dealing with a peoplewhich is already so small and tending to die out. But though calm and peaceful to-day like the smoke carried away from the fire by the walls of Gamram, the point of flame remains. I could see the heart of the fire from which the smoke was coming. I wonder if the flame will burst forth again. You have fought well, you people. You would not bow your necks, so they have been broken, but perhaps your day may come again. It grew dark on the walls of Gamram and the sunset of rain faded away; the fire continued to burn, but my thoughts turned elsewhere, to my journey, to my riding camel (wondering whether it would survive: I gave it some millet that night as extra fodder), to England, and to what I should have to eat there. I had an omelette which I made myself, and some fresh milk for supper that evening. Thence my thoughts turned to other things as well. . . .”And here it is better that I close. It is on the knees of the gods how they achieve their destiny. I hope that the gods will be good to them.They were my very good friends, and I was very pleased to live with them, for they were very agreeable. Perhaps we shall meet again and travel together once more. And so their proverb, which has seemed to me very true, will be fulfilled for them and for me. They say that:“Living People Often Meet.”APPENDIX IA LIST OF THE ASTRONOMICALLY DETERMINED POINTS IN AIRThepositions given in the following table have been collected from the record of the proceedings of the Foureau-Lamy Mission, from the list given on the second sheet of the “Carte de l’Air” prepared by the Mission Cortier and others on a scale of 1/500,000, and from the observations by the author. Two positions given in Lieut. Jean’sLes Touareg du Sud-Estare also included. The French longitudes have been converted into longitudes east of Greenwich by the addition 2° 20′ 14″.The author’s observations were carried out with a three-inch transit theodolite by Cary and Porter, and were in all cases stellar sights. The latitudes were in all cases determined from pairs of north and south circum-meridian stars, or from altitudes of Polaris and one south star. The longitudes were determined by calculations based on local mean time derived from pairs of east and west stars, and chronometric differences from points which had previously been determined by French travellers. Where the author’s longitudes for points previously determined by French observers are also given, they are the result of chronometric differences from other points previously or successively visited. The author, however, has not used his own longitudes for determining intermediate points when French observations were available, and his co-ordinates in these instances are only reproduced for purposes of comparison.The data for the Foureau-Lamy observations are described in the record of the proceedings of the expedition. The source of the positions given on the Cortier map is not stated. The data for Colonel Tilho’s positions are in the record ofthe delimitation of the northern boundary of Nigeria. The author’s computations are in the records of the Royal Geographical Society in London, where are also the original route reports and prismatic compass traverses made throughout the journey.Where possible the author’s chronometric differences were checked by opening and closing a series of observations on points previously fixed by French observers. In one unfortunate case, however, the author’s watches stopped as a result of his camels going astray and the series was consequently broken. His watches again stopped at Auderas, where, however, he stayed a sufficient length of time to re-rate them. At this place a number of local mean time observations were taken over a long period.The author’s longitude observations were carried out as follows:Series Aopened at Fanisau camp near Kano from a position supplied by the Survey school—closed at Tessawa— Dan Kaba (unreliable), intermediate position.Series Bopened at Tessawa—notclosed: Urufan-Gangara-Tanut, intermediate positions.Series Cnotopened—closed at T’in Wana: Termit—Teskar-Guliski, intermediate positions.Series Dopened at T’in Wana—closed at Auderas.Series Eopened at Auderas—watches rated—closed at Auderas.Series Fopened at Auderas—closed at Auderas: Abarakan-Teginjir-Telia-Teloas, intermediate positions.Series Gopened at Auderas—closed at Auderas: Aggata-Assode-Afis-Iferuan, intermediate positions.The author’s meteorological record, which was kept for nine months, has not been reproduced. It consists of daily maximum and minimum, actual (twice daily), and wet and dry bulb temperatures; aneroid readings; wind and rainfall, and sunset and sunrise notes. It is at any student’s disposal to consult.The following abbreviations are used in the ensuing table:F—Foureau; Ch—Chambrun (see Record of Foureau-Lamy expedition); R—Rodd; T—Tilho; C—Cortier’s Map of Air; J—Jean’sTouareg du Sud-Est.Place.Area.Latitude, north.Longitude (east of Greenwich).Authority.° ′ ″° ′ ″Dan Kaba[433]Nigeria13-12-407-44-30RTessawaTessawa13-45-20·57-59-12·6T13-45-507-59-15RUrufanTessawa14-04-508-06-25RGangaraDamergu14-36-308-27-32F14-36-42—Ch14-36-508-25-40RTanut[434]Damergu14-58-208-47-50RGuliskiDamergu15-00-509-06-20RTeshkarElakkos15-07-4010-35-10RTermitEastern Desert16-04-1011-04-50RAbellamaTegama-Azawagh16-16-327-47-19CMarandetTegama-Azawagh16-22-207-24-14CAin IrhayenTegama-Azawagh16-26-407-55-22CTabzagurTegama-Azawagh16-36-577-08-17CTin Wana(T’in-Nouana)S. Air16-42-328-25-19C16-42-558-25-15RIn GallS.W.Air16-47-086-54-15CTebehicS.Air16-47-328-21-14CEghalgawenS.Air16-48-218-31-19CAgades(Post)S.Air16-59-197-57-15C„(T’in Shaman[435])S.Air16-59-02(8-24-18)JTin DawinS.Air17-00-078-26-19CTin TaboraqS.Air17-01-508-08-19CTagidda N’AdrarW.Air17-04-137-22-21CAnu AreranW.Air17-15-277-43-20CFagoshiaW.Air17-16-016-57-17CTafadekS.Air17-23-327-55-19CTagidda N’T’isemtW.Air17-25-386-34-33CTinienS.Air17-26-548-09-02F17-26-24—ChIdikelW.Air17-29-427-37-23CTeloas-TabelloE.Air17-34-408-49-30REgeruenS.W.Air17-35-157-54-22CAuderas[436]C.Air17-37-508-19-00R17-38-008-18-14F17-37-488-19-30(C)TeliaE.Air17-47-308-49-20RIn KakkanW.Air17-49-227-48-23CIn AbbagaritWestern Desert17-53-475-59-15CTamet TedderetWestern Desert17-54-046-36-18CAnu n’AgerufW.Air17-54-467-24-22CAureranC.Air17-56-548-23-17F17-56-42—ChTeginjirC.Air17-59-20—RAbarakanC.Air18-03-308-39-20RAggataC.Air18-09-008-26-40RUfa AtikinW.Air18-09-267-12-21CIn AllaramWestern Desert18-16-126-15-19CTamadalt Tan AtaramW.Air18-16-237-49-18CAfastoW.Air18-17-087-17-22CZilaletW.Air18-23-197-51-21CAssodeC.Air18-27-008-26-50RSidawetC.Air18-30-548-02-20CAfisN.Air18-37-308-35-40RAgellalN.Air18-43-028-07-17C18-43-008-10-02F18-43-008-07-14ChFaodetN.Air18-47-208-34-50RIferuan[437]N.Air19-04-108-22-45R19-04-288-22-22C19-04-188-24-32F19-04-128-21-20Ch19-04-038-24-24JZurikaN.Air19-14-357-50-15CUrarenWestern Desert19-31-447-08-17CIn GezzamWestern Desert19-33-105-44-20CHeights above Sea Level.[438]Iferuan681metres(F)673„(C)Uraren485„(C)Sidawet554„(C)Agellal613„(C)604„(F)Auderas798„(F)Agades(T’in Shaman)500„(F)In Gezzam374„(C)Zilalet557„(C)Note.—The exact positions of the observations in the same localities are not identical in the case of all observers, which accounts for some of the apparent discrepancies.

