presented itself. The Sultan of Mandara, mounted on a beautiful,
cream-coloured horse, and followed by a number of persons handsomely
dressed, was on one side. Barca Gana's people, who were on the other,
wore their red scarves or bournouses over their steel jackets. The
major took up a position at the general's right-hand, when the troops,
entering a thick wood in two columns, were told that at the end of it
they should find the enemy. Maraymy kept closer to the major's side, as
danger was approaching.
As they were riding along, several leopards ran swiftly from them,
twisting their long tails in the air. A large one was seen, which
Maraymy remarked was so satiated with the blood of a negro it had just
before killed, that it would be easily destroyed. The Shooa soon
planted a spear, which passed through the animal's neck. It rolled
over, breaking the spear, and bounded off with the lower half in its
body. Another Shooa attacking it, the animal, with a howl, was in the
act of springing on the pursuer, when an Arab shot it through the head.
On emerging from the wood, the large Felatah town of Durkulla was
perceived, and the Arabs were formed in front, headed by Boo-Khaloum.
They were flanked on each side by a large body of cavalry, who, as they
moved on, shouted the Arab war-cry. Denham thought he could perceive a
smile pass between Barca Gana and his chief, at poor Boo-Khaloum's
expense.
Durkulla was quickly burned, and another small town near it. The few
inhabitants found in them, being infants or aged persons, unable to
escape, were put to death or thrown into the flames. A third town,
called Musfeia, built on a rising ground, and capable of being defended
against assailants ten times as numerous as the besiegers, was next
reached. A strong fence of palisades, well pointed, and fastened
together with thongs of raw hide, six feet in height, had been carried
from one hill to the other. Felatah bowmen were placed behind the
palisades and on the rising ground, with a _wady_ before them, while
their horses were all under cover of the hills. This was a strong
position. The Arabs, however, moved on with great gallantry, without
any support from the Bornou or Mandara troops, and, notwithstanding the
showers of arrows, some poisoned, which were poured on them from behind
the palisades, Boo-Khaloum carried them in about half an hour, and
dashed on, driving the Felatahs up the sides of the hills. The women
were everywhere seen supplying their protectors with fresh arrows, till
they retreated, still shooting on their pursuers. The women also rolled
down huge masses of rock, killing several Arabs. Barca Gana, with his
spearmen, at length advanced to the support of Boo-Khaloum, and pierced
through and through some fifty unfortunates, who were left wounded near
the stakes. The major rode by his side into the town, where a desperate
skirmish took place, but Barca Gana with his muscular arm threw eight
spears, some at a distance of thirty yards or more, which all told. Had
either the Mandara or the sheikh's troops now moved up boldly, they must
have carried the town and the heights above it. Instead of this, they
kept on the other side of the _wady_, out of reach of the arrows. The
Felatahs, seeing their backwardness, made so desperate an attack that
the Arabs gave way. The Felatah horse came on. Had not Barca Gana and
Boo-Khaloum, with his few mounted Arabs, given them a very spirited
check, not one of their band would have lived to see the following day.
As it was, Barca Gana had three horses hit under him, two of which died
almost immediately, while poor Boo-Khaloum and his horse were both
wounded. The major's horse was also wounded in the neck, shoulder, and
hind leg, and an arrow struck him in the face, merely drawing blood as
it passed. He had two sticking in his bournous. The Arabs suffered
terribly: most of them had two or three wounds; one dropped with five
arrows sticking in his head, and two of Boo-Khaloum's slaves were killed
near him.
No sooner did the Mandara and Bornou troops see the defeat of the Arabs
than they, one and all, took to flight in the most dastardly manner and
the greatest confusion. The sultan led the way, having been prepared to
take advantage of whatever plunder the success of the Arabs might throw
into his hands; but no less determined to leave the field the moment the
fortune of the day appeared to be against them.
Major Denham had reason to regret his folly in exposing himself, badly
prepared as he was for accident. By flight only could he save himself.
The whole army, which had now become a flying mass, plunged in the
greatest disorder into the wood which had lately been left.
