CHAPTER I.
Arrival in Aden.—Preparations for my journey into Africa.—Departure for Tajourah.—Stay in that town.—Unsuccessful endeavours to proceed farther.—Return to Aden.—Time, from 24th of December to the 1st of March.
I arrivedin Aden on the 24th of December, 1841, very ill indeed; having been suffering for nearly two months from a severe intermittent fever, contracted in Bombay. I was advised to proceed at once to England for the benefit of my health, but having letters of introduction from the Indian Government to Capt. Haines, the political agent in Aden, and also to Capt. Harris, our ambassador at that time to the court of Shoa, in Abyssinia, which were calculated to assist me materially in my intention of penetrating into Africa, I persisted in my determination, under all circumstances, to carry out a resolution formed two years before of exploringsome portion of that interesting, but as yet little known continent.
Circumstances detained me in Aden nearly six weeks before I received the welcome intimation from Capt. Haines, that he was about to forward to Shoa despatches and stores for the use of the Mission, and as he kindly offered to put them under my charge, I gladly availed myself of the opportunity thus afforded me of commencing my journey most favourably as regarded both comfort and convenience; every requisite for such an undertaking being provided for me that the friendly care and the long experience of Capt. Haines and the assistant political agent, C. J. Cruttenden, Esq., could suggest. Mr. Hatchetoor, an active and intelligent agent, who had been appointed to transact all business with the chiefs connected with the transit of stores and despatches through the Adal country, was also instructed to accompany me to Tajourah, a small seaport, on the opposite African coast, from whence the two proceeding kafilahs connected with the Embassy had started into the interior.
A Portuguese servant, named Antonio, who had been engaged to accompany me, hearing of the sad fate of three European soldiers belonging to Capt. Harris’s party, and who were killed during the night, a few days’ journey inland, and of the still more recent murder of three of Mr. Hatchetoor’s native servants, when last he visited Tajourah,became so alarmed that he deserted; perhaps fortunately for me, as I was thus spared the trouble and risk of engaging in any quarrels that might have arisen with the natives on his account. As presents and peace-offerings to the numerous petty chieftains of the various tribes of Dankalli, among whom my road lay, I was provided with ten bags of rice, a large box containing several pieces of white and red calico, some figured chintz, and a few cotton handkerchiefs of every gaudy colour, besides an abundant supply of needles and paper, which constituted the material for minor gifts to be made to a more numerous class of supplicants, the women and inferior people.
Our arrangements being completed, Mr. Hatchetoor and myself proceeded on board the brig-of-war Euphrates, commanded by Lieut. John Young, of the Indian navy, who had received orders to convey us to Tajourah.
We were no sooner on board than the anchor was weighed, and we started on our short voyage across the Sea of Babel Mandeb. In consequence of the weak state of my health, I remained on deck no longer than to witness our passage out of the beautiful and commodious harbour called Back Bay, which extends to the westward of the low narrow isthmus, and nearly circular base of the extinct volcanorazèof Aden. We arrived in sight of Tajourah by sunrise the next morning; but it was not until nearly three o’clock in the afternoonthat we anchored in front of that town. The sails being furled, a salute of seven guns was fired by the brig, but some time elapsed before any notice was taken of the honour by the people on shore, a delay which was soon accounted for bySultaun Ebin Mahomed, the Sheik of the town, sending on board for some gunpowder to enable him to return the compliment.
Capt. Young and Mr. Hatchetoor landed almost immediately. I remained for the present on board, as it was considered impolitic for me to appear desirous of passing through the Adal country until some positive information could be obtained respecting the second division of stores which had been sent up to Abyssinia some months before under the charge of Mr. Bernatz, the artist, and the assistant surveyor, Mr. Scott, respecting which none but the most disastrous accounts had been received in Aden. On the return of Capt. Young to the brig, I found, much to my disappointment, that he did not feel himself justified, under present circumstances, in trusting into the hands of the people of Tajourah, several boxes and packages which were to constitute my charge. He also considered it would be highly injudicious in me to make any attempt to pass through the country in the disturbed state it was then represented to be. Part of the mail, however, he determined to forward, if possible, and had fixed the next day for another interview with the Sultaun to conclude some arrangements with him and hispeople that should at least secure the transmission of the public despatches to Capt. Harris in Shoa.
