The Mammoth Book of Travel in Dangerous Places (29 page)

O
ur servants caught a female rat, or bandicoot, as it is called in the East Indies, which measured two feet seven inches from the nose to the tip
of the tail. The colour of the body was light grey, the tail black, and covered with long hairs, and the head much rounder than that of the common rat.

The diarrhoea of Dr. Oudney had ceased, but the cough was no better, and he was otherwise extremely ill: he had himself cupped on the left side of the chest by one of the natives. This operation
is dexterously performed by them; they make the scarifications with a razor, and afterwards apply a perforated horn, from which they first extract the air by suction, and then stop the aperture
with the thumb.

In the afternoon, I was not a little astonished at a message from the governor, brought us by El Wordee, acquainting us that Hadje Ali had told him we were spies and bad people, and wishing to
know from us if it was true. I did not think proper to disturb Dr. Oudney by relating to him this calumny, and merely desired El Wordee to say to the governor, that as we were in his power he could
do with us as he pleased; at the same time referring him particularly to the letter of the sheikh of Bornou. El Wordee came back almost immediately, and assured me the governor was satisfied.

Henry Clapperton, from a sketch by Manton. Courtesy of the Mansell Collection.

Jan. 10
To-day we left Katagum; the governor having furnished us with a guide. We had a bassoor, or frame of wood, put on a camel, and spread Dr. Oudney’s bed upon it, as he was now
too weak to ride on horseback; I also felt myself unwell. The governor accompanied us four miles out of town. At half past three o’clock in the afternoon we were obliged to halt, on account
of Dr. Oudney’s weakness; he was quite worn out, and could proceed no further; the road, too, being crooked and entangled, and lying along a large swamp to the south. We passed a number of
villages.

Jan. 11
At eight o’clock in the morning we proceeded on our journey; but, at noon, were obliged to stop at the town of Murmur, on account of the alarming situation of Dr. Oudney,
who had now become so feeble and exhausted, that I scarcely expected him to survive another day. He had been wasting away in a slow consumption, ever since we left the hills of Obarree, in Fezzan;
where he was seized with inflammation of the chest, in consequence of sitting down in a current of cold air after being overheated.

12th Jan.
Dr. Oudney drank a cup of coffee at day-break, and, by his desire, I ordered the camels to be loaded. I then assisted him to dress, and, with the support of his
servant, he came out of the tent; but, before he could be lifted on the camel, I observed the ghastliness of death in his countenance, and had him immediately replaced in the tent. I sat down by
his side, and, with unspeakable grief, witnessed his last breath, which was without a struggle or a groan. I now sent to the governor of the town to request his permission to bury the deceased,
which he readily granted; and I had a grave made about five yards to the north of an old mimosa tree, a little beyond the southern gate of the town. The body being first washed, after the custom of
the country, was dressed by my directions, in clothes made of turban shawls, which we were carrying with us as presents. The corpse was borne to the grave by our servants, and I read over it the
funeral service of the church of England, before it was consigned to the earth; I afterwards caused the grave to be enclosed with a wall of clay, to keep off beasts of prey, and had two sheep
killed and distributed among the poor.

Thus died, at the age of 32 years, Walter Oudney, M. D., a man of unassuming deportment, pleasing manners, steadfast perseverance, and undaunted enterprise; while his mind was fraught at once
with knowledge, virtue, and religion. At any time, and in any place, to be bereaved of such a friend, had proved a severe trial; but to me, his friend and fellow traveller, labouring also under
disease, and now left alone amid a strange people, and proceeding through a country which had hitherto never been trod by European foot, the loss was severe and afflicting in the extreme.

At day-break, on the following morning, I resumed my journey, trusting to the salutary effects of change of air and abstinence, as the best remedies both for mind and body. The
road was swampy, and we crossed a narrow stream called Shashum, that falls into the Yeou, near the town. There were numerous villages on all sides.

14th Jan.
Thermometer 52°. Our road lay through a well cultivated country; at nine o’clock, a.m., we came to the town of Digoo, having an indifferent double
wall, and a triple ditch nearly filled up. The town contained very few houses, but date-trees were in great abundance; outside the walls, however, there were several villages, or rather detached
clusters of houses. The country afterwards began to rise into ridges, running nearly east and west; our road lying along one of them, gave me an excellent view of beautiful villages all around, and
herds of cattle grazing in the open country. In the evening we halted under the walls of a town called Boogawa; this is the last town in the province of Katagum: I did not enter it.

15th Jan.
The road to-day was through a thickly wooded country. Before mid-day, we again crossed the Shashum, which here runs nearly due north. The camel-drivers brought
me a quantity of wild figs, which they found on the trees by the road side, near the river. We next entered an open, well cultivated country, and in the evening halted at a town called Katungwa,
which is surrounded by a wall, and has a number of fine date-trees. This was the first town I entered in the kingdom Haussa proper. I was visited by a Felatah, who had been at Bagdad,
Constantinople, Jerusalem, and Mecca, and belonged to the order of Dervishes. He was a chattering little fellow, and told me he had seen the Wahabees at Mecca, who, he said, were the same people
and spoke the same language as the Felatahs. I made him a present of a pair of scissors and a snuff-box, of which he seemed very proud, and sent me a bowl of bazeen in the evening. I here saw a
range of low rocky hills, stretching nearly south-west. They are called, in the language of Haussa, Dooshee, or The Rocks, from which a large town on one of the roads leading from Katagum to Kano
takes its name. Since we left the Wells of Beere-Kashifery, on the southern borders of the great desert, we had not met with rocks, or even pebbles, till now, the very channels of the rivers being
destitute of stones, and the whole country consisting of soft alluvial clay. The camels were missing, and I sent all the servants after them; they were not brought back before midnight, being found
on their return to Bornou.

