menu_book Chapter 10

CELBRADED TRAVELS AND TRAVELERS, VOLUME 3. CELBRADED TRAVELS AND TRAVELERS, VOLUME 3. THE GREAT EXPLORERS AND TRAVELERS OF THE 19TH CENTURY, BY JULES VERNE. first part chapter two part two the exploration and colonization of africa three clapperton's second journey arrival at bedagery yoriba and its capital katunga busa attempts to get at the truth about mongo park's fate nifei yaori and zigzag

Arrival at Cano, Disappointments, Death of Clapperton, Return of Lander to the Coast, Tucky on the Congo, Bowditch in Ashante, Moline at the sources of the Senegal and Gambia, Major Gray, Kali at Timbuktu, Lang at the sources of the Niger, Richard and John Lander at the mouth of the Niger, Calod and Latorzac, in Egypt, Nubia, and the oasis of Siwa. So soon as Clapperton arrived in England, he submitted to Lord Bathurst his scheme for going

to Koyuka via the Bight of Benin, in other words by the shortest way, a route not attempted by his predecessors, and ascending the Niger from its mouth to Timbuktu. In this expedition three others were associated with Clapperton, who took the command. These three were a surgeon named Dixon, Pierce, a ship's captain, and Dr. Morrison, also in the merchant's service, the last named well up in every branch of natural history. On the 26th of November, 1825, the expedition arrived in the

Bight of Benin. For some reason unexplained, Dixon had asked permission to make his way to Socatu alone, and he landed for that purpose at Huayda. A Portuguese named Songa and Columbus, Denham's servant, accompanied him as far as Dahomey. Seventeen days after he left that town, Dixon reached Char, and a little later, Yowery, beyond which place he was never traced. Footnote. Dixon quarreled with the native chief and was murdered by his followers.

C. Clapperton's last journey in Africa. the other explorers sailed up the bite of benin and were warned by an english merchant named houston not to attempt the ascent of the quora as the king of the districts watered by it had conceived an intense hatred of the english on account of their interference with the slave trade the most remunerative branch of his commerce it would be much better urged houston to go to

Bedagery, no great distance from Sacatu, the chief of which, well disposed as he was to travelers, would doubtless give him an escort as far as the frontiers of Ereba. Houston had lived in the country many years and was well acquainted with the language and habits of its people. Clapperton, therefore, thought it desirable to attach him to the expedition as far as Katunga, the capital of Eureba. The expedition disembarked at Bedagery on the 29th November, 1825,

ascended an arm of the Lagos, and then for a distance of two miles, the Ghazi Creek, which traverses part of Dahomey. Descending the left bank, the explorers began their march into the interior of the country, through districts consisting partly of swamps and partly of yam plantations. Everything indicated fertility. The Negroes were very averse to work, and it would be impossible to relate the numerous palivers and negotiations which had to be gone through,

and the exactions which were submitted to before porters could be obtained. The explorers succeeded, in spite of these difficulties, in reaching Jenna, 60 miles from the coast. Here, Clapperton tells us he saw several looms at work, as many as eight or nine in one house, a regular manufactory, in fact. The people of Jena also made earthenware, but they prefer that which they get from Europe, often putting the foreign produce to uses for which it was never

intended. At Jena, the travelers were all attacked with fever, the result of the great heat and the unhealthiness of the climate. Pierce and Morrison both died on the 27th December, the former soon after he left Jenna with Clapperton, the latter at that town, to which he had returned to rest. At Asanda, a town of no less than 1,000 inhabitants, Dafu containing some 5,000, and other places visited by Clapperton on his way through the country, he found that an

extraordinary rumor had preceded him to the effect that he had come to restore peace to the districts distracted by war and to do good to the lands he explored at t'chao the caravan met a messenger with a numerous escort sent by the king of yoreba to meet the explorers and shortly afterwards katunga was entered this town is built around the base of a rugged granite mountain it is about three miles in extent, and is both framed in and planted with bushy trees, presenting a most

picturesque appearance. Claverton remained at Katunga from the 24th January to the 7th March, 1826. He was entertained there with great hospitality by the Sultan, who, however, refused to give him permission to go to Husa or Barnu by way of Nefri or Tapa, urging his reasons that Nefri was distracted by civil war and one of the pretenders to the throne had called in the aid of the Flattas. It would be more prudent to go through Yoweri.

