Chapter I: § I (4)

In the same letter, Major Laing states the circumference of the city at four miles; this account confirms the small population assigned to it by M. Caillié. He adds that he has collected documents in abundance relating to Timbuctoo. If we may rely on the account of a Moor from Saint Louis, the _books_ of the Major are at the disposal of a certain Saleh, son of the Iman of Timbuctoo; and according to another they are in the hands of the Touariks. Time will in all probability produce some of the documents, the only consolation for so deplorable a loss.

The same accuracy appears in M. Caillié’s observations respecting the journeys, if we admit as a fair specimen those which concern countries whose geography is known; thus the distance from Fez to Arbate by Mequinaz agrees with the itinerary of M. Caillié, at the rate of three miles an hour.

So many motives of confidence and interest sufficiently recommend the accuracy of the travels, and consequently authenticate the results I have above deduced; yet the history of the enterprize itself will, if possible, increase this effect. The inclination of Réné Caillié for travels of discovery early announced his vocation. From the moment of his second landing at Senegal, he employed himself in acquiring a familiarity with the language of the Moors.[134] He talked of nothing but penetrating into the interior of Africa, the object of all his thoughts; his resources became exhausted, yet he refused every other occupation, every other mission. This fixed impression was regarded as a mania; nothing could shake his purpose, not even the insults which his Moorish costume drew upon him from the negroes; he was content to be considered by them as an idiot, and almost an object of derision. The want of sufficient support having obliged him to take another course, he set out for Sierra-Leone; there he remained the period necessary for collecting some resources, and soon quitted it for Rio-Nuñez: thence he announced to a friend at St. Louis (in April 1827) his departure for the interior. He was supposed to be lost, and nearly forgotten like so many other victims, when, at the expiration of eighteen months, he suddenly appeared at the further extremity of Africa, triumphant over every obstacle; like an expert swimmer, who, having plunged into the bosom of a broad stream, after a long interval unexpectedly appears on the opposite bank, while his friends are already lamenting his loss as certain.

Scarcely had he quitted the banks of the Rio-Nuñez and entered upon this new career of difficulty and danger, when he at once displayed a consummate prudence, and far above his years: as skilful in appreciating obstacles as he was firm in encountering them, his embarrassments increased at every step; but his sagacity constantly suggested the means of extricating himself from every new perplexity. Had he not possessed this just estimate of his difficulties and resources, united with a fortitude not to be shaken, he could not have concluded, perhaps not have commenced, his enterprize. How ingenious was the fiction he invented to obtain the confidence of these numerous tribes! This thread, slender as it was, served every where for his guidance and protection. He rightly supposed that the fame of the French expedition to Egypt had spread over Northern Africa: it was natural that a child carried off from its parents at the age of three years, and transported into the heart of France, should be but ill versed in his mother-tongue; equally so that good Musulmans should congratulate him on his return to his country by the most direct line, although he was supposed to be destitute of resources. Now this line must inevitably conduct him beyond the great river: afterwards manifesting a desire of repairing to Alexandria by sea, it was necessary to return to the river and embark on it, and thus his arrival at Timbuctoo was accomplished with certainty; having attained this object, he must naturally seek the readiest and surest means of reaching some place occupied by Europeans, and the caravan of Tafilet offered an opportunity that he could not hesitate to seize.

I shall not advert to all his misfortunes at Timé, and during the journey, nor to his perils at Tangier, when already within sight of his haven; but with what intelligence and courage must he have been endowed to resist and triumph over so many enemies. It was necessary to avoid the most trifling error; a single one would have infallibly proved his destruction.

