At length an opportunity occurred of seeing the country,
Boo-Khaloum and his Arabs, with the sheikh’s forces under his general, Barca Gana, had already got some distance ahead. Accompanied by Maraymy, Denham overtook them when several miles from the city, and was received with great civility by Barca Gana in his tent. He had been kept some minutes outside while the general consulted his charm writer, and his remark as he entered was: “If it was the will of God, the stranger should come to no harm, and that he would do all in his power for his convenience.”
Barca Gana had about two thousand of the sheikh’s soldiers under his command. He was himself, however, only a slave, but from his bravery had been raised by his master to the rank of Governor of Angala and all the towns on the Shary, as well as that of commander-in-chief of his troops. He was accompanied by several guards of horse and foot, and a band of five men, three of whom carried a sort of drum, who sang extemporary songs while they beat time; another carried a pipe made of a reed, and a fifth blew on a buffalo’s horn loud and deep-toned blasts. As he advanced through the forest he was preceded by twelve pioneers, who carried long forked poles, with which they kept back the branches as the party moved forward; at the same time they pointed out any dangers in the road.
The heat was intense. Into a lake at which they arrived the horses rushed by hundreds, making the water as thick as pea-soup. As the major’s camel had not come up, he could not pitch his tent, and he was compelled to lie down in the best shade he could find, and cover himself completely with a cloth and a thick woollen bournous, to keep up a little moisture, by excluding all external air.
After several days’ march they arrived near the capital of Mandara, whose sultan sent out several of his chiefs to meet them. Near the town of Delow the sultan himself appeared, surrounded by about five hundred horsemen. Different parties of these troops charged up to the front of Barca Gana’s forces, and, wheeling suddenly round, galloped back again. They were handsomely dressed in Soudan tobes of different colours—dark blue and striped with yellow and red; bournouses of coarse scarlet cloth, with large turbans of white or dark-coloured cotton. Their horses were really beautiful—larger and more powerful than any seen in Bornou. They managed them with great skill.
A parley was now carried on. This sultan was an ally of the sheikh, but the people who were to be attacked were his own subjects, though, as they were pagans, that mattered nothing.
Boo-Khaloum was, as usual, very sanguine of success. He said he should make the sultan handsome presents, and that he was quite sure a Kerdie or pagan town full of people would be given him to plunder.
The Arabs eyed the Kerdie huts, now visible on the sides of the mountains, with longing eyes, and, contrasting their own ragged condition with the appearance of the Sultan of Mandara’s people in their rich tobes, observed to Book-Haloum that what they saw pleased them; they would go no further; this would do. They trusted for victory to their guns—though many were wretched weapons, and their powder was bad—declaring that arrows were nothing, and ten thousand spears of no importance. “We have guns! we have guns!” they shouted. They were soon to find that they made a fearful mistake.
The Sultan of Mandara had assisted the Sheikh Kanemy in driving out the Felatahs, and, since then, supported by his powerful ally, had risen greatly in power. The Felatahs, indeed, were his principal enemies in the neighbourhood, and he was only waiting for such an expedition as now joined him to attack them.
The unfortunate Kerdies, who believed that they themselves were the objects of the raid, beheld with dread the army of Barca Gana bivouacking in the valley. The fires, which were visible in the different nests of the hapless mountaineers, threw a glare on the bold peaks and bluff promontories of granite rock by which they were surrounded, and produced a picturesque and somewhat awful appearance. Denham could distinguish many of them through his telescope, making off into the mountains, while others came down bearing leopard-skins, honey, and slaves as peace offerings, as also asses and goats, with which the mountains abound. They, however, on this occasion, were not destined to suffer. The people of Musgu, whose country it had been reported that the Arabs were to plunder, sent two hundred slaves and other presents to the sultan. As they entered and left the palace they threw themselves on the ground, pouring sand on their heads, and uttering the most piteous cries.
The sultan all this time had not informed Boo-Khaloum what district he would allow him to attack, but observed that the Kerdie nations, being extremely tractable, were becoming Mussulmans without force.
Major Denham had several interviews with this intelligent but bigoted sultan, when he was greatly annoyed by the chief doctor of the court, or fighi, Malem Chadily, who, because he was a Christian, endeavoured to prejudice the mind of the sultan against him; indeed, the bigotry of this court far surpassed that usually found among black tribes who have become Mahommedans. The major had been drawing with a lead pencil, when he was carried into the presence of the sultan. Malem Chadily on this occasion pretended to treat him with great complaisance.
The courtiers were much astonished at seeing the effect produced by the pencils, and the ease with which their traces were effaced by india-rubber. Several words were written by the doctor and others, which were quickly rubbed out by the major. At last, the doctor wrote: “Bismillah arachmani arachemi” (“In the name of the great and most merciful God”) in large Koran characters. He made so deep an impression on the paper, that after using the india-rubber the words still appeared legible, the fighi remarking: “They are the words of God, delivered to our prophet: I defy you to erase them.” The sultan and all around him gazed at the paper with intense satisfaction, exclaiming that a miracle had been wrought, and Denham was well pleased to take his departure. Even Barca Gana afterwards, when Denham visited him in his tent, exclaimed, “Wonderful! wonderful!” And the fighi, or doctor, added, “I will show you hundreds of miracles performed alone by the words of the wonderful book.” He then urged the major to turn Mahommedan. “Paradise will then be opened to you,” he remarked. “Without this, what can save you from eternal fire. I shall then see you, while sitting in the third heaven, in the midst of the flames, crying out to your friend Barca Gana and myself, ‘Give me a drop of water!’ but the gulf will be between us and then it will be too late.” Malem’s tears flowed in abundance during this harangue, and everybody appeared affected by his eloquence.
Poor Boo-Khaloum all this time was ill, from vexation more than sickness. At last he had another interview with the sultan, but returned much irritated, and told the major, as he passed, that they should move in the evening, and to the question if everything went well, he answered: “Please God.” The Arabs, from whom he kept his destination a secret, received him with cheers. Whom they were going against they cared little, so long as there was a prospect of plunder, and the whole camp became a busy scene of preparation. Two hours after noon the march was commenced towards the mountains, which rose up in rugged magnificence on either side.
As the morning of the 28th of April broke, an interesting scene presented itself. The Sultan of Mandara, mounted on a beautiful, cream-coloured horse, and followed by a number of persons handsomely dressed, was on one side. Barca Gana’s people, who were on the other, wore their red scarves or bournouses over their steel jackets. The major took up a position at the general’s right-hand, when the troops, entering a thick wood in two columns, were told that at the end of it they should find the enemy. Maraymy kept closer to the major’s