LIST OF PLATES.
* * * * *
I.—Portrait of the Author. To face title Vol. I.
II.—General map.
III.—Itinerary map.
IV.—A woman of Timbuctoo.
V.—M. Caillié meditating upon the Koran, and taking his notes.
IV.—Plan of the great mosque of Timbuctoo, and a view of it taken
from the E. N. E.
V.—Details of the great mosque of Timbuctoo.
VI.—View of part of the town of Timbuctoo, taken from the summit
of a hill to the E. N. E.
* * * * *
LONDON:
PRINTED BY O. SCHULZE, 13, POLAND STREET.
[Illustration: GENERAL MAP OF THE TRAVELS OF M. CAILLIE TO JENNÉ
AND TIMBUCTOO, AND ACROSS THE SAHARA, in 1827, & 1828. Drawn by
M. JOMARD _Member of the Royal Institute of France_ 1829]
TRAVELS
THROUGH
CENTRAL AFRICA
TO
TIMBUCTOO; AND
ACROSS THE GREAT DESERT, TO MOROCCO;
PERFORMED IN THE YEARS 1824-1828.
BY RÉNÉ CAILLIÉ.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II.
LONDON: HENRY COLBURN AND RICHARD BENTLEY,
NEW BURLINGTON STREET.
1830
PREFACE.
* * * * *
I offer, at length, to the public the narrative of my travels in the
interior of Africa, which should have appeared long since; several
causes have, however, concurred during the fifteen months that have
elapsed since my return to my native soil, to retard its publication
till the present time. I have brought home, from the regions I have
traversed, only fugitive and very laconic notes, written in haste and
trepidation: they would have been inexorable evidences against me,
had I been surprised tracing unknown characters, and unveiling as
it were to the Whites the mysteries of these countries. In Africa,
especially in those districts occupied by the Foulahs and the Moors,
religious hypocrisy in a stranger is the most flagrant of outrages,
and it were a hundred times better to pass there for a Christian,
than for a false Mahometan; so that if my mode of travelling had its
advantages, which its success has proved, it was also attended with
terrible inconveniences. I carried always in my wallet a sentence
of death, and how often was that wallet necessarily confided to
the hands of enemies! On my arrival in Paris, the notes, written
mostly in pencil, were found so faint and so much effaced by time, my
wanderings, and my ill fortune, that it required all the tenacity and
the scrupulous fidelity of my memory to restore and reproduce them
as the basis of my observations and the materials of my narrative.
But that scrupulous fidelity which should always distinguish the
compilation of travels, and which I consider the principal merit
of mine, demanded that I should consecrate to this work the time
necessary to ascertain that I have omitted nothing essential, and
to arrange the facts in the exact order in which I had observed and
noted them. Another not less legitimate cause of delay arose from
a long and dangerous illness which seized me some months after my
arrival in France, and exhausted the strength which was left me by
the long continued fatigues and privations of a seventeen months’
journey over those burning sands so frequently fatal to our European
travellers. To these causes must also be added the extent of my
materials, my want of initiation into the art of composition in
the most difficult and delicate of languages, and the resolution
I had formed to avoid having recourse to a more experienced pen,
except for the correction of those errors of style which would
naturally escape mine; for I was desirous of offering to the public
a composition as entirely my own as the observations on which it was
founded; a composition which, however deficient in studied elegance,
should at least be simple, clear, and frank, describing the exact
extent of my travels and exhibiting the traveller under his peculiar
traits. With regret I acknowledge that important observations upon
the political and religious institutions, and upon the manners
and customs of the people amongst whom I have sojourned, will
not be found here; even had my prior studies directed my mind to
this species of reflections, the scanty resources at my disposal,
and the consequent necessity of a rapid passage, did not permit my
residence in any place for a sufficient length of time to furnish
a solid foundation for such researches. My principal object was
to collect carefully and accurately all the facts, of whatsoever
nature, which fell under my inspection, and especially to notice
whatever appeared conducive to the improvement of geography and of
our commerce with Africa.
