conformity with the sacred custom of the kings of this country on their
return from an expedition, was obliged to encamp among the ruins of the
oldest quarter on the west side of the town; and it was not until Sunday
the 4th day of July, about noon, that he made his solemn entry. This
time, however, the “habbabát” did not form part of the procession,
having entered the town early in the morning; but their absence was
atoned for by the presence of a greater number of horsemen, and behind
the drummer on camel’s back followed an interesting warlike train,
consisting of fifteen fiery chargers, all clad in líbbedí, and better
adapted, it would seem, to the serious game of Mars, than the train of
lovely damsels.
On this occasion, the bánga led in his triumphant procession seven pagan
chiefs, amongst whom that of Gógomi was the most conspicuous person, and
the greatest ornament of the triumph, being not less remarkable for his
tall, stately figure than on account of his having been the ruler of a
considerable pagan state, with a capital in an almost inaccessible
position. He excited the interest of the savage and witty Bagírmi
people, by submitting with a great deal of good humour to his fate,
which was certainly not very enviable, as it is the custom in this
country either to kill or to emasculate these princely prisoners, after
having conducted them for some time through all the court-yards of the
palace, while allowing the wives and female slaves of the sultan to
indulge their capricious and wanton dispositions in all sorts of fun
with them. The horrible custom of castration is perhaps in no country of
Central Negroland practised to such an extent as in Bagírmi.
The booty in slaves did not seem to have been very considerable,
although the prince had been absent from home for six months; and the
whole share of the sultan himself seemed to consist of about four
hundred individuals. The sultan passed slowly through the town, along
the principal road from the western gate, and, proceeding along the
“déndal,” or “bokó,” entered his palace amid the acclamations of the
people and the clapping of hands (the “kabéllo” or “tófaji,” as it is
here called) of the women.
[Illustration: Drawn by J. M. Bernatz, from a Sketch by Dr. Barth.
M. & N. Hanhart, lith. et impt.
MÁS-EÑA.
return of the Sultan from the expedition.July 4th. 1852.]
Although I had not yet paid my compliments to the bánga, he sent two
messengers in the afternoon to bid me welcome. These messengers were the
brother and son of one of the chief men of the country, with the title
or name “Máina Beládemí,” who was a sort of consul of Bórnu, and was
represented to me by all the people as one of the most intelligent men
in the country. However, he had returned in a bad state of health, and,
unfortunately for me, succumbed in a few days.
I informed the messengers of the prince how badly I had been treated,
when they assured me that the sultan did not know anything about it, and
that as soon as he had received the news of my arrival he had forwarded
orders to the lieutenant-governor to provide me with a milch-cow. The
messengers then went away, and soon returned with a sheep, some butter,
and a large supply of kréb, the seed of a sort of grass of which I have
spoken on former occasions.
The next morning I went to pay a visit to Máina, being accompanied by my
old runaway guide Gréma ʿAbdú, who, after having left me to my own fate
in Bákadá had gone to join the sultan in the expedition. However, the
place where the sick man was lying was so dark that, convinced as I was
of the seriousness of his illness, I found a pretext for not giving him
any medicine; and this was very lucky for me, as his death, which took
place a few days afterwards, would certainly have been attributed by
these savage people to my remedies.
The same evening I was informed that an express messenger had come from
Kúkawa with despatches for me, the caravan from Fezzán having at length
arrived. But having been repeatedly disappointed by similar reports, I
did not give myself up to vain expectation, and passed a very tranquil
night.
