they would be attacked by daylight. They, therefore, sent off a body of
archers to gain information from a small caravan which was coming from
Soudan, consisting of a few Tebus, ten camels, and about forty slaves.
The unfortunate Tebus were soon afterwards attacked by a fierce tribe,
the Haddanara, who, disappointed at getting nothing from the English
expedition, murdered the whole of them and carried off their camels and
slaves.
Soon after the party had encamped at night three strangers made their
appearance; but, although they were known to be robbers, and that a
number of their companions were not far off, they were allowed to lie
down for the night. The experienced old Sheikh of the Kafeila warned
Barth to be on his guard, and exhorted his attendants to be staunch.
Everybody was crying for powder. Their clever servant, Mahomet, placed
his four pieces of boat on the outside of the tents, that they might
afford shelter in case of an attack. They kept watch the whole night,
and the strangers, seeing them well on their guard, did not venture to
assail them. In the morning they went slowly away to join their
companions, who had kept behind a rocky ridge in the distance. There
was indeed much cause for anxiety. Suddenly an alarm was raised that
the camels had been stolen. The old chief, taking advantage of this
state of things, urged Barth and Overweg to confide their property to
him and another chief. This was not entirely disinterested advice; for,
if anything had happened to the travellers, the chief would, of course,
have been their heir.
At an early hour they started with an uneasy feeling. With the first
dawn the true believers had been called together for prayer; and the
bond which united the Mahommedan members of the caravan with the
Christian travellers, it was seen, had been loosened in a very
conspicuous manner.
Instead of, as usual, each little party starting off as soon as they
were ready, they all waited till the whole caravan had loaded their
camels, when they began their march in close order, to be ready in case
of being attacked.
After advancing some distance they saw four men seated ahead of them, on
an eminence. The doctor, being in the first line of the caravan,
dismounted and led forward his camel. A party of archers had been
despatched to reconnoitre. What was his surprise to see them and the
unknown individuals executing a wild sort of armed dance. Suddenly two
of the dancers rushed upon him and grasped the rope of the camel, asking
for tribute. Barth seized his pistols, when, just in time, he was told
they were friends.
The eminence is an important locality in the modern history of the
country. It was here, when the Kel-owi, a pure Berber tribe, took
possession of the territory of old Gober, that a covenant was entered
into between the red conquerors and the black natives, that the latter
should not be destroyed, and that the principal chief of the Kel-owi
should only be allowed to marry a black woman. As a memorial of this
transaction, when caravans pass the spot where the covenant was entered
into, the slaves make merry and are authorised to levy upon their
masters a small tribute.
The black man who had stopped the doctor was the chief of the slaves.
As the caravan proceeded, the merry creatures executed another dance,
and the incident would have been of great interest if the members of the
caravan had not been depressed with the forebodings of mishap.
They now reached a small village of leathern tents, inhabited by a
people of the tribe of Fade-ang, in a valley on the frontier region of
Aire. The chief was respected as a person of great authority, and, it
was said, was able to protect them against the freebooting parties which
their guests of the other day, who had gone on before, were sure to
collect against them. He had been invited to the camp; but he sent his
brother instead, who, it was soon evident, could render them no
assistance. The travellers were soon surrounded by the inhabitants, to
whom a number of small presents were given. These men were very
inferior in appearance even to the common Taki freebooter, and extremely
degraded in their habits.
While resting in their tents they were alarmed by a report that a body
of sixty Mehara were about to attack them, and again everybody was
excited, all calling out for powder and shot. It was evident that there
was an entire want of union among the members of the caravan.
The scene which followed in the bright moonlight evening, and lasting
through the night, was animating and interesting in the extreme. The
caravan was drawn up in line of battle, the left wing being formed by
the travellers and the detachment of the Kel-owi who had posted
themselves in front of their tents, while the Timylkum and the Sfaksi
formed the centre, the rest of the Kel-owi with Boro the right wing,
leaning upon the cliffs, the exposed left being defended by the four
pieces of boat. About ten o'clock a small troop of Mehara, so-called
from riding on _mehara_, or swift camels, made their appearance.
Immediately a heavy fusillade was commenced over their heads, and was
kept up with shouting during the night.
The enemy hovered around them during the whole of the next day, and
prevented them from making excursions.
