NARRATIVE
OF
TRAVELS AND DISCOVERIES
IN
NORTHERN AND CENTRAL AFRICA,
IN THE YEARS 1822, 1823, AND 1824,

PREFACE.

By the death of Dr. Oudney, it has fallen to the lot of Captain Clapperton and myself to render an account to the public of our expedition into the interior and central parts of Northern Africa. The sudden departure of my surviving companion, on a second mission, has necessarily thrown the greater part of the burden on myself. I believe, however—for I have not seen any of his papers—that Captain Clapperton, during the lifetime of Dr. Oudney, made but few remarks himself beyond the construction of the chart of our route, from daily observations of the latitude, and of lunars for the longitude, whenever favourable opportunities occurred; but, subsequently to the death of his travelling companion, which happened at an early stage of their journey into Soudan, a journal of his proceedings and remarks appears to have been regularly kept; and this, together with other documents connected with that journey, were left at his departure in the hands of Mr. Barrow, with a request that he would see them through the press.

It may naturally enough be asked, Why something more than a short excursion to the westward of Mourzuk, and a few notes, do not appear from the pen of Dr. Oudney in the present volume? I can only answer the question by the fact, that the only papers placed in my hands consist of “An Itinerary from Mourzuk to Bornou;” and “An Excursion to the Westward of Mourzuk;” neither of which have been deemed fit for publication in extenso, from their imperfect state, and containing very little beyond what will be found in my own journals. I have, however, printed in foot notes such parts of them as have been pointed out to me. Not a paper of his, to my knowledge, has been lost or destroyed; and I can only account for the unsatisfactory state in which they have been found, from the circumstance of his ill health, which became extremely precarious from the moment of our departure from Mourzuk, where he had caught a cold, which settled on his lungs, and never left him. On our arrival at Kouka, and frequently afterwards, he experienced so many attacks of fever, that there appeared little hope of his surviving to return to England, which was indeed his own opinion; and when he set out on his last journey towards Soudan, he was so exhausted, and in a state so unfit for such an undertaking, that he fell a martyr to his zeal very soon after his departure, though, had he remained at Kouka, the melancholy event would not, in all probability, have been prolonged many days.

My own expeditions in various parts of Bornou, in Mandara, and Loggun, and the two fruitless attempts I made to complete the tour of the great lake Tchad, will be found to occupy a considerable portion of the volume; and being made in countries, and among a people unknown to Europeans,—many of them even by name or report,—it is hoped that observations, faithfully and circumstantially minuted down at the time and spot, will not be found tedious or uninteresting to the reader.

It will, perhaps, be thought by some, that I have been more minute than necessary in the account of our journey across that tremendous desert which lies between Mourzuk and Bornou, and which, generally speaking, is made up of dark frowning hills of naked rock, or interminable plains, strewed in some places with fragments of stone and pebbles, in others of one vast level surface of sand, and, in others again, the same material rising into immense mounds, altering their form and position according to the strength and direction of the winds. But, even in the midst of this dreary waste, towns, villages, wandering tribes, and kafilas, or caravans, sometimes occur to break the solitude of this dismal belt, which seems to stretch across Northern Africa, and, on many parts of which, not a living creature, even an insect, enlivens the scene. Still, however, the halting places at the wells, and the wadeys or valleys, afford an endless source of amusement to the traveller, in witnessing the manners, and listening to the conversation, of the various tribes of natives, who, by their singing and dancing, their story telling, their quarrelling and fighting, make him forget, for a time, the ennui and fatigue of the day’s journey.

As for the rest, I have to trust to its novelty, for its recommendation to the public, rather than to any powers of writing, which I pretend not to possess; and it is now a source of great satisfaction to me that, under all my difficulties, and they were not few, I was able to adhere to the resolution I set out with, of recording, at the end of each day, the occurrences, however trifling, that had taken place.

To Sir Robert Ker Porter, my friend since the days of boyhood, I am indebted for having perfected several drawings, with his experienced pencil, from my hasty, but yet faithful sketches, of the people and scenery of Central Africa. His eye was nearly as familiar as my own with the picturesque objects they display; and, indeed, all who are acquainted with the published narrative of his Researches amongst the Remains of Ancient Persia and Babylonia, might readily recognise the same hand, in these his spirited delineations of African costume and character.

