allowed to start in advance, and the horsemen followed about half an
hour afterwards, after having watered the horses; but instead of taking
care to follow the footsteps of the camels in a wild country where there
was no regular path, they rode on negligently, and soon became aware
that they had missed the track. There now began a very disorderly riding
in all directions. This fatigued me greatly, for nothing is so vexing to
a weak man as to ramble about without knowing when he is likely to reach
the place of repose so much looked for. After sending scout after scout,
we at length found the track, and reached our men in the dark.
[Sidenote: Wednesday, October 1st.]
Having set out early, after nearly two hours’ ride we were met by a
single horseman coming towards us from the encampment of the Welád
Slimán, and bidding us welcome to their wild country. They kept starting
up from the thicket on our right and left, firing their muskets and
saluting us with their usual war-cry “yá riyáb, yá riyáb.” Having thus
advanced for about half an hour, we came to a halt, in order to receive
in a more solemn form the warlike compliments of a larger troop of
horsemen, led on by a person of some importance.
The dust raised by the horsemen having subsided a little, and the
country being clearer of wood, we now saw before us the whole cavalry of
the Welád Slimán drawn up in a line in their best attire, their chief
Ghét the son of Séf el Nasr ben Ghét, and his uncle ʿOmár the son of
Ghét and brother of ʿAbd el Jelíl, in the midst of them. This stately
reception, not having been anticipated by Overweg and myself, made a
great impression upon us; but we were not left to gaze long, but were
desired by our Arab companions to ride in advance of the line in
compliment to the chiefs. We accordingly put our steeds into a gallop,
and riding straight up to our new friends, saluted them with our
pistols. Having answered our compliments, and bidding us welcome to
their wild abode, the young Ghét galloping along at the head of his
squadrons, his sword drawn, and with the continuous cry “yá riyáb, yá
riyáb,” they led us to the encampment, and we had a place shown to us
where we might pitch our tents.
[Footnote 5: The marriage (nigá) ceremonies in this country fill a whole
week. The first day is dedicated to the feasting on the favourite
“nákia,” the paste mentioned before; the second to the “tíggra,” a dried
paste made of millet, with an immense quantity of pepper; the third to
the “ngáji,” the common dish made of sorghum, with a little fish sauce,
if possible; the fourth day is called “líktere,” I think from the taking
away the emblems of the virginal state of the bride, “larússa;” the
fifth, the bride is placed on a mat or búshi, from which she rises seven
times, and kneels down as often; this is called “búshiro,” or “búchiro
genátsin;” the next day, which must be a Friday, her female friends wash
her head while singing, and in the evening she is placed upon a horse
and brought to the house of the bridegroom, where the final act of the
nigá is accomplished. The Kanúri are very peculiar in the distinction of
a marriage with a virgin, “féro,” or “féro kuyánga,” or a widow, or
“kámo záwar.”]
[Footnote 6: Mr. Overweg, at a later period, visited the town of Bóso,
but without accurately surveying the line of the river, and without
stating exactly the character of the point where it joins the lagoon,
except that the river, beyond Fátse, takes a much more northerly
direction.]
[Footnote 7: I will here add the stations of another route between
Ngégimí and Berí. 1st day: sleep in Ngubó, an open village inhabited by
Kúri; arrive before heat of day. 2nd. Tabúnte, the first place in Kánem.
3d. Berí. Some people going from Ngégimí to Berí sleep the first night
in Turra, second night in Baláya.]
CHAP. XL.
THE HORDE OF THE WELÁD SLIMÁN.
We had now joined our fate with that of this band of robbers, who, in
consequence of their restless habits, having been driven from their
original dwelling-places in the Syrtis[8], after a great variety of
events, have at length established themselves in this border region
between the desert and the fertile regions of Negroland, under the
guidance of Mohammed the son of ʿAbd el Jelíl, on the ruins of the old
kingdom of Kánem, very much in the same way as in the west the Welád
Ammer (Ludamar) have established themselves on the ruins of the empire
of Mélle. At that time they mustered a considerable force, and being
joined by a great many adventurers from all the Arab tribes from the Ríf
as far as Fezzán, were able to bring into the field from 900 to 1000
horsemen. They then turned their attention towards our friends the Kél-
owí, and began to seize upon their camels, which came to Bílma for the
salt-trade; these, as the reader has seen from my previous account, are
always proceeding in large caravans; but it is almost impossible to give
implicit credit to the statement which was made to us by several
individuals, that the Welád Slimán had taken from the Tawárek more than
30,000 camels in the course of two or three years.
