Narrative of travels and discoveries in Northern and Central Africa, in the years 1822, 1823, and 1824

by Dixon Denham; Hugh Clapperton; Walter Oudney

Since the feast day of the Aid Kebir there had been on an evening an assembly of persons before the sheikh’s gate; when the most athletic and active of the slaves came out and wrestled in the presence of their masters, and the sheikh himself, who usually took his post at a little window over the principal gate of the palace. Barca Gana, Ali Gana, Wormah, Tirab, and all the chiefs, were usually seated on mats in the inner ring, and I generally took my place beside them. Quickness and main strength were the qualifications which ensured victory: they struggled with a bitterness which could scarcely have been exceeded in the armed contests of the Roman gladiators, and which was greatly augmented by the voices of their masters, urging them to the most strenuous exertion of their powers. A rude trumpet, of the buffalo’s horn, sounded to the attack; and the combatants entered the arena naked, with the exception of a leathern girdle about the loins; and those who had been victorious on former occasions were received with loud acclamations by the spectators. Slaves of all nations were first matched against each other; of these the natives of Soudan were the least powerful, and seldom victors. The most arduous struggles were between the Musgowy and the Begharmi negroes: some of these slaves, and particularly the latter, were beautifully formed, and of gigantic stature; but the feats of the day always closed by the matching of two Begharmis against each other—and dislocated limbs, or death, were often the consequence of these kindred encounters. They commence by placing their hands on each other’s shoulders; of their feet they make no use, but frequently stoop down, and practise a hundred deceptions to throw the adversary off his guard; when the other will seize his antagonist by the hips, and after holding him in the air, dash him against the ground with stunning violence, where he lies covered with blood, and unable to pursue the contest. A conqueror of this kind is greeted by loud shouts, and several vests will be thrown to him by the spectators; and, on kneeling at his master’s feet, which always concludes the triumph, he is often habited by the slaves near his lord in a tobe of the value of thirty or forty dollars; or, what is esteemed as a still higher mark of favour, one of the tobes worn by his chief is taken off, and thrown on the back of the conqueror. I have seen them foam and bleed at the mouth and nose from pure rage and exertion, their owners all the time vying with each other in using expressions most likely to excite their fury: one chief will draw a pistol, and swear by the Koran that his slave shall not survive an instant his defeat, and, with the same breath, offer him great rewards if he conquers. Both of these promises are sometimes too faithfully kept; and one poor wretch, who had withstood the attacks of a ponderous negro, much more than his match, from some country to the south of Mandara, for more than fifty minutes, turned his eye reproachfully on his threatening master, only for an instant; when his antagonist slipped his hands down from the shoulders to the loins, and by a sudden twist raised his knee to his chest, and fell with his whole weight on the poor slave (who was from Soudan), snapping his spine in the fall. Former feats are considered as nothing after one failure; and a slave, that a hundred dollars would not purchase to-day, is, after a defeat, sold at the fsug, maimed as he is, for a few dollars, to any one who will purchase him.

The skin of a noble lion was sent me by the sheikh, which had been taken near Kabshary, measuring from the tail to the nose fourteen feet two inches. He had devoured four slaves, and was at last taken by the following stratagem: the inhabitants assembled together, and with loud cries and noises drove him from the place where he had last feasted; they then dug a very deep blaqua, or circular hole, armed with sharp pointed stakes; this they most cunningly covered over with stalks of the gussub; a bundle of straw, enveloped in a tobe, was laid over the spot, to which a gentle motion, like that of a man turning in sleep, was occasionally given by means of a line carried to some distance. On their quitting the spot, and the noise ceasing, the lion returned to his haunt, and was observed watching his trap for seven or eight hours—by degrees approaching closer and closer,—and at length he made a dreadful spring on his supposed prey, and was precipitated to the bottom of the pit. The Kabsharians now rushed to the spot, and before he could recover himself, despatched him with their spears.

Mr. Clapperton’s illness had increased to an alarming height: he had upwards of twenty-four hours’ fever, and delirium without cessation. These attacks, just about the time the rainy season is at an end, are very prevalent, and often fatal to the white people from the sea, as the Arabs are called. How much more violently must they effect the natives of more temperate lands?

Mr. Hillman was again assailed by ague, and disordered intellect, which threw him back into his former state of weakness. For two days out of the last three, I had alone appeared at our mess bench for the evening meal. Two of my companions were quite delirious in bed; and Dr. Oudney, who had for a month taken nothing but a little sour milk, three times a day, never left his hut except from necessity. These were very trying moments, and sufficient to destroy the appetite of a more healthy person than myself: still I had much to be thankful for, and I endeavoured to bless God, and ate with cheerfulness.

