'[> A )/)X>' fat **%iaf PRINCETON, N. J Division m : Section ,J.7..^,.. STANFOKD'S COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAVEL FOR GENERAL READING BASED ON HELLWALD'S 'DIE ERDE UND IHRE VOLKER ' Translated by A. H. KEANE, M.A.I. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/africaOOjohn_0 ' CHUMA,' Livingstone's Servant: of the Wahiao Tribe. {From a Photograph.) Frontispiece. Chuma was released from the slave;traders on the Shire river by Bishop Mackenzie and his party, and was constantly with Dr. Livingstone during his last nine years of travel. He accompanied Livingstone's remains to England, and has subsequently served with Bishop Steere in the Nyassa country. STANFOED'S COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL BASED ON HELLWALD'S ' DIE ERDE UND IHRE VOLKER ' AFRICA BY THE LATE KEITH JOHNSTON, F.R.G.S. LEADER OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY'S EAST AFRICAN EXPEDITION THIRD EDITION REVISED AND CORRECTED BY E. G. RAVENSTEIN, F.R.G.S. WITH ETHNOLOGICAL APPENDIX BY A. H. KEANE, M.A.I. MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON EDWARD STANFORD, 55 CHARING CROSS, S.W. 1884 \THEOLOQIOAL# PBEFACE TO THE FIEST EDITION. In reading through Mr. Keane's excellent translation of that section of Von Hellwald's Die Urde und ihre Volker which is devoted to Africa, it soon became evident that the author had taken a more national view of our present knowledge of this vast continent than would be acceptable to English readers — German work in the field of African discovery was fully developed, the achievements of British and other foreign explorers more hastily sketched. It is not that we would undervalue for a moment the labours of Germany in Africa. Our knowledge of the immense region of the Sahara and the Sudan has resulted almost exclusively from the arduous journeyings of Barth and Vogel, of Eohlfs, Schweinfurth, and JSTachtigal ; but in giving these their due share of honour, it cannot be for- gotten that we owe to the enduring toil of Livingstone, of Burton, Speke, and Grant, of Cameron, Gordon, and Stanley, the rolling back of the clouds of obscurity which, until a few years ago, hid from view all but the coast-line of the still greater expanse of Equatorial and Southern Africa. In endeavouring to give a more just apportionment of credit to the men of all nationalities that have taken part in the great work of throwing Africa open to the light of civilisation, as well in bringing up the description of each separate portion of the continent to a more uniform PREFACE. standard, and in giving greater prominence to those parts of South Africa in which British interests are more immediately concerned, the book has expanded till it has reached two or three times the size of the original upon which it is based. As it stands, however, it will be found to contain a toler- ably complete general view of the present state of knowledge of African geography ; the natural features of the continent, its many kingdoms, states, and colonies, with their inhabit- ants, are concisely described, as well as the productions and legitimate commerce of its various regions, and the roots and branches of its great malady, the slave trade, which affects it so deeply in every part. Two original papers have been appended. The first of these, on the classification of the African races, deals with a subject which is of the utmost consequence in the prob- lem of the future development of the continent. In this view the distinctions of race, of language, traditions, and temperament of its inhabitants, cannot be too closely studied. The second Appendix, on the distribution of rain over Africa month by month, has also a practical value in view of future exploration and survey of the continent, in pointing out those times and seasons which are most suit- able for travel and geographical work in its different regions. K J, Kew, November 1877. IXDEX MAP TO CHAPTERS and SECTIONS RramphWiWT XIV 8, XV. 1,;'., Wmpl w£U be round described under Chapter Unureen,. Section Wove and Chapter Fifteen, Sections One trad Three lymfimi:- fiecxj J'sta/'T 55 Cnwru^Hwx. CONTENTS. GENERAL INTRODUCTION. PAOE Position and Revolutions of the Globe — Meridians of Longitude and Parallels of Latitude — The Seasons, Equinoxes, and Solstices — The five Zones — Varying length of the days and the nights . 1 AFEICA. CHAPTER I. General Remarks. Configuration of the land — Islands — Physical aspect of the interior — Rivers and Lakes — Tropical position — Inhabitants — Independent races — Culture — European and Mohammedan influences — Area and Population ....... 8 CHAPTER II. The Regions op the Atlas. Physical aspect — Soil — Cultivation — Natural features of Algeria— The "Tell," plateaus, and Algerian Sahara — Rivers of the North- West — Climate of the Atlas Regions — Rainfall — "Winds — Tem- perature and seasons of Algeria — Natural products of North Africa — Inhabitants . . . . . . .17 CHAPTER IIL The Empire of Marocco and its Inhabitants. Extent-— Population — Government — The Imperial Cities of Fez, Mequinez, and Marocco — Coast towns — Inhabitants — Indigenous and foreign races — Language of the Berbers — Physical appearance of the Arabs and Berbers — Habits and Customs — The Marocco Dwars or tent villages— Food — Hospitality — The Shirfa or Privi- leged classes — Morality, vice, and crime — Jews and Negroes in Marocco — Trade and commerce . . . . .32 viii CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. The French Algerian Possessions. P\OB Population — European Settlers — Products — Commercial enterprise — Cavern of Jebel Thaya — Results of the French occupation — Algiers and other towns — The Natives : Moors, Bedouins, and Kabyles 48 CHAPTER V. The Regency of Tunis. Government — Population : Arabs, Berbers, Jews— Industry and com- merce— Tunis and its Citadel — Kairwan — The towns of Susa and Sfax — Tunisian fisheries — Projected inland lake of Tunis . 59 CHAPTER VL Tripoli. Extent and general features of the country — Climate and natural products — Population — Chief towns . . . . (39 CHAPTER YTI. The Sahara. Extent — Its marine origin — The Sandhills or Dunes — Character of the Rock Formations and Mountain Eanges — The Table-lands — The Hofra or Depressions — The Oases — Rivers and River-beds- Lakes — The hot winds and sand-storms — Climate of the Sahara 72 CHAPTER VTIL States and Races in the Sahara. The Northern Border Land of the Sahara — Its limits on the west, east, and south — The Western Sahara — Berber Tribes — Aderer, Tafilet, El-Juf, and other Western Districts — The Central Section of the Sahara (domain of the Tuareg) — The towns of Wargla, Tuggurt, and Metlili — The Beni-Mzab confederate Tribes — Oasis of the El-Golea — Oases of Tuat — Oasis of Ghadames — The Tuareg (Ta- warik) Tribes — The southern Tuareg country : Ahaggar and Air or Asben — The Eastern Sahara (domain of the Tibbus) : Tibesti and Kauar — The Libyan Desert . . . . .82 CONTENTS. is CHAPTER IX Sudan. paok Extent — Meaning of the term — General features — Coast of Upper Guinea — Native States between the Niger and the Nile Valley . 108 CHAPTER X. Western Sudan or Senegambia. The French Settlements in Senegambia — Towns of St. Louis, Dakar, and Goree — The Dakar Negroes — The Mandingo and Fulah races — The Futa-Jallon highlands — The French advance to the Niger . . . . . . . .111 CHAPTER XL The Coast of Upper Guinea. From the Gambia to Fernando Po — The British Settlements on the Gambia : Bathurst ; Sierra-Leone ; Freetown — The Natives of Sierra-Leone — Slavery : its causes ; vain attempts at suppression — The Eepublic of Liberia — The Kroomen — Ivory Coast — French Stations — Condition of the Slaves — The Gold Coast — British Settle- ments— The Kingdom of Ashantee — Natives of the Gold Coast — Religion of the Fantees — Strange Customs of the Fantees — Chief towns of the Gold Coast — Origin and rise of the Ashantees — The river Volta — Slave Coast — Ewe Tribe — Kingdom of Dahomey : its capital, Abomey ; Sanguinary Rites ; Amazons — Lagos — the Yoruba Country — Abbeokuta — The Niger Delta — Bonny — Fer- nando Po and other islands in the Gulf of Guinea . .120 CHAPTER XII. The Niger Regions. The course of the Niger — Sego — Sansandig — The Fulah Empires and the Haussa — From Lake Chad to the Niger — Timbuktu — The Sonrhay . . . . . . . .159 CHAPTER XIII. Central Sudan. Extent — Political Divisions— Semi-civilised Negro states — Transition from the Sahara to the Sudan — Lake Chad and neighbouring dis- tricts— Bornu — Baghirmi and Gaberi — Natives of Baghirmi : Customs ; Religion — Wadai and its People — The Banda Tribes — Darfur — Kordofan . . . . . .176 X CONTENTS. CHAPTER XIV. Regions of the Nile. PAGE From the Mediterranean to the Equator — The Nile Delta — Egyptian Culture — The country east of the Nile — The Atbara and the Blue Nile— The White Nile and its Tributaries . . .196 CHAPTER XV. Egypt. Political situation — Extent — Population — The Fellaheen — Kopts, Arabs, Europeans, Jews, and Gipsies — Social Progress — Spread of education — Commerce : the Suez Canal — Alexandria and Cairo — From Cairo to the Cataracts ..... 202 CHAPTER XVI. Regions of the Upper Nile. The Nubian Desert — Khartum and neighbourhood — Senaar, between the Blue and White Nile— Valley of the Bahr-el-Abiad— The Nuehr Tribe— The Dinka Tribes— The Dyur and Bongo Tribes —The Bahr-el-Ghazal water system — The Mittu Tribes — The Nyamnyam Cannibals — The Monbuttu Country and its People — The Akka Pigmies — The Golo, Nduggo, and Sehre Negroes — Gondokoro and Lado — The Victoria Nile . . . 220 CHAPTER XVII. The Red Sea Coast. From the Arabian Desert to Perim — Conformation of the land — Suakin and the Nubian Desert — Water system — The Beni-Amer and Habab Tribes — Massowah — Berberah — Political changes — Taka and Kedaref . . . . - • .246 CHAPTER XVIII. The Abyssinian Highlands. Physical aspect of the country — Lake Tzana, the Bahr-el-Azrek and other rivers — Population — The Abyssinian Races : Tigre, Lasta, Amhara — Languages of Abyssinia — The Agau, Danakal, Gonga, Shangalla, and other Tribes — Religion — The Abuna — The Moham- medans and Jews — Pursuits — Literature — Character — Govern- ment : the present Ruler — Chief Towns — Shoa— Countries south of Abyssinia . . • . . • .254 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XIX. Eastern Horn of Africa. PAGE limits— Tlie.Somali Country— Harar— Berberah— Physical aspect of the interior — Climate— The Somali tribes — Animals of Somali Land — Coast Towns— Island of Socotra — Mogdesho, Marka, Brava —Course of the Juba River— Bardera— The Gal la Country— The Galla Paces — Kegion of the Kilima-Njaro — Dana and Rufu Rivers —Lands of the Wanika and Wateita— Mount Kilima-Ejaro— Masai country ....... 273 CHAPTER XX. The Suaheli Coast. Extent — Commercial importance — Islands — The Suaheli Race — Island and town of Zanzibar — Trade of Zanzibar — The Slave Trade on the eastern seaboard — Products of the Zanzibar Coast — Bagamoyo ; the Lufiji ; Kilwa . . . . .296 CHAPTER XXI. The Equatorial Lake Regions. General Survey — The Regions between the East Coast and the Tan- ganyika— The various routes inland from Bagamoyo — Cameron's route to Ugogo — Stanley's route to the "Victoria Nyanza — The Leewumbu — The Equatorial lake system ; Uganda and Unyoro — King Mtesa and his People — Stanley's discoveries between the Victoria and Albert Nyanza — Gessi's circumnavigation of the Albert Nyanza — Ugogo to Unyanyembe and Tanganyika — Lake Tanganyika — Mr. Thomson's journey to the Nyassa and Tangan- yika— The Rufiji, Kilwa, and Rufuma — The Mozambique Coast and the Makua — The Nyassa or Nyanja ya Nyenyesi — Mr. Young's circumnavigation of Lake Nyassa — Livingstonia — The Matumboka and other Tribes — The Pelele — The River Shire or Shira — The Manganja Tribe — Lake Shirwa . . . 307 xii CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXII. The Basin of the Congo. PAGE Mr. Stanley and the Congo — Livingstone to the west of the Nyassa— The Basin of the Loangwa — The Chambese, Lakes Bangweolo and Moero — Loemba, Urungu, and Itawa — The Cazembe's Coun- try— The Copper Country of Katanga — Tanganyika to Nyangwe on the Lualaba — The Kingdom of Urua — Ulunda, the country of the Muata Yamvo — The Countries of Lovale and Kibokwe — Lunda and the Muata Yamvo — Pogge and Wissmann's journey from the West Coast to Nyangwe . . . .354 CHAPTER XXIII. South Africa — General Remarks. Extent and natural limits — Political divisions — Mountain ranges — Native Races : Kafirs, Bushmen, and Hottentots . . 382 CHAPTER XXIV. The South African Colonies and Free States. Cape Colony — Physical Aspect — Hydrography — Scenery and vegeta- tion— Climate — History ; the Boers ; British Kafraria — Popula- tion— Industries : Wool trade ; Ostrich-farming ; Mines — Table Bay, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth — Government of the Cape — The Diamond Fields — Natal — Maritzburg — The Drakenberg — The Orange Free State and the Transvaal — The gold-fields of the Trans- vaal— A sportsman's paradise — The plague of locusts — Natives of the Transvaal — Chief town — Climate — History ; native policy of the Boers ....... 385 CHAPTER XXV. The Interior of South Africa. Course of the Limpopo — The Kafir Kingdoms ; Umzila's Territory — Land of the Matebele — Source of the Zambesi — The Victoria Falls — The lower course of the Zambesi— Portuguese possessions in East Africa : Mozambique ; Quelimane ; Sofala ; Delagoa Bay — Between the Zambesi and the Orange River — The Kalahari Desert — Bushmen — Lake Ngami and neighbourhood — Namaqua and Damara Land ...... 429 CONTENTS. xiii CHAPTER XXVI. The South African Races. PAGE The Bantu family — The Ama-Khosa and Ama-Zulu Kafirs — The Bechuanas and Damara Tribes — The Hottentots . . . 458 CHAPTER XXVII. The Regions of Lower Guinea. Definition — Extent — The Portuguese possessions on the "West Coast — Angola — Climate ; Native Tribes — Negro character — Slavery — Products and Trade of Angola — Government and chief towns — The Zaire or Congo — Loango and other Native states — Superstitious practices — Products — German Expeditions — Portuguese Claims . 465 CHAPTER XXVIII. Western Equatorial Africa. Region of the Ogoway and Gaboon Rivers — M. de Brazza's enterprise — The home of the gorilla — The Ashira, Apingi, and other Tribes — The Mpongwe : their vices and vanities — The Fans : Grand Pala- vers, Ordeals — The Ogoway river system — The Bakales, Ivilis, and Okota Tribes — The Osyeba Cannibals ; the Obongo Pigmies . 488 CHAPTER XXIX. The West African Archipelagoes. The Cape Verd Islands : Population, trade, produce — The Canary Group — The Peak of Teneritfe — The Guanchos — Trade and chief towns of the Canaries— Madeira : Funchal ; climate ; produce — The Azores : population ; exports .... 500 CHAPTER XXX. African Islands in the Indian Ocean. Lemuria, a submerged Continent— Madagascar : Natural Features — Volcanic action— Mountain Systems— Soil, Rivers, Climate, Pro- duce— Inhabitants : various races ; their origin, pursuits — Go- vernment— Ruling race — Conversion to Christianity — The Comoro Group— French Settlements— Mohilla— The Seychelles and Amir- ante Isles — British Settlements — Reunion and Mauritius . 509 xiv CONTENTS. APPENDIX. I. The African Kaces philologically classified. PAGE Language the best basis for the classification of Races — But not of itself an adequate basis — For the Negroes proper practically use- less— General Distribution of the African Races — Prehistoric Migrations — Dwarfish and other Primeval Races — The Seven great Linguistic Systems of Africa : I. the Semitic Family : II. The Hamitic Family ; III. The Fulah and Nuba Groups ; IV. The Negro Systems ; V. The Bantu Family ; VI. The Hottentot Group ; VII. The Malayo-Polynesian Family . . . 521 Synoptical Table of all known African Tribes and Languages, alphabetically arranged ...... 545 II. The Distribution of Rain in Africa. General considerations — Position of Africa with respect to the Trade "Winds and westerly wind currents — Winter rains of North Africa — Intertropical rains of single period — Intermitted or double rains of the West Coast — Monsoon rains of the East Coast-land — Winter rains of Cape Colony — Quantity of Rain — Time of day at which rain falls ........ 567 Index ......... 601 MAPS AND DIAGRAMS. Index Map to Chapters and Sections To face Contents. General Political Map of Africa To face page 1 Diagram illustrating the Seasons . >> 5 Physical Map of Africa .... >> „ 10 Map of Marocco ..... >> „ 32 Algeria and Tunis .... >> „ 48 „ Senegal, Gambia, Sierra Leone, etc. >> „ 111 ,, Gold Coast, Lagos, Niger Delta, etc. 5> „ 120 ,, The Nile from Victoria Nyanza to Khartum »> „ 220 , , Zanzibar to Tanganyika and Victoria Lakes >> „ 296 The Nyassa and Shirwa Lake Region it „ 346 ,, The Cape Colony .... >» „ 386 „ Natal, Transvaal, and Orange Free State . »] „ 412 ,, Portuguese West Africa »> „ 465 Ethnological and Philological Map of Africa » ,, 521 Diagrams showing Distribution of Rain in Africa . „ 567 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 1 Chuma,' Livingstone's servant : of the Wahiao tribe 1 . Frontispiece. Scene in Marocco ...... Page 34 Palms on the Tensift (from a Photograph by Dr. Leared) To face page 36 Moors ...... „ „ 38 Marocco Dwar, or Tent Tillage .... Page 43 Bedouin Camp in Algeria . . . . . „ 56 Scene in City of Tunis . . • . . „ 59 The Bardo of Tunis . . . . , . ,,63 Sand-storm in the Sahara ..... ,» 72 Town of Metlili, Algerian Sahara . . . . ,,90 House Terraces in Tuggurt . . . , . „ 92 Tuareg Freemen . . , . . . ,,96 Oasis in the Libyan Desert . . , , , ,,104 A Pul or Pullo (Fulah race) . . . , . ,,114 Timbo, in Futa-Jallon . . . . . ,,116 Free Town, Sierra Leone . . . , . „ 123 Ashantee Women . . , , , . ,,146 Scene in Dahomey . . , . . , ,,149 Say, on the Niger ...... „ 169 Ferry on the Niger 170 The Hombori Mountains . , , . . ,,171 Kabara, the Port of Timbuktu . , . . ,,172 Timbuktu ....... „ 174 The Nile near Assuan .... To face page 198 Street in Cairo ...... Page 209 A Cairo Barber ...... „ 211 Fruit Seller of Cairo .... To face page 212 Egyptian Female Costume ..... Page 213 A Pyramid To face page 214 Temple at Philae ..... „ ,, 216 Tombs of the Caliphs ..... Page 217 Eock Temple of Abu Simbel . . . To face page 218 In the Nubian Desert . , . . „ ,, 220 Khartum ....... Page 223 i From a Photograph lent by the Re^ Horace Waller. XVi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Dinka Farmstead ...... Page 231 Bongo "Woman . . . . . . 233 AMittu ....... ,,235 A Nyamnyam ...... ,, 237 Akka Dwarf ....... ,,241 The Sycamore, Eastern Abyssinia .... „ 257 Palace of Gondar ...... „ 269 Slave-Driving . . . . . . ,, 307 Hippopotamus Hunting ..... „ 311 Native of Ugogo ...... ,, 313 * Kalulu,' Stanley's faithful companion . . To face page 316 Victoria Nyanza ...... Page 318 King Mtesa's Daughter . . . . . ,, 324 Uganda Boy ....... ,, 325 The Pelele— lip-ring ...... ,,350 Table Mountain, Cape of Good Hope . . . 405 Waggon Road over the Drakenberg . . . . 416 Lion Hunting . ... . To face page 420 Victoria Falls : from the West End .... Page 437 Victoria Falls : from the Garden Island . . . 439 Camping on the Borders of the Kalahari Desert . To face page 449 A Bushman ....... Page 451 Makato's Village, near Lake Ngami ..... 454 Beach Hottentots at Walfisch Bay ..... 456 Walfisch Bay, with Sandhills in distance . . To face page 456 A Namaqua Kraal . . . . . ,, ,, 457 A Bechuana Warrior . . . . ,, ,,459 Bechuana Women preparing Winter Stores . . . Page 461 Toilet of a Bechuana Belle ... To face page 461 Street in a Bechuana Village .... Page 462 Korana Pack Oxen .... To face page 463 Hottentots ....... Page 464 Head-dress of the Ishogo, West Africa . . . ,, 494 Peak of Teneriffe . . . . . ,,505 GEXEEAL IXTEODUCTIOK 1. Position and Revolutions of the Earth. The Earth, which forms the subject of this work, may he described as a round and opaque body balanced in space. In company with a friendly satellite, the Moon, it com- pletes, in somewhat more than 365 days, one revolution round a centre, the Sun, a light and heat giving body, itself probably but one of countless similar bodies scattered throughout the boundless regions of the universe. The Earth is technically spoken of as a planet, by which name we understand all such heavenly bodies as are dark in themselves, shining only in the borrowed light of the Sun. The period of 365 days required to complete its orbit is called a year, and is divided into twelve months, the months into weeks, and the weeks into days, one day thus forming a standard unit for the measurement of time. By a day is strictly understood the time required by the Earth to complete one revolution round its own axis in the direction from west to east. It thus appears that the Earth revolves round itself while completing its orbit round the Sun, and from this twofold motion there arises a series of phenomena, whose regular recurrence no longer causes any surprise, but which may still be here briefly described. 2. Meridians of Longitude and Parallels of Latitude. Every revolving globe necessarily possesses two oppo- B 2 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. site points which are at rest, and which, in the case of the Earth, are called the Poles. These are again connected together by the Axis, an imaginary line round which the globe itself rotates. They are known as the Arctic or North Pole, and the Antarctic or South Pole. The circle described round the middle of the Earth, at all points equally distant from either pole, and thus dividing it into two halves, is called the Equator, while the two equal portions so divided are known as the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Now, in order accurately to fix the position of the various places on the surface of the globe, we must imagine an indefinite num- ber of other circles intersecting each other in such a way that some are described as passing through both poles, and others as drawn parallel with the equator. The first series, intersecting at the poles and perpen- dicular to the equator, are all naturally of equal size, and are called the Meridians — that is, mid-day circles, all places through which any one of them passes having mid- day at the same hour. The distances between these meri- dians constitute the degrees of longitude, which thus determine the position of any given place east or west of any given meridian. The other set of circles parallel to the equator, and diminishing according as they recede towards either pole, in the same way determine the position of all places north and south of the equator, and are called parallels of lati- tude. Since, therefore, these imaginary meridian and parallel circles intersect each other, given the latitude and longitude of any place on the surface of the Earth, its position is at once accurately determined. The Earth, however, is not a perfectly round globe, but rather of an oblate form — that is, slightly compressed at the poles, and bulging out at the equator. Hence, not being a true sphere, it is known as a spheroid, a sphere- DAY AND NIGHT. 3 like body, the exact proportions of which have not yet been fully ascertained, though at present it is believed that the diameter at the equator exceeds that from pole to pole by 27 miles. But, owing to its flattening at the poles, and corresponding expansion at the equator, the imaginary set of curves above spoken of are not true circles, but rather ellipses closely resembling circles. The parallels of latitude are much less affected by this circum- stance than are the meridians, which become sensibly depressed towards the poles ; but it follows that the dis- tance between two parallels becomes greater the nearer we approach the poles. The shortest degrees of latitude and the longest of longitude are accordingly found on and about the equator ; the longest of latitude and the shortest of longitude at and about the poles. The globe revolves, as stated, round the sun, which can of course shed its light only on the side turned towards it. If the Earth did not rotate on its own axis, the hemi- sphere facing the sun would be always light, and the opposite buried in eternal darkness. But in consequence of the Earth's rotation round its axis every place on its surface becomes lit up and plunged in darkness — that is, has its own day and night — alternately. Like all other true stars, the sun appears on the eastern horizon for all places on the Earth's surface, describing an apparent circuit across the sky during the day, and then disappearing again below the western horizon. When a star reaches the highest point above the horizon it is said to culminate or attain its zenith, and the sun's culminating point or zenith is called mid-day or noon. It has then reached the meridian of all places lying in the same degree of longitude — that is, crossed by any given meridian of longitude. As, moreover, every point of a parallel of latitude has a corresponding meri- dian of its own, it follows that for all places situated in 4 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. different meridians the time of mid-day is also different, varying according as the sun in its apparent course passes successively from one meridian to another. Hence, at any given moment all times of day are found on the Earth — that is to say, the time of day must continually vary from place to place as we go from west to east, or from east to west, the hour of noon being in all cases later the more to the west the place is situated. Thus mid-day is later at London than at Vienna, at Vienna than at Constan- tinople, and in New Zealand it is about midnight when it is noon in London. It follows that from place to place differences may occur not only of hours but even of a whole day. This explains the curious circumstance that any one travelling round the earth from west to east loses a day — that is, on his return he finds himself a day out in his reckoning ; while, if he retraces his steps from east to west, he finds himself conversely a day in advance. 3. The Seasons, Equinoxes, and Solstices. In its revolution round the sun the Earth's axis is not perpendicular to the plane of its orbit. It has been ascer- tained that the Earth's axis is inclined to the plane of its orbit round the sun at an angle of nearly 23-|°. The course of the Earth round the sun is called the Ecliptic, because solar and lunar eclipses occur only when the sun and moon are on the same line with the earth on the plane of its orbit. The orbit of the Earth, again, is itself not quite a perfect circle but a nearly circular ellipse, the sun being situated in one of its two foci. From this it follows that the Earth is not at all times equidistant from the sun ; but, since the equator and the ecliptic are inclined at an angle to one another, and must therefore intersect each other somewhere, both must necessarily have two points in common. These points are situated at the extremities of the shorter axis THE SEASONS. 5 of the ellipse. Hence, when the Earth reaches these points in its annnal course, the sun is vertically over the equator, and day and night are equal everywhere on the surface of the globe. This takes place once in spring and once in autumn, hence we speak of the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, which occur about the 20 th of March and the 2 2d of September. The accompanying diagram represents four positions of the Earth in its orbit, each 9 0° apart. Since the sun can only enlighten one half of the surface at once, viz. that which is turned towards it, the shaded portions of the globe here represent the dark, and the bright the enlightened halves of the Earth. In the positions A and C the sun is vertically over the inter- section of the equator and ecliptic. In these positions the poles of the Earth are on the extreme borders of the enlightened hemispheres, and it is day over half the northern and half the southern hemisphere at once. Every point of the Earth's surface describes half its daily course in light and half in darkness, and day and night are equal all over the globe ; hence the term equinox. The former represents the position of the vernal, the latter of the autumnal equinox of the northern hemisphere. Since the axis of the Earth is carried round parallel to itself and always pointing to the same direction in the sphere of the fixed stars, when the Earth has moved round to the position B, its North Pole and all the portion round it to a distance of 2 3 -J- degrees from it, or within what is named the Arctic Circle, remains constantly enlightened. The sun is vertical over the northern tropic or turning point, the Tropic of Cancer (from the sign of the zodiac Cancer, which is crossed by the sun in its apparent path at the summer solstice), 23-J- degrees north of the equator; and all the region comprised within 2 3 -J- degrees from the South Pole, or within the Antarctic Circle, is in darkness during the entire rotation, or has continual night 6 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. This is called the position of the Summer Solstice of the northern hemisphere, because at this point the sun appears to be, for the time, arrested in its course before entering on its retrograde movement, and occurs about the 21st of J une. At this time every point north of the equator has a day of more and a night of less than twelve hours' dura- tion, and days in the northern hemisphere are at their longest. When the earth has passed round to D, the phenomena of the position B occur again, but in exactly inverted order. The sun is then vertical over the southern turning point, called the Tropic of Capricorn (from the sign of Capricorn, or the he-goat, then crossed by the sun) ; all within the Arctic Circle revolves in continuous night, all within the Antarctic, or about the South Pole, is in continuous daylight. This is the position of the southern summer or northern Winter Solstice, and takes place about the 21st of December. All points within the northern hemisphere have then a day of less than twelve hours' duration and a longer night ; the days are then at their shortest in the northern, and at their longest in the southern hemisphere. 4. The Fixe Zones. The portions of the globe limited by these various parallels are called the Fixe Zones — the Torrid lying be- tween the tropics, two Frigid zones within the polar circles, and two Temperate between the polar circles and the tropics. 5. Varying Length of Day and Night. From the diverse relations above described of the Earth to the sun, it follows that for the different places on the Earth's surface the duration of day and night varies continually and considerably according to the time of year. LENGTH OF DAY AND NIGHT. r On the equator, however, day and night are always equal throughout the year. Here, in fact, there is a perpetual equinox, the equator being the only imaginary circle on the globe, one half of which is always in darkness and the other always in light. The poles, on the contrary, and their irnraediate vicinity have alternately six months of continuous light and six of continuous darkness. In other words, at the poles the year is made up of only one day and one night, each half-a-year long. But the dura- tion of day and night varies within the polar circles, out- ward from the actual pole, according to the latitude of each place. Hence the number of days during which the sun neither rises nor sets is here different, the longest day lasting six, five, four, three, two, or one month, as the case may be. During the rest of the time the sun remains below the horizon during nights of gradually increasing- length, till at midwinter they reach periods of one, two, three, four, or five months, corresponding to the duration of the midsummer daylight. Within the temperate zones there is a constant inter- change of day and night, each place enjoying longer days and shorter nights in summer, and enduring longer nights and shorter days in winter, in proportion to its distance from the equator. A similar discrepancy attends the commencement of the various seasons, as will be more fully explained when we come to the detailed description of the various regions of the Earth. VOLUME I. — AFRICA. CHAPTER I. GENERAL REMARKS. 1. Configuration of the Land. As seen on the map Africa presents a less shapely appearance than any other of the great divisions of the earth, Australia alone excepted. In fact its form vividly recalls both that of Australia and of South America, its contour being far less elegant than that either of Europe, Asia, or even North America. It has absolutely no pen- insulas, for the solitary eastern projection of Somali, confronted by the island of Socotra, can scarcely be regarded as anything more than an abortive attempt at such. From this circumstance it necessarily follows that the various bights and bays are themselves but little developed. We have doubtless on the north coast the OUTLINE OF AFEICA. 9 classic Syrtes, or Gulfs of Cabes and Sidra, and on the west coast the Gulf of Guinea. But these penetrate so little into the land that it seems almost a flattery to speak of them as gulfs. The Eed Sea alone forms a true gulf, in appearance not unlike that of California in North America; but even here the east coast belongs to the Asiatic peninsula of Arabia. 2. Islands. Africa also lacks the charm imparted by the numerous islands surrounding the shores of other continents. There are some few in the Gulf of Guinea, and the north-west coast is fringed by the Cape Verd, Canary, and Azore groups, the latter, however, so far removed from the mainland as scarcely to be entitled to be credited to this continent. The east coast is more richly endowed in this respect, and here as elsewhere the general rule is verified that the larger islands occur to the east only of the main divisions of the globe. Here it is that we accordingly meet with the vast island of Madagascar, almost a little continent in itself, and in all probability an actual rem- nant of Zemitria, that immense continent and home of the lemur and the loris, which may have formerly stretched across the Indian Ocean as far as Ceylon and even to the Keeling isles, if not still farther eastwards. However that may be, the coral reefs between Mozambique and Mombas indicate that the east coast of Africa is rising at the present time, and the same is true of Madagascar and the Seychelles, together with the sugar-producing islands of Mauritius and Reunion. The African shore of the Eed Sea also, no less than the opposite coast of Arabia, seems to be advancing into the water, this inland sea possessing no more than an average depth of about 100 fathoms. 1 0 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAYEL. 3. Physical Aspect of the Interior. The monotony of its coast lines seems also to be repeated in the uniform disposition of the land in the interior of this continent. The whole of Africa might strictly speaking he described as nothing but one vast table-land, varied here and there by a few more or less precipitous slopes. There are certainly some low-lying regions, and even depressions below the level of the sea, but all of them very limited in extent. The great masses of the hilly regions seem to be confined to the east coast, where an alpine range, be- ginning with the Abyssinian highlands, and rising in one or two isolated points above the level of perpetual snow, stretches southwards several degrees below the equator. A certain grandeur is also doubtless presented by the Mauritanian mountain system, while some iso- lated peaks towards the Eed Sea and at the sources of the Niger and Orange rivers attain respectable eleva- tions. But on the whole in this vast continent, nearly two thirds the size of Asia, by far the most prominent feature is a moderately elevated table-land, and even the mountain ranges themselves by which it is broken present as a rule everywhere the same uniform appearance of sheer walls, with truncated summits, as follows from the nature of the sandstone of which this continent is mainly composed. This monotony of its general outlines is of course true only of its great geographical features, and not of parti- cular regions. Here we find tracts of tropical vegetation and luxuriance succeeded by wildernesses and barren wastes, hilly landscapes of varied beauty interchanging with uniform table-lands, and now and then mountain groups rivalling the sublimest aspects of Alpine scenery. PHYSICAL FEATURES. 11 4. Rivers and Lakes. These African highlands are furrowed by great streams, in number, however, by no means proportionate to the extent of the continent, which here again exhibits a striking poverty of natural endowments. Of these the most important are the Nile, the Niger, the Congo, and the Zambesi, of which the Congo equals, if it does not surpass, the Amazon in wealth of water. They all are obstructed by rapids in their lower course, and do not therefore afford immediate access to the interior of the continent. On the other hand, Central Africa proper harbours a considerable number of fresh-water lakes, some of them, such as the Victoria Xyanza, the Albert Nyanza, the Tan- ganyika, and iSyassa, presenting water surfaces of imposing grandeur. 5. Tropical Position. Of all the divisions of the globe Africa is justly con- sidered as the most thorough representative of the tropical world, for it alone is situated mainly within the tropics, comparatively but small portions of it stretching beyond these limits into the temperate zones north and south. It is further to be noted that, of these two sections, the northern belongs entirely to the sub-tropical regions ; Tunis, which is about the most northern city in Africa, being situated nearly in the same parallel of latitude as St. Louis and San Francisco in America, Yedo in Japan, and Tsi-nan in China. Hence it is that in the elevated plateaux of Africa alone real cold is felt, and even here only in a moderate degree, for the latitude of Cape Town itself corresponds with that of Monte Video, Buenos Ayres, and Santiago, in South America, and of Sydney in Australia. 12 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAVEL. 6. Inhabitants — Independent Races. The African races are in fully as backward a state of development as are the natural features of the regions occupied by them. At the mention of the word Africa we involuntarily think exclusively of the pure negro type, which, in consequence of long-established opinions, we are apt to look upon as the only occupant of this continent. And, in truth, a certain uniformity unmistakably charac- terises its inhabitants, sufficiently accounting for, if not justifying, the fact that earlier and less thorough research was satisfied with comprising all of them under the one general denomination of negroes. It remained for more recent and more accurate inves- tigations to show that the pure negro type occupies com- paratively but a small portion of Africa, scarcely spreading anywhere south of the equator. The whole country south of the negroes is mainly peopled by the Bantu tribes, differing in speech altogether from them, and including such races as the Kafirs, the Bechuanas, Basutos, etc., but not the Hottentots and Bushmen. The Hottentots form a division of their own, though now little more than the last survivors of a ruined race and people ; while the Bushmen belong to a group whose classification still remains to be satisfactorily determined. In West Africa we meet with the Fulah tribes, and north of the negroes some Hamitic and Shemitic peoples, who have migrated hither from the east. To the same Hamitic stock belong also the Gallas and the Somalis of the extreme eastern corner of Africa. Eecent investigation has thus succeeded in grouping all the inhabitants of this continent under six great divisions : four indigenous — the Fulahs, Negroes proper, Bantus, and Hottentots ; and two foreign — the Hamitic and Shemitic families. PEOPLES OF AFRICA. 13 In the islands, especially on the east coast, other races are met with, the most important of which are the Hovas or Malagashes of Madagascar, who are unquestion- ably members of the widespread Malay family. 7. Culture — European and Mohammedan Influences. The uninhabited wastes that were long supposed to occupy the interior seem in reality to be more or less fully peopled, in some places even overcrowded. Nor do these teeming populations roam about lawlessly in unsettled regions, or in search of a precarious sustenance in temporary resting-places. Here also there are kingdoms and states jealous of each other's power and limits ; here also wars are waged for land and possessions, for dominion and influence ; for the coloured no less than the white races have developed statecraft, and can boast of a poli- tical system. They appeal to arms whenever the funda- mental principle that "might is right" finds favour in their eyes. They conclude peace and form treaties, the occasional non-observance of which certainly constitutes no radical distinction between them and the white races. Nay, more; in the very heart of the country those political revolutions are occasionally brought about that we would gladly describe as " rectifications of the frontier" were we in possession of accurate charts of those regions, or of sufficient knowledge of the events occurring in them. Here many a dark genius well knows how to turn to the best account the character and superior qualities of his race. He at times succeeds in widening the limits of his sway to an incredible extent, founding for the time being a sort of imperial rule, ever fated to be again de- stroyed by sanguinary civil strife after the strong arm has withered by which it was built up. At the same time, however, all this movement of the 14 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAYEL. African races possesses but little if any interest for us, resting as it does on a moral and intellectual basis of an extremely low order, which has achieved but feeble tri- umphs in the arts of life. "Without overlooking or at all undervaluing the primitive and special culture of such negro kingdoms as Bornu and Baghirmi, it must still be confessed that there are no traces of a higher culture in Africa, except in those places alone that have felt the influence of Europeans, or at least of the Arabs. In fact, the influence of the latter is in many respects the most powerful, because the difference between their culture and that of the natives is less marked than in the case of Europeans. Herein, also, is doubtless to be sought the explanation of the astonishing spread of Mohammedanism in Africa. It has already reached the equator, and penetrated into the very heart of the country, a result that has been brought about silently and without the co-operation of special teachers ; whereas Christianity, notwithstanding the zeal of the missionaries of various sects, has been en- abled to secure the adherence of but few proselytes. And although the teachings of Islamism occupy the lowest place amongst the civilised religions of the present day, they nevertheless produce a relatively civilising effect when contrasted with the cruel fetichism of the natives. At the same time, the spread of Mohammedanism should inspire us with no exaggerated hopes for the future, as it appears that, so far, contact with foreign influences has in many respects been attended with strikingly deleterious effects on the African races. According to the various degrees of culture of its inhabitants, the learned traveller George Schweinfurth divides Africa into three domains, whose limits correspond with the movements of commerce working on the masses in the interior from its most advanced outposts all along the CULTURE AND INDUSTRIES. 