In this view of the currency of Fezzan, the small fractions that would be requisite to render it perfectly accurate are omitted.
A mitkal is 675 piastres of Tripoli, or a fraction more than 10s. 1½d. sterling, and consequently it exceeds, by a fraction, the amount of 20 xarobes.
The grains of Fezzan are of the same[11]weight as in England,but the okea, or ounce of Fezzan, is very different, for it contains 640 grains; whereas the English ounce contains but 480, which is a fourth less.
A Fezzan ounce of gold therefore, or 640 grains, at 1½d. per grain, must be worth in Fezzan 4l.
And an English ounce of gold, or 480 grains, at 1½d. per grain, must be worth in Fezzan 3l.
Among the circumstances for which the natives of Fezzan, who travelled with Mr.Lucas, considered their Sovereign as eminently distinguished, they often mentioned his just and impartial, but severe and determined administration of justice; and as a proof of the ascendancy which, in this respect, he has acquired over the minds of his subjects, they described the following custom:—If any man has injured another, and refuses to go with him to the Judge, the complainant, drawing a circle round the oppressor, solemnly charges him, in the King’s name, not to leave the place till the Officers of Justice, in search of whom he is going, shall arrive: and such (if they are to be credited) is, on the one hand, his fear of the punishment which is inflicted on those who disobey the injunction, and so great, on the other,is his dread of the perpetual banishment which, if he seeks his safety by withdrawing from the kingdom, must be his inevitable lot, that this imaginary prison operates as a real confinement, and the offender submissively waits the arrival of the Officers of the Judge.
Small offences are punished by the bastinado: but those of a greater magnitude subject the convict, according to the different degrees of guilt, to the penalty of a fine, of imprisonment, or of death.—Shereefs, like the Nobility of other States, are sometimes punished, as was mentioned before, by the pain of dishonour; in which class of punishments, the most dreaded, because the most reproachful, is the indignity of having dust heaped upon their heads.
To their insulated and remote situation, and to their natural barrier of desolate mountains and dreary wastes of sand, much more than to military strength, the people of Fezzan are indebted for their security.
Trusting to this natural defence, their towns are without guards, and, their capital excepted, are also without walls; nor have they any regular standing force: yet the Shereef conceivesthat 15 or 20,000 troops might, upon an emergency, be raised. The only expedition of a military nature that has happened within his remembrance, was undertaken on the following account:—
South-East of the capital, at the distance of 150 miles, is a wide and sandy desart, entirely barren, and oppressed with a suffocating heat. Immediately beyond this desart, the width of which is about 200 miles, the mountains of Tibesti, inhabited by a wild and savage people of that name, begin to take their rise. Ferocious in their manners, free-booters in their principles, and secure, as they thought, in the natural defences of their situation, these independent mountaineers became the terror of the caravans which traded from Fezzan to Bornou, and which are obliged to pass the Western extremity of the Desart. But at length, having plundered a caravan which belonged to the King himself, and having killed about twenty of his people, their conduct provoked his resentment, and determined him to revenge the insult. With this view he immediately raised a small army of from 3 to 4,000 men, the command of which he gave to an able and activeMagistrate, announcing, by that appointment, that he sent them, not to subdue a respectable enemy, but to punish an assemblage of plunderers and assassins. Havingcompleated the difficult passage of the desart, and having gained the first ascent of the mountains, they proceeded without opposition, till at length the natives, who waited in ambush, rushed upon them, and with the bows and arrows, and lances, with which they were armed, began a furious assault: but the instant that the foremost of the soldiers had given their fire, the mountaineers, more alarmed at the dreadful sounds which they heard, and at the imagined lightning which they saw, than terrified with the slaughter that was made, threw down their arms, and flying with great precipitation, abandoned, to the mercy of the victors, their houses and their helpless inhabitants. The next morning, a deputation, from the natives, of their principal people arrived at the camp, with humble intreaties that their wives and children might be spared, and an offer, on that condition, to submit to any terms which the Alcaid should desire to impose. The Alcaid accordingly demanded, and received, as hostages for their future conduct, twenty of their principal people, with whom, and with all the plunder which the country afforded, he returned in triumph to Fezzan. There the King entertained them with kindness, and under a promise that their nation should acknowledge him as theirSovereign, and should annually pay to him a tribute of twenty camel loads of senna, made them valuable presents; and with strong impressions ontheir minds, of the generous treatment which they had received, sent them back to Tibesti.
From that period no attempt to molest his caravans has been made by the mountaineers; and though they neither acknowledge the King of Fezzan for their Sovereign, nor pay him any tribute, yet they bring the whole of their senna to Mourzouk for sale, where it is purchased to great advantage by the King, and is afterwards sold, on his account, at the market of Tripoli.
An occasional visit to the Court of Fezzan is paid by their Chief, who is always received with great hospitality, and after a residence of a few weeks, is dismissed, with a present of a long robe.
The vales of Tibesti are fertile in corn, and pasturage for cattle, of which they have numerous herds, and are particularly celebrated for their breed of camels, which are esteemed the best in Africa. For this fertility they are indebted to the water of the innumerable springs that amply compensate for the want of rain, which seldom, if ever, falls within the limits of Tibesti.
Huts of the simplest construction (for they are formed of stakesdriven into the ground in a circular arrangement, and covered with the branches of trees and brushwood intermixed) compose the dwellings of the people.
In return for the senna and the camels which they sell in Fezzan, they bring back coral, alhaiks, or barakans, Imperial dollars, and brass, from the two last of which articles they manufacture the rings and bracelets which are worn by their women.
Among the natives of Tibesti different religions are professed; for some of them are Mahometans, and others continue attached to their antient system of Idolatry.
Mode of Travelling in Africa.
Themode of travelling in Africa is so connected with the commerce, and therefore with the manners of its principal nations, that without some knowledge of theformer, a description of the twolattercannot be clearly understood.
