Transcribed from the 1893 Cassell & Company edition by David Price, email
ccx074@pglaf.org

                        CASSELL’S NATIONAL LIBRARY

                                * * * * *





                                 TRAVELS
                                  IN THE
                            INTERIOR OF AFRICA


                                    BY
                                MUNGO PARK

                                 VOL. I.

                      [Picture: Decorative graphic]

                        CASSELL & COMPANY Limited
                       _LONDON  PARIS & MELBOURNE_
                                   1893




INTRODUCTION


MUNGO PARK was born on the 10th of September, 1771, the son of a farmer
at Fowlshiels, near Selkirk.  After studying medicine in Edinburgh, he
went out, at the age of twenty-one, assistant-surgeon in a ship bound for
the East Indies.  When he came back the African Society was in want of an
explorer, to take the place of Major Houghton, who had died.  Mungo Park
volunteered, was accepted, and in his twenty-fourth year, on the 22nd of
May, 1795, he sailed for the coasts of Senegal, where he arrived in June.

Thence he proceeded on the travels of which this book is the record.  He
was absent from England for a little more than two years and a half;
returned a few days before Christmas, 1797.  He was then twenty-six years
old.  The African Association published the first edition of his travels
as “Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa, 1795–7, by Mungo Park,
with an Appendix containing Geographical Illustrations of Africa, by
Major Rennell.”

Park married, and settled at Peebles in medical practice, but was
persuaded by the Government to go out again.  He sailed from Portsmouth
on the 30th of January, 1805, resolved to trace the Niger to its source
or perish in the attempt.  He perished.  The natives attacked him while
passing through a narrow strait of the river at Boussa, and killed him,
with all that remained of his party, except one slave.  The record of
this fatal voyage, partly gathered from his journals, and closed by
evidences of the manner of his death, was first published in 1815, as
“The Journal of a Mission to the Interior of Africa in 1805, by Mungo
Park, together with other Documents, Official and Private, relating to
the same Mission.  To which is prefixed an Account of the Life of Mr.
Park.”

                                                                     H. M.




CHAPTER I.
JOURNEY FROM PORTSMOUTH TO THE GAMBIA.


SOON after my return from the East Indies in 1793, having learned that
the noblemen and gentlemen associated for the purpose of prosecuting
discoveries in the interior of Africa were desirous of engaging a person
to explore that continent, by the way of the Gambia river, I took
occasion, through means of the President of the Royal Society, to whom I
had the honour to be known, of offering myself for that service.  I had
been informed that a gentleman of the name of Houghton, a captain in the
army, and formerly fort-major at Goree, had already sailed to the Gambia,
under the direction of the Association, and that there was reason to
apprehend he had fallen a sacrifice to the climate, or perished in some
contest with the natives.  But this intelligence, instead of deterring me
from my purpose, animated me to persist in the offer of my services with
the greater solicitude.  I had a passionate desire to examine into the
productions of a country so little known, and to become experimentally
acquainted with the modes of life and character of the natives.  I knew
that I was able to bear fatigue, and I relied on my youth and the
strength of my constitution to preserve me from the effects of the
climate.  The salary which the committee allowed was sufficiently large,
and I made no stipulation for future reward.  If I should perish in my
journey, I was willing that my hopes and expectations should perish with
me; and if I should succeed in rendering the geography of Africa more
familiar to my countrymen, and in opening to their ambition and industry
new sources of wealth and new channels of commerce, I knew that I was in
the hands of men of honour, who would not fail to bestow that
remuneration which my successful services should appear to them to merit.
The committee of the Association having made such inquiries as they
thought necessary, declared themselves satisfied with the qualifications
that I possessed, and accepted me for the service; and, with that
liberality which on all occasions distinguishes their conduct, gave me
every encouragement which it was in their power to grant, or which I
could with propriety ask.

It was at first proposed that I should accompany Mr. James Willis, who
was then recently appointed consul at Senegambia, and whose countenance
in that capacity, it was thought, might have served and protected me; but
Government afterwards rescinded his appointment, and I lost that
advantage.  The kindness of the committee, however, supplied all that was
necessary.  Being favoured by the secretary of the Association, the late
Henry Beaufoy, Esq., with a recommendation to Dr. John Laidley (a
gentleman who had resided many years at an English factory on the banks
of the Gambia), and furnished with a letter of credit on him for £200, I
took my passage in the brig _Endeavour_—a small vessel trading to the
Gambia for beeswax and ivory, commanded by Captain Richard Wyatt—and I
became impatient for my departure.

My instructions were very plain and concise.  I was directed, on my
arrival in Africa, “to pass on to the river Niger, either by way of
Bambouk, or by such other route as should be found most convenient.  That
I should ascertain the course, and, if possible, the rise and termination
of that river.  That I should use my utmost exertions to visit the
principal towns or cities in its neighbourhood, particularly Timbuctoo
and Houssa; and that I should be afterwards at liberty to return to
Europe, either by the way of the Gambia, or by such other route as, under
all the then existing circumstances of my situation and prospects, should
appear to me to be most advisable.”

We sailed from Portsmouth on the 22nd day of May, 1795.  On the 4th of
June we saw the mountains over Mogadore, on the coast of Africa; and on
the 21st of the same month, after a pleasant voyage of thirty days, we
anchored at Jillifrey, a town on the northern bank of the river Gambia,
opposite to James’s Island, where the English had formerly a small fort.

The kingdom of Barra, in which the town of Jillifrey is situated,
produces great plenty of the necessaries of life; but the chief trade of
the inhabitants is in salt, which commodity they carry up the river in
canoes as high as Barraconda, and bring down in return Indian corn,
cotton cloths, elephants’ teeth, small quantities of gold dust, &c.  The
number of canoes and people constantly employed in this trade makes the
king of Barra more formidable to Europeans than any other chieftain on
the river; and this circumstance probably encouraged him to establish
those exorbitant duties which traders of all nations are obliged to pay
at entry, amounting to nearly £20 on every vessel, great and small.
These duties or customs are generally collected in person by the
_alkaid_, or governor of Jillifrey, and he is attended on these occasions
by a numerous train of dependants, among whom are found many who, by
their frequent intercourse with the English, have acquired a smattering
of our language: but they are commonly very noisy and very troublesome,
begging for everything they fancy with such earnestness and importunity,
that traders, in order to get quit of them, are frequently obliged to
grant their requests.

On the 23rd we departed from Jillifrey, and proceeded to Vintain, a town
situated about two miles up a creek on the southern side of the river.
This place is much resorted to by Europeans on account of the great
quantities of beeswax which are brought hither for sale; the wax is
collected in the woods by the Feloops, a wild and unsociable race of
people.  Their country, which is of considerable extent, abounds in rice;
and the natives supply the traders, both on the Gambia and Cassamansa
rivers, with that article, and also with goats and poultry, on very
reasonable terms.  The honey which they collect is chiefly used by
themselves in making a strong intoxicating liquor, much the same as the
mead which is produced from honey in Great Britain.

In their traffic with Europeans, the Feloops generally employ a factor or
agent of the Mandingo nation, who speaks a little English, and is
acquainted with the trade of the river.  This broker makes the bargain;
and, with the connivance of the European, receives a certain part only of
the payment, which he gives to his employer as the whole; the remainder
(which is very truly called the _cheating money_) he receives when the
Feloop is gone, and appropriates to himself as a reward for his trouble.

The language of the Feloops is appropriate and peculiar; and as their
trade is chiefly conducted, as hath been observed, by Mandingoes, the
Europeans have no inducement to learn it.

On the 26th we left Vintain, and continued our course up the river,
anchoring whenever the tide failed us, and frequently towing the vessel
with the boat.  The river is deep and muddy; the banks are covered with
impenetrable thickets of mangrove; and the whole of the adjacent country
appears to be flat and swampy.

The Gambia abounds with fish, some species of which are excellent food;
but none of them that I recollect are known in Europe.  At the entrance
from the sea sharks are found in great abundance, and, higher up,
alligators and the hippopotamus (or river-horse) are very numerous.

In six days after leaving Vintain we reached Jonkakonda, a place of
considerable trade, where our vessel was to take in part of her lading.
The next morning the several European traders came from their different
factories to receive their letters, and learn the nature and amount of
her cargo; and the captain despatched a messenger to Dr. Laidley to
inform him of my arrival.  He came to Jonkakonda the morning following,
when I delivered him Mr. Beaufoy’s letter, and he gave me a kind
invitation to spend my time at his house until an opportunity should
offer of prosecuting my journey.  This invitation was too acceptable to
be refused, and being furnished by the Doctor with a horse and guide, I
set out from Jonkakonda at daybreak on the 5th of July, and at eleven
o’clock arrived at Pisania, where I was accommodated with a room and
other conveniences in the Doctor’s house.

Pisania is a small village in the king of Yany’s dominions, established
by British subjects as a factory for trade, and inhabited solely by them
and their black servants.  It is situated on the banks of the Gambia,
sixteen miles above Jonkakonda.  The white residents, at the time of may
arrival there, consisted only of Dr. Laidley, and two gentlemen who were
brothers, of the name of Ainsley; but their domestics were numerous.
They enjoyed perfect security under the king’s protection, and being
highly esteemed and respected by the natives at large, wanted no
accommodation or comfort which the country could supply, and the greatest
part of the trade in slaves, ivory, and gold was in their hands.

Being now settled for some time at my ease, my first object was to learn
the Mandingo tongue, being the language in almost general use throughout
this part of Africa, and without which I was fully convinced that I never
could acquire an extensive knowledge of the country or its inhabitants.
In this pursuit I was greatly assisted by Dr. Laidley.

In researches of this kind, and in observing the manners and customs of
the natives, in a country so little known to the nations of Europe, and
furnished with so many striking and uncommon objects of nature, my time
passed not unpleasantly, and I began to flatter myself that I had escaped
the fever, or seasoning, to which Europeans, on their first arrival in
hot climates, are generally subject.  But on the 31st of July I
imprudently exposed myself to the night-dew in observing an eclipse of
the moon, with a view to determine the longitude of the place; the next
day I found myself attacked with a smart fever and delirium, and such an
illness followed as confined me to the house during the greatest part of
August.  My recovery was very slow, but I embraced every short interval
of convalescence to walk out, and make myself acquainted with the
productions of the country.

In one of those excursions, having rambled farther than usual, on a hot
day, I brought on a return of my fever, and on the 10th of September I
was again confined to my bed.  The fever, however, was not so violent as
before; and in the course of three weeks I was able, when the weather
would permit, to renew my botanical excursions; and when it rained, I
amused myself with drawing plants, &c., in my chamber.  The care and
attention of Dr. Laidley contributed greatly to alleviate my sufferings;
his company and conversation beguiled the tedious hours during that
gloomy season, when the rain falls in torrents; when suffocating heats
oppress by day, and when the night is spent by the terrified travellers
in listening to the croaking of frogs (of which the numbers are beyond
imagination), the shrill cry of the jackal, and the deep howling of the
hyæna, a dismal concert, interrupted only by the roar of such tremendous
thunder as no person can form a conception of but those who have heard
it.

The country itself being an immense level, and very generally covered
with wood, presents a tiresome and gloomy uniformity to the eye; but
although Nature has denied to the inhabitants the beauties of romantic
landscapes, she has bestowed on them, with a liberal hand, the more
important blessings of fertility and abundance.  A little attention to
cultivation procures a sufficiency of corn, the fields afford a rich
pasturage for cattle, and the natives are plentifully supplied with
excellent fish, both from the Gambia river and the Walli creek.

The grains which are chiefly cultivated are—Indian corn (_zea mays_); two
kinds of _holcus spicatus_, called by the natives _soono_ and _sanio_;
_holcus niger_, and _holcus bicolor_, the former of which they have named
_bassi woolima_, and the latter _bassiqui_.  These, together with rice,
are raised in considerable quantities; besides which, the inhabitants in
the vicinity of the towns and villages have gardens which produce onions,
calavances, yams, cassavi, ground nuts, pompions, gourds, water-melons,
and some other esculent plants.

I observed likewise, near the towns, small patches of cotton and indigo.
The former of these articles supplies them with clothing, and with the
latter they dye their cloth of an excellent blue colour, in a manner that
will hereafter be described.

In preparing their corn for food, the natives use a large wooden mortar
called a _paloon_, in which they bruise the seed until it parts with the
outer covering, or husk, which is then separated from the clean corn by
exposing it to the wind, nearly in the same manner as wheat is cleared
from the chaff in England.  The corn thus freed from the husk is returned
to the mortar and beaten into meal, which is dressed variously in
different countries; but the most common preparation of it among the
nations of the Gambia is a sort of pudding which they call _kouskous_.
It is made by first moistening the flour with water, and then stirring
and shaking it about in a large calabash, or gourd, till it adheres
together in small granules resembling sago.  It is then put into an
earthen pot, whose bottom is perforated with a number of small holes; and
this pot being placed upon another, the two vessels are luted together
either with a paste of meal and water, or with cows’ dung, and placed
upon the fire.  In the lower vessel is commonly some animal food and
water, the steam or vapour of which ascends through the perforations in
the bottom of the upper vessel, and softens and the kouskous, which is
very much esteemed throughout all the countries that I visited.  I am
informed that the same manner of preparing flour is very generally used
on the Barbary coast, and that the dish so prepared is there called by
the same name.  It is therefore probable that the negroes borrowed the
practice from the Moors.

Their domestic animals are nearly the same as in Europe.  Swine are found
in the woods, but their flesh is not esteemed.  Probably the marked
abhorrence in which this animal is held by the votaries of Mohammed has
spread itself among the pagans.  Poultry of all kinds, the turkey
excepted, is everywhere to be had.  The guinea-fowl and red partridge
abound in the fields, and the woods furnish a small species of antelope,
of which the venison is highly and deservedly prized.

Of the other wild animals in the Mandingo countries, the most common are
the hyæna, the panther, and the elephant.  Considering the use that is
made of the latter in the East Indies, it may be thought extraordinary
that the natives of Africa have not, in any part of this immense
continent, acquired the skill of taming this powerful and docile
creature, and applying his strength and faculties to the service of man.
When I told some of the natives that this was actually done in the
countries of the East, my auditors laughed me to scorn, and exclaimed,
“_Tobaubo fonnio_!” (“A white man’s lie!”)  The negroes frequently find
means to destroy the elephant by firearms; they hunt it principally for
the sake of the teeth, which they transfer in barter to those who sell
them again to the Europeans.  The flesh they eat, and consider it as a
great delicacy.

On the 6th of October the waters of the Gambia were at the greatest
height, being fifteen feet above the high-water mark of the tide, after
which they began to subside, at first slowly, but afterwards very
rapidly, sometimes sinking more than a foot in twenty-four hours.  By the
beginning of November the river had sunk to its former level, and the
tide ebbed and flowed as usual.  When the river had subsided, and the
atmosphere grew dry, I recovered apace, and began to think of my
departure, for this is reckoned the most proper season for travelling.
The natives had completed their harvest, and provisions were everywhere
cheap and plentiful.

Dr. Laidley was at this time employed in a trading voyage at Jonkakonda.
I wrote to him to desire that he would use his interest with the
_slatees_, or slave-merchants, to procure me the company and protection
of the first _coffle_ (or caravan) that might leave Gambia for the
interior country; and, in the meantime, I requested him to purchase for
me a horse and two asses.  A few days afterwards the Doctor returned to
Pisania, and informed me that a coffle would certainly go for the
interior in the course of the dry season; but that, as many of the
merchants belonging to it had not yet completed their assortment of
goods, he could not say at what time they would set out.

As the characters and dispositions of the slatees, and people that
composed the caravan, were entirely unknown to me—and as they seemed
rather averse to my purpose, and unwilling to enter into any positive
engagements on my account—and the time of their departure being withal
very uncertain, I resolved, on further deliberation, to avail myself of
the dry season, and proceed without them.

Dr. Laidley approved my determination, and promised me every assistance
in his power to enable me to prosecute my journey with comfort and
safety.

This resolution having been formed, I made preparations accordingly.

And now, being about to take leave of my hospitable friend (whose
kindness and solicitude continued to the moment of my departure), and to
quit for many months the countries bordering on the Gambia, it seems
proper, before I proceed with my narrative, that I should in this place
give some account of the several negro nations which inhabit the banks of
this celebrated river, and the commercial intercourse that subsists
between them, and such of the nations of Europe as find their advantage
in trading to this part of Africa.  The observations which have occurred
to me on both these subjects will be found in the following chapter.




CHAPTER II.
LANGUAGE AND RELIGION OF THE NATIVES.


THE natives of the countries bordering on the Gambia, though distributed
into a great many distinct governments, may, I think, be divided into
four great classes—the Feloops, the Jaloffs, the Foulahs, and the
Mandingoes.  Among all these nations, the religion of Mohammed has made,
and continues to make, considerable progress; but in most of them the
body of the people, both free and enslaved, persevere in maintaining the
blind but harmless superstitions of their ancestors, and are called by
the Mohammedans _kafirs_, or infidels.

Of the Feloops, I have little to add to what has been observed concerning
them in the former chapter.  They are of a gloomy disposition, and are
supposed never to forgive an injury.  They are even said to transmit
their quarrels as deadly feuds to their posterity, insomuch that a son
considers it as incumbent on him, from a just sense of filial obligation,
to become the avenger of his deceased father’s wrongs.  If a man loses
his life in one of these sudden quarrels which perpetually occur at their
feasts, when the whole party is intoxicated with mead, his son, or the
eldest of his sons (if he has more than one), endeavours to procure his
father’s sandals, which he wears _once a year_, on the anniversary of his
father’s death, until a fit opportunity offers of revenging his fate,
when the object of his resentment seldom escapes his pursuit.  This
fierce and unrelenting disposition is, however, counterbalanced by many
good qualities: they display the utmost gratitude and affection towards
their benefactors, and the fidelity with which they preserve whatever is
entrusted to them is remarkable.  During the present war, they have more
than once taken up arms to defend our merchant vessels from French
privateers; and English property of considerable value has frequently
been left at Vintain for a long time entirely under the care of the
Feloops, who have uniformly manifested on such occasions the strictest
honesty and punctuality.  How greatly is it to be wished that the minds
of a people so determined and faithful could be softened and civilised by
the mild and benevolent spirit of Christianity!

The Jaloffs (or Yaloffs) are an active, powerful, and warlike race,
inhabiting great part of that tract which lies between the river Senegal
and the Mandingo states on the Gambia; yet they differ from the
Mandingoes not only in language, but likewise in complexion and features.
The noses of the Jaloffs are not so much depressed, nor the lips so
protuberant, as among the generality of Africans; and although their skin
is of the deepest black, they are considered by the white traders as the
most sightly negroes on this part of the continent.

Their language is said to be copious and significant, and is often learnt
by Europeans trading to Senegal.

The Foulahs (or Pholeys), such of them at least as reside near the
Gambia, are chiefly of a tawny complexion, with soft silky hair, and
pleasing features.  They are much attached to a pastoral life, and have
introduced themselves into all the kingdoms on the windward coast as
herdsmen and husbandmen, paying a tribute to the sovereign of the country
for the lands which they hold.  Not having many opportunities, however,
during my residence at Pisania, of improving my acquaintance with these
people, I defer entering at large into their character until a fitter
occasion occurs, which will present itself when I come to Bondou.

The Mandingoes, of whom it remains to speak, constitute, in truth, the
bulk of the inhabitants in all those districts of Africa which I visited;
and their language, with a few exceptions, is universally understood and
very generally spoken in that part of the continent.

They are called Mandingoes, I conceive, as having originally migrated
from the interior state of Manding, of which some account will hereafter
be given.

In every considerable town there is a chief magistrate, called the
_alkaid_, whose office is hereditary, and whose business it is to
preserve order, to levy duties on travellers, and to preside at all
conferences in the exercise of local jurisdiction and the administration
of justice.  These courts are composed of the elders of the town (of free
condition), and are termed _palavers_; and their proceedings are
conducted in the open air with sufficient solemnity.  Both sides of a
question are freely canvassed, witnesses are publicly examined, and the
decisions which follow generally meet with the approbation of the
surrounding audience.

As the negroes have no written language of their own, the general rule of
decision is an appeal to _ancient custom_; but since the system of
Mohammed has made so great progress among them, the converts to that
faith have gradually introduced, with the religious tenets, many of the
civil institutions of the prophet; and where the Koran is not found
sufficiently explicit, recourse is had to a commentary called _Al
Sharra_, containing, as I was told, a complete exposition or digest of
the Mohammedan laws, both civil and criminal, properly arranged and
illustrated.

This frequency of appeal to written laws, with which the pagan natives
are necessarily unacquainted, has given rise in their palavers to (what I
little expected to find in Africa) professional advocates, or expounders
of the law, who are allowed to appear and to plead for plaintiff or
defendant, much in the same manner as counsel in the law-courts of Great
Britain.  They are Mohammedan negroes, who have made, or affect to have
made, the laws of the prophet their peculiar study; and if I may judge
from their harangues, which I frequently attended, I believe, that in the
forensic qualifications of procrastination and cavil, and the arts of
confounding and perplexing a cause, they are not always surpassed by the
ablest pleaders in Europe.  While I was at Pisania, a cause was heard
which furnished the Mohammedan lawyers with an admirable opportunity of
displaying their professional dexterity.  The case was this:—An ass
belonging to a Serawoolli negro (a native of an interior country near the
river Senegal) had broke into a field of corn belonging to one of the
Mandingo inhabitants, and destroyed great part of it.  The Mandingo
having caught the animal in his field, immediately drew his knife and cut
his throat.  The Serawoolli thereupon called a _palaver_ (or in European
terms, _brought an action_) to recover damages for the loss of his beast,
on which he set a high value.  The defendant confessed he had killed the
ass, but pleaded a _set-off_, insisting that the loss he had sustained by
the ravage in his corn was equal to the sum demanded for the animal.  To
ascertain this fact was the point at issue, and the learned advocates
contrived to puzzle the cause in such a manner that, after a hearing of
three days, the court broke up without coming to any determination upon
it; and a second palaver was, I suppose, thought necessary.