15 coast. There is first of all the domain of firearms, nearest the coast, especially in the northern half of the continent, penetrating far inwards, and maintaining -with Europe more or less important commercial relations. Farther inland we meet with a region which the European markets have so far been enabled to provide with cotton goods by means of native traders. Lastly, in the very heart of central Africa, and hitherto totally cut off from all contact with the European world, there is a wide- spread tract of country, in which the scanty raiment of the natives is limited to skins and hides rudely prepared on the spot. Between the two last might be formed a sort of transition territory, in which copper and glass beads con- stitute the principal articles of trade amongst the inhabit- ants. This is at the same time the chief centre of the slave trade. To these three degrees of culture correspond also the various stages of art and industry of the present African races, only here the reverse has taken place of what usually occurs elsewhere, as shown, for instance, in the pro- gress of development amongst the leading historical nations. International intercourse of every sort, commercial relations, peaceful and even warlike migrations, have a tendency to promote a higher degree of culture amongst many peoples. Others again become crushed and extinguished by contact with a civilisation of a higher order. But neither of these results do we see brought about in the Africa of the present day. European influences, instead of a fructifying and vivifying, produce nothing but a disturbing effect, as is shown in the indigenous arts of the Africans. The greater the progress at present made here and there by any African race in the path of outward culture, the less developed become their own productive powers and all the greater their dependence for the wants of a 16 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. refined existence on European arts. The restless enter- prise and industry of the white races naturally defies all native competition, and stifles all attempts at imitation on the part of the indigenous populations. A still more striking illustration of this truth is afforded by the Mohammedan peoples, who are in posses- sion of a great portion of the northern half of the con- tinent. Yet from year to year they show themselves less productive in their own arts and industries, whilst in their turn exercising on the inhabitants of the second above- mentioned domain a similar influence to that exercised by the Europeans over the Mohammedans themselves. This is best seen in the negro states of central Soudan, where, since their subjection to the yoke of Islam, a gradual fall- ing off in the progress of outward culture has clearly manifested itself, and where the last traces of all indi- genous industry threaten ere long to disappear. 8. Area and Population. According to a careful computation made under the direction of Dr. Behm, Africa has an area of 11,515,000 square miles, of which only 22 per cent consists of woods and cultivable land, whilst 37 per cent are covered with deserts, 14 per cent are steppes, 5 per cent scrub, 21 per cent savannas. The same authority estimates the total population at 206,000,000 souls, being about 18 inhabit- ants to a square mile, as compared with 8 8 living on the same area in Europe. PLATEAU OF BARBARY. 17 CHAPTEE II. THE REGIONS OF THE ATLAS. 1. Physical Aspect — Soil — Cultivation. Africa is roughly distributed into a series of partially ' independent physical sections. If we look at a map, we cannot fail to notice how sharply defined and cut off from the southern regions is the mountainous district occupying the western half of the north coast washed by the Medi- terranean Sea. It stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf of Cabes, or Syrtis Minor, in the Mediterranean, being inclosed southwards by a hilly range sloping off to- wards the great desert of Sahara. It comprises the main portions of the empire of Marocco, the French colony of Algeria, and the regency of Tunis, though all three of these political divisions extend southwards to some distance over the northern Sahara. The highland in question runs westwards parallel with the north coast, and long figured on the maps under the name of Mount Atlas. But in reality the Atlas is a lofty mountain chain, situated entirely within the limits of Marocco, and crossing it in a north-easterly direction. Hence it would be a mistake to include the Algerian heights in the Atlas system. Though the range running parallel with the Mediterranean coast is also described by French geographers as the Great and the Little Atlas, whoever visits both countries will find, as Gerhard Bohlfs remarks, that Algeria possesses nothing but outstretching uplands skirted by a hilly range, and that the Great Atlas is confined G 18 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. altogether to Marocco. This was also the opinion of the ancients, who made the Great Atlas begin at Cape Ghlr in the Atlantic, and end at the present el Delr in the Mediterranean. In general the Atlas range may be said to present the form of a horse-shoe. Opening towards the north-west, one of its extremities is formed by the Eas el Deir, the other by the headland of the Ghlr. The whole range gradually descends by wide terraces to the lowlands. Its highest point seems to lie a little to the south of the city of Marocco, where we meet with the J ebel Miltsin, attaining an elevation of 11,400 feet. From the northern spur of the Atlas, as far as the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, the whole country in Marocco is capable of cultivation. The arable land in Algeria is called " Tell," a term unknown in Marocco, where, in fact, no such distinction is made, though neces- sitated in Algeria by the varying nature of the soil. The only unfertile tract in noxthern Marocco, that is on the slopes descending towards the Mediterranean, is the so- called Angad, lying south of Mount Beni-Snassen, and crossed by the Muluya, But this district is no more barren or void of vegetation than are the uplands of Algeria south of Sebdu, Saida, or Tiaret. Whenever the dew and moisture are sufficiently abundant, and occur at the right season, the whole land is at once laid under cul- tivation. 2. Natural Features of Algeria. Still more simple than in Marocco is the distribution of the land in Algeria, where three belts may be clearly distinguished — the Tell, the region of uplands or steppes, and the Algerian Sahara. The Tell begins on the Medi- terranean coast, stretching up along the whole length of the land to the foot of the Middle Atlas of French MOUNTAINS OF ALGERIA. 19 geographers. This is the most fertile portion of Algeria, producing cereals, leguminous plants such as beans and peas, vegetables, rice, tobacco, cotton, and even wine, ir> abundance ; in a word, in every way suited for perma- nent settlement. Here, also, we find numerous forests, planted especi- ally with noble oaks and cedars, together with luxuriant pasture lands. Many streams also (the so-called Wady or Wad), swamps, and hills, everywhere cross the Tell, which has altogether an area of about 54,000 square miles, with an average breadth of not more than 47 miles, — wider, however, towards the west than the east of the country. In this Tell, and more particularly on the coast, are naturally situated the most important cities of Algeria. As the land rises rapidly from the sea-level to a con- siderable elevation, the approach to the interior is ren- dered more than usually arduous. Parallel and close to the coast there runs a somewhat broken range of hills similar to those met with in Venezuela and California. It is this range that the French call the Lesser Atlas, or the coast mountains (les montagnes du littoral), though in reality rather a series of isolated chains, such as the Jebel Ujcla, the Tessala, the Jebel Dahra (5184 feet), and the mountains of Algiers ; the Little Atlas, or mountains of Bliclah (5381 feet), the Jurjura, with the summit peak of Leila Khedija1 (7572 feet), and the Great Babor (6463 feet). This last, lying east of the city of Algiers, between the mouths of the Isser and the Kebir, is distin- guished by the name of the " Great" and " Little Kabyle." These clusters of hills are here and there varied by wide and extremely fertile plains, such as those of Metija near Algiers, and Mleta near Oran. 1 So named from the tomb of the venerated female Alarabut Lella- Khedija on its summit. 20 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. Immediately to the south of this coast range, and mostly in direct connection with it, there rises the not less elevated parallel chain, forming the proper southern limits of the Tell, and described by many French writers as the " Atlas Moyen," but which we should prefer to call the Algerian Middle Eange, and of which the mountains of Tlemcen (6017 feet), the Saida range, the mass of Uarensenis, surrounded by the Sheliff on three sides (5952 feet), the mountains of Dira-Uennugha (6109 feet), and the mountains of Setif, are the chief masses from west to east. The second belt of land, behind the middle range of the Tell, consists of monotonous table-lands (region des plateaux) producing a scanty vegetation, rising to a height of 3800 feet, interspersed with a long series of brackish lakes, or salt marshes, here called Sebkha or Slwtt (plural sbakhi, " marshes," and slitoot, " shores "). This region begins in the eastern part of Marocco, on the slopes of the spur of the Great Atlas, facing northwards, and reaches almost without interruption as far as Tunis. Proceeding from the frontier of Marocco we meet with the plain in which are situated the SJiott-el-Eharbi (or western shott), and the long SJwtt-esh-Shergwi (or eastern shott), at the south- ern foot of Mount Saida ; the Saghes plateau ; that of Hodna, with the Sliott-es- Saida (the happy lake), and the table-land of the Sbach, separated from the preceding one by the low heights of the Bu-Thaleb. These rocky steppes possess but few streams, and even these become dry as soon as the rainy season is over. Corn grows in some favoured spots only, but after winter has passed the land is covered with dwarf aromatic herbs and high grasses, supplying fodder for the cattle reared by the inhabitants of these regions. The herds are watered at the stagnant pools that remain in the hollows of the rocks after the wet season is over, which are named gliedir MOUNTAINS OF ALGERIA. 21 (traitor) by the Arabs, since no dependence is to be placed on their supply. In the western portion of this wilderness nothing is met with except sand-drifts. This table-land is bordered on the sonth by a third parallel chain, reckoning from the shores of the Mediter- ranean. It is called the Great Atlas by some Trench writers, by others the Chaine Saharienne. The former name, as above stated, being strictly reserved for the highlands of Marocco, we would prefer to describe the chain in question as the Sahara Border Eange. A glance at any good map will show at once that this range stretches east and west parallel with the chief spur of the Marocco Atlas, advancing across Algeria as the southern limit of the steppes, and reaching even as far as Tunis, the configuration of which country is entirely determined by the eastern offshoots of the Algerian highlands. Throughout the whole of its extent, from the Atlantic Ocean to Cape Bon in Tunis, which might perhaps be regarded as its eastern limit, this long tract of highland forms the boundary of those districts which, geographi- cally speaking, belong to the Great Sahara, and which may be looked on as its northern portion. Hence the expression Sahara Border Eange seems fully justified. In its general aspect it resembles the Algerian coast and middle ranges, not forming a continuous unbroken line, but rather a series of detached elevations, some 40 or 45 miles broad, rising here and there to considerable heights, which are usually covered with snow till the end of March. Amongst them may be more particularly men- tioned the mountains of Ksel, the highest part of the western province of Oran, having one summit rising to 6595 feet above the sea; the Jebel Amur, farther east, and of nearly the same elevation ; and the Aures moun- tains, towards the east of the range — the Mons Aurasius of Procopius, and having the summits of Mahmel and 22 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. Sheliah, or Chellia, the highest points of Algeria. Sheliah, somewhat higher than Mahmet, attains 7585 feet, or is not much less than half the height of Mont Blanc. Its northern face is deeply cut into ravines, in which torrents flow down to join the Wady Essora, and woods of holm oak cover the base of the mountain. From the summit, says M. Mel (Geographic de TAlgSrie, 1876), there opens out one of the grandest panoramas which the eye of man could behold. To the south are seen the pale, bare, and broken declivities which descend to the Wady el Abiad, and in the dis- tance the plains of the Sahara ; to the west the tops of many mountains, among which those of Jebel Tugur and of the chain of Ouled-Sultan are prominent ; to the north, beyond the wooded base of the mountain, extend the wide plateaux with their glistening shotts ; and towards Tunis the eastern Aures and Um Debben mountains are seen, cut into by deep valleys. Southwards the Sahara border range descends some- what abruptly from an average elevation of 5900 feet, while at its eastern extremity the fall is still more pre- cipitous. Here are situated the gorge of El Kantara, at the foot of the lofty Aures range, only 1697 feet, and the town of Biskra, a day's journey farther south, only 410 feet above the sea level 3. The Algerian Sahara. The third great division of the country is that of the Algerian Sahara, which, sloping southward from the border range of the liigh plateaus to the extreme limits of Africa claimed by France, embraces an extent not far short of that of the two former divisions taken together. The line which separates the high plateaus from the Sahara is marked along the bordering range by a number THE ALGERIAN SAHARA. 23 of points called by the Arabs " Foum-es-Sahara," or mouths of the Sahara, and follows an irregular parallel inland corresponding to the Mediterranean coast line. The fantastic descriptions of old writers, who represented the Sahara as uniformly a vast ocean of bare sand, with- out variation of level or of character, without vegetation or water, a wilderness on which one was certain to die of thirst if he escaped from the hands of savages or from the teeth of wild animals, have long been known to be inaccurate; and expeditions and journeys, undertaken either in putting down revolts of the natives, or in the cause of commerce or of science, have given us a tolerably com- plete notion of its true character. Certain points of the Sahara which are inhabited, says General Daumas, are termed Fiafi ; other habitable districts take the name Kifar, a word which signifies " abandoned ; " uninhabit- able portions are called Falat. These three names each represent one of the characteristics of the Sahara. Fiafi is the oasis round a cluster of springs or wells, to which all living things are drawn under the palms or fruit trees for shelter from the sun and the " simoum." Kifar is the plain country, generally sandy and bare, but which, after it is moistened by the winter rains, is covered with spring herbs ; hither, at that season, the nomad tribes, who are generally encamped round the oases, come to pasture their flocks. Falat, lastly, is the vast sterile and naked country, the sea of sand, the waves of which, agitated to-day by the simoum, are to-morrow rigid and still, and are easily traversed by those desert fleets called caravans. The Sahara presents now a stretch of sand, then hills and ravines, marshes and dunes ; here it has villages and populous centres, there it is inhabited only by nomads. From the bordering chain of mountains there descend to it during the rainy season numberless torrents, the channels of which, quickly dried 24 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. up by the sun's heat, form a network of ravines. The centres of population are sometimes separated by perfectly barren and waste lands of some days' march across, but in many directions lines of wells at intervals serve as camping stations, and mark out the lines of traffic. Masses of rock called gours (singular, gara), standing sometimes in an open plain swept by the winds, in a torrent bed, or in the basin of a " sebkha," diversify the surface of the Sahara. In some places these gours are disposed in long, nearly regular, and parallel chains, though their indi- vidual form may be conical, triangular, or rudely cubical. These chains of varying height have between them sandy valleys, often filled up with heaps of sand which increase, in height little by little. All the winds, says M. Largeau, help to form dunes in the Sahara, but that from the east is the most powerful in drifting the sands. The dunes, however, have no proper movement, the surface only is changed, and its contour modified by the action of the winds. Besides the ravines and torrent beds which descend southward into the Algerian Sahara from the border range of the plateaus, two great wadis, or dry channels, enter the territory from far south, and form very marked features of the region. These are the Wady Igharghar, a word which in Berber means " running water," which has its origin in the country of the Tuaregs, on the plateau of Ahaggar, between 23° and 24° S. This great dry channel descends, in an almost due northerly course, for upwards of 750 miles, to where it terminates in the Shott Melgigh, or Melrhir, one of a chain of marshes which extend along the base of the Sahara border range, eastward through Tunis to near the Gulf of Cabes, and each of which lies to some extent beneath the level of the Mediterranean. The other great dry channel, which passes through the Algerian Sahara from the south, is that RIVERS OF ALGERIA AND MAROCCO. 25 of the Wady Mia, which may be considered as a large south-western tributary of the Igharghar, joining it about 60 miles before it opens into the Melrhir. 4. JRivers. The nature of the whole of this northern portion of Africa is evidently little favourable to the formation of large streams, and along the whole length of the coast in question there is scarcely a single river possessing any special importance for the interior of the country. In Tunis and Algeria the more considerable streams mostly make their way down from the region of the steppes ; hence before reaching the Mediterranean they are obliged to find an outlet through the passes of the Algerian middle and coast ranges. The consequence is that the course of many of them, such as the Sheliff, often lies for a considerable distance parallel with the sea coast. All the Algerian streams, though large and swollen during the winter rains, shrink down to a small thread of water in summer, or disappear altogether for a time. In Marocco, with the exception of the Muluya, which also flows down from the steppes, the rivers take their rise on the north- west slopes of the Atlas, thence, of course, running into the Atlantic. Such are the Wad Kus, the Sebu, Bu- Eegreg, the Um-el-Ehea (mother of herbs), and the great Tensift. Beyond this range, however, we come upon the Sus, which has a westerly course. Still farther south the maps show a Wad Nun, which however means nothing but an open plain or district ; the true name of the river here is Wad Asaka or Aksabi. Lastly, to the extreme south and beyond the Sahara border range, we have the Wad Draa, a true desert stream, one-sixth longer than the Bhine. From its source in the Atlas down to the point where its southern course is changed to a westerly one, 2G COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. the upper Draa is never dry even in the season of the greatest heats, though below this its waters fill the channel and reach the sea only once in the year, when the snows melt on the mountains. 5. Climate of Marocco. As a rule the climate of North Africa, though warm is healthy, more particularly in Marocco. This is partly due to the elevation of the land, the cool breezes from the Ocean and Mediterranean, and the absence of low-lying morasses, such as were so frequently met with in Algeria when the French first began to settle there. Other causes of the salubrious climate of Marocco are the rich forest lands of the Atlas slopes, which equalise the temperature, and, jointly with the snows of the mountain tops, keep the streams supplied with a constant flow of water through- out the summer; lastly, the absence of those shotts, or shallow salt marshes and swamps, which stretch across Algeria and Tunis in an easterly direction. 6. Rainfall. There is naturally a marked difference in the mois- ture supply north and south of the Atlas. While the rainy season begins in the country north of that range in October, lasting to the end of February, it does not set in on the south side till January, ceasing during the first half of February, and extending inwards only to about 7° 40' longitude west of Greenwich. Hence it does not affect the southern part of the district watered by the Draa. In the Oasis of Tafilet rain seldom falls, and in that of Tuat scarcely once every twenty years. The rain limit south of the Atlas thus passes from 7° 40' west lon- gitude and 29° north latitude obliquely in a north-easterly CLIMATE OF MAROCCO AND ALGERIA. 27 direction, and parallel with the Atlas as far as the Figig Oasis near the Algerian frontier. The dews also are very abundant in the districts north of the Atlas and on the Atlas itself, but slight on its southern side. 7. Winds. From October to February north-westerly winds pre- vail almost exclusively, shifting most in the latter month, when as many as six or seven opposing currents succeed each other in the course of the day. In March northerly breezes prevail, after which to the end of September south- westerly and southern winds. On the Atlantic coast a very refreshing sea breeze blows inland during the sum- mer from nine in the morning till the afternoon, when the south-west wind acquires the ascendant. These south-western and southern winds often bring with them clouds of locusts, as in the years 1778 and 1780. The Atlas, however, seems to present a barrier to these voracious insects, which are met with north of that range in small and detached swarms only. 8. Temperature and Seasons of Algeria. In Algiers and Tunis the climate is exceedingly uni- form, much resembling that of Spain, Portugal, Italy, Provence, and Greece. But in the Sahara, that is south of the great Border Eange, the temperature is quite tro- pical, the heat, even in Biskra, being very oppressive and fatal to many Europeans. On the uplands of the Tell, as in central Europe, there are distinguished four seasons, succeeding each other very gently. The greatest heat lasts from the middle of June till about the middle of September, during which period not a drop of rain falls anywhere in Algeria. Then begin the beneficent autumn 28 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. and winter rains, the sun sinning out very warmly at intervals, so that by the beginning of October the whole land is again clothed in the richest vegetation. The rainy season lasts till March. On the whole the climate of Algeria is healthy, always excepting the marshy districts on the coast and the low- lying oases in the south. Europeans arriving at the proper time, that is in January and February, and acclimatising themselves by habits of temperance and other precautions, may succeed in adapting themselves to a climate which, however, as a rule, does not act beneficially on European constitutions. Still there are isolated spots that can be well recommended to invalids, and the city of Algiers itself is a favourable residence for the consumptive. 9. Natural Products of North Africa. North Africa is unusually rich in natural products of various kinds. The land is at once recognised as forming part of the great African continent by the presence of such beasts of prey as the lion, the panther, the jackal, and the hyena. The last two are very numerous, but as devourers of carrion so useful, that in Algeria it is forbidden to kill them. Among other larger wild animals, antelopes, gazelles, and the mouflon, are the most important. Side by side with these are the more serviceable domestic animals — the horse, the mule, the camel, the dromedary, oxen, sheep, and goats. Ichneumons, lizards, tortoises, and leeches, are met with in great numbers, the chameleon less frequently. Among the birds are the eagle, falcon, and vulture, the thrush, the swallow which frees the country from myriads of mosquitoes, and the starling, flocks of which at some periods of the year are so large as to obscure the sun in passing. The cuckoo spends the winter in north Africa; pigeons, partridges, and quails PEOPLES OF NORTH AFRICA. 29 are abundant ; as are also the heron, pelican, and swan, besides ducks and grebe, the plumage of the latter forming an article of commerce of considerable value. The stork, which arrives about the middle of January in the Tell country and leaves in the beginning of August, builds on the terraces of the houses, the belfries of the churches, or in the minarets of the mosques, and is everywhere pro- tected and almost reverenced, as the ibis of Egypt formerly was, for the service it renders in destroying the grasshop- pers, frogs, lizards, and snakes. The vegetation bears the most striking resemblance to that of Languedoc and Provence. Here, as there, nourish the olive, laurel, orange, citron, almond, and fig-tree, myr- tle, pine, white poplar, aloe, and oleander. But the Mediterranean districts in Africa bear an unmistakably tropical character, and the climate is here warmer, the atmosphere softer, than on the opposite shores of southern Europe. Hence also, besides the European plants, there are here found many other kinds, either coming originally from the East or indigenous to this African region. The special vegetation of the tropics flourishes in the oases of the south. The mineral kingdom yields iron, lead, copper, cinna- bar, rock salt rarely, but neither coal nor any of the precious metals. 10. Inhabitants. A rapid glance at the history of this region may enable us to understand more clearly the present relations of its inhabitants. The aboriginal people of north Africa appear to have been a branch of the Hamitic stock, and though they were conquered at various times by the Phoenicians, Ptomans, Vandals, and Arabs, they seem to have retained to a great extent their distinctive peculiar- ities. The descendants of these aborigines are the Berbers 30 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. who still occupy the greater part of this area. Up to about the seventh century the Berbers appear to have formed the greater portion of the population inhabiting the shores of the Mediterranean from Egypt westward to the Atlantic, but on the great Arab immigrations which then took place they were driven from these shores to the fastnesses of the Atlas, and to the deserts of the Sahara, in some parts of which they in turn pressed back the negro inhabitants toward the Soudan. At one time the Berbers professed the Christian religion, but after the Arabs had chased them from the fertile plains, they appear to have degenerated in every way, and adopting the religion of their conquerors became bigoted adherents of Mohammedanism About the end of the fifteenth century Marocco was formed into a monarchy, which, notwith- standing internal dissensions, attained great prosperity, and before the end of the next hundred years had ex- tended its supremacy not only over a large portion of what is now known as Algeria, but southward over the desert to Timbuktu and the Mger, and even as far as the Guinea coast, where it came into collision with the Portu- guese settlements. But in the middle of the seventeenth century this empire fell to pieces, and was succeeded by that of the Sherifs of Tafilet, who conquered both Marocco proper and Fez, and uniting the whole country under one government, founded the dynasty which rules at the present time. Till 1148 Arabian princes ruled at Al- jezirah, " the island," the present Algiers, after which up to 1269 this part of north Africa as well as Spain was governed by the Almohades, at first a religious sect of Mohammedans, afterwards a warlike political power. About the beginning of the sixteenth century the Arabs, or Moors, who were driven out of Spain, settled in north Africa, and began to revenge themselves by piracy, draw- ing down an attack from the Spanish monarch Ferdinand, POLITICAL CHANGES IN NORTH AFRICA. 31 who took Algiers in 1509. One of the Algerian princes, whose territories were threatened by the Spaniards, now called in the assistance of the Greek renegade Barbarossa, who had made himself famous as a Turkish pirate chief. Barbarossa on arriving turned his bands of corsairs against his allies, and ultimately made himself sultan of Algiers. The successor of Barbarossa put himself under the pro- tection of the Ottoman court, and by the aid of the Turks drove the Spaniards out of north Africa, afterwards estab- lishing the system of military despotism and systematic piracy in the Mediterranean, which, during three centuries, sank Algeria in degradation, and drew down upon it frequent chastisements from Christian powers, ending in the French taking possession of it in 1830. 32 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. CHAPTER III. THE EMPIRE OF MAROCCO AND ITS INHABITANTS. 1. Extent, Population, and Government. Of the four north African states, whose natural features we have above described, Marocco is the most westerly and the largest in extent. The frontier line is seldom clearly defined in Africa, so that it is scarcely ever pos- sible to give the limits of a state with any accuracy. For the most part we must rest satisfied with approxi- mate estimates, both for the area of the country and the number of its inhabitants. The area of Marocco is given by Eohlfs as 256,000 square miles, or a fourth part larger than France, and its population at 6,500,000. It forms a Mohammedan sul- tanate, the Arabic name of which is Maghreb-el- Aksa, " the far west," and the sultan, to whom we usually assign the title of emperor, would seem to be about the most absolute of reigning sovereigns. Little is known of the internal political relations, nor do they seem to possess any great interest for strangers. The country is divided into a number of governments, of which some, however, are never visited by the sultan. In fact the river Sebu forms the northern limit, beyond which he never passes except in time of war. The three cities of Fez, Marocco, and Mequinez, where he keeps court alternately, as well as the double city of Saleh- Rabat, by which he passes on his way from Fez to Marocco, are all situated south of that river. MAIM) CC O. MAROCCO CHIEF CITIES, 33 2. Hie Imperial Cities of Fez, Mequinez, and Mdrocco. The Italian traveller Edmondo de Amicis, one of the latest by whom it has been visited, describes the situation of Fez as very beautiful. It stretches out between two hills crowned by the ruins of ancient fortresses. Beyond these hills the horizon is confined by a range of mountains. Through the centre of the city flows the river Pearl, dividing it into two parts — the old town on the right and the new on the left bank. The whole is enclosed by a turreted wall, which, though very old and partly in ruins, is still supported by numerous strongly -built towers. From the above-mentioned heights the eye commands the whole city, with its countless white houses, flat roofs, cupolas, and graceful minarets, interspersed with lofty palms and patches of vegetation, presenting alto- gether an extremely varied and attractive prospect. From the neighbourhood of the gates and the nearest hills the whole country round about is covered with ruined build- ings of every sort — cells of recluses, broken arches of ancient aqueducts, tombs, forts, and the like. The smaller of the two hills flanking the town is covered with thousands of aloes, many of which attain a height of eleven or twelve feet. Less favourable is the account given by de Amicis of the interior of the city, which was yet at one time known as the Mecca of the west. " To right and left are high dead walls, like those of a fortress, succeeded by lofty houses without windows, but disclosing frequent rents and fissures ; streets now ascending precipitous steeps, now leading down abrupt inclines, but always encumbered with rubbish and refuse ; numerous long covered passages, through which the wayfarer is obliged to grope his way in the dark, occasionally running into blind alleys or narrow dripping corners, strewn with the bones of ani- D 34 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. mals and all sorts of garbage — the whole veiled in a dim light, producing a most depressing effect on the spirits. In some places the ground is so broken up, the dust so thick, the stench so intolerable, the air so swarm- ing with buzzing mosquitoes, that one is fain to stop and draw breath. From time to time we hear the rumbling of a windmill, the splashing of water, the hum of the spindle, A MAKOCCO FUNDUK OH INN. a chorus of shrill voices, presumedly from some neighbour- ing children's school ; but to the eye nothing of all this is anywhere visible. We approach the centre of the city ; the streets become more thronged, men gazing at us in amazement, women turning aside or concealing themselves, children shouting and running away, or shaking their fists at us from a safe distance. We come upon detached fountains richly ornamented with mosaics, noble archways and courts encircled with graceful arcades. At last we turn into one of the main streets, about two yards wide. CITY OF FEZ. 35 We become the object of general attraction, every one pressing round us, so that the soldiers, under whose escort we have been placed, find it dim cult to keep us clear of the menacing crowds. Every moment we are obliged to step aside in order to make room for some Moorish cava- lier, or for an ass laden with gory sheep's heads, or it may be a camel bearing along some closely veiled Mahom- medan lady. To the right and the left are the open bazaars thronged with men, gateways and courts filled with all sorts of wares, mosques with open doors through which are visible the believers prostrate at their devotions. Here the atmosphere is heavy with a strong fragrance of aloes, aromatic spices, incense, and resin. Swarms of children pass by with scald-heads and all manner of cuts and scars ; repulsive old hags bareheaded and with ex- posed breasts ; idiots nearly stark naked crowned with garlands, with branches in their hands and incessantly laughing, singing, and dancing about. At a street corner we ineet a 1 saint/ an exceedingly fat man, naked from top to toe, resting with one hand on a spear covered with a red cloth and dragging himself along with much labour. He scowls at us and mutters a few unintelligible words as he passes. Soon after chance brings in our way four soldiers carrying off an unlucky wretch, hacked and covered with blood — evidently some thief caught in the act, for the crowd of children at his heels keep incessantly shouting : 1 His hand, his hand, off with his hand ! ' In another street we meet two men with an open bier, on which is exposed a corpse withered up to a mummy, in a white linen sack and bound round at its neck, waist, and knees. I involuntarily ask myself, Am I awake or dreaming ? whether the cities of Fez and Paris can possibly be situated on the same planet ! " Mequinez, the third imperial city, is described by the same traveller, in contrast to Fez, as a very pleasant 36 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. cheerful place, with wide though crooked streets. The houses are not immoderately high, and as the garden walls are also low, one everywhere gets a view of the lovely hills by which the place is encircled. A grateful shade is here also given by the many trees and bowers planted not only in the courts and gardens, but even in the streets and public places. Altogether, though evi- dently fallen from its former greatness, Mequinez still breathes an air of comfort and repose, and may still boast of at least one noble building, the governor's palace, richly ornamented with mosaics, and standing by itself on a spacious though somewhat deserted site. In point of population, which however does not exceed 50,000, Marocco or Marrakesh is the second city of the empire. It is situated far to the south of Fez and Mequinez, on the Wad Tensift, and so to say at the foot of the Great Atlas. Surrounded by immense gardens, Marocco has fallen into a state of complete decay, and is now but seldom visited by Europeans. Gerhard Eohlfs passed two days here, leaving his fundiok or inn only in the evening in order to escape detection. Since then the place was visited in 1872 by Dr. von Eritsch and Dr. J. J. Eein, and in the same year by Dr. Arthur Leared, not without considerable risk. " Entering the city," says Dr. Leared, " our way led through waste places and narrow winding streets, in parts much crowded. With the exception of some spitting and hissing noises from the mob, and their generally sullen looks and muttered curses, there was little to mark my first impressions of Marocco except its likeness to the Oriental cities I had already visited. Most things, however, wore a more African tinge. The black race was more numerous here, and there were many indications that the western Arab is several degrees lower in the scale of civilisation than his eastern co-religionists." ..." Nothing can be finer than CITY OF MAROCCO. 37 the scenery which surrounds Marocco. Situated in an immense plain, it is flanked on the north, and for some distance towards the east and west, by a splendid wood of date-palms, to which the citizens constantly resort for the sake of enjoying the pleasant shade. It is bordered on the east by gardens, and beyond these the country is open to the foot of the Atlas mountains, portions of which grand chain reach a height of 10,000 feet. The lustre of the snow on their summits has a singularly fine effect against the deep blue background of a cloudless sky." Bound the city are walls of an average height of twenty- three feet, flanked by square turrets many of which are in a ruinous state. About two-thirds of the large area within these is taken up with gardens or covered with rubbish. The gates are placed in massive archways, and the streets leading directly from these are of good breadth, but in other parts of the town they are narrow, and, particularly in the wet season, very filthy. The houses of the superior classes are almost all built on the same plan — that of a central courtyard surrounded by long narrow rooms, the lower stories being almost always built of taMa, or mud and straw, the upper often of bricks. The mosques are numerous, and the pride of the city is that one called El Koutoubia, or the mosque of the book- sellers, which has a minaret of 220 feet in height, the only stone building in the city. Adjoining the city on the south and facing the Atlas mountains is the walled palace enclosure of the Sultan, covering a space of about three quarters of a mile in length by half a mile in width, divided into gardens with attached pavilions, and the apartments of the ministers, secretaries, and guards, as well as the treasury. "Marocco, as regards Africa, is a cosmopolitan city. Its inhabitants include Moors, Algerians, Tunisians, Egyptians, natives of the Sahara, negroes from Sudan, and occasionally negroes from 38 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. Senegal are met with. Three languages are commonly spoken : Arabic, which is most general ; Shluh, the language of the inhabitants of the Atlas and of the south : and Guennaoui, the speech of the negroes." (Morocco and the Moors : Leared, 1876.) 3. Coast Towns. Besides these three chief towns there are some few noteworthy places on the sea coast, of which, however, the most important on the Mediterranean belong to Spain. Of these the most considerable are Mlila (Melilla), Tetuan, and Ceuta, the last situated at the eastern entrance to the Straits of Gibraltar, which here divide Europe from Africa. On the Atlantic are Tangier (Tanja) with 20,000 inhabit- ants, El Arish, Rabat, Asamor, Mogador, and, beyond Cape Ghlr, at the mouth of the Wady Sus, Agadir or Santa Cruz, re-occupied by Spain in 1883. 4. Inhabitants. — Indigenous and Foreign Eaces. All these towns are inhabited by Arabs, Berbers, Jews, and Negroes, races which constitute the main elements of the population in Marocco. The basis or lowest stratification is formed by the Berbers, direct descendants of the old Numidians, who till about the year 650 were almost the sole inhabitants of the whole of north Africa. But about this time began those immigra- tions of the Arabs, which by means of the Mohammedan religion gave a new and special character to the social and political relations of these regions. In Marocco, however, the Berbers proper still far outnumber the Arabs, and are much more widely diffused throughout the country. The only purely Arab region is that of the coast plain which extends from Tangier to the mouth of the Wady Tensift ; elsewhere only isolated PEOPLES OF MAROCCO. 