The shereef Imhammed.In that division of Africa which lies to the North of the Niger, the season for travelling begins with the month of October, and terminates with the month of March. During this period, the temperature of the air, though strongly affected bythe degree of latitude, the elevation of the land, the distance of the sea, and the direction of the wind, is comparatively cool;Ben Alli.and in some places, as in the neighbourhood of Mount Atlas, and on the Coasts of the Mediterranean, occasionally exhibits the phenomena of an European Winter. At Tripoli, the Thermometer is sometimes seen at the 40th degree of Farenheit’s scale, and on the 31st of December, in the year 1788, wasLucas.observed, at nine in the morning, to have fallen within four degrees of the freezing point; a coldness that was followed by a light shower of snow.
In all countries, the animals which Nature and the attention of man have provided for the conveyance of the Traveller, and for the transit of his merchandize, are suited to the character ofImhammed and Ben Alli.the soil, and to the smoothness or inequality of its surface. Of the soil of Africa, to the North of the Niger, the prevailing character is sand; and though in the neighbourhood of rivers, and in all those districts which receive from the adjacent mountains, the advantage of numerous springs, the sand is blended with a vegetable mould, yet the ground, in general, is remarkably soft and dry. In general, too, the surface of the land, though in some places broken by naked rocks, and swelling, in others, tomountains of considerable magnitude, may be regarded as comparatively level.
To such a country the camel is peculiarly suited; for his broad and tender foot, which slides on a wet surface, and is injured by the resistance of stones, is observed to tread with perfect security and ease on the dry and yielding sand: and while, from the same circumstances in its structure, his hoof is incapable of fastening, with any strength, on the ground of a steep ascent, and furnishes, in a shelving declivity, no solid or sufficient support, his movement on a smooth and level surface is singularly firm and safe.
So remarkably exemplified in Africa is that rule in the œconomy of Nature which suits the beast of burthen to the landImhammed.which it inhabits, that in the country which lies to the South-West of the Niger, where the surface is mountainous, and the ground is as stony in some places, as it is wet and muddy in others, no camels are found. Their place is supplied by small horses, asses, and mules.
The proper burthen for a camel varies with its strength, which is very different in different species of the animal. In the dominionsof Tripoli, a common load is from three to fourLucas.hundred weight; and the medium expence of the conveyance for each hundred appears to be one farthing per mile.
The usual rate of travelling is three miles in the hour, andLucas.the number of hours that are actually employed on the rout, exclusive of those which are allotted to refreshment, is seldom more than seven or eight in a day. Of the number of days which are consumed on a long journey, many are devoted to theImhammed.purpose of occasional trade, to that of recruiting the strength of the camels, and to that of procuring additional stores of provisions and of water; for in all such places as are able to furnish a supply of provisions (which are generally places of considerable population, and therefore of some traffic) the stay of the caravan is seldom less than two days, and is often prolonged to more.
The general food of the camels is such only as their nightlyBen Alli.pasture affords; and is often confined to the hard and thorny shrubs of the Desart, where a sullen vegetation is created by the rains of the Winter, and upheld by the dews that descend in copious abundance through all the remainder of the year.
Of the drivers and servants of the caravan, the customary foodImhammed.consists of the milk of the camel, with a few dates, together with the meal of barley or of Indian corn, which is sometimes seasoned with oil, while the Merchant superadds, for his own use, the dried flesh of the camel, or of sheep, and concludes his repast with coffee.
Imhammed and Ben Alli.Water is drawn from the wells in leather buckets, that form a part of the travelling equipage of the caravan, and is carried in the skins of goats, through which, however, though tarred both within and without, it is often exhaled by the heat of the noon-day sun.
Ben Alli.A particular mode of easy conveyance is provided for the women and children, and for persons oppressed with infirmity or illness: six or eight camels are yoked together in a row, and a number of tent poles are placed in parallel lines upon their backs: these are covered with carpets, and bags of corn are superadded to bring the floor to a level, as well as to soften the harshness of the camel’s movement; other carpets are then spread, and the traveller sits or lies down, with as much convenience as if he rested on a couch.
The Desart (a term of the same meaning with its Arabic name of Zahara) may be said, like the ocean, to connect the very nations which it seems to separate; for, in comparison with the woods and morasses of America, it furnishes the Merchant with an easy and convenient road.
A sandy heath of various levels, in some places naked andBen Alli.bare, but much more frequently covered with an odoriferous plant, which the Arabs call the Shé, and which, though far superior in fragrance, has at least a remote resemblance to the wild thyme of Europe, constitutes the general appearance of the Desart. The exceptions, however, are interesting and important: for besides the diversity that arises from the different shrubs, which are often scantily intermixed with the Shé, and of which the thorny plant that forms the harsh food of the camel appears to be the most common, an essential variation is furnished by the comparative fertility of some particular districts, and by the total barrenness of others.
Imhammed and Ben Alli.In some portions of the general wilderness, thousands of sheep, and goats, and cows, are seen to pasture; while in others nothing is presented to the eye but desolate hills of shifting sand.
To the last of these the name ofDesarts without WaterisImhammed.emphatically given; a name that conveys to an Arab ear the fearful idea of an intense and suffocating heat, of the total absence of vegetable life, and of the hazard of a dreadful death. For though the movement of the shifting sands is not so rapid as to endanger the safety of the caravan, yet as the scorching heat of the sun-beams, confined and reflected by the hills of sand, hourly diminishes the store of water, and as the breadth of several of those desarts is that of a ten days journey, the hazard of perishing with thirst is sometimes fatally experienced.
Imhammed.All means of ascertaining the rout by land-marks, the usual guides in other parts of the wilderness, are here destroyed by the varying forms and shifting position of the hills; but from anxious observation and continued practice, the camel-drivers acquire a sufficient knowledge of the bearings of the sun and stars to direct them in their way.
Such are the expedients by which the difficulties of the Desart are in general overcome: those which are presented by the broad current of the impetuous Niger, though much more easily, are not so frequently surmounted.
