Through Timbuctu and across the great Sahara /

by A. H. W. Haywood

At Government House I was introduced to one of the secretaries, who, I was told, had served in the “Bend” of the Niger, where I wished to shoot, and would be able to give me information on the subject of the game in that locality. I was delighted at the opportunity of getting some reliable, first-hand news. The gentleman I was introduced to had been in the heart of the country I intended to visit for five years, he informed me, and was a keen sportsman, so I was in great luck to meet him here. He advised me to disembark at a place called Niafounké, nearly 500 miles down-river, and from there to strike into the district of Bandiagara, where big game of many varieties was plentiful. He also gave me letters of introduction to the French officials of the districts through which I should pass, and informed me of the best hunters to be obtained at the villages in the region to which I was proceeding. His information was most valuable, and I was overjoyed to hear his glowing accounts of the shooting available in the “Boucle,” as the French call the Big “Bend” of the Niger. He, like most Frenchmen who shoot in West Africa, had used nothing but the Lebel rifle, which has a calibre but little bigger than the ·303. I cannot help thinking that a great deal of game must be wounded when such a small-bore rifle is relied upon for the bigger animals, and, quite apart from the danger to the individual who is shooting, to my mind it is cruel to wound a beast which you are unable to overtake and kill owing to the rifle being a less powerful weapon than should be used.

My new friend invited me to his quarters, where we had a long and interesting conversation about shooting in West Africa. Later in the evening we descended the hill together to Bamako, whither he was riding. We made an appointment for the following day in order to continue our conversation, but unfortunately it fell through.

The Senegal-Niger Railway forms one of the links forged by the French for penetrating into the Western Soudan from the coast. The River Senegal is the first link in the chain. From the port of St. Louis, on the Atlantic coast and at the mouth of the Senegal River, this waterway is navigable at certain times of the year for big steamers as far as the town of Kayes. This town is situated about 400 miles up the stream. Above Kayes the Senegal River is not navigable, and until Koulikoro is reached the Niger is not navigable, although from that point downwards the river is navigable for many hundred miles. Now to connect these two waterways, the Senegal and the Niger, it became necessary to join the towns of Kayes and Koulikoro by a railway. The French thus completed a line of communication from St. Louis on the sea-coast to the heart of the Western Soudan.

Although the Senegal River is navigable as far as Kayes, this is only the case during certain months of the year. For instance, during the rainy season, from about July to November, ships of 2000 tons can ascend to this point. Small steamers, launches and stern-wheelers can proceed to Kayes until the month of February, but from February till June the river is only navigable by canoes with difficulty. In consequence of this the Senegal River is rather a weak point in the chain of communication with the interior. To remedy this the French are now building a fresh line from Dakar, the new capital of the Senegal Colony and head-quarters of the Governor-General of French West Africa, to Kayes. About half of this railway is completed. The line is well-laid and the work of construction is in very capable hands, so there is no doubt it will be finished as quickly as possible. The saving of time will be enormous; for, in the dry season, when it takes about a month to reach the coast by the present route from Kayes, it will in future only take two days by rail. The train, which runs three or four times a week in each direction, takes two days to go from Bamako to Kayes. The carriages are fairly comfortable, and the railway is much used by natives, who take a childish delight in travelling by train.

The trade of the colony has benefited greatly by the Senegal-Niger line, the output of ground nuts for export to France having particularly shown a large increase. Trains run nearly every day from Bamako to Koulikoro, a distance of only thirty-five miles. The third-class carriages are not uncomfortable. I travelled a short distance in one myself. Some of the compartments extend along the whole length of the carriage, having the two ends open, which makes travelling in the hot weather much cooler than it would otherwise be. Railways in French West Africa are being rapidly constructed, and it is probable that in the next decade the Senegal-Niger, or the Guinea line, will be continued across the French Soudan to the east of the “Bend” of the Niger, and that the existing branches in the colonies of Ivory Coast and Dahomey will be extended northwards to meet it.

The last morning of my stay at Bamako I paid a visit to the market with my “boy.” I suppose it is the largest and most thriving market of the Western Soudan. The produce of the large rice and millet farms of the Niger is brought here for sale, and this comes not only from the district around Bamako, but also from the big grain areas in the Macina province, some 350 miles farther down the river. Ground nuts, which are so extensively grown in the colony, form a large proportion of the produce of the market. But in addition to grains almost every article of trade in the Soudan is brought here. The same heterogeneous collection of different races which I had noticed at Kankan was to be seen, but the proportion of pale-faced, Jewish-looking Moors was larger, while occasionally a stalwart Arab in flowing white robes would show conspicuously amongst the swarthy negroid tribesmen.

A great feature of the Bamako market is the part devoted to dairy produce. There are two distinct portions in this section. One has preserved milk, butter, etc., or in other words, stuff which has been brought from the north of the Niger in goatskins and is invariably rancid. The other portion contains fresh milk and butter. The butter is made up in tiny round pats, which are allowed to float in the calabashes of milk displayed for sale. Most natives prefer the “preserved” dairy produce, for sour butter and curdled milk are things which the soul of the Bambara loveth, probably finding their flavour more piquant, and condemning the fresh articles as insipid.

In another corner was the live stock. Fine humped cattle from the Niger valley, Soudan sheep from the lake-country in the “Bend,” many of which had thick coats of fleecy white wool, and goats from anywhere and everywhere were huddled up indiscriminately together. The horses were all of the same type. The 14 or 14.2 pony of the Soudan rather resembles the Barb pony, but is weedier in appearance; although, from my own observation, I should back the Soudan animal to beat his Barb confrère in a trial of endurance. I was told that camels occasionally came down to Bamako, but personally I never saw one there. The camel caravan routes nearly all stop on the north of the Niger and Senegal rivers. I fancy these animals are rarely brought across, partly on account of the danger attending the transportation of such unwieldy brutes, and partly because the river-water is said to produce some kind of sickness from which a camel seldom recovers. In any case, there does not appear to be any advantage in introducing camel transport into a well-watered country.

The hotel at Bamako is close to the railway station; it also possesses a buffet for the use of passengers. This was one of the several surprises which I had on my arrival at the town, for it had never entered my calculations to find an hotel in this remote region. There are two storeys, with four bedrooms on each floor. The dining-room is spacious, and can easily accommodate twenty people. In the afternoon, when the sun is getting low, small tables are placed in the compound in front of the building, and here people congregate to talk over the events of the day while drinking their cognac or cup of coffee, for all the world like restaurant-life in the boulevards of a town in France.

At this hour the tables were generally full, the Frenchman being a sociable person and dearly loving this daily meeting with his friends at the restaurant. In the evening, when the lamps are lighted, two or three card-tables are made up. I noticed that even there bridge seemed to be as popular a game as it is with us. There is a small menagerie in the hotel garden, containing two ostriches and a few other wild animals. It was a strange sight to see the former animals strutting about in their lordly fashion, and, with their extraordinary powers of digestion, occasionally picking up and swallowing a stone in the calmest way imaginable.