39 colonies of Arabs are met with, excepting in the large towns, in which they always predominate. Two-thirds of the people of Marocco are Berbers, and they possess almost four-fifths of the land, living chiefly in tents and supporting themselves by husbandry. Eohlfs points out that the distinctions which most travellers make between Arabs and Moors are worthless. The Moors are the de- generate descendants of the Arabs who in the eighth century, after establishing the kingdom of Fez, overran a large part of Spain, whence they were expelled in the fifteenth century, and differ from the Arabs, sprung from the same race, only in being essentially townsmen and traders, as distinguished from agriculturists of the plains. The Jews of Marocco are descended from those of their race who were driven at various periods from European countries, but chiefly from those who were expelled from Spain and Portugal between 1492 and 1496 ; they form a large and important section of the population, but are "browbeaten, despised, and treated with habitual harsh- ness." 5. Language of the Berbers. In Marocco the aboriginal Berber tribes have kept themselves apart, as a rule avoiding alliances with the Arabs, though in the chief towns and centres of popula- tion intermarriages between the two races are not of rare occurrence. The language of the Berbers is the Tamasirht and Shellah or Shluh, the same that the Tuareg of the Sahara call Temahag in the north, and Ta-Masheg in the south, and which is again met with to the extreme east in the Oasis of Jupiter Ammon. Doubtless the various dia- lects differ greatly from each other, and this could scarcely be otherwise with a language spread over a region occupy- ing about one-fourth of the whole of Africa. Still the 40 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. discrepancies are not sufficiently great to prevent the various Berber tribes from understanding each other. The Berbers of Marocco, unlike their kinsmen the Tuareg of Algeria, have no special writing system, though Berber characters are met with in Tuat, derived probably from the Tuareg, which alphabet may have formerly extended farther northwards. 6. Physical Appearance of Arab and Berber. It is their language that constitutes the most marked difference between the Berbers and the Arabs, though even here the Berbers have borrowed many Arabic words, just as the Arabs of Marocco have adopted a number of Berber terms. In all other respects the difference is but slight between the two races. The same physical build both in the lowlands and the highlands — slim, sinewy, and muscular bodies, brown sunburnt complexion, Cau- casian features, strongly curved nose, black fiery eyes, black lank hair, pointed chin, somewhat prominent cheek- bones, thin beard, — all these traits are common to both. It is remarkable, however, that, as a rule, the Arab women are smaller than the Berber, though otherwise scarcely to be distinguished externally from them. Of both it may be said that they are developed at a very early period, have full handsome forms in youth, mostly regular features, but soon change, becoming lean for want of sufficient nourish- ment, and in old age positively repulsive. 7. Social Condition of the Women. Amongst the Berbers the women take a much higher social position than with the Arabs, though the repeated statements of travellers that the Arab female is nothing PEOPLES OF MAEOCCO. 41 but a maid-servant rest altogether on superficial observa- tion. In Marocco monogamy is the rule both amongst the Arabs and the Berbers. The instances of wealthy or dis- tinguished Arabs keeping up a harem are extremely rare ; while no Berber, whatever his position in society, ever marries more than one wife. Matrimonial alliances are generally settled by the parents or relatives on both sides, though marriages for love are by no means rare. This is due to the fact that all women and girls go about un- veiled, giving the wooer ample opportunity of becoming personally acquainted with his future spouse. It is also to be noticed that these love matches generally last to the end, whereas the conventional engagements are usually of but short duration. If the cause of separation lies with the wife, or if she seeks a divorce, the money must be returned that the husband may have paid his father- in-law for the wedding outfit, but not when she is put away without reason. 8. Habits and Customs. Circumcision is not practised by some Berber tribes, nor is it in Marocco looked upon as an indispensable religious rite. The wild boar also is eaten by all the in- habitants of the Eif, the mountain slopes between Tetuan and El Deir, notwithstanding the injunction of the Koran to the contrary. All the Berbers reckon by solar months, for which they have retained the names derived from the early Christians. This method of calculating time has even been adopted by the Arabs dwelling south of the Atlas. Domestic life is quite patriarchal, and extraordinary importance is attached to the various degrees of relation- ship in the family and the clan. Neither the Arabs nor 42 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. the Berbers, however, possess special family names in the modern European sense, a common name being borne only by the whole sept or tribe. To this generic name every one adds for himself that of his father, often even that of his grandfather or great-grandfather. Amongst the Arabs both male and female names are taken almost exclusively from the Bible or the Koran; but the Berbers still con- tinue to use old heathen names, such as Buko, Eokho, Atta, and the like, though of course Arabic names occur most frequently. The children receive no particular education, though every Char (village built of houses), every Dwar (village formed of tents), and every Ksor (village by an oasis), has its Thaleb or else its Faki, who conducts the school-work. The majority, however, scarcely succeed in learning by heart the chapters from the Koran required for devotional purposes, to say nothing of reading and writing. Tobacco aud hashish (the tops of the hemp plant) are universally used, though in moderation ; while, with the exception of the towns and the oases of Tuat, opium has not acquired the rights of citizenship. But all the more universal is the use of wine during the vintage, and for a short time afterwards. For the vine nourishes vigorously in Marocco, and Bohlfs draws a by no means nattering picture of the excesses that prevail during the season when wine is most freely indulged in. Altogether the people of Marocco are distinguished by a lack of noble sentiments, and a degree of coarseness, amongst the Ber- bers especially of the northern slopes of the Atlas, sinking to downright brutality. 9. The Marocco Dwars. De Amicis gives us an interesting account of the Maroccan Dwars, or tent villages. They consist generally PEOPLES OF MAROCCO. 43 of ten, fifteen, or at most twenty, families, as a rule con- nected by the ties of kindred, but each with, its own tent. These tents are disposed in two parallel rows at intervals of about thirty paces, in such a way as to form in the centre a sort of square open on two sides. They all closely resemble each other, consisting of a large piece of black or chocolate-coloured stuff, woven either of camel's A MAROCCO DWAR OR TENT VILLAGE. hair or of the fibre of the dwarf palm, and supported by two strong stakes, with a cross-piece to form the roof. Their shape still closely resembles that of the dwellings of Jugurtha's Numidians, compared by Sallust to a boat turned upside down. In winter they are pegged quite down to the ground to keep out wind and rain ; but in summer a tolerably wide open space is left to admit the air, in which case there is an outer enclosure formed of rushes, reeds, and bramble-bushes. None of them exceed 44 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. 8 feet in height, or 3 3 feet in length. A partition of rushes divides the interior into two chambers, in one of which sleep the parents, in the other the children and other members of the family. The fittings are of the simplest, mostly, however, including a round Venetian mirror, a reed tripod for washing, two heavy stones for grinding the corn, and an antiquated spinning wheel. A brood hen is generally enthroned in a corner all to herself. 10. Food and Hospitality, Knives and forks are still unknown luxuries, nor is even the spoon yet universally adopted. The men eat apart from the rest of the family. The general drink is water, and flesh is eaten on special occasions only, and even then but sparingly. But hospitality is everywhere observed throughout Marocco, without ostentation or cere- mony, but rather as a matter of course. In most Dwars, and almost every Char, there are some houses or tents called Bar and Gitun el Diaf, set apart for the exclusive use of travellers, who are, of course, freely " interviewed " by their entertainers, the natives knowing no delicacy or reserve in this respect. It should be remarked that the Arab tribes are far more liberal to strangers than the Berber. 11. The Shirfa, or Privileged Classes. In Marocco there is no aristocracy in our sense of the word. The most distinguished classes are the Shirfa, that is, descendants of Mohammed, and these are of course all of Arab race. They are entitled to the addition of Sidi, or Midey, to their names, terms answering to our Mr. or Esquire. The present Marocco dynasty belongs to this class. The rank of Sherif is not inherited through the female line, but whatever be the position of the wife PEOPLES OF MAROCCO. 45 of a Sherif, the issue are all Shirfa. This is true even of Christians and Jewesses, who may retain their faith, and of negresses, who, however, are obliged to embrace Islamism. The Shirfa are in Marocco everywhere a privileged class, enjoying the right of insulting others with impu- nity, for a retort would be an offence against a descendant of the Prophet, which is always looked on as an outrage against religion. Even the so-called Marabuts, or "saints," and their issue, are in Marocco held in much less con- sideration than the Shirfa. 12. Morality, Vice, and Crime. Though the tone of morality, especially in the towns, is of a low order, still crimes, such as adultery and de- bauchery, are rarely heard of. Thieving, lying, and cheating are, on the other hand, common enough, especi- ally in the case of one tribe against another, which is indeed scarcely looked on as a moral delinquency at all. Lying comes altogether so natural to the Arabs and Ber- bers, that it would be difficult to find a single individual addicted to the practice of truthfulness. The law of the strongest also, involving constant robbery and plunder, is accepted as a matter of course wherever the Sultan's forces do not penetrate. That the guest is here a sacred person is a popular delusion, for there are many places where the natives show no respect even to the Shirfa themselves. 13. Jews and Negroes in Marocco. The Jews, in the towns confined to the Milha, or special Jewish quarter, have either migrated hither directly from Palestine, or else have been driven out of Europe into this country. They are generally finer and 46 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. stronger men than the Arabs, but so filthy in outward appearance that they look to much less advantage than might otherwise be the case. The Palestine Jews speak no Spanish, but Arabic only, or else Shellah and Tama- sirht in the purely Berber districts. They may be esti- mated without exaggeration at about 200,000 in number. Of the black races Eohlfs tells us that those most usually met with in Marocco belong to the Houssa, Sonrhai, and Bambarra Negro tribes. They have contri- buted much to strengthening the Arab blood, though the two races contract alliances much less frequently in the towns than the country. There are in Marocco altogether probably about 50,000 negroes, this element of the popu- lation being constantly renewed by fresh importations from Central Africa. 14. Trade and Commerce. No native industry, properly so called, can be said to exist in Marocco. Some branches of trade, however, have retained their former excellence ; and this is especially true of the leather trade. In Fez there are also important manufactures of the red oriental caps, which take their name from this place, of the strong red woollen scarves, and costly sashes. Fez is the chief emporium, besides its important commercial relations with England, France, and Spain, keeping up an extremely active intercourse with the interior of Africa. Thither, every year, vast caravans set out, laden with the fabrics of Fez, English cloth, Venetian glass, Italian coral, gunpowder, arms, tobacco, sugar, German looking-glasses, Tyrolese boxes, English and French hardware goods, and salt, which last is col- lected on the route in the oases of the Sahara. Such a procession is a sort of movable market, where the various articles are bartered for the products of the country, such TRADE OF MAROCCO. 47 as gold dust, ostrich feathers, white Senegal gum, gold jewellery from Nigritia, all sorts of spices, and, lastly, for the negro slaves themselves. This lively trade with the interior is not only the most important but the oldest branch of commerce in Marocco. 43 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. CHAPTEE IV. THE FRENCH ALGERIAN POSSESSIONS. 1. Population — European Settlers. On the eastern frontier of Marocco lies Algeria, since 1830 in the possession of the French, who in that year com- pleted the vengeance of the Christian powers against the " nation of corsairs," and dispossessed the former Dey of Algiers. In extent but little inferior to Marocco, Algeria is far less populous ; the arable land being restricted to the Tell, which forms comparatively but a small portion of the whole country. The population may be estimated at about 3,000,000, consisting, apart from the European settlers, of the same ethnological elements as in Marocco. Of relatively subordinate importance are the Jews, met with in all the towns, and the negroes, emancipated since 1848. The Berbers here again form the basis of the population, though far inferior in numbers to the Arabs. Both, however, unite in their common hostility to the European colonists, who have settled not only in the towns, but also in the Tell. This European element may amount to about 250,000, of whom one-half are Erench, and the rest principally Italians, Spaniards, and Anglo-Maltese. The Germans now number about 5000, which is less than in previous years, the tables of births and deaths showing that the climate is much less favourable to them than to the more southern European nations. The project undertaken by the Erench Government after the late war, to induce a number of emigrants from ALGERIA AND TUNIS. S £ 55 ' ,u [" 'CONST A N T c; ; i; ' u i ...v.' COMMERCE OF ALGERIA. 49 Alsace and Lorraine to settle in Algeria, has been attended with but partial success. Here the principal work of colonists is to bring the land, wherever arable, under cul- tivation ; for which the French, as a rule, have shown themselves but little suited. Their chief aim is to get possession of the fertile tracts takea from the Arabs, in order to grow wheat or other crops on them, getting in the harvests by means of Spanish day-labourers, and spending the proceeds on absinthe and cognac. Besides this, the children of Europeans — always excepting the Spaniards and Maltese — die off in great numbers, unless sent to be brought up in Europe, as the English in India find it necessary to do. 2. Products and Commercial Enterprise. Still this dark picture has its reverse side in the general activity at present developing itself in Algeria. Every- where agricultural and commercial companies are being formed ; some of them are engaged in obtaining the "half a" and esparto grass (Lygcum spar turn) used by the English in making paper, and have recently opened a long railway in order to bring this valuable plant from the uplands about Saicla, where it grows, down to the coast at Arseu, and there ship it for England. The "half a" (Machrocloa tenacissima) is a kind of grass, growing wild, especially on the southern hills of the department of Oran, w^here it is said to cover an extent of nearly 1 5 millions of acres, and can accordingly be produced almost free of outlay. The exportation of "half a," which amounted to 4000 tons in 1869, had increased to 45,000 tons in 1873, and to more than 60,000 in 1875, representing a value of about £350,000. Others have invested their money in the cultivation of the dwarf palm, which is here as common as grass in E 50 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. France, and by a simple process is made to yield a sort of vegetable hair for the Paris market. Others, again, are interested in the magnificent antifebrile Eucalyptus globulus, the blue gum of Australia, which has been ac- climatised with great success, which in ten years attains an astounding size, and whose leaves and fruit possess extraordinary medicinal properties. There are, moreover, the cork-tree, the oleander (yielding a highly-prized per- fume), and many other valuable plants. More than three millions of acres are sown with wheat in Algeria ; maize is little grown, though the soil is admirably adapted for it. The Arabs cultivate several sorts of durra. Potatoes, in- troduced by the French, are now being planted more and more widely by the natives. Before the conquest the natives of Algeria, to whom wine had been prohibited by Mahomet, only grew the vine for the grapes, which they used fresh or dry ; now they cultivate it for its wine, and since the climate of the whole country, even up the moun- tain slopes to an altitude of 3000 feet, is exceptionally favourable for it, the vineyards are rapidly extending ; and whereas in 1858 there were only 10,000 acres under vines, there are now upwards of 65,000 acres of vineyard, yielding nearly nine millions of gallons of wine at each harvest. In 1844 the colonists began to grow tobacco, and its cultivation is now widespread. The first intro- duction of cotton into Algeria dates from the Arab inva- sion, and its culture was maintained for several centuries in the province of Oran, but had died out completely before the French re-introduced it in 1842. During the civil war in the United States (1863-68) the cultivation of cotton in Algeria was rapidly promoted, and the yield reached 900 tons of excellent cotton in 1 8 6 6 ; but, on the cessation of the struggle in America, this industry declined. Eecent official statistics show that more than five and a half millions of acres of Algerian soil, from the Mediter- MIXES OF ALGERIA. 51 ranean shores up to the borders of the high plateaus, especially in the province of Constantine, are occupied by woods, chiefly of oak, cedar, and pine. No country is richer than Algeria in iron, and that of a quality which compares favourably with the mineral from any of the European mines. As yet, one of the most productive and prosperous iron mines is that of Mokta-d- Hadid, 20 miles S.AV. of Bona, and close to Lake Fetsara, in which upwards of 1600 miners are employed, and which, in the year 1875, yielded nearly 400,000 tons — eight trains daily carrying down the mineral to the port of Bona, whence it is exported to Europe, and even to America. Lead, copper, zinc, antimony, and mercury are also widely distributed over Algeria, and its marbles have been renowned from the remotest times ; but nature, other- wise so prodigal, seems to have denied the coal which plays such an important part in modern industries, only a few seams of almost worthless shale being found throughout its extent. .Altogether the forest, as well as the mineral wealth of the country, is inexhaustible, and must ultimately attract capital in abundance to Algeria. 3. Cavern of Jebel Thaya, Among the natural curiosities of Algeria may be men- tioned the great cave of Jebel Thaya, one of the mountains of the range which extends along the northern side of the river Seybous, between the towns of Constantine and Guelma. The entrance to this cavern, which was visited and described by Lieutenant-Colonel Playfair in 1875, is situated high up on the north-western side of the moun- tain, and opens by a spacious level passage, after which it descends at an angle of 45°, and thence extends, with many changes of level, to more than half-a-mile inward, 52 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. and 1000 feet of perpendicular depth. " Yast halls, intri- cate passages, and chambers of every size and form, are traversed. Groves of stalactites and stalagmites adorn the sides, while the lofty vaults are hung with the most ex- quisite fret- work, like the roof of a Gothic cathedral. The finest of all is the great domed chamber at the bottom, which gives to the cave its Arab name — Ghar-el-Djamaa, cave of the mosque. It is an immense, nearly circular, cavity, with domed roof adorned with the most exquisite stalagmites, like the trunks of palm trees." From the numerous Eoman inscriptions on the walls of the passage leading into it, it is inferred that the cavern was dedicated to the god Bacax, probably a local deity adopted by the Eomans, and that pilgrimages were annually made to Jebel Thaya to offer sacrifice to the god of the cave. 4. Results of the French Occupation. The achievements of the French during late years are highly noteworthy, and go far to gainsay the trite remark that they do not know how to colonise. When they first took possession of the country, they found the land marshy, subject to a changeable climate, sandy winds, heavy dews, thick fogs, and a quick succession of heat and cold. Hence they were at first mostly dependent for supplies on the home country, often at a loss for fresh meat and bread, and had even to contend with a scanty supply of fresh water. In the low lands they were exposed to the pestilen- tial exhalations of vast lakes of brackish water, whose shores were overgrown with rank vegetation, veritable hotbeds of fever and ague. On the hills it was a struggle between the sirocco accompanied by clouds of fine yellow sand, and the fierce north wind, lowering the temperature in exposed places to about 48° Fahr. FRENCH IMPROVEMENTS IN ALGERIA. 53 On their military expeditions they had to endure oppressive heat during the day, at night suddenly suc- ceeded by severe cold. The towns, badly situated and without drains or sewers, were looked on as uninhabitable for Europeans. ' The consequence of all these evils was an enormous amount of mortality amongst the first arrivals. At one time it was found extreme] y difficult to bring up the children at all, and the number of deaths was always in excess of the births. The deaths have now, however, been reduced from 80 to 14 in 1000. Bona, situated in a marshy plain, was so unhealthy in 1834, that whole regiments were carried off or else ren- dered incapable of military service, whereas the mortality is at present not higher than in the more healthy towns of France. The swampy lands about Bufarika, behind Algiers, have been drained, and the place is now free from malaria. The draining of Lake Hallula in the plain of Metija has resulted in 34,000 acres of good land being reclaimed, and now capable of growing cotton of the finest quality. The draining of Lake Fetsara, south of Bona, is also contemplated. With ague of the worst type, which gave the former district the name of the " Cemetery of the Europeans," have also disappeared the swarms of mosquitoes which formerly rendered life almost unendurable. In recent times the extensive plantations of the Eucalyptus globulus have greatly contributed to this happy result, which has been extended even to portions of the desert itself. There the soil is of a deep chalky sand, which yields luxuriant crops wherever water can be procured for irrigation. Following the example of the Eomans, who transformed large portions of the arid plateau lands and sandy regions into tracts of surpassing fertility, and the remains of whose works are seen all over the country, the French have paid great attention to irrigation and to the sinking of artesian wells. Between 1856 and 1875 not fewer than 103 54 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. artesian wells were sunk in the Hodna plateau and in the Wady R'ir, or High, in the Algerian Sahara, and it is esti- mated that these yield a total supply of 22,000 gallons per minute. Several wells were bored in 1875, especially in the Oasis of Sidi-Chelil and in the Wady E'ir, the lower portion of the great channel of the Wady Igharghar pre- viously described. One of these, that of the Oasis of El- Berd, named after General Chanzy, governor of Algeria, yields nearly 340 gallons per minute. The water of most of these wells is potable, but a few are a little saline, though not to such an extent as to influence vegetation. Their temperature varies from 70° to 80° Fahr. 5. Algiers and other Toivns Algeria is divided into three departments — Algiers, Oran, and Constantine — each distributed into local, civil, and military districts, or subdivisions, as they are called. The seat of government is the capital, Algiers, magnificently situated, and with a present population of about 65,000. The gulf, extending in a crescent for several miles, and ending at Cape Matifu, is encircled by the lovely Mount Sahel, with its peculiarly southern rosy hue, here gradually sloping down, and covered with cosy white villas nestling amidst a luxurious vegetation. The city itself is built in the form of an amphitheatre on the slope of the hill at the western side of the bay, and comprises two distinct towns — the modern or European, built on the lower slope or along the shore, with broad streets and squares, ware- houses, hotels, and barracks ; and the old or Arab town above, with narrow, winding, and dirty passages between the high bare walls of the houses, in which narrow grated slits serve for windows. The summit of the hill is occu- pied by the Kasbah, the ancient fortress of the Deys of Algiers, 500 feet above the Mediterranean. PEOPLES OF ALGERIA. 55 Algiers, the " silver city," occupies a central point on the Algerian coast, on which are situated many other im- portant places, such as the harbours of Oran, Shershel, and Mostaganem, on the west ; and Dellys, Bougie, Philippe- ville, Bona, and La Calle, on the east of the capital. The most important towns in the interior are Con- stantine, one of the old cities of Numidia, named after the Eoman Emperor Constantine the Great, who restored it in the year 313, romantically situated on an isolated rocky plateau ; Gelma, Setif, Batna, Biskra, Bliclah, Or- leansville, Tlemcen, and Sidi-bel- Abbes. Algiers is con- nected with Oran by means of a railway, 264 miles in length, passing by Blidah and Orleansville. Philippeville and Constantine are also united by a railway. 6. The Natives — Moors, Bedouins, and Kabyles. The government has to contend with many obstacles created by the indigenous populations. The great pro- gress that has been effected during the last forty years has hitherto affected the European settlers almost exclusively, the natives having adopted civilised ways only so far as they have been compelled by force to do so. Moham • medanism, the religion of all the Arabs and Berbers, forms such a sharp line of demarcation between them and then rulers, that it has been found impossible, up to the present, to set it aside. The Arabs, here as in Marocco, to be distinguished from the Berbers, are divided into two classes — the Moors dwelling in towns, and the Bedouins leading a nomad life. It seems utterly hopeless to expect that the latter will ever be induced to accommodate them- selves to a settled way of living. The subjoined characteristic trait will throw more light on this point than a lengthy description. The French thought the best means of inducing the Arabs to 5G COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. give up their roaming propensities would be to induce the native chieftains to erect fixed residences, for the Arab has a great respect for authority, and readily follows the example of his superiors. These, on their part, were willing enough to allow the French to build settled abodes for them. So on one occasion, the sheikh being asked by the officer of engineers what he thought of a house thus constructed for him, replied, " I am enraptured. The French are in truth A BEDOUIN ENCAMPMENT. an extraordinary people ; they have done me a service for which I shall be everlastingly grateful. Since my house has been finished I have not lost a single sheep. I lock them up every evening in the house, and next morning none of them are ever missing." " How, what !" asked the officer in amazement ; " and where then do you pass the night yourself ?" " Oh, I," answered the sheikh with an air of aristocratic superiority, " you understand a man like me, a man of blood, can dwell nowhere but in a tent. ' (F. Hugonnet, Souvenir d'un Chef de Bureau Arabe: Paris, 1858, pane 123.) PEOPLES OF ALGERIA. 57 These wandering Bedouins are the one great obstacle to the development of Algeria, and the only remedy seems to be to drive them by force back to the desert to which they belong. The policy hitherto adopted of endeavouring to win them over by gentle means has completely failed. The children of the wilderness are incapable of culture in our sense of the term, consequently can never become members of a civilised state as we understand it. Their whole nature rebels against it, and there is no choice left between exterminating or renouncing altogether the at- tempt to civilise them. The case is different with the Berbers, or, as they are more usually called in Algeria, the Kabyles. Although long exposed to the influence of the Arabs, hence, like them, Mohammedans and hostile to Europeans, they still possess qualities adapting them for a civilised existence. The Kabyle, though dwelling almost exclusively on the higher table-lands, driven back to these regions by the Arab invaders of the country, still leads a settled life, and is passionately attached to his native land, which he care- fully and laboriously cultivates. He grows corn and potatoes, rears fruit-trees, and plants the vine. Neither is he inexperienced in the arts of life, enjoying a thoroughly worked out political and social organisation resting on a democratic basis. In their villages (Thad- ders) private and individual property is recognised, herein contrasting favourably with the Bedouins, with whom all is held in common. The name itself (from JTbila = union) means strictly speaking a man of social habits. Their religion is void of fanaticism, and, brave warriors them- selves, they have ever remained the irreconcileable foes of the Arabs. (Henri Aucapitaine, Zes Kabyles et la Coloni- sation de VAlgerie: Paris et Algier, 1864, pp. 7-32.) In Algeria they number probably some 500,000, and there can be no doubt that the future of north Africa is 58 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. in their hands. The European colonisers will before all things have to gain over this hitherto neglected Berber element of the population by again reinstating them in their rightful possession of the plains, whence they were originally expelled by the Arab invaders of the country. 60 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. the western part of North Africa, presents no material difference from the neighbouring Algeria either in its physical aspect or the elements of which its population is composed. From 1575 onward until 1882 Tunis has acknow- ledged a loose and almost nominal dependence on the Porte, from whom the so-called Bey received investiture, and which claimed the direction of the foreign relations of its dependency. The Bey, however, a descendant of Ben-ali-Turki, originally of Candia, was left unfettered as to all local affairs, and administered the country with great complacency entirely to his own advantage. Since May 1881, however, Tunis has virtually become a dependency of France. In that year the French Government, on pretence of being unable to obtain redress for a plunder- ing raid made by a border tribe, the Krumirs, into Algeria, marched an army into the regency, and com- pelled the Bey to sign a treaty by which he places him- self under French protection. France will henceforth maintain garrisons in the principal towns ; she will direct the international affairs of its new dependency, and through a " resident " exercise a decisive influence upon local administration. A rising of the Arabs was sup- pressed with great vigour, and on October 27, 1881, a French army occupied the holy city of Kairwan. In an area of about 45,700 square miles there are some 2,000,000 of inhabitants — Berbers or Kabyles, Arabs, Kulugli (the offspring of Turks and Moors), Jews, and a few Negroes. All these various races despise and hate each other mutually, and Live as far as possible apart one from the other. Thus the Moors, or town Arabs, here called Hackers, intermarry exclusively amongst themselves, never contracting alliances with the nomad Arabs, whom they thoroughly detest, but who are not numerous in Tunis. The same antipathy exists between the Arabs and Kabyles, the latter of whom are here sorely oppressed. PEOPLE OF TUNIS. 61 In the same way the Jews live all to themselves, holding exclusively interested and commercial relations with the rest of the people. In their dress the Tunisian Jews differ entirely from those of Algeria and Marocco. The plumpness especially of the women, the most violently contrasted colours of their dress, the assurance based on tradition that the ancient Jews wore exactly the same garb, all combine to produce the greatest astonishment and curiosity in the stranger at first sight of this costume. In point of morals, however, the J ews of Tunis occupy a very low position, lower even than that of the Franks (as Europeans are called in Mohammedan countries), who certainly cannot be recommended as models of honesty, propriety, and righteousness. But they have on the whole much improved both materially and in numbers, especially since they have been allowed to reside beyond the limits of their Ghetto, or Kara, as it is here called. 2. Industry and Commerce. The inhabitants of Tunis are little devoted to agri- cultural pursuits, though the land is for the most part capable of tillage. They occupy themselves mostly with horticulture and the rearing of trees, which here yield but slight returns. The olive is cultivated in the northern districts, and in Susa and Gafsa, the date (Phoenix dacty- lifera) in the southern plains, the so-called Belad-el-Jerid or "land of the date." Cattle are also bred in large numbers ; nor are the industrial arts neglected, especially in the neighbourhood of the coast, though they stand as a rule on a low level. There are manufactured silk fabrics, burnous (mantles), red caps (fez), fine and coarse woollen goods, exquisitely dyed Marocco leather, and the far-famed Tunis pottery. 62 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. 3. Tunis and its Citadel — the Bar do and Kairwan. The centre of the important trade carried on especially with Marseilles, Genoa, Leghorn, and the Levant, is Tunis, the chief town, situated in the neighbourhood of the ruins of Carthage, and the only city in the country challenging special attention. Tunis, the walls of which are nearly five miles in cir- cuit, has retained the character of an oriental city almost intact. The population numbers from 100,000 to 150,000, but the prejudice of Mohammedans against the census and domiciliary inquiries of every sort renders it impossible to give the figures more accurately. They include 30,000 Jews and 11,000 Europeans. The city stretches in a north-westerly direction along the shallow inlet of Bahira, and on the land side is completely inclosed by a strong- wall pierced with nine gateways. Between this and the inner town, also encircled by a wall with seven gates, lie the suburbs of Bab Suyga to the south, Bab Jezirah to the north, and on the east the new quarter in which are to be found the custom-house, arsenal, and fashionable resorts. The streets, thronged from dawn to night with the most varied and picturesque crowds, axe narrow and crooked, without signposts, names, or directions of any sort. The houses are unnumbered, nor are the streets themselves lit up by gas, oil, or other lights after sun- set. Yet they are considered perfectly safe from the attacks of thieves or marauders. But, being unpaved and otherwise neglected, they become almost impassable with mud and filth, especially after wet weather. When the houses are pierced with windows towards the street, these are always protected by gratings, the only exceptions being the two European hotels, some consulates, and a few other houses occupied by the Franks. The suburb of Jezirah is occupied by Moors exclusively. The CITY OF TUNIS. 63 kasbah, or citadel, on the west of the town, in spite of the rents in the walls of the great square central building, presents a somewhat imposing appearance from without. This impression, however, vanishes when we set foot in the interior, which offers to the eye little more than the spectacle of a vast heap of ruins, amid which the graceful minaret alone has been preserved in a good condition. THE BARDO NEAR TUNIS. About two miles to the north-west of Tunis is the Bardo, or residence of the Bey, forming a little town in itself, including palaces, guardhouses, dwellings, workshops, and bazaars, with about 2000 inhabitants. Amongst these are not only the numerous families of the nobility, but also those of the officials, about 100 in number, besides the military schools, out of which nearly all the higher government officers are taken. Tunis is connected by rail with the little port of Goletta and with Bardo, and a French company has a 64 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. concession for the construction of a line westward to the Algerian frontier and to Bona. Though Tunis is the political centre and seat of government, the city of Kairwan, which lies in a barren plain near the inland lake Sidi-el-Heni, about seventy-five miles due south of Tunis, is the religious capital of the regency, and is one of the sacred cities of Islam, possess- ing one of the finest mosques in northern Africa. Neither Jew nor Christian was formerly allowed to take up his residence within its walls. It is the centre of a large caravan trade, but of the famous traffic which at one time passed between this city and the Sudan across the Sahara little or nothing is left, the trade having passed east and west to Fezzan, Ghadames, Tafilet, or Tarudant. Besides Goletta, the chief ports of Tunis are Biserta on the north coast, and Susa, Monastir, Mehdia, and Sfax, on the eastern coast. 4. The, Toions of Susa and Sfax. Of the coast towns it may be sufficient to mention those of Susa and Sfax. Susa, with its walls, gates, and ramparts all in good preservation, produces a decidedly favourable impression. It boasts of several new buildings of imposing appearance, while its by no means inconsi- derable trade attracts a large number of vessels to the roads, all producing a very civilised aspect. It reckons 8000 inhabitants, amongst whom are 1000 Jews and from 500 to 600 Maltese and Sicilians. Its commercial relations are mainly carried on with Italy. Sfax, the chief town in southern Tunis, is said to have a population of 40,000, including 12,000 in the Arab quarter, amongst whom are 2000 Jews. Its trade is important, and the place is connected with Tunis by a telegraph 217 miles long, and thence with the Algerian CORAL FISHERIES OF TUNIS. G5 system and Europe. The staple products are the excel- lent dates from Jerid, the " burnous " cloth made in the Oasis of Gafsa in the south, olive oil from Sahel (the high country inland from Sfax), esparto grass from the sur- rounding wilderness, sponges from the Syrtes, and lastly the jessamine and rose oil, so highly prized in Tunis and Constantinople, from the gardens of the town itself. 5. Tunisian Fisheries. Coral is found more or less abundantly all along the coasts of Tunis, Algeria, and Marocco, as well as on the opposite Mediterranean coasts of Italy, France, and Spain ; but the banks which furnish the best quality of coral are those which lie off the islet of Galita, which belongs to Tunis, and is situated about thirty miles from its north coast. In 1832, after many disputes as to the right of fishery, a treaty was concluded between Trance and Tunis, by which the former power obtained the perpetual and ex- clusive privilege over the coral fishery in Tunisian waters on the condition of an annual payment to the Bey. About ninety coral-fishing boats, chiefly owned by Italians who are permanently resident in Algeria, make their head- quarters at Bona and La Calle. From eighty to one hun- dred vessels are also equipped in the Bay of Naples, and arrive annually, at the proper season, on the fishing- ground, some making Biserta their station, and paying dues to the French Government. The coral of the Bar- bary coasts is principally red, but white and black, as well as the much-valued pink, are also found. A dredge, formed of two pieces of olive wood each about 6-J- feet long, lashed crosswise and hung with unravelled bunches of hempen ropes, is dragged over the banks to entangle the pieces of coral. The produce of the coral-fishery on these coasts varies from £200,000 to £600,000 a year. F 66 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. Eound the coast of Tunis are a number of lakes, which are partially separated from the sea by narrow strips of sand, and to these large quantities of fish resort for breed- ing purposes. The Biserta lake is the most important of these, and it is affirmed that every month of the year furnishes it with a different species of fish. Tunny fish, in their annual migration in May and June from the ocean to the archipelago and the Black Sea, follow either the southern or northern shores of the Mediterranean in all their windings, and advantage is taken of this cir- cumstance for their capture. A "tonnara" or series of barriers of nets, is placed off a promontory so as to pre- sent an obstruction to the advancing shoals, and their migratory instincts are so strong that they never retrace their course, but always endeavour to find a way to the east ; thus they pass from one inclosure of nets to another, till as many as 700 fish are occasionally secured in a single catch, and in a single season the chief Tunisian fishery furnishes from 10,000 to 14,000 tunny. " Sca- beccio," or tunny flesh preserved in oil, is largely used in the countries bordering on the Mediterranean, and the oil extracted from the heads and refuse of the fish is much used by curriers and tanners. Sponges are found along the whole length of the coasts of Tunis, but are not of fine quality. They are fished for chiefly in the winter months, when the dense marine vegetation has been swept away by the storms of November and December, and are either obtained by spearing with a trident, by diving, or by dredging. {Report by Vice-Consul Green on the Tuni- sian Fisheries, 1872.) 6. Projected Inland Lake of Tunis. In recent years much attention has been drawn to the low-lying region of marshes which extends inwards along PROJECTED INLAND LAKE OF TUNIS. 