Chapter V

Mode of Travelling in Africa.

The mode of travelling in Africa is so connected with the commerce, and therefore with the manners of its principal nations, that without some knowledge of the former, a description of the two latter cannot be clearly understood.

The shereef Imhammed.In that division of Africa which lies to the North of the Niger, the season for travelling begins with the month of October, and terminates with the month of March. During this period, the temperature of the air, though strongly affected by the degree of latitude, the elevation of the land, the distance of the sea, and the direction of the wind, is comparatively cool; Ben Alli.and in some places, as in the neighbourhood of Mount Atlas, and on the Coasts of the Mediterranean, occasionally exhibits the phenomena of an European Winter. At Tripoli, the Thermometer is sometimes seen at the 40th degree of Farenheit’s scale, and on the 31st of December, in the year 1788, was Lucas.observed, at nine in the morning, to have fallen within four degrees of the freezing point; a coldness that was followed by a light shower of snow.

In all countries, the animals which Nature and the attention of man have provided for the conveyance of the Traveller, and for the transit of his merchandize, are suited to the character of Imhammed and Ben Alli.the soil, and to the smoothness or inequality of its surface. Of the soil of Africa, to the North of the Niger, the prevailing character is sand; and though in the neighbourhood of rivers, and in all those districts which receive from the adjacent mountains, the advantage of numerous springs, the sand is blended with a vegetable mould, yet the ground, in general, is remarkably soft and dry. In general, too, the surface of the land, though in some places broken by naked rocks, and swelling, in others, to mountains of considerable magnitude, may be regarded as comparatively level.

To such a country the camel is peculiarly suited; for his broad and tender foot, which slides on a wet surface, and is injured by the resistance of stones, is observed to tread with perfect security and ease on the dry and yielding sand: and while, from the same circumstances in its structure, his hoof is incapable of fastening, with any strength, on the ground of a steep ascent, and furnishes, in a shelving declivity, no solid or sufficient support, his movement on a smooth and level surface is singularly firm and safe.

So remarkably exemplified in Africa is that rule in the œconomy of Nature which suits the beast of burthen to the land Imhammed.which it inhabits, that in the country which lies to the South-West of the Niger, where the surface is mountainous, and the ground is as stony in some places, as it is wet and muddy in others, no camels are found. Their place is supplied by small horses, asses, and mules.

The proper burthen for a camel varies with its strength, which is very different in different species of the animal. In the dominions of Tripoli, a common load is from three to four Lucas.hundred weight; and the medium expence of the conveyance for each hundred appears to be one farthing per mile.

The usual rate of travelling is three miles in the hour, and Lucas.the number of hours that are actually employed on the rout, exclusive of those which are allotted to refreshment, is seldom more than seven or eight in a day. Of the number of days which are consumed on a long journey, many are devoted to the Imhammed.purpose of occasional trade, to that of recruiting the strength of the camels, and to that of procuring additional stores of provisions and of water; for in all such places as are able to furnish a supply of provisions (which are generally places of considerable population, and therefore of some traffic) the stay of the caravan is seldom less than two days, and is often prolonged to more.

The general food of the camels is such only as their nightly Ben Alli.pasture affords; and is often confined to the hard and thorny shrubs of the Desart, where a sullen vegetation is created by the rains of the Winter, and upheld by the dews that descend in copious abundance through all the remainder of the year.

Of the drivers and servants of the caravan, the customary food Imhammed.consists of the milk of the camel, with a few dates, together with the meal of barley or of Indian corn, which is sometimes seasoned with oil, while the Merchant superadds, for his own use, the dried flesh of the camel, or of sheep, and concludes his repast with coffee.

Imhammed and Ben Alli.Water is drawn from the wells in leather buckets, that form a part of the travelling equipage of the caravan, and is carried in the skins of goats, through which, however, though tarred both within and without, it is often exhaled by the heat of the noon-day sun.

Ben Alli.A particular mode of easy conveyance is provided for the women and children, and for persons oppressed with infirmity or illness: six or eight camels are yoked together in a row, and a number of tent poles are placed in parallel lines upon their backs: these are covered with carpets, and bags of corn are superadded to bring the floor to a level, as well as to soften the harshness of the camel’s movement; other carpets are then spread, and the traveller sits or lies down, with as much convenience as if he rested on a couch.

The Desart (a term of the same meaning with its Arabic name of Zahara) may be said, like the ocean, to connect the very nations which it seems to separate; for, in comparison with the woods and morasses of America, it furnishes the Merchant with an easy and convenient road.