Imhammed.Of this river, which in Arabic is sometimes called Neel ilKibeer, or the Great Nile, and at others, Neel il Abeed, or theImhammed and Ben Alli.Nile of the Negros, the rise and termination are unknown, but the course is from East to West. So great is the rapidity with which it traverses the Empire of Cashna, that no vessel can ascend its stream; and such is the want of skill, or such the absence ofImhammed.commercial inducements among the inhabitants of its borders, that evenwiththe current, neither vessels nor boats are seen to navigate. In one place, indeed, the Traveller finds accommodations for the passage of himself and of his goods; but even there,Imhammed.though the ferrymen, by the indulgence of the Sultan of Cashna, are exempted from all taxes, the boat which conveys the merchandize is nothing more than an ill-constructed raft; for the planks are fastened to the timbers with ropes, and the seams are closed both within and without, by a plaister of tough clay, of which a large provision is always carried on the raft for the purpose of excluding the stream wherever its entrance is observed.
Imhammed.The depth of the river at the place of passage, which is more than a hundred miles to the South of the City of Cashna, the capital of the empire of that name, is estimated at twenty-three or twenty-four feet English.[12]
Its width is such that even at the Island of Gongoo, where theImhammed.ferrymen reside, the sound of the loudest voice from theBen Alli.northern shore is scarcely heard; and at Tombuctou, where the name of Gnewa, or black, is given to the stream, the width is described as being that of the Thames at Westminster. In the rainy season it swells above its banks, and not only floods the adjacent lands, but often sweeps before it the cattle and cottages of the short-sighted or too confident inhabitants.
That the people who live in the neighbourhood of the Niger should refuse to profit by its navigation, may justly surprise theImhammed and Ben Alli.Traveller; but much greater is his astonishment, when he finds that even the food which the bounty of the stream would give, is uselessly offered to their acceptance; for such is the want of skill, or such the settled dislike of the people to this sort of provision, that the fish with which the river abounds are left in undisturbed possession of its waters.
Imhammed.Having passed the stream, the face of the country, and with it the mode of travelling, are changed. High mountains and narrow valleys, extensive woods and miry roads, succeed to the vast plains and sandy soil of the Zahara and its neighbouring kingdoms. Water is no longer refused or scantily given to theparched lips of the Traveller; but while the abundance of this refreshment, and of the vast variety both of vegetable and animalImhammed.food that is offered in profusion for his support, diminish the hardships and remove the principal hazards of his journey, the raging heat of the Torrid Clime increases as he proceeds. Wet cloths applied to the mouth are sometimes requisite, and especially in the woods, to allay, for the purpose of respiration, the violence of the burning air; and the journey, which the fierceness of the sun suspends, is often renewed amidst the dews and comparative darkness of the night.
Imhammed.From the want of camels, which are seldom seen to the South of Cashna, nor even to the West, except in higher latitudes, the conveyance of the Merchant and his goods is committed to the mules, and small horses and asses of the country. Of the first, the usual burthen is 200lbs. of the second, 150lbs. and of the last, 100lbs.
Travelling through all this part of Africa is considered as so secure, that the Shereef Imhammed, with the utmost chearfulness and confidence of safety, proposed to accompany and conduct Mr.Lucas, by the way of Fezzan and Cashna, across the Niger, to Assenté, which borders on the Coast of the Christians.
General Remarks on the Empires of Bornou and Cashna. — Rout from Mourzouk to Bornou — Climate of Bornou — Complexion, Dress, and Food of the Inhabitants — Their Mode of Building — Their Language — Government — Military Force — Manners — and Trade.
Tothe South of the kingdom of Fezzan, in that vast region which spreads itself from the river of the Antelopes westward for 1200 miles, and includes a considerable part of the Niger’s course, two great empires, those of Bornou and those of Cashna, are established.
The circumstances of soil and climate, and those also which constitute political character, are nearly the same in both: for theirprevailing winds are the same; their rains, which are periodical in each, though much more profuse in Bornou, begin at the same season; the same grains are cultivated; the same fruits (generally speaking) are produced; and except that no camels are bred to the westward of the City of Cashna, the capital of the empire, the same animals are reared. In both, the complexion of the inhabitants is black; their mode of building too is similar, and their manners, though in some respects more civilized in Bornou, have a general resemblance.
Each of the two empires is formed by the subjection of different tribes or nations to the dominion of one ruling people. The nature of the Government, and the laws which regulate its succession, are the same in both. In both, the ruling people are Mahometans; in both, the dependent nations are composed of converts to the Musselman faith, and of adherents to the antient worship; and though at present their languages are different, the conquerors in both had probably the same original.
Of these empires, Cashna, till of late, was esteemed the first in power; but though a thousand villages and towns are stillincluded in her vast domains, she is now considered as much inferior to Bornou.
[Decoration]
FROM Mourzouk in Fezzan to Bornou, the capital of the empire from which it takes its name, the Fezzanners, whose commercial spirit no distance can discourage, are conducted by a rout of more than a thousand miles. Temmissa, the first town at which they arrive, and the last which they see in Fezzan, they reach on the seventh day; and in three days more they enter the territories of Bornou. Several villages, inhabited by Blacks, whose persons, their waists excepted, are entirely naked, whose meagre limbs and famished looks announce their extreme of misery, and whose idolatrous religion neither excites the resentment nor restrains the charity of the benevolent Fezzanners, mark the northern frontier of the empire.
On the day following their departure from these melancholy hamlets, they begin the ascent of a hilly uninhabited desart of sand, where a few bushes of penurious vegetation point out thesuccessive wells that are found in these barren heights, and diminish the fatigues of a three days passage. At the close of the fourth day they enter a plain that is inhabited by Mahometans, where, in addition to a plentiful supply of excellent water, they are cheared with the sight of date trees, and of Indian corn.
From this plain, which lies to the West of the Desart of Tibesti, and the end of which they reach on the second day, a part of the Tibesti mountains take their rise. These vast hills, the range of which is very extensive, are variously peopled; but such of them as are crossed on the rout from Fezzan to the City of Bornou, are inhabited by a mixture of Musselmen and Idolaters, who employ themselves in breeding camels and asses, and other cattle, particularly horses of a small size.