67 the Jerid country from the shores of the Gulf of Cabes in Tunis to the eastern part of the Algerian Sahara, through the publication of a project for submerging this district by means of a canal to be cut through the narrow belt which separates it from the Mediterranean, a scheme which has led to the examination of the marshes by several French and Italian scientific commissions, and, later, to their accurate survey by Captain Eoudaire for the French Government. The most easterly of these large " sebkhas," or marshes, is that of Fejij (meaning " dread," from its quicksands which are apt to engulf caravans deviating from the beaten track), the eastern corner of which approaches to within about ten miles from the Mediterranean. This sebkha is a branch of the extensive Faroun Jerid, or Kebir marsh, the ancient Palus Tritonis. Next to this, westward, is the Gharnis, crossing the frontier of Algeria, and beyond that in Algeria the Mel- ghir " shott," the terminal marsh of the great Wady lghar- ghar, the level of which is about forty-five feet below that of the Mediterranean. There appears to be little doubt that these marshy depressions, which extend across a dis- tance of 240 miles, represent the relics either of a once much more extensive series of lakes or of a lar^e cralf of the Mediterranean, which, through the operation of a gra- dual process of drying up, have been reduced to their present state. There are many evidences in support of the Arab legends which tell of former running waters and fertile lands in this part of the Sahara, and the change may in part be due to the clearing away of the forests by the Arabs on the plains and high lands subsequent to their conquest of the land ; the consequence being that the periodical rains which in earlier times fertilised the coun- try are now replaced by heavier but rarer showers, the waters of which rush down the slopes and disappear in the sands, or mix with the noxious waters of the lagoons. 68 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. The admission of the Mediterranean waters over the de- pressed area of the marshes would, by affording a large evaporating surface, in the form of a great shallow lagoon, perhaps as long as Lakes Ontario or Erie, tend to give a permanent moisture supply and restore fertility to the lands round its borders. This project for submerging a comparatively small area of the interior of Tunis and Algeria, which is based on examination of the ground and known conditions, must be distinguished from an ignorant scheme recently projected in England for tlr inundation of the whole western Sahara, the practica- bility of which is not only not supported by any known facts, but is shown to be futile by the most superficial acquaintance with them, A technical commission appointed by the French government to report on this scheme conceded its practic- ability, but did not deem the advantages likely to accrue from it to be proportionate to the large cost involved in its execution. Quite recently, however, M. de Lesseps has taken up the question, and under his auspices a private company proposes to perform a task which the national government recoiled from as being too onerous. TRIPOLI. 69 CHAPTER VL TRIPOLI. 1. Extent and General Features of the Country. The eastern half of the north coast of Africa, averaging from four to five degrees of latitude in width, is divided between the two states of Tripoli and Egypt. Tripoli, which is a Turkish dependency, stretches along the whole extent of both Syrtes (gulfs of Cabes and Sidra), and reaches far inland into the domain of the Great Sahara, though its southern limits are far from being clearly defined. Here we shall deal with the coast-line alone, reserving the regions adjoining the Sahara for another chapter. Prom the Tunisian frontier there stretches eastwards a vast plain bordering the sea, and extending inland foi 50 to 100 miles. The eastern portion of the country becomes steep and rocky, forming the plateau of Barca, the old Cyrenaica, with its numerous ruined cities, and projecting in a solid compact mass into the Mediterranean. But this plateau gradually descends towards the Egyptian frontier. South of the plain just mentioned there rises an intervening bare and stony plateau or Hammada, on the south side of which the ranges of the Black Mountains, or Jebel es Soda, and Harutsh, attain an elevation of 2800 feet ; thence the country descends southwards to the oasis- land of Eezzan. 68 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. The admission of the Mediterranean waters over the de- pressed area of the marshes would, by affording a large evaporating surface, in the form of a great shallow lagoon, perhaps as long as Lakes Ontario or Erie, tend to give a permanent moisture supply and restore fertility to the lands round its borders. This project for submerging a comparatively small area of the interior of Tunis and Algeria, which is based on examination of the ground and known conditions, must be distinguished from an ignorant scheme recently projected in England for tV inundation of the whole western Sahara, the practica- bility of which is not only not supported by any known facts, but is shown to be futile by the most superficial acquaintance with them, A technical commission appointed by the French government to report on this scheme conceded its practic- ability, but did not deem the advantages likely to accrue from it to be proportionate to the large cost involved in its execution. Quite recently, however, M. de Lesseps has taken up the question, and under his auspices a private company proposes to perform a task which the national government recoiled from as being too onerous. TRIPOLI. 69 CHAPTEK VI. TRIPOLI. 1. Extent and General Features of the Country. The eastern half of the north coast of Africa, averaging from four to five degrees of latitude in width, is divided between the two states of Tripoli and Egypt. Tripoli, which is a Turkish dependency, stretches along the whole extent of both Syrtes (gulfs of Cabes and Sidra), and reaches far inland into the domain of the Great Sahara, though its southern limits are far from being clearly defined. Here we shall deal with the coast-line alone, reserving the regions adjoining the Sahara for another chapter. Erom the Tunisian frontier there stretches eastwards a vast plain bordering the sea, and extending inland foi 50 to 100 miles. The eastern portion of the country becomes steep and rocky, forming the plateau of Barca, the old Cyrenaica, with its numerous ruined cities, and projecting in a solid compact mass into the Mediterranean. But this plateau gradually descends towards the Egyptian frontier. South of the plain just mentioned there rises an intervening bare and stony plateau or Hammada, on the south side of which the ranges of the Black Mountains, or Jebel es Soda, and Harutsh, attain an elevation of 2800 feet ; thence the country descends southwards to the oasis- land of Eezzan. 70 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. 2. Climate and Natural Products. The coast plain, with a few trifling interruptions, is a barren arid waste of sands, as is also the southern plateau. Barca alone is rich in springs and woodlands on its northern border, elsewhere presenting nothing but bare rocks and treeless pastures. With this generally dreary aspect of the land, the hot dry climate fully harmonises. During the prevalence of the sultry south wind the temperature is intolerable, but the milder sea breezes occasionally temper the glowing heat. In the more elevated districts the climate is healthy, though dangerous fevers are prevalent in the south. The country is little suited for tillage, but produces fruits of southern growth, and the other vegetable pro- duce common to the whole north coast of Africa. Nor does the animal kingdom present any special features. 3. Population and Chief Towns. The population, estimated at the utmost at 1,200,000, is composed of the same elements as in the western states, but the indigenous Berber tribes are here more fused together. In the towns Turks reside, holding government offices, and in the country there are several free tribes. The only important town is Tripoli, or Tarabulus, on the coast. Like Tunis, it is a natural mart for the pro- duce of Soudan, at the same time supplying the interior of Africa with European goods. Its population is said to be about 18,000, but the local manufactures are quite insignificant. Ostrich feathers, esparto grass, and wheat, are by far the most important items of export from Tripoli. The feather trade, as we are informed by Consul Drummond Hay in his Report for 1875, supplying London COMMERCE OF TRIPOLI. 71 and Paris, appears to be steadily assuming larger propor- tions. Ostrich feathers are brought to market at this port from Timbuktu, Houssa, Bornu, and Wadai, those from Timbuktu being considered the finest. The feathers from the three former regions are brought by caravans over the desert by way of Ghadames, by Ghadamese merchants, and thence to Tripoli; those from Wadai by way of Fezzan, and sometimes by Benghazi, by Tripoli merchants. Those from Houssa are brought here and sold in the skin, the others in bulk. British cloth manufactures are by far the most important article of import. Benghazi, the ancient Berenice, on the north-west coast of the plateau land of Barca, is the most important town of that part of the province, and the second port of Tripoli. The recently opened feather trade from Wadai in central Sudan to this port is becoming a large and valuable one. The export of sheep to Egypt and the sponge fishery on the coast are the other principal occupations of the place, which has about 5000 inhabitants. 72 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. A SANDSTORM IN THE SAHARA. CHAPTER VII. THE GREAT AFRICAN DESERT, THE SAHARA. 1. Extent. According to the best and most recent geographical works the area of the Sahara is about 2,500,000 square miles, that is to say thrice the size of the Mediterranean, and ten times that of Germany. But this area will be considerably reduced if, with Eohlfs, we deduct from it the portions which are subject to a regular rainfall — a broad belt along the Atlantic coast and certain promon- tories of the fertile country in the south, usually included within its limits, but really forming no part of its domain. We should, first of all, form a correct idea of what is THE GREAT SAHARA. 73 meant by the Sahara, the best definition of which is the whole region which has no regular rainfall, and which is all but totally destitute of vegetation requiring moisture, and in which large beasts of prey cannot exist. 2. Its Marine Origin. There would seem to be no longer any doubt that this "waterless ocean" was at one time really covered with water. However, it by no means corresponds with former accounts that represented it as a wide low-lying plain ; for it is, on the contrary, an elevated sandstone expanse, varied by deep depressions with a clay soil. The abundant fossils and molluscs, some of the same species as are still found alive in the neighbouring seas, are sufficient proof that this region was formerly under water. The sand heaps, or "dunes," are so universal along its northern border, that till recently the Sahara was generally pictured as one huge sea of sand. 3. TJie Sandhills or Dunes. The present outward form of the dunes is due entirely to the wind, and though at first sight these sands suggest the idea of their having been gathered on the bed or on the shores of a former sea, it soon becomes evident that they are nothing more than the particles of the soil which have been disintegrated by excessive and long-con- tinued drought, and which have been driven before the pre- vailing winds to accumulate in mounds over certain districts. The excessive fertility of these sandy plains wherever mois- ture reaches them by natural or artificial means alone shows that they possess all the characteristics of productive soil. They generally take the appearance of waves, as if the ocean billows had suddenly assumed a solid shape. A 74 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. bird's-eye view especially of the districts covered with sand must necessarily present this outward aspect. The dunes generally range from south to north, but the great sandy wastes extend from east to west or the reverse. So far as has been hitherto ascertained, none of these run in a northerly or southerly direction. 4. Cliaracter of the Rock Formations and Mountain Ranges. As the Great Desert is distinguished by the generally dark tone of the surrounding objects, a tone produced by outward causes, so the masses of hills and rocks invariably assume a somewhat blackish hue. But it would be a mistake on this account in all cases to attribute the stone formations to a volcanic origin. As far as our present knowledge goes, the volcanic nature of the mountains is doubtless the most general, but there are also everywhere met with lime, sandstone, and granite formations. Though, so far as has been hitherto ascertained, the Sahara ranges are much lower than those of Europe, they are by no means inferior to them in extent. The Jebel es Soda and Harutsh ranges in Tripoli, for instance, would seem to be nearly as long as the Apennines, and the plateaux of Ahaggar, closely connected with those of Adrar, Tasili, and Muydir, are as extensive as the Alps. The highest known point is the Tussicle in the broad-backed Tarso range of mountains in central Tu or Tibesti, which Dr. Nachtigal estimates at about 7900 feet at least. Nothing can be imagined* more utterly dreary and awe-inspiring than a mountain in the Great Desert. The bare rocks absolutely void of vegetation, the dark gloomy appearance and peculiar outlines of the masses of stone — all, much more even than the most extensive sand dunes, remind the traveller that he is in the Great Desert. THE GREAT SAHARA. 75 5. The Table-lands. The greatest space in the Sahara is occupied by the more or less level table-lands. When strewn with sharp stones they are called Hammada, or Tanesruft, and Serir when covered with small pebbles. Both are always entirely destitute of vegetation. The sharp stones might almost lead us to suppose that the Hammada had never been covered with water, but the marine fossils are here also so abundant as to leave scarcely any doubt about the matter. All the Hammada and Serir are composed of clay, which has in many places become almost as hard as stone, and the presence of oxide of iron has mostly imparted a red tinge to the clay soil itself. The plains skirting the Sahara, and which begin to show traces of vegetation, are called Sahel. 6. The Hofra, or Depressions. In contradistinction to the elevated plateaux are the low-lying plains or depressions, generally called Hofra or Juf. The only true depressions, — that is, districts lying beneath the level of the ocean — as yet known in the Sahara, are those of the marshes in the south of Tunis, to which we have already referred, and some small portions of the oases in the Libyan desert between Tripoli and Lower Egypt. The expedition to the Libyan desert, led by Gerhard Eohlfs in 1873-74, found that the deepest part of the oasis of Siwah lies at a depth of 9 5 feet below the level of the Mediterranean, and eastward from this the small oasis of Araj is perhaps not less than 240 feet below sea-level. The areas of these isolated depressions are, however, very insignificant, and the measurements of the amount of their descent made by barometer, not by accurate levelling, must not be accepted as absolutely determined. 76 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. Many of the tracts which the natives call Hofra are not true depressions as here understood, but only such relatively to the more elevated surrounding land. 7. TJie Oases. An important feature of the desert are the Oases (sup- posed to be the Coptic OualU, meaning inhabited place), which are found wherever they are rendered possible by the nature of the soil in combination with water. Wherever water is found in a valley or hollow of the Sahara, even though of a brackish nature, grass grows, plants nourish, an oasis is formed. As pointed out by Barth, the most barren and unpromising-looking sands when so fertilised become immediately clothed in vegetation. But the oases take their rise and are conditioned by various causes, hence are of various sorts. There are, first of all, those due to natural surface-drainage or under- ground springs and infiltrations, such as those of the Wady Draa, supplied entirely by moisture collected from the mountains by the upper Draa and of the upper Tafilet, depending for its existence on the scanty drainage from the inner slope of the Atlas. Amongst those irrigated by underground running streams are the real Tafilet, south of Ertib, the greater portion of the northern group of oases in Tuat, and several other smaller ones south of the Atlas. Then we have oases, such as those of Ghadames and Siwah or Jupiter Ammon, formed by copious natural springs ; others due to the presence of underground lakes or bodies of stagnant water lying a foot or two below the surface sand, such as that of Kauar, midway between Tripoli and Lake Chad, and many in Fezzan ; others again, where the water lies so deep (from 1 5 to 30 feet below the surface) that it must be reached by artificial means, as is the case with many also in Fezzan, in the Algerian Sahara, and THE GREAT SAHARA. 77 elsewhere ; lastly, places where the water has to be con- veyed by artificial channels from a distance, as in Tidikelt, and some others south of the Atlas. 8. Rivers and Dried-up River Beds. The first description of oases — viz. those watered by surface streams — are found only near the base of high ranges, especially south of the Great Atlas. The bulk of the water in these rivers naturally diminishes in propor- tion to the length of its course. The irrigation of the innumerable fields through which they flow, and the enor- mous evaporation to which they are exposed in the arid wastes, are the principal causes of this. The Draa itself can only reach the ocean in spring, when swollen by un- usual rains combined with the melting of the snow on the Atlas. Other rivers, at the season of their overflow, form sebkhas, swamps, and lakes; but the oases watered by such surface streams are, of course, the most favourably situated, and here flourish even the fruit trees of the tem- perate zone. In the whole region of the Sahara there is not a single river bed in which the water flows constantly throughout the year. Even if the Draa be considered as a Saharan river, we know that it flows constantly only as far as the point where its course changes from the south to the west ; but it filters underground the whole year. The river valley which gives rise to the oasis of Tuat, and which in the north consists of a numerous system of ramifications, has surface water only in some isolated places, while the Mia and the Igharghar, wadys with channels of enormous length, have scarcely ever any surface water. But what prodigious quantities of water must have been at some time required to form and flood such dried-up river beds as are now found in the desert ! The bed of the Igharghar, 78 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. for instance, is in several places some twelve or fifteen miles wide. Hence the obvious inference, that the climate of the Sahara must have formerly been very different from the present ; and the numerous fossil forests show plainly enough that vegetation was here at one time much more abundant than now ; hence there must have also been a greater rainfall, which would help to explain the existence of the frequently amazing length, breadth, and depth of the dry river beds. 9. Lakes. No less wonderful is the number of beds of lakes, and even lakes themselves, in the Sahara. These are met with most frequently where depressions exist, but also in other more elevated places, as is the case in Fezzan ; and we may well imagine how copious must be the underground springs that feed these lakes, in order to keep them constantly supplied with water in spite of the enormous evaporation to which they are exposed. When these lakes become dried up, they form sebkhas or marshes, which have an apparently firm surface, but a slimy swampy bed beneath. Some of them — such as those of Bilma, on the route to Bornu, near the centre of the Sahara — are so full of salt that on drying up they present the appearance of a sheet of salt. It is remark- able that on becoming dry the surface mud of the sebkhas almost always contracts into regular polygons, generally hexagonal. If the soil is very rich in salt, however, dry wave-like furrows appear, giving to some of the dry sebkhas the appearance of a suddenly petrified lake, the surface of which has been agitated by waves ; but these are much less frequent. 10. The Hot Winds and Sand Storms. The climate of the Sahara is entirely different from THE GREAT SAHARA. 79 that of any other part of the world ; but the extraordinary dryness of the atmosphere results there not from the barren soil, but from the prevailing winds, which are generally easterly, being part of the great current which shows itself most clearly as the north-east trade wind of the Atlantic. These east winds bear with them no clouds or moisture from the ocean, but only currents of dry air from Asia, which, passing also from colder to warmer regions, have their capacity for absorbing moisture increased as they advance. But even in the rare cases when breezes come from the west charged with clouds from the Atlantic, the heats are in most cases so intense that the clouds are dis- sipated before the moisture is sufficiently condensed to produce rain. At certain seasons hot suffocating winds blow outward from the sandy deserts of the Sahara, and to these the general name " Simoom" is given by the Arabs of the north coasts, from the word Samma, meaning hot or poisonous. In Egypt the hot wind is called Khamsin, meaning fifty, since it generally blows from the end of April, for that number of days, onward to the inundation of the Nile in June. In Tunis it is called " SJieely" and fills the air with impalpable sand, giving rise to much ophthalmia. The Scirocco is most frequent in Algeria in July, whence it blows northward over Italy and melts the snows of the Alps as the warm Fohn wind ; in Marocco, the hot wind (here called Shume) is strongest in July, August, and September, and passes across to Spain as the Solano ; still farther round, on the border of the Great Desert in Sene- gambia, and on the Guinea coast, the Harmattan wind, intensely dry and charged with particles of sand and dust, blows out from the Sahara at intervals during December, January, and February. Steamers running along the coast north of Sierra Leone during the Harmattan with freshly tarred rigging or newly painted bulwarks, find the side 80 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. next Africa powdered with fine sand, so that the painted parts assume the nature of sand-paper. In blowing over those portions of the Sahara which are covered with drift sand, every stronger wind raises great clouds of the finer sand. "When this driving sand accompanies one of the hot winds, these together form one of perhaps the most terrible hardships that the caravans have to encounter in passing through the deserts. In travelling through southern Fezzan, Gerhard Eohlfs en- countered a sand storm from the east, in which the drift was so dense that it was impossible to see one's hand held out before the face. Such was the violence of the wind that the tents could not be pitched, and nothing could be done but to cover oneself up and lie down. Next morning the sand had covered everything an inch deep. Count d'Escayrac1 gives a vivid description of such a sand storm. " As I was travelling," he writes, " on a fine July night through the desert of the Bisharin, I was astonished at the extraordinary clearness of the unclouded starry sky. The atmosphere was perfectly calm ; suddenly it took a different aspect. In the east a black cloud began to rise with frightful rapidity, and soon covered half the heavens. Immediately afterwards a strong puff of wind covered us with sand, and threw up little stones of the size of peas into our faces. Soon we were surrounded by a dense sand cloud, and stood still in the deepest darkness. We had quickly covered up our eyes ; but in spite of that they filled with sand every time we opened them. The camels sank down on their knees and groaned, and then lay down ; and my servants, battered by the sand and gravel, did the same. I leant myself against my camel, whose high saddle afforded some pro- tection, but did not dare to lie down for fear of being buried in sand. The storm passed, and by daybreak thfi 1 Le Disert et le Soudan. THE GREAT SAHARA. 81 sky was again clear and the air at rest ; but the camels and their drivers lay up to their necks in sand." 11. Climate of the Sahara. Although in some places hotter than in any other part of the world, the climate of the Sahara may as a rule be described as very salubrious. The frequent almost absolute dryness of the atmosphere would seem to produce no ill effects on the health, acting most beneficially espe- cially on the lungs, even when in an advanced stage of disease. The great feature of the climate of the Sahara, as of all bare desert countries, is that of excessive difference of temperature between day and night. Exposed to the in- tense heat of the sun during the day, the superficial layers of sand on the surface of the rocks become heated, some- times to nearly 200° F., and the air resting upon this heated surface quickly takes a correspondingly high tem- perature. The absence of moisture in the air gives a clear sky, which promotes the rapid radiation of heat during the night till the thermometer falls not un frequently to below the freezing-point. At Mursuk, in Fezzan, for ex- ample, the average daily range of temperature in the winter months, when it is least, is 28° F. G 82 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. CHAPTEE VIII. STATES AND RACES IN THE SAHARA. 1. The Northern Border Land of the Sahara. The states hitherto passed in review, especially Marocco, Algeria, and Tunis, stretch southwards into a region which may be described as the border land of the Sahara. In the case of Marocco, the district in question would be that which reaches from the Atlantic seaboard to the frontiers of Algeria on the one hand, and on the other from the southern slopes of the Atlas to the parallels of latitude passing through the southern points of the great oases. In Algeria this outlying district comprises the third and most southern of the three zones into which the whole country has been divided, its northern limit being the Sahara Border Eange. This is the sandy waste of the Algerian Sahara (Sahara algerien, or petit dSsert), here and there interrupted by fruitful oases, and the southern por- tion of which is called by the natives El Erg, or region of the sand dunes. The whole is also sometimes known as the palm country (region des palmiers), the date-palm here being the most striking feature of the vegetable kingdom. In the Algerian Sahara are the oases of El Aghuat, El Gerara, and Ghardaya, in the country of the Beni- Mzab Arabs, besides those of Tuggurt, El Wad, Wargla (" queen of the oases "), and El Golea. In Tunis, the Belad-el-Jerid, or " land of the date," is THE GREAT SAHARA. 83 mainly comprised within the limit of this neutral ground, which is not met with farther east ; in Tripoli the Great Sahara itself reaches, so to say, to the sea-coast. Here grow various kinds of fruit, such as the degla, the hora, the hamma, and the date of Cabes, the latter of inferior quality, and used by the Bedouins in the prepara- tion of an indifferent sort of dough or paste. Mixed with barley or grass it also serves as food for their horses, mules, and camels. 2. Limits of the Sahara on the West, East, and South. The western portion of the Great Sahara, reaching from Marocco on the north to the great Senegal river on the south, and westwards to the shores of the Atlantic, has been so far but very little explored. For most of our information regarding it we are indebted to two French- men, Panet (1850) and Yincent (1860), and to the Arab traveller Bu-el-Moghdad. More to the east lay the routes of Rene Caillie (1828) and of Dr. Oscar Lenz (1879), who crossed the Sahara in contrary directions between Timbuktu and Marocco. It is difficult sharply to define the limits of the Sahara on the south, but, speaking generally, they must be considered as passing north of the Senegal and Niger regions. Farther eastwards its southern frontier is formed by the so-called Fellatah states, the region of Lake Chad, Wadai, and Darfur, which, with Kordofan, bring it to the borders of southern Egypt. Across the Nile the Nubian and Arabian deserts carry it on to the Eed Sea. The northern portion of the extreme eastern region of the Sahara, known as the Desert of Lybia, was for the first time carefully explored by Eohlfs' expedition in 1873-4. Proceeding from the west eastwards, we shall now endeavour to give a more detailed account of these vast 84 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TRAVEL. regions and their inhabitants, deriving onr information in all cases from the most trustworthy sources. 3. Tlie Western Sahara — Berber Tribes. For the western portion we shall place ourselves in the hands of Vincent, who crossed the burning sands of the Great Desert in 1860. In the neighbourhood of the Senegal region there are numerous encampments of Berber herdsmen, for water in shallow streams and excellent pasture lands are here everywhere abundant. The men are naked from the waist upwards, with red &kin, hooked nose, intelligent eye, and hair rather crisp than curly. The women go unveiled, but wear a long robe flowing from the shoulders to the ground. These Berber tribes seem to be of a very gentle dis- position, hence are reckoned amongst the Marabuts, by which in this part of Africa are understood those Moham- medans who do not bear arms, but make profession of a special observance of their religious practices. Amongst all the Berber tribes of the western Sahara, Vincent met with no one who had at any time more than one wife, or contracted a second marriage. The women here do not submit to divorce, and evidently keep their lords well under control. The free women do not work, nor do they ever walk on foot. Hence, though the men are much sun- burnt, the w omen would appear almost white if their true complexion could only be seen through the thick layer of dirt that covers their skin. But they carefully guard against touching water, and a lady, questioned by Vincent on the point, had carried her precautions so far that for the space of seven years she had never once in an un- guarded moment indulged in ablutions of any sort. The food of these tribes consists in the produce of THE WESTERN S AH AHA. 85 their herds and flocks. Camel's milk is exceedingly nourishing, and the sheep are wonderfully prolific. How- ever, they grow no wool, but only something resembling goat's hair. Vincent on one occasion claimed the hospi- tality of the Tiyab, formerly a warlike tribe that had since turned to peaceful ways and become Marabuts. So when the French began to drink wine the Berbers with- drew in horror from the tent. At this Vincent asked his host whether he objected to his drinking wine, to which the hospitable child of the desert nobly replied, " Should you present yourself even with vipers, the moment you enter my tent you are welcome." When the travellers approached the bank of Arguin they came upon a tribe of Berber fishermen, who ply their dangerous trade with trawling nets on a coast swarming o o o with sharks. This bank is assuredly one of the richest corners of the world in fish, if not the very richest, and as there are natural salt beds close by, the neighbouring Cape Blanco might form an excellent fishing station. Occupying the western border of the Sahara, between 20° and 26° north latitude, lies the territory of Tiris, a vast plain of granite dotted over with hillocks, and in part covered with quartz sand, which is roved over by the Uled-Delim, a nomad tribe, pirates of the desert, and famous for the beauty of their women and maidens. And they really deserve their reputation, on account of their smooth hair, large eyes, long lashes, Grecian noses, dazzling white teeth, slim figure, and the extraordinary delicacy of their feet and hands, the nails of the latter of which are dyed a rosy colour with henna. Unfortunately the family ties are here extremely lax, and marriages are always contracted for the shortest term imaginable. Vegetation appears in Tiris only in the sandy hollows, in which great numbers of gazelles are seen. Captain Vincent counted as many as 100 of these in a single day, 86 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. During his journey farther inland Vincent approached Berber villages with several hundred inhabitants, who supported themselves on the produce of their date planta- tions, millet, maize, barley, and wheat crops, watered by shallow but extremely copious wells. (Bulletin de la SocUU de Geographic de Paris: 1861, pp. 5-37.) 4. Aderer, T a filet, El-Jufi and other Western Districts. Aderer, in which are situated Shingeti and three other towns, is the most notable district in the western Sahara. It is a hilly country peopled by Berbers possessing camels, sheep, and oxen, and cultivating dates, wheat, barley, and melons. The most important town here is Shingeti, or Shingit, where there is a depot of rock-salt, drawn from the inexhaustible beds of the Sebkha Ijil, lying a five days' journey to the N.N.E., and thence exported to the countries in the Sudan situated between the upper Senegal and the Niger, and to southern Marocco by caravans. The other settlements in Aderer, besides that of Shingeti, are Wadan and Usheft, the former of which carries on a considerable trade. The settled population pays tribute to the dominant nomads of the country, of whom the Yaya-ben-Othman are the most powerful. Though the country is high and hilly, rain occurs in some years only once or twice, in October ; and though springs are nume- rous, none are sufficiently strong to form any permanent rivulet. On the north it is enclosed by a dreary belt of sand dunes, known as Maghter or Murthir, which extend through Gidi or Igidi continuously to the country of sand hills called El Erg in southern Algeria. From Aderer caravans pass northwards through the wide belt of sand hills which separates it from the extensive district of This, to Tafilet, or Tafilelt, the most important of the oasis in the Maroccan Sahara, exchanging salt for European goods. THE WESTERN SAHARA. 87 About 20,000 camel loads of salt are taken from Aderer every year. In Tafilet, which is subdivided into a number of dis- tricts, there are about 300 fortified villages. The chief place is Abuam, the market-place of which, called Sultu, situated outside the gates, presents a curious sight. From a distance it might be supposed covered with great mole- hills, which, when examined more closely, turn out to be an immense number of stone booths or stalls with round roofs. Three days in the week the market is held. It is the largest fair south of the Great Atlas, and here are sold, besides the European commodities from Fez, all the products of the south. Tafilet sends two great caravans yearly to Timbuktu. The population of Tafilet is very mixed, the Shirfa and Arabs being in the ascendant. Amongst the latter must be included the Beni-Mhamed, although they speak Shellah as easily as Arabic. The Beni-Mhamed, who are also settlers in the Draa and in Sus, are the chief caravan traders. (Bohlfs, Journey through Marocco: Bremen, 18G9, p. 87.) The caravan route from Tafilet to Timbuktu lies to the east of that previously mentioned, crossing the dis- trict of Gicli, or Igidi, which, though covered with high sand hills, produces palms in abundance. South from tliih point stretches a fearful and notorious region, leading northwards to the Afelele, or Little Desert, which is varied with pretty hills and dales and an abundance of wells and even little streams. Between it and Timbuktu lies the barren district of Asawad, and to the south-east Aderar (not to be mistaken for Aderer), the hilly country of the Auelimmiden, adapted to the breeding of camels and cattle. North-west of Asawad lies El Juf, a region full of rock-salt and destitute of vegetation, known as the paunch of the desert, and de« 83 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. scribed by Earth as a great depression below the general level of the desert. This account is borne out by Dr. Lenz, according to whom the lowest point of this desert lies only 390 feet above the level of the sea, whilst the altitude of Timbuktu is 803 feet, and that of the most elevated portion of the desert towards Wady Draa amounts to 1296 feet. Taodeni is the only village within it, and was formerly of considerable importance from its salt mines. These mines, Cailli6 was informed, are three and a half or four feet below the surface of the ground. The salt is in thick strata, and is quarried in blocks, after which it is split into more convenient cakes. These mines are the wealth of the country, and were worked in Caillie's time by negro slaves superintended by Moors. The salt is taken to Timbuktu, and thence is distributed over the Sudan. To the south-west of this is the waterless district of Akela, ten days' journey in extent, and farther on in the same direction is Baghena, the southern and most favoured district of the country called M Hodh, or " the basin," since it is surrounded by a chain of rocky heights. Here the trees growing most abundantly are the gigantic baobab, or bread-fruit trees (Adansonia digitata), and the date. In the swamps are sown durrha or saba and wild rice, which spring up in the rainy season. In the sterile country of the north-west of El Hodh is the well-built but extremely insalubrious town of "VValata, or Biru, the chief place of the country, with houses built of clay and stone, painted in gay colours. Walata carries on a considerable trade in gold, ostrich feathers, and honey. Between El Hodh and Aderer lies the almost un- known country of Taganet, the northern portion of which is barren and desert, but southern or Black Taganet (which, like southern El Hodh, passes out of the desert zone) has high mountains and forests, sheltering lions and THE WESTERN SAHARA. 89 perhaps also elephants. Its chief centre of population is Tishit, said to have 3000 inhabitants, which is a noted salt-mart. Another district called Taganet lies midway between Asawad and Timbuktu much farther west. All the habitable portions of these western tracts of the Sahara which we have been describing are peopled by a variety of tribes, which are frequently designated collectively as Moors. In former times the Xegroes probably extended northward over this region as far as about the 20 th parallel. When the tide of Arab invasion swept along the northern coast of the continent the Berbers of the northern zone were driven before it into the desert; and during and after the religious struggles which accompanied the introduction of Mohammedanism into these regions, they became largely amalgamated with Arab elements. Thus resulted a population the basis of which is Berber, but intermingled to some extent with Negro and Arab blood. Though strings of caravans of Mohammedans pass through the western Sahara un- molested, the fanaticism of the greater part of the tribes would oppose itself strongly, it is believed, to similar traffic with Christians, so that great difficulties would attend the opening up of this region to the commerce of the world. To the east of the caravan route between Tafilet and Timbuktu we enter the domain of the Tuareg (pronounced Tuarej) or Imoshagh, occupying the central portion of the Sahara as far as the 12 th meridian of east longitude from Greenwich. This line forms the boundary line between them and the Tibbus, who occupy some parts of the eastern section of the Sahara, though the extreme east adjoining the Egyptian frontier appears to be nearly uninhabited. 5. The Central Section of the Sahara (Domain of the Tuareg). We have now to speak of the central region of the 90 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. Great Desert reaching northwards as far as Algeria, Tunis, and a portion of Tripoli, and southward for 1200 miles to the fertile borders of the Sudan. METLILI FROM THE EAST. 6. The Towns of Wargla, Tuggurt, and Metlili. Of the oases of the Algerian border land, which are included in this section, that of Wargla is unquestionably the most important. It lies in 32° N". latitude surrounded by sand, like a green island in an ocean of fire, and has formed part of the French Algerian possessions since the expedition of Colomieu in 1862. The town of Wargla itself lies in a low-lying dis- THE CENTRAL SAHARA. 91 trict abounding in palm-trees. The streets are so narrow that a man on horseback could not turn round between the houses, which are built of sun-dried brick with earthen floors, and all only one story high, usually with an inscription from the Koran over the door. The market, serving also for the shambles, reeks with blood, while the flesh of camels and dogs lies in the sun, infested by swarms of flies. Hence it is not perhaps surprising that Wargla is very unhealthy and subject to fevers. Here dwell four different races on amicable terms. These are the Arabs, the Mosabites or people of Mzab, the Aratines or Aborigines, and the Negroes. The last, though fully aware that they have been emancipated by France, have never yet in a single instance claimed their freedom. The most important explorations in the Algerian Sahara and the land of the Tuareg have undoubtedly been those of the great French traveller, Henri Duveyrier. He visited Tuggurt, capital of Wad R'ir, south of Biskra, and famous far and wide throughout the Sahara. The towm is surrounded by a circular wall, and has a popula- tion of about 3000. In June 1859 he went from Biskra to the oasis of Ghardaya, taking El-Gerara on his wTay. This place is perched on a hill, has walls in a good condition, and houses with arcades. In the neighbour- hood he found jujube-trees and terebinths of great size, and came across flocks of ostriches. Ghardaya lies in the Wadi Mzab, a rift in the extensive plateau or Hammada which begins about a day's journey north of this point, and stretches southward to beyond Metlili and Wargla. Not far south of Ghardaya is situated the town of Metlili. It presents a singular view, being perched on a steep hill, on the highest point of which rises a half- ruinous mosque. There are no walls, for winch indeed there is no occasion, the place being protected by its 92 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. faithful allies the Shaamba Berasgha, here the dominant Arab tribe. HOUSE TERRACES IN TUGGURT. 7. The Beni-Mzab. The people of this region, at present forming the confederation of the Beni-Mzab, profess much stricter principles than the other Mohammedans, by whom, how- ever, they are looked on as a sort of heretics. Their constant feuds have ceased since the arrival of the French, to whom all the seven confederate estates pay tribute. The Beni-Mzab hold lying in abhorrence, and make a virtue of cleanliness. The women are kept in strict seclusion, and the Tolba, or lettered and sacerdotal classes, form a little world of their own, living in common and cultivating palm-gardens. THE CENTRAL SAHARA. 