File:Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa. From the journal of an expedition undertaken under the auspices of H.B.M.'s government, in the years 1849-1855 (1859) (14781106865).jpg

Identifier: travelsdiscoveri02bart (find matches)
Title: Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa. From the journal of an expedition undertaken under the auspices of H.B.M.'s government, in the years 1849-1855
Year: 1859 (1850s)
Authors: Barth, Heinrich, 1821-1865
Subjects:
Publisher: Philadelphia, J.W. Bradley
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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e place. The followingpassages of his journal afford us a specimen of the characterof the Welad Sliman, the Arab freebooters, whom the travel-lers were accompanying in their expedition to Kanem.) Plunged into sad reflections on the fate of this once splendidempire of Kanem, and the continued progress of the Berberrace into the heart of Sudan, I hung listlessly upon my horse,when, on leaving this uncomfortable dwelling-place, we tookour course over the unbroken plain, once no doubt the bottomof the lake,* and soon to become once more a part of it.Sometimes it was dry and barren, at others clothed with richverdure, while on our left it was bordered by a range of sand-hills, the natural limit of the lagoon. At a little before noonwe came to a deep inlet of the lake, spreading the freshest ver-dure all around in this now desolate country. Having wateredour horses, and taken in a sufficient supply of this element forthe night, we crossed the plain, here not more than a thousand * The Tsad.
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DESOLATE COUNTRY. 237 yards wide, and ascended a broad promontory of the range ofsand-hills, where we encamped. It was a delightful spot, where the heart might have ex-panded in the enjoyment of freedom. In front of us to thesoutheast, the swampy lands of the lagoon, one immense rice-field (as it ought to be at least), spread out to the borders ofthe horizon; but no white water, or open sea, was to beseen — not even as much as connected channels — nothing butone immense swampy flat, stretching out as far as the eye couldreach. To the south the green pasturages, along which we hadcome, extended far beyond Ngegimi. It was a picture of oneof the most fertile spots of the earth doomed to desolation.But there was a feeble spark of hope in me that it would notalways be so, and I flattered myself that my labors in thesenew regions might contribute to sow here the first germs of anew life, a new activity. My companions and friends did not seem to share in my feel-ings ; for, wholly intent

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