Tajourah is a small straggling town consisting of a number of low mat houses standing on the northern shore of a narrow bay which extends about twenty miles inward, nearly due east and west. The opposite coast is at least ten miles distant. From Tajourah, the bay contracts inland to a channel scarcely four hundred yards wide, when, suddenly expanding again, it terminates in a large irregularly formed lagoon, called Goobat ul Khhrab (the bad haven). In modern maps no appearance of this deep inlet, a very particular feature of the sea-coast in this neighbourhood, can be found, though in the older Portuguese maps it is accurately enough laid down. The ancients seem to have been well aware of the existence of the Bay of Tajourah, for it can be easily identified with the Sinus Avalitæ of the Periplus.
The sea immediately in front of Tajourah has received, from the generally unruffled state of its stormless waters, the name of Bahr ul Barateen, “The sea of Maidens;†which struck me as a singular correspondence with the name of the sea surrounding the ancient city of Carthage, which from the map appended to an old school edition of Virgil, we learn was called by the Romans,Mare Nympharum, the poetical Latin translation of the Arabic, Bahr ul Barateen. Tajourah, it must be observed, also being the present name of a villagesituated very near to the ruins of that once powerful seat of Phœnician commerce.
On the occasion of this visit, much opportunity was not afforded me of observing the character either of the country or of the people, as I landed but twice, and then under the closest surveillance of a brother of the Sultaun, named Isaak, who professed to be greatly alarmed for my safety during these visits; and although at the time I deemed his attendance to proceed from any but generous motives, I have since had reason to believe that his representations of the danger I incurred by rambling about the neighbourhood without the protection of some powerful native were founded upon truth, and from a desire that no cause of ill-feeling between their little town and the English should occur, if by any possibility it could be avoided. As I before observed, three of Mr. Hatchetoor’s servants were murdered during the night, on the last occasion of our intercourse with the inhabitants; and Isaak, though I felt his presence to be a restraint upon my actions, was quite right for thus persisting to accompany me on even the most trifling occasions, to prevent the recurrence of what he, half savage as he was, felt to be an untoward event.
An opportunity offering itself, Capt. Young introduced me to the Sultaun of Tajourah. He was a man at least sixty years of age; round his closely shaven head was wrapped a dirtywhite muslin turban, beneath which was a very light Arab skull cap of open wicker-work, made of the mid rib of the palm leaf. Naked to his waist, over the right shoulder and across his chest, was slung a broad belt of amulets, consisting of numerous packages the size of a small cartouche-box, alternately of red cloth and of leather, each of which contained some written charm against every evil that he feared, or for every desirable good. A common checked cotton fotah, or cloth, reaching to the knees, was fastened around his middle by a leathern belt, in which was secured a very handsome sword of silver, and completed his dress. In his hand he held a light spear, that served to support his long spare figure as he walked, or sometimes to chastise a rebellious urchin, or vituperative female of his household, by dropping the heavily iron tipped end not very gently on their heads and shoulders. But little attention was paid to him by his tribe beyond the simple acknowledgment of him as their chief, and the title was only valuable as a legal excuse for demanding from merchants and strangers some paltry present, which alone constitutes, as far as I could observe, the revenue of the state of Tajourah.
Beyond the limits of the town, the authority of the Sultaun was disclaimed; and, in fact, it was very evident that to hold quiet possession of the town, a species of black mail was extorted from him and the inhabitants by the Bedouins of the surrounding country.
The palace of the Sultaun Ebin Mahomed, who was familiarly styled by his subjects, “Shabah†(old man), consisted of two rooms, placed at right angles to each other, the walls of which consisted of mats made of the plaited palm leaf, stretched upon a slight frame of sticks. The roofs also were of similar material. The whole was enclosed by a fence about six feet high, consisting of dry sticks, also covered with mats.