Leaving their camping ground on the 24th of August, they travelled on
without molestation; but, soon after their tents had been pitched the
next evening in a valley full of talha trees and oat-grass, the
marauders again made their appearance, mounted on camels, and,
dismounting within pistol-shot of the tents, discussed, with wild,
ferocious laughter, their projects with their Azkar confederates in the
caravan. Some of these soon afterwards came and told them that they
might sleep with perfect security; others, however, warned them that
they must on no account rest during the night. Preparations for an
attack were therefore made, and their camels were brought close to the
tents; but the Kel-owi left theirs outside.
In the morning it was found that all the camels had been carried off.
On this, Boro led on the more warlike members of the caravan in pursuit.
The enemy were overtaken, and, alarmed by the appearance of the
bayonets, which they saw would place the Europeans on an equality even
after the guns had been fired, offered to come to terms. They declared
that they had only come against the white men because they were
Christians, and immediately all sympathy for the travellers ceased in
the caravan. The rebels were allowed to retain their booty and were
treated besides with an enormous quantity of _mohamsa_.
They now hoped to proceed without further molestation; and the Merabet
chief, who had accompanied and sanctioned the expedition against them,
was allowed to join their party, as it was thought to be the best means
of preventing any further molestation. Boro, who passed the evening
with Mr Richardson's interpreter, in reading the Koran, treated him
hospitably.
They were expecting to reach Selufiet, where they hoped to be in safety.
When about eight miles from it, the chiefs insisted on encamping, and a
number of Merabetin, a fanatical tribe, insisted that they should turn
Mohammedans. Their friends and servants urged them to do so, as the
only means of saving their lives. They were kept seated in their tent
while the fanatics discussed the subject. The travellers sat in
silence. At last Mr Richardson exclaimed: "Let us talk a little. We
must die. What is the use of sitting so mute?" For some minutes death
seemed really to hover over their heads. Mr Richardson proposed trying
to escape for their lives, when the kind-hearted Sliman rushed into the
tent, exclaiming in a tone of sincere sympathy: "You are not to die."
The Merabetin were content instead to receive a heavy tribute.
Unfortunately, the merchandise they carried, instead of consisting of a
_few_ valuable things, was composed of worthless, bulky objects; and, as
they had also ten iron cases filled with dry biscuits, the ignorant
people supposed that they carried enormous wealth. In consequence, when
all the claims had been settled, the rebels threatened to fall upon the
rest of the baggage. Their friendly chief on this declared that some of
it was his own, and also dashed to pieces one of the iron cases, when,
to the astonishment of the simple people, instead of beholding heaps of
dollars, they saw a dry and tasteless sort of bread!
Meanwhile, the persecuted Christians made off under the escort of the
Kel-owi, and the whole caravan was once more collected together.
On the 4th of September they encamped on the summit of a sand-hill, in a
broad valley, near the village of Tintellust, the residence of the chief
Amur, under whose protection they were now to proceed. The chief
received them in a friendly way, and assured them that, even though
Christians, the dangers and difficulties they had gone through would
suffice to wash off their sins, and that they had nothing to fear but
the climate and the thieves. He told them that they were welcome to
proceed to Soudan at their own risk; but that if they wished for his
protection, they must pay him handsomely.
While the camp remained here, Dr Barth paid a visit to the town of
Agades, a place once of great importance, and still containing about
seven thousand inhabitants, a large number engaged as tradesmen or in
commerce. It is situated on the borders of the desert, surrounded by
lawless tribes. He performed his journey on the back of a bullock, with
his luggage behind him. He was received in a very friendly way by the
sultan, who told him that he had never before heard of the English--not
suspecting from whom the gunpowder he used was obtained. The doctor,
after placing the treaty before the sultan, said that the English wished
to enter into friendly relations with all the chiefs and great men of
the earth, in order to establish commercial intercourse with them. He
then told him that they had been deprived of nearly all the presents
they were bringing for himself and the other princes of Soudan. At this
he expressed the greatest indignation.
After spending two months at Agades, the doctor returned to Tintellust.
