LANDING IN THE TERRITORY OF THE BAGHÀRAS. — DESCRIPTION OF
THEM. — THEIR HOSTILITY TO THE DINKAS, AND MARAUDING EXCURSIONS
INTO THE COUNTRY OF THIS TRIBE. — CURIOUS POSITION IN WHICH THE
LATTER TRIBE STAND. — MOUNT NJEMATI: EXAMINATION OF IT. — A
SHRUB-ACACIA. — APPEARANCE OF ELEPHANTS AND LIONS. — GEOLOGICAL
DESCRIPTION OF THE MOUNTAINS. — MONKEYS APPEAR AGAIN. — MOHAMMED
ALI UNDER THE FORM OF AN HIPPOPOTAMUS. — ISLAND OF ABU. — THE
HASSANIES. — A HIPPOPOTAMUS KILLED BY SULIMAN KASHEF. — SHORES
OF THE NILE COMPARED TO THOSE OF THE MISSISSIPPI. — EL AES. — THE
KABBABISH ARABS. — HEDJASI. — THE MOUNTAIN GROUP OF ARASKOLL. —
CONDUCT OF SULIMAN KASCHEF TO A SHIEKH AND ARABS. — BEST WAY TO
TREAT THE TURKS. — THE DOWNS; THEIR NATURE. — INTELLIGENCE OF THE
DEATH OF SOLIMAN EFFENDI AND VAISSIERE. — APPROACH TO KHARTÙM. —
ARRIVAL, AND MEETING OF OUR AUTHOR WITH HIS BROTHER. — CONCLUSION.
9th April.—Our direction yesterday was generally N; to-day N. with
deviations to the East. We landed early at the left shore, near
the Baghàras, who received us on all sides in a friendly manner,
and displayed here real hospitality,—with a little craft and
self-interest. The mighty bond of language, race and religion,
knit immediately reciprocal confidence, which begot eloquence,
and lively questions and answers. The herdsmen, part of whom
had handsome physiognomies, surveyed our vessels. Whilst their
horses remained close by, they brought goats and sheep to us,
holding them by a rope, a kurbàk in one hand, and a long lance
and three javelins in the other; and seemed, on the whole, to be a
more cultivated and cleanly people, in spite of their dirty ferdas
and kittels, which, being originally of a white or blue colour,
were not strongly contrasted one with the other. Their countenance
was expressive, with their thick eyebrows and sparkling eyes; the
hair being twisted more or less to the back of the head in a cue,
allowed the beautifully arched forehead to stand out, but it is
often difficult to tell the sex of the young persons.
The women and girls coming to us with milk, butter, and fresh
tamarinds, were free in their movements, joked and laughed, and
sought to sell their wares as dear as they possibly could, which they
exchanged for salt, beads, red pepper, and strings of ostrich-egg
shells. All of them were distinguished by a slender shape, a bold
carriage, and pleasing form of countenance; some, according to my
idea, might be called really beautiful, and they were generally
excellently proportioned; they appeared to me like independent,
dark Spartan women. A ferda was slung over the invisible rahàt being
used at other times to cover their heads as a protection against the
sun; the hair was parted, and arranged in tasteful, little plaits in
different directions, or falling down over the shoulders. Red, and
other coloured pieces of coral, were placed on each side of the head
in an oval form; in which copper, silver, or gold rings were entwined,
and even the ear-rings with their pretty elongation of corals and
small conchglia were fastened to the temples by the shining black
tresses of hair falling over the forehead. This head-dress could
not fail of making an agreeable impression upon me, when I thought
of the shaven and dishevelled heads of the women in the countries
up the river; the unseemly custom of wearing rings in the nostrils
was scarcely unpleasing here, from this _supposed_ ornament being
so small. They wore brilliant cut agates or flints of the desert
round their neck and across the shoulder and breast,—the younger
girls also over the rahàt and on the wrists, which they buy from
the Dinkas, as well as corals of different kinds.
On all sides people were advancing slowly towards us, and a
regular market was soon formed; but it was only with a great deal
of difficulty that I procured a bad javelin. The Arabs said that
it would be disgraceful for them to sell their weapons as they
were continually at war. These Baghàras are also from Kordofàn,
of the race of Selim, and of unmixed blood, for they never marry
into any other tribe: whence the difference between them and our
radically ugly crew. From time to time they pay tribute, but properly
speaking, it is a _don gratuit_. They told us that they would now
cross over to the Jengähs (they call the Dinkas Jengähs, although
the latter are a different people, and dwell above the Shilluks),
since we (their Mohammedan brothers) had visited these regions,
but asked accidentally whether so many Shilluks dwelt above, as was
reported. They also said that there were a few of the latter nation
here, who had retreated at their arrival on the island, and that there
was nothing to fear since the death of the Sheikh of the Shilluks,
Abdurachmàn. They thought themselves already in possession of the
whole country. The Baghàras left us after sunset, but afterwards
partly returned to bring more milk and sheep (for a sheep, one ferda,
for a goat about an okka of salt). Thermometer 18°, 29°, 32°.
_10th April._—We sail a little with a south-east wind in a north
direction with easterly declinations till noon, then it becomes
calm and we navigate. Subsequently, with a north-east wind, almost
universally to N. and even westerly declinations, until we halt at
an island by the shore of the Shilluks. Thermometer 22°, 32°, 30°.
_11th April._—It is a faint south-west wind, but we are able
to sail; the direction is first N. with easterly deviations, then
westerly, and even N.W. by N. until we to go N., where an immeasurable
course extends before us. Easterly deviations follow in the afternoon,
and the mountain with two peaks seen from the mast before noon, shews
itself in N. The river gains a majestic breadth for the short track
it is free of islands; the anterior part of the shores is low and
bordered with grass. Nile buffaloes which are in incredible numbers
here, owing to the grass on the islands, greeted us twice to-day,
and with such blows that Rassulla Effendi became quite pale. The
tailor-captain is not with us; he has fallen out with Rassulla about
a sheep, and was the more desirous for a quarrel, because Suliman
Kashef presented to him a loaf of sugar, and he therefore does not
want the help of Rassulla to eat Helluh. However, we are lucky,
for the hippopotami have vented their just anger on the strongest
point of our vessel.
“Look! there is a dead hippopotamus in the water, and men near
it,” was the cry subsequently, but we soon found the difference
when we came closer. It was a boat or raft of ambak just pushed into
the water and on it some men, whilst others were advancing from the
copsewood. Ten Baghàras with lance and shield following out their
old system of plunder, had wanted to play the freebooter here among
the Dinkas, but were obliged to retreat without having accomplished
their object. They found themselves now in the greatest dilemma, for
the water was shallow and they were pursued by the Dinkas, of whom
we counted from twenty-five to thirty. Suliman Kashef, who sailed
a-head of us, ordered a couple of shots to be fired over the heads of
the Dinkas, whereupon they retreated a little. The vessel, however,
could not take up the Baghàras, on account of the shallow water;
they shouted to us to fire once more, but in vain, for the tailor
sat at his handywork and would give no orders till Sale discharged
one double barrel in the air, which made the Dinkas stand still and
gave the Arabs time to row off. In a regular pursuit, the former
would undoubtedly have got the worst of it, for they are no swimmers,
were without shields, and like the Shilluks, do not cast their spears
from their hands, whilst the Baghàras carried shields and javelins.
The Dinkas, however, will not be long in paying a return visit with
similar intentions to the Baghàras, and will then bear oval and round
shields similar to those of the Shilluks, which they are accustomed
to use in war; the shields of the Baghàras, on the contrary, are
round at the bottom and obtuse at the top.
I saw Dinkas frequently on the shore, and nearly all of them were in
the same peculiar position which we also remarked above, and on the
banks of the entire White River; and which perhaps would denote a kind
of affinity, if the language, form of countenance, and customs did
not prove otherwise. To rest themselves, they place one foot on the
knee whilst standing, and put underneath as a support their hassaie
(club of white wood pointed at the bottom) or their spear. A dozen of
such one-legged persons standing together is a comical sight enough.
