The explorers had sent a messenger to Sheikh El Khanemy, to ask
permission to enter his capital, and an envoy speedily arrived to
invite Boo-Khaloum and his companions to Kouka.
On their way thither, the travellers passed through Burwha, a fortified
town which had thus far resisted the inroads of the Tuaricks, and
crossed the Yeou, a large river, in some parts more than 500 feet in
width, which, rising in the Soudan, flows into Lake Tchad.
On the southern shores of this river rises a little town of the same
name, about half the size of Burwha.
The caravan soon reached the gates of Kouka, where, after a journey
extending over two months and a half, they were received by a body of
cavalry 4000 strong, under perfect discipline. Amongst these troops was
a corps of blacks forming the body-guard of the sheikh, whose
equipments resembled those of ancient chivalry.
[Illustration: Member of the body-guard of the Sheikh of Bornou.
(Fac-simile of early engraving.)]
They wore, Denham tells us, suits of chain armour covering the neck and
shoulders. These were fastened above the head, and fell in two
portions, one in front and one behind, so as to protect the flanks of
the horse and the thighs of the rider. A sort of casque or iron coif,
kept in its place by red, white or yellow turbans, tied under the chin,
completed the costume. The horses' heads were also guarded by iron
plates. Their saddles were small and light, and their steel stirrups
held only the point of the feet, which were clad in leather shoes,
ornamented with crocodile skin. The horsemen managed their steeds
admirably, as, advancing at full gallop, brandishing their spears, they
wheeled right and left of their guests, shouting "Barca! Barca!"
(Blessing! Blessing!).
Surrounded by this brilliant and fantastic escort, the English and
Arabs entered the town, where a similar military display had been
prepared in their honour.
They were presently admitted to the presence of Sheikh El-Khanemy, who
appeared to be about forty-five years old, and whose face was
prepossessing, with a happy, intelligent, and benevolent expression.
The English presented the letters of the pacha, and when the sheikh had
read them, he asked Denham what had brought him and his companions to
Bornou.
"We came merely to see the country," replied Denham, "to study the
character of its people, its scenery, and its productions."
"You are welcome," was the reply; "it will be a pleasure to me to show
you everything. I have ordered huts to be built for you in the town;
you may go and see them, accompanied by one of my people, and when you
are recovered from the fatigue of your long journey, I shall be happy
to see you."
[Illustration: Reception of the Mission. (Fac-simile of early
engraving.)]
The travellers soon afterwards obtained permission to make collections
of such animals and plants as appeared to them curious, and to make
notes of all their observations. They were thus enabled to collect a
good deal of information about the towns near Kouka.
Kouka, then the capital of Bornou, boasted of a market for the sale of
slaves, sheep, oxen, cheese, rice, earth-nuts, beans, indigo, and other
productions of the country. There 100,000 people might sometimes be
seen haggling about the price of fish, poultry, meat--the last sold
both raw and cooked--or that of brass, copper, amber and coral. Linen
was so cheap in these parts, that some of the men wore shirts and
trousers made of it.
Beggars have a peculiar mode of exciting compassion; they station
themselves at the entrance to the market, and, holding up the rags of
an old pair of trousers, they whine out to the passers-by, "See! I have
no pantaloons!" The novelty of this mode of proceeding, and the request
for a garment, which seemed to them even more necessary than food, made
our travellers laugh heartily until they became accustomed to it.
Hitherto the English had had nothing to do with any one but the sheikh,
who, content with wielding all real power, left the nominal sovereignty
to the sultan, an eccentric monarch, who never showed himself except
through the bars of a wicker cage near the gate of his garden, as if he
were some rare wild beast. Curious indeed were some of the customs of
this court, not the least so the fancy for obesity: no one was
considered elegant unless he had attained to a bulk generally looked
upon as very inconvenient.
Some exquisites had stomachs so distended and prominent that they
seemed literally to hang over the pommel of the saddle; and in addition
to this, fashion prescribed a turban of such length and weight that its
wearer had to carry his head on one side.
These uncouth peculiarities rivalled those of the Turks of a masked
ball, and the travellers had often hard work to preserve their gravity.
To compensate, however, for the grotesque solemnity of the various
receptions, a new field for observation was open, and much valuable
information might now be acquired.
Denham wished to proceed to the south at once, but the sheikh was
unwilling to risk the lives of the travellers entrusted to him by the
Bey of Tripoli. On their entry into Bornou, the responsibility of
Boo-Khaloum for their safety was transferred to him.
So earnest, however, were the entreaties of Denham, that El-Khanemy at
last sanctioned his accompanying Boo-Khaloum in a "ghrazzie," or
plundering expedition against the Kaffirs or infidels.
The sheikh's army and the Arab troops passed in succession Yeddie, a
large walled city twenty miles from Angoumou, Badagry, and several
other towns built on an alluvial soil which has a dark clay-like
appearance.
They entered Mandara, at the frontier town of Delow, beyond which the
sultan of the province, with five hundred horsemen, met his guests.
Denham describes Mahommed Becker as a man of short stature, about fifty
years old, wearing a beard, painted of a most delicate azure blue. The
presentations over, the sultan at once turned to Denham, and asked who
he was, whence he came, what he wanted, and lastly if he were a
Mahommedan. On Boo-Khaloum's hesitating to reply, the sultan turned
away his head, with the words, "So the pacha numbers infidels amongst
his friends!"
This incident had a very bad effect, and Denham was not again admitted
to the presence of the sultan.
[Illustration: Lancer of the army of the Sultan of Begharmi.
(Fac-simile of early engraving.)]
The enemies of the Pacha of Bornou and the Sultan of Mandara, were
called Fellatahs. Their vast settlements extended far beyond Timbuctoo.
They are a handsome set of men, with skins of a dark bronze colour,
which shows them to be of a race quite distinct from the negroes. They
are professors of Mahommedanism, and mix but little with the blacks. We
shall presently have to speak more particularly of the Fellatahs,
Foulahs, or Fans, as they are called throughout the Soudan.