Thus arrived the 6th of July, one of the most lucky days of my life; for
having been more than a year without any means whatever, and struggling
with my fate, in the endeavour to do as much as possible before I
returned home, I suddenly found myself authorized to carry out the
objects of this expedition on a more extensive scale, and found
sufficient means placed at my disposal for attaining that object. The
messenger, however, managed his business very cleverly; for having two
large parcels of letters for me, one only containing despatches from the
Foreign Office, and the other containing a large amount of private
correspondence, he brought me first the former, which had been very
carefully packed up in Kúkawa, in a long strip of fine cotton (gábagá),
and then sewn in red and yellow leather, without saying a word about the
other parcel; but when I had read at my leisure the despatches which
honoured me with the confidence of Her Britannic Majesty’s government,
and had rewarded his zeal with a new shirt, he went away, and soon
returned with the second parcel, and a packet containing ten túrkedí,
native cotton cloth, from Kanó, which at Mr. Overweg’s request the
vizier of Bórnu had sent me, and three of which I immediately presented
to the messenger and his two companions.
The number of private letters from England, as well as from Germany, was
very considerable; and all of them contained the acknowledgment of what
I had done, the greatest recompense which a traveller in these regions
can ever aspire to. No doubt the responsibility also thus thrown upon me
was very great, and the conclusion at which I had arrived from former
experience, that I should not be able to fulfil the many exaggerated
expectations which were entertained of my future proceedings, was
oppressive; for, in almost all the letters from private individuals,
there was expressed the persuasion that I and my companion should be
able, without any great exertion, and in a short space of time, to cross
the whole of the unknown region of equatorial Africa, and reach the
south-eastern coast,—an undertaking the idea of which certainly I myself
had originated, but which, I had become convinced in the course of my
travels, was utterly impossible, except at the sacrifice of a great
number of years, for which I found the state of my health entirely
insufficient, besides a body of trustworthy and sincerely attached men,
and a considerable supply of means. Moreover I found, to my surprise and
regret, that the sum of 800_l._ placed at my disposal by Lord Palmerston
remained a dead letter, none of the money having been forwarded from
Tripoli,—a sum of about fifteen hundred dollars, which had been
previously sent, being regarded as sufficient.
In this perplexity, produced by nothing but goodwill and a
superabundance of friendly feeling, I was delighted to find that Her
Majesty’s government, and Lord Palmerston in particular[45], held out a
more practicable project by inviting me to endeavour to reach Timbúktu.
To this plan, therefore, I turned my full attention, and in my
imagination dwelt with delight upon the thought of succeeding in the
field of the glorious career of Mungo Park.
For the present, however, I was still in Bagírmi, that is to say, in a
country where, under the veil of Islám, a greater amount of
superstitious ideas prevail than in many of the pagan countries; and I
was revelling in the midst of my literary treasures, which had just
carried me back to the political and scientific domains of Europe, and
all the letters from those distant regions were lying scattered on my
simple couch, when all of a sudden one of my servants came running into
my room, and hastily informed me that a numerous _cortége_ of messengers
had just arrived from court.
I had scarcely time to conceal my treasure under my mat when the
courtiers arrived; and in a few moments my room was filled with black
people and black tobes. The messengers who had brought me the letters,
had likewise been the bearers of a letter addressed by the ruler of
Bórnu to the bánga of Bagírmi, who in a certain respect was tributary to
him, requesting him to allow me to return without delay to his country,
in the company of the messengers. There were some twenty persons,
besides the lieutenant-governor or kadamánge, and the two relations of
Máina; and the manner in which they behaved was so remarkable, that I
was almost afraid lest I should be made prisoner a second time. There
could be no doubt that they had heard of the large correspondence which
I had received. But there had been moreover a great deal of suspicion,
from my first arrival, that I was a Turkish spy. There was even a
pilgrim who, from his scanty stock of geographical and ethnological
knowledge, endeavoured to persuade the people that I was an “Arnaut,”
who, he said, were the only people in the world that wore stockings. Be
this as it may, the courtiers were afraid of coming forward abruptly
with the real object of their visit, and at first pretended they wished
to see the presents that I had brought for the sultan. These consisted
of a caftan of red cloth, of good quality, which I had bought in Tripoli
for nine dollars; a repeater watch, from Nuremberg, bought for ten
dollars, with a twisted silk guard of Tripolitan workmanship; a shawl,
with silk border; an English knife and pair of scissors; cloves, and a
few other things. The watch, of course, created the greatest
astonishment, as it was in good repair at the time, although it was a
pity that we had not been provided with good English manufactures, but
had been left to pick up what articles we might think suitable to our
purpose.
