The Progress of Ethnology Part 3

For the more complete exploration of this portion of the African continent, it has been proposed to send another expedition under M.

Raffenel for the purpose. This gentleman has submitted a memoir to the Minister of Marine, by whom it was presented to the Geographical Society of Paris. The result was favorable, and Mr. Raffenel has been provided with instructions for his guidance in his proposed journey.

A journey of exploration and civilization in Soudan, is about to be undertaken by four Jesuits from Rome--Bishop Casolani, and Fathers Ryllo, k.n.o.blica, and Vinco. Casolani and Ryllo will start from Cairo in January, 1847--having previously obtained a Firman from Constantinople; and, proceeding through Upper Egypt, Nubia, and thence by Kordofau and Darfour, they hope to reach Bornou,--and meet there their brethren, who travel by the way of Tripoli and Mouryok. Should they be fortunate enough to meet, it will then be determined which route shall afterwards be followed. They have determined to accomplish what they have undertaken, or perish in the attempt. From the high character of all the parties, great hopes are entertained of the result of this journey. They are all men of extensive learning, and familiar with the languages, manners and customs of the East.[29]

A project is on foot in London and a prospectus has been issued for a new Expedition of Discovery to penetrate the interior of Africa from the eastern side. Many advantages are presented by beginning the work of exploration here; among them, the populousness and civilization of Eastern Africa, which is in general superior to that of the western coast. The languages of the former bear a close affinity to each other, and extend over a very large s.p.a.ce, which is not the case with the latter. "The absence of foreign influence, (particularly of the Portuguese, by whom the slave trade is carried on), and the readiness of the Sultan of Muscat to listen to British counsels," are strong inducements to carry out the scheme proposed.[30]

Lieutenant Ruxton of the Royal Navy, who has lately made an interesting journey into Africa from the southwestern coast, near the island of Ichaboe, is about to undertake a second journey with the intention of crossing the continent from this point to the eastern coast, under the sanction of the British Government.

Some valuable contributions have been made to our knowledge of the geography of Southern Africa by Mr. Cooley[31] and Mr. McQueen,[32]

which tend to elucidate portions of this continent hitherto enveloped in much obscurity. Mr. Cooley's investigations relate to the country extending from Loango and Congo, the Portuguese settlements in Western Africa, to the eastern coast between Zanzibar and Sofala, in lat. 20 South.

He commences by examining the statements of the Portuguese geographers of the 16th century, Lopez, Joao Dos Santos, Do Couto, and Pigafetta.

"The information collected by Lopez, was elaborated by Pigafetta into a system harmonizing with the prevalent opinions of the age, and in this form was published in 1591. Yet in the midst of this editor's theories, we can at times detect the simple truth." Much confusion seems to have arisen by misapplying the names of lakes, rivers and people, as this information was in a great degree derived from natives, and not properly understood by the persons who received it from them. Mr. Cooley, by a rigid examination of these various statements, together with the accounts derived from later writers and from native traders, has been enabled to rectify the errors which had crept in, and clear up much that had been considered fabulous. The great lake called N'Ya.s.si, and the natives occupying the country around it, are among the most interesting subjects of our author's enquiries. This lake, or sea, as it is called by the natives, is some five or six hundred miles from the eastern coast. Its breadth in some places is about fifteen miles, while in others, the opposite sh.o.r.es cannot be seen. Its length is unknown, neither extremity having been traced. It probably exceeds five hundred miles, according to the best authority. Numerous islands filled with a large population, are scattered among its waters. It is navigated by bark canoes, twenty feet long, capable of holding twenty persons. Its waters are fresh, and it abounds in fish. The people seem more advanced in civilization than any African nations south of the Equator, of which we have knowledge. Pereira, who spent six months at Cazembe, in 1796, describes the people as similar, in point of civilization, to the Mexicans and Peruvians, at the time of the conquest. The nation called the Monomoesi, or Mucaranga, north of the lake, as well as the Movisa, on its opposite sh.o.r.es, are a tall and handsome race, with a brown complexion. "They are distinguished for their industry, and retain the commercial habits for which they were noted two centuries and a half ago, when their existence was first known through the Portuguese. They descend annually to Zanzibar in large numbers. The journey to the coast and back again, takes nine or ten months, including the delay of awaiting the proper season for returning. They are clothed in cotton of their own manufacture; but the most obvious mark of their superiority above other nations of Eastern Africa is, that they employ beasts of burden, for their merchandize is conveyed to the coast laden on a.s.ses of a fine breed." Mr. Cooley believes that "the physical advantages and superior civilization of these tribes, who are not negroes," explain the early reports which led the Portuguese to believe that the empire of Prestor John was not far off.