South of the town of Mora rises a chain of mountains, of which the
loftiest peaks are not more than 2500 feet high, but which, according
to the natives, extend for more than "two months' journey."
The most salient point noticed by Denham in his description of the
country, is a vast and apparently interminable chain of mountains,
shutting in the view on every side; this, though in his opinion,
inferior to the Alps, Apennines, Jura, and Sierra Morena in rugged
magnificence and gigantic grandeur, are yet equal to them in
picturesque effect. The lofty peaks of Valhmy, Savah, Djoggiday,
Munday, &c., with clustering villages on their stony sides, rise on the
east and west, while Horza, exceeding any of them in height and beauty,
rises on the south with its ravines and precipices.
Derkulla, one of the chief Fellatah towns, was reduced to ashes by the
invaders, who lost no time in pressing on to Musfeia, a position which,
naturally very strong, was further defended by palisades manned by a
numerous body of archers. The English traveller had to take part in the
assault. The first onslaught of the Arabs appeared to carry all before
it; the noise of the fire-arms, with the reputation for bravery and
cruelty enjoyed by Boo-Khaloum and his men, threw the Fellatahs into
momentary confusion, and if the men of Mandara and Bornou had followed
up their advantage and stormed the hill, the town would probably have
fallen.
The besieged, however, noticing the hesitation of their assailants, in
their turn assumed the defensive, and rallying their archers discharged
a shower of poisoned arrows, to which many an Arab fell a victim, and
before which the forces of Bornou and Mandara gave way.
Barca, the Bornou general, had three horses killed under him.
Boo-Khaloum and his steed were both wounded, and Denham was in a
similar plight, with the skin of his face grazed by one arrow and two
others lodged in his burnoos.
The retreat soon became a rout. Denham's horse fell under him, and the
major had hardly regained his feet when he was surrounded by Fellatahs.
Two fled on the presentation of the Englishman's pistols, a third
received the charge in his shoulder.
Denham thought he was safe, when his horse fell a second time, flinging
his master violently against a tree. This time when the major rose he
found himself with neither horse nor weapons; and the next moment he
was surrounded by enemies, who stripped him and wounded him in both
hands and the right side, leaving him half dead at last to fight over
his clothes, which seemed to them of great value.
Availing himself of this lucky quarrel, Denham slipped under a horse
standing by, and disappeared in the thicket. Naked, bleeding, wild with
pain, he reached the edge of a ravine with a mountain stream flowing
through it. His strength was all but gone, and he was clutching at a
bough of a tree overhanging the water with a view to dropping himself
into it as the banks were very steep, and the branches were actually
bending beneath his weight, when from beneath his hand a gigantic
liffa, the most venomous kind of serpent in the country, rose from its
coil in the very act of striking. Horror-struck, Denham let slip the
branch, and tumbled headlong into the water, but fortunately the shock
revived him, he struck out almost unconsciously, swam to the opposite
bank, and climbing it, found himself safe from his pursuers.
Fortunately the fugitive soon saw a group of horsemen amongst the
trees, and in spite of the noise of the pursuit, he managed to shout
loud enough to make them hear him. They turned out to be Barca Gana and
Boo-Khaloum, with some Arabs. Mounted on a sorry steed, with no other
clothing than an old blanket swarming with vermin, Denham travelled
thirty-seven miles. The pain of his wounds was greatly aggravated by
the heat, the thermometer being at 32 degrees.
The only results of the expedition, which was to have brought in such
quantities of booty and numerous slaves, were the deaths of Boo-Khaloum
and thirty-six of his Arabs, the wounding of nearly all the rest, and
the loss or destruction of all the horses.
The eighty miles between Mora and Kouka were traversed in six days.
Denham was kindly received in the latter town by the sultan, who sent
him a native garment to replace his lost wardrobe. The major had hardly
recovered from his wounds and fatigue, before he took part in a new
expedition, sent to Munga, a province on the west of Bornou, by the
sheikh, whose authority had never been fully recognized there, and
whose claim for tribute had been refused by the inhabitants.
[Illustration: Map of Denham and Clapperton's Journey. Gravé par E.
Morieu.]
Denham and Oudney left Kouka on the 22nd May, and crossed the Yeou,
then nearly dried up, but an important stream in the rainy season, and
visited Birnie, with the ruins of the capital of the same name, which
was capable of containing two hundred thousand inhabitants. The
travellers also passed through the ruins of Gambarou with its
magnificent buildings, the favourite residence of the former sultan,
destroyed by the Fellatahs, Kabshary, Bassecour, Bately, and many other
towns or villages, whose numerous populations submitted without a
struggle to the Sultan of Bornou.
The rainy season was disastrous to the members of the expedition,
Clapperton fell dangerously ill of fever, and Oudney, whose chest was
delicate even before he left England, grew weaker every day. Denham
alone kept up. On the 14th of December, when the rainy season was
drawing to a close, Clapperton and Oudney started for Kano. We shall
presently relate the particulars of this interesting part of their
expedition.
Seven days later, an ensign, named Toole, arrived at Kouka, after a
journey from Tripoli, which had occupied only three months and fourteen
days.
In February, 1824, Denham and Toole made a trip into Luggun, on the
south of Lake Tchad. All the districts near the lake and its tributary,
the Shari, are marshy, and flooded during the rainy season. The
unhealthiness of the climate was fatal to young Toole, who died at
Angala, on the 26th of February, at the early age of twenty-two.
Persevering, enterprising, bright and obliging, with plenty of pluck
and prudence, Toole was a model explorer.
Luggun was then very little known, its capital Kernok, contained no
less than 15,000 inhabitants. The people of Luggun, especially the
women--who are very industrious, and manufacture the finest linens, and
fabrics of the closest texture--are handsomer and more intelligent than
those of Bornou.