In the west, on the other hand, the power of the empire of Melle was still, if not quite at its height, at least unmenaced by any serious rival. With the death of Ibn Ghania inA.D.1233 the Sanhaja Confederation had come to an end. There then arose on the Upper Niger a leader called Mari Jatah I. After making himself master of two of the greatest negroid peoples of the west, he was succeeded by Mansa Musa, the founder of the empire of Melle. Mansa Musa, or, as he was also called, Mansa Kunkur Musa, after adding to his dominions all the famous countries of Western Sudan, turned eastwards and conquered Gao, on the Middle Niger. He also subjected Timbuctoo, which had been founded about the yearA.D.1000 by the Tuareg of the Idenan and Immedideren tribes during the Sanhaja period, but its conquest only served to increase its prosperity as a trading centre. It was visited and inhabited by merchants from all over North Africa.

It is interesting, in considering the history of Melle, to observe an attempt which was made at this early period, in a country so long considered by Europeans as savage and barbarous, to solve a problem of government on more rational lines than has ever been tried in modern Europe. A dual system of administration was organised to deal with races foreign to the authority of the central government.There was a national and a territorial bureaucracy: the feature of the government was that Melle was divided territorially into two provinces, or vice-royalties, concurrently with which there were three separate ethnic or national administrations. It almost goes without saying that the military administration was kept strictly apart from the civil.

