Records of Captain Clapperton's last expedition to Africa, Vol. 2 (of 2)

The character Plutarch gives of the Athenians is strictly applicable to the people of Africa in general, in times of peace:—“They are easily provoked to anger, and as easily induced to resume sentiments of benevolence and compassion.” This we found to be true in numberless instances; particularly amongst the gentler sex, whose apprehensions are quicker and more lively, and whose finer feelings more easily excited than those of their male companions. We not unfrequently observed persons quarrelling and fighting in one moment, with all the bitterness of angry and elevated passions, and in the next as gentle as lambs, and the most cordial friends in the universe; forgetting their previous noisy dispute in the performance of reciprocal acts of kindness and good nature.

The African, ceaselessly engaged in sleeping, warfare, drinking, &c. takes little, if any, delight in his own family circle. His is no domestic life: his children never prattle round his knee; his eye never glistens with tenderness on receiving their innocent caresses; his numerous wives, who are valued as a distinct and inferior order of beings, weaken his affections and blunt his feelings; and he regards them with looks of indifference or contempt. With him,

“All claims that bind and sweeten life,”

are, indeed, unknown; and, provided his wants be supplied, unless aroused from his stupor by any particular event, he journeys calmly on, with the most listless indifference imaginable, scarcely deigning to bestow a solitary thought either on his country, or his wives and children. He holds the dead, however, in the greatest veneration, hardly venturing to let the name of a deceased relative escape his lips; and if, when engaged in contentious bickerings, his opponent alludes to them in a disrespectful manner, he interrupts him with this energetic expression: “Curse me; slay me, if thou wilt; but do not rake up the ashes of the dead. Let them rest in peace, or thou thyself shalt follow them to the grave.”

The natives are passionately fond of storytelling, and listen for hours after the setting of the sun, with a gravity truly comic, to the recital of tales of the most wonderful and incredible description, in which they repose implicit belief. The following was told me with an air of great solemnity, and with a full conviction of its truth, by a native of Goober:—

“Doncasson, Prince of that province, ordered a number of men to build houses at the distance of three miles from Coonia, the capital, which they undertook to finish within a given number of days. The workmen, contrary to their expectation, could find no water in the neighbourhood of the spot, nor, indeed, at a shorter distance than Coonia; and having no vessels large enough to convey a sufficient quantity within the time specified, they were put to their wits’ end, in what manner to act, fearing that in the event of the non-fulfilment of their engagement a dreadful punishment would await them. In this dilemma they applied for advice to a female fortune-teller, residing in the city, who, having accompanied them to the scite of the intended hamlet, ordered an immense heap of earth, sufficient for the walls of the buildings, to be thrown up; when the old woman immediately supplied them with the water required, in the same manner as Gulliver extinguished the dreadful fire that threatened to destroy the capital of the kingdom of Lilliput, on his visit to that country; and thus the buildings of Doncasson were finished a week earlier than was expected.”

The persons of the Africans, of both sexes, are perfectly well-formed. I never saw an individual in the whole country with a hump on his back, or any other species of deformity whatever; and this will appear the more strange when it is considered that no people in the world pay less attention to their offspring in their tender years. We frequently saw individuals with only one hand, the other having been amputated as a punishment; but never met with a person that had lost a leg. The people used to deride us when we affirmed that some of our countrymen were furnished with wooden legs in lieu of natural ones, believing that a person could never survive the loss of so important a member.

NATURAL HISTORY.

Of the natural history of the regions we traversed I can say but little, my very limited and imperfect acquaintance with that interesting study, in either of its branches, incapacitating me from giving any thing like a description of the various productions of the soil, or of the numerous animals that inhabit the woods or the rivers.

Magnificent forests of tall trees are scattered over the face of the country from Badagry to Soccatoo, and afford, in their gloomy solitudes, shelter to numerous species of reptiles and wild beasts. The palm, the cocoa, the tamarind, the banana, the fig, the date (a species of palm), the butter, and other trees, are indigenous; and several varieties of plum grow in woods of Yariba, as well as a tree bearing a fruit similar in size and appearance to our “love apple,” and in flavour, to the cashew apple of the West Indies. Stunted orange, lemon, and lime trees, bearing fruit of inferior quality, may also be found growing wild in that region, but are made little use of by the natives, who know not how to improve them; the people have likewise water-melons, guayavas, papaws, &c. &c. The cotton plant, indigo, rice, wheat, yams, maize, Guinea corn, dourra, six or seven other varieties of corn, the plantain, sweet potatoes, onions, and cassada, are cultivated to a great extent in the interior countries.

