Some Heroes of Travel: or, Chapters from the History of Geographical Discovery and EnterpriseAdams, W. H. Davenport (William Henry Davenport)
History
Some Heroes of Travel: or, Chapters from the History of Geographical Discovery and Enterprise
Adams, W. H. Davenport (William Henry Davenport)
Discoveries in geography; Explorers
Bassiaparkia, sorghum, and millet were abundant. But at Kulfi the
travellers reached the limit which divides the Mohammedans from the
heathens—civilization (imperfect and undeveloped, if you will, but not
wholly without a respect for law and order) and barbarism. As Dr. Barth
advanced, he seemed to pass from spring to winter; cultivation
disappeared; villages ruined and silent bore witness to the desolating
work of war; and it was only by the cattle browsing in the scanty
pastures that he knew the land was not entirely deserted. At Zekka, a
town of some importance, with wall and ditch, he separated from the
ghaladima, and, through a dense forest, pushed forward to the ruins of
Moniya. He had intended to halt there, but an armed force had encamped
at Moniya on the preceding evening, and he retreated into the shelter of
the forest until the morning. A day’s march brought him to Zyrmi, a
considerable town, the governor of which was formerly chief of the whole
province of Zanfara.
On the 31st of March, he stood on the border of the Gúndúmi Desert, of
the passage of which Major Clapperton has left so exciting a narrative.
It is passable only by a forced march. Dr. Barth began by striking too
far to the south, and lost valuable time in the midst of an impervious
jungle. Recovering the direct track, he marched all that day, all that
night, without seeing any sign of human life, and until the middle of the
following day, when he met some horsemen who had been sent forward to
meet him, with vessels of water. Two miles further, and he could see the
village where the Emir Aliyú had pitched his camp; he was then at war
with the people of Gober. For thirty hours he and his followers had
marched without a halt; they were completely spent, and the men, in their
absolute weariness, fell prostrate upon the ground. The intrepid Barth
rallied his energies; his excitement dispelled the sense of fatigue; and
he searched his baggage for some valuable gift to the Emir, who was to
depart on the following day, for upon him and his favour the success of
his enterprise wholly depended. The day glided by, and he had begun to
despair of being admitted to an audience; but in the evening the Emir
sent him an ox, four fat sheep, and four hundred parcels of rice, and a
message to the effect that he awaited his visit. It must be owned that
some of these barbaric potentates do things right royally!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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