Jan. 17th.—The Sultan this morning sent me an ox. I made him my personal friend by giving him the powder and shot, in spite of the servant of Haj Beshir from Kuka. The Shereef is excessively generous; whether at his own cost or that of Kuka I do not know. I suppose the latter, as he had orders from head-quarters to supply us with everything. He sends rice, honey, fowls, eggs, milk, tomatas, and all things in abundance. I repeat, for the third time, that the world is turned upside down, so far as the supply of provisions and hospitality is concerned. It is true that the Tuaricks are desperately poor, and their generosity must always be very limited.

Our maharees of the salt-caravan went very well, and ate little on the road, so that much time was saved in this way. The Tuarick camels are far better travellers than the Arab, which sometimes are allowed to eat all day long. The females and the young ones are the most troublesome. I was much amused to see one of the Kailouee camel-drivers overcome the obstinacy of a young camel. The fellow actually bit the loose skin which hung over the muzzle of the rebel, and in this manner dragged it to the string, and there tied it to the rest. All the male camels are gelded, whilst many breeding maharees carry no weights, but follow their burdened kind with their foals.

To-day, for the first time, I received cowrie money, viz. four cases, made of matting, each containing 30,000. This was the price of four of my camels. The Gharian brute I sold to one of the servants for 8000. It is quite a labour to count this money, but I perceive that some persons are exceedingly expert at it, and count 5000 in a few minutes. There would appear to be always some mistakes made; one case was found to have ninety-eight short. This certainly is not much out of 30,000, and when a dozen people were counting. The small and large shells are all alike, and of the same value. But I shall be able to say more of this money afterwards. Thirty thousand of these shells are many pounds in weight, and not very conveniently carried about.

I visited some of the principal personages this afternoon, with the interpreter of the Sultan. This interpreter is a Shereef, and has been a sailor, in which capacity he has seen Malta, and many European countries. He is now married to a daughter of the Sultan of Zinder, and is established here in the confidence of his father-in-law. It appears, then, that even common Moorish sailors make their way in these black countries.

The first person we visited was one of the viziers, called Mayaha, a native of Damagram, a place one day east, from whence the greater part of the population of Zinder is drawn. This personage was sufficiently polite. He gave me permission to see the interior of his house, and his harem. The harem was full of fine, handsome Haussa slaves, attending on his four wives; they were all polished, and apparently clean, lying about on the floors of the huts, and in the court-yards, in the most strenuous idleness—one cleaning, polishing, and decorating another. One was bolder than the rest, and beckoned me to come to her.

This house of this vizier contained many huts of bee-hive shape; one or two were built of sun-dried earth, but all were small. Few carpets, or even mats, were seen: these people of Zinder are most dearly fond of squatting on the naked dust.

Afterwards I visited the Grand Vizier, or Mustapha Gadalina (a title). This personage, a man of great age, was polite, but did not permit me to enter the interior of his house. We then went to see the Commander-in-chief—a funny fellow. He was very civil to us, and to all, joking with his soldiers, amidst whom he was squatting. These Zinder troops have no arms in their undress, and only wear a loose tobe, with bare heads. The General told us he would visit us in the morning.

After a climb to the summit of one of the granite rocks of Zinder to have a view of the town, I went to see and hear the drummers hammering on their kangas. There were three of them, surrounded by a group of Zinder maidens. One fellow had two long drums, very narrow, on which he laboured with all his might. The maidens approached the musicians by twos, dancing or stepping forward, and retreating with great apparent modesty. Whilst I was looking at a couple, one of them ran up to me, and struck me lightly with her hand. For this attention I was obliged to give her a present of gour-nuts, which are equally current with the cowries on such occasions. The drum is the national music of the people of Zinder, and they hammer away at it from morning to night. They say that in the palace it never ceases all day, beginning at dawn. Perhaps it may be esteemed useful in supplying the place of silly conversation.

Very few Tuaricks are to be seen in the streets of this city. They rarely show themselves, except on market-days, when they come from their houses in the suburbs. Little cordiality exists between them and the Binder people. They owe one another, like all neighbouring people, many grudges. I jocularly told the commander-in-chief to kill all the Tuaricks. He naÏvely replied, "I would, but when I attack them they all run away!" I am informed by the Moors here the Tuaricks have a wholesome dread of the Sheikh, and are on bad terms with the Fullans. They are, however, for the most part, friendly with the ancient Kohlans, the people of Maradee and Gouber. This accounts for the fact that En-Noor always spoke in the most amiable way of these remaining kingdoms of Soudan paganism. The town of Zinder is inhabited chiefly by the blacks of the Bornouese province of Damagram, who, though speaking the same language, are not considered Bornouese. In fact, properly speaking, it is situated in that province. The Zinder folks are easily distinguished from the natives of Kuka, and those more eastern provinces, by a lighter complexion and the smaller breadth of their nostrils.