Few are acquainted with the history of the unfortunate Antonio Piloti, a Spaniard, who took refuge in Morocco in consequence of the political events of 1811. After having assumed the Moorish dress, and habituated himself to the language, he succeeded in enrolling himself amongst the Emperor of Morocco’s guards. Incessantly occupied with the project of going by this means to Timbuctoo, he secretly offered his services to the French consul, M. Sourdeau; he solicited the protection of the French government: the Consul had ascertained that he combined all the qualifications essential to success, yet his offers were rejected. Neverthless Piloti daily prosecuted his preparations for the journey: nothing it should seem could have prevented his success, since he would have set out under the disguise of a Moor, and returned with a caravan of Moors. In the absence of direct assistance from France, he was furnished with instructions by M. Delaporte, our vice-consul, and from a member of the Geographical Society, who was on the point of sending to him some instruments, when he was suddenly implicated in the political movements of the court of Morocco. The Moors and Jews, always intriguing, suspected some secret designs on his part, and denounced him as belonging to the party opposed to the prince. His trial was summary, and Piloti was beheaded. Such is the jealous distrust manifested by the mercenary race, against any stranger, who, making himself acquainted with the localities, should attempt to deprive them of any portion of their commerce with the interior. M. Caillié, ignorant of this adventure, was more fortunate; he did not continue long enough exposed to the suspicions of the Moors, or by prudence and sacrifices he contrived to escape the effects of them.

On the first arrival of the letters which I received from M. Delaporte and M. Caillié himself, I entertained some doubts of the authenticity of his narrative, and I immediately arranged some questions by way of trial, on the language spoken at Timbuctoo, the customs of the country, its natural productions, the nomenclature and distance of places, &c.: but meanwhile I attentively compared the two letters, and found the result so conformable to the most established notions of science, that I determined to publish on that very day the news of the journey to Timbuctoo. Many were incredulous; I expected it. I requested the traveller, who in the interval had landed at Toulon, to commit to paper without delay his recollections respecting the questions which I held in readiness for his arrival, but to which he had beforehand in a great measure replied. The very day of his arrival he submitted to my inspection a journal of his travels complete, and continued from the 19th of April 1827 to the 21st of September 1828, modestly observing: “I do not know whether I can answer all your questions, but here are my notes.” He then shewed me part of the original notes, written in pencil, on the spot, and the narrative written and completed during his residence at Tangier and in quarantine, though suffering under a high fever. He also shewed me the pieces of cord with which he had measured the meridian shadow at Timbuctoo and in other places, some fragments of plants brought from the interior, the vocabularies, and some simple sketches of the town of Timbuctoo. If after such testimony I could retain any doubts, the construction of all the routes of the traveller, which I drew up on the following day, would have effectually dispelled them, for I discovered that the observations were continued without any interruption, and that the whole produced a result agreeing with the data already acquired.

It remained that the learned Geographical Society should share my conviction, an additional success for which M. Caillié had not long to wait;[135] and he obtained a brilliant recompense which he had amply merited. This example will restore confidence to minds discouraged by so many fatal catastrophes; and will inflame the zeal of those who are actuated by a desire for glory and the advancement of geographical science.

§ V.

OF THE COURSE OF THE DHIOLIBA ABOVE AND BELOW TIMBUCTOO.

The attentive reader who may have patiently followed me through the preceding pages, will, no doubt, have remarked the new and principal fact which results from M. Caillié’s observations; the division of the Dhioliba in the environs of Sego into two branches equally broad and deep, and the existence of a large island. It elucidates the description of Mungo Park, and reconciles him with our traveller; it explains the contradictions between the situations assigned to the same towns by different travellers, sometimes on the right, and sometimes on the left of the river, and finally it enlarges our ideas of the advantages of navigation in the interior of the Soudan. This fact also accounts for the great collection of waters which forms the lake Dhiebou or Debo, because many considerable branches which separate from the western arm unite again with the main stream beyond the tributary which falls into it at Isaca; and the want of declivity in the direction of this junction is the cause of the stagnation of the waters.

It would appear that the river has different names which change with its course. Called at its source _Tombia_, _Ba_, _Dhioliba_, &c., it retains the latter name as far as Sego, where or in the environs it divides; if we may trust the description of the amanuensis of Bello, the left arm is called _Baniou_, and the right _Balio_, and after the junction it is called only _Couara_. But M. Caillié never once heard that the river, which he reached at Galia, and upon which he navigated thirty days, had different names; perhaps because he did not inquire. He only saw a river, Couaraba, which falls into the right branch, but very far to the south. I think then that if the stream is called _Couara_ below Isaca, it is only because the term is generic and signifies a _river_.