If they had continued in this way for a short time, they would have
brought about an immense revolution in the whole of Central Africa; for
the Kél-owí would of course not have been able to provide Háusa with
salt, after having lost their camels, and thus, having no salt for
bartering, would have remained without the most necessary articles of
subsistence: they would accordingly have been obliged either to starve
or to emigrate into, and take possession by force of, the more fertile
districts of Sudán. But before they were driven to this extreme, they
made one energetic effort against their enemies, and succeeded; for,
having summoned the contingents of all the different tribes inhabiting
Aïr or Ásben, they collected a host of at least 7,000 men, chiefly
mounted on camels, but comprising also a considerable number of
horsemen, and proceeded to attack the lion in his den, in the beginning
of the year 1850.
I am almost inclined to suspect that the people of Bórnu had a hand in
this affair; at least, the existence of such a warlike and restless
horde of men, and mustering considerable forces, as the Welád Slimán
were then, under the guidance of Mohammed, and in such a neighbourhood,
could not be wholly indifferent to any ruler of Bórnu possessed of
prudence and foresight. Of course, since its power had decreased to such
a degree that it could not of itself make the necessary resistance
against the daily encroachments of the Tawárek, it was of great service
to Bórnu to have such a strong and energetic auxiliary to keep them
down. But, be this as it may, the Arabs left their very strong
entrenchments at Késkawa (which, at the first news of the intended
expedition, they had formed on the border of the Tsád, and which the
Tawárek themselves confessed to me they would never have been able to
conquer), and separated, not thinking that their enemies were able to
carry out their intention; for all those tribes which had come to join
them, as the Gedádefa, the Ferján, the Urfílla, the Ftáim, Swási,
Temáma, and Dhóhob, after having enriched themselves with the spoils of
the Tawárek, were anxious to carry away their booty in safety, and
proceeded on their home-journey by way of Kúffara. They were just
encamped in the Wadi ʿAlála, where my readers will soon have to
accompany me, when a scout brought the news that a very large host of
the Tawárek was close at hand; but they say that his report did not find
credit, and that on this account the Arabs had no time to make any
preparations, but were all on a sudden surrounded on all sides by the
numerous host of their enemy. It is moreover to be understood that the
greater part of this band were merely armed with guns, which are very
useful in a skirmish of horsemen, who can retreat after having fired
them off, but of very little use in close combat; few of them were armed
with pistols, and still fewer with swords. But the Kél-owí, in addition
to their numbers, had also the advantage of superior arms, having spear,
sword, and dagger, even if we do not take into account their muskets,
which they rarely know how to use. The consequence was, that the Arabs,
after having killed a small number of their enemies in the foremost
lines, were soon overpowered and massacred, not half of them succeeding
in making their escape. Their chief Mohammed himself made his way
through the host very severely wounded, and was slain, according to
report, shortly after by a Tébu woman who recognized him. Sʿaid, the
most valiant of all the Welád Slimán, but also the most violent, was
killed on the spot, together with the bravest champions of the little
horde; and a very considerable booty was made by the Tawárek, not only
in camels and slaves, but also in silver, the chiefs having amassed a
great deal of property. Thus the flower of this troop was destroyed, and
only the least brave and youngest were left.
The vizier of Bórnu then took the young man, to whom very little power
and property were left, under his special protection, entering with him
and the remaining part of the tribe into a contract, to the effect that
he would furnish them with horses and muskets, as far as they should
stand in need of them, on condition of their delivering to him a certain
share of their booty in every expedition. Of course, such a troop of
swift horsemen armed with muskets, if kept in strict subjection and
subordination, might have proved exceedingly useful on the northern
borders of Bórnu, on the one side as a check upon the Tawárek, on the
other upon Wadáy. But the great difficulty, which the vizier appears not
to have overcome, was to subject the predatory excursions of such a set
of people to some sort of political rule.