Here the expedition was detained six months waiting for an escort,
without which they could not proceed with any degree of safety to
Soudan. At length, on the 5th of December, the first body of the
salt-caravan, for which they had been waiting, arrived from Bilma, and
on the 12th of December, 1850, they began to move. The caravan looked
like a whole nation in motion: the men on camels or on foot; the women
on bullocks or asses, with all the necessaries of the little household,
as well as the houses themselves; a herd of cattle, another of
milk-goats, and a number of young camels running playfully alongside,
and sometimes getting between the regular lines of the laden animals.
The old chief walked ahead like a young man, leading his _mahary_ by the
nose-cord.
The ground was very rocky and rugged, and looked bare and desolate in
the extreme. Several high peaks, which characterise this volcanic
region, rose on either side.
The whole caravan consisted of about two thousand camels, of whom two
hundred were laden with salt. At night their camp presented many lively
and merry scenes, ranging as it did over a wide district illuminated by
large fires. Dancing was going forward and the drummers were vying with
each other, one especially rivalling their drummer Assam, and performing
his work with great skill, caused general enthusiasm among the dancing
people.
On their journey on the 29th of December, they found the ground covered
with _had_, a plant regarded by the Arabs as the most nutritious of all
the herbs of the desert for the camel. Numerous footprints of the
giraffe were seen, besides those of gazelles and ostriches, and also of
the large and beautiful antelope (_Leucoryx_). Here, too, was seen the
_magaria_, a tree which bears a fruit of the size of a cherry, of a
light brown colour. When dry it is pounded and formed into little
cakes, and is thus eaten.
On the 1st of January, 1851, they fell in with a tribe of the Tagana,
whose morality is of the lowest order. Hunting, together with
cattle-breeding, is their chief occupation, and on their little swift
horses they catch the large antelope as well as the giraffe.
A steep descent of a hundred feet conducted the caravan off the high
region of the Hammada to a level plain.
On the 7th they came in sight of a village, where they saw for the first
time that style of architecture which extends over the whole of central
Africa. The huts are composed entirely of the stalk of the Indian corn,
with only a slight support from the branches of trees. They are
somewhat low, curved over at the top. Amid them were seen small stacks
of corn, raised on scaffolds of wood about two feet high, to protect
them from the white ant and mouse, as also from the _jerboa_, which is
so pretty an object to look at as it jumps about the fields, but is an
especial foe to the natives. The people came forth from the villages to
offer cheese and Indian corn. They were black pagans and slaves, meanly
and scantily dressed, but far more civilised in reality than the
fanatical people among whom Barth and his companions had hitherto been
travelling.
On the 9th of January the travellers reached Tagelel. From this place
there was little danger in their proceeding singly, and it was agreed,
in consequence of the low state of their finances, that they should
separate, in order to try what each might be able to accomplish
single-handed and without ostentation, till new supplies should arrive
from home.
CHAPTER ELEVEN.
TRAVELS OF DR. BARTH, CONTINUED.
DR. BARTH QUITS MR. RICHARDSON--REACHES TASSAWA--ARRIVES AT KANO--
FLOURISHING COUNTRY--KANO DESCRIBED--KINDLY TREATED--MANUFACTURES AND
IMPORTS--SETS OUT WITH HIS SERVANT GATRONI FOR BORNOU--HEARS OF MR.
RICHARDSON'S DEATH--ENTERS KOUKA--THE VIZIER MEETS HIM--RECEPTION OF THE
SHEIKH, A BLACK--EXCURSION WITH THE SHEIKH TO NGORNU--VISITS LAKE CHAD--
FISHERMEN ON THE LAKE--JOURNEY TO ADAMAWA--REACHES THE BINUE RIVER--
COMPELLED TO RETURN--SETS OUT FOR KANEM--TRAVELLING WITH ROBBER PARTY--
ATTACKED BY NATIVES--ROBBERS BEATEN--RETURNS TO KOUKA--EXPEDITION OF
VIZIER AGAINST MANDARA--BEAUTIFUL, WELL-CULTIVATED COUNTRY DEVOTED TO
DESTRUCTION--THE NATIVES BARBAROUSLY SLAUGHTERED--SLAVES TAKEN--DEMMO
DESTROYED--MUSGU WARRIORS--NATIVES DEFEND THEMSELVES ON AN ISLAND--
RETURNS TO KOUKA--JOURNEY TO BEGHARMI--WELL TREATED AT LOGGUN--REACHES
THE MAGNIFICENT SHARY--WHITE ANTS--MADE PRISONER AND PUT INTO CHAINS--
RELEASED, AND ENTERS MAS-ENA--A LEARNED BLACK FAKI--VISIT TO THE
SULTAN--HIS SUPERSTITIOUS FEARS--BARTH RETURNS TO KOUKA--DEATH OF DR.