Zinder has always enjoyed much liberty as a province, though it has fallen successively under the influence of Bornou and Haussa princes. Anciently it was ruled by the former; then it lapsed to the Haussa princes and the Fullans, and finally it was again recovered by Bornou. The present prince, Ibrahim, has been sultan twenty-five years. Under his rule a rebellion took place against the Sheikh, who removed him, made him prisoner, and promoted his brother to the governorship of the province. But this new prince also rebelled; upon which the Sheikh came with a large force a year ago, and restored the former governor, placing, however, several persons here as a check on his authority. I have already mentioned the influence of the Shereef of Morocco. But no people in the world detest central government so much as the Africans, and these rebellions occur yearly and monthly.

The facts which have been mentioned to me connected with the last rebellion of Zinder, and its reduction by the Sheikh of Bornou, are interesting, as illustrative of the present condition of these out-of-the-way countries. The re-conquest proved to be no easy matter, and required three months' siege, and sixty thousand men, commanded by the Sheikh's best officers and the sultans of the neighbouring provinces. When the revolted people had notice of the approach of this force, they threw up a wall of earth round the city in the brief space of three days only. Even Africans can be energetic when compelled by necessity. The siege lasted three months, and many people were killed on either side.

Before hostilities commenced the Sheikh sent for the brother of the deposed prince, whom he had placed in power at Zinder; but the answer was refusal. "If you want money," said the rebel chieftain, "here it is; if you want slaves, here they are;—but I will not come to Kuka." Ibrahim, the former and present sultan, had meanwhile gone to the capital, and covered himself with dust in the presence of the Sheikh, and obtained his pardon and the promise of his restoration to power. His brother knew this well, and, of course, would not go to the capital. It is surprising, however, that the rebellion could hold out so long against so large a force; the people of Zinder must be framed for war. The Tuaricks during the struggle stood by and looked on. The displaced brother is now at Kuka, having there obtained the pardon of the Sheikh. He fled to the Tuaricks after the capture of the town.

There are several pretty shady trees scattered through the town of Zinder, planted mostly in the gardens of the grandees. The names of three of these are, in Bornouese, rimi, jaja, and ilbug.

I have obtained some information on the slave-trade, which I here give in its crude shape. Slaves are classed as follows:—

Males.

The best of the slaves now go to Niffee, to be there shipped for America; they are mostly males, of the class 2d, 3d, 4th, and are minutely examined before departure. From all reports, there is an immense traffic of slaves that way exchanged against American goods, which are driving out of the markets all the merchandise of the north.

Prices:—I. Males.

II. Females.

The above are the prices of Kanou; there is sometimes a difference of 5,000 or 10,000 wadÂs. A remark suggested by this list of prices is, that the value of human merchandise is determined by its present adaptation for consumption. No allowance is made for capability of development, intellectual or physical. Slave-drivers and slave-holders believe as little in a future here as hereafter.

I give another account of the prices of slaves at the principal markets in this part of Africa, and at Smyrna and Constantinople. A good male slave is sold, at

• Kanou, for 10 or 12 dollars.
• Zinder, the price varies little.
• Mourzuk, for 40 dollars.
• Tripoli, from 60 to 65 dollars.
• Smyrna, 90 to 100 dollars.
• Constantinople, 90 to 100 dollars.

A good female slave is sold, at

• Kanou, for 32 dollars.
• Zinder, a little more, or the same.
• Mourzuk, 85 dollars.
• Tripoli, 100 dollars.
• Smyrna, 130 dollars.
• Constantinople, 130 dollars.

This is merely to show the difference of prices at these various places of slave traffic, and so enable the reader to form some notion of the profits of the commerce.

I am very sorry to hear of the iniquitous manner in which slaves are captured for the supply of the north at this present time. It appears that, now all these populations are Muslims, it is difficult to get up the war-cry of Kafers!—"Infidels!" What is then done? The sultan of a province foments a quarrel with a town or village belonging to himself, and then goes out and carries off all the people into slavery. Thus acts the present Sultan of Zinder, and so did his brother during his year of administration. To appease the Sheikh of Bornou they send him a portion of the spoil. Indeed, the Sheikh countenances the system, so detrimental to his interests as a sovereign, and so immoral in its character. The brother of the present sultan was accustomed to go out every month, and bring in razzias of slaves, particularly to Dura, a country which belongs half to the Sheikhs of the Fullans. The real Kerdi people are now very distant, and you must go many days' journey if you will catch genuine Kafer slaves.