The Mandingoes, generally speaking, are of a mild, sociable, and obliging
disposition.  The men are commonly above the middle size, well-shaped,
strong, and capable of enduring great labour.  The women are
good-natured, sprightly, and agreeable.  The dress of both sexes is
composed of cotton cloth of their own manufacture: that of the men is a
loose frock, not unlike a surplice, with drawers which reach half-way
down the leg; and they wear sandals on their feet, and white cotton caps
on their heads.  The women’s dress consists of two pieces of cloth, each
of which is about six feet long and three broad.  One of these they wrap
round their waist, which, hanging down to the ankles, answers the purpose
of a petticoat; the other is thrown negligently over the bosom and
shoulders.

This account of their clothing is indeed nearly applicable to the natives
of all the different countries in this part of Africa; a peculiar
national mode is observable only in the head-dresses of the women.

Thus, in the countries of the Gambia, the females wear a sort of bandage,
which they call _jalla_.  It is a narrow strip of cotton cloth wrapped
many times round, immediately over the forehead.  In Bondou, the head is
encircled with strings of white beads, and a small plate of gold is worn
in the middle of the forehead.  In Kasson the ladies decorate their heads
in a very tasteful and elegant manner with white seashells.  In Kaarta
and Ludamar, the women raise their hair to a great height by the addition
of a pad (as the ladies did formerly in Great Britain), which they
decorate with a species of coral brought from the Red Sea by pilgrims
returning from Mecca, and sold at a great price.

In the construction of their dwelling-houses the Mandingoes also conform
to the general practice of the African nations in this part of the
continent, contenting themselves with small and incommodious hovels.  A
circular mud wall, about four feet high, upon which is placed a conical
roof, composed of the bamboo cane, and thatched with grass, forms alike
the palace of the king and the hovel of the slave.  Their household
furniture is equally simple.  A hurdle of canes placed upon upright
sticks, about two feet from the ground, upon which is spread a mat or
bullock’s hide, answers the purpose of a bed; a water jar, some earthen
pots for dressing their food; a few wooden bowls and calabashes, and one
or two low stools, compose the rest.

As every man of free condition has a plurality of wives, it is found
necessary (to prevent, I suppose, matrimonial disputes) that each of the
ladies should be accommodated with a hut to herself; and all the huts
belonging to the same family are surrounded by a fence constructed of
bamboo canes, split and formed into a sort of wicker-work.  The whole
enclosure is called a _sirk_, or _surk_.  A number of these enclosures,
with narrow passages between them, form what is called a town; but the
huts are generally placed without any regularity, according to the
caprice of the owner.  The only rule that seems to be attended to is
placing the door towards the south-west, in order to admit the
sea-breeze.

In each town is a large stage called the _bentang_, which answers the
purpose of a public hall or town house.  It is composed of interwoven
canes, and is generally sheltered from the sun by being erected in the
shade of some large tree.  It is here that all public affairs are
transacted and trials conducted; and here the lazy and indolent meet to
smoke their pipes, and hear the news of the day.  In most of the towns
the Mohammedans have also a _missura_, or mosque, in which they assemble
and offer up their daily prayers, according to the rules of the Koran.

In the account which I have thus given of the natives, the reader must
bear in mind that my observations apply chiefly to persons of _free
condition_, who constitute, I suppose, not more than one-fourth part of
the inhabitants at large.  The other three-fourths are in a state of
hopeless and hereditary slavery, and are employed in cultivating the
land, in the care of cattle, and in servile offices of all kinds, much in
the same manner as the slaves in the West Indies.  I was told, however,
that the Mandingo master can neither deprive his slave of life, nor sell
him to a stranger, without first calling a palaver on his conduct, or in
other words, bringing him to a public trial.  But this degree of
protection is extended only to the native or domestic slave.  Captives
taken in war, and those unfortunate victims who are condemned to slavery
for crimes or insolvency—and, in short, all those unhappy people who are
brought down from the interior countries for sale—have no security
whatever, but may be treated and disposed of in all respects as the owner
thinks proper.  It sometimes happens, indeed, when no ships are on the
coast, that a humane and considerate master incorporates his purchased
slaves among his domestics; and their offspring at least, if not the
parents, become entitled to all the privileges of the native class.

The earliest European establishment on this celebrated river was a
factory of the Portuguese, and to this must be ascribed the introduction
of the numerous words of that language which are still in use among the
negroes.  The Dutch, French, and English afterwards successively
possessed themselves of settlements on the coast; but the trade of the
Gambia became, and continued for many years, a sort of monopoly in the
hands of the English.  In the travels of Francis Moore is preserved an
account of the Royal African Company’s establishments in this river in
the year 1730; at which the James’s factory alone consisted of a
governor, deputy-governor, and two other principal officers; eight
factors, thirteen writers, twenty inferior attendants and tradesmen; a
company of soldiers, and thirty-two negro servants; besides sloops,
shallops, and boats, with their crews; and there were no less than eight
subordinate factories in other parts of the river.

The trade with Europe, by being afterwards laid open, was almost
annihilated.  The share which the subjects of England at this time hold
in it supports not more than two or three annual ships; and I am informed
that the gross value of British exports is under £20,000.  The French and
Danes still maintain a small share, and the Americans have lately sent a
few vessels to the Gambia by way of experiment.

The commodities exported to the Gambia from Europe consist chiefly of
firearms and ammunition, iron-ware, spirituous liquors, tobacco, cotton
caps, a small quantity of broadcloth, and a few articles of the
manufacture of Manchester; a small assortment of India goods, with some
glass beads, amber, and other trifles, for which are taken in exchange
slaves, gold dust, ivory, beeswax, and hides.  Slaves are the chief
article, but the whole number which at this time are annually exported
from the Gambia by all nations is supposed to be under one thousand.

Most of these unfortunate victims are brought to the coast in periodical
caravans; many of them from very remote inland countries, for the
language which they speak is not understood by the inhabitants of the
maritime districts.  In a subsequent part of my work I shall give the
best information I have been able to collect concerning the manner in
which they are obtained.  On their arrival at the coast, if no immediate
opportunity offers of selling them to advantage, they are distributed
among the neighbouring villages, until a slave ship arrives, or until
they can be sold to black traders, who sometimes purchase on speculation.
In the meanwhile, the poor wretches are kept constantly fettered, two and
two of them being chained together, and employed in the labours of the
field, and, I am sorry to add, are very scantily fed, as well as harshly
treated.  The price of a slave varies according to the number of
purchasers from Europe, and the arrival of caravans from the interior;
but in general I reckon that a young and healthy male, from sixteen to
twenty-five years of age, may be estimated on the spot from £18 to £20
sterling.

The negro slave-merchants, as I have observed in the former chapter, are
called slatees, who, besides slaves, and the merchandise which they bring
for sale to the whites, supply the inhabitants of the maritime districts
with native iron, sweet-smelling gums and frankincense, and a commodity
called _shea-toulou_, which, literally translated, signifies
_tree-butter_.

In payment of these articles, the maritime states supply the interior
countries with salt, a scarce and valuable commodity, as I frequently and
painfully experienced in the course of my journey.  Considerable
quantities of this article, however, are also supplied to the inland
natives by the Moors, who obtain it from the salt pits in the Great
Desert, and receive in return corn, cotton cloth, and slaves.

In their early intercourse with Europeans the article that attracted most
notice was iron.  Its utility, in forming the instruments of war and
husbandry, make it preferable to all others, and iron soon became the
measure by which the value of all other commodities was ascertained.
Thus, a certain quantity of goods, of whatever denomination, appearing to
be equal in value to a bar of iron, constituted, in the traders’
phraseology, a bar of that particular merchandise.  Twenty leaves of
tobacco, for instance, were considered as a bar of tobacco; and a gallon
of spirits (or rather half spirits and half water) as a bar of rum, a bar
of one commodity being reckoned equal in value to a bar of another
commodity.

As, however, it must unavoidably happen that, according to the plenty or
scarcity of goods at market in proportion to the demand, the relative
value would be subject to continual fluctuation, greater precision has
been found necessary; and at this time the current value of a single bar
of any kind is fixed by the whites at two shillings sterling.  Thus, a
slave whose price is £15, is said to be worth 150 bars.

In transactions of this nature it is obvious that the white trader has
infinitely the advantage over the African, whom, therefore, it is
difficult to satisfy, for conscious of his own ignorance, he naturally
becomes exceedingly suspicious and wavering; and, indeed, so very
unsettled and jealous are the negroes in their dealings with the whites,
that a bargain is never considered by the European as concluded until the
purchase money is paid and the party has taken leave.

Having now brought together such general observations on the country and
its inhabitants as occurred to me during my residence in the vicinity of
the Gambia, I shall detain the reader no longer with introductory matter,
but proceed, in the next chapter, to a regular detail of the incidents
which happened, and the reflections which arose in my mind, in the course
of my painful and perilous journey, from its commencement until my return
to the Gambia.




CHAPTER III.
THE KINGDOM OF WOOLLI—JOURNEY TO BONDOU.


ON the 2nd of December, 1795, I took my departure from the hospitable
mansion of Dr. Laidley.  I was fortunately provided with a negro servant
who spoke both the English and Mandingo tongues.  His name was Johnson.
He was a native of this part of Africa, and having in his youth been
conveyed to Jamaica as a slave, he had been made free, and taken to
England by his master, where he had resided many years, and at length
found his way back to his native country.  As he was known to Dr.
Laidley, the Doctor recommended him to me, and I hired him as my
interpreter, at the rate of ten bars monthly to be paid to himself, and
five bars a month to be paid to his wife during his absence.  Dr. Laidley
furthermore provided me with a negro boy of his own, named Demba, a
sprightly youth, who, besides Mandingo, spoke the language of the
Serawoollies, an inland people (of whom mention will hereafter be made)
residing on the banks of the Senegal; and to induce him to behave well,
the Doctor promised him his freedom on his return, in case I should
report favourably of his fidelity and services.  I was furnished with a
horse for myself (a small but very hardy and spirited beast, which cost
me to the value of £7 10s), and two asses for my interpreter and servant.
My baggage was light, consisting chiefly of provisions for two days; a
small assortment of beads, amber, and tobacco, for the purchase of a
fresh supply as I proceeded; a few changes of linen, and other necessary
apparel; an umbrella, a pocket sextant, a magnetic compass, and a
thermometer; together with two fowling-pieces, two pair of pistols, and
some other small articles.

A free man (a _bashreen_, or Mohammedan) named Madiboo, who was
travelling to the kingdom of Bambara, and two slatees, or slave
merchants, of the Serawoolli nation, and of the same sect, who were going
to Bondou, offered their services, as far as they intended respectively
to proceed, as did likewise a negro named Tami (also a Mohammedan), a
native of Kasson, who had been employed some years by Dr. Laidley as a
blacksmith, and was returning to his native country with the savings of
his labours.  All these men travelled on foot, driving their asses before
them.

Thus I had no less than six attendants, all of whom had been taught to
regard me with great respect, and to consider that their safe return
hereafter to the countries on the Gambia would depend on my preservation.

Dr. Laidley himself, and Messrs. Ainsley, with a number of their
domestics, kindly determined to accompany me the first two days; and I
believe they secretly thought they should never see me afterwards.

We reached Jindey the same day, having crossed the Walli creek, a branch
of the Gambia, and rested at the house of a black woman, who had formerly
been the paramour of a white trader named Hewett, and who, in consequence
thereof, was called, by way of distinction, _seniora_.  In the evening we
walked out to see an adjoining village, belonging to a slatee named
Jemaffoo Momadoo, the richest of all the Gambia traders.  We found him at
home, and he thought so highly of the honour done him by this visit, that
he presented us with a fine bullock, which was immediately killed, and
part of it dressed for our evening’s repast.

The negroes do not go to supper till late, and, in order to amuse
ourselves while our beef was preparing, a Mandingo was desired to relate
some diverting stories, in listening to which, and smoking tobacco, we
spent three hours.  These stories bear some resemblance to those in the
Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, but, in general, are of a more ludicrous
cast.

About one o’clock in the afternoon of the 3rd of December, I took my
leave of Dr. Laidley and Messrs. Ainsley, and rode slowly into the woods.
I had now before me a boundless forest, and a country, the inhabitants of
which were strangers to civilised life, and to most of whom a white man
was the object of curiosity or plunder.  I reflected that I had parted
from the last European I might probably behold, and perhaps quitted for
ever the comforts of Christian society.  Thoughts like these would
necessarily cast a gloom over my mind; and I rode musing along for about
three miles, when I was awakened from my reverie by a body of people, who
came running up, and stopped the asses, giving me to understand that I
must go with them to Peckaba, to present myself to the king of Walli, or
pay customs to them.  I endeavoured to make them comprehend that the
object of my journey not being traffic, I ought not to be subjected to a
tax like the slatees, and other merchants, who travel for gain; but I
reasoned to no purpose.  They said it was usual for travellers of all
descriptions to make a present to the king of Walli, and without doing so
I could not be permitted to proceed.  As they were more numerous than my
attendants, and withal very noisy, I thought it prudent to comply with
their demand; and having presented them with four bars of tobacco, for
the king’s use, I was permitted to continue my journey, and at sunset
reached a village near Kootacunda, where we rested for the night.

In the morning of December 4th I passed Kootacunda, the last town of
Walli, and stopped about an hour at a small adjoining village to pay
customs to an officer of the king of Woolli; we rested the ensuing night
at a village called Tabajang; and at noon the next day (December 5th) we
reached Medina, the capital of the king of Woolli’s dominions.

The kingdom of Woolli is bounded by Walli on the west, by the Gambia on
the south, by the small river Walli on the north-west, by Bondou on the
north-east, and on the east by the Simbani wilderness.

The inhabitants are Mandingoes, and, like most of the Mandingo nations,
are divided into two great sects—the Mohammedans, who are called
_bushreens_, and the pagans, who are called indiscriminately _kafirs_
(unbelievers) and _sonakies_ (_i.e._, men who drink strong liquors).  The
pagan natives are by far the most numerous, and the government of the
country is in their hands; for though the most respectable among the
bushreens are frequently consulted in affairs of importance, yet they are
never permitted to take any share in the executive government, which
rests solely in the hands of the _mansa_, or sovereign, and great
officers of the state.  Of these, the first in point of rank is the
presumptive heir of the crown, who is called the _farbanna_.  Next to him
are the _alkaids_, or provincial governors, who are more frequently
called _keamos_.  Then follow the two grand divisions of free-men and
slaves; of the former, the slatees, so frequently mentioned in the
preceding pages, are considered as the principal; but, in all classes,
great respect is paid to the authority of aged men.

On the death of the reigning monarch, his eldest son (if he has attained
the age of manhood) succeeds to the regal authority.  If there is no son,
or if the son is under the age of discretion, a meeting of the great men
is held, and the late monarch’s nearest relation (commonly his brother)
is called to the government, not as regent, or guardian to the infant
son, but in full right, and to the exclusion of the minor.  The charges
of the government are defrayed by occasional tributes from the people,
and by duties on goods transported across the country.  Travellers, on
going from the Gambia towards the interior, pay customs in European
merchandise.  On returning, they pay in iron and _shea-toulou_.  These
taxes are paid at every town.

Medina, the capital of the kingdom, at which I was now arrived, is a
place of considerable extent, and may contain from eight hundred to one
thousand houses.  It is fortified in the common African manner, by a
surrounding high wall built of clay, and an outward fence of pointed
stakes and prickly bushes; but the walls are neglected, and the outward
fence has suffered considerably from the active hands of busy housewives,
who pluck up the stakes for firewood.  I obtained a lodging at one of the
king’s near relations, who apprised me that at my introduction to the
king I must not presume to _shake hands with him_.  “It was not usual,”
he said, “to allow this liberty to strangers.”  Thus instructed, I went
in the afternoon to pay my respects to the sovereign, and ask permission
to pass through his territories to Bondou.  The king’s name was Jatta.
He was the same venerable old man of whom so favourable an account was
transmitted by Major Houghton.  I found him seated upon a mat before the
door of his hut; a number of men and women were arranged on each side,
who were singing and clapping their hands.  I saluted him respectfully,
and informed him of the purport of my visit.  The king graciously
replied, that he not only gave me leave to pass through his country, but
would offer up his prayers for my safety.  On this, one of my attendants,
seemingly in return for the king’s condescension, began to sing, or
rather to roar an Arabic song, at every pause of which the king himself,
and all the people present, struck their hands against their foreheads,
and exclaimed, with devout and affecting solemnity, “_Amen_, _amen_!”
The king told me, furthermore, that I should have a guide the day
following, who would conduct me safely to the frontier of his kingdom—I
then took my leave, and in the evening sent the king an order upon Dr.
Laidley for three gallons of rum, and received in return great store of
provisions.

_December_ 6.—Early in the morning I went to the king a second time, to
learn if the guide was ready.  I found his Majesty seated upon a
bullock’s hide, warming himself before a large fire, for the Africans are
sensible of the smallest variation in the temperature of the air, and
frequently complain of cold when a European is oppressed with heat.  He
received me with a benevolent countenance, and tenderly entreated me to
desist from my purpose of travelling into the interior, telling me that
Major Houghton had been killed in his route, and that if I followed his
footsteps I should probably meet with his fate.  He said that I must not
judge of the people of the eastern country by those of Woolli: that the
latter were acquainted with white men, and respected them, whereas the
people of the east had never seen a white man, and would certainly
destroy me.  I thanked the king for his affectionate solicitude, but told
him that I had considered the matter, and was determined, notwithstanding
all dangers, to proceed.  The king shook his head, but desisted from
further persuasion, and told me the guide should be ready in the
afternoon.

About two o’clock, the guide appearing, I went and took my last farewell
of the good old king, and in three hours reached Konjour, a small
village, where we determined to rest for the night.  Here I purchased a
fine sheep for some beads, and my Serawoolli attendants killed it with
all the ceremonies prescribed by their religion.  Part of it was dressed
for supper, after which a dispute arose between one of the Serawoolli
negroes, and Johnson, my interpreter, about the sheep’s horns.  The
former claimed the horns as his perquisite, for having acted the part of
our butcher, and Johnson contested the claim.  I settled the matter by
giving a horn to each of them.  This trifling incident is mentioned as
introductory to what follows, for it appeared on inquiry that these horns
were highly valued, as being easily convertible into portable sheaths, or
cases, for containing and keeping secure certain charms or amulets called
_saphies_, which the negroes constantly wear about them.  These saphies
are prayers, or rather sentences, from the Koran, which the Mohammedan
priests write on scraps of paper, and sell to the simple natives, who
consider them to possess very extraordinary virtues.  Some of the negroes
wear them to guard themselves against the bite of snakes or alligators;
and on this occasion the saphie is commonly enclosed in a snake’s or
alligator’s skin, and tied round the ankle.  Others have recourse to them
in time of war, to protect their persons against hostile weapons; but the
common use to which these amulets are applied is to prevent or cure
bodily diseases—to preserve from hunger and thirst—and generally to
conciliate the favour of superior powers, under all the circumstances and
occurrences of life. {41}

In this case it is impossible not to admire the wonderful contagion of
superstition, for, notwithstanding that the majority of the negroes are
pagans, and absolutely reject the doctrines of Mohammed, I did not meet
with a man, whether a bushreen or kafir, who was not fully persuaded of
the powerful efficacy of these amulets.  The truth is, that all the
natives of this part of Africa consider the art of writing as bordering
on magic; and it is not in the doctrines of the prophet, but in the arts
of the magician, that their confidence is placed.  It will hereafter be
seen that I was myself lucky enough, in circumstances of distress, to
turn the popular credulity in this respect to good account.

On the 7th I departed from Konjour, and slept at a village called Malla
(or Mallaing), and on the 8th about noon I arrived at Kolor, a
considerable town, near the entrance into which I observed, hanging upon
a tree, a sort of masquerade habit, made of the bark of trees, which I
was told, on inquiry, belonged to _Mumbo Jumbo_.  This is a strange
bugbear, common to all the Mandingo towns, and much employed by the pagan
natives in keeping their women in subjection; for as the kafirs are not
restricted in the number of their wives, every one marries as many as he
can conveniently maintain—and as it frequently happens that the ladies
disagree among themselves, family quarrels sometimes rise to such a
height, that the authority of the husband can no longer preserve peace in
his household.  In such cases, the interposition of Mumbo Jumbo is called
in, and is always decisive.

This strange minister of justice (who is supposed to be either the
husband himself, or some person instructed by him), disguised in the
dress that has been mentioned, and armed with the rod of public
authority, announces his coming (whenever his services are required) by
loud and dismal screams in the woods near the town.  He begins the
pantomime at the approach of night; and as soon as it is dark he enters
the town, and proceeds to the bentang, at which all the inhabitants
immediately assemble.

_December_ 9.—As there was no water to be procured on the road, we
travelled with great expedition until we reached Tambacunda; and
departing from thence early the next morning, the 10th, we reached in the
evening Kooniakary, a town of nearly the same magnitude as Kolor.  About
noon on the 11th we arrived at Koojar, the frontier town of Woolli,
towards Bondou, from which it is separated by an intervening wilderness
of two days’ journey.

The guide appointed by the king of Woolli being now to return, I
presented him with some amber for his trouble; and having been informed
that it was not possible at all times to procure water in the wilderness,
I made inquiry for men who would serve both as guides and water-bearers
during my journey across it.  Three negroes, elephant-hunters, offered
their services for these purposes, which I accepted, and paid them three
bars each in advance; and the day being far spent, I determined to pass
the night in my present quarters.

