---

---

[vii]TRANSLATOR’S NOTE

The appearance of this brightly-writtenrecord of an adventurous voyage down the Niger, from Timbuktu tothe sea, such as has never before been accomplished, is just nowpeculiarly opportune, when attention is so much concentrated on theefforts of the French to extend their influence in Africa,especially in the Western Sudan.

The author of the Exploration of the Niger is, ofcourse, greatly prejudiced against England, and his jealoushostility to those he habitually calls “our rivals” peeps out atevery turn, but for all that the work he has done is good andvaluable work, adding much to the knowledge of the Niger itself,its basin, and the various tribes occupying the riversidedistricts. It is remarkable, that in spite of much oppositionLieutenant Hourst managed to keep the peace with the natives fromthe first start from Timbuktu to the arrival at Bussa. Whilst thefootprints of too many of his predecessors were marked in blood, heand his party passed by without the loss of a single life, and inthis most noteworthy peculiarity of his journey, the brave andpatient young leader may claim to rank even with that great pioneerof African discovery, David Livingstone.

True the Lieutenant owed the good relations he was[viii] able to maintain with thechiefs to a fiction, for acting on the advice of a certain BéchirUld Mbirikat, a native of Twat, whom he had met at Timbuktu, hepassed himself off as the nephew of Dr. Barth, the great Germantraveller, who had everywhere won the love and respect of thepeople with whom he was brought in contact. Assuming the name ofAbdul Kerim, or the Servant of the Most High, the Frenchman solvedall the difficulties which threatened to stop his progress by thesimple assertion that he was the nephew of Abdul Kerim, as Barthwas and still is called in the Su

BU KİTABI OKUMAK İÇİN ÜYE OLUN VEYA GİRİŞ YAPIN!

Sitemize Üyelik ÜCRETSİZDİR!