Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa

“ But if a spirit of more adventurous research should induce him to travel with the Merchants of Fezzan, discoveries of superior value may distinguish and reward his toil. The powerful Empires of Bornou and Cashna will be open to his investigation; the luxurious City of Tombuctou, whose opulence and severe police attract the Merchants of the most distant States of Africa, will unfold to him the causes of her vast prosperity; the mysterious Niger will disclose her unknown original and doubtful termination; and countries unveiled to antient or modern research will become familiar to his view. ”

“ From thence, by a march of nineteen days, during six of which they are immersed in the heats of a thirsty desart, they pass on to the Town of Assouda, which offers them equal refreshments with Ganatt, and equally suspends their journey.
On leaving Assouda, they traverse a delightful country, as fertile as it is numerously peopled; and while the exhilarating sight of Indian corn and of frequent herds of cattle accompanies and chears their passage, the eighth day introduces them to the large and populous City of Agadez, the capital of an extensive province. ”

“ For though the movement of the shifting sands is not so rapid as to endanger the safety of the caravan, yet as the scorching heat of the sun-beams, confined and reflected by the hills of sand, hourly diminishes the store of water, and as the breadth of several of those desarts is that of a ten days journey, the hazard of perishing with thirst is sometimes fatally experienced. ”

“ All this time the by-standers, though they have nothing to do with the business, are as eager to put in their word, and to correct mistakes, as if the affair was their own. Even in common conversation, if they sit without doors, they level the sand in order to go on with their discourse, and at every sentence mark it with their fingers. ”

“ That fire-arms are in request with all nations, civilized and savage, who have the means of obtaining them, experience uniformly proves; and we now learn, that to the jealousy which the Princes on the Southern Coast entertain of the powerful Interior States, and to the total neglect of all opportunities of opening, from more favourable quarters, an immediate communication with the inland country, it is owing that the sale of one of the most profitable manufactures of Great Britain is still in a great measure confined to the scanty Tribes which inhabit the shores of the Atlantic. ”

“ Indeed I find the situation of a Christian, or what they more commonly call here a Frank, to be very, very humiliating, ignominious, and distressing: no one, by a combination of any causes, can reason down to such effects as experience teaches us do exist here: it being impossible to conceive, that the enmity I have alluded to could exist between men;—or, in fact, that the same species of beings, from any causes whatever, should ever think and act so differently as the Egyptians and the English do. ”

“ Sameness of opinion, or resemblance of conduct, when founded in natural feeling, or a similar state of society, are seen without wonder in nations unconnected and remote; but that a custom so arbitrary and artificial as that of employing Cowries as a substitute for coin, a custom which instinct could not have produced, and chance could scarcely have occasioned, should equally prevail among the Negros of Africa and the natives of Bengal, may justly be deemed a curious and interesting phenomenon. ”

“ Among the few circumstances which characterize the Trade of Cashna, as distinguished from that of Bornou, the most remarkable is, that the Merchants of the former kingdom are the sole carriers, to other nations, of a scarce and most valuable commodity, which is only to be obtained from the inhabitants of the latter. For though the salt of Bornou supplies the consumption of Cashna, and of the Negro Kingdoms to the South, yet its owners have abandoned to the commercial activity of the Merchants of Agadez, the whole of that profitable trade. ”

“ Within this circle the Merchants and drivers and servants spread their mats and carpets. Here, also, they light their fires and dress their victuals; and without any other covering than their alhaiques or blankets (for very few are furnished with a tent) lie down amidst the heavy dews and occasional storms of rain that fall upon the coast, and sleep as soundly as in a bed: for the wetness of their cloaths, which is often the consequence of this exposure, is little regarded, and from the salubrity of the climate, is attended with little inconvenience. ”

“ Nature and custom have formed their constitutions to such high degrees of heat, that any approach to the common temperament of Europe entirely destroys their comfort; for Mr. Lucas often observed, in his journey to Mesurata, that when the scorching heat of the noon-day beams had compelled him to seek the shade, his fellow-travellers, especially if the wind was in the North, laid themselves down, upon the sand in the open sun, in order to receive a double portion of his warmth ”