Exclusively of the two days that are requisite for the passage of the mountains, an allowance of twice that time is generally given to refreshment and repose; soon after which a fertile and beautiful country, as richly diversified as numerously peopled, opens to their view. Its inhabitants are herdsmen, and with the exception of a few Pagans who are intermixed among them, are Musselmen in their faith. Their dwellings are in tentswhich are composed of hides, and their wealth consists in the multitude of their cows and sheep.
Four days are employed in crossing these fortunate districts: the sixth conducts the caravan to the entrance of the vast and burning Desart of Bilma. Surrounded by this dreary solitude, the Traveller sees with a dejected eye the dead bodies of the birds that the violence of the wind has brought from happier regions; and as he ruminates on the fearful length of his remaining passage, listens with horror to the voice of the driving blast, the only sound that interrupts the awful repose of the Desart.
On the eleventh day from their entrance on these scorching sands, the caravan arrives in the fertile plains that encompass the Town of Domboo, the approach to which is enlivened by the frequent appearance of the majestic Ostrich, and of the gay but fearful Antelope.
From thence, in about five days, they reach the City of Kánem, the capital of an extensive and fertile province, of which it bears the name, and in which the inhabitants, who are composed of Musselmen and Pagans, breed multitudes of cattle, and raise innumerable horses for the service of the King.
A journey of ten days more concludes their labour, and brings them to the imperial City of Bornou.[13]
Bornou, the name which the natives give to the country, is distinguished in Arabic by the appellation of Bernou or Bernoa, a word that signifies the land of Noah, for the Arabs conceive that, on the first retiring of the deluge, its mountains received the Ark.
TheClimate, as may naturally be expected in a kingdom which seems to be bounded by the 16th and the 26th parallelsof latitude, is characterized by excessive, though not by uniform heat. Two seasons, the one commencing soon after the middle of April, the other at the same period of October, may be said to divide the year. Thefirstis introduced by violent winds that bring with them, from the South East and South, an intense heat, with a deluge of sultry rain, and such tempests of thunder and lightning as destroy multitudes of the cattle, and many of the people. During the rainy period (the continuance of which is from three to nine successive days, with short intervals from the occasional changes of the wind to the North or West) the inhabitants confine themselves closely to their dwellings; but the rest of the first season, however sultry and however occasionally wet, is not incompatible with the necessary labours of the husbandman and the shepherd.
At the commencement of thesecondseason in the latter part of October, the ardent heat subsides; the air becomes soft and mild; the weather continues perfectly serene; and as the year declines, an unwelcome coolness precedes the rising of the sun.
The inhabitants, though consisting of such a multitude of nations that thirty languages are said to be spoken in the empire,are alike in theirComplexion, which is entirely black, but are not of the Negro cast.
In a climate so warm, the chief recommendations ofDressare decency and ornament: among the poorest, therefore, by whom the first only is regarded, a kind of girdle for the waist is sometimes the only covering; but in general a turban, consisting, as in Barbary, of a red woollen cap, surrounded by folds of cotton, together with a loose robe of coloured cotton of a coarser kind, are also worn.[14]
TheGrainthat constitutes the principal object of culture in Bornou is Indian corn, of two different kinds, which are distinguished in the country by the names of the gassób, and the gamphúly.
The gassób, which in its general shape resembles the common reed, is of two species; the first grows with a long stalk that bears an ear, which in length is from eight to twelve inches, and contains, in little husks or cavities, from three to five hundred grains, of the size of small pease. The second species, which is common in Tripoli, differs no otherwise from the first than in the shorter size of the ear.
The gamphúly is distinguished from the gassób, by the bulk of the stalk, for that of the gamphúly is much thicker, by the number of its ears, for it has several on the same reed, and by the size of the grain, which is considerably larger. This kind of corn is frequently seen in Spain, and is there called Maize.
Wheat and barley are not raised in Bornou; but the horse-bean of Europe and the common kidney-bean are cultivated with great assiduity, as they are used for food, both by the slaves and by the cattle.[15]
In the culture of these different grains, the hoe alone is employed, as the use of the plough is still unknown to the people. The women divide with the men the labours of their husbandry; for while the latter, with their hoes, open the ground, and form the trenches in straight lines parallel to each other, the women follow and throw in the seed: nor is this the only part which they take in the business of the field; for to them, as soon as the weeds begin to rise on the ridges of the lines in which the grain is sowed, the hoe is constantly transferred.
The sowing season commences at the end of the periodical rains of April; and such in that climate is the rapid vegetation, that on the 9th of July the gassób is reaped; but the gamphúly, a grain of slower growth, is seldom cut till the month of August or September.
Such are the several species of corn that, among the people of Bornou, supply the place of the wheat, the barley, and the oats of Europe. Two species of roots are also used as wholesome and substantial food: the one, which is called the Dondoo, produces a low plant, with branches that spread four or five feet upon the ground, and leaves that resemble those of the garden-bean. At the end of five months, from the time of its beingplanted, the leaves fall off, and the root is taken from the ground, and being cut into small pieces, is dried in the sun, in which state it may be kept for two years. Its further preparation consists in reducing it to a fine powder, and mixing it with palm oil till it assumes the consistency of paste.
The other root is that of a tree, of which the name had escaped the Shereef’s recollection: boiling is the only process that is requisite in preparing it for use.
The same character of sufficiency which marks the catalogue of the different kinds of grain in Bornou, belongs also to the list of its variousFruits; for though neither olives nor oranges are seen in the empire, and even figs are rare, and though the apples and plumbs of its growth deserve no commendation, and the dates are as indifferent as they are scarce, yet grapes, and apricots, and pomegranates, together with lemons and limes, and the two species of melons, the water and the musk, are produced in large abundance.[16]But one of the most valuableof its vegetable stores, is a tree which is called Kedéynah, that in form and height resembles the olive, is like the lemon in its leaf, and bears a nut, of which the kernel and the shell are both in great estimation, the first as a fruit, the last on account of the oil which it furnishes when bruised, and which supplies the lamps of the people of Bornou with a substitute for the oil of olives.
