# Africa by Élisée Reclus/Volume 3/Chapter 7

Contents
CHAPTER VII.
THE NIGER BASIN.
General Survey
HE "Nile of the Blacks," long regarded as a branch of the Egyptian Nile, and also confused with many other "Niles," such as the Senegal and Gambia, has at last vindicated its claim to an independent existence. It is now known to have a separate fountain-head; it has abdicated the title of Nile, but retained that of "River of the "Blacks," or Niger, as the fluvial basin containing the largest Negro population. Apart from its importance in historical geography, this name corresponds to a certain extent with an ethnological classification. Yet this acceptation is justified by no expression in the various languages current along its banks. Towards its middle course the Tuaregs (Berbers), who occupy both sides below Timbuktu, simply call it Eghirren, that is, "streams," or "channels," a term more specially applicable to the part of the river where it ramifies into countless branches in the low-lying tracts. Except the Arabs, who contemptuously call it Nil-el-Abid, or "Nile of the Slaves," all the other riverain populations designate the Niger by some term having the invariable sense of a large or copious stream. Thus in its upper course the main branch is the Joliba (Dhioli-ba, Yuli-ba), the Ba-bá of the Mandingans, that is, the "Great Water," answering to the "Mayo," or "River," in a pre-eminent sense, of the Fulahs. This again corresponds to the Issa or Sai of the Songhais, the Shaderba of the Haussas, the Edu of the Nifas, and to the Kwara (Quara) current along its lower course, and by geographers often applied to the whole river.
The Niger, one of the great rivers of the globe, ranks third in Africa for the length of its course, and second for volume, being in this respect surpassed by the Congo alone. From source to mouth the distance in a straight line is only 1,100 miles, but by water no less than 2,500 miles, this great disparity being due to the fact that the river, flowing at first northwards in the direction of the Mediterranean, penetrates into the Sahara and then sweeps round to the east and south. The basin thus developed cannot be estimated at less than 1,000,000 square miles, including all the regions of the Sahara depending upon it by the slope of the land and direction of the intermittent or dried-up fluvial valleys. The whole of the ​276 WEST ATEIOA. Tsad system, with tlie Sliari and its other affluents, might even be regarded as belonging to the Niger basin, the divide between the two hydrographic regions being extremely low, and the general aspect of the land showing that at a former geological epoch both systems were connected by intermediate channels. It is even probable that, before piercing the coast ranges barring its passage southwards to the Gulf of Guinea, the Niger flowed eastwards, developing vast inland seas, of which the Tsad is a surviving fragment. Possibly the " Nile of the Blacks " may at that time have really effected a junction with that of Egypt, through the low- water-parting between the Upper Shari and the numerous streams flowing to the White Nile. In that case the Benue, at present its great affluent from the east, would have been the branch for communicating directly with the Atlantic. Tra- versing regions exposed to a much heavier rainfall, the Benue, although shorter, has even now an equal, if not a greater volume, than the main stream itself. In the joint Niger-Benue basin the population is very unevenly distributed, certain tracts on the Saharian slope arid elsewhere being uninhabited, whilst others are densely peopled, with numerous large towns, villages following close together, and the whole land forming a continuous garden. The actual population is esti- mated by Behm and Wagner at forty millions, although judging from the detailed descriptions of travellers, it can scarcely amount to half that number. In any case it is certain that throughout a long historic period, powerful com- mercial and industrial nations have succeeded each other in the Niger basin. Like the Nile, this river was a centre of culture, and its cities became famous throughout Northern Africa, and even beyond the continent. The kingdom of Ghana, whose name under the form of Guinea, has been so widely diffused along the western seaboard, was known to the Venetian traders long before it was visited by any European travellers, and for centuries Timbuktu figured in the imagination of the western peoples as a sort of remote African Babylon. The Niger affords a striking example in support of the law of primitive cultures, recently expounded by Leon Mechnikov. Here also, as in the Iloang-ho, Indus, Euphrates, and Nile basins the riverain populations have been very irregularly developed, nor were the inhabi- tants of the fluvial deltas anywhere the first to reach a higher state of civilisation. Progress was always most rapid in the interior, where were first constituted national groups sufficiently powerful and industrious to play an important part in the history of mankind, and transmit their fame to remote regions. While such nations were being developed along the Middle Niger, the natives of the delta remained in a barbarous state, blocking the approach to the sea from the civilised inland peoples. Progress of Discovery. Thus it happened that, for four centuries, Europeans frequenting the seaboard remained profoundly ignorant of the true course of the great Nigritian river. Even Mungo Park still supposed that it reached the Atlantic through the Congo, and it was mainly in the hope of verifying this theory that Tuckey's disastrous ​expedition up the Congo was carried out in 1816, while Peddie was to join hands with him by descending the Niger! Yet in 1802, the geographer Reichard had already traced on the map the true mouth of the river, although even he made it pass through Rennell's "Sea of Wangara," now identified with Lake Tsad. It was only in 1830 that the brothers Lander determined its true lower course by actual exploration; nor is the survey of the whole river yet quite completed. It began with Mungo Park, who devoted his life to the problem, and who in 1796 reached the Niger at Segu, which he found already as large as the Thames at Westminster, and flowing slowly towards the east. From this point he followed it for 120 miles down to Silla, and for the same distance up to Bamaku, thus apparently verifying Herodotus' account of a great river flowing "from west to east" across
Africa. In 1805 he started on his second voyage from the same village of Bamaku, but after four months' floating with the stream he perished with all his party at the passage of some narrow rapids near Bussa. One slave alone escaped, and as the papers were lost in the rapids, no details were received in Europe of this ill-fated expedition.
In 1826 Clapperton crossed the Niger below the point where Mungo Park was drowned, and the approximate form of the ramifications above Timbuktu was determined by Caillié's journey in 1827-28. Lastly, in 1830, Richard Lander, companion of Clapperton in the previous expedition, succeeded, with his brother, in following the lower course all the way to its mouth.
In 1832 Laing reached the hilly district where the headstreams have their ​source, and in 1869 Winwood Reade crossed the Joliba itself within 110 miles from its origin. Ten years later, Zweifel and Moustier came within sight of the Tembikundu hill, the fountain-head of the sacred river; but the spirit of the waters, represented by a suspicious high-priest, barred their farther advance. Of the upper course the best known section is naturally that which forms the present boundary of French Sudan for a distance of about 300 miles between Falaba and Sansandig. But even here the side branches and eastern affluents have been traced on the maps only from the reports of native traders. Below Timbuktu the
course of the stream has been more accurately determined by Barth's survey in 1854; but the space of about 165 miles, between the towns of Sai and Gamba, at the Sokoto confluence, has never been revisited by any European since Mungo Park's expedition.
All the lower reaches, except some of the secondary branches of the delta, are well known, having been ascended from the sea by Laird in 1832 and Oldfield in 1834, and since then by numerous other explorers, including Joseph Thomson, who, in spite of many obstacles, made his way from the coast to Sokoto and back ​in four months. The Benue also, discovered by Barth in 1851, was ascended in
1854 by Baikie for 660 miles from the Atlantic. In 1879 a steamer belonging to ​a missionary society penetrated 180 miles beyond Baikie's farthest, ascending 36 miles the Faro confluence, where the Benue had already been crossed by Barth.
Since that time both the Benue and the Niger have been brought within the sphere of European trade, and the "Royal African Company," formed by a number of English merchants, has b-come the almost official sovereign of all these regions,
comprising numerous kingdoms and republics, and peopled by various races with different languages and religions. According to the stipulations of the Berlin Conference held in 1885, the future supremacy of the Joliba, or Upper Niger, is reserved to France, that of all the rest to England, the main stream being, however, thrown open to the flags of all nations. ​THE NIGER. 281 The Upper and Middle Niger. A special iterest attaches to the origin of the great river whose basin has thus been already prtitioned between two European Powers. Although prevented from coming within four miles of its source, Zweifel and Moustier were at least able to collect sufficient information to describe it. The Tembi, as the farthest head- stream is called appears to rise at the Tembi-Kundu hill, that is, the "Tembi Head," a huge rounded block standing between two others of like form, but much higher, with a luish range in the background. The spring immediately develops a rivulet two feet broad, which flows rapidly to a little lake with a rocky islet shaded by a wle-branching tree, the retreat of a powerful wizard renowned throughout the surrounding lands. Beyond the lake the Tembi plunges into a deep fissure, reappearing some distance below the village of Nelia. The " father of the Joliba," which at its source has an altitude of about 2,800 feet, flows mainly north to its junction with the Faliko, 84 miles from the Tembi' Kundu hill, the united stream forming the Joliba, and maintaining a north- easterly course through French Sudan to and beyond Segu, and receiving the Tankisso and several other affluents from the neighbouring hills and plateaux. At the Tankiss junction, 260 miles from its source, it has already descended considerably more than half of the total incline, and is here little more than 1,000 feet above sea-level. At Bamaku the mean breadth is over 500 yards, with a depth of 6 or 7 feet ; but the channel is here obstructed by numerous reefs and sandbanks, such is that of Sotuba, above which steamers can ascend only during the floods. At Sansadi where its bed is little more than 800 feet above the sea, the Joliba enters ailat region with scarcely any perceptible incline, in which the sluggish current ramifies into a sort of inland delta. The eastern and largest branch, which t8 alone followed by Mungo Park and Caillie, encloses with the Diaka, or western ; arm, the low island of Burgu, which is fully 120 miles long, but intersected by innumerable connecting channels. From these branches the stream converge in the Debo, a vast morass flooded during the inundations, and succeeded farther down by other insular tracts and temporary lakes, like those of the White 31g about the Bahr-el-Ghazal confluence, but destitute of the floating masses of matted vegetation so characteristic of that river. In this laculatine region the Joliba is joined from the south by its great affluent, the Bakhoy, or "White River," called also the Ulu-Ulu, which is probably as copios as the main stream itself. The vast basin of the Bakhoy, occupying all the northern slopes of the Kong uplands from Liberia to Ashanti, is still almost entirely unknown, Rènè Caillie being the only traveller who has yet crossed this region, which is watered by several navigable streams. After its confluence with the Koraba (Pambine or Mahel Bodeval), which is over 300 yards wide and 10 feet deep at the point crossed by Caillie, the Bakhoy flows parallel with the Joliba, and after ramifying into numerous branches in the Jenne country, joins the main stream above Lake Debo. 82— AF ​Below the confluence the Niger again develops an intricate system of channels and backwaters penetrating 90 miles southwards under the meridian of Timbuktu. The riverain populations capture large quantities of fish in this labyrinth of waters, which rise and fall with the seasons; they also grow rice in the moist depressions, harvesting the crops before the periodical return of the floods, thus alternately using the same tracts for fishing and husbandry. Fig. 125. — Backwaters South of Timbuktu.
Some 15 miles farther down the main stream, arrested in its northerly course by the southern escarpments of the Sahara, is abruptly deflected for about 240 miles eastwards to the gorges in the Burum district, immediately below which it sweeps round to the south, retaining that direction for the rest of its course to the Gulf of Guinea. But before opening this passage seawards it is probable that the Niger converted into a vast inland sea all the low-lying region which is now intersected by the network of backwaters flooded during the inundations. One of these channels still runs northwards in the direction of Timbuktu, beyond which, according to the information collected by Pouyanne and Sabatier, it appears to be continued through a series of depressions probably marking the course of the Niger at a geological epoch anterior to the piercing of the Burum gorges. But the suggestion that the Wed Messaura of Southern Mauritania and the Twat oasis now occupies the same depression with its sandy bed, seems to be contradicted by the provisional measurements taken by de Soleillet and Lenz in Twat and Timbuktu, the latter point being apparently some 430 feet higher than the former.
