| Drawn by Major Denham. | Engraved by E. Finden. |
THE RIVER GAMBAROU OF YEOU.
NEAR LADA.
Published Feb. 1826, by John Murray, London.
Previous to pitching our tents at night, the sheikh’s negro examined the ground, and, after dismounting and listening attentively for an instant, he declared some people to be near. We fired a gun, which, after a little time, was answered by a shout, and at no great distance we found about half a dozen Kabsharians, who said they were on their way to Kouka, and near them we fixed ourselves for the night. In these woods kafilas from Soudan are often robbed, and the runaway negroes, who are good bowmen, pick off the leaders from behind the trees, and then plunder the baggage: ten men from one kafila had, we were informed, been so murdered during the last year.
May 26.—We pursued a westerly course for eight miles to a lake called Gumzaigee, about a mile in length, between which and another called Gumzaigee-gana, the road lies; seven miles beyond which is still another lake of considerable extent, called Muggaby, or the lake of the sultan of Bornou: this is nearly three miles long, and full half a mile broad; its banks are beautifully green, and its depth is very great; it contains hippopotami in great numbers, and every now and then their black heads appeared above the surface of the water.
A few straggling parties of Kanemboo infantry had occasionally crossed our path, for several days, on their way to join the sheikh, but here we found about a hundred and fifty Shouaas, or Arabs of Beni Wah’l. After our tents were pitched, and we had refreshed ourselves by a mess of ducks and rice, we determined on riding to visit the remains of Old Birnie[30], which extended nearly to this lake. We proceeded by the high road to Soudan, and after about two miles came to the spot on which once stood the capital of Bornou, and the ruins of the city certainly tended more strongly to convince us of the power of its former sultans than any of the tales we had heard of their magnificence: we had seen upwards of thirty large towns which the Felatahs had completely razed to the ground at the time they destroyed the capital, and we were now arrived at the ruins of that capital itself[31]. Old Birnie covered a space of five or six square miles, and is said to have had a population of two hundred thousand souls: the remains of the walls were in many places still standing, in large masses of hard red brick-work, and were from three to four feet in thickness, and sixteen to eighteen feet in height. From the top of one of these we obtained a sight of the river Gambarou, running nearly east, notwithstanding its windings, and only a few miles distant. At sunset we returned to our huts.
Crossing the head of the lake Muggaby, we took a north-westerly direction, for the purpose of seeing the remaining ruins of this once populous district, and particularly those of a favourite residence of the former sultan, called Gambarou, situated on the banks of the river, four miles distant, which comes from Soudan: this district gave its name to the waters during their passage through it. After wading through low grounds, occasionally overflowed, where the wild grass was above our horses’ heads, and disturbing a herd of fourteen elephants, whose retired haunts were seldom so broken in upon, we came to the river, which is here a very noble stream, nearly a quarter of a mile in breadth, and situated between two high banks thickly overgrown with jungle, bushes, and bamboo[32]: we endeavoured to ascertain if there was any current, but the water appeared perfectly stationary. Omar Gana, however, and the Shouaas who had accompanied us, were unanimous in declaring that after the rains a very strong current from west to east constantly flowed.
We determined on remaining here the next day, and ordered the tents to be pitched under the shade of an immense tamarind tree, about two hundred and fifty yards from the bank of the river. The water was sweet and palatable, and very gratifying to us after the lake water we had been drinking for the last few days, though that was nectar in comparison with the well-water near Kouka. The shoals of fish that rushed quite close to, and sometimes on, the shore, exceeded any thing I ever could have supposed, both as to size and numbers: we waded, nearly up to our knees, to a little island or sand-bank about ten yards from the land, and found the marks of two good-sized crocodiles quite fresh.
Close to the bank, and just at the hollow of a slight curve in the river’s course, fourteen years ago stood the town of Gambarou, the chosen place of residence of the late and former sultans of Bornou; and the ruins now standing give a proof of the buildings having been, for this country, of a princely kind: the walls of a mosque, which were more than twenty yards square, are still visible, and those of the sultan’s house, with gates opening to the river, still remain; a private mosque appears also to have been attached to the sultan’s residence: the buildings were all of brick, and must have had a superior appearance to any town we had seen in Africa: the situation was beautiful, and although labyrinths of thickets and brambles now overspread the banks of the river, while wild plants and useless grass were in the meadows, yet I was assured that the whole neighbourhood of Gambarou was once in a superior state of cultivation; and that in the old sultan’s time, boats were constantly moving to and from Kabshary and other towns to the west. Kouka was at that time not in being, and Angornou but a small parcel of huts.