DIXON DENHAM.

CONTENTS.

LIST OF PLATES.

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.

On the 5th March, 1822, I left Tripoli for Benioleed[1], to join my two companions, who had proceeded thither with our servants, horses, camels, and baggage. They had gone on to Memoom, a very pretty valley, which, at this season of the year, was green with herbage, and adorned by flowers of various hues and colours, richly scattered in beautiful disorder;—but it was the last of the kind we were fortunate enough to meet with between this place and Bornou; and here the consul and his son, who had accompanied us from Tripoli, took their leave, with many hearty good wishes for our success and prosperity.

On the day previous to our approach to Sockna, a town about half way between Tripoli and Mourzuk, which we reached in fourteen days, the uniformity of the journey was somewhat enlivened, by meeting with a kafila of slaves, from Fezzan, in which were about seventy negresses, much better looking, and more healthy, than any we had seen near the sea-coast. They were marching in parties of fifteen or twenty; and on our inquiring of one of those parties from whence they came, the poor things divided themselves with the greatest simplicity, and answered, “Soudan, Begharmi, and Kanem,” pointing out the different parcels, from each country, as they spoke: those from Soudan had the most regular features, and an expression of countenance particularly pleasing.

Passing a small wadey and plantation of date trees, we had soon a view of Sockna, and were met on the plain, on which it stands, by the governor and principal inhabitants, accompanied by some hundreds of the country people, who all crowded round our horses, kissing our hands, and welcoming us with every appearance of sincerity and satisfaction; and in this way we entered the town: the words “Inglesi! Inglesi!” were repeated by a hundred voices from the crowd. This, to us, was highly satisfactory, as we were the first English travellers in Africa who had resisted the persuasion that a disguise was necessary, and who had determined to travel in our real character as Britons and Christians, and to wear, on all occasions, our English dresses; nor had we, at any future period, occasion to regret that we had done so. There was here no jealousy, nor distrust of us as Christians; on the contrary, I am perfectly satisfied that our reception would have been less friendly had we assumed a character that could have been at best but ill supported. In trying to make ourselves appear as Mussulmans, we should have been set down as real impostors.

The dates of Sockna are excellent, and in abundance: our animals were liberally supplied with this fruit of fruits; and after the first two days appeared to eat them nearly as well as corn. The population of Sockna must be considerably more than three thousand. The town is walled, and about a mile in circumference: has eight gates; and wears altogether a clean and neat appearance that surprised us. The women are certainly very pretty, and are said to be remarkable for their love of intrigue. This may be true, or not; but we had no opportunity of ascertaining it from our own knowledge. Of their affability and good humour, however, we had many proofs; and while only two of us were walking through the town one morning, with a little army of ragged boys following us, two, of rather the better order, quickly dispersed them; and invited us to enter a house, saying that a mara zene (a beautiful woman) wished to see us. We put ourselves under their guidance, and entering a better sort of dwelling-house, were quickly surrounded by at least half-a-dozen ladies, most of them aged; but who asked us a thousand questions, and, when satisfied we were not dangerous, called several younger ones, who appeared to be but waiting for permission to appear. Our dresses and ourselves were then minutely examined. The yellow buttons on our waistcoats, and our watches, created the greatest astonishment; and a pair of loose white trowsers that I wore, into the pockets of which I accidentally put my hands, raised their curiosity to a wonderful degree: my hands were pulled out, and those of three or four of the ladies thrust in, in their stead: these were replaced by others, all demanding their use so loudly and violently, that I had considerable difficulty in extricating myself, and was glad to make my escape. The dress of the Sockna women is nearly that of the Tripoline: they wear striped shirts, of silk or linen, large silver ear-rings, with leg-lets and arm-lets of the same: the lower classes wear those of glass or horn.

The remaining half of our journey to Mourzuk was over pretty nearly the same kind of surface as that we had passed before; in some places worse. Sometimes two, and once three days, we were without finding a supply of water; which was generally muddy, bitter, or brackish: nor is this the worst that sometimes befalls the traveller. The overpowering effects of a sudden sand-wind, when nearly at the close of the desert, often destroys a whole kafila, already weakened by fatigue; and the spot was pointed out to us, strewed with bones and dried carcasses, where the year before fifty sheep, two camels, and two men, perished from thirst and fatigue, when within eight hours’ march of the well which we were anxiously looking out for.