About 60 miles below the Burum defiles, where at Tossai the fluvial bed is contracted to less than 300 feet, the Niger passes from the zone of the Sahara to that of Sudan. Here two branches of the stream at the foot of the sandstone Ausongo hills enclose an island 18 miles long and strewn with rocks in the form ​of obelisks, the remains of obstructions not yet entirely removed by the current. Farther on follow other narrows and barriers, especially south of a chain of hills 800 to 1,000 feet high skirting the left bank Here the Niger is joined by the now almost dried-up Wed Tafassasset, which rises on the southern slopes of the Ahaggar hills, and which with its various ramifications probably at one time watered a region as extensive as that of the Joliba itself. The Jallul Bosso valley, in which the whole system converges, is even now never quite waterless, its lower course winding through a district with a yearly rainfall of scarcely less than 20 inches.
Lower down the Niger is joined opposite Gomba by the perennial Gulbi n' Sokoto, or "River of Sokoto," so called from the city of that name situated on its banks. The Sokoto, which rises in the Katsena country, waters the northern zone
of Sudan on the verge of the Saharian savannas; but its bed, from 130 to 250 feet wide, contains very little water except during the floods. Flegel, who surveyed its lower course for 90 miles from Gomba to Birni n' Kebbi, represents it as obstructed by vegetable remains, trunks of trees, and muddy banks.
Below the Sokoto confluence the Niger is still obstructed by some extremely dangerous rapids, Such as those near Bussa, probably the point where Mungo Park perished in 1806. The boatmen who accompanied Flegel in 1880 assured him that at low water the remains of the European boat were still visible, and the brothers Lander obtained from the king of Bussa some books and other documents belonging to the famous explorer. At Geba, where the river is deflected south-eastwards to the Benue confluence, the rocky islet of Kesa rises abruptly 330 feet above the water, and from this point the Niger, still 450 feet ​above sea-level, glides with a placid uniform flow, unimpeded by any farther obstacles for 450 miles to the coast. This section, which is joined above Egga by the copious river Lifun, or Kaduna, from Zaria, is now navigated by large steamers even in the dry season, when some
parts are over 60 feet deep, rising 30 or even 40 feet higher during floods.
The Benue.
The Benue, or "mother of waters," is a second Niger in volume, while it must be regarded as by far the more important of the two great arteries in economic value, as a navigable river flowing through thickly peopled and cultivated lands. The term Chadda applied to it by some of the riverain peoples and adopted by the early explorers, had its origin probably in a confusion between its upper course and Lake Chad or Tsad. Most of the other local designations are referable to a sort of mystic opposition between the two rivals, the Benue, or "Black," and the Kwara (Niger), or "White River," an opposition fully justified by the colour of the respective waters.
Of the Benue the most striking feature is its slight incline, estimated at scarcely 600 feet in a total course of as many miles, and falling from about 900 feet above sea-level at the head of the navigation to 270 at the confluence. Thanks to the explorations of Baikie, Ashcroft, and Flegel, the navigable section is well known; but the region of its farthest headstreams still remains unvisited. According to Vogel, Hutchinson, and others, the Upper Benue is connected, at least during the floods, by a continuous line of navigable channels with the Shari and Lake Tsad. From the Tuburi swamps, discovered by Vogel at an altitude of about 1,000 feet above the sea, the superfluous waters flow in one direction northwards to the Logon branch of the Shari, in another westwards to the Mayo Kebbi, apparently ​the largest headstream of the Benue, which descends from the neighbouring Ngaunderé Mountains. After the confluence the united stream, already 500 or 600 feet wide, winds westwards between sandstone hills rising many hundred feet above its bed, which at many points is obstructed by rocky ledges, rendering all
navigation impossible in the dry season. But it is soon swollen by numerous affluents from the Wangara hills in the north, and from the south by the Faro (Paro), a copious stream descending from the still unexplored regions beyond Adamawa, and sweeping round the east foot of Mount Alantika, one of the ​culminating points of West Africa, although Barth's estimate of its height, 8,000 to 10,000 feet, is regarded by Flegel as exaggerated.
Below the Faro confluence the Benue flows mainly in a south-westerly ​direction in valleys of varying breadth, but everywhere skirted on the horizon by ranges or detached masses of hills and mountains. At many points the stream is over 1,000 yards wide, and here and there divided by islands into several branches. At the Niger confluence the intermingled grey and blackish currents present the aspect of a vast lake encircled by hills, and during the floods in August and September discharging probably over 1,000,000 cubic feet per second. From this point the united stream flows nearly due south for 230 miles to the head of the delta, which is still 60 miles from the coast. This extensive low-lying tract,
developing a remarkably symmetrical semicircle between the Benin and Brass estuaries, and intersected by countless channels, lagoons, marshes, and stagnant waters, has a coastline of about 210 miles, with a total area of 10,000 square miles.
The Niger Delta.
At present the chief branch of the delta is the river Nun, which follows the main axis of the Niger, entering the sea at the southernmost point of this watery region. North-west of it flows the Benin, which gives its name to the ​288 WEST AFRICA. bouring bight, and whicb is the Formosa of the Portuguese. Altbougb over 16 feet deep at low water, the bar at the mouth of this channel is rendered so dangerous by the fury of the breakers that vessels drawing more than 6 or 7 feet scarcely venture to risk the passage. Between the Benin and the Nun follow nine other branches, of which the Rio Forcados alone is of easy access to craft of average size. The mouth of the Nun, although often dangerous, may still be easily ascended by vessels drawing 13 or 14 feet. Farther east follow other arras at average intervals of 10 miles, all with dangerous bars, and all connected in the interior by a labyrinth of navigable channels. For ten months in the year the prevailing winds blow inland, often with sufficient force to enable sailing vessels to stem the fluvial current. Towards the end of November begins the season of the so-called " smokes," dry fogs rendering the seaboard invisible at a short distance off the coast, but usually dissipated by the afternoon breeze, and occasionally dispersed by tornadoes. The two ramifying estuaries of New Calabar and Bonny are usually regarded as forming part of the Niger hydrographic system, with which they are connected by a branch of the delta and several brackish channels along the coast. But these estuaries are chiefly fed by an independent stream v^'hich rises in the hilly region skirting the south side of the Benue Yalley. The Old Calabar estuary, which has also been included in the Niger system, and which higher up has been wrongly named the Cross River, as if it communicated westwards with the delta, is on the contrary an entirely independent basin, which in its middle course takes the name of Oyono. It is a very large river, which in 1842 was ascended by Becroft and King for 190 miles to the rapids, and which in many places was found to be over 1,000 yards wide and here and there from 40 to 65 feet deop. The surveyed section describes a complete semicircle round a mass of syenitic hiils over 3,000 feet high, and its valley is probably continued eastwards, so as to isolate the Kameroon highlands from the rest of the continent. The lower course of the Oyono, although not directly connected with the Niger, nevertheless forms, like the Rio del Rey farther east, an easterly continuation of its alluvial zone, the whole region presenting everywhere the same general aspect, and yielding to commerce the same natural products. Politically also these secondary basins, like the Niger itself, are under the suzerainty of Great Britain. The Upper Niger States. The lands watered by the Upper Niger as far as the Benue confluence com- prise a large number of tribes and nations with little ethnical coherence, but at present constituting three main political groups. Like most of the empire^^ developed since the Mohammedan invasion, the southern state is of religious origin. It dates only from about the year 1875, when mention first occurs of the new prophet Samburu, or Samory, who was then reported to be agitating the Wassulu and other Upper Niger lands, destroying the towns of the unbelievers, and enroll​enrolling the Faithful for the Holy War. The French had no direct relations with him till 1881, when they sent him a native envoy, who ran great risk of his life in undertaking this mission. Soon after their respective forces came into collision, with the result that Samory acknowledged the French protectorate on the left bank of the Niger below Tankisso or Bafing, while consolidating his own power in the upper regions and eastwards beyond Wassulu.
Since the foundation of this Mussulman kingdom a veritable social revolution is said to have been accomplished by the new Mandingan sultan, who has
generally suppressed the slave trade, enlisting the captives as soldiers, arming them with modern rifles, and accustoming them to European discipline. These tactics will probably lead to fresh conquests, especially in the direction of Sierra-Leone, by the absorption of the Kuranko and Timni territories.
On the other hand, the Toucouleur empire below the French protectorate on the left bank of the Niger has entered on a state of decadence. It was founded in 1850 by the pilgrim Omar, who after overrunning the Jallonké country, received a first serious check at the French station of Medina in 1857. But although ​defeated on the Senegal, Omar was still victorious on the Niger, reducing Kaarta and Bele-dugu, and advancing through Segu and Massina to Timbuktu. After his death family dissensions, followed by the revolt of the oppressed Bambaras and Mandingans, brought about the dismemberment of the state, which was broken into detached fragments by the advance of the French to the Niger. The
instability of the states in this region is well expressed by the Bambara proverb: "No king can cross the Joliba twice in his lifetime." It is now no longer possible to restore unity to an empire consisting of the three widely separated sections of Kaarta in the north-west, Segu in the east, and Jallonké dugu in the southwest. ​
Inhabitants of the Upper Niger.
The bulk of the populations inhabiting the Joliba and its affluents belong to the Mandingan race. The Kurankos about its sources, akin to those on the west slope of the Loma mountains, are grouped in a large number of petty independent states, each with its own king, council of elders, fetishmen, special usages and local feuds. Their Kissi neighbours, of a more peaceful disposition, have contracted friendly alliances with all the peoples between the Senegambian coast and the Kong mountains. Farther north the Sangaras, formerly constituting little autonomous republics, have been compelled to recognise the authority of Samory.
In the region watered by the eastern affluents of the Joliba, the most numerous
nation appears to be that of the Wassulus, in whose country the villages are so closely packed that, as the natives say, "the king's word is passed on from voice to voice" to the limits of the state. Although regarded by Caillié as of Fulah stock, the Wassulus have many features in common with the Bambaras, and the current speech is Mandingan. The Sarakolés, who are great traders, are also very numerous in this district, where the towns are inhabited by Mohammedans and the country by pagan Wassulus. Although of peaceful disposition, and like true Fulahs engaged chiefly in stock-breeding, the Wassulus can fight bravely for their national independence, and are said to have hitherto held their own against the attacks of Samory.
North of the Wassulus the chief nation on the Niger and neighbouring lands ​292 WEST AFRICA. are the Bambara Negroes, who call themselves Ba-Manao (Ba-Mana), or " People of the Great Eock." Traditionally from the southern highlands, they belong to the same stock as the Mandingans, and speak fundamentally the same language. But they are physically a. very mixed people, described by some as even typical Negroes, by others as characterised by thin lips and aquiline nose. From all their neighbours they are distinguished by three parallel incisions traced on the cheek from the angle of the eye to the corner of the mouth. The Bambaras are also an industrial people, skilful blacksmiths, manufacturers of gunpowder, ropes, and cordage, builders of boats, bridges, and well-constructed wooden houses, usually of rectangular shape, with gutters for carrying off the rain-water, and apertures to let the smoke escape. Like the Wassulus, they are gentle, hospitable, and generous, harbouring no malice and easily given to laughter, exceeding all other natives in boisterous merriment. But although renowned for their valour, and as implacable in war as they are mild in peace, the Bambaras have everywhere been subdued by other nations, in the Upper Joliba valleys by the Fulahs and Mandingans, in French Sudan by a handful of whites, on the opposite side of the Niger and in Kaarta by the Toucouleurs. A few small tribes between Kaarta and Bele-dugu can alone be regarded as completely independent. Nearly all the Bambaras, at least of Kaarta, call themselves Mohammedans, but are so little zealous that their Toucouleur masters look upon them as no better than Kafirs. Many of their tribes, after recovering their political independence, have even abandoned the rites of Islam, resuming the pagan ceremonies and profane amusements of their ancestors. At their feasts they get drunk on dolo and eat the flesh of dogs or jackals to show their hatred of the oppressor's religion. Thus Mohammedanism, which is so rapidly advancing in other parts of Africa, is losing ground amongst the Bambaras as well as the Kuranko's. Certain secret societies also still celebrate their rites in the forests, and most of the people have their fetishes — roots, rags, tufts of hair, or the like, kept in an ox's horn, in an elephant's tusk, or more frequently in a calabash or a large earthenware pot, the round form and yellow colour of which represent the sun, creator of all things. Sometimes this vase contains a coiled snake, emblem of a world without beginning or end ; when empty it is approached with still greater awe, for then it is the abode of the unknown god. Topography. In the Upper Joliba basin even the capitals of states are mostly mere groups of huts, such as Ndia and Tantafara, close to the source of the river ; Lia, at the confluence of the branches forming the Joliba ; Faranna, on the right bank, 120 miles below the source, which at the time of Winwood Reade's visit was a mere heap of ruins. Galaha, near the head of the Janda, was the usual residence of Sultan Saraory in 1881 ; but in 1885 it had been replaced by Sanankoro, lying farther north, as the summer capital, and by Bissandu, lower down, as his winter ​residence. Near Bissandu, on the Milo, a small affluent of the Niger from the east, lies Kankan, the chief trading place in the country, inhabited by Mandingan and Sarakolé merchants, who monopolise the whole trade of the Upper Niger basin. Kankan is the hotbed of Mohammedanism in this region, and is frequently at war with the pagan Torons, or Torongos, who occupy the southeastern highlands, supposed to be the cradle of the now widespread Bambara race.