OVERWEG.
Parting from Mr Richardson, the two Germans continued on to Chirak,
where Overweg quitted Dr Barth, who intended to proceed to Tassawa.
The doctor, disposing of a favourite camel, obtained horses for the
remainder of the journey and now went on alone; but, accustomed to
wander by himself among strange people, he felt in no degree oppressed.
His companion was a black, Gajere, a Mahommedan, and, though
communicative, rather rude and unable to refrain from occasionally
mocking the stranger who wanted to know everything but would not
acknowledge the prophet. Mounted on an active steed, he and his
attendants soon reached Tassawa, the first large place of Negroland
proper which he had seen. Everywhere were unmistakable marks of the
comfortable, pleasant sort of life led by the natives. The court-yards,
fenced with tall reeds, closed to a certain degree the gaze of the
passer-by, without securing to the interior absolute secrecy. Near the
entrance was a cool shady hut for the transaction of ordinary business
and the reception of strangers. The lower portions of most of the
houses consisted of clay, and the upper part of wicker-work, while the
roof was composed of reeds only. The dwellings were shaded with
spreading trees, and enlivened with groups of children, goats, fowls,
pigeons, and, where a little wealth had been accumulated, by a horse, or
pack-ox. The men wore white shirts, and trowsers of dark colour, while
their heads were generally covered with light caps of cotton cloth.
Only the wealthier wore the shawl thrown over the shoulders like the
plaid of a Highlander. The dress of the women consisted almost entirely
of a large cotton cloth of dark colour, fastened round the neck with a
few strings of glass beads.
On the 1st of February Dr Barth approached the important city of Kano.
Almost all the people he met saluted him kindly and cheerfully, only a
few haughty Fellani passing without a salute.
The villages were here scattered about in the most agreeable way, such
as is only practicable in a country in a state of considerable security.
Some of them were surrounded by a bush like the broom, growing to a
height of ten or twelve feet. The doctor and his native companions
passed through a village in which was a large market-place consisting of
several rows of well-built sheds. The market women who attached
themselves to their cavalcade assured them that they would be able to
reach the city that day, but that they ought to arrive at the outer gate
before sunset, as at that time it is shut. The party accordingly pushed
on; but, after entering the gate, it took them forty minutes to reach
the house of Bawu, and, as it was quite dark, they had some trouble in
taking possession of the quarters assigned to them by their host.
Kano had been sounding in the traveller's ears for more than a year; it
had been one of the great objects of his journey. It is the chief
central point of commerce, a great storehouse of information, and was,
Barth considered, the point from whence a journey to more distant
regions might be most successfully attempted. At length, after nearly a
year's exertions, he had reached it. He was, however, greatly
inconvenienced by not being provided with ready cash, instead of which
merchandise had been provided for the expedition, which they had been
assured would not only be safer than money, but would also prove more
advantageous.
Barth had now to pay away a large sum, and all the smaller articles,
which had been carried for barter, having been expended by the heavy
extortions to which they had been subjected on the road to Aire--he was
placed in much difficulty for want of means. He soon found also that
Bawu, Mr Gagliuffi's agent, could not be implicitly relied on.
The currency of the country consists of cowrie shells, or _kurdie_,
which are not, as in regions near the coast, fastened together in
strings of one hundred each, but are separate, and must be counted one
by one. The governors of towns make them up in sacks containing twenty
thousand each. Private individuals will not receive them without
counting them out; those even who made but a few small purchases had to
count out five hundred thousand shells.
The doctor had now to borrow two thousand _kurdie_, which did not amount
to the value of a dollar.
He was forbidden to leave his quarters until he had seen the governor,
and he was thus kept within them for several days, till he was attacked
by fever. At length, on the 18th of February, he received a summons to
attend the great man.