He had got to the westward of Barca Gana in the confusion, when he saw
upwards of a hundred of the Bornou troops speared by the Felatahs, and
was following the steps of one of the Mandara officers, when the cries
behind, of the Felatah horse pursuing, made both quicken their pace.
His wounded horse at this juncture stumbled and fell. Almost before he
was on his legs the Felatahs were upon him. He had, however, kept hold
of the bridle, and, seizing a pistol from the holster, presented it at
two of the savages who were pressing him with their spears. They
instantly went off; but another, who came on more boldly just as he was
endeavouring to mount, received the contents in his shoulder, and he was
enabled to place his foot in the stirrup. Remounting, he again
retreated, but had not proceeded many hundred yards when his horse once
more came down, with such violence as to throw him against a tree at a
considerable distance. At this juncture, alarmed by the horses behind
him, the animal got up and escaped, leaving the major on foot and
unarmed.
The Mandara officer and his followers were butchered and stripped within
a few yards of him. Their cries were dreadful. His hopes of life were
too faint to deserve the name. He was almost instantly surrounded, and
speedily stripped, his pursuers making several thrusts at him with their
spears, wounding his hands severely, and his body slightly. In the
first instance they had been prevented from murdering him by the fear of
injuring the value of his clothes, which appeared to them a rich booty.
His shirt was now torn off his back. When his plunderers began to
quarrel for the spoil, the idea of escape came across his mind.
Creeping under the belly of the horse nearest him, he started as fast as
his legs would carry him, to the thickest part of the wood. Two of the
Felatahs followed. He ran in the direction the stragglers of his own
party had taken. His pursuers gained on him, for the prickly underwood
tore his flesh and impeded his progress. Just then he saw a mountain
stream gliding along at the bottom of a deep ravine. His strength had
almost failed him, when, seizing the long branches of a tree overhanging
the water, he let himself down into it. What was his horror to observe
a large liffa, the most venomous of serpents, rise from its coil as if
in the very act of striking! His senses left him, the branch slipped
from his hand, and he tumbled headlong into the water. The shock,
however, revived him, and with three strokes of his arms he reached the
opposite bank, which with great difficulty he crawled up. He, at
length, felt that he was safe from his pursuers. Still, the forlorn
situation in which he was placed, without even a rag to cover his body,
almost overwhelmed him. Yet, fully alive to the danger to which he was
exposed, he had began to plan how he could best rest on the top of a
tamarind tree, in order to escape from panthers, when the idea of
liffas, almost as numerous, excited a shudder of despair. While trying
to make his way through the woods, he observed two horsemen between the
trees, and, still further to the east, with feelings of gratitude, he
recognised Barca Gana and Boo-Khaloum, with about six Arabs. Although
they were pressed closely by a party of Felatahs, the guns and pistols
of the Arabs kept the latter in check. His shouts were drowned by the
cries of those who were falling under the Felatahs' spears and the
cheers of the Arabs rallying; but, happily, Maraymy distinguished him at
a distance. Riding up, the faithful black assisted the major to mount
behind him, and, while the arrows whistled over their heads, they
galloped off to the rear as fast as the black's wounded horse could
carry them. After they had gone a mile or two, Boo-Khaloum rode up and
desired one of the Arabs to cover the major with a houmous. This was
the last act of Denham's unfortunate friend. Directly afterwards
Maraymy exclaimed: "Look, Boo-Khaloum is dead!" The major turned his
head, and saw the caravan leader drop from his horse into the arms of a
favourite Arab. A poisoned arrow in his wounded foot had proved fatal.
The Arabs believed he had only swooned; but there was no water to revive
him, and before it could be obtained he was past the reach of
stimulants. At the same time, Barca Gana offered the major a horse; but
Maraymy exclaimed: "Do not mount him; he will die!" He therefore
remained with the black. Two Arabs, however, mounted the animal, and in
less than an hour he fell to rise no more; and, before they could
recover themselves, both the Arabs were butchered by the Felatahs.
