CHAPTER XVII

SCHWEINFURTH AND THE BASIN OF THE BAHR-AL-GHAZAL

As already related down to 1869, but little had been placed on the map concerning the western tributaries of the Nile in the region now styled generally the Bahr-al-Ghazal Province. The Bahr-al-Ghazal itself is the gathering up of some nine great rivers. These unite to form a marshy, lake-like stream, which indeed widens out into a lake of variable size (Lake No) at its junction with the main or Mountain Nile. The great breadth of the Bahr-al-Ghazal is often disguised, and the open water reduced to a mere thread by an immense floating vegetable growth which we now know by the name of _sudd_. The name “Bahr-al-Ghazal” simply means a “River of Antelopes,” and is a designation given to the great western affluent of the Nile by the Sudanese Arabs. Rumours of this important contribution coming to the Nile from the west (and the tributary periodical streams known as the Bahr-al-Arab or Bahr-al-Hamr extend the Nile basin as far west as the frontiers of Wadai) reached even the Greek geographers two thousand years ago, and induced some of them to believe that the main sources of the Nile lay far to the west, near where Lake Chad is situated on the map. Then this was forgotten, and it was not until Arabs and Nubians had begun to extend their commerce into the Sudan, when Egypt was under Turkish rule, that the existence of the Bahr-al-Ghazal was again mooted. This affluent of the Nile was first sketched on the map with an approach to definiteness in 1771, when D’Anville plainly indicates its existence. In a very truncated form it appears on the maps of the Nile drawn from the surveys of the Frenchmen who accompanied the three expeditions sent by Muhammad Ali to conquer the Sudan between 1839 and 1841. In the forties of the last century Nubian slave-traders started in numbers to explore these regions, firstly to purchase ivory, and secondly to acquire slaves. The strange Nyam-nyam cannibals began to be heard of at Khartum about 1845. Petherick himself went in these directions in 1848. He was followed, as has been related, by Miani the Venetian, and by Miss Tinne and Von Heuglin. First of all Europeans, Miani had penetrated so far south up these affluents of the Bahr-al-Ghazal as to have heard from the Nyam-nyam people of the existence of the Welle River, which he reported to Petherick, and through Petherick to Speke, as a great river flowing steadily to the west. This was the first hint received of the southwestern limits of the Nile basin.

But little precise information about the southern portions of this wonderful region had reached Europe until the work of Schweinfurth was completed in 1871.

[Illustration: GEORG SCHWEINFURTH (1875).]

Georg Schweinfurth is a native of Riga in the Baltic Provinces of Russia. He is consequently of German extraction. He was born in 1837, and in the early sixties spent much time in exploring for botanical purposes Nubia, Upper Egypt, southwestern Abyssinia, and the regions between these countries and the Red Sea coast. The tropical luxuriance of the vegetation in the outlying districts of Abyssinia attracted him to further journeys towards the equator. He conceived the idea of visiting the then least known part of the Nile basin, the Bahr-al-Ghazal province. For this purpose he obtained ample funds from the Royal Academy of Science at Berlin. Apart from the fact that he was a German by descent and speech, his great explorations of the Nile were due entirely to German support, and must be considered one of Germany’s many contributions towards the Nile Quest.

Schweinfurth landed at Suakin in September, 1867. Before proceeding on his voyage up the White Nile, he resolved to commence with a preliminary exploration of the mountains to the south and west of Suakin between the end of the Nubian Alps and the beginning of the Abyssinian highlands. This elevated district lies for the most part within the watershed of the Atbara’s tributaries, though it also sends down intermittent torrents to the Red Sea. In the mountains to the south of Suakin first appears to any traveller coming from Egypt and the north the characteristic vegetation of tropical Africa, especially such types as the dragon trees (_Dracænæ_) and arborescent euphorbias. These types begin at an altitude of about two thousand feet, as at that height they obtain some moisture, whereas lower down the country is mostly an arid desert. The Nubian _Dracænæ_ and those of the slopes of the Abyssinian tableland are relatively dwarfish (at most some twenty feet high) compared to the giant forms of these tree-lilies which are met with in equatorial Africa. Aloes, of course, grow in the same districts as the euphorbia and the dracæna. “Found in company with them is a wild, unearthly-looking plant called the ‘Karaib’ (_Bucerosia_), of which the branches are like wings, prickly and jagged round the edges like a dragon’s back. They produce clusters of brown flowers as large as one’s fist, which exhale a noxious and revolting smell, the plants themselves being swollen with a white and slimy poisonous juice.” Another item in this harsh vegetation is the _Sanseviera_, a plant belonging to the same group as the aloes, lilies, and dracænas, with isolated, leathery leaves like sword blades, though sometimes with rolled edges like a thick, leathery whip. Higher up, at altitudes of from four thousand to six thousand feet, the trees are covered with clusters of _Usnea_ lichen. On the northern spurs of the Abyssinian highlands is found the wild olive tree, “of low bushy shape, with box-like foliage.” The wild olive is found nowhere else in tropical Africa beyond the Abyssinian region.