I might stop here and leave it to the reader to draw other consequences from the new observations. But the question of the outlet of this stream is so closely connected with my subject, that the reader would have a right to complain if in this work he found neither information nor opinion upon it. It is universally inquired what becomes of this immense collection of water below Timbuctoo; it is at least necessary to exhibit in a few words the different opinions at present current upon this subject.

The most ancient identifies this river with the Nile of Egypt. It does not appear that the partisans of this opinion had any other foundation than the pretended unanimous reports of blacks, Arabs, and natives. Thus without considering the physical conditions, or taking account of insurmountable obstacles, they maintained as a fact, that the waters which had their rise in the heights of the Soulimana, that is to say at an elevation of from fourteen to fifteen hundred feet, reached the Mediterranean after a course of two thousand leagues. But, what is perhaps still more strange, this notion rested wholly upon the equivocal interpretation of a word, or as we may express it in plain English upon a pun; the word _Nile_ or _Nil_ is generic. In saying that the Dhioliba joins the Nile, the Africans mean no more than it communicates with some other _great water_, whether it falls into it, or whether it receives it, (for this distinction of arm or tributary is very important). When therefore the Arabs say that the Dhioliba communicates with the _Nile_ or the _Bahi_, they understand thereby either a great river, or a sea, and this may be an inland sea as well as the Ocean. This opinion that the Dhioliba empties itself into the _Nile_ of Egypt, though it was supported only a few years since by a learned writer, appears to be now altogether abandoned.

But this is not the case with the opinion of those who, like Major Rennell, consider the central lake as the outlet of the river. Before the discovery of the lake Tchâd by the English travellers, the existence of this inland sea might have been doubted, the evidence of it was so vaguely attested. This opinion, however supported by probability, is nevertheless liable to two objections: first, that upon the whole western coast of the lake is found the mouth of only one inconsiderable river, the source of which is at no great distance in the E. S. E.; secondly, that the town of Boussa, to which Park navigated upon the Dhioliba, is now known by the second journey of Clapperton, and that it is very far to the S. E. of Timbuctoo.

With regard to the first objection, it may not prove a serious difficulty, because recent travellers have not followed the river Yéou, which falls into lake Tchad; they have left it at a certain distance from the lake, and it is very possible, that that which they have seen farther on may have been only a tributary to the former. As to the second objection, it might be more important if it were certain that the Dhioliba runs in _a single bed_ from Timbuctoo to Saccatou and to Boussa; but there is nothing to prove this. Continuing eastwards, towards the central lake, it may send out a branch to Boussa; and this division would account for the Yéou consisting of but an inconsiderable body of water.[136]

Reichard was one of the first who imagined that the Dhioliba may run into the Gulf of Guinea. This hypothesis has for some time past assumed a certain degree of probability, to which the opinions of the later English travellers, Clapperton and Major Laing,[137] have added much weight. They differ, however, respecting the outlet of the river: the one preferring the river Benin (or Formosa), with Reichard[138]; the other, but with much less probability, the Rio-Volta. The objection always raised to this hypothesis is the great height of the mountains called _Kong_. To reach the sea, the river must cross them; but it may not be absolutely impossible that there should exist an opening in them deep enough to admit of its passage. Another difficulty arises from the small declivity of these waters: but I will here make an observation on this subject. The actually known course of the Dhioliba, from its source as far as Timbuctoo, is about three hundred and sixty leagues: it issues from Mount Loma, at a height of nearly sixteen hundred English feet above the sea, or less than five hundred metres. The velocity observed by M. Caillié leads to the belief, that the average inclination from Djenné and also from Bamakou to Timbuctoo is two thirds of a metre to a league: Timbuctoo would stand, according to this datum only, at a height of two hundred and sixty metres; but it is very probable, that the inclination is much greater from Mount Loma to Bamakou than it is below this latter point, which would lower the position of Timbuctoo at least to two hundred and thirty metres, taking the fall of the first part at only a metre for a league. But this quantity would greatly exceed that supposed by Capt. Beaufort, who, after having observed the elevation of Elimané, conceived Timbuctoo to be upon the same level, that is to say, eighty-four metres above the sea.[139]

Now, from Timbuctoo to the mouth of the river of Benin, following the course of the waters (as it is traced by the partisans of this opinion), the distance is not less than four hundred and sixty leagues. Thus, in the second part of its course, the river would have a total declivity of 230 metres, or 0,51 metre to a league. It is known that the Seine has an inclination of 0,72 metre to a league; the Mississipi, 0,84 metre; the Rio-Apure, 0,92 metre, &c. but others have a much less fall, such as the Wolga, the Missouri, the Senegal, &c., which have one of 0,50 only;[140] so that, strictly speaking, the above inclination is sufficient.