Screens of these suspended mats divided the larger of the two rooms into four compartments, which were severally used as the harem, store-room, the family sleeping-room, and the audience-chamber, if such imposing designations may with propriety be bestowed upon the squalid menage of the chief of Tajourah. In the other room was the oven, or rather kiln, for baking; a coarse earthen construction, which resembled in form a large jar, inside of which was placed the fuel; when it was properly heated, large layers of unleavened dough, made from the meal of jowahree mixed with water, was plastered upon the outside, where it remained until it had dried into a heavy substance, well finger-marked, and looked sufficiently like a cake to satisfy the eaters, that they were, really, as they frequently boasted, so far in advance of their Bedouin neighbours, as to use baked bread.
There were also in this room a few wooden couches upon which the slave women were accustomed to repose during the heat of the day, when not engaged in grinding the jowahree meal, orcarrying water from the well. At a short distance from these apartments, but within the enclosed court, was a singularly constructed wooden building that towered some six feet above the usual height of houses in Tajourah, being the cabin of a large bogalow, or native ship, wrecked in the bay, and which had been elevated upon untrimmed trunks of the date palm-tree.[2]A wall of matting carried round these posts formed a convenient lower room, which, with the cabin above, was usually apportioned to strangers visiting the town. To this extraordinary effort of native architectural genius, was attached a small yard, separated by a mat screen from the larger court; and here, at a broken jar, that stood in one corner, under the shade of a miserable looking henna-tree, the faithful of the household were always to be found at the stated times ofprayer, performing their ablutions. At small apertures along the lower edge of the screen, close to the ground, were frequently to be seen rows of white teeth of startling extent, as the amused slave girl and female branches of the royal family sought to gratify their curiosity by taking sly peeps at the Engreez whenever they visited the Sultaun. The law court, if it may be so termed, was nothing more than an expansion of the lane in the front of the Sultan’s residence, carefully strewed with the small pebbly shingle of the neighbouring beach. In form it was oblong, and around it were placed several large stones, an old ship beam, and a trunk of the date tree, to serve for the seats of the principal men of the town on occasions of their public kalahims or councils, which were always held in this place. The Sultaun generally presided over these assemblies, his chief business being to distribute the coffee, which was rather stingily supplied to the parties present.
2.With respect to this wooden building, a recent traveller asserts that it is made of the hull of a British ship, the Mary Ann, which was attacked and burned during the night, in the port of Berberah, more than twenty years ago. To paint the evil one blacker than he really is, is not considered fair; and I do not see why the treachery and the violence of the inhabitants of a town nearly one hundred and fifty miles distant should be thus attached to the people of Tajourah without any foundation whatever. Another error that demands a positive contradiction is the statement that the fops of Tajourah are Soumaulee, with their hair stained red. One of the principal distinguishing characteristics between the Dankalli, by whom Tajourah is exclusively inhabited, and the Soumaulee of the opposite coast of the bay, is this custom among the latter people to change the natural colour of the hair, by a solution of quick-lime applied to it. Any Dankalli doing this would be certainly assassinated by his countrymen.
2.With respect to this wooden building, a recent traveller asserts that it is made of the hull of a British ship, the Mary Ann, which was attacked and burned during the night, in the port of Berberah, more than twenty years ago. To paint the evil one blacker than he really is, is not considered fair; and I do not see why the treachery and the violence of the inhabitants of a town nearly one hundred and fifty miles distant should be thus attached to the people of Tajourah without any foundation whatever. Another error that demands a positive contradiction is the statement that the fops of Tajourah are Soumaulee, with their hair stained red. One of the principal distinguishing characteristics between the Dankalli, by whom Tajourah is exclusively inhabited, and the Soumaulee of the opposite coast of the bay, is this custom among the latter people to change the natural colour of the hair, by a solution of quick-lime applied to it. Any Dankalli doing this would be certainly assassinated by his countrymen.
