Chapter VII

Rout from Mourzouk to Cashna — Boundaries of the Empire — Its Language, Currency, and Trade.

Equally connected by their commerce with Cashna and Bornou, the Fezzanners dispatch to the former as well as to the latter, and always at the same season, an annual caravan. From Mourzouk, their capital, which they leave at the close of October, they take their course to the South South West, and proceed to the Province of Hiatts, the most barren, and the worst inhabited district of their country.

Five of the fourteen days which are requisite for this part of their rout, are consumed in the passage of a sandy desart, in which their usual expedient of covering their goat skins, both within and without, with a resinous substance, prevents but imperfectly the dreaded evaporation of their water.

From the Province of Hiatts they cross the low mountains of Eyré, which separate the Kingdom of Fezzan from the vast Empire of Cashna; and leaving to their right the small river which flows from these hills, and is lost in the deep sands of a neighbouring desart, they enter a wide heath, uninhabited, but not destitute of water. The sixth day conducts them from this extended solitude to the long desired refreshments of the Town of Ganatt, where the two next days are devoted to repose.

From thence, by a march of nineteen days, during six of which they are immersed in the heats of a thirsty desart, they pass on to the Town of Assouda, which offers them equal refreshments with Ganatt, and equally suspends their journey.

On leaving Assouda, they traverse a delightful country, as fertile as it is numerously peopled; and while the exhilarating sight of Indian corn and of frequent herds of cattle accompanies and chears their passage, the eighth day introduces them to the large and populous City of Agadez, the capital of an extensive province.

Distinguished as the most commercial of all the towns of Cashna, and, like Assouda and Ganatt, inhabited by Mahometans alone, Agadez naturally attracts the peculiar attention of the Merchants of Fezzan. Many of them proceed no further; but the greatest part, committing to their Agents the care of the slaves, cotton, and senna, which they purchase in the course of a ten days residence, continue their journey to the South.

In this manner, if the camels are compleatly loaded, seven and forty days, exclusive of those which are allotted to refreshment and necessary rest, are employed in travelling from Mourzouk to Agadez.

At the end of three days more, amidst fields that are enriched with the luxuriant growth of Indian corn, and pastures that are covered with multitudes of cows, and with flocks of sheep and goats, the Traveller reaches the small Town of Begzam; from which, through a country of herdsmen, whose dwellings are in tents of hides, the second day conducts him to the Town of Tegomáh. There, as he surveys the stoney, uninhabited, desolate hills that form the chearless prospect before him, he casts a regretful eye on those verdant scenes that surrounded him the day before. Employed for two days in the passage of these dreary heights, he descends on the third to a deep and scorching sand, from which he emerges at the approach of the fifth evening, and entering a beautiful country, as pleasingly diversified with the natural beauties of hills and vales and woods, as with the rich rewards of the husbandman’s and the shepherd’s toil, he arrives in seven days more at the City of Cashna, the capital of the empire of which it bears the name, and the usual residence of its powerful Sultan.

The country to which the Geographers of Europe have given the name of Nigritia, is called by the Arabs Soudán, and by the natives Aafnou, two words of similar import, that, like the European appellation, express the land of the Blacks, and like that too, are applied to a part only of the region to which their meaning so obviously belongs.—Yet, even in this limited sense, the word Soudán is often variously employed; for while some of the Africans restrict it to the Empire of Cashna, which is situated to the North of the Niger, others extend it, with indefinite comprehension, to the Negro States on the South of the river, and applying it as a means of expressing the extended rule and transcendant power of the Emperor of Cashna, call him, with extravagant compliment, the Sultan of all Soudán.

His real sovereignty is bounded, on the North, by the mountains of Eyré, and by one of those districts of the great Zahara, that furnish no means of useful property or available dominion; on the South, by the Niger; and on the East, by the Kingdom of Zamphara and the Empire of Bornou. Its western limit is not described by the Shereef; nor is any thing said of the Capital, except that it is situated to the North of the Niger, at the distance of five days journey, and that its buildings resemble those of Bornou.

The observations which introduced the account of Bornou, have already announced the remarkable similarity, as well with respect to climate, soil, and natural productions, as with regard to the colour, genius, religion, and political institutions of the people, that prevails between that powerful State and its sister Kingdom of Cashna.

The rains, indeed, are less violent than those of Bornou. It exclusively furnishes the Bishnah, a species of Indian corn that differs from the gamphúly, in the blended colours of red and white which distinguish its grain. Its monkeys and parrots (animals but seldom seen in Bornou) are numerous, and of various species. The meridian of its capital is considered as a western limit, in that parallel of latitude, to the vegetation of grapes and the breed of camels; for between Cashna and the Atlantic few camels are bred, and no grapes will grow. The manners of the common people are less courteous in Cashna than in Bornou, and their games are less expressive of reflection; for their favourite play consists in tossing up four small sticks, and counting those that cross each other, as so many points of the number that constitutes the game. But the circumstances of chief discrimination between the empires are, those of language, currency, and certain articles of commerce.

Of the difference between the Languages of Bornou and of Cashna, the following specimen is given by the Shereef.

