My exceptional position made it easy for me to procure an order from Surroor that some of his wives should sit for their portraits. This was an unusually favourable opportunity, and the ladies with their plaited tresses, allowed me to make many additions to my portfolio and to my list of measurements. In this place I measured about fifty different people, taking no less than forty measurements of each. This of course was the work of time, but my trouble was all in vain, for all my notes, with many others, were destroyed in the fire, of which the record will have to be made, on the 2nd of December. Altogether I had carefully registered the measurements of more than 200 individuals belonging to various nations.
During the time that Surroor had acted in the capacity of Mohammed’s spearman, he had learnt to speak Arabic fluently, and was therefore able to give me considerable information on many points. I asked many local questions, since the unravelling of the confused hydrographical network in this part of the country was an object which I could never permit to be absent from my thoughts. I was not long however, in discovering that these Zandey (Niam-niam), although possessing such uniformity in speech and customs, had no more knowledge of the remote parts of their country than the majority of the other natives of Central Africa. I may mention, as an instance of this, that no one in this district knew so much as the name of Mofio, whose territory indeed was 300 miles distant, but whose reputation, as one of the chief Niam-niam princes, might have been presumed to be widespread.
Another occasion very shortly afterwards had the effect of impressing the people about me with a very lofty notion of the good genius which presided over my fortune, and protected me from injury. A traveller who has learnt experience will understand the desirableness of turning the progress of events to the advantage of his personal reputation. As I was about to take my seat of honour at Surroor’s side on a Monbuttoo bench, my life for the third time was imperilled by a bullet fired from the neighbouring Seriba. The descending ball passed close to my left, and within a few inches of my forehead; glancing off the palm-sticks which were attached to my seat, it dashed through the roof of an adjacent hut. However much I may have been alarmed, I succeeded entirely in disguising my terror. The Nubians do not possess any wad-hooks for extracting either cartridges or bullets; their guns consequently have to be discharged in order to keep them clean and in proper condition. It may therefore be imagined that in the vicinity of a Nubian camp there is a perpetual whirring and whizzing in the air from the incidental firing of these stray shots.
Hunting in this place, as far as we were concerned, was not to be thought of, as the region was far too thickly populated, and the Niam-niam themselves are such devoted huntsmen that they leave nothing for the stranger beyond the few francolins and guinea-fowl which may escape their snares.
During our sojourn, Mohammed Aboo Sammat, with his faithful black body-guard of true Zandey, had arrived from the Mittoo country. The entire united forces then prepared to advance to the south, Ghattas’s agent and plenipotentiary not considering that a division could be ventured upon until we had gained sufficient assurance of the peaceful intentions of Wando, whose territory we should have to cross upon our route. Any apprehensions of hostility, however, were soon allayed, and for a time all went well.
By the 25th of February all the preparations for marching were complete, and, reckoning all Aboo Sammat’s and Ghattas’s people, we were a body of little short of 1000 strong. Our marching column was not much less than four miles in length, so that it happened more than once, after a short day’s march, that those in front were erecting their huts with leaves and grass before those in the rear had lost sight of the smoke of the encampment of the previous night.
Just before starting Mohammed had sent some of his dependents back to Sabby, and I took the opportunity of remitting by them the botanical collection which I had made. Amongst other plants were two specimens of the remarkable Cycadea, which after all the vicissitudes of travel arrived in Europe in a state of vitality.
Only a small portion of my reserve of cattle was now remaining, and the maintenance of the men in the Seriba had quite exhausted the stores; to Mohammed’s great annoyance, even the sorghum-seed, which was to have been conveyed to Munza, king of the Monbuttoo, as a curiosity, had been consumed as material of diet, and thus the heart of Africa had been deprived of one advance in culture.
We proceeded, first of all, two leagues in a westerly direction, and after crossing the Nabambisso and two smaller streams, we made our necessary halt. It was on the western boundary of the cultivated district subject to Aboo Sammat, and before we could venture to quit it, an adequate relay of provisions had to be procured from the neighbourhood.
FEEDING THE BEARERS.