Whether these excuses were true or not, Clapton had to submit. The explorer availed himself of his detention at Katunga to make several interesting observations. This town contains no less than seven markets, in which are exposed for sale yams, cereals, bananas, figs, the seeds of gourds, hares, poultry, sheep, lambs, linen cloth, and various implements of husbandry. The houses of the king and those of his wives are situated in two large parks. The doors and

the pillars of the verandas are adorned with fairly well-executed carvings, representing such scenes as a boa killing an antelope or a pig or a group of warriors and drummers. According to Clapperton, the people of Eureba have fewer of the characteristics of the Negro race than any natives of Africa with whom he was brought in contact. Their lips are not so thick and their noses are of a more aquiline shape. The men are well made and carry themselves with

an ease which cannot fail to be remarked. The women are less refined looking than the men. the result, probably, of exposure to the sun and the fatigue they endure, compelled as they are to do all the work of the fields. Soon after leaving Katanga, Claperton crossed the Musa, a tributary of the Kuora, and entered Kiyama, one of the halting places of the caravans trading between Husa and Varghu,

and Gandhi on the frontiers of the Ashante. Kiyama consisted of no less than 13,000 inhabitants, who are considered the greatest thieves in Africa. To say a man is from Borghu is to brand him as a blaggard at once. Outside Kiyama, the traveler met the Husa caravan. Some thousands of men and women, oxen, asses, and horses, marching in single file, formed an interminable line presenting a singular and grotesque appearance. A motley assemblage, truly, naked girls alternating with men,

bending beneath their loads, or with ganja merchants in the most outlandish and ridiculous costumes, mounted on bony steeds which stumbled at every step. Clapperton now made for Busa on the Niger, where Mungo Park was drowned. Before reaching it he had to cross the Ali, a tributary of the Quora, and to pass through Wauwau, a district of Borghi, the capital of which, also called Wow Wow, contained some 18,000 inhabitants. It was one of the cleanest and

best-built towns the traveler had entered since he left Bedagery. The streets are wide and well kept, and the houses are round, with conical thatched roofs. Drunkenness is a prevalent vice in Wow Wow. Governor, priests, laymen, men and women indulge to excess in palm wine, in rum brought from the coast and in quote booza end quote the latter beverage is a mixture made of dura honey cayenne pepper and the root of a coarse grass eaten by cattle with the addition of a

certain quantity of water clapperton tells us that the people of wow wow are famous for their cleanliness they are cheerful benevolent and hospitable no other people whom he had met with had been so ready to give him information about their country and more extraordinary still did not meet with a single beggar the natives say they are not aborigines of borhoo but that they are descendants of the natives of husa and nyfree they speak a yoreba dialect but the wawwaw women

are pretty which those of yoreba are not the men are muscular and well made but have a dissipated look. Their religion is a lax kind of Mohammedanism, tinctured with paganism. Since leaving the coast, Clapperton had met tribes of unconverted Falatas, speaking the same language and resembling in feature and complexion others who had adopted Mohammedanism, a significant fact which points to their belonging to one race. Busa, which the traveler reached at last, is not a regular town,

but consists of groups of scattered houses on an island of the Quora, situated in latitude 10 degrees, 14 minutes north, and longitude 6 degrees, 11 minutes east. The province of which it is the capital is the most densely populated of Borghu. The inhabitants are all pagans, even the sultan, although his name is Mohammed. They live upon monkeys, dogs, cats, rats, beef, and mutton. Breakfast was served to the sultan whilst he was giving audience to Clapperton,

whom he invited to join him. The meal consisted of a large water rat, grilled without skinning, a dish of fine boiled rice, some dried fish, stewed in palm oil, fried alligator's eggs, washed down with fresh water from the quora. Clapperton took some stewed fish and rice, but was much laughed at because he would eat neither the rat nor the alligator's eggs. The Sultan received him very courteously, and told him that the Sultan of Yowri had his boats

ready to take him to that town for the last seven days. Clapperton replied that as the war had prevented his exit from Borneo and Yowri, he should prefer going by way of Kalfou and Nafri. You are right, answered the Sultan, you did well to come and see me, and you can take whichever route you prefer. At a later audience, Clapperton made inquiries about the Englishman who had presided in the Qalra twenty years before. This subject evidently made

the Sultan feel very ill at ease, and he evaded the questions put to him by saying he was too young at the time to remember what happened. Clapperton explained that he only wanted to recover their books and papers and to visit the scene of their death, and the Sultan in reply denied having anything belonging to them, adding a warning against his guests going to the place where they died, for it was a very bad place. But I understood, urged Clapperton, that part of the

boat they were in could still be seen. No, it was a false report, replied the Sultan. The boat has long since been carried down by the stream. It was somewhere amongst the rocks. He didn't know where. To a fresh demand for Park's papers and journals, the Sultan replied that he had none of them. They were in the hands of some learned men, but as Clapperton seemed to set such store by them, he would have them looked for. Thanking him for this promise, Clapperton begged permission to

