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Electric and Plug-in
Hybrid Vehicle
Networks
O P T I M I Z AT I O N A N D C O N T R O L
AUTOMATION AND CONTROL ENGINEERING
A Series of Reference Books and Textbooks
Series Editors
FRANK L. LEWIS, Ph.D., SHUZHI SAM GE, Ph.D.,
Fellow IEEE, Fellow IFAC Fellow IEEE
Professor Professor
The Univeristy of Texas Research Institute Interactive Digital Media Institute
The University of Texas at Arlington The National University of Singapore
STJEPAN BOGDAN
Professor
Faculty of Electrical Engineering
and Computing
University of Zagreb
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300
Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742
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Preface xiii
Acronyms xv
1.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Benefits and Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.3 Contribution of the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.2 Causes for Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.2 Energy Consumption in Road Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.3 Distribution of Charging Facilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.4 Interaction with the Power Grid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.2 Traffic Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.2.1 Basic Notions of Markov Chains and Graph Theory . 17
4.2.2 Basic Markovian Model of Traffic Dynamics . . . . . . 19
4.2.3 Benefits of Using Markov Chain to Model Mobility
Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
4.2.4 Energy Consumption in a Markov Chain Traffic Model
of EVs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
4.2.5 Dealing with Negative Entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.3 Sample Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4.3.1 Traffic Load Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
vii
viii Contents
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5.2 Examples of Selfish Routing for EVs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
5.3 Collaborative Routing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
5.3.1 A Motivating Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
5.3.2 Collaborative Routing under Feedback . . . . . . . . . 41
5.4 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
6.2 Stochastic Balancing for Charging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
6.3 Basic Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
6.3.1 Charging Stations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
6.3.2 Electric Vehicles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
6.3.3 Protocol Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
6.4 Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
6.4.1 Quality of Service Analysis: Balancing Behavior . . . . 49
6.4.2 Quality of Service Analysis: Waiting Times . . . . . . 50
6.5 Simulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
6.6 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
7 Charging EVs 57
7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
7.2 EV Charging Schemes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
7.2.1 Control Architectures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
7.2.2 Communication Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
7.2.3 Degree of Control Actuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
7.2.4 Supported Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
7.2.5 Control Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
7.2.6 Measurement and Forecasting Requirements . . . . . . 64
7.2.7 Operational Time Scales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
7.2.8 Charging Policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
7.3 Specific Charging Algorithms for Plug-In EVs . . . . . . . . 65
7.3.1 Management Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
7.3.2 Binary Automaton Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
7.3.3 AIMD Type Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
7.4 Test Scenarios . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
7.4.1 Domestic Charging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Contents ix
8 Vehicle to Grid 81
8.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
8.2 V2G and G2V Management of EVs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
8.2.1 Assumptions and Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
8.2.2 Management of Active/Reactive Power Exchange . . . 83
8.2.3 V2G Power Flows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
8.3 Unintended Consequences of V2G Operations . . . . . . . . 86
8.3.1 Utility Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
8.3.2 Optimization Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
8.3.3 Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
8.3.4 Alternative Cost Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
8.4 Concluding Remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
10.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
10.2 On Types of Range Anxiety . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
10.3 Problem Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
10.3.1 Data Analysis and Plausibility of Assumptions . . . . 100
10.3.2 Comments on NTS Dataset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
10.4 Mathematical Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
10.4.1 Model 1: Binomial Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
10.4.2 Model 2: A Queueing Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
10.4.3 Two Opportunities for Control Theory . . . . . . . . . 107
10.5 Financial Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
10.5.1 Range Anxiety Model (VW Golf vs. Nissan Leaf) . . . 111
10.5.2 Range Anxiety Model with a Range of Vehicle Sizes . 112
10.5.3 Financial Assumptions and Key Conclusions . . . . . 113
10.5.4 Long-Term Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
10.6 Reduction of Fleet Emissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
x Contents
Postface 213
References 215
Index 235
Preface
This book describes work carried out by the authors and their co-authors
during the period 2011-2017. From its beginnings at the Hamilton Institute in
Ireland, the work eventually embraced a rich network of researchers in several
disciplines from across the globe, involving collaborators from North America,
Europe, Australia and Asia, and researchers from both academia and industry.
As we have mentioned, this book describes work carried out not only by
the authors, but also by a host of other collaborators, to all of whom we owe
a huge debt of gratitude.