With the death of Mansa Musa and the succession of his son Mansa Magha, in 1331, the fabric of the empire began to fall in pieces. Timbuctoo had been successfully attacked in 1329 by the King of Mosi, who expelled the Melle garrison. A little later the prince, Ali Killun, son of Za Yasebi, of the original Songhai dynasty of Gao, escaped with his brother from the court of Mansa Magha, where they had been living as political prisoners in the guise of pages. They acquired some measure of independence and, though again subjected by the succeeding king of Melle, Mansa Suleiman, in about 1336 commenced to lay the foundations of the later Songhai empire on the Middle Niger. Mansa Suleiman recaptured Timbuctoo, which at this time, inhabited by the Mesufa, had begun to take the place of the older Tuareg centre, Tademekka, further east. The Mesufa, whom we last saw south of Air, were doubtless being pushed back west again by the pressure of the Aulimmiden and migrants from the East.

In 1373 the Vizier of Melle, another Mari Jatah, usurped the power from the grandson of Mansa Magha and reconquered Tekadda, but it was the last flicker of life in the old empire. The opening years of the fourteenth century saw a succession of weak kings and powerful governors who were not strong enough to resist the incursions of the Tuareg from the desert. Timbuctoo was conquered in 1433 from the Mesufa by some other Tuareg, probably from the west or north-west, under Akil (Ag Malwal), who declined to abandon his nomadic life and installed as governor Muhammad Nasr el Senhaji from Shingit in Mauretania. The Tuareg at this time were everywhere victorious but destructive.They never succeeded in consolidating their power into an empire. In this era of their ascendancy Agades was founded in about the year 1460, just as Sunni Ali, the son of Sunni Muhammad Dau, ascended the throne of Gao and changed the whole political map of North Africa by prostrating the small surviving kingdom of Melle and finally setting up in its place the Songhai empire.

The incessant bickering and local feuds had driven the Tuareg of Air to come to some arrangement by which, nominally at least, they could consolidate themselves against the powers of the Sudan. They had agreed to have a Sultan, and he was installed, and not long afterwards the Amenokalate was set up in Agades, at a most eventful period in Central African history. The empire of Songhai on the Niger seemed invincible. By 1468 Timbuctoo had been overwhelmed and the governor driven out; Akil, the Tuareg, was forced to flee westwards. The city was plundered and the occupation of Western Negroland commenced. In the meanwhile the Portuguese had planted the factory of Elmina on the Guinea coast, and Alfonso V was succeeded by João II, who sent an embassy to Sunni Ali.

Sunni Ali met his death by drowning in 1492, and was followed by his son Abu Bakr Dau, and at a short interval by Muhammad ben Abu Bakr, called Muhammad Askia, the greatest of all the kings of the Sudan, and one of the greatest monarchs in the world of the fifteenth century. He appears to have ruled with great wisdom, depending on careful administration rather than on force to maintain his prestige. In addition to Melle itself and Jenne, which had already fallen, Ghana and Mosi in the far west were added to Songhai. After a pilgrimage of great pomp across Africa and through Egypt, Haj Muhammad Askia turned his attentions to the east. Katsina was occupied in 1513 as well as the whole of Gober and the rest of Hausaland. It was inevitable, to stop the Tuareg raiding down in the settled country, that Air should be added to his dominion as well.

In 1515 Askia marched against Al Adalet, or Adil, oneof the twin co-Sultans of Agades, and drove out the Tuareg tribes living in the town,[423]replacing them with his own Songhai people, a colonisation from which the city has not recovered to this day. He remained in occupation a year, and was called the “Cursed.” The conquest is unfortunately not mentioned by Leo,[424]who only refers to the expedition against Kano and Katsina; and this is all the more unpardonable, for he had accompanied his uncle on an official visit to Askia himself. Leo clearly regards Agades at the time he was writing as a negro settlement. According to traditions current in the city, numbers of Tuareg were massacred by Askia’s men, but however many Songhai may have been planted there, and however many Tuareg expelled, there is no doubt that considerable numbers remained behind to mix with the southerners and form the present Emagadesi people. The town must have been in a very flourishing state at that time: “the greatest part of the citizens are forren merchants” who paid “. . . large custom to the king . . . on their merchandise out of other places.” But apart from the yearly tribute of 150,000 ducats due to the King of Gao, the conquest of Air does not seem to have affected the independence of the Tuareg, as no mention is made of a Songhai governor, while the King of Agades, already within a few years of the time of Leo’s journey, is reported to have kept a military force of his own.

The contemporaries of Askia in Kanem and Bornu were Ali, the son of another Dunama, and later, Ali’s son, Idris, both kings of such renown that their country appears on European maps as early as 1489. Not to be outdone by the Songhai kings, whose emissaries had reached Portugal, Idris sent an embassy to Tripoli in 1512. Under the son of Idris, Muhammad, who ruled from 1526 to 1545, the kingdom of Bornu reached the summit of its greatness. This remarkable century in Central Africa deserves examination in greater detail, but lack of space makes it impossible.