In the Language of Bornou In the Language of Cashna

1 is expressed by Lakkah 1 is expressed by Deiyah

2 Endee 2 Beeyou

3 Nieskoo 3 Okoo

4 Dekoo 4 Foodoo

5 Okoo 5 Beát

6 Araskoo 6 Sheedah

7 Huskoo 7 Bookai

8 Tallóre 8 Tàkoos

9 L’ilkar 9 Tarráh

10 Meikoo 10 Goumah

11 Meiko Lakkah 11 Goumah sha Deiyah

12 Meiko Endee 12 Goumah sha Beeyou

13 Meiko Nieskoo 13 Goumah sha Okoo

14 Meikoo Dekoo 14 Goumah sha Foodoo

The Currency of Cashna, like that of the Negro States to the South of the Niger, is composed of those small shells that are known to Europeans and to the Blacks themselves by the name of Cowries, and to the Arabs by the appellation of Hueddah.—Cardie, which is another term for this species of Negro money, and the specific meaning of which the Shereef has neglected to explain, is said to be given to it by the idolatrous tribes alone; a circumstance that seems to indicate superstitious attachment.—Of these shells, 2,500 are estimated in Cashna as equal in value to a mitkal of Fezzan, which is worth about 675 piastres of Tripoli, or ten shillings and three half-pence sterling.

Among the few circumstances which characterize the Trade of Cashna, as distinguished from that of Bornou, the most remarkable is, that the Merchants of the former kingdom are the sole carriers, to other nations, of a scarce and most valuable commodity, which is only to be obtained from the inhabitants of the latter. For though the salt of Bornou supplies the consumption of Cashna, and of the Negro Kingdoms to the South, yet its owners have abandoned to the commercial activity of the Merchants of Agadez, the whole of that profitable trade.

The lakes, on the dreary shores of which this scarce article of African luxury is found, are separated from Agadez by a march of five and forty days, and are encompassed on all sides by the sands of the vast Desart of Bilma, where the ardent heat of a flaming sky is returned with double fierceness by the surface of the burning soil. A thousand camels, bred and maintained for the purpose, are said to compose the caravan which annually explores, in the savage wilderness, the long line of this adventurous journey. Perilous, however, and full of hardships as their labour is, the Merchants find an ample recompence in the profits of their commerce; for while the wretched villagers who inhabit the neighbourhood of the lakes, and collect the salt that congeals upon the shores, are contented to receive, or obliged to accept a scanty price, the value that the Merchants obtain in the various markets of Cashna, of Tombuctou, and of the countries to the South of the Niger, is suited to the high estimation in which the article is held.

Attentive in this manner to the means of profiting by the produce of a neighbouring country, the people of Agadez are equally anxious to avail themselves of the commodities that are furnished by their own; for knowing the superior quality of the senna which grows upon their mountains, they demand and receive from the Merchants of Fezzan a proportionable price.

The senna of Agadez is valued in Tripoli at fourteen or fifteen mahaboobs, or from 4l. 4s. to 4l. 10s. per hundred weight, while that of Tibesti is worth no more than from nine to ten mahaboobs, or from 2l. 14s. to 3l. sterling. From Tripoli the senna is exported to Turkey, Leghorn, and Marseilles.

Of the other articles of sale which the extensive Empire of Cashna affords, the principal are—

Gold Dust—the value of which appears to be estimated at a higher rate in Cashna than in Fezzan; for in the former the worth of an ounce of 640 grains (which is the weight of an ounce in Fezzan, Cashna, and probably in all the States between that kingdom and the Niger) is said to be nine mitkals, or 4l. 10s. sterling; whereas an ounce of the same weight is worth in Fezzan but 4l. In Cashna the value of an English ounce of 480 grains is consequently 3l. 7s. 6d. whereas in Fezzan it is only 3l.

Slaves—In what manner these are obtained, does not distinctly appear; but the value of a male slave is said to be from 15 to 20,000 cowries, or from 3l. to 4l. sterling:

That of a female slave is described as being two-thirds of the former, or from 10,000 to 13,334 cowries, which in English money would be from 2l. to 2l. 13s. 4d.

Cotton Cloths—which are the general manufacture of Cashna, of Bornou, and of the Negro States to the South of the Niger:

Goat-skins—of the red and of the yellow dyes:

Ox and Buffalo Hides:

Civet—the mode of obtaining which, as well as the principal markets for its sale, were described in the account which has been given of the trade of Bornou.

In return for these articles the inhabitants of Cashna receive—

Cowries—a sea shell which is brought from the coast, and constitutes the common specie of the empire:

Horses and Mares—which are purchased from the Merchants of Fezzan; but whether bred in that country, or procured from the Arabs, or from the people of Bornou, is not mentioned by the Shereef:

Red Woollen Caps,

Check Linens,[33]

Light coarse Woollen Cloths,

Baize,

Barakans or Alhaiks,

Small Turkey Carpets,

Plain Mesurata Carpets,

Silk, wrought and unwrought,

Tissues and Brocades,

Sabre Blades,

Dutch Knives,

Scizzars,

Coral,

Beads,

Small Looking-Glasses,

Tickera—a paste which is prepared in Fezzan from dates and the meal of Indian corn, and which, whenever they travel, is in great request among the people of Fezzan:

Gooroo Nuts—which are brought from the Negro States on the South of the Niger, and which are principally valued for the pleasant bitter that they communicate to any liquid in which they are infused.