First and foremost, we would like to thank our Ph.D. and Masters
students who worked directly on this topic. In particular, we would like to
mention and acknowledge the contributions of Arieh Schlote, and Florian
Hausler who were (along with Sonja) our first students working on this topic,
as well as the more recent contributions of Mingming Liu, Yingqi Gu, and
Eoin Thompson. All of the aforementioned contributed greatly to our EV
work, and many of our joint results are reported in this book.
xiii
xiv Electric and Plug-in Hybrid Vehicle Networks
Robert Shorten also thanks ESB swimming club for facilitating work on
this manuscript during the long winter training sessions of 2016-17.
Finally, we thank CRC Press -Taylor & Francis for giving us the opportu-
nity to write this book. In particular, we would like to thank Nora Konopka
for supporting this project, Kyra Lindholm for coordinating the manuscript
preparation, Karen Simon for handling the final production, Shashi Ku-
mar for his LaTeX assistance, and John Gandour for designing the book cover.
AI Additive Increase.
EV Electric Vehicle.
HIL Hardware-in-the-Loop.
xv
xvi Electric and Plug-in Hybrid Vehicle Networks
KKT Karush-Kuhn-Tucker.
MD Multiplicative Decrease.
PV Photovoltaics.
1.1 Introduction
Growing concerns over the limited supply of fossil-based fuels are motivating
intense activity in the search for alternative road transportation propulsion
systems. In addition, regulatory pressures to reduce urban pollution, CO2
emissions and city noise have made plug-in electric vehicles [23, 166] a very
attractive choice as the alternative to the internal combustion engine [140].
However, despite the enormous benefits of such vehicles, their adoption and
uptake has, to this point, been disappointing. In this chapter we shall outline
some of the impediments to electric vehicles, and discuss some of the solu-
tions to these problems that will be addressed in this book, as well as other
opportunities that arise when using this new form of mobility.
1
2 Electric and Plug-in Hybrid Vehicle Networks
produce electricity for the electric drive. Also, in most cases PHEVs can
be used in a full electric mode if there is enough energy stored in the
battery. This allows one to select when and where to release pollutants.
This functionality shall be used in some applications discussed in the book.
Electric Ve-
hicles (EVs)
FIGURE 1.1
Classification of some different EV types
While the deployment of plug-in EVs can give rise to various environmen-
tal and health improvements, their adoption to date has been disappointing.
According to initial reports [6], even in Europe, where the green agenda was
well received, fewer than 12 000 EVs were sold in the first half of 2012 (of
which only 1000 of these were sold in the UK). This number represented less
than 0.15% of total new car sales in that year. These figures were in spite
of the fact that many European governments had offered incentives for the
purchase of EVs in the form of subsidies and had also invested in enabling
infrastructure. There are however hints that the numbers may soon dramati-
cally change. For instance, growing 59% year over year (YoY), approximately
12 000 electric cars were sold across the US in January 2017, accounting for
Introduction to Electric Vehicles 3
7 Some of these issues lead to changes in driver behavior when faced with the need
to increase range. For example, in [194], behavioral adaptations (in response to limited
available energy) were observed among participants of a study group, who were leased a
battery EV for a year. Some of these behavioral adaptations included turning off the air
conditioning or heater and driving more slowly, as well as swapping vehicles with other
users.
Introduction to Electric Vehicles 5
range and long charging times, i.e. range anxiety. A major issue in this
context is charge point anxiety - that is the angst associated with not
being able to access a charge point when needed.
4. Electromagnetic emissions: Another issue regarding EVs concerns elec-
tromagnetic emissions. While there is no evidence that electromagnetic
radiation from EVs is dangerous, this issue is a focus point for regulatory
authorities (see e.g. the EU Green Car Programme) and has been raised
by several research agencies [7].
5. Battery related issues: A further concern is whether enough lithium
can be sourced to build batteries to construct enough vehicles to replace
the existing passenger vehicle fleet. Are we simply substituting one rare
resource (oil) with another (lithium)? Also, the transportation of batteries
is not trivial and necessitates special precautions [126, 9]. Finally, most
reasonably sized batteries are not capable of realizing the range enjoyed
by conventional ICE based vehicles, which comes in play in regard to
the above mentioned issue of range anxiety. While this latter issue is the
subject of much research, battery size and performance currently represent
one of the major determinants in the design of EVs today [14, 13].
To this end we partitioned the book into four parts. The first part of the
book is concerned with energy management. Topics that we shall consider
include: plug-and-play infrastructure for charging fleets of vehicles; how
energy is dissipated in electric vehicles; how to avoid queuing at charging
stations; routing of EVs to consume energy efficiently; and a consideration of
some of the unintended consequence of plug-in EV usage.