In the basin of the Bakhoy, or eastern Niger, the chief markets are Tengrera, Debena, and Kong, that is, "The Mountain," a large Mandingan town famous in all the surrounding lands for its wealth in gold, woven goods, corn, and horses, Kong lies on one of the main trade routes traversing this almost unknown region, which appears to be one of the most prosperous in the whole of Africa.
Falaba, on the right, and Falama, near the left bank of the Niger, mark the section of the river which forms the eastern limit of French Sudan. Here it is joined by the Tankisso, or Bafing, from the Jallonké-dugu and Baleya districts, and in the immediate neighbourhood are the gold-fields of Buré, which like those of Bambuk are worked chiefly by the women. In Buré the surface, everywhere undermined with pits, frequently gives way, and when any of the miners get crushed they are left to their fate, the popular belief being that the evil genius wishes to keep them as slaves in the other world. But a year after the accident the pit is reopened, and if much gold is found collected about the dead, it is concluded that they have been protected from the demons by the good spirits, and the gold is accepted as an indemnity for the loss sustained by the miners.
The hamlet of Didi, residence of one of the chief rulers of Buré, was the farthest ​point reached in 1869 by Winwood Reade during his exploration of the Upper
Niger. The government of the whole country, recently tributary to Segu, but ​now "protected" by France, is in the hands of four powerful families, whose members deliberate in common. East of the Joliba the chief market for slaves and gold-dust is Kankaré, some 60 miles from the bank of the river. Kaniera, 24 miles south-east of Falaba, till recently "very large and very rich," was destroyed in 1882 by the army of Samory just four days before the arrival of a French detachment sent to its relief.
The Mandingan state, also now a French protectorate, has some flourishing places on the left bank of the Joliba and in the interior on the waterparting between the Niger and Senegal basins. Such are Kangaba, on the Joliba, and Sibi on a bluff rising above an extensive alluvial plain to the west. Bamaku (Bamako), formerly a populous trading-place much frequented in the time of Mungo Park, has again
acquired some importance, the French having chosen it as the capital of their possessions on the Niger. In 1883 the total population of the town and neighbouring hamlets scarcely exceeded eight hundred souls. Yet the little Bambara state had hitherto succeeded in maintaining its political independence Neither Ahmadu's Toucouleurs nor Samory's Mussulman Mandingans had been able to capture it when the French appeared on the scene and began to erect the fort. At that time the plain around Bamaku seemed, almost uninhabited; now it is intersected b} routes lined with trees, some plantations have been laid out round about the white walls of the fortress, and the little riverain port is already crowded with boats. In 1884 the total exchanges amounted to no less than £200,000.
Below Bamaku and the neighbouring Sotuba cascade the first large villages ​are Baguinta on the right and Kulikoro on the left bank. Here the French have founded a station to command the communications of the Niger with Bele-dugu, the territory of the Beleri people, which stretches westwards in the direction of the sources of the Senegalese Baulé. This hilly district is inhabited by little communities of republican Bambaras, who have joined in a common confederacy against the Toucouleurs, and who have thus succeeded in safeguarding their political and religious independence. In the district grows a species of wild tobacco, which is believed by Barth and many other naturalists to be of African origin.
The ruined city of Yamina (Nyamina) on the left bank, 60 miles below Kulikoro, belonged till recently to the empire of Segu; but in 1884, on the
appearance of a French gunboat, its Bambara and Sarakolé inhabitants expelled the Toucouleur garrison, and placed themselves under the protection of France. Yamina is the natural port of all the upper Bele-dugu and Fa-dugir country, as well as of the markets near the desert. Some 30 miles from the river lies Banaba with eight thousand inhabitants, nearly all Sarakolés; and on the route leading thence to Kaarta follow some other large villages, and even towns, in a populous district raising far more millet than is needed for the local consumption.
Although in a state of decadence, Segu is still one of the great riverain cities of the Niger. Till recently it was the capital of a vast empire, covering an area of about 200,000 square miles between Kaarta and Wassulu in one direction, and ​between Jallonké-dugu and Massina in another; but it occupies such an advantageous position for trade, that however wasted by_war and dethroned from its royal state, Segu must always recover from its political disasters, and continue to be a great centre of population and traffic. It lies on the right bank, scarcely 24 miles below the Bakhoy confluence, at the converging point of all the trade routes from the Upper Niger valleys, between Futa-Jallon and the Mahi uplands. The large market of Kayayé, about 120 miles to the south-east, is the chief station on the highway leading to the mysterious Mandingan city of Kong. The wars that for the last half century have wasted all the surrounding lands have fortunately
spared the Segu district, which according to Mage had a population of one hundred thousand in 1865, of which thirty-six thousand appeared to be centred in the city and its outskirts.
Segu really consists of several distinct towns, such as Segu Koro, or "Old Segu", opposite Faracco, Segu Bugu, facing Kalabugu, Segu Kura or "New Segu," and lastly Segu Sikoro, present residence of the prince and official capital of the state, the whole occupying a space of about 10 miles along the right bank of the river.
Lower down on the same side is the village of Somono fishers and boatmen, who, for services rendered to the Toucouleur conquerors, have obtained the monopoly of the riverain industries. But the Toucouleurs themselves are no longer masters of Segu. The foundation of the French military posts in Upper Senegal, the growth of the new Mandingan empire under Samory, and the revolts ​298 WEST AFEICA. in Bele-dugu and conterminous lands, have completely isolated the Toucouleurs of Segu from their own country. They are now prisoners in their conquest, and like the Manchus in China, are gradually merging in the surrounding Bambara population. Sansandig also occupies a vitally important position on the left bank 33 miles below Segu Sikoro. Hence although lately destroyed by the Toucou- leurs, it cannot fail to revive either on the same site or in the immediate neigh- bourhood. The abrupt bend of the Niger at this place makes it the converging point of the routes from the Sahara, and the natural markets for the inhabitants of Sudan and the northern steppe are situated in the neighbouring zone inter- mediate between the hills and the plain. Within 60 miles to the north-west lies the great mart of Segala, and farther west Bamfari, that is, the district of Damfa or Dampa, another Sarakole town lying at the point of intersection of several highways, and during the dry season much frequented by the Ulad-Mahmuds and other nomad tribes. Damfari, which raises large crops of millet, was a very flourishing country in 1883, when it was visited by M. Bayol and placed under French protection by agreement with the local chiefs. A still more populous and commercial place is Murdla, which lies north of Damfa in the steppe region, where the sands of the desert first begin to encroach on the cultivated lands. The town, containing two thousand five hundred Sarakoles, is encircled by seven Moorish encampments containing at least twelve hundred souls, and the winding streets form a continuous bazaar, where may be purchased carpets, jewellery, embroidered leather- work, and other Mauritanian wares. North-westwards, in the direction of Kaarta, stretches the Bakhunu territory, which forms part of El-Hodh, a zone of transition between Sudan and the Sahara, and for ages a common battle-ground for the surrounding Arab, Bambara, Fulah, and Toucouleur peoples. Bakuinit, capital of Bakhunu, lies towards the west about 60 miles east of Nioro, and between it and Murdia the Sultan of Segu has founded the new market of Ghine^ which being free from all custom-house dues, has rapidly acquired great importance. The sedentary population of four thousand is sometimes swollen during market days to fifteen or twenty thousand. One of the routes leading from Sansandig to the Walata oasis passes through the great city of Gtimbu, Barth's Kiimba, inhabited by about twenty thousand Bambaras, speaking Arabic and cultivating vast fields of sorgho. Farther east the direct route between Sansandig and Timbuktu traverses the commercial city of Sokolo, the Kala of the Arabs, in media3val times one of the capitals of the Mandirigan' empire, and still containing a population of six thousand. Fara-bugu, lying a little to the north, is the most advanced settlement of the Bambara nation towards the domain of the Moors, In the section of the Niger below Sansandig, flowing for 60 miles eastward -», the chief riverain town is Sihili, capital of a petty Bambara state. Farther down,
point from Bamaku reached in 1886 by the French steamer plying on the Upper Niger. Here the waters begin to ramify, one branch passiag near the holy city of Biaka northwards in the direction of TenenkUj one of the large markets in the Burgu territory. Another branch running eastwards leads to the famous old city of Jenne, whose name, according to some authorities, is the original of the word Guinoye, or Guinea, assigned by the Portuguese to so large a part of the conti- nent. Now, however, Jenne, which has hitherto been visited by Caillie alone, is a decayed place, reduced by civil and foreign wars, by the stoppage of trade on the river, perhaps also by the shiftings of the fluvial branches in this flat region, where the channels are incessantly changing. Yet even at the time of CailKe's visit in 1828, it still covered a large space with enclosures at least 5 miles in circumference, although it had already ceased to be a royal capital. The Fulah conquerors held its old Barabara inhabitants in subjection, and enforced the strict observance of the Mohammedan worship. After abandoning Jenne, King Sego-Ahmadu founded the new residence of IlamdaUahi, that is, el-IIamdu-Lillahl, or " Praised be Allah," a little to the east of the confluence of the two Nigers. But this new capital of Massina (or Moassina, 98 Lenz always heard it called), was but short-lived, having been captured in 1862 by the great Fulah conqueror, El-Haj Omar. It is now a heap of ruins, succeeded as the capital of Massina by Bandiagara^ near the right bank of the Bakhoy, 60 miles east of Jenne. But the Massina state itself has no political unity, being ruled in one place by a Toucouleur king of the Omar dynasty, in another by Fulah chiefs, and elsewhere occupied by the distinct petty Bambara or Songhai states. Along the routes running through Massina from Jenn^ towards Timbuktu follow eastwards the towns of NiakongOy Bore, and Bwentsa, all mentioned by Barth's informers ; westwards, Bassikunu, visited by Lenz in 1880. Below Moeti, or Issaka, at the confluence of both Nigers, the chief places are ICona, the most advanced Songhai settlement towards the west, and beyond Lake Debo the large city of Yoaru, or Yovaru, which, according to the seasons, lies on a sandy plain or on a marshy bank between stagnant and running waters. The Middle Niger. — Timbuktu. — The Tuaregs and Songhais. Most of the vast region traversed by the Niger between Timbuktu and Gomba is almost uninhabited, although the southern districts appear in many places to be densely peopled. The country has been visited by Barth alone, who on his journey from Sai to Timbuktu, followed the chord of the arc described by the great eastern bend of the river. South of this bend the El-Haj ri, or Hombori Hills, called also in a special sense Tondi, or " The Mountain," form a natural Hmit between the arid Saharian and cultivated Sudanese zones. These hills, rising some 800 or 1,000 feet above the level or slightly undulating plain, itself over 1,600 feet above sea-level, do not constitute a continuous range, but a series of isolated ​eminences of fantastic shape, in some places presenting the outlines of vast rocky strongholds flanked with square towers. The natives have even converted them into citadels, where they defend themselves from the attacks of the Fulah conquerors. South of the Hombori Hills the plain is dotted over with some lesser eminences, such as the granite, gneiss, and sandstone Aribinda heights falling abruptly southwards and presenting a more gentle incline towards the north.
