Chapter 10

The Koumbi marketplace was a cacophony of excited voices as buyers tried to talk and shout over each other. Then there were the constant bleats, bellows, growls, grunts, and roars from upset camels. I was dealing with one of the wealthy men when it got so quiet that I thought for a second that I’d gone deaf. Only noise from rambunctious camels let me know I hadn’t. Turning to find Izem and ask about the sudden quiet, I found him genuflecting towards my rear, just like the wealthy merchant.

I knew only one thing would cause that, and knelt quickly, then turned slowly so I was aligned with everyone else. Since everyone else was looking up, I did too, only to find King Reba Akmadja trying not to laugh at me. I stood when he motioned for me to rise, and was grateful for the time I spent on the trip learning the Berber language.

“You are the merchant with the worthless bags of salt,” he stated flatly, still barely controlling his mirth.

“I am, and I found people in Oualata to take it,” I answered.

He studied me critically for several seconds. “You seem quite comfortable in my presence,” he commented questioningly.

“The brother of my primary wife is Emperor Clovis of the Frankish Empire. I am a close friend and adviser to him,” I answered.

He nodded, turned, and walked away. “Follow him,” Izem hissed quietly.

“Bring my gifts and the things I wanted to show him,” I whispered back as I hurried after the King. I stayed a respectful several steps behind him, not knowing what was expected. One of his guards nodded to me, motioning me a couple of paces closer.

His pace was brisk, and several minutes later, we passed through the gate of a thick, twenty-foot-high rock wall. A couple more minutes brought us to the steps of what was obviously his palace. He continued up the steps into the palace and the guards motioned for me to follow. Two palace guards followed us deeper into the darker and cooler bowels of the palace where we finally stopped outside of a wooden door. The King knocked twice, then opened the door and stuck his head inside. Satisfied, he opened the door and motioned me inside.

“I understand that you are a healer,” he said.

I thought carefully before answering. “I am able to heal some things better than other healers, but hardly consider myself a healer,” I said.

He nodded his understanding. After all, I was barely twenty. “Our healers have been unable to help my daughter,” he explained, his voice reflecting his concern.

“I will need the bag with my supplies in it,” I said. He motioned to one of the guards who left the room like a bomb was about to go off. “May I be permitted to touch her foot and leg?” I asked after seeing that it was bandaged. He nodded. After unwrapping the cloth bandage from her leg, I could see the problem immediately. A red line had begun tracing its way up the outside of her calf from an infected cut on her ankle. She was feverish, and her eyes were dull and listless.

I had a difficult time conveying the message asking if they had leeches here. Finally, one of their healers came in and understood immediately. He left to get some. Other servants went to boil water and bring clean cloth. My bag arrived with Izem who managed to translate anything I was having difficulty explaining. He could understand me because he was fluent in Latin, as I have become since coming here, as well as Frankish. He conveyed my apologies to everyone concerned when I warned that I had to clean out the wound again and knew it would hurt.

Clean cloth and boiling water arrived. Before giving her two shots of rum, I dropped my needles and tweezers into the boiling water as I lifted the loose flap of skin on her ankle and scrubbed away any pus and dirt I could find. Satisfied, I cut off the loose flap of skin, rinsed the wound with vinegar, dusted it generously with camphor, and wrapped some of a moldy millet cake on top of the wound with a piece of cloth that had been boiled and allowed to cool. I used a leech to suck the blood out of the blood vessel that was red to see if it helped. It didn’t, but made her leg bleed in a different spot so I put more camphor on it and covered it. “I need to check her again tomorrow,” I advised the King.

He nodded his understanding and motioned to the door. “My guard says you have many unusual items that your friend brought here for you,” he said as we walked back the way we came.

“I have some gifts for you, some unique items I hoped you would be interested in buying, and I brought a lot of weapons to sell that we took from some troops we defeated,” I answered. The mention of weapons immediately piqued his interest, so we went out to the castle courtyard where the camel-pullers were busy unloading. I was suddenly nervous, even though Izem had already reviewed everything and told me a price range I could expect to get. Izem, himself, was salivating over some of the weapons.

First, I showed the weapons from Rome and quoted a price. He was surprised that I didn’t try to gouge him and readily agreed. Then I showed him one of the thousand crossbows we’d been making for half a year. These were sturdier, more powerful, easier to aim, and easier to use than anything currently available. They had a magazine of sorts that held nine bolts in addition to the one ready to release. A lever cocked the bow and dropped the next arrow into the slot ready to shoot.