The necessary interview with the sultan ended, after an exchange of
complimentary speeches and handsome presents, in this strange proposal
from his majesty to the travellers: "If you have come to buy female
slaves, you need not be at the trouble to go further, as I will sell
them to you as cheap as possible." Denham had great trouble in
convincing the merchant prince that such traffic was not the aim of his
journey, but that the love of science alone had brought him to Luggun.
On the 2nd of March, Denham returned to Kouka, and on the 20th of May,
he was witness to the arrival of Lieutenant Tyrwhitt, who had come to
take up his residence as consul at the court of Bornou, bearing costly
presents for the sultan.
[Illustration: Portrait of Clapperton. (Fac-simile of early
engraving.)]
After a final excursion in the direction of Manou, the capital of
Kanem, and a visit to the Dogganah, who formerly occupied all the
districts about Lake Fitri, the major joined Clapperton in his return
journey to Tripoli, starting on the 16th of April, and arriving there
in safety at the close of a long and arduous journey, whose
geographical results, important in any case, had been greatly enhanced
by the labours of Clapperton. To the adventures and discoveries of the
latter we must now turn. Clapperton and Oudney started for Kano, a
large Fellatah town on the west of Lake Tchad, on the 14th of December,
1823, followed the Yeou as far as Damasak, and visited the ruins of
Birnie, and those of Bera, on the shores of a lake formed by the
overflowing of the Yeou, Dogamou and Bekidarfi, all towns of Houssa.
The people of this province, who were very numerous before the invasion
of the Fellatahs, are armed with bows and arrows, and trade in tobacco,
nuts, gouro, antimony, tanned hares' skins, and cotton stuffs in the
piece and made into clothes.
The caravan soon left the banks of the Yeou or Gambarou, and entered a
wooded country, which was evidently under water in the rainy season.
The travellers then entered the province of Katagoum, where the
governor received them with great cordiality, assuring them that their
arrival was quite an event to him, as it would be to the Sultan of the
Fellatahs, who, like himself, had never before seen an Englishman. He
also assured them that they would find all they required in his
district, just as at Kouka.
The only thing which seemed to surprise him much, was the fact that his
visitors wanted neither slaves, horses, nor silver, and that the sole
proof of his friendship they required was permission to collect flowers
and plants, and to travel in his country.
According to Clapperton's observations, Katagoum is situated in lat. 12
degrees 17 minutes 11 seconds N., and about 12 degrees E. long. Before
the Fellatahs were conquered, it was on the borders of the province of
Bornou. It can send into the field 4000 cavalry, and 2000 foot
soldiers, armed with bows and arrows, swords and lances. Wheat, and
oxen, with slaves, are its chief articles of commerce. The citadel is
the strongest the English had seen, except that of Tripoli. Entered by
gates which are shut at night, it is defended by two parallel walls,
and three dry moats, one inside, one out, and the third between the two
walls which are twenty feet high, and ten feet wide at the base. A
ruined mosque is the only other object of interest in the town, which
consists of mud houses, and contains some seven or eight hundred
inhabitants.
There the English for the first time saw cowries used as money.
Hitherto native cloth had been the sole medium of exchange.
South of Katagoum is the Yacoba country, called Mouchy by the
Mahommedans. According to accounts received by Clapperton, the people
of Yacoba, which is shut in by limestone mountains, are cannibals. The
Mahommedans, however, who have an intense horror of the "Kaffirs," give
no other proof of this accusation than the statement that they have
seen human heads and limbs hanging against the walls of the houses.
In Yacoba rises the Yeou, a river which dries up completely in the
summer; but, according to the people who live on its banks, rises and
falls regularly every week throughout the rainy season.
On the 11th of January, the journey was resumed; but a halt had to be
made at Murmur at noon of the same day, as Oudney showed signs of such
extreme weakness and exhaustion, that Clapperton feared he could not
last through another day. He had been gradually failing ever since they
left the mountains of Obarri in Fezzan, where he had inflammation of
the throat from sitting in a draught when over-heated.
On the 12th of January, Oudney took a cup of coffee at daybreak, and at
his request Clapperton changed camels with him. He then helped him to
dress, and leaning on his servant, the doctor left the tent. He was
about to attempt to mount his camel, when Clapperton saw death in his
face. He supported him back to the tent, where to his intense grief, he
expired at once, without a groan or any sign of suffering. Clapperton
lost no time in asking the governor's permission to bury his comrade;
and this being obtained, he dug a grave for him himself under an old
mimosa-tree near one of the gates of the town. After the body had been
washed according to the custom of the country, it was wrapped in some
of the turban shawls which were to have served as presents on the
further journey; the servants carried it to its last resting-place, and
Clapperton read the English burial service at the grave. When the
ceremony was over, he surrounded the modest resting-place with a wall
of earth, to keep off beasts of prey, and had two sheep killed, which
he divided amongst the poor.
Thus closed the career of the young naturalist and ship's doctor,
Oudney. His terrible malady, whose germs he had brought with him from
England, had prevented him from rendering so much service to the
expedition as the Government had expected from him, although he never
spared himself, declaring that he felt better on the march, than when
resting. Knowing that his weakened constitution would not admit of any
sustained exertion on his part, he would never damp the ardour of his
companions.
After this sad event, Clapperton resumed his journey to Kano, halting
successively at Digou, situated in a well-cultivated district, rich in
flocks; Katoungora, beyond the province of Katagoum; Zangeia,
once--judging from its extent and the ruined walls still standing--an
important place, near the end of the Douchi chain of hills; Girkoua,
with a finer market-place than that of Tripoli; and Souchwa, surrounded
by an imposing earthwork.
Kano, the Chana of Edrisi and other Arab geographers, and the great
emporium of the kingdom of Houssa, was reached on the 20th January.
Clapperton tells us that he had hardly entered the gates before his
expectations were disappointed; after the brilliant description of the
Arabs, he had expected to see a town of vast extent. The houses were a
quarter of a mile from the walls, and stood here and there in little
groups, separated by large pools of stagnant water. "I might have
dispensed with the care I had bestowed on my dress," (he had donned his
naval uniform), "for the inhabitants, absorbed in their own affairs,
let me pass without remark and never so much as looked at me."
