Travels through Central Africa to Timbuctoo; and across the Great Desert, to Morocco, performed in the years 1824-1828, Vol. 2 (of 2)

by René Caillié; M. Jomard

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EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES,

Followed by Notes on the Fragments of Plants brought over by M. Caillié, on some natural productions of the countries he has traversed, and on several points of geography.

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Pl. I. Portrait of the Traveller.
Pl. II. A woman of Timbuctoo.
Pl.III. M. Caillié meditating upon the Koran andtaking his notes.
Pl. IV. Plan of the great mosque of Timbuctoo, anda view of it taken from the E. N. E.[165]
	Fig. 1.	Plan of the mosque on a scale of athou­sandth.
			a.	Niche or recess for the ceremonies of reli­gious worship; it isformed in a very ancient wall. See pl. V. fig. 1.
			b.	The great tower.
			c.	Niche, having the same destination as that markeda.
			d.	Turrets.
			e, e, e.	Buttresses.
			f.	Principal door of the mosque.
			g, g, g.	Small doors of the mosque.
			h, h.	Limit of the examined parts.
			i, i, i.	Pillars decorated with a particular kind of ornament. See pl.V. fig. 2.
			k, k.	Interior façade, with an ornament en chevron,represented in pl. V. fig. 3.
			l.	Very ancient part of the mosque; the arcades supported by thesepillars are smaller than the new arcades on the east.
			m.	Traces of the ancient inclosure.
	Fig. 2.	View of the mosque taken from the E. N. E., on adouble scale.
Pl. V. 1, 2, 3. Details of the great mosque ofTimbuctoo.
			4, 5.	Plan and front of the house of Sidi-Abdallah-Chebir, inwhich M. Caillié re­sided.
	Fig. 1.	A wall forming part of the ancient mosque. See thepoint a, pl. IV. fig. 1.
	Fig. 2.	Interior decorations, attached to the pillars. Seethe points i, i, i, pl. IV.
	Fig. 3.	Ornament of the wall. See points k, k, pl.IV.
	Fig. 4.	Plan of Sidi-Abdallah-Chebir’s house.
			a.	Principal entrance.
			b.	Situation of the staircase.
			c, c, c.	Warehouses.
			d.	First court.
			e.	Second court.
			f.	Stables.
			g.	Kitchen of the slaves.
			h.	Lodging of the slaves.
			i.	Privies.
	Fig. 5.	The front elevation of the house. Over the door isa chamber, the window of which is closed by a wooden lattice, as inthe towns of the Levant; and above are some earthen vessels for theuse of the pigeons. Upon the wall are seen small gutters ofearthenware, to carry off the water.
Pl. VI. View of part of the town of Timbuctoo,taken from the summit of a hill to the E. N. E.
			1.	The great mosque, or western mosque.
			2.	East, or east north east mosque.
			3.	Third mosque.
			4.	House of Osman, the chief who governs at Timbuctoo.
			5.	House of Sidi-Abdallah-Chebir.
			6.	The market.
			7.	Caravan coming from the Tafilet.
Pl. VII. Itinerary map, and general map of thetravels.
				The scale of the first map is of one to a million; that of theother is one-eight millionth, or the eighth part of the former. Itis to be regretted that these scales could not be enlarged, andthat, consequently the details of the routes could not be moreclearly laid down. The first chapter of the supplement will spareme the necessity of explaining this plate more at length.

PLANTS.

In addition to the explanation of the engravings, I will say a few words respecting several fragments of plants collected in the environs of Kakondy (Rio-Nuñez), which botanists have considered either too ill-preserved or too incomplete for engraving. M. Caillié made sketches of some which appeared equally unfit to be committed to the graver.

