Journal of a second expedition into the interior of Africa, from the Bight of Benin to Soccatoo

by Hugh Clapperton

The henna or salli, with whose leaves they stain their hands and toes, is made of pounded leaves, mixed with water to the consistence of a poultice, which is laid on thick, and bound with gourd leaves to keep it on. To see a person in this state, without knowing that he was sacrificing comfort to make himself look beautiful, would be apt to excite pity for the poor man, and to imagine that he had fallen from some height, and bruised his hands and feet so badly as to require their being poulticed to reduce the inflammation. Some great people go so far as to have themselves stained every three nights.

Friday, 3d.—The negroes and most of the Arabs are great gamblers, though it is strictly prohibited by the Fellata laws. Their principal game is called cha-cha, and is played by any number of persons at a time, with cowries. Night is the usual time for this game; and so eager are they in it, that they will frequently stake their breeches and every part of their dress. I should never have known of its existence, had not one of my servants, named Micama, a native of Zinder in Bornou, come home last night with the loss of his tobe; and on my insisting this morning that he should not enter the house in such a state, he pleaded the heat of the weather, and made other excuses, which I could not allow: the other servants then told me what he had been at, and said he was an expert hand, and could not refrain from playing when he saw others play. I advanced him money to buy another tobe, telling him if I ever knew him to play again, I should give him up to the Fellatas, who punish all caught at such a game with death, or something approaching it. In the afternoon I took leave of the sultan, who breaks up in the night, and proceeds to Soccatoo.

Saturday, 4th.—Morning cool and clear. The sultan did not leave last night, but to-day at 3 P.M. I had to go and see the chronometer carefully put up to bear carriage without injury: it is considered the most valuable part of his property, and numbers come from a great distance to hear it strike. One of the gold watches he has already spoiled, and I have had to give his brother Atego my silver watch for it in return, but I have got the worse bargain. If the sultan had not asked me I should never have done it, as it has the new patent key, and kept a regular rate from England.

Sunday, 5th.—I did not start this morning, as I had been very unwell all night: got a new camel, and employed a Tuarick to buy me another, as they are nearly 2000 cowries cheaper here than they are at Kano.

Monday, 6th.—Cool and clear. At 6 A.M. left Magaria. I rode my new camel, as his load was light, and I had no horse. At 11 A.M. halted at a spring for an hour, and started again at 2. Arrived at Soccatoo.

Tuesday, 7th.—This day I visited the sultan about noon, and, at his request, taught a man, one of his servants, how to wind up the time-piece, which is one of eight days. In the afternoon I was visited by three Fellatas, Hadji Omer from Foota Tora, Malem Mahomed from Timbuctoo, and the third from a neighbouring town to Timbuctoo. Malem Mahomed says the whole of the district called Timbuctoo is at present under the authority of the Tuaricks; that the principal town is called Timbuctoo; and that their gold comes from Ashantee, Gonga, and Bambarra, where they exchange it for salt to the Tuaricks, and cloths to the inhabitants of Fez, Ghadamis, and Tripoli; that Timbuctoo produces no gold, it being only the great market where all the gaffles from the north and east meet those of the south and west; that few Arabs now come from Fez and Morocco, owing, he says, to the Arabs, called Waled Dleim, cutting off the caravans.

Hadji Omar, who was an intelligent man, told me that forty men arrived at Sego with the late Mungo Park. That, out of the forty, thirty-five had died of sickness, and that five only embarked in the canoe given to him by the sultan of Sego. That they were repeatedly attacked by the Tuaricks, of whom they killed a great number. Whether any, or how many, of those belonging to the canoe were killed, he could not say. The Hadji had just returned from Mecca, and wished to go there again, if he could get an opportunity; but, as he said the sultan of Baghermi and his subjects had been driven into the mountains to the south of that kingdom by the Sheik el Kanemi, there was no passing through that country, as it was now only inhabited by wandering Arabs, who plunder all that fall into their hands, otherwise it was the best road to the east from Adamowa, by the way of Baghermi.