I figured it was just a matter of time until someone copied our design, though. When it only took him ten minutes to become semi-proficient with it, he was sold. With practice, these would be reasonably accurate beyond two hundred yards, a distance his other archers could only dream of reaching with their current bows, let alone reach accurately.

The demonstration of my two Mongol-style bows left him with his mouth gaping. I warned that none of his archers would be able to draw either bow properly yet, because it took time to strengthen their arms enough to use it. He balked slightly at the price, but when I explained that it took several different men and nearly three months to complete one of the bows, he understood. When he ordered ten thousand of the bows, I warned him that I would only be able to supply two thousand a year because I was still arming the archers for my own Emperor. I gifted him with the ten long bows and the ten short bows I brought to sell, which helped soften the sting.

The two panes of glass had miraculously arrived unscathed and intrigued him. The paper, hemp rope, brass pump, and dried fruit were also a hit. From his reaction when he saw the firkin I gifted him with, I knew he’d already tasted some of the rum I sold in Oualata.

He loved the steel tools, especially the plows, and bought them all and asked for more. They did a lot of work with iron here, but nothing like our tools or the steel we used. The dishes for panning gold made his eyes bug out when I explained how they were used. They could be used to wash away sand from the gold nuggets and gold dust they got from along the river or from the sluices they used.

The telescope left him speechless. At first, he thought it to be some sort of magic. He only relaxed when I showed him the two magnifying lenses I had with me and explained how they were made from glass. When we finished dealing, I’m pretty sure he spent the rest of the day on the castle walls looking over the city with his new toy.

The King insisted that we spend the night at the palace. He offered to let my men bunk with his soldiers, but they stayed in town to guard our goods. I had a large and spacious room; Izem had a slightly smaller room next to mine.

That night, I broached another subject with Izem, asking him how best to proceed. “Are you sure?” he gasped several seconds later. When I nodded, he spent the next hour coaching me in bartering and haggling. By morning, though, I decided to eschew bargaining and just ask what I considered a fair price.

In the morning, we were summoned to breakfast where we were treated like visiting royalty. After breakfast, I went with the King to see Tizemt, his daughter. I could see immediately that she was better. She was sitting up in bed talking nonstop with more than a dozen other women. Conversation stopped immediately once the King and I entered the room, and all but one of the other women left. The resemblance between Tizemt and the remaining woman told me she was the mother, and I could see where Tizemt got her good looks.

Unlike yesterday, Tizemt was freshly bathed, and her hair was carefully brushed. The coy, flirtatious looks caught me off guard, though. I figured not acknowledging them could lead to as much trouble as acknowledging them.

“You obviously feel much better today,” I said. “Yesterday, you didn’t even have the energy to be so flirtatious,” I added, causing her dark skin to blush. I breathed again when her father started laughing.

The angry redness and swelling were nearly gone; the red line up her leg had receded and was barely visible now. I warned them again that what I did next would hurt, warning that I would sew some of the skin together. The King had obviously already heard from someone about what I did to my men. Tizemt swallowed two more shots of rum, but eschewed the piece of leather I gave her to bite down on and took the stitches like a trooper. I used the smallest suture needle I had, although it was nothing like the tiny ones doctors use today.

My blacksmiths had laughed at my clumsy attempt to fashion the slender stainless-steel needles. They took pity on me and took over from me, doing a much better job than I could have. It was the first time I showed them how to make stainless steel. I had them continue making the needles until I had two thousand.

They didn’t understand why I didn’t want an eye in the end of the needle though. Rather than explain, I showed them after the needle was formed, curved, hardened, and then tempered. Only then did I glue a foot-long piece of suture material to the back end of the needle, using a teensy bit of a drop of the same glue we used on the bows. Once the glue dried, I packaged each needle in a piece of paper and added a bit of camphor powder, hoping to keep it germ-free. I glued the paper together securely, then wrapped and glued it inside a piece of paper embedded with beeswax to make it waterproof. I missed plastic!

The suture material was usually cotton thread that I’d first boiled. I did make some, though, from sheep intestines. Those were in case I had to make sutures beneath the skin, as they would dissolve naturally. I thoroughly sterilized the intestines (several times) before I laboriously cut them into the exceedingly thin strips. Once I glued them to the needle, I boiled them again.