Mr. M'Queen's memoirs consist of the details of a journey made by Lief Ben Saeid, a native of Zanzibar, to the great lake N'Ya.s.si, or Maravi, alluded to in Mr. Cooley's memoir. This visit was made in the year 1831.

The facts collected corroborate what has been stated by Mr. Cooley. He found the country level, filled with an active population, civil to strangers, and honest in their dealings. A very extensive trade was carried on in ivory, and a peculiar oil, of a reddish color. The Manumuse (Mono-moezi) are pagans, and both s.e.xes go nearly naked. Near the lake there are no horses or camels, but plenty of a.s.ses, and a few elephants. The houses on the road and at the lake, are made of wood and thatched with gra.s.s. Dogs are numerous, and very troublesome. Some are of a very large kind.[33]

The region which forms the subject of the memoirs just alluded to, is doubtless one of the most interesting fields for exploration of any on the African continent. The languages spoken by the several nations between the two oceans, which are here separated by a s.p.a.ce of sixteen or seventeen hundred miles, in a direct line, are believed to belong to one great family, or at least to present such traces of affinity, that an expedition, if sufficiently strong, aided by interpreters from the Zanzibar coast or the Monomoezi tribes, might traverse the continent without difficulty. Obstacles might be thrown in the way by the Portuguese traders, who would naturally feel jealous at any encroachments by rival nations; but by a proper understanding, these might be overcome, and this interesting and hitherto unknown portion of Central Africa be laid open to commerce and civilization.

The latest attempt to explore this region was that of M. Maizan, a young officer in the French navy, who towards the close of the year 1844, set out for the purpose. In April, 1845, he left Zanzibar, furnished with a firman from Sultan Said to the princ.i.p.al chiefs of the tribes of the interior, though in reality they enjoyed the most complete independence.

Having been warned that a chief, named Pazzy, manifested hostile intentions towards him, he stopped some time on his way, and after having acquired information relating to the country he wished to survey, he made a grand _detour_ round the territory over which this savage chief exercised his authority. After a march of twenty days, he reached the village of Daguelamohor, which is but three days' journey from the coast in a direct line, where he awaited the arrival of his baggage, which he had entrusted to an Arab servant. This man, it appears, had communication with Pazzy, and had informed him of the route his master had taken. Pazzy, with some men of his tribe, overtook M. Maizan towards the end of July, at Daguelamohor, and surrounded the house in which he lived. After tying him with cords to a palisade, the savage ordered his men to cut the throat of their unfortunate victim.[34]

Mr. M'Queen gives some particulars obtained from a native African relating to the country between Lake Tchad, or Tshadda and Calabar. This portion of the African continent has never been visited by Europeans, and although little can be gained of its geography from the statements of this man, there is much in them that is interesting on the productions of the country, the natives, their manners, customs, &c.

ALGIERS.

The publication by the French government of the results of the great scientific expedition to Algeria has thrown much light on the districts embraced in Algiers and the regency of Tunis, as well as on the countries far in the interior. Among the subjects which have received the particular attention of the commission, are, 1. An examination of the routes followed by the Arabs in the south of Algiers and Tunis; 2. Researches into the geography and commerce of Southern Algiers, by Capt. Carette; 3. A critical a.n.a.lysis of the routes of the caravans between Barbary and Timbuctoo, with remarks on the nature of the western Sahara, and on the tribes which occupy it, by M. Renou; 4. A series of interesting memoirs on the successive periods of the political and geographical history of Algiers from the earliest period to the present time, by M. Pelissier; 5. The History of Africa, translated from the Arabic of Mohammed-ben-Abi-el-Raini-el-Kairouani, by M. Remusat, giving a particular account of the earliest Musselman period.

Gen. Marey in an account of his expedition to Laghouat in Algeria, published in Algiers in 1845, has contributed important information on this country, which deserves a rank with the great work of the scientific expedition.[35] In this work the author has corrected the erroneous opinion which has long been held, of the barrenness of the Sahara. Among the Arabs this word _Sahara_ does not convey the idea which the world has generally given it, of a desert or uninhabitable place, but the contrary. Like every country, it presents some excellent and luxuriant spots, others of a medium quality as to soil, and others entirely barren, not susceptible of cultivation. By _Sahara_, the Arabs mean a country of pastures, inhabited by a pastoral people; while, to the provinces between the Atlas mountains and the sea, they apply the name of _Tell_, meaning a country of cereals, and of an agricultural people.