Agades was perhaps at the height of its prosperity before and immediately after the conquest of Muhammad Askia. The scale of life in which Air shared is shown by the description of Muhammad Askia’s pilgrimage in 1495. He was accompanied by 1000 men on foot and 500 on horseback, and in the course of which he spent 300,100 mithkal of gold. The prosperity of Agades continued until the commencement of the nineteenth century, but in a form far different from what it must have been in the sixteenth century, when it served as an advanced trading-post or entrepôt for Gao, at that time the centre of the gold trade of the Sudan and probably the most flourishing commercial city in Central Africa. The gradual desertion of Agades, almost complete by 1790, when the bulk of the population migrated to Katsina, Tasawa, Maradi and Kano, commenced in 1591, at which date Gao, the parent city from the commercial point of view, had fallen to be a province of the Moroccan empire.

The heritage of Muhammad Askia was beyond the power of his successors to maintain. Intestine wars and intrigues broke down the authority of the central government. Revolts took place in Melle, and the covetous eyes of Mulai Ahmed, the Sultan of Morocco, in 1549, were turned towards Negroland. He demanded the cession of the Tegaza salt-mines, and though this insult was avenged by an army of 2000 Tuareg invading Morocco in 1586, Tegaza was captured by the Moors soon afterwards and the deposits of Taodenit, north of Timbuctoo, were opened instead. The final blow fell three years later, when Gao was entered by Basha Jodar, the eunuch-general of Mulai Hamed, with a Moroccan army. The final struggles of Ishak Askia in 1591 were unavailing. Henceforth Moroccan governors reigned over the Western Sudan with garrisons in Jenne, Timbuctoo, Gao and elsewhere. In 1603 Mulai Hamed el Mansur of Morocco died, with the whole of Western Africa under his rule.

Power in the west thus passed once more from the negroidto the northern people, but traditions of empire persisted in the centre. In 1571 there came to the throne of Bornu, Idris Ansami, known more usually from the place of his burial as Idris Alawoma. His mother seems from her name—’Aisha-Kel Eghrarmar—to have been a Tuareg; she had the reputation of great beauty. After consolidating his empire to the east, Idris conquered Hausaland as far west as and including Kano, where he must have come into contact with the Songhai empire, just then in process of passing under the rule of Morocco. So Idris Alawoma[425]turned his attention to the north-west, and undertook three expeditions against the Tuareg, the last one of which was against Air itself, the first two presumably being against more southern tribes. The chronicle of Idris’ expeditions is not clear enough to identify the exact areas of his operations. The first one was described as a raid, and the second, an expedition against a tribe. The operations against Air started from Atrebisa and passed Ghamarama, doubtfully identified with Gamram in Northern Damergu, after which a host of Tuareg was overtaken in the open desert between the town, Tadsa, and Air, and many were slaughtered. Idris returned to Munio by way of Zibduwa and Susubaki. At an earlier date than these expeditions his vizier had fought a battle with the Tuareg, who had come with a numerous host of Tildhin (?)[426]and others to attack him at Aghalwen, which is Eghalgawen in Southern Air, on the road to the Southland.

Having broken the power of the Air Tuareg, Idris Alawoma ordered the Kel Yiti, or Kel Wati, who were living in his dominions, to raid north and north-west in order to keep the tribes in a properly chastened frame of mind, until they were obliged to sue for peace and acknowledge their allegiance to the kingdom of Bornu. Barth thinks the Kel Wati are to be identified with the Kel Eti, or Jokto,a mixed Tebu and Tuareg people in the parts near Lake Chad. This is probably the period of raids in South-eastern Air, previously referred to, which obliged the Itesan to abandon their eastern settlements and move west into the heart of the mountains. The supposition is borne out by the record of Idris’ expedition against the Tebu of Dirki and Agram, or Fashi, which was followed by a long stay at Bilma and the opening up of relations with the north. All these events fall into the first twelve years of Idris Alawoma’s reign: of the last twenty-one we know little.

In 1601 at Agades, Muhammad ben Mubarak ibn el Guddala, or Ghodala, deposed the Amenokal Yussif ben el Haj Ahmed ibn el Haj Abeshan, and reigned in his stead for four months. Yussif recaptured the power and ben Mubarak fled to Katsina and Kano, but returning to Air entered Agades with a body of men from Bornu. He went on to Assode, and then retired within a short time to Gamram in Damergu. Yussif in the meanwhile had collected men in the Southland of Kebbi and returned to the charge. Ben Mubarak again fled to Bornu, but was later captured, and died in prison. This period of hostility between Air and Bornu led Idris Alawoma’s grandson Ali ben el Haj Omar ben Idris to wage several wars against the Sultan of Agades, though he was once himself besieged in his own capital by the Tuareg and their allies. To the wars in this reign, lasting from 1645 to 1684 or 1685, belong the events which Jean has recorded incorrectly as occurring in 1300,[427]in the reign of the eighth Sultan before Lamini.[428]The latter is, of course, the famous Muhammad el Amin el Kanemi of Denham and Clapperton’s expedition, who was, in fact, the eighth Sultan before Ali ben Idris.