As I stitched, Tizemt stoically remained silent until I finished, and she exhaled a giant breath of relief before wiping away the tears that had formed in the corners of her eyes.

I re-wrapped the wound with another portion of moldy millet cake and cautioned her to stay off her feet as much as possible, and to walk slowly and carefully for the next week so she didn’t tear out her stitches. When I finished, Tizemt took my hand and held it against her cheek while looking at her father. “I believe my daughter is indicating her eagerness to hear your answer to my offer that she become another of your wives,” he chuckled.

You could have knocked me over with a feather. I definitely hadn’t seen that coming. “I would be honored, but I want to make sure she understands that my home is a three-month journey across the desert from here,” I warned. Once Izem translated my caveat, she nodded her understanding, beaming even more than her parents were.

They don’t waste time here. We were hurriedly ushered to a small grove of about fifteen trees inside the castle walls where their priest quickly performed the marriage ceremony. When the ceremony was over, the priest attached a three-inch-wide gold choker-type necklace around her neck. Then he pinned two gold hair combs with a sunburst pattern on them in her hair. A second necklace fashioned out of inch long and half-inch thick tubes of gold went around her neck and draped down into her cleavage. He then wrapped a gold bracelet around each forearm. Each bracelet was shaped like a coiled serpent with a sunburst for the head. Finally, he slipped a gold ring with the sunburst pattern onto her ring finger.

Her father explained the jewelry were symbols now proclaiming her a member of the Royal Family because women weren’t recognized until they married.

Tizemt was beaming even wider now, although I kind of felt sorry for her. That gold had to weigh at least ten pounds. After an emotional hug from both parents, Tizemt eagerly claimed my arm, promptly ignored my earlier admonition to stay off her feet, and dragged me out into the town to show off her new marital status. At least I got her to agree to ride a horse instead of walking.

While we rode, she explained that her father had been growing impatient with her continued refusal to choose one of the constant parade of suitors who came to the palace. All her life she watched the men who came to the palace, and watched the rehearsed way they acted and the airs they put on. Many of the most prestigious and pompous men were rumored to treat their wives poorly.

Even in the condition she was in yesterday, she recognized that I was not trying to make myself out to be more than I was. My comment minimizing my medical ability floored her. Most men would claim to be much better than they were. She also overheard parts of the conversation between her mother and father when he told her what some of the camel pullers told the men he had prowling around Oualata. They heard that my men stood defiantly by my side facing a superior number of bandits and defeated them handily with only two men slightly injured. I’d been personally responsible for the deaths of at least ten of the bandits without suffering so much as a scratch.

Hearing that I gave the injured camels to the pullers who cared for them and gave away the bandits’ weapons and clothing to the pullers, stunned her. Never had she heard of a merchant being so generous.

Seeing or hearing about the new, exciting items I gave her father also surprised her. Most merchants would give the King a gift that wasn’t too exorbitant to gain his favor. Each one of the numerous gifts I gave him was worth much more than what another merchant would give him. She told her father last night that she would accept me as a husband, and then sent her slaves into town last night and the marketplace early this morning to find out everything they could about me. She didn’t learn anything new, but the women were still talking excitedly about me when we got to her room.

Izem was in town purchasing things to take back to sell. I asked him how to go about buying slaves as I hoped to take back a large number. I explained that they would become indentured servants for eight years and would then be free. They would also be free to marry, anytime, if they wanted. Izem’s eyes just kept widening. I planned to have one man and one woman riding each camel on the way back to speed up our return.

He explained that we would need a large pavilion style tent for every twenty-five slaves and lots of food and water. Izem said he’d see to it since he was nearly done with his purchasing. When I said something about ivory, Tizemt guided me to a merchant she knew of. She was a whiz at dickering, and I quickly found myself the proud owner of all twenty tusks that he had. He promised to have them delivered to the palace before dark.

At dinner, I made one of my two pitches to the King. He wasn’t sure how to react when I told him that I knew of a gold mining area just as rich as the one they now mined. At first, he was afraid that word about the location of the current gold area where they panned for gold had gotten out. I assured him that it hadn’t, and that I had no idea exactly where they were currently panning gold. I just had a vague idea how much gold they produced each year and knew this new area would produce just as much. “And what do you expect in return?” he asked warily.