With this view, he sent the young chief, who was scarcely more than
twenty years of age, to Kánem with all that were left of the Welád
Slimán, keeping back in Kúkawa, as hostages for his proceedings, his
mother and the wives and little children of some of the principal men.
But from the beginning there was a strong party against the young chief,
who had not yet achieved any exploit, and whose sole merit consisted in
his being the nearest relation of ʿAbd el Jelíl. ʿOmár, his uncle, who
from his youth had given himself up to a life of devotion, and was
called a Merábet, had a considerable party; and there were, besides,
several men who thought themselves of as much importance as their chief.
In the absence of individual authority in a small band like this, which
only numbered 250 horsemen, no great results could be produced. All the
tribes settled in Kánem and the adjacent districts were their natural
enemies: the Nóreá or Nuwárma and the Shendákóra and Médema, the Sákerda
and Karda in the Bahar el Ghazál, the Búltu, the Woghda, the Welád
Ráshid, the Díggana or Dághana, the Welád Hamíd, the Hommer and the
Máhamíd in Khúrma, all were bent upon their destruction, while none but
the Lasálʿa or el Asálʿa beyond Kárká, and the Kánembú tribe of the
Fugábú, were attached to them. All the tribes around call them only by
the name Mínnemínne, or Menémené (“the Eaters”), which name, although it
seems to have arisen in the real gluttony of these Arabs, might be
referred appropriately to their predatory habits.[9]
In the course of these broils and petty intrigues the most respectable
among them took to commerce, while others formed the design of
returning; and when I left Bórnu in May, 1855, the rest of the little
band had separated into two distinct camps, and the dissolution or ruin
of their community was fast approaching.
This was the horde with which, in order to carry out the objects of our
mission to the utmost of our power, Mr. Overweg and I were obliged to
associate our fate; but, unfortunately, we were unprovided with that
most essential article for exciting a more than common interest in
ourselves personally, or the objects of our mission, namely, valuable
presents.
While our people pitched our tents, Mr. Overweg and I went to pay our
compliments to Sheikh Ghét and ʿOmár, and to have a friendly talk with
them before we proceeded to more serious business. They seemed to expect
this compliment, having lain down in the shade of a tree at a short
distance from our place of encampment. Ghét, who was smoking a long
pipe, was a tolerably handsome young man; but his pronunciation was very
defective, and he had nothing very commanding in his manner. Having
exchanged a few compliments, and asked some general questions, we
withdrew, and soon after received a present of dates and milk. A great
many of the Arabs paid us a visit; and a renegade Tripolitan Jew, ʿAbd-
Allah, with the surname “el Musulmáni,” who would not leave us for a
moment, kept telling us of his adventures and his importance, and
assuring us of his most disinterested affection for us. Though his
former religion differed from ours, and he had again exchanged this for
another from mere worldly motives, he nevertheless thought himself
entitled to the claim of brotherhood, and was gracious enough to call us
sometimes his cousins (welád ʿamí). There was another man who tried to
make himself as agreeable as possible to us, and endeavoured to obtain
our friendship: this was an Egyptian named Ibrahím, a fine tall man who
evidently belonged originally to a good family; but he had run away from
home, and was now leading, in company with this little horde, a
restless, remorseful, and wearisome life.
When the heat of the day had a little abated, we prepared the small
present we had to give to Sheikh Ghét, and which consisted of a red
cloth bernús of good workmanship, a pound of cloves, a pound of jáwi or
benzoin, and a razor. We were well aware that it was rather a trifling
gift, considering the assistance we required from these people to carry
out our object; but we knew also that it was rather a favour bestowed
upon us by the vizier of Bórnu, who regarded these people as in his
service. Referring therefore to the friendship which existed of old
between their tribe, when still in their old settlements in the Syrtis,
and the English consul in Tripoli, and delivering a letter from Mr.
