Robert Huish

“ A brisk wind sprung up the river full in their faces, relieving them from the extreme heat of the weather, which was remarkably fine; the scene before them was very animating, and the whole of them were in high glee and spirits. Other canoes joined them, and never did the British flag lead so extraordinary a squadron. The king of the dark water might have been mistaken for a river god, and his wives, now and then showing their pretty black faces from under the awning, cast many an arch look at them with their sparkling, jetty eyes. ”

“ The unfortunate Kerdies, from the moment they saw Arab tents in the valley of Mandara, knew the dreadful calamity which awaited them. To avert it and to propitiate the sultan, numerous parlies came down with presents of honey, asses, and slaves. Finally appeared the Musgow, a more distant and savage race, mounted on small fiery steeds, covered only with the skin of a goat or leopard, and with necklaces made of the teeth of their enemies. They threw themselves at the feet of the sultan, casting sand on their heads, and uttering the most piteous cries. ”

“ In Africa, whether a person be ill or well, it is exactly the same, nothing like peace or quiet is any where to be found; independently of the continual fluttering of pigeons, which roosted close to their ears, the bleating of sheep and goats, and the barking of numerous half-starved dogs, they were still more seriously annoyed by the incessant clatter of women's tongues, which pursued them every where, and which it was believed nothing less than sickness or death on their part could eventually silence. ”

“ Some of the troops were bathing; others watering their horses, bullocks, camels, and asses; the lake Gondamee as smooth as glass, and flowing around the roots of the trees. The sun, in its approach to the horizon, threw the shadows of the flowering acacias along its surface, like sheets of burnished gold and silver. The smoking fires on its banks, the sounding of horns, the beating of their gongs and drums, the blowing of their brass and tin trumpets ”

“ Central Africa is a region distinguished from all others, by its productions and climate, by the simplicity and yet barbarian magnificence of its states; by the mildness and yet diabolical ferocity of its inhabitants, and peculiarly by the darker nature of its superstitions, and its magical rites, which have struck with awe strangers in all ages, and which present something inexplicable and even appalling to enlightened Europeans; the evil principle here seems to reign with less of limitation, and in recesses inaccessible to white men, still to enchant and delude the natives. ”

“ The distance between the resting places is not sufficiently great, for the dread of want of water to be alarmingly felt, and the track, though a sandy one, is well known to the guides. The burning heat of the day is succeeded by cool and refreshing breezes, and the sky ever illumined by large and brilliant stars, or an unclouded moon. By removing the loose and pearl-like sand, to the depth of a few inches, the effects of the sunbeams of the day are not perceptible, and a most soft and refreshing couch is easily formed. ”

“ But the conduct of Lake has left us no alternative, and whatever my opinion of that individual may be, he surely must be destitute of all those manly characteristics of a British seaman, as well as of the more generous feelings of our common nature, to be guilty, on a sick bed, of an action which might, for aught he knew or cared, produce the most serious consequences to his unfortunate countrymen in a savage land, by exposing them to the wretchedness of want, and the miseries of slavery, to mockery, ill-usage, contempt, and scorn, and even to death itself. ”

“ Whirled about in a vortex of dissipation, the mother of civilization bears no memorial about her of the infant that is in its grave; but the uncivilized African carries about with her the image of her child, and, in the full force of her maternal affection, feeds not herself until in her imagination she has fed the being who once was dear to her. ”

“ However, they were all as timid as hares, and if the Landers happened to look fixedly in their faces for a moment, most of them, more especially the females and the junior classes of both sexes, started back with terror, as if they had seen a serpent in the grass; and when the Landers attempted to walk near any of them, they ran screaming away, as though they had been pursued by a lion, or were in danger of falling into the jaws of a crocodile, so horrified were these poor people at the bare sight of a white man, and so frightful did their imaginations picture him to be. ”

“ During the performance of the ceremony, the forests appear in a blaze, the most discordant shouts rending the air, intermixed with the sounds of their instruments, composing altogether a tumult, which is heard at the distance of many leagues. The dancing is described as of the most ludicrous kind, marked by those indecencies, which generally distinguish the amusements of the savage tribes. In these sports, the women are always the foremost in the violence of their gestures; the young ones selecting the objects of their affection, to bestow upon them some token of their attachment. ”

