with stores to revictual the Expedition, and reached Kukawa on December
23, 1823 (Denham, i. 311), died at Ngala, between the Yedseram and the
Shari, on February 26, 1824 (Denham, ii. 23). Mr. Tyrwhitt, who arrived
in Kukawa on May 20, 1824, with presents for the Shehu and stores for
the Expedition (Denham, ii. 41), and who on the departure of Denham and
Clapperton was left as British Consul in Kukawa, died there on October
23-4, 1824; the Shehu reported his death to the British Consul at
Tripoli and sent a list of his effects (Denham, ii. 385).]]
[Footnote 27: According to Denham’s estimate they numbered at that time
30,000 men. Denham, ii. 165.]
[Footnote 28: [He died at Ngurutua (i.e. the place of hippopotami). For
Barth’s account of his death, vid. Benton, _Notes on Some Languages_, p.
174.]]
[Footnote 29: [For account of Overweg’s death and further information
about him vid. Benton, _Notes on Some Languages_.]]
[Footnote 30: [For Overweg’s boat brought from Malta in pieces, vid.
Benton, _Notes on Some Languages_, p. 164. The late Boyd Alexander
thought he had discovered the remains of this boat in Lake Chad (_From
the Niger to the Nile_, ii. 66). Tilho, in _Documents scientifiques_, i.
10, adduces strong reasons for thinking that it was only the remains of
a Kotoko canoe lost by the Lenfant expedition in 1903.]]
[Footnote 31: Barth, iii. 175, 193-5, 236-7.]
[Footnote 32: [For account of Vogel and his death, and of the two
English sappers who accompanied the expedition, vid. Benton, _Notes on
Some Languages_.]]
[Footnote 33: Barth, iv. 63; Rohlfs, ii. 81.]
[Footnote 34: Cf. also Polko, _Erinnerungen an einen Verschollenen_.]
[Footnote 35: _Zeitschrift für allgemeine Erdkunde_, vol. xv (1863), p.
538; Rohlfs, ii. 81; Nachtigal, ii. 251 and 264.]
[Footnote 36: [Nachtigal was accompanied by a Piedmontese cook, Giuseppe
Valpreda, who became converted to Islam, called himself Mohamed el
Mussulmani, and remained in Kuka with the Shehu. He was seen there by
Monteil in 1892, and by the Niger Co. mission under McIntosh at the end
of 1890. He died when fleeing from Rabeh in 1893; cf. Benton, _Notes on
Some Languages_, p. 304, quoting from Dujarric, _Vie du Sultan Rabah_,
p. 53, and Tilho, _Doc. sc._ i. 15.]]
[Footnote 37: Nachtigal, ii. 626 and 733. He refers here especially to
the slave-raids of the sultans of Bagirmi.]
[Footnote 38: Reclus, p. 660; Oppenheim, p. 159. [Cf. note under Massari
in List of Authorities.]]
[Footnote 39: [For a less favourable account of Lamino, Omar, and their
successors vid. Appendix IV.]]
[Footnote 40: Nachtigal, ii. 413.]
[Footnote 41: Nachtigal, i. 602; ii. 10; vid. also Rohlfs, ii. 103.]
[Footnote 42: Barth, iii. 36 and 116; Nachtigal, i. 564 and 572. Cf.
also Monteil, p. 313.]
[Footnote 43: Barth, iii. 171-2; Nachtigal, ii. 501 and 503.]
[Footnote 44: Monteil, p. 344.]
[Footnote 45: [According to Col. Chaillé-Long’s _My Life in Four
Continents_, Gessi started as Gordon’s Italian valet, and used to be
unmercifully cuffed and kicked by his master. Later, he was promoted to
a more important position and did not appreciate these attentions, which
did not entirely cease. Col. Chaillé-Long was Gordon’s American chief of
staff. Zobeir died near Khartoum on January 5, 1913.]]
[Footnote 46: Oppenheim, p. 11.]
[Footnote 47: [For account of Rabeh vid. Appendix V, and for a more
authoritative account vid. Gentil, _La Chute de l’Empire de Rabah_, and
Gaston Dujarric, _La Vie de Rabah_.]]
[Footnote 48: [Vid. Benton, _Notes on Some Languages_, p. 304.]]