We had now been five days without rain; the thermometer was as high as 89° in the middle of the day in the shade, and we began to think summer was again coming. It may appear incredible, that with such a temperature we should wish for an increase of heat; but the dampness of the atmosphere, and the millions of flies and musquitoes, beyond all conception, that accompanied it, rendered it almost impossible to enjoy any thing like repose, either by day or night. The annoyance of these insects I had experienced at Lisbon, Naples, and in the other parts of Italy and Sicily, but neither in numbers, nor in peace-disturbing powers, were they to be compared with these. Towards the evening, a fire in the hut, made of damp straw and weeds, was sometimes the means of procuring a few hours’ tranquillity; but the remedy was in itself so disagreeable, that it was only resorted to in despair: a fire of this kind, however, seldom fails to expel the intruders, from the thick and suffocating vapours which arise from it.

The horses also suffered dreadfully from the same annoyance; and to keep them from injuring themselves, wherever they can reach with their teeth, the negroes are obliged to keep a fire the greater part of the day, particularly at the hours of feeding, close to their heads; and notwithstanding the natural dislike those animals have to flames and smoke, they will hang their heads over the fire, so as to suffer themselves to be all but scorched, in order to obtain a little rest from their persecutors. Of scorpions we had seen but few, but the white and black ants were like the sands in number: the white ones made their way into every trunk, of whatever sort of wood they were made, as if it had been paper. And on the late expedition, during a halt of three days, in a spot where they were more than usually numerous, a mat and a carpet on which I slept were completely destroyed by them. They tell a story of an Arab having lain down to sleep near old Birnie, just over a nest of these destructive insects, covered up in a barracan, and that in the morning he found himself quite naked, his covering having been eaten to the last thread. The wooden supports of a sort of shade which I had erected in the front of my hut, in a little more than three months these destructive insects had perforated with so many millions of holes, as to reduce it to a powder, and a new one was obliged to be placed in its room. The black ant was no less persevering in attacks upon our persons; her bite was nearly as bad as a scorpion, and so sharp as to excite an involuntary exclamation from the sufferer; indeed, for weeks together, my skin had, from these insects alone, more resembled that of a person afflicted with the measle than any thing else that I can compare it to. Oil, unfortunately, we had none, which is both a preventive and a cure; the only substitute I could obtain was a little fat rubbed over the body, and this seldom failed of giving me relief.

The kafila for Mourzuk left Kouka on the 13th: several Arabs, who had determined on remaining here some time, took their departure in consequence of their fears of the bashaw’s visit. Nothing had arrived, and, in the absence of authentic intelligence, all was alarm and confusion, and reports of every kind arose: they said the kafila, which had been expected more than two months, could not be delayed from any other cause than the hostile intentions of the sultan: trusty persons were accordingly stationed at the commencement of the desert to give the earliest information of any thing approaching, and no assurances of ours had the least effect in calming the fears of the natives.

Mr. Clapperton’s illness increased; and one night, while all were asleep, he made his way to the hut where the only servant slept who was not sick, begging for water; his inside, he said, was burning; the delirium had just then left him; he was too weak to return to his hut without the assistance of Columbus, who supported him in his arms; he was still dangerously ill; and four persons of our establishment, besides Doctor Oudney, were confined to their beds at this time with this same disorder: the symptoms of all were similar.

Sep. 25.—After a most restless night, I rose by daylight, and taking my old negro, Barca, rode in the direction of Dowergoo. The harvest was abundant, and they had already begun to lop off the heads of the long gussub: the tamarind trees, which lose all their leaves at the commencement of the rains, were budding with great beauty, and had a bright carnation colour; the waters had already decreased very considerably; and the season appeared highly favourable for an expedition in some previously untrodden path: every thing else was, however, against the attempt; for, added to our poverty, I was the only one of our party capable of mounting a horse. On my return I visited my patients, for Doctor Oudney could not move from his hut; and the small-pox raged amongst the slaves of two of our friends, added to the fever of the season. Out of twelve slaves who were seized, two had died; and the only child of Mohamed-el-Wordy had now taken it from his slave. They are not ignorant of inoculation, and it is performed nearly in the same manner as amongst ourselves, by inserting the sharp point of the dagger, charged with the disease; they never give any medicine, but merely roll the invalid in a barracan, and lay him in a corner of the hut until the disorder takes a turn.

The castor tree is found in this neighbourhood, and is commonly used as a medicine. There is also another tree, of which they either chew the blossom or steep it in water, which has the effect of an emetic.