The second part of the book will consider using ideas from the sharing
economy to better share “road electrification”. Topics that we shall consider
include: on demand mobility for EVs; and the sharing of personal charge
points.
The third part of the book will focus on the actuation possibilities
afforded by the use of PHEVs. By judiciously selecting when/where one
6 Electric and Plug-in Hybrid Vehicle Networks
Finally, the last part of the book discusses analytics that can be used
to support the design and testing of electro mobility (E-mobility) concepts
without the need for large scale fleet testing.
2
Disruption in the Automotive Industry
2.1 Introduction
This is one of the most exciting times for working in the automotive indus-
try. In the past few years, many disruptive forces have emerged and these are
empowering real change in the way cars are sold, used and conceived. Driven
by examples of companies in other industry branches that did not respond to
disruptive technologies, most notably Kodak [55], automotive Original Equip-
ment Manufacturers (OEMs) are currently embracing these new technologies
and searching for new ways to deliver mobility to consumers, and to monetize
mobility platforms. It is in the context of this changing landscape that this
book is written.
7
8 Electric and Plug-in Hybrid Vehicle Networks
Much of the work that we shall describe is motivated by some of the forces
described above. Our particular perspective is on the networks of EVs and how
these can be orchestrated in a manner that derives maximal benefit for the
user of the vehicle and for society. As we shall see, this perspective shall lead
to a rich exploration involving distributed control and optimization, queueing
theory, as well as some new ideas in electro-mobility.
1 http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/norway-to-ban-
the-sale-of-all-fossil-fuel-based-cars-by-2025-and-replace-with-electric-
vehicles-a7065616.html. Last Accessed July 2017.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
This must not, however, lead any one to be careless about
wounds from poisoned arrows: some are always mortal. The stuff
with which they are smeared consists of wax and kuna, or extract of
a common gum, forming a very strong poison which, however,
quickly loses its efficacy. The best thing to do when struck by such
an arrow is to burn the wound immediately, or to inject chloride of
gold all round it under the skin. A simpler treatment still is just to fill
the wound with gunpowder and set fire to it; but this is rather too
Spartan a remedy for everybody.
Our market was the chief excitement of the morning, for in it we
could study typical natives, and note the special peculiarities of each.
The population of Say and the surrounding districts is very mixed,
including Songhays, Fulahs, Haussas, Djermankobes, Macimankes,
Mossi, Gurunsi, Kurteyes, etc., each with cicatrized wounds of a
different kind on their faces, as is the case with so many African
tribes.
The market, too, is the best place for getting reliable news, and
besides, the very attitude of the different traders towards each other
is a revelation of the state of feeling in the country. If a great many
assembled it was a sign that all was going on well for us, that the
report of the French Expedition was spreading, and that Amadu
Saturu was likely to come to his senses about us. If the attendance
at the market fell off, however, it was a sign that hostile columns
were being called together, why we could not tell, but probably to
attack us; or again some new check was to be put upon our buying
or selling. Once indeed Amadu made a feeble effort to reduce us by
famine, and our supply of sheep was stopped for a time. But a threat
made to Osman on purpose that he should repeat it, that we would
go and fetch the sheep from Say for ourselves, was immediately
successful, for the next day the best and cheapest animals we had
yet procured were brought to us. We never ate better mutton before
or since.
TYPICAL NATIVES AT THE FORT ARCHINARD MARKET.
Whilst the market was going on, Taburet used to prescribe for
many natives who came to consult him. But carelessness and
ignorance work terrible havoc among the negroes everywhere.
There would be plenty for a doctor to do who cared to study
diseases now become rare in civilized countries. From amongst the
patients who came to Taburet, a grand or rather terrible list of
miraculous cures might have been drawn up. These patients
included men and women suffering from tubercular and syphilitic
diseases, which had been allowed to run their dread course
unchecked by any remedies whatever; many too were blind or
afflicted with goitre and elephantiasis, whilst there were numerous
lepers. Few, however, were troubled with nervous complaints. It was
indeed difficult to prescribe for such cases as came before the good
doctor; indeed it would often have been quite impossible for his
instructions to be carried out. Many poor cripples came from a long
distance to consult the white doctor, expecting to be made whole
immediately, when they were really incurable. Where, however,
would have been the good of prescribing cleanliness, when one of
their most used remedies is to smear any wound with mud and cow-
dung mixed together, the eyes of ophthalmic patients even being
treated with the horrible stuff? Where would be the good of ordering
them nourishing food such as gravy beef, when they are too poor to
get it? Good wine? Even if we could have supplied them with it, they
would have flung it away with horror, for they are Mussulmans.
