[52]Of this document I have sent a copy from Kúkawa to the Leipsic Oriental Society; and a translation of it has been published in the Journal (Zeitschrift) of that society in the year 1852, p. 305. ff., with notes by M. Blau.
[53]See a letter of mine from Kúkawa, Nov. 20. 1852, addressed to Chevalier Bunsen, and published in Petermann’s Mittheilungen, 1855, p. 7.
[54]Indeed, in the copy which I sent to Europe, the copyist has corrected this error; but unfortunately, instead of inserting this reign in the right place, he has added the twenty years to the thirty-three years of the reign of the elder Edrís ben ʿAlí.
[55]I have here to correct an error made by Mr. Blau, the translator of the chronicle, who, owing to a mere slip of the pen in the document, has been induced to insert between the reign of the 50th, or according to him (as he does not count the usurper Sʿaíd) the 49th king, Mohammed son of Edrís, and the 51st, ʿAlí son of Zíneb, another king also named Mohammed, with a reign likewise of 19 years. But to every one who reads the chronicle with attention, and is aware of its negligent character, it must be evident that in the article in question it is only by mistake that Mohammed, when mentioned the second time, is called the son of Dúnama instead of Edrís. There is certainly some difficulty in the passage in question, with regard to the circumstance that this prince is said to have resided 19 (years?) at Ladé; but it is easily to be explained when we remember that even at the present day there is such a place in the neighbourhood of old Bírni. (Denham and Clapperton’s Travels, vol. i. pp. 150. 152.); another place of the same name was situated a few days N.E. from Ghámbarú on the road to Kánem. But be this as it may, the historical introduction of Imám Áhmed to his account of the reign of Edrís Áʿaishámi Alawóma, where he passes in review the proceedings of this king’s predecessors with regard to Kánem, leaves not the least doubt about the line of succession.—As for the length of the reign of Edrís ben ʿAlí, the 54th king, there was, as I have mentioned above, a mistake in the copy from which the translation was made, giving 53 years instead of 33; but these 20 years just compensate for the 20 years of the homonymous king Edrís ben ʿAlí, which, just on account of the homonymy, have been left out by mistake, adding the 20 years due to him to the reign of the elder king of the same name.
[56]Hamaker, Specimen Catal., p. 107.
[57]Ébn Khaldún, ed. Macguckin de Slane, Algér. 1847, vol. i. p. 429. With regard to the friendship existing between the Bení Háfis and the kings of Kánem, see Ébn Khaldún, vol. i. p. 263.
[58]Ébn Khaldún, vol. i. p. 300., transl. vol. ii. p. 96. Ébn Khaldún, according to his own statement, follows here the authority of the sheikh Abú-Mohammed, e’ Tijáni. Compare Journal Asiatique, 4me série, vol. xx. p. 158.
[59]Makrízi, Hamaker, Specimen Catal. p. 206. Makrízi is mistaken in supposing Kánem to be a town and the capital of Bórnu.
[60]Makrízi has two other interesting statements with regard to the kings of Kánem, which, although they certainly cannot lay claim to absolute accuracy, nevertheless have evidently reference to certain facts which the diligent historian, placed at such a distance from the object of his inquiry, has not rightly understood. The first of these passages (Hamaker, p. 206.) states that Mohammed the son of Jíl (so—جيل—the name is to be read, instead of the absurd Jebl or Jabal), that is, most probably, Jíl Shikomémi, the founder of the dynasty of the Bulála, was the first of them who accepted the Mohammedan creed; this statement evidently regards the dynasty of the Bulála, who, at the time when Makrízi wrote, had driven the Bórnu dynasty out of Kánem, and it does not at all affect the statement of the chronicle, which calls Humé the first Moslim king of Bórnu. The second passage of the celebrated historian of Egypt (Quatremère, Mémoires sur l’Egypte, t. ii. p. 28.; Burckhardt, Travels in Nubia, 2nd ed. app. iii. p. 456. f.) is very remarkable; and although we are not yet able to understand perfectly its real purport, nevertheless it seems to refer to some circumstance of great interest: for, according to this statement, the Islám was introduced into Kánem by Hády el ʿOthmáni, a pretended descendant of the khalíf ʿOthmán, even before the period of the Séfuwa, or the Yazaníyín (descendants of Dhu Yazan). Here the excellent inquirer has most probably confounded the successors of Humé with the Dúguwa, forgetting that even the dynasty of the pagan Dúguwa belonged to the Séfuwa. In other respects this statement is in perfect harmony with the common tradition of the Bórnu people—that the Islám was brought to the Séfuwa, when they were still settled in Búrgu, by a special messenger of the Prophet.