“ In the mountains of Tibesti, and perhaps in other parts of the empire, the herdsmen, probably for the sake of a more easy change of pasture, prefer a residence in tents to stationary dwellings; and those, it seems, are not manufactured, like the tents of the Zahara, from the camel’s hair; but are composed of the hides of cows, a more durable and impervious covering.
Through all the empire of Bornou the same mode of building, and with the difference of a greater or a smaller scale, the same form in the plan of the houses universally prevails.—Four walls, inclosing a square, are erected ”

“ But, stained with such kindred blood, the sceptre of the victorious Rebel is not lastingly secure—one revolution invites and facilitates another; and till the slaughter of the field, the sword of the executioner, or the knife of the assassin has left him without a brother, the throne of the Sovereign is seldom firmly established. ”

“ To this desire the Voyages of the late Captain Cook have so far afforded gratification, that nothing worthy of research by Sea, the Poles themselves excepted, remains to be examined; but by Land, the objects of Discovery are still so vast, as to include at least a third of the habitable surface of the earth: for much of Asia, a still larger proportion of America, and almost the whole of Africa, are unvisited and unknown. ”

“ I went to-day to the market-place, where they vend the Black slaves that come from towards the interior parts of Africa:—there were 200 of them together, dressed and ornamented as in their country. The appearance of a Savage in every region is almost the same!—There were very few men among them: this indicates that they are prisoners of war. They have a great many beads and other ornaments about them that are from the East. I was told by one of them that they came from the West of Sennar, fifty-five days journey, which may be about four or five hundred miles. ”

“ Neither have we profited by the information which we have long possessed, that even on the western coasts of Africa, the Mahometan faith is received in many extensive districts, from the Tropic of Cancer southward to the Line. That the Arabic, which the Mussulman Priests of all countries understand, furnishes an easy access to such knowledge as the western Africans are able to supply, is perfectly obvious; as it also is, that those Africans must, from the nature of their Religion, possess, what the Traders to the coast ascribe to them, an intercourse with Mecca. ”

“ When a line of distance is extended to 500 miles and upwards, the rule becomes much more vague than when applied to moderate distances; because it often happens (and more particularly in unimproved countries) that obstacles present themselves, and give an entire new direction to the course of the road; although the two parts of it, considered separately, may have only an ordinary degree of crookedness. However, as some of the lines of distance applied to the present subject, are from thirty to forty days journey, it becomes necessary that some general rules should be adopted. ”

“ From Wéddan, by forced marches, they arrived in twenty days at Bornou. A desart of sand, in some places interrupted by woods, and occasionally watered with rivulets of a strong mineral taste, constitutes the general description of the country. But as he entered the kingdom of the Bornoos, the limit of which he represents as seven days distant from the capital, he passed through several poor villages of Blacks, who live upon the charity of Travellers; for though there be no regular marked road, yet the caravans always take the same rout, and pass by those villages both in going and returning. ”

“ Persons of a superior rank are also possessed of leathern cushions, that are stuffed with wool; of several brass and copper utensils, of a handsome carpet, and of a sort of candlesticks; for instead of the vegetable oil which is used by the common people, they employ the light of candles manufactured from their bees wax and the tallow of their sheep.
Bornou is situated at the distance of a day’s journey from a river which is called Wed-el-Gazel, from the multitude of antelopes that feed upon its banks, and which is lost in the deep and sandy wastes of the vast Desart of Bilma. ”

“ To such a country the camel is peculiarly suited; for his broad and tender foot, which slides on a wet surface, and is injured by the resistance of stones, is observed to tread with perfect security and ease on the dry and yielding sand: and while, from the same circumstances in its structure, his hoof is incapable of fastening, with any strength, on the ground of a steep ascent, and furnishes, in a shelving declivity, no solid or sufficient support, his movement on a smooth and level surface is singularly firm and safe. ”

“ At the latter end of October, when the ardent heat of the Summer months is succeeded by the pleasant mildness and settled serenity of Autumn, the several caravans that are respectively destined for Tripoli and Bornou and Cashna, and the Negro Nations beyond the Niger, take their departure from Mourzouk, the capital of Fezzan. The parties which compose them are generally small; for unless information has been received that the road is infested with robbers, ten or a dozen Merchants, attended by twice as many camels, and by the necessary servants, constitute the usual strength of the caravan ”