We halted to-day at five o’clock near the left shore to wait for
the vessels at an island on which there were monstrous foot-prints
of hippopotami. Close above our landing-place lay the tolerably long
and wooded island of the deceased Sheikh of the Shilluk islands,
Abdurachmàn (Ab del Rahman), Wolled el Desh. It is called by the
Arabs Telleb, by the Shilluks, however, Afunje; a name that might
bring to our recollection the Funghs,—and here it was where,
as I have already mentioned, the Turks in the Expedition of the
year 1839, were not ashamed to open the grave of the Sheikh in
order to convince themselves that the sworn enemy of themselves
and the Baghàras was really dead. It can easily be inferred what
a prejudicial impression such an act must have left behind in the
minds of the Island-Shilluks. Thermometer 23°, 32°, 30°.
_12th April._—We sail N. with easterly deviations; then at noon
towards N., close to a mountain group called by the Dinkas and
Baghàras Njemati, and it is only with considerable difficulty that we
can find a landing-place on the flat shore below the rocks extending
in the river, and when we do so we encamp at some distance from it.
Thus many islands have retreated at our side which rejoiced the heart
previously with their soft verdure, their flowers, creepers, and
trees, or their blades of grass shooting from the majestic stream,
whilst the water retreated into the forests of both the shores,
and afforded many an interesting picture. Now it is no longer so,
the vessel goes far lower: where the wood does not grow on the shore,
there is only a melancholy low country, and the cheerful ambak-acacias
lie dry on the ground bent and dismembered, throwing out in vain their
long shoots with small leaves and solitary little flowers, on the soil
where some moisture still remains. The hand of destruction has even
fallen on the grass and reeds; sun, animals, and fire have consumed
it, leaving merely miserable remains. It is only at times when the
sun is rising, that the landscape presents a more enlivening aspect.
_13th April._—We shall stop here in the neighbourhood of the
mountain till noon. Notwithstanding the heat, I had not any rest till
I made yesterday a trip to the mountain, which I always thought must
be the real Defafaùngh. I had already seen by the rounded rocks
in the river what kind of stone I might expect to find. A layer of
gravel extends to the north from these rocks, and I soon came upon
large stones of coarse-grained granite, inclined to a reddish colour,
among numerous little marble stones, which I had not hitherto seen. A
species of shrub-acacia covered the whole side of the path I had taken
under the mountain where the gravel ceased, of which some bushes
served me as a shady resting-place. Its leaves had already fallen,
its bark was green, and it had short arcuate thorns. The immense
number of seed-husks is a proof of the quantity of flowers it bore;
they hung altogether in clusters, and I filled my pockets full with
them. I saw a quantity of guinea-fowls on a rock running obliquely
to the base:—the rocks of the lower mountains are not perhaps more
than a quarter of an hour from the water. They became very active
when they remarked us, and I ordered, therefore, my dark, half-naked,
huntsman to go first, for these are more accustomed to such a sight.
I had roused a herd of gazelles standing at my left, but permitted
them to withdraw in peace; for I had just found two little hills
consisting of stones of inconsiderable size, evidently thrown together
here. Judging from the analogy of the stone hills I had seen in
Kassela, and being fully persuaded that no violent rains from the
mountains above, or flood from the Nile, could have so placed them,
I took them to be ancient tombs, and searched for potsherds and other
memorials of buildings that might have stood here, but in vain. Negro
villages and cities disappear the moment they are not inhabited,
like ignited bundles of straw, and the ashes do not remain on the
ground. Yet it is not likely that there were many inhabited places
here, for the unprotected man of nature does not make his residence
near the rocky encampments and cavities of wild beasts, and no
fragments here indicated the contrary. The native of a civilised
country must forget all analogies of his own land, if he wish to
comprehend the meaning, custom, and possible conduct of a rude nation.
I ascended with ease the nearest fundament of the granite rock. The
rain and distilling sun had produced several round holes, which
appeared to have been chiselled by the hand of man, and which may
frequently blow up these firm masses of stone, as if a mine were
sprung underneath, when they happen to fall on a vein. I found these
holes principally in those places where the rocks presented a flat,
horizontal superfices, as I had remarked also previously in the
granite mountains of the Land of the Troglodytes.
My huntsman—whom, however, I could not see—shot close to me, and
a covey of guinea-fowls rose from behind the next block of stone,
and induced me to mount in pursuit of them. I took off my shoes,
and it was like walking on a red-hot oven, notwithstanding I kept
on my stockings. As we ascend to the summit of this mountain-group,
a dreadful destruction and piling of rocks one over the other is
observed, similar to the scene on the rocks near Phile. Granite rocks,
originally lying above the level of the waters, are rounded on the
top into the form of pikes, cupolas, and horns. Periodical rains and a
hot sun may split, rend, and break them, though only as an exception
to the general rule, as I believe from the analogy of the Alps, the
mountains on the Nile, and in the desert and country of Taka; they
throw off, therefore, perhaps, their decayed covering, and burst forth
new like an egg from the shell; and, although the layers on the side
of the wind, rain, and sun, admit of no regularity of form, yet they
seldom display any ghastly splits or gaps. I would assume, therefore,
that these rocks also stood at one time as crags above or beneath the
water, in which opinion I am supported by the rounded gravel visible
here and there on the layers of rocks. I cannot certainly determine
in what manner the granite rocks, projecting here into the Nile, and
extending into the river bed as far as the mountains of Kordofàn,
and connected with the distant mountain visible on the other side,
in N. and S.E. from the mountains here, may prevent at some future
times the waters of the lake from being drawn off.
I was now on the summit, where I found a human skull, and felt myself
very tired, whilst evening was coming on. In order to descend by
another path, I slid down, disregardless of hurting my _posteriora_,
laying my gun on my knees, and tying two guinea-fowls I had shot
round my neck; and it was fortunate for me I did so, or else the back
of my head would have been stove in. I met one of Suliman Kashef’s
soldiers on the lower declivity, who pointed out to me wild buffaloes
and elephants at a distance, close to whom he had been. We had seen
already a very large quantity of elephants’ dung. I had lost my
huntsman in the rocks: he brought fowls also, but trembled dreadfully,
because, just as he was aiming at the herds, a lion had presented
himself at a short distance. The presence of lions was subsequently
doubted; but this morning my two other servants took quite a young
lion in their hands, to bring him to me; but they thought it more
advisable afterwards to let him bask on in the sun. They, as well
as several others, remarked also wild buffaloes and boars (Jalùff)
in the neighbourhood; and they brought me, as a proof of the former
animals being present here, a horn quite fresh, the owner of which,
had become the prey of lions; for the marafill (the spotted hyæna),
whose calcareous dung is visible in all parts of this region, never
attacks buffaloes.
I repaired now to the foot of the next mountain-group, and was
soon convinced that it was of the same species of stone; however,
to be quite sure, I had pieces or specimens of stone brought me from
the highest peak, and my servants have confirmed me in my opinion,
that there are only two mountains, although Arnaud asserts that he
has seen sixteen, without putting on magnifying glasses. Some of
these specimens consist of pink feldspar, white albin, grey quartz,
and black mica; others of dark red feldspar, but without albin,
with white quartz and black mica.
I stumbled upon Suliman Kashef on my way back, who had collected his
halberdiers around him, and was enthroned on a rock where he could be
seen at a distance. He set out this afternoon to make observations,
which he might have done yesterday evening. The heat is very great,
and I bathe for the first time since a long while, having left
it off from fear of catching fever. The Frenchmen think that they
shew great courage by going into the water; but it is always full
of men the whole day long, and no accident has happened from the
crocodiles. My men had not shot any of the gazelles that appeared
near the rocks, to take a hasty draught; the Baghàras, however,
paid us a visit, and brought sheep; they thought that we were come
to make war in their favour, yet no Dinkas dwell near here, but more
up the river. Thermometer 27·30°; 32·31°.
_14th April._—This morning we proceed at last with a favourable
south-east wind to north, with easterly deviations; but we soon came
to a flat in the Nile, formed by a granite shelf partly visible,
which crosses the river. It is called Gisser—the same as wall or
dam, analogous to Tschellal—and was once perhaps really a dam and
breast-work, of which only the foundations remain. Who can estimate
its future form, and its present ramifications! We scrape along it
a little, but then all went right, and we passed in the afternoon,
N. by W., the very dangerous Machada—el ans, and Machada Abu Seid
mentioned in the ascent, where there was an eternal grating of the
vessels, as if over a gravelly bank: first we, then the others stuck
fast, and the sailors had very troublesome work. We halted at the
left shore, where an incredible number of monkeys were sitting on the
trees. I took my gun, and in searching through the forest, remarked
a she-monkey, among numerous others, the young one sitting on the
lower branches. As soon as she perceived us, she sprang quickly to
her young, took it under her arm, and set herself on the highest
bough of the tree. Who could shoot at the mother for the sake of
getting the young? There was another monkey-like animal there which
can only be taken at night; I forget the name of it.