The region stretching north-west of Timbuktu in the direction of the Walata and Tishit oases is peopled by Arabs, or at least a half-caste Berber race of Arab speech. Many Arab traders also penetrate across the river southwards to the Hombori Hills. But east of the meridian of Timbuktu the whole of the Saharian region belongs to the Imohagh (Imosharh) Berbers, whose countless tribes are
scattered for nearly 1,200 miles in every direction northwards to the Algerian frontier, eastwards to the neighbourhood of Lake Tsad. Those of the Niger region all belong to the Awellimiden confederation, some still bearing the name of Tademakka (Tademekket), a vanished city which lay west of the Air Mountains. These are kinsmen of the Khumirian Dedmakas, now assimilated in speech and usages to the Arabs.
Below Timbuktu the Imohaghs have crossed the Niger and reduced the country far to the south of the river. They not only occupy the sandy tracts and savannas, but have penetrated into the Hombori valleys, and beyond them into the fertile Libtako plains. Here, however, few of them have preserved the camel, faithful associate of all other Tuaregs, breeding horned cattle and sheep instead, and in some places even intermarrying with the native Negro populations. Hence, perhaps, all these southern Berbers have received from their northern kindred the ​collective name of Ireghenaten, or "Mixed." They also appear to be gradually adopting the Fulah and Songhai languages, although some amongst them still preserve the Berber type in all its purity. They live almost exclusively on a flesh and milk diet, and like those of Ahaggar are divided into two castes, that of the nobles, whose business is war, and that of their retainers or slaves, tillers of the land.
The Songhais (Sonrhai, Sourhai) occupy both banks of the Middle Niger between Timbuktu and the Sokoto confluence, penetrating far inland within the great bend, where their speech is current as far as the lacustrine district below Jenné. Although now a degraded people, the Songhais had their epoch of splendour and dominion. After overthrowing the Mandingan emperor, enthroned
in Mali, the Songhai chief, Askia, founded in 1492, with Gogo for its capital, a mighty kingdom stretching far up towards the source and down towards the mouth of the great artery and away to the oases of the desert, so that "travellers journeyed six months across his dominions." Askia became the most powerful of African potentates, and to celebrate his triumphs he undertook the pilgrimage to Mecca escorted by his vassal chiefs and fifteen hundred men-at-arms. He was renowned throughout the East for his generous deeds, and he attracted to his court the wise and the learned, who made Gogo and Timbuktu centres of light for all the Negro lands.
But this great empire lasted not quite a hundred years, having at last yielded in 1591 to a small band of Maroccan troops commanded by Jodar, a Spaniard from Almeria, and including many other Andalusians equipped with European firearms. ​These Maroccan Rumas, as they were called, supplanted the dynasty of Askia, their power extending to Bakhunu, Jenné, and the Hombori Mountains. But all relations soon ceased with the mother country, and the Rumas, intermarrying with the natives, gradually lost their supremacy, although down to the beginning of the present century still controlling the navigation of the Niger a long way above and
below Timbuktu. Then came the conquering Fulahs, founders of the Massina empire, and the nomad Tuaregs, who planted themselves on both banks of the river, so that the Songhais are now almost everywhere subject to peoples more powerful than themselves.
But notwithstanding their political decadence, their speech, the Kissur or ​Songhai of Timbuktu, is still widely diffused, although largely affected by Arabic elements. The Songhais are of nearly black complexion, with delicately chiselled features enframed in long kinky hair. Some tribes are distinguished by special tattoo marks, and in the eastern districts the women wear a metal ornament passed through the cartilage of the nose. In their present degraded state the Songhais are a dull, sullen, unfriendly people, described by Barth as the least hospitable of all the Negroes he came in contact with during all his long wanderings. On various grounds this writer argues that they at one time had relations with the Egyptians, a theory which receives some support from their practice of embalming and from their domestic architecture.
Topography.
Timbuktu (Tombuktu), the most famous city not only in the Songhai country but in all central Africa, is known only to Europeans by this name, the true Songhai form of which appears to be Tumbutu. It is said to have been founded in the fifth century of the Hegira by the Tuaregs, who more probably captured it at that period. Mention is made of it at the time of the Ghana empire, in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and later under the dominion of the Su-Sus. But such is its position, at the sharp angle formed by the Niger at the converging point of so many side branches, that here or hereabouts a market-place must always have existed.
Under the Mandingan kings of Mali (Mellé) in the fourteenth century, Timbuktu was a rich and flourishing place, whose fame was spread far and wide, thanks to its great trade in gold and salt. The name of Timbuch occurs for the first time on a Catalonian map of 1373. But a city containing so much treasure could not long escape pillage. It was plundered in the fifteenth century by the Tuaregs and Songhais, and a hundred years later by Jodar's Andalusian fusiliers, after which time it was frequently contested by Tuaregs, Fulahs, and Toucouleurs.
After the Toucouleur occupation of 1863, no further attempt has been made to resist the attacks of the surrounding peoples, the municipal authorities paying tribute now to one, now to another, and indemnifying themselves by the profits of the local trade in peaceful times.
The population, estimated by Barth at thirteen thousand in 1858, and at twenty thousand by Lenz in 1880, consists chiefly of Arabs from Marocco, of Berabish Arabs, of Songhais, Tuaregs, Mandingans, Bambaras, and Fulahs, besides a few Jews, tolerated since the middle of the present century. Apart from Portuguese envoys in the fifteenth century, and European captives in later times, Timbuktu has been visited in the present century only by Laing in 1826, by Caillié in 1828, by Barth in 1853, and by Lenz in 1880. But although Krause failed to reach it in 1887, it seems probable that the relations opened with France, by the despatch of an envoy to Paris in 1884, will be increased with the growth of trade between Bamaku and the riverain ports lower down. The ​804 WEST AFEICA. Niger at this point was reached by a French gunboat from Bamaku for the first time in 1887. Timbuktu lies 9 miles north of the Niger on a terrace or escarpment of the desert about 800 feet above the sea. Formerly a navigable lateral branch reached the foot of this escarpment, and in 1640 a low-lying quarter of the city was even inundated. But the channel has gradually silted up, and even during the floods boats can now reach no farther than the basin of Kabra (Kabara), the port of Timbuktu on the Mger. Both port and city have greatly diminished in size, and travellers arriving from the north and west now traverse extensive spaces covered with refuse. The position of the great mosque, formerly in the centre, now near the outskirts, also shows how greatly the place has been reduced in recent times. This mosque, dominated by a remarkable earthern tower of pyramidal form, is the only noteworthy monument in Timbuktu, which consists mainly of a labyrinth of terraced houses and huts with pointed roofs. Notwithstanding its decayed state, Timbuktu is still the centre of a consider- able transit trade between the desert and Sudan, the salt from Taudeni and other Saharian deposits being here exchanged for millet, kola-nuts, textiles from the southern regions, and even European wares penetrating up the Niger. Cowries, hitherto the general currency, are being gradually replaced by five-franc pieces, a sure indication of the growing influence of the French in the Upper and Middle Niger basin. The local industries are almost confined to the manufacture of those leathern pouches and amulet bags which are distributed throughout the Sudanese markets from Walata or Biru, the northern rival of Timbuktu. Walata, already a famous market in the fifteenth century, is the chief station on the roundabout trade route between Timbuktu and Saint Louis, which has to be followed from oasis to oasis when the natural highways up the Niger and down the Senegal are closed by local wars. The municipal administration of Timbuktu is entrusted to a kahia, or heredi- tary mayor, a descendant of one of those Andalusian " Rumi " captains who contributed to overthrow the Songhai empire. But the authority of this official is controlled by a Tuareg chief or sultan, and by the family of the Bakhai marabouts, who have adherents in every part of the Sahara, and even in Mauri- tania. Timbuktu is also a learned city, with rich libraries and expounders of the law, who dispute on points of dogma with the same subtlety as the mediaeval Christian theologians. Gogo {Gao, Gar/io), capital of the old Songhai empire, 60 miles south of the Burum district, had formerly a circumference of over 6 miles, comprising a pagan quarter on the west, and a Mohammedan on the east bank, besides an insular quarter between the two fluvial branches. At present little remains of all this except three himdred round huts scattered amongst the palm groves on the left side, and a minaret like that at Agades, a kind of massive pyramid 50 feet high disposed in seven compartments, beneath which Askia, founder of the ephemeral Songhai empire, lies buried. Below Gogo, both banks are almost uninhabited for a distance of 180 miles. ​when some large villages and cultivated tracts announce the approach to the twin cities of Garu and Sinder, standing on some rocky islets in mid-stream. On both sides of the river the plain is here studded with habitations, and yields an abundance of millet for the local consumption and for exportation to Timbuktu and the Tuareg country. The two insular cities comprise altogether several thousand houses, with a collective population estimated by Barth at sixteen or eighteen thousand. They enjoy a certain political independence, by taking advantage of the rivalries of the neighbouring Tuareg chief and the Haussa governor of Sai, over 120 miles lower down. The route through the independent Songhai territory, west of Sinder, leads to Doré, capital of Libtako, a province belonging at
least nominally to the Haussa kingdom of Gando. Doré, with a population of four thousand, mostly Songhais, is the most frequented market in the whole region comprised within the great bend of the Niger.