Tradition in Air and the Agades Chronicle at this point agree tolerably well with the Bornu Chronicle. The Bornu king laid siege to Agades, where Muhammad Mubaraki (1653-87) was reigning, and defeated the Tuareg, who,after a number of engagements in the Telwa valley, retired to the fastness of Bagezan. Their resources enabled them to hold out for three years against the Bornuwi forces, who were starving in the lowlands. The war of 1685 is called in the Agades Chronicle the War of Famine. The people of Bornu eventually withdrew eastwards over the desert, hotly pursued by the Tuareg all the way to the well of Ashegur, north of Fashi, which, as will be remembered, had previously been occupied by Idris Alawoma. Deserted by their Sultan, the Bornuwi were surprised, and left 300-400 prisoners in the hands of the Tuareg, who, from now on to the present day, have exercised a paramount influence over these oases, where they developed the salt trade with the Sudan[429]through Air. The gold trade of Songhai, at one time so important in Agades that it had its own standard weight for the metal, which long after its disappearance continued to regulate the circulating medium of exchange, was replaced by the salt traffic as an asset of much value.[430]

The campaigns of Idris Alawoma and of Ali repeated the effects of the earlier Kanuri pressure on the west. Evidence of the tendency of the southern Tuareg to move west has been noticed on several occasions. The effect of the Bornu campaigns was to exert pressure on the Aulimmiden, which culminated in their attacks on the Tademekkat people and eventually in the Kel Owi immigration into Air. The sequence of events in Air has already been related; the successes of the Aulimmiden contributed directly and indirectly to the decline of Agades as a commercial centre. By 1770 they had captured Gao. Under Kawa, in 1780, they established a dominion over the north bank of theNiger at Ausa; these were doubtless some factors which influenced the Kel Geres in their decision to abandon Air as a result of the arrival of the Kel Owi. The westward move of the Aulimmiden before the Kanuri of Bornu, who were suffering from the reaction which follows greatness, had left an area correspondingly free for the Kel Geres to occupy. The middle of the century had been taken up in desultory fighting between Air and the south. The next notable event had been in 1761—an attack on Kano by the Kel Owi and the defeat of the Kel Geres by the Aulimmiden in the same year. The inroads of the Fulani into Hausaland had commenced, but as yet Othman dan Fodio had not established himself in Sokoto, or the ruling families of Fulani in all the large towns of the Central Sudan.

PLATE 49EGHALGAWEN AND THE LAST HILLS OF AIR

PLATE 49

EGHALGAWEN AND THE LAST HILLS OF AIR

The protection of the salt trade led to continual struggles between Air and Bornu. An expedition by the Sultan of Agades, in about 1760,[431]to Kuka on Lake Chad is probably part of the war of Bilma in 1759 referred to in the Agades Chronicle as having been made by Muhammad Guma, the son of Mubarak. The Sultan was accompanied by the Kel Ferwan, and returned with a war indemnity of 2000 head of cattle and a promise that trade would not be subjected to interference.

The occupation of part of Damergu by the Kel Owi Tuareg is of course recent, though it had been seized by the earlier immigrants at the same time as Air, with this difference, that the negroid inhabitants were never driven out or absorbed as in the mountains. The Kel Owi interference and immigration took the form of successful raiding or warfare to keep open the caravan road into the south. The fate of Damergu in all this long period of history was to be squeezed between the Tuareg on two sides and the Sudan empires on the other two.[432]

The modern period commences with the passage through Air of the Foureau-Lamy Mission. Beyond what has already been said, it is impossible to discuss this phase, as it is still too recent, but the French version is contained in Lieut. Jean’s admirable review of French colonial policy in theTerritoires du Niger.

