From Timbuctoo Leo proceeded to the town of Cabra on the Niger, which was then supposed to discharge its waters into the Atlantic; for the merchants going to the coast of Guinea embarked upon the river at this place, whence they dropped down the stream to the seashore. Still travelling southward, he arrived at a large city without walls, which he calls Gajo, four hundred miles from Timbuctoo. Excepting the dwellings of the prince and his courtiers, the houses were mere huts, though many of the merchants are said to have been wealthy, while an immense concourse of Moors and other strangers flocked thither to purchase the cloths and other merchandise of Barbary and Europe. The inhabitants of the villages and the shepherds, by far the greater portion of the population, lived in extreme misery, and, poverty extinguishing all sense of decorum, went so nearly naked, that even the distinctions of sex were scarcely concealed. In winter they wrapped themselves in the skins of animals, and wore a rude kind of sandal manufactured from camel’s hide.
This was the term of Leo’s travels towards the south. He now turned his face towards the rising sun, and proceeding three hundred miles in that direction, amid the dusky and barbarous tribes who crouch beneath the weight of tyranny and ignorance in that part of Africa, arrived in the kingdom of Guber, having on the way crossed a desert of considerable extent, which commences about forty miles beyond the Niger. The whole country was a plain, inundated in the rainy season by the Niger, and surrounded by lofty mountains. Agriculture and the useful arts were here cultivated with activity. Flocks and cattle abounded, but their size was extremely diminutive. The sandal worn by the inhabitants exactly resembled that of the ancient Romans. From hence he proceeded to Agad, a city and country tributary to Timbuctoo, inhabited by the fairest negroes of all Africa. The inhabitants of the towns possessed excellent houses, constructed after the manner of those of Barbary; but the peasants and shepherds of the south were nomadic hordes, living, like the Carir of the Deccan, in large baskets, or portable wicker huts. He next arrived at Kanoo, five hundred miles east of the Niger, a country inhabited by tribes of farmers and herdsmen, and abounding in corn, rice, and cotton. Among the cultivated fields many deserts, however, and wood-covered mountains were interspersed. In these woods the orange and the lemon were found in great plenty. The houses of the town of Kanoo, like those of Timbuctoo, were built of chalk. Proceeding eastward through a country infested by gipsies, occasionally turning aside to visit more obscure regions, he at length arrived at Bornou, a kingdom of great extent, bounded on the north and south by deserts, on the west by Gnagera, and on the east by an immense country, denominated Gaoga by Leo, but known at present by the various names of Kanem, Begharmi, Dar Saley, Darfur, and Kordofan.
The scenery and produce of Bornou were exceedingly various. Mountains, valleys, plains, and deserts alternating with each other composed a prospect of striking aspect; and the population, consisting of wild soldiers, merchants, artisans, farmers, herdsmen, and shepherds, some glittering with arms, or wrapped in ample drapery, others nearly as naked as when they left the womb, appeared no less picturesque or strange. Leo’s stay in this country was short, and the persons from whom he acquired his information must have been either ignorant or credulous; for, according to them, no vestige of religion existed among the people (which is not true of any nation on earth), while the women and children were possessed by all men in common. Proper names were not in use. When persons spoke of their neighbours, they designated them from some corporeal or mental quality, as tallness, fatness, acuteness, bravery, or stupidity. The chief’s revenue consisted of the tenth of the produce of the soil, and of such captives and spoil as he could take in war. Slaves were here so plentiful, and horses so scarce, that twenty men were sometimes given in exchange for one of those animals. The prince then reigning, a narrow-minded and avaricious man, had contrived by various means to amass immense riches; his bits, his spurs, his cups, and vases were all of gold; but whenever he purchased any article from a foreign merchant, he preferred paying with slaves rather than with money.