On Friday, Yusuf paid his respects to the Sultan at noon, being the Sunday of the Muslims, when visits are made by true believers to the princes. He found his highness surrounded by his court, in a cloud of dust, which the people raised by throwing it in handfuls upon their heads, and thus doing homage to their prince. Yusuf and some other Moors obstinately abstained from such a grovelling mode of "rendering to CÆsar the things which are CÆsar's," and contented themselves with saluting his highness in the Moorish fashion. Yusuf observed, "Our religion does not teach this servility." The natives salute their Sultan by the cry of "God give you victory!" (i.e. over your enemies.) In Soudanee this phrase is "Allah shÀbÁka nasăra;" and in Bornouese, "KÁbunam sherga!"

18th.—I sent letters for Government and my wife vi Kuka, as caravans are expected to leave Bornou for Moursuk about this time. My rooms were full of visitors to-day. First came the commander-in-chief, Shroma. I showed him all my treasures, portable peepshow, kaleidoscope, &c. &c. He was marvellously pleased. I treated him also with sugar, but coffee he positively refused as too bitter. He brought with him some twenty of his troops and a chosen aide-de-camp. He is just the man for a negro commander, full of cunning and address, very active if necessary, and on familiar terms with his men, pleasing them by low fun and buffoonery. Afterwards came the sons of the Sultan, all of whom I treated with sugar and coffee: that is, as many as would venture to taste of it. Then followed a host of Fezzan merchants, with the son of the Kadi of Kuka—a very nice, pleasant young fellow, who writes pretty good Arabic. He is to make out for me the route from Zinder to Kuka.

I afterwards went to the Sultan himself, to show him my treasures, viz. peepshows and kaleidoscope. These barbarians are nothing but great wilful children. I also took the compass. We entered the interior of the building, where we found a number of officers, courtiers and slaves, squatted together on the sand, chatting most familiarly on all subjects. The building is all made of mud, mixed with large grains of granite. They say all the buildings of Bornou are built in the same manner, and very few of stone, on account of the rain; for the stone, not being well cemented together, falls during the great rains of the tropics.

After we had been kept waiting about half an hour his highness made his appearance, the courtiers and slaves throwing dust on their heads, prostrating themselves on the ground before him, crying, "God give you victory over your enemies!" Whilst the Sultan took his seat upon the raised mud-bench, the slaves held up two wrappers or barracans, to shield his highness from public view whilst he took his seat. All the floor of the apartment was covered with a dense mass of people, and amongst the number several Tuaricks, including the Sheikh Lousou, and Haj Abdoua, another distinguished Tuarick. Lousou is a tall thin man, of light complexion, with European features—a perfect Targhee. His manners were very mild, and indeed all this tribe are gentle enough here in a foreign country. The Sheikh shook me cordially by the hands. I then commenced business as showman to the prince and this mass of people. At first his highness was timid, and would not look through the glasses of the peepshows, but when the people began he followed, and acquired the knack of looking through in a very short time. My compass and watch and keys were then all examined, and produced great amusement. What pleased him much was the screw by which the compass was stopped. I was dreadfully frightened lest the watch should be broken as well as the compass, and indeed the former has received some damage: such machines should not be handled by these negro grandees.

Whilst this examination was going on, his highness, as if he had little time to lose, continued to administer justice. Several cases were settled whilst the worthy Sultan was looking through the peepshow and kaleidoscope. Among others, a man came forward in great agitation, and cried, "O Sultan! my wife will not live with me, and has run away to her father. I will give you three bullocks if you will fetch her back and make her live with me!" The Sultan smiled, and observed only, "Hem, your wife won't live with you! Well, what can I do?" Another man came forward and cried, "O Sultan! I am a thief, but you must pardon me. I stole this mat because I was a poor man" (holding up the mat). "I restore the mat." His highness observed, "Leave it; I will see what can be done." A collection of stolen articles was restored also by another person. Then came a man more bold, and brought a present from a neighbouring village, consisting of two large bowls of ghaseb and a bundle of wood. The man made a great clamour, holding up the present. His highness looked at him, and said, "Good, good; put them down."