A long stay in our establishments of Senegal, and perhaps also,
my own experience, had taught me how much this commerce, which,
had so long languished, needed new markets and new connections in
the interior; but to form these new connections, to impose on the
distant population a tribute to our industry, new discoveries were
necessary; and increased geographical knowledge was indispensable
to enable the government to extend sufficient encouragement to
our mercantile establishments on the coast. A strong persuasion
of this necessity, of this urgent need, under which our African
commerce labours, became in a manner the soul of my inquiries,
particularly in a certain portion of my travels. I was convinced that
our colonial and all our commercial relations must sooner or later
be powerfully influenced by clear and positive information, drawn
from the fountain head, and deposited with the government of a king,
the zealous and enlightened protector of interests so important,
and so nearly affecting, at the present period, the prosperity,
and perhaps even, the internal tranquillity of the kingdom.
Have I been fortunate enough to realize in this respect the wishes I
had formed, the hopes which, in common with my former compatriots of
Senegal, I had dared to conceive, of fulfilling this part of the task
which I undertook, and of thus paying my tribute to the government
of my country? Let my natural judges, with whom the fruits of my
researches are deposited, and let the success of future enterprizes,
incited by mine, answer this question for me. It is not for me to
estimate the progress which geographical and natural science may
owe to my travels. I must leave it to be appreciated by those who
so worthily represent them in the capital of the civilized world,
and the possession of whose knowledge and talents would have been so
delightful, and above all so useful to me, when day after day I found
myself alone and left to my own feeble resources in a world as yet
unknown to, and unexplored by curious and scientific Europe. Armed
with the knowledge and the instruments for which we are indebted
to them, I might have hoped to have more fully accomplished the
wishes of the Geographical Society, and to have rendered myself
more deserving of the flattering and benevolent reception which
it has granted me, and of the distinction and rewards which its
descriminating patriotism decrees to those who record its efforts;
of that Society which, with so much zeal and success, prosecutes the
extension of science, and which, by the encouragement it held out to
those who should explore the central regions of Africa, confirmed
my opinion of the importance of such travels, and determined me
in the plan which I had already formed of one day attempting the
discovery of Timbuctoo.
In paying this just homage to the Geographical Society, I must not
omit one of its most distinguished members, M. Jomard, President of
the Central Committee and Member of the Institute, who, since my
arrival in France, has without intermission honoured me with his
valuable advice and his personal kindness, who has not disdained
to unite his name with mine, and has so largely contributed to any
success with which this narrative may be honoured, by enriching it
with a map founded upon my notes, and with geographical disquisitions
upon a continent, the study of which has long been familiar to him,
both as a traveller and as a writer. I request him to accept this
public testimony of my warmest gratitude.
CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME.
* * * * *
CHAPTER XIX.
Departure for Timbuctoo on the 13th of March — Description of the
banks of the river — Slaves released from their chains — Populous
villages — Vessels of from sixty to eighty tons burthen — Branch
of the river forming a large island — Mode of building canoes —
Villages of Banan — Character of the Mandingoes — Description of
Lake Debo — Islands called St. Charles, Henry, and Maria-Theresa.
CHAPTER XX.
Tongom, a village in the country of the Dirimans — Co — Do —
Sa, a commercial port — Mercantile flotillas — The Soorgoos
or Tooariks, a nomadic and predatory tribe — Baraconga — Lelel
— Garfola — Filinsa — Baracondié — Tircy — Liquor made
from the kondoo — Alcodia, the Diriman capital — Customs of
the inhabitants — Salacoila — Cora — Coratoo — Separation
of the river into two branches — Arrival at Cabra, the port of
Timbuctoo — Description of the place.
CHAPTER XXI.
Journey from Cabra to Timbuctoo — First view of the city — The
Kissoors — The king grants the traveller an audience — Condition
of the slaves — Description of the city, its buildings, extent,
and commerce — Food and dress of the people — Bousbéhey, a city
of the Zawats — Toudeyni — Tribe of Salah — Terror inspired
by the Tooariks — Description of that tribe — The Jinbalas —
Particulars respecting the fate of Major Laing — Reflexions on
the means of penetrating to the centre of Africa.
CHAPTER XXII.