To this competent provision of such vegetables as are requisite to the support, or grateful to the appetite of man, must be added a much more ample and more varied supply, ofAnimal Food. Innumerable flocks of sheep, and herds of goats and cows, (for there are no oxen) together with multitudes of horses, buffaloes, and camels, (the flesh of which is in high estimation) cover the vales or pasture on the mountains of Bornou.[17]
The common, though not the Guinea fowl is also reared by the inhabitants; and their hives of bees are so extremely numerous,that the wax is often thrown away as an article of no value in the market.
Theirgameconsists of the Huaddee, and other species of antelopes, of the partridge, the wild duck, and the ostrich, the flesh of which they prize above every other.
Their other wild animals are the lion, the leopard, the civet cat, the small wolf, the fox, the wild dog, that hunts the antelope; the elephant, which is not common, and of which they make no use; the crocodile, the hippopotamus, which is often killed on the banks of the river that runs from the Neel Shem, (the Nile of Egypt) to the Desart of Bilma; and a large and singular animal, which is distinguished by the name of Zarapah, and which is described as resembling the camel in its head and body, as having a long and slender neck like the ostrich, as being much taller at the shoulders than the haunches, and as defended by so tough a skin, as to furnish the natives with shields that no arrow or javelin can pierce.[18]
Bornou, like other countries that approach the Equinoctial, is much infested with different kinds of dangerous or disgusting reptiles, especially snakes and scorpions, centipedes and toads.
Of itsbeasts of burthenthe variety is as ample as the numbers are abundant; for the camel, the horse, the ass, and the mule, are common in the empire.
The dog, with which the inhabitants pursue their game, appears to be their onlydomesticanimal.
In the mountains of Tibesti, and perhaps in other parts of the empire, the herdsmen, probably for the sake of a more easy change of pasture, prefer a residence in tents to stationary dwellings; and those, it seems, are not manufactured, like the tents of the Zahara, from the camel’s hair; but are composed of the hides of cows, a more durable and impervious covering.
Through all the empire of Bornou the same mode ofbuilding, and with the difference of a greater or a smaller scale, the same form in the plan of the houses universally prevails.—Four walls, inclosing a square, are erected; within those walls, and parallel to them, four other walls are also built: the ground betweenthe walls is then divided into different apartments, and is covered with a roof. Thus the space within the interior walls determines the size of the court; the space between the walls determines the width of the apartments; and the height of the walls determines the height of the rooms. In a large house the rooms are each about twenty feet in length, eleven feet in height, and as many in width.
On the outside of the house, a second square or large yard, surrounded by a wall, is usually provided for the inclosure and protection of the cattle.[19]
Such is the general plan of a Bornou house. For the construction of the walls the following method is constantly pursued: a trench for the foundation being made, is filled with dry and solid materials rammed in with force, and levelled; on these a layer of tempered mud or clay is placed; and in this substitute for mortar a suitable number of stones are regularly fixed. Thus with alternate layers of clay and stones the wall proceeds; butas soon as it has reached the height of six or seven feet, the workmen suspend its progress for a week, that it may have time to settle, and become compact; for which purpose they water it every day.
When the walls are finished they are neatly plaistered, both within and without, with clay or mud, tempered with sand; for the country furnishes no lime.
The roofs are formed of branches of the palm tree, intermixed with brushwood; and are so constructed as at first to be waterproof; but such is the violence of the wind and rain, that the end of the second year is the utmost period of their brief duration.[20]
Much less attention is given to the furniture than is bestowed on the structure of the houses; for the catalogue of the utensils isextremely short. Among the lower classes of the inhabitants it consists of the mats covered with a sheep-skin, upon which they sleep; of an earthen pot; of a pan of the same materials; of two or three wooden dishes, a couple of wooden bowls, an old carpet, a lamp for oil, and perhaps a copper kettle.
Persons of a superior rank are also possessed of leathern cushions, that are stuffed with wool; of several brass and copper utensils, of a handsome carpet, and of a sort of candlesticks; for instead of the vegetable oil which is used by the common people, they employ the light of candles manufactured from their bees wax and the tallow of their sheep.
Bornou is situated at the distance of a day’s journey from a river which is called Wed-el-Gazel, from the multitude of antelopes that feed upon its banks, and which is lost in the deep and sandy wastes of the vast Desart of Bilma.[21]
From the symmetry of the houses, and the general resemblance which they bear to each other, a regular arrangement ofstreets might, with the utmost ease, have been given to their towns. In Bornou, however, a different system has prevailed; for even in the capital, the houses, straggling wide of each other, are placed without method or rule; and the obvious propriety of giving to the principal mosque, a central situation, exhibits the only proof of attention to general convenience.[22]
The King’s palace, surrounded by high walls, and forming a kind of citadel, is built, perhaps with a view to security, in a corner of the town.[23]
Markets for the sale of provisions are opened within the city; but for other articles, a weekly market, as in Barbary, is held without the walls.
In general, the towns have no other defence than that which the courage of the inhabitants affords: but the capital is surrounded by a wall of fourteen feet in height, the foundations of which are from eight to ten feet deep, and which seems to be built with considerable strength. To this defence is given the additional security of a ditch, which encompasses the whole; and care is taken, that at sun-set the seven gates which form the communication with the country shall be shut.[24]
The great population of Bornou is described by the indefinite and metaphorical expression of a countless multitude.
In Fezzan the price of all things is measured by grains of gold; and where the value is too small to be easily paid in so costly a metal, the inhabitants have recourse to corn, as a common medium of exchange. But in Bornou, as in Europe, the aid of inferior metals is employed, and copper and brass (which seem to be melted together, and to be mixed with other materials) are formed into pieces of different weights, from an ounce to a pound, and constitute the current species of the empire.[25]
Dominions so extensive as those of Bornou have seldom the advantage of one uniform language; but an instance of so many different tongues, within the limits of one empire, as are spoken in that kingdom, and its dependencies, has still less frequently occurred, for they are said to be more than thirty in number.
Of the language, however, which is current in the capital,and which seems to be considered as the proper language[26]of Bornou, the following specimen is given by the Shereef.
Two differentReligionsdivide the sentiments, without disturbing the peace of the kingdom.