[415]Some notes on the early history and the origins of the Tuareg race will be found in a paper by the author in the Journal of the R.G.S. for Jan. 1926.[416]Jean:op. cit., Chap. XIII; and Chudeau:Le Sahara Soudanais, p. 72.[417]Fifteen days east of Ghana in the Upper Niger country. Not to be confused with Kuka on Lake Chad, or with Gao (Gago) on the Middle Niger. Kukia is called Kugha in el Bekri and Cochia by Ca’ da Mosto (Barth,op. cit., Vol. IV., pp. 583-4).[418]As we have seen, a section of the Sanhaja, and nothing to do with the Lemta.[419]Audaghost was for long confused by European geographers with Agades, or, as soon as the first news of Air was received, with Auderas. Audaghost was in Mauretania between Tegaza and Walata.[420]South-west of Walata and west of Timbuctoo: for all these places see Map I in Vol. I. of the Hakluyt Soc., edition of Leo Africanus.[421]Ibn Batutah, French ed., IV. p. 437.[422]Variant, Iraz, French ed., IV. pp. 442, 445.[423]Barth,op. cit., Vol. IV. p. 603; Vol. I. p. 461.[424]Leo,op. cit., Vol. III. pp. 829 seq. and 846.[425]Barth,op. cit., Vol. II. p. 653.[426]The word may be a corruption of Kindin, the Kanuri name for the Tuareg.[427]Jean,op. cit., p. 115.[428]Who did not die 400 years, but barely 100 years, ago, in 1835.[429]Jean is, of course, quite unjustified in dragging in the Kel Owi. His information, owing to the fact that the Kel Owi had always favoured the French expansion both during the Foureau-Lamy expedition and when Jean occupied Air, seems to be derived largely from this source, which is as prejudiced as the accounts given by all parvenus in the world when discussing history in which they have not been, but would have liked to have been, involved. A parallel unjustified assumption of historical responsibility is found in the Maket n’Ikelan story.[430]Barth,op. cit., Vol. I. p. 467.[431]Jean,op. cit., p. 121.[432]I cannot agree with Jean that the first occupation of Damergu, Elakkos and Damagarim by the earlier Tuareg is at all recent (op. cit., pp. 121-2). Some of the events he records are recent, but not the earlier movements of the tribes.

[415]Some notes on the early history and the origins of the Tuareg race will be found in a paper by the author in the Journal of the R.G.S. for Jan. 1926.

[416]Jean:op. cit., Chap. XIII; and Chudeau:Le Sahara Soudanais, p. 72.

[417]Fifteen days east of Ghana in the Upper Niger country. Not to be confused with Kuka on Lake Chad, or with Gao (Gago) on the Middle Niger. Kukia is called Kugha in el Bekri and Cochia by Ca’ da Mosto (Barth,op. cit., Vol. IV., pp. 583-4).

[418]As we have seen, a section of the Sanhaja, and nothing to do with the Lemta.

[419]Audaghost was for long confused by European geographers with Agades, or, as soon as the first news of Air was received, with Auderas. Audaghost was in Mauretania between Tegaza and Walata.

[420]South-west of Walata and west of Timbuctoo: for all these places see Map I in Vol. I. of the Hakluyt Soc., edition of Leo Africanus.

[421]Ibn Batutah, French ed., IV. p. 437.

[422]Variant, Iraz, French ed., IV. pp. 442, 445.

[423]Barth,op. cit., Vol. IV. p. 603; Vol. I. p. 461.

[424]Leo,op. cit., Vol. III. pp. 829 seq. and 846.

[425]Barth,op. cit., Vol. II. p. 653.

[426]The word may be a corruption of Kindin, the Kanuri name for the Tuareg.

[427]Jean,op. cit., p. 115.

[428]Who did not die 400 years, but barely 100 years, ago, in 1835.

[429]Jean is, of course, quite unjustified in dragging in the Kel Owi. His information, owing to the fact that the Kel Owi had always favoured the French expansion both during the Foureau-Lamy expedition and when Jean occupied Air, seems to be derived largely from this source, which is as prejudiced as the accounts given by all parvenus in the world when discussing history in which they have not been, but would have liked to have been, involved. A parallel unjustified assumption of historical responsibility is found in the Maket n’Ikelan story.

[430]Barth,op. cit., Vol. I. p. 467.

[431]Jean,op. cit., p. 121.

[432]I cannot agree with Jean that the first occupation of Damergu, Elakkos and Damagarim by the earlier Tuareg is at all recent (op. cit., pp. 121-2). Some of the events he records are recent, but not the earlier movements of the tribes.

VALEDICTORY

Heremy account of the Air Tuareg must close. No one can be better aware than myself of the shortcomings and discrepancies of my story. The task would have been easier had a general survey of an unprejudiced character of the history and ethnology of North Africa existed. Where my account has wandered from the field of the Tuareg of Air, it has had to build both a general and a particular foundation for itself, and I am conscious that the result is not as satisfactory as it should be. The subjects of script and of language have scarcely been touched upon at all; they are too large and specialised matters for this volume. If ever there should come a period of leisure for me, they might be made the subject of a separate study.