All watercourses with a supply of moist soil under ground just sufficient for a few months’ vegetation are comprehended within the Arab designation _Wadi_. Cheerless through the dry season, after the first rain their level sand flats are clothed with the most luxuriant flora; fresh-springing grasses put forth their pointed leaves and give the sward the appearance of being dotted with a myriad spikes; then quickly come the sprouting blades, and the river bed is like a waving field of corn. Half-way between Singat and Erkowit Schweinfurth halted at a wady of this character, which bore the name of Sarrowi. He writes:--

“What a prospect! How gay with its variety of hue,--green, red and yellow! Nothing could be more pleasant than the shade of the acacia, nothing more striking than the abundance of bloom of the Abyssinian aloe, transforming the dreary sand beds into smiling gardens. Green were the tabbes-grass and the acacias, yellow and red were the aloes, and in such crowded masses, that I was involuntarily reminded of the splendour of the tulip beds of the Netherlands: but here the garden lay in a waste of gloomy black stone. One special charm of a desert journey is that it is full of contrasts, that it brings close together dearth and plenty, death and life; it opens the eyes of the traveller to the minutest benefits of nature, and demonstrates how every enjoyment is allied to a corresponding deprivation.”

When he reached the Nile, coming from Suakin, he was received at Berber by an old acquaintance, M. Lafargue, who was settled in that starting-point for Suakin as a merchant and French vice-consul. Lafargue, himself an experienced traveller on the Upper Nile, received the German explorers with that hearty hospitality “which many other desert wanderers have proved besides myself.”

“Sir Samuel Baker [writes Schweinfurth] aptly compares such receptions to the oasis in the desert. No necessity for letters of introduction here as with us in Europe, no hollow forms of speech, exchanging courtesies which perchance mean the very reverse; no empty compliment of at best a tedious dinner; but here in the Egyptian Sudan we are received with free and genial amiability; all Europeans are fellow-citizens, and everything is true and hearty. ‘What pleases me the most is the ease with which you travel in this country; you come, you go, you return again as though it were a walk.’ Such were M. Lafargue’s cordial words to me. We parted well pleased with one another; I shall not see him again.”

About that part of the journey from Berber to Khartum by way of the Nile Schweinfurth gives a vivid description. For the first part of the voyage, as far as Shendi and Matammah, the only considerable towns in this district, the shore offered nothing attractive. It reminded him of the Egyptian valley of the Nile only in two places,--the mouth of the Atbara, and one spot where the renowned pyramids of Meroe formed a noble background.

Matammah was then a populous town, but dull and unenterprising. The buildings, constructed of Nile earth, were insignificant in themselves, and irregularly crowded together in a mass like huge ant-hills; not a single tree afforded shade in the dreary streets, which were filthy with dirt.

The Nile voyage below Shendi was, however, rich in the charms of scenery. This was especially applicable to the views afforded by the river islands. These islands were so many throughout the whole extent of the sixth cataract between the island of Marnad and the lofty mountain-island of Royān, “that no one pretends to know their precise number, and the sailors call them in consequence the ninety-nine islands.” The landscapes on shore afforded the traveller a treat “which no other river voyage could surpass.” Splendid groups of acacias, in three varieties, with groves of ‘holy-thorn,’ overgrown by the hanging foliage of graceful climbers, made the profusion of islands set in the surface of the water appear like bright green, luxuriant, and gay tangles.

“Wildly romantic on the contrary, reminding one of the Bingerloch on the Rhine, are the narrow straits of Sablu where the Nile, reduced to a deep mountain stream, flows between high, bare granite walls that rise to several hundred feet.

“So much the more surprising appeared the breadth which the Nile exhibited above this cataract, where it displays itself in a majesty which it has long lost in Egypt. Below their confluence, the waters of the Blue and the White Nile are distinctly visible many miles apart. It is highly probable that at certain times the level of the streams might show a difference of several feet; the proposed establishment of a Nilometer should therefore take place below the confluence, in order that with the help of the telegraph accurate intelligence of its condition might be remitted to Cairo.”

