CHAPTER XVI

ALEXANDRINE TINNE AND THEODOR VON HEUGLIN

The journeys of Petherick and Miani in the western Nile basin have already been described. The very interesting region of the Bahr-al-Ghazal, however, had been relatively neglected by scientific explorers down to the beginning of the sixties of the last century. Petherick’s own map of these regions was not published till 1869. There were two obstacles to water travel in this direction: the sudd, and the terrible fevers which attacked Europeans. The introduction of steamers on the Upper Nile to some extent enabled Europeans to force their way up streams which were not to be penetrated by sailing-vessels. Quite a rendezvous had been created at a place called Mashra-ar-Rak, where many great streams coming from the Nyam-nyam country enter the Bahr-al-Ghazal, which, as a geographical term, applied to the western lake-like affluent of the Nile, may be said to begin its course here.

[Illustration: ALEXANDRINE TINNE.]

Miss Tinne, who with her German companions Von Heuglin and Steudner was to considerably increase our knowledge of these regions, had already, in 1859 and 1860, ascended the White Nile in sailing-vessels to near Gondokoro. In 1861 she organised a great expedition in steamers and boats, which was accompanied by her mother, her aunt, and, later on, by several scientific explorers,--such as Baron d’Ablaing, Theodor von Heuglin, and Dr. Steudner. This expedition was intended to explore the region of the Bahr-al-Ghazal, to see how far the Nile basin extended westward in the direction of Lake Chad, and also, if possible, to discover a great lake in the very heart of Africa, of which rumours had been brought back by Miani and others.[78]

Alexandrine[79] Tinne was the daughter of Philip Frederic Tinne and Henrietta, Baroness van Steengracht Capellen. Her father, Philip Tinne, was a Dutchman, who settled in England during the wars of the French Revolution, the French invasion of Holland having brought his family into trouble. The Tinnes were of remote French Huguenot origin, having emigrated to Holland from Calais. But further back still they came from Saxony. A very far back ancestor went to the Crusades, and distinguished himself at Rosetta (Egypt) by clambering onto the Saracen battlements. He received therefrom the soubriquet of “Tinne” (in Low Dutch, a battlement) and a coat of arms, still used by the family, embodying battlements. It is remarkable that Miss Tinne’s remote ancestor should have sprung into fame in the thirteenth century at the _mouth_ of the Nile. Philip Tinne, who emigrated to England at the end of the eighteenth century, returned to Holland after Napoleon’s downfall, and married a Dutch heiress, the daughter of Admiral van Capellen. He died when his daughter Alexandrine was only five years old, leaving her the richest heiress in the Netherlands. It is said that when a young girl she had a serious love disappointment, and dismissed or lost her fiancé. To stifle her mental anguish, she undertook a course of travel;[80] and after staying for some time in the Levant and Egypt, ascended the Nile in dahabiahs to near Gondokoro. This journey was followed by the great expedition to the Bahr-al-Ghazal in 1861. It is said that this expedition was even provided with European lady’s-maids. Probably no equally luxurious and well-equipped undertaking ever started for equatorial Africa. Miss Tinne commenced her second Nile journey by ascending the main stream as far as Gondokoro, and then, returning, she explored a portion of the Sobat River. She set out once more with the whole party from Khartum in February, 1863, and entered the Bahr-al-Ghazal. This was ascended as far as the mouth of the Bahr-al-Hamr. From this point a journey was then made overland to the Jur and Kosango rivers, and to the mountains on the borders of the Nyam-nyam country. On this exploration the travellers suffered most severely from fever. Dr. Steudner and the Baroness van Capellen eventually died of blackwater fever, and the remainder of the party only managed with the greatest difficulty to reach Khartum in July, 1864, where further deaths occurred. The geographical results of this expedition were not published in full till 1869, though Miss Tinne’s cousin printed some notes on their expedition at Liverpool in 1864.

[Illustration: ON THE JUR RIVER: SUDD BLOCKING THE CHANNEL.]

After four years spent in various places in Egypt, Algeria, and Tunis, Miss Tinne started from Tripoli with a very large caravan to proceed to Lake Chad, intending afterwards to journey from Lake Chad to the Upper Nile.

Miss Tinne took with her two Dutch sailors to assist in the organisation of her caravan, several Algerian women-servants, and her confidential old Negress, Saadah, who was originally a slave freed by Miss Tinne in the Sudan. The Turkish authorities made no opposition to her journeys, nor do they seem to have been in any way to blame for the catastrophe that occurred. Unfortunately, Miss Tinne, in order to provide for the comfort of her followers as well as for herself, decided to take with her one or more iron tanks filled with water, which were carried by the camels. These tanks attracted much attention when the expedition halted for a time at Murzuk, the capital of Fezzan, where Turkish authority was still maintained. The rumour that they contained treasure in coin which was to accompany this wonderful princess into the heart of Africa spread from the bazaars of Murzuk to the Tawareq of the desert, ever on the lookout to plunder caravans crossing the Sahara.

Miss Tinne had taken all reasonable precautions to secure the friendship of the Tawareq on this journey. She had sent messages to Ghat, an important Saharan town, to the chief Ikenukhen, with presents, and requests for guides. The chief replied that he would meet her himself at a water place on the way to Ghat, and send her the guides. These guides apparently concerted measures with the Arab and Tawareq camel-drivers of her expedition, and plans were evidently laid for her murder and the plunder of her goods.