[Footnote 49: Oppenheim, pp. 24, 29, and 41.]
[Footnote 50: Oppenheim, p. 44.]
[Footnote 51: [Abba Kiari, or Shehu Kiari, seems to have been almost the
only representative of the Kanemy dynasty with a spark of energy or
courage. As is mentioned in _Boyd Alexander’s Last Journey_, p. 188, he
seldom uncovered his face, as his nose had practically been eaten away
by a malignant disease, and his speech was so much affected that only
one person among his people, a Mallam, could understand him.]]
[Footnote 52: [Rabeh is said always to have personally supervised the
musketry instruction of his gun-men.]]
[Footnote 53: Oppenheim, p. 58. This custom is still kept up by Sanda,
Shehu of German Bornu. Cf. also Dominik, p. 151.]
[Footnote 54: About 4,000-5,000 men were furnished with fire-arms, some
of quite modern pattern, and were well trained in fire-discipline.]
[Footnote 55: Foureau, _D’Alger au Congo_, p. 589. Similar statements
were made to me in 1903 at various places in Bornu. I was, however,
shown a brand different from Foureau’s description as ‘Rabeh’s mark’.
Even the Arab merchants and their servants, settled in Dikoa in Rabeh’s
time, had to submit to this barbarous tattooing.]
[Footnote 56: Vid. also Foureau, p. 686, and Lenfant, p. 173 (plate).]
[Footnote 57: [This historic little steamer has lately been employed by
the French in surveying navigable channels in Lake Chad. There is a
picture of her in Gentil, _La Chute de l’Empire de Rabah_.]]
[Footnote 58: Gentil, p. 98.]
[Footnote 59: [Sururu, now headman of one of the ‘wards’ in Shehuri, the
Shehu’s quarter of the new capital of British Bornu, was in charge of
the execution. It took place on August 15, 1899; vid. Decorse, _Rabah_,
&c., p. 36, for native account. For photograph of his monument at Dikoa
vid. Tilho, _Doc. sc._, ii. 376.]]
[Footnote 60: Gentil, p. 125.]
[Footnote 61: Foureau, _D’Alger au Congo_, p. 602.]
[Footnote 62: Gentil, p. 211. [Fadel Allah was not present, vid.
Appendix XVIII.]]
[Footnote 63: [The dramatic account of Rabeh’s death, reminiscent of
_King Solomon’s Mines_, as given in Macleod, _Chiefs and Cities of
Central Africa_, p. 147, must be apocryphal. It is quite different from
that given by Gentil. The Editor of _Boyd Alexander’s Last Journey_, p.
186, practically admits that it is incorrect.]]
[Footnote 64: Fadel Allah was then twenty-six years old.]
[Footnote 65: Oppenheim, p. 121. [The present Shehu of British Bornu.
There is a photograph of him in Macleod, p. 244. Ex-Shehu Omar Sanda,
surnamed Kura (the elder) and Kori (the short), is now Ajia of the
British district of Gujba.]]
[Footnote 66: [June, 1901. In the person of the late Major A.
McClintock, D.S.O., Seaforth Highlanders, formerly commanding the 1st
Batt. Northern Nigeria Regt., and until his recent death second senior
Political Officer of Bornu Province. His escort was commanded by Sergt.
Moman Machena (Auta), now a Preventive Service Agent in Bornu. Cf.
Decorse, _Rabah_, &c., p. 18.]]
[Footnote 67: Oppenheim, p. 123; Möckler-Ferryman, p. 142. Fadel Allah
was in fact actually recognized as Sultan of Bornu. [This is hardly
correct. Sir F. D. Lugard in his _Report on Northern Nigeria for 1901_
mentions that Major McClintock presented Fadel Allah with a shot gun of
his own. This led to a report, believed by the French, that the British
authorities were supplying Fadel Allah with rifles. Major McClintock
formed a high opinion of Fadel Allah, who appears to have been a most
gallant soldier and a capable and determined ruler. Major McClintock’s
report was wholly in favour of recognizing Fadel Allah as Emir of Bornu.