The town of Sai, meaning in the Songhai language "River," stands at the chief passage across the river below Burum. The transit is made in boats 40 to 45 feet long, formed by two hollow trunks placed end on end. The town lying on the low west bank exposed to inundations during the floods, consists of detached groups of huts divided into two sections by a depression alternately dry and filled with muddy water. It owes its importance chiefly to the intermediate position it occupied on the trade route between Sukoto and Timbuktu. It is also the natural ​806 WEST APEICA. outport for the Mossi (More-ba) country, which stretches south-westwards in the direction of the Kong uplands. The Mossi people are apparently allied to their Tombo neighbours in the north-west, and to the Gurmas in the north-east, all speaking dialects of a common idiom. They are a historical nation, already mentioned in the fourteenth century, when a Mossi array crossed the Niger and seized Timbuktu. Erom reports received during their early explorations on the seaboard, the Portuguese fancied that the Mossi king was the famous Prester John, and envoys were actually sent in search of him. When summoned by the Songhai emperor Askia to embrace Islam, the Mossi people " after consulting the souls of their ancestors," refused to comply, thus bringing on a " holy war," in which their cities were destroyed and their lands wasted by the arms of the fanatical monarch. Nevertheless they have remained pagans, except in the towns, where foreign influences are predominant. Their territory is grouped in numerous petty autonomous states with a federate organisation, each paying a slight tribute to the prince of Woghodogho, the central city of the country. They are active traders, visiting all the surrounding fairs, where they are easily recog- nised by their coloured shirts and enormous straw hats, like those of the Kabyles in South Mauritania. The section of the Niger between Sai and the Sokoto confluence has hitherto been navigated by no European since the time of Mungo Park. Numerous towns are mentioned by Barth, situated on or near the river banks, but nothing is known as to their exact position and relative importance, except as regards ICirotashi, which is stated to be a much frequented murket on the east side, about 18 miles below Sai. Haussa Land. Haussa, probably the Tuareg Aussa, that is Cis-Niger, in contradistinction to Gurma and Aribinda, meaning Trans-Niger, is a well-defined natural region watered by the Sokoto, and limited north by the Sahara, east by the Tsad basin, south by the Benue waterparting, and west by the Niger. But these frontiers, scarcely anywhere presenting serious obstacles, have been frequently crossed at several points, and while various African races have settled in Haussa-land, tlie Haussawa themselves have occupied vast territories beyond their central domain, so that the political boundaries have constantly oscillated with fresh conquests and migrations. At present this region, one of the richest and most densely peopled in Sudan, enjoys a preponderating influence over all the surrounding lands. It commands numerous states beyond its natural limits, while its language, regarded by the local populations as the medium of trade and culture in a pre- eminent sense, has been diffused throughout the greater part of Sudan. Hence in describing Haussa it is impossible to exclude some of the adjacent lands presenting the same climatic and ethnical conditions, and sharing in the same political destinies. The area of the whole region, comprising all the fluvial basins flowing to the main stream between the Sokoto and Benue, may be approxi- mately estimated at 160,000 square miles. Notwithstanding certain rough ​estimates of ten millions and even twenty millions, according to the descriptions of
Barth, Rohlfs, and other travellers, the population, excluding the Benue basin, can scarcely be calculated at more than four millions. ​308 WEST AFEICA. Towards the east, the Mger basin is separated by no continuous or clearly- defined divide from that of Lake Tsad, although the waterparting is doubtless more distinct than that between the Shari and the Benue, where certain marshy and lacustrine tracts seem to belong to both systems at once. In East Haussa the slopes are so imperceptible that in many places it is difficult to determine to which basin belong the running and stagnant waters which persist throughout the dry season. But the region of the divide is strewn with numerous sharp or rounded granite rocks, between which the rich humus supports an exuberant vegetation of palms and leafy trees scattered in picturesque clusters amid a labyrinth of bluffs and boulders, from which the groups of huts or houses cannot always be easily distinguished. Owing to the absence of a decided incline the waters have in many places failed to develop a fluvial system, but are collected in lakes or lagoons, which rise and fall, expand or disappear, according to the seasons. Even where the annual rains have carved out continuous channels, the streams for over half the year are reduced to a line of shallow waters, separated by intervening sandbanks. In its lower reaches alone the Sokoto presents an uninterrupted current, but even here winding so sluggishly over its pebbly bed, that the waters become unwholesome for man and beast. The rainfall, however, differs greatly in quantity in the two sections of the basin, one bordering on the Saharian steppes, the other comprised within the zone of Sudan. In this region the transitions are very abrupt from the dry to the wet zone, and while the rains are rare in the northern city of Sokoto, they are very copious at Gando, only 40 miles farther south. During the wet season the whole country becomes almost impassable, the rivers overflowing their banks, the saturated highways changing to quagmires, treacherous morasses filling every depression. Thanks to its arboreal vegetation, the southern section of the Sokoto basin presents a smiling aspect throughout the year, while in the north in many places nothing is visible in the dry season except parched and arid steppes. Flora and Fauna. As in Senegal, the landscape derives its distinctive character from the tamarind, baobab, and other giants of the vegetable kingdom. The three species of palm, the date, dum, and deleb, marking distinct zones in North Africa, are here found flourishing side by side in some district-s. The butter- tree is common in some parts of Sokoto, while others are noted for their forests of doria [parhia), whose parched seeds, prepared in the form of cakes like chocolate, form an important article of export to the northern districts, where the tree is rare, and to the Tsad basin, where it is not found. The banana, wrongly said to follow the Negro across the whole of Sudxn, is absent in the region some 600 miles wide intervening between Adamawa and Gando, but is very common and of excellent quality in the western part of Haussa. Rice is the cereal in a pre-eminent sense throughout the Sokoto basin, although unknown in Bornu, farther east. Onions are of exquisite flavour, and everywhere form an important article of diet. Of industrial ​HAUSSA LAND. 309 plants the most widely spread is cotton, as, according to the statements of Leo African us, it already was in the sixteenth century. . Wild animals of large size have mostly disappeared from the central parts, but considerable herds of elephants are still met in some of the most remote districts, while the maneless lion of the Sahara infests the steppe lands about the ^N^iger. The chief domestic animals are goats, all of a uniform brown, and horned cattle, all of a pure white colour. Bee farming is actively carried on, the hives, formed of hollow branches, being generally suspended from the boughs of the baobab. In the low- lying and marshy tracts the mosquitoes are an almost intoler- able plague, far more dreaded than any beasts of prey. But in some places the people have devised an ingenious plan to escape from these pestiferous insects. At some distance from their huts they prepare a retreat placed 10 or 12 feet above the ground under a conic shed supported on stakes. This retreat is kept com- pletely closed during the day, and at night they gain access to it by a ladder, suddenly closing the door behind them, and thus escaping from the buzzing swarms of their tormentors. Inhabitants. The Haussawa, or " People of Haussa," claim to have come from the north, and the Goberawa, formerly dominant in the Air Mountains, certainly belong to this group. In their mythical genealogy the name of their great ancestor would seem to imply a servile origin for the whole race except the "sons of Gober." The traditional home of all the family is the divide between the Sokoto and Tsad basins, and more particularly the eastern watershed, whence they spread gradually westwards. According to the legend the Haussa family comprised seven " legiti- mate " sons, to each of whom was assigned a special department of the public service. Thus Gober, the warrior of the north, was required to defend the land ; Kano in the same way became the dyer, Katsena the trader, and Seg Seg, in the south, the slave-hunter. Then the family was further increased by seven " illegiti- mate" children, outsiders of different speech, but who understood the Haussa language. These are the inhabitants of the Lower Niger and Benue, still regarded as strangers and inferior in nobility to the Haussawa proper. While the domain of the latter is scarcely 50,000 square miles in extent, their language is spread over a region five or six times more extensi'^'e. Richardson called it " Sudanese," as if it were the universal speech of Sudan ; and it is certainly dominant in the whole region comprised between the Sahara, Lake Tsad, the Gulf of Guinea, and the Kong Mountains. It is even current in all the surrounding markets and amongst the Negro communities in Tripoli, Tunis, and Algiers. Its structure is agglutinating with prefixes and postfixes, and for harmony, wealth of vocabulary, simplicity and elegance, it certainly deserves to take a foremost rank amongst the languages of Africa. Its literature is mainly restricted to religious works, grammars, and dictionaries composed by Europeans ; but, according to Schon and Krause, the Haussawa would also appear to possess original manuscripts, written, however, in the Arabic character. Haussa, which is said to be spoken ​with the greatest purity in Katsena, is affiliated by some authorities to the Kanuri of Bornu, while also presenting some marked affinities with the Berber family.
The "Seven Children" do not all belong to the fold of Islam. At the time of Barth's journey, the Goberawa of the north still continued to reject the Mussulman teachings, while the others seemed to be animated by little zeal for the faith. In this region the work of religious propaganda has been reserved exclusively for the Fulahs, who were long settled here as pastors, and most of whom by the eighteenth century, if not earlier, had already embraced Mohammedanism. Scattered throughout the Haussa lands they had become very numerous, but had nowhere acquired political power before the war of 1802, when the Sheikh Dam-fodié Othman encouraged his brethren to form themselves into jemâa, that is, religious and military communities, for the purpose of propagating
the faith with the sword. After numerous reverses the Fulahs triumphed at last over the Haussawa, founding a vast empire which stretched as far as the sources of the Benue.
Amongst the pretended Fulahs of Sokoto, there are many of different stocks who belong to the conquering race only through social and political alliances of long standing. Such are the Sisilbé or Sillebawa, descendants of the Wakoré or eastern Mandingans, who speak both Pular (Fulah) and Haussa, having long forgotten their mother tongue. Such also, but of inferior caste, are the Lahobe of Senegal, and the Soghorans or Jawambés of Sukoto. The Torodos or Torobés, akin to the Senegalese Toucouleurs, but reckoned amongst the eastern Fulahs, constitute a religious and military aristocracy.
The Toucouleurs of Sokoto are also a mixed race, in which the Wolof element is said to be as strongly represented as in Senegal. It was on this fact of the ​presence in Sokoto of a half-caste Wolof people that Barth assigned a western origin to the Fulahs. One thing is certain, that these nomad pastors and husbandmen easily shift their camping-grounds, driving their flocks for hundreds of miles from pasturage to pasturage, but also as readily settling down permanently in any favourable localities where they can make themselves masters. Thus are
explained the constant modifications of the ethnological map of the Fulahs in Sudan.
In the province of Kebbi, the Songhais, here known by the name of Kabawa, Occupy most of the triangular space comprised between the Niger and the river valleys descending from the Tuareg territory. The Tuaregs themselves are also very numerous in Haussa, where the province of Adar (Tadlar), in the north, has already been to a great extent Berberised. The national litzam, or veil, has been adopted as a sign of nobility even by many Fulahs and Haussawa without any strain of Tuareg blood.
The vast Fulah empire, founded by Othman at the beginning of the present ​century, is now divided into two kingdoms — that of Wurno in the east, comprising portions of the Tsad and Benue basins, and in the west Gando, which stretches beyond the Niger as far as the Mossi territory. About the middle of the century the Fulah power seemed already on the wane, and Barth anticipated a speedy restoration of the former political stutus. The empire, however, still holds together, although many feudatories, such as the Sultan of Nupe, are far more powerful than the suzerain himself. Since the return of peaceful times, the central provinces, both in Gando and Sokoto, have even made surprising progress in material prosperity. Joseph Thomson speaks with admiration of the commercial
activity of the inhabitants, and compares the incessant traffic on the highway between the cities of Gando and Sokoto to the stir and bustle about an anthill. The horizon is bounded by large villages, each as populous as towns elsewhere.
The towns themselves appear at a distance like groves or thickets, every house possessing its wide-branching tree, while the old forests have disappeared from the well-cultivated plains. The frequent national or dynastic wars have compelled the people to surround their towns with walls and ditches, with gates flanked by strong towers. Kurrefi, some 30 miles south of Ivatsena, may serve as a model in this respect. Built in the middle of the century as a refuge for eight or nine ​KATSENA. 818 thousand persons rendered homeless by the destruction of their dwellings, Kurrefi rests on one side against a granite clilT, and is defended on the other by a triple wall and two broad moats. Tlieso defences are broken only by two gateways, so disposed as to compel the enemy to wind a long way between walls pierced with loopholes. The chief approach is further masked by an outer place (Tarmes, also surrounded by a double ditch. Industry is very active in the large Ilaussa towns, where the division of labour has given rise to numerous guilds of potters, weavers, dyers, tailors, saddlers masons, smiths, jewellers, and other craftsmen. The bazaars are well-stocked, and the din of the workshops everywhere intermingles with the cadenced voice of the scholars reciting their lessons from the Koran. Labour is held in honour in these Nigritian cities, and although slavery is not yet abolislied, the number of slaves is diminishing, as in many provinces they are seldom allowed to marry, and slave-hunting expeditions to keep up the supplies are now less frequent, thanks to the spread of Islam. Topography of IIaussa Land. The Damerghu country, which, in the speech and culture of its inhabitants, nmst bo regarded as forming part of Ilaussa Land, belongs to the zone of transi- tion between the Sahara and Sudan. Here the tamarind and other large trees find their northern limit, and here cotton and other economic plants cease to be cultivated. The fields are still watered by regular rains, but not always in sufficient quantity to prevent injurious droughts. This province, inhabited by mixed Berber and Negro peoples, is dotted over with numerous villages ; but when visited in 1851 by Barth and Overweg it did not contain a single city. The region stretching south of Damerghu belongs, not to the Niger, but to the Tsad basin. Here Daura, capital of the district of like name, 90 miles north-east of Katsena, is the metropolis of the oldest of the "Seven Haussas." Before the Mohammedan invasion it was also the residence of Dodo, the chief Haussawa deity, overthrown in single combat by a doughty champion of Islam. Tessmva, which in the Tsad basin lies nearest to the source of the Yen, might be taken as a type of most Haussa towns. While the open plain is bare and monotonous, the enclosure is full of largo trees overshadowing the houses and cultivated spaces. The inhabitants of Tessawa, as well as of the neighbouring Gosfienaho and Ga-ssatra, are mostly half-caste Tuaregs engaged in trade and dyeing. Katsena, capital of an eastern province and formerly a royal city, lies near the head of an intermittent stream Hewing eastwards through the Yeu to Lake Tsud. In appearance Katsena is one of the great cities of Africa, with walls 30 feet thick, 35 to 40 high, and over 13 miles in circumference. But most of the enclosed space is now occupied with ruins, fields, and gardens, the houses and market being grouped in the north-west, the palace with a few scattered buildings in the north-cast corner of the irregular rectangle. In the sixteenth century, and pro- 84— AF ​x earlier, Katsena was a centre of civilisation frequented by strangers from all quarters, and at that time the kings, although nominally vassals of Bornu, were practically independent. They offered a heroic resistance to the Fulahs, the siege of the capital lasting from 1807 to 1814, and accompanied by a frightful famine, during which carrion birds, lizards, and snakes, were sold at exorbitant prices. After its capture the Fulahs showed no mercy to the inhabitants, and endeavoured to efface all traces of their ancient independence, burning the historical records and razing to the ground the town of Dankama, where the king had taken refuge after the siege.