Kano, the capital of the province of that name and one of the chief
towns of the Soudan, is situated in N. lat. 12 degrees 0 minutes 19
seconds, and E. long. 9 degrees 20 minutes. It contains between thirty
and forty thousand inhabitants, of whom the greater number are slaves.
The market, bounded on the east and west by vast reedy swamps, is the
haunt of numerous flocks of ducks, storks, and vultures, which act as
scavengers to the town. In this market, stocked with all the provisions
in use in Africa, beef, mutton, goats' and sometimes even camels'
flesh, are sold.
Writing paper of French manufacture, scissors and knives, antimony,
tin, red silk, copper bracelets, glass beads, coral, amber, steel
rings, silver ornaments, turban shawls, cotton cloths, calico, Moorish
habiliments, and many other articles, are exposed for sale in large
quantities in the market-place of Kano.
There Clapperton bought for three piastres, an English cotton umbrella
from Ghadames. He also visited the slave-market, where the unfortunate
human chattels are as carefully examined as volunteers for the navy are
by our own inspectors.
The town is very unhealthy, the swamps cutting it in two, and the holes
produced by the removal of the earth for building, produce permanent
malaria.
It is the fashion at Kano to stain the teeth and limbs with the juice
of a plant called -gourgi-, and with tobacco, which produces a bright
red colour. Gouro nuts are chewed, and sometimes even swallowed when
mixed with -trona-, a habit not peculiar to Houssa, for it extends to
Bornou, where it is strictly forbidden to women. The people of Houssa
smoke a native tobacco.
On the 23rd of February, Clapperton started for Sackatoo. He crossed a
picturesque well-cultivated country, whose wooded hills gave it the
appearance of an English park. Herds of beautiful white or dun-coloured
oxen gave animation to the scenery.
The most important places passed en route by Clapperton were Gadania, a
densely populated town, the inhabitants of which had been sold as
slaves by the Fellatahs, Doncami, Zirmia, the capital of Gambra,
Kagaria, Kouari, and the wells of Kamoun, where he met an escort sent
by the sultan.
Sackatoo was the most thickly populated city that the explorer had seen
in Africa. Its well-built houses form regular streets, instead of
clustering in groups as in the other towns of Houssa. It is surrounded
by a wall between twenty and thirty feet high, pierced by twelve gates,
which are closed every evening at sunset, and it boasts of two mosques,
with a market and a large square opposite to the sultan's residence.
The inhabitants, most of whom are Fellatahs, own many slaves; and the
latter, those at least who are not in domestic service, work at some
trade for their masters' profit. They are weavers, masons, blacksmiths,
shoemakers, or husbandmen.
To do honour to his host, and also to give him an exalted notion of the
power and wealth of England, Clapperton assumed a dazzling costume when
he paid his first visit to Sultan Bello. He covered his uniform with
gold lace, donned white trousers and silk stockings, and completed this
holiday attire by a Turkish turban and slippers. Bello received him,
seated on a cushion in a thatched hut like an English cottage. The
sultan, a handsome man, about forty-five years old, wore a blue cotton
-tobe- and a white cotton turban, one end of which fell over his nose
and mouth in Turkish fashion.
Bello accepted the traveller's presents with childish glee. The watch,
telescope, and thermometer, which he naively called a "heat watch,"
especially delighted him; but he wondered more at his visitor than at
any of his gifts. He was unwearied in his questions as to the manners,
customs, and trade of England; and after receiving several replies, he
expressed a wish to open commercial relations with that power. He would
like an English consul and a doctor to reside in a port he called Raka,
and finally he requested that certain articles of English manufacture
should be sent to Funda, a very thriving sea-port of his. After a good
many talks on the different religions of Europe, Bello gave back to
Clapperton the books, journals, and clothes which had been taken from
Denham, at the time of the unfortunate excursion in which Boo-Khaloum
lost his life.
On the 3rd May, Clapperton took leave of the sultan. This time there
was a good deal of delay before he was admitted to an audience. Bello
was alone, and gave the traveller a letter for the King of England,
with many expressions of friendship towards the country of his visitor,
reiterating his wish to open commercial relations with it and begging
him to let him have a letter to say when the English expedition
promised by Clapperton would arrive on the coast of Africa.
Clapperton returned by the route by which he had come, arriving on the
8th of July at Kouka, where he rejoined Denham. He had brought with him
an Arab manuscript containing a geographical and historical picture of
the kingdom of Takrour, governed by Mahommed Bello of Houssa, author of
the manuscript. He himself had not only collected much valuable
information on the geology and botany of Bornou and Houssa, but also
drawn up a vocabulary of the languages of Begharmi, Mandara, Bornou,
Houssa, and Timbuctoo.
The results of the expedition were therefore considerable. The
Fellatahs had been heard of for the first time, and their identity with
the Fans had been ascertained by Clapperton in his second journey. It
had been proved that these Fellatahs had created a vast empire in the
north and west of Africa, and also that beyond a doubt they did not
belong to the negro race. The study of their language, and its
resemblance to certain idioms not of African origin, will some day
throw a light on the migration of races. Lastly, Lake Tchad had been
discovered, and though not entirely examined, the greater part of its
shores had been explored. It had been ascertained to have two
tributaries: the Yeou, part of whose course had been traced, whilst its
source had been pointed out by the natives, and the Shari, the mouth
and lower portion of which had been carefully examined by Denham. With
regard to the Niger, the information collected by Clapperton from the
natives was still very contradictory, but the balance of evidence was
in favour of its flowing into the Gulf of Benin. However, Clapperton
intended, after a short rest in England, to return to Africa, and
landing on the western coast make his way up the Kouara or Djoliba as
the natives call the Niger; to set at rest once for all the dispute as
to whether that river was or was not identical with the Nile; to
connect his new discoveries with those of Denham, and lastly to cross
Africa, taking a diagonal course from Tripoli to the Gulf of Benin.