After the French had killed Fadel Allah at Gujba, they demanded from
Shehu Garbai an indemnity of $80,000. They managed to wring $73,500 from
the exhausted country before the arrival of Col. Morland and a British
column. Captain McCarthy Morrogh with a company of the West African
Frontier Force was left at Maiduguri (Maifoni) as temporary military
resident until the arrival of Mr. W. P. Hewby, who was appointed civil
Resident of Bornu. Vid. Lugard, _Report on N. Nigeria for 1902_.]]
[Footnote 68: Moisel, p. 184. [Captain McCarthy Morrogh escorted Garbai
in from Dikoa.]]
[Footnote 69: [Thanks! P. A. B.]]
III
SITUATION AND PHYSICAL CONFORMATION
Bornu is a political not a geographical entity. It is difficult, owing
to the continuous changes to which the political expansion of Bornu was
subjected in the course of centuries, to lay down its outline with even
approximate correctness, especially as natural boundaries are
conspicuous by their absence. If we leave almost entirely out of
consideration the arbitrary divisions which resulted from the partition
of the country between the three colonial powers, England, France, and
Germany, we cannot do better on the whole even to-day than follow the
line left behind by Nachtigal as the result of his conscientious
investigations.[70] The extreme limits of Bornu practically correspond
to a rhombus, whose longer diagonal runs from north-west to south-east.
The tenth and fourteenth degrees of north latitude and the tenth and
sixteenth degrees east of Greenwich denote in general the line beyond
which districts belonging to Bornu do not, or do not appreciably,
extend.[71] Bornu is clearly defined only on the east, where Lake Chad
and its affluent the Shari form a natural boundary; it is tolerably
clear also in part on the south, where indeed the Mandara highlands
belonging to Adamawa form a natural boundary-wall. All other boundaries
are more or less undetermined. Between the Shari and the highlands, the
southern boundary of Bornu is practically coterminous with the southern
boundary of the Musgu tribe—whose territory long furnished Bornu with
the majority of its slaves—and almost coincides with the tenth degree of
north latitude.[72] East of the Mandara highlands the boundary does not
reach quite so far south, it touches here the country of the Marghi
pagans between Bornu and Adamawa, and goes from about Kofa on the River
Yedseram in a westerly direction till it reaches the River Gongola,
follows this upwards for a short distance, and then becomes a western
boundary bending round, leaving Katagum to the west, and runs north-west
to Zinder.[73] From the point of intersection of this line with the
tenth meridian, the Bornu boundary then runs north of Lake Chad through
the country of the Tuareg, whose forays indeed were the cause of
constant alterations of the border. The boundaries given above embrace a
territory measuring in round figures 140,000 square kilometres.[74]
This great territory was first partitioned among the three colonial
powers only on the map;[75] and it was not till the year 1903 that the
settlement of their boundaries was commenced, a work which has only
quite recently been concluded. The northern and smallest part,
stretching from the Komadugu Yo and lying north of it, belongs to the
French Sahara. The largest and central part consists of British Bornu,
the north-easterly province of Northern Nigeria, and faces on the east
the German Chad Territory belonging to the German Kameruns, and extends
along the River Yedseram and the water-courses which establish a
connexion in the rains between this river and Lake Chad. Only to the
west of Dikoa does the boundary make a slight deviation over the
Yedseram towards the north-west so as to include the arable land
belonging to Dikoa.
Bornu is extraordinarily uniform in its physical conformation, perhaps
more uniform than any other country of similar size in tropical Africa.
It consists of a single vast plain covered with alluvial soil, with an
average height above sea-level of between 300 and 450 metres, sloping
almost imperceptibly to the lowest level of the Central Sudan, i.e. the
shallow depression of Lake Chad, and never reaching a considerable
elevation, save in the border districts, if we except the sand-dunes and
the Wasa rocks which jut out of the plain. Although the question of
mountain formation lies outside Bornu proper, yet it deserves notice,
for where the mountains appear they mark the border districts of the
otherwise flat country in conspicuous fashion. For not only the
mountains in themselves, but also in places the flora which is dependent
on them, give the landscape an appearance varying from that of the rest
of Bornu. But since the way of life of the ruling tribes of the country
is bound up with the plain and its products, these districts coincide
naturally with the political boundaries.