Kano, at present the largest place in east Haussa, lies within the Tsad basin at the foot of the Dala rock, which was formerly crowned by a citadel. Like Katsena
it consisted originally of a number of villages, which were all enclosed within carefully preserved ramparts 15 miles in circumference. Towards the south are still visible the remains of a still more ancient enclosure now covered with houses. Scattered over the irregular oval space within the walls are several flooded depressions, the largest of which extends 2 miles east and west, but is crossed in the middle by an isthmus, or "bridge," leading north to the great market-place.
Kano rose to importance only after the fall of Katsena, when traders were obliged to remove the centre of their operations to this place. Inside the walls it occupies at least 10 square miles, peopled by immigrants of every race, each residing in its own quarter. Kano carries on an active trade, especially in cotton fabrics woven and dyed by the people themselves with the cotton and indigo ​raised on the surrounding plain, which has been called the "Garden of Sudan." Other products of the highly developed household industries, such as shoes, sandals, leather pouches, are exported far and wide, and large quantities of cereals, after supplying the local wants, are also available for the foreign markets.
East of Kano the most important places depending politically on Haussa are Gerki, near the Bornu frontier, and Katagum on the river of like name flowing intermittently to the Yeu. On the water-parting near the Niger and Tsad basins to the west of Kano lies the picturesque town of Kammané, one of the most industrious in Haussa, producing cotton stuffs highly esteemed for their durability and remarkably bright colours. Surmi, capital of Sanfara, near the source of the Sokoto, is still a populous place, although it has suffered much from its constant feuds with its rival Maradi, capital of Gober. Farther west, on the route to Sokoto,
follow Duchi, lost amid a labyrinth of rocks; Sansané Aïssa, one of the strongest places in the empire; Alkalawa, formerly capital of Gober, on the banks of the Sokoto at the northern verge of the dense forest of Gundumi; lastly, Konni, one of the chief places in Gober, two days to the north-west.
Wurno, present residence of the Seriki n'Musulmya, or "Sovereign of the Mussulmans," occupies a splendid site on an isolated sandstone bluff rising 130 feet above the surrounding valleys. At its northern foot flows the river which is formed by the confluence of the Surmi and Maradi, and which lower down takes the name of Sokoto, from the city which preceded Wurno as the capital of the Fulah empire. Like Wurno, Sokofo stands on a sandstone rock overlooking a valley watered by a perennial stream. This river, which flows eastwards, is the Gandi or Bakura, so named from two important towns on its banks, A little to ​the north of Sokoto it falls into the main stream, Sokoto thus occupying the converging point of several natural routes leading east to Kano, Katsena, and Lake Tsad, and west to the Niger. The ramparts, built by Sultan Bello at the beginning of the present century, form a perfectly regular square 3,000 yards long on all sides. The map which Bello gave his visitor Clapperton, and on which are figured in perspective all the surrounding lands as far as the market of Atagara on the seaboard, attests the importance which his capital had in the eyes of the chief of the Fulah conquerors. When the Fulah empire was at the height of its splendour the space comprised within the lofty ramparts of Sokoto was occupied by a compact population of a hundred and twenty thousand souls. But twenty-five years afterwards it was estimated by Barth at no more than twenty thousand, and since then it has still further diminished, owing especially to the unhealthy atmosphere
of the place. Most of the inhabitants are Sisilbé Mandingans, industrious artisans famous for the excellence of their embroidered leatherware, textiles, dyes, arms, and implements. A Fulah slave on his return from Brazil established near Sokoto a small sugarcane plantation and a refinery, a remarkable instance of the influence already exercised by the New World on the civilisation of the Old. A separate quarter of Sokoto is inhabited by Arab traders from Rhat and Ghadames, and English dealers have also recently made their appearance in this great market of Central Africa, which was first visited by Clapperton. Here this famous traveller died in 1827, and was buried in a neighbouring village by his companion Richard Lander.
The decayed city of Shifawa (Sifawa), 18 miles south of Sokoto, is a historical place, where the founder of the Fulah empire resided for some years. Gando, 36 miles farther to the south-west, was also one of Othman's residences, and is now ​the capital of West Haussa with all its dependencies west of the Niger as far as
the Mossi territory; but it recognises the supremacy of Sokoto, capital of the ​eastern empire. It occupies a singular position in a cavity encircled on all sides by escarpments, and watered by a small affluent of the Sokoto. This depression is surprisingly fertile, yielding an abundance of exquisite fruits and vegetables. The bananas and onions of Gando are famous throughout Haussa Land.
Birni n' Kebbi ("Fort Kebbi"), standing 30 miles west of Gando, on a terrace 280 feet above the broad and fertile Sokoto valley, occupied an admirable strategical
and commercial position near the head of the navigation, and at the terminus of the shortest route to Sai on the Niger. But this former capital of Kebbi was destroyed in 1806 by the Fulahs, and has since been replaced by a new town called simply Kebbi, built in the neighbourhood, and in a district exposed to the incessant feuds of the surrounding Haussa, Fulah, and Songhai populations.
Jega, on the Gulbi n' Gindi, a sub-aflluent of the Niger, appears to be at ​YAURI— BUSSA. 819 present the largest and most conimercial place in this region. Gomha, on the right bank of the Niger, at the Sokoto confluence, is a mere village, and YaHn, lower down on the left bank, has been ruined by the Fulahs. It was formerly capital of the flourishing kingdom of Yauri, and was at that time a city of '* prodigious extent," as populous as any other on the continent, with an enclosure from 20 to 30 miles in circumference. The great commercial city of h'u//o has also been razed to the ground by the Fulahs. Some years ago the king of Ndkicamach, the state bordering Yauri on the east, made a slave-hunting expedi- tion in the Niger valley, during which he destroyed fourteen cities, including the powerful Ubaka, of which the walls alone now remain. This razzia secured for the conqueror thousands of captives, but the destruction of life was enormous ; whole districts renuiined uninhabited, and fugitives from Yauri fled for refuge to all the surrounding lands, Koniokora {Kontagora), capital of the Nakwamach or Bamashi Negroes, was recently visited by Joseph Thomson, who found it a largo city lying in a delightful hilly country, GO miles east of the Niger. In one of the rocky islets, GO miles above Bussa, stands the town of Jkiutrf, a famous market which in peaceful times attracts traders from all the surrounding lands. Bima {Bi(.s,s(ni), near the rapids whivh proved fatal to ^lungo Park, lies within half a mile of the right bank, some miles north of the ruins of another town bearing the same name. At the time of Flegel's visit in 1881, Bussa was the capital of a petty state, completely independent of the Fulahs ; fifty years previously, the brothers I^ander had spoken of the king as the most respected sovereign in AYest Africa, not so much for his power or opulence as for his ancient pedigree, for he was " the first monarch of West Africa at the beginning of the world." llichard Lander relates that after the death of Mungo Park the inhabi- tants of Bussa were attacked by a raging epidemic, which was regarded as a visitation from heaven. " Take care not to touch the whites lest you perish liko the people of Bussa," then became the password throughout the land. West of the petty states of Bussa and Woh-Woh stretches the Borghu country, comprising several distinct kingdoms, of which iV//r/ is the most powerful. By the brothers Lander the city of this name was reported to be " immense," and its king had such a strong army that the Fulahs did not ventufe to draw the sword against him. The traveller Duncan, coming from Dahomey, penetrated in 1845 eastwards to Adn/udia, in a fertile undulating district draining to the Niger, and dotted over with numerous towns inhabited by courteous, hosi)itable Moham- medan Negroes. Duncan mentions As,sa/nda, KircunpuHma, Kaasokano, Sahakano, KaUakandiy and Addfudia, following from south-east to north-west on the northern slope of the Mahi water-parting, all with six thousand to ten thousand inhabitants, . and even more. He mentions incidentally on hearsay that the natives, probably akin to the Mossi, have succeeded in taming the elephant ; but in any case they raise a fine breed of horses, the playmates of the children from their infancy. Over GO miles below the Bussa, rai)ids stands Glajebo, already within (i Nup^ territory, which, thanks to its position on both sides of the river where it approaches nearest to the coast at Lagos, occupies one of the vital points for the ​trade of Central Africa, Nupé has the further advantage of an almost uniformly fertile soil, yielding in abundance all the fruits of the tropics. It might support millions of inhabitants, and at various epochs the population has been relatively very dense. Rabba, formerly one of the great cities of the continent, had one hundred thousand inhabitants at the beginning of the present century, when the slave-dealers had made it a depôt for their gangs of victims destined for sale on the seaboard. Opposite Rabba stood Zagoshi, peopled by boatmen and artisans, who, like all the riverain populations, obeyed the "king of the gloomy waters," a sovereign nearly always afloat on the stream. But both places were ruined by the suppression of the slave trade and the Fulah conquest. Rabba has partly recovered, thanks to its admirable position on a bend of the Niger at the southern extremity of a range of hills, skirted on the east by the little River Gingi.
Shonga-wharf, 15 miles farther down, has been chosen by the English as the chief depôt for goods destined for Yoruba.
Katanga (Katunga), former capital of the great kingdom of Yoruba, stood some 24 miles from the bend of the Niger at Geba, and had itself succeeded Bohu, which was much more advantageously situated in a fertile and picturesque valley. But both were destroyed by the Fulahs, and the kings of this country now pay annual tribute to Bida and Wurno. About 80 miles south of Rabba lies Saraki, a large place situated in a hilly but highly cultivated district, abounding in cotton, cereals, yams, and ground-nuts.
general council. At present the Mohammedan Fulahs predominate, although most of the inhabitants are still pagans.
Bida, capital of Nué, occupies the centre of the peninsular district limited southwards by the Niger, west and north by the Kaduna afiluent, and watered by the Lauja, which flows through the Baku to the main stream. Although of ​recent foundation, Bida was said to have already a population of nearly a hundred thousand at the time of the missionary Milum's visit in 1879. It is a fortified city, surrounded by a regular quadrilateral rampart and broad ditch, and laid out with wide streets, extensive squares, and market-places. Its Moslem inhabitants are very industrious weavers, dyers, iron-smelters, and forgers, and even manufacture ornamental glassware for arms and personal decoration. Schools are established in all the districts, and most of the children read and write Arabic.
The large river Kaduna (Lavon, Lafun), which joins the Niger between Rabba and Bida, has its farthest headstreams in the provinces of Katsena and Kano, whence it flows through the province of Southern Haussa, known by the various names of Seg-Seg, Saria, and So-So (Zeg-Zeg, Zaria, Zo-Zo). Saria (Zariya), capital of this territory, boasts of the finest mosque in Haussa Land. Lying on
the divide between the Kaduna basin and the northern rivers, it probably stands over 3,000 feet above the sea in a well-watered, fertile, and extremely healthy district. The plains of Egobbi, south of Saria, appeared to Lander more especially worthy of being compared with the most charming sylvan landscapes in England. Egobbi itself, pleasantly situated on a northern affluent of the Kaduna, is regularly laid out, with open well-kept streets within a perfectly square rampart. Its calabashes are greatly prized for the delicacy of the carvings, chiefly of domestic animals, with which they are decorated. The dominating Fulah section of the community retains the national love of a pastoral life; by them husbandry is held in honour, but stock-breeding is a religion.
