The Mammoth Book of Travel in Dangerous Places (31 page)

All the armed villagers had now gathered round their leader, and anxiously watched his looks and gestures. The result of the meeting delighted them – every eye sparkled with pleasure
– they uttered a shout of joy – they thrust their bloodless arrows into their quivers – they ran about as though they were possessed of evil spirits – they twanged their
bow-strings, fired off their muskets, shook their spears, clattered their quivers, danced, put their bodies into all manner of ridiculous positions, laughed, cried, and sung in rapid succession
– they were like a troop of maniacs. Never was spectacle more wild and terrific. When this sally of passion to which they had worked themselves had subsided into calmer and more reasonable
behaviour, we presented each of the war-men with a quantity of needles, as a further token of our friendly intentions. The chief sat himself down on the turf, with one of us on each side of him,
while the men were leaning on their weapons on his right and left. At first no one could understand us; but an old man made his appearance shortly after, who understood the Hàussa language.
Him the chief employed as an interpreter; and every one listened with anxiety to the following explanation which he gave us: –

“A few minutes after you first landed, one of my people came to me, and said that a number of strange people had arrived at the market-place. I sent him back again to get as near to you as
he could, to hear what you intended doing. He soon after returned to me, and said that you spoke in a language which he could not understand. Not doubting that it was your intention to attack my
village at night, and carry off my people, I desired them to get ready to fight. We were all prepared and eager to kill you, and came down breathing vengeance and slaughter, supposing that you were
my enemies, and had landed from the opposite side of the river. But when you came to meet us unarmed, and we saw your white faces, we were all so frightened that we could not pull our bows, nor
move hand or foot; and when you drew near me, and extended your hands towards me, I felt my heart faint within me, and believed that you were
‘Children of Heaven,’
and had
dropped from the skies.” Such was the effect we had produced on him; and under this impression he knew not what he did. “And now,” said he, “white men, all I want is your
forgiveness.” “That you shall have most heartily,” we said, as we shook hands with the old chief; and having taken care to assure him we had not come from so good a place as he
had imagined, we congratulated ourselves, as well as him, that this affair had ended so happily. For our own parts, we had reason to feel the most unspeakable pleasure at its favourable
termination; and we offered up internally to our merciful Creator a prayer of thanksgiving and praise, for his providential interference on our behalf; for the Almighty has, indeed, to use the
words of the Psalmist of Israel, “delivered our soul from death, and our feet from falling; and preserved us from any terror by night, and from the arrow that flieth by day; from the
pestilence that walketh in darkness, and from the sickness that destroyeth at noon-day.” We were grateful to find that our blood had not been shed, and that we had been prevented from
spilling the blood of others, which we imagined we should have been constrained to do from irremediable necessity. Our guns were all double-loaded with balls and slugs, our men were ready to
present them, and a single arrow from a bow would have been the signal for immediate destruction. It was a narrow escape; and God grant we may never be so near a cruel death again! It was happy for
us that our white faces and calm behaviour produced the effect it did on these people – in another minute our bodies would have been as full of arrows as a porcupine’s is full of
quills.

The old chief returned to the village, followed by his people, whom he addressed by the way from an ant-hill on which he mounted himself. He put himself into a great variety of attitudes, and
delivered them a speech which lasted more than half an hour. Whether this was relating to ourselves or not we could not ascertain; but it seemed more than probable. They came back to us again in
the afternoon, bringing with them a large quantity of yams and goora-nuts as a present, and invited us with urgent importunity to sleep in their huts for the night, promising to treat us as well as
their circumstances would permit. We thanked them for their kindness, but for many reasons we did not embrace their offer. However, it seemed as though this refusal on our parts caused them to be
mistrustful of our intentions; for the villagers were discharging their muskets from sunset till nearly eleven o’clock at night, when the chief paid us a third visit, and brought with him
eight thousand cowries, and a large heap of yams, which he laid at our feet. Poor fellow! his countenance beamed with joy on discovering that we were
really
his friends. At length he was
induced to place confidence in us; and, as he wished us good night, he seemed well pleased with the tranquil appearance of things, and went away.