2.With respect to this wooden building, a recent traveller asserts that it is made of the hull of a British ship, the Mary Ann, which was attacked and burned during the night, in the port of Berberah, more than twenty years ago. To paint the evil one blacker than he really is, is not considered fair; and I do not see why the treachery and the violence of the inhabitants of a town nearly one hundred and fifty miles distant should be thus attached to the people of Tajourah without any foundation whatever. Another error that demands a positive contradiction is the statement that the fops of Tajourah are Soumaulee, with their hair stained red. One of the principal distinguishing characteristics between the Dankalli, by whom Tajourah is exclusively inhabited, and the Soumaulee of the opposite coast of the bay, is this custom among the latter people to change the natural colour of the hair, by a solution of quick-lime applied to it. Any Dankalli doing this would be certainly assassinated by his countrymen.
Capt. Young having succeeded in his endeavour to forward the despatches, this being undertaken by the son of my friend Isaak, on payment of seventy dollars, made immediate preparations for returning to Aden, in order to report the unsafe character of the road, and the disinclination of the Tajourah people to forward the stores to Shoa. I, of course, felt much disappointed; but could not object to the reasonableness of the only course that could be taken, and made up my mind to remain in Aden until a better opportunity should be afforded me ofprosecuting my determination of travelling in Africa.
Feb. 26.—After a detention of four days at Tajourah, we weighed anchor, and proceeded on our voyage back to Aden; the wind, however, being contrary and very light, we did not reach Back Bay until the 1st of March, during which time I amused myself on board comparing the present condition of the coast of that part of Africa we had just visited, with some notes I had collected respecting the ancient geography, as contained in the Periplus of Arrian, and other works of the same character I had read.
The present name among the Arabs of the opposite coast of the country in which Tajourah is situated is Burr Adgem, “the land of fire;†and it must be observed, that this is also the Arab designation of the present kingdom of Persia; a significant name, acknowledged to be, and is evidently derived from the volcanic character of both these districts. The Burr Adgem, on the south of the Red Sea, is of indefinite extent, but may be considered as applied to the country reaching from Suakin in the north, to Mogadishe in the south, and as far west as the high lands of Abyssinia.
Among the ancients, this country was known as that of the Avalites; in which word may perhaps be recognised, Affah, the present native name of the Dankalli tribes, living on the western coast of the Red Sea, but which formerly had a far moreextensive application, and included the numerous Soumaulee tribes, who inhabited the country to the south of the Sea of Babel Mandeb as far as Cape Guardefoi, and from thence southward along the eastern coast of Africa as far as Malinda.
Another name for these Affah tribes is Adal; given to them by the Abyssinians inland, and which, according to some recent authorities, has arisen from the circumstance of the principal tribe with whom the Abyssinians have any intercourse being the Adu Alee, living in the immediate vicinity of Massoah, which name has gradually become to be used as the designation of the whole people. I confess that I do not see the propriety of this derivation, as it appears more natural to derive the Abyssinian name from that of the chief part of this country at an early period, when a powerful Egyptian monarch made the Affah port, Adulis, the capital of an extensive country. The terminal letter of this proper name, I have been informed, may be the usual Grecian affix to adapt it to the genius of their language; and I think the probability is, that the Ï‚ has been thus added, and that the word Aduli was the origin of the Greek Adulis, and of the modern name Adal.
Another very common name for these people is Dankalli, a word which appears to be of Persian origin; but one that is also acknowledged by the Affah themselves, as the proper name of their country, or of their people collectively. In thetime of Ludolph, Dankalli was known as the name of a large kingdom or province, situated on the sea-coast, extending from the port of Adulis to the confines of the country of the Assobah Galla, who then dwelt in the country immediately to the north of Tajourah. The Assobah are now, however, considered to be a Dankalli tribe, a change which I conceive has taken place in consequence of this tribe having since become Gibbertee, or “strong in the Islam faith;†for a religious distinction, I find, has for some centuries separated the original Affah nation into Dankalli and Soumaulee. The latter, whose name is derived from the Abyssinian wordsoumahe, or heathens, being supposed by the strict Mahomedan Dankalli, still in a great proportion to adhere to their ancient Sabian faith, and only partially to profess the Islam belief. Soumaulee corresponds with the Arabic word, kafir, or unbeliever, the name by which alone Edresi, the Arabian geographer, knew and described the inhabitants of the Affah coast, to the east of the straits of Babel Mandeb.