The inhabitants of Koojar, though not wholly unaccustomed to the sight of
Europeans (most of them having occasionally visited the countries on the
Gambia), beheld me with a mixture of curiosity and reverence, and in the
evening invited me to see a _neobering_, or wrestling-match, at the
bentang.  This is an exhibition very common in all the Mandingo
countries.  The spectators arranged themselves in a circle, leaving the
intermediate space for the wrestlers, who were strong active young men,
full of emulation, and accustomed, I suppose, from their infancy to this
sort of exertion.  Being stripped of their clothing, except a short pair
of drawers, and having their skin anointed with oil, or _shea_ butter,
the combatants approached each other on all-fours, parrying with, and
occasionally extending a hand for some time, till at length one of them
sprang forward, and caught his rival by the knee.  Great dexterity and
judgment were now displayed, but the contest was decided by superior
strength; and I think that few Europeans would have been able to cope
with the conqueror.  It must not be unobserved, that the combatants were
animated by the music of a drum, by which their actions were in some
measure regulated.

The wrestling was succeeded by a dance, in which many performers
assisted, all of whom were provided with little bells, which were
fastened to their legs and arms; and here, too, the drum regulated their
motions.  It was beaten with a crooked stick, which the drummer held in
his right hand, occasionally using his left to deaden the sound, and thus
vary the music.  The drama is likewise applied on these occasions to keep
order among the spectators, by imitating the sound of certain Mandingo
sentences.  For example, when the wrestling-match is about to begin, the
drummer strikes what is understood to signify _ali bæ see_ (sit all
down), upon which the spectators immediately seat themselves; and when
the combatants are to begin, he strikes _amuta_! _amuta_! (take hold!
take hold!)

In the course of the evening I was presented, by way of refreshment, with
a liquor, which tasted so much like the strong beer of my native country
(and very good beer too), as to induce me to inquire into its
composition; and I learnt, with some degree of surprise, that it was
actually made from corn which had been previously malted, much in the
same manner as barley is malted in Great Britain.  A root yielding a
grateful bitter was used in lieu of hops, the name of which I have
forgotten; but the corn which yields the wort is the _holcus spicatus_ of
botanists.

Early in the morning (the 12th) I found that one of the elephant-hunters
had absconded with the money he had received from me in part of wages;
and in order to prevent the other two from following his example, I made
them instantly fill their calabashes (or gourds) with water; and as the
sun rose, I entered the wilderness that separates the kingdoms of Woolli
and Bondou.

We continued our journey without stopping any more until noon, when we
came to a large tree, called by the natives _neema taba_.  It had a very
singular appearance, being decorated with innumerable rags or scraps of
cloth, which persons travelling across the wilderness had at different
times tied to the branches, probably at first to inform the traveller
that water was to be found near it; but the custom has been so greatly
sanctioned by time, that nobody now presumes to pass without hanging up
something.  I followed the example, and suspended a handsome piece of
cloth on one of the boughs; and being told that either a well, or pool of
water, was at no great distance, I ordered the negroes to unload the
asses, that we might give them corn, and regale ourselves with the
provisions we had brought.  In the meantime, I sent one of the
elephant-hunters to look for the well, intending, if water was to be
obtained, to rest here for the night.  A pool was found, but the water
was thick and muddy, and the negro discovered near it the remains of a
fire recently extinguished, and the fragments of provisions, which
afforded a proof that it had been lately visited, either by travellers or
banditti.  The fears of my attendants supposed the latter; and believing
that robbers lurked near as, I was persuaded to change my resolution of
resting here all night, and proceed to another watering-place, which I
was assured we might reach early in the evening.

We departed accordingly, but it was eight o’clock at night before we came
to the watering-place; and being now sufficiently fatigued with so long a
day’s journey, we kindled a large fire and lay down, surrounded by our
cattle, on the bare ground, more than a gunshot from any bush, the
negroes agreeing to keep watch by turns to prevent surprise.

I know not, indeed, that any danger was justly to be dreaded, but the
negroes were unaccountably apprehensive of banditti during the whole of
the journey.  As soon, therefore, as daylight appeared, we filled our
_soofroos_ (skins) and calabashes at the pool, and set out for Tallika,
the first town in Bondou, which we reached about eleven o’clock in the
forenoon (the 13th of December).




CHAPTER IV.
FROM TALLIKA TO KAJAAGA.


TALLIKA, the frontier town of Bondou towards Woolli, is inhabited chiefly
by Foulahs of the Mohammedan religion, who live in considerable
affluence, partly by furnishing provisions to the coffles, or caravans,
that pass through the town, and partly by the sale of ivory, obtained by
hunting elephants, in which employment the young men are generally very
successful.  Here an officer belonging to the king of Bondou constantly
resides, whose business it is to give timely information of the arrival
of the caravans, which are taxed according to the number of loaded asses
that arrive at Tallika.

I took up my residence at this officer’s house, and agreed with him to
accompany me to Fatteconda, the residence of the king, for which he was
to receive five bars; and before my departure I wrote a few lines to Dr.
Laidley, and gave my letter to the master of a caravan bound for the
Gambia.  This caravan consisted of nine or ten people, with five asses
loaded with ivory.  The large teeth are conveyed in nets, two on each
side of the ass; the small ones are wrapped up in skins, and secured with
ropes.

_December_ 14.—We left Tallika, and rode on very peaceably for about two
miles, when a violent quarrel arose between two of my fellow-travellers,
one of whom was the blacksmith, in the course of which they bestowed some
opprobrious terms upon each other; and it is worthy of remark, that an
African will sooner forgive a blow than a term of reproach applied to his
ancestors.  “Strike me, but do not curse my mother,” is a common
expression even among the slaves.  This sort of abuse, therefore, so
enraged one of the disputants, that he drew his cutlass upon the
blacksmith, and would certainly have ended the dispute in a very serious
manner, if the others had not laid hold of him and wrested the cutlass
from him.  I was obliged to interfere, and put an end to this
disagreeable business by desiring the blacksmith to be silent, and
telling the other, who I thought was in the wrong, that if he attempted
in future to draw his cutlass, or molest any of my attendants, I should
look upon him as a robber, and shoot him without further ceremony.  This
threat had the desired effect, and we marched sullenly along till the
afternoon, when we arrived at a number of small villages scattered over
an open and fertile plain.  At one of these, called Ganado, we took up
our residence for the night; here an exchange of presents and a good
supper terminated all animosities among my attendants, and the night was
far advanced before any of us thought of going to sleep.  We were amused
by an itinerant _singing man_, who told a number of diverting stories,
and played some sweet airs by blowing his breath upon a bow-string, and
striking it at the same time with a stick.

_December_ 15.—At daybreak my fellow-travellers, the Serawoollies, took
leave of me, with many prayers for my safety.  About a mile from Ganado
we crossed a considerable branch of the Gambia, called Neriko.  The banks
were steep and covered with mimosas; and I observed in the mud a number
of large mussels, but the natives do not eat them.  About noon, the sun
being exceedingly hot, we rested two hours in the shade of a tree, and
purchased some milk and pounded corn from some Foulah herdsmen, and at
sunset reached a town called Koorkarany, where the blacksmith had some
relations; and here we rested two days.

Koorkarany is a Mohammedan town surrounded by a high wall, and is
provided with a mosque.  Here I was shown a number of Arabic manuscripts,
particularly a copy of the book before mentioned, called _Al Sharra_.
The _maraboo_, or priest, in whose possession it was, read and explained
to me in Mandingo many of the most remarkable passages, and, in return, I
showed him Richardson’s Arabic Grammar, which he very much admired.

On the evening of the second day (December 17) we departed from
Koorkarany.  We were joined by a young man who was travelling to
Fatteconda for salt; and as night set in we reached Dooggi, a small
village about three miles from Koorkarany.

Provisions were here so cheap that I purchased a bullock for six small
stones of amber; for I found my company increase or diminish according to
the good fare they met with.

_December_ 18.—Early in the morning we departed from Dooggi, and, being
joined by a number of Foulahs and other people, made a formidable
appearance, and were under no apprehension of being plundered in the
woods.  About eleven o’clock, one of the asses proving very refractory,
the negroes took a curious method to make him tractable.  They cut a
forked stick, and putting the forked part into the ass’s mouth, like the
bit of a bridle, tied the two smaller parts together above his head,
leaving the lower part of the stick of sufficient length to strike
against the ground, if the ass should attempt to put his head down.
After this the ass walked along quietly and gravely enough, taking care,
after some practice, to hold his head sufficiently high to prevent stones
or roots of trees from striking against the end of the stick, which
experience had taught him would give a severe shock to his teeth.  This
contrivance produced a ludicrous appearance, but my fellow-travellers
told me it was constantly adopted by the slatees, and always proved
effectual.

In the evening we arrived at a few scattered villages, surrounded with
extensive cultivation, at one of which, called Buggil, we passed the
night in a miserable hut, having no other bed than a bundle of
corn-stalks, and no provisions but what we brought with us.  The wells
here are dug with great ingenuity, and are very deep.  I measured one of
the bucket-ropes, and found the depth of the well to be twenty-eight
fathoms.

_December_ 19.—We departed from Buggil, and travelled along a dry, stony
height, covered with mimosas, till mid-day, when the land sloped towards
the east, and we descended into a deep valley, in which I observed
abundance of whinstone and white quartz.  Pursuing our course to the
eastward, along this valley in the bed of an exhausted river-course, we
came to a large village, where we intended to lodge.  We found many of
the natives dressed in a thin French gauze, which they called _byqui_;
this being a light airy dress, and well calculated to display the shape
of their persons, is much esteemed by the ladies.  The manners of these
females, however, did not correspond with their dress, for they were rude
and troublesome in the highest degree; they surrounded me in numbers,
begging for amber, beads, &c., and were so vehement in their
solicitations, that I found it impossible to resist them.  They tore my
cloak, cut the buttons from my boy’s clothes, and were proceeding to
other outrages, when I mounted my horse and rode off, followed for
half-a-mile by a body of these harpies.

In the evening we reached Soobrudooka, and as my company was numerous
(being fourteen), I purchased a sheep and abundance of corn for supper;
after which we lay down by the bundles, and passed an uncomfortable night
in a heavy dew.

_December_ 20.—We departed from Soobrudooka, and at two o’clock reached a
large village situated on the banks of the Falemé river, which is here
rapid and rocky.  The natives were employed in fishing in various ways.
The large fish were taken in long baskets made of split cane, and placed
in a strong current, which was created by walls of stone built across the
stream, certain open places being left, through which the water rushed
with great force.  Some of these baskets were more than twenty feet long,
and when once the fish had entered one of them, the force of the stream
prevented it from returning.  The small fish were taken in great numbers
in hand-nets, which the natives weave of cotton, and use with great
dexterity.  The fish last mentioned are about the size of sprats, and are
prepared for sale in different ways; the most common is by pounding them
entire as they come from the stream, in a wooden mortar, and exposing
them to dry in the sun, in large lumps like sugar loaves.  It may be
supposed that the smell is not very agreeable; but in the Moorish
countries to the north of the Senegal, where fish is scarcely known, this
preparation is esteemed as a luxury, and sold to considerable advantage.
The manner of using it by the natives is by dissolving a piece of this
black loaf in boiling water, and mixing it with their kouskous.

On returning to the village, after an excursion to the river-side to
inspect the fishery, an old Moorish shereef came to bestow his blessing
upon me, and beg some paper to write saphies upon.  This man had seen
Major Houghton in the kingdom of Kaarta, and told me that he died in the
country of the Moors.

About three in the afternoon we continued our course along the bank of
the river to the northward, till eight o’clock, when we reached Nayemow.
Here the hospitable master of the town received us kindly, and presented
us with a bullock.  In return I gave him some amber and beads.

_December_ 21.—In the morning, having agreed for a canoe to carry over my
bundles, I crossed the river, which came up to my knees as I sat on my
horse; but the water is so clear, that from the high bank the bottom is
visible all the way over.

About noon we entered Fatteconda, the capital of Bondou, and in a little
time received an invitation to the house of a respectable slatee: for as
there are no public-houses in Africa, it is customary for strangers to
stand at the bentang, or some other place of public resort, till they are
invited to a lodging by some of the inhabitants.  We accepted the offer;
and in an hour afterwards a person came and told me that he was sent on
purpose to conduct me to the king, who was very desirous of seeing me
immediately, if I was not too much fatigued.

I took my interpreter with me, and followed the messenger till we got
quite out of the town, and crossed some corn-fields; when, suspecting
some trick, I stopped, and asked the guide whither he was going.  Upon
which, he pointed to a man sitting under a tree at some little distance,
and told me that the king frequently gave audience in that retired
manner, in order to avoid a crowd of people, and that nobody but myself
and my interpreter must approach him.  When I advanced the king desired
me to come and sit by him upon the mat; and, after hearing my story, on
which be made no observation, he asked if I wished to purchase any slaves
or gold.  Being answered in the negative, he seemed rather surprised, but
desired me to come to him in the evening, and he would give me some
provisions.

This monarch was called Almami, a Moorish name, though I was told that he
was not a Mohammedan, but a kafir or pagan.  I had heard that he had
acted towards Major Houghton with great unkindness, and caused him to be
plundered.  His behaviour, therefore, towards myself at this interview,
though much more civil than I expected, was far from freeing me from
uneasiness.  I still apprehended some double-dealing; and as I was now
entirely in his power, I thought it best to smooth the way by a present.
Accordingly, I took with me in the evening one canister of gunpowder,
some amber, tobacco, and my umbrella; and as I considered that my bundles
would inevitably be searched, I concealed some few articles in the roof
of the hut where I lodged, and I put on my new blue coat in order to
preserve it.

All the houses belonging to the king and his family are surrounded by a
lofty mud wall, which converts the whole into a kind of citadel.  The
interior is subdivided into different courts.  At the first place of
entrance I observed a man standing with a musket on his shoulder; and I
found the way to the presence very intricate, leading through many
passages, with sentinels placed at the different doors.  When we came to
the entrance of the court in which the king resides, both my guide and
interpreter, according to custom, took off their sandals; and the former
pronounced the king’s name aloud, repeating it till he was answered from
within.  We found the monarch sitting upon a mat, and two attendants with
him.  I repeated what I had before told him concerning the object of my
journey, and my reasons for passing through his country.  He seemed,
however, but half satisfied.  When I offered to show him the contents of
my portmanteau, and everything belonging to me, he was convinced; and it
was evident that his suspicion had arisen from a belief that every white
man must of necessity be a trader.  When I had delivered my presents, he
seemed well pleased, and was particularly delighted with the umbrella,
which he repeatedly furled and unfurled, to the great admiration of
himself and his two attendants, who could not for some time comprehend
the use of this wonderful machine.  After this I was about to take my
leave, when the king, desiring me to stop a while, began a long preamble
in favour of the whites, extolling their immense wealth and good
dispositions.  He next proceeded to an eulogium on my blue coat, of which
the yellow buttons seemed particularly to catch his fancy; and he
concluded by entreating me to present him with it, assuring me, for my
consolation under the loss of it, that he would wear it on all public
occasions, and inform every one who saw it of my great liberality towards
him.  The request of an African prince, in his own dominions,
particularly when made to a stranger, comes little short of a command.
It is only a way of obtaining by gentle means what he can, if he pleases,
take by force; and as it was against my interest to offend him by a
refusal, I very quietly took off my coat, the only good one in my
possession, and laid it at his feet.

In return for my compliance, he presented me with great plenty of
provisions, and desired to see me again in the morning.  I accordingly
attended, and found in sitting upon his bed.  He told me he was sick, and
wished to have a little blood taken from him; but I had no sooner, tied
up his arm and displayed the lancet, than his courage failed, and he
begged me to postpone the operation till the afternoon, as he felt
himself, he said, much better than he had been, and thanked me kindly for
my readiness to serve him.  He then observed that his women were very
desirous to see me, and requested that I would favour them with a visit.
An attendant was ordered to conduct me; and I had no sooner entered the
court appropriated to the ladies, than the whole seraglio surrounded
me—some begging for physic, some for amber, and all of them desirous of
trying that great African specific, _blood-letting_.  They were ten or
twelve in number, most of them young and handsome, and wearing on their
heads ornaments of gold, and beads of amber.

They rallied me with a good deal of gaiety on different subjects,
particularly upon the whiteness of my skin and the prominency of my nose.
They insisted that both were artificial.  The first, they said, was
produced when I was an infant, by dipping me in milk; and they insisted
that my nose had been pinched every day, till it had acquired its present
unsightly and unnatural conformation.  On my part, without disputing my
own deformity, I paid them many compliments on African beauty.  I praised
the glossy jet of their skins, and the lovely depression of their noses;
but they said that flattery, or, as they emphatically termed it,
_honey-mouth_, was not esteemed in Bondou.  In return, however, for my
company or my compliments (to which, by the way, they seemed not so
insensible as they affected to be) they presented me with a jar of honey
and some fish, which were sent to my lodging; and I was desired to come
again to the king a little before sunset.

I carried with me some beads and writing-paper, it being usual to present
some small offering on taking leave, in return for which the king gave me
five drachms of gold, observing that it was but a trifle, and given out
of pure friendship, but would be of use to me in travelling, for the
purchase of provisions.  He seconded this act of kindness by one still
greater, politely telling me that, though it was customary to examine the
baggage of every traveller passing through his country, yet, in the
present instance, he would dispense without ceremony, adding, I was at
liberty to depart when I pleased.

Accordingly, on the morning of the 23rd, we left Fatteconda, and about
eleven o’clock came to a small village, where we determined to stop for
the rest of the day.

In the afternoon my fellow-travellers informed me that, as this was the
boundary between Bondou and Kajaaga, and dangerous for travellers, it
would be necessary to continue our journey by night, until we should
reach a more hospitable part of the country.  I agreed to the proposal,
and hired two people for guides through the woods; and as soon as the
people of the village were gone to sleep (the moon shining bright) we set
out.  The stillness of the air, the howling of the wild beasts, and the
deep solitude of the forest, made the scene solemn and oppressive.  Not a
word was uttered by any of us but in a whisper; all were attentive, and
every one anxious to show his sagacity by pointing out to me the wolves
and hyænas, as they glided like shadows from one thicket to another.
Towards morning we arrived at a village called Kimmoo, where our guides
awakened one of their acquaintances, and we stopped to give the asses
some corn, and roast a few ground-nuts for ourselves.  At daylight we
resumed our journey, and in the afternoon arrived at Joag, in the kingdom
of Kajaaga.

Being now in a country and among a people differing in many respects from
those that have as yet fallen under our observation, I shall, before I
proceed further, give some account of Bondou (the territory we have left)
and its inhabitants, the Foulahs, the description of whom I purposely
reserved for this part of my work.

Bondou is bounded on the east by Bambouk, on the south-east and south by
Tenda and the Simbani wilderness, on the south-west by Woolli, on the
west by Foota Torra, and on the north by Kajaaga.

The country, like that of Woolli, is very generally covered with woods,
but the land is more elevated, and, towards the Falemé river, rises into
considerable hills.  In native fertility the soil is not surpassed, I
believe, by any part of Africa.

From the central situation of Bondou, between the Gambia and Senegal
rivers, it is become a place of great resort, both for the slatees, who
generally pass through it on going from the coast to the interior
countries, and for occasional traders, who frequently come hither from
the inland countries to purchase salt.

These different branches of commerce are conducted principally by
Mandingoes and Serawoollies, who have settled in the country.  These
merchants likewise carry on a considerable trade with Gedumah and other
Moorish countries, bartering corn and blue cotton cloths for salt, which
they again barter in Dentila and other districts for iron, shea-butter,
and small quantities of gold-dust.  They likewise sell a variety of
sweet-smelling gums, packed up in small bags, containing each about a
pound.  These gums, being thrown on hot embers, produce a very pleasant
odour, and are used by the Mandingoes for perfuming their huts and
clothes.

The customs, or duties on travellers, are very heavy; in almost every
town an ass-load pays a bar of European merchandise, and at Fatteconda,
the residence of the king, one Indian baft, or a musket, and six bottles
of gunpowder, are exacted as the common tribute.  By means of these
duties, the king of Bondou is well supplied with arms and ammunition—a
circumstance which makes him formidable to the neighbouring states.

The inhabitants differ in their complexions and national manners from the
Mandingoes and Serawoollies, with whom they are frequently at war.  Some
years ago the king of Bondou crossed the Falemé river with a numerous
army; and, after a short and bloody campaign, totally defeated the forces
of Samboo, king of Bambouk, who was obliged to sue for peace, and
surrender to him all the towns along the eastern bank of the Falemé.

The Foulahs in general (as has been observed in a former chapter) are of
a tawny complexion, with small features and soft silky hair; next to the
Mandingoes, they are undoubtedly the most considerable of all the nations
in this part of Africa.  Their original country is said to be Fooladoo
(which signifies the country of the Foulahs); but they possess at present
many other kingdoms at a great distance from each other; their
complexion, however, is not exactly the same in the different districts;
in Bondou, and the other kingdoms which are situated in the vicinity of
the Moorish territories, they are of a more yellow complexion than in the
southern states.

The Foulahs of Bondou are naturally of a mild and gentle disposition, but
the uncharitable maxims of the Koran have made them less hospitable to
strangers, and more reserved in their behaviour, than the Mandingoes.
They evidently consider all the negro natives as their inferiors; and,
when talking of different nations, always rank themselves among the white
people.

