Bokar had sent instructions to the Wagobés to treat us well, and they themselves intended to act as our guides. They begged me, however, not to anchor at the village of Sinder, though I was particularly anxious to visit that important centre, which is the chief mart for the vast quantities of cereals cultivated in the neighbourhood.
Farca is an island completely covered with a tropical forest, and a similar mass of verdure is to be seen on another islet opposite to it. The village, which had been deserted after the fracas with Captain Toutée’s people, was just beginning to be rebuilt.
This was the furthest point reached by the expedition which had preceded ours, and is situated in N. Lat. 14° 29′ and Long. 1° 22′ 55″, thirty kilometres from Sinder, and eight hundred and sixty from Timbuktu.[9]
The connection between the expeditions which had started from the coast of Guinea and those which had come from the French Sudan had at last been achieved, and the Niger had been navigated for its entire course by Frenchmen.
Below Farca, the stream becomes a little less difficult. We were followed the day after by a regular fleet of canoes. A nephew of the chief of Sinder, named Boso, accompanied us. I now felt that, at least until we came into actual contact with Amadu Cheiku, all danger from the hostility of the natives was at an end.
The islands dotting the river are inhabited by Kurteyes and Wagobés, and it is to the latter tribe that the inhabitants of Sinder belong, not to the Songhay race. Their name clearly indicates that they are Soninkés, and therefore related to our Saracolais coolies. Saracolais, Marka, Dafins, etc., are really all mere local names of the Soninkés. It seems at first surprising that a race supposed to be native to the districts watered by the Senegal, should be found so far away from the basin of that river; but later still, nearer to Say, we came upon another tribe of the same origin, the Sillabés, on the subject of which there cannot be the slightest doubt, for they have preserved the language of their ancestors.
FARCA.
A little above Sinder the bed of the river becomes again encumbered with rocks, making navigation difficult, at least in the channels our guides made us choose near the left bank.
My own private opinion is, however, that there was a better channel nearer the village which these guides managed for us to avoid.