[61]See Vol. I. p. 464. I will here only mention that the forty days’ journey stated by Ébn Batúta to intervene between Tekádda and Bórnu are to be counted, as it seems, to Njímiye, the old capital of Kánem; Bírni, or rather Ghasréggomo, at least, not being founded at that time.
[62]This “ba” is evidently the indefinite article a, corresponding to the Berber “va.” Compare what I have said in Vol. I. about “ba-Túre.”
[64]Makrízi, Hamaker, p. 206., وهو بدوي رحال.
[65]Even the governor of Zínder is still complimented in the songs to his praise as “já” (red).
[66]Compare with this custom Ébn Batúta’s description of a similar custom in Timbúktu, Journal Asiat., série iv. t. i. p. 226.
[67]Proceedings of the African Association, vol. i. p. 148. f.
[68]Makrízi says of the inhabitants of Kánem in general, that they were moláthemún; that is to say, they covered their faces with a lithám. The names of towns like Bérberwá and others may be also mentioned here. Compare Leo’s expression—“Negri e Bianchi.”
[69]In the vocabulary of the Kanúri language, a few words may easily be discovered which have some relation to the Berber language, the most remarkable amongst which seems to me the term for ten, “meghú,” which is evidently connected with the Temáshight word “meraú,” or rather “meghaú;” but the grammar is entirely distinct, and approaches the Central Asiatic or Turanian stock.
[70]Leo, when he says that the language of Gaoga is identical with the Bórnu language, does not speak of the language of the whole nation, but only of that of the ruling tribe, the Bulála. But of this interesting fact I shall say more on another occasion.
[71]قبيله كي or بني كيه من اهل درق. The diacritic points over ق in the word درق have been omitted in the copy of the chronicle which I forwarded to Leipsic, and Mr. Blau therefore reads “Derw;” but where the name is mentioned by Imám Ahmed the points are never omitted. However, where the country Derk or Derg is to be looked for I cannot say with any degree of certainty. I once thought that اهل درق might be “the people of the shields,” or “armed with shields,” like the Kánembú at present; but I have satisfied myself that this is not the case.—The Kíye still at the present day form the chief portion of the Koyám.
[72]تماغره من اهل كرا. Kerá, not Keraw, is the name of the place which Mr. Blau (p. 322.) tries to identify with Keráwa, the old capital of Mándará. But this is evidently wrong.—There can be scarcely any doubt that the Temághera have given their name to the province Demágherim or Damágherim. The letter beginning the name was a ط.
[73]I shall say more on this subject in the historical introduction to my vocabularies. At present I can only refer the reader to a few remarks which I have made on the relation between the módi Tedá (the Tébu language) and the Kanúri, in a letter addressed to M. Lepsius, and published in Gumprecht’s Monatsberichte (Journal of the Geographical Society of Berlin), 1854, vol. ii. p. 373. The Tedá, together with the Kanúri, formed the stock called by Makrízi زغاي (Zagháí) and السكى by Masúdi. (Meadows l. xxxiii. p. 138.)
[74]This, I think, is also the meaning of Leo, when he says (l.c. c. 7.), “Il dominio del re di Borno, il quale ne à la minore” (parte). But Leo wrote just at the time when Bórnu was about again to rise to new splendour.