An arm of the Nile, the ends of which are now closed, appeared to
be a favourite pond of the gazelles, though not one of them fell to
our lot.
The inundation rises through the entire forest, the earth is
cracked far and wide, and not a spike of grass is to be seen under
the sunt, of which the forest of the Shilluks consists, with few
exceptions. But there lay a number of broken off branches and dead
trees, that had not attained their proper age, because, when there
is too much water, the trees stand too thickly, and their tops get
lashed together, and these sunts, especially, spreading from top
to bottom with short boughs, leave no draught, so that the centre
of them is deprived of the necessary air. We remark, however, where
the forest is sufficiently thin, a number of trees thrown down and
withered, especially where the shores lie lower, and where, therefore,
the ground can be scarcely dry at any time of the year. This may
proceed perhaps from wind, for though the latter is not so violent
as to tear up trees from the root, like our northern storms, yet the
tender nourishing fibres are injured or torn off by the continual
motion of the trees, which must be followed by a stretching and
straining of the roots. The tree stands, pines away, and falls,
as we have remarked previously in the country of Taka.
Suliman Kashef related, with an important air, that he shot quite
close to a large hippopotamus several times yesterday evening,
without the beast moving, until, at last, it slowly walked into the
river. This Nile buffalo was said to be a Scheïtan, and Selim Capitan
believed the very same thing. I threw in a hint that Mohammed Ali
might have assumed this form, in order to see what good the expedition
was doing—whereupon there was _altum silentium_! Thermometer,
22° 32° to 33°.
_15th April._—Between N. and N.W. The nearest shores are low, and
even where the forest extends to them, they are but slightly elevated,
and the overthrown trees present a melancholy appearance here instead
of the cheerful underwood. The old shores of the river are visible
right and left through the downs of the forest, and are really high
shores, without any deception, for the vessel goes considerably lower
during our present return voyage, and no illusion takes place, as
is the case with the slight elevation in the extensive plain, which
always appears to the eye to be ascending. We navigate on the broad
stream as if in the forest, woody islands on the right, the same on
the left, but sunt, always sunt, with its melancholy foliage,—my
heart longs for beeches and oaks and their shady halls! It is only
on the shore where winds and water take effect above and below,
that we see trees completely uprooted. The high water has no power
towards the interior of the shore, but another evil spirit, the Habùb
(storm), throws down and scatters boughs and trees.
The north-west wind is against us; we go therefore over N. easterly
to N.E. These windings depend principally on how we sail round the
islands. The main direction of the stream is, and remains from
the present, N., with slight deviations to E. and W. The shores
encompassing the long island-sound, are generally invisible; an
accurate map, therefore, could be only drawn up by a longer stay here.
In the afternoon we halt for a moment at the right shore, and near
the large island of Aba, and hear from the Hassaniës and people of
El Aes that a large hippopotamus had been struck by three harpoons
close at hand. We navigate, therefore, to the left, at the island
of El Gamùss, which has its name partly from the number of Nile
buffaloes taking up their abode in their neighbourhood; and we see,
at its head, the mighty snorting beast half out of water; but he
soon, however, drew back, and swam into the Nile arm, between the
island and the left shore. The sàndal was towed near him, and after
the sürtuk had twice upset, yet without confounding the experienced
swimmers, and the beast had tried in vain to escape, it occurred to
our men, as the hippopotamus was obliged from want of breath to come
up constantly to the surface, to fasten the towing-rope to the three
harpoon, and thus to drag him ashore like a vessel. Before, however,
they got so far, the beast collected his last strength, and shortly
before arriving at the shore, sprung up with such force that several
of the heroes jumped back. I thought that I should see a national
hunt, and the hippopotamus killed with the spear; but the Turks did
not wait for him to gain _terra firma_, but shot at him where he was,
half out of water, and certainly, had he landed, he might have trod
several men under his feet, and torn them with his respectable tusks.
Nine shots were fired one after the other, Suliman Kashef’s
was the last, and it hit the animal behind the ear: the blood
spouted up, and the monster fell, slain by man’s art, not by
his courage. We had him dragged by the tow-rope of the sàndal to
our landing-place, and I then found that the balls had pierced his
neck and back, which might well happen, when we consider that the
distance was only fifteen paces and that the beast had a fat hide,
with no other shield than the yielding rumples, extending crossways
over the back. The inside of the holes perforated by the bullets,
felt like the body of a fat hog. The monster might be even compared
in his clumsy form to a small elephant, and both correspond just as
little as the crocodile, to our usual ideas of beauty in animals,
which are generally reduced to the standard of the noble horse. The
skin of the hippopotamus displays a dirty pink hue, from the back
to the belly, and the dark green of the upper part of the body runs
into this other colour. The skin, in drying, changes to a dark grey.
The soil of the island, excellent in other respects, is torn up by
the inundation, ascending several feet over it; but many trees are
lying withered and parched up on the ground. I took a specimen of
the seeds of a dwarf acacia, with barbs: I observed also guinea-fowls
and monkeys: the last are said to swim.
Sabatier, who compares the shores of the Nile here to those of the
Mississippi, only that on the latter the trees are higher, is going
to accompany me, in Thibaut’s bark to the Aes, whilst M. Arnaud
decides upon preparing to-morrow the skin of the hippopotamus,
which he has bought for two hundred and fifty piasters.
_16th April._—Thibaut has started without us—asleep, as he
afterwards said. We remain under Arnaud’s jurisdiction till the
afternoon, then go libàhn against the north wind, and halt late in
the evening, at the right shore. Thermometer 24°, 34°, to 35°.
_17th April._—The wind is against us in our course; forest, islands,
downs, mostly with a gentle ascent and shallows, alternate with my
impatience, until at last we reach El Aes in the afternoon.
El Aes, lying on a sandy down, which ascends and descends with
intermission, is said to be a new place, and is called after a former
sheikh of this name. The present sheikh is denominated Achmet, and
the people appear to be a mixed breed. They do not wish to have much
acquaintance with the Turks, although they are subject to taxation,
which a soldier collects there as Kaimakan. Thermometer, noon, 33°.
_18th April._—Long before daybreak we proceeded on our voyage,
without any oxen having been brought to us. At first we passed
by several islands, and then left the island of Gùbescha at our
right; several Sagiën fallen to ruin, and some chains of buckets
being visible on the left shore. The village of Hedjasi lies in the
neighbourhood, but not a person was to be seen, although we remained
there the afternoon; even onions were not to be got. Suliman Kashef
thinks that he is not much beloved here, which I can very readily
believe. Thousands of camels were being led to water on the left
shore, by the Kabbabish Arabs who come from the interior, and are
said to possess more of these animals than all the other Arabs put
together. This occurs every eight or ten days, and the tribe take back
with them what water they need. Suliman Kashef wanted to make friends
with them, because he saw that they had some cows and goats; but they
trotted off as if a storm were coming on, keeping themselves in troops
like an army, whilst they are said to have shouted “Abu Daoud!”
The colony of Hedjasi lies in a good situation, and might become
a granary for Kordofàn. The soil is somewhat light; the ground
formerly ascended, which declination might have been gradually lost,
when the terraces were in the act of formation; at present it is
all fallen away.
_19th April._—After we had navigated the whole night, we found
ourselves this morning in the country called Tura, from whence
various roads lead to Kordofàn. The flat shores are sandy, and rise,
having a bad and meagre growth of trees. On the right and left are
some hills of downs, on which we find reddish pieces of granite,
such as I met with near the Sagiën. Whence this poverty of humus,
for Nature ought to be more fertilizing, as she washes away sand
from the ground first, and then brings the lighter humus just as we
see at the Delta? We saw nothing of the mountain group of Araskòll,
for the vessels go now too low. Suliman Kashef continues his voyage,
whilst Selim Capitan and Arnaud have landed on the left shore,
the latter to seek for gold in the Araskòll. The shores continue
in sandy downs, especially on the right side, but an immeasurable
level plain extends on the left, of which we have an extensive
view, by reason of the shores being scarcely elevated above the
water. This character of the country passes also subsequently to
the right side. The entirely flat margin of the broader part of the
stream, which we sail through with a favourable east wind, following
Suliman Kashef, is not pure sand; yet we observe upon it thin tracts
of underwood standing back a little, and dwarf mimosas.