From Bornou he proceeded through Gaoga towards Nubia, and approached those regions of the Nile where, amid poverty and barbarism, the civilization of the old world has left so many indestructible traces of the gigantic ideas which throw their shadows over the human imagination in the dawn of time. Coming up to the banks of the mysterious river, around the sources of which curiosity has so long flitted in vain, he found the stream so shallow in many places that it could be easily forded; but whether on account of its immense spread in those parts, or the paucity of water, he does not inform us. Dongola, or Dangala, the capital, though consisting of mere chalk huts thatched with straw, contained at that period no less than one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants. The people, who were rich and enterprising, held knowledge in the highest esteem. No other city, however, existed in the country; the remainder of the population, chiefly or wholly occupied in the culture of the soil, living in scattered villages or hamlets. Grain was extremely plentiful, as was also the sugarcane, though its use and value were unknown; and immense quantities of ivory and sandal-wood were exported. However, at this period, the most remarkable produce of Nubia was a species of violent poison, the effect of which was little less rapid than that of prussic acid, since the tenth part of a grain would prove mortal to a man in a few minutes, while a grain would cause instantaneous death. The price of an ounce of this deleterious drug, the nature of which is totally unknown, was one hundred pieces of gold; but it was sold to foreigners only, who, when they purchased it, were compelled to make oath that no use should be made of it in Nubia. A sum equal to the price of the article was paid to the sovereign, and to dispose of the smallest quantity without his knowledge was death, if discovered; but whether the motive to this severity was fiscal or moral is not stated. The Nubians were engaged in perpetual hostilities with their neighbours, their principal enemy being a certain Ethiopian nation, whose sovereign, according to Leo, was that Prester John so famous in that and the succeeding ages; a despicable and wretched race, speaking an unknown jargon, and subsisting upon the milk and flesh of camels, and such wild animals as their deserts produced. Leo, however, evidently saw but little of Nubia; for though by no means likely to have passed such things over without notice had they been known to him, he never once alludes to the ruins of Meloë, the temples and pyramids of Mount Barkal, or those enormous statues, obelisks, and other monuments which mark the track of ancient civilization down the course of the Nile, and present to the eye of the traveller one of the earliest cradles of our race.
From this country he proceeded to Egypt, and paused a moment on his journey to contemplate the ruins of Thebes, a city, the founding of which some of his countrymen attributed to the Greeks, others to the Romans. Some fourteen or fifteen hundred peasants were found creeping like pismires at the foot of the gigantic monuments of antiquity. They ate good dates, grapes, and rice, however, and the women, who were lovely and well-formed, rejoiced the streets with their gayety. At Cairo, where he seems to have made a considerable stay, he saw many strange things, all of which he describes with that conciseness and naïveté for which most of our older travellers are distinguished. Walking one day by the door of a public bath, in the market-place of Bain Elcasraim, he observed a lady of distinction, and remarkable for her beauty, walking out into the streets, which she had no sooner done than she was seized and violated before the whole market by one of those naked saints who are so numerous in Egypt and the other parts of Africa. The magistrates of the city, who felt that their own wives might next be insulted, were desirous of inflicting condign punishment upon the wretch, but were deterred by fear of the populace, who held such audacious impostors in veneration. On her way home after this scene, the woman was followed by an immense multitude, who contended with each other for the honour of touching her clothes, as if some peculiar virtue had been communicated to them by the touch of the saint; and even her husband, when informed of what had happened, expressed the greatest joy, and thanking God as if an extraordinary blessing had been conferred upon his family, made a great entertainment and distributed alms to the poor, who were thus taught to look upon such events as highly fortunate.