A sandy heath of various levels, in some places naked and Ben Alli.bare, but much more frequently covered with an odoriferous plant, which the Arabs call the Shé, and which, though far superior in fragrance, has at least a remote resemblance to the wild thyme of Europe, constitutes the general appearance of the Desart. The exceptions, however, are interesting and important: for besides the diversity that arises from the different shrubs, which are often scantily intermixed with the Shé, and of which the thorny plant that forms the harsh food of the camel appears to be the most common, an essential variation is furnished by the comparative fertility of some particular districts, and by the total barrenness of others.

Imhammed and Ben Alli.In some portions of the general wilderness, thousands of sheep, and goats, and cows, are seen to pasture; while in others nothing is presented to the eye but desolate hills of shifting sand.

To the last of these the name of Desarts without Water is Imhammed.emphatically given; a name that conveys to an Arab ear the fearful idea of an intense and suffocating heat, of the total absence of vegetable life, and of the hazard of a dreadful death. For though the movement of the shifting sands is not so rapid as to endanger the safety of the caravan, yet as the scorching heat of the sun-beams, confined and reflected by the hills of sand, hourly diminishes the store of water, and as the breadth of several of those desarts is that of a ten days journey, the hazard of perishing with thirst is sometimes fatally experienced.

Imhammed.All means of ascertaining the rout by land-marks, the usual guides in other parts of the wilderness, are here destroyed by the varying forms and shifting position of the hills; but from anxious observation and continued practice, the camel-drivers acquire a sufficient knowledge of the bearings of the sun and stars to direct them in their way.

Such are the expedients by which the difficulties of the Desart are in general overcome: those which are presented by the broad current of the impetuous Niger, though much more easily, are not so frequently surmounted.

Imhammed.Of this river, which in Arabic is sometimes called Neel il Kibeer, or the Great Nile, and at others, Neel il Abeed, or the Imhammed and Ben Alli.Nile of the Negros, the rise and termination are unknown, but the course is from East to West. So great is the rapidity with which it traverses the Empire of Cashna, that no vessel can ascend its stream; and such is the want of skill, or such the absence of Imhammed.commercial inducements among the inhabitants of its borders, that even with the current, neither vessels nor boats are seen to navigate. In one place, indeed, the Traveller finds accommodations for the passage of himself and of his goods; but even there, Imhammed.though the ferrymen, by the indulgence of the Sultan of Cashna, are exempted from all taxes, the boat which conveys the merchandize is nothing more than an ill-constructed raft; for the planks are fastened to the timbers with ropes, and the seams are closed both within and without, by a plaister of tough clay, of which a large provision is always carried on the raft for the purpose of excluding the stream wherever its entrance is observed.

Imhammed.The depth of the river at the place of passage, which is more than a hundred miles to the South of the City of Cashna, the capital of the empire of that name, is estimated at twenty-three or twenty-four feet English.[12]

Its width is such that even at the Island of Gongoo, where the Imhammed.ferrymen reside, the sound of the loudest voice from the Ben Alli.northern shore is scarcely heard; and at Tombuctou, where the name of Gnewa, or black, is given to the stream, the width is described as being that of the Thames at Westminster. In the rainy season it swells above its banks, and not only floods the adjacent lands, but often sweeps before it the cattle and cottages of the short-sighted or too confident inhabitants.

That the people who live in the neighbourhood of the Niger should refuse to profit by its navigation, may justly surprise the Imhammed and Ben Alli.Traveller; but much greater is his astonishment, when he finds that even the food which the bounty of the stream would give, is uselessly offered to their acceptance; for such is the want of skill, or such the settled dislike of the people to this sort of provision, that the fish with which the river abounds are left in undisturbed possession of its waters.

Imhammed.Having passed the stream, the face of the country, and with it the mode of travelling, are changed. High mountains and narrow valleys, extensive woods and miry roads, succeed to the vast plains and sandy soil of the Zahara and its neighbouring kingdoms. Water is no longer refused or scantily given to the parched lips of the Traveller; but while the abundance of this refreshment, and of the vast variety both of vegetable and animal Imhammed.food that is offered in profusion for his support, diminish the hardships and remove the principal hazards of his journey, the raging heat of the Torrid Clime increases as he proceeds. Wet cloths applied to the mouth are sometimes requisite, and especially in the woods, to allay, for the purpose of respiration, the violence of the burning air; and the journey, which the fierceness of the sun suspends, is often renewed amidst the dews and comparative darkness of the night.

Imhammed.From the want of camels, which are seldom seen to the South of Cashna, nor even to the West, except in higher latitudes, the conveyance of the Merchant and his goods is committed to the mules, and small horses and asses of the country. Of the first, the usual burthen is 200lbs. of the second, 150lbs. and of the last, 100lbs.

Travelling through all this part of Africa is considered as so secure, that the Shereef Imhammed, with the utmost chearfulness and confidence of safety, proposed to accompany and conduct Mr. Lucas, by the way of Fezzan and Cashna, across the Niger, to Assenté, which borders on the Coast of the Christians.