Jan. 16
The country still open and well cultivated, and the villages numerous. We met crowds of people coming from Kano with goods. Some carried them on their heads, others had asses or
bullocks, according to their wealth. All were armed with bows and arrows, and several with swords; the Bornouese are known by carrying spears.

El Wordee and I having advanced before the cavalcade were waiting for it under a tree, near a town called Zangeia, when a man from Katagum went, of his own accord, and told the governor of
Zangeia that a friend of the governor of Katagum was close at hand. The governor of Zangeia sent the man to tell us he would come and meet us on horseback, and show us a proper place to pitch our
tents. We mounted our horses, and, led by the Katagumite who was so anxious for the honour of the friend of his master, we met the governor, about a quarter of a mile from the tree under which we
had reposed ourselves. He was mounted on a very fine white horse, gaily caparisoned, and had seven attendants behind him, also on horseback, besides being accompanied by several men on foot, armed
with bows and arrows. He advanced to us at full gallop, and, after many courteous welcomes, placed himself at our head, and rode before us into the town. On reaching his own house, he desired us to
pitch our tents before his door, observing, “Here is a place of great safety.” The camels arriving with the baggage, I presented him with a razor, a knife, a pair of scissors, and some
spices. He sent me, in return, some milk and bazeen, with grass and gussub for the horses. Although a governor, I found out he was only an eunuch, belonging to the governor of Kano. He was in
person fat, coarse, and ugly, with a shrill squeaking voice, and kept me awake half the night, laughing and talking among his people.

Zangeia is situate near the extremity of the Dooshee range of hills, and must have been once a very large town, from the extensive walls which still remain. The inhabitants were slaughtered or
sold by the Felatahs, and plantations of cotton, tobacco, and indigo now occupy the place where houses formerly stood. Indeed the town may be said to consist of a number of thinly scattered
villages. Within the walls there is a ridge of loose blocks of stone, connected with the range of hills in the neighbourhood. These masses of rock may be about two hundred feet high, and give a
romantic appearance to the neat huts clustering round the base, and to the fine plantations of cotton, tobacco, and indigo, which are separated from one another by rows of date-trees, and are
shaded by other large umbrageous trees, of whose names I am ignorant. The prospect to the south was bounded by high blue mountains. It was market day; plenty of beef, yams, sweet potatoes, &c.
for sale.

Jan. 17
The country still highly cultivated, and now diversified by hill and dale. We passed a remarkable range of little hillocks of grey granite; they were naked rocks, flattened or
rounded at top, and appeared like detached masses of stone rising singly out of the earth. We also passed several walled towns quite deserted, the inhabitants having been sold by their conquerors,
the Felatahs. Women sat spinning cotton by the road side, offering for sale, to the passing caravans, gussub water, roast meat, sweet potatoes, cashew nuts, &c. In the afternoon, we halted in a
hollow, to the west of a town, or rather a collection of villages, called Nansarina, where it was also market day. The governor, when he heard of my arrival, sent me milk and bazeen. I sent him, in
return, a pair of scissors and a snuffbox.

Jan. 18
When I ascended the high ground this morning, I saw a range of hills to the south-west, which, I was told, were called Dull, from a large town at their base. They appeared to be
600 or 700 feet high, not peaked, but oval topped, and running in a direction nearly north and south. I could not learn how far southward they extended. We crossed a little stream, flowing to the
north. The country continued beautiful, with numerous plantations, as neatly fenced as in England. The road was thronged with travellers, and the shady trees by the road side served, as yesterday,
to shelter female hucksters. The women not engaged in the retail of their wares were busy spinning cotton, and from time to time surveyed themselves, with whimsical complacency, in a little pocket
mirror. The soil is a strong red clay, large blocks of granite frequently appearing above the surface.

At eleven in the morning we halted at a walled town called Girkwa, through which I rode with El Wordee. The houses were in groups, with large intervening vacancies, the former inhabitants having
also been sold; the walls are in good repair, and are surrounded by a dry ditch. It was market day, and we found a much finer market here than at Tripoli. I had an attack of ague, – the
disease that chiefly prevails in these parts, – and was obliged to rest all day under the shade of a tree. A pretty Felatah girl, going to market with milk and butter, neat and spruce in her
attire as a Cheshire dairy-maid, here accosted me with infinite archness and grace. She said I was of her own nation; and, after much amusing small talk, I pressed her, in jest, to accompany me on
my journey, while she parried my solicitations with roguish glee, by referring me to her father and mother. I don’t know how it happened, but her presence seemed to dispel the effects of the
ague. To this trifling and innocent memorial of a face and form, seen that day for the first and last time, but which I shall not readily forget, I may add the more interesting information to the
good house-wives of my own country, that the making of butter such as ours is confined to the nation of the Felatahs, and that it is both clean and excellent. So much is this domestic art
cultivated, that from a useful prejudice or superstition, it is deemed unlucky to sell new milk; it may, however, be bestowed as a gift. Butter is also made in other parts of central Africa, but
sold in an oily fluid state something like honey.

A native of Mourzuk who resides here sent me some kouskousoo and fowls. I received a visit from a black shreef, who informed me he had seen the sea, and that a river I should cross on the morrow
communicated between the Kowara and the Yeou. By the Kowara, I understood him to mean the river that passes Timbuctoo, and which, of late years, has been so much talked of in Europe, under the name
of Niger. This was a piece of gratuitous information, for on cross-questioning him he could furnish no authority for his opinion. But I soon discovered the whole trick, by El Wordee strongly
recommending me to give my informant a present. The country to the south and south-west was very hilly.