Quinine then? Its bitterness would have made them suspect poison.
They all came expecting miracles, and all that could be done for
them was to paint their sore places with iodine, and to give them
various lotions and antiseptic dressings, or a solution of iodide of
potassium, and so on, from the use of which they would, most of
them, obtain no benefit at all.
Taburet was consulted about all sorts of things. For instance, a
pretty Fulah woman from Saga with a pale complexion and engaging
manners had got into trouble. She had overstepped the bounds of
reserve prescribed in her tribe to young girls, and was soon to
become a mother. Well, she came timidly to the doctor to ask for
medicines for her case, and when it was explained to her that that
case was incurable, for the French law forbids the destruction of life,
she went away, only to return the next day with her mother. The latter
explained that if she and her daughter returned to their village as
things were, they would both be stoned to death, or at least, if their
judges were merciful, be put in irons for the rest of their lives. The
young girl was pretty, many men in her village had asked her in
marriage, but she had refused them all. All her people were now
eager to revenge themselves on her, and to apply in all their terrible
rigour, the “just Mussulman laws.” She had neither father, brother,
nor any one to defend her. Her seducer had deserted her, and it is
not customary amongst the Fulahs to make inquiries as to the father
of illegitimate children.
The people of Say had recommended the mother in mockery to
take her girl to the Christians, she was good for nothing else now,
they said. If we could not cure her, there was nothing left for them to
do but to hide themselves in the fetich-worshipping village of Gurma,
where they would lead a miserable life, unnoticed and unknown.
The two poor women with tears in their eyes knelt to the doctor
imploring his help, and crying Safarikoy! Safarikoy! and I asked
myself, what would be the duty of a doctor in this bigoted land if he
had had the necessary instruments for meeting the unfortunate girl’s
wishes. Perhaps it was as well that in this case nothing could be
done.
All the same this domestic drama was very heart-rending. I tried
for a long time to console our visitors. The old woman stuck to her
request for medicine, and promised to reward us with everything she
could think of likely to please us. She even offered us her daughter,
saying that she might remain with us, and could follow us wherever
we went.
I told Digui to get rid of them as gently as possible, and gave them
a good present to enable them to reach some heathen village where
the people would have pity on them. They departed at last, the
mother’s tears soaking her tattered garments, the daughter following
her, her little feet swollen with walking, and her head drooping in her
despair.
À propos of this episode, Suleyman the interpreter held forth in
the following strain—“From the earliest times prophets, marabouts,
and the negro chiefs who founded the religious dynasty of the
country, have been terribly severe on any lapse from morality
amongst their women, but it is all humbug, for most of the marabouts
are the fathers of illegitimate children.
“Amongst Amadu’s people the man and woman who have sinned
are deprived of all their property, but Abdul Bubakar goes still further,
for he sacks the entire village to which a frail woman belongs, a
capital way of getting slaves and everything else. In other districts
the woman is put in irons, but the man goes free; but if the seducer
comes forward and owns his crime, he can obtain remission of the
punishment by payment of a large sum to the chief of the village;
generally, however, the unfortunate girl dies in her chains.
“Such are the manners and customs of the Mussulmans, and God
alone knows what their women are really like.
“Samory used to kill both the guilty parties, but Tieba, his enemy
and neighbour, professed an amiable kind of philosophy on the
subject of the weaker sex and the ways of women. When Samory
was conquered by Tieba, the chief auxiliaries of the latter were the
nomad Diulas who were strangers in the land. These Diulas had
come to the district by way of Sikasso, where they had met with
women of free and easy manners, and had been driven by the force
of circumstances to remain amongst them, adopting their ways. Now
it generally happens amongst the negroes, that those who have
travelled much and seen something of the world are not only brave
but sensible and free from bigotry.
WOMEN OF SAY.
FORT ARCHINARD.
I cannot too often insist on the fact that it was, thanks to the daily
dose of quinine regularly administered by order to every member of
the expedition, that we owe our safe return in good health, and with
appetites unimpaired.
We owe to it, too, the fact that in spite of many fevers in past
days, we actually had gained, on our return to Paris, not only in
weight, but in our power of enjoying a joke.
