When the building went on well, we felt that everything else would go well too.
Our tata was a triangular wall, each of the three sides being from about eleven to sixteen yards long. It was thick enough to protect us from treacherous shots from old-fashioned rifles, and indeed also from the quick-firing weapons which the English had sold some time ago to our enemy Samory. At a height of about six feet and a half some forty loopholes were made, distributed about equally over the three sides of the triangle formed by our wall. Inside, the walls were supported by buttresses about three feet thick, which served alike as seats and places in which to store our ammunition. The building seemed likely to last well unless it should be disintegrated and washed away in a tornado some day; breaches will of course be made in it, parts of it will fall, but I expect, for a long time hence, its ruins will bear witness to the stay here of the French expedition, and to our effective occupation of the site.
FORT ARCHINARD.
I forget what king of Sego it was who rendered his tata impregnable by making human corpses its foundation. In default of such a precaution as this, which we refrained from taking, a few determined men might at any moment have carried Fort Archinard by assault, but they would have paid dearly for their success.
On the summit of an ant-hill, at the top of the longest bamboo stem we could find, we hoisted the French flag.
And in this remote island of Archinard, more than two hundred leagues from any other European, we with our coolies lived for five months, and made the French name, beneath the protection of the French flag, respected in spite of old Amadu, in spite of the chief of Say, and of all their intrigues against us; yes, in spite of all hostile coalitions, in spite of the dreary rainy season, and of the home sickness which consumed us,—in a word, in spite of everything.
The tata once constructed, we were now free to consider our comfort a little, as we had really nothing better to do. Bluzet, who had already acted as architect of the fort, undertook the building of our huts. We each had our own palace, but what a simple palace! A circular hollow rick of straw some 12 feet in diameter, upheld by a central stake, interlaced stalks forming the framework of the roof, whilst ropes were woven in and out of the straw, forming with it a kind of net-work pattern. One little window was contrived in each hut, a mere porthole just big enough to let in air and light but not rain, whilst a low doorway was made on the opposite side to that from which we might expect tornadoes.
Lastly, to protect us from stray bullets, a little earthen wall, some 19 inches high, was erected inside our huts, so that it just covered us when we were lying full length at night. We each did our best to make our own particular niche cosy and ship-shape; but in justice it must be said that Baudry and I were the most successful, for we achieved quite a brilliant result. Baudry’s straw walls were a perfect museum of watches, instruments, medicines, patterns, objects for exchange, and strangest of all—toads!
Father Hacquart’s hut was very soberly decorated. Sacred images were nailed to the central stake, and in the little wall—I very nearly said in a corner—was a cornet-à-piston, which was later the joy of the chief of Bussa, but of which I own with the deepest regret we never heard a single note.