Frederic Warrington, who was personally well known to the chief men, we
openly professed that the object of our coming was to try, with their
assistance, to visit the eastern shore of the lake, and especially the
Bahar el Ghazál, which had formed a remarkable object of curiosity in
our country for some time. But Sheikh Ghét without hesitation declared
it was impossible for them to take us to that place, the most dangerous
locality in all these quarters, on account of the many predatory
expeditions which were made to that spot from different quarters, and by
tribes hostile to them. After some common-place talk about the English,
we left him, and went to his uncle with a present of precisely the same
kind, and began here to urge the distinct object of our coming in a more
positive way. I expressed the opinion that, as they would render
acceptable service to the British government, if they were to enable us
to investigate the connection between the Bahar el Ghazál and the lake,
so, on the other hand, a great portion of the blame, if we should not be
able to carry out our design, would certainly fall upon them, inasmuch
as they had always professed to be under great obligations towards the
English. ʿOmár ben Ghét ben Séf e’ Nasr acknowledged all this; but he
doubted very much if the band, in its present reduced state, would be
able to carry us to those quarters, which were entirely under the sway
of Wadáy. The Bahar el Ghazál having given an opportunity of speaking
about the river-system between the Tsád and the Nile, our friend came
forward with a most confused statement, which it would not be worth
while to explain. But with regard to that large wádi itself we found
that he, as well as the experienced men among these Arabs, asserted that
it took its course not towards, but from the lake.
We then took our leave of ʿOmár, and returned to our tents. The place of
the encampment was a fine, open, sandy, undulating level, commanding the
vale, where are the wells Yongo or Bú-Halíma, covered with verdure, and
richly adorned with scattered mimosas. The tents and sheds of the Arabs
were spread over a great space; and no precaution was taken to obtain
some degree of security by means of fences and stockades. The sun having
set, I lay down outside my tent to enjoy the coolness and tranquillity
of the evening after a hot and troublesome day.
All seemed calm and tranquil, when suddenly a terrible screaming and
crying arose from the women in the west part of the encampment. We
hurried to our arms, thinking that an enemy had entered the place. The
cry “ʿAlá e’ dhahar! ʿala e’ dhahar” (“Mount! mount!”)—properly
speaking, “In the saddle!” “in the saddle!”—sounded from all sides, and
the horsemen hurried past us; but it was only a small party of
freebooters, who, in the twilight of the evening, had made an attack
upon the camels, and after having put to flight two or three men and
killed a horseman, had driven off a part of the herd. Our friends
pursued the robbers at full speed, and soon overtook them, when they
retreated into the thicket, and gave up their booty.
In this way we had a specimen of the character of our present expedition
the very first day we had joined this little horde; and the lamentations
of the females, on account of the man who had been slain, sounded
wofully through the night, and brought before our minds the fate which,
in a very short time, might befall ourselves. Late in the night, when
the alarm had subsided, Sheikh Ghét sent us a heifer as a present.
[Sidenote: Thursday, October 2nd.]
We remained quietly in our encampment, and obtained a great deal of
valuable information respecting the south-eastern part of the lake and
the districts adjacent.[10] Thus the day passed by most pleasantly.
Nothing remarkable happened to us on the following day, except the
arrival of the important news that the Agíd of Wadáy, who had resided in
Mʿawó, on the report of an attack intended to be made by the Arabs upon
that town, had fled. This news, if it proved true, held out, of course,
a feeble ray of hope that we might be able to penetrate to the eastern
shore of the lake; and the Arabs formed schemes accordingly. As Háj
ʿAbbás, who had come with us in order to raise from the Arabs Háj
Beshír’s share in the spoil of their last predatory excursions, was to
return to Kúkawa in a few days, I wrote a letter to the vizier
concerning the prospect we had of probably not being able to accomplish
the whole of our design. The rest of the day I enjoyed in comfort,
stretched quietly in the shade of a tree; but my tranquillity was a
little disturbed by disputes that arose amongst my men.
[Sidenote: Saturday, October 4th.]