[75]However, even in the time of Lucas (Proceedings of the Afric. Assoc., vol. i. p. 119.), great part at least of the Koyám were still living in Kánem. The Íkeli, or rather “people of Íkeli,” اهل اكلي, mentioned by Makrízi, seem not to have constituted a separate tribe, although they had a chief or ملك of their own, there being not the least doubt that they were the inhabitants of the celebrated place Ikeli, اكله, usually called Fúrtwa by the Bórnu people, about which I shall speak in the course of my journey to Kánem.—A peculiar tribe is mentioned frequently by the imám Ahmed as el Kenaníyín; but I am not yet able to offer a well-established opinion with regard to them.—With regard to the Arabs who are mentioned several times in Imám Ahmed’s history, as a powerful element in the population of Kánem, I shall have occasion to speak hereafter.
[76]I shall say more of it in the chronological table, under the reign of Mohammed.
THE CAPITAL OF BÓRNU.
Having endeavoured to impart to the reader a greater interest in the country, by relating its former history, as far as I was able to make it out, I shall now give an account of my stay in Kúkawa before setting out on my journey to Adamáwa.
Regarding Kúkawa only as the basis of my further proceedings, and as a necessary station already sufficiently known to the European public by the long stay of the former expedition, I endeavoured to collect as much information as possible with regard to the surrounding countries. Two of my friends were distinguished by a good deal of Mohammedan learning, by the precision with which they recollected the countries they had wandered through, and by dignified manners; but they differed much in character, and were inclined to quarrel with each other as often as they happened to meet in my house.
These two men, to whom I am indebted for a great deal of interesting and precise information, were the Arab Ahmed bel Mejúb, of that division of the tribe of the Welád bu-Sebʿa who generally live in the Wadi Sákiyet el Hamra, to the south of Morocco, and the Púllo Ibrahím, son of the Sheikh el Mukhtár, in Kaháide on the Senegal, and cousin of the late Mohammed el Amín, the energetic prince of Fúta-Tóro. Ahmed had travelled over almost the whole of Western Africa, from Arguín on the ocean as far as Bagírmi, and had spent several years in Adamáwa, of which country he first gave me an exact description, especially with regard to the direction of the rivers. He was a shrewd and very intelligent man; yet he was one of those Arabs who go round all the courts of the princes of Negroland, to whatever creed or tribe they may belong, and endeavour to obtain from them all they can by begging and by the parade of learning. I esteemed him on account of his erudition, but not in other respects.
Quite a different person was the Púllo Ibrahím—a very proud young man, fully aware of the ascendancy, and strongly marked with the distinguishing character, of the nation to which he belonged. He had performed the pilgrimage to Mekka, crossing the whole breadth of Africa from west to east, from warm religious feeling mixed up with a little ambition, as he knew that such an exploit would raise him highly in the esteem of his countrymen, and secure to him a high position in life. He had been two years a hostage in Ndér (St. Louis), and knew something about the Europeans. It had struck him that the French were not so eager in distributing bibles as the English, while he had truly remarked that the former were very sensible of the charms of the softer sex, and very frequently married the pretty daughters of the Dembaséga. He obtained from me, first the Zabúr, or the Psalms of David, which even the Arabs esteem very highly, and would esteem much more if they were translated into a better sort of Arabic, and afterwards the whole Bible, which he wished to take with him on his long land-journey.
The Arabs and the Fúlbe, as is well known, are in almost continual warfare all along the line from the Senegal as far as Timbúktu; and it was most interesting for me to see him and Ahmed in violent altercation about the advantages of their respective nations, while I was thereby afforded an excellent means of appreciating their reports with regard to the state of the tribes and countries along the Senegal. The way in which they began to communicate to me their information was in itself expressive of their respective characters, Ahmed protesting that, before he dared to communicate with me, he was compelled to ask the permission of the vizier, while Ibrahím laughed at him, declaring that he felt himself fully authorized to give me any information about Negroland. Ibrahím became an intimate friend of mine, and took a lively interest in me, particularly commiserating my lonely situation in a foreign country, far from home, without the consolations of female companionship.