“ It is in the earlier part of the morning too, or in the cool of the evening, that nature can be leisurely contemplated and admired in the simple loveliness of a verdant plain, a sequestered grotto, or a rippling brook, or in the wilder and more mysterious features of her beauty in the height of a craggy precipice, the silence and gloom of vast shady woods, or when those woods are gracefully bending to the passing gale. ”

“ The condition of the Arabs soon became alarming, scarcely a man was left unhurt, and their horses were dying under them. Boo Khaloom and his charger were both wounded with poisoned arrows. As soon as the Fellatas saw the Arabs waver, they dashed in with their horse, at the sight of which all the heroic squadrons of Bornou and Mandara put spurs to their steeds, the sultan at their head, and the whole became one mass of confused and tumultuous flight. Major Denham saw too late the peril into which he had inconsiderately plunged. ”

“ Whenever a town is deprived of its chief, the inhabitants acknowledge no law; anarchy, troubles, and confusion immediately prevail, and until a successor is appointed, all labour is at an end. The stronger oppress the weak, and perpetrate every species of crime, without being amenable to any tribunal for their actions. Private property is no longer respected, and thus, before a person arrives to curb its licentiousness, a town is not unfrequently reduced from a flourishing state of prosperity and of happiness to all the horrors of desolation. ”

“ After regaining the road, they moved till noon, when their horses were watered at a well called Kanimani, or the sheep's well, where some really sweet milk was brought to them, in immensely large basket bottles, some holding two gallons and more. They had drank and acknowledged its goodness, and how grateful it was to their weak stomachs, before they found out that it was camel's milk.
No traveller in Africa should imagine that this he could not bear, or that could not be endured. It is most wonderful how a man's taste conforms itself to his necessities. ”

“ The clearness of the sky is pleasant, and its brilliancy, the softness of the moon, the twinkling brightness of the stars, and the silence of night, the warbling and the flight of birds, the hum of insects, and the varied and luxuriant aspect of beautiful nature, are all charming to us ”

“ They were glad to get out of the Thomas, for the unfeeling commander, notwithstanding that Lander's men had rendered him every service in getting his brig out of the river, and had done every thing required of them, afterwards employed every means he could think of to annoy them, and to make them uncomfortable, while they were with him. At night, while the people were sleeping, he would make his men draw water, and throw it over them, for mere amusement. There are many commanders as bad as he is on the coast, who seem to vie with each other in acts of cruelty and oppression. ”

“ To their domestic slaves, they behave with the greatest humanity, looking upon them almost as children of the family. The males are often freed, and the females given in marriage to free men, or to other domestic slaves. The food of the slave and the free is nearly the same. The greatest man or woman in the country is not ashamed, at times, to let the slaves eat of the same dish; but a woman is never allowed to eat with a man. With a people, who have neither established law nor government, it is surprising that they are so good and moral as they are ”

“ Here for the first time in Africa, did nature appear to the English to rival in the production of vegetable life. The trees were covered with luxuriant and bright green foliage, and their trunks were hidden by a crowd of parasitical plants, whose aromatic blossoms perfumed the air. ”

“ The whole region is still more inaccessible on a grand scale, than the petty states are in miniature; and while the rest of the earth has become common, from the frequency of visitors, Africa still retains part of the mystery, which hung over the primitive and untrodden world.
Passing over the attempts of the very early travellers to become acquainted with the geographical portion of Africa, in which much fiction, and little truth, were blended, we arrive at that period, when the spirit of discovery began to manifest itself amongst some of the European states. ”

“ Major Houghton, who had resided for some years as consul at Morocco, and afterwards in a military capacity at Goree, undertook the attempt to reach the Niger by the route of Gambia, not, like Jobson and Stibbs, ascending its stream in boats, but travelling singly and by land. He seems to have been endowed with a gay, active, and sanguine spirit, fitted to carry him through the boldest undertaking, but without that cool and calculating temper necessary for him, who endeavours to make his way amid scenes of peril and treachery. ”

