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they might fall on us in the bush, where the odds would have been
against us, and so destroy us altogether.
Then when they saw how we took the rumours, we heard they
changed their tactics, and tried to throw us off our guard again by
talking about making friends, signing treaties, and so on, meaning, if
they could secure our confidence, to fall suddenly upon us en
masse. The plan was ingenious certainly, but those who concocted it
had reckoned without allowing for Osman’s stupidity.
What became of the Toucouleur column after all? Not having
dared through fear of our guns to march against us, it had turned its
attention to Dentchendu, a big village on the left bank; but the chief
hesitated too long in this case also, giving time for the inhabitants to
receive warning, to put their village in a state of defence, and send
all the useless mouths away.
Again the Toucouleurs were too late, and besides, as Osman,
who still visited us in spite of all our rebuffs, told us, the poison of the
Dentchendu arrows is very dangerous.
All these warriors are fond of fighting and going on slave raids, for
the glory of the Prophet, but they take very good care of their own
skins. We wondered if the Toucouleurs who remained faithful to
Amadu would become cowards like his own people through contact
with them. Our experiences made us think that we were indeed far
from the heroic days, when the Senegalese Foutankés, in the battle
of Kale, charged a column on the march to rescue the wives of
Ahmadu who had been taken prisoners, stopping suddenly beneath
a hail of bullets from the French sharp-shooters to prostrate
themselves, and make a propitiatory salaam.
Having through fear abandoned the idea of attacking us at Fort
Archinard, the column wandered in the rain from village to village,
and was received everywhere with apparent friendship by the
terrified inhabitants, so that all the fire ended in smoke, though no
one seemed to know exactly why.
LAUNCHING OF THE ‘AUBE’ AT SAY.
We were off again with light hearts full of hope, to face new
rapids!
A YOUNG KURTEYE.
NATIVES OF MALALI.
CHAPTER IX
Below Fort Archinard the river divides into a number of arms; the
islands formed by them as well as the banks of the river were
deserted, but clothed with lofty trees, such as baobabs, palms, and
other tropical growths.
Although the water was now pretty well at its maximum height, a
good many scarcely-covered rocks impeded its bed, and rapids were
numerous. Of little danger to us, for we had seen worse, and safely
passed them, but bad enough to make navigation impossible to a
steamer.
On September 16, at about seven o’clock in the morning, we
passed a little encampment on the left bank, consisting of one hut,
and some millet granaries. I imagine this to have been the landing-
place for Kibtachi, for at half-past five in the afternoon we found we
had made some forty-four miles since we started, so we must have
passed the village without seeing it. I was sorry not to have been
able to visit the mines of bracelets and rings, probably of cornelian,
of which the natives had told me, but at the same time I did not
altogether regret having avoided coming into contact, just before
entering Dendi, with tribes then at war with its people.
The next day, the 17th, the river still wound in much the same way
as on the 16th; in fact, so serpentine was its course, that one of the
coolies cried out he did not believe we were on the Niger still, but
that we had lost our way. Numerous islands and dense vegetation,
with very picturesque views here and there, were the order of the
day. Great blocks of red sandstone rose in some places to a height
of from about thirty to more than three hundred feet, and at every
bend of the stream some new or strange view met our eyes.
We longed to land and seek repose beneath the thick dome of
vegetation forming natural arbours, but there was one great
drawback about them, the immense number of insects eager to suck
our blood. At night the mosquitoes invaded us in vast hordes, and
our poor coolies used to roll themselves up in everything they could
lay hands on, at the risk of suffocation. As for us, we too suffered
terribly, for though when we were asleep our mosquito nets did to
some extent protect us, when we were on watch on deck we were
nearly bled to death. In the day these pests left us pretty well
unmolested, but their place was taken by other persecutors, rather
like gadflies, which were able to pierce through our white clothes
with a sting as sharp and nearly as long as a needle. I had suffered
terribly once before from these horrible diptera when I was on the
Tankisso; in fact they haunt the tropical vegetation of many an
African river.
Since we started we had been each day threatened with a
tornado, but the storm had not broken after all. On the 18th,
however, we came in for the tail of one of these meteorological
disturbances, and a pretty strong breeze lasted until eleven o’clock
so that we were not able to start before that time.
The appearance of the country now began to change. Yesterday I
had been reminded by the rocky islets and the wooded banks, of the
Niger near Bamako; to-day the stream flows sluggishly through a low
plain covered with woods such as those of Massina between Mopti
and Debo. A few rocks still occurred to keep up the character of the
scenery, so to speak, and about three o’clock in the afternoon we
were opposite the site of the village of Gumba, destroyed the year
before by the Toucouleurs. We saw a canoe in which were some
fishermen, so we hailed them and they approached us without fear.
They were inhabitants of Kompa, they said, come here to fish, and
were the first human beings we had seen since we left Say. We had
passed not only Kibtachi but Bikini without meeting any one. The
result of the constant terrorism caused by slave raids, is that all the
villagers remain quietly at home cultivating a few acres only, and
living in perpetual fear of being carried away from their huts. They
altogether neglect the natural riches of the soil formed by the
frequent inundations, which leave new layers of vegetable mould.
The baobabs and other wild trees alone profit by it, increasing and
multiplying continually.