M. Carette, in his exploration of this region, has also discovered the false notion long imbibed in relation to it. "The Sahara," says he, "was for a long time deformed by the exaggerations of geographers, and by the reveries of poets. Called by some the Great Desert, from its sterility and desolation, by others the country of dates, the Sahara had become a fanciful region, of which our ignorance increased its proportions and fas.h.i.+oned its aspect. From the mountains which border the horizon of Tell, to the borders of the country of the blacks, it was believed that nature had departed from her ordinary laws, renouncing the variety which forms the essential character of her works, and had here spread an immense and uniform covering, composed of burning plains, over which troops of savage hordes carried their devastating sway. Such is not the nature, such is not the appearance of the Sahara."

This region, occupying so large a portion of the African continent, "is a vast archipelago of oases, of which each presents an animated group of towns and villages. Around each is a large enclosure of fruit trees. The palm is the king of these plantations, not only from the elevation of its trunk, but from the value of its product, yet it does not exclude other species. The fig, the apricot, the peach and the vine mingle their foliage with the palm."

The Algerine Sahara has lately been the object of a special work of Col.

Daumas who intends completing the researches begun by Gen. Marey and the members of the scientific commission. He has made an excursion to the borders of the desert, and has collected much that is new and interesting in ethnology, particularly relating to the Tuarycks, a great division of the Berber race whose numerous tribes occupy all the western part of the great desert.[36]

Among the interesting Ethnological facts which the late expeditions in this region have brought to light, is that of the existence of a white race, inhabiting the Aures mountains, (_mons Aurarius_) in the province of Constantine.[37] Dr. Guyon, of the French army of Africa, took advantage of an expedition sent out by General Bedeau to the Aures, to collect information about this people, to whom other travellers had referred. He describes them as having a white skin, blue eyes and flaxen hair. They are not found by themselves, but predominate more or less among various tribes. They hold a middle rank, and go but rarely with the Kabyles and the Arabs. They are lukewarm in observances of the Koran, on which account the Arabs esteem them less than the Kabyles.

They are more numerous in the tribe of the Mouchaas, who speak a language in which words of Teutonic origin have been recognized. In Constantine where they are numerous, they exercise the trades of butcher and baker. Late writers believe that they are the remains of the Vandals driven from the country by Belisarius.

M. Bory de Saint Vincent in making some observations to the Academy of Sciences, on the paper of Dr. Guyon, exhibited portraits of individuals of this white race, which had been engraved for the Scientific Commission, and stated his belief that they were evidently of the northern Gothic and Vandal type.[38]

In Northern Africa, an important discovery has lately been made of the ancient Libyan alphabet, by Mr. F. de Saulcy, member of the French Inst.i.tute. This curious result has been produced, by a study of the bilingual inscription on the monument of Thugga, which is published in the first volume of the Transactions of the Ethnological Society of New York. The reading of the Phoenician part of this bilingual inscription having been established, the value of the Libyan or Numidian letters of the counter part, has been as clearly proved, as the hieroglyphic part of the Rosetta stone has been established, from a comparison with the Greek text of that bilingual inscription.

By this discovery, a vast progress has been made in the ethnography and history of ancient Africa. Two facts of the greatest consequence have been established by it:--That the Libyan language was that of Numidia, at the early period of its history, when the Phoenicians were settled there; that the Numidians of that early day, used their own peculiar letters for writing their own language. To these facts, may be added another of no less ethnographic value; that the present Numidian or Berber race of the great Sahara, who are called Tuarycks, make use of these identical letters at this day.

For this recent and valuable acquisition to science, we are again indebted to Mr. de Saulcy,[39] who has published a Tuaryck alphabet as communicated to him by Mr. Boisonnet, Captain of Artillery at Algiers.

It was furnished to him by an educated native of the Oasis of Touat, in the great Sahara, and is called by him _Kalem-i-Tefinag_.[40] What the _writing of Tefinag_ means, it would be curious to know. This Touatee, Abd-el-Kader, has promised more extended information, in relation to the writing of the Tuarycks, than which, no more valuable contribution to African ethnography can be imagined. He a.s.serts that, the Tuarycks engrave or scratch on the rocks of the Sahara, numerous inscriptions, either historic or erotic. This subject has been alluded to by Mr.

