Celebrated Travels and Travellers, Part 3.: The Great Explorers of the Nineteenth CenturyVerne, Jules
History
Celebrated Travels and Travellers, Part 3.: The Great Explorers of the Nineteenth Century
Verne, Jules
Discoveries in geography; Explorers; Voyages and travels
After a final excursion in the direction of Manou, the capital of
Kanem, and a visit to the Dogganah, who formerly occupied all the
districts about Lake Fitri, the major joined Clapperton in his return
journey to Tripoli, starting on the 16th of April, and arriving there
in safety at the close of a long and arduous journey, whose
geographical results, important in any case, had been greatly enhanced
by the labours of Clapperton. To the adventures and discoveries of the
latter we must now turn. Clapperton and Oudney started for Kano, a
large Fellatah town on the west of Lake Tchad, on the 14th of December,
1823, followed the Yeou as far as Damasak, and visited the ruins of
Birnie, and those of Bera, on the shores of a lake formed by the
overflowing of the Yeou, Dogamou and Bekidarfi, all towns of Houssa.
The people of this province, who were very numerous before the invasion
of the Fellatahs, are armed with bows and arrows, and trade in tobacco,
nuts, gouro, antimony, tanned hares' skins, and cotton stuffs in the
piece and made into clothes.
The caravan soon left the banks of the Yeou or Gambarou, and entered a
wooded country, which was evidently under water in the rainy season.
The travellers then entered the province of Katagoum, where the
governor received them with great cordiality, assuring them that their
arrival was quite an event to him, as it would be to the Sultan of the
Fellatahs, who, like himself, had never before seen an Englishman. He
also assured them that they would find all they required in his
district, just as at Kouka.
The only thing which seemed to surprise him much, was the fact that his
visitors wanted neither slaves, horses, nor silver, and that the sole
proof of his friendship they required was permission to collect flowers
and plants, and to travel in his country.
According to Clapperton's observations, Katagoum is situated in lat. 12
degrees 17 minutes 11 seconds N., and about 12 degrees E. long. Before
the Fellatahs were conquered, it was on the borders of the province of
Bornou. It can send into the field 4000 cavalry, and 2000 foot
soldiers, armed with bows and arrows, swords and lances. Wheat, and
oxen, with slaves, are its chief articles of commerce. The citadel is
the strongest the English had seen, except that of Tripoli. Entered by
gates which are shut at night, it is defended by two parallel walls,
and three dry moats, one inside, one out, and the third between the two
walls which are twenty feet high, and ten feet wide at the base. A
ruined mosque is the only other object of interest in the town, which
consists of mud houses, and contains some seven or eight hundred
inhabitants.
There the English for the first time saw cowries used as money.
Hitherto native cloth had been the sole medium of exchange.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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