At last a stream was reached. The horses, with the blood gushing from
their noses, rushed into the water, and the major, letting himself down,
knelt amongst them, and seemed to imbibe new life from the copious
draughts of the muddy beverage he swallowed. He then lost all
consciousness; but Maraymy told him that he had staggered across the
stream and fallen down at the foot of a tree. Here a quarter of an
hour's halt was made, to place Boo-Khaloum's body on a horse and to
collect stragglers, during which Maraymy had asked Barca Gana for
another horse, in order to carry the major on, when the chief, irritated
by his defeat, as well as by having had his horse refused, by which
means he said it had come by its death, replied: "Then leave him behind.
By the head of the Prophet! believers enough have breathed their last
to-day! What is there extraordinary in a Christian's death?" His old
antagonist, Malem Chadily, replied: "No; God has preserved him, let us
not forsake him." Maraymy returned to the tree, awoke the major, and,
again mounting, they moved on as before, though with less speed.
The effect produced on the horses wounded by arrows was extraordinary;
immediately after drinking they dropped and instantly died, the blood
gushing from their mouths, noses, and ears. More than thirty horses
were lost at this spot from the effects of the poison.
After riding forty-five miles, it was past midnight before they halted
in the territories of the Sultan of Mandara, the major thoroughly
worn-out. The bournous thrown over him by the Arab teemed with vermin,
and it was evening the next day before he could get a shirt, when a man
gave him one, on the promise of getting a new one at Kouka. Maraymy all
the time tended him with the greatest care while he slept for a whole
night and day under a tree.
Denham here met with an unexpected act of kindness from Mai Meegamy, a
dethroned sultan, now subject to the sheikh. Taking him by the hand,
the sultan led him into his own leathern tent, and, disrobing himself of
his trousers, insisted that the major should put them on. No act of
charity could exceed this. Denham was exceedingly touched by it, but
declined the offer. The ex-sultan, however, supposing that he did so
under the belief that he had offered the only pair he possessed, seemed
much hurt, and immediately called in a slave, whom he stripped of those
necessary appendages of a man's dress, which he put on himself,
insisting that Denham should take those he had first offered him.
Meegamy was his great friend from that moment, though he had scarcely
spoken to him before he had quitted the sheikh's dominions.
In this unfortunate expedition, besides their chief, forty-five of the
Arabs were killed, nearly all were wounded, and they lost everything
they possessed, Major Denham having also lost his mule and all his
property.
The wounds of many of the people were very severe, and several died soon
afterwards, their bodies, as well as poor Boo-Khaloum's, becoming
instantly swollen and black. Sometimes, immediately after death, blood
issued from the nose and mouth, which the Bornou people asserted was in
consequence of the arrows having been poisoned.
The surviving Arabs, who had now lost all their arrogance, entreated
Barca Gana to supply them with corn to save them from starving, for the
Sultan of Mandara refused to supply them with food, and even kept
Boo-Khaloum's horse-trappings and clothes.
In six days the expedition arrived at Kouka. The sheikh was excessively
annoyed at the defeat; but laid the blame, not without justice, on the
Mandara troops, who had evidently behaved treacherously to their allies.
CHAPTER SIX.
TRAVELS OF DENHAM AND CLAPPERTON, CONTINUED.
MAJOR DENHAM AND DR. OUDNEY VISIT OLD BIRNIE--ACCOMPANY THE SHEIKH ON AN
EXPEDITION AGAINST THE MUNGA--REVIEW OF TROOPS--SUBMISSION OF REBELS--
BARCA GANA DISGRACED--RETURN--ARRIVAL OF LIEUTENANT TOOLE--EXPEDITION TO
THE SHARY--PEST OF FLIES--WELL RECEIVED BY THE SULTAN OF BEGHARRNI--
DEATH OF LIEUTENANT TOOLE--RETURNS TO KOUKA--ARRIVAL OF MR. TYRHWIT--
EXPEDITION AGAINST REBELS ON SHORES OF LAKE CHAD--BARCA GANA AGAIN
DEFEATED AND WOUNDED--THE SHEIKH'S SEVERE LAWS AGAINST IMMORALITY.