II.
Clapperton's second journey--Arrival at Badagry--Yariba and its capital
Katunga--Boussa--Attempts to get at the truth about Mungo Park's
fate--"Nyffé," Yaourie, and Zegzeg--Arrival at Kano--Disappointments--
Death of Clapperton--Return of Lander to the coast--Tuckey on the
Congo--Bowditch in Ashantee--Mollien at the sources of the Senegal and
Gambia--Major Grey--Caillié at Timbuctoo--Laing at the sources of the
Niger--Richard and John Lander at the mouth of the Niger--Cailliaud and
Letorzec in Egypt, Nubia, and the oasis of Siwâh.
So soon as Clapperton arrived in England, he submitted to Lord Bathurst
his scheme for going to Kouka -viâ- the Bight of Benin--in other words
by the shortest way, a route not attempted by his predecessors--and
ascending the Niger from its mouth to Timbuctoo.
In this expedition three others were associated with Clapperton, who
took the command. These three were a surgeon named Dickson, Pearce, a
ship's captain, and Dr. Morrison, also in the merchant service; the
last-named well up in every branch of natural history.
On the 26th November, 1825, the expedition arrived in the Bight of
Benin. For some reason unexplained, Dickson had asked permission to
make his way to Sockatoo alone and he landed for that purpose at
Whydah. A Portuguese named Songa, and Colombus, Denham's servant,
accompanied him as far as Dahomey. Seventeen days after he left that
town, Dickson reached Char, and a little later Yaourie, beyond which
place he was never traced.[1]
[Footnote 1: Dickson quarrelled with a native chief, and was murdered
by his followers. See Clapperton's "Last Journey in Africa."---Trans.-]
The other explorers sailed up the Bight of Benin, and were warned by an
English merchant named Houtson, not to attempt the ascent of the
Quorra, as the king of the districts watered by it had conceived an
intense hatred of the English, on account of their interference with
the slave-trade, the most remunerative branch of his commerce.
It would be much better, urged Houtson, to go to Badagry, no great
distance from Sackatoo, the chief of which, well-disposed as he was to
travellers, would doubtless give them an escort as far as the frontiers
of Yariba. Houtson had lived in the country many years, and was well
acquainted with the language and habits of its people. Clapperton,
therefore, thought it desirable to attach him to the expedition as far
as Katunga, the capital of Yariba.
The expedition disembarked at Badagry, on the 29th November, 1825,
ascended an arm of the Lagos, and then, for a distance of two miles,
the Gazie creek, which traverses part of Dahomey. Descending the left
bank, the explorers began their march into the interior of the country,
through districts consisting partly of swamps and partly of yam
plantations. Everything indicated fertility. The negroes were very
averse to work, and it would be impossible to relate the numerous
"palavers" and negotiations which had to be gone through, and the
exactions which were submitted to, before porters could be obtained.
The explorers succeeded, in spite of these difficulties, in reaching
Jenneh, sixty miles from the coast. Here Clapperton tells us he saw
several looms at work, as many as eight or nine in one house, a regular
manufactory in fact. The people of Jenneh also make earthenware, but
they prefer that which they get from Europe, often putting the foreign
produce to uses for which it was never intended.
At Jenneh the travellers were all attacked with fever, the result of
the great heat and the unhealthiness of the climate. Pearce and
Morrison both died on the 27th December, the former soon after he left
Jenneh with Clapperton, the latter at that town, to which he had
returned to rest.
At Assondo, a town of no less than 10,000 inhabitants; Daffou,
containing some 5000, and other places visited by Clapperton on his way
through the country, he found that an extraordinary rumour had preceded
him, to the effect that he had come to restore peace to the districts
distracted by war, and to do good to the lands he explored.
At Tchow the caravan met a messenger with a numerous escort, sent by
the King of Yariba to meet the explorers, and shortly afterwards
Katunga was entered. This town is built round the base of a rugged
granite mountain. It is about three miles in extent, and is both framed
in and planted with bushy trees presenting a most picturesque
appearance.
[Illustration: "The caravan met a messenger."]
Clapperton remained at Katunga from the 24th January to the 7th March,
1826. He was entertained there with great hospitality by the sultan,
who, however, refused to give him permission to go to Houssa and Bornou
by way of Nyffé or Toppa, urging as reasons that Nyffé was distracted
by civil war, and one of the pretenders to the throne had called in the
aid of the Fellatahs. It would be more prudent to go through Yaourie.
Whether these excuses were true or not, Clapperton had to submit.
The explorer availed himself of his detention at Katunga to make
several interesting observations. This town contains no less than seven
markets, in which are exposed for sale yams, cereals, bananas, figs,
the seeds of gourds, hares, poultry, sheep, lambs, linen cloth, and
various implements of husbandry.
The houses of the king and those of his wives are situated in two large
parks. The doors and the pillars of the verandahs are adorned with
fairly well executed carvings, representing such scenes as a boa
killing an antelope, or a pig, or a group of warriors and drummers.
According to Clapperton the people of Yariba have fewer of the
characteristics of the negro race than any natives of Africa with whom
he was brought in contact. Their lips are not so thick and their noses
are of a more aquiline shape. The men are well made, and carry
themselves with an ease which cannot fail to be remarked. The women are
less refined-looking than the men, the result, probably, of exposure to
the sun and the fatigue they endure, compelled as they are to do all
the work of the fields.
Soon after leaving Katunga, Clapperton crossed the Mousa, a tributary
of the Quorra and entered Kiama, one of the halting-places of the
caravans trading between Houssa and Borghoo, and Gandja, on the
frontiers of Ashantee. Kiama contains no less than 13,000 inhabitants,
who are considered the greatest thieves in Africa. To say a man is from
Borghoo is to brand him as a blackguard at once.
Outside Kiama the traveller met the Houssa caravan. Some thousands of
men and women, oxen, asses, and horses, marching in single file, formed
an interminable line presenting a singular and grotesque appearance. A
motley assemblage truly: naked girls alternating with men bending
beneath their loads, or with Gandja merchants in the most outlandish
and ridiculous costumes, mounted on bony steeds which stumbled at every
step.