Schweinfurth reached Khartum on the 1st of November, 1868. He left that place in January, 1869, for the Bahr-al-Ghazal. Of his voyage up the White Nile he writes:--

“As the morning sun fell upon the low, monotonous shores of the flowing river, it seemed at times almost as though it were illuminating the ocean, so vast was the extent of water where the current ran for any distance in a straight and unwinding course.... The districts along the shore mostly retained an unchanging aspect for miles together. Rarely does some distant mountain or isolated hill relieve the eye from the wide monotony.... The attention is soon attracted by the astonishing number of geese and ducks which are seen day after day. The traveller in these parts is so satiated with them, fattened and roasted, that the sight creates something akin to disgust. The number of cattle is prodigious: far as the eye can reach they are scattered alike on either shore, whilst, close at hand, they come down to the river-marshes to get their drink.

“The stream, as wide again as the Nile of Egypt, is enlivened by the boats belonging to the shepherds, who row hither and thither to conduct their cattle, their dogs in the water swimming patiently behind.”

Early on the third day he reached Getina, a considerable village inhabited by Hassaniah Arabs (long since wiped out by the Dervishes). Getina was then a favourite rendezvous of the Nile boats. The flats here were bright with the luxuriant green of sedges which in their abundant growth imparted to the banks the meadow-like character of European river-sides. Thousands of geese (_Chenalopex ægyptiacus_), in no degree disconcerted by the arrival of humans, paced the greensward. Although in places the right bank was bounded by sand-banks thirty feet high, the left appeared completely and interminably flat, and occasionally admitted the culture of sorghum. “This remarkable difference which exists between the aspect of the two banks, and which may be observed for several degrees, is to be explained by a hydrographical law, which is illustrated not only here, but likewise in the district of the Lower Nile. As rivers flow from southerly into more northern latitudes, their fluid particles are set in motion with increased velocity, the result of which is to drive them onwards so as to wash away the eastern bank, leaving a continual deposit on the west.”

About two hundred miles to the south of Khartum more signs of Tropical Africa begin to appear. Graceful, shade-giving acacias (_A. spirocarpa_) grew on the river banks, where also were seen great masses of large-leaved shrubs, many of them covered with the beautiful blossoms of the _Ipomœa_ convolvulus. Hippopotamuses were abundant, lions were heard roaring at night, and the semi-Arab, somewhat Nubian population was gradually replaced by the naked, black, and lanky Shiluk Negroes. Great monitor lizards (_Varanus_) and snakes rustled in the dry grass, while _Cercopithecus_ monkeys, crowned cranes, and handsome red and white waterbuck diversified the aspect of the river-banks; huge crocodiles lay on the foreshore. In Negro Nileland Schweinfurth first noticed the ambatch. This is really a member of the bean tribe (_Herminiera elaphroxylon_), which grows in shallow water. Its leaves resemble those of the acacia, and its blossoms are bold, pea-like flowers of bright orange.

“The ambatch is distinguished for the unexampled lightness of its wood, if the fungus-like substance of the stem deserves such a name at all. It shoots up to fifteen or twenty feet in height, and at its base generally attains a thickness of about six inches. The weight of this fungus-wood is so insignificant that it really suggests comparison to a feather. Only by taking it into his hands could anyone believe that it were possible for one man to lift on his shoulders a raft made large enough to carry eight people on the water. The plant shoots up with great rapidity by the quiet places on the shore, and since it roots merely in the water, whole bushes are easily broken off by the force of the wind or stream, and settle themselves afresh in other places. This is the true origin of the grass-barriers so frequently mentioned as blocking up the waters of the Upper Nile, and in many places making navigation utterly impracticable. Other plants have a share in the formation of these floating islands, which daily emerge like the Delos of tradition; among them, in particular, the _Vossia_ grass and the famous papyrus of antiquity, which at present is nowhere to be found on the Nile either in Egypt or in Nubia.”

Schweinfurth notices a remarkable extinct volcano called Defafang, one thousand feet high, which is situated some five miles from the east bank of the Nile, in about latitude 10° 50′ north. This extinct volcano was first discovered by Ferdinand Werne, who collected specimens of the rocks,--chiefly basaltic lava. Defafang for a long time was the boundary on that side of the Nile between the territory of the Negroes on the south and that of the more or less Arab shepherds on the north.

[Illustration: SHILUKS.]

At the village of Kaka, on the east bank of the White Nile, Schweinfurth observed ruins of a fort which had once been the headquarters of a renowned robber chief, Muhammad Kher. This man, who flourished between 1840 and 1855, was a Nubian, who gathered round him a number of well-armed Baggara Arab horsemen. He was one of the first of the slave-traders to show how, by means of fortified stations, it was possible to intimidate the Negroes of the Sudan and bring them into subjection. Muhammed Kher and his Arabs devastated the country for hundreds of miles along the banks of the Nile, exterminating the population in many places. At Kaka Schweinfurth found himself greeted by a great crowd of naked Shiluks, who, prompted by curiosity, assembled on the shore.