Reptiles are exceedingly numerous, but the bites of few of them, as far as I was able to learn, are attended with fatal effects. We frequently saw in the woods of Borghoo and Houssa a large species of snake swinging in the sun-beams, with its tail encircling the branch of a tree; but on the approach of a human creature, it would attain the summit in an instant, and look from its elevation on the head of the person beneath. The boa constrictor we rarely met with alive; on my journey from Kano, however, I espied one of them, of about the bigness of a man’s thigh, coiled up like a rope, and partially concealed by fallen branches and leaves of trees. I watched the monster attentively for a moment or two, being within a few yards of the spot: but at length observing me, it attempted to hide itself, when I immediately discharged my piece at its head, and in all probability wounded the animal, although it eluded a rigorous search that I caused to be made after it. The beautiful reptile called at the Cape of Good Hope the puff-adder, is unknown in the central parts of the continent; but a slender green snake, elegantly variegated with black, which is sometimes met with in the former country, is seen in almost every inhabited place of the latter. I have frequently observed, on awaking in the morning, one or more of these reptiles, gliding from underneath the mat on which I had been sleeping, towards the door of the hut, and so making their escape. The bite is speedily mortal. Another snake, about two feet long, of a greyish colour, whose bite is also fatal, is found in many parts of the country. Pasko snatched up an adder of this description one day, thinking it to be a bit of decayed wood, covered with lichen, which it greatly resembles; but feeling the reptile twisting itself round his fingers, he cast it from him before it had power to bite, and immediately fainted from excess of fear. The natives hold all poisonous snakes in the greatest dread, and can never be induced to touch them, even after they are destroyed, believing that, although there be no cut on the hand by which it could so enter, their venom yet attaches itself to the skin, and insinuates itself into the blood of the person that seizes it.

Of insects the most formidable are the ant, the locust, the mosquito, the centipede (a peculiarly hideous animal), and the scorpion. The bites of the two latter are attended with danger; but although they frequently visited us in our tents and huts, we never had the ill-fortune to suffer from their attacks.

Wild animals, in incredible numbers, abound in the woods; amongst which are the lion, elephant, tiger, tiger-cat, panther, leopard, hyena, wolf, and hog. The camel is found in a wild state in Houssa; and that beautiful animal the giraffe, or cameleopard, also inhabits the forests of the same country. I saw three of them in my travels between Zaria, Kano, and Soccatoo; they are excessively timid, and are rarely, if ever, caught by the natives. Although the tremendous roar of the lion, which made the woods tremble, could be heard by us when travelling at all hours of the night; yet I never saw but two of those ferocious animals, a male and female; which incident has already been mentioned in a preceding part of my narrative.

The elephant is annually becoming more shy and scarce in the interior. The country people say that they have been taught the value of their tusks, and therefore studiously avoid, as often as possible, the haunts of man, by penetrating more deeply into the bosom of their ancient forests. Be this as it may, they are not so frequently seen in Houssa as formerly, and less often slain; and although numerous traces of them were perceptible in the woods, we never met with a considerable number at one time in all our journeyings. Elephants are more numerous in the deep woods on the borders of the Quorra, near the island of Boussa, than in any other place whatever. This may be accounted for by the king of that country having interdicted his subjects, under dreadful penalties, from slaying them. The fetish of the same monarch is a white elephant; and it is believed that he can assume the form of that animal whenever inclination or necessity may prompt him to disguise himself. Hence elephants are held in considerable veneration by all ranks in Boussa; and the figure of a white one is worshipped as a god in that kingdom.

I have often heard it remarked, that the elephant is as sluggish in his motions as he is unwieldly in appearance; but this is by no means the case. In proportion to his size, he is as fleet as other animals, which I learnt to my cost in South Africa; for on going out shooting one day I disturbed a huge elephant, which, unobserved by me, was standing at a very short distance. The animal immediately pursued me; but it being a few seconds before he could disentangle his legs from the thick underwood that grew on the spot, I was considerably in advance before he got into open ground. The beast ran much faster than I, and would have overtaken me in a few minutes, if a dog that was with me had not made an alarm which drew our party out of their encampment, fixed at no great distance, who came to my assistance, and drove the animal back. As it was, I was almost frightened to death, and resolved never again to come to such close quarters with an elephant, bulky as he might be; since that quality does not prevent him from using his gigantic legs with elegance and dispatch.