Clapperton now made for Boussa on the Niger, where Mungo Park was
drowned. Before reaching it he had to cross the Oli, a tributary of the
Quorra, and to pass through Wow-wow, a district of Borghoo, the capital
of which, also called Wow-wow, contained some 18,000 inhabitants. It
was one of the cleanest and best built towns the traveller had entered
since he left Badagry. The streets are wide and well kept, and the
houses are round, with conical thatched roofs. Drunkenness is a
prevalent vice in Wow-wow: governor, priests, laymen, men and women,
indulge to excess in palm wine, in rum brought from the coast, and in
"bouza." The latter beverage is a mixture made of dhurra, honey,
cayenne pepper, and the root of a coarse grass eaten by cattle, with
the addition of a certain quantity of water.
Clapperton tells us that the people of Wow-wow are famous for their
cleanliness; they are cheerful, benevolent, and hospitable. No other
people whom he had met with had been so ready to give him information
about their country; and, more extraordinary still, did not meet with a
single beggar. The natives say they are not aborigines of Borghoo, but
that they are descendants of the natives of Houssa and Nyffé. They
speak a Yariba dialect, but the Wow-wow women are pretty, which those
of Yariba are not. The men are muscular and well-made, but have a
dissipated look. Their religion is a lax kind of Mahommedanism
tinctured with paganism.
Since leaving the coast Clapperton had met tribes of unconverted
Fellatahs speaking the same language, and resembling in feature and
complexion others who had adopted Mahommedanism. A significant fact
which points to their belonging to one race.
Boussa, which the traveller reached at last, is not a regular town, but
consists of groups of scattered houses on an island of the Quorra,
situated in lat. 10 degrees 14 minutes N., and long. 6 degrees 11
minutes E. The province of which it is the capital is the most densely
populated of Borghoo. The inhabitants are all Pagans, even the sultan,
although his name is Mahommed. They live upon monkeys, dogs, cats,
rats, beef, and mutton.
Breakfast was served to the sultan whilst he was giving audience to
Clapperton, whom he invited to join him. The meal consisted of a large
water-rat grilled without skinning, a dish of fine boiled rice, some
dried fish stewed in palm oil, fried alligators' eggs, washed down with
fresh water from the Quorra. Clapperton took some stewed fish and rice,
but was much laughed at because he would eat neither the rat nor the
alligators' eggs.
The sultan received him very courteously, and told him that the Sultan
of Yaourie had had boats ready to take him to that town for the last
seven days. Clapperton replied that as the war had prevented all exit
from Bornou and Yaourie, he should prefer going by way of Coulfo and
Nyffé. "You are right," answered the sultan; "you did well to come and
see me, and you can take which ever route you prefer."
At a later audience Clapperton made inquiries about the Englishmen who
had perished in the Quorra twenty years before. This subject evidently
made the sultan feel very ill at ease, and he evaded the questions put
to him, by saying he was too young at the time to remember what
happened.
Clapperton explained that he only wanted to recover their books and
papers, and to visit the scene of their death; and the sultan in reply
denied having anything belonging to them, adding a warning against his
guest's going to the place where they died, for it was a "very bad
place."
"But I understood," urged Clapperton, "that part of the boat they were
in could still be seen."
"No, it was a false report," replied the sultan, "the boat had long
since been carried down by the stream; it was somewhere amongst the
rocks, he didn't know where."
To a fresh demand for Park's papers and journals the sultan replied
that he had none of them; they were in the hands of some learned men;
but as Clapperton seemed to set such store by them, he would have them
looked for. Thanking him for this promise, Clapperton begged permission
to question the old men of the place, some of whom must have witnessed
the catastrophe. No answer whatever was returned to this appeal, by
which the sultan was evidently much embarrassed. It was useless to
press him further.
This was a check to Clapperton's further inquiries. On every side he
was met with embarrassed silence or such replies as, "The affair
happened so long ago, I can't remember it," or, "I was not witness to
it." The place where the boat had been stopped and its crew drowned was
pointed out to him, but even that was done cautiously. A few days
later, Clapperton found out that the former Imaun, who was a Fellatah,
had had Mungo Park's books and papers in his possession. Unfortunately,
however, this Imaun had long since left Boussa. Finally, when at
Coulfo, the explorer ascertained beyond a doubt that Mungo Park had
been murdered.
Before leaving Borghoo, Clapperton recorded his conviction of the
baselessness of the bad reputation of the inhabitants, who had been
branded everywhere as thieves and robbers. He had completely explored
their country, travelled and hunted amongst them alone, and never had
the slightest reason to complain.
The traveller now endeavoured to reach Kano by way of Zouari and
Zegzeg, first crossing the Quorra. He soon arrived at Fabra, on the
Mayarrow, the residence of the queen-mother of Nyffé, and then went to
visit the king, in camp at a short distance from the town. This king,
Clapperton tells us, was the most insolent rogue imaginable, asking for
everything he saw, and quite unabashed by any refusal. His ambition and
his calling in of the Fellatahs, who would throw him over as soon as he
had answered their purpose, had been the ruin of his country. Thanks
indeed to him, nearly the whole of the industrial population of Nyffé
had been killed, sold into slavery, or had fled the country.
Clapperton was detained by illness much longer than he had intended to
remain at Coulfo, a commercial town on the northern banks of the
Mayarrow containing from twelve to fifteen thousand inhabitants.
Exposed for the last twenty years to the raids of the Fellatahs, Coulfo
had been burnt twice in six years. Clapperton was witness when there of
the Feast of the New Moon. On that festival every one exchanged visits.
The women wear their woolly hair plaited and stained with indigo. Their
eyebrows are dyed the same colour. Their eyelids are painted with kohl,
their lips are stained yellow, their teeth red, and their hands and
feet are coloured with henna. On the day of the Feast of the Moon they
don their gayest garments, with their glass beads, bracelets, copper,
silver, steel, or brass. They also turn the occasion to account by
drinking as much bouza as the men, joining in all their songs and
dances.