question the old men of the place, some of whom must have witnessed the catastrophe. No answer whatever was returned to his appeal, by which the Sultan was evidently much embarrassed. It was useless to press him further. This was a check to Clapperton's further inquiries. On every side, he was met with embarrassed silence, or such replies as, The affair happened so long ago, I can't remember it, or I was not witness to it. The place where the boat had been stopped and its

crew drowned was pointed out to him, but even that was done cautiously. A few days later, Clapperton found out that the former Amauan, who was a falata, had had Mungo Park's books and papers in his possession. Unfortunately, however, this Amauan had long since left Busa. Finally, when at Kalfou, the explorer ascertained beyond a doubt that Mungo Park had been murdered. Before leaving Borkou, Clapperton recorded his conviction of the baselessness of the bad

reputation of the inhabitants, who had been branded everywhere as thieves and robbers. He had completely explored their country, traveled and hunted amongst them alone, and never had the slightest reason to complain. The traveler now endeavored to reach Cano by way of Zauri and Zegzeg, first crossing the Quara. He soon arrived at Frabra on the Maiaro, the residence of the queen mother of Nifri, and then went to visit the king in camp at a short distance from

the town. This king, Clapperton tells us, was the most insolent rogue imaginable, asking for everything he saw, and quite unabashed by any refusal. His ambition and his calling in of the Falatas, who would throw him over as soon as he had answered their purpose, had been the ruin of his country. Thanks indeed to him, nearly the whole of the industrial population of Nafri had been killed, sold into slavery, or had fled the country. Clapperton was detained by illness much longer

than he had intended to remain at Kulfo, a commercial town on the northern banks of Mayaro, containing from 12 to 15,000 inhabitants. Exposed for the last 20 years to the raids of Falatas, Kulfu had been burnt twice in six years. Clapperton was witness when there of the Feast of the New Moon. On that festival, everyone exchanged visits. The women wear their woolly hair plaited and stained with indigo. Their eyebrows are dyed the same color. Their eyelids are painted

with call their lips are stained yellow their teeth red and their hands and feet are colored with henna on the day of the feast of the moon they don their gayest garments with their glass beads bracelets copper silver steel or brass they also turn the occasion to account by drinking as much booza as the men joining in all their songs and dances after passing through katunga clapperton entered the province of Gowry, the people of which, though conquered with the rest of Huza

by the Falakas, had rebelled against them on the death of Bello I, and since then maintained their independence in spite of all the efforts of their invaders. Gowry, capital of the province of the same name, is situated in latitude 10 degrees, 54 minutes north, and longitude 8 degrees, one minute east. At Fatika, Clapperton entered Zegzeg, subject to the Falakas, after which he visited Zariae, a singular-looking town laid out with plantations of millet, woods of bushy trees,

vegetable gardens, alternating with marshes, lawns, and houses. The population was very numerous, exceeding even that of Cano, being estimated indeed at some forty or fifty thousand, nearly all Falakas. On the 19th September, after a long and weary journey, Clapperton at last entered Cano. He at once discovered that he would have been more welcome if he had come from the east, for the war with Bornew had broken off all communication with Phezzin and Tripoli.

Leaving his luggage under the care of his servant, Lander, Clapperton almost immediately started in quest of Sultan Bellow, who they said was near Sakatu. This was an extremely arduous journey, and on it Clapperton lost his camels and horses, and was compelled to put up with a miserable ox. To carry part of his baggage, he and his servants divided the rest amongst themselves. Bellow received Clapperton kindly, and sent him camels and provisions, but as he was then engaged

in subjugating the rebellious province of Goober, he could not at once give the explorer the personal audience so important to the many interests entrusted by the English government to Clapperton. Bellow advanced to the attack of Cunia, the capital of Guber, at the head of an army of sixty thousand soldiers, nine-tenths of whom were on foot and wore padded armor. The struggle was contemptible in the extreme, and this abortive attempt closed the war.