This part is, as it were, the mouth of the river, and formed, in
ancient times, a shallow lake by the conflux of the White and Blue
streams, as the downs on the right prove, which are in connection
with those at Khartùm, and formed the very same embankment; for
the more violent pressure of the Blue river clearly opposes the
broad stream of the White one, as we see plainly near the island
of Tuti, and perhaps only subsequently broke through the angle of
land at the right side of this island; if it made previously, as
the Arabs believe, a bend from the city of Soba to the west into
the White river, and thus surrounded, with the latter, the desert
rocks of Omdurman lying at the side. An investigation, however,
would be necessary to ascertain this point. The Downs continue again
afterwards at the right shore, alternating even with downs of earth.
If a shallow lake of such dimensions existed here at one time,
the north wind drove its waves and billows to this side, and piled
up these irregular heights, which are not arranged in a row like a
chain, but sometimes advance, sometimes retreat. The lake withdrew,
and the river levelled, took and gave, so that in many places long
tracts of continuous sandy shores existed, having, however, a fertile
substratum, because otherwise there could not be the vegetation that
there is. This subjacent soil is also frequently visible as humus or
morass, and under it an adhesive blue clay is found, as I ascertain
plainly by the sailors’ poles, which are continually being pushed
into the deep. Thermometer 22° 29° to 30° 28°.
_20th April._—We halted yesterday at sunset, near the mandjeras of
Khurdshid Basha on the right shore. These docks (there is a similar
one on the blue river at Kamlin) are still used, and two new ships
have just been built, whilst ten barks are in dock for repairs. The
workmen live in the village immediately behind the high shore of
the downs, and I saw, in my excursion there, several fowls walking
cheerfully with a number of turtle-doves in the shade of the sunt
trees, although the people would not sell me a fowl. There is also
a corn magazine here, with overseers and soldiers.
The neighbouring sheikh and Arabs came to kiss Suliman Kashef’s
hand: he never once looked at them, but went on speaking with the
other Turks. Such conduct, with many other things of the same kind,
is practised deliberately; although it may seem to the inexperienced
only to arise from forgetfulness. In short, the Turks do everything to
make themselves disliked. It is most advisable for a person who is not
dependent on them, to treat them with a certain kind of indifference,
to seat himself immediately close to them, stretch his legs here and
there in all possible ways, and ask for a pipe, without waiting for
this favour from the swaggering fools; otherwise the Jaur or Kaffr
will always be neglected and despised by the Musselmen.
I examined this morning the nature of the downs, and found that they
are rather deposited earthen walls or dikes, fruitful humus strongly
impregnated with shingle or rubbish, (dissolved particles of stone)
and sand. A covering of sand overlays these hills of earth, being
thick, and accumulated by water and wind towards that part of the
river-side which is more broken and washed away. The hills lose
themselves towards the land side, gently descending in a wide plain
(galla) covered with scanty mimosas, which still remain tolerably
elevated above the river and the left shore. We observe here far
beyond the lower trees, a second dam of downs, which may surpass
the former one in height, and perhaps is the old border of the right
side of the Nile.
_Now_, when I see from these heights of downs, which are sufficiently
elevated to enable me to look over a low surface of earth, the
left shore lying level with the water-line itself, I am no longer
surprised at not having found any limits for the border of the Nile,
on our ascent. But it is exactly on this account that I take it
to be impossible, with the present state of the Nile, that those
morass hills (for the constituent parts are and remain nothing else
but morass, mixed and rolled on by other powers than the present),
could be formed, even at the highest water-mark, under present
circumstances. Yet the latter have been always the same since the
land became dry, and the left shore was still lower than it is at
present. But now the river has full play, and it cannot therefore rise
high, as the appearance of the hills of earth teach us themselves. If
there lay here, however, a shallow lake, through which the current
of the Nile flowed, then morass-hills might have been formed to the
height of the highest water-mark. And this is what I believe. The
Downs still continue for a good tract, and are lost imperceptibly,
again to emerge under the very same appearance.
Arnaud wants to have the hippopotamus-skin dressed again; it is
extended on the sand, but it diffuses a very bad smell, and he
retains therefore only its head. We must remain here till noon for
the sake of this important business, and because Arnaud _will_ make
observations. Then a somewhat favourable but faint wind gets up: we
navigate henceforth almost N. and N.W. In the afternoon the piles of
earth, thrown up by the waters of the lake, are visible on the right
side of the Nile, similar to those I have seen in the lake-caldron
of Taka.
At dusk reefs are seen in the river: they appear to me to be
limestones, and extend from the granite bank of Syene across the
river from E. to W. At one time they might have carried on their
backs beautiful islands, as the granite reefs also previously seen,
which took the road of the lake, and perhaps settled themselves again
at the Delta. We see that the White River finds opposition also here,
and has found still more, from which its slow current is confined
by itself. We navigate till late at night as far as Mount Mussa or
Brane, from which I procure specimens of stones of the chert species,
and remain there. Thermometer, 22°, 30° to 33°, 21°.
_21st April._—We come again before noon to a reef of rocks
running through the river, although the passage remains wide and
broad enough:—then to sluices. The favourable wind does not last
long to day; but the men row diligently, for every one is hoping
to see something dear to him again, like myself, who am impatient
and ardently longing for my beloved brother. Our course goes mostly
between N. and N.N.E., and in the evening, we land near the trees
of Moha Bey, where the last downs appear, whilst the shore extending
flat on the left, supports its old character. I am thinking of making
an excursion afterwards from Khartùm, because by the direction of
the downs I hope to be able to determine something with respect to
the shallow lake of the city.
_22nd April._—Thibaut wanted to go yesterday evening to Khartùm,
to take the first intelligence of our return, but that was not
allowed. I am obliged also to remain, because I have fallen among
robbers, and have eyes like Argus. The intelligence just arrives
that Soliman Effendi is dead. I am sorry for his family, as I was
for that of Vaissière, intelligence of whose death was brought to
us seven days ago, by an Arabian officer. Soliman Effendi is said,
as I hear now, to have poisoned the young lions I possessed: but
let him rest in peace! The society of Europeans must and will now
take another and better form.
A number of people came from Khartùm to pay their respects to our
little Basha, Suliman Kashef, who is lying under the trees on the
extended carpet. I am tired, and almost worn out, for I have not
slept the whole night, because I am expecting every instant to see
my brother, and have been looking, since sunrise, in the direction
of the spires of Khartùm. Thermometer 22° at sunrise.
At first we navigate N. by E., then N.N.E. Oh, for the happy
meeting! a former servant of ours has just come to his brother, Fadl,
and gives me good, but not sufficient, intelligence. We wind north,
near Omdurman, shortly before the mouth of the White river, where an
arm of the Nile runs round the little island on the left, and rocks in
the water on the right lie opposite to those at the right shore. Here,
therefore, the White stream had to break the last dam, and its current
was doubtless under the small chain of downs of Omdurman. At last
we bear up near the rocks from whence the White river, which was
unquestionably pressed through them and has but a slight breadth
here, takes the direction to north for this short tract. The other
vessels are already sailing up the Blue river, and we navigate very
slowly behind with our heavy vessel, the wind being contrary.
The thunder of cannon rolled down from the vessels—joy and
pleasure. I wished to describe our return, but I did not see my
brother. Black thoughts suddenly shook me as if a fit of ague had
attacked me. When I saw even the window-shutters of our divan closed,
where he might wait for me so comfortably in the shade, I trembled
violently, and my knees tottered so that they laid me on the bed. I
soon, however, got up, and sat before the cabin; and just at the
moment when our vessel touched the land, some one pointed him out
standing on the shore. I jumped ashore from the deck, and fell down:
my brother raised me up. Eleven days after this happy meeting he
died in my arms, completely broken by the effects of the climate.
APPENDIX.
* * * * *
Much has been written, advised, and spoken, concerning the
important question of the Geographical position of the sources of
the White Nile, since this voyage of mine; many ridiculous as well as
arrogant conjectures, and bold assertions, have been laid before the
learned world, without any loss of time, respecting this historical
subject. Among the pretenders to the discovery of the sources,
Antoine D’Abbadie stands out the boldest of the bold. (_Vide_ his
letters from Omokullu in Ethiopia, 5th, 6th, and 7th Aug., 1847, in
the Athenæum, Nos. MXLI. and MXLII. and those to Jomard and Arago,
in Paris, in the “Journal des Débats,” 5th Oct., and in the
“Comptes rendus Hebdomadaires des séances de l’Academie,”
4th Oct. 1847, No. XIV., T. XXV. p. 485-487).