After passing through Katunga, Clapperton entered the province of
Gouari, the people of which though conquered with the rest of Houssa by
the Fellatahs, had rebelled against them on the death of Bello I., and
since then maintained their independence in spite of all the efforts of
their invaders. Gouari, capital of the province of the same name, is
situated in lat. 10 degrees 54 minutes N., and long. 8 degrees 1 minute
E.
At Fatika Clapperton entered Zegzeg, subject to the Fellatahs, after
which he visited Zariyah, a singular-looking town laid out with
plantations of millet, woods of bushy trees, vegetable gardens, &c.,
alternating with marshes, lawns, and houses. The population was very
numerous, exceeding even that of Kano, being estimated indeed at some
forty or fifty thousand, nearly all Fellatahs.
On the 19th September, after a long and weary journey, Clapperton at
last entered Kano. He at once discovered that he would have been more
welcome if he had come from the east, for the war with Bornou had
broken off all communication with Fezzan and Tripoli. Leaving his
luggage under the care of his servant Lander, Clapperton almost
immediately started in quest of Sultan Bello, who they said was near
Sackatoo. This was an extremely arduous journey, and on it Clapperton
lost his camels and horses, and was compelled to put up with a
miserable ox; to carry part of his baggage, he and his servants
dividing the rest amongst them.
Bello received Clapperton kindly and sent him camels and provisions,
but as he was then engaged in subjugating the rebellious province of
Gouber, he could not at once give the explorer the personal audience so
important to the many interests entrusted by the English Government to
Clapperton.
Bello advanced to the attack of Counia, the capital of Gouber, at the
head of an army of 60,000 soldiers, nine-tenths of whom were on foot
and wore padded armour. The struggle was contemptible in the extreme,
and this abortive attempt closed the war. Clapperton, whose health was
completely broken up, managed to make his way from Sackatoo to Magaria,
where he saw the sultan.
After he had received the presents brought for him, Bello became less
friendly. He presently pretended to have received a letter from Sheikh
El Khanemy warning him against the traveller, whom his correspondent
characterized as a spy, and urging him to defy the English, who meant,
after finding out all about the country, to settle in it, raise up
sedition and profit by the disturbances they should create to take
possession of Houssa, as they had done of India.
The most patent of all the motives of Bello in creating difficulties
for Clapperton was his wish to appropriate the presents intended for
the Sultan of Bornou. A pretext being necessary, he spread a rumour
that the traveller was taking cannons and ammunition to Kouka. It was
out of all reason Bello should allow a stranger to cross his dominions
with a view to enabling his implacable enemy to make war upon him.
Finally, Bello made an effort to induce Clapperton to read to him the
letter of Lord Bathurst to the Sultan of Bornou.
Clapperton told him he could take it if he liked, but that he would not
give it to him, adding that everything was of course possible to him,
as he had force on his side, but that he would bring dishonour upon
himself by using it. "To open the letter myself," said Clapperton, "is
more than my head is worth." He had come, he urged, bringing Bello a
letter and presents from the King of England, relying upon the
confidence inspired by the sultan's letter of the previous year, and he
hoped his host would not forfeit that confidence by tampering with
another person's letter.
On this the sultan made a gesture of dismissal, and Clapperton retired.
This was not, however, the last attempt of a similar kind, and things
grew much worse later. A few days afterwards another messenger was sent
to demand the presents reserved for El Khanemy, and on Clapperton's
refusing to give them up, they were taken from him.
"I told the Gadado," says Clapperton, "that they were acting like
robbers towards me, in defiance of all good faith: that no people in
the world would act the same, and they had far better have cut my head
off than done such an act; but I suppose they would do that also when
they had taken everything from me."
An attempt was now made to obtain his arms and ammunition, but this he
resisted sturdily. His terrified servants ran away, but soon returned
to share the dangers of their master, for whom they entertained the
warmest affection.
At this critical moment, the entries in Clapperton's journal ceased. He
had now been six months in Sackatoo, without being able to undertake
any explorations or to bring to a satisfactory conclusion the mission
which had brought him from the coast. Sick at heart, weary, and ill, he
could take no rest, and his illness suddenly increased upon him to an
alarming degree. His servant, Richard Lander, who had now joined him,
tried in vain to be all things at once. On the 12th March, 1827,
Clapperton was seized with dysentery. Nothing could check the progress
of the malady, and he sank rapidly. It being the time of the feast of
the Rhamadan, Lander could get no help, not even servants. Fever soon
set in, and after twenty days of great suffering, Clapperton, feeling
his end approaching, gave his last instructions to Lander, and died in
that faithful servant's arms, on the 11th of April.
"I put a large clean mat," says Lander, "over the whole [the corpse],
and sent a messenger to Sultan Bello, to acquaint him with the mournful
event, and ask his permission to bury the body after the manner of my
own country, and also to know in what particular place his remains were
to be interred. The messenger soon returned with the sultan's consent
to the former part of my request; and about twelve o'clock at noon of
the same day a person came into my hut, accompanied by four slaves,
sent by Bello to dig the grave. I was desired to follow them with the
corpse. Accordingly I saddled my camel, and putting the body on its
back, and throwing a union jack over it, I bade them proceed.
Travelling at a slow pace, we halted at Jungavie, a small village,
built on a rising ground, about five miles to the south-east of
Sackatoo. The body was then taken from the camel's back, and placed in
a shed, whilst the slaves were digging the grave; which being quickly
done, it was conveyed close to it. I then opened a prayer-book, and,
amid showers of tears, read the funeral service over the remains of my
valued master. Not a single person listened to this peculiarly
distressing ceremony, the slaves being at some distance, quarrelling
and making a most indecent noise the whole time it lasted. This being
done, the union jack was then taken off, and the body was slowly
lowered into the earth, and I wept bitterly as I gazed for the last
time upon all that remained of my generous and intrepid master."