Soon after the return of the unfortunate expedition to Mandara, the
sheikh set out on another against a people to the west, called the
Munga, who had never hitherto acknowledged his supremacy, and refused to
pay tribute. Another complaint against them was, as he explained it,
"that they were _kaffiring_--not saying their prayers--the dogs." This
fault is generally laid to the charge of any nation against whom true
Mahommedans wage war, as it gives them the power of making slaves of the
heathens. By the laws of Mahomet, one believer must not bind another.
Major Denham and Dr Oudney were anxious to visit Birnie, the old
capital of Bornou, and the sheikh left one of his chief slaves, Omar
Gana, to act as their guide. Thence they were to proceed to Kabshary,
there to await his arrival.
They set out with five camels and four servants, making two marches each
day, from ten to fourteen miles, morning and evening.
The country round Kouka is uninteresting and flat, thickly covered with
acacias.
The ruins of old Birnie, which they visited, convinced them of the power
of its former sultan. The city, though now in ruins, covered a space of
five or six square miles. The walls, in many places standing, consisted
of large masses of red brickwork, three or four feet in thickness, and
six to eight in height. Besides destroying the capital, the Felatahs
had razed to the ground upwards of thirty large towns during their
inroads.
The whole country which they passed after proceeding some way had become
a complete desert, having been abandoned since the Felatahs commenced
their inroads, and wild animals of all descriptions abounded in great
numbers.
They heard that Kabshary had been attacked by the Munga people and
burned; and news came that the Munga horse were reconnoitring all round
them, and had murdered some men proceeding to join the sheikh.
One of the means the people had taken to defend themselves against the
invaders, had been to dig deep holes, at the bottom of which
sharp-pointed stakes were fixed, the pits being then carefully covered
over with branches and grass, so as completely to conceal them. Similar
pitfalls are used in many parts of Africa for entrapping the giraffe and
other wild animals.
The major's servant, Columbus, and his mule not making their appearance,
he was searching for him, when he found that the animal had fallen into
one of these pits, the black having by a violent exertion of strength
saved himself. The poor mule was found sticking on four stakes, with
her knees dreadfully torn by struggling. She was, however, got out
alive.
Escaping from various dangers, they joined the sheikh on the banks of a
large piece of water called Dummasak. Hearing that a caravan had
arrived at Kouka from Fezzan, they were anxious to return to the
capital. They sent word to the sheikh, but their communication was not
delivered, and, before they could see him, he and his troops had moved
off. They were, however, on their way to Kouka, when Omar Gana overtook
them, entreating them to return to the sheikh, who, angry at their
having gone, had struck him from his horse, and directed him to bring
them to the army without delay. They had nothing to do but to obey.
Many of the spots they passed presented much picturesque beauty. In
several places were groups of naked warriors resting under the trees on
the borders of the lake, with their shields on their arms, while
hundreds of others were in the water, spearing fish, which were cooked
by their companions on shore. The margin was crowded with horses,
drinking or feeding, and men bathing, while, in the centre, hippopotami
were constantly throwing up their black muzzles, spouting water.
The march of the Bornou army now commenced; but little order was
preserved before coming near the enemy, everyone appearing to know that
at a certain point an assembly was to take place. The sheikh took the
lead, and close after him came the Sultan of Bornou; who always attended
him on these occasions, though he never fought. The sheikh was preceded
by five flags with extracts of the Koran on them, and attended by about
a hundred of his chiefs and favourite slaves. A negro boy carried his
shield, a jacket of mail, and his steel skull-cap, and his arms;
another, mounted on a swift _mahary_, and fantastically dressed with a
straw hat and ostrich feathers, carried his timbrel, or drum, which it
is the greatest misfortune to lose in action. In the rear followed the
harem; but on such occasions the sheikh takes but three wives, who are
mounted astride on trained horses, each led by a slave boy, their heads
and figures completely enveloped in brown silk bournouses, with an
attendant on either side. The sultan has five times as many attendants
as his general, and his harem is three times as numerous.
On reaching Kabshary, the sheikh reviewed his favourite forces, the
Kanemboo spearmen, nine thousand strong. With the exception of a goat
or sheep's skin, with the hair outwards, round their middles, and a few
strips of cloth on their heads, they were nearly naked. Their arms were
spear and shield, with a dagger on the left arm, reversed. The shield
is made of a peculiarly light wood, weighing only a few pounds. Their
leaders were mounted and distinguished merely by a _tobe_ of dark blue,
and a turban of the same colour.