“ Park told him his reasons for passing through his country, but his majesty did but seem half satisfied. He thought it impossible, he said, that any man in his senses would undertake so dangerous a journey, merely to look at the country and its inhabitants. When, however, Mr. Park had delivered his presents, his majesty seemed well pleased, and was particularly delighted with the umbrella, which he repeatedly furled and unfurled, to the great admiration of himself and his two attendants, who could not for some time comprehend the use of this wonderful machine. ”

“ With a frankness perfectly commendable in an African widow, and wholly at variance with the hypocritical and counterfeit bashfulness of the English one, the widow Zuma at once exposed the situation of her heart, by declaring that she sincerely loved white men, and as her visitor belonged to that species, he saw himself at once the object of her affections, and the envy of all the aspiring young bachelors of the town, who had been for some time directing a vigorous attack against the widow's heart. ”

“ The lower classes and the slaves, who, in point of colour and appearance, are the same, labour together. The freeman has, however, only one inducement to work, which is hunger; he has no notion of laying by any thing for the advantage of his family, or as a reserve for himself in his old age; but if by any chance he obtains money, he remains idle until it is expended, and then returns unwillingly to work. The females here are allowed greater liberty than those of Tripoli, and are more kindly treated. Though so much better used than those of Barbary, their life is still a state of slavery. ”

“ Not being able to soften the obdurate heart of Clapperton, nor to wean him from the unsociable habit of looking at the stars at night, she always left him with a flood of tears.
In this part of Borgoo, as well as in the neighbourhood of Algi, and in all the countries between them and the sea, that Lander passed through, he met with tribes of Fellatas, nearly white, who are not moslem, but pagan. "They are certainly," he says, "the same people, as they speak the same language, and have the same features and colour, except those who have crossed with the negro. ”

“ As for their two brave fellows, Sam and Antonio, they took to their heels, and scampered off as fast as they could, directly they saw the natives approaching them over the long grass, nor did they make their appearance again, until the chief and all his people were sitting round them.
All the armed villagers had now gathered round their leader, and anxiously watched his looks and gestures. The result of the meeting delighted them, every eye sparkled with pleasure; they uttered a shout of joy; they thrust their bloodless arrows into their quivers ”

“ They were now obliged to station armed men around their house, for the purpose of protecting their goods from the rapacity of a multitude of thieves that infested this place, and who displayed the greatest cunning imaginable to ingratiate themselves with the travellers. On the following morning, they awoke unrefreshed at daybreak; the noise of children crying, the firing of guns, and the discordant sound of drums and horns, preventing them from enjoying the sweetness of repose, so infinitely desirable, after a long day spent in a routine or tiresome ceremony and etiquette. ”

“ Inheriting from their ancestors a peaceful, timid, passionless, incurious disposition, they fall an easy prey to all who choose to molest them; they bow their necks to the yoke of slavery without a murmur, and think it a matter of course; and perhaps no people in the world are to be found who are less susceptible of intense feeling, and the finer emotions of the human mind, on being stolen away from their favourite amusements and pursuits, and from the bosom of their wives and families, than these Cumbrie people, who are held in general disesteem. ”

“ But for the number of horses feeding, and some picketed near the huts, the men being all seen armed, and the drums beating, it might have been taken for a populous and peaceful village. Here were to be seen weavers, tailors, women spinning cotton, others reeling it off; some selling foofoo and accassons, others crying yams and paste; little markets at every green tree; holy men counting their beads, and dissolute slaves drinking wabum, palm wine. ”

“ The walls of the town have been suffered to fall into decay, and are now no better than a heap of dust and ruins, and such unconcern and apathy pervade the minds of the monarch and his ministry, that the wandering and ambitious Fellata has penetrated into the very heart of the country, made himself master of two of its most important and flourishing towns, with little, if any opposition, and is gradually, but very perceptibly gaining on the lukewarm natives of the soil, and sapping the foundations of the throne of Yarriba. ”

“ Since Park's first discovery of the Joliba, every point of the compass has been assumed for the ulterior course and termination of that river, and however wrong subsequent discovery has proved this speculative geography to have been, it is not to be regarded as useless. Theories may be far short of the truth, but while they display the ingenuity and reasoning powers of their authors, they tend to keep alive that spirit of inquiry and thirst for knowledge which terminates in discovery. ”