“The first sight of a throng of savages suddenly presenting themselves in their native nudity is one from which no amount of familiarity can remove the strange impression; it takes abiding hold upon the memory, and makes the traveller recall anew the civilisation he has left behind.... Although these savages are altogether unacquainted with the refined cosmetics of Europe, they make use of cosmetics of their own; viz., a coating of ashes for protection against insects. When the ashes are prepared from wood they render the body perfectly gray; when obtained from cow-dung they give a rusty red tint, the hue of red devils. This colour is only donned by land-owners. Ashes, dung, and the urine of cows are the indispensable requisites of the toilet. The item last named affects the nose of the stranger rather unpleasantly when he makes use of any of their milk vessels, as, according to a regular African habit, they are washed with it, probably to compensate for a lack of salt.... Entirely bare of clothing, the bodies of the men would not of themselves be ungraceful, but through the perpetual plastering over with ashes they assume a thoroughly diabolical aspect. The movements of their lean bony limbs are so languid, and their repose so perfect, as not rarely to give the Shiluks the resemblance of mummies; and whoever comes as a novice amongst them can hardly resist the impression that in gazing at these ash-gray forms he is looking upon mouldering corpses rather than upon living beings.”

As to the Bahr-al-Ghazal, Schweinfurth opines that the volume of water brought down by the Gazelle River to swell the Nile is still an unsolved problem. “In the contention as to which stream is entitled to rank as first born among the children of the great river god, the Bahr-al-Ghazal has apparently a claim in every way as valid as the Bahr-al-Jabl (Mountain Nile). In truth, it would seem to stand in the same relation to the Bahr-al-Jabl as the White Nile does to the Blue. At the season when the waters are highest the inundations of the Ghazal spread over a wide territory; about March, the time of year when they are lowest, the river settles down in its upper section into a number of vast pools of nearly stagnant water, whilst its lower portion runs off into divers narrow and sluggish channels. These channels, overgrown as they look with massy vegetation, conceal beneath (either in their open depths or mingled with the unfathomable abyss of mud) such volumes of water as to be in some places nearly unsoundable by moderate lengths of pole or cord.”

At the commencement of the real Bahr-al-Ghazal, where that broad lake-like stream is formed by the confluence of the Dyur (Jur) and other rivers, there was, before the uprising of the Mahdi and the consequent devastation of the Sudan, a large trading-station originally founded by the Nubian, Arab, and Coptic merchants of Khartum. This was named Mashra-ar-Rak--transcribed, in the mincing Turkish fashion, “Meshra-er-Rek.” Here merchants and travellers generally started on their land journeys into the Nyam-nyam countries. Miss Tinne had paused a long time at Mashra-ar-Rak, and it was supposed that there her expedition had contracted the severe malarial fevers which eventually caused the death of five out of its nine Europeans. Mashra-ar-Rak was situated on a lake-like swelling of the Bahr-al-Ghazal, which expanse is partly covered by four wooded islands. All the surroundings of this lake-like estuary are very low and swampy. In all directions the eyes rest on jungles of papyrus, with the exception of the few trees on the islands aforementioned.

A short time before Schweinfurth reached this place with its dismal record of disease amongst Europeans, he heard that a French predecessor had died not far from the Bahr-al-Ghazal. This was Le Saint, a French naval officer, who had been despatched by the Paris Geographical Society to make that extended exploration of the whole of the region of the Bahr-al-Ghazal which Fate had destined Schweinfurth himself to accomplish.[83]

Schweinfurth’s own expedition had to be conducted in a most economical and unobtrusive fashion. He made most of his great journeys between the Bahr-al-Ghazal and the Congo watershed on foot. Remembering that his expedition was purely scientific, and was financed by a scientific society, he very wisely concerned himself with no question of ethics or reform such as had hitherto caused all English explorers of these regions to be hindered as much as possible by Nubians, Arabs, and Turks. He was not there to undertake crusades, but to make collections. He thus won and retained the friendship and confidence of men of all colours, some of them, no doubt, great ruffians, but all made equally to subserve the interests of science by affording sympathetic support to one of the greatest and most genial of African explorers, Georg Schweinfurth. Schweinfurth was no sympathiser with the slave-trade and the barbarities to which it gave rise. “Throughout my wanderings,” he writes, “I was for ever puzzling out schemes for setting bounds to this inhuman traffic. On one point (i.e. the abolition of the slave-trade) all are unanimous,--that from Islam no help can be expected, and that with Islamism no pact can be made.” His reports on the behaviour of the slave-traders did a great deal to bring about the abolition of this devastation by Gordon Pasha and his officers some years later.