Last January, after my return to France, I had been giving an
account at a public meeting of the results of my expedition, and my
companions and I were going down the staircase of the Sorbonne,
attended by a considerable crowd, when two gentlemen, radiant with
health, evidently from the French colonies, and geographers, else
why were they there? exchanged their impressions as they passed
us. “Pooh,” said one of them, shrugging his shoulders, “they have
not even got dirty heads!”
After lunch we all went to take a little siesta, or at least to rest
during the great heat of the day. The siesta, though so much in use
in the tropics, is really a very bad habit, and many ailments of the
stomach are caused by it. It is really better only to indulge in a
noonday nap after exceptional fatigue; but of course it is a very
different matter just to avoid active exercise immediately after a
meal, and to read quietly without going to sleep. To wind up all this
advice to future travellers in the Sudan, let me just add this one more
word, “Do as I say rather than as I did.”
Many of the coolies did not go to sleep in the resting hour, but
chatted together about the news of the day, or gave each other a
little elementary instruction, for negroes, even when grown up, are
very fond of teaching and of being taught. Their ambition, however,
is generally limited to learning to write a letter to their friends or
family. They take great delight in corresponding with the absent, and
I have known young fellows in the Sudan who spend nearly all their
salaries in sending telegraphic despatches to their friends. I knew
others, amongst whom was Baudry’s servant, who gave up most of
their free time at Say to writing letters which never reached their
destination, for a very good reason. They were all much in the style
of the one quoted below—
“Dear Mr. Fili Kanté,—I write to inform you that the Niger
Hydrographical Expedition has arrived at Fort Archinard, and that,
thanks to God, all are well. When you write to me, send me news of
my father and mother, and my friends at Diamu (the writer’s native
village). I shall be very pleased, too, if you will send the twelve
samba (sembé) (coverlets), four horses, ten sheep, etc.
“With my best greetings, dear Mr. Fili Kanté.
“(Signed) Mussa Diakhite
(in the service of Mr. Baudry.)”
Might you not fancy this letter, with all its decorative strokes, to be
one from the soldier Dumanet to his parents? Nothing is wanted to
complete the resemblance, not even the attempt to fleece his
correspondent.
Besides these lovers of correspondence, there were others who
were mad about arithmetic. Samba Demba, Suzanne’s groom,
already often mentioned, wanted to know enough arithmetic to
matriculate. All through the hour of the siesta, and often also when
he was at work, he was muttering the most absurd numbers over to
himself; absurd for him, at least, for the negroes who do not live
where the cowry serves as currency, cannot conceive the idea of any
number beyond a thousand. Samba Demba would read what he
called his “matricula” of nine figures and more, to Father Hacquart,
with the greatest complacency, whilst Ahmady-Mody, who had
patched up the Aube, strove in vain to learn b-a ba, b-e be, or twice
two are four, twice three are six, with his head bent over a big card.
The marabout Tierno Abdulaye actually composed and sung Arabic
verses. In the midst of it all the voice of Dr. Taburet would be heard
from his tent hard by complaining that he could not sleep.
All these good fellows, with their eagerness to learn, had a child-
like side to their characters. There is no doubt that they would very
quickly learn to read, write, and cipher, as the advertisements of
elementary schools express it—read without understanding too
much, write without knowing what, and calculate without ever being
able to apply their arithmetic. Anyhow, however, even this little
knowledge will wean them from the pernicious influence of the
marabouts.
After sunset the heat
became more bearable,
and the time for our
evening bath arrived. At
the northern extremity of
our island were a number
of pools amongst the
rocks, varying in depth
according to the tide. Here
and there were regular
cascades, and we could
stand on the sand bottom
and get a natural shower-
OUR COOLIES AT THEIR TOILETTE. bath. Some of us became
perfectly enamoured of
this style of bathing. Opinions differ in Africa as to the healthiness of
it, however. For my part, I know that bathing in the tepid water,
warmed as it was by the heat of the sun, was very refreshing, and of
course the cleaner we kept ourselves the better the pores of our skin
acted. It may be that stopping long in the water every day was
weakening, and some fevers may have been caused by it when it
happened to be colder than usual. There are two opinions on this as
on every subject, but where is the good of discussing them?—the
best plan is to do what you like yourself.
In the river near Fort Archinard there were lots of common fish,
which used to shoot down the cascades of an evening for the sake
of the greater freshness and coolness of the water below. These fish
would actually strike us now and then on the shoulders, making us
start by the suddenness of the unexpected blows. It was still more
unpleasant to know that other denizens of the river, the terrible
crocodiles, though further off, were still there.