As an example of the risks which European travellers may incur by giving medicines to natives to administer to themselves at home, I will relate the following incident. Ibrahím told me one day that he wanted some cooling medicine; and I gave him two strong doses of Epsom salts, to use occasionally. He then complained the following day that he was suffering from worms; and when I told him that the Epsom salts would not have the effect of curing this complaint, but that worm-powder would, he begged me to give him some of the latter; and I gave him three doses to use on three successive days. However, my poor friend, though an intelligent man, thought that it might not be amiss to take all this medicine at once, viz. four ounces of Epsom salts and six drachms of worm-powder; and the reader may imagine the effect which this dose produced upon a rather slender man. Unfortunately, I had just taken a ride out of the town; and he remained for full two days in a most desperate state, while his friends, who had sent in vain to my house to obtain my assistance, were lamenting to all the people that the Christian had killed their companion, the pious pilgrim.
Besides these two men, there were many interesting strangers at that time in Kúkawa, from whom I learnt more or less. Some of them I shall here mention, as their character and story will afford the reader a glance at one side of life in Negroland. A man who had performed travels of an immense extent, from Khórasán in the east as far as Sansándi in the west, and from Tripoli and Morocco in the north as far as Asiantí and Jenakhéra and Fertít towards the south, would have been of great service, if he had preserved an exact recollection of all the routes which he had followed in his devious wanderings; but as it was, I could only gather from him some general information, the most interesting part of which had reference to Mósi or rather Móre, a large and populous country known by name already, from Sultan Béllo’s curious communications to Captain Clapperton, but always misplaced in the maps, and its capital Wóghodoghó.
This enterprising man, who generally travelled as a dervish, had gone from Sofára on the Máyo balléo or Niger, between Hamdalláhi and Ségo, across a most unsettled country, to Wóghodoghó; but he was unable to give me any precise details with regard to it, and I never met another person who had travelled this dangerous route. He had also travelled all along the pagan states to the south of Bagírmi and Wadáy, and advised me strongly, if it were my plan to penetrate to the upper Nile (as, indeed, I then intended, notwithstanding my total want of means), to adopt the character of a dervish, which he deemed essential for my success. But while such a character might, indeed, insure general success, it would preclude the possibility of making any accurate observations, and would render necessary the most painful, if not insupportable, privations. And on the whole this poor fellow was less fortunate than I; for in the year 1854 he was slain on that very route from Yóla to Kúkawa which I myself had twice passed successfully. He was a native of Baghdád, and called himself Sheríf Ahmed el Baghdádi.
There was another singular personage, a native of Sennár, who had been a clerk in the Turkish army, but, as malicious tongues gave out, had been too fond of the cash intrusted to his care, and absconded. He afterwards resided some years in Wadáy, where he had drilled a handful of the sultan’s slaves, had come to this kingdom to try his fortune, and was now about to be sent to Wadáy by the sheikh of Bórnu, as a spy, to see if the prince of that country had still any design of recommencing hostilities. From all persons of this description a traveller may learn a great deal; and, intriguing fellows as they generally are, and going from court to court spreading reports everywhere, prudence requires that he should keep on tolerably good terms with them.
Most interesting and instructive was a host of pilgrims from different parts of Másena or Mélle, partly Fúlbe, partly Sónghay, who having heard of the white man, and of his anxiety to collect information respecting all parts of the continent, came repeatedly to me to contribute each his share. I used to regale them with coffee, while they gave me ample opportunities of comparing and testing their statements. The most interesting and best informed amongst them were Bu-Bakr, a native of Hamdalláhi, the capital of the sheikh (sekho) Ahmedu ben Ahmedu, who having made a pilgrimage to Mekka, had long resided in Yeman, and was now returning homeward with a good deal of knowledge; and another cheerful and simple-hearted old man from Sá on the Isa or Niger, between Hamdalláhi and Timbúktu. Indeed, as the report of Ahmed bel Mejúb about Adamáwa had confirmed me in my determination to sacrifice everything in order to visit that country as soon as possible, so the manifold information of these people with respect to the countries on the middle course of the so-called Niger excited in me a most ardent desire to execute the design, previously but vaguely entertained, of accomplishing also a journey westward to Timbúktu.