“ The Military Force of the Sultan of Bornou consists in the multitude of his horsemen; for his foot soldiers are few in number, and are scarcely considered as contributing to the strength of the battle. [29] The sabre, the lance, the pike, and the bow, constitute their weapons of offence; and a shield of hides composes their defensive armour. Fire-arms, though not entirely unknown to them, for those with which the Merchants of Fezzan occasionally travel, are sufficient to give them an idea of their importance and decisive effect, are neither used nor possessed by the people of Bornou. ”

“ To the nature of their climate the greatest part of their diseases is probably owing; and to this cause they are certainly indebted for the extraordinary multitude of noxious and of loathsome animals that infest their country. Adders, snakes, scorpions, and toads, are the constant inhabitants of their fields, their gardens, and their houses. The air is crowded with mosquitos; and persons of every rank are over-run with all the different kinds of vermin that attack the beggars of Europe; and though in the Summer the fleas entirely disappear, the inhabitants are scarcely sensible of relief. ”

“ He represents the rout from Gharien to Tripoli as a sandy desart, and its length as that of a seven days journey.
[3] The capital of Fezzan is situated on the banks of a small river, and is also supplied with water from a multitude of springs and wells.
Being formerly built with stone, it still retains the appellation of a Christian Town; and the medley which it presents to the eye, of the vast ruins of antient buildings, and of the humble cottages of earth and sand that form the dwellings of its present Arab inhabitants, is singularly grotesque and strange. ”

“ Most of the lands are described as already cleared, but some particular districts are still incumbered with woods of a vast extent; and though for the most part the highlands are pastured by innumerable stocks of sheep, and by herds of cows and goats, and the vales exhibit the captivating view of successive villages, encompassed with corn and rice, and fruits of various kinds, yet there are places of native sterility and eternal barrenness. ”

“ To what degree of accuracy the difference of longitude between Mesurata and Cairo, is ascertained, I am ignorant: as also whether the bearing of Mourzouk from Mesurata, be right. Fourteen miles and half of horizontal distance for each day, on so long a line of distance, and on so rugged a way as the Itinerary describes, is too great a proportion; and we may suspect an error somewhere.
A circumstance occurs in the Itinerary, which would determine how near this route approaches to the Coast of the Mediterranean Sea; if we might depend on the accuracy of the Itinerist. ”

“ The mode of travelling in Africa is so connected with the commerce, and therefore with the manners of its principal nations, that without some knowledge of the former, a description of the two latter cannot be clearly understood. ”

“ Should rashness or desperation carry me through, whatever fame the vain and injudicious might bestow, I should not accept of it;—it is the good and great I look to: fame from them bestowed is altogether different, and is closely allied to a well-done from God: but rashness will not be likely to carry me through any more than timid caution. ”

“ Such was the transcendant judgement of D’Anville in combining the scanty notices that are furnished by the Nubian Geographer!
But the Public are not to expect, even under an improved system of African Geography, that the Interior Part of that Continent will exhibit an aspect similar to the others; rich in variety; each region assuming a distinct character. On the contrary, it will be meagre and vacant in the extreme. The dreary expanses of desart which often surround the habitable spots, forbid the appearance of the usual proportion of towns ”

“ Respected by the Arabs, who revere their hospitality more than they hate their religion, these venerable men are apparently secure.—Yet as too much confidence might invite the meanest plunderers to invade their peaceful dwelling, they have cautiously guarded their convent by a separate and lofty inclosure from an opening in which a ladder of ropes furnishes the means of descent. ”

“ The observations which introduced the account of Bornou, have already announced the remarkable similarity, as well with respect to climate, soil, and natural productions, as with regard to the colour, genius, religion, and political institutions of the people, that prevails between that powerful State and its sister Kingdom of Cashna.
The rains, indeed, are less violent than those of Bornou. It exclusively furnishes the Bishnah, a species of Indian corn that differs from the gamphúly, in the blended colours of red and white which distinguish its grain. ”

“ In Fezzan the price of all things is measured by grains of gold; and where the value is too small to be easily paid in so costly a metal, the inhabitants have recourse to corn, as a common medium of exchange. But in Bornou, as in Europe, the aid of inferior metals is employed, and copper and brass (which seem to be melted together, and to be mixed with other materials) are formed into pieces of different weights, from an ounce to a pound, and constitute the current species of the empire. ”