Their government differs from that of the Mandingoes chiefly in this,
that they are more immediately under the influence of Mohammedan laws;
for all the chief men, the king excepted, and a large majority of the
inhabitants of Bondou, are Mussulmans, and the authority and laws of the
Prophet are everywhere looked upon as sacred and decisive.  In the
exercise of their faith, however, they are not very intolerant towards
such of their countrymen as still retain their ancient superstitions.
Religious persecution is not known among them, nor is it necessary; for
the system of Mohammed is made to extend itself by means abundantly more
efficacious.  By establishing small schools in the different towns, where
many of the pagan as well as Mohammedan children are taught to read the
Koran, and instructed in the tenets of the Prophet, the Mohammedan
priests fix a bias on the minds, and form the character, of their young
disciples, which no accidents of life can ever afterwards remove or
alter.  Many of these little schools I visited in my progress through the
country, and I observed with pleasure the great docility and submissive
deportment of the children, and heartily wished they had had better
instructors and a purer religion.

With the Mohammedan faith is also introduced the Arabic language, with
which most of the Foulahs have a slight acquaintance.  Their native
tongue abounds very much in liquids, but there is something unpleasant in
the manner of pronouncing it.  A stranger, on hearing the common
conversation of two Foulahs, would imagine that they were scolding each
other.  Their numerals are these:—

One        Go.
Two        Deeddee.
Three      Tettee.
Four       Nee.
Five       Jouee.
Six        Jego.
Seven      Jedeeddee.
Eight      Je Tettee.
Nine       Je Nee.
Ten        Sappo.

The industry of the Foulahs, in the occupations of pasturage and
agriculture, is everywhere remarkable.  Even on the banks of the Gambia,
the greater part of the corn is raised by them, and their herds and
flocks are more numerous and in better condition than those of the
Mandingoes; but in Bondou they are opulent in a high degree, and enjoy
all the necessaries of life in the greatest profusion.  They display
great skill in the management of their cattle, making them extremely
gentle by kindness and familiarity.  On the approach of the night, they
are collected from the woods and secured in folds called _korrees_, which
are constructed in the neighbourhood of the different villages.  In the
middle of each korree is erected a small hut, wherein one or two of the
herdsmen keep watch during the night, to prevent the cattle from being
stolen, and to keep up the fires which are kindled round the korree to
frighten away the wild beasts.

The cattle are milked in the mornings and evenings: the milk is
excellent; but the quantity obtained from any one cow is by no means so
great as in Europe.  The Foulahs use the milk chiefly as an article of
diet, and that not until it is quite sour.  The cream which it affords is
very thick, and is converted into butter by stirring it violently in a
large calabash.  This butter, when melted over a gentle fire, and freed
from impurities, is preserved in small earthen pots, and forms a part in
most of their dishes; it serves likewise to anoint their heads, and is
bestowed very liberally on their faces and arms.

But although milk is plentiful, it is somewhat remarkable that the
Foulahs, and indeed all the inhabitants of this part of Africa, are
totally unacquainted with the art of making cheese.  A firm attachment to
the customs of their ancestors makes them view with an eye of prejudice
everything that looks like innovation.  The heat of the climate and the
great scarcity of salt are held forth as unanswerable objections; and the
whole process appears to them too long and troublesome to be attended
with any solid advantage.

Besides the cattle, which constitute the chief wealth of the Foulahs,
they possess some excellent horses, the breed of which seems to be a
mixture of the Arabian with the original African.




CHAPTER V.
FROM KAJAAGA TO KASSON.


THE kingdom of Kajaaga, in which I was now arrived, is called by the
French Gallam, but the name that I have adopted is universally used by
the natives.  This country is bounded on the south-east and south by
Bambouk, on the west by Bondou and Foota-Torra, and on the north by the
river Senegal.

The air and climate are, I believe, more pure and salubrious than at any
of the settlements towards the coast; the face of the country is
everywhere interspersed with a pleasing variety of hills and valleys; and
the windings of the Senegal river, which descends from the rocky hills of
the interior, make the scenery on its banks very picturesque and
beautiful.

The inhabitants are called Serawoollies, or (as the French write it)
_Seracolets_.  Their complexion is a jet black: they are not to be
distinguished in this respect from the Jaloffs.

The government is monarchical, and the regal authority, from what I
experienced of it, seems to be sufficiently formidable.  The people
themselves, however, complain of no oppression, and seemed all very
anxious to support the king in a contest he was going to enter into with
the sovereign of Kasson.  The Serawoollies are habitually a trading
people; they formerly carried on a great commerce with the French in gold
and slaves, and still maintain some traffic in slaves with the British
factories on the Gambia.  They are reckoned tolerably fair and just in
their dealings, but are indefatigable in their exertions to acquire
wealth, and they derive considerable profits by the sale of salt and
cotton cloth in distant countries.  When a Serawoolli merchant returns
home from a trading expedition the neighbours immediately assemble to
congratulate him upon his arrival.  On these occasions the traveller
displays his wealth and liberality by making a few presents to his
friends; but if he has been unsuccessful his levee is soon over, and
every one looks upon him as a man of no understanding, who could perform
a long journey, and (at they express it) “bring back nothing but the hair
upon his head.”

Their language abounds much in gutturals, and is not so harmonious as
that spoken by the Foulahs.  It is, however, well worth acquiring by
those who travel through this part of the African continent, it being
very generally understood in the kingdoms of Kasson, Kaarta, Ludamar, and
the northern parts of Bambarra.  In all these countries the Serawoollies
are the chief traders.  Their numerals are:—

One         Bani.
Two         Fillo.
Three       Sicco.
Four        Narrato.
Five        Karrago.
Six         Toomo.
Seven       Nero.
Eight       Sego.
Nine        Kabbo.
Ten         Tamo.
Twenty      Tamo di Fillo.

We arrived at Joag, the frontier town of this kingdom, on the 24th of
December, and took up our residence at the house of the chief man, who is
here no longer known by the title of alkaid, but is called the _dooty_.
He was a rigid Mohammedan, but distinguished for his hospitality.  This
town may be supposed, on a gross computation, to contain two thousand
inhabitants.  It is surrounded by a high wall, in which are a number of
port-holes, for musketry to fire through, in case of an attack.  Every
man’s possession is likewise surrounded by a wall, the whole forming so
many distinct citadels; and amongst a people unacquainted with the use of
artillery these walls answer all the purposes of stronger fortifications.
To the westward of the town is a small river, on the banks of which the
natives raise great plenty of tobacco and onions.

The same evening Madiboo, the bushreen, who had accompanied me from
Pisania, went to pay a visit to his father and mother, who dwelt at a
neighbouring town called Dramanet.  He was joined by my other attendant,
the blacksmith.  As soon as it was dark I was invited to see the sports
of the inhabitants, it being their custom, on the arrival of strangers,
to welcome them by diversions of different kinds.  I found a great crowd
surrounding a party who were dancing, by the light of some large fires,
to the music of four drums, which were beat with great exactness and
uniformity.  The dances, however, consisted more in wanton gestures than
in muscular exertion or graceful attitudes.  The ladies vied with each
other in displaying the most voluptuous movements imaginable.

_December_ 25.—About two o’clock in the morning a number of horsemen came
into the town, and, having awakened my landlord, talked to him for some
time in the Serawoolli tongue; after which they dismounted and came to
the bentang, on which I had made my bed.  One of them, thinking that I
was asleep, attempted to steal the musket that lay by me on the mat, but
finding that he could not effect his purpose undiscovered, he desisted,
and the strangers sat down by me till daylight.

I could now easily perceive, by the countenance of my interpreter,
Johnson, that something very unpleasant was in agitation.  I was likewise
surprised to see Madiboo and the blacksmith so soon returned.  On
inquiring the reason, Madiboo informed me that, as they were dancing at
Dramanet, ten horsemen belonging to Batcheri, king of the country, with
his second son at their head, had arrived there, inquiring if the white
man had passed, and, on being told that I was at Joag, they rode off
without stopping.  Madiboo added that on hearing this he and the
blacksmith hastened back to give me notice of their coming.  Whilst I was
listening to this narrative the ten horsemen mentioned by Madiboo
arrived, and coming to the bentang, dismounted and seated themselves with
those who had come before—the whole being about twenty in number—forming
a circle round me, and each man holding his musket in his hand.  I took
this opportunity to observe to my landlord that, as I did not understand
the Serawoolli tongue, I hoped whatever the men had to say they would
speak in Mandingo.  To this they agreed; and a short man, loaded with a
remarkable number of saphies, opened the business in a very long
harangue, informing me that I had entered the king’s town without having
first paid the duties, or giving any present to the king; and that,
according to the laws of the country, my people, cattle, and baggage were
forfeited.  He added that they had received orders from the king to
conduct me to Maana, {70} the place of his residence, and if I refused to
come with them their orders were to bring me by force; upon his saying
which all of them rose up and asked me if I was ready.  It would have
been equally vain and imprudent in me to have resisted or irritated such
a body of men; I therefore affected to comply with their commands, and
begged them only to stop a little until I had given my horse a feed of
corn, and settled matters with my landlord.  The poor blacksmith, who was
a native of Kasson, mistook this feigned compliance for a real intention,
and taking me away from the company, told me that he had always behaved
towards me as if I had been his father and master, and he hoped I would
not entirely ruin him by going to Maana, adding that as there was every
reason to believe a war would soon take place between Kasson and Kajaaga,
he should not only lose his little property, the savings of four years’
industry, but should certainly be detained and sold as a slave, unless
his friends had an opportunity of paying two slaves for his redemption.
I saw this reasoning in its full force, and determined to do my utmost to
preserve the blacksmith from so dreadful a fate.  I therefore told the
king’s son that I was ready to go with him, upon condition that, the
blacksmith, who was an inhabitant of a distant kingdom, and entirely
unconnected with me, should be allowed to stay at Joag till my return.
To this they all objected, and insisted that, as we had all acted
contrary to the laws, we were all equally answerable for our conduct.

I now took my landlord aside, and giving him a small present of
gunpowder, asked his advice in such critical a situation.  He was
decidedly of opinion that I ought not to go to the king: he was fully
convinced, he said, that if the king should discover anything valuable in
my possession, he would not be over scrupulous about the means of
obtaining it.

Towards the evening, as I was sitting upon the bentang chewing straws, an
old female slave, passing by with a basket upon her head, asked me _if
had got my dinner_.  As I thought she only laughed at me, I gave her no
answer; but my boy, who was sitting close by, answered for me, and told
her that the king’s people had robbed me of all my money.  On hearing
this, the good old woman, with a look of unaffected benevolence,
immediately took the basket from her head, and showing me that it
contained ground nuts, asked me if I could eat them.  Being answered in
the affirmative, she presented me with a few handfuls, and walked away
before I had time to thank her for this seasonable supply.

The old woman had scarcely left me when I received information that a
nephew of Demba Sego Jalla, the Mandingo king of Kasson, was coming to
pay me a visit.  He had been sent on an embassy to Batcheri, King of
Kajaaga, to endeavour to settle the disputes which had arisen between his
uncle and the latter; but after debating the matter four days without
success, he was now on his return, and hearing that a white man was at
Joag, on his way to Kasson, curiosity brought in to see me.  I
represented to him my situation and distresses, when he frankly offered
me his protection, and said he would be my guide to Kasson (provided I
would set out the next morning), and be answerable for my safety.  I
readily and gratefully accepted his offer, and was ready with my
attendants by daylight on the morning of the 27th of December.

My protector, whose name was Demba Sego, probably after his uncle, had a
numerous retinue.  Our company, at leaving Joag, consisted of thirty
persons and six loaded asses; and we rode on cheerfully enough for some
hours, without any remarkable occurrence until we came to a species of
tree for which my interpreter Johnson had made frequent inquiry.  On
finding it, he desired us to stop, and producing a white chicken, which
he had purchased at Joag for the purpose, he tied it by the leg to one of
the branches, and then told us we might now safely proceed, for that our
journey would be prosperous.

At noon we had reached Gungadi, a large town where we stopped about an
hour, until some of the asses that had fallen behind came up.  Here I
observed a number of date-trees, and a mosque built of clay, with six
turrets, on the pinnacles of which were placed six ostrich eggs.  A
little before sunset we arrived at the town of Samee, on the banks of the
Senegal, which is here a beautiful but shallow river, moving slowly over
a bed of sand and gravel.  The banks are high, and covered with
verdure—the country is open and cultivated—and the rocky hills of Fellow
and Bambouk add much to the beauty of the landscape.

_December_ 28.—We departed from Samee, and arrived in the afternoon at
Kayee, a large village, part of which is situated on the north and part
on the south side of the river.

The ferryman then taking hold of the most steady of the horses by a rope,
led him into the water, and paddled the canoe a little from the brink;
upon which a general attack commenced upon the other horses, who, finding
themselves pelted and kicked on all sides, unanimously plunged into the
river, and followed their companion.  A few boys swam in after them; and,
by laving water upon them when they attempted to return, urged them
onwards; and we had the satisfaction in about fifteen minutes to see them
all safe on the other side.  It was a matter of greater difficulty to
manage the asses; their natural stubbornness of disposition made them
endure a great deal of pelting and shoving before they would venture into
the water; and when they had reached the middle of the stream, four of
them turned back, in spite of every exertion to get them forwards.  Two
hours were spent in getting the whole of them over; an hour more was
employed in transporting the baggage; and it was near sunset before the
canoe returned, when Demba Sego and myself embarked in this dangerous
passage-boat, which the least motion was like to overset.  The king’s
nephew thought this a proper time to have a peep into a tin box of mine
that stood in the fore part of the canoe; and in stretching out his band
for it, he unfortunately destroyed the equilibrium, and overset the
canoe.  Luckily we were not far advanced, and got back to the shore
without much difficulty; from whence, after wringing the water from our
clothes, we took a fresh departure, and were soon afterwards safely
landed in Kasson.




CHAPTER VI.
TIGGITY SEGO’S PALAVER.


WE no sooner found ourselves safe in Kasson than Demba Sego told me that
we were now in his uncle’s dominions, and he hoped I would consider,
being now out of danger, the obligation I owed to him, and make him a
suitable return for the trouble he had taken on my account by a handsome
present.  This, as he knew how much had been pilfered from me at Joag,
was rather an unexpected proposition, and I began to fear that I had not
much improved my condition by crossing the water; but as it would have
been folly to complain I made no observation upon his conduct, and gave
him seven bars of amber and some tobacco, with which he seemed to be
content.

After a long day’s journey, in the course of which I observed a number of
large loose nodules of white granite, we arrived at Teesee on the evening
of December 29th, and were accommodated in Demba Sego’s hut.  The next
morning he introduced me to his father, Tiggity Sego, brother to the king
of Kasson, chief of Teesee.  The old man viewed me with great
earnestness, having never, he said, beheld but one white man before, whom
by his description I immediately knew to be Major Houghton.

In the afternoon one of his slaves eloped; and a general alarm being
given, every person that had a horse rode into the woods, in the hopes of
apprehending him, and Demba Sego begged the use of my horse for the same
purpose.  I readily consented; and in about an hour they all returned
with the slave, who was severely flogged, and afterwards put in irons.
On the day following (December 31st) Demba Sego was ordered to go with
twenty horsemen to a town in Gedumah, to adjust some dispute with the
Moors, a party of whom were supposed to have stolen three horses from
Teesee.  Demba begged a second the time use of my horse, adding that the
sight of my bridle and saddle would give him consequence among the Moors.
This request also I readily granted, and he promised to return at the end
of three days.  During his absence I amused myself with walking about the
town, and conversing with the natives, who attended me everywhere with
great kindness and curiosity, and supplied me with milk, eggs, and what
other provisions I wanted, on very easy terms.

Teesee is a large unwalled town, having no security against the attack of
an enemy except a sort of citadel in which Tiggity and his family
constantly reside.  This town, according to the report of the natives,
was formerly inhabited only by a few Foulah shepherds, who lived in
considerable affluence by means of the excellent meadows in the
neighbourhood, in which they reared great herds of cattle.  But their
prosperity attracting the envy of some Mandingoes, the latter drove out
the shepherds, and took possession of their lands.

The present inhabitants, though they possess both cattle and corn in
abundance, are not over nice in articles of diet; rats, moles, squirrels,
snakes, locusts, are eaten without scruple by the highest and lowest.  My
people were one evening invited to a feast given by some of the townsmen,
where, after making a hearty meal of what they thought fish and kouskous,
one of them found a piece of hard skin in the dish, and brought it along
with him to show me what sort of fish they had been eating.  On examining
the skin I found they had been feasting on a large snake.  Another custom
still more extraordinary is that no woman is allowed to eat an egg.  This
prohibition, whether arising from ancient superstition or from the
craftiness of some old bushreen who loved eggs himself, is rigidly
adhered to, and nothing will more affront a woman of Teesee than to offer
her an egg.  The custom is the more singular, as the men eat eggs without
scruple in the presence of their wives, and I never observed the same
prohibition in any other of the Mandingo countries.

The third day after his son’s departure, Tiggity Sego held a palaver on a
very extraordinary occasion, which I attended; and the debates on both
sides of the question displayed much ingenuity.  The case was this:—A
young man, a kafir of considerable affluence, who had recently married a
young and handsome wife, applied to a very devout bushreen, or Mussalman
priest, of his acquaintance, to procure him saphies for his protection
during the approaching war.  The bushreen complied with the request; and
in order, as he pretended, to render the saphies more efficacious,
enjoined the young man to avoid any nuptial intercourse with his bride
for the space of six weeks.  Severe as the injunction was, the kafir
strictly obeyed; and, without telling his wife the real cause, absented
himself from her company.  In the meantime, it began to be whispered at
Teesee that the bushreen, who always performed his evening devotions at
the door of the kafir’s hut, was more intimate with the young wife than
he ought to be.  At first the good husband was unwilling to suspect the
honour of his sanctified friend, and one whole month elapsed before any
jealousy rose in his mind, but hearing the charge repeated, he at last
interrogated his wife on the subject, who frankly confessed that the
bushreen had seduced her.  Hereupon the kafir put her into confinement,
and called a palaver upon the bushreen’s conduct.  The fact was clearly
proved against him; and he was sentenced to be sold into slavery, or to
find two slaves for his redemption, according to the pleasure of the
complainant.  The injured husband, however, was unwilling to proceed
against his friend to such extremity, and desired rather to have him
publicly flogged before Tiggity Sego’s gate.  This was agreed to, and the
sentence was immediately executed.  The culprit was tied by the hands to
a strong stake; and a long black rod being brought forth, the
executioner, after flourishing it round his head for some time, applied
it with such force and dexterity to the bushreen’s back as to make him
roar until the woods resounded with his screams.  The surrounding
multitude, by their hooting and laughing, manifested how much they
enjoyed the punishment of this old gallant; and it is worthy of remark
that the number of stripes was precisely the same as are enjoined by the
Mosaic law, _forty_, _save one_.

As there appeared great probability that Teesee, from its being a
frontier town, would be much exposed during the war to the predatory
incursions of the Moors of Gedumah, Tiggity Sego had, before my arrival,
sent round to the neighbouring villages to beg or to purchase as much
provisions as would afford subsistence to the inhabitants for one whole
year, independently of the crop on the ground, which the Moors might
destroy.  This project was well received by the country people, and they
fixed a day on which to bring all the provisions they could spare to
Teesee; and as my horse was not yet returned, I went, in the afternoon of
January 4th, 1796, to meet the escort with the provisions.

It was composed of about 400 men, marching in good order, with corn and
ground nuts in large calabashes upon their heads.  They were preceded by
a strong guard of bowmen, and followed by eight musicians or singing men.
As soon as they approached the town the latter began a song, every verse
of which was answered by the company, and succeeded by a few strokes on
the large drums.  In this manner they proceeded, amidst the acclamations
of the populace, till they reached the house of Tiggity Sego, where the
loads were deposited; and in the evening they all assembled under the
bentang tree, and spent the night in dancing and merriment.

On the 5th of January an embassy of ten people belonging to Almami
Abdulkader, king of Foota-Torra, a country to the west of Bondou, arrived
at Teesee; and desiring Tiggity to call an assembly of the inhabitants,
announced publicly their king’s determination to this effect:—‘That
unless all the people of Kasson would embrace the Mohammedan religion,
and evince their conversion by saying eleven public prayers, he, the king
of Foota-Torra, could not possibly stand neuter in the present contest,
but would certainly join his arms to those of Kajaaga.’  A message of
this nature from so powerful a prince could not fail to create great
alarm; and the inhabitants of Teesee, after a long consultation, agreed
to conform to his good pleasure, humiliating as it was to them.
Accordingly, one and all publicly offered up eleven prayers, which were
considered a sufficient testimony of their having renounced paganism, and
embraced the doctrines of the prophet.

It was time 8th of January before Demba Sego returned with my horse; and
being quite wearied out with the delay, I went immediately to inform his
father that I should set out for Kooniakary early the next day.  The old
man made many frivolous objections, and at length gave me to understand
that I must not think of departing without first paying him the same
duties he was entitled to receive from all travellers; besides which he
expected, he said, some acknowledgment for his kindness towards use.
Accordingly, on the morning of the 9th, my friend Demba, with a number of
people, came to me, and said that they were sent by Tiggity Sego for my
present, and wished to see what goods I had appropriated for that
purpose.  I knew that resistance was hopeless, and complaint unavailing:
and being in some measure prepared by the intimation I had received the
night before, I quietly offered him seven bars of amber and five of
tobacco.  After surveying these articles for some time very coolly, Demba
laid them down, and told me that this was not a present for a man of
Tiggity Sego’s consequence, who had it in his power to take whatever he
pleased from me.  He added, that if I did not consent to make him a
larger offering he would carry all my baggage to his father, and let him
choose for himself.  I had no time for reply, for Demba and his
attendants immediately began to open my bundles, and spread the different
articles upon the floor, where they underwent a more strict examination
than they had done at Joag.  Everything that pleased them they took
without scruple: and amongst other things, Demba seized the tin box that
had so much attracted his attention in crossing the river.  Upon
collecting the scattered remains of my little fortune after these people
had left me, I found that, as at Joag I had been plundered of half, so
here, without even the shadow of accusation, I was deprived of half the
remainder.  The blacksmith himself, though a native of Kasson, had also
been compelled to open his bundles, and take an oath that the different
articles they contained were his own exclusive property.  There was,
however, no remedy, and having been under some obligation to Demba Sego
for his attention towards me in the journey from Joag, I did not reproach
him for his rapacity, but determined to quit Teesee, at all events, the
next morning.  In the meanwhile, in order to raise the drooping spirits
of my attendants, I purchased a fat sheep, and had it dressed for our
dinner.