Among my Bórnu friends at this time, the most instructive were Shitíma Makarémma and Ámsakay. The former, who had been a courtier under the old dynasty, and who had saved his life by his intrigues, was a very intelligent old man, but an acknowledged rascal, to whom unnatural vices, which seem in general entirely unknown in these regions, were imputed. Nevertheless he was the only man who was master of all the history of the old dynasty; and he spoke the Kanúri language with such exquisite beauty as I have never heard from anybody else. He had two very handsome daughters, whom he succeeded in marrying, one to the vizier and one to his adversary, ʿAbd e’ Rahmán; but in December 1853 he was executed, together with the vizier, but on totally different grounds, as having long forfeited his life. Quite a different sort of man was Ámsakay, a simple Kánemma chief, who has been represented in one of my sketches. He had formerly distinguished himself by his expeditions against the Búdduma, till those enterprising islanders succeeded in conciliating him by the gift of one of their handsome daughters for a wife, when he became half settled amongst them.
I had also some interesting pagan instructors, among whom I will only mention Agíd Búrku, a very handsome youth, but who had undergone the horrible process of castration. The abolition of this practice in the Mohammedan world ought to be the first object of Christian governments and missionaries, not merely on account of the unnatural and desecrated state to which it reduces a human being, but on account of the dreadful character of the operation itself, which, in these countries at least, is the reason why scarcely one in ten survives it. With extreme delight Agíd Búrku dwelt upon the unconstrained nudity in which his countrymen indulged, and with great naïveté described a custom of the pagans, which is identical with a custom of the civilized Europeans, but is an abomination in the eyes of every Mohammedan. He had wandered about a good deal in the southern provinces of Bagírmi and Wadáy, and gave me the first information about the interesting mountain-group near Kénga Matáya.
But I must principally dwell upon my relations to the vizier el Háj Beshír ben Ahmed Tiráb, upon whose benevolent disposition the whole success of the mission depended, as he ruled entirely the mind of the sheikh, who was more sparing of words, and less intelligent.
Mohammed el Beshír, being the son of the most influential man in Bórnu after the sheikh, enjoyed all the advantages which such a position could offer for the cultivation of his mind, which was by nature of a superior cast. He had gone on a pilgrimage to Mekka in the year 1843, by way of Ben-Gházi, when he had an opportunity both of showing the Arabs near the coast that the inhabitants of the interior of the continent are superior to the beasts, and of getting a glimpse of a higher state of civilization than he had been able to observe in his own country.
Having thus learned to survey the world collectively from a new point of view, and with an increased eagerness after everything foreign and marvellous, he returned to his native country, where he soon had an opportunity of proving his talent, his father being slain in the unfortunate battle at Kúsuri, and Sheikh ʿOmár, a fugitive in his native country, having much need of a faithful counsellor in his embarrassed situation. The sheikh was beset by a powerful and victorious host, encamping in the largest of the towns of his kingdom, while the party of the old dynasty was rising again, and not only withdrawing from him the best forces wherewith to face the enemy, but threatening his very existence, at the same time that a brother was standing in fierce rivalry to him at the head of a numerous army. Sheikh ʿOmár was successful, the host of Wadáy was obliged to withdraw, and, abandoning the purpose for which they had come, namely, that of re-establishing the old dynasty, commenced a difficult retreat of many hundred miles at the beginning of the rainy season; the partisans of the old dynasty were entirely crushed, the last prince of that family slain, the residence of the sultans levelled to the ground, and even the remembrance of the old times was almost effaced. There remained to be feared only his brother ʿAbd e’ Rahmán. ʿAbd e’ Rahmán was a good soldier, but a man of a very loose and violent character. When a youth he had committed all sorts of violence and injustice, carrying off young brides by force, to indulge his passions: he was besides a man of little intelligence. Being but a few months younger than ʿOmár, he thought himself equally entitled to the succession; and if once admitted into a high position in the empire, he might be expected to abuse his influence on the very first opportunity.
Sheikh ʿOmár, therefore, could not but choose to confide rather in the intelligent son of his old minister, the faithful companion in the field and counsellor of his father, than in his own fierce and jealous brother; and all depended upon the behaviour of Háj Beshír, and upon the discretion with which he should occupy and maintain his place as first, or rather only minister of the kingdom. Assuredly his policy should have been to conciliate, as much as possible, all the greater “kokanáwa” or courtiers, in order to undermine the influence of ʿAbd e’ Rahmán, whom it might be wise to keep at a respectful distance. But in this respect the vizier seems to have made great mistakes, his covetousness blinding him to his principal advantages; for covetous he certainly was—first, from the love of possessing, and also in order to indulge his luxurious disposition, for he was certainly rather “kamúma,” that is to say, extremely fond of the fair sex, and had a harím of from three to four hundred female slaves.