[Illustration: "Travelling at a slow pace."]
Overcome by heat, fatigue, and grief, poor Lander himself now broke
down, and for more than ten days was unable to leave his hut.
Bello sent several times to inquire after the unfortunate servant's
health, but he was not deceived by these demonstrations of interest,
for he knew they were only dictated by a wish to get possession of the
traveller's baggage, which was supposed to be full of gold and silver.
The sultan's astonishment may therefore be imagined when it came out
that Lander had not even money enough to defray the expenses of his
journey to the coast. He never found out that the servant had taken the
precaution of hiding his own gold watch and those of Pearce and
Clapperton about his person.
Lander saw that he must at any cost get back to the coast as quickly as
possible. By dint of the judicious distribution of a few presents he
won over some of the sultan's advisers, who represented to their master
that should Lander die he would be accused of having murdered him as
well as Clapperton. Although Clapperton had advised Lander to join an
Arab caravan for Fezzan, the latter, fearing that his papers and
journals might be taken from him, resolved to go back to the coast.
On the 3rd May Lander at last left Sackatoo en route for Kano. During
the first part of this journey, he nearly died of thirst, but he
suffered less in the second half, as the King of Djacoba, who had
joined him, was very kind to him, and begged him to visit his country.
This king told him that the Niam-Niams were his neighbours; that they
had once joined him against the Sultan of Bornou, and that after the
battle they had roasted and eaten the corpses of the slain. This, I
believe, is the first mention, since the publication of Hornemann's
Travels, of this cannibal race, who were to become the subjects of so
many absurd fables.
Lander entered Kano on the 25th May, and after a short stay there
started for Funda, on the Niger, whose course he proposed following to
Benin. This route had much to recommend it, being not only safe but
new, so that Lander was enabled to supplement the discoveries of his
master.
Kanfoo, Carifo, Gowgie, and Gatas, were visited in turns by Lander, who
says that the people of these towns belong to the Houssa race, and pay
tribute to the Fellatahs. He also saw Damoy, Drammalik, and Coudonia,
passed a wide river flowing towards the Quorra, and visited Kottop, a
huge slave and cattle market, Coudgi and Dunrora, with a long chain of
lofty mountains running in an easterly direction beyond.
At Dunrora, just as Lander was superintending the loading of his beasts
of burden, four horsemen, their steeds covered with foam, dashed up to
the chief, and with his aid forced Lander to retrace his steps to visit
the King of Zegzeg, who, they said, was very anxious to see him. This
was by no means agreeable to Lander, who wanted to get to the Niger,
from which he was not very far distant, and down it to the sea; he was,
however, obliged to yield to force. His guides did not follow exactly
the same route as he had taken on his way to Dunrora, and thus he had
an opportunity of seeing the village of Eggebi, governed by one of the
chief of the warriors of the sovereign of Zegzeg. He paid his respects
as required, excusing the small value of the presents he had to give on
the ground of his merchandise having been stolen, and soon obtained
permission to leave the place.
Yaourie, Womba, Coulfo, Boussa, and Wow-wow were the halting-places on
Lander's return journey to Badagry, where he arrived on the 22nd
November, 1827. Two months later he embarked for England.
Although the commercial project, which had been the chief aim of
Clapperton's journey, had fallen through, owing to the jealousy of the
Arabs, who opposed it in their fear that the opening of a new route
might ruin their trade, a good deal of scientific information had
rewarded the efforts of the English explorer.
In his "History of Maritime and Inland Discovery," Desborough Cooley
thus sums up the results obtained by the travellers whose work we have
just described:--
"The additions to our geographical knowledge of the interior of Africa
which we owe to Captain Clapperton far exceed in extent and importance
those made by any preceding traveller. The limit of Captain Lyon's
journey southward across the desert was in lat. 24 degrees, while Major
Denham, in his expedition to Mandara, reached lat. 9 degrees 15
minutes, thus adding 14-3/4 degrees, or 900 miles, to the extent
explored by Europeans. Hornemann, it is true, had previously crossed
the desert, and had proceeded as far southwards as Niffé, in lat. 10
degrees 30 minutes. But no account was ever received of his journey.
Park in his first expedition reached Silla, in long. 1 degree 34
minutes west, a distance of 1100 miles from the mouth of the Gambia.
Denham and Clapperton, on the other hand, from the east side of Lake
Tchad, in long. 17 degrees, to Sackatoo, in long. 5 degrees 30 minutes,
explored a distance of 700 miles from east to west in the heart of
Africa; a line of only 400 miles remaining unknown between Silla and
Sackatoo. The second journey of Captain Clapperton added ten-fold value
to these discoveries; for he had the good fortune to detect the
shortest and most easy road to the populous countries of the interior;
and he could boast of being the first who had completed an itinerary
across the continent of Africa from Tripoli to Benin."
We need add but little to so skilful and sensible a summary of the work
done. The information given by Arab geographers, especially by Leo
Africanus, had been verified, and much had been learnt about a large
portion of the Soudan. Although the course of the Niger had not yet
been actually traced--that was reserved for the expeditions of which we
are now to write--it had been pretty fairly guessed at. It had been
finally ascertained that the Quorra, or Djoliba, or Niger--or whatever
else the great river of North-West Africa might be called--and the Nile
were totally different rivers, with totally different sources. In a
word, a great step had been gained.
In 1816 it was still an open question whether the Congo was not
identical with the Niger. To ascertain the truth on this point, an
expedition was sent out under Captain Tuckey, an English naval officer
who had given proof of intelligence and courage. James Kingston Tuckey
was made prisoner in 1805, and was not exchanged until 1814. When he
heard that an expedition was to be organized for the exploration of the
Zaire, he begged to be allowed to join it, and was appointed to the
command. Two able officers and some scientific men were associated with
him.
Tuckey left England on the 19th March, 1816, with two vessels, the
-Congo- and the -Dorothea-, a transport vessel, under his orders. On
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(
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593
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