The mountains, when they do appear, are of massive granite formation and
are often of very peculiar shape; and they are only found in the extreme
north-west and in the south of Bornu. The mountains in the north-west
include the hill country of Zinder and Munio. They are remarkable on
account of their composition. Immediately east of Zinder stretches north
and south a mass of quartz rich in natural cisterns, which is bordered
on the west, south, and east by masses of granite, which partly in a
continuous chain and partly in the form of a single cone form the
connexion with the highlands of Munio.[76] The granite mountains of
Munio, which reach a height of 600 metres, are continued towards the
south-south-east by single ‘kopjes’ of the same rock, which get lower
and lower until they finally quite disappear. Peculiar to all this
district, which has many of the characteristics of the desert, are the
numerous lakes and pools very strongly impregnated with natron, which
extend, moreover, as far as Chad and in places attain considerable
dimensions, such as the twin lakes of Badamuni or Gadabuni described by
Barth.[77]
Far grander than the above-mentioned mountain districts are the granite
masses which form the boundary of Bornu on the south for a long
distance. The highest elevation reached is in the highlands of Mandara
belonging to Adamawa, which push out their northern spurs, such as the
Seledeba Range, which is over 1,300 metres high, like rocky peninsulas
far into the Bornu plains. The peculiar wild beauty of these mountains
has already been aptly described as follows by Denham: ‘Though not to be
compared with the higher Alps, the Apennines, the Jura, or even the
Sierra Morena in magnitude, yet by none of these are they surpassed in
picturesque interest.’[78] This mountain mass is flanked both east and
west by peculiar rock formations, which may best be compared to greater
or lesser rocky islets in the ocean, for they jut up quite promiscuously
from the alluvial plain. If one stands on an elevated point in the
country round Issege and lets one’s glance wander southwards, one has a
surprising panorama in front of one, provided the weather is clear. The
whole plain seems studded with shapes of various sizes, which assume the
most bizarre forms and show the most diverse stages of disintegration;
one sees hemispherical, cone or needle-shaped hills, even regular
mountain ranges, such as that of Uba, some of them of considerable
height, all over the plain, which are completely separated from each
other and thus give the impression of insularity. The country on the
north and east flanks of the Mandara Range is of similar formation, and
among them is that of the well-known double cone of the Mendif. In some
instances these granite formations hardly rise above the level of the
surrounding country; such masses of rock in the form of giant tables of
stone embedded in the soil are found between Uba and Issege on the left
bank of the River Yedseram. The already mentioned Wasa[79] rocks are an
offshoot of the extreme limit of this mountain country: they are in
about 11° 30′ north latitude and their contours are a welcome change in
the monotony of the plain.[80] Otherwise Bornu is entirely free from
rock formations, and it is only in the country near Gujba that Rohlfs
mentions the appearance of red sandstone.[81]
The low-lying plain itself consists entirely of a sandy argillaceous
soil, the composition of which, however, is not uniform but contains
sometimes a larger proportion of loam, sometimes of sand. The
appearances which are most characteristic of this plain, viz. sand-dunes
and the ‘firki’ soil peculiar to Bornu, are only intelligible by
studying simultaneously its hydrographic conditions, which are indeed of
supreme economic importance in this Central African country.
Bornu is, hydrographically considered, one of the most interesting
districts in Africa, for its character is essentially influenced by the
peculiar lake known as Lake Chad and by its affluents, which form its
boundaries for long stretches or flow through it. A study of this
important Central African inland lagoon and its water-system, whose
investigation is amongst the most disputed of geographical problems, is
absolutely necessary for the understanding of many important questions.