Oh, what numbers of the horrible great grey creatures we used to
see floating down with the stream or lying about the banks! Some of
them had taken up their abode quite near to us, along the side of our
island, just where we used to do our fishing with the gun-cotton, but
their being close to us did not prevent either the coolies, or for the
matter of that the whites, from going into the river.
With sunset came the hour of supper or dinner, and what grand
sky effects we used to see whilst we were at that meal in these
winter quarters of ours! Our walls were flecked with every colour of
the rainbow, whilst in the east, above the sombre wooded banks,
would often rise red masses of curious-looking clouds, precursors of
the approaching tornado. Sometimes the sun had not quite set
before the lightning would begin to flash, and the thunder to roll
incessantly, sounding like the roar of artillery in battle. As we sat at
table we would discuss the situation: what would the tornado do this
time? Would our huts be able to bear up against it? Would much
water come in? “Make haste, Fili, bring us that nougat before it
rains!” said Bluzet. And were the barges securely moored? Had the
sentry got his cloak? and so on.
A WOMAN OF SAY.
Our men were in great despair. The charm which would have
brought luck to our camp was broken; but the parent birds, in spite of
the loss of their little ones, evidently determined to act as our
talisman to the end of our stay, for they continued to fly round and
round our tamarind, and to talk together of an evening, though sadly.
It was not until a few days before we left that they flew away towards
the north. Thanks to them, perhaps, we had a run of good luck to the
last.
The tornado freshened the atmosphere very considerably, and the
sudden change could only be fully realized by consulting the
thermometer. In five minutes the glass would sometimes fall from
forty-five to thirty degrees. A corresponding and sympathetic change
would take place in the state of our nerves; we could sleep a little if
only the mosquitoes would let us, but, alas! their droning never
ceased. Oh, that horrible music, which went on for ever without
mercy, causing us more anguish even than the bites, and against
which no curtain could protect.
The frogs, too, added to the droning of the mosquitoes what we
may call their peculiar Plain Songs or Gregorian chants. They were
very tame, showing no fear of us, but took up their abode here,
there, and everywhere: out in the open air, or in the huts, in our
books, under our tins, and in our water-vessels, and their ceaseless
singing in full solemn tones, echoed that of the distant choirs of their
wilder brethren chattering together amongst the grass by the river-
side. Although not composed on the spot, I cannot refrain from
quoting the following sonnet, produced by a member of our
expedition, and which forms a kind of sequel to the others I have
transcribed above—
LOVE-SONG.
In every country in the world fine weather comes after rain, and
the tornado was succeeded on the Niger by a star-light night of a
clearness and limpidity such as is never seen anywhere out of the
tropics. The soft murmur of the Niger was borne to us upon the
gentle night breeze, reminding us of the Fulah proverb—
“Ulululu ko tiaygueul, so mayo héwi, déguiet,” which may be
translated—
“Ulululu cries the brook, the big river is silent.”
A true description indeed of what really often seemed to happen
during our long imprisonment on our island, for we could hear the
gurgling of the rapid further down-stream, but the voice of the river
was hushed.
Our nights passed quietly enough, watch being always kept by
one white man, one black subordinate officer, and two coolies. From
Timbuktu to Lokodja, that is to say, from January 21 to October 21,
we five Europeans had taken the night-watch in turn. It must be
admitted that at Fort Archinard it was sometimes rather difficult to
remain awake, and to keep ourselves from yielding to our exhausting
fatigue. We had to resort to various manœuvres, such as pinching
ourselves, bathing our feet, wrists, or head, and walking rapidly up
and down. Sometimes, as one or another of us sat in Father
Hacquart’s folding-chair, looking out upon the moon-lit scene, there
was something very charming about the silence and repose, and as
we have already given several quotations of poetical effusions, I
think I must add just one more on the night-watch, also composed by
one of our party.
NIGHT-WATCH.
Our one safe road, the river, was blocked above and below the
camp, for we had a rapid up-stream and a rapid down-stream, so
that even quite small canoes could not pass.
There has been much talk of winter in the Arctic regions, and of
course such a winter is always very severe, but the one we passed
at Say was simply miserable. I really do think that the fact of all five
of us Europeans having survived it, is a proof that we were endowed
with a great amount of energy and vitality.
The temperature had much to do with our sufferings. It increased
steadily until June, and then remained pretty stationary. The