According to a fourth opinion, the river, on reaching the _Kong_ mountains, makes an elbow to the left and runs eastward, by Djacoba and Adamowa to Chary, and thence to lake Tchad into which it discharges itself. It is here that the objection of the want of sufficient inclination applies: how can it be admitted, that the river, after passing Funda, where it would scarcely have an elevation of fifty metres[141] above the sea, (supposing it to be the river of Timbuctoo which flows to Funda), can run on to lake Tchad, three hundred and fifty leagues farther, through a country represented by all accounts as mountainous? But this, even, is not the greatest difficulty.

It is hardly conceivable that any geographer should have admitted an hypothesis, the absurdity of which must have been manifest upon the slightest reflection. The height of lake Tchad has been ascertained: it is nine hundred and twenty French feet above the level of the sea, or something less than three hundred metres; it cannot, therefore, receive the waters which flow to Funda.

The course of this river east of Funda must be reversed, and the supposed elbow converted into a tributary: we shall then probably approach the truth. Major Denham was the first to conceive this easterly turn of the river, running north of the great chain of mountains, and falling at a great distance into the central lake; he had been assured that a communication existed between this river and lake Tchad by the Chary. How is it that the physical impossibility of this course did not occur to him?

A very simple consideration appears to afford a solution of this difficulty, namely, the existence of a lake in an elevated point of the Mandara chain, giving rise both to the Chary and the river which flows by Adamowa and Djacoba. The reports made to Major Denham demonstrate the importance of this stream, which is sufficiently proved by its extent; but, why, without ocular testimony, did he imagine its course to be easterly? If the negroes did not inform him that it ran to the west, neither did they state the contrary. Let us admit the westerly direction: a certain communication will then exist also between the Couara and the Chary; only, after having descended a current southwards, we must ascend another eastward, and thence redescend northwards, into the central lake. This is the most plausible theory I can devise upon Major Denham’s opinion; this is nearly the case with the White Nile and the Misselad, both taking their rise in one of the lakes of Gebel-Koumri. Upon this system, the Couara will continue, after the confluence, to flow southwards, and fall into the sea near the coast of Benin.

A fifth opinion has been recently broached by the English General Sir Rufane Donkin;[142] the summary of which is that the Niger crosses the Wangarah, enters the valley of Ouadi-el-Ghazel, formed by the continuation of the Misselad, and thence runs into the Mediterranean (in the great Syrtis) by a subterranean channel under the sands of Bilmah; and moreover that the Niger rises near the Gulph of Guinea, instead of running towards it. This rather extraordinary opinion has met with adversaries, at which we need not be surprised, even after having read the arguments on which the dissertation is founded. I do not therefore think it necessary to discuss it here; neither shall I enter into the complicated notions, upon the courses of the central river, hazarded by the English traveller Bowdich on very vague information; and I shall be cautious not to offer an additional hypothesis of my own respecting this problem, still full of obscurity. On what basis can an entire and complete system be founded while even the names of the central regions are unknown to us, and our researches into the physical geography of these vast tracts are yet in their infancy; when, in short, the papers of Major Laing, should they be recovered, may at once throw strong light on these chasms in science?[143] It may however be affirmed, and I think with certainty, that the rivers called Dhioliba and Couara neither join the Egyptian Nile, nor contribute one drop to its waters; I think besides that, if the Couara of Funda actually is the continuation of the Dhioliba, flowing to Sego and Timbuctoo, and falls into the Gulph of Guinea, there is nothing to hinder it from throwing off a branch to the east, which may have its outlet in the Yeou and the central lake: this would be the branch seen by M. Caillié before he reached Timbuctoo, and which our traveller followed, the other being on his right flowing east-south-east; and there is no proof that the whole of the former rejoins the latter. The great lake Tchad, or central sea, would then not be the general receptacle of the Dhioliba, but only one of its outlets.