Having also asked to see my telescope, which of course could only
increase their surprise and astonishment, they then, after a great deal
of beckoning and whispering among each other, which made me feel rather
uneasy, requested to see the book in which I wrote down everything I saw
and heard. Without hesitation I took out my memorandum-book and showed
it to them; but I had first to assert its identity. In order to allay
their suspicions, I spontaneously read to them several passages from it
which referred to the geography and ethnography of the country; and I
succeeded in making them laugh and become merry, so that they even added
some names where my lists were deficient. They then begged me to allow
them to take the book to the sultan; and I granted their request without
hesitation.
This frankness of mine completely baffled the intrigues of my enemies,
and allayed the suspicions of the natives; for they felt sure that, if I
had any evil intention in writing down an account of the country, I
should endeavour to do all in my power to conceal what I had written.
Thus they departed, carrying with them my journal; and I was informed
afterwards that the sultan had then sent for all the learned men in the
town, in order to hear their opinion upon my book. And it was perhaps
fortunate for me that the principal among them was my friend Sámbo, who,
being well acquainted with my scientific pursuits, represented my notes
as a very innocent and merely scientific matter. My journal, which no
one was able to read, was consequently returned to me uninjured. In the
afternoon my friend Sámbo called upon me, and related to me the whole
story: he also informed me that the only reason why I had not obtained
an audience with the sultan this day was the above-mentioned letter of
the sheikh of Bórnu, which had in a certain degree offended their
feelings of independence; and in fact I did not obtain an audience until
the 8th.
[Sidenote: July 8th.]
I had just sent word to Sámbo, begging him to hasten my departure, and
had received a visit from some friends of mine, when Gréma ʿAbdú came,
with a servant of the sultan, in order to conduct me into his presence,
whereupon I sent to Sámbo, as well as to my host Bú-Bakr of Bákadá, who
was just then present in the town, inviting them to accompany me to the
prince. On arriving at the palace, I was led into an inner courtyard,
marked _d_ in the ground-plan, where the courtiers were sitting on
either side of a door which led into an inner apartment, the opening or
doorway of which was covered by a “kasár” or, as it is called here,
“párpara,” made of a fine species of reed, as I have mentioned in my
description of the capital of Logón. In front of the door, between the
two lines of the courtiers, I was desired to sit down, together with my
companions.
Being rather puzzled to whom to address myself, as no one was to be seen
who was in any way distinguished from the rest of the people, all the
courtiers being simply dressed in the most uniform style, in black, or
rather blue tobes, and all being bare-headed, I asked aloud, before
beginning my address, whether the sultan ʿAbd el Káder was present; and
an audible voice answered from behind the screen, that he was present.
Being then sure that it was the sultan whom I addressed, although I
should have liked better to have seen him face to face, I paid him my
respects and presented the compliments of Her Britannic Majesty’s
government, which, being one of the chief European powers, was very
desirous of making acquaintance with all the princes of the earth, and
of Negroland also, in order that their subjects, being the first traders
in the world, might extend their commerce in every direction. I told him
that we had friendship and treaties with almost all the nations of the
earth, and that I myself was come in order to make friendship with them;
for although they did not possess many articles of trade to offer,
especially as we abhorred the slave-trade, yet we were able to
appreciate their ivory, and even if they had nothing to trade with, we
wanted to be on good terms with all princes. I told him, moreover, that
we were the best of friends with the sultan of Stambúl, and that all who
were acquainted with us knew very well that we were excellent people,
trustworthy, and full of religious feelings, who had no other aim but
the welfare of mankind, universal intercourse, and peaceable interchange
of goods. I protested that we did not take notes of the countries which
we visited with any bad purpose, but merely in order to be well
acquainted with their government, manners, and customs, and to be fully
aware what articles we might buy from, and what articles we might sell
to them. Thus already “Ráís Khalíl” (Major Denham) had formed, I said,
the design of paying his compliments to his (the sultan’s) father, but
that the hostile relations which prevailed at that time between Bagírmi
and Bórnu had prevented him from executing his plan, when he had reached
Logón, and that, from the same motives, I had now come for no other
purpose than the benefit of his country; but that, nevertheless,
notwithstanding my best intentions, I had been illtreated by his own
people, as they had not been acquainted with my real character. I stated
that it had been my ardent desire to join him on the expedition, in
order to see him in the full exercise of his power, but that his people
had not allowed me to carry out my design.