• Native name. Saulé-Kémé. The blossom has ten stamina, two of them large and of a deep yellow, and three smaller supported by a very fine and twisted fibre; the flower deserves attention for its beauty; it appears fit to adorn a garden; it emits a sweet and agreeable odour; its colour is a light yellow; the pistil is green. The shrub which produces it, grows on a bush to the height of eight or ten feet. It has not been seen in fruit.
• The sketch traced by M. Caillié, and the little sample which he gathered, shew the nature of the foliage; it is of the leguminous kind: the leaves are oval, rounded; the flower in bunches, the pedicle furnished with stipulæ, the anthers bifid, the style long and filiform.
• According to the learned M. Kunth, who has obligingly examined this and the two following specimens, this plant is no other than acassi a Cassia fistula, of a species of which, it is well known, there are very lofty trees.
• Name unknown. The newly opened blossom is white; it turns afterwards yellow: the perfume it exhales is extremely agreeable. The shrub is nine or ten feet high; I at first took this flower for that of an American gourd. (M. Caillié’s notes.)
• The leaf is lanceolated and pointed; the corolla is large, monopetalous, funnel-shaped, with a long tube, having seven great divisions, oval and very deep; the calyx appears to have eight divisions; the fruit is ovoid; the stalk is furnished with long blunt thorns. This plant appears to belong to the rubia family.
• M. Kunth considers it as a species resembling the gardenia thunbergia, but differing in having rough and smaller leaves.
• Name unknown.—The blossoms and leaves are hairy; the petals blue; the plant is herbaceous. It is with its root that the Landamas make the purgative drink which they call jinjindhi; this root resembles the small cassava. (M. Caillié’s notes.)
• The fruit and stalk are also hairy. The leaves are pointed oval, of a beautiful green, marked with four longitudinal borders, and covered on one side with flat short and very glossy hairs. The flowers have five petals, the form of which is oval and pointed; the hairs of the calyx are long. This plant belongs to the melastomæa. This genus is known to be very numerous in America; but it had not previously been found in Africa.
• M. Kunth considers it as a species of rhexia, differing from those of Africa, published by M. de Beauvoir; but it is too incomplete to admit of its species being determined.

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES.

