These were material calls upon my encumbered property. On my mind, too, there were claims of a not less serious character; for from my very outset from Europe, I had steadily fixed my eyes upon that eastern branch of the Kwára, or so-called Niger, which Laird, Allen, and Oldfield had navigated for the distance of some eighty miles, and which the former (although he himself did not penetrate further than Fánda) had, with reasons decisive in my eyes, and which could not be overthrown in my opinion by Captain William Allen’s ingenious but fanciful hypothesis, concluded to have no communication whatever with Lake Tsád, but to proceed from another and very different quarter.[26]
I had therefore cherished the hope, that I should be capable of penetrating from Kanó in the direction of Ádamáwa, a country wherein I was sure that the question respecting the course of the river would be decided; but obviously such an undertaking could not be engaged in without pecuniary means, and all therefore depended on my success in selling advantageously the merchandise with which I was provided.
For all these reasons, nothing could be more disagreeable and disheartening to me, though I was not quite unprepared for it, than the information which I received the very evening of my arrival in Kanó, that the price of merchandise such as I had was very low. In the next place, I soon found that Báwu, Mr. Gagliuffi’s agent, whom in compliance with his recommendation we had made also our commissioner, was not to be implicitly relied on. He was the second son of Háj Hát Sáleh, the man so well known from the narrative of Captain Clapperton, towards whom he seems to have behaved with honesty and fairness, and by this means perhaps he had recommended himself to Mr. Gagliuffi; but Báwu was not the right man to be entrusted with discretionary power over the property of a foreign merchant residing at a great distance, and belonging even to another religion, or to be the commissioner for European travellers. Young and ambitious as he was, he had no other object but to insinuate himself into the good graces of the governor at the expense of those who had been foolish enough to trust themselves into his hands. Besides, he had upon his hand a host of younger brothers, who all wanted to “eat.” Though Háj Hát Sáleh seems to have been a respectable man, he must have paid very little attention to the education of his children.
It will scarcely be believed that this man, although he had two camel-loads of goods of mine in his hands, yet left me without a single shell, “ko urí gudá,” for a whole fortnight, so that I was glad to borrow two thousand kurdí—less than an Austrian dollar, from Mohammed eʾ Sfáksi, in order to defray the most necessary expenses of my household.
Besides, this agent urged the absolute necessity of making a considerable present not only to the governor, which I was quite prepared to do, but another of nearly the same value to the ghaladíma or first minister, who happened to be the governor’s brother, and enjoyed quite as much authority and influence. The consequence was that I was obliged to give away the few articles of value in my possession merely for being tolerated and protected. The second day after my arrival, the governor received a message from Mr. Richardson, forwarded from Zínder, intimating that, after he should have received new supplies from the coast, he would not fail to come to Kanó; whereupon he sent me word that I had done very wrong to enter his town without giving him previous information, whereas my countryman had already forwarded a notice that at some future period he was likely to pay him a visit. Besides concluding, from the fact that I was not mentioned at all in that letter, that I was travelling on my own account, he made also greater pretensions with regard to a present.
Being lodged in dark, uncomfortable, and cheerless quarters, which I was forbidden to leave before the governor had seen me, destitute of a single farthing in cash, while I was daily called upon and pestered by my numerous creditors, and laughed at on account of my poverty by an insolent servant, my readers may fancy that my situation in the great far-famed entrepôt of Central Africa, the name of which had excited my imagination for so long a time, was far from agreeable. Partly from anxiety, partly from want of exercise, in the course of a few days I had a very severe attack of fever, which reduced me to a state of great weakness. Fortunately, however, I mustered sufficient strength to avail myself of a summons which called me at length into the presence of the governor, on the 18th of February; and by sacrificing what few things remained to me, I paved the road for my further proceedings, while the degree of exertion which was necessary to undergo the fatigue of the visit carried me over my weakness, and restored me gradually to health. The distances in Kanó, though less than those of London, are very great; and the ceremonies to be gone through are scarcely less tedious than those at any European court.
KANÓ, FROM MOUNT DALÁ.
Clothing myself as warmly as possible in my Tunisian dress, and wearing over it a white tobe and a white bernús, I mounted my poor black nag, and followed my three mediators and advocates. These were Báwu, Elaíji, and Sídi ʿAlí. Elaíji had arrived three days after me from his estate, and had continued to show me the same disinterested friendship which I had experienced from him before. Sídi ʿAlí was the son of Mohammed, the former Sultan of Fezzán, and last of the Welád Mohammed, who was killed by Mukni, the father of Yusuf, Mr. Richardson’s interpreter.
This man, whom it would have been far better for us to have employed as our agent from the beginning, had testified his interest in my welfare by sending me a fat ram as a present, and now accompanied me most kindly, in order to exert his influence in my behalf with the governor. On my second visit to Kanó, on my return from Timbúktu in the latter part of 1854, when I was still more destitute than in 1851, I placed myself directly under his protection, and made him my agent at the moment when the state of my affairs rendered considerable credit desirable.