In the course of our conversation with the chief, when all his villagers were assembled around us, we pointed to their guns, and the bits of red cloth they had with them, and made them
understand that they all came from our country, at which their admiration and wonder was much increased. The old man who had performed the part of our interpreter so admirably is an old Funda
Mallam. He understood the Hàussa language perfectly, and told us he had come here from Funda to attend the market which was held here every nine days. He informed us that many people came
from the sea-coast, with goods from the white men to purchase slaves, a great number of which, he said, came from his country. He told us that this place is the famous Bocquâ market-place, of
which we had heard so great talk, and that the opposite bank of the river belonged to the Funda country. We now asked the old Mallam the distance from this place to the sea, and he told us about
ten days’ journey. We then pointed out the hills on the opposite side of the river, and asked him where they led to. “The sea,” was his answer. And “where do they lead
to?” we inquired, pointing to those on the same bank of the river as ourselves. He answered, “they run a long way into a country we do not know.” We then asked him, if he had ever
heard of a country called Eyeo or Yarriba. To which he replied, he had never heard of any country of either of those names. Our next concern was about the safety of the river navigation; and we
anxiously inquired his opinion of it lower down, and whether there were any rocks or dangerous places. As to the river navigation, he satisfied us by saying, he knew of no dangers, nor had he ever
heard of any; but the people on the banks, he said, were very bad. We asked him if he thought the chief would send a messenger with us if we were to request him, even one day’s journey from
this place. Without the least hesitation he answered us – “No; the people of this country can go no farther down the river; if they do, and are caught, they will lose their heads. Every
town that I know of on the banks of the river is at war with its neighbour, and all the rest likewise.” We asked him then how far Bornou was from Funda? to which he replied, “Fifteen
days’ journey.” We were also anxious to know the character of the people on the borders of the Tshadda; and he informed us they were all good people, nearly all Mussulmen. There was one
bad place to pass, he said, which was Yamyam. Here our conversation was interrupted by the old chief, who wished to return to the village, and the Mallam was obliged to accompany him. He was a fine
respectable old man, and answered all our questions with a readiness which evinced the superiority of his class.

We offered up a prayer to the Almighty for his signal protection during this eventful day, and retired to rest.

Tuesday, October 26th
When I awoke in the morning, the first person I saw was our trusty old man, Pascoe, very busy roasting yams for our breakfast. This man has been a
most valuable servant to us, and is the only staunch fellow among all our people. In spite of a good deal of rain that had fallen in the night, we got up much refreshed this morning; for our mat
awning, although rather a frail covering, had excluded the rain and kept us tolerably dry. Early in the morning the chief of the village, the old man that acted as interpreter, and a number of men
and women, visited our encampment, and behaved themselves in the most becoming and friendly manner. Not satisfied with what they had given us yesterday, the villagers offered us another large heap
of yams, which, however, we refused to accept without making a suitable recompense. We accordingly gave them some beads in exchange for them, although I believe they would have been contented had
we possessed nothing to offer them in return.

We now learnt from the interpreter that buyers and sellers attend this market, not only from places adjacent, but also from remote towns and villages, both above and below, and on each bank of
the Niger. A small tribute is exacted by the chief from every one that offers articles for sale at the market, and in this consists the whole of his revenues. All the villagers that came out
against us yesterday are his slaves. We were likewise informed, that directly opposite, on the eastern bank, is the common path to the city of Funda, which is, indeed, as we have been told at
Fofo,
situated three days’ journey up the Tshadda from the Niger; that the large river which we observed yesterday falling into the Niger from the eastward, is the celebrated
Sbar,
Shary, or Sharry,
of travellers, or, which is more proper than either, the
Tshadda
, as it is universally called throughout the country. The interpreter said, further, that the smaller
stream which we passed on the 19th, flowing from the same direction, is the
“Coodoonia.”