Early in the morning of January 10th, therefore, I left Teesee, and about
mid-day ascended a ridge, from whence we had a distant view of the hills
round Kooniakary.  In the evening we reached a small village, where we
slept, and, departing from thence the next morning, crossed in a few
hours a narrow but deep stream called Krieko, a branch of the Senegal.
About two miles farther to the eastward we passed a large town called
Madina, and at two o’clock came in sight of Jumbo, the blacksmith’s
native town, from whence he had been absent more than four years.  Soon
after this, his brother, who had by some means been apprised of his
coming, came out to meet him, accompanied by a singing man.  He brought a
horse for the blacksmith, that he might enter his native town in a
dignified manner; and he desired each of us to put a good charge of
powder into our guns.  The singing man now led the way, followed by the
two brothers, and we were presently joined by a number of people from the
town, all of whom demonstrated great joy at seeing their old acquaintance
the blacksmith by the most extravagant jumping and singing.  On entering
the town the singing man began an extempore song in praise of the
blacksmith, extolling his courage in having overcome so many
difficulties, and concluding with a strict injunction to his friends to
dress him plenty of victuals.

When we arrived at the blacksmith’s place of residence we dismounted, and
fired our muskets.  The meeting between him and his relations was very
tender; for these rude children of nature, free from restraint, display
their emotions in the strongest and most expressive manner.  Amidst these
transports the blacksmith’s aged mother was led forth, leaning upon a
staff.  Every one made way for her, and she stretched out her hand to bid
her son welcome.  Being totally blind, she stroked his hands, arms, and
face with great care, and seemed highly delighted that her latter days
were blessed by his return, and that her ears once more heard the music
of his voice.

During the tumult of these congratulations I had seated myself apart by
the side of one of the huts, being unwilling to interrupt the flow of
filial and parental tenderness; and the attention of the company was so
entirely taken up with the blacksmith that I believe none of his friends
had observed me.  When all the people present had seated themselves the
blacksmith was desired by his father to give them some account of his
adventures; and silence being commanded, he began, and after repeatedly
thanking God for the success that had attended him, related every
material occurrence that had happened to him from his leasing Kasson to
his arrival at the Gambia, his employment and success in those parts, and
the dangers he had escaped in returning to his native country.  In the
latter part of his narration he had frequently occasion to mention me;
and after many strong expressions concerning my kindness to him he
pointed to the place where I sat, and exclaimed, “_Affille ibi
siring_!”—(“See him sitting there!”)  In a moment all eyes were turned
upon me; I appeared like a being dropped from the clouds; every one was
surprised that they had not observed me before; and a few women and
children expressed great uneasiness at being so near a man of such an
uncommon appearance.

By degrees, however, their apprehensions subsided, and when the
blacksmith assured them that I was perfectly inoffensive, and would hurt
nobody, some of them ventured so far as to examine the texture of my
clothes; but many of them were still very suspicious; and when by
accident I happened to move myself, or look at the young children, their
mothers would scamper off with them with the greatest precipitations.  In
a few hours, however, they all because reconciled to me.

With these worthy people I spent the remainder of that and the whole of
the ensuing day, in feasting and merriment; and the blacksmith declared
he would not quit me during my stay at Kooniakary—for which place we set
out early on the morning of the 14th of January, and arrived about the
middle of the day at Soolo, a small village three miles to the south of
it.

As this place was somewhat out of the direct road, it is necessary to
observe that I went thither to visit a slatee or Gambia trader, of great
note and reputation, named Salim Daucari.  He was well known to Dr.
Laidley, who had trusted him with effects to the value of five slaves,
and had given me an order for the whole of the debt.  We luckily found
him at home, and he received me with great kindness and attention.

It is remarkable, however, that the king of Kasson was by some means
immediately apprised of my motions; for I had been at Soolo but a few
hours before Sambo Sego, his second son, came thither with a party of
horse, to inquire what had prevented me from proceeding to Kooniakary,
and waiting immediately upon the king, who, he said, was impatient to see
me.  Salim Daucari made my apology, and promised to accompany me to
Kooniakary the same evening.  We accordingly departed from Soolo at
sunset, and in about an hour entered Kooniakary.  But as the king had
gone to sleep we deferred the interview till next morning, and slept at
the hut of Sambo Sego.




CHAPTER VII.
INTERVIEW WITH KING DEMBA SEGO JALLA.


ABOUT eight o’clock in the morning of January 15th, 1796, we went to an
audience of the king (Demba Sego Jalla), but the crowd of people to see
me was so great that I could scarcely get admittance.  A passage being at
length obtained, I made my bow to the monarch, whom we found sitting upon
a mat, in a large hut.  He appeared to be a man of about sixty years of
age.  His success in war, and the mildness of his behaviour in time of
peace, had much endeared him to all his subjects.  He surveyed me with
great attention; and when Salim Daucari explained to him the object of my
journey, and my reasons for passing through his country, the good old
king appeared not only perfectly satisfied, but promised me every
assistance in his power.  He informed me that he had seen Major Houghton,
and presented him with a white horse; but that, after crossing the
kingdom of Kaarta, he had lost his life among the Moors, in what manner
he could not inform me.  When this audience was ended we returned to our
lodging, and I made up a small present for the king out of the few
effects that were left me; for I had not yet received anything from Salim
Daucari.  This present, though inconsiderable in itself, was well
received by the king, who sent me in return a large white bullock.  The
sight of this animal quite delighted my attendants; not so much on
account of its bulk, as from its being of a white colour, which is
considered as a particular mark of favour.  But although the king himself
was well disposed towards me, and readily granted me permission to pass
through his territories, I soon discovered that very great and unexpected
obstacles were likely to impede my progress.  Besides the war which was
on the point of breaking out between Kasson and Kajaaga, I was told that
the next kingdom of Kaarta, through which my route lay, was involved in
the issue, and was furthermore threatened with hostilities on the part of
Bambarra.  The king himself informed me of these circumstances, and
advised me to stay in the neighbourhood of Kooniakary till such time as
he could procure proper information respecting Bambarra, which he
expected to do in the course of four or five days, as he had already, he
said, sent four messengers into Kaarta for that purpose.  I readily
submitted to this proposal, and went to Soolo, to stay there till the
return of one of those messengers.  This afforded me a favourable
opportunity of receiving what money Salim Daucari could spare me on Dr.
Laidley’s account.  I succeeded in receiving the value of there slaves,
chiefly in gold dust; and being anxious to proceed as quickly as
possible, I begged Daucari to use his interest with the king to allow me
a guide by the way of Fooladoo, as I was informed that the war had
already commenced between the kings of Bambarra and Kaarta.  Daucari
accordingly set out for Kooniakary on the morning of the 20th, and the
same evening returned with the king’s answer, which was to this
purpose—that the king had, many years ago, made an agreement with Daisy,
king of Kaarta, to send all merchants and travellers through his
dominions; but that if I wished to take the route through Fooladoo I had
his permission so to do; though he could not, consistently with his
agreement, lend me a guide.  Having felt the want of regal protection in
a former part of my journey, I was unwilling to hazard a repetition of
the hardships I had then experienced, especially as the money I had
received was probably the last supply that I should obtain.  I therefore
determined to wait for the return of the messengers from Kaarta.

In the interim it began to be whispered abroad that I had received plenty
of gold from Salim Daucari, and, on the morning of the 23rd, Sambo Sego
paid me a visit, with a party of horsemen.  He insisted upon knowing the
exact amount of the money I had obtained, declaring that whatever the sum
was, one-half of it must go to the king; besides which he intimated that
he expected a handsome present for himself, as being the king’s son, and
for his attendants, as being the king’s relations.  I prepared to submit;
and if Salim Daucari had not interposed all my endeavours to mitigate
this oppressive claim would have been of no avail.  Salim at last
prevailed upon Sambo to accept sixteen bars of European merchandise, and
some powder and ball, as a complete payment of every demand that could be
made upon me in the kingdom of Kasson.

_January_ 26.—In the forenoon I went to the top of a high hill to the
southward of Soolo, where I had a most enchanting prospect of the
country.  The number of towns and villages, and the extensive cultivation
around them, surpassed everything I had yet seen in Africa.  A gross
calculation may be formed of the number of inhabitants in this delightful
plain by considering that the king of Kasson can raise four thousand
fighting men by the sound of his war-drum.  In traversing the rocky
eminences of this hill, which are almost destitute of vegetation, I
observed a number of large holes in the crevasses and fissures of the
rocks, where the wolves and hyænas take refuge during the day.

_February_ 1.—The messengers arrived from Kaarta, and brought
intelligence that the war had not yet commenced between Bambarra and
Kaarta, and that I might probably pass through Kaarta before the Bambarra
army invaded that country.

_February_ 3.—Early in the morning two guides on horseback came from
Kooniakary to conduct me to the frontiers of Kaarta.  I accordingly took
leave of Salim Daucari, and parted for the last time from my
fellow-traveller the blacksmith, whose kind solicitude for my welfare had
been so conspicuous, and about ten o’clock departed from Soolo.  We
travelled this day through a rocky and hilly country, along the banks of
the river Krieko, and at sunset came to the village of Soomo, where we
slept.

_February_ 4.—We departed from Soomo, and continued our route along the
banks of the Krieko, which are everywhere well cultivated, and swarm with
inhabitants.  At this time they were increased by the number of people
that had flown thither from Kaarta on account of the Bambarra war.  In
the afternoon we reached Kimo, a large village, the residence of Madi
Konko, governor of the hilly country of Kasson, which is called Sorroma.
From hence the guides appointed by the king of Kasson returned, to join
in the expedition against Kajaaga; and I waited until the 6th before I
could prevail on Madi Konko to appoint me a guide to Kaarta.

_February_ 7.—Departing from Kimo, with Madi Konko’s son as a guide, we
continued our course along the banks of the Krieko until the afternoon,
when we arrived at Kangee, a considerable town.  The Krieko is here but a
small rivulet.  This beautiful stream takes its rise a little to the
eastward of this town, and descends with a rapid and noisy current until
it reaches the bottom of the high hill called Tappa, where it becomes
more placid, and winds gently through the lovely plains of Kooniakary;
after which, having received an additional branch from the north, it is
lost in the Senegal, somewhere near the falls of Felow.

_February_ 8.—This day we travelled over a rough stony country, and
having passed Seimpo and a number of other villages, arrived in the
afternoon at Lackarago, a small village which stands upon the ridge of
hills that separates the kingdoms of Kasson and Kaarta.  In the course of
the day we passed many hundreds of people flying from Kaarta with their
families and effects.

_February_ 9.—Early in the morning we departed from Lackarago, and a
little to the eastward came to the brow of a hill from whence we had an
extensive view of the country.  Towards the south-east were perceived
some very distant hills, which our guide told us were the mountains of
Fooladoo.  We travelled with great difficulty down a stony and abrupt
precipice, and continued our way in the bed of a dry river course, where
the trees, meeting overhead, made the place dark and cool.  In a little
time we reached the bottom of this romantic glen, and about ten o’clock
emerged from between two rocky hills, and found ourselves on the level
and sandy plains of Kaarta.  At noon we arrived at a _korree_, or
watering place, where for a few strings of beads I purchased as much milk
and corn-meal as we could eat; indeed, provisions are here so cheap, and
the shepherds live in such affluence, that they seldom ask any return for
what refreshments a traveller receives from them.  From this korree we
reached Feesurah at sunset, where we took up our lodging for the night.

_February_ 10.—We continued at Feesurah all this day, to have a few
clothes washed, and learn more exactly the situation of affairs before we
ventured towards the capital.

_February_ 11—Our landlord, taking advantage of the unsettled state of
the country, demanded so extravagant a sum for our lodging that,
suspecting he wished for an opportunity to quarrel with us, I refused to
submit to his exorbitant demand; but my attendants were so much
frightened at the reports of approaching war that they refused to proceed
any farther unless I could settle matters with him, and induce him to
accompany us to Kemoo, for our protection on the road.  This I
accomplished with some difficulty; and by a present of a blanket which I
had brought with me to sleep in, and for which our landlord had conceived
a very great liking, matters were at length amicably adjusted, and he
mounted his horse and led the way.  He was one of those negroes who,
together with the ceremonial part of the Mohammedan religion, retain all
their ancient superstitions, and even drink strong liquors.  They are
called Johars, or Jowars, and in this kingdom form a very numerous and
powerful tribe.  We had no sooner got into a dark need lonely part of the
first wood than he made a sign for us to stop, and, taking hold of a
hollow piece of bamboo that hung as an amulet round his neck, whistled
very loud there times.  I confess I was somewhat startled, thinking it
was a signal for some of his companions to come and attack us; but he
assured me that it was done merely with a view to ascertain what success
we were likely to meet with on our present journey.  He then dismounted,
laid his spear across the road, and having said a number of short
prayers, concluded with three loud whistles; after which he listened for
some time, as if in expectation of an answer, and receiving none, told us
we might proceed without fear, for there was no danger.  About noon we
passed a number of large villages quite deserted, the inhabitants having
fled into Kasson to avoid the horrors of war.  We reached Karankalla at
sunset.  This formerly was a large town, but having been plundered by the
Bambarrans about four years ago, nearly one-half of it is still in ruins.

_February_ 12.—At daylight we departed from Karankalla, and as it was but
a short day’s journey to Kemmoo, we travelled slower than usual, and
amused ourselves by collecting such eatable fruits as grew near the
road-side.  About noon we saw at a distance the capital of Kaarta,
situated in the middle of an open plain—the country for two miles round
being cleared of wood, by the great consumption of that article for
building and fuel—and we entered the town about two o’clock in the
afternoon.

We proceeded without stopping to the court before the king’s residence;
but I was so completely surrounded by the gazing multitude that I did not
attempt to dismount, but sent in the landlord and Madi Konki’s son, to
acquaint the king of my arrival.  In a little time they returned,
accompanied by a messenger from the king, signifying that he would see me
in the evening; and in the meantime the messenger had orders to procure
me a lodging and see that the crowd did not molest me.  He conducted me
into a court, at the door of which he stationed a man with a stick in his
hand to keep off the mob, and then showed me a large hut in which I was
to lodge.  I had scarcely seated myself in this spacious apartment when
the mob entered; it was found impossible to keep them out, and I was
surrounded by as many as the hut could contain.  When the first party,
however, had seen me, and asked a few questions, they retired to make
room for another company; and in this manner the hut was filled and
emptied thirteen different times.

A little before sunset the king sent to inform me that he was at leisure,
and wished to see me.  I followed the messenger through a number of
courts surrounded with high walls, where I observed plenty of dry grass,
bundled up like hay, to fodder the horses, in case the town should be
invested.  On entering the court in which the king was sitting I was
astonished at the number of his attendants, and at the good order that
seemed to prevail among them; they were all seated—the fighting men on
the king’s right hand and the women and children on the left, leaving a
space between them for my passage.  The king, whose name was Daisy
Koorabarri, was not to be distinguished from his subjects by any
superiority in point of dress; a bank of earth, about two feet high, upon
which was spread a leopard’s skin, constituted the only mark of royal
dignity.  When I had seated myself upon the ground before him, and
related the various circumstances that had induced me to pass through his
country, and my reasons for soliciting his protections, he appeared
perfectly satisfied; but said it was not in his power at present to
afford me much assistance, for that all sort of communication between
Kaarta and Bambarra had been interrupted for some time past; and as
Mansong, the king of Bambarra, with his army, had entered Fooladoo in his
way to Kaarta, there was but little hope of my reaching Bambarra by any
of the usual routes, inasmuch as, coming from an enemy’s country, I
should certainly be plundered, or taken for a spy.  If his country had
been at peace, he said, I might have remained with him until a more
favourable opportunity offered; but, as matters stood at present, he did
not wish me to continue in Kaarta, for fear some accident should befall
me, in which case my countrymen might say that he had murdered a white
man.  He would therefore advise me to return into Kasson, and remain
there until the war should terminate, which would probably happen in the
course of three or four months, after which, if he was alive, he said, he
would be glad to see me, and if he was dead his sons would take care of
me.

This advice was certainly well meant on the part of the king, and perhaps
I was to blame in not following it; but I reflected that the hot months
were approaching, and I dreaded the thoughts of spending the rainy season
in the interior of Africa.  These considerations, and the aversion I felt
at the idea of returning without having made a greater progress in
discovery, made sue determine to go forward; and though the king could
not give me a guide to Bambarra, I begged that he would allow a man to
accompany me as near the frontiers of his kingdom as was consistent with
safety.  Finding that I was determined to proceed, the king told me that
one route still remained, but that, he said, was by no means free from
danger—which was to go from Kaarta into the Moorish kingdom of Ludamar,
from whence I might pass by a circuitous route into Bambarra.  If I
wished to follow this route he would appoint people to conduct me to
Jarra, the frontier town of Ludamar.  He then inquired very particularly
how I had been treated since I had left the Gambia, and asked, in a
jocular way, how many slaves I expected to carry home with me on my
return.  He was about to proceed when a man mounted on a fine Moorish
horse, which was covered with sweat and foam, entered the court, and
signifying that he had something of importance to communicate, the king
immediately took up his sandals, which is the signal to strangers to
retire.  I accordingly took leave, but desired my boy to stay about the
place, in order to learn something of the intelligence that this
messenger had brought.  In about an hour the boy returned, and informed
me that the Bambarra army had left Fooladoo, and was on its march towards
Kaarta; that the man I had seen, who had brought this intelligence, was
one of the scouts, or watchmen, employed by the king, each of whom has
his particular station (commonly on some rising ground) from whence he
has the best view of the country, and watches the motions of the enemy.

_February_ 13.—At daylight I sent my horse-pistols and holsters as a
present to the king, and being very desirous to get away from a place
which was likely soon to become the seat of war, I begged the messenger
to inform the king that I wished to depart from Kemmoo as soon as he
should find it convenient to appoint me a guide.  In about an hour the
king sent his messenger to thank me for the present, and eight horsemen
to conduct me to Jarra.  They told me that the king wished me to proceed
to Jarra with all possible expedition, that they might return before
anything decisive should happen between the armies of Bambarra need
Kaarta.  We accordingly departed forthwith from Kemmoo, accompanied by
three of Daisy’s sons, and about two hundred horsemen, who kindly
undertook to see me a little way on my journey.




CHAPTER VIII.
ADVENTURES BETWEEN KEMMOO AND JARRA.


ON the evening of the day of our departure from Kemmoo (the king’s eldest
son and great part of the horsemen having returned) we reached a village
called Marina, where we slept.  During the night some thieves broke into
the hut where I had deposited my baggage, and having cut open one of my
bundles, stole a quantity of beads, part of my clothes, and some amber
and gold, which happened to be in one of the pockets.  I complained to my
protectors, but without effect.  The next day (February 14th) was far
advanced before we departed from Marina, and we travelled slowly, on
account of the excessive heat, until four o’clock in the afternoon, when
two negroes were observed sitting among some thorny bushes, at a little
distance from the road.  The king’s people, taking it for granted that
they were runaway slaves, cocked their muskets, and rode at full speed in
different directions through the bushes, in order to surround them, and
prevent their escaping.  The negroes, however, waited with great
composure until we came within bowshot of them, when each of them took
from his quiver a handful of arrows, and putting two between his teeth
and one in his bow, waved to us with his hand to keep at a distance; upon
which one of the king’s people called out to the strangers to give some
account of themselves.  They said that “they were natives of Toorda, a
neighbouring village, and had come to that place to gather _tomberongs_.”
These are small farinaceous berries, of a yellow colour and delicious
taste, which I knew to be the fruit of the _rhamnus lotus_ of Linnæus.

The lotus is very common in all the kingdoms which I visited; but is
found in the greatest plenty on the sandy soil of Kaarta, Ludamar, and
the northern parts of Bambarra, where it is one of the most common shrubs
of the country.  I had observed the same species at Gambia.

As this shrub is found in Tunis, and also in the negro kingdoms, and as
it furnishes the natives of the latter with a food resembling bread, and
also with a sweet liquor which is much relished by them, there can be
little doubt of its being the lotus mentioned by Pliny as the food of the
Libyan Lotophagi.  An army may very well have been fed with the bread I
have tasted, made of the meal of the fruit, as is said by Pliny to have
been done in Libya; and as the taste of the bread is sweet and agreeable,
it is not likely that the soldiers would complain of it.

We arrived in the evening at the village of Toorda; when all the rest of
the king’s people turned back except two, who remained with me as guides
to Jarra.

_February_ 15.—I departed from Toorda, and about two o’clock came to a
considerable town, called Funingkedy.  As we approached the town the
inhabitants were much alarmed; for, as one of my guides wore a turban,
they mistook us for some Moorish banditti.  This misapprehension was soon
cleared up, and we were well received by a Gambia slatee, who resides at
this town, and at whose house we lodged.

_February_ 16.—We were informed that a number of people would go from
this town to Jarra on the day following; and as the road was much
infested by the Moors we resolved to stay and accompany the travellers.