93 8. Oasis of El-Golea. From Ghardaya, Duveyrier went a journey of six days in a southerly direction to the oasis of El-Golea, which place he was the first European to visit. El-Golea, or El-Menia, the most southerly settlement within the border of the Algerian Sahara, with a population of from 1200 to 1300, consists of two towns, the upper built on a cliff and surrounded by a wall, the lower lying between this cliff and another little eminence. Round about the city are some straggling plantations of date- trees. The houses consist merely of four mud walls covered with palm branches, and disposed in two or three compartments, with little courts but no terraces. 9. The Tudt Oases, South-west of El-Golea, separated from it by the Areg belt of sand hills, and within the limits of the true Sahara, is situated the cluster of oases known as Tuat, which is the Berber word for oasis. It consists of five groups, the most southern of which is Tidikelt, whose capital, In-Salah (that is, town of Salah), is the emporium of the trade carried on between Tuat and the centre of Africa, Algeria, Tunis, and Tripoli, exchanging ostrich feathers, gold dust, ivory, slaves from the Sudan, for coffee and sugar and cloth, spices from Tripoli, and knives, needles, looking-glasses, beads, etc., coming by way of Algeria. It lies at about an equal distance of 800 miles from Timbuktu, Mogador, Tangier, Algiers, and Tripoli. Tuat forms an independent confederation of from 300 to 400 little states, and stretches from north to south about 180, from east to west about 200 miles. The traffic with Algeria is indispensable to it, for it depends on that country for regular supplies of corn, flesh, and 94: COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. wooL This federal union of republics, if the expression may be allowed, recognises no chief authority, nor any central government for the whole, each state forming a little government for itself. In the Berber villages demo- cratic rule prevails, while amongst the Arabs power is inherited in the families of nobles or Marabuts. Where the Negroes are in the ascendant the rule is aristocratic, in the hands of a few men of colour. The oases are thickly peopled, on which account there are numerous emigrations, natives of the Tuat being met with far and wide — in Timbuktu, Agades, Ghat, Ghadames, Tripoli, Tunis, Tlemcen, in the Western Sahara, and in all the large towns of Marocco. 10. Oasis of Ghadames. The oases just noted all lie more or less in a south- westerly direction from Biskra. In a south-easterly line from Biskra the most important oasis is that of Ghadames or Ehadames, close to the south-eastern corner of the French Algerian possessions, but politically attached to the government of Tripoli. It was visited some years ago by the French traveller Victor Largeau, who made his way thither from Tuggurt, for a portion of his route following the bed of the old river Igharghar, part of which he tells us is already filled up with sand-dunes reaching to nearly 500 feet in height. On leaving the valley of the Igharghar he took a south-easterly direction past the salt wells of Hazi-Bottin, and still keeping in this direc- tion he marched for ten days through a country into which even the Shaamba scarcely ever venture even in winter. It is a desert covered with high hills of red sand formed from the weathering of a ferruginous sandstone of which the plain farther eastward is composed. Between these great dunes the scanty vegetation is cropped by THE CENTRAL SAHARA. 95 antelopes and gazelles. The people of Ghadames form a branch of the Berber tribe called by the Arab geographers " Molathemin," or " veiled," because, like the Tuareg, they wear a bandage across the face. But they are not true Berbers, differing from them in descent, speech, dress, town life, and special taste for trade and commerce. To their commercial enterprise fully corresponds the appear- ance of the town of Ghadames itself, with its large, well- ventilated, and lofty white houses, and its streets mostly shaded from the burning rays of the sun. 11. The Tuareg Tribes. To the south of this domain dwell the Tuareg proper (often written Tawarik or Tuarick on English maps), Berber nomades, stretching from Tuat in a southerly direction to beyond the northern bend of the Mger, and from the Algerian oases and the limits of Ghadames in the north to the borders of the Eellatah states and Bornu in the Sudan. They are also frequently met with in the neighbourhood of Murzuk in Eastern Fezzan. Some of these tribes cover a wide expanse of country and are very powerful ; but they live in a constant state of hostility amongst themselves, one tribe speaking of another with great contempt. The Tuareg are of large build and well shaped, alto- gether the finest race of men in this portion of Africa. Their dress is extremely varied, the more westerly tribes wearing a close-fitting garment, while others adopt wide flowing robes. The material is mostly the dark-blue, almost black, " Kano " cotton. Characteristic of them is the " Litham " or " Tessilgemist," wound twice round the face in such a way as to cover eyes, mouth, and chin, protecting these from the blown sands of the desert, and leaving nothing exposed except the middle of the face 96 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. with the tip of the nose. The shawl is tied in a bow behind. TUAREG BERBERS. The hair, either cut short or forming a pigtail, remains uncovered on top, and the beard sometimes peeps out below. Sandals are worn only on the borders of the desert. A complete leather costume seems also peculiar to some tribes. Those to the east wear a leather bag attached to a leather belt, and those in the west a dainty little pouch round the neck, in which they keep twine, thread, pens, pipe, and tobacco. Freemen carry a very long straight sword, a dagger suspended to the left wrist, a spear six feet long, often THE CENTRAL SAHARA. 97 supplemented by a musket. They speak a Berber dialect, which is said to vary very little throughout their country, and they profess Islamism, about which, however, they know very little. They are extremely superstitious ; on their neck, arms, legs, breast, and waist, they wear amulets and little pouches containing verses from the Koran as charms and talismans. The predominant passion is a love of finery and of women, but the tribes of purer blood are distinguished by their warlike spirit. Hence they are in a constant state of feud amongst themselves, and are everywhere feared and hated. Yet they are not naturally cruel, and treat their slaves kindly. The women go unveiled, and take part in the affairs of the community, but polygamy has unfortunately found its way into several tribes. 12. The Southern Tuareg Country — Ahaggar, and Air or Ashen. The northern portion of the broad country of the Tuareg has, as we have noticed, been described by Du- veyrier ; its southern regions have been explored by Heinrich Barth. The latter traveller, proceeding west- wards from Murzuk to the Oasis of Ghat, thence traversed the whole country from north to south in order to reach the kingdom of Bornu in the Sudan. South and west of Ghat rises the wide highland of the Asgar Tuaregs, the Tasili plateau, attaining elevations of from 4300 to 5200 feet above the sea, and which merges farther west into the alpine mass of the Jebel Ahaggar. In this mass of highlands the plateau formation is also prevalent, but here and there high red mountains with steep cliffs rise above other points. Southward still from the Asgar high- land the country rises to a second plateau, that of the country of Air or Asben, in which the mountain groups of H 9S COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. Timge and Baghzen rise to 5000 feet. This is a rude rocky country, full of tree-covered and pastoral valleys, the fertility of which depends not so much on the direct supply from showers which fall from August to October as on the moisture gathered into them from the mountains. The whole land has a general slope from east to west, so that the western valleys are the most fertile. One of the most beautiful among them is that of the "VVadi Tegidda, lying at the northern base of the peak of Dogem, 5000 feet in height, which supports large flocks of cattle and camels, and has exceedingly luxuriant woods, especially of acacias. The valley of Tintellust, the residence of one of the sheikhs of Asben, has also an exuberantly rich vegetation. Beyond this highland southward an uninhabited and waterless plateau is again met with, and this merges gradually into a more and more habitable plain country or steppe, in which giraffes, wild oxen, and ostriches, roam in large numbers. Still farther on the pasture-grounds of the nomadic tribe of the Tagama Tuaregs, rich in herds of cattle, are crossed, and lead into the pleasant undulating country of Damerghu, on the border of the Sudan, with farm-yards and corn-fields supplying grain to the domi- nant country of Asben. The kingdom of Asben extends from about 16° to 20° X. lat, and is nominally ruled over by a sultan who resides at the capital town of Agades. It is chiefly peopled by three large tribes — the Kel-owi, Kelgeres, and Itisan — partly settled in villages in the mountain valleys, partly living in movable tents made of mats. Agades was formerly a very important city of Central Africa, but was in a declining condition at the time of Earth's visit to it. At one time it was an entre- pot for the immense traffic carried on with Gagho, the ancient capital of the Sonrhai empire on the Niger, and then probably contained 60,000 inhabitants. At the time of Earth's visit (1850) it had not more than 6000. Its THE EASTERN SAHARA. 99 trade and manufactures are now trifling in extent, and it holds little or no intercourse with the northern towns of the Sahara, though its merchants visit the markets of the Sudan, and the salt trade from Bilma in the Tebu country westward, passing through Asben, aids in sustaining its population. The language spoken in Agades, though its inhabitants are to a large extent Berber, is the same as that of Timbuktu, though there is now no communication with that city. Dr. Barth was of opinion that Agades would form a good and comparatively healthy point from which a European agent might open up relations with Central Africa. 13. The Eastern Sahara (Domain of the Tibhus). The eastern division of the Sahara is occupied, as above stated, by the Tibbus. The approach to this region is through Tripoli, whence nearly all travellers have started in making their way through Murzuk southwards across the Great Desert to the shores of Lake Chad. There are two tracks from Tripoli to Murzuk — one, the shorter and more westerly, leading more directly south through the Jebel-Ghurian, Wadi Um-el-Cheil, and the western side of the Jebel-es-Soda ; while the other is more round- about, for a great part of the way turning considerably to the east. The first was mainly followed by Barth, Overweg, and Eohlfs ; the second by Lyon, Denham, and Clapperton, Vogel and Duveyrier. Nachtigal also, the most recent traveller in these regions, has followed the longer route, which is the true caravan way, is regularly supplied with watering stations, and offers desirable resting-places in the centres of population of Beni Ulid, Bonjem, and Sokna. On the 18th of February 1869, Dr. Nachtigal (to whose leadership we will entrust ourselves mainly in the 100 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. Tibbu country) left Tripoli, beginning his 36 days' march to Murzuk. The character of the desert landscape in the country which spreads out behind the coast range of hills of Tripoli is well enough known ; it rises by a steep terrace to high-lying plains dotted over with isolated mountain groups and peaks, and is cut into by numerous valleys. At Beni Ulid, about 100 miles south-east of the town of Tripoli, a pretty olive grove refreshes the eye of the tra- veller for the last time, since, on passing farther on to Bonjem and Sokna, he finds himself in the midst of a complete desert. Four long days' journey through a waterless plain, diversified only by naked hill ridges and bare undulations, are required to reach the latter place, which lies in 29° N. latitude. The Jebel-es-Soda, which has next to be crossed, forms the natural northern bound- ary of the country of Fezzan, the capital of which is Murzuk. The greater portion of Fezzan presents a melan- choly and silent landscape of the most barren desert, over which a perpetually blue sky, from which the glowing sun evaporates every little cloud, hangs heavily. In contrast to the barren Hammada, however, the cluster of oases round the capital seems like a fresh garden. The inhabitants of Murzuk live chiefly by traffic in slaves, and the products of the countries farther inland, such as salt, natron, and medicinal herbs ; the slaves, however, are the principal subjects of trade. These unfortunates are the victims of man-hunting raids made by the princes of the fertile lands of the Sudan south of the Great Sahara, and brought to one of the great slave-marts of that region — the town of Kuka, in Bornu, on the banks of Lake Chad. There the great mass of them are bought by Arab merchants, and marched by arid tracks over the desert under a burning sun for about 800 miles to Murzuk, and thence north and eastward to the Mediterranean coasts, but chiefly to Cairo. One great annual caravan from Kuka alone brings about THE EASTERN SAHARA. 101 4000 slaves ; and the whole number yearly passed across the desert by this route is reckoned at 10,000. The priva- tions and tortures endured by these troops on their long march may be conceived from Kohlfs' remark on the appearance of the caravan track: — " On both sides of the route are seen the blanched bones of dead slaves, many of the skeletons being still wrapped in the blue negro gar- ment. Any one who did not know the way to Bornu would only have to follow the bones which lie right and left of the track." The stirring life of the other oases of the desert seems to be absent in Murzuk, which is impor- tant only as a depot of trade with the interior, and in other respects is a dreary and insignificant place. From Murzuk Dr. Nachtigal made an excursion to Tibesti, or Tu, which is a hill country of the Central Sahara, lying east of the direct caravan route from Murzuk to the lands round Lake Chad, containing the highest known summit of the desert. It is inhabited by the Reshade, one of the tribes of the Tibbu, who are notori- ous throughout the whole of North Africa for their rapacity, treachery, and cruelty. ~No European had ever visited their country before, all travellers having failed in their attempts, or having feared to venture into Tibesti. At the wells of Tiimmo, on the usual route southward from Mur- zuk, Nachtigal turned off to the south-east, and after a painful march through a waterless country reached the hill country of Afafi, in the north-west of Tibesti. Limestone and dark-coloured sandstone are the prevailing formations in this district, and great basalt blocks lie scattered over it. Many torrent beds have cut their way through it, and the view in these is enlivened with bright-coloured Talha trees (Acacia gummifera), the hills rising in grotesque shapes in the background. Beyond Afafi, Nachtigal crossed a bare stony and sandy plain country, on which many groups of sandstone masses rose like huge castles. In the 102 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL. torrent beds alone a scanty pasturage was found for the camels, and in no direction could the traveller see any sign of inhabitants. As he approached the torrent bed called the Enneri-Tollobu, however, a remarkable change was noticed in the landscape, and a light porous stone of various colours took the place of the sand and lime stone, presenting an undulating but perfectly barren surface. On the 13th of July 1869 he reached Tao, the first inhabited place he had come upon in Tibesti. Tao is not exactly a village, but consists of a number of huts formed of mats of dum-palm fibre scattered round the vicinity of a copious spring. At the time of Naehtigal's visit, Tao, as well as all the settlements on the western slopes of the Tarso range, which crosses Tibesti from N.W. to S.E., were almost abandoned, for a famine had compelled the people to retreat up into the mountain districts, or to migrate to Bardai, the most important settlement of the country, situated in a broad valley on the eastern descent of the Tarso range, at which place the date harvest was about to begin. Tibesti is but scantily provided with food ; there are, indeed, some herds of goats, but flesh meat is only indulged in on high holidays, or when a camel happens to die a natural death. It is only after the showers which occur in autumn that the pasturage is sufficiently abundant to allow the camels to give milk. Meal is ground from the millet seed {Panicum colonum), but dates have to be brought from Fezzan and other lands, for the supply grown in the Bardai valley is not sufficient for the population. In times of great necessity the Tibbus use, as a last resource, the leaves of the dum-palm ; but these contain so little nourishment that life could not be maintained by their use alone. From Tao, Nachtigal ascended to the mountain district of Tibesti, and passed through the beautiful Zuar valley, in which water flows in abundance, vegetation is rich, and THE EASTERN SAHARA. 103 apes, gazelles, and birds enliven the scenery. The chiefs of Zuar, however, prevented his farther march southward along this valley, and compelled him to turn back to Tao ; thence he took the route eastward over the mountains towards Bardai, passing on his way a remarkable natron bed in the form of a wide circular basin 10 to 15 miles in circuit, in the middle of which rose a conical hill with a summit crater filled with natron. The peak of Tusidde, the highest point of Tibesti, rises to an estimated height of 1200 feet above the pass to Bardai, or to an elevation of 7880 feet above the sea. Descending the eastern slopes of the Tarso for six days' march, Nachtigal at length reached Bardai ; but his reception there was anything but friendly. Mohammedan fanatics, inflamed by indulgence in palm wine, incited the people to slay the Christian dog, and it was only by the active interference of the chief, Arami, that the traveller could reach the house of his pro- tector in safety. The sultan refused to receive him ; and he saw but little of the pretty settlement of Bardai, sur- rounded by gardens and date plantations, making his escape fchence and reaching Murzuk again only after terrible sufferings and privations. One of the most important districts of the central Tibbu country is that of Kauar, or Kawar, an oasis which lies due west of Tibesti, on the caravan route to Kuka. In this oasis, though it is perhaps the hottest part of North Africa, water is found on digging to some depth, and date-palms are abundant. Three or four settlements occupy the most favoured spots, and a sultan rules over the small popula- tion. By far the most important district of Kauar is its southern province of Bilma, with the village of Garu, and this on account of its rich salt mines, which supply a great part of Central Africa. These mines consist of a number of deep pits, which apparently lie upon a great bed of rock- salt. The water in them is so intensely salt, and the 104 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. evaporation so great, that in every two or three days a crust of salt of several inches in thickness forms over them, which is broken up like ice and carried away in pieces. The Tuaregs of the country of Asben, which we have previously described, come here with wheat and cloth and slaves to exchange for the salt, which they carry back through Asben and thence to the Sudan, sometimes with caravans of 1000 camels. AN OASIS IN THE LIBYAN DESERT. 14. The Libyan Desert. The great Libyan Desert, reaching almost to the Nile valley, was for the first time, to some extent, explored THE EASTERN SAHARA. 105 by the expedition sent thither in 1873-4 under Gerhard Rohlfs. It would appear to be one of the most, if not actually the most desert portion of the Sahara, the only part of it really answering to the former descriptions repre- senting it all as a vast ocean of sand. In truth, the Libyan desert is nothing but one im- mense sandy sea, intersected by lofty sand-dunes, resting on it like great solidified ocean waves. However it is not a true depression as was supposed, but, like the rest of the Sahara, a table-land. Its western limits, roughly speak- ing, are Fezzan and the great caravan highway leading thence through the oasis of Kauar (Bilma) southwards to Bornu. In the three other directions it is naturally limited — on the north by the Mediterranean sea, on the east by the Nile valley, and on the south by the more or less cultivated territories of Kordofan, Darfur, Wadai, and Kanem. This vast region, nearly as large as European Russia, is still one of the least known portions of the Earth's surface. The orographical and geological conditions of the Libyan desert, described by Dr. Ascherson, a member of Rohlfs' expedition, are just as simple as they are unfitted for organic life. Approaching this region from the Medi- terranean coast we first come upon a limestone plateau rising rather steeply, and extending from the greater Syrtis to the Nile delta. At the north-western end it reaches its greatest elevation of about 2000 feet in Jebel Akhdar, forming on its slopes, between the towns of Benghazi and Derneh, the fertile and well- watered portion of Cyrenaica or Barca. The coast belt between this and Egypt, watered by the winter rains, affords a few favoured spots in which some of the Uled Ali Bedouins of the sur- rounding country carry on a little rude agriculture; but in the main, one may say that the desert character of the plateau is maintained quite up to the sea coast, and in the 106 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. case of the shores of the Greater Syrtis, the most barren sand wastes occupy the whole sea margin. The lime- stone plateau of Libya stretches away inland as far as the 30 th parallel of north latitude, but there it sinks again into a long latitudinal depression extending from near the Syrtis to the neighbourhood of the Nile delta, and the bottom of this hollow is in several points cer- tainly beneath the level of the Mediterranean. Within it He the two groups of oases of Aujila and of Sivjah, or Jupiter Ammon, famed in ancient times, twelve days' journey apart from one another west and east. The inhabitants of these belong mainly to Berber tribes, but, like the oases themselves, present remarkable contrasts. Siwah is a little paradise ; round the dark blue mirrors of its lakes there are luxuriant palm woods, and orchards full of oranges, figs, and olives. But the people of Siwah are dull and idle, never leaving their homes ; while those of Aujila, on the other hand, like their relatives in Gha- dames, are known throughout all Northern Africa for their extended trading journeys. To the south of the depression the desert rises gra- dually again, so that in about 25° north latitude it has attained an elevation of 1600 feet above the sea. East- ward it forms a great limestone plateau, which everywhere presents a wall-like face to the Nile valley, and in this the Uah oases — Bakharieh, Farafrah, Dakhel, and Khargeh — are sunk in hollows of several hundred feet in depth. For many days' march west and south of these a con- tinuous sea of sand extends to unknown limits. Far to the west, on the caravan route from Wadai in Sudan to Benghazi, there lies the Oasis of Kufra, which Eohlfs and Stecker reached in 1879. The character of the country in the south-west of the Libyan Desert is altogether different. Here there rises a long range of hills of lime and sand stone, which, begin- THE EASTERN SAHARA. 107 ning at a distance of some days' journey from the southern borders of Fezzan, stretches in a south-easterly direction towards the northern limits of Darfur, probably forming a continuation of the mountains of that country and those of Tibesti and Tasili, and affording habitable valleys at many points along its line. 108 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. CHAPTER IX. SUDAN. 1 . Extent and Meaning of this Term. Forming a natural frontier to the Great Desert is that section of Africa known by the somewhat vague name of Sudan. By this term is understood the region south of the Sahara, limited on the west and south by the Atlantic Ocean as far as it reaches. From the Gulf of Guinea in- land, there is no definite southern border line. It may, however, be assumed at the fifth degree of north latitude, as forming the limits of our present knowledge everywhere except in the east, where the latest discoveries in the Nile region have been extended farther towards the equator. This Nile region is generally taken as the eastern frontier of Sudan, although it properly reaches to the foot of the Abyssinian highlands. Hence modern maps have introduced the appropriate expression " Egyptian Sudan " for those eastern districts comprising Senaar, Kordofan, Darfur, and some others. Sudan is therefore, strictly speaking, a broad tract of country reaching right across the whole continent from the Atlantic seaboard almost to the shores of the Eed Sea, and is the true home of the Negro races. When our knowledge of the interior has become suf- ficiently extended to enable us accurately to fix the geo- graphical limits of the Negroes, it may become desirable to make the term Sudan convertible with the whole region inhabited by them. SUDAN. 109 2. General Features. The conformation of the land and other physical fea- tures of this wide domain are naturally as varied as are the races inhabiting it. Hence it will be here impossible to do more than give a general survey of these lands and peoples, still almost entirely cut off from intercourse with the rest of the world. They both form the most striking contrast to the neighbouring Sahara described in the two foregoing chapters ; but the transition from the desert to Sudan is scarcely perceptible, being effected by a tract of level pastoral steppes lying between 13° and 15° north latitude ; beyond these begins a series of uplands and mountainous districts, interrupted by a number of plateaux, and crossed by some great streams. Of these the most important are the Senegal and the Gambia in the west ; the Assinie and the Volta in the south ; and, above all, the great river Niger, and the Shari feeding Lake Chad. 3. The Coast of Guinea. The course of the mighty river Niger forms with the sea coast an irregular triangle, and may serve as an excel- lent line of demarcation for certain territories in the wide expanse of Sudan. All the country lying west of the Upper Niger is comprised under the general name of Senegambia. The space between the two sides of the triangle belongs, at least in its northern portion, to the Fulah or Fulbe or Fellatah, but is very little known, and, with the exception of one line through it traversed by Dr. Barth, has scarcely yet been visited by Europeans. We possess accurate information of the base or coast line only, Europeans, and especially the English, having here established numerous settlements. This is called the Upper Guinea Coast, and is a^ain divided into several 110 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. sections, as, going eastwards, the Sierra Leone and the Windward, Pepper, or Grain Coasts, where is situated the ludicrous free state of Liberia ; farther on, the Ivory and Gold Coasts, where the Negroes form the confederacy of the Fantee under British protection, while the native popula- tion of Ashanti stretches farther inland. East of it is the Slave Coast, where is situated the kingdom of Dahomey, enjoying an evil repute for the sanguinary cruelty of the people. Still east of this is the projection of the delta formed by the numerous branches of the Niger which here flow into the Atlantic. 4. Native States between the Niger and Nile Valley. East of the Niger and the above-described triangle formed by it, with the coast-line for its base, we enter the main group of the states of the Fellatah, limited eastward by the civilised negro states of Bornu and Baghirmi in the region of the great basin of Lake Chad. This vast lake is studded with islands, and does not lie, as was for- merly supposed, in the lowest level of the Sudan. It receives many streams, the largest being the great Shari from the south-east, the upper course of which has not yet been traced. Here we are in the true centre of the continent, on the borders of the state of Wadai, till quite recently entirely secluded, and which approaches on the east to the Egyptian Sudan. Instead of the waterless desert, with its dried-up river beds, scanty vegetation, wide uninhabited plains, and scat- tered nomad tribes, Sudan thus presents the picture of a richly watered, diversified, fertile, and highly cultivated land, with a varied fauna and tropical flora, wherein dwell many populous and settled nations, who have arrived at a certain degree of civilisation. sk,\K(;al. (;a.mbia. sii:i;i;a i.eoxe &.■<■. i WESTERN SUDAN. Ill CHAPTEE X. WESTERN SUDAN OR SENEGAMBIA. 1. The French Settlements in Senegambia. By Senegambia is understood the region stretching from the river Senegal southwards to the coast of Sierra Leone, but without any well-defined inland frontiers on the east. Of the three European powers which have settled on this portion of the African coast, France pos- sesses the largest extent of territory. The whole of the left bank of the lower Senegal river and the coast from the mouth of that river southward past Cape Verde to near the mouth of the Gambia, is in the hands of the French. Farther south their isolated possessions are the greater part of the banks of the Cazamance river, with Carabane for the chief station ; factories on the Rio Xunez, on the Eio Pongo, and on the Mellacoree or Mal- lecory river north of Sierra Leone. Between the Senegal and Gambia, or inland from the main tract of territory belonging to them, the French also exercise a certain authority in the interior, and are now making strenuous efforts both to direct the current of trade to their settle- ments on the Senegambian coast, and to establish a con- nection across the desert between these settlements and their Algerian possessions. 2. Tenons of St. Louis, Ddkar, and Gore'e. The seat of government of French West Africa is 112 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. the town of St. Louis, at the mouth of the Senegal, with a population of 15,000 inhabitants, including a motley gathering of colours and vagabond elements, many volup- tuous " Signares " (half-blood negresses), and a few Euro- peans. But the chief commercial town is Dakar, on the peninsula of Cape Verde, inhabited by about 1200 Negroes, and from 200 to 300 Europeans, mostly French. This is the most flourishing of all the French colonies. About a mile from Dakar is the important fortress of Goree, a basalt island at the entrance to the harbour ; and on the opposite mainland, in line with these, the populous settlement of Bufisque. Goree, with its 3200 inhabitants, has more to show in the way of buildings and civilisation than Dakar itself. However, this can scarcely apply to the Negro quarter, where the huts, from 12 to 16 feet high, 10 feet broad and deep, formed like haycocks of grass and reeds, are very crowded, and oc- cupied generally by four or five persons, who share the undivided space in the interior in common. But a charm is imparted to the place by the luxuriant oleanders with their purple blossom and the yellow flowering cactuses, beautiful to the eye but dangerous to the touch, owing to their microscopic thorns and the numerous insects by which they are infested. 3. The DdJcar Negroes. Amongst the twenty odd stone buildings there are three or four so-called hotels, bearing the grand names of " Hotel de France," " Hotel des Messageries Rationales," and so on. Attached to these hotels are stores supplying every want the heart can desire, from straw hats and silk dresses to a slice of cheese. The landlords are French- men, while the waiters and salesmen are Negroes, whose habits may here be conveniently studied. In the evening WESTERN SUDAN. 113 they huddle round a coal fire in front of the hotel, and devour their evening meal, mostly of maize variously pre- pared, out of a common dish or plates made of gourd skins. The children run about quite naked, but decked with amulets and a quantity of glass beads, agates, and the like. The mothers carry their infants astride on their backs, leaving nothing exposed except the head, and in this way go about their daily occupations without paying further heed to the little creatures. Yet they are seldom heard to cry, and are quite happy and cheerful in their apparently uncomfortable position. The mothers, how- ever, Oscar Canstatt tells us, will readily part with them for a two-franc piece. For a few sous the women are easily induced to per- form their national dances in the huts. One beats away on an inverted calabash, while the others throw them- selves into the most astonishing attitudes, all the while muttering a monotonous kind of song, consisting of the incessant repetition of two or three words. This dance is called tam-tam, which is also an expression of delight uttered on receiving a gift of any sort. The Dakar Negro type is, as a rule, not very fine. They have unusually prominent lower jaws and under lips, with very little woolly hair, and a complexion neither brown nor black, but rather of a dark gray, with a dash of bronze in it. On their neck, hands, and legs they wear, mostly very reverentially, amulets, rings, coins, and every imaginable thing, but most commonly one or more little linen packages, about quarter the size of a playing card, containing a solid, thick substance sewn up in a gray linen cover, and never exposed to view. Many wear these charms fastened to a tuft of hair on the top of their heads, but others have the head shorn, with the exception of a circlet of locks. i 114 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. A FULAH. 4. The Mandingo and Fulah Races. The negroes here described are members of the Serere- Wolof (Jolof, Zolof), a race inhabiting the wide alluvial plain between the Lower Senegal and Gambia rivers, and the Faleme tributary of the Senegal. Farther on, in the hilly districts of the interior, dwell the Mandingoes, or Malinke, and the Soninke, who are justly looked on as the Jews of Africa, being mainly engaged in " exchange and barter." These races occupy the western slopes of the hills, where rise the Senegal, the Gambia, and the Niger. Formerly this mountain system was described as the Kong Mountains, a name which seems to be gradually disappearing from the map. One of its branches runs eastwards parallel with the coast of Upper Guinea ; but in Senegambia it developes into a series of plateaus, not yet sufficiently explored, on the western and northern WESTERN SUDAN. 115 borders of which dwell the above-mentioned Mandingoes and Soninke, reaching as far as and beyond the Niger. Of these the most considerable branch are the Bam- barras, who hold themselves as far better and superior to the rest of men even in respect of language. They live on both sides of the Upper Niger, between 11° and 15° north latitude, and their land is in some places very fairly peopled. Quite distinct from these are the Fulhe, Fide, Fulah, or Fellatah (singular, Pul, or Pullo), a race, perhaps ori- ginally of eastern origin, which in recent centuries has spread outward over the Sudan from the plateaux of the upper Senegal eastward again towards Bornu. Converted to Mohammedanism in the middle of the eighteenth cen- tury, they began religious wars on the surrounding pagans, and were successful in absorbing and incorporating with themselves the many different and distinct nationalities met with in their advance, and in founding several great empires, some of which are still, it appears, increasing in extent and power. From this amalgamation with other races, it follows that the Fellatah differ much among themselves in appearance , some travellers describe them as true Negroes, others as having features of almost Euro- pean mould ; many have a red skin, are tall and slim, with much finer features and less woolly hair, and are much more capable of culture than are the genuine black races. Jointly with the Mandingoes they inhabit the territory of Futa-Jallon, explored by the French traveller Lambert in 1860. 5. Tlie Futa-Jallon Highlands. Futa-Jallon is the well-peopled hilly land, in whose central plateau are found the sources of the Senegal, Faleme, Gambia, Eio Grande, and twenty other streams, including several tributaries of the Niger. Lambert's 116 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. route thither lay through a forest enlivened with birds of TIMfiO. gorgeous plumage and watered by many streams, swarm- ing with bees and heavy with the perfume of honey. "WESTERN SUDAN. 117 Many trees here attain a gigantic size, above all the mighty Bombax and the JVetteh, one of the finest of the family of leguminous plants. This is spread over the whole of Sudan ; its fruit resembles a bean-pod, and contains a sweet pulpy substance from April to June, affording no inconsiderable portion of their nourishment to the caravans crossing the countries where it grows. Lambert met no beasts of prey in these woods, but dog-headed apes in abundance. The mandrils {Cyno- cephalus mormon) especially showed themselves very daring. The villages of the Fulah herdsmen and of their slaves, who till the ground for their shepherd masters, occupy the highlands. Through a series of uplands and valleys Lambert made his way to Fokumba, the holy city of Futa-Jallon and the cradle of Mohammedanism in this land, and to the chief town Timbo, at the foot of a hill 1000 feet high and with 3000 inhabitants at the utmost. 6. The French advance to the Niger. It is extremely difficult even for a single traveller to penetrate from Senegal to Timbuktu, the whole country being in the hands of petty Negro kings, of whom some only are on friendly terms with the French, and the ma- jority in constant feud among themselves. The encroach- ments of the Mohammedan zealots on the old primeval heathendom of the blacks has kindled the torch of war in those lands, keeping them all but completely barred from the visits of strangers, especially of Christians. Mungo Park, travelling eastward from the British factory of Pisania on the Gambia in 1795, was the first to reach the great river Niger at Sego, and he then followed its course downward as far as Silla. In his second journey of 1805 he again reached the Niger in the Bambarra country, and building a boat there, embarked to explore 118 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. the whole length of the great river, but never returned, having been killed by the natives at a narrow gorge near Bussa, 500 miles up from the Delta. In 1826 Major Laing, another intrepid British explorer, first reached the famed town of Timbuktu, near which Park had passed in 1806. He, too, fell a victim to the cupidity of one of the warlike tribes of the Sahara, having been assassi- nated while endeavouring to make his way northward to Marocco. Two years later, the Frenchman, Bene* Caillie, travelling disguised as an Arab, after enduring excessive hardships, was the first to bring back to Europe an account of the long-sought city of Timbuktu, the rock upon which, in two or three generations past, the lives of so many brave travellers have been lost. In the years 1863-1866, the two French officers E. Mage and Dr. Quintin contrived to push forward from Senegal to Sego on the Niger. Quite recently our geographical knowledge of these regions has been much advanced through the determina- tion of the French to found an empire extending from the Atlantic to the Niger. Captain Gallieni, who visited the King of Sego in 1880, brought back with him a treaty by which that humbled successor of Haj Omar, the dreaded leader of the Toucouleurs, places himself under French protection. This diplomatic mission has since been fol- lowed up by military expeditions. Already have French guns and rifles been heard beyond the Niger. A railway is actually building from Medine in the direction of that river ; and Bamaku, the eastern terminus of the proposed line, is by this time in the possession of French troops. The Senegal is navigable during part of the year as far as Medine, until 1879 the most advanced outpost of the French, near which place it falls over the cataracts of Felu. From the heights of Natiaga, higher up, Mage en- joyed a magnificent prospect. Bight away to Dingira he commanded a view of the windings of the river, the water- WESTERN SUDAN. 119 falls and rapids shimmering in a silver light, and the majestic hills of Natiaga showing out in bold relief. Here the land is marvellously fertile, water everywhere abundant, and the streams swarming with fish. Nor is there any lack of gold and iron, while in the rapids is treasured up a vast motive power for the future. Meanwhile, however, all this lavish wealth is lost on the people, who have not yet learned even to clothe themselves with common decency. The women go half naked, the dwellings are wretched, and domestic and agricultural implements are of the sorriest description. Bafulabe, at the junction of the two head-streams of the Senegal, the Bafing and the Bakhoy, was occupied by the French in 1880. Penetrating the picturesque valley of the first of these rivers the traveller reaches Kundiau, a veritable fortress built of stone in the midst of a coun- try rich in gold and corn. The route to the Niger follows for some distance the valley of the Bakhoy, and then, leaving the fertile regions behind it, enters upon a repellant tableland of ferruginous clay, studded with numerous rocky hills and hillocks which, seen from afar, assume the appearance of so many impregnable citadels. The character of the country is that of a -dreary waste. Even the hills are generally bare, or at most covered with vegetation of stunted growth. The plains, in turns flooded or parched, yield nothing, and only in some of the valleys is productive soil met with. It is in the midst of so unprepossessing a region, and in the vicinity of pestilent swamps, that the French, in defiance of the laws of sanitary science, and solely intent upon securing strategical advantages, have built their port of Kita. Beaching the edge of this tableland the worn traveller looks down upon the verdant alluvial plain of the Niger, where millions might dwell in wealth and happiness if it were not for incessant wars fomented by religious fanatics. 120 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. CHAPTEE XL THE COAST OF GUINEA. 