Travels Of Richard And John Lander Into The Interior Of Africa For The Discovery Of The Course And Termination Of The Niger By Robert Huish
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Here, Too, Was Found Old
Birnie, The Ancient But Now Desolate Capital, Evidently Much Larger
Than Any Of The Present Cities, Covering Five Or Six Miles With Its
Ruins.
They passed also Gambarou, formerly the favourite residence of
the sultans, where the remains of a palace and two mosques gave an
idea of civilization superior to any thing that had yet been seen in
interior Africa.
There were left in this country only small detached
villages, the inhabitants of which remained fixed to them by local
attachment, in spite of constant predatory inroads of the Tuaricks,
who carried off their friends, their children, and cattle. They have
recourse to one mode of defence, which consists in digging a number
of blaquas, or large pits; these they cover with a false surface of
sods and grass, into which the Tuarick with his horse plunges before
he is aware, and is received at the bottom upon sharp-pointed stakes,
which often kill both on the spot. Unluckily, harmless travellers are
equally liable to fall into these living graves. Major Denham was
petrified with horror, to find how near he had approached to several
of them; indeed one of his servants stepped upon the deceitful
covering, and was saved only by an almost miraculous spring. It seems
wonderful that the sheik should not have endeavoured to restore some
kind of security to this portion of his subjects, and to re-people
those fine but deserted regions.
The troops that had been seen hastening in parties to the scene of
action were mustered at Kobshary, a town which the Mungas had nearly
destroyed. The sheik made a review of his favourite forces, the
Kanemboo spearmen, nine thousand strong. They were really a very
savage and military-looking host, entirely naked, except a girdle of
goat-skin, with the hair hanging down, and a piece of cloth wrapped
round the head. They carried large wooden shields, shaped like a
gothic window, with which they warded off the arrows of the enemy,
while they pressed forward to attack with their own spears. Unlike
almost all other barbarous armies, they kept a regular night-watch,
passing the cry every half-hour along the line, and, at any alarm,
raising a united yell, which was truly frightful. At the review they
passed in tribes before the sheik, to whom they showed the most
enthusiastic attachment, kneeling on the ground, and kissing his
feet. The Mungas again were described as terrible antagonists,
hardened by conflicts with the Tuaricks, fighting on foot with
poisoned arrows, longer and more deadly than those of the Fellatas.
The sultan, however, contemplated other means of securing success,
placing his main reliance on his powers as a mohammedan doctor and
writer. Three successive nights were spent in inscribing upon little
scraps of paper figures or words, destined to exercise a magical
influence upon the rebel host, and their effect was heightened by the
display of sky-rockets, supplied by Major Denham. Tidings of his
being thus employed were conveyed to the camp, when the Mungas, stout
and fierce warriors, who never shrunk from an enemy, yielded to the
power of superstition, and felt all their strength withered. It
seemed to them that their arrows were blunted, their quivers broken,
their hearts struck with sickness and fear, in short, that to oppose
a sheik of the Koran, who could accomplish such wonders, was alike
vain and impious. They came in by hundreds, bowing themselves to the
ground, and casting sand on their heads, in token of the most abject
submission. At length, Malem Fanamy, the leader of the rebellion, saw
that resistance was hopeless. After vain overtures of conditional
submission, he appeared in person, mounted on a white horse, with one
thousand followers. He was clothed in rags, and having fallen
prostrate, was about to pour sand on his head, when the sultan,
instead of permitting this humiliation, caused eight robes of fine
cotton cloth, one after another, to be thrown over him, and his head
to be wrapped in Egyptian turbans till it was swelled to six times
its natural size, and no longer resembled any thing human. By such
signal honours the sheik gained the hearts of those whom his pen had
subdued, and this wise policy enabled him not only to overcome the
resistance of this formidable tribe, but to convert them into
supporters and bulwarks of his power.
CHAPTER XXIII.
Major Denham, who always sought, with laudable zeal, to penetrate
into every corner of Africa, now found his way in another direction.
He had heard much of the Shary, a great river flowing into lake
Tchad, on whose banks the kingdom of Loggun was situated. After
several delays, he set out on the 23d January 1824, in company with
Mr. Toole, a spirited young volunteer, who, journeying by way of
Tripoli and Mourzouk, had thence crossed the desert to join him.
The travellers passed Angornou and Angola, and arrived at Showy,
where they saw the river, which really proved to be a magnificent
stream, fully half a mile broad, and flowing at the rate of two or
three miles an hour. They descended it through a succession of noble
reaches, bordered with fine woods and a profusion of variously tinted
and aromatic plants. At length, it opened into the wide expanse of
the Tchad, after viewing which, they again ascended, and reached the
capital of Loggun, beneath whose high walls the river was seen
flowing in majestic beauty. Major Denham entered, and found a
handsome city, with a street as wide as Pall-Mall, and bordered by
large dwellings, having spacious areas in front. Having proceeded to
the palace, for the purpose of visiting the sovereign, he was led
through several dark rooms into a wide and crowded court, at one end
of which a lattice opened, and showed a pile of silk robes, stretched
on a carpet, amid which two eyes became gradually visible; this was
the sultan. On his appearance, there arose a tumult of horns and
frumfrums, while all the attendants threw themselves prostrate,
casting sand on their heads.
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