Friday, 10th.—For the two last days I have found myself very ill, with an enlargement of the spleen. Soccatoo was built by Sheik Othman, usually known by the name of Danfodio, or the learned son of Fodio. He was a good linguist; and knew most of the languages of the interior, which he spoke fluently, and also all the dialects of the Arabic. He knew all the learning of the Arabs; and, what was of the greatest importance to him, was firmly believed to be a prophet; and the belief continues, getting stronger as the Fellatas get stronger. He came out of the woods of Ader, or Tadela, and settled, and built a town in the province of Goobur, where the Fellatas began to gather around him; he soon began to interfere with the affairs of the sultan of Goobur, saying this was proper to be done, and such a thing was improper. This not pleasing either the people of Goobur or the sultan, he was ordered out of the country, he and his people. This order he did not obey; and the people of Goobur rose and drove them out; when he again settled in Ader, not in the woods, as formerly, but built a town. Fellatas gathering round him from all the different countries, he divided them under different chiefs, giving each chief a white flag, telling them to go and conquer in the name of God and the prophet, as God had given the Fellatas the lands and the riches of all the Kaffirs, as they, the Fellatas, were the only true believers. In addition to the white flag, the Fellatas were to wear a white tobe, as an emblem of their purity, and their war-cry was to be Allahu Akber! or, God is great! That every one who was wounded, or fell in battle, was sure to gain paradise. Their belief in him as a prophet, their own poverty, numbers, and the apparent wealth of the blacks, who had been lulled into a fatal security, made the latter fall an easy prey to their conquerors. Kano submitted without a blow. The next was Goobur; the people of which had taken the alarm, and attempted to turn Danfodio out of his town in Ader, but they were driven back, and the wily old chief then attacked them, overran their country, and killed the sultan. After this the whole of Houssa, with Cubbé, Youri, and part of Nyffé, fell under their dominion. The whole of the interior, from east to west, was terror-struck. Bornou, in the east, was attacked with success, as was also Yourriba, in the west. Here they found more resistance than any where else, as they (the people of Yourriba) could not be made to believe in his doctrine or prophecy, as they were confirmed Kaffers, who, on the invasion of the Fellatas, put all the Mahometans to death, whether natives, or in caravans trafficking; quite denying the plea that God had given to the faithful their lands and houses, and their wives and children to be slaves. Notwithstanding, they took Rakah, Elora or Affaga, besides a great number of other towns, reaching to the sea coast, in their expeditions; and once entered Eyeo, or Katunga, the capital, a great part of which they burnt down, giving liberty to all the Mahometan slaves, and encouraging others to kill their pagan masters and join them. After they had fairly settled themselves, the Arabs from the east and west came to congratulate Danfodio on his newly acquired territory. Numbers of his countrymen came from the west to settle in Houssa. These he located principally in the province of Zegzeg, where he gave the lands and houses of the negroes who had fled to the mountains and inaccessible parts of that province lying to the south. To the Arabs of Tripoli and Fezzan he made large presents of slaves and camels, sending none away empty-handed. The news of his fame spread every way. Arabs, in shoals, came and passed with him as sherifs, and would seldom go away under a hundred slaves, with camels and provisions.

Before he gathered the Foulahs, or Fellatas, under his government, they did not live in towns, but were scattered over the greater part of Soudan, attending to their herds and flocks, living in temporary huts, generally in the midst of unfrequented woods, seldom visiting the towns. This business they left to the women, who attended the markets, and sold the produce of their cattle. The men were reported to live a religious and harmless life, spending a great part of their time in reading the Koran and other religious books. Now and then a few of their learned men would come forth, and engage themselves for a few years with the Mahometan sultans and governors, until they had collected a little money, with which they purchased a few cattle, and then returned to the woods to their countrymen, who moved about from one province to another, according to the seasons, and the nature and quantity of pasture and water; contented with building temporary huts of straw and rushes, and to be left in peace. No one indeed thought of disturbing them, or interfering with their pursuits, they being probably considered as too contemptible and insignificant to excite any fear. Thus dispersed, no one but themselves knew or could guess at their numbers. Melli, or the petty kingdoms of Foota-Torra, Foota-Bonda, and Foota-Jella, were the places from whence they spread themselves eastward, until they became very considerable, in point of numbers, in all the countries between the above-mentioned places and Wady. Many of them had performed their pilgrimage to Mecca, and others had visited the empires of Turkey and Morocco, as also Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, bringing back with them all the Arabic books they were able to beg or buy.

In the year of the Hegira 1218, the old Mallem Sheik Othman Danfodio, Sheik of the Koran, became religiously mad, and is said to have died some years afterwards in that state. This Foulah or Fellata conqueror was styled Sheik of the Koran from his being perfect master of that book, not only being able to read it, and all the commentaries upon it, but also to repeat any part, and explain it, from memory. The laws of the Koran were in his time, and indeed continue to be, so strictly put in force, not only among the Fellatas, but the negroes and Arabs, and the whole country, when not in a state of war, was so well regulated, that it was a common saying, that a woman might travel with a casket of gold upon her head from one end of the Fellata dominions to the other.