Lake Chad, whose average water-level according to Tilho is 283 metres
above the sea,[82] fills the tray-shaped depression, to which the Bornu
plain slopes gradually from south-west to north-east. While it is itself
extraordinarily shallow—in the deepest part the lead only marks fourteen
metres—no perceptible effluent can be traced, and for a great part of
its surface, owing to the fact that its banks are flat and nowhere
sharply defined, and owing to a constantly varying volume of water, it
is subject to continuous fluctuations. These fluctuations do not only
depend on the seasons, they appear also in the course of long periods
during which the shore-line may shift inside a zone of ten or more
kilometres broad. A French writer, Lieut. Freydenberg,[83] relying on
native information, calculates shorter periods of twenty years, which
bring slight fluctuations in the level of the lake, and longer ones of
about seventy years, during which it is said that there is an
alternation between a nearly complete disappearance of water and a very
considerable inundation. This theory, however, contradicts the
observations of Barth, Rohlfs, and Nachtigal. When Barth on his
exploring expedition visited Lake Chad for the second time (in 1855),
the places along the western shore of the lake were threatened by an
extensive inundation, and the town of Ngornu was actually completely
destroyed.[84] Eleven years later, on Rohlfs’ visit, the shore of the
lake was quite within normal limits.[85] According to Freydenberg’s
theory a steady retrogression of the water-level of the lake ought to
have followed until it had nearly completely dried up; instead of which
Nachtigal in 1871 found an inundation which probably surpassed that of
1855, because it actually threatened Kukawa, which lies far from the
lake.[86] A similar high-water period has not appeared again since
Nachtigal’s time, on the contrary a continual shrinkage of the shore of
the lake from year to year is to be registered; this shrinkage has been
under scientific observation, for since 1900 the lake has been subjected
by the French to careful inquiry in every direction.[87] Freydenberg,
who in the summer of 1905 traversed the northern part of Chad, found
that the retreat of the water had proceeded so far, that between Barua
and Ngigmi on the west bank a broad ridge of completely dried-up country
had pushed itself eastwards right into the middle of the lake. As long
as the laws which govern the periodically recurring inundations are
still unknown, the yearly recurring alterations in the level of the lake
can only be attributed to the rise and fall of the rivers, to which the
Chad, in addition to its own relatively small rainfall, owes its supply
of water. To its most important affluent, the Shari, the lake owes
practically two-thirds of the volume of water discharged into it; on
this river, as well as on the season, depends its average depth. At the
end of December, that is in the middle of the dry season, when all the
other affluents are falling and the majority of the river-courses in the
southern bay of Chad are already dried up, the lake is actually still
rising, for at that time the Shari is still discharging into it a large
quantity of water. From the middle of December to the end of January the
Chad has reached its high-water mark and then occupies an area of about
20,000 square kilometres. Soon afterwards, in consequence of enormous
evaporation, the lake begins to fall rapidly and continues falling even
when the rainy season has already set in. Countless mud- or sand-banks
then emerge, which have hitherto been covered with only a few inches of
water, and now in some parts put on a green carpet of vegetation: owing
to these the lake’s navigability, always of a very limited nature, is
rendered still more difficult, if not entirely suspended.[88] In the
end, apart from the often canal-like lagoons, which surround the
countless islands on the Kanem shore of the lake, there remain only two
comparatively small areas of open water, and they lie at the mouths of
the two chief rivers, but have so little connexion with each other, that
their water shows a different chemical composition.[89]
The regrettably small proportion of water in the lake during the dry
season, which was not inquired into till within the last ten years, has
no doubt contributed to render it possible that individual French
travellers can express themselves so extremely pessimistically about the
lake’s future. Audoin even calculates that according to his observations
there is in normal years a sinking of about 0·15 of a metre[90] in the
level of the lake. Only the future can teach us whether the retreat of
the lake—apart from the loss of water due to natural evaporation—is
connected with a subterraneous outlet[91] (perhaps into the bed of the
Bahr-el-Ghazal) which it has constructed for itself in the course of
years, with alterations in meteorological conditions at the sources of
its chief affluents, or simply with tectonic displacement. Perhaps, as a
matter of fact, it will again enter on a high-water period, similar to
that observed by Barth and Nachtigal. At any rate, the information now
available with regard to the lake itself, comprising only the results of
inquiries of the last ten years,[92] is not sufficient to enable us to
form a definite judgement.
Lastly, one must also, with regard to the alterations in the level of
the lake, take account of those phenomena recurring daily during the dry
season, which certainly have a similarity with the periodical movements
of this inland sea, but are attributable solely to the prevailing winds.
The north-east trade wind produces, quite mechanically and always
according to its strength, a slight rise or fall of the water on the
flat south-western shore of the lake. D’Huart’s assumption that the
greater evaporation caused by the wind also influences this phenomenon
seems to rest on slender foundations, since during the time when the
wind drops, i.e. the morning hours, insolation, operating in the same
sense but more intensely, sets in.[93]