The expedition had halted at Wadi Aberjong to await the Tawareq chief Ikenukhen. On the early morning of the 1st of August Miss Tinne, in her tent, heard the Arab and Tawareq camel-drivers disputing about arranging the saddles of the Algerian women-servants. She called to the Dutch sailors to stop the noise, which had developed into a sham fight. The Dutch sailors went amongst the men to get at their own luggage and take their rifles. The camel-drivers stopped their sham fight and endeavoured to prevent the Dutch sailors obtaining their arms. Miss Tinne, hearing the continued clamour, came out of her tent to inquire its meaning. She held up her right hand to command attention. Suddenly there was a cry of “Strike,” and a Tawareq made a cut at her with a sabre, which severed her right hand almost entirely through the wrist, so that it hung only by tendons of skin. The poor girl endeavoured to replace it in position, and staggered back to her tent, where she sat on a box. At the same moment that the blow was aimed at her one of the Dutch sailors, Cornelius, was pierced through the body by a spear. The other, Jacobse, was killed by a sabre cut cleaving his head. Cornelius, with the spear passing right through him, ran into the tent and fell at Miss Tinne’s feet. A man followed him, pinned him to the ground with another spear, and fired two pistol shots into his head. Another Tawareq struck Miss Tinne with a sabre on the nape of the neck, which cut through the foulard enveloping her head, and severed the long plait of her hair, but did not cut through the spine. She fell forward to the ground, stunned. Two men then tore off most of her clothing, and, seizing her by the heels, dragged her out of the tent to a spot a few yards away, where they left her lying on the sand in the blazing sunshine. Her poor old Negress, Saadah, followed, and raising her head, gently rested it on her knee; but the Tawareq tore her away, and drove her back into the camp. The unfortunate Alexandrine Tinne lay where she was left from eight o’clock in the morning to three o’clock in the afternoon, when death at last ended her sufferings. At intervals she called piteously on her people, one by one, to bring her water, but none were allowed to approach her. One of her Arab servants was asked afterwards why they behaved so callously. He replied, “We had no arms, we were like women: they kept us in the tent, and threatened to kill us if we came out.”

Her baggage was ransacked by the Arabs and Tawareq, among whom disputes then arose as to the allotment of the Algerian waiting-maids and men-servants. Strange to say, this dispute ended by both parties agreeing to make no slaves. The servants were each given a camel and a dollar, and allowed to return to Murzuk.

The Pasha of Murzuk sent soldiers out to bury the bodies. They laid a strip of calico about thirty yards long on the sand, and wound it round Miss Tinne’s body by rolling it over with sticks, to avoid touching her. Then they put boards on each side loaded with stones, and piled sand over all. The two bodies of the faithful sailors were laid on each side of her. Men were afterwards sent out to mark the spot, but the sand of the desert had in the interval been blown over the place, thus hiding the grave of this beautiful and talented woman.[81]

[Illustration: LETTER OF MISS TINNE TO HER NEPHEW JOHN.

Written from Tripoli, 1869.]

The leader of not a few exploring parties in Africa has been alone to blame for disasters to his expedition, by committing himself or allowing his followers to commit misdeeds sufficient to justify native hostility. But wherever Miss Tinne and her expeditions went in Africa, they left behind them nothing but the memory of considerate treatment, kindness, and acts of sumptuous generosity. In all the preparations which Miss Tinne made for crossing the Sahara, and so reaching the western limits of the Nile basin, she showed a desire to conciliate the suspicions of the people, and paid generously for assistance afforded. The fierce Berber tribes which range over the Sahara Desert from North Africa to the neighbourhood of Lake Chad, almost alone of all African races, have earned sharp reprisals from Europeans for their innumerable acts of causeless treachery to explorers. If ever the French occupy the district of Ghat, as they will eventually some day, it is to be hoped that they will bear in mind the massacre of Alexandrine Tinne and avenge it.

This woman was the romantic figure in Nile exploration. Young and beautiful,[82] remarkably accomplished, a daring horsewoman, a charming Diana; mistress of many tongues, including Arabic, and generous to a fault, it is little wonder that the “Signorina” (as she was called in the days when most dragomen were Italian or Maltese) has lingered as a beautiful and gracious demi-goddess in the remembrance of such Arabs and Nile Negroes of the Egyptian Sudan as were not exterminated by the Mahdi’s revolt.

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Theodor von Heuglin was a native of Würtemberg. He was a scientific observer and a naturalist much in the style of Schweinfurth. His interest in the exploration of the Nile basin was rather in the direction of zoölogy and anthropology. He began to travel in these regions in the fifties of the last century. With Munzinger, a Swiss (afterwards Munzinger Pasha), and Dr. Steudner, a German, he explored Kordofan, and the regions round Khartum. In 1862 Von Heuglin and Steudner joined Miss Tinne’s Nile expedition, and as her guest or alone on their own account, explored the affluents of the Bahr-al-Ghazal and the main White Nile. After the death of Steudner and of Miss Tinne’s aunt and mother from blackwater fever, Heuglin turned away from these regions with some disgust, and devoted himself henceforth to the exploration of the healthier regions along the upper waters of the Blue Nile and of the Atbara. In all this part of western and northern Abyssinia he made valuable collections of natural history. Von Heuglin’s books are of very great interest, and are full of valuable natural history notes. His writings were published between 1860 and 1875, generally in Germany.