In assembling this immense number of female companions for the entertainment of his leisure hours, he adopted a scientific principle; in fact, a credulous person might suppose that he regarded his harím only from a scientific point of view;—as a sort of ethnological museum—doubtless of a peculiarly interesting kind—which he had brought together in order to impress upon his memory the distinguishing features of each tribe. I have often observed that, in speaking with him of the different tribes of Negroland, he was at times struck with the novelty of a name, lamenting that he had not yet had a specimen of that tribe in his harím, and giving orders at once to his servants to endeavour to procure a perfect sample of the missing kind. I remember, also, that on showing to him one day an illustrated ethnological work in which he took a lively interest, and coming to a beautiful picture of a Circassian female, he told me, with an expression of undisguised satisfaction, that he had a living specimen of that kind; and when, forgetting the laws of Mohammedan etiquette, I was so indiscreet as to ask him whether she was as handsome as the picture, he answered only with a smile, at once punishing and pardoning my indiscreet question. I must also say that, notwithstanding the great number and variety of the women who shared his attention, he seemed to take a hearty interest in each of them; at least I remember that he grieved most sincerely for the loss of one who died in the winter of 1851. Poor Háj Beshír! He was put to death in the last month of 1853, leaving seventy-three sons alive, not counting the daughters, and the numbers of children which may be supposed to die in such an establishment without reaching maturity.
But to return to his political character. I said that he neglected to attach to himself the more powerful of the courtiers, with whose assistance he might have hoped to keep the rival brother of Sheikh ʿOmár at some distance; indeed, he even alienated them by occasional, and sometimes injudicious use of his almost unlimited power, obliging them, for instance, to resign to him a handsome female slave or a fine horse. If he had possessed great personal courage and active powers, he might have mastered circumstances and kept his post, notwithstanding the ill-will of all around him; but he wanted those qualities, as the result shows: and yet, well aware of the danger which threatened him, he was always on his guard, having sundry loaded pistols and carbines always around him, upon and under his carpet. Shortly before I arrived, an arrow had been shot at him in the evening, while he was sitting in his courtyard.
I have peculiar reason to thank Providence for having averted the storm which was gathering over his head during my stay in Bórnu, for my intimacy with him might very easily have involved me also in the calamities which befell him. However, I repeat that altogether he was a most excellent, kind, liberal, and just man, and might have done much good to the country, if he had been less selfish and more active. He was incapable, indeed, of executing by himself any act of severity, such as in the unsettled state of a semi-barbarous kingdom may at times be necessary; and, being conscious of his own mildness, he left all those matters to a man named Lamíno, to whom I gave the title of “the shameless left hand of the vizier,” and whom I shall have frequent occasion to mention.
I pressed upon the vizier the necessity of defending the northern frontier of Bórnu against the Tawárek by more effectual measures than had been then adopted, and thus retrieving, for cultivation and the peaceable abode of his fellow-subjects, the fine borders of the komádugu, and restoring security to the road to Fezzán. Just about this time the Tawárek had made another expedition into the border-districts on a large scale, so that Kashélla Belál, the first of the war chiefs, was obliged to march against them; and the road to Kanó, which I, with my usual good luck, had passed unmolested, had become so unsafe that a numerous caravan was plundered, and a well-known Arab merchant, the sheríf el Gháli, killed.
I remonstrated with him on the shamefully neglected state of the shores of the lake, which contained the finest pasture-grounds, and might yield an immense quantity of rice and cotton. He entered with spirit into all my proposals; but in a short time all was forgotten. He listened with delight to what little historical knowledge I had of these countries, and inquired particularly whether Kánem had really been in former times a mighty kingdom, or whether it would be worth retaking. It was in consequence of these conversations that he began to take an interest in the former history of the country, and that the historical records of Edrís Alawóma came to light; but he would not allow me to take them into my hands, and I could only read over his shoulders. He was a very religious man; and though he admired Europeans very much on account of their greater accomplishments, he was shocked to think that they drank intoxicating liquors. However, I tried to console him by telling him that, although the Europeans were also very partial to the fair sex, yet they did not indulge in this luxury on so large a scale as he did, and that therefore he ought to allow them some other little pleasure.