About two o’clock, as I was lying asleep upon a bullock’s hide behind the
door of the hut, I was awakened by the screams of women, and a general
clamour and confusion among the inhabitants.  At first I suspected that
the Bambarrans had actually entered the town; but observing my boy upon
the top of one of the huts, I called to him to know what was the matter.
He informed me that the Moors were come a second time to steal the
cattle, and that they were now close to the town.  I mounted the roof of
the hut, and observed a large herd of bullocks coming towards the town,
followed by five Moors on horseback, who drove the cattle forward with
their muskets.  When they had reached the wells which are close to the
town, the Moors selected from the herd sixteen of the finest beasts, and
drove them off at full cell gallop.  During this transaction the
townspeople, to the number of five hundred, stood collected close to the
walls of the town; and when the Moors drove the cattle away, though they
passed within pistol-shot of them, the inhabitants scarcely made a show
of resistance.  I only saw four muskets fired, which, being loaded with
gunpowder of the negroes’ own manufacture, did no execution.  Shortly
after this I observed a number of people supporting a young man on
horseback, and conducting him slowly towards the town.  This was one of
the herdsmen, who, attempting to throw his spear, had been wounded by a
shot from one of the Moors.  His mother walked on before, quite frantic
with grief, clapping her hands, and enumerating the good qualities of her
son.  “_Ee maffo fenio_!”  (“He never told a lie!”) said the disconsolate
mother as her wounded son was carried in at the gate—“_Ee maffo fonio
abada_!”  (“He never told a lie; no, never!”)  When they had conveyed him
to his hut, and laid him upon a mat, all the spectators joined in
lamenting his fate, by screaming and howling in the most piteous manner.

After their grief had subsided a little, I was desired to examine the
wound.  I found that the ball had passed quite through his leg, having
fractured both bones a little below the knee: the poor boy was faint from
the loss of blood, and his situation withal so very precarious, that I
could not console his relations with any great hopes of his recovery.
However, to give him a possible chance, I observed to them that it was
necessary to cut off his leg above the knee.  This proposal made every
one start with horror; they had never heard of such a method of cure, and
would by no means give their consent to it; indeed, they evidently
considered me a sort of cannibal for proposing so cruel and unheard-of an
operation, which, in their opinion, would be attended with more pain and
danger than the wound itself.  The patient was therefore committed to the
care of some old bashreens, who endeavoured to secure him a passage into
paradise by whispering in his ear some Arabic sentences, and desiring him
to repeat them.  After many unsuccessful attempts, the poor heathen at
last pronounced, “_La illah el Allah_, _Mahamet rasowl allahi_”  (“There
is but one God, and Mohammed is his Prophet”); and the disciples of the
Prophet assured his mother that her son had given sufficient evidence of
his faith, and would be happy in a future state.  He died the same
evening.

_February_ 17.—My guides informed me that in order to avoid the Moorish
banditti it was necessary to travel in the night; we accordingly departed
from Funingkedy in the afternoon, accompanied by about thirty people,
carrying their effects with them into Ludamar, for fear of the war.  We
travelled with great silence and expedition until midnight, when we
stopped in a sort of enclosure, near a small village; but the thermometer
being so low as 68 degrees, none of the negroes could sleep on account of
the cold.

At daybreak on the 18th we resumed our journey, and at eight o’clock
passed Simbing, the frontier village of Ludamar, situated on a narrow
pass between two rocky hills, and surrounded with a high wall.  From this
village Major Houghton (being deserted by his negro servants, who refused
to follow him into the Moorish country) wrote his last letter with a
pencil to Dr. Laidley.  This brave but unfortunate man, heaving
surmounted many difficulties, had taken a northerly direction, had
endeavoured to pass through the kingdom of Ludamar, where I afterwards
learned the following particulars concerning his melancholy fate:—On his
arrival at Jarra he got acquainted with certain Moorish merchants who
were travelling to Tisheet (a place near the salt pits in the Great
Desert, ten days’ journey to the northward) to purchase salt; and the
Major, at the expense of a musket and some tobacco, engaged them to
convey him thither.  It is impossible to form any other opinion on this
determination than that the Moors intentionally deceived him, either with
regard to the route that he wished to pursue, or the state of the
intermediate country between Jarra and Timbuctoo.  Their intention
probably was to rob and leave him in the desert.  At the end of two days
he suspected their treachery, and insisted on returning to Jarra.
Finding him persist in this determination, the Moors robbed him of
everything he possessed, and went off with their camels; the poor Major
being thus deserted, returned on foot to a watering-place in possession
of the Moors, called Tarra.  He had been some days without food, and the
unfeeling Moors refusing to give him any, he sank at last under his
distresses.  Whether he actually perished of hunger, or was murdered
outright by the savage Mohammedans, is not certainly known; his body was
dragged into the woods, and I was shown at a distance the spot where his
remains were left to perish.

About four miles to the north of Simbing we came to a small stream of
water, where we observed a number of wild horses they were all of one
colour, and galloped away from us at an easy rate, frequently stopping
and looking back.  The negroes hunt them for food, and their flesh is
much esteemed.

About noon we arrived at Jarra, a large town situated at the bottom of
some rocky hills.




CHAPTER IX.
THE TOWN OF JARRA—DETAINED BY THE MOORS.


THE town of Jarra is of considerable extent; the houses are built of clay
and stone intermixed—the clay answering the purpose of mortar.  It is
situated in the Moorish kingdom of Ludamar; but the major part of the
inhabitants are negroes, from the borders of the southern states, who
prefer a precarious protection under the Moors, which they purchase by a
tribute, rather than continue exposed to their predatory hostilities.
The tribute they pay is considerable; and they manifest towards their
Moorish superiors the most unlimited obedience and submission, and are
treated by them with the utmost indignity and contempt.  The Moors of
this and the other states adjoining the country of the negroes resemble
in their persons the mulattoes of the West Indies to so great a degree as
not easily to be distinguished from them; and, in truth, the present
generation seem to be a mixed race between the Moors (properly so called)
of the north and the negroes of the south, possessing many of the worst
qualities of both nations.

Of the origin of these Moorish tribes, as distinguished from the
inhabitants of Barbary, from whom they are divided by the Great Desert,
nothing further seems to be known than what is related by John Leo, the
African, whose account may be abridged as follows:—

Before the Arabian conquest, about the middle of the seventh century, all
the inhabitants of Africa, whether they were descended from Numidians,
Phœnicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, or Goths, were comprehended
under the general name of _Mauri_, or Moors.  All these nations were
converted to the religion of Mohammed during the Arabian empire under the
Kaliphs.  About this time many of the Numidian tribes, who led a
wandering life in the desert, and supported themselves upon the produce
of their cattle, retired southward across the Great Desert to avoid the
fury of the Arabians; and by one of those tribes, says Leo (that of
Zanhaga), were discovered, and conquered, the negro nations on the Niger.
By the Niger is here undoubtedly meant the river of Senegal, which in the
Mandingo language is _Bafing_, or the Black River.

To what extent these people are now spread over the African continent it
is difficult to ascertain.  There is reason to believe that their
dominion stretches from west to east, in a narrow line or belt, from the
mouth of the Senegal (on the northern side of that river) to the confines
of Abyssinia.  They are a subtle and treacherous race of people, and take
every opportunity of cheating and plundering the credulous and
unsuspecting negroes.  But their manners and general habits of life will
be best explained as incidents occur in the course of my narrative.

The difficulties we had already encountered, the unsettled state of the
country, and, above all, the savage and overbearing deportment of the
Moors, had so completely frightened my attendants that they declared they
would rather relinquish every claim to reward than proceed one step
farther to the eastward.  Indeed, the danger they incurred of being
seized by the Moors, and sold into slavery, became every day more
apparent; and I could not condemn their apprehensions.  In this
situation, deserted by my attendants, and reflecting that my retreat was
cut off by the war behind me, and that a Moorish country of ten days’
journey lay before me, I applied to Daman to obtain permission from Ali,
the chief or sovereign of Ludamar, that I might pass through his country
unmolested into Bambarra; and I hired one of Daman’s slaves to accompany
me thither, as soon as such permission should be obtained.  A messenger
was despatched to Ali, who at this time was encamped near Benowm; and as
a present was necessary in order to insure success, I sent him five
garments of cotton cloth, which I purchased of Daman for one of my
fowling-pieces.  Fourteen days elapsed in settling this affair; but on
the evening of the 26th of February, one of Ali’s slaves arrived with
directions, as he pretended, to conduct me in safety as far as Goomba,
and told me I was to pay him one garment of blue cotton cloth for his
attendance.  My faithful boy, observing that I was about to proceed
without him, resolved to accompany me; and told me, that though he wished
me to turn back, he never entertained any serious thoughts of deserting
me, but had been advised to it by Johnson, with a view to induce me to
turn immediately for Gambia.

_February_ 27.—I delivered most of my papers to Johnson, to convey them
to Gambia as soon as possible, reserving a duplicate for myself in case
of accidents.  I likewise left in Daman’s possession a bundle of clothes,
and other things that were not absolutely necessary, for I wished to
diminish my baggage as much as possible, that the Moors might have fewer
inducements to plunder us.

Things being thus adjusted, we departed from Jarra in the forenoon, and
slept at Troomgoomba, a small walled village, inhabited by a mixture of
negroes and Moors.  On the day following (February 28th) we reached
Quira; and on the 29th, after a toilsome journey over a sandy country, we
came to Compe, a watering-place belonging to the Moors; from whence, on
the morning following, we proceeded to Deena, a large town, and, like
Jarra, built of stone and clay.  The Moors are here in greater proportion
to the negroes than at Jarra.  They assembled round the hut of the negro
where I lodged, and treated me with the greatest insolence; they hissed,
shouted, and abused me; they even spat in my face, with a view to
irritate me, and afford them a pretext for seizing my baggage.  But
finding such insults had not the desired effect, they had recourse to the
final and decisive argument, that I was a Christian, and of course that
my property was lawful plunder to the followers of Mohammed.  They
accordingly opened my bundles, and robbed me of everything they fancied.
My attendants, finding that everybody could rob me with impunity,
insisted on returning to Jarra.

The day following (March 2nd), I endeavoured, by all the means in my
power, to prevail upon my people to go on, but they still continued
obstinate; and having reason to fear some further insult from the fanatic
Moors, I resolved to proceed alone.  Accordingly, the next morning, about
two o’clock, I departed from Deena.  It was moonlight, but the roaring of
the wild beasts made it necessary to proceed with caution.

When I had reached a piece of rising ground about half a mile from the
town, I heard somebody halloo, and, looking back, saw my faithful boy
running after me.  He informed me that Ali’s men had gone back to Benowm,
and that Daman’s negro was about to depart for Jarra; but he said he had
no doubt, if I would stop a little, that he could persuade the latter to
accompany us.  I waited accordingly, and in about an hour the boy
returned with the negro; and we continued travelling over a sandy
country, covered chiefly with the _Asclepias gigantea_, until mid-day,
when we came to a number of deserted huts; and seeing some appearances of
water at a little distance, I sent the boy to fill a soofroo; but as he
was examining the place for water, the roaring of a lion, that was
probably on the same pursuit, induced the frightened boy to return in
haste, and we submitted patiently to the disappointment.  In the
afternoon we reached a town inhabited chiefly by Foulahs, called
Samaming-koos.

Next morning (March 4th), we set out for Sampaka, which place we reached
about two o’clock.  On the road we observed immense quantities of
locusts; the trees were quite black with them.

Sampaka is a large town, and when the Moors and Bambarrans were at war
was thrice attacked by the former; but they were driven off with great
loss, though the king of Bambarra was afterwards obliged to give up this,
and all the other towns as far as Goomba, in order to obtain a peace.
Here I lodged at the house of a negro who practised the art of making
gunpowder.  He showed me a bag of nitre, very white, but the crystals
were much smaller than common.  They procure it in considerable
quantities from the ponds, which are filled in the rainy season, and to
which the cattle resort for coolness during the heat of the day.  When
the water is evaporated, a white efflorescence is observed on the mud,
which the natives collect and purify in such a manner as to answer their
purpose.  The Moors supply them with sulphur from the Mediterranean; and
the process is completed by pounding the different articles together in a
wooden mortar.  The grains are very unequal, and the sound of its
explosion is by no means so sharp as that produced by European gunpowder.

_March_ 5.—We departed from Sampaka at daylight.  About noon we stopped a
little at a village called Dangali, and in the evening arrived at Dalli.
We saw upon the road two large herds of camels feeding.  When the Moors
turn their camels to feed they tie up one of their fore-legs to prevent
their straying.  This happened to be a feast-day at Dalli, and the people
were dancing before the dooty’s house.  But when they were informed that
a white man was come into the town they left off dancing and came to the
place where I lodged, walking in regular order, two and two, with the
music before them.  They play upon a sort of flute; but instead of
blowing into a hole in the side they blow obliquely over the end, which
is half shut by a thin piece of wood; they govern the holes on the side
with their fingers, and play some simple and very plaintive airs.  They
continued to dance and sing until midnight, during which time I was
surrounded by so great a crowd as made it necessary for me to satisfy
their curiosity by sitting still.

_March_ 6.—We stopped here this morning because some of the townspeople,
who were going for Goomba on the day following, wished to accompany us;
but in order to avoid the crowd of people which usually assembled in the
evening we went to a negro village to the east of Dalli, called Samee,
where we were kindly received by the hospitable dooty, who on this
occasion killed two fine sheep, and invited his friends to come and feast
with him.

_March_ 7.—Our landlord was so proud of the honour of entertaining a
white man that he insisted on my staying with him and his friends until
the cool of the evening, when he said he would conduct me to the next
village.  As I was now within two days’ journey of Goomba, I had no
apprehensions from the Moors, and readily accepted the invitation.  I
spent the forenoon very pleasantly with these poor negroes; their company
was the more acceptable, as the gentleness of their manners presented a
striking contrast to the rudeness and barbarity of the Moors.  They
enlivened their conversation by drinking a fermented liquor made from
corn—the same sort of beer that I have described in a former chapter; and
better I never tasted in Great Britain.

In the midst of this harmless festivity, I flattered myself that all
danger from the Moors was over.  Fancy had already placed me on the banks
of the Niger, and presented to my imagination a thousand delightful
scenes in my future progress, when a party of Moors unexpectedly entered
the hut, and dispelled the golden dream.  They came, they said, by Ali’s
orders, to convey me to his camp at Benowm.  If I went peaceably, they
told me, I had nothing to fear; but if I refused they had orders to bring
me by force.  I was struck dumb by surprise and terror, which the Moors
observing endeavoured to calm my apprehensions by repeating the assurance
that I had nothing to fear.  Their visit, they added, was occasioned by
the curiosity of Ali’s wife Fatima, who had heard so much about
Christians that she was very anxious to see one: as soon as her curiosity
should be satisfied, they had no doubt, they said, that Ali would give me
a handsome present, and send a person to conduct me to Bambarra.  Finding
entreaty and resistance equally fruitless, I prepared to follow the
messengers, and took leave of my landlord and his company with great
reluctance.  Accompanied by my faithful boy (for Daman’s slave made his
escape on seeing the Moors), we reached Dalli in the evening, where we
were strictly watched by the Moors during the night.

_March_ 8.—We were conducted by a circuitous path through the woods to
Dangali, where we slept.

_March_ 9.—We continued our journey, and in the afternoon arrived at
Sampaka.

Next morning (March 10th) we set out for Samaming-koos.  On the road we
overtook a woman and two boys with an ass; she informed us that she was
going for Bambarra, but had been stopped on the road by a party of Moors,
who had taken most of her clothes and some gold from her; and that she
would be under the necessity of returning to Deena till the fast moon was
over.  The same even the new moon was seen which ushered in the month
Ramadan.  Large fires were made in different parts of the town, and a
greater quantity of victuals than usual dressed upon the occasion.

_March_ 11.—By daylight the Moors were in readiness; but as I had
suffered much from thirst on the road I made my boy fill a soofroo of
water for my own use, for the Moors assured me that they should not taste
either meat or drink until sunset.  However, I found that the excessive
heat of the sun, and the dust we raised in travelling, overcame their
scruples, and made my soofroo a very useful part of our baggage.  On our
arrival at Deena, I went to pay my respects to one of Ali’s sons.  I
found him sitting in a low hut, with five or six more of his companions,
washing their hands and feet, and frequently taking water into their
mouths, gargling and spitting it out again.  I was no sooner seated than
he handed me a double-barrelled gun, and told me to dye the stock of a
blue colour, and repair one of the locks.  I found great difficulty in
persuading him that I knew nothing about the matter.  “However,” says he,
“if you cannot repair the gun, you shall give me some knives and scissors
immediately;” and when my boy, who acted as interpreter, assured him that
I had no such articles, he hastily snatched up a musket that stood by
him, cocked it, and putting the muzzle close to the boy’s ear, would
certainly have shot him dead upon the spot had not the Moors wrested the
musket from him, and made signs for us to retreat.

_March_ 12.—We departed from Deena towards Benowm, and about nine o’clock
came to a korree, whence the Moors were preparing to depart to the
southward, on account of the scarcity of water; here we filled our
soofroo, and continued our journey over a hot sandy country, covered with
small stunted shrubs, until about one o’clock, when the heat of the sun
obliged us to stop.  But our water being expended, we could not prudently
remain longer than a few minutes to collect a little gum, which is an
excellent succedaneum for water, as it keeps the mouth moist, and allays
for a time the pain in the throat.

About five o’clock we came in sight of Benowm, the residence of Ali.  It
presented to the eye a great number of dirty-looking tents, scattered
without order over a large space of ground; and among the tents appeared
large herds of camels, cattle, and goats.  We reached the skirts of this
camp a little before sunset, and, with much entreaty, procured a little
water.  My arrival was no sooner observed than the people who drew water
at the wells threw down their buckets; those in the tents mounted their
horses, and men, women, and children, came running or galloping towards
me.  I soon found myself surrounded by such a crowd that I could scarcely
move; one pulled my clothes, another took off my hat, a third stopped me
to examine my waistcoat-buttons, and a fourth called out, “_La illah el
Allah_, _Mahamet rasowl allahi_”—(“There is but one God, and Mohammed is
his Prophet”)—and signified, in a threatening manner, that I must repeat
those words.  We reached at length the king’s tent, where we found a
great number of people, men and women, assembled.  Ali was sitting upon a
black leather cushion, clipping a few hairs from his upper lip, a female
attendant holding up a looking-glass before him.  He appeared to be an
old man of the Arab cast, with a long white beard; and he had a sullen
and indignant aspect.  He surveyed me with attention, and inquired of the
Moors if I could speak Arabic.  Being answered in the negative, he
appeared much surprised, and continued silent.  The surrounding
attendants, and especially the ladies, were abundantly more inquisitive:
they asked a thousand questions, inspected every part of my apparel,
searched my pockets, and obliged me to unbutton my waistcoat, and display
the whiteness of my skin; they even counted my toes and fingers, as if
they doubted whether I was in truth a human being.  In a little time the
priest announced evening prayers; but before the people departed, the
Moor who had acted as interpreter informed me that Ali was about to
present me with something to eat; and looking round, I observed some boys
bringing a wild hog, which they tied to one of the tent strings, and Ali
made signs to me to kill and dress it for supper.  Though I was very
hungry, I did not think it prudent to eat any part of an animal so much
detested by the Moors, and therefore told him that I never ate such food.
They then untied the hog, in hopes that it would run immediately at
me—for they believe that a great enmity subsists between hogs and
Christians—but in this they were disappointed, for the animal no sooner
regained his liberty than he began to attack indiscriminately every
person that came in his way, and at last took shelter under the couch
upon which the king was sitting.  The assembly being thus dissolved, I
was conducted to the tent of Ali’s chief slave, but was not permitted to
enter, nor allowed to touch anything belonging to it.  I requested
something to eat, and a little boiled corn, with salt and water, was at
length sent me in a wooden bowl; and a mat was spread upon the sand
before the tent, on which I passed the night, surrounded by the curious
multitude.

At sunrise, Ali, with a few attendants, came on horseback to visit me,
and signified that he had provided a hut for me, where I would be
sheltered from the sun.  I was accordingly conducted thither, and found
the hut comparatively cool and pleasant.

I was no sooner seated in this my new habitation than the Moors assembled
in crowds to behold me; but I found it rather a troublesome levée, for I
was obliged to take off one of my stockings, and show them my foot, and
even to take off my jacket and waistcoat, to show them how my clothes
were put on and off; they were much delighted with the curious
contrivance of buttons.  All this was to be repeated to every succeeding
visitor; for such as had already seen these wonders insisted on their
friends seeing the same; and in this manner I was employed, dressing and
undressing, buttoning and unbuttoning, from noon till night.  About eight
o’clock, Ali sent me for supper some kouskous and salt and water, which
was very acceptable, being the only victuals I had tasted since morning.

I observed that in the night the Moors kept regular watch, and frequently
looked into the hut to see if I was asleep; and if it was quite dark,
they would light a wisp of grass.  About two o’clock in the morning a
Moor entered the hut, probably with a view to steal something, or perhaps
to murder me; and groping about he laid his hand upon my shoulder.  As
night visitors were at best but suspicious characters, I sprang up the
moment he laid his hand upon me; and the Moor, in his haste to get off,
stumbled over my boy, and fell with his face upon the wild hog, which
returned the attack by biting the Moor’s arm.  The screams of this man
alarmed the people in the king’s tent, who immediately conjectured that I
had made my escape, and a number of them mounted their horses, and
prepared to pursue me.  I observed upon this occasion that Ali did not
sleep in his own tent, but came galloping upon a white horse from a small
tent at a considerable distance; indeed, the tyrannical and cruel
behaviour of this man made him so jealous of every person around him that
even his own slaves and domestics knew not where he slept.  When the
Moors had explained to him the cause of this outcry they all went away,
and I was permitted to sleep quietly until morning.