1. From the Gambia to Fernando Po. The most important points along the coast of Uppei Guinea are in the hands of the English, who have here founded numerous trading stations. In these regions the development of commerce is hindered by many causes, foremost amongst winch are a generally unhealthy climate, and the indolence and dishonesty of the natives. Yet, in spite of these depressing drawbacks, enormous quantities of palm-oil, nuts, ginger, pepper, and other produce of the interior, are brought down for sale or barter on the coast. There is a small but important English colony at Bathurst on the river Gambia. Besides British Combo, ad- joining Bathurst, the British possess several trading ports up the river, the principal one being that on McCarthy's Island, 140 miles in direct distance from the coast. The river is well known upward to the rapids of Barrakunda, a distance of 3 0 0 miles, and it is navigable for this distance from the sea. The town of Bathurst is situated on St. Mary's Isle, a sandbank on the south side of the river-mouth, separated from the continent by a tidal stream called Oyster Creek, from the quantity of oysters growing on the branches of the trees dipping into it. Its streets are laid out at right angles, but are formed of fine sand on which progression is slow. Its chief houses, the stores of the European merchants, front the river, the ground- gold coast, lagos, nk;eu delta &<-. I! o u <; THE GUINEA COAST. 121 floor being used for trading purposes, the upper part as residences. The Government house, barracks, and hospital are on this line, which enjoys most of the sea breeze, and between it and the water grow wide-spreading india-rubber and silk-cotton trees, affording shady retreats. A multi- tude of seemingly half-dressed black people crowd the market, and business is carried on amidst a babel of languages shouted and yelled, for representatives of many tribes come thither from long distances by the Gambia. The native dwellings are cheaply constructed of uprights fixed in the sand, covered by strips of bamboo, and roofed with palm leaves. "The tall Mandingoes, Joloffs, and men of other tribes, having laid aside their walking robes, extend their noble forms on the sand, surrounded by women and children laughing and squalling. At night they organise festivities ; drums are beaten, the elegant tom-tom is heard, dance and revelry are combined until long after midnight. And thus they enjoy life."1 Though navigable for a long distance through most fertile regions, the Gambia brings down at present only driblets of the immense produce which it may convey at some future time. Ground-nuts, hides, beeswax in cakes, and a trifle of gold dust, are the pro- ducts of the river banks, and cotton can be sent in quantity from the Gambia when its price is high at home. Three days' run by steamer southward along the coast takes us to Sierra Leone, which was united with the Gambia territory in 1875 under one colonial governor. To the eyes of a new-comer the peninsula of the " Lion Hill " appears a perfect paradise ; the land inclines gradually upward into hills about 2500 feet above the sea-level, abundantly covered with tropical vegetation. The settle- ment was first started in 1787, and in 1808 it was made into a colony, and was used as a refuge for slaves captured 1 Trading Life in West Africa, by John Whitford, F.E.G.S., 1877. 122 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. by British vessels along the coast. The descendants of these slaves form the bulk of the population. Kroomen from farther south form an independent community, and there are besides a number of natives of the countries lying between this and the Niger. The white population of the capital seldom exceeds 75 in number, and in the whole colony there are not more than 250 white people. The British Government, presumably in order to conciliate the blacks, has given them full liberty to act and speak as they please. They have accordingly attained to an unexampled degree of shamelessness, and consider themselves far superior to the whites. In order to give the principle of equality full scope, they were even conceded the right of acting on juries. Forming the great majority, they acted here as they have never failed to do in like circumstances, in North America and elsewhere. They invariably brought in the verdict against the whites and in favour of their black brethren, so that it was at last found necessary to deprive them of the privilege. Altogether the state of things in Sierra Leone is not calculated to inspire us with a very high idea of the genius of the English for colonisation. The principal place on the peninsula is Freetown, on a hill above which the Government house is pleasantly situated. The barracks lie still higher, but the merchants prefer to live in the town or its outskirts. Almost every house has its garden, in which the delicious avocada pear, orange, citron, pomegranate, mango, banana, cocoa-nut, pine-apple, and various other fruits are grown. Ginger, pepper, arrowroot, coffee, rice, palm-oil, and many other valuable products, are capable of large cultivation in the colony ; but the tillage of the land is the last resource of the people, who, if they can, lead a perfectly indolent life. Crowds of vagabond loafers abound everywhere. Owing mainly to the want of drainage, a foul malarious fog THE GUINEA COAST. 123 drawn up by the fiercely shining sun, spreads over the lowlands after heavy rains, breeding fever and death to such an extent as to have given Sierra Leone the name of the " white man's grave." FREETOWN. Sherboro Island and portions of the banks of the navigable Sherboro river 50 miles southward of Sierra Leone belong to the colony. There are five European factories on the banks of the Sherboro, each with its storehouses for " palm kernels," palm oil in casks, and salt. Everything that the negro heart can fancy is sent out to barter, and powder to devastate neighbouring tribes is a favourite medium of exchange, though towards Euro- peans the tribes of the Sherboro are peacefully disposed. 124 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. The projected exchange of the English settlements on the Gambia for the isolated French settlements between that river and Sierra Leone, which might have the effect of consolidating the English possessions on the west coast of Africa, and rendering the administration easier, has not yet been carried out, nor is it very likely to be realised. The British settlements in question have certainly a population of only about 15,000, almost exclusively Negroes, but they command the trade of the Gambia, which is navigable a long way into the interior. Bathurst, the chief town, is within ten days' sail of Liver- pool, and only forty-six days' journey from Timbuktu, all favourable circumstances for the future prosperity of the place. Even now the trade on the Gambia is considerable, amounting annually to nearly £300,000, imports and exports ; and the resources of the colony are sufficient to meet the expenses of the local administration, which cannot be said of many similar little possessions. The third European power which has obtained posses- sion of some points of this coast is that of Portugal. Nomi- nally the Portuguese claim a large extent of coast land between the Rio San Pedro (13° 7' N.) below the entrance to the Gambia river and Cape Verga, north of the Piio Pongo ; but the territories actually in their possession are very small indeed, having together an area not exceeding 3 0 square miles, and with a population of little over 9000 in 1873. The islands of Bolama and Gallinhas, the inmost of those of the Bissagos archipelago, are perhaps the most important points occupied by them. Bolama has at several periods been settled by the British, especially between the years 1842-47, but on account of the hostility of the natives the post was given up, and it after- wards passed under the nominal rule of Portugal. On the rivers of the mainland the Portuguese have stations at Bissao at the mouth of the river Geba, and the post of THE GUINEA COAST. 125 Geba higher up the same river; on the river San Do- mingo, the next north of this, they have the stations of Cacheo and Farim; and on the Cazamance, the post of Zinguichor, adjoining the French settlements on that estuary. 2. Slavery — Its Causes — Vain Attempts at suppression. Amongst all the African Negroes slavery nourishes vigorously. Here it has not been introduced from abroad, but is a national institution of native growth which has existed openly from the earliest times, so that it may be said that in Africa one half of the inhabitants are the slaves of the other half. Slavery has its origin in many causes, such as the custom in war of treating all captives as slaves, and hunger, which compels many free- men to renounce their independence. Other causes of this scourge of humanity are debt ; certain crimes, such as murder and adultery ; and, lastly, sorcery, which, according to African usage, are all punished with loss of freedom. "Wherever slavery prevails there flourishes the slave-trade, the demand here as in other things creating the supply. Hence all efforts hitherto made to suppress it have been very partially successful. Doubtless a vigorous blockade of the coasts might succeed in extirpating the traffic long carried on on the western seaboard ; but it could not affect that which goes on in the interior. Here, where it is barred one outlet, it immediately opens up another. That, under all circumstances, it never fails to obtain its end, is the lesson taught us by the latest attempts to suppress it on the sea-coast. The favourable results anticipated by enthu- siastic philanthropists from these efforts have not hitherto been realised. To this day the slave trade flourishes to such an extent in the Sudan, that the chief sources of wealth of most of the states in that region are derived 126 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. from it. The Mohammedan rulers of these countries, as well as the so-called Christians of lands farther east, if they are not immediately engaged in war, employ them- selves in making raids on the neighbouring Negro countries of the south, carrying fire and sword into these lands, and driving thousands and thousands of people away from their homes into slavery. Not only are large numbers killed or wounded in such conflicts, but all those who in the subsequent march prove too weak for the journey, or fall by the way, are put to death in the most barbarous manner. Some of those who are collected in these expe- ditions remain on African soil ; many are sent out of Africa by caravans which pass overland on long journeys across the Sahara to the ports of the Mediterranean or the Eed Sea, to supply the markets of western Asia. Their late, however, is not always a hard one, apart from their separation from home and kindred, for they are looked upon by their masters almost as members of the family, and many of them have doubtless escaped, in being made slaves, from being sacrificed at home in some sanguinary pagan rite. From this it is evident that the number of human beings brought into a state of slavery in Africa itself, by and for Africans, far exceeds that of those who have been exported by Europeans to America, though it cannot be said that in the cruelties of the transhipment, and of labour in the colonies, the European slave-dealers and slave- owners were a whit behind the Africans in barbarity. The African export slave trade was begun by the Portuguese in 1442, but until the sixteenth century, according to Macculloch, it remained of small dimensions. In 1517, however, in consequence of the representations of Las Casas, bishop of Chiapa, respecting the fearfully rapid mortality among the Indians in the mines of Haiti, Charles the Fifth permitted negroes to be conveyed to the New World from the Portuguese African possessions THE GUINEA COAST. 127 Once begun, the exportation of these unfortunates in- creased rapidly. All maritime nations took part in the traffic. The English conveyed not fewer than 300,000 slaves out of Africa between 1680 and 1700, and be- tween the latter date and 1786 as many as 610,000 were transported to Jamaica alone. To these large num- bers must be added those who were taken to the colonies of the mainland, as well as the numbers that died in the Middle Passage. The numbers exported by the French and Portuguese were certainly not smaller. Millions, certainly, were carried over to the planta- tions of North, Central, and South America, from this region of the West African Coast, from Dahomey, and the Niger delta, as well as from Congo, Angola, and Benguela, though the centre of the traffic lay in the creeks at the head of the Bight of Benin, the Benin, Bonny, Brass, Calabar, and Cameroons rivers. In 1787 a society for the suppression of the slave trade was formed in London ; but notwithstanding the exertions of Mr. William Wilberforce, whose views were seconded in Parliament by Mr. Pitt, it was not until twenty years after this that a bill making all slave trade illegal after the 1st of January 1808 passed both Houses. With England North America renounced the slave traffic. The Spanish and Portuguese slave trade in consequence increased to a great extent, and British subjects long after continued to carry on the traffic under cover of these flags. In 1833 a grand act of the British Government set free the slaves in all parts of the British dominions, and a sum of twenty millions sterling was awarded as an indemnification to the slave-owners, perhaps the greatest sacrifice that any nation has ever made in the cause of humanity and protection of right of property. Notwithstanding the incessant vigilance of the vessels of the British Navy on the African coast, the slave trade 128 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. there has not ceased, though it has heen driven to new and tortuous paths and corners. Many slaves are still collected in the barracoons along the coast, where they are held in readiness, and are shipped off quickly in a few hours of a single night. The profits of the traffic are so great, that the escape of a single slave ship balances the capture of three. 3. The Republic of Liberia — The Kroomen. In intimate association with this question of the slave- trade is the establishment of the Eepublic of Liberia on the Pepper or Grain Coast, which deserves special con- sideration as the only African negro state constituted on a European basis. As none but free blacks live here, it affords the best opportunity of ascertaining the amount of culture the Negro race is capable of when left to itself. Unfortunately the result is extremely disappointing, for they have only succeeded in converting Liberia into a caricature of a civilised state. In the year 1816 a com- mittee was formed in Washington with the object of restoring to their native soil in Africa those of the negroes who, on the abolition of slavery, had obtained their free- dom. In 1822 this body obtained possession of a tract of land on the Pepper Coast of Upper Guinea ; and the new colony, which was to be the refuge of the freed blacks, was named Liberia, and thither the emancipated slaves were sent, and were expected to till the soil and grow coffee, sugar, indigo, to collect india-rubber and palm-oil in a land of unbounded fertility. In 1847 the colony proclaimed itself an independent republic, and the consti- tution of the new state was an imitation of that of the United States. Some years later the new-fledged republic received an important extension through the union with it of the adjoining colony of Maryland, formed under similar cir- LIBERIA. 129 cumstances. The two together form an area of nearly 9600 square miles, and have a population of about 18,000 civilised and 700,000 aboriginal negroes. On the foundation of the colony the Americans entertained high hopes of spreading the blessings of civilisation through Western Africa by entrusting these freed blacks with the industrial and social privileges of Christian peoples. But in the course of time it became evident that these were by no means qualified to induce the aboriginal peoples to give up their native and traditional customs and usages. The incidents of the years 1871 and 1872 exhibited very clearly the deep demoralisation into which the leading men of Liberia have fallen. In place of having exercised a civilising influence on the natives, the American negroes seem only to have relapsed into barbarism. The schools are in the most deplorable condition, morality at a low ebb, and the people generally, oppressed with heavy taxes, are lazy and indolent. It is but fair, however, to note that there are individual exceptions to the general rule ; our knowledge of the country inland from Liberia, for example, as yet depends wholly upon the excellent account written by Mr. Benjamin Anderson, a native Liberian, who made a journey to Musardu, in the country of the wes- tern Mandingoes, in 1868, with the object of opening up direct trade with the interior tribes. Eecently several tribes at Cape Palmas and its neighbourhood have risen against the Liberian government, which has shown itself utterly incapable of offering any successful resistance to these attacks. In a combat which took place at Harper, in the province of Maryland, October 10, 1875, the Liberian troops were entirely defeated, flying in great disorder, and leaving three guns and all their ammunition in the hands of the enemy. Monrovia, the capital of the republic, is pleasantly situated on the rising ground of the coast, well adorned K 130 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. with trees, within the promontory of Cape Mesurado, which protects the landing-place from the full swing of the Atlantic rollers. It is a facsimile of a small town in the Southern States of America, and has its "White House" (built of red brick) and a ramshackle wooden " Senate House." Trading stores and wharves face the sea, and on each side of the grass-covered streets of the town are numbers of petty shops and small hotels ; for a life of ease and luxury is imitated in parody by the coloured freemen, and they prefer to associate idly in towns and villages rather than undertake the task of farming, though those who pay attention to growing pro- duce invariably succeed. The aboriginal people of a part of Liberia, as of the adjoining coast eastward as far as Cape Palmas, are the Kroos, whose simple costume (not far removed from the primeval fig-leaf) contrasts with that of the Ameri- canised blacks. They are robust and industrious, and have been introduced as labourers into all parts of the coasts of Equatorial Africa, where the natives themselves often look upon the least work as degrading. All vessels trading on this coast take gangs of Kroomen to do the rough work of the ship, and ships of war em- ploy them to save the white crew from too much labour in the tropical sun. Every trader, from the Gambia to the equator, annually obtains a supply, and without them the commerce of Western Africa could not be carried on. Grand Cess, on the coast immediately east of the Liberian boundary, is one of their chief villages, and is a collection of thatched huts peeping out from the border of the woods behind a belt of yellow sandy beach, on which the long Atlantic waves break perpetually in foaming lines. Mr. Whitford gives the following description of a scene at this place in engaging a gang of Kroomen : — " The report of the ship's gun arouses the inhabitants, and hun- LIBERIA KROOMEN. 131 dreds of dark forms rush at once over the bright beach to launch their canoes into the surf and through it. These canoes go bobbing up and down, dancing on the blue water. They are very light, are carved out of one piece of wood, gracefully formed like a cigar tapering at both ends, and are propelled by one or two men squatted upon their heels in the bottom of the canoe, and their well- developed muscular action swiftly urges the graceful skiff towards the steamship. It is a glorious sight to watch the race of at least two hundred canoes. The paddlers yell with ecstasy as they approach, and familiarly hail well-known faces on board. Their names are peculiar. 'Nimbly,' 4 Tom Bestman,' « Shilling/ ' Bottle of Beer,' ' Prince of Wales,' ' Gladstone,' ' Flying Gib,' and hun- dreds of others equally fantastic, conferred according to the fancy of their employers, stick to them throughout life, and their heroic deeds are sung and recited to crowds of evening parties in Kroo country." The necessary number having been selected, the rest jump overboard, even after the steamer has started at full speed, and swim a mile, or it may be two, to their canoes. Head Kroomen organise the gangs, and become responsible for the proper treatment of the " boys " when away from home. On shore or on board palm-oil vessels they only engage themselves for one year, reckoning it by the number of moons, for each of which they carefully cut a notch on a piece of stick. Though a hard-working race, they are timid and superstitious, and are naturally born thieves. They come on board ship naked, but leave it laden with everything they have been able to lay hands upon. Very interesting is the fact that these Kroo negroes, who, at a distance from their home, seem fully capable of civilisation, sink back into their former barbarism on their return to their native land. While they readily acquire foreign languages, and at times give proof of a real attachment and devotion to Europeans in foreign 132 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKArHY AND TRAVEL. countries, on returning home they take the greatest pains to forget their acquirements as soon as possible, and woe to the European that ventures into their country ! How- ever well they may have been treated, they nearly always after a few years quit the service of the whites in order to return to their barbarous condition in their native place. So little attraction has our much-vaunted civilisation for these children of nature ! The coast of Liberia is generally flat and sandy, but steep and rocky in the south-east. About 20 or 25 miles inland the country rises to wooded hills, and still farther east to mountains, between which are many fruit- ful valleys. The climate, both on the coast and in the interior, is fatal to Europeans, and dangerous even for the blacks born in the temperate zone, but not unfavourable to the indigenous population. The ground contains seve- ral minerals, especially iron and copper, and here flourish many fine and useful tropical plants, such as nut-trees and dye-woods, ebony, copal, and gum plants. Of all the varieties of the palm, that producing palm-oil (Elaeis guineensis), yielding the material of which almost the whole of our common soap is made, is the most impor- tant. It is a thick-stemmed tree, the leaves of which begin a few feet above the soil, and as it grows this first set withers and gives place to other leaves higher up, which in turn wither as the tree grows older. When it attains an age for bearing fruit its graceful leaves spread in all directions, and at the point where they branch off from the stem a huge bunch of red and yellow plums or exaggerated grapes appears, each bunch containing from 800 to 1000 oil-yielding plums, and weighing in some cases half a hundredweight. No cultivation is needed, but if the undergrowth is cleared away the oil is of finer quality. The palm flourishes for a long distance inland all round the coasts of Guinea, but FliENCH STATIONS ON THE IVOEY COAST. 133 it is only in the vicinity of the villages that a compara- tively small number of the bunches are gathered and boiled to extract the oil ; elsewhere the ripe fruit drops and goes to waste. Besides many medicinal plants, rice and maize, cotton, the sugar-cane, and excellent coffee, grow freely ; while the table-lands of the interior produce wheat, barley, and oats. Of the animal kingdom, the elephant, hippopotamus, leopard, crocodile, and red-deer are now rarely met ; but the woods abound in apes, chameleons, ants, and lizards, some species of the latter being useful in ridding the houses from insects and vermin of all sorts. 4. Ivory Coast — French Stations — Condition of the Slaves. East of the Grain Coast, so called from the grain of the Meleguetta pepper plant (Amomum granum paradisii), lies the flat monotonous Ivory Coast, producing nothing but coco groves, affording no ivory now, and for nearly its whole length fringed by lagoons, into which flow the rivers on the coast. Here the French possess the forts of Assinie and Grand Bassam, which it was intended in 1871 to abandon, but which, through the recent development of gold mining, have gained much in importance. On this coast the relations of the slaves present some very remarkable features. They are often seized with a weariness of existence, on being informed of which their masters present them with a flask of rum. With this they make themselves drunk, in which state the execu- tioner beats out their brains with a club. Their bodies are then left unburied, as food for the birds and beasts of prey. In Great Buba, however, the affair is not transacted in quite so simple a way. Here the master brings the despondent slave to the village elder, who urges every imaginable argument against his suicidal mania. Failing 134 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. these remonstrances, a grand " palaver " of all the elders is held, but it is rare that even they succeed in talking him over. He is then bound fast to a tree, and the whole assembly rush on him like wild beasts. He is instantly torn to pieces, but all taking part in the ceremony pay a tribute to the master to indemnify him for his loss, and enable him to procure another less melancholy-mad slave. Human sacrifices are regularly offered at the " Igna- men " feasts, which occur generally in October, and the slaves employed to bury a chieftain are often immolated to his manes, as was the practice of the Gaulish and other ancient peoples. Equality is recognised by the savages neither in life nor in death, which is always accompanied with superstitious practices. In Grand Bassam the hus- band enjoys the right of life and death over his wife, and Admiral Fleuriot tells of a chieftain who informed him casually and very coolly that he was in mourning for his wife, whom he had put to death. To the remonstrances of the Frenchman he contented himself with answering — " After all, what did it matter ? She was grown old, and past child-bearing." His conscience had never been troubled by the deed, and yet we are assured that there is but one moral law for all mankind. 5. The Gold Coast — British Settlements. The Gold Coast was known as early as 1366, and was settled from time to time by the French, Portuguese, Dutch, British, the Danes, and for a time also by the Brandenburgers. It consists of the outer margin of a plain of about 15 miles in average width, bounded land- ward by hills covered with primeval forest. Besides the gold, which is washed in the rudest way by the negroes from the alluvial soil, its chief wealth is the oil-palm, the product of which is constantly being exported in THE GOLD COAST. 135 larger and larger quantity, giving rise to an extraordinarily busy traffic. Up to the moment of the abolition of slavery the whole enormous quantity of the oil that was brought down to the coast was carried thither in cala- bashes on the heads of the natives. Other valuable vegetable resources are the oil-yielding ground-nut, yams, and maize. All attempts to introduce cattle and horses have as yet failed owing to the presence of the poisonous tsetse fly (Glossina morsitans). As for the climate, the earlier missionaries who settled here up to 1841 died to a man. Intermittent fevers, liver complaint, and the guinea- worm, are the scourges of the coast-land. Western Africa has been known from immemorial times as a country abounding in gold, and in the 17th century Elmina alone is reported to have annually ex- ported three millions sterling worth of the precious metal. In recent time the yield fell off lamentably. A better knowledge of the geological structure of the country has shown, however, that this was not due to exhaustion, but merely to the primitive way in which the mines were worked. Improved machinery, it was asserted, would enable the Gold Coast to rival California and Australia in its mineral produce, and no less than twenty companies are now at work to restore to it its former pre-eminence. (Burton and Cameron, To the Gold Coast for Gold.) The Gold Coast is now entirely in the hands of the English, to whom the Dutch sold their possessions here in 1872, those of the Danes on the same seaboard having already been purchased in 1850. It was only for the sake of rendering her possessions more compact that England was induced to purchase these foreign factories. She thereby gained no material advantage, but on the contrary became again involved in a conflict with her old hereditary enemies the Ashantees. 136 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL. 6. Tiie Ashantee Kingdom. The Negro kingdom of Ashantee, lying inland from the English settlements between the rivers Assinie and Volta, is now practically cut off altogether from the Coast. Here its trade has no longer an outlet except by the round- about and unsafe route leading to the French station of Assinie at the mouth of the river of the same name. It is also constantly threatened by the Fantees, the coast tribe, who have acknowledged the authority of the British, and live at perpetual feud with the Ashantees. The sanguinary war of 1873-74, following on the transfer of the Dutch settlements, resulted in the famous march of the English on Coomassie, capital of the kingdom, the burning of that town, and the complete overthrow of the Ashantee power. This Ashantee war has been so far of advantage to the Gold Coast that it obliged the English Government to change the former protectorate into an absolute dominion and to construct strategical roads in the country. Lastly, in July 1874, the country was constituted into the "Colony of the Gold Coast," and annexed to the establishment at Lagos ; and in December of the same year slavery was abolished, whereby the way was prepared for a complete revolution of the social relations. 7. Natives of the Gold Coast — Religion of the Fantees. There are several distinct tribes of natives on the Gold Coast, no less than four different languages being spoken within a tract of five days' journey in extent. The missionaries were obliged, with the assistance of Professor Lepsius of Berlin, to prepare an alphabet for these various idioms, which now boast of a copious educational literature. There are altogether twenty-seven THE GOLD COAST. 137 Christian communities, with schools attended by about 1200 scholars. But civilisation finds a great obstacle in the excesses of the natives, amongst whom rum, firearms, and tobacco were the only articles formerly taken in exchange for slaves. Hence it is not perhaps surprising that Christianity has hitherto made but little progress, and that the great bulk of the natives are still addicted to their old heathenish practices. The African lives in constant commune with the beings of another world. The Fantee, when about to take a draught from his palm-wine gourd, never forgets first to pour a little on the ground and invite his protecting deity to drink with him. Unbelief is unknown to the savage. He may neglect his gods, refuse them homage, even defy their power, but he never doubts their existence, as a matter of course attributes sickness and all other misfortunes to their offended majesty, makes them presents, and asks their forgiveness. He endows them with human tempera- ments, and holds them in the light of tyrannical chieftains or kings. He tells you that some of them are good, but not all goodness, for they are liable to take offence; that others are evil, but not altogether evil, for they may be appeased. The African does not exactly worship the principle of evil in the same way that did of old the dwellers in the plains of Babylonia, but only to the extent of addressing more prayers and offering more sacrifices to the evil than to the good divinities, precisely as they pay heavier tribute to oppressive than to more beneficent kings. At the same time he knows nothing of true loyalty. He pays his taxes simply through fear, and it is the same with the worship of his god. His cardinal virtue is his devotion to his family, a feeling reaching beyond the limits of life and the visible world. The members of the same family, and even of the same tribe, are bound by ties of the greatest fidelity 138 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TRAVEL. one to the other. Towards others they may show them- selves treacherous, dishonest, and ruthless ; amongst themselves they are ever kind, loving, and true. The dead are often buried in the house occupied by them when alive. Their kinsmen do not look on them as bodies devoured by worms, but as an ethereal spirit hovering around their hearths, and still living in associa- tion with them. Hence the frequent custom of setting some food or a bowl of palm wine apart for their deceased relatives ; for the African believes that in the food also dwells a soul that the spirit of the departed can partake of, while the matter itself of their nourishment, like the bodies of men, falls a prey to corruption. Tell him that the souls of the dead dwell in spaces far removed from earth, and he laughs at you with a conscious feeling of superior wisdom, and relates of ghosts seen by him at night, and of mysterious sounds which have reached his ears. Knows he not, moreover, that the dear ones are in his midst ? Is he not persuaded that he lives in their very presence ? Hence he feels no sense of loneliness ; when he has no human fellowship the ghosts of the dead are at his side, and he sings to them of his joys and his sorrows. 8. Strange Customs of the Fantees. The following usages and practices of the West African tribes, and especially of the Fantees, are perhaps not so generally known. For the whole people, male and female, there are no names except the seven male and female days of the week. The choice being thus naturally rather limited, recourse is had to nicknames. Another original habit on the Gold Coast is the practice of pledging each other. Fathers and mothers pledge their sons and daughters, husbands their wives and wives THE GOLD COAST. 139 their husbands, with the same indifference with which our students are wont to pawn their watches. The worst feature of this arrangement is that the female so pledged remains entirely at the disposition of the receiver. If a male pledge dies, the body is made fast to the branch of a tree high up in the air out of reach of prowling beasts. As the native tribes believe in the immortality of the soul, as above stated, and are further persuaded that the deceased cannot undertake his journey to the eternal regions until his remains are buried, his relations make the most vigorous efforts to obtain the release of the body. The Fantee rejoices in the possession of two devils — Abonsam and Sasabonsam. The former rules over the wicked in heaven ; the latter, a huge monster of human shape and red colour, with long hair and in league with sorcerers and witches, holds sway on earth. Sir Sasa- bonsam dwells in the deepest recesses of the gloomy forest, generally in the vicinity of some gigantic bombax tree. The custom of celebrating the death of their friends by exceedingly riotous orgies here also prevails, and is attended with the usual often lamentable consequences. The mortality amongst children is comparatively high on the Gold Coast. 9. Chief Towns of the Gold Coast. Elmina, situated about midway in the length of the Gold Coast, was the earliest European settlement in this region, having been formed by the Portuguese before the discovery of America, in 1481 ; the Dutch admiral De Euyter took it by stratagem in 1637, and it remained the capital of the possessions of Holland on this coast till its transfer to Britain in 1873. The Baya, an arm of the 140 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TRAVEL. sea, enters at the landing-place of Elmina, and, running parallel with the shore for some distance, is separated from the ocean by a narrow strip of sandy soil terminat- ing in a rocky promontory on which stands the castle of St. George. The lower part of the spit is occupied by Elmina town ; the Baya is spanned by a stone bridge, and on the other side is the Garden town, a long street shaded by umbrella trees and containing the houses of the merchants, and overlooked by three little hills surmounted by forts. The population of Elmina is estimated at about 18,000 to 20,000. Cape Coast Castle lies in a gorge or chasm of a high bank of red clay covered above with jungle and fronted by a strip of white beach on which a roaring surf con- tinually breaks. Three hills behind it have three small forts perched on them, one of which serves as lighthouse and signal station. The great castle, like an old church in a rural village, stands on a slope close to the water's edge. In the native part of the town, which is believed to have about 10,000 inhabitants, filth and unwholesome- ness are the rule, naked children and lean pigs emerging from the same mud huts ; but the houses of Europeans and wealthier natives peep out pleasantly from the woods of the surrounding heights. Accra, the chief port of the eastern part of the Gold Coast, is approached in surf boats similar to those in use at Cape Coast Castle. Ships anchor abreast of the English Eort James at a distance of a mile from reefs of rock jutting out from in front of the fort. Two miles eastward is seen the large building of Christiansborg Eort, built by the Danes. Landing at the foot of James Eort a steep incline leads up to the town, which has a few good houses inhabited by merchants ; but the native houses are surrounded by garbage, which long-legged lean pigs and turkey buzzards eagerly devour, thereby acting as THE ASHANTEES. 141 the scavengers of the place. Hills rise inland at a distance of about fifteen miles, and the country between is suitable for farms and plantations. Accra women when young are noted for their beauty, and many of them migrate to ports east and west; and Accra supplies excellent coopers to the whole coast. 10. Origin and Rise of the Ashantees. The last Ashantee war has thrown more light on the relations of this negro state. Winwood Eeade tells us that the Ashantees belong to the same stock as the Fantees, their respective dialects differing but little from each other. According to the tradition, on one occasion when on a warlike expedition they were compelled by hunger to separate ; one of the tribes was supported by eating the plant fan, and were hence called Fantees, or " fan-eaters ; " the other by the plant shan, hence called Shantees, or " Shan-eaters." The initial letter a is seldom heard in the mouth of the Ashantees themselves. They were raised to the position of a powerful nation by the genius of two or three nobles, who founded the capital, Coomassie, developed the local gold mines, and extended the limits of their state to the sea-coast in the west, and eastwards to Buntuku, a half Mohammedan town never yet visited by a European. The greater portion of the Ashantee country, as well as that of the Fantees, may be described as one continuous forest. " The primeval forest," says Winwood Eeade,1 " is composed of tall and massive trees, with creepers extending like cordage from one to another, and so matting the foliage together overhead that a green roof is formed almost impenetrable to the sun. Here and there are chinks and skylights, through which the sun shoots in and 1 Tlie Story of the Ashantee Campaign, 1874. 142 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL. falls upon the tree trunks and ground in gleams and splashes of crystal light. There is not much undergrowth, for that kind of vegetation cannot exist without sunshine, and in the virgin forest is always a kind of twilight or dim. There is no danger of sunstroke in the forest, but the heat is often suffocating — a moist, dank, sunless heat. There are many hills and dales ; the hills are composed of primary rock which sometimes lines the hollows at their feet, and then bright streams sparkle along over quartz beds glitter- ing with mica like rivers of gold. But more often the valleys are marshes and beds of black mud, where grows the bamboo with its drooping branches and pale green leaves. Through the forest runs a red or yellow path, winding as a river, and joining village to village. These are usually perched on hills, are always near water, and are embosomed in broad-leaved plantain groves. But the plantations of the villages are at some little distance, and are frequently changed. The natives make a planta- tion by cutting down trees and letting them lie, but burning the branches. They sow their crops in the ashes, and in three years' time the soil is exhausted, and they have to cut a clearing again. Now, on the site of the abandoned plantation, which is freely exposed to sun and rain, springs up a thick scrubby vegetation, which I shall term jungle : it is a thick undergrowth almost impene- trable, except to the axe and the knife, but rises to a considerable height." The King of Ashantee should perhaps be called a constitutional monarch, but he has many absolute powers. On ascending the throne he is warned by his chiefs that if he does not choose to follow certain fundamental laws he will be at once dethroned ; but in details his tyrannical power is unlimited. He gives judgment in person, and is aided in this by a body of examiners who investigate circumstances and hear witnesses, bring- THE ASHANTEES. 