ALEXANDRINE TINNE AND THEODOR VON HEUGLIN
The journeys of Petherick and Miani in the western Nile basin
have already been described. The very interesting region of the
Bahr-al-Ghazal, however, had been relatively neglected by scientific
explorers down to the beginning of the sixties of the last century.
Petherick’s own map of these regions was not published till 1869. There
were two obstacles to water travel in this direction: the sudd, and the
terrible fevers which attacked Europeans. The introduction of steamers
on the Upper Nile to some extent enabled Europeans to force their
way up streams which were not to be penetrated by sailing-vessels.
Quite a rendezvous had been created at a place called Mashra-ar-Rak,
where many great streams coming from the Nyam-nyam country enter the
Bahr-al-Ghazal, which, as a geographical term, applied to the western
lake-like affluent of the Nile, may be said to begin its course here.
[Illustration: ALEXANDRINE TINNE.]
Miss Tinne, who with her German companions Von Heuglin and Steudner was
to considerably increase our knowledge of these regions, had already,
in 1859 and 1860, ascended the White Nile in sailing-vessels to near
Gondokoro. In 1861 she organised a great expedition in steamers and
boats, which was accompanied by her mother, her aunt, and, later on,
by several scientific explorers,--such as Baron d’Ablaing, Theodor von
Heuglin, and Dr. Steudner. This expedition was intended to explore the
region of the Bahr-al-Ghazal, to see how far the Nile basin extended
westward in the direction of Lake Chad, and also, if possible, to
discover a great lake in the very heart of Africa, of which rumours had
been brought back by Miani and others.[78]
Alexandrine[79] Tinne was the daughter of Philip Frederic Tinne and
Henrietta, Baroness van Steengracht Capellen. Her father, Philip
Tinne, was a Dutchman, who settled in England during the wars of the
French Revolution, the French invasion of Holland having brought his
family into trouble. The Tinnes were of remote French Huguenot origin,
having emigrated to Holland from Calais. But further back still they
came from Saxony. A very far back ancestor went to the Crusades, and
distinguished himself at Rosetta (Egypt) by clambering onto the Saracen
battlements. He received therefrom the soubriquet of “Tinne” (in Low
Dutch, a battlement) and a coat of arms, still used by the family,
embodying battlements. It is remarkable that Miss Tinne’s remote
ancestor should have sprung into fame in the thirteenth century at
the _mouth_ of the Nile. Philip Tinne, who emigrated to England at the
end of the eighteenth century, returned to Holland after Napoleon’s
downfall, and married a Dutch heiress, the daughter of Admiral van
Capellen. He died when his daughter Alexandrine was only five years
old, leaving her the richest heiress in the Netherlands. It is said
that when a young girl she had a serious love disappointment, and
dismissed or lost her fiancé. To stifle her mental anguish, she
undertook a course of travel;[80] and after staying for some time
in the Levant and Egypt, ascended the Nile in dahabiahs to near
Gondokoro. This journey was followed by the great expedition to the
Bahr-al-Ghazal in 1861. It is said that this expedition was even
provided with European lady’s-maids. Probably no equally luxurious and
well-equipped undertaking ever started for equatorial Africa. Miss
Tinne commenced her second Nile journey by ascending the main stream as
far as Gondokoro, and then, returning, she explored a portion of the
Sobat River. She set out once more with the whole party from Khartum
in February, 1863, and entered the Bahr-al-Ghazal. This was ascended
as far as the mouth of the Bahr-al-Hamr. From this point a journey was
then made overland to the Jur and Kosango rivers, and to the mountains
on the borders of the Nyam-nyam country. On this exploration the
travellers suffered most severely from fever. Dr. Steudner and the
Baroness van Capellen eventually died of blackwater fever, and the
remainder of the party only managed with the greatest difficulty
to reach Khartum in July, 1864, where further deaths occurred. The
geographical results of this expedition were not published in full till
1869, though Miss Tinne’s cousin printed some notes on their expedition
at Liverpool in 1864.
[Illustration: ON THE JUR RIVER: SUDD BLOCKING THE CHANNEL.]
After four years spent in various places in Egypt, Algeria, and Tunis,
Miss Tinne started from Tripoli with a very large caravan to proceed to
Lake Chad, intending afterwards to journey from Lake Chad to the Upper
Nile.
Miss Tinne took with her two Dutch sailors to assist in the
organisation of her caravan, several Algerian women-servants, and her
confidential old Negress, Saadah, who was originally a slave freed by
Miss Tinne in the Sudan. The Turkish authorities made no opposition to
her journeys, nor do they seem to have been in any way to blame for
the catastrophe that occurred. Unfortunately, Miss Tinne, in order
to provide for the comfort of her followers as well as for herself,
decided to take with her one or more iron tanks filled with water,
which were carried by the camels. These tanks attracted much attention
when the expedition halted for a time at Murzuk, the capital of Fezzan,
where Turkish authority was still maintained. The rumour that they
contained treasure in coin which was to accompany this wonderful
princess into the heart of Africa spread from the bazaars of Murzuk
to the Tawareq of the desert, ever on the lookout to plunder caravans
crossing the Sahara.
Miss Tinne had taken all reasonable precautions to secure the
friendship of the Tawareq on this journey. She had sent messages to
Ghat, an important Saharan town, to the chief Ikenukhen, with presents,
and requests for guides. The chief replied that he would meet her
himself at a water place on the way to Ghat, and send her the guides.
These guides apparently concerted measures with the Arab and Tawareq
camel-drivers of her expedition, and plans were evidently laid for her
murder and the plunder of her goods.