The principal thing of importance for a traveller who starts on
expeditions of this kind, is to see with his _own eyes_, and to
verify by personal inspection or mental contemplation what he hears
from the Natives; for the _solitary_ traveller may have _everything_
related to him that he wishes, and, in fact, seeks to obtain. There
are no European companions, and still less eye-witnesses of the soil
of happy Ethiopia, to tax him with false statements; and how easy is
it to find natives who have no conception of the great importance of
their expressions, and are ready, without any qualm of conscience,
to assent to the preconceived notions of the traveller, when they
think by that means to please him!
M. Antoine D’Abbadie, even previously, had _discovered_ the
sources of the White Nile,—as he wrote in a letter, dated 17th
October, 1844, from Adoa (Adwa), in Habesh, addressed to us in
Kàhira. (Preussiche Zeitung, 21st February, 1845, and others.) That
glorious fountain-head was said to lie _then_ in the land of Gmura,
or Gamru, near the mountains of Bochi, or Dochi. The latitude and
longitude of it were not given. He does not seem to have planted the
_drapeau tricolore_ there, any more than my French companions did at
the final point of our expedition; because, had they done so, both
the Turks and myself would have set up our national standard. For
my part I did not let the opportunity slip of denying the claims of
D’Abbadie to raise a shout of victory at having solved the question
of the sources of the Nile, and to contradict his absurd etymology of
the Mountains of the Moon, upon which the whole discovery was said
to be based. (Monthly Report of the Geographical Society in Berlin,
7th Annual Vol., p. 20.) He thought that the name of “Gmura,” or
“Gamru,” being analogous in sound to that of the Arabic language,
had induced the Arabian Geographers to adopt this word, and to form it
into the present Kamar (Moon). Mr. Ayrton, to whom I will afterwards
advert, takes the opposite side, and is of opinion that the former
denomination is a corruption of the Arabic word “Kamar.”
This Nile source of 1844 appears, however, to have been dried up
again, or discarded by M. D’Abbadie, for he suddenly transplanted
the _true sources_ of the White Stream into another country; the
forest of Babia, between Inarya (Enarea,) and Jumma Kaka (Djimma
Kaka); and, _to be sure_,—between 7° 49′ N. Lat., and 34°
48′ E. Long., from Paris. (See his reports and letters of 1847).
I must, however, entirely controvert this second discovery,
notwithstanding it is declared in the most positive manner. Error,
indeed, is natural to man, but truth must assert its claims; besides,
I do not deny that M. Antoine D’Abbadie would have liked to have
made such a discovery, or to become an historical discoverer. Far be
it from me, who know what travelling is in Africa,—who suffered
the tortures of its deserts and its scorching heat, and struggled
several times with fever and death, to consider the Tricolour
which he fastened to the trees of the Babia forest as a vane or
weathercock. No: I greet it rather with friendly interest as a
cheerful sign to science and a way-mark to geographical progress,
and as an agreeable surprise to succeeding travellers.
Now D’Abbadie makes _his_ source of the Nile bubble up about
the _eighth_ degree of north latitude; whereas, I have navigated
up the river with this Expedition, which has advanced further than
any other, as far as the _fourth_ degree north latitude, where, as
already mentioned, the sources of the Nile were expressly pointed
out to us as lying still farther to the _South_. It appears to
me, therefore, a desperate and daring attempt, on the part of our
discoverer, to claim for himself “primo occupanti,” that water
which he saw, or even waded through, as being _a priori_, the _real
and true_ source of the White Stream. The pretensions to _priority_
of discovery,—claims that were to be kept up on any terms,—may
perhaps be what he has fixed his eyes upon, and which he has pursued
too eagerly, without any forbearance, as is plainly perceived by
his passionate letter to Mr. Ayrton, against Dr. Beke, who inclined
to the opinion expressed by me concerning the source. The degree of
latitude stated by him, in complete opposition to the direction of
all the stream territory we visited, is no stumbling-block to him any
more than the diametrically opposite opinion of the natives of Bari.
Antoine D’Abbadie specifies three points which appear to him
to decide the only true source of every river; it is therefore
surprising that the _first_ of these rules laid down by him, viz. to
determine the course of a river by the _opinion of the people_,
is exactly inapplicable to the White Nile; for _that_ is completely
in opposition to his favourite idea. He tells us expressly that the
aborigines dwelling at the sources of _his_ White Nile, make _these
very same sources_ flow collectively into the Abbay (Blue Nile). It
required, therefore, more than courage to throw aside the popular
opinion, and to give a contrary direction to the sources, without
having convinced himself _personally_ of the fact, by a corresponding
examination of these supposed tributaries. This statement of the
people of Damot ought to be more valued and credited, because,
according to him, they derived their origin from Gojam (Godjam),
and Bagemidr; therefore from a northern country on the Abbay.
A nation connected _directly_ with another by water-roads, as must be
the case between the inhabitants of Kafa, Enarea, and Bari, according
to the hypothetical river of D’Abbadie, ought to have _domestic_
animals, and customs in common, if only partly so, being under an
_exactly similar climatic situation_. Enarea and Kafa have coffee,
horses, and asses; but these are entirely unknown in Bari, as I
stated in the year 1844 (Allgemeine Preussiche Zeitung, 24th July,
1844). Sheep, poultry, and leather are said by D’Abbadie _not_ to be
in Kafa; whereas we have found them in Bari. He relates that dollars
are very well known in Kafa, and that the merchants are very eager
after them; but in Bari money is not known, as we convinced ourselves
by enquiry. From this argument, then, the sources of D’Abbadie
and the pretended countries they flow through are not connected with
Bari. Besides, the names of these countries were _never_ mentioned
to us. That the mountain-land, however, lying to the east of Berri,
in the neighbourhood of which the water-shed might be found, is a
principal emporium for these regions, and that they are connected with
the rivers discharging themselves into the Indian Ocean, follows from
the facts previously specified, and even from the indications of the
things found there. A slave-market does not seem, however, to exist;
and, in order to attest this fact, commercial reports alone could
prove whether copper also was brought from the interior of Africa. We
may boldly affirm, without any self-persuasion, that the _southerly_
direction of the stream can be determined, within a few degrees, from
the island of Tshanker, by the plastic formation of the mountainous
region, through the cleft valleys of which the true White Nile breaks.
The eye may, as it were, follow what we hear from the natives, who
only point towards the south, and assert that they do not know of
any water flowing towards E., where they are, however, in commercial
relation with the country of Berri, ten days’ journey off; but
they only speak of _springs_ found there, which were translated
to us by the Arabic word, “Birr.” We were given to understand,
also, that this land, so rich in copper, was mountainous; from which
I conjectured that there might be brooks there, especially at the
rainy season, but that not one of them could stand even a remote
comparison with their Tubirih (White Stream at Bari).
So, also, the beautiful fine-grained salt, brought from thence to
Bari, is not the rock-salt of the desert, but is extracted from the
brackish water and slime, according to the form of the vessels in
which it has been boiled. I have seen, however, in the great tract
of country between the lower Atbara and the Red Sea, that a land
subject to tropical rains—although, as in Africa, without rivers
and streams—can provide, even in the dry season, men and animals
with water from its earthly womb—that is, from the torrents and
water-tanks. The Anthropophagi, also living on the mountain-chain by
Logojà, in the neighbourhood of Bari, have not any running water;
but they take it from the ground: namely, from natural cisterns
or cavities.
We had all believed that the White Stream must come from the _East_;
therefore our enquiries about that side were more careful: but not
all our signs towards the East could bring back the Natives from
the South, the true source of the Stream. I remember still quite
well that I wrote this down immediately, and laid it before the
Geographical Society, in Berlin, some years before there was any talk
of the various sources described by D’Abbadie. Moreover, it seems
to follow from the whole configuration of the line of mountains, that
Nature has fixed here a water-shed to the East as well as to the West;
for the mountain chains of Logojà and Kùgelu stretch from East and
West to South, probably as branches of a mighty mountain-stock under
the Equator, from which the streams of the Bach’r-el-Abiad issue.