143 ing the case to the king for final decision. Although there is a Muslem quarter in the capital, the king and his people are pagans. The Mohammedans are only the traders in the lands watered by the tributaries of the Niger. The queen-mother in Ashantee holds a higher place than the other wives of the monarch ; she is the only woman in the country who may interefere in political matters or go about at will and unveiled. The king may possess 3333 wives, but not more, though according to some reports the number is unlimited. Some of these ladies are only slaves who work in the royal plantations and provide the court with cassava and figs ; others live in well-furnished apartments, and are guarded with the greatest jealousy by 150 eunuchs, devoting themselves in true oriental fashion to the enjoyment of tobacco and palm wine. Any intrigue with the royal ladies is punish- able with death ; and the executioners of the country are busily employed from sunrise to sunset in collecting their victims, leading them for exhibition through the capital, and ultimately hewing them in pieces in presence of the king. It is a remarkable usage in Ashantee that the condemned prisoner, by calling out certain words, may secure immunity from the punishment of death and the right of protection ; to prevent the possibility of this, however, the executioners attack their victim by stealth from behind, beginning their work by driving a dagger through both cheeks, by which the delinquent's mouth is effectually gagged. When the king dies a number of his personal attend- ants put an end to themselves, so as to accompany the deceased on his journey to the land of shadows. These people are called " okras," or " souls," and wear a special gold badge or order which marks their office. At such a time, also, the most sanguinary saturnalia are celebrated. Hundreds of people are sacrificed ; and the young men of 144 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. the royal house run through the capital shooting whom they will, even those of highest rank in the country. The Ashantees believe in a life after death. Their Hades, or " Sheol," is subterranean ; there the subsolar life is con- tinued for ever ; the king resumes his royalty, but the slave remains a slave, so that for them death is only a change of place, and they die with equanimity. The proverb that " the Ashantee soup has too much salt in it," which is in use among the coast tribes, refers to their barbarous customs. Once a year in Ashantee the king goes out hunting in state ; but this is more a matter of form than otherwise, as the expedition is generally fruit- less. The king never goes barefoot, but always wears sandals richly studded with jewels, and in his journeys he is carried in a hammock, and is remarkable among his people for the splendour of his apparel. In time of war, however, he and his chiefs wear wide Turkish trousers of many-coloured cloth ; the common people, however, wear only the tunic. On gala days the chiefs appear in the market-place of Coomassie with their arms so heavily laden with gold ornaments as to be obliged to support them round the necks of slaves. The Ashantee army is the whole nation. When the order to march is given, all the capable men join their companies and leave the town, taking provisions with them. The women then collect in the streets, and if they find any shirker, they beat him unmercifully. In battle their generals remain in the rear, and hew down any who try to retreat or escape. Coomassie, though the capital of Ashantee, is not, perhaps, its most populous centre. Before its being burned down in the late war, it was well and regularly built, with wide streets, and had from 70,000 to 100,000 inhabitants. The royal palace was a huge building of hewn stone. A great deal of cloth was manufactured in Coomassie, and was excellent in its fine texture and durable qualities. THE GOLD COAST. 145 11. The Eiver Volia. The Volta river forms the eastern limit of the Ashantee country, but both of its banks, for a distance of about 75 miles up from the lagoon at its mouth, are embraced within the colony of the Gold Coast. This large and important river is probably destined to be a future highway of trade to the interior. It was first ascended for 60 miles in the early part of this century by Colonel Starreburg of Elm in a ; Lieutenant Dolben, of H.M.S. "Bloodhound," explored 80 miles of it in 1861 ; and Captain Croft surveyed its lower course in 1872. M. Bonnat, a French merchant and explorer, led an ex- pedition in 1875 up the Volta for 200 miles. The rapid of Labelle, in about 7° 30' K, is the most formidable obstruction to the passage of the river in this long dis- tance, the difference of level above and below the cataract in the dry season being about 25 feet in a distance of 700 yards. During the rains, however, in September and October, the river rises 5 0 feet, and the rapids could then be easily passed by a steamer. Kpando (6° 50' K), not far from the left bank of the river, is the most important commercial town in the forest region through which the lower Yolta passes. It was destroyed by the Ashantees in 1869, and its in- habitants were dispersed or carried off into slavery, but in 1875 it had recovered a population of 2500, and had a well-stocked market. Shea butter, palm oil, skins, cotton, rice, and native aprons, constitute the principal articles of trade. North of the seventh parallel on the Yolta the river flows through a prairie country, with clumps of gum and butter trees, and abounding in antelopes, wild hogs, leopards, and monkeys. In about 3° 10' K, at a distance of 22 miles eastward from Yegiy, the highest point yet attained on the Yolta, lies the L 146 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. famous city of Salaga, or Parana, the greatest commercial emporium of this part of Africa. It is described as standing on a rising ground in the midst of a vast plain. ASHANTEJSS. Before the Ashantee war it had upwards of 40,000 inhabit- ants, but many of its houses are now unoccupied. M. Bonnat purchased ivory here at 6d. a pound, and forty pounds of wax for 3d. Several important routes diverge from Salaga ; one leading west to Buntuku, the capital of Diaman, a country abounding in gold and ivory ; another DAHOMEY. 147 north-east to Dienne, the capital of Dagomba, said to be as large a town as Salaga itself; and still a third to Daboya and Kong, at the foot of the mountains. 12. The Sleeve Coast — Ewe Tribe. East of Ashantee lies the Slave Coast, the country of the Ewe or Krepe tribes, stretching from the coast north- wards to the domain of the Wirma-Donto, and bounded on the west by the river Volta. Along the coast are several lagoons, and for a day's journey inland there extends a flat grass plain, or steppe, varied by pleasant little coco groves, with towns and villages. The fertility of the soil gradually increases with the number of rivu- lets and streams flowing through the plain, which in the rainy season become greatly swollen. Seen from the coast in the hazy distance, some eighty miles inland, the great Atakla raises its coffin-shaped back sheer out of the plain, with its face turned towards the rising sun, and falling very abruptly from an elevation of 1600 feet. Beyond it the land rises in gentle undulations to the hilly country at an average elevation of about 1700 feet. The negroes of this district call themselves Eweawo, that is, the Evje people. 13. Dahomey, its Capital Abomey — Sanguinary Bites — Amazons. Their domain is bordered on the west by the king- dom of Dahomey, which bears a bad name for its whole- sale sanguinary rites and practices. The extent of this west African state was long over-estimated, and it is now known to constitute but a small portion of the great Yoruba, or Yariba, country, and appears to be every- where encircled by hostile tribes. On the east of the 148 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. coast-line, Fort-William, Porto Novo, and Badagry, are already in the hands of the Europeans. The most im- portant coast town, however, of Dahomey, is Whydah, two miles from its open roadstead. Like all negro towns, it covers a great extent of land, the huts being sur- rounded by gardens, nor is there any lack of other open spaces. The capital of the interior, 7 0 miles north of Whydah, is Abomey, first reached by the British traveller Duncan in 1845, a town with a population of probably not more than 30,000, but with a circuit of from 12 to 15 miles. It is enclosed by an earthen wall some 2 0 feet high, with a very wide and deep ditch. The streets are broad and tolerably clean, the houses are all surrounded by large courts, and the public places adorned with magnificent trees. Here live the Amazons and slaves of the king, and here also he keeps his treasures. He has no special apartments, but resides now in one, now in another hut with one or another of his wives. All buildings belong- ing to the royal group of huts are enclosed by an earth wall 15 or 20 feet high, and mounted by several iron spikes or prongs, on which are stuck the heads of victims, some already blanched, some with the putrid flesh still adhering to the bones, and others still fresh and dripping with gore. Yet these constantly-recurring sanguinary rites are less the result of cold-blooded cruelty than of supersti- tious fear and pious tradition. Hence European influ- ence is already beginning to diminish the horrors of religious ceremonies hitherto looked on as essential to the welfare and prosperity of the king and his subjects. The Dahomey negroes are all fetish-worshippers, and this, like other forms of religion, has its priesthood, which is in Africa no less powerful and influential than else- where. Every conceivable object may be converted into DAHOMEY. 149 a fetish by a few magic words muttered over it by the priest. (' ----- " — - GATE OF THE GOLGOTHA IN ABOMEY. On the coast this feticism assumes the form of ophiolatry, or serpent- worship ; and in Whydah there is a special snake temple, where more than a hundred of these consecrated reptiles are preserved. The Ffons, or Dahomey negroes, are generally of 150 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. small size, but very robust. They climb the lofty palm- trees like monkeys, drink palm-wine in moderation, but are all the more devoted to the rum-flask. They are of a pleasant, cheerful disposition, very sociable, but irre- sistibly addicted to stealing. Everything in the state, including the lives and property of his subjects, belongs, strictly speaking, to the king, who inherits as the eldest born. Besides a number of ordinary troops he has a female bodyguard of real Amazons, renowned for their bravery. All the women of this corps pass for wives of the king, but they really live in a state of celibacy. These Amazons wear a blue and white striped cotton surtout of native cloth, without sleeves, and a pair of short trousers, and carry a gun and heavy cartridge-case. They are trained to be capable of enduring the greatest hardships and fatigues. Duncan describes one of the exercises to which they are accustomed. " I was conducted," he says, " to a space of broken ground, where fourteen days had been occupied in erecting three immense prickly piles of green bush. These three clumps or piles, of a sort of sfrong brier or thorn, armed with the most dangerous prickles, were placed in line, occupying about four hundred yards, and were about seventy feet wide and eight feet high. Upon examining them, I could not persuade myself that any human being without boots or shoes would under any circumstances attempt to pass over so dangerous a col- lection of the most efficiently armed plants I had ever seen. . . . The affair was got up to illustrate the capture of a town. . . . After waiting a short time the Amazons made their appearance at about two hundred yards from the first pile, where they halted with shouldered arms. In a few seconds the word for attack was given, and a rush was made towards the pile with a speed beyond conception ; in less than a minute the whole body had passed over this immense pile, and had taken the sup- posed town/' YOBUBA. 151 14. Lagos — The Yoruha Country — Abbeokitta. The English have taken possession of a portion of the Slave Coast, and here is situated Lagos, the most populous town on the west coast, connected by a regular line of steamers with Liverpool, and otherwise of great com- mercial importance. It lies on an island, separated by a lagoon some fifteen miles from the mainland, here over- grown down to the water's edge by an impenetrable virgin forest. The lagoon formation renders the climate very unhealthy, producing great mortality amongst the natives themselves no less than the Europeans. The soil of the lagoon island of Lagos is sandy, covering clay ; the land is but little elevated above the ocean, and abounds in swamps. Before 1861, when Lagos was formed into a British colony, it was a filthy and savage place ; but the wretched native huts were quickly cleared away, and wide streets letting in the sea- breeze, with brick stores and comfortable dwellings above them, are now seen, with wharves running out into the lagoon. Markets have now been regulated, Houssa Zouave- dressed soldiers and a police force organised, a racecourse established, churches, schools, courthouses, custom-house, Government house, and barracks built. Where houses are not built, however, rank vegetation flourishes. The wily crocodile and voracious shark exist in the lagoon, and both seem to thrive. " The population of the town," Mr. Whitford tells us, " is estimated at about 50,000, and it is very much mixed. In addition to the original natives, many people from coun- tries bordering on the river Niger, eager to trade, have settled here. Traders from Sierra Leone, old liberated slaves, or their descendants, have also come to ameliorate their position in life, and they conduct themselves better than at Sierra Leone, for if they exhibit insolence here 152 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL they are liable to be properly punished. Various de- nominations of Christian missions have planted their Ebenezer in Lagos, and the followers of Mahomet have also established their right to benefit by the religious in- clination of the different races. Christian and Mahometan schools abound. . . . There are several followers of Maho- met wearing green turbans, to which they are entitled from having performed the pilgrimage to Mecca, crossing and recrossing the continent of Africa from Lagos to Egypt, over the Nile and across the Eed Sea to Jiddah, the port of Mecca, and then inland in Arabia the Blest to the birthplace of the Prophet." The trading stores, or factories as they are called in Lagos, belong to English, French, or German firms, and in these, guns, cloth, or " anything from a fish-hook to a cask of rum," are exchanged for palm-oil and cotton, which furnish a continual supply of cargo for homeward-bound steamers. The Guinea Coast, from Cape Palmas eastward to the Bight of Biafra, is subject to fierce short-lived hurricanes or cyclonic storms called here " tornadoes." They occur most frequently in the dry season. Mr. Whitford has given a picturesque description of one of these which occurred in the neighbourhood of Lagos. " The forenoon," he says, " had been very bright and very hot. We were seated in the verandah after mid-day breakfast enjoying the sea-breeze, when suddenly the rumble of distant thunder was heard. On looking inland towards Abbeo- kuta we observed inky clouds streaked with vivid lightning coming up rapidly against the sea-breeze. The sea-breeze ceases suddenly, and calm ensues — a calm that you can feel by the sinking of your own spirits. Presently all animals get under cover. English rabbits, in their pro- tected enclosure, scurry into their holes ; lizards catching butterflies flee out of sight ; land-crabs stop excavating YORUBA. 153 and go home. The fox-bats, asleep during the day, clinging by their claws to the branches of trees of dense foliage in the courtyard, with their bodies suspended, as is their nature, may be observed clawing a tighter hold. All labour is stopped, and everybody takes shelter. Sud- denly the sun disappears, and the ensuing darkness is appalling. The theatre of heaven bursts into tempest. Hiss, hiss, comes the lightning, flash after flash dancing over ironwork like momentary blue flames of sulphur, totally blinding you while it lasts, while the thunder so crashes that you cannot hear anything else. 1 Tlie wind blew as 'twad blawn its last, And rattling showers rose on the blast.' Trees are broken, and branches fly through the air, and the roofs of many houses disappear. The weather doors and windows rattle almost to bursting. The rain is driven nearly horizontally, and a deluge covers the country. In half an hour the sun returns with his silent beams, and all nature is once more calm and bright." The country inland from Lagos is Yoruba, already men- tioned, in which is situated the tolerably well-known town of Abbeokuta, with a population of some 80,000, belong- ing to the Egba tribe. This is one of the few places in Africa where the zeal of Christian missionaries has not remained unrewarded. The Yoruba country, bounded on the north and east by the Lower Kiger, has been to some extent made known by the explorations of Mr. Daniel May in 1858, and by the memorable travels and labours of Gerhard Eohlfs in 1867. Towards the end of his great march across Xorth Africa, Gerhard Eohlfs crossed the Xiger at Eabba, and passed straight through the Yoruba country to the coast at Lagos. He describes the gradual transition from open and cultivated country, resembling a great garden with its 154 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. beautiful flowers and gay butterflies, to undulating heights in which cultivation interchanges with woods of the oil- palm. Thence, as the ocean is gradually approached, vegetation becomes more and more luxuriant, till at length a broad belt of the same dense primeval forest as we have described on the Gold Coast intervenes to separate the cultivated interior lands from the sea. Saraki, a large town with square barrack-like buildings of clay and straw, each inhabited by a number of families, about twenty miles south of the Niger at Eabba, was the first Yoruba city which he visited. Illori, a city of about 60,000 inhabit- ants, and famed as a great market throughout all West Africa, lies about thirty miles south-west of this. It is surrounded by high but ruinous walls and deep trenches, and the circuit of these is not less than twelve miles. The dwellings in Illori are all rectangularly built, with colossal roofs of palm rafters and straw thatch ; the streets are wide and interrupted frequently by little open market- squares filled with little booths. Mosques are numerous, and king and court profess Mohammedanism. The Yoruba inhabitants are of light brown colour, and have pleasant features ; all are clothed well and cleanly, some of the women even with elegance. This is remarkable as being the last point towards the Guinea Coast at which the goods coming over Africa from Tripoli, Tunis, and Egypt are met with. The Haussa merchants bring hither bur- nouses, red " torbushes," natron from Lake Chad, essences, and silks, to exchange these for European products (cloth, powder, brandy), which are brought to this point by traders from Lagos and the other settlements on the Guinea Coast. Ibadan, between Illori and the coast, is the most populous city of Yoruba, and one of the largest in West Africa, having about 150,000 inhabitants, — a very London of negroland, with long wide streets lined with booths. THE NIGER DELTA. 155 The whole of northern Yoruba has been conquered by the Fulah Mohammedans, and belongs to the great king- dom of Gando. The Sultan of Illori, at the time of Bohlfs' visit, was a man of Fulah descent, though perfectly black. His grandfather had first extended the Mohammedan power as far over the Yoruba country as this city. Oyo, a place lying south-west of Illori, is the capital of Yoruba proper, but Ibadan has sometimes been the seat of power. 15. The Niger Delta — Bonny. Our notice of the coast of Guinea may be concluded with a glance at the Niger delta and the islands of the Gulf of Guinea. The land is almost a dead flat all the way to opposite the island of Fernando Po near the head of the Bight of Biafra, facing which are the volcanic Cameroon mountains, rising to an elevation of 13,120 feet. Below Abo the Niger begins to divide itself into a number of branches, which are connected together by many channels or form backwaters, whereby the main stream is much diminished in size. It has altogether twenty- two mouths. The huts of the inhabitants of the delta are of the rudest de- scription, and the people themselves, distinguished by their dark copper colour, are a wild savage race, generally of repulsive appearance, and, notwithstanding all the in- fluence of the Europeans, more than ever addicted to the grossest superstition, human sacrifices, and cannibalism. Specially notorious is the town of Bonny, where the barbarous custom prevails of burying twins immediately after their birth. In New Calabar, Old Calabar, and Abo, not only are all twins sacrificed, but also all the children whose upper teeth first appear. In some parts of Benin it is customary to sacrifice two human beings at every new moon. The spiritual chief of these negroes is the 156 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGKAPHY AND TRAVEL. fetish man, who on all festive occasions takes precedence of the king himself. The juju-houses, or fetish temples, are everywhere met with. " Juju" properly means fetish, but has many other applications, and vividly recalls the " tabu" of the South Sea Islanders, and like it serves for the preservation of property. In 1859, in the public market-place of Duke Town on the Old Calabar river, human flesh was openly exposed for sale like so much beef ; and in Brass and Bonny all captives taken in war are eaten under the impression that the food is conducive to bravery, an illusion also prevalent in Australia. Both sexes mutilate themselves by gashing their face, chest, and arms. Their dress is extremely simple, even the most distinguished and richest oil-mer- chants wearing nothing but a narrow strip round the loins, and the women dress exactly like the men. In excep- tional cases they wear European clothing, like all negroes showing a preference for glazed hats and dress coats, in which they look like so many decked-out apes. Through the influence of the missionaries and traders the wholesale destruction of human life in these barbarous shores has been reduced, and in some instances abolished altogether ; but the natives still adhere to their fetish ceremonies, and there seems to be no doubt that, in spite of various treaties which have been made with them for the abolition of this fearful custom, the natives of Bonny still practise cannibalism. The juju -house, in which human sacrifices were common upon stated occa- sions, is ranged round with hundreds of human skulls, and has a central altar on which offerings are laid to pacify the evil spirit. These low-lying delta branches of the Niger and the Old Calabar and Cameroons river estuaries, each of them separated by mangrove-covered swamps, have been termed the " oil rivers " of West Africa, since it is by these that ISLANDS OF THE GULF OF GUINEA. 157 the enormous supply of palm-oil is brought down to the coast to be shipped in large steamers for Liverpool or Glasgow. The river Bonny, or Boni, one of the eastern delta mouths of the Niger, was one of the first inlets of this coast known to the Europeans, and from the sixteenth to the present century was the favourite mart of slave- ships, the number of human beings transhipped here having amounted to about 16,000 every year. The houses form- ing the present town at the mouth of the river are placed in a dismal swamp almost overgrown with rank vegetation, amidst which fevers are rife. European traders cannot reside in the town or on the beach, but live on board hulks bike exaggerated Noah's arks, which are moored in the current of the river, and in these goods of every de- scription are exchanged for palm-oil, which is melted down and stored in sheds on shore, ready for shipment by the earliest steamer. At Duke Town on the Old Calabar river, and Aqua Town on the Cameroons river (so named from the Portuguese Camarao, a shrimp), trade is carried on in the same fashion. In contrast to the low mangrove swamps of the coast to north and west of its base, the volcanic Cameroons mountain rises like a gigantic pyramid from a sea-base of thirty miles, which is dotted with pretty wooded islands. Above these, valleys and chasms filled with great trees of infinite variety reach up the high land to where the soli- tary peak towers upward, altering in aspect and colour with each change of position of the sun. 1 6. Fernando Po and other Islands in the G-idf of Guinea. In the Gulf of Guinea, running from the north-east to the south-west, are five volcanic islands — Fernando Po, belonging to Spain, and used as a place of exile for political offenders, the largest ; Ilha do Principe, or Prince's 158 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. Island ; and St. Thomas, with the little Ilha das Eolhas (all three Portuguese) ; and lastly, Annobom (Spanish), the smallest of the group. The most important of these islands is Fernando Po, with its peak 10,190 feet high, and a perfect cone in shape. It is wooded to the top, rendering the harbour of Clarence Cove the most pic- turesque point on the west coast of Africa. It is inhabited by a very peculiar tribe, the Aniyo, or " Boobies," as they are called by the English. They are of a very mild nature, though repulsive in appearance, but have a decided distaste for the least degree of civilisation. A straw hat is their chief clothing. Prince's Island is described as " a volcanic flower- garden," and the bay, on which is situated the little town of San Antonio, forms the scene of the loveliest amphi- theatre imaginable. St. Thomas, like Fernando Po, pos- sesses a lofty peak 7005 feet high, and the clean little village of Santa Ana de Chaves ; but bears an evil repute for its unhealthy climate. On the other hand, the romantic Annobom, crossed by bold rugged basalt masses of wondrous forms, is perfectly salubrious. An extinct but clearly defined crater in the interior of the island is filled by a lovely picturesque mountain lake. THE NIGER. 159 CHAPTEE XII. THE NIGER REGIONS. 1. The Course of the Niger — Sego — Sansandig. One of the largest of African rivers, the Niger is unques- tionably the most important in the west. Eising, it is believed, in Mount Loma, a summit which stands on the plateau at a distance of about 200 miles east-north-east of Sierra Leone, and which was passed by Mr. Winwood Eeade in his journey to Ealaba and Boure gold-fields in 1869, the Joliba or Upper Niger flows first north-eastward towards Timbuktu, thus reaching the Sahara and the domain of the Tuareg. Here, after flowing for some distance in a due easterly direction, it suddenly changes to the south- east, thus at last reaching the ocean at the delta described in the foregoing chapter. Portions both of its upper and lower course remain yet to be thoroughly explored. During its upper course it bears the name of the Joliba, and that of the Quorra or Kuara in its middle and lower ; but there are even other names for various sections of this river which European geographers will do best to continue still to speak of as the Niger, there being no general name for it in Africa itself. Although the river was known vaguely by report to the ancient geographers, and supposed by Hero- dotus to be a branch of the Egyptian Nile, and though trad- ing vessels had long been visiting the creeks at its mouths, no definite notion of the Niger began to be formed till Mungo Park first reached it from the west coast, and found it flowing slowly to the eastward through the kingdom of 160 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. Bambarra, with a width nearly equal to that of the Thames at Westminster. In his second journey of 1805, con- vinced that the river must have an outlet in the sea, he was on his way down it in a canoe, when he was either murdered or drowned in sailing through a narrow channel of the stream at Bursa, in the kingdom of Gando (10° 20' 1ST.) In 1828, Caillie descended the river from Jenne to Timbuktu, in company with a cargo of slaves in one of the fragile native canoes, which keep up a continually active trade along the whole extent of the river ; in 1830 the brothers Lander, one of whom had accom- panied Clapperton in his unsuccessful journey of 1826, landed at Badagry, and, marching overland to Bussa, took canoe there, came swiftly down the great river with the autumn floods, and arrived at the Nun mouth, thus settling the long- vexed question of its outlet. Several heroic attempts were now made to open up the new-found highway to legitimate trade, and to abolish the slave traffic by it : first, the ill-fated ascent of the river by Macgregor Laird, in 1832, with two small steamers ; and then the expedition sent out in three vessels by the British Govern- ment in 1841, which founded a "model farm" on a tract of land at Lukoja, opposite the confluence of the Binue and Niger. Such, however, was the fearful mortality among the Europeans sent thither, that the Niger schemes were abandoned till 1852, when Mr. Laird established the African Steamship Company, and built factories along various points of the river. At the present time the navigation of the Niger is regularly established ; six or seven steamers of light draught make trips from the Atlantic ports to and fro during nine months of the year to factories as far as the confluence of the Binue, and during the swelling of the river they pass still higher to stations above the con- fluence, delivering European goods, and receiving ivory. THE NIGEK. 161 palm-oil, and shea butter, in return. These vessels must, however, be well armed, for the natives of the vil- lages bordering the river in the upper portion of the delta are hostile, and frequently fire upon the steamers in passing The town of Abo, at the head of the delta, is in the very centre of the palm-oil region. Beyond the low delta land the single river opens out in width and grandeur ; beautiful islands appear in its course, and the banks, adorned with groves of palms and sprinkled with silk-cotton trees, rise upward in undulating heights. At Onitsha, a pleasantly situated town, with cultivated gardens situated on high ground at about two miles from the left bank of the Niger (in lat. 6° 10' ST.), the northern limit of the palm-oil trading region is reached, and higher up ivory and shea butter are the chief articles of trade. The shea or "tree" butter is derived from the oil or fat contained in the olive- like seeds of a tree nearly allied to the genus Bassia ; the seeds are dried and afterwards boiled to extract the butter, which is not only whiter and more solid and pleasant to the taste, than that of cow's milk, but keeps for a year without salting. Near Iddah, still higher up the stream, light red sandstone cliffs rise perpendicularly from the right bank of the river, and the view on both sides becomes enchant- ing. "Distant mountains stretch across the horizon from north-west to north-east ; between, are great plains rising into table-land. The flat, smiling, level country abounds in forests, bounded by far-away hills ; quiet villages, con- sisting of round mud huts, cluster picturesquely over the landscape." A remarkable change for the better is also observed in the inhabitants of the country as the river is ascended : the people are more civilised, and depend on agriculture for a living ; growing indigo also, and dyeing the blue robes which they wear folded loosely round the body. Nearly opposite Igbegbe, or " Bebbe," immediately below the mouth of the Binue, at the base of the hill called M 162 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TRAVEL. " Patte," is Lukoja, the site of the unfortunate " model farm" of 1841. This was the residence of Dr. Baikie for seven years from 1857 onward, as consular agent for the British Government ; and since 1 8 6 5 it has been an important mis- sion station under Bishop Crowther's management, as well as a chief trading place and store for the merchants of Liverpool, Sierra Leone, and Lagos, trafficking on the river. Upward from Lukoja the Niger winds through a valley ranging from ten to thirty miles in width, abounding in rich soil and cultivated levels, fringed on each side by flat-topped hills. In September and October, when the river is in full flood, it overflows the low-lying banks for several miles, giving the appearance of a great lake dis- trict. At the large town of Egga, in Gando, a full day's steaming from Lukoja, the present limit of the European traffic on the Niger is reached. The town of Egga has a population which has been variously estimated by travellers at from 18,000 to 50,000. Mr. Whitford describes it as being built on land slightly elevated above the river, but surrounded by the stream, and separated into islets at time of flooding. The whole of the land forming the town is densely covered with the usual round mud huts with thick conical roofs. The streets are narrow, crooked, and filthy, covered with refuse left for the lean dogs and turkey buzzards to clear away. There are three mosques, for the country inland from the con- fluence is Mohammedan ; and beside these sandal-makers and saddlers are busy at work. Weavers also rattle their shuttles in primitive looms, making a thick and durable cloth ; and reel leather is worked up into warlike shields, dagger-sheaths, and quivers. The Binue is wider at the confluence than the Niger, and its waters are blue and clear, in contrast to those of the main river. Though this great river was ascended by Baikie and May, in 1854. to a place called Dulti, 350 FULAII EMPIRES. 1G3 miles from the confluence, and has more recently been traced by Flegel 140 miles farther, to Eibago, where it is still navigable ; attempts to open up traffic along it have as yet been unsuccessful, owing to the jealousies and suspicions of the native chiefs along its banks. 2. The Ful-be or Fulah Empires of the Sudan. The region stretching from the middle course of the Niger, between Bambarra and Timbuktu, eastward across the whole extent of its basin to the Upper Binue, is sub- divided into several states and tribes, the principal among which are under the dominion of the Fulah, or, as they call themselves, the Ful-be (sing. Pul-o).1 The power of this widespread pastoral tribe in this part of Africa is of comparatively modern origin, for it was only in 1802 that the warlike Othman dan Fodio overthrew the ancient empire of the Haussa. At his death he divided his con- quests between his two sons, Bello, to whose share the more easterly division of Sokoto or Haussa proper fell, and Abdallahi, who received the western provinces, with the capital town of Gando, a territory which occupied the whole space along the middle Niger and across to the basin of the Binue. Soon afterwards Ahmadu, one of the generals of Othman, established the kingdom of Massina, which occupies a wide area on the Upper Xiger above Timbuktu, and is separated on the east from Gando by a narrow belt of independent Sonrhay territory. Quite recently the ancient kingdom of the Bambarra, with Sego for its capital, has fallen a prey to the Fulah, and it is within its boundaries that the French have obtained a footing in the be^inningr of 1883. 1 They are called Fulan or Felattah by the Arabs, Fillani by the Haussa, Fulah by the Maudingo. 164 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. Between Bambarra and the inner borders of Ashanti, Dahomey, and Yoruba, lie several negro states, known as yet only by report, such as those of Tombo, Mosi, and Gurma, and of Kong and Dagomba farther south. The dominant Fulah form but a fragment of the population of the wide region here under consideration. Most prominent among the numerous negro tribes whom they hold in subjection are the Mohammedan Haussa, who are distinguished for their vivacity, intelligence, friendliness, industry and social qualities. The Haussa tongue is the noblest, the most harmonious, the richest and most animated in the whole of Nigritia, and as a lingua franca it is understood far beyond the limits of the old Haussa states. The kingdom of Sego consists in the main of a vast alluvial plain of great fertility, extensively flooded during the rainy season. Its capital, of the same name, stands on the Niger, and is a square town surrounded by earth vralls, with two-storied white mud houses with flat roofs. A little lower down is Sansandig, a very considerable town of from 30,000 to 40,000 inhabitants, exceptionally industrious, and very wealthy in consequence of its ex- tensive trade in gold, salt, indigo-dyed native cloth, and slaves. Bamaku, where the French have built a fort, and to which they are now constructing a railway, lies higher up on the river, near some rapids, and has a considerable trade in salt. The money of the country is the cowrie, a little univalvular shell (Cyprcea moneta) found in the Indian Ocean. Whole shiploads of them arrive on the coast, especially of Dahomey, whence they reach Sego, Tim- buktu, and the Haussa States, but not further west than Sego. However, the cowrie serves only as a sort of petty cash for everyday transactions, the real " current FULAH EMPIRES. 165 coin " in Sego being the slave, who has here a fictitious value. On the great island of Massina (or Massina proper), in the Niger, is the town of Jenne, with 10,000 inhabit- ants, a chief centre of the commerce of Sudan, owing its prosperity to its trade in salt and gold. Hamda-Allahi, the capital city of Massina, lies near the right bank of the Niger, lower down ; and Yowaru, another large town of Massina, on the left bank, is nearly as large as Timbuktu. But foremost of all stands Timbuktu, at about nine miles from the western knee of the Niger, here called Nil (Nile), a famous emporium for the traffic carried on between the north and the neoro states of the Sudan. Although situated in a country of the Taddemekket, and a frequent sufferer in the wars between the Tuareg and the Fulah of Massina, it still maintains its inde- pendence, and is governed by a mayor (kahia), whose office is hereditary in one of the principal families of the town. South of Timbuktu, and east of Massina, stretches the empire of Gando, made up of loosely confederated tribes situated in the region of the Nicrer and its tribu- taries, and partly belonging to the former Haussa States. Nupe, above the confluence of Niger and Benue, form one of its most important members. East of Gando extends the fertile and well-cultivated plain of Haussa, from the Sahara southward to the granitic ranges of hills which mark the watershed of the Benue. This plain forms the nucleus of the Fulah empire of Sokoto, which reaches over an area nearly equal to that of Spain, and has an estimated population of twelve or thirteen million souls. Eastward it borders on the negro kingdom of Bornu. In the south it holds the rich province of Adamawa, watered by the Chadda 106 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. or Benue, the most important tributary on the left bank of the Niger. The people of Adamawa, notably the Batta or chief tribe, are also very intelligent and indus- trious, of a yellowish - red complexion and handsome appearance. The whole of the Fulah domain occupies an extent of country about equal to the area of Austria, Bavaria, Wuxtemberg, Baden, and Switzerland taken together. The travels of Barth (1853) and Bohlfs (1866-67) have thrown the greatest light on the general character of the Fulah states. From the capital of Bornu, Kuka on Lake Chad, Barth went in an almost north-westerly direction across the northern bend of the Niger to Tim- buktu, while Bohlfs made his way from the same place in a south-westerly direction to Lagos. Among the hundreds of towns and centres of popu- lation scattered over the densely inhabited Felattah or Eaussa states of the Niger basin, the city of Kano, the capital of a province of its name in the empire of Sokoto, is one of the most noted. Kano has about 30,000 in- habitants, carries on a great traffic, and manufactures the blue cotton cloth of the Sudan very extensively, sending every year 1500 camel loads of it to Timbuktu, Murzuk, Ghat, and even to Tripoli. Its houses are partly quad- rangular, built of mud, and provided with a flat roof, and surrounded by gardens and fields, so that the city occu- pies a great space. The numbers of its inhabitants, and its industry, are constantly on the increase. Its market, famed throughout the Sudan, is well supplied with slaves, gold-dust, ivory, salt, leather-wares, cotton, and indigo. From January till April, the season at which caravans come to Kano from all parts of the Sudan, its population is at least doubled. Yakoba, or Garo-n-Bautshi, the capital town of another subjugated province forming part of southern HAUSSA STATES. 1G7 Sokoto, is also a great town, with about 150,000 inhabit- ants. Eohlfs, who visited it in making his way south- westward from Kuka to the Atlantic at Lagos in 1866. describes it as surrounded by walls three and a half hours in circuit, enclosing great gardens and fields along with the houses, besides several rocky hills, and many pools. The town lies on a plateau, surrounded on the north-east and south-east by granite hills, reaching nearly 3000 feet above the sea, and forming the water-parting between the tributaries of the Quorra and Binue. The climate of this plateau would be very suitable for Europeans ; besides the fruits of the tropical zone, all the fruits of the southern temperate region nourish here, with dates, citrons, and pomegranates. Though it formerly carried on a busy trade with Adamawa in the south, and the province of Xupe in Gando westward, the commerce of Yakoba had much declined at the time of Eohlfs' visit, but a daily market is still held, and in it slaves are sold at half the price of those at Kuka, besides cattle, horses not larger than donkeys, and sheep and goats of the size of a poodle dog. Like Kano, Yakoba is also a famous place for the manufacture of cotton stuffs. The dress of its people is very varied. The better class wear a white or black " litham," like the Tuareg, with wide trousers of white or finely-checked blue cotton, a large white shirt with long sleeves, and over all an a^uple mantle. Most, however, go either with shirt alone or trousers alone. They shave the head and beard like the Mohammedans. This applies to the citizens only ; the country people wear nothing at all, and only the richest of them put on a shirt, or, it may be, wind a large cloth round their loins, when they come into town. Sokoto and Gando, the capitals of the two great empires, lie not far from one another near the river Sokoto, the first considerable tributary received by the Xiger aftei 168 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGEAPHY AND TRAVEL. its bend through the margin of the desert. The formei town, well built on an eminence over the river, has about 20,000 inhabitants. Eabba and Egga, on the Niger, are perhaps the chief among the many important trading towns of the empire of Gando, and these, as we have seen, have already been reached by direct commerce from England. 3. Earth's Journey across the Bend of the Niger to Timbuktu. After passing through northern Bornu and Sokoto, Barth reached and crossed the Niger at the town of Say, where the stream is 1000 paces broad, and flows with a velocity of twelve miles an hour between rocky banks from twenty to thirty feet above the level of the stream. Say itself forms a square, each side of which measures 2000 paces, but inside the earth wall the houses are built very irregularly, with an unusually large space set apart for the women. The heat was here so oppressive that it produced the sensation of being " throttled." After Say came Champagore, seat of a powerful Fulah chieftain. Here the people do not wear the national white tobe, or shirt, of the Fulahs, but one of a bright blue colour. Their granaries, perched upon four trestles to protect them from the ants, present rather a peculiar sight at a distance. Still keeping to the north-west, Barth arrived at a well-cultivated district, but where the Fulah alone breed cattle. Then, crossing the Sirba, a not inconsiderable tributary of the Niger, he came upon the Sonrhay village of Bossebango, where the men are inveterate smokers, and wear short blue shirts and long wide trousers. The women are of short stature, of unsymmetrical figure, and adorn their neck and ears with strings of pearls, but dc THE NORTHERN BEND OF THE NIGER. 