• Hibiscus.—In the environs of Djenné, the traveller saw an hibiscus, of which cords are made as with hemp; these cords serve for the construction of the canoes. At the Senegal there is also an hibiscus fit for this operation. It was found, I believe, on the banks of the Gambia, where it is known by the name of hibiscus cannabinus. In the construction of canoes, two trunks of trees are united and firmly bound together with the cords in question.
• Cotton plant.—M. Caillié observed, on the road from Djenné, a species of cotton plant which he believes to be annual. This statement has been doubted: yet in Egypt there is also an herbaceous cotton-plant, and there is no reason against the admission of the fact.
• The Bombax is a tree known in Senegambia; its fruit produces a very fine and glossy silk, capable of being manufactured. M. de Beaufort sent over samples of it. The narrative shews that this beautiful tree is also very common south of Senegambia.
• Bark, yielding a beautiful red dye. M. Caillié has not made us acquainted with the nature of the tree that bears this bark, which on being merely washed yields a red colour. But the discovery would be easily made, since the tree grows not far from the French possessions.
• Mimosa.—M. Caillié saw several large species of mimosas; it is a subject of regret that he has not described each. One of the most spreading is the nédé, a beautiful tree, with a globular flower of a red colour borne on a very long pedicle; the foliage is very delicate. The natives eat the pulp by which the seed is surrounded.
• Balanites.—This tree is one of the most common along the whole of M. Caillié’s route, from Kakondy to Djenné. The inhabitants extract an oil from it.
• The Balanites Ægyptiaca. (Delile)[166] is not the only tree common to this country and Egypt; the same may be said of many other natural productions, and of plants and animals in general. This remark has been frequently made since the publication of the travels of the French in Egypt, and the discoveries in natural history made in Senegambia. The similarity of the two countries in certain respects, a great river annually overflowing, a very high temperature, the vicinity of the desert, and other circumstances seem, at the first glance, sufficiently to explain this identity.
• But I do not believe that in this case the difference of the latitude has been observed. The mean parallel of Egypt is about 27°½.; that of Senegambia 13; difference 14°½. If the height of the temperature is important, as it undoubtedly is, amongst the causes which encourage to a certain extent some species of vegetables and animals, it must be concluded that Egypt is the warmest region of northern Africa in proportion to its latitude. The mean temperature of Egypt is, actually higher than that of the Senegal: this was far from being suspected prior to the observations of the Egyptian Institute; and Baron Humboldt did not introduce his Memoir on the isothermal lines till after having long retained doubts, which the tables of Messrs. Nouet and Coutelle dispelled. Thus, the isothermal line of Egypt would make a large angle with the equator. Mount Atlas is too far distant to explain the fact; the mountains of Senegambia are not sufficiently elevated; we are, therefore, led to seek the cause in the vicinity of the Sahara, the vast radiation of which must incessantly attract the lower strata of a warmer atmosphere, such as that of Senegal and of the more remote districts, on account of their nearly juxta-equatorial position: so that the mean temperature of Senegambia would, but for this cause, be much higher than it is, and far higher than that of Egypt.
• These considerations leave room to regret that we have no meteorological observations made at Timbuctoo, not only on the thermometer and barometer, but also upon the state of the heavens and the prevailing winds; such no doubt exist among the papers of Major Laing, as may be concluded from the terms of his letter, written from that city, the 21st of September, 1826[167].
• Doum.—The Doum Palm-tree, (corypha thebaica Delile); belongs to Upper Egypt. It is remarkable that a tree of this species exists in the city of Timbuctoo; it is the only one, the other trees of the place being all balanites.
• Lotus (nymphæa.).—This again is a plant common to Egypt. In the latter country the root only is now eaten; but the negroes, like the ancient Egyptians, use both the root and the fruit.
• Thistle of the Desert.—This, according to the description given of it by M. Caillié, appears to be the hedysarum alhagi, (Linn.) a well known plant, and which constitutes the provender of the famished camels; in spite of its rough prickles, they eat it with delight in traversing the desert.
• Butter-tree, ce, ché or shea.—Mungo Park describes this tree under the latter name of shea and shea-toulou. M. Caillié met with it all over Senegambia as far as Djenné. The nédé and the ché are the most common trees. Samples of this vegetable butter were sent to France by M. de Beaufort, and M. Vauquelin was commissioned by the Academy of Sciences, to analyse it. This tree would be a most valuable acquisition in our colonies.
• We owe to M. Caillié the knowledge of a second vegetable butter called taman-toulou, preferable, he thinks, to the former. It is derived from a second tree, which appears to be different. Its name, or that of the fruit, is taman. The word toulou means butter or a fat substance in Mandingo. The oil palm-tree renders nearly the same service to the inhabitants as the foregoing.
• Colat-nut.—The fruit known to Europeans by this name is very common in the interior of Africa, as well as on the banks of the Rio-Nuñez. The Mandingo name is ourou. According to M. Caillié this is the same fruit with that called gour by Major Denham: but, in reading the work entitled Narrative of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa, &c., London, 1826, I found this name neither in the description, nor in the annotations added to this important work by the learned botanist, Robert Brown.
• N.B. I pass over in silence several vegetables obtained by M. Caillié, and mentioned in the journal of the travels, having nothing to add to what he has reported, and regretting that his description is insufficient to shew their nature: for example, that of the caura, which our traveller compares to a plum-tree. It will be seen by the narrative that orange-trees are indigenous in the northern part of Senegambia[168].
