French enterprise in Africa

by Hourst

We landed and pitched our tents.

The most important characteristic of an island is that it should be completely surrounded with water. Well, our island fulfilled this condition, for the time being at least. On the left, looking down stream we could see the principal arm of the Niger, the deepest part of the river, in which, however, the rocks of the bed were already beginning to emerge, whilst on the right was a narrower channel barred at the end by a rapid, beyond which the water disappeared entirely underground. Yet further away in the same direction we could see a little branch of the broken-up river with a very strong current hastening on its way to join the main stream, where I could not tell.

Our island was about 218 yards long by 328 broad. At one end, that looking up-stream, was a rocky bank, whilst the other, looking down-stream, consisted of low-lying alluvial soil, often of course submerged, dotted here, there, and everywhere with the mounds of the termites, and at this time of year completely deserted. A few fine and lofty tamarinds and other trees with large trunks but little foliage formed a regular wood, and afforded us a grateful shade; but the island as a whole, with its ant-hills, its twisted, tortuous, and leafless trunks, and its ground strewn with sharp and broken flints, presented a very wild and desolate appearance when we first landed.

Its situation, however, was really far from unpleasing, for on the deserted left bank the inundations are never very deep, and near to it rise wooded hills, with here and there perpendicular cliffs rising straight up from the river. Nearly opposite to us was one of these cliffs, white with guano or with lime, which looked to me very well suited for a permanent post. Being quite bare of vegetation, this cliff stands out against the verdure of the woods, and from the evening to the morning, from twilight to sunrise, great troops of big black monkeys assemble in it, and hold a regular palaver just as the negroes do. Often at night their cries quite alarm us, and keep the sentries constantly on the qui vive.

The whole of the riverside districts on the left bank, from Kibtachi to the Toucouleur villages up-stream, are completely deserted and of bad fame. Now and then we saw men armed with bows and arrows prowling about on a slave hunt, or deer came down to drink. The right bank is far less dreary. Opposite to us is Talibia, a little agricultural village, tributary to Say. We can make out the gables of the pointed huts surrounded by palisades and sanies or fences made of mats. When the millet is full grown these pointed huts are quite hidden by it, and the scene is one of great beauty, giving an impression of considerable prosperity. Women come down to the beach to fetch water, and bathe in the arm of the stream. On market day at Say—that is to say, on Friday—there is great excitement at Talibia, men, women, and children trooping to market with their wares as they do in France, carrying their butter, their mats—in a word, all the produce of the week’s work on their heads.

Above Talibia and the confluence of the third arm of the river the wood becomes dense and impenetrable. A little path follows the river-bank through the tall grass, and during our long stay in the island it was the daily morning occupation to watch from the top of the island who should come along this path, for by it alone could king’s ambassadors, marabouts, market-women or any one else approach us.

VIEW OF OUR ISLAND AND OF THE SMALL ARM OF THE RIVER.

Our island was quite deserted by the natives, for though the people of Talibia grew millet on it before our arrival, they would never live on it, or even sleep on it for one night, for it had a very bad reputation, and was supposed to be haunted by devils, horrible devils, who took the form of big fantastic-looking monkeys, and after sunset climbed upon the ant-hills and held a fiendish sabbat.

Without calling in the aid of the supernatural to account for it, there is no doubt that people belated on the left bank were never seen again. Perhaps they are taken captive by the robber Djermankobes, or fall victims to lions or hyænas.