Very early in the morning, when all was quiet, I was aroused from my
sleep by the mournful song of an Arab, who, between the different
stanzas of his dirge, seemed to give vent to his tears. The impression
made by this song, which was full of deep feeling, among such a horde of
lawless people, where generally only the meanest side of man was
exhibited, was charming; but as the singer was at some distance from my
tent, I could not distinctly make out what was the cause of his grief,
neither was I able to learn it afterwards: the thoughts of the Arabs
were taken up by another affair. The most handsome among the female
slaves who composed part of the spoil that was to be taken to the vizier
by his officer Háj ʿAbbás, had made her escape during the night; they
were eagerly searching from dawn of day, but could not find her. At
length they discovered her necklace and clothes, and the remains of her
bones,—evident proofs that she had fallen a prey to the wild beasts. She
belonged to the Yédiná or Búdduma, and was represented as having been
possessed of considerable charms; and it was supposed that her loss
would affect the vizier greatly, who, as I have before observed, was
rather fond of an ethnological variety of female beauty. There was a
great deal of unpleasant conversation about this affair, the girl not
yet having been delivered up to Háj ʿAbbás when she made her escape.
But there were many other causes of discord among this little horde, and
when the vizier’s officer set out, a great many more of the Arabs made
use of this opportunity to go to Kúkawa than had been agreed upon. The
most serious loss to us was certainly the departure of Sheikh ʿOmár,
Ghét’s uncle, who, on account of his experience and knowledge of the
English, which much exceeded that of his youthful nephew, might have
been of considerable service to us. At any rate he ought to have
informed us of his intention to leave, as by his accepting our present,
it was understood that he undertook the obligation of assisting us in
carrying out our project; and having nothing to spare, we felt rather
disappointed. But although our prospects were not too flattering, at
least we had hopes of moving a little onwards, as our departure from
this place was fixed for the following day.
[Sidenote: Sunday, October 5th.]
When the camels, guarded by the men on foot, had left in the morning, we
went first with the other horsemen to the well, in order to water our
horses. We had not visited it before, as it was at some distance from
our tents. The vale was of that general wild and luxuriant character
which distinguishes the valleys of Kánem; but it was even more wild and
picturesque than usual, and a chill draught of air met us proceeding
from the richly-wooded dale, where the sun’s rays never penetrated.
There were several wells, which exhibited a busy and interesting scene,
the horsemen in their picturesque attire (a mixed dress of their native
abode and their present adopted home) thronging around these sources and
centres of life, in order to water their poor-looking but persevering
nags. When we returned to the place of our former encampment all was
desolate, and loneliness and silence had succeeded to the animated
dwelling-place of a quarrelsome multitude of people. We hurried on over
undulating sandy ground, richly overgrown with trees, and soon overtook
our camels: the place of our destination was not far off; and at noon we
were already encamped on a fine sandy level, rising over another
luxuriant hollow or vale especially rich in kúrna-trees, whence the well
“Bír el Kúrna” has received its name. It was a spacious encampment, with
Arabs and Tébu intermixed, and could not but be very salubrious,
although we found afterwards, just in this elevated position, the
difference between the cold of the night and the heat of the day
extraordinary. Our appetite being rather keen, we indulged in the luxury
of some turtle-soup: for turtles are by no means a rarity in these
districts, although in general they seem to be of a rather small size. I
do not remember to have seen or heard in this quarter of such large
specimens as seem to be common in the country round Aïr.
[Sidenote: Monday, October 6th.]
The day of the ʿAíd el kebír. I went in the morning, as soon as the sun
began to shine forth, to a place in a cool shade a little south from our
encampment, without knowing that this was the very spot which the Arabs
had chosen for their holiday prayers. In general only a few of them were
praying; but to-day the leading persons among them, who came here with
Sheikh Ghét, offered up their prayer with solemnity and apparent
fervour.
This proved an unlucky day to us, and very unfavourable to our design to
penetrate into those dangerous districts on the east side of the lake;
for a considerable portion of the tribe (one hundred and fifty men with
about seventy horses) left that day for Kúkawa, to our great surprise
and mortification, and, as it would seem, also to the mortification of
the young chief, a circumstance of which we became fully aware when we
paid him a visit about noon. Of course, with our very small means, and
the poor and insignificant character of our mission, we could not expect
that this unsettled horde should have a scrupulous regard to our wishes
and designs in arranging their affairs. It was quite evident that their
proceeding was the mere effect of a stubborn sense of independence, and
jealousy; and it seemed to be done in open opposition to the wish of
their young chief. About one o’clock in the afternoon they left; and we
forwarded a short note with them expressive of our dissatisfaction at
this state of things, which filled us with the saddest forebodings as to
the success of our mission.