_March_ 13.—With the returning day commenced the same round of insult and
irritation—the boys assembled to beat the hog, and the men and women to
plague the Christian.  It is impossible for me to describe the behaviour
of a people who study mischief as a science, and exult in the miseries
and misfortunes of their fellow-creatures.




CHAPTER X.
A MOORISH WEDDING.


THE Moors, though very indolent themselves, are rigid task-masters, and
keep every person under them in full employment.  My boy Demba was sent
to the woods to collect withered grass for Ali’s horses; and after a
variety of projects concerning myself, they at last found out an
employment for me: this was no other than the respectable office of
_barber_.  I was to make my first exhibition in this capacity in the
royal presence, and to be honoured with the task of shaving the head of
the young prince of Ludamar.  I accordingly seated myself upon the sand,
and the boy, with some hesitation, sat down beside me.  A small razor,
about three inclines long, was put into my hand, and I was ordered to
proceed; but whether from my own want of skill, or the improper shape of
the instrument, I unfortunately made a slight incision in the boy’s head
at the very commencement of the operation; and the king, observing the
awkward manner in which I held the razor, concluded that his son’s head
was in very improper hands, and ordered me to resign the razor and walk
out of the tent.  This I considered as a very fortunate circumstance; for
I had laid it down as a rule to make myself as useless and insignificant
as possible, as the only means of recovering my liberty.

_March_ 18.—Four Moors arrived from Jarra with Johnson my interpreter,
having seized him before he had received any intimation of my
confinement, and bringing with them a bundle of clothes that I had left
at Daman Jumma’s house, for my use in case I should return by the way of
Jarra.  Johnson was led into Ali’s tent and examined; the bundle was
opened, and I was sent for to explain the use of the different articles.
I was happy, however, to find that Johnson had committed my papers to the
charge of one of Daman’s wives.  When I had satisfied Ali’s curiosity
respecting the different articles of apparel the bundle was again tied
up, and put into a large cow-skin bag that stood in a corner of the tent.
The same evening Ali sent three of his people to inform me that there
were many thieves in the neighbourhood, and that to prevent the rest of
my things from being stolen it was necessary to convey them all into his
tent.  My clothes, instruments, and everything that belonged to me, were
accordingly carried away; and though the heat and dust made clean linen
very necessary and refreshing, I could not procure a single shirt out of
the small stock I had brought along with me.  Ali was, however,
disappointed by not finding among my effects the quantity of gold and
amber that he expected; but to make sure of everything he sent the same
people, on the morning following, to examine whether I had anything
concealed about my person.  They, with their usual rudeness, searched
every part of my apparel, and stripped me of all my gold, amber, my
watch, and one of my pocket-compasses; I had, fortunately, in the night,
buried the other compass in the sand—and this, with the clothes I had on,
was all that the tyranny of Ali had now left me.

The gold and amber were highly gratifying to Moorish avarice, but the
pocket-compass soon became an object of superstitious curiosity.  Ali was
very desirous to be informed why that small piece of iron, the needle,
always pointed to the Great Desert; and I found myself somewhat puzzled
to answer the question.  To have pleaded my ignorance would have created
a suspicion that I wished to conceal the real truth from him; I therefore
told him that my mother resided far beyond the sands of Sahara, and that
whilst she was alive the piece of iron would always point that way, and
serve as a guide to conduct me to her, and that if she was dead it would
point to her grave.  Ali now looked at the compass with redoubled
amazement; turned it round and round repeatedly; but observing that it
always pointed the same way, he took it up with great caution and
returned it to me, manifesting that he thought there was something of
magic in it, and that he was afraid of keeping so dangerous an instrument
in his possession.

_March_ 20.—This morning a council of chief men was held in Ali’s tent
respecting me.  Their decisions, though they were all unfavourable to me,
were differently related by different persons.  Some said that they
intended to put me to death; others that I was only to lose my right
hand; but the most probable account was that which I received from Ali’s
own son, a boy about nine years of age, who came to me in the evening,
and, with much concern, informed me that his uncle had persuaded his
father to put out my eyes, which they said resembled those of a cat, and
that all the bushreens had approved of this measure.  His father,
however, he said, would not put the sentence into execution until Fatima,
the queen, who was at present in the north, had seen me.

_March_ 21.—Anxious to know my destiny, I went to the king early in the
morning; and as a number of bushreens were assembled, I thought this a
favourable opportunity of discovering their intentions.  I therefore
began by begging his permission to return to Jarra, which was flatly
refused.  His wife, he said, had not yet seen me, and I must stay until
she came to Benowm, after which I should be at liberty to depart; and
that my horse, which had been taken away from me the day after I arrived,
should be again restored to me.  Unsatisfactory as this answer was, I was
forced to appear pleased; and as there was little hope of making my
escape at this season of the year, on account of the excessive heat, and
the total want of water in the woods, I resolved to wait patiently until
the rains had set in, or until some more favourable opportunity should
present itself.  But “hope deferred maketh the heart sick.”  This tedious
procrastination from day to day, and the thoughts of travelling through
the negro kingdoms in the rainy season, which was now fast approaching,
made me very melancholy; and having passed a restless night, I found
myself attacked in the morning by a smart fever.  I had wrapped myself
close up in my cloak with a view to induce perspiration, and was asleep,
when a party of Moors entered the hut, and with their usual rudeness
pulled the cloak from me.  I made signs to them that I was sick, and
wished much to sleep, but I solicited in vain; my distress was matter of
sport to them, and they endeavoured to heighten it by every means in
their power.  In this perplexity I left my hut, and walked to some shady
trees at a little distance from the camp, where I lay down.  But even
here persecution followed me, and solitude was thought too great an
indulgence for a distressed Christian.  Ali’s son, with a number of
horsemen, came galloping to the place, and ordered me to rise and follow
them.  I begged they would allow me to remain where I was, if it was only
for a few hours; but they paid little attention to what I said, and,
after a few threatening words, one of them pulled out a pistol from a
leather bag that was fastened to the pommel of his saddle, and presenting
it towards me, snapped it twice.  He did this with so much indifference,
that I really doubted whether the pistol was loaded.  He cocked it a
third time, and was striking the flint with a piece of steel, when I
begged them to desist, and returned with them to the camp.  When we
entered Ali’s tent we found him much out of humour.  He called for the
Moor’s pistol, and amused himself for some time with opening and shutting
the pan; at length taking up his powder-horn, he fresh primed it, and,
turning round to me with a menacing look, said something in Arabic which
I did not understand.  I desired my boy, who was sitting before the tent,
to inquire what offence I had committed; when I was informed, that having
gone out of the camp without Ali’s permission, they suspected that I had
some design of making my escape; and that, in future, if I was seen
without the skirts of the camp, orders had been given that I should be
shot by the first person that observed me.

In the afternoon the horizon to the eastward was thick and hazy, and the
Moors prognosticated a sand wind, which accordingly commenced on the
morning following, and lasted, with slight intermissions, for two days.
The force of the wind was not in itself very great; it was what a seaman
would have denominated a _stiff breeze_; but the quantity of sand and
dust carried before it was such as to darken the whole atmosphere.

About this time all the women of the camp had their feet and the ends of
their fingers stained of a dark saffron colour.  I could never ascertain
whether this was done from motives of religion, or by way of ornament.

_March_ 28.—This morning a large herd of cattle arrived from the
eastward, and one of the drivers, to whom Ali had lent my horse, came
into my hut with the leg of an antelope as a present, and told me that my
horse was standing before Ali’s tent.  In a little time Ali sent one of
his slaves to inform me that in the afternoon I must be in readiness to
ride out with him, as he intended to show me to some of his women.

About four o’clock, Ali, with six of his courtiers, came riding to my
hut, and told me to follow them.  I readily complied.  But here a new
difficulty occurred.  The Moors, accustomed to a loose and easy dress,
could not reconcile themselves to the appearance of my _nankeen
breeches_, which they said were not only inelegant, but, on account of
their tightness, very indecent; and as this was a visit to ladies, Ali
ordered my boy to bring out the loose cloak which I had always worn since
my arrival at Benowm, and told me to wrap it close round me.  We visited
the tents of four different ladies, at every one of which I was presented
with a bowl of milk and water.  All these ladies were remarkably
corpulent, which is considered here as the highest mark of beauty.  They
were very inquisitive, and examined my hair and skin with great
attention, but affected to consider me as a sort of inferior being to
themselves, and would knit their brows, and seem to shudder when they
looked at the whiteness of my skin.

The Moors are certainly very good horsemen.  They ride without fear—their
saddles being high before and behind, afford them a very secure seat; and
if they chance to fall, the whole country is so soft and sandy that they
are very seldom hurt.  Their greatest pride, and one of their principal
amusements, is to put the horse to its full speed, and then stop him with
a sudden jerk, so as frequently to bring him down upon his haunches.  Ali
always rode upon a milk-white horse, with its tail dyed red.  He never
walked, unless when he went to say his prayers; and even in the night two
or three horses were always kept ready saddled at a little distance from
his own tent.  The Moors set a very high value upon their horses; for it
is by their superior fleetness that they are enabled to make so many
predatory excursions into the negro countries.  They feed them three or
four times a day, and generally give them a large quantity of sweet milk
in the evening, which the horses appear to relish very much.

_April_ 3.—This forenoon, a child, which had been some time sickly, died
in the next tent; and the mother and relations immediately began the
death-howl.  They were joined by a number of female visitors, who came on
purpose to assist at this melancholy concert.  I had no opportunity of
seeing the burial, which is generally performed secretly, in the dusk of
the evening, and frequently at only a few yards’ distance from the tent.
Over the grave they plant one particular shrub, and no stranger is
allowed to pluck a leaf, or even to touch it—so great a veneration have
they for the dead.

_April_ 7.—About four o’clock in the afternoon a whirlwind passed through
the camp with such violence that it overturned three tents, and blew down
one side of my hut.  These whirlwinds come from the Great Desert, and at
this season of the year are so common that I have seen five or six of
them at one time.  They carry up quantities of sand to an amazing height,
which resemble, at a distance, so many moving pillars of smoke.

The scorching heat of the sun, upon a dry and sandy country, makes the
air insufferably hot.  Ali having robbed me of my thermometer, I had no
means of forming a comparative judgment; but in the middle of the day,
when the beams of the vertical sun are seconded by the scorching wind
from the desert, the ground is frequently heated to such a degree as not
to be borne by the naked foot.  Even the negro slaves will not run from
one tent to another without their sandals.  At this time of the day the
Moors lie stretched at length in their tents, either asleep, or unwilling
to move; and I have often felt the wind so hot, that I could not hold my
hand in the current of air which came through the crevices of my hut
without feeling sensible pain.

_April_ 8.—This day the wind blew from the south-west; and in the night
there was a heavy shower of rain, accompanied with thunder and lightning.

_April_ 10.—In the evening the _tabala_, or large drum, was beat to
announce a wedding, which was held at one of the neighbouring tents.  A
great number of people of both sexes assembled, but without that mirth
and hilarity which take place at a negro wedding.  Here was neither
singing nor dancing, nor any other amusement that I could perceive.  A
woman was beating the drum, and the other women joining at times like a
chorus, by setting up a shrill scream, and at the same time moving their
tongues from one side of the mouth to the other with great celerity.  I
was soon tired, and had returned into my hut, where I was sitting almost
asleep, when an old woman entered with a wooden bowl in her hand, and
signified that she had brought me a present from the bride.  Before I
could recover from the surprise which this message created, the woman
discharged the contents of the bowl full in my face.  Finding that it was
the same sort of holy water with which, among the Hottentots, a priest is
said to sprinkle a newly-married couple, I began to suspect that the old
lady was actuated by mischief or malice; but she gave me seriously to
understand that it was a nuptial benediction from the bride’s own person,
and which, on such occasions, is always received by the young unmarried
Moors as a mark of distinguished favour.  This being the case, I wiped my
face, and sent my acknowledgments to the lady.  The wedding drum
continued to beat, and the women to sing, or rather whistle, all night.
About nine in the morning the bride was brought in state from her
mother’s tent, attended by a number of women who carried her tent (a
present from the husband), some bearing up the poles, others holding by
the strings; and in this manner they marched, whistling as formerly,
until they came to the place appointed for her residence, where they
pitched the tent.  The husband followed, with a number of men, leading
four bullocks, which they tied to the tent strings; and having killed
another, and distributed the beef among the people, the ceremony was
concluded.




CHAPTER XI.
SUFFERINGS IN CAPTIVITY.


ONE whole month had now elapsed since I was led into captivity, during
which time each returning day brought me fresh distresses.  I watched the
lingering course of the sun with anxiety, and blessed his evening beams
as they shined a yellow lustre along the sandy floor of my hut; for it
was then that my oppressors left me, and allowed me to pass the sultry
night in solitude and reflection.

About midnight a bowl of kouskous, with some salt and water, were brought
for me and my two attendants.  This was our common fare, and it was all
that was allowed us to allay the cravings of hunger and support nature
for the whole of the following day; for it is to be observed that this
was the Mohammedan Lent, and as the Moors keep the fast with a religious
strictness, they thought it proper to compel me, though a Christian, to
similar observance.  Time, however, somewhat reconciled me to my
situation.  I found that I could bear hunger and thirst better than I
expected; and at length I endeavoured to beguile the tedious hours by
learning to write Arabic.

_April_ 14.—As Queen Fatima had not yet arrived, Ali proposed to go to
the north and bring her back with him; but as the place was two days’
journey from Benowm it was necessary to have some refreshment on the
road; and Ali, suspicious of those about him, was so afraid of being
poisoned, that he never ate anything but what was dressed under his own
immediate inspection.  A fine bullock was therefore killed, and the flesh
being cut up into thin slices, was dried in the sun; and this, with two
bags of dry kouskous, formed his travelling provisions.

Previous to his departure, the black people of the town of Benowm came,
according to their annual custom, to show their arms, and bring their
stipulated tribute of corn and cloth.  They were but badly
armed—twenty-two with muskets, forty or fifty with bows and arrows, and
nearly the same number of men and boys with spears only.  They arranged
themselves before the tent, where they waited until their arms were
examined, and some little disputes settled.

About midnight on the 16th, Ali departed quietly from Benowm, accompanied
by a few attendants.  He was expected to return in the course of nine or
ten days.

_April_ 18.—Two days after the departure of Ali a shereef arrived with
salt and some other articles from Walet, the capital of the kingdom of
Biroo.  As there was no tent appropriated for him, he took up his abode
in the same hut with me.  He seemed to be a well-informed man, and his
acquaintance both with the Arabic and Bambarra tongues enabled him to
travel with ease and safety through a number of kingdoms; for though his
place of residence was Walet, he had visited Houssa, and had lived some
years at Timbuctoo.  Upon my inquiring so particularly about the distance
from Walet to Timbuctoo, he asked me if I intended to travel that way;
and being answered in the affirmative, he shook his head, and said it
would not do; for that Christians were looked upon there as the devil’s
children, and enemies to the Prophet.  From him I learned the following
particulars:—That Houssa was the largest town he had ever seen: that
Walet was larger than Timbuctoo, but being remote from the Niger, and its
trade consisting chiefly of salt, it was not so much resorted to by
strangers: that between Benowm and Walet was ten days’ journey; but the
road did not lead through any remarkable towns, and travellers supported
themselves by purchasing milk from the Arabs, who keep their herds by the
watering-places: two of the days’ journeys was over a sandy country,
without water.  From Walet to Timbuctoo was eleven days more; but water
was more plentiful, and the journey was usually performed upon bullocks.
He said there were many Jews at Timbuctoo, but they all spoke Arabic, and
used the same prayers as the Moors.  He frequently pointed his hand to
the south-east quarter, or rather the east by south, observing that
Timbuctoo was situated in that direction; and though I made him repeat
this information again and again, I never found him to vary more than
half a point, which was to the southward.

_April_ 24.—This morning Shereef Sidi Mahomed Moora Abdalla, a native of
Morocco, arrived with five bullocks loaded with salt.  He had formerly
resided some months at Gibraltar, where he had picked up as much English
as enabled him to make himself understood.  He informed me that he had
been five months in coming from Santa Cruz; but that great part of the
time had been spent in trading.  When I requested him to enumerate the
days employed in travelling from Morocco to Benowm, he gave them as
follows: To Swera, three days; to Agadier, three; to Jinikin, ten; to
Wadenoon, four; to Lakeneig, five; to Zeeriwin-zerimani, five; to
Tisheet, ten; to Benowm, ten—in all, fifty days: but travellers usually
rest a long while at Jinikin and Tisheet—at the latter of which places
they dig the rock salt, which is so great an article of commerce with the
negroes.

In conversing with these shereefs, and the different strangers that
resorted to the camp, I passed my time with rather less uneasiness than
formerly.  On the other hand, as the dressing of my victuals was now left
entirely to the care of Ali’s slaves, over whom I had not the smallest
control, I found myself but ill supplied, worse even than in the fast
month: for two successive nights they neglected to send us our accustomed
meal; and though my boy went to a small negro town near the camp, and
begged with great diligence from hut to hut, he could only procure a few
handfuls of ground nuts, which he readily shared with me.

We had been for some days in daily expectation of Ali’s return from
Saheel (or the north country) with his wife Fatima.  In the meanwhile,
Mansong, king of Bambarra, as I have related in Chapter VIII., had sent
to Ali for a party of horse to assist in storming Gedingooma.  With this
demand Ali had not only refused to comply, but had treated the messengers
with great haughtiness and contempt; upon which Mansong gave up all
thoughts of taking the town, and prepared to chastise Ali for his
contumacy.

Things were in this situation when, on the 29th of April, a messenger
arrived at Benowm with the disagreeable intelligence that the Bambarra
army was approaching the frontiers of Ludamar.  This threw the whole
country into confusion, and in the afternoon Ali’s son, with about twenty
horsemen, arrived at Benowm.  He ordered all the cattle to be driven away
immediately, all the tents to be struck, and the people to hold
themselves in readiness to depart at daylight the next morning.

_April_ 30.—At daybreak the whole camp was in motion.  The baggage was
carried upon bullocks—the two tent poles being placed one on each side,
and the different wooden articles of the tent distributed in like manner;
the tent cloth was thrown over all, and upon this was commonly placed one
or two women; for the Moorish women are very bad walkers.  The king’s
favourite concubines rode upon camels, with a saddle of a particular
construction, and a canopy to shelter them from the sun.  We proceeded to
the northward until noon, when the king’s son ordered the whole company,
except the tents, to enter a thick low wood which was upon our right.  I
was sent along with the two tents, and arrived in the evening at a negro
town called Farani: here we pitched the tents in an open place at no
great distance from the town.

_May_ 1.—As I had some reason to suspect that this day was also to be
considered as a fast, I went in the morning to the negro town of Farani,
and begged some provisions from the dooty, who readily supplied my wants,
and desired me to come to his house every day during my stay in the
neighbourhood.—These hospitable people are looked upon by the Moors as an
abject race of slaves, and are treated accordingly.

_May_ 3.—We departed from the vicinity of Farani, and after a circuitous
route through the woods, arrived at Ali’s camp in the afternoon.  This
encampment was larger than that of Benowm, and was situated un the middle
of a thick wood, about two miles distant from a negro town called
Bubaker.  I immediately waited upon Ali, in order to pay my respects to
Queen Fatima, who had come with him from Saheel.  He seemed much pleased
with my coming, shook hands with me, and informed his wife that I was the
Christian.  She was a woman of the Arab caste, with long black hair, and
remarkably corpulent.  She appeared at first rather shocked at the
thought of having a Christian so near her; but when I had, by means of a
negro boy who spoke the Mandingo and Arabic tongues, answered a great
many questions which her curiosity suggested respecting the country of
the Christians, she seemed more at ease, and presented me with a bowl of
milk, which I considered as a very favourable omen.

The heat was now almost insufferable—all nature seemed sinking under it.
The distant country presented to the eye a dreary expanse of sand, with a
few stunted trees and prickly bushes, in the shade of which the hungry
cattle licked up the withered grass, while the camels and goats picked
off the scanty foliage.  The scarcity of water was greater here than at
Benowm.  Day and night the wells were crowded with cattle, lowing and
fighting with each other to come at the troughs.  Excessive thirst made
many of them furious; others, being too weak to contend for the water,
endeavoured to quench their thirst by devouring the black mud from the
gutters near the wells, which they did with great avidity, though it was
commonly fatal to them.

One night, having solicited in vain for water at the camp, and been quite
feverish, I resolved to try my fortune at the wells, which were about
half a mile distant from the camp.  Accordingly I set out about midnight,
and being guided by the lowing of the cattle, soon arrived at the place,
where I found the Moors very busy drawing water.  I requested permission
to drink, but was driven away with outrageous abuse.  Passing, however,
from one well to another, I came at last to one where there was only an
old man and two boys.  I made the same request to this man, and he
immediately drew me up a bucket of water; but, as I was about to take
hold of it, he recollected that I was a Christian, and fearing that his
bucket might be polluted by my lips, he dashed the water into the trough,
and told me to drink from thence.  Though this trough was none of the
largest, and three cows were already drinking from it, I resolved to come
in for my share; and kneeling down thrust my head between two of the
cows, and drank with great pleasure until the water was nearly exhausted,
and the cows began to contend with each other for the last mouthful.