The expedition had halted at Wadi Aberjong to await the Tawareq chief
Ikenukhen. On the early morning of the 1st of August Miss Tinne, in
her tent, heard the Arab and Tawareq camel-drivers disputing about
arranging the saddles of the Algerian women-servants. She called to the
Dutch sailors to stop the noise, which had developed into a sham fight.
The Dutch sailors went amongst the men to get at their own luggage
and take their rifles. The camel-drivers stopped their sham fight and
endeavoured to prevent the Dutch sailors obtaining their arms. Miss
Tinne, hearing the continued clamour, came out of her tent to inquire
its meaning. She held up her right hand to command attention. Suddenly
there was a cry of “Strike,” and a Tawareq made a cut at her with a
sabre, which severed her right hand almost entirely through the wrist,
so that it hung only by tendons of skin. The poor girl endeavoured to
replace it in position, and staggered back to her tent, where she sat
on a box. At the same moment that the blow was aimed at her one of the
Dutch sailors, Cornelius, was pierced through the body by a spear. The
other, Jacobse, was killed by a sabre cut cleaving his head. Cornelius,
with the spear passing right through him, ran into the tent and fell
at Miss Tinne’s feet. A man followed him, pinned him to the ground
with another spear, and fired two pistol shots into his head. Another
Tawareq struck Miss Tinne with a sabre on the nape of the neck, which
cut through the foulard enveloping her head, and severed the long
plait of her hair, but did not cut through the spine. She fell forward
to the ground, stunned. Two men then tore off most of her clothing,
and, seizing her by the heels, dragged her out of the tent to a spot a
few yards away, where they left her lying on the sand in the blazing
sunshine. Her poor old Negress, Saadah, followed, and raising her head,
gently rested it on her knee; but the Tawareq tore her away, and drove
her back into the camp. The unfortunate Alexandrine Tinne lay where
she was left from eight o’clock in the morning to three o’clock in the
afternoon, when death at last ended her sufferings. At intervals she
called piteously on her people, one by one, to bring her water, but
none were allowed to approach her. One of her Arab servants was asked
afterwards why they behaved so callously. He replied, “We had no arms,
we were like women: they kept us in the tent, and threatened to kill us
if we came out.”
Her baggage was ransacked by the Arabs and Tawareq, among whom
disputes then arose as to the allotment of the Algerian waiting-maids
and men-servants. Strange to say, this dispute ended by both parties
agreeing to make no slaves. The servants were each given a camel and a
dollar, and allowed to return to Murzuk.
The Pasha of Murzuk sent soldiers out to bury the bodies. They laid a
strip of calico about thirty yards long on the sand, and wound it round
Miss Tinne’s body by rolling it over with sticks, to avoid touching
her. Then they put boards on each side loaded with stones, and piled
sand over all. The two bodies of the faithful sailors were laid on each
side of her. Men were afterwards sent out to mark the spot, but the
sand of the desert had in the interval been blown over the place, thus
hiding the grave of this beautiful and talented woman.[81]
[Illustration: LETTER OF MISS TINNE TO HER NEPHEW JOHN.
Written from Tripoli, 1869.]
The leader of not a few exploring parties in Africa has been alone
to blame for disasters to his expedition, by committing himself or
allowing his followers to commit misdeeds sufficient to justify
native hostility. But wherever Miss Tinne and her expeditions went in
Africa, they left behind them nothing but the memory of considerate
treatment, kindness, and acts of sumptuous generosity. In all the
preparations which Miss Tinne made for crossing the Sahara, and so
reaching the western limits of the Nile basin, she showed a desire
to conciliate the suspicions of the people, and paid generously for
assistance afforded. The fierce Berber tribes which range over the
Sahara Desert from North Africa to the neighbourhood of Lake Chad,
almost alone of all African races, have earned sharp reprisals from
Europeans for their innumerable acts of causeless treachery to
explorers. If ever the French occupy the district of Ghat, as they will
eventually some day, it is to be hoped that they will bear in mind the
massacre of Alexandrine Tinne and avenge it.
This woman was the romantic figure in Nile exploration. Young and
beautiful,[82] remarkably accomplished, a daring horsewoman, a charming
Diana; mistress of many tongues, including Arabic, and generous to a
fault, it is little wonder that the “Signorina” (as she was called in
the days when most dragomen were Italian or Maltese) has lingered as a
beautiful and gracious demi-goddess in the remembrance of such Arabs
and Nile Negroes of the Egyptian Sudan as were not exterminated by the
Mahdi’s revolt.
* * * * *
Theodor von Heuglin was a native of Würtemberg. He was a scientific
observer and a naturalist much in the style of Schweinfurth. His
interest in the exploration of the Nile basin was rather in the
direction of zoölogy and anthropology. He began to travel in these
regions in the fifties of the last century. With Munzinger, a Swiss
(afterwards Munzinger Pasha), and Dr. Steudner, a German, he explored
Kordofan, and the regions round Khartum. In 1862 Von Heuglin and
Steudner joined Miss Tinne’s Nile expedition, and as her guest or alone
on their own account, explored the affluents of the Bahr-al-Ghazal
and the main White Nile. After the death of Steudner and of Miss
Tinne’s aunt and mother from blackwater fever, Heuglin turned away
from these regions with some disgust, and devoted himself henceforth
to the exploration of the healthier regions along the upper waters
of the Blue Nile and of the Atbara. In all this part of western and
northern Abyssinia he made valuable collections of natural history. Von
Heuglin’s books are of very great interest, and are full of valuable
natural history notes. His writings were published between 1860 and
1875, generally in Germany.