Although M. d’Arnaud, my companion during the voyage on the White
Stream, says that the latter is navigable for a “cinquante de
milles” from the island of Tshànker, and arbitrarily makes the
_main arm_ of the smaller rivulet of the Nile spring from the east;
yet this is either only the remnant of our old affection for the
_easterly_ descent of the river; or it may be the result of a want of
truthfulness. I challenge Thibaut and Sabatier, his own countrymen,
to come forward and state whether there was ever any talk about such
a main-arm as he describes. According to Làkono, who had been there,
and called the land wherein the source lies by the name of Anjan,
the water in the _four_ brooks, by the conflux of which the White
Nile is formed, reached _only up to the ankles_. This land, however,
lay to the south, as my travelling companions must remember, and
which Arnaud also allows, as I will afterwards prove.
Now if we would follow for at least 5° towards the north such
a Nile brook, from this county of Anjan to the Forest of Babia,
in order to be extraordinarily complaisant to M. d’Abbadie, who
might rely upon Arnaud, we should not find, even with a microscope,
the silver threads of his sources.
Now if I wished to discard the opinion of the people of Bari, as
being contrary to my conviction, like d’Abbadie has done with
respect to the views of the natives, because they were opposite
to his theory, I would not say anything of the rashness of the
“Knight of the Source,” nor envy him the fame which is due
to him as an indefatigable traveller, and the _croix d’honneur_
awarded to him for this presumed discovery; that is, supposing that
the stream we had before us on the island of Tshanker wound to the
_east_ from the south under the rocks of Lugi and Kalleri (evidently
harbingers of a high mountainous region), and then flowed humbly under
the mountain-chain of Logoja, to seek its origin from the fourth
to about the eighth degree of north latitude. The river, however,
does not accommodate itself to this course, but steps forth boldly
from its rocky gates, as a mountain-stream. The ascending ground,
and the rocks scattered in the river above the island, shew that
the fall must increase considerably in the mountainous region—as
even the rocky wall of Kàlleri forms a vast waterfall at the rainy
season—which might make us conclude that there is a lake lying high,
in which an extensive mountain plateau pours its waters, or perhaps
even serves as a periodical channel far above the Nile. The greater
gradation of the river-bed, necessarily following its entrance into
the rocky territory, must at last make the Forest of Babia an enormous
height, in a progressive ratio; and the latter, though at a distance
of four to five degrees, must be connected with mountain-ridges, to
lead the stream into a high longitudinal valley lying to the south,
as if into an aqueduct, so that it may not pour into the vast basin
to the west, to which the Sobàt also is hastening. Without entering
point by point into Antoine d’Abbadie’s accounts, which are not
always clear, and the hypothesis of his defenders, I must assume that
he abode not only in Inarya, the field of his study on the sources,
but also in Kafa and Bonga, for he expressly says so. I can readily
believe also, that the complication of rivers in the Forest of
Babia cost him considerable pains to find out the _true_ source of
the White Nile, against the _general and prevailing opinion there_;
likewise, that he tried to discover, by means of verbal expressions,
the relative quantity of water of the five tributaries, because
otherwise he must have resided there three or four years, &c.
Now if it be true that the people of Damot have emigrated from Gojam,
the Abbay must be well known to them, because Gros-Damot lies between
water, which partly encompasses Gojam, the Gojab, and the Didesa. I
do not altogether understand how he can reject the testimony of
the people of Damot, on the futile ground that they descended from
Gojam. If this nation now extends up to the summit of the sources,
so must they also know from their primeval acquaintance with the
Abbay, whether their waters pour into the Abbay or not. Though the
exploration of the mouth of the Niger has also cost much labour and
time; and though Dutch simplicity or craft still makes the Rhine
flow into the Waal, yet it is more natural for a nation dwelling
on a river to know in what direction it flows, than to be able to
give the direction of the curves and windings of its tributaries
towards the sources. And is it likely, that a people whom he calls
aborigines, and who must therefore be acquainted with their home,
should not know whether the river runs towards the south or to the
north, in a stream territory with which they are well acquainted?
The second decision of D’Abbadie, that the larger mass of water
decides a source or a tributary, overthrows entirely his third and
most essential one, viz. that one ought to look at the direction of
the river; because, in truth, he has neither followed the latter
as far as the White Nile, nor to the Sobàt, whose sources appear
to him a mere bagatelle. It almost seems as if he chivalrously cut
asunder the Gordian knot of that entanglement of rivers during his
hermitage in Iaka, and has tried to force on us a vague hypothesis
as being the real matter of fact.
There is a strange controversy in the relation of his journey of
discovery, which ought to be sifted closely. He had _long_ passed
over the mountain-chain of Nare, when he took up his abode in the
Forest of Babia, having arrived, as he expressly declares, from the
basin of the Abbay (Blue Nile) into that of the White Nile; and yet
he had, on his right, the sources of the Didesa, a tributary of the
_Blue_ Nile. According to this statement, he has never issued from
the combination of streams of the Blue Nile, or he has come to a
point to which rivers flow, as in Paradise, from all four corners of
the world. All this is not exactly adapted to make us believe that
the river Gojab, or Uma (Omo), which springs from those sources,
is identical with the _White Nile_.
Mr. Charles Johnston has conceived the strange belief that he
participates in the views of D’Abbadie; but the good man makes
his Gibbee (Durr, Omo) the Gibe and Gojàm of D’Abbadie, _receive_
at last the waters of the Abi (Abbay), in the environs of Fàzogl;
consequently he has claims with D’Abbadie to the discovery of the
main source of the _Blue Nile_.
Mr. Ayrton also (in the Athenæum, No. MLXI.), steps into the lists
for M. D’Abbadie. Notwithstanding his learned attempt to fix
etymologically the situation of the source-territory of the Nile by
a fortuitous coincidence of words according to a previous plan of
D’Abbadie, I cannot assent to his views.
If the inhabitants of the coast of the Red Sea first navigated
this Stream, as naturally would be the case, and the Sabæans, from
Arabia, conquered Habesh in the time of Solomon, the latter colony
might still have remained their principal commercial settlement on
the coast, and even have been planted long before their immigrations
from Asia. The dialect of the Ethiopians, which we still recognise
to belong to the Semitic languages, announces that there was a
communication with these maritime countries before the period of
history: yet, commerce on the coast of Habesh might perhaps only
have remained a coasting-trade; for history hands down to posterity
merely the fact, that the Arabs made journeys to China, and that
the Nabathæans brought Indian goods and asphalt on their camels to
the Egyptian market at the time of Alexander the Great,—the latter
article being fished up from the Red Sea. It is improbable that the
Sabæans, who were very well known under the successors of Alexander,
extended into the Ethiopian highlands their colonies in Habesh,
where even now the Arabic language only prevails on parts of the
coast, in commercial intercourse. It is very unlikely, also, that
they have given the name of “Mountains of the Moon” to a region;
because such a change of a local name, which was certainly imposed
upon that country beforehand, pre-supposes a regular Sabæan colony
on the spot, whose idiom might perhaps be discovered in a different
way than by the solitary word “Gamarö,” or “Gimirö;”
for we might derive this as well from “Gimri,” or “Gumri,”
(turtle-doves), as I have heard also somewhere in the Desert the name
of “Gebel Gimri.” It seems to me, therefore, that it is rather too
daring to wish to identify this expression,—according to Abbadie,
“Gamru,” or “Gmura,” with the Arabic “Kamar.” But if these
parts, so remarkable on account of the sources of the Nile, had been
known in the ancient times, the Egyptian priests and Herodotus, or
most certainly the later Greeks, would have learned something of them.
The argument that the illustrious Claudius Ptolemy derived his
_σεληνης ορος_ from the Arabs, appears to me completely
untenable. There is no record existing beyond the time of this
geographer that I know of, which mentions “Gebl Kamar;” if
there were, it would be convincing. There can be no doubt that
Ptolemy acquired his information from Egyptian elephant-hunters,
otherwise he would not have transferred the origin of the sources to
the neighbourhood of the Equator. These elephant-hunts were fitted
out like military expeditions by the kings of Egypt, and penetrated,
according to Pliny, far into the Ethiopian provinces, beyond the
Lybian deserts.