I cannot conceal the pleasure that writing this account has afforded me in the course of my researches, by making the scenes which I enjoyed in Air live again before my eyes. Had the time available both in Africa and since my return been commensurate with my interest in the subject, the result would have been better. Intended originally as a book of travel, it has in places become complicated, obscure and overladen with some of the fruits of inquiry in a vast field, namely, the origin and nature of all the peoples of North Africa. I shall feel amply rewarded if another student will allow his curiosity to be sufficiently stimulated to continue the work.

As the writer of a book of travel I must complete the tale of the journey. I came to an end of my wanderings where I had begun them, in Northern Nigeria. My two friends and I had started from there on 27th April, 1922; I returned there alone on the 29th December of the sameyear. After my tour in Northern Air it became apparent that the time at my disposal must prove too short to achieve the object of crossing the Sahara to the Mediterranean with my companions. At Iferuan I regretfully decided to return home by way of Nigeria. At the commencement of December I turned south and marched to Agellal, a large village of stone houses under a singularly beautiful mountain. From there I went to Tefis to see the mosque, and camped at Anu Wisheran, which means “The Old Well.” There were small deserted settlements at both places. After another camp at Garet I descended into the basin of Central Air, over a barren slope intersected by numerous north and south rivulets between bare stony ridges. I halted in the Anu Maqaran valley near the boulder on which I discovered the chariot drawing. The site of my camp had been purely adventitious, but that obscure rock may well prove to be the most important observation of my whole journey. On the following day, Bila was reached at the spur of the Azamkoran mountains, and then we passed by the sugar-loaf hill of Sampfotchi into the Arwa Mellen and familiar Assada valleys. After a long march from the Tamenzaret wells I came again to Auderas, where I rejoined my companions, but only for a day or two, to sort our belongings and part company, I to return south, they to go on north and after many tedious delays to reach Algiers. The pleasant people of Auderas came to say good-bye. My companions walked a mile or so along my road, over the valley and hill, till we reached the plain sloping down to Taruaji. There they turned back. With me were only Sidi my guide, Amadu my servant, and one camel boy. Sidi had not been to Nigeria for many years and I was anxious for him to see modern Kano. We travelled fast, stopping only one day on the way in order to try to save a camel which had caught pneumonia during the bitterly cold nights in Azawagh. We went by Inwatza, the pool of Tizraet near Turayet, Akaraq, Eghalgawen, Milen, Hannekar and Tanut, and then straight into Nigeria without going to Zinder. On29th December, the thirty-third day after leaving Iferuan, I reached Kano again after a journey of some 550 miles in twenty-nine marches. Even the Tuareg admitted that it was fast travelling. The camels arrived very fit indeed and were sold. A fortnight later I was embarking at Lagos for England.

PLATE 50MT. BILA AT SUNSET

PLATE 50

MT. BILA AT SUNSET

My guide, Sidi, was astonished at the prosperity and development of Kano. I gave him some small presents and a few things to take back to Ahodu of Auderas. He left Kano before I did, as he had found a caravan returning north and did not want to miss the opportunity of travelling with friends. He came to see me in the morning of the day he was due to leave, and we walked round the European quarter of Kano together. I happened to be with a French officer at the time. We met Sidi waiting where I had told him to be, under a certain tree in front of a well-known merchant’s store in the European town of Kano. Sidi got up and greeted me. His hand and mine brushed over one another’s, the fingers being withdrawn with a closing snap. I gave him the usual greeting: “Ma’-tt-uli,” and he replied very solemnly, “El Kheir ’Ras”; which mean, “How do you fare?” and “Naught but good.” When Tuareg meet these hand-clasps and greetings continue to punctuate their conversation for a long time. They are varied with the question, “Iselan?” meaning, “What news?” to which the right answer is, “Kalá, kalá,” “No, no!” since for them any news must be bad news. Then, as I have said, Sidi and I and the Frenchman walked together; the latter looked wonderingly at the demeanour of my friend, whom he did not know. At last it was time for Sidi to join the camels of his caravan. Their number had been increased by one camel which I had given to him. He turned to say good-bye, but did not speak at all. He took my hand and held it with both of his, and then bowed his forehead till his veil touched my fingers. I gave him the thanks of the Lord in Arabic, and he murmured something incomprehensible. My French friend looked on curiously. Andthen Sidi without glancing at him turned quickly and walked away like a Prince of the Earth striding over the land. He walked erect and swiftly till I lost him to sight. He never turned his head again.

He was in many ways rather a ruffian, but, like his folk, patient, long-suffering and unforgiving. He was a true specimen of the Tuareg race.

