APPENDIX XXI
Philip Askell Benton translation
A BORNU PRINCE AT TRIPOLI
There is a book the full title of which is ‘Letters written during a ten years’ residence at the Court of Tripoli, published from the originals in the possession of the family of the late Richard Tully, Esq. the British Consul’. London, 1816, quarto. Third edition, 2 vols., octavo, 1819 [five coloured plates].
Vol. ii, pp. 51-5, under date of July 28, 1789, there is a short description of the visit to Tripoli of a ‘black prince of Bornu’ returning to his own country from Tripoli, who was accompanied by three wives, one of whom had learnt enough Italian to express herself in ‘Lingua Franca’.
According to Tully, the prince was very well informed and wore ‘pearls of uncommon size’ as well as ‘large gold ear-rings set with the most valuable jewels’.
The prince gave a highly coloured description of Bornu, which he declared abounded with grapes, apricots, and pomegranates, whilst the ‘enormity’ of slave-dealing was not indulged in by his countrymen, who left such things to the Christians and Pagans!
Tully further states that the people of Tripoli had such an idea of the numbers of the Bornu army, that they say when the army leaves the town a large date-tree is laid before the gate, on which each man steps as he passes, and ‘as the foot soldiers go through the gate they wear out the body of this tree’.
[For visit of a Bornu prince to Tripoli in 1853 vid. Benton, Notes, &c., p. 188.]