The ruling people profess the Mahometan faith;[27]and thoughthe antient Paganism of the dependent nations does not appear to subject them to any inconvenience, a considerable part are converts to the doctrines of the Prophet.
An elective monarchy constitutes theGovernmentof Bornou,[28]and like the similar system of Cashna, endangers the happiness, while it acknowledges the power of the people. On the death of the Sovereign, the privilege of chusing among his sons, without regard to priority of birth, a successor to his throne, is conferred by the nation on three of the most distinguished men, whose age and character for wisdom, are denoted by their title of Elders; and whose conduct in the State has invested them with the public esteem. Bound by no other rule as to their judgment or restraint, as to their will, than that which the expressed or implied instruction of electing the most worthy may form, they retire to the appointed place of their secret deliberation, the avenues to which are carefully guarded by the people: and while the contending suggestions of private interest, or asense of the real difficulty of chusing where judgment may easily err, and error may be fatal to the State, keeps them in suspence, the Princes are closely confined in separate chambers of the Palace. Their choice being made, they proceed to the apartment of the Sovereign elect, and conduct him, in silence, to the gloomy place in which the unburied corpse of his father, that cannot be interred till this awful ceremony is passed, awaits his arrival. There, the Elders point out to him the several virtues and the several defects which marked the character of his departed parent; and they also forcibly describe, with just panegyric, or severe condemnation, the several measures which raised or depressed the glory of his reign. “You see before you the end of yourmortalcareer; theeternal, which succeeds to it, will be miserable or happy in proportion as your reign shall have proved a curse or a blessing to your people.”
From this dread scene of terrible instruction, the new Sovereign, amidst the loud acclamations of the people, is conducted back to the Palace, and is there invested by the electors with all the slaves, and with two-thirds of all the lands and cattle of his father; the remaining third being always detained as a provision for the other children of the deceased Monarch. No sooner is the Sovereign invested with the ensigns of Royalty, thansuch of his brothers as have reached the age of manhood prostrate themselves at his feet, and in rising press his hands to their lips—the two ceremonies that constitute the declaration of allegiance.
If any doubt of their sincerity suggests itself to the King or to the Elders, death or perpetual imprisonment removes the fear; but if no suspicion arises, an establishment of lands and cattle from the possessions of their father, together with presents of slaves from the reigning monarch, are liberally bestowed upon them.
Often, however, the most popular, or the most ambitious of the rejected Princes, covering his designs with close dissimulation, and the zeal of seeming attachment, creates a powerful party; and assured of Foreign aid, prepares, in secret, the means of successful revolt. But, stained with such kindred blood, the sceptre of the victorious Rebel is not lastingly secure—one revolution invites and facilitates another; and till the slaughter of the field, the sword of the executioner, or the knife of the assassin has left him without a brother, the throne of the Sovereign is seldom firmly established.
Such, in the Mahometan empires of Bornou and of Cashna,is the rule of succession to the monarchy; but the Pagan kingdoms adjoining, with obviously less wisdom, permit the several sons of the late Sovereign, attended by their respective partizans, to offer themselves, in person, to the choice of the electors, and be actually present at the decision; an imprudence that often brings with it the interference of other States, and unites the different calamities of foreign and intestine war.
Those of the Royal Children of Bornou who are too young to take their share in the reserved part of their deceased father’s possessions, are educated in the Palace till the age of maturity arrives; at which time their respective portions of lands and cattle are assigned them.
To the four lawful wives of the late Sovereign, a separate house, with a suitable establishment, is granted by the reigning Monarch; and such of his numerous concubines as were not slaves, are at liberty to return to their several friends; and, together with leave to retain their cloaths, and all their ornaments, which are often valuable, have free permission to marry.
In the empire of Bornou, as in all the Mahometan States, the administration of the provinces is committed to Governors,appointed by the Crown; and the expences of the Sovereign are partly defrayed by his hereditary lands, and partly by taxes levied on the people.
The present Sultan, whose name is Alli, is a man of an unostentatious plain appearance; for he seldom wears any other dress than the common blue shirt of cotton or of silk, and the silk or muslin turban, which form the usual dress of the country. Such, however, is the magnificence of his seraglio, that the ladies who inhabit it are said to be five hundred in number; and he himself is described as the reputed father of three hundred and fifty children, of whom three hundred are males; a disproportion which naturally suggests the idea that the mother, preferring to the gratification of natural affection, the joy of seeing herself the supposed parent of a future candidate for the empire, sometimes exchanges her female child for the male offspring of a stranger.
Equally splendid in his stables, he is said to have 500 horses for his own use, and for that of the numerous servants of his household.
In many of the neighbouring kingdoms, the Monarch himselfis the executioner of those criminals on whom his own voice has pronounced the sentence of death; but the Sultan of Bornou, too polished, or too humane, to pollute his hands with the blood of his subjects, commits the care of the execution to the Cadi, who directs his slaves to strike off the head of the prisoner.
TheMilitaryForce of the Sultan of Bornou consists in the multitude of his horsemen; for his foot soldiers are few in number, and are scarcely considered as contributing to the strength of the battle.[29]The sabre, the lance, the pike, and the bow, constitute their weapons of offence; and a shield of hides composes their defensive armour. Fire-arms, though not entirely unknown to them, for those with which the Merchants of Fezzan occasionally travel, are sufficient to give them an idea of their importance and decisive effect, are neither used nor possessed by the people of Bornou.
When the Sovereign prepares for war, and levies an army forthe purpose, he is said to have a custom, (the result of idle vanity or of politic ostentation) of directing a date tree to be placed as a threshold to one of the gates of his capital, and of commanding his horsemen to enter the town one by one, that the parting of the tree in the middle, when worn through by the trampling of the horses, may enable him to judge of the sufficiency of their numbers, and operate as a signal that his levy is compleat.
In theirManners, the people of Bornou are singularly courteous and humane. They will not pass a stranger on the road till they have stopped to salute him: the most violent of their quarrels are only contests of words; and though a part of the business of their husbandry is assigned to the women, yet, as their employment is confined to that of dropping the seed in the furrows, and of removing the weeds with a hoe, it has more of the amusement of occasional occupation, than of the harshness of continued labour.