• Carrier Oxen. In the early part of his journal, M. Caillié mentions, by name only, this species of oxen. It is a question worthy of the attention of future travellers, both as regards commerce and expeditions of discovery.
• Elephants and Lions. Several persons have testified surprise that M. Caillié during so long a journey, met with neither lions, elephants, giraffes, nor any wild beast. I am far from disputing the testimony of those travellers, who affirm that such have been seen in inhabited places; but, it is certain, that any one meeting with such animals on his way cannot have any motive for passing over the circumstance in silence, and that all travellers are rather partial to adorning their narratives with encounters of this kind. It may, therefore, be legitimately inferred that elephants and lions are more scarce in those regions than the narratives and descriptions would lead us to believe. M. Caillié, however, in one or two passages, mentions the traces of elephants’ feet; but no tragic adventures befel him, (or any individual of the numerous caravans which he accompanied for the space of a year,) by encounters with these monsters, with wild beasts, or with any other dangerous animals. The same may be said of crocodiles, which were supposed to abound in the Dhioliba. Scarcely was he once incommoded, and that by the neighbourhood of an enormous serpent, during his whole journey across the great desert.
• Tanning. The preparation of leather is frequently mentioned in the Journal. It is known that the Africans, and the Moors particularly, are very successful in this operation. Some persons have thought that desiccation is the means they principally use; but this seems improbable, because both in Nubia and Egypt the true process of tanning is in use, and is quite as good as ours, though shorter. The natives are also skilful in working the leather; they cut and embroider it with great success.
• Beer. M. Caillié sometimes speaks of the use of beer; but he has neglected to tell us how and with what it is made. Is it the beverage which in Egypt is called hachich? The Egyptians prepare this with hemp-seed. It is an inebriating liquor, of which the common people drink to excess, notwithstanding the rules of Mahometan abstinence.
• The Tankisso. We read at page 204, in the first volume of this work, that, according to the Mandingoes, this river issues from the Bafing, and flows into the Dhioliba. It is difficult, if not impossible, to admit this representation of the Mandingoes: it must be understood, I think, that the Tankisso has its source in the same mountain with the Bafing; otherwise the bason of the Senegambia would communicate with that of Nigritia or the Soudan.
• The route from the Fouta-Toro to Mecca. The author was told (see vol. I page 259) that the pilgrims of the Fouta travelled by the Bondou, the Baleya, Kankan, Sambatikila, and Djenné, instead of by Kaarta and Sego. The former road, however, is much the longer. I believe that the real motive of these travellers is to trade in the gold of Bouré, in passing through Kankan; but why go still farther to the south, by Sambatikila? I do not see the reason.
• The Milo. It is said, vol. I page 280, that the Milo flows N. E. The first part of the course of this river is nearly N. E. by the compass; but it afterwards inclines to the north and west, to fall into the Dhioliba.
• Kong or Koung. The country of this name, being situated between the magnetic S. S. E. and S. ¼ S. E. from the village of Douasso, (vol. I p. 417) lies to the true south of that village. Our, traveller was informed by a Kong-man, that the journey required a month and a half. Part of this journey is through a mountainous country. The position, therefore, of Kong cannot be far from the seventh degree north, or its longitude far from that of Douasso, 7° 45’ west.
• Direction of the river near Djenné. The Journal states, page 444, vol. I, that the island is formed by an arm of the western branch, which comes from the west-north-west. The island of Djenné, according to the author, is about twelve or fifteen miles in circumference; but he admits that he did not go round it, and it appears to be much larger.
• Distance from Djenné to Isaca. The text states it at a day and a half’s journey; but even in a straight line it proves to be more than three and a half. The traveller has reckoned it at four days by water; so that this passage requires correction.
• Bousbeyah. The word Bousbehey in the text, (pages [58] and [101], vol. II) must be thus written, according to the orthography of the foregoing Arabic list.
• There is a contradiction between pages 58 and 101: this place must necessarily be at more than two days’ distance from el-Araouan, if it is only two days from Timbuctoo; I have adopted this latter distance.
• Oualet. The town of this name is placed, according to the Journal, (vol. I page 301) ten days distance from el-A’raouan, W. N. W.; but it is farther from Sego than stated in the text (the same page), which is fifteen days south: the interval is nearly double. This confirms the conjecture I have raised, viz: 1st, that there are two places of this name; 2nd, that this is different from the one placed in Mungo Park’s first map north of Sego, but under the parallel of Lake Dibbie; and the other N. W. of Sego, a little north of Timbuctoo. This is not the place for discussing the situation of Oualet and comparing it with the Gualata of Leo Africanus, which he states[169] to be three hundred miles south of Nun, five hundred north of Tumbut, and a hundred from the ocean. It may suffice to say, that a single point cannot possibly fulfil these different conditions.
• I think, however, that there is a very easy solution of the difficulty. Park and his editors having fallen into the error of imagining Timbuctoo much more south than it really is, have made a corresponding change in the position of Oualet: in short, the place noticed by M. Caillié is situated relatively to Timbuctoo, very nearly as it is placed in the second map of the English traveller, and both must be carried much farther north than they there appear.