Departure from Timbuctoo on the 4th of May, 1828 — Caravan of six
hundred camels — Entrance of the desert — Suffocating heat —
The caravan falls in with the Tooariks — Manner in which the Arabs
direct their course in the desert — Aspect of Sahara, like the
bed of a sea without water — Details respecting the caravans —
The place where Major Laing was assassinated — El-Arawan, a city
in the desert: its springs, population, and trade — Information
respecting Tawât and Walet — Caravan of four hundred camels —
Disheartening effect of the view of endless sands.
CHAPTER XXIII.
Violence of the east winds — Pillars of sand — Scarcity of water
— Deplorable situation of the caravan — Hills of loose sand —
Rocks of granite — Wells of Telig — Toudeyni, rich salt mines
— Thistle of the desert — Vexations and persecutions of the
Moors, their intolerance — Wells of Cramès — Wells of Trases
or Trarzas — Trajacant Moors.
CHAPTER XXIV.
Wells of Amoul-Gragin — Enormous serpents — High sand-hills
called Helk — Wells of Amoul-Taf — Hills of various-coloured
granite — Wells of el-Ekseif; very good water — Wells called
Marabouty, el-Guedea, Mayara, and Sibicia — High and steep
mountains, defiles and precipices — A severe fall — Encampment
of Sidi-Aly — El-Harib — The Berbers. Tatta — Description of
the country at el-Harib, customs; the tribes who inhabit it.
CHAPTER XXV.
Country of el-Drah — Zawât — el-Hamid — Bounou — Town
of Mimcina — Camp of Berbers — Tabelbât — The Tawâts —
Wells of Yeneguedel, of Faratissa, of Bohayara — Customs of the
Berbers — Wells of Goud-Zenaga, of Zenatyia — Town of el-Yabo
— Wells of Chanerou, of Nyela — Arrival at Tafilet — Town
of Ghourland — Market — Ressaut, the residence of a Governor
under the Emperor of Morocco.
CHAPTER XXVI.
Description of Tafilet and its commerce — Flourishing state
of agriculture and industry — Miserable condition of the Jews;
their habits and customs — Afilé — Gardens — Taneyara, Marca,
M’Dyara, Rahaba — Chains of granite mountains — Small river
of Guigo — L’Eyarac, Tamaroc, Kars, Ain-Zeland, L’Eksebi —
Very high mountains covered with cork-trees — L’Quin — Guigo
— Town of Soforo — Town of el-Fez, or Fez, the ancient capital
of Morocco.
CHAPTER XXVII.
Description of el-Fez — Markets, monuments, gardens, police —
Mequinaz — Inhospitality — Arm of the sea called Sbo — Arbata
or Rabata or Rabat, the ancient Sallee — Visit to the Consular
Agent — The traveller avoids the camp of the Emperor of Morocco
— Writes to the Vice Consul M. Delaporte — Larache — Arrives at
Tangier 7th of September, almost dying, emaciated by want, fatigue,
and fever — Generous reception of M. Delaporte — Anxiety of the
traveller — Is introduced by night and concealed by the Consul
— M. Delaporte obtains from the naval commander of the Cadiz
station a vessel to convey him to France.
GEOGRAPHICAL REMARKS AND INQUIRIES.
CHAPTER I.
§ I.—General retrospect of the published information on this
subject prior to M. Caillié’s travels.
§ II.—Analysis of the itinerary map, and of the general map of
the travels.
ARTICLE I.
Early travels of M. Caillié.
ARTICLE II.
Map of the traveller’s route.
First part of the journey.
Second part of the travels.
Observations on the course of the Dhioliba as traced from Couroussa
to Sego and Djenné.
Third part of the travels.
ARTICLE III.
Remarks on the general map of the travels and the elements which
serve for its basis.
Observations on the situation of Timbuctoo, and particularly on
its longitude.
Bearings of M. Caillié’s routes.
Computation of the days’ journeys.
§ III.—Of the nomenclature.
§ IV.—Of some results of the travels of M. Caillié.
§ V.—Of the course of the Dhioliba above and below Timbuctoo.