Chapter I: Front Matter

Engraved by E. Finden.

ALAMEEN-BEN MOHAMMED EL KANEMY.

SHEIKH OF BORNOU.

_Published by John Murray, London. Feb. 1826._]

=NARRATIVE=
OF
=TRAVELS AND DISCOVERIES=
IN
=NORTHERN AND CENTRAL AFRICA,=
IN THE YEARS 1822, 1823, AND 1824,
BY MAJOR DENHAM, CAPTAIN CLAPPERTON, AND THE
LATE DOCTOR OUDNEY,
EXTENDING ACROSS THE
GREAT DESERT TO THE TENTH DEGREE OF NORTHERN LATITUDE, AND FROM
KOUKA IN BORNOU, TO SACKATOO, THE CAPITAL OF THE FELLATAH EMPIRE.

WITH
=AN APPENDIX,=
PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE EARL BATHURST, ONE OF
HIS MAJESTY’S PRINCIPAL SECRETARIES OF STATE, AND DEDICATED BY
PERMISSION TO HIS LORDSHIP,

BY MAJOR DIXON DENHAM,
OF HIS MAJESTY’S 17TH REGIMENT OF FOOT,
AND
CAPTAIN HUGH CLAPPERTON,
OF THE ROYAL NAVY,
THE SURVIVORS OF THE EXPEDITION.

* * * * *

LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET.
* * * * *
MDCCCXXVI.

LONDON:
PRINTED BY THOMAS DAVISON, WHITEFRIARS.

TO
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
THE EARL BATHURST, K.G.
HIS MAJESTY’S PRINCIPAL SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES,
THIS VOLUME,
CONTAINING
AN ACCOUNT OF THEIR DISCOVERIES
MADE UNDER THE AUSPICES OF HIS LORDSHIP,
IS INSCRIBED,
WITH THE GREATEST RESPECT AND GRATITUDE,
BY HIS OBLIGED AND FAITHFUL SERVANTS,
THE AUTHORS.

=PREFACE.=

* * * * *

By the death of Dr. Oudney, it has fallen to the lot of Captain Clapperton and myself to render an account to the public of our expedition into the interior and central parts of Northern Africa. The sudden departure of my surviving companion, on a second mission, has necessarily thrown the greater part of the burden on myself. I believe, however—for I have not seen any of his papers—that Captain Clapperton, during the lifetime of Dr. Oudney, made but few remarks himself beyond the construction of the chart of our route, from daily observations of the latitude, and of lunars for the longitude, whenever favourable opportunities occurred; but, subsequently to the death of his travelling companion, which happened at an early stage of their journey into Soudan, a journal of his proceedings and remarks appears to have been regularly kept; and this, together with other documents connected with that journey, were left at his departure in the hands of Mr. Barrow, with a request that he would see them through the press.

It may naturally enough be asked, Why something more than a short excursion to the westward of Mourzuk, and a few notes, do not appear from the pen of Dr. Oudney in the present volume? I can only answer the question by the fact, that the only papers placed in my hands consist of “An Itinerary from Mourzuk to Bornou;” and “An Excursion to the Westward of Mourzuk;” neither of which have been deemed fit for publication _in extenso_, from their imperfect state, and containing very little beyond what will be found in my own journals. I have, however, printed in foot notes such parts of them as have been pointed out to me. Not a paper of his, to my knowledge, has been lost or destroyed; and I can only account for the unsatisfactory state in which they have been found, from the circumstance of his ill health, which became extremely precarious from the moment of our departure from Mourzuk, where he had caught a cold, which settled on his lungs, and never left him. On our arrival at Kouka, and frequently afterwards, he experienced so many attacks of fever, that there appeared little hope of his surviving to return to England, which was indeed his own opinion; and when he set out on his last journey towards Soudan, he was so exhausted, and in a state so unfit for such an undertaking, that he fell a martyr to his zeal very soon after his departure, though, had he remained at Kouka, the melancholy event would not, in all probability, have been prolonged many days.

My own expeditions in various parts of Bornou, in Mandara, and Loggun, and the two fruitless attempts I made to complete the tour of the great lake Tchad, will be found to occupy a considerable portion of the volume; and being made in countries, and among a people unknown to Europeans,—many of them even by name or report,—it is hoped that observations, faithfully and circumstantially minuted down at the time and spot, will not be found tedious or uninteresting to the reader.

It will, perhaps, be thought by some, that I have been more minute than necessary in the account of our journey across that tremendous desert which lies between Mourzuk and Bornou, and which, generally speaking, is made up of dark frowning hills of naked rock, or interminable plains, strewed in some places with fragments of stone and pebbles, in others of one vast level surface of sand, and, in others again, the same material rising into immense mounds, altering their form and position according to the strength and direction of the winds. But, even in the midst of this dreary waste, towns, villages, wandering tribes, and kafilas, or caravans, sometimes occur to break the solitude of this dismal belt, which seems to stretch across Northern Africa, and, on many parts of which, not a living creature, even an insect, enlivens the scene. Still, however, the halting places at the wells, and the wadeys or valleys, afford an endless source of amusement to the traveller, in witnessing the manners, and listening to the conversation, of the various tribes of natives, who, by their singing and dancing, their story telling, their quarrelling and fighting, make him forget, for a time, the ennui and fatigue of the day’s journey.

As for the rest, I have to trust to its novelty, for its recommendation to the public, rather than to any powers of writing, which I pretend not to possess; and it is now a source of great satisfaction to me that, under all my difficulties, and they were not few, I was able to adhere to the resolution I set out with, of recording, at the end of each day, the occurrences, however trifling, that had taken place.

To Sir Robert Ker Porter, my friend since the days of boyhood, I am indebted for having perfected several drawings, with his experienced pencil, from my hasty, but yet faithful sketches, of the people and scenery of Central Africa. His eye was nearly as familiar as my own with the picturesque objects they display; and, indeed, all who are acquainted with the published narrative of his Researches amongst the Remains of Ancient Persia and Babylonia, might readily recognise the same hand, in these his spirited delineations of African costume and character.

DIXON DENHAM.
ALBANY, LONDON,
Jan. 1st. 1826.

_J. & C. Walker Sculpt._

_Published as the Act directs Feby. 1826, by John Murray Albemarle Street London._]

CONTENTS.

* * * * *

Page

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.—From Tripoli to Mourzuk xi

Excursion to the Westward of Mourzuk xliii

MAJOR DENHAM’S NARRATIVE.

CHAP. I.—From Mourzuk to Kouka in Bornou 1

CHAP. II.—Kouka 67

CHAP. III.—Expedition to Mandara 99

CHAP. IV.—Excursion to Munga and the Gambarou 149

CHAP. V.—Rainy Season at Kouka 181

CHAP. VI.—Excursion to Loggun, and Death of Mr. Toole 226

CHAP. VII.—Journey to the Eastern Shores of the Lake Tchad 248

Supplemental Chapter on Bornou 314

CAPTAIN CLAPPERTON’S NARRATIVE.

Prefatory notice to the Narrative, _by John Barrow_

SECT. I.—From Kouka to Murmur, where Dr. Oudney died 1

SECT. II.—From Murmur to Kano 34

SECT. III.—From Kano to Sackatoo, and Residence there 67