The chief assured us that we had nothing to fear, having passed all those places from which we might have expected danger and molestation during the night. However, he cautioned us to avoid, if
possible, a very considerable town lying on the eastern bank, which we should pass in the afternoon, the governor of which, he affirmed, would detain us a considerable time in his territories,
though he might treat us well. A little way below Bocquâ, he said, on the left border of the river, resides a powerful king, sovereign of a fine country, called
Attà,
who would
force us to visit him, if by any means he were to be forewarned of our approach. He said, that he did not think he would do us any injury, but that the chief was a very extraordinary man, and if he
had us in his power would detain us longer than we wished. Perhaps he might keep us in his town two or three months, but he would at least detain us till all his people had satisfied their
curiosity, and then he might allow us to depart. As the chief of Bocquâ was decidedly of opinion that it would be in the power of this prince to render us the most essential service if he
were our friend, we requested of him a guide and messenger to accompany us to
Attà
, and introduce us to the king; but he answered, without hesitation, that a man from him would be
captured and slain the moment he should make his appearance there, but for what reason we are left to conjecture. This did not argue, however, very favourably as to the clemency or merciful
disposition of the monarch of
Attà;
and therefore we resolved to keep out of his reach by running along close to the shore on the opposite side of the water. The chief concluded by
observing that in seven days we should reach the sea, a piece of intelligence with which we were not a little pleased. The old interpreter had told us that we should get there in ten days;
therefore we cannot be far from it.

ARRIVAL IN TIMBUKTU

Heinrich Barth

(1821–65)

Born in Hamburg, Barth was already an experienced traveller and a methodical scholar when in 1850 he joined a British expedition to investigate Africa’s internal slave
trade. From Tripoli the expedition crossed the Sahara to Lake Chad. Its leader died but Barth continued on alone, exploring a vast tract of the Sahel from northern Cameroon to Mali. Timbuktu,
previously visited only by A.G. Laing and René Caillié, provided the climax as Barth, in disguise, approached the forbidden city by boat from the Niger.

7
th September, 1853
Thus the day broke which, after so many months’ exertion, was to carry me to the harbour of Timbúktu. We
started at a tolerably early hour, crossing the broad sheet of the river, first in a north-easterly, then in an almost northerly direction, till finding ourselves opposite the small hamlet
Tásakal, mentioned by Caillié, we began to keep along the windings of the northern bank which, from its low character, presented a very varying appearance, while a creek, separating
from the trunk, entered the low ground. The river a month or two later in the season inundates the whole country to a great distance, but the magnificent stream, with the exception of a few
fishing-boats, now seemed almost tenantless, the only objects which in the present reduced state of the country animated the scenery being a number of large boats lying at anchor in front of us
near the shore of the village Koróme. But the whole character of the river was of the highest interest to me, as it disclosed some new features for which I had not been prepared; for, while
the water on which Kórome was situated formed only by far the smaller branch, the chief river, about three quarters of a mile in breadth, took its direction to the south-east, separated from
the former by a group of islands called Day, at the headland of which lies the islet of Tárashám.

It was with an anxious feeling that I bade farewell to that noble river as it turned away from us, not being sure whether it would fall to my lot to explore its further course, although it was
my firm intention at the time to accomplish this task if possible. Thus we entered the branch of Koróme, keeping along the grass which here grows in the river to a great extent, till we
reached the village, consisting of nothing but temporary huts of reed, which, in the course of a few weeks, with the rising of the waters, were to be removed further inland. Notwithstanding its
frail character, this poor little village was interesting on account of its wharfs, where a number of boats were repairing. The master of our own craft residing here (for all the boatmen on this
river are serfs, or nearly in that condition), we were obliged to halt almost an hour and a half; but in order not to excite the curiosity of the people, I thought it prudent to remain in my boat.
But even there I was incommoded with a great number of visitors, who were very anxious to know exactly what sort of person I was. It was here that we heard the unsatisfactory news that El
Bakáy, whose name as a just and intelligent chief alone had given me confidence to undertake this journey, was absent at the time in Gúndam, whither he had gone in order to settle a
dispute which had arisen between the Tawárek [Tuareg] and the Berabísh; and as from the very beginning, when I was planning my journey to Timbúktu, I had based the whole
confidence of my success upon the noble and trustworthy character which was attributed to the Sheikh El Bakáy by my informants, this piece of information produced a serious effect upon
me.