The whole of my speech, which I made in Arabic, was translated, phrase
for phrase, by my blind friend Sámbo, who occasionally gave me a hint
when he thought I spoke in too strong terms. The parcel containing my
presents was then brought forward, and placed before me, in order that I
might open it myself and explain the use of each article.
While exhibiting the various articles, I did not neglect to make the
watch strike repeatedly, which created the greatest astonishment and
surprise among the spectators, who had never seen or heard anything like
it. I then added, in conclusion, that it was my sincere wish, after
having remained in this country nearly four months, confined and watched
like a prisoner, to return to Kúkawa without any further delay, as I had
a great deal of business there, and at the present moment was entirely
destitute of means; but that if he would guarantee me full security, and
if circumstances should permit, I myself, or my companion, would return
at a later period. Such a security having been promised to me, and the
whole of my speech having been approved of, I went away.
I had scarcely returned to my quarters when the two relations of Máina
Beládemí, Máina Kánadí and Sabún, called upon me, with a very mysterious
countenance, and, after some circumlocution, made known the grave errand
upon which they had been sent, which was to ask whether I had not a
cannon with me; and when I expressed my astonishment at their thinking I
was supplied with such an article, while my whole luggage was carried on
the back of one weak she-camel, they stated that the sultan was at least
anxious to know whether I was not able to manufacture one myself. Having
professed my inability to do so, they went away, but returned the next
day, with many compliments from their master, who, they said, was
anxious that I should accept from his hands a handsome female slave, of
whose charms they gave a very eloquent description, and that it was also
his intention to furnish me with a camel, and provide me with two
horsemen who should escort me back to Bórnu. I told them that, although
sensible of my solitary situation, I could not accept such a thing as a
slave from the sultan, and that I did not care about anything else but
permission to depart, except that I should feel obliged to him if he
would give me a few specimens of their manufactures. They then promised
that the next day I should have another audience with the sultan; and
they kept their word.
This time also I was only able to address the sultan without seeing him,
when I repeated my request that he would allow me to depart without any
further delay, as I had most urgent business in Kúkawa; but I received
the answer that, although the road was open to me, the sultan, as the
powerful ruler of a mighty kingdom, could not allow me to depart empty-
handed. I then, in order to further my request, presented him with a
small telescope, in the use of which I instructed his people. Having
returned to my quarters, I assured my friends, who came to inform me
that it was the sultan’s intention to make me a splendid present in
return for those I had given him, that I did not care for anything
except a speedy return to Bórnu, as there was no prospect that I should
be allowed to penetrate further eastward. But all my protests proved
useless, as these people were too little acquainted with the European
character, and there were too many individuals who, if I myself did not
care about getting anything, were anxious to obtain something for
themselves; I was therefore obliged to abandon myself to patience and
resignation.
Meanwhile I learnt that the sultan had at first entertained the fear
that I might poison him or kill him by a charm, and that he had
repeatedly consulted with his learned men and counsellors how he should
protect himself against my witchcraft. However, on the second day after
my first audience he gave me the satisfaction of sending the inspector
of the river, or the khalífa bá, together with that servant of his (or
kashélla) who had put me into chains at Mélé, in order to beg my pardon
officially, which of course I granted them most cordially, as I was too
well aware that a traveller in a new country cannot expect to be well
treated. As for that Púllo or Felláta individual, resident in Bagírmi,
who (by inspiring the ferry-men at the frontier with fear and suspicion
concerning my entering the country) had been the chief cause of the
injurious treatment which I had experienced, he had been introduced to
me some time previous to the arrival of the sultan, by my cheerful and
good-natured friend Bú-Bakr of Bákadá, when, against my wish, he
persisted in clearing himself by an oath that he had done me no harm.
