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
That the desperation natural to an Arab should be excited by such
circumstances was not to me a matter of surprise. I cautioned them,
however, against returning to Tripoli with unclean hands: they
promised fair enough, and even shuddered when I reminded them of
the bashaw’s summary mode of punishing; all was, however, without
effect; for, on arriving at the Tibboo country, they proceeded to the
well Daggesheinga, a retreat which had been shown to Boo-Khaloom in
confidence, on his last journey, by Mina Tahr, the road to which they
too well remembered, and surprising the flocks of the Tibboos, and
killing three of their people, marched off four hundred and upwards
of their best maherhies: this had exasperated the Tibboos almost to
madness; and they filled up all the wells, swearing they would be
repaid, or that no kafilas should pass through their country. This
news made us tremble for our supplies; but evils seemed to be crowding
thick upon us, from all quarters. We discovered too, or thought we
discovered, that the people now treated us with less respect, and
were more lavish of the contemptuous appellations of kaffir, kelb,
insara, unbeliever, dog, Christian, both to me and to our servants
than formerly; and as the opinion of the _oi polloi_ in all these
countries is usually governed by authority, I concluded we had also
lost ground in the estimation of the chief. A Bornou boy whom I had
taken some notice of, and who used to come to me almost every day
to talk Bornouese, was hooted in the streets, and called insara; and
when we turned him from the huts for stealing nearly two dollars in
strips of cloth, the money of the country, the people all exclaimed
against such an act, as, by kaffiring with Christians, they said
that the misfortune of being supposed a thief had come upon him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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