Passionately attached to the tumultuous gratifications of play, yet unacquainted with any game but drafts, they often sit down on the ground, and forming holes to answer the purpose of squares, supply the place of men with dates, or the meaner substituteof stones, or of camel’s dung. On their skill in the management of these rude instruments of the game, they stake their gold dust, their brass money, and even their very cloaths; and as the bye-standers on these occasions constantly obtrude their advice, and sometimes make the moves for the person whose success they wish, their play is usually accompanied by that conflict of abuse, and vehemence of scolding, which mark and terminate the sharpest of their quarrels.
Such is the amusement of the lower classes of the people; those of a superior rank are devoted to the more difficult and more interesting game of chess, in which they are eminently skilled.
In countries that afford without cultivation, or that give in return for slight exertions of labour, the principal requisites of life, few articles of export are likely to be found. Those of the Bornou Empire consist of—
By what means the gold dust, that appears to be a principal article of trade, is procured by the inhabitants, whether from mines in the country, or by purchase from other nations, the Shereef has not explained. But of their mode of obtaining the Slaves, which constitute another extensive branch of their commerce, he gives the following account:
South East of Bornou, at the distance of about twenty days travelling, and separated from it by several small desarts, is situated an extensive kingdom of the name of Begarmee, the inhabitants of which are rigid Mahometans, and though perfectly black in their complexions, are not of the Negro cast. Beyond this kingdom to the East are several tribes of Negros, idolaters in their religion, savage in their manners, and accustomed, it is said, to feed on human flesh. They are called the Kardee, the Serrowah, the Showva, the Battah, and the Mulgui. These nations the Begarmeese, who fight on horseback, and are great warriors, annually invade; and when they have taken as many prisoners as the opportunity affords, or their purpose may require, they drive the captives, like cattle, to Begarmee. It is said that if any of them, weakened by age, or exhausted by fatigue, happen to linger in their pace, one of the horsemen seizeson the oldest, and cutting off his arm, uses it as a club to drive on the rest.
From Begarmee they are sent to Bornou,[31]where they are sold at a low price; and from thence many of them are conveyed to Fezzan, where they generally embrace the Musselman faith, and are afterwards exported by the way of Tripoli to different parts of the Levant.
Such is the mode of obtaining the greatest part of the slaves who are annually sold in Bornou; but as several of the provinces of the empire are inhabited by Negros, their insurrections, real or pretended, afford to the Sovereign an opportunity of increasing his income by their sale.
A more politic and more effectual mode of aiding his finances is fruitlessly offered by the salt lakes of the Province of Domboo: for, as the great Empire of Cashna is entirely destituteof salt, and none is found in the dominions of the Negros, the sole possession of this article might insure to the King of Bornou a constant and ample revenue of the best kind, a revenue collected from the subjects of Foreign States; but such is the prevalence of antient custom over the obvious suggestions of policy, that the people of Agadez, a Province of the Cashna Empire, are annually permitted to load their immense caravans with the salt of Bornou, and to engross the profits of this invaluable trade. The salt is collected on the shores of the several lakes which produce it, and the only acknowledgement that the Merchants of Agadez give in return for the article, is the trifling price which they pay in brass and copper (the currency of Bornou) to the neighbouring peasants.
The civet, which forms another article of the export trade of Bornou, and the greatest part of which is sent to the Negro States who inhabit far to the South, is obtained from a species of wild cat that is common in the woods of Bornou and of Cashna.
This animal is taken alive in a trap prepared for the purpose, is placed in a cage, and is strongly irritated till a copious perspiration is produced. Its sweat, and especially the moisturethat appears upon the tail, is then scraped off, is preserved in a bladder, and constitutes the much valued perfume. After a short interval the operation is renewed, and is repeated, from time to time, till at the end of twelve or fourteen days the animal dies of the fatigue and continual torment. The quantity obtained from one cat is generally about half an ounce.
OfManufactures, none for exportation are furnished by the people of Bornou; but the Shereef remarks that, for their own consumption, they fabricate from the iron ore of their country, though with little skill, such slight tools as their husbandry requires.[32]
In return for their exports, they receive the following goods:
Copper and Brass, which are brought to them from Tripoli, by the way of Fezzan, and which, as already mentioned, are used as the current species of Bornou;
Imperial Dollars, which are also brought to them from Tripoli by the Merchants of Fezzan, and are converted by their own artists into rings and bracelets for their women;
Red Woollen Caps, which are worn under the turban;
Rout from Mourzouk to Cashna — Boundaries of the Empire — Its Language, Currency, and Trade.
Equallyconnected by their commerce with Cashna and Bornou, the Fezzanners dispatch to the former as well as to the latter, and always at the same season, an annual caravan. From Mourzouk, their capital, which they leave at the close of October, they take their course to the South South West, and proceed to the Province of Hiatts, the most barren, and the worst inhabited district of their country.
Five of the fourteen days which are requisite for this part of their rout, are consumed in the passage of a sandy desart, in which their usual expedient of covering their goat skins, bothwithin and without, with a resinous substance, prevents but imperfectly the dreaded evaporation of their water.
From the Province of Hiatts they cross the low mountains of Eyré, which separate the Kingdom of Fezzan from the vast Empire of Cashna; and leaving to their right the small river which flows from these hills, and is lost in the deep sands of a neighbouring desart, they enter a wide heath, uninhabited, but not destitute of water. The sixth day conducts them from this extended solitude to the long desired refreshments of the Town of Ganatt, where the two next days are devoted to repose.
From thence, by a march of nineteen days, during six of which they are immersed in the heats of a thirsty desart, they pass on to the Town of Assouda, which offers them equal refreshments with Ganatt, and equally suspends their journey.
On leaving Assouda, they traverse a delightful country, as fertile as it is numerously peopled; and while the exhilarating sight of Indian corn and of frequent herds of cattle accompanies and chears their passage, the eighth day introduces them to the large and populous City of Agadez, the capital of an extensive province.