These people never become angry or speak loud: I have rarely seen them excited, but they have an indomitable spirit and for that reason will perhaps survive. They say, “Kiss the hand you cannot cut off,” and again, “The path, though it be winding, and the King, though he be old.” So they may have patience after all to wait for the fulfilment of their fate and not throw themselves fruitlessly again on rifles or machine-guns. I remember sitting at Gamram one evening on the ruins of the walls of the town where once their rulers lived as wardens of the marches of the desert on that great Saharan road. In my diary I wrote:

“Last night I sat on the old walls looking west towards the yellow sunset under a blue-black cloud of rain hanging low in the sky. A man had lit a fire which smoked very much, and the west wind was carrying the smoke away over the wall in a horizontal streak between me and the sunset. They have gone, the Tuareg, from history like that streak of smoke. Even the Almoravids are only a name. I wonder why. They have fought with a losing hand so long. They were driven down from the north by the Arabs and by Europe, and harried by everyone. They have also harried others well. Finally, the French have come and have occupied their country. For long it was thought that the Tuareg would be untamable. They fought well and hard. The fire of old remained. In Air it broke again into flame in 1917 with Kaossen’s revolt, but in the end the force of European arms prevailed. The French killed many and punished the people of Air very hardly, too hardly as some of their own officers think, in dealing with a peoplewhich is already so small and tending to die out. But though calm and peaceful to-day like the smoke carried away from the fire by the walls of Gamram, the point of flame remains. I could see the heart of the fire from which the smoke was coming. I wonder if the flame will burst forth again. You have fought well, you people. You would not bow your necks, so they have been broken, but perhaps your day may come again. It grew dark on the walls of Gamram and the sunset of rain faded away; the fire continued to burn, but my thoughts turned elsewhere, to my journey, to my riding camel (wondering whether it would survive: I gave it some millet that night as extra fodder), to England, and to what I should have to eat there. I had an omelette which I made myself, and some fresh milk for supper that evening. Thence my thoughts turned to other things as well. . . .”

And here it is better that I close. It is on the knees of the gods how they achieve their destiny. I hope that the gods will be good to them.

They were my very good friends, and I was very pleased to live with them, for they were very agreeable. Perhaps we shall meet again and travel together once more. And so their proverb, which has seemed to me very true, will be fulfilled for them and for me. They say that:

“Living People Often Meet.”

A LIST OF THE ASTRONOMICALLY DETERMINED POINTS IN AIR

Thepositions given in the following table have been collected from the record of the proceedings of the Foureau-Lamy Mission, from the list given on the second sheet of the “Carte de l’Air” prepared by the Mission Cortier and others on a scale of 1/500,000, and from the observations by the author. Two positions given in Lieut. Jean’sLes Touareg du Sud-Estare also included. The French longitudes have been converted into longitudes east of Greenwich by the addition 2° 20′ 14″.

The author’s observations were carried out with a three-inch transit theodolite by Cary and Porter, and were in all cases stellar sights. The latitudes were in all cases determined from pairs of north and south circum-meridian stars, or from altitudes of Polaris and one south star. The longitudes were determined by calculations based on local mean time derived from pairs of east and west stars, and chronometric differences from points which had previously been determined by French travellers. Where the author’s longitudes for points previously determined by French observers are also given, they are the result of chronometric differences from other points previously or successively visited. The author, however, has not used his own longitudes for determining intermediate points when French observations were available, and his co-ordinates in these instances are only reproduced for purposes of comparison.

The data for the Foureau-Lamy observations are described in the record of the proceedings of the expedition. The source of the positions given on the Cortier map is not stated. The data for Colonel Tilho’s positions are in the record ofthe delimitation of the northern boundary of Nigeria. The author’s computations are in the records of the Royal Geographical Society in London, where are also the original route reports and prismatic compass traverses made throughout the journey.

Where possible the author’s chronometric differences were checked by opening and closing a series of observations on points previously fixed by French observers. In one unfortunate case, however, the author’s watches stopped as a result of his camels going astray and the series was consequently broken. His watches again stopped at Auderas, where, however, he stayed a sufficient length of time to re-rate them. At this place a number of local mean time observations were taken over a long period.

The author’s longitude observations were carried out as follows:

The author’s meteorological record, which was kept for nine months, has not been reproduced. It consists of daily maximum and minimum, actual (twice daily), and wet and dry bulb temperatures; aneroid readings; wind and rainfall, and sunset and sunrise notes. It is at any student’s disposal to consult.

The following abbreviations are used in the ensuing table:

F—Foureau; Ch—Chambrun (see Record of Foureau-Lamy expedition); R—Rodd; T—Tilho; C—Cortier’s Map of Air; J—Jean’sTouareg du Sud-Est.

Heights above Sea Level.[438]

Note.—The exact positions of the observations in the same localities are not identical in the case of all observers, which accounts for some of the apparent discrepancies.

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