169 not wear nose-rings. Xext followed Sebba, which, though capital of a Fulah province, is a wretched place of 200 mud huts. In the adjoining territory of Libtako, the last recognising the authority of Gando, the daily hardships of the journey were intensified by the troublesome flies and the leeches which, like their cousins in the Terai of the Himalayas, crept out of the grass on to the horse's legs, and plagued him so that " the blood ran down in streams." Lamorde, in the district of Aribinda, and Tinge are independent Sonrhay places, whose inhabitants build very roomy houses, wear indigo blue shirts, and carry spears as their usual weapon, but swords occasionally. Here also the lower classes disfigure their features by gashing their cheeks. These open tracts were succeeded by the domain of the Fulahs of Massina. The appearance of the country from Kuka to this pomt had been tolerably uniform — cultivated HOMBOEI MOUNTAINS. 171 try full of romantic beauty. This was the Homhori range, where the rocks seen from a distance resembled hands and fingers pointing upwards. The nearer he approached the more fantastic became the shape of the hills, the cliffs looking like square pillars with perpendicular walls, bold and rugged, and springing from cone-shaped rocks, so that every hill resembled a ruined castle resting on a sugar- 172 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. loaf elevation. These hills, however, did not attain a height of more than 787 feet above the plain, and Earth estimates their absolute elevation at 1500 feet above the sea-level. On leaving this picturesque hilly country he again found himself in an independent district, inhabited by the Iregenaten Tuaregs, but soon entered the Fulah territory KABARA. of Massina, arriving at the important town of Sukurara, in the neighbourhood of which a considerable stream reminded him that he was again approaching the upper Niger. From Saraiyamo, capital of the Fulah province of Kisso, he followed the downward course of the Niger to Timbuktu. Crocodiles and caymans are here seen in the river, and farther on the hippopotamus raising his unwieldy back TIMBUKTU. 173 above the surface. The river now assumes the appearance of a noble stream as far as Kabara, the port of Timbuktu. This place, which is at an elevation of about 900 feet above the sea, consists of from 150 to 200 mud houses with a number of reed huts, and has a population of about 2000, mostly Sonrhay negroes. The short tract between Kabara and Timbuktu is quite desert, the narrow strip of vegetation on the banks of the river, at least in the dry season, disappearing altogether after a few steps. That small tract of land bears the dismal name of " Ur-imman- dess," i.e. " he hears it not," meaning that Allah himself is deaf to the cry of anguish uttered by the solitary wayfarer when here fallen upon by robbers. 4. Timbuktu. Timbuktu, with regular streets in the better quarters, and the stately dwellings of the wealthy merchants from Ghadames, presents an imposing appearance. There are nearly a thousand clay houses, some low and unseemly, others rising to two stories and exhibiting considerable architectural adornment, and many huts of matting. The mosque of Sankore is a most imposing edifice in the north of the city ; the " Great Mosque " is also an immense building of stately appearance. The settled population does not exceed 13,000, but in the "season," from No- vember to January, the number of strangers attending the market increases it by from 5000 to 10,000. As Tim- buktu produces nothing itself, it is indebted for its very existence entirely to the trade carried on at this market. But little field produce is raised by the inhabitants them- selves, most of the supplies and provisions being brought down the Niger. The elegant and tasteful leather work and leather embroidery, which are the only articles pro- duced on the spot, are the work of the Tuareg women. 174 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. Three great highways of trade converge at Timbuktu, the two caravan routes crossing the desert from Marocco and Ghadames in the north, and the upper Niger itself, bringing the produce of the south-west to this great emporium. The chief articles of trade are gold and salt, the latter indispensable commodity being nowhere found in the cultivated regions of Sudan. A considerable traffic is TIMBUKTU. also done in the guro or kola nuts, fruits of the Sterculia acuminata and macrocarpa, which supply the place of the coffee berry, though even this plant seems to be indigenous to many parts of Sudan. The only articles of European trade that find their way to Timbuktu are Manchester cotton goods, red cloth, looking-glasses, cutlery, and tea, to which the Arabs are very partial. THE SOXBHAY. 175 5. The Sonrhay. East of Massina and Timbuktu, and stretching thence across the northern bend of the Niger to as far as the borders of Air or Asben, live the Sonrhay people, the descendants of the inhabitants of the vast empire which nourished during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Their number is still estimated at upwards of two millions. The city of Gao, or Gagho, situated on the left bank of the Niger, where the sandy downs of the desert merge into arable lands and rice and tobacco fields, and for six centuries the most flourishing place in all Negroland and the capital of the Sonrhay empire, was represented at the time of Earth's return journey along the Niger by a village of about four hundred huts in the midst of over- grown ruins. COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. CHAPTER XIIL CENTRAL SUDAN. 1. Extent — Political Divisions. This region, situated between the Fulah states on the west and. the so-called "Egyptian Sudan" on the east, is occupied by the negro kingdoms of Bornu, Baghirmi, and Wadai. Bornu, the neighbouring state to Sokoto, is pro- perly conterminous with the basin of Lake Chad, that great lake of Central Africa, for somewhat more accurate infor- mation concerning which we are chiefly indebted to the most recent explorers, Eohlfs and Nachtigal. Bornu is a lovely and fruitful kingdom, considerably larger in extent than England, decked in all the splendour of the tropical world ; but also subject to all its inconveni- ences. It is inhabited chiefly by the Kanuri race, which has a language of its own, but is otherwise mixed with a great deal of slave and foreign blood. Like all the other states in Central and Egyptian Sudan, Bornu has adopted Mohammedanism, though many heathen lands stretch south- wards from it, about which we are still almost in complete ignorance. Kanem, an undulating but generally sandy country lying on the north-east side of the Chad, is partly depend- ent upon Bornu. Only that portion of it which lies close to Lake Chad is well peopled by the Kanembu, the original owners of the soil, allied to the Tebu who are scattered over the northern regions of Kanem ; but mixed up with the Kanembu are numbers of immigrant Arabs, and other foreign peoples. BORNU AND BAGHIRMI. 177 Baghirmi, bordered on the west by Bornu and a por- tion of Lake Chad, may be described as the land of the Shari, by which river it is watered. This would seem to be the most considerable stream in Central Africa that does not reach the sea. It flows into Lake Chad from a south- eastern direction, but has not yet been traced to its source, nor has Dr. Nachtigal's conjecture been yet confirmed, that its true upper course is the Welle, which we shall again meet in the north-western parts of the great equatorial lake region. The natives of Baghirmi are distinguished by their handsome appearance, warlike spirit, and industrious habits, but are otherwise bloodthirsty and cruel. North-east of Baghirmi lies the sultanate of Wadai, the northern parts of which are watered by the periodi- cally flowing stream of the Batha. Till quite recently Europeans have been barred all access to this country. The brave Edward Yogel paid with his life his daring attempt to penetrate into Wadai, and Dr. Nachtigal, to whom geography is so deeply indebted for his discoveries in Central Africa, was the first to succeed in crossing the country to Darfur on its eastern border, and collect reliable information on this region. 2. Semi-civilised Negro States. Both Bornu and Baghirmi present a surprising picture of a remarkable state of Negro civilisation. This culture may in many respects seem somewhat eccentric and even barbaric ; still it cannot be denied that we here meet with entirely independent attempts at the formation of original states and social policy. Amongst these nations we find a fully organised administration, a court and government with all its accompanying dignities and offices, a military system, which for Central Africa may be considered fairly well N 178 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. worked out ; in a word, a people of industrious habits, tillers of the land, and skilled in many of the arts of life — a people that can in no sense be regarded as " savage," although still addicted to many practices looked on by us as barbarous. Thus the whole policy of the state is still based on slavery, and the slave-trade, especially towards the north across the desert in the direction of Fezzan and Tripoli, still flourishes vigorously throughout the whole of the Mohammedan states of Sudan. 3. Transition from the Sahara to the Sudan. Eohlfs' travels in Bornu have thrown the greatest light upon this territory, whose sultan bears the official title of " Mai " Omar. He has shown himself exceptionally friendly to his European visitors, by his liberal co-operation con- tributing much to the happy issue of their explorations. Coming from the north, when he reached the well of Belkashifari, Eohlfs found that the desert came to an end. After this point the country rapidly assumed a totally different aspect. At first various grasses are met with, including many producing edible corn. Then comes the great mimosa forest, which seems to form a broad belt from four to five days' journey in width, and stretching right across the continent from the western seaboard to the Eed Sea. This, however, is no impene- trable virgin forest such as may elsewhere be met with in tropical lands, but rather resembles a light, airy park, with widespread grassy tracts interspersed between the wooded parts of the land. As you advance wild beasts of all sorts become more numerous, especially whole herds of the red and white speckled antelopes ; giraffes are also seen, and there are traces even of the lion. At last the open hamlet of Ngigmi is reached, built of pointed red huts, the first peopled spot on the northern frontier of Bornu, on the north-east extremity of Lake Chad. BORNU. 179 4. Lake Chad and surrounding Country. The Chad, or Tsad (for both spellings express the sound as it is variously uttered), is a great sweet-water lake, about which for many years the most opposite opinions were entertained by European geographers. Shaped like an irregular triangle, the base of which is invaded by the delta of the Shari, the Chad has an area of about 10,000 square miles in the dry season, and in the rainy season is probably at least five times more ex- tensive. At this period alone it can be looked on as a lake in the full sense of the term. It begins to swell in the month of August, and at its highest stage in the end of November its level is raised by from 20 to 30 feet. In the dry season, before the rains begin in June, it presents rather the appearance of an immense swamp, for miles along its border overgrown with reeds and the papyrus, the haunt of the hippopotami, that may here be seen in herds of a hundred and upwards. Here also we of course meet the crocodile, and also the elephant and rhinoceros, though not so frequently. Waterfowl of all sorts would appear to be more abundant than in almost any other part of the world, and the extraordinary quantity of fish has been dwelt upon by all travellers that have visited the lake. In the centre is an archipelago of numerous islands, in summer connected together, and also partly with the mainland. Hippopotami, crocodiles, and fish are every- where to be found on their shores, and on one or two of them elephants are numerous. They are inhabited also by the Ycdina, or Biidduma, a Negro tribe of notorious pirates, independent of Bornu, who navigate the lake in flat-bottomed vessels. The Yeclina islanders are described by Dr. Nachtigal as big and strong black men with long hair, wearing the 180 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AXD TKAVEL. ordinary Bornu tobe. Their arms are the lance and throwing-spears, and a shield of phogu wood. They cultivate a little durra and maize, and are rich in cattle and goats. They make two kinds of boats, a larger sort of 50 feet in length and 6 feet in width, built of planks of murr wood, and little canoes made of branches and twigs of ambatch, which is plentiful in the Chad. In trading they exchange fish, hippopotamus-hide whips, ivory, and natron — which last is obtained in great quantity from the islands, although the lake water is perfectly fresh — for clothes, ornaments, and wheat. The security of their homes in the lake has made them most audacious robbers. Many harmless agricul- turists of the lake shores are carried off as slaves to their islands, and smaller caravans are frequently plundered by them without any retribution being attempted. They are often at enmity with their neighbours the Kuri, who occupy the smaller islands in the south-eastern part of the lake, and sometimes engage them in naval fights, in which several hundreds of boats are engaged on both sides. According to Eohlfs, Lake Chad is situated at about 1150 feet above the sea-level. But we now know that it is not the deepest basin in Central North Africa, though receiving more river water than any other. In the west it receives a number of streams, amongst which the Koma- dugu1 Yaobe is not exceeded in length by the Ehine itself. From the south comes the very important river Shari, swollen by the Ba Logon, a western branch almost equal to it in size. Dr. Nachtigal has now placed it beyond doubt that the Chad occasionally overflows to north-eastward by a broad channel named the Bahr-el-Ghazal, which opens out at a distance of 300 miles from the Chad into a 1 The words Chad, Shari, Komadugu, and Ba, have each, Dr. ISTach- tigal tells us, the meaning of rivar, or collection of water. BOENU. 181 great depressed plain called Bodele. He found the broad channel of the Ghazal and this remarkable depression completely strewn over with the vertebral bones of fishes winch had been left there by the rapid drying up of the water after flooding from the Chad. 5. Bornu and its Capital. After crossing the Komadugu Yaobe, Eohlfs arrived; on July 22, 1866, in the capital of Bornu, Kuka, or Kukawa, situated close to the western shore of the Chad. The former capital, called Birnie, on the Yaobe, is now almost completely in ruins, but the newer town has risen rapidly into eminence both as a trading place and as the seat of government, and has gathered a population of about 60,000. It consists of two regular oblongs, each surrounded by a wall of 20 feet in height, and separated by nearly a mile of level land. The western division is the larger; the eastern one is the seat of government, and half of it is occupied by the sultan's palace, a labyrinth of courts and dwellings ; in it also live the troops, slaves, and eunuchs belonging to the sultan. Each division is traversed by a wide main street, from which narrower ones lead off right and left. Most of the houses are built of reeds and straw in the form of a sugar-loaf, and the more prosperous of the inhabitants have two or three of these surrounded by a little earthen wall. A small opening, covered by a mat serves for entrance and win- dow, and for furniture are a few mats and calabashes. One or two houses, however, and among these the sul- tan's residence, are built of clay, and roofed with wood exactly as those in Murzuk. Kuka is one of the greatest markets of all Central Africa, second only, perhaps, to that of Kano, and morning and evening its streets are so crowded with cattle, camels, 182 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. sheep, and poultry, as scarcely to leave room for the bustling population. Over the whole western division of the town, and in the open space between it and the government residences, booths are thickly scattered, and in these butter, milk, eggs, corn, fruits, and all kinds of wares, are exposed for sale. Immediately outside the gates a horse-auction is held. Here one may buy a first- rate riding-horse for 20 dollars, and the horses of Bornu are famed throughout all ISTegroland. Eohlfs notices that if Bornu were in direct communication with Europe, or united to the Mediterranean by some more rapid means than that of the camel caravans, which require four months to cross the desert, the greatest advantages would result to both countries. Or why, he asks, have not the English, Germans, or French, who are most interested in supplying Africa with wares, opened out the much shorter route to Bornu by the Binue river ? Horses, cattle, asses, sheep, goats, ivory, ostrich feathers, indigo, wheat, leather, dried fish, skins of lions and leopards, and many other national products, are here in vast quantity, and com- paratively valueless ; while Bornu requires all sorts of European manufactures, such as cloth, paper, knives and razors, guns and powder, spices and sugar. Tea and coffee, however, would be useless here, for the kola nut, which the Kuka people chew continually, takes their place. At the time of Dr. KachtigaFs visit in 1873 a third new capital town, which had been baptized Cherwa, or " the blessed," was being built on a range of sand-hills, two miles north of Kuka, which had been inundated by the extraordinary swellings of the Chad in recent years. During Eohlfs' stay a caravan of 4000 slaves, col- lected in the neighbouring regions of the Sudan, set out from Kuka for the long march over the desert northward. One detachment after another was despatched on the BORXU. 183 journey, so that it required a full fortnight to set the whole caravan in motion. It is the wealth derived from the slave-trade that has made Bornu, at the present time, the most powerful of all the negro kingdoms of the Sudan. During the past twenty years more slaves have been sent out of Bornu than formerly were exported in a century. If the slave - traffic were abolished in the Turkish dominions, the strength of Bornu would be turned to agriculture and manufactures, and its natural resources are far more than sufficient to provide it with material of exchange for everything it requires. Though in form constitutional, the government of Bornu is as despotic and unfettered as that of Mar- occo. Perhaps the constitutional form was the original one of the country in the times when it was per- fectly pagan, and the absolutism has arrived in the train of Islam. The Mai, or Sultan Omar, is the head of the state, the mirror of all excellence and infallibility ; and his Dig-ma, or whole ministry in one person, is, after him, the highest authority in the country. Mohamme- danism has introduced the remarkable condition that fully two-thirds of the inhabitants of Bornu, or all those who have not embraced the new religion, are looked upon as enemies by their own government, and live in constant fear of being carried off and sold as slaves. So it hap- pens that Bornu was formerly much more populous than it now is. Within the rule of the sultan of Bornu are many smaller conquered principalities, some completely subjected, others more independent, and large territories are either the personal property of the sultan, or in pos- session of members of his family ; the present condition of the kingdom, indeed, resembles that of the feudal states of Europe in the Middle Ages. The military power of Bornu is made up chiefly of the irregular soldiery or following of each petty sultan 184 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. or chief within the realm, and reaches a total of fighting men of between 25,000 and 30,000. About 1000 foot- men, and the same number of horse, are armed with flint guns. The sultan has also a special bodyguard of horse- men in suits of armour, partly obtained from Egypt and partly manufactured in Bornu. Among the remarkable manufactures of the country are twenty metal cannons, of undetermined calibre, which were cast in Kuka. The country south-west of Kuka is thickly wooded with bush, in which the tamarind trees alone rise to con- siderable height, and has abundance of large game — wild pigs, antelopes, gazelles, ant-eaters, lions, elephants, and ostriches ; it rises in gradual undulations to a considerable height above the level of the Chad. Beyond the thickly wooded belt in this direction lie the towns of Magomeri, Uassaram, Mogodom, with important cotton fields round it, and Gujba, a large walled place of 20,000 inhabitants. In the south of Bornu is the vassal state of Wandala, a marshy and watery district, flooded in many parts dur- ing the rainy season, partly by Lake Chad and partly by the streams and torrents from the neighbouring hills. Its capital is Doloo, a place of 30,000 inhabitants. The southern limits of Wandala form a crescent of hills, beginning with the granite-capped Sremarda, rising to a height of 2000 feet above the sea-level, and situated close over Doloo. Beyond the district of Uje, the most fertile and populous portion of all Bornu, lying between Wandala and Kuka, Bohlfs had to penetrate through the forest of Buclu-Masseli, with its gigantic tamarind, anim, and komawa trees. Near the town of Maiduguri is first seen the Kirgalibu, a mighty bird of prey, out- stripping in size the royal eagle itself. This town has 12,000 inhabitants, belonging to the Gamergu tribe, closely related to the Wandala, but differing materially from the Kanuri of Bornu. They are of a very dark BAGHIRMI. 185 brown colour, and their features are of a decided, but not repulsive, negro type. The excursions undertaken by the indefatigable Dr. Nachtigal in 1871 from Kuka have shed much light on the regions lying to the north-east of Bornu. The results of this expedition have been thus summed up by Dr. Petermann : — " It was already known that the Bahr-el-Ghazal formed a fertile valley and river-bed of considerable extent, and connected with Lake Chad ; but whether its waters flowed into that lake, or vice versa, all previous researches had failed to determine. Dr. JsTachtigal, however, has clearly shown that the waters of Lake Chad flow occasionally into the Bahr-el-Ghazal, and that even Borku, far to the north-east, forms a large and deep de- pression still below the level of the Chad basin. The Bahr-el-Ghazal itself stretches no farther north than the Chad, as hitherto assumed, but rather to the north-east to about 16° north latitude and 19° east longitude from Greenwich, and still farther northwards in the direction of Borku, passing into the land of Bodele, an extensive and fruitful depression supplied with many wells and springs." Beyond Bodele lies Borku, whose northern portion rises rapidly to a wide, lofty, and romantic range of hills, where Nachtigal discovered the Kussi mountain, which probably equals the Tarso of Tibesti in height. According to his investigations this range seems to stretch in a gigantic bend nearly 1000 miles in extent from Tibesti in the west to Darfur in the east, and to be actually a con- tinuation of the Marrah mountains, the central range of that region. 6. Baghirmi and Gaberi. South-east of Bornu lies Baghirmi, which had long formed an independent state, bordering eastward on Wadai, 186 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. whose sultan caused Edward Vogel to be beheaded. At the time of Nachtigal's visit the state of affairs in this country was involved in great confusion, and would seem to have remained so ever since. Thus in Wadai the young sultan Aly turned out to be an ambitious conqueror aiming at the establishment of a great Central African state. In 1871 he invaded Baghirmi, the expedition ending with the conquest of its walled capital Masena, so that Baghirmi would seem to be at present in a state of vassal- age to Wadai. In 1872 Dr. Nachtigal made his way from Kuka southwards to the Gaberi country, whose king, Muhammed, gave him a very kind reception, and allowed him to accompany several predatory excursions of his people, undertaken to procure corn and slaves in the neighbouring villages. On these occasions the people sometimes con- trived to escape from their pursuers by taking refuge in the branches of gigantic bombax trees, which were often large enough to afford shelter to several families. Such citadels could be stormed only at a heavy loss of life, and as the Baghirmi warriors did not possess the necessary implements for felling the trees, they were fain to rest satisfied with picking off a poor wretch here and there, and barbarously mangling the bodies as they fell from the branches above. 7. The Natives of Baghirmi — Customs — Beligion. ISTachtigal's trip to Baghirmi has considerably enlarged our knowledge of the river Shari and its numerous rami- fications, as well as of the extensive pagan regions stretch- ing farther to the south. The natives here are of the Sonrhay type, of low stature and unpleasant features, though seldom absolutely repulsive. The men are hand- somer than the women, but not so tall. Their dress con- BAGHIEMI. 187 sists of a narrow strip of skin — goat, gazelle, or wild-cat — wound round their loins. They take the greatest pains with their hair, which they curl and adorn in the strangest ways. Their arms consist of spears and knives, the foot- soldiery also wearing narrow shields of buffalo hide. They are good horsemen, sitting well on their lively little ponies without saddle or stirrups. Both sexes have one of their incisors knocked out. They believe in a supreme being, who speaks to them in the thunder. The symbol of this divinity consists in the trunk of a tree with its bark stripped off in rings, and set up in a little hut in the vicinity of their houses. Neither women nor children have access to this sanctuary, whither are brought offerings of the most varied descrip- tion. They are staunch believers in witchcraft, and the death of any important person, or even of a favourite horse, is invariably attributed to the evil influences of some sorcerer, in the discovery of whom the various tribes have recourse to sundry devices. The deceased is placed on the heads of two men, the feet being turned in the direction of the house where the sus- pected criminal resides. On arriving here the sorcerer is brought out and put to death, and his family sold into slavery. Persons subject to epileptic fits are suspected of being possessed by the evil one, and are accordingly also despatched. The dead are buried in circular graves, in which are also placed a goat, a couple of pitchers of honey and melissa (millet beer), and a dish of cowry shells. Amongst the Nyellem and other tribes the barbarous practice prevails of burying a boy and girl alive with the body, to keep off the flies as they say, but this custom is fortunately falling more and more into disuse. Wives remaining childless may be sold as slaves, but if they have had three children they may return to the house of their parents ; it is then presumed that the hus- 188 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. band has received a fair equivalent for his original outlay in her purchase. The Sonrhay, like the other pagan tribes south of Baghirmi, are industrious tillers of the soil, raising crops chiefly of durra and millet, which they barter for tobacco, pearls, and cowry shells. Their houses are made of straw, except the granaries, which are of mud, cone-shaped, and with a single opening at the point above. Besides horses, they keep goats, sheep, and dogs, the last being highly esteemed as an article of food. Horned cattle are rare, and our domestic cats seem altogether un- known to these tribes. 8. Wadai and its People, Dr. Nachtigal has procured much valuable information concerning the state of Wadai, which has acquired such importance under the energetic government of its present ruler, Sheikh Aly. The learned traveller left Kuka in March 1873, proceeding through Fittri to Abeshr (Beshe), which, since the destruction of Wara, has been the capital of Wadai. Abeshr lies a little north of 14° north latitude, and a little east of 21° east longitude from Greenwich. The journey thither lasted one month, and on his arrival ISTachtigal was received by Sheikh Aly with unexpected friendliness, no restrictions of any sort being placed on his movements. What principally strikes the stranger in Wadai is the rudeness of its inhabitants, the poverty of the land, and the excellence of Sultan Aly's government. The people are far behind Bornu both in respect of social refinement and in a total absence of all arts and industries. On the other hand, the native of Wadai is violent, quarrelsome, and cruel, especially under the influence of melissa (fer- mented durra beer), the abuse of which is a matter of daily occurrence. These propensities, combined with his pride WADAI. 189 and hatred of strangers, would soon put an end to all traffic with the coast, but for the energetic administration of the present ruler. And even now melissa and their fondness for love intrigues are the fruitful source of con- stant murder and bloodshed. Their weaving is rude in the extreme, and the land generally is poor, suffering in many districts from drought. Horses are rare, and but sorry representatives of their species ; though camels are more at home here than in Bornu. Cattle, however, as well as sheep and goats, are very numerous ; and yet it is impossible for any one to purchase a single measure of milk in Abeshr. The prin- cipal articles of export are slaves, ivory, and ostrich feathers, and the foreign traffic is in the hands of the Modyabra and the Dyellabu (Ayal el Bahar) ; the former trade with Egypt by the northern caravan route through Wanyanga and the oases of Kufarah and Aujila, the latter with Darfur. Thanks to the sultan, no one in Wadai can escape paying his just debts, nor can he defraud any one in his dealings. Aly governs with relentless severity. Death is the punishment inflicted for most crimes, as a lighter sentence would have no effect on the people. Theft, adultery, and cowardice in the presence of the enemy, are punished either with death, or the loss of the nose, ears, or other members. It is only within the last two years that the Arabs venture to show themselves openly in Abeshr. South of the Bahr-es-Salamat, the proper boundary of Wadai, lies Eunga, or Dar Eunga, which must now be looked upon as an integral part of the state. If there exists an actual king of Eunga, he is much more de- pendent on his feudal lord the sultan of Wadai than is usually the case with vassal princes of the great Moham- medan states in Central Africa. The Eunga people proper are Mohammedans ; but the kindred tribe of the Kuti, in 190 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. the south-west of this country, are still heathens. Mer- chants from Dar Banda and Bornu have settled amongst them, and from this place comes most of the ivory ex- ported from Waclai to Darfur. The rivers in Eunga flow westwards into the Shari, and the Bahr Kuta, a consider- able stream seven days' journey beyond the southern limits of Eunga, is probably identical with the Welle, regarded by Schweinfurth as the upper Shari. In the country west of Eunga, amongst the wild beasts are the lion, the leopard, the hyena, wild boar, elephant, rhinoceros, buffalo, various species of antelope, ant-eater, and porcupine ; but the giraffe is rare. In all the region south of this the silk-cotton tree, the butter tree, oil-palm and deleb, bananas, pepper plants, many edible roots, and virgin tobacco, are found abundantly. 9. The Banda Tribes. The people of Eunga and Kuti call by the common name of Banda all the tribes dwelling south of Kuti and Dar Eunga, and eastward to the Bahr-el-Arab. But as most of these tribes are addicted to cannibalism, they also call them Nyamanyan, properly the plural of Nyam nyam, but here used also in the singular number. Nachtigal's authority for this statement, a native of Bornu, asserts even that they are connected by the unity of a common speech, and gave him specimens of this " Banda lan- guaGre " of which he was able to make a skilful use. The Dar Banda country is very varied, some parts being quite hilly, others containing only detached ridges, and others again being perfectly level. 10. Darfur. With Darfur, situated on the eastern frontiers of Wadai, on the southern limits of the Sahara, and on the DARFUK. 191 west of Kordofan, we enter the so-called "Egyptian Sudan." There is, properly speaking, only one route from Wadai to Darfur, at least only one military or caravan highway leading more or less directly eastwards. The present capital is Fasher, on the little lake Tendelti, about 2350 feet above the sea-level. Although bordering on regions that have been frequently explored, Darfur is itself still but little known. Till within a year or two the only account of it we possessed was that given in Browne's Travels in Africa, written in 1799. Dr. Nachtigal, how- ever, having returned from Wadai through Darfur and Kordofan to Egypt, has already partly raised the veil by which this region lay so long shrouded in mystery. For many centuries an annual caravan used to come hence to Egypt, bringing ivory and gums, ostrich feathers and slaves, which were disposed of there to advantage ; and the merchants returned with manufactured goods, powder and shot, and weapons, to their native country. The chief export of Darfur, however, was slaves, the most of them the property of the Emir, who was the greatest tradesman of his dominions. The central region of Darfur is formed by the Marrah mountains, a mass of parallel ridges curving from north to south, and reaching about 3500 feet in height ; from this nucleus numerous channels of periodical streams radiate outward east, south, and west, giving character to the whole country, and determining the cultivable and habitable portions of it. The fauna and flora of Darfur do not seem to present anything very remarkable. Instead of the luxuriant vege- tation which the stranger admires in the gardens of the Mle valley, the ground appears unfruitful and dry. Ma- jestic trees are certainly met with in Darfur, but the way- farer cannot rest beneath their shade, the ground being all round thickly overgrown with brambles. Even the trees 192 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. themselves are otherwise of little use. But few acacias are met with, producing a little gum ; yet in the rainy season; lasting from the middle of June to the middle of September, the land becomes clothed in the richest vegetation. The central, western, and south-western districts are thickly peopled, the northern and eastern very thinly. The inhabitants, variously estimated at a total of three to five millions, who are all Mohammedans, must be divided, on the one hand, into natives of Central Africa and Arabs ; on the other, into the actual lords of the land and the sub- jected tribes. By the side of the Dajo dwell the For or Fur in the hills and their slopes ; in the north, the Zoghawa and various Arab tribes ; in the west, the Mas- salat ; in the south, other Arab tribes ; in the south-east, the Bego and Birgid ; in the north-east, the Berti ; and in the centre, the Tunjur, true Arabs. Before the autumn of 1874 the state of Darfur, which during several centuries had extended its limits outward from the central nucleus of the Marrah mountains, till it embraced an area of more than twice that of England, was under the rule of the brave King Brahim, the son of Sultan Mohammed El Hassin, who had reigned for thirty- five years ; one of a race of absolute sovereigns whose history can be traced back for four hundred years. The story of its annexation to Egypt may be put in a few words as follows : — A man of some education, named Ziber, left Khartum some years ago to seek his fortune in the unexplored lands which lie between the eastern tribu- taries of the Upper JSTile and the country of Darfur. He gained much influence, and succeeded in establishing a sort of sovereignty over several of the heathen tribes of this region. Soon after another adventurer, named Balalawi Mohammed, having persuaded the Egyptian authorities that he was able to bring the countries lying between the Nile and Lake Chad under their rule, was supplied with KORDOFAN. 193 soldiers, money, and arms from Egypt, and set out also from Khartum. He met and quarrelled with Ziber, and lost his life in a skirmish in 1872. On being condemned for the part he had taken in causing the death of a servant of Egypt, Ziber was permitted, in compensation, to reim- burse the government for the expenses incurred on behalf of his rival, and ultimately to take up his mission. Making friends of the Eizegat Arabs in the south of Darfur, he invaded and occupied Shegga, the chief station of the slave-traders in this border region. Early in 1874 the sultan of Darfur sent an army against Ziber, but it met with defeat. The bold adventurer now pushed forward into the heart of Darfur, and in a battle which took place at Menowatsi, three days' march south of the capital town of El Fasher, the Sultan Brahim was slain. Ziber now took up his quarters at Torra, in the centre of the Marrah mountains, and before 1875 began, was able to send the news of his conquest to Egypt. An expedition from Kordofan under Ismail Pasha Ayub completed the subjugation and annexation of the new province. Ziber was made a pasha, but that title did not satisfy his ambition, for he had expected to be made governor of the province won by his arms. He went down to Cairo to plead his cause, leaving his son Suleiman in command of some thirty slave -hunting stations which had been founded by him to the south of Darfur. When the Egyptian government, jealous of the power wielded by its subject, declined to listen to his prayer, Ziber urged on his son to rebel, but the revolt was crushed by Colonel Gordon, then recently appointed governor-general of the Sudan, and by his daring lieutenant Gessi. The latter took Suleiman prisoner in 1878, and executed him together with 2000 of his followers — {Gordon in Central Africa). o 194 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TEAVEL. 11. Korclofan. The far smaller district of Kordofan, between Darfur and the valley of the Nile, has been under the rule of Egypt since the expedition of Mehemet Ali in 1821. The capital of Kordofan is El Obe'id, 1920 feet above the sea- level, hence somewhat lower than Fasher. The greater portion of the country, at least in the east, is included in the great Nile valley, this river forming its eastern limit or flowing very near it. Westward from the Mle, the land presents a uniform appearance as far as the capital. It consists of undulating plains covered with brown grass, with groups and groves of the leafless mimosa, offering a shelter to the gazelle. Here and there occur bare sandy plains on which crops of durra are raised in the rainy season. Here also are seen villages of " tokels," or conic- shaped huts, with wells from 100 to 150 feet deep, around which graze herds of cattle and flocks of sheep and goats. Agriculture, however, is at a very low stage. In the rainy season the ground is cleared of the decayed grass, the seed is sown in little holes, covered up with the feet, and then left to nature, the only heavy crop being that of durra. Traces of the cultivation of cotton are occa- sionally met with, and an industrious sheikh will now and then plant some maloshie or bamie ; but the dearth of water must always stand in the way of any great develop- ment of agriculture in this country, for all those plants are necessarily excluded from cultivation that do not ripen during the three months of the rainy season, besides which the annual rainfall is far less to be relied upon than is usually supposed. The same scarcity of water also necessarily limits the extent of the pasture lands, the herds being obliged to keep always in the neighbourhood of the wells. Ancient baobabs, growing solitarily, are salient points in the landscape. KORDOFAX. 195 An important product of the country is gum, and the red colour of the soil bespeaks the presence of iron. At a distance of twenty-five miles to the east of Hursi (north- east of El Obeid), iron ore is found in irregular masses at a depth of from six to ten feet under the soil. The town of El Obeid, or El Obeyad, is situated in the midst of a vast flat smooth plain, and at a distance hides itself in groves of heglik {Balanites Egyptica), a plant which is cultivated for its edible fruit and for the oil which is expressed from its seeds. The city covers a large space of ground, and is said to contain 30,000 inhabitants. It consists of three quarters, respectively inhabited by Arabs, Nubas, and true negroes. Most of the houses are of circular form, built of roughly-kneaded mud bricks, covered by a conical roof of stubble supported by wooden posts. "At the extreme point of the roof is placed a cylindrical sheaf from three to four feet high, from the centre of which rises a stick, rarely either straight or even. If the proprietor can fix on this stick a common bottle between two ostrich eggs, this architectural luxury becomes the admiration of all his neighbours." The merchants and well-to-do people also build square houses of one story, called " duldur." To the south-east of Delem, in the Nuba country, the Eoman Catholics had until recently a missionary station. In 1882-83 the Egyptian power in Kordofan and the whole of the Sudan was seriously jeopardised by a revolt of the Arab tribes, headed by a fanatic of Dongola, who claimed to be the Mehdi, the last of the Imams. The disorders at the time reigning in Egypt paralysed the action of the authorities in the Sudan. The followers of the false prophet were thus able to make much progress. They captured Eashoda, El Obeid, and other places, and even threatened Khartum ; but since the arrival of reinforcements the revolt is fast losing ground. 196 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL. CHAPTEE XIY. REGIONS OF THE NILE. 1. From the Mediterranean to the Equator. Proceeding gradually from the western seaboard of the continent, we have at last reached the valley of the Nile, that venerable stream with which is indissolubly associ- ated the culture of perhaps the oldest civilised country in the world. Who can speak of the Nile without conjur- ing up visions of Egypt, and the pyramids rising out of the desert waste, gigantic witnesses of a great past that had long disappeared, while waiting for modern research to be a