Travels Through Central Africa to Timbuctoo and Across the Great Desert to Morocco Performed in the Year 1824-1828 (Complete)
9781465676375
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
Having cherished from my earliest infancy a strong desire to become a traveller, I have always seized with avidity any occasion that could facilitate the means of acquiring knowledge; but, notwithstanding all my efforts to supply the want of a good education, I have not been able to procure more than a scanty store of information. My thorough conviction of the inadequacy of my means frequently grieved me, when thinking of all that I needed for the performance of the task which I had imposed on myself; but still, while reflecting on the dangers and difficulties of such an enterprise, I hoped that the notes and observations which I should bring back from my travels would be received with interest by the public. I did not, therefore, relinquish for a moment the hope of exploring some unknown portion of Africa; and in the sequel the city of Timbuctoo became the continual object of all my thoughts, the aim of all my efforts, and I formed a resolution to reach it or perish. Now that I have had the happiness to accomplish this design, the public will perhaps grant some indulgence to the narrative of an unpresuming traveller, who relates simply what he has seen, the events which have befallen him, and the facts which he has witnessed. I was born in 1800, at Mauzé, in the department of the Deux-Sèvres; my parents who were poor, I had the misfortune to lose in my childhood. I received no other education than what the charity-school of my village afforded; and as soon as I could read and write, I was put to learn a trade, to which I soon took a dislike, owing to the reading of voyages and travels, which occupied all my leisure moments. The History of Robinson Crusoe, in particular, inflamed my young imagination: I was impatient to encounter adventures like him; nay, I already felt an ambition to signalize myself by some important discovery springing up in my heart. Geographical books and maps were lent to me: the map of Africa, in which I saw scarcely any but countries marked as desert or unknown, excited my attention more than any other. In short, this predilection grew into a passion for which I renounced every thing: I ceased to join in the sports and amusements of my comrades; I shut myself up on Sundays to read all the books of travels that I was able to procure. I talked to my uncle, who was my guardian, of my desire to travel: he disapproved it, forcibly representing the dangers which I should incur at sea, and the regret which I should feel far away from my country and my family—in short, he neglected nothing to divert me from my project. My resolution, however, was irrevocable; I still insisted on setting out, and he made no further opposition. All that I possessed was sixty francs, and with this trifle I proceeded to Rochefort in 1816, and embarked in the brig La Loire, bound to Senegal. This vessel, as it is well known, sailed in company with La Méduse, on board which was M. Mollien, with whom I was not then acquainted, and who has since made such interesting discoveries in the interior of Africa. Our brig, having luckily parted company with La Méduse, arrived without accident in the road of St. Louis. From that place I proceed to Dakar, a village in the peninsula of Cape Verd, whither the unfortunate persons saved from the wreck of La Méduse were conveyed by La Loire. After a stay of some months at this dreary spot, when the English had restored the colony to the French, I set out for St. Louis.