He was very well aware of the misery connected with the slave-trade; for on his pilgrimage to Mekka, in the mountainous region between Fezzán and Ben-Gházi he had lost, in one night, forty of his slaves by the extreme cold, and he swore that he would never take slaves for sale, if he were to travel again. But it was more difficult to make him sensible of the horrors of slave-hunting, although, when accompanying him on the expedition to Músgu, I and Mr. Overweg urged this subject with more success, as the further progress of my narrative will show. He was very desirous to open a commerce with the English, although he looked with extreme suspicion upon the form of articles in which the treaty was proposed to be drawn up; but he wished to forbid to Christians the sale of two things, viz. spirituous liquors and bibles. He did not object to bibles being brought into the country, and even given as presents; but he would not allow of their being sold. But the difficulties which I had to contend with in getting the treaty signed will be made more conspicuous as my narrative proceeds.
The most pressing matter which I had with the vizier in the first instance, after my arrival, was to obtain some money, in order to settle, at least partly, the just claims of the late Mr. Richardson’s servants, and to clear off debts which reflected little credit on the government which had sent us. I could scarcely expect that he would lend me the money without any profit, and was therefore glad to obtain it at the rate of 1000 cowries, or kúngona as they are called in Bórnu, for a dollar, to be paid in Fezzán; and I lost very little by the bargain, as the creditors, well aware of the great difficulty I was in, and acknowledging my desire to pay them off, agreed to receive for every dollar of the sum which they claimed, only 1280 cowries, while in the market the dollar fetched a much higher price. Indeed it was most grateful to my feelings to be enabled, on the 13th of April, to distribute among the eight creditors 70,000 shells; and it was the more agreeable, as the more arrogant among them, seeing my extreme poverty, had assumed a tone of great insolence towards me, which I found it difficult to support in silence. Being now relieved a little in circumstances, I immediately rid myself of the carpenter, the grandiloquent Son of Jerusalem, and sent him away. He died on the road before reaching Múrzuk—a fact which the natives attributed to the curse which I had given him for having stolen something from my house.
My household now became more comfortable. Already, on the 10th of April, late in the evening, I had removed my quarters from the large empty courtyard in the eastern town, or billa gedíbe, to a small clay house in the western, or billa futébe.
This dwelling consisted of several small but neatly-made rooms, and a yard. Afterwards we succeeded in obtaining in addition an adjoining yard, which was very spacious, and included several thatched huts; and all this together formed “the English house,” which the sheikh was kind enough to concede to the English mission as long as anybody should be left there to take care of it.
Its situation was very favourable, as will be seen from the plan a few pages further on, being situated almost in the middle of the town, and nevertheless out of the way of the great thoroughfares; the internal arrangement is shown in the annexed woodcut.
I immediately took possession of the room No. 8., which, although very small, was altogether the best, and was very cool during the hot hours of the day. Mr. Vogel too, when he afterwards arrived, immediately fixed upon this room. There was a most splendid kórna-tree in the neighbouring courtyard, which spread its shade over the terrace of this room, and over part of the small courtyard in front of it. In our own yard we had only a very fine specimen of a chédia or caoutchouc-tree (in the first yard, No. 3.), which was afterwards a little damaged by Mr. Overweg’s monkeys, besides two very small kórna-trees in the great yard around the huts Nos. 16 and 17. Having thus made myself as comfortable as possible, I began without delay to dig a well in the small court before the house, as we had to fetch the water from another well at some distance, which was much used by the people. My attempt caused some amusement to the vizier, who soon heard of it, and recognised in it a feature of the European character; for digging a well is no small undertaking in Kúkawa, although water is to be found at only nine fathoms depth; for the ground, consisting of loose sand under an upper thin layer of clay, is very apt to fall in, while the slender boughs with which the shaft is upheld, offer but little resistance. We had a great deal of trouble with our well, not only in constantly repairing it, but in the course of our stay we were thrice obliged to change the spot and dig a new well altogether. We should have been glad to set an example to the natives by building up our shaft with bricks; but with our scanty means, or rather our entire want of means, we could scarcely think of undertaking such a costly work. At a later period Mr. Overweg found a layer of shell lime in a spot of our courtyard, and got our house neatly whitewashed. The great point in this place is to protect oneself against the countless swarms of fleas which cover the ground, the best preservative being considered a frequent besmearing of the walls and the floor with cowdung. The large white ant too is most troublesome; and sugar particularly is kept with difficulty from its voracious attacks. Our rooms swarmed also with bugs, “bermáde,” but I am almost afraid that we ourselves imported them with our books. The bug, however, in Bórnu is not regarded as that nasty insect which creates so much loathing in civilized countries; on the contrary the native thinks its smell aromatic.