I cannot either participate in the views of Mr. Ayrton respecting
the points of culmination of the Ethiopian highlands, but I assume
that there are three independent mountain-chains in the interior of
Africa:—the eastern one in Habesh, the western in Darfûr, and the
southern being the Mountains of the Moon, in Anjan, near the equator;
which place I have mentioned several times in this discourse. These
form also partly the watersheds, as I will explain more clearly. I
also will allow myself here a play upon words. According to
D’Abbadie, the moon is called in Kafa “Agane” and “Agina,”
and the name of my moon-country is “Anjan.” What more therefore
do my African etymologists require? The two countries cannot lie very
far asunder, and the analogy of their languages is certainly possible,
without even consulting Mezzofanti,[7] but the pronunciation is always
difficult to reach. “Angan,” however, is not the word for moon
in Bari. If we wish to retain the expression of “Mountains of the
Moon,” we must go back to a primitive word of the language of the
place, as Dr. Beke thinks with regard to his “Mono Moezi.”
Once more I must return to Freind Arnaud, and his insipid account,
for we could not expect anything else from him, as he did not
keep any descriptive diary wherein he could note down his dreams
about Làkono’s body-guard of women, and things of the same kind;
but he has filled up his journal with lion and elephant hunts, and
other fabulous circumstances, like a pictorial newspaper. He says
(_Vide_ Bulletin de la Société de Géographie deuxième série,
t. xviii. p. 376) that the Nile is navigable from Bari for thirty
hours further, but forms here different arms, the most important
of which comes from the east, and flows past the great country of
Berri, which is fifteen days’ journey towards the east, from the
mountain-chain of Bellenia (Pelenjà). I also am of opinion that the
river, one arm of which, where we lay near the island of Tshànker,
was three hundred metres broad, and afforded only a shallow stream
of about three feet in depth to the vessels, which had become light
by reason of the provisions being consumed, notwithstanding it had
two miles’ rapidity, may be navigable for a considerable distance
further when the high water covers the rocks, provided no cataracts
of consequence oppose the course. Therefore he gives thirty hours
for the southern direction of the river before he makes an arm go to
the east. We could only have settled how far the river was navigated,
by proceeding on our course, if that had been possible at the time.
However, there has never been any talk of these thirty hours; and
Arnaud has, of his own will, reduced the distance of thirty days,
repeatedly given to us by the king of Bari and his attendants,
as the time required for navigating the different arms, in order
to pretend that he was _closer_ to the sources. But the division of
time into _hours_ must be known on the White Nile first, before such
a flippant substitution can take place. It seemed also incredible
to me that Anjan should be a month distant, but thirty days were
plainly represented to us. If we reckon only eight hours to be a
day’s journey, the distance would be _eight_ degrees, half of
which we should have to deduct naturally for local impediments, to
bring the geographical position of Anjan under the equator. That
we had not misunderstood the word “month” was proved besides
by Làkono clenching his fist three times, to denote thirty days,
and also by the expression that after _two months_ (therefore at the
end of March or beginning of April) the rains commenced. Lastly,
the circumstance that several other tribes were said to dwell on
the shores towards the south, bespeaks a considerable distance. It
is, however, still a question, whether the country of Berri is ten
or thirty days’ journey off. Làkono, in whose eyes the copper
so abundant there has an extraordinary value, might have feared,
at the commencement of our acquaintance, that we wanted to spoil
his trade with Berri, and to enrich ourselves with its treasures:
from this supposition he increased the distance threefold.
But when Arnaud arbitrarily reduces that first statement to fifteen
days’ journey, it shews a thoughtless disposition; for he was not
only present at the conversation with the king, but we have spoken
of it among ourselves. He has, therefore, either entirely forgotten
it, and his recollection has not been assisted by any notes written
down at the time, which is quite necessary in these countries,
notwithstanding the illness to which we are constantly liable; or
he wanted to give a greater air of probability to his account by
fiction, namely, by substituting thirty hours for thirty days.
When I find marked on his map above Bari, “Country of the
Pulunchs,” it recalls clearly to my recollection how he believed
every thing without investigation, and noted down what Thibaut told
him. I was sitting one day sketching on the rocks of the island: some
natives stood by, who understood very well what I was doing, and I
still see them—how they extended their arms horizontally, and made
undulating movements, which was meant to denote a continuation of the
mountains lying before us to the south, and then mentioning several
names, held up their hands together, and by the thumb indicated to
me that there was _one_ mountain exceeding all the others in height,
whilst they looked contemptuously at the other chain of mountains. At
the same time they bawled in my ears, because I did not speak, and
still less could answer, so that I was nearly deaf, under which
affliction they probably thought I was labouring. I got up and
went down to the shore, where I saw Thibaut standing. He stretched
his hand towards the south, with an enquiring look, and the people
said “Pulunch,” whereupon he burst out into an Homeric laugh,
and said, “that is something for Arnaud.” The latter has made
a country out of this observation, and perhaps with justice.
With regard to the time of the winds and rains in Central Africa,
I have tried several times, but find myself incapable of explaining
these magnificent natural phenomena. It appears certain, that the
monsoons of the Indian, the trade-winds of the Atlantic Oceans, and
the north winds from the Mediterranean, are subject to different
natural laws in the interior of Africa, where it is comparatively
cooler than on the sea-shore; for the winds were never constant during
our course: they changed continually from side to side, and all the
observations and calculations of our sailors, accurate as they are
in other places, failed in ascertaining the tide and quarters of
the moon. As to the mutual swelling of the two Niles near Khartùm
(called by the Turks Khàrdùm), the sources have nothing to do with
the first rising of the water, but the succeeding ones give a quantity
of water to the countries subject to tropical rains, together with
their gohrs and tributaries, among which the Sobàt is the most
considerable for the White Stream. This mass of water immediately
becomes imperceptibly level, excepting certain disproportions,
with the head of Sennaar, conformably to hydrostatic laws.
It would be an idle attempt to endeavour to speak out clearer and
more strikingly touching the formation of the soil of Central Africa;
for a master like Professor Carl Ritter has already done this in
his “Glance at the Source-territory of the Nile.” In order to
set aside many preconceived opinions, and again to give the true
imprint of my own views, I do not hesitate to annex the report
of Dr. Girard, whom I have several times mentioned, and which was
contained in the above instructive little work, being partly founded
upon my geognostical collection; because this learned young man has
discovered and ascertained, with acuteness rarely to be found, the
quality of the soil in Africa, so far as I am able to judge from my
expedition. He says:—“There are three great mountain chains in the
eastern part of Central Africa, one extending to the east, the other
to the South, and the third to the West. The eastern one surrounds
the large Tzana-lake, and contains the sources of the Tacazze and
the Blue Nile, and ascends easterly from the latter to a height of
more than 10,000 feet. The southern and south westerly, respecting
the elevation of which nothing is known, forms the water-shed between
the tributaries of the Nile and the territory of the streams flowing
westerly, and is that region formerly called the Mountains of the
Moon. Lastly, the north-westerly, the centre of which is in the
Jebel Marra, from which some tributaries wind towards the south,
to the Bah’r-el-Abiad; but the most of these subordinate streams
flow towards the west, the centre of Africa. Between the eastern and
southern mountain-stock, there is another chain of high mountains,
not extensive but lofty, which, forming the westerly part of Enarea,
appears to spread to the kingdom of Bari, and attains in Enarea a
height of more than 7000 feet.[8]
“A marsh-land extends to the south of this mountain, and the
Goshcop flows into it: if it be permitted to carry our surmises so
far, we should say that not any high mountains are to be expected
further to the south, for coffee and cotton are cultivated on the
other side of the Goshcop-valley, because we conceive that there is
a salt-lake, and, lastly, a land producing gold. The former may be
considered to lie on a dry table-land, the latter on a low plain,
wherein the auriferous loam and sand may be deposited.