Clapperton, whose health was completely broken up, managed to make his way from Sacatu to Megaria, where he saw the sultan. After he had received the presents brought for him, Bellow became less friendly. He presently pretended to have received a letter from Sheikh El Khomeini, warning him against the traveler, whom his correspondent characterized as a spy, and urging him to defy the English, who meant, after finding out all about the country,

to settle in it, raise up sedition, and profit by the disturbances they should create, to take possession of Husa, as they had done of India. The most patent of all the motives of Bellow in creating difficulties for Clapperton was his wish to appropriate the presence intended for the Sultan of Borno. A pretext being necessary, he spread a rumor that the traveler was taking cannons and ammunition to Kuka. It was out of all reason Bellow should allow a stranger to cross his

dominions with a view of enabling his implacable enemy to make war upon him. Finally, Bellow made an effort to induce Clapperton to read him the letter of Lord Bathurst to the Sultan of Borno. clapperton told him he could take it if he liked but that he would not give it to him adding that everything was of course possible to him as he had force on his side but that he would bring dishonor upon himself by using it to open the letter myself said clapperton is more than my head is worth he had come he urged bringing bellow a letter and presents from the king of england relying upon the confidence inspired by the sultan's letter of the previous year and he hoped his host would not forfeit that confidence by tampering with another person's

letter. On this the sultan made a gesture of dismissal, and Clapperton retired. This was not, however, the last attempt of a similar kind, and things grew much worse later. A few days afterwards another messenger was sent to demand the presents reserved for El Kanemi, and on Clapperton's refusing to give them up, they were taken from him. I told the gadado, says Clapperton, that they were acting like robbers towards me, in defiance of all good faith, that no people in the world

would act the same, and they had far better have cut my head off than done such an act, but I suppose they would do that also when they had taken everything from me. An attempt was now made to obtain his arms and ammunition, but this he resisted sturdily. His terrified servants ran away, but soon returned to share the dangers of their master, for whom they entertained the warmest affection.

At this critical moment, the entries in Claperton's journal ceased. He had now been six months in Sakatut, without being able to undertake any explorations or to bring to a satisfactory conclusion the mission which had brought him from the coast. Sick at heart, weary and ill, he could take no rest, and his illness suddenly increased upon him to an alarming degree. His servant, Richard Lander, who had now joined him, tried in

vain to be all things at once. On the 12th March, 1827, Clapperton was seized with dysentery. Nothing could check the progress of the malady, and he sank rapidly. It being the time of the feast of the Ramadan, Lander could get no help, not even servants. Fever soon set in, and after twenty days of great suffering, Clapperton, feeling his end approaching, gave his last instructions to Lander, and died in that faithful servant's arms on the eleventh of April.

I put a large clean mat, says Lander, over the hole, the corpse, and sent a messenger to Sultan Bellow, to acquaint him with the mournful event, and ask his permission to bury the body after the manner of my own country, and also to know in what particular place his remains were to be interred. The messenger soon returned with the Sultan's consent to the former part of my request, and about twelve o'clock at noon of the same day a person came into my hut, accompanied by four slaves, sent by Bellow to dig the grave. I was desired to follow them with the corpse.

Accordingly, I saddled my camel, and putting the body on its back and throwing a Union Jack over it, I bade them proceed. traveling at a slow pace we halted at jungavi a small village built on a rising ground about five miles to the southeast of sakatu the body was then taken from the camel's back and placed in a shed whilst the slaves were digging the grave which being quickly done it was conveyed close to it i then opened a prayer book and amid showers of tears read the funeral service over the

remains of my valued master. Not a single person listened to this peculiarly distressing ceremony, the slaves being at some distance, quarreling and making the most indecent noise the whole time it lasted. This being done, the Union Jack was then taken off, and the body was slowly lowered into the earth, and I wept bitterly as I gazed for the last time upon all that remained of my generous and intrepid master end quote overcome by heat fatigue and grief poor lander himself now broke

down and for more than ten days he was unable to leave his hut bellow sent several times to inquire after the unfortunate servant's health but he was not deceived by these demonstrations of interest for he knew they were only dictated by a wish to get possession of the traveler's baggage which was supposed to be full of gold and silver. The Sultan's astonishment may therefore be imagined when it came out that Lander had not even money enough to defray the expenses of his

journey to the coast. He never found out that the servant had taken the precaution of hiding his own gold watch and those of Pierce and Clapperton about his person. Lander saw that he must at any cost get back to the coast as quickly as possible. By dint of the judicious distribution of a few presents, he won over some of the sultan's advisers, who represented to their master that should Lander die, he would be accused of having murdered him as well as Clapperton. Although

Clapperton had advised Lander to join an Arab caravan for Fasan, the latter, fearing that his papers and journals might be taken from him, resolved to go back to the coast. On the 3rd May, Lander at last left Sakatu en route for Cano. During the first part of this journey, he nearly died of thirst, but he suffered less in the second half, as the king of Jacoba, who had joined him, was very kind to him, and begged him to visit his country. This king told him that the Niam-Niams

were his neighbors, that they had once joined him against the Sultan of Bornu, and that after the battle they had roasted and eaten the corpses of the slain. This, I believe, is the first mention since the publication of Hornman's Travelers of this cannibal race, who were to become the subjects of so many absurd fables. End of section 10