It also appears to me that the word Dankalli connects the history of these people with the empire of the true Ethiopia, or Meroe, which was situated between the branches of the Tacazze and the Assareek, or the Red Nile, for it may be that in the Odyssey, where Homer conducts Neptune into Ethiopia, and places him between two nations of blacks, perfectly distinct from each other, the poetalludes to the two very different people, the Shankalli and the Dankalli, inhabiting the low countries of Africa within the tropics; the former living to the west of Abyssinia, the latter towards the east. This will be more evident when, in a future chapter, I connect the elevated table-land of Abyssinia with the scene of the annual festivities of the gods in Ethiopia.
It may be as well in this place, perhaps, to advance my own opinion as to the probable derivation of the name Galla, which has been so generally given to the numerous, divided, and barbarous tribes which I believe have arisen from the ruins of the once civilized and extensive empire of Meroe. The word Galla appears to be merely another form of “Calla,†which in the ancient Persian, Sanscrit, Celtic, and their modern derivative languages, under modified, but not radically changed terms, is expressive of blackness, and which was originally conferred upon a dark-coloured people, as descriptive of their appearance, by the affrighted nations of a lighter complexion, whom their boldness and ferocity have nearly extinguished. Thus the original inhabitants of the high table-land of Abyssinia, a much lighter-coloured race than the Greeks, called the people of the surrounding low countries Galla, for the same reason that the Greeks gave them the name of Ethiopians. In the Geez, or Ethiopic language, these people are styled Tokruree, blacks, and their country Tokruah; and wefind that the Arabs and Indians, also influenced by external appearance, call them Seedee, and their country Soudan, from the wordasward, which signifies black. The Romans, in like manner, gave them the name of Nigritæ; and we ourselves call them Blacks. Two nations of Calla or blacks, very different in physical character and social condition from each other, are now found in the country of ancient Ethiopia; the Shankalli, or the true negro, and the Dankalli, who belong decidedly to the Circassian variety of mankind, possessing round skulls, high full foreheads; the position of the eyes rectilinear; the nose, mouth, and form of countenance being in every respect concordant with the characters assigned to that type of the human race, excepting their colour, which was a dark brown, or sometimes quite black. Their hair, which is much frizzled and worn very full, is a savage caricature of a barrister’s wig. I could perceive no other difference in features or in the form of the head between ourselves and several individuals of this people; indeed, there was often such a striking resemblance between them and some of my European acquaintances, that it was not unusual for me to distinguish them by bestowing the names of some of my far distant friends upon their Dankalli counterparts.
Respecting the numerous savage tribes, known in Europe under the general term Galla, I will not anticipate the results of my subsequent journey, which afforded me better opportunity of forming anopinion as to the real character of these people, and of comparing them with others, who seemed to me to have one common origin, but who differ very materially in the historical circumstances which have marked the period of their long separation. I shall, therefore, return for the present to Aden, which we reached early in the morning of the first of March, three days after having left Tajourah.
From Back Bay, a joint report was immediately forwarded to Capt. Haines by Lieut. Young and Mr. Hatchetoor, announcing the return of the brig, and the ill success that had attended their endeavours to forward the stores and myself to Shoa. Fortunately, I was not long permitted to remain at Steamer Point, off which the Euphrates was anchored, for before noon of the same day we arrived, I received fresh instructions from Capt. Haines to embark again in the evening, and proceed in company with the assistant political agent, C. J. Cruttenden, Esq., to Berberah, where the great annual fair was then being held; from which place it was arranged a native boat should be engaged to take that gentleman, his two servants, and myself back to Tajourah. Capt. Haines rightly supposing that some little jealousy had been excited on the previous occasion by the appearance of the brig before the town which might have implied that compulsion would be resorted to, should the inhabitants refuse their required assistance to communicatewith the Embassy in the interior. One great benefit had resulted from the voyage—my health having considerably improved. The sea air, fresh scenes, and above all, the considerate kindness with which I was treated on board the Euphrates confirmed the restorative reaction which had commenced in Aden. The depressing influence that for several months had held me in sick durance, yielded before the excitement of hope, and a new principle of life seemed to reanimate my nearly worn-out frame.