“A similar auriferous foreland seems to extend in the centre
of these regions, between the highlands of Enarea and Bari, to the
upper course of the Bah’r-el-Abiad, and the mountains of Kordofàn,
Sennaar, and Fàzogl.[9] It is a country which is inhabited partly by
negroes pursuing agriculture. Another part consists of wide plains,
covered with high grasses, wherein many elephants pasture, and which
is bounded on the north by a girdle, thirty miles in breadth, of
a ground containing gold-sand. These are the plains through which
the Sobàt (written in French Saubat) flows with its _tributaries_
to the Bah’r-el-Abiad.[10] The specimens from the shores of the
Sobàt are composed partly of a micaceous sand, of a brown black
ochrous clay, of chalky sand, and partly of a conglomerate, which
is baked together and composed of small fragments of limestone. The
sand, when it is pure, consists of several little yellowish grains of
quartz, a small portion of reddish feldspar, some brown iron-stones,
tombac, brown mica, and little grains of a black mineral, the nature
of which cannot be accurately ascertained. This composition denotes
that the sand derives its origin from a mica slate, and gneiss
chain of mountains, not very distant; for if the sand were far from
the mountains from whence it sprang, it would not contain coloured
mica. The sand of the shore of the Bah’r-el-Abiad, in the kingdom
of Bari, is perfectly similar to this sand, only somewhat coarser
in grain, and, moreover, merely attaining to the size of millet. It
contains principally quartz, then the same brown mica, only in
a larger quantity than in the preceding sand, and, in addition,
several more of those black grains, proving that there is hornblende
here. This comes probably from syenite and diorite masses, as they
are frequently seen in gneiss and mica-slate mountains. They might,
however, be of volcanic origin, for they contain, in great abundance,
the lava of the Jebel Defafaungh (written in French Tefafon) on the
north boundary of the said plain. The mountain is clearly an extinct
volcano. It rises probably from a basaltic plateau, for basalt with
olivine and pyroxene are seen in it, and red-brown porous lava, with
large rounded hornblende crystals and dark-grey tophus, formed of
clear little porous fragments of lava and fine ashes, seem to cover
its declivity. The tophus, as well as the lava, does not contain any
vitreous feldspar, nor is any pumice-stone observable among them, but
all the products of the volcano shew that it is a converted basalt.
“The volcanic activity appears not to have extended far, and is
only discovered on the northern margin of this cauldron, which was
probably, at one time, a large sweet-water basin, for the stones
of Sennaar in the north, those of Fazògl and Bertat in the east,
of the country of Bari in the south, and of Kordofàn and Jebel Tira
in the west, are of a different nature.
“The collections in this city are derived partly from M. Werne,
who made them in the expedition sent by the Basha of Egypt in the
year 1840, and partly are owing to the scientific liberality of
M. Russegger; and they afford sufficient information with respect
to the general geognostic relations of these scarcely discovered
mountains.
“The chain of the Mountains of the Moon consists, according to the
several specimens, of gneiss and mica-slate. One of these specimens,
was taken from the most southerly point that the expedition reached,
and indeed, ‘from the cataracts in the land of Bari;’ that is to
say, from the rock which prevented the expedition from penetrating
further into the country. It is gneiss, composed of white feldspar,
and much black mica, and mica-slate; the friable and exceedingly
granulous quartz does not contain feldspar, but small scaly black
mica. There is found, moreover, in the valley of Berri, magnet
iron-stone, which, however, does not seem to be commonly known;
for it has been collected to the amount of several pounds weight,
as being merely sand, without any other particles of stone.[11]
“The magnet-iron displays also, in several places, brittle iron-ore,
and reminds me of similar occurrences in the large mica-slate
mountain-chain of the Brazils.
“We do not possess, unfortunately, any specimens from the high
mountains of Enarea, but the stones of the lands of Bertat, Sennaar,
and Fazògl, are well known through M. Russegger’s excellent
collection. There are granite and gneiss mountains in the land
of Bertat, and in the southern part of Fazògl; chlorite slate
(probably the stone bringing gold here) follows this chain towards
the north, together with mica-slate; and lastly, in Sennaar, there
is also clay-slate. In the latter, which is very much changed in some
places, veins of granite and quartz are at the top, so that here also,
as in many other points, the clay-slate appears the more ancient,
the granite the more modern stone. Granite is met with likewise on
the Bah’r el Abiad, in the Jebel Njemati (Iemati), being partly of
pink feldspar, white albin, grey quartz and black mica, and partly
composed without albin, and only of dark red feldspar, white quartz,
and black mica.
“Similar species of rocks are found in Kordofàn, viz., granite,
gneiss, and mica-slate. However, diorite makes its appearance towards
the south, consisting of white feldspar, green and black hornblende,
and a little volcanic sand. On the island of Tira there is also
chlorite slate. But the most remarkable thing is the appearance of
clinkstone or phonolite, found in Koldadschi (written also Kodalgi
and Koldagi), in Russegger’s collection.
“This circumstance is conclusive of a considerable development of
basaltic stones in these regions, though it does not denote volcanic
phenomena; for phonolite, with us, only appears in those basaltic
mountain-groups where there has not been any eruption of volcanoes.
“A sandstone and hornstone formation, probably belonging to the
latter tertiary rocks, is situated before the mountain-chain of
Kordofàn and Sennaar, to which Mount Mandera, which consists of
syenite, is united in the east. It forms the Jebel Mussa, specimens
from which have been given both by Russegger and Werne.
“We wind up the geognostical picture of these countries by saying
that we find granite, gneiss, and mica-slate generally spread, with
which clay-slate, chlorite-slate, and diorite present themselves,
all of the earlier formation,—new stones of basalt, phonolites,
and volcanoes, springing from the tertiary epoch, join on immediately
to the others. The limestone conglomerates, found in the Sobàt,
have perhaps their origin in chalk lime-stone, to which they belong
apparently, judging from external appearances; and if this should
be the case, the geognostical relations of the eastern part of
central Africa are closely allied to those of Palestine, Syria,
and Asia Minor.”
THE END.
LONDON:
Printed by S. & J. BENTLEY and HENRY FLEY,
Bangor House, Shoe Lane.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: A Parisian or French foot is equal to 1·066 English
(Transl.)]
[Footnote 2: A water-shed is the geographical term for a
mountain-range, which causes the rivers rising on them to descend
in different directions.]
[Footnote 3: A mètre is equal to 3·281 English feet. (Trans.)]
[Footnote 4: On the Rhine. (Trans.)]
[Footnote 5: Corrected in this translation. (Transl.)]
[Footnote 6: Bartholomew de las Casas, a Spanish prelate, born at
Seville in 1474, and died at Madrid 1566. He set at liberty the
Indians who had fallen to his share in the division of Cuba, when
it was conquered by Columbus, and interested himself for them with
King Ferdinand. With a strange inconsistency, however, he became
the author of the slave trade, by his proposal to purchase negroes
from the Portuguese in Africa to supply the planters with labourers,
which suggestion was unfortunately adopted.—(Translator).]
[Footnote 7: Poor Cardinal Mezzofanti, “the monster of languages,”
as Byron called him, died while this translation was being made,
16th March, 1849. (Trans.)]
[Footnote 8: The above supposition is justified by the plastic
proportions given: we must assume, however, that this chain falls
away to the country of Bari, but swells up south of Bari, and joins
a mountain-stock in the country of Anjan.—_The Author._]
[Footnote 9: Gold is, however, unknown in Bari.—_The Author._]
[Footnote 10: I do not know of any tributaries belonging to the
Sobàt.—_The Author._]
[Footnote 11: The magnet iron-stone is not found in the valley of
Berri, but principally in the mountains of Bari, especially in Korèk,
where it must be, however, general; for the iron-sand I brought with
me, which was already cleared from stones, and perhaps from mud,
appears in the mountains themselves, in the dry beds of the torrents,
and washed out hollows and ravines.—_The Author._]
Transcriber's note:
pg 37 Changed: first suubdued to: subdued
pg 40 Changed: very difierent kinds to: different
pg 56 Changed: because the Dinkani to: Dinkaui
pg 59 Changed: a heathen Dinkani to: Dinkaui
pg 60 Changed: 60′ to S. and 75′ to E. to: 60″ to S. and 75″ to E.
pg 61 Changed: southerly 60°. long. to: 60″
pg 61 Changed: towards S.E. 50° to: 50″
pg 62 Changed: S.W. 28′ to W. to: 28″
pg 62 Changed: S.W. 30′ to W. to: 30″
pg 62 Changed: Mount Bio S.W. 60′ to: 60″
pg 81 Changed: everthing for beads to: everything
pg 142 Changed: protruding spheically to: spherically
pg 142 Changed: bows and arrors to: arrows
pg 213 Changed: quarter aften ten to: after
pg 218 Changed: a little foward to: forward
pg 223 Changed: village no the left to: on
pg 233 Changed: insterspersed with slender to: interspersed
pg 237 Changed: again witk a to: with
pg 242 Changed: notwithsanding the narrow to: notwithstanding
pg 319 Changed: peices or specimens to: pieces
pg 341 Changed: forest of Bahia to: Babia
pg 345 Changed: σεληνος ορος to: σεληνης
pg 345 Added a missing reference to footnote 7 after: cardinal
Mezzofanti,
pg 352 Changed: the expediton for to: expedition
Minor changes in punctuation have been done silently.
Other spelling inconsistencies have been left unchanged.