Indeed the sand-storm we had the misfortune to encounter in crossing the desert gave us a pretty correct idea of the dreaded effects of these hurricanes. The wind raised the fine sand with which the extensive desert was covered, so as to fill the atmosphere, and render the immense space before us impenetrable to the eye beyond a few yards. The sun and clouds were entirely obscured, and a suffocating and oppressive weight accompanied the flakes and masses of sand, which, I had almost said, we had to penetrate at every step. At times we completely lost sight of the camels, though only a few yards before us. The horses hung their tongues out of their mouths, and refused to face the torrents of sand. A sheep, that accompanied the kafila, the last of our stock, lay down on the road, and we were obliged to kill him, and throw the carcass on a camel. A parching thirst oppressed us, which nothing alleviated. We had made but little way by three o’clock in the afternoon, when the wind got round to the eastward, and refreshed us something: with this change we moved on until about five, when we halted, protected a little by three several ranges of irregular hills, some conical, and some table-topped. As we had but little wood, our fare was confined to tea; and we hoped to find relief from our fatigues by a sound sleep. That was, however, denied us; the tent had been imprudently pitched, and was exposed to the east wind, which blew a hurricane during the night: the tent was blown down, and the whole detachment were employed a full hour in getting it up again; and our bedding and every thing that was within it was, during that time, completely buried by the constant driving of the sand. I was obliged, three times during the night, to get up for the purpose of strengthening the pegs; and when, in the morning, I awoke, two hillocks of sand were formed on each side of my head, some inches high.

On the 7th April we arrived at a village in the midst of a vast multitude of palm trees, just one day’s journey short of Mourzuk. As it was to be the last day’s march, we were all in good spirits at the prospect of rest; and had we made our arrangements with judgment, every thing would have gone on well. We had, however, neglected sending on to advise the sultan of our arrival—a constant practice, and consequently our reception was not what it ought to have been. We arrived at D’leem, a small plantation of date trees, at noon, and finding no water in the well, were obliged to proceed; and it was three in the afternoon before we arrived at the wells near Mourzuk. Here we were obliged to wait until the camels came up, in order that we might advance in form. We might, however, have saved ourselves the trouble:—no one came out to meet us, except some naked boys, and a mixture of Tibboos, Tuaricks, and Fezzanese, who gazed at us with astonishment, and no very pleasant aspect.

We determined on not entering the town in a manner so little flattering to those whom we represented: and retiring to a rising ground, a little distance from the gates of the town, waited the return of a chaoush, who had been despatched to announce our arrival. After half an hour’s delay, the sheikh El Blad (the governor of the town) came out, and, in the sultan’s name, requested we would accompany him to the house which had been prepared for us; and he added, to our great surprise, the English consul is there already. The fact was, a very ill-looking Jew servant of mine, mounted on a white mule, with a pair of small canteens under him, had preceded the camels, and entered the town by himself: he was received with great respect by all the inhabitants—conducted through the streets to the house which was destined to receive us; and from the circumstance of the canteens being all covered with small brass shining nails, a very high idea of his consequence was formed. He very sensibly received all their attentions in silence, and drank the cool water and milk which was handed to him: and we always had the laugh against them afterwards, for having shown so much civility to an Israelite—a race they heartily despise. “We thought the English,” said they, “were better looking than Jews—Death to their race! but then God made us all, though not all handsome like Mussulmans, so who could tell?” As we were all this time exposed to a burning sun, we were well inclined to compromise a little of our dignity, and determined on entering the town, which we did by the principal gate. The walls are well built, at least twenty feet high; and the gate sufficiently wide to admit, with care, a loaded camel. You pass through the fsug, slave-market, a wide street, with houses on each side, three hundred yards in length. It leads into an open space, in the centre of which the castle stands, surrounded by a second wall. In the inside of this inner wall, in the castle yard, are a few houses, originally built for the Mamelukes, and particular followers of the late sultan, when they were subject to the occasional attacks of the Arabs. In one of these, the house occupied by the late Mr. Ritchie and Captain Lyon, arrangements were made for our reception. Almost as soon as the camels were unloaded, we paid our respects to the sultan: he received us with a great deal of affability and good nature, and made an impression in his favour, which, however, his subsequent conduct tended but little to strengthen.