This he managed rather cleverly, by swearing that he had never
instigated the ferry-men to drown me in the river, a crime which I was
very far from laying to his charge. However, it being my desire to be on
good terms with all the people, I expressed my satisfaction, and
dismissed him. On all these occasions I had full opportunity of
discovering the sincere friendship which Bú-Bakr felt for me, who, being
well aware of the impetuous character of Europeans, did not cease
exhorting me to patience,—“sabr, sabr,” “kánadí, kánadí”—certainly the
most momentous words for any traveller in these regions.
[Sidenote: July 19th.]
I had entertained the hope of being able to get off before the great
feast, or ʿAíd el kebír, here called “Ngúmre ngólo;” but it approached
without any preparation for my departure having been made. A general
custom prevails in this country, that, in order to celebrate this
holiday, all the people of the neighbouring places must come into the
town; and for the chief men of each place this is even a duty, by
neglecting which they would incur a severe penalty. But on the present
occasion the holiday was changed into a day of mourning; for at the dawn
of this very day, Máina Beládemí, who was generally esteemed as the most
excellent man in the country, died, causing a severe loss to the sultan
himself, whose confidence he enjoyed to the fullest extent, having saved
the life of his father when persecuted by his fácha.
According to his own request, the deceased was not buried in or near the
town, but was carried a distance of several miles, to a place called
Bídderí, which, as I shall have another occasion to explain, was the
first seat of Islám in this country, and is still the residence of some
highly respected religious chiefs.
This sad event, though it was not unforeseen, cast a gloom over the
whole festival; and it was not till about noon that the sultan left the
town in order to offer up his prayers in the old ruined quarter towards
the west—for, as I have already had repeated occasion to remark, it is a
sacred custom all over Negroland, that the sovereign of the country on
this day cannot say his prayers inside the town. Having remained in the
old dilapidated quarter, in a tent which had been pitched for the
occasion, till after “dhohor,” he returned into the town; but the day,
which had begun unfavourably, ended also with a bad omen, for in the
evening a storm broke out, of such violence that three apartments inside
the palace came down with a frightful crash, and caused a great uproar
in the whole quarter, as if the town had been taken by an enemy.
Fortunately, I myself had taken sufficient precaution to strengthen the
roof of my house, so that although the floor was entirely swamped, the
roof remained firm; for having observed, some days previously, that the
principal beam which supported the terrace was broken, and having
endeavoured in vain to persuade my host to have it repaired, I ordered
my servants to take away a large pole from a neighbouring courtyard, and
place it as a support for the roof.
Since the return of the sultan, the rainy season had set in with great
violence, and it rained almost daily. The consequence was, that the open
places and the wide uninhabited quarters of the town were again clad in
the freshest verdure, the whole affording a very pleasant aspect, while
the bedá, or bahr, was filling with water. There was now also much more
intercourse in the town, since the people had returned from the
expedition; but I did not stir about so much as before, not only on
account of the wet, but also owing to the effrontery of some of the
slaves: for these people, who are scarcely acquainted with any other
kind of dress than a black shirt, and who altogether occupy a low stage
in civilization, found constant fault with my dress, and, with a few
exceptions, were not on good terms with me.
On account of my poverty, which did not allow me to make many presents
except needles, I had certainly deserved the title of “Needle-prince” or
“Maláríbra,” which they had given me; but besides this the natives had
also given me another nickname, meaning “Father of the three,” which
originated in my wearing generally, besides stockings, a pair of thin
leather slippers, and thick overshoes; while these people usually go
barefoot, and do not even wear sandals, except when they go to a great
distance.