Although the distances in Kano are less than those of London, they are
very great, and the ceremonies to be gone through are almost as tedious
as those of any European court.
Arousing himself, and putting on his warm Tunisian dress, wearing over
it a white _tobe_ and a white bournous, he mounted his poor black nag
and followed his advocates, Bawu Elaiji and Sidi-Ali, the two latter of
whom showed him the most disinterested friendship. It was a fine
morning: before him lay the whole scenery of the town, in its great
variety of clay houses, huts, sheds, green open places affording pasture
for oxen, horses, camels, donkeys, and goats, in motley confusion, with
many beautiful specimens of the vegetable kingdom--the slender
date-palm, the spreading _alleluba_, and the majestic silk-cotton tree--
the people in all varieties of costume, from the almost naked slave up
to the most gaudily-dressed Arab, all formed a most animating and
exciting scene.
Passing through the market-place, they entered the quarters of the
ruling race--the Fulbe or Fellani, where conical huts of thatched work
and the gonda-tree are prevalent.
They first proceeded to the house of the _gadado_, the lord of the
treasury. It was an interesting specimen of the domestic arrangements
of the Fulbe, who do not disown their original character of nomadic
cattle-breeders. Its court-yard, though in the middle of the town,
looked like a farm-yard, and could not be commended for its cleanliness.
The treasurer having approved of the presents and appropriated to
himself a large gilt cup, the doctor and his companions were conducted
to the audience-hall. It was very handsome, and even stately for this
country. The rafters of the elevated ceiling were concealed by two
lofty arches of clay, very neatly polished and ornamented. At the
bottom of the apartment were two spacious and highly-decorated niches,
in one of which the governor was reposing on the _gado_ spread with a
carpet. His dress consisted of all the mixed finery of Haussa and
Barbary. He allowed his face to be seen, the white shawl hanging down
far below his mouth, over his breast.
The governor was highly pleased with the handsome presents he received,
and the doctor, notwithstanding the fatigue he had gone through, quickly
recovered from his fever.
The next day he rode round the town. Here were a row of shops filled
with articles of native and foreign produce, with buyers and sellers in
every variety of figure, complexion, and dress, yet all intent upon
their little gain. There a large shed full of naked half-starved slaves
torn from their homes--from their wives or husbands, from their children
or parents--ranged in rows like cattle, and staring desperately upon the
buyers, anxiously watching into whose hands it should be their destiny
to fall. In another part were to be seen all the necessaries of life;
here a rich governor dressed in silk and gaudy clothes, mounted upon a
spirited and richly-caparisoned steed, and followed by a host of idle,
insolent slaves; there a poor blind man, groping his way through the
multitude, and fearing at every step to be trodden down. There were
pleasant scenes too, a snug-looking cottage with the clay walls nicely
polished, beneath the shade of a wide-spreading alleluba-tree; or a
_papaya_ unfolded its large leather-like leaves above a slender, smooth
and undivided stem; or the tall date-tree, waving over the whole scene;
a matron, in clean black cotton gown, busy preparing the meal for her
absent husband or spinning cotton, and at the same time urging the
female slaves to pound the corn, and children, naked and merry, playing
about in the sun, or chasing a straggling, stubborn goat; earthenware
pots and wooden bowls, all cleanly washed, standing in order. In one
place dyers were at work, mixing with the indigo some coloured wood in
order to give it the desired tint, others drawing a shirt from the
dye-pot or hanging it up on ropes fastened to the trees. Further on, a
blacksmith, busy with his rude tools making a dagger, a formidable
barbed spear, or some more useful instrument of husbandry. Here a
caravan appears from Gonga bringing the desired kola-nut, chewed by all
who have ten _kurdie_ to spare; or another caravan laden with natron; or
a troop of A'sbenawa going off with their salt to the neighbouring
towns; or some Arabs leading their camels, heavily laden with the
luxuries of the north and east. Everywhere human life was to be seen in
its varied forms, the most cheerful and the most gloomy closely mixed
together--the olive-coloured Arab, the dark Kanuri with his wide
nostrils, the small-featured, light, and slender Ba-fellanchi, the
broad-faced Mandingo, the stout, large-boned, and masculine Nupe female,
the well-proportioned and comely Ba-haushe woman.