Upon another occasion Leo, returning from a celebrated mosque in one of the suburbs, beheld another curious scene no less characteristic of the manners of the times. In the area before a palace erected by a Mameluke sultan, an immense populace was assembled, in the midst of whom a troop of strolling players, with dancing camels, asses, and dogs, were exhibiting their tricks, to the great entertainment of the mob, and even of our traveller himself, who thought it a very pleasant spectacle. Having first exhibited his own skill, the principal actor turned round to the ass, and muttering certain words, the animal fell to the ground, turning up his feet, swelling and closing his eyes as if at the last gasp. When he appeared to be completely dead, his master, turning round to the multitude, lamented the loss of his beast, and hoped they would have pity upon his misfortune. When he had collected what money he could,—“You suppose,” says he, “that my ass is dead. Not at all. The poor fellow, well knowing the poverty of his master, has merely been feigning all this while, that I might acquire wherewith to provide provender for him.” Then approaching the ass, he ordered him to rise, but not being obeyed, he seized a stick, and belaboured the poor creature most unmercifully. Still no signs of life appeared. “Well,” said the man, once more addressing the people, “you must know, that the sultan has issued an order that to-morrow by break of day the whole population of Cairo are to march out of the city to behold a grand triumph, the most beautiful women being mounted upon asses, for whom the best oats and Nile water will be provided.” At these words the ass sprang upon his feet with a bound, and exhibiting tokens of extreme joy. “Ah, ha!” continued the mountebank; “I have succeeded, have I? Well, I was about to say that I had hired this delicate animal of mine to the principal magistrate of the city for his little ugly old wife.” The ass, as if possessed of human feelings, now hung his ears, and began to limp about as if lame of one foot. Then the man said, “You imagine, I suppose, that the young women will laugh at you.” The ass bent down his head, as if nodding assent. “Come, cheer up,” exclaimed his master, “and tell me which of all the pretty women now present you like best!” The animal, casting his eyes round the circle, and selecting one of the prettiest, walked up to her, and touched her with his head; at which the delighted multitude with roars of laughter exclaimed, “Behold the ass’s wife!” At these words, the man sprang upon his beast and rode away.
The ladies of Cairo, when they went abroad, affected the most superb dresses, adorning their necks and foreheads with clusters of brilliant gems, and wearing upon their heads lofty hurlets or coifs shaped like a tube, and of the most costly materials. Their cloaks or mantles, exquisitely embroidered, they covered with a piece of beautiful Indian muslin, while a thick black veil, thrown over all, enabled them to see without being seen. These elegant creatures, however, were very bad wives; for, disdaining to pay the slightest attention to domestic affairs, their husbands, like the citizens of modern Paris, were obliged to purchase their dinners ready dressed from restaurateurs. They enjoyed the greatest possible liberty, riding about wherever they pleased upon asses, which they preferred to horses for the easiness of their motions. Here and there among the crowd you heard the strange cry of those old female practitioners who performed the rite which introduced those of their own sex into the Mohammedan church, though their words, as the traveller observes, were not extremely intelligible.
From Egypt Leo travelled into Arabia, Persia, Tartary, and Turkey, but of his adventures in these countries no account remains. On returning from Constantinople, however, by sea, he was taken by Christian corsairs off the island of Zerbi, on the coast of Tripoli, and being carried captive into Italy, was presented to Pope Leo X. at Rome, in 1517. The pope, who, as is well known, entertained the highest respect for every thing which bore the name of learning, no sooner discovered that the Moorish slave was a person of merit and erudition, than he treated him in the most honourable manner, settled upon him a handsome pension, and having caused him to be instructed in the principles of the Christian religion, had him baptized, and bestowed upon him his own name, Leo. Our traveller now resided principally at Rome, occasionally quitting it, however, for Bologna; and having at length acquired a competent knowledge of the Italian language, became professor of Arabic. Here he wrote his famous “Description of Africa,” originally in Arabic, but he afterward either rewrote or translated it into Italian. What became of him or where he resided after the death of his munificient patron is not certainly known.—One of the editions of Ramusio asserts that he died at Rome; but according to Widmanstadt, a learned German orientalist of the sixteenth century, he retired to Tunis, where, as is usual in such cases, he returned to his original faith, which he never seems inwardly to have abandoned. Widmanstadt adds, that had he not been prevented by circumstances which he could not control, he should have undertaken a voyage to Africa expressly for the purpose of conversing with our learned traveller, so great was his admiration of his genius and acquirements.
With respect to the work by which he will be known to posterity, and which has furnished the principal materials for the present life,—his “Description of Africa,”—its extraordinary merit has been generally acknowledged. Eyriès, Hartmann, and Bruns, whose testimony is of considerable weight, speak of it in high terms; and Ramusio, a competent judge, observes, that up to his time no writer had described Africa with so much truth and exactness. In fact, no person can fail, in the perusal of this deeply interesting and curious work, to perceive the intimate knowledge of his subject possessed by the author, or his capacity to describe what he had seen with perspicuity and ease. The best edition of the Latin version, the one I myself have used, and that which is generally quoted or referred to, is the one printed by the Elzevirs, at Leyden, in 1632. It has been translated into English, French, and German, but with what success I am ignorant.