Distinguished as the most commercial of all the towns of Cashna, and, like Assouda and Ganatt, inhabited by Mahometans alone, Agadez naturally attracts the peculiar attention of the Merchants of Fezzan. Many of them proceed no further; but the greatest part, committing to their Agents the care of the slaves, cotton, and senna, which they purchase in the course of a ten days residence, continue their journey to the South.
In this manner, if the camels are compleatly loaded, seven and forty days, exclusive of those which are allotted to refreshment and necessary rest, are employed in travelling from Mourzouk to Agadez.
At the end of three days more, amidst fields that are enriched with the luxuriant growth of Indian corn, and pastures that are covered with multitudes of cows, and with flocks of sheep and goats, the Traveller reaches the small Town of Begzam; from which, through a country of herdsmen, whose dwellings are in tents of hides, the second day conducts him to the Town of Tegomáh. There, as he surveys the stoney, uninhabited, desolate hills that form the chearless prospect before him, he casts a regretful eye on those verdant scenes that surrounded him the day before. Employed for two days in the passage of these dreary heights, he descends on the third to a deep and scorching sand,from which he emerges at the approach of the fifth evening, and entering a beautiful country, as pleasingly diversified with the natural beauties of hills and vales and woods, as with the rich rewards of the husbandman’s and the shepherd’s toil, he arrives in seven days more at the City of Cashna, the capital of the empire of which it bears the name, and the usual residence of its powerful Sultan.
The country to which the Geographers of Europe have given the name of Nigritia, is called by the Arabs Soudán, and by the natives Aafnou, two words of similar import, that, like the European appellation, express the land of the Blacks, and like that too, are applied to a part only of the region to which their meaning so obviously belongs.—Yet, even in this limited sense, the word Soudán is often variously employed; for while some of the Africans restrict it to the Empire of Cashna, which is situated to the North of the Niger, others extend it, with indefinite comprehension, to the Negro States on the South of the river, and applying it as a means of expressing the extended rule and transcendant power of the Emperor of Cashna, call him, with extravagant compliment, the Sultan of all Soudán.
His real sovereignty is bounded, on the North, by the mountains of Eyré, and by one of those districts of the great Zahara,that furnish no means of useful property or available dominion; on the South, by the Niger; and on the East, by the Kingdom of Zamphara and the Empire of Bornou. Its western limit is not described by the Shereef; nor is any thing said of the Capital, except that it is situated to the North of the Niger, at the distance of five days journey, and that its buildings resemble those of Bornou.
The observations which introduced the account of Bornou, have already announced the remarkable similarity, as well with respect to climate, soil, and natural productions, as with regard to the colour, genius, religion, and political institutions of the people, that prevails between that powerful State and its sister Kingdom of Cashna.
Therains, indeed, are less violent than those of Bornou. It exclusively furnishes the Bishnah, a species of Indian corn that differs from the gamphúly, in the blended colours of red and white which distinguish its grain. Its monkeys and parrots (animals but seldom seen in Bornou) are numerous, and of various species. The meridian of its capital is considered as a western limit, in that parallel of latitude, to the vegetation of grapes and the breed of camels; for between Cashna and the Atlantic few camels are bred, and no grapes will grow. The manners of thecommon people are less courteous in Cashna than in Bornou, and their games are less expressive of reflection; for their favourite play consists in tossing up four small sticks, and counting those that cross each other, as so many points of the number that constitutes the game. But the circumstances of chief discrimination between the empires are, those of language, currency, and certain articles of commerce.
Of the difference between theLanguagesof Bornou and of Cashna, the following specimen is given by the Shereef.
TheCurrencyof Cashna, like that of the Negro States to the South of the Niger, is composed of those small shells that are known to Europeans and to the Blacks themselves by the name of Cowries, and to the Arabs by the appellation of Hueddah.—Cardie, which is another term for this species of Negro money, and the specific meaning of which the Shereef has neglected to explain, is said to be given to it by the idolatrous tribes alone; a circumstance that seems to indicate superstitious attachment.—Of these shells, 2,500 are estimated in Cashna as equal in value to a mitkal of Fezzan, which is worth about 675 piastres of Tripoli, or ten shillings and three half-pence sterling.
Among the few circumstances which characterize theTradeof Cashna, as distinguished from that of Bornou, the most remarkable is, that the Merchants of theformerkingdom are the sole carriers, to other nations, of a scarce and most valuable commodity, which is only to be obtained from the inhabitants of thelatter. For though the salt of Bornou supplies the consumption of Cashna, and of the Negro Kingdoms to the South, yet its owners have abandoned to the commercial activity of the Merchants of Agadez, the whole of that profitable trade.
The lakes, on the dreary shores of which this scarce articleof African luxury is found, are separated from Agadez by a march of five and forty days, and are encompassed on all sides by the sands of the vast Desart of Bilma, where the ardent heat of a flaming sky is returned with double fierceness by the surface of the burning soil. A thousand camels, bred and maintained for the purpose, are said to compose the caravan which annually explores, in the savage wilderness, the long line of this adventurous journey. Perilous, however, and full of hardships as their labour is, the Merchants find an ample recompence in the profits of their commerce; for while the wretched villagers who inhabit the neighbourhood of the lakes, and collect the salt that congeals upon the shores, are contented to receive, or obliged to accept a scanty price, the value that the Merchants obtain in the various markets of Cashna, of Tombuctou, and of the countries to the South of the Niger, is suited to the high estimation in which the article is held.
Attentive in this manner to the means of profiting by the produce of a neighbouring country, the people of Agadez are equally anxious to avail themselves of the commodities that are furnished by their own; for knowing the superior quality of the senna which grows upon their mountains, they demand and receive from the Merchants of Fezzan a proportionable price.
The senna of Agadez is valued in Tripoli at fourteen or fifteen mahaboobs, or from 4l. 4s. to 4l. 10s. per hundred weight, while that of Tibesti is worth no more than from nine to ten mahaboobs, or from 2l. 14s. to 3l. sterling. From Tripoli the senna is exported to Turkey, Leghorn, and Marseilles.