In the upper Kaduna basin there are no large towns, but numerous villages, peopled either by Mohammedan Fulahs, or pagan Negroes of the Kado nation. ​ADMINISTRATION OF HAUSSA LAND. 823 Such are the markets of Ya, on a headstream of the Kaduna, and Sango-Katah, one day's march farther south, " the centre of five hundred small hamlets lying close together." Birni n' Gwari, capital of the province of Gwari (Gbari), between Saria and Yauri, lies still within the Fulah empire, and maintains commercial relations with the Niger through Kontokora, and with Bida through the valley of the Marigo, chief western affluent of the Kaduna. In the Abuja country, east of Bida, which also belongs to the Fulah State, the principal ti*ading-place is Ugga (Eggan), on the right bank of the Niger, at the point where it trends southwards to join the Benue. Egga, which is a large place, unfortunately situated in a swampy, malarious district, already comes within the sphere of British trade, the town and territory forming part of the domain protected by the Royal African Company. Over 30 miles lower down and on the same side lies Ighido (Biiddu), capital of the Kakanda (Elfon, Shebi) nation, who are the agents for the transit trade between the Lower and Middle Niger. Some of them make long journeys into Haussa Land and even as far as Air, and occasionally maintain direct relations with the people of Ghadames. Administration of Haussa Land. The Fulah empire, founded by Othman at the beginning of the centurj^ although now divided into the two kingdoms of Wurno (Sokoto) and Gando, still maintains a certain political unity, the suzerainty of Wurno being fully recognised by the western state. In other respects the whole territory consists of distinct kingdoms, each with its local organisation, and attached to the suzerain only by the annual tribute. In the hilly districts some tribes even still maintain their independence, while the frontiers of the vast domain constantly fluctuate with the vicissitudes of wars and revolts. Now also the sovereign power of the Fulah monarchs is notably diminished by the commercial concessions that have been made to the English company in the southern regions on the banks of the Niger and Benue. The revenue of the Haussa sultans must be considerable compared with that of other African potentates. In the middle of the century those of the single kingdom of Kano were already estimated by Barth at ninety million cowries, or £7,200, the annual impost being at that time five hundred cowries for every head of a family. The two kings of Sokoto' and Gando might easily raise an army of a hundred and twenty thousand men, including thirty thousand cavalry. The royal authority is limited by a ministry, the nomination and functions of which are regulated by custom. The ghaladima, or prime minister, always enjoys considerable power, and under him, in order of precedence, follow the chief of the cavalry, the commander of the infantry, the cadi — who is at the same time the executioner— the heir to the throne, the chief of the slaves, and the minister of finance. Most of the petty states are organised after the model of the kingdom of ​324 WEST AFEICA. Wurno. Imperial decrees are passed on from vassal to vassal to tlie extremities of the empire, and homage and tribute are in the same way sent up to the central Government. The Benue and Lower Niger. — Boxny and Old Calabar. The access afforded by the Lower Niger and Benue waterway towards the interior promises one day to become the most important of all commercial high- ways in the African continent. The mouths of the Mger open seawards near the head of the Gulf of Guinea, between the Bights of Benin and Biafra, that is to say, towards the natural converging point of the chief lines of navigation in the South African Atlantic. From this point the inland fluvial route already offers a continuous navigable highway accessible to steamers for over 900 miles unob- structed by a single difficult impediment. Of all the great African rivers, the Benue alone is free from rapids in its middle course ; and even at the head of its navigation the slope of the land is continued eastwards through the Shari basin, while all reports agree in anticipating the existence of easy routes through the Niam-Niam territory from the Tsad to the Nile basin. Thus the Nile and Niger are connected by a great transverse artery crossing some of the most j)opulous and productive regions in Central Africa. Yet after the first appearance of the Portuguese on the Slave Coast three centuries passed before any European traders attempted to obtain a footing on the banks of the Niger or the Benue. Baikie's memorable expedition of 1854 ushered in the new era, which brings the purely African civilisation of Nigritia into direct contact with that of the whole world. Some English commercial houses sent their agents to the riverain cities along the Lower Niger, and at present the stream of commerce flows regularly from the whole of this region towards London and Liverpool. The English merchants have become the true sovereigns of the popu- lations dwelling in this African Mesopotamia. Nevertheless they had for a time to contend with the rivalry of some French houses, which began to found factories in the Niger delta about the year 1880. But the various British companies soon merged in a single powerful association, disposing of twenty -five steamers and a capital large enough to huj up all the French houses, and, despite the diplomatic clauses declaring the Lower Niger open to all nations, the commercial monopoly was thus restored to Great Britain. A German society, admirably served by the explorations of Flegel, has also recently made great efforts to secure the trade of the Benue ; but the riverain chiefs, dazzled by the more brilliant offers of the English, have yielded to them all com- mercial privileges. " Wherever a British consul shall set his foot," writes the emir of Nupe, " there also I shall set mine." The position of the English representatives, supported by over two hundred tieaties, is no longer challenged, and the support of the home government is gradually transforming their prerogatives* into a political dominion. Not only can the company trade along the river to the exclusion of all others, but it has ​also the right of buying or "otherwise acquiring mines, quarries, forests, fisheries, and manufactures, of cultivating the land and erecting structures on it. The company is moreover the political ruler of "all the territories ceded to it by the kings, the chiefs, and peoples in the Niger basin," and in return undertakes to treat with justice "the nations in its territories," to respect their religions, their laws, and properties. Nevertheless the company is bound to treat with the natives for the gradual abolition of slavery, on this condition obtaining a royal charter which places it under the control of the Secretary of State. Thus has been constituted a second East India Company, which enters at once on the possession
of a territory with a coast-line of no less than 600 miles, and at least double that distance along the inland stream.
Physical Features.
Towards its source the Benue basin is separated from that of the Tsad by a scarcely perceptible water-parting; but towards the north the divide between its affluents and the Kaduna river is formed by plateaux dominated by some of the loftiest mountains in North Africa. These highlands are separated by intervening ​valleys into distinct groups, disposed for the most part in the direction from northwest
to south-east. The Gabi, the most copious stream rising in this region, flows ​THE BENUE BASIN. 827 through a transverse valley lying north of the highest part of the uplands, beyond which, under the name of the Gongola, it pierces the divide at its narrowest and lowest part, ultimately joining the Upper Benue below Yola. In the Kalam country and on the Bornu frontier, the surface is diversified only by low rouTided heights rising above the sea of verdure; but in the Bauchi district, source of the great river Kaddera flowing to the Middle Benue, the hills again rise and merge in a magnificent Alpine system. Domes, needles, or quad- rangular blocks with vertical walls, red, grey, or blackish granite crags, assume stupendous forms, towering 4,000 to 5,000 feet above the gorges, their slopes clothed with impenetrable primeval forests. Mount Saranda rises to a height of 7,000 feet immediately to the west of the great city of Yakoba, w^hile farther west other granite chains run north and south, or north-west and south-east, crossed by the Grora Pass (4,500 feet), which leads down to the gently sloping plains about the head waters of the Kaduna. Explorers have given English names to most of the mountains and hills skirting the right bank of the Benue. Thus a sharp cone above Yola, dominating all the surrounding heights, has been named Mac-Iver Peak. On the same river occur Mount Forbes, the Murchison chain culminating in Mount Roderick (1,650 feet), and lower down the EUesmere range along the southern section of its course. But the loftiest border range, running parallel with the Upper Benue for a space of 120 miles, has retained its native name of Muri. The scarcely less elevated hills on the opposite side are also still known by their African designations — Kwana, Morinu, Bak n' Dutchi. Below these the hills, rising in one of their peaks to an altitude of 4,650 feet, again take the English name of Albermarle Range, their peaks being provisionally named after Biot, Herschell, and other astronomers. The border chain near the Niger-Benue confluence is called the Oldfield Range, and all the hills encircling the confluence, with the single exception of the superb Mount Saracte, have similarly been named after British worthies. Flora and Fauna. The upland valleys of the Saranda and neighbouring mountains have a climate like that of Southern Italy, suitable for the cultivation of all the plants of the south temperate zone. But towards the east stretches the domain of the dum and date-palms, and westwards that of the deleb, oil- palm, and cocoanut. In the western forests is found the Una or runa, the fruit of which yields a kind of honey highly appreciated by the natives and even in Marocco, where it takes the name of ia mulei dris. In the Benue basin the most widely cultivated plant is cotton, whose fibre is remarkably firm, and so glossy that the woven material might readily be taken for silk. In the Upper Benue basin there are said to exist two species of the elephant, one with a yellowish coat ; and large herds of this animal are still met in the forests on both slopes. The upland woodlands afford cover to the rhinoceros and wild buffalo, and all the gorges are infested by the panther. The civet, though seldom ​seen, is very common in the lands draining to the Benue; but, according to Rohlfs, there appear to be no large and very few small snakes, while all travellers remark on the almost total absence of spiders.
Inhabitants.
In the Yakoba highlands the chief Negro people are the Bolos, who give their name to the province of Bolo-Bolo, better known by the designation of Bautehi. They are amongst the least favoured races in Sudan, short and thickset, with broad
depressed nose and tumid lips, but generally of less dark complexion than their Fulah neighbours. North of the Muri Mountains dwell the pagan Wurukus and Tangalas, the latter the most dreaded of the Nyem-Nyem (Yem-Yem) tribes, who, like the Niam-Niams of the Welle basin, are confirmed cannibals, devouring their captives, but not their own sick and dead, as has been reported. In the popular belief the souls of all the departed are absorbed in one collective and highly venerated deity, called Dodo, to whom temples are erected in the shade of the baobabs.
The Fali and Belé tribes in the Gongola basin, near Bornu, speak dialects akin ​to the Kanuri, while the speech of those bordering on the Nifawa and Haussawa betrays certain affinities to the languages of those more polished nations. Although despised by the Mussulmans, these aborigines are often skilful artisans. The finest mats and best-baked pottery sold in the Lower Niger markets are prepared by the Afos and Bassas who dwell near the Benue confluence.
In the open plains the bulk of the population are Haussawa in the east and Nifawa (Nupé) in the west, while several towns towards the Bornu frontier are chiefly inhabited by Kanuri. The Fulah conquerors are everywhere numerically
inferior, except in a few scattered enclaves where their herds find good pasturage. Many of these Fulahs, especially towards the Upper Benue, are still pagans at a very low state of culture. In Adamawa, on the left side of the Benue, they are more numerous than in the north, in some districts forming the majority of the population. Here most of the petty states are governed by Fulah chiefs, whose language prevails in the towns. The Sani, Bula, Bassama, Mbum, Fali and other aborigines collectively known as Battas have been driven into the mountains or the forests, or else reduced to slavery. The magnificent lands of Adamawa are ​330 WEST AFEICA. every where cultivated by slave labour, and Bartb met several Fulah proprietors who possessed over a thousand slaves. On the left bank of the Benue below Adaraawa and Hamarawa, the pre- dominant element are the Akpas, Wakari, or Juku, divided into numerous tribes, each speaking a distinct dialect of the same stock language. Some have been partly civilised by their Fulah neighbours, while others in the more remote districts are reported cannibals, wearing garments of foliage, and altogether leading very primitive lives. The Mishi or Mitchi occupy, on the south bank below the Akpas, an extensive territory stretching southwards to the Old Calabar basin. Facing them on the north side are numerous peoples speaking the Doma or Arago idiom, which appears to be related to the Yoruba. The domain of the Igarras (Igallas), called also Apotos or Aputus, stretches along the left bank of the Lower Benue, and thence below the confluence to within a short distance of the Niger delta. But their territory has been encroached upon at several points by Bessas, Fulahs, or Haussawa from beyond the Benue. In the interior the Igarra speech extends probably to the neighbourhood of the Old Calabar river, and in any case this language, which has been carefully studied by the missionaries, is one of the most widely diffused in the Lower Niger regions. North and south of the confluence are some enclaves of Tgbara and Kukuruku tribes, the latter so named from their cry, resembling the crowing of a cock. The domain of the Ibo speech is still more extensive than that of the Igarra, comprising west of the Niger a vast territory in the Yoruba country, besides all the head of the delta, and in the east the Old Calabar basin as far as the unex- plored regions. Egba is divided into a great number of very distinct dialects, but the form current along the Niger has become the general standard, and has been ado^Dted by the missionaries for tbeir translations, grammars, and vocabularies. Formerly all the slaves transported from the Niger to America were indifferently called Ibo, of whatever speech or tribe they may have been. The Ibos worship Tchuku, a powerful god whom mortal eye has never seen, but whose voice may at times be heard ; but woe to whoever hears this voice, for he shall henceforth be dumb. The deity dwells at once in a cavern and in the firmament, so that one eye pierces the depths of the earth, the other the heavenly spaces. Till recently his wrath was appeased by the sacrifice of hapless maids, who were dragged over the ground till they expired, and their bodies were then thrown to the fishes and crocodiles. xAmongst the Ibos the social castes are strictly upheld, although anyone may pass upwards by right of purchase. The highest nobility comprises only a few members, whose greatness is proclaimed to the public by tinkling bells attached to their legs or borne in front of them. Others of lesser rank are announced from afar by horn-blowing ; but all may be easily recognised by their special tattoo-markings. Some have the skin of the forehead brought down like a sort of visor over the eyes. The delta region south of the dominating Ibos, is si ill occupied by scattered tribes without social or linguistic coherence, although the Izekiri (Tchekeri), or Benin language, prevails in the western districts towards the Yoruba frontier. ​The Nun branch is occupied by tribes of Akassa speech, which like the Nempé of Brass, the Bonny Okrika, and others, belong to the Eyo (Iju) family. Commercial activity promises to give the preponderance to the Nempé, into which the native pastors translate the English religious works. Like the Ibos, the Eyo tribes believe in a supreme god, who, however, is confounded with the heavens, revealing his power in the clouds, the rainbow, the fierce gale, the lightning flash, and the thunder-clap. But this god is too remote to be directly worshipped, and
is therefore approached through the mediation of secondary and more friendly deities, such as the iguana in the Bonny estuary, the shark in New Calabar, and elsewhere monkeys. Every two years the towns are purified, not by cleansing the houses or sweeping the streets, but by exorcising the foul fiends. The Jew-Jew-men, or wizards, play a preponderating part as medicine-men, priests, and prophets, as judges often condemning the accused to the ordeal of poison or of a plunge in some estuary infested by sharks and crocodiles. From them the Europeans learnt the potent properties of the esseré, or Calabar bean (Physostigma ​venenomm), which is now used in the treatment of ophthalmia. Formerly criminals were put to death in the Bonny district with every refinement of cruelty They were attached, half torn asunder, to two gibbets set up on the beach and then chopped to pieces, beginning with the hands and fore-arms, and when nothing remained but the trunk, the heart was torn from the breast.
