8th.—The people came this morning, in a great hurry, to take off the luggage, and afterwards pretended that I should go to-morrow, whilst the baggage must be forwarded to-day. This arrangement I positively refused to comply with, being determined to stop no longer.
I went to take leave of the Sarkee. His highness had nothing to say, and we as little to him. We just shook hands, and that was all. He is not very well pleased with his late man-hunt. He still owes twenty thousand dollars, which it will require a dozen such speculations to pay off. The castle outside was besieged with soldiers, all lounging and listening to two or three drummers. I am disgusted to see so many idle people. The only novelty was four or five singing-women, who sung choruses inside the walls to a drummer. All the soldiers in undress, or not going on razzia, are bare-headed, and also nearly all the inhabitants of the town. A few persons, mostly women, wear a piece of blue cotton cloth over their heads, tied tight, so as to have the appearance of a cap. The common sort of women go with their breasts bare; others, of higher rank, drag up their skirts to cover their breasts; and a few add a piece of cotton cloth, which they throw over their shoulders like a shawl.
The Sarkee has presented Yusuf with a horse, blind with one eye, and not much bigger than a jackass, in return for the present Yusuf made to him. In fact, this potentate is now as poor as a rat, and has nothing to give away. When he has anything, he soon parts with it, being generous to prodigality. The title Sarkee is used for men of inferior rank, and is something like Bey.
I waited till three o'clock, P.M., for my servants, and Saïd of Haj Beshir, to come and bring the oxen for the rest of the baggage—the boat and the heavy baggage left in the morning; and seeing no signs of their preparation, I determined to be no longer duped by them, and told the servant of Haj Beshir that I would start to-day, be the consequence what it might. So off I went to the Shereef, and told him I must go at once, to follow the Kashalla, who had taken away the box in which was the chronometer, and I must go to wind it up early in the morning. He immediately informed the Sarkee, and asked for a soldier. A soldier was forthwith brought, and a message from the Sarkee, that the horse which had been sent for me to ride upon was a present from his highness to me. This is the first present of the kind I have received in Africa; and after giving away about five hundred pounds sterling of Government money I have got in return, at last, a horse worth one pound fifteen shillings and fourpence, the current value of this country! The Sarkee of Zinder is miserably poor, but he was afraid to let me go to Kuka, to his master, without giving me a present.
I started from Zinder, riding my "gift horse," about an hour before sunset, and arrived at Dairmummegai, a very large village, where the Kashalla had pitched tent, after three hours' ride. Our course was due east, through a scattered forest of dwarf-trees, in which were fluttering about a number of strange-looking birds, that reminded me I was in a foreign land. One solitary bird excited my pity; its form was something like that of a small crane, but, verily, it was most disproportionally thin, with very long neck and shanky legs. It was wandering about as if it had lost itself in the world; and yet a bird losing itself in the world is a strange notion! We met a couple of huntsmen, on the shoulders of one of whom was coiled a fine bleeding gazelle. These huntsmen had only bows and arrows, and they had managed to get a gazelle, whilst we, with all our matchlocks and muskets, had never been able to shoot one of these animals during our eight or nine months of passage through the desert. The Kashalla was exceedingly glad at my arrival, and got ready a bowl of new milk. He is a man of some fifty or sixty years of age, black, and with Bornou features, speaking a little Arabic. The greater part of the Bornou people know a few words of this language. The Sheikh sent him to bring the boat and our baggage. He is a friendly, quiet man, whilst the man sent by Haj Beshir, Saïd, is an impudent slave, and only thinking of what he can get by his journey.
I saw, as I passed through the streets of Zinder this morning, a number of slaves chained together, going to the market of Kanou; so that this place is the great central dépôt of this merchandise. These were some of the fruits of the Sarkee's last razzia.
9th.—The morning was cool, and we started early, and made six hours and a-quarter in a general south-east direction, through a continuation of scattered forests, with open spaces, the wood being broken in upon here and there by a scanty ghaseb cultivation. Amongst the trees, some rose with giant arms and all the characters of tropical vegetation. The country was undulating, with ranges of low hills. Blocks of granite were scattered on the surface of the ground; in the deeper valleys lay stagnant water of the last rains, fast drying up; and here were water-fowls, waders, and some large, strange, black-and-white geese, with necks of enormous length.
After three hours and a-quarter we came to the considerable village of Deddegi, where, on our appearance, all the inhabitants fetching water or tending cattle ran away. This I may remark, as the first time that the people ran away at our appearance amongst them. Hitherto we have always had the population pressing upon us for curiosity, or to attack and plunder us. Things change. But the flight of the people of Deddegi is easily explained. We were soon recognised as a Bornou caravan, and the Bornouese in coming to Zinder,—the Sheikh's people especially,—have been in the habit of plundering these villages, or carrying off the people and their cattle, the former into slavery. Recently the Sarkee has complained of this, and the Sheikh, to do him justice, has ordered the Sarkee to seize any Bornouese committing these misdemeanours, and execute what justice he pleases upon them. The Sarkee, now, will not be slack to obey his master's commands. Still it is not surprising the people ran away from a Bornou caravan.
We encamped at the group of villages called Dairmu. My "gift horse" had given me most excruciating pain in riding, and I was obliged to dismount for half an hour. The saddles are very bad, and cut you raw before you are accustomed to them. But I must submit to this fatigue, for now I must ride horses and put away the camel, which is too slow for travelling in Soudan, where water and herbage are found for the horses every two or three hours.