I admitted that I had practiced and practiced dickering, but still felt that the system relied on lying to each other, something I didn’t like doing. Instead, I suggested that I would tell him where it was or take him there. The decision to open the gold field or not would be his alone. If he did open it, I felt that a quarter of what it produced was a fair price.

“That’s a very fair offer ... I probably would have agreed to give you a third,” he replied, grinning.

“You’ll need the extra to pay for the rum, sugar, and weapons I bring to sell you,” I retorted.

King Reba broke out in laughter. “You are indeed a wise merchant,” he laughed. Tizemt beamed.

I told him that I would send him three ships he could use to transport people, cargo, or troops up and down the river that flowed from Bamako through their lands to the ocean. I explained how the ships had been sunk trying to attack my city. We pulled them onto the beach and repaired them. Being used to the much smaller craft that plied the river’s waters carrying up to ten people or so, he was surprised to hear each boat would hold over two hundred people. Then I told him we had huge ships that sailed on the ocean and could easily carry more cargo than the caravan. The smallest one might even be able to sail up the river all the way to Bamako.

Tizemt was definitely an enthusiastic lover. She had the most blissful look on her face the next morning, much to the delight of her parents. This morning, all forty-three of King Reba’s wives joined us at breakfast, officially meeting Tizemt’s new husband. I’d already seen many of them peeking at us from around corners. Evidently, Izza, Tizemt’s mother, was the number one wife. I spent the rest of the day preparing for our trip south to the gold field. Tizemt was upset that I was leaving so soon but brightened when I told her she could help Izem procure slaves, as well as food and accommodations for the slaves. King Reba said he would give us five hundred slaves as a wedding gift.

We left on horseback, instead of on camels, thank God. Ten of my men and ten of King Reba’s men accompanied us. I knew immediately that we’d need to bring saddles and alfalfa seeds to sell on the next trip.

It took five days to get to the section of the river where the gold was. I immediately saw the first problem peering at us from just beneath the surface of the water, crocodiles! Five minutes of hunting in the jungle along the river garnered us four animals that looked like little pigs with a set of vicious looking tusks. Throwing the dead body of the first one into about a foot of water brought an immediate, angry, thrashing, response from four large crocodiles. The crocodiles drew an equally immediate response from my archers. An hour later, the fourth little pig’s body floated lazily down the river until it was out of sight. Nineteen dead crocodiles graced the shoreline. I panned for gold under the watchful eyes of my archers and hit pay dirt. We panned for the rest of the day and then the king’s men skinned the crocodiles and prepared steaks from the tails for our dinner. I was surprised at how good the steaks tasted.

For two more days, we made our way upriver until the alluvial gold deposits stopped. The King had asked why I continued looking upstream after locating the goldfield. “To find the source of the gold,” I answered.

“The river isn’t the source?” he asked.

I explained that gold started out as bits of pure ore mixed in the rocks. Rain would wear away the rocks and wash the gold into the river. Since gold was so heavy, it often caught behind rocks or in the sand where the water moved slowly. I was looking for the rocks where the gold originated, hoping to find even more gold. When I asked, he admitted that they never thought to look for the source of the gold at the other goldfield, something I’d already surmised.

I taught two of his men how to search. I explained the process as I leapfrogged my way upriver until there was no more gold, then backtracked to find where the gold first entered the river. At that point, it was a matter of working away from the river, frequently along another river or stream. If you were searching another river or stream, you would search it like the big river, leapfrogging until the gold nuggets and flakes stopped. Then you began searching inland for the source. Frequently it was white quartz rocks with gold mixed into the rock. Then you mined it like copper, crushing and heating the rock to melt the gold.

I let his two men do the searching after that, keeping one eye on them and the other on the river watching for crocodiles. He sent four of his men to buy horses or camels from a nearby village. We hadn’t planned to carry goods back with us. The horses we had were for carrying our supplies. The men took one of the packhorses with them, carrying the meat from six crocodile tails to sell rather than waste it by letting it spoil.

By the time they got back with six more horses, we’d found the source of the gold. It was up a side river about six miles. The hill seemed to be one large quartz deposit. After making sure the small river was crocodile-free, we panned for gold while waiting for the men to get back with the horses. Even the King got dirty with us laughing as he pulled several nuggets and a lot of gold dust from every pan of sand. We each had five or six pounds of gold by the time the men got back with the horses, and we shared it with them.