My poor Kátsena nag, the present of the extraordinary governor of that place, almost against my expectation, had successfully carried me as far as Kúkawa, but at that point it was quite exhausted, wanting at least some months’ repose. I was, therefore, without a horse, and was obliged at first to walk on foot, which was very trying in the deep sand and hot weather. I had once entreated the vizier to lend me a horse, but Lamíno had in consequence sent me such a miserable animal that I declined mounting it. The sheikh being informed afterwards that I was bargaining for a horse, sent me one as a present; it was tall and well-formed, but of a colour which I did not like, and very lean, having just come from the country where it had got no corn, so that it was unfit for me, as I wanted a strong animal, ready to undergo a great deal of fatigue. I was already preparing for my journey to Adamáwa, and having made the acquaintance of Mʿallem Katúri, a native of Yákoba, or rather, as the town is generally called, Garún Báuchi, and an excellent man, who had accompanied several great ghazzias in that country, and particularly that most remarkable one of Amba-Sambo, the governor of Chámba, as far as the Igbo country, at the Delta of the Niger, I hired him and bought for his use a strong good travelling horse. I bought also a tolerable pony for my servant, Mohammed ben Sʿad, so that, having now three horses at my command, I entered with spirit upon my career as an explorer of Negroland. All this of course was done by contracting a few little debts.
The vizier, who was well aware of the difficulties and dangers attending my proposed excursion to Adamáwa, was rather inclined to send me to the Músgu country, whither it was intended to despatch an expedition under the command of Kashélla Belál; but fortunately for me, and perhaps, also, for our knowledge of this part of the continent, the design was frustrated by an inroad of the Tawárek, which demanded the presence of this officer, the most warlike of the empire. This incursion of the plundering Kindín was made by a considerable body of men; who, having in vain tried to surprise some town on the frontier of Bórnu, turned their march towards Kánem, and went as far as Báteli, where, however, they met with but little success.
Having now a horse whereon to mount, I rode every day, either into the eastern town to pay a visit to the sheikh, or to the vizier, or roving around the whole circuit of the capital, and peeping into the varied scenes which the life of the people exhibited. The precincts of the town with its suburbs are just as interesting, as its neighbourhood (especially during the months that precede the rainy season) is monotonous and tiresome in the extreme. Certainly, the arrangement of the capital contributes a great deal to the variety of the picture which it forms, laid out as it is in two distinct towns, each surrounded with its wall, the one, occupied chiefly by the rich and wealthy, containing very large establishments, while the other, with the exception of the principal thoroughfare which traverses the town from west to east, consists of rather crowded dwellings, with narrow winding lanes. These two distinct towns are separated by a space about half a mile broad, itself thickly inhabited on both sides of a wide open road which forms the connection between them, but laid out less regularly, and presenting to the eye a most interesting medley of large clay buildings and small thatched huts, of massive clay walls surrounding immense yards, and light fences of reeds in a more or less advanced state of decay, and with a variety of colour, according to their age, from the brightest yellow down to the deepest black. All around these two towns there are small villages or clusters of huts, and large detached farms surrounded with clay walls, low enough to allow a glimpse from horseback over the thatched huts which they inclose.