Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 27.djvu/713

Rh prayed to be received into paradise. At last a few Tibbus attached to the caravan succeeded toward evening in getting some water and saved the lives of the party. Such was his manner of entering this forbidding land, while the savage inhabitants regarded him with suspicious hostility, believing that no good, only evil, could be in his intention. Nachtigal bought the protection of one of the chiefs at the expense of all he had, and was able to travel over the country and stay a month at the capital. Thence he returned, without guide or beast, with scant provision of food and a water-bag slung over his shoulders, and reached Moorzook, literally naked, at the end of October.

He was able, in the spring of 1870, to resume his journey to Bornoo, with the presents, which had remained at Moorzook while he was in Tibesti. He reached Kuka, the capital of Bornoo, on the 6th of June, and was received by Sultan Omar with a hospitality which would have been as marked had he brought no gifts, and with many expressions of appreciation of the presents. His mission here having been fulfilled, he availed himself of the friendship of the Sultan to make a journey of exploration to Berkû, Kánew, and Bagirmi, on Lake Chad. He spent a wretched life of nine months among highwaymen, but was able to accomplish much for science. He showed that the Bahr-el-Ghazul is an outlet from Lake Chad to the northeast during the rainy season, and made the acquaintance of the southern Tibbu, among whose northern relatives he had faced so many dangers a few months before.

Sultan Omar would not allow him to go to Wadai, east of Bornoo, for it was too dangerous a land; but he readily gave him a letter to the Sultan of Bagirmi, in the south, although a war was then raging there. With a hundred and fifty Maria-Theresa thalers, which he borrowed from a Tripolitan merchant on a note for double the amount, he bought goods and fitted out a caravan, and started on his journey early in 1872. He was well received by the Sultan, but came very near being debarred intercourse with the court on a question of ceremony. Every one who sought audience with his Majesty had to come barefooted. Nachtigal was willing to take off his shoes, but insisted on keeping his stockings on. There was considerable discussion over the matter, but the traveler carried his point and introduced a novelty at the court, for no one there had ever seen a man in stockings before. The Sultan was about to start on a campaign against a rival chief, and Nachtigal embraced the opportunity to go with him and see a country which had not been explored. The gain to science was purchased at great expense in the witnessing of cruelties, without power to protest against them, inflicted upon all adversaries who came in the way, and others–murders, torture, capture of slaves, and barbarities indescribable. In one of the battles Nachtigal was in great peril during a temporary rout of the Sultan's forces, from which they afterward recovered, and for which they paid their customary vengeance. Yet he was able to render some aid to humanity by surgical treatment