Narrative of travels and discoveries in Northern and Central Africa, in the years 1822, 1823, and 1824Denham, Dixon
History
Narrative of travels and discoveries in Northern and Central Africa, in the years 1822, 1823, and 1824
Denham, Dixon
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Africa, North -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Africa, North
turned his eye reproachfully on his threatening master, only for
an instant; when his antagonist slipped his hands down from the
shoulders to the loins, and by a sudden twist raised his knee to his
chest, and fell with his whole weight on the poor slave (who was from
Soudan), snapping his spine in the fall. Former feats are considered
as nothing after one failure; and a slave, that a hundred dollars
would not purchase to-day, is, after a defeat, sold at the fsug,
maimed as he is, for a few dollars, to any one who will purchase him.
The skin of a noble lion was sent me by the sheikh, which had been
taken near Kabshary, measuring from the tail to the nose fourteen feet
two inches. He had devoured four slaves, and was at last taken by the
following stratagem: the inhabitants assembled together, and with loud
cries and noises drove him from the place where he had last feasted;
they then dug a very deep blaqua, or circular hole, armed with sharp
pointed stakes; this they most cunningly covered over with stalks of
the gussub; a bundle of straw, enveloped in a tobe, was laid over the
spot, to which a gentle motion, like that of a man turning in sleep,
was occasionally given by means of a line carried to some distance. On
their quitting the spot, and the noise ceasing, the lion returned
to his haunt, and was observed watching his trap for seven or eight
hours—by degrees approaching closer and closer,—and at length he
made a dreadful spring on his supposed prey, and was precipitated
to the bottom of the pit. The Kabsharians now rushed to the spot,
and before he could recover himself, despatched him with their spears.
Mr. Clapperton’s illness had increased to an alarming height:
he had upwards of twenty-four hours’ fever, and delirium without
cessation. These attacks, just about the time the rainy season is
at an end, are very prevalent, and often fatal to the white people
from the sea, as the Arabs are called. How much more violently must
they effect the natives of more temperate lands?
Mr. Hillman was again assailed by ague, and disordered intellect,
which threw him back into his former state of weakness. For two days
out of the last three, I had alone appeared at our mess bench for the
evening meal. Two of my companions were quite delirious in bed; and
Dr. Oudney, who had for a month taken nothing but a little sour milk,
three times a day, never left his hut except from necessity. These
were very trying moments, and sufficient to destroy the appetite of
a more healthy person than myself: still I had much to be thankful
for, and I endeavoured to bless God, and ate with cheerfulness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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