The sheikh's attendants were magnificently dressed, but his own costume
was neat and simple, consisting only of two white figured muslin
_tobes_, with a bournous, and a Cashmere shawl for a turban: over all
hung the English sword which had been sent him. On the signal being
made for his troops to advance, they uttered a fearful shriek, or yell,
and advanced by troops of eight hundred to a thousand each. After
striking their spears against their shields for some seconds, which had
an extremely grand effect, they filed off on either side, again forming
and awaiting their companions, who succeeded them in the same way.
There appeared to be a great deal of affection between these troops and
the sheikh. He spurred his horse onwards into the midst of some of the
troops as they came up, and spoke to them, while the men crowded round
him, kissing his feet and stirrups. It was a most pleasing sight, and
he seemed to feel how much his present elevation was owing to their
exertions; while they displayed a devotion and attachment denoting the
greatest confidence. The major assured him that, with these troops, he
need fear but little the attempts of the Fezzaners on his territories.
The next day a number of captives--women and children--were brought in:
one poor woman accompanied by four children--two in her arms and two on
the horse of the father who had been stabbed for defending those he
loved. They were uttering the most piteous cries. The sheikh, after
looking at them, desired that they might all be released, saying: "God
forbid that I should make slaves of the wives and children of any
Mussalman! Go back: tell the wicked and powerful chiefs who urged your
husbands to rebel and to _kafir_, that I shall be quickly with them, and
will punish them instead of the innocent!"
This message had its effect; for, during the following day, many
hundreds of the Munga people came in, bowing to the ground, and throwing
sand upon their heads in token of submission. Several towns also sent
their chiefs and submitted in this manner, bringing peace offerings,
when the sheikh swore solemnly not to molest them further. Their
principal leader, Malem Fanaamy, fearing to lose his head, would not
come; but offered to pay two thousand slaves, a thousand bullocks, and
three hundred horses as the price of peace. The offer was refused; and,
compelled by his people, Malem Fanaamy made his appearance, poorly
dressed, with an uncovered head. The sheikh received his submission;
and, when he really expected to hear the order for his throat to be cut,
he was clothed with eight handsome _tobes_, and his head made as big as
six, with turbans from Egypt. This matter being settled, the army
returned to the capital.
Major Denham soon after this visited a caravan which had come from
Soudan, on its way to Fezzan. The merchants had nearly a hundred
slaves, the greater part female, mostly very young--those from Nyffe of
a deep copper colour, and beautifully formed; the males were also young,
and linked together in couples by iron rings round their legs, yet they
laughed and seemed in good condition. It is a common practice with the
merchants to induce one slave to persuade his companions that on
arriving at Tripoli they will be free and clothed in red--a colour of
which negroes are passionately fond. By these promises they are induced
to submit quietly until they are too far from their homes to render
escape possible.
An extraordinary event occurred here, showing the despotic power of the
sheikh. Barca Gana, his general, a governor of six large districts, had
offended the sheikh, who sent for him, had him stripped in his presence,
and a leathern girdle put round his loins, and, after reproaching him
with his ingratitude, ordered that he should be forthwith sold to the
Tibboo merchants, for he was still a slave. The other chiefs, however,
falling on their knees, petitioned that their favourite general might be
forgiven. The culprit at that moment appeared to take his leave. The
sheikh, on this, threw himself back on his carpet, wept like a child,
and suffered Barca Gana to embrace his knees, and, calling them all his
sons, pardoned his penitent slave.
Poor Dr Oudney had never risen since his return from Munga, and
Clapperton and Hillman were also dangerously ill.
News now arrived that a caravan was on its way from the north. This was
gratifying intelligence, as the expedition hoped to obtain letters and
remittances by it.
Hillman had manufactured some carriages for two brass guns, which had
been sent to the sheikh from Tripoli. The sheikh was delighted when the
major, the only person capable of attending to them, fired them off. He
now thought himself able to attack all who might become hostile to him.