The native of Bornou who gave me the annexed vocabulary, was a man upon whose general information no great reliance could be placed. However, he absolutely denied the existence of any lake in his country—such as is mentioned in the preceding itinerary. He stated that the large river Tsad (the same mentioned by Hornemann under the name of Zad: though I strongly question his information as to its identity with the Joliba) flows through Bornou at a short distance from the capital of Birney. Its source was unknown to him. But at the time of the inundation, which is as regular there as in Egypt, it flows with great impetuosity. A female slave, richly dressed, is on this solemn occasion thrown into the stream by order of the king.
The river Shary was well known to this man, although he had never seen it; he called it the river of Bagerme.
Whilst British philanthropy is directed towards the abolition of the slave trade in the west of Africa, the eager pursuit of gain has opened in the eastern parts of that continent a new channel, by which the captive Negroes are carried into foreign countries, never to see their homes again. In the summer of 1816, a caravan arrived at Cairo from Augila, with above three hundred slaves procured from Waday or Borgo. The Arabs of Augila seeing that the Fezzan traders attempted sometimes a direct communication with Borgo, were of opinion that a road thither might be found likewise from Augila, southwards across the desert; and in 1811, they for the first time tried that journey. They reached Borgo, but upon their return, having no guides, they lost the road, and a great number of them, as well as the greater part of the slaves they had with them, died of thirst. In 1813 they made a fresh attempt, as unsuccessful as the former. Many of them died in the desert before they reached Waday; those who arrived there might have gone back by Fezzan, but they were afraid of the jealousy of the Fezzan traders, and trusting their fortunes to the same fatal road, very few found their way back to Augila. Such however is the determined spirit of the slave-trader, and the energy and enterprize of these people, that they were not discouraged by these failures. In 1814 a party of Augila Arabs set out again on the same road; reached Waday, and traced back their way to their own town, when the great profits which they had derived from the sale of their slaves made them forget all the dangers they had experienced, and the trade no doubt will be continued.
FOOTNOTES:
[1]Vide Supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica, voce Africa.
[2]The Sultan of Bornou is never seen but on feast days.
[3]The name of Wangara, and the existence of any great inland sea, were unknown to my informers.
[4]The Bornou river probably takes its rise in the mountains described in the foregoing route.