I am told his highness is much feared by all the people of the provinces. He has the character of being impartial. But the way in which he carries out capital punishment is truly terrible, and beyond conception barbarous. He neither hangs nor beheads. This mode of punishment is too mild for him. No; he actually cuts open the chest, and rips out the heart! or else hangs up people by the heels, and so inflicts upon them a lingering death. I am astonished that the Sheikh of Bornou permits such barbarity, but imagine that the Sheikh is still afraid of his vassal, and shrinks from endeavouring to deprive him of this awful power. Here, then, we have a specimen of the negro character, with all its contradictions; soft and effeminate in its ordinary moods; cheerful, and pleasant, and simple, to appearance; but capable of acting, as it were without transition, the most terrible deeds of atrocity. Say what you will of the barbarism of the Tuaricks, such a mode of inflicting capital punishment is unknown amongst them. I took leave of his highness, promising to come again another day and bring other things.

This evening we were disturbed by the cries of the hyÆna; a large one had come down upon the calves belonging to a drove of bullocks, and carried off one as big as itself. The brute seizes its prey by the throat, and so prevents the animal from giving intelligence to its pursuers. The place of execution is near my house, and when the Sultan executes any criminal the body is left unburied. At such times, troops of hyÆnas, old and young, come down in the night, from the rocks and open country, and devour the body in a few minutes. The jackal does not visit this place, but is found in the open country. There are also many lions on the road between this and Kuka.

A very simple mode of salutation is prevalent here in Zinder, said to be the custom of WadaÏ—that of merely clapping the palms of the hand together; the hand being held forward flat, not edge-ways.

Gurasu is an interesting Tuarick territory, three days' journey north-east from Zinder, and two days from Minyo. This country consists of a number of small villages, scattered upon the rocks, or mountains. The inhabitants are especially those banditti who, from time to time, plunder the caravans on the route from Bornou to Mourzuk. Gurasu is seven days from Kanem, and Kanem is three days from the Bornou route. Kanem is mostly a desert country, and has now only a few inhabitants.

Gurasu and Damerghou are the only Tuarick countries adjoining the provinces of the Sheikh of Bornou, and Gurasu is the last country east in this part of Africa. There is but very slight communication between it and Zinder; and little is known of the people, except that they are Tuaricks.

19th.—I again entertained visitors, who are still numerous, of all classes; and also paid a visit to the Shereef, and took with me the kaleidoscope, as he expressed a wish to see its revolving glowing beauties.

Zinder is full of half-crazy fighis, who can just write the Arabic alphabet. They go about the streets begging piteously, with a calabash inkstand and reed-pen in their hands. I have been pestered with two or three every day since I came here. They also wander through the country parts of Damerghou. Bornou is the nursery of these silly pedagogues, in whom learning and madness are most cordially united; but, as I have already mentioned, it sends out a few instructed ones to redeem the reputation of these ignoramuses.

In the afternoon I went to see the place of execution, and found it covered with human bones, the leavings of the hyÆnas, whose dens are close by. Proceeding a little further I came to the Tree of Death! a lonely tree springing out of the rocks, some forty or fifty feet in height, and of the species called here kanisa. My guide would not approach it very near, for he assured me that if any person went under its boughs, there must instantly come an order from the Sultan to put him to death, or hang him heels upwards upon its branches. "Don't you see the place is swept clean underneath its boughs? This is done every day, and by the executioner alone: no other person dare go there, for if he do he must die!" I certainly began to feel sick myself at the recital of various horrors perpetrated at this place by the executioner, and don't know whether, if any one had offered me some great reward, I would have ventured to place my feet upon this accursed spot of mother earth. Never in my life did I feel so sick at heart—so revolted at man's crimes and cruelties. The tree itself was a true picture of death—a tree of dark, impenetrable foliage, with a great head, or upper part larger than the lower one, and this head crowned with fifty filthy vultures, the ministers of the executioner, which eat the bodies of the criminals! The number of executions here performed is very great—some two or three hundred in a year. Since we have been here a man has been butchered in the night, scarcely a hundred yards from my house; so that I am in a pleasant neighbourhood, what with the executions and what with the hyÆnas. The people pretend that for a small offence the Sultan inflicts capital punishments: for example, merely speaking bad language.

Turning from these disagreeable scenes, we went to see the dens of the hyÆnas, which are beneath the rocks, extending far under ground. Here we saw bones and dung enough. The scavengers of Zinder are, therefore, the vultures and hyÆnas: the former wing the air and dart on their prey by day, and the latter prowl the streets by night.

In the evening we refreshed our fancies by witnessing the kanga, or drums beating to the dances of the maidens of Zinder. It is always the same thing, two or three fellows thumping upon their drums, dancing round them occasionally themselves, and the maidens approaching these drummers with timid steps. To-night they had a sort of hopping-dance, on one leg, keeping time to the beating of the drums. These coy maidens soon approached, or rather ran at me, and touched me with the hand; this done, they claim the right of a present. It is considered a favour to be so distinguished.