Hodgson, in his "_Notes on Africa_" in which he mentions the Tuaryck letters copied by Denham and Clapperton.

The impulse first given by our countryman Mr. Wm. B. Hodgson, in his researches into the Berber language, and the ethnographic facts which were the results of his elucidations, has extended to England, France and Germany, and the last two years have been productive of several valuable and important works, including grammars and dictionaries of the Berber language. These have added greatly to our previous knowledge of the ancient and primitive people, who at a remote period, coeval with that of the ancient Egyptians occupied the northern part of Africa.

Mr. de Saulcy has already unravelled the intricacy of the demotic writing of Egypt and the popular characters of ancient Libya. He is thus working at both ends of the Libyan chain. He will find the Berber thread at the Oasis of Ammon, and at Meroe. We shall thus probably find, that the Berber language was the original tongue of that part of Ethiopia.

Dr. Lepsius found in that region, numerous inscriptions in the Egyptian demotic, and in Greek characters, but written in an unknown language. He strongly suspects, that the old Ethiopian blood will be found in the Berber veins; and that the Nubian language has strong affinities with the Berber. When these inscriptions in an unknown language are decyphered, it will be known how far the interpretation of Egyptian mythology and the local names, heretofore proposed by Mr. Hodgson, is to be received as plausible. He has proposed the Berber etymologies of Aman or Ammon as water; Themis as fire or purity; Thot as an eye; Edfou and Tadis as the sun.

Books on Algiers.

Algeria and Tunis in 1845. An account of a journey made through the two Regencies, by Viscount Fielding and Capt. Kennedy. 2 vols, post 8vo. London, 1846.

Le Maroc et ses Caravanes, ou Relations de la France avec cet Empire, par R. Thoma.s.sy. 8vo. Paris 1845.

Exploration Scientifique de l'Algeria pendant les annees 1840, 1841, 1842. Publie par l'ordre du gouvernment et avec le concours d'une commission Academique. 4 vols, folio. (now in the course of publication.)

Recherches sur la const.i.tution de la propriete territoriale dans le pays mussulmans et subsidiairement en Algeria; par M. Worms.

8vo. Paris, 1846.

A visit to the French possessions in Algiers in 1845. By Count St. Marie. Post 8vo. London, 1846.

AFRIQUE (l') francaise, l'empire du Maroc et les deserts de Sahara. Histoire nationale des conquetes, victoires et nouvelles decouvertes des Francais depuis la prise d'Alger jusqu'a nos jours; par P. Christian. 8vo.

Algeria en 1846; par J. Desjobert. 8vo. Paris, 1846.

Guide du voyageur en Algeria. Itineraire du savant, de l'artiste, de l'homme du monde et du colon; par Quetin. 18mo.

Paris, 1846.

Le Sahara Algerien. Etude geographiques, statistiques et historiques sur la region au sud des etabliss.e.m.e.nts Francaises en Algerie; par Col. Daumas 8vo. Paris, 1845.

L'Afrique Francaise l'Empire de Maroc et les deserts de Sahara, conquetes et decouvertes des Francais. Royal 8vo.

Dictionnaire de Geographie economique, politique et historique de l'Algerie. Avec une carte. 12mo. Paris, 1846.

Geographie populaire de l'Algerie, avec cartes. 12mo. 1846.

Histoire de nos Colonies Francaises de l'Algerie et du Maroc; par M. Christian. 2 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1846.

The following list embraces the latest publications on Africa generally.

Voyage dans l'Afrique Occidentale, comprenant l'exploration du Senegal depuis St. Louis jusqu'a la Feleme jusqu'a Sansandig; des mines d'or de Kenieba, dans le Bambouk; des pays de Galam, Boudou et Wooli; et de la Gambia; par A. Raffenel. 8vo. and folio atlas. Paris, 1846.

Viaggi nell' Africa Occidentale, di _Toto Omboni_, gia medico di consiglie nel regno d'Angola e sue dispendenze, 8vo. Milan, 1845.

A visit to the Portuguese possessions in South Western Africa.

By Dr. Tams. 2 vols. 8vo.

Life in the Wilderness; or, Wanderings in South Africa. By Henry W. Methuen. Post 8vo. London, 1846.

Voyage au Darfour par le Cheykh Mohammed Ebn-Omar El-Tounsy; traduit de l'Arabe par Dr. Perron; publie par les soins de M.

Jomard. Royal 8vo. Maps. Paris, 1845.