These Bonny men are the keenest traders on the coast, although closely pressed by their eastern neighbours, the Andoni, Quas, and Efiks of Old Calabar. These three tribes speak dialects of a radically distinct language, possibly related to others known only by name in the unexplored interior. The Efik, which alone has been seriously studied, seems to occupy an intermediate position between the Negro tongues in the north and west, and the great Bantu family, which begins in the Cameroon highlands, immediately east of the Rio del Rey.
Except a few missionaries, traders, and officials in the employment of the Royal African Company, no Europeans are settled in this region, where the early attempts at acclimatisation proved disastrous. Of the forty-nine whites on board the first two steamers that ascended the Niger in 1832, nine only escaped with their lives ; and on three other steamers sent by a philanthropic society in 1841, forty-eight out of a hundred and forty- three died during a short voyage of a few weeks. The "model farm" founded by them on the right bank above the confluence was not quite cleared for cultivation when the death of all the Euro- peans restored the land to wild beasts and the jungle. But then came Baikie's ever-memorable expedition in 1854, when by the judicious use of wine and quinine, and other sanitary precautions, a long voyage was made up the Benue without the loss of a single life. Henceforth Europeans had a decisive example of the proper measures to take, if not for complete acclimatisation, at least for temporary protection against the perils of this dangerous environment.
Topography.
The Upper Benue basin lies almost entirely within the province of Adamawa, which is tributary to the Sultan of Wurno. According to native report, the most frequented market in this almost unknown region is Ngaundere, on the water-parting between the streams flowing to the Benue, Logon-Shari, Congo, and Old Calabar. Here are also the large towns of Chamba, on the south slope of Mount Alantika ; Kontcha, where the sugar-cane grows wild, and Yola, near the south bank, present capital of Adamawa, or Fumbina, as it was called before the Fulah conquest. At that time the chief town was Gurin, on the left bank of the Faro, 24 miles above its confluence with the Benue. East of this confluence is Reï-Buha, whose strong ramparts show that the so-called "savage" aborigines had already developed a certain degree of culture before the arrival of the Fulahs.
North of the Faro mouth stretches the delightful land of Demsa with its pleasant villages scattered amid the thickets at the foot of the wooded granite hills. On the route from Demsa to Bornu, Barth passed the Arab town of Belem, then Sarau, inhabited partly by Fulahs, partly by Berehere or colonists from Bornu; ​Badamijo, held by the Fali people, and near the divide Uba, the most advanced Fulah settlement in the direction of Lake Tsad.
The Gongola, which joins the Benue a little below Yola, waters the important provinces of Bautchi and Kalam, vassal states of the Fulah empire. Near the source lies the capital, Garo n' Bautchi, better known by the name of Yakoba (Yakobari), either from its founder or from the neighbouring Yako tribe. Like Yola, it is a modern place, built at the beginning of the present century by a
converted Moslem chief, to whom the Fulah sultan had given in fief the vast territory lying between the province of Kano and the Benue. Yakoba stands over 8,000 feet above sea-level in the northern part of this region, surrounded by lofty mountains, whence streams flow in various directions towards the Gongola and other tributaries of the Benue. Thanks to its favourable position at the converging point of several caravan routes, and to other advantages, it increased rapidly, and at the time of Rohlf's visit was said to have already a population of one hundred and fifty thousand, mostly Haussawa. ​North-east of Yakoba, near the right bank of the Gongola, lies Gombé, capital of
the kingdom of Kalam, also a large place, inhabited mostly by Kanuri people. In ​the same district are two other noteworthy places, Buri-Buri in the south-west, also inhabited by Kanuri, and Duku in the east, with a mixed population of Kanuri, Haussawa, and other elements.
On the north side of the main stream below the Gongola confluence stands Muri (Hamarawa), capital of the Muri vassal state, inhabited chiefly by zealous Fulah Mohammedans. On the opposite side of the Benue lies the city of Zhiru, enclosed on the south by the Adamawa Mountains. Wukari, capital of the Kororofa state, which is separated from Bautchi by the main stream below the Kaddera junction, was visited for the first time by a European (Flegel) in 1883, Like Muri, it lies some distance from the bank of the river, where the neighbouring ports of Tcharo, Shibu, Ibi and Anyashi are now frequently visited by explorers
and traders. Dansofa, lying higher up on the same side, is noted for the mines of lead, wrongly said to be of antimony, which are situated two or three days' march in the interior.
In the basin of the Sungo, which joins the Benue near the southernmost point of the great bend, are some important places, such as Lafia, Beré-Beré, a Kanuri settlement 60 miles north of the main stream; Alabashi, more to the west, and Keana, on the route between Lafia and the Benue, capital of a petty state tributary to Wurno.
Loko, on the right bank of the main stream, 90 miles above the Lokojo confluence, is the busiest place in the Benue basin. It is the largest ivory market in West Africa, exporting annually from fifty to sixty tons of this commodity. Midway between Loko and the confluence the Benue is joined by the Okwa ​(Kogna), from the Seg-Seg country, where lies the great city of Keffi Abd-es-Senga,
so named from its founder, who built it in 1819, and peopled it with Moslem ​
Since the commercial importance of the Benue has been recognised, the English have established a factory at the village of Lokoja, near the Niger confluence, and this place has now become an important trading, political, and religious centre. Igbegbé, on the left bank of the main stream below the junction, was formerly a chief stronghold of the slave-hunters, and is still a busy trading-place. Idda,
capital of the Ibo kingdom, occupies the most picturesque position in the Lower Niger basin, crowning a bluff some 60 feet high on the left bank, here everywhere skirted by rich and verdant plains.
Onitcha, a still larger place than Idda, lies about 2 miles from the left bank on a well-cultivated terrace rising 130 feet above the low-water level. Ona bluff a little higher up on the opposite side stands the town of Assaba (Assabua), where the English have also some factories. Till recently no one could be ennobled in Assaba without offering a human sacrifice to the local genii, and the town contained no less than four hundred of these dignitaries, Thanks to its position. about half-way between the Niger-Benue confluence and the mouth of the Nun, Onitcha hag become the most important depôt along the whole course of the Niger, ​and has also the advantage of water communication with some very populous districts on both slopes of the river. The local "king" is now obliged to remain permanently within the precincts of his palace, because custom requires a human victim every time he goes abroad. Once a year only, that is, during the yam feast, he is allowed out to take part in the public rejoicings. In the midst of the unexplored forests stretching eastward lies Aro, the mysterious "city of sins," where are made great sacrifices of animals, and perhaps of men, for the cleansing
of the people. A pilgrimage to this place, "where dwells the Creator," is held to be a meritorious act even by the Mussulmans themselves. Along both banks follow several other towns and markets, such as Osomari and Ndoni on the left, Ebo and Wari on the right side, the latter capital of the kingdom of like name, and in an island near the bar the village of Akassa, which has become a chief centre of the commercial operations of the Royal African Company.
Bonny and Calabar.
East of the Nun, the estuaries of the delta and of Old Calabar have received the name of Oil-rivers in a pre-eminent sense. Here the staple of the export trade ​is palm-oil, the chief imports being rifles, munitions, textiles, kitchen utensils, hardware, implements of all sorts, mirrors, glassware, and coral.
Brass, the first important trading-place east of the Nun, lies some distance from the coast amid the network of channels connecting the Niger with the Bonny. Here are a few factories on the very verge of the forest, but much of its
trade has, in recent years, been diverted to the Niger The double estuary of Bonny (Okoloma) was formerly connected with that of New Calabar by a common mouth now separated into two channels by an island of recent formation. It gives access to some great highways of trade traversing vast and populous but almost unknown regions in the interior. Bonny was the most frequented station of the "slavers," and as many as three hundred and twenty thousand captives were said to ​have been sold in the markets of this estuary during the first twenty years of the present century.
After its suppression in 1819 this traffic was gradually replaced by that of palmoil, of which nearly twenty thousand tons have for some years past been exported
because here live the potent riverain magicians. The European traders do not reside on the coast, but in hulks grouped together to |orni a floating town. Here may be procured all the comforts of an English hotel, and the decks generally swarm with a world of domestic animals — monkeys, birds, sheep, goats, cats and dogs, and other pets. Elegant barges of European build ply between the hulks and the shore, and the estuaries are also animated by solidly constructed native craft embellished with original decorative designs. Some 70 miles east of New Calabar lies the Old Calabar, or simply Calabar, estuary, 10 or 11 miles wide and everywhere studded with wooded islands. The various groups of houses known by the collective name of Calabar all stand to the north of this estuary, on the banks of the Cross River (Oyono) and its affluents. Duke-toivn (Afakpa), where the hulks are moored, lies towards the head of the inlet, near the junction of all the tributary streams. Creelc-toum, the residence of the local " king," stands stiU farther north, on the slope of the amphitheatre of hills above the course of the stream ; and the village of Old-town, the remains of a former prosperous station, lies midway on the channel leading from Duke-town to Creek- town. It was formerly the centre of the local traffic, . but the English traders, wishing to divert the movement to their factories at New-iown, as Duke- town was then called, invited the leading members of the rival town to a " palaver " on board their hulks ; then it is stated by Clarkson that the natives had scarcely moored their boats to the hulks when they were shot down from the decks {History of the Abolition of the Slave-trade). The Qua tribe is regarded as the suzerain of Old Calabar, and as such receives a yearly tribute. Ikorofiong, higher up the Cross River, where the first sandstone hills are seen, still belongs to the Calabar district ; but Uman, on a low island farther north, is governed by fetish priests, who are powerful enough to enforce the old sanguinary
the territory of the Akunakuna tribe, whose capital, Okurike, stands on a range of hills skirting the left bank. English influence extends no farther inland than Okurike, although the Oyono was alreadj^ explored in 1842 as far as the rapids near the north foot of the Cameroon highlands. Beyond this point begin the unexplored regions, which Germany already claims by treaty as the seat of its future colonies.