In adventures of this nature I passed the sultry month of May, during
which no material change took place in my situation.  Ali still
considered me as a lawful prisoner; and Fatima, though she allowed me a
larger quantity of victuals than I had been accustomed to receive at
Benowm, had as yet said nothing on the subject of my release.  In the
meantime, the frequent changes of the wind, the gathering clouds, and
distant lightning, with other appearances of approaching rain, indicated
that the wet season was at hand, when the Moors annually evacuate the
country of the negroes, and return to the skirts of the Great Desert.
This made me consider that my fate was drawing towards a crisis, and I
resolved to wait for the event without any seeming uneasiness; but
circumstances occurred which produced a change in my favour more suddenly
than I had foreseen, or had reason to expect.  The case was this:—The
fugitive Kaartans, who had taken refuge in Ludamar, as I have related in
Chapter VIII., finding that the Moors were about to leave them, and
dreading the resentment of their own sovereign, whom they had so basely
deserted, offered to treat with Ali for two hundred Moorish horsemen, to
co-operate with them in an effort to expel Daisy from Gedingooma; for
until Daisy should be vanquished or humbled they considered that they
could neither return to their native towns nor live in security in any of
the neighbouring kingdoms.  With a view to extort money from these people
by means of this treaty, Ali despatched his son to Jarra, and prepared to
follow him in the course of a few days.  This was an opportunity of too
great consequence to me to be neglected.  I immediately applied to
Fatima, who, I found, had the chief direction in all affairs of state,
and begged her interest with Ali to give me permission to accompany him
to Jarra.  This request, after some hesitation, was favourably received.
Fatima looked kindly on me, and, I believe, was at length moved with
compassion towards me.  My bundles were brought from the large cow-skin
bag that stood in the corner of Ali’s tent, and I was ordered to explain
the use of the different articles, and show the method of putting on the
boots, stockings, &c.—with all which I cheerfully complied, and was told
that in the course of a few days I should be at liberty to depart.

Believing, therefore, that I should certainly find the means of escaping
from Jarra, if I should once get thither, I now freely indulged the
pleasing hope that my captivity would soon terminate; and happily not
having been disappointed in this idea, I shall pause in this place to
collect and bring into one point of view such observations on the Moorish
character and country as I had no fair opportunity of introducing into
the preceding narrative.




CHAPTER XII.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE CHARACTER AND COUNTRY OF THE MOORS.


THE Moors of this part of Africa are divided into many separate tribes,
of which the most formidable, according to what was reported to me, are
those of Trasart and Il Braken, which inhabit the northern bank of the
Senegal river.  The tribes of Gedumah, Jaffnoo, and Ludamar, though not
so numerous as the former, are nevertheless very powerful and warlike,
and are each governed by a chief, or king, who exercises absolute
jurisdiction over his own horde, without acknowledging allegiance to a
common sovereign.  In time of peace the employment of the people is
pasturage.  The Moors, indeed, subsist chiefly on the flesh of their
cattle, and are always in the extreme of either gluttony or abstinence.
In consequence of the frequent and severe fasts which their religion
enjoins, and the toilsome journeys which they sometimes undertake across
the desert, they are enabled to bear both hunger and thirst with
surprising fortitude; but whenever opportunities occur of satisfying
their appetite they generally devour more at one meal than would serve a
European for three.  They pay but little attention to agriculture,
purchasing their corn, cotton, cloth, and other necessaries from the
negroes, in exchange for salt, which they dig from the pits in the Great
Desert.

The natural barrenness of the country is such that it furnishes but few
materials for manufacture.  The Moors, however, contrive to weave a
strong cloth, with which they cover their tents; the thread is spun by
their women from the hair of goats, and they prepare the hides of their
cattle so as to furnish saddles, bridles, pouches, and other articles of
leather.  They are likewise sufficiently skilful to convert the native
iron, which they procure from the negroes, into spears and knives, and
also into pots for boiling their food; but their sabres, and other
weapons, as well as their firearms and ammunition, they purchase from the
Europeans, in exchange for the negro slaves which they obtain in their
predatory excursions.  Their chief commerce of this kind is with the
French traders on the Senegal river.

The Moors are rigid Mohammedans, and possess, with the bigotry and
superstition, all the intolerance of their sect.  They have no mosques at
Benowm, but perform their devotions in a sort of open shed, or enclosure,
made of mats.  The priest is, at the same time, schoolmaster to the
juniors.  His pupils assemble every evening before his tent; where, by
the light of a large fire, made of brushwood and cow’s dung, they are
taught a few sentences from the Koran, and are initiated into the
principles of their creed.  Their alphabet differs but little from that
in Richardson’s Arabic Grammar.  They always write with the vowel points.
Their priests even affect to know something of foreign literature.  The
priest of Benowm assured me that he could read the writings of the
Christians: he showed me a number of barbarous characters, which he
asserted were the Roman alphabet; and he produced another specimen,
equally unintelligible, which he declared to be the _Kallam il Indi_, or
Persian.  His library consisted of nine volumes in quarto; most of them,
I believe, were books of religion—for the name of Mohammed appeared in
red letters in almost every page of each.  His scholars wrote their
lessons upon thin boards, paper being too expensive for general use.  The
boys were diligent enough, and appeared to possess a considerable share
of emulation—carrying their boards slung over their shoulders when about
their common employments.  When a boy has committed to memory a few of
their prayers, and can read and write certain parts of the Koran, he is
reckoned sufficiently instructed; and with this slender stock of learning
commences his career of life.  Proud of his acquirements, he surveys with
contempt the unlettered negro; and embraces every opportunity of
displaying his superiority over such of his countrymen as are not
distinguished by the same accomplishments.

The education of the girls is neglected altogether: mental
accomplishments are but little attended to by the women; nor is the want
of them considered by the men as a defect in the female character.  They
are regarded, I believe, as an inferior species of animals; and seem to
be brought up for no other purpose than that of administering to the
sensual pleasures of their imperious masters.  Voluptuousness is
therefore considered as their chief accomplishment, and slavish
submission as their indispensable duty.

The Moors have singular ideas of feminine perfection.  The gracefulness
of figure and motion, and a countenance enlivened by expression, are by
no means essential points in their standard.  With them corpulence and
beauty appear to be terms nearly synonymous.  A woman of even moderate
pretensions must be one who cannot walk without a slave under each arm to
support her; and a perfect beauty is a load for a camel.  In consequence
of this prevalent taste for unwieldiness of bulk, the Moorish ladies take
great pains to acquire it early in life; and for this purpose many of the
young girls are compelled by their mothers to devour a great quantity of
kouskous, and drink a large bowl of camel’s milk every morning.  It is of
no importance whether the girl has an appetite or not; the kouskous and
milk must be swallowed, and obedience is frequently enforced by blows.  I
have seen a poor girl sit crying, with the bowl at her lips, for more
than an hour, and her mother, with a stick in her hand, watching her all
the while, and using the stick without mercy whenever she observed that
her daughter was not swallowing.  This singular practice, instead of
producing indigestion and disease, soon covers the young lady with that
degree of plumpness which, in the eye of a Moor, is perfection itself.

As the Moors purchase all their clothing from the negroes, the women are
forced to be very economical in the article of dress.  In general they
content themselves with a broad piece of cotton cloth, which is wrapped
round the middle, and hangs down like a petticoat almost to the ground.
To the upper part of this are sewed two square pieces, one before, and
the other behind, which are fastened together over the shoulders.  The
head-dress is commonly a bandage of cotton cloth, with some parts of it
broader than others, which serve to conceal the face when they walk in
the sun.  Frequently, however, when they go abroad, they veil themselves
from head to foot.

The employment of the women varies according to their degrees of
opulence.  Queen Fatima, and a few others of high rank, like the great
ladies in some parts of Europe, pass their time chiefly in conversing
with their visitors, performing their devotions, or admiring their charms
in a looking-glass.  The women of inferior class employ themselves in
different domestic duties.  They are very vain and talkative; and when
anything puts them out of humour they commonly vent their anger upon
their female slaves, over whom they rule with severe and despotic
authority, which leads me to observe that the condition of these poor
captives is deplorably wretched.  At daybreak they are compelled to fetch
water from the wells in large skins, called _girbas_; and as soon as they
have brought water enough to serve the family for the day, as well as the
horses (for the Moors seldom give their horses the trouble of going to
the wells), they are then employed in pounding the corn and dressing the
victuals.  This being always done in the open air, the slaves are exposed
to the combined heat of the sun, the sand, and the fire.  In the
intervals it is their business to sweep the tent, churn the milk, and
perform other domestic offices.  With all this they are badly fed, and
oftentimes cruelly punished.

The men’s dress, among the Moors of Ludamar, differs but little from that
of the negroes, which has been already described, except that they have
all adopted that characteristic of the Mohammedan sect, the turban, which
is here universally made of white cotton cloth.  Such of the Moors as
have long beards display them with a mixture of pride and satisfaction,
as denoting an Arab ancestry.  Of this number was Ali himself; but among
the generality of the people the hair is short and busy, and universally
black.  And here I may be permitted to observe, that if any one
circumstance excited among them favourable thoughts towards my own
person, it was my beard, which was now grown to an enormous length, and
was always beheld with approbation or envy.  I believe, in my conscience,
they thought it too good a beard for a Christian.

The only diseases which I observed to prevail among the Moors were the
intermittent fever and dysentery—for the cure of which nostrums are
sometimes administered by their old women, but in general nature is left
to her own operations.  Mention was made to me of the small-pox as being
sometimes very destructive; but it had not, to my knowledge, made its
appearance in Ludamar while I was in captivity.  That it prevails,
however, among some tribes of the Moors, and that it is frequently
conveyed by them to the negroes in the southern states, I was assured on
the authority of Dr. Laidley, who also informed me that the negroes on
the Gambia practise inoculation.

The administration of criminal justice, as far as I had opportunities of
observing, was prompt and decisive: for although civil rights were but
little regarded in Ludamar, it was necessary when crimes were committed
that examples should sometimes be made.  On such occasions the offender
was brought before Ali, who pronounced, of his sole authority, what
judgment he thought proper.  But I understood that capital punishment was
seldom or never inflicted, except on the negroes.

Although the wealth of the Moors consists chiefly in their numerous herds
of cattle, yet, as the pastoral life does not afford full employment, the
majority of the people are perfectly idle, and spend the day in trifling
conversation about their horses, or in laying schemes of depredation on
the negro villages.

Of the number of Ali’s Moorish subjects I had no means of forming a
correct estimate.  The military strength of Ludamar consists in cavalry.
They are well mounted, and appear to be very expert in skirmishing and
attacking by surprise.  Every soldier furnishes his own horse, and finds
his accoutrements, consisting of a large sabre, a double-barrelled gun, a
small red leather bag for holding his balls, and a powder bag slung over
the shoulder.  He has no pay, nor any remuneration but what arises from
plunder.  This body is not very numerous; for when Ali made war upon
Bambarra I was informed that his whole force did not exceed two thousand
cavalry.  They constitute, however, by what I could learn, but a very
small proportion of his Moorish subjects.  The horses are very beautiful,
and so highly esteemed that the negro princes will sometimes give from
twelve to fourteen slaves for one horse.

Ludamar has for its northern boundary the great desert of Sahara.  From
the best inquiries I could make, this vast ocean of sand, which occupies
so large a space in northern Africa, may be pronounced almost destitute
of inhabitants, except where the scanty vegetation which appears in
certain spots affords pasturage for the flocks of a few miserable Arabs,
who wander from one well to another.  In other places, where the supply
of water and pasturage is more abundant, small parties of the Moors have
taken up their residence.  Here they live, in independent poverty, secure
from the tyrannical government of Barbary.  But the greater part of the
desert, being totally destitute of water, is seldom visited by any human
being, unless where the trading caravans trace out their toilsome and
dangerous route across it.  In some parts of this extensive waste the
ground is covered with low stunted shrubs, which serve as landmarks for
the caravans, and furnish the camels with a scanty forage.  In other
parts the disconsolate wanderer, wherever he turns, sees nothing around
him but a vast interminable expanse of sand and sky—a gloomy and barren
void, where the eye finds no particular object to rest upon, and the mind
is filled with painful apprehensions of perishing with thirst.

The few wild animals which inhabit these melancholy regions are the
antelope and the ostrich; their swiftness of foot enabling them to reach
the distant watering-places.  On the skirts of the desert, where water is
more plentiful, are found lions, panthers, elephants, and wild bears.

Of domestic animals, the only one that can endure the fatigue of crossing
the desert is the camel.  By the particular conformation of the stomach
he is enabled to carry a supply of water sufficient for ten or twelve
days; his broad and yielding foot is well adapted for a sandy country;
and, by a singular motion of his upper lip, he picks the smallest leaves
from the thorny shrubs of the desert as he passes along.  The camel is
therefore the only beast of burden employed by the trading caravans which
traverse the desert in different directions, from Barbary to Nigritia.
As this useful and docile creature has been sufficiently described by
systematical writers it is unnecessary for me to enlarge upon his
properties.  I shall only add that his flesh, though to my own taste dry
and unsavoury, is preferred by the Moors to any other; and that the milk
of the female is in universal esteem, and is indeed sweet, pleasant, and
nutritive.

I have observed that the Moors, in their complexion, resemble the
mulattoes of the West Indies; but they have something unpleasant in their
aspect which the mulattoes have not.  I fancied that I discovered in the
features of most of them a disposition towards cruelty and low cunning;
and I could never contemplate their physiognomy without feeling sensible
uneasiness.  From the staring wildness of their eyes a stranger would
immediately set them down as a nation of lunatics.  The treachery and
malevolence of their character are manifest in their plundering
excursions against the negro villages.  Oftentimes without the smallest
provocation, and sometimes under the fairest professions of friendship,
they will suddenly seize upon the negroes’ cattle, and even on the
inhabitants themselves.  The negroes very seldom retaliate.

Like the roving Arabs, the Moors frequently remove from one place to
another, according to the season of the year or the convenience of
pasturage.  In the month of February, when the heat of the sun scorches
up every sort of vegetation in the desert, they strike their tents and
approach the negro country to the south, where they reside until the
rains commence, in the month of July.  At this time, having purchased
corn and other necessaries from the negroes, in exchange for salt, they
again depart to the northward, and continue in the desert until the rains
are over, and that part of the country becomes burnt up and barren.

This wandering and restless way of life, while it inures them to
hardships, strengthens at the same time the bonds of their little
society, and creates in them an aversion towards strangers which is
almost insurmountable.  Cut off from all intercourse with civilised
nations, and boasting an advantage over the negroes, by possessing,
though in a very limited degree, the knowledge of letters, they are at
once the vainest and proudest, and perhaps the most bigoted, ferocious,
and intolerant of all the nations on the earth—combining in their
character the blind superstition of the negro with the savage cruelty and
treachery of the Arab.




CHAPTER XIII.
ESCAPE FROM CAPTIVITY.


HAVING, as hath been related, obtained permission to accompany Ali to
Jarra, I took leave of Queen Fatima, who, with much grace and civility,
returned me part of my apparel; and the evening before my departure, my
horse, with the saddle and bridle, were sent me by Ali’s order.

Early on the morning of the 26th of May I departed from the camp of
Bubaker, accompanied by my two attendants, Johnson and Demba, and a
number of Moors on horseback, Ali, with about fifty horsemen, having gone
privately from the camp during the night.  We stopped about noon at
Farani, and were there joined by twelve Moors riding upon camels, and
with them we proceeded to a watering-place in the woods, where we
overtook Ali and his fifty horsemen.  They were lodged in some low
shepherd’s tents near the wells.

_May_ 28.—Early in the morning the Moors saddled their horses, and Ali’s
chief slave ordered me to get in readiness.  In a little time the same
messenger returned, and, taking my boy by the shoulder, told him in the
Mandingo language, that “Ali was to be his master in future;” and then
turning to me, “The business is settled at last,” said he; “the boy, and
everything but your horse, goes back to Bubaker, but you may take the old
fool” (meaning Johnson the interpreter) “with you to Jarra.”   I made him
no answer; but being shocked beyond description at the idea of losing the
poor boy, I hastened to Ali, who was at breakfast before his tent,
surrounded by many of his courtiers.  I told him (perhaps in rather too
passionate a strain), that whatever imprudence I had been guilty of in
coming into his country, I thought I had already been sufficiently
punished for it by being so long detained, and then plundered of all my
little property; which, however, gave me no uneasiness when compared with
what he had just now done to me.  I observed that the boy whom he had now
seized upon was not a slave, and had been accused of no offence; he was,
indeed, one of my attendants, and his faithful services in that station
had procured him his freedom.  His fidelity and attachment had made him
fellow me into my present situation, and, as he looked up to me for
protection I could not see him deprived of his liberty without
remonstrating against such an act as the height of cruelty and injustice.
Ali made no reply, but, with a haughty air and malignant smile, told his
interpreter that if I did not mount my horse immediately he would send me
back likewise.  There is something in the frown of a tyrant which rouses
the most secret emotions of the heart: I could not suppress my feelings,
and for once entertained an indignant wish to rid the world of such a
monster.

Poor Demba was not less affected than myself.  He had formed a strong
attachment towards me, and had a cheerfulness of disposition which often
beguiled the tedious hours of captivity.  He was likewise a proficient in
the Bambarra tongue, and promised on that account to be of great utility
to me in future.  But it was in vain to expect anything favourable to
humanity from people who are strangers to its dictates.  So, having
shaken hands with this unfortunate boy, and blended my tears with his,
assuring him, however, that I would do my utmost to redeem him, I saw him
led off by three of Ali’s slaves towards the camp at Bubaker.

When the Moors had mounted their horses I was ordered to follow them,
and, after a toilsome journey through the woods in a very sultry day, we
arrived in the afternoon at a walled village called Doombani, where we
remained two days, waiting for the arrival of some horsemen from the
northward.

On the 1st of June we departed from Doombani towards Jarra.  Our company
now amounted to two hundred men, all on horseback, for the Moors never
use infantry in their wars.  They appeared capable of enduring great
fatigue; but from their total want of discipline our journey to Jarra was
more like a fox-chase than the march of an army.

At Jarra I took up my lodging at the house of my old acquaintance, Daman
Jumma, and informed him of everything that had befallen me.  I
particularly requested him to use his interest with Ali to redeem my boy,
and promised him a bill upon Dr. Laidley for the value of two slaves the
moment he brought him to Jarra.  Daman very readily undertook to
negotiate the business, but found that Ali considered the boy as my
principal interpreter, and was unwilling to part with him, lest he should
fall a second time into my hands, and be instrumental in conducting me to
Bambarra.  Ali, therefore, put off the matter from day to day, but withal
told Daman that if he wished to purchase the boy for himself he should
have him thereafter at the common price of a slave, which Daman agreed to
pay for him whenever Ali should send him to Jarra.

The chief object of Ali, in this journey to Jarra, as I have already
related, was to procure money from such of the Kaartans as had taken
refuge in his country.  Some of these had solicited his protection to
avoid the horrors of war, but by far the greatest number of them were
dissatisfied men, who wished the ruin of their own sovereign.  These
people no sooner heard that the Bambarra army had returned to Sego
without subduing Daisy, as was generally expected, than they resolved to
make a sudden attack themselves upon him before he could recruit his
forces, which were now known to be much diminished by a bloody campaign,
and in great want of provisions.  With this view they solicited the Moors
to join them, and offered to hire of Ali two hundred horsemen, which Ali,
with the warmest professions of friendship, agreed to furnish, upon
condition that they should previously supply him with four hundred head
of cattle, two hundred garments of blue cloth, and a considerable
quantity of beads and ornaments.

_June_ 8.—In the afternoon Ali sent his chief slave to inform me that he
was about to return to Bubaker: but as he would only stay there a few
days to keep the approaching festival (_Banna selee_), and then return to
Jarra, I had permission to remain with Daman until his return.  This was
joyful news to me; but I had experienced so many disappointments that I
was unwilling to indulge the hope of its being true, until Johnson came
and told me that Ali, with part of the horsemen, were actually gone from
the town, and that the rest were to follow him in the morning.

_June_ 9.—Early in the morning the remainder of the Moors departed from
the town.  They had, during their stay, committed many acts of robbery;
and this morning with the most unparalleled audacity, they seized upon
three girls who were bringing water from the wells, and carried them away
into slavery.

_June_ 12.—Two people, dreadfully wounded, were discovered at a
watering-place in the woods; one of them had just breathed his last, but
the other was brought alive to Jarra.  On recovering a little he informed
the people that he had fled through the woods from Kasson; that Daisy had
made war upon Sambo, the king of that country; had surprised three of his
towns, and put all the inhabitants to the sword.  He enumerated by name
many of the friends of the Jarra people who had been murdered in Kasson.
This intelligence made the death-howl universal in Jarra for the space of
two days.

This piece of bad news was followed by another not less distressing.  A
number of runaway slaves arrived from Kaarta on the 14th, and reported
that Daisy, having received information concerning the intended attack
upon him, was about to visit Jarra.  This made the negroes call upon Ali
for the two hundred horsemen which he was to furnish them according to
engagement.  But Ali paid very little attention to their remonstrances,
and at last plainly told them that his cavalry were otherwise employed.
The negroes, thus deserted by the Moors, and fully apprised that the king
of Kaarta would show them as little clemency as he had shown the
inhabitants of Kasson, resolved to collect all their forces, and hazard a
battle before the king, who was now in great distress for want of
provisions, should become too powerful for them.  They therefore
assembled about eight hundred effective men in the whole, and with these
they entered Kaarta on the evening of the 18th of June.

_June_ 19.—This morning the wind shifted to the south-west; and about two
o’clock in the afternoon we had a heavy tornado, or thunder-squall,
accompanied with rain, which greatly revived the face of nature, and gave
a pleasant coolness to the air.  This was the first rain that had fallen
for many months.

As every attempt to redeem my boy had hitherto been unsuccessful, and in
all probability would continue to prove so whilst I remained in the
country, I found that it was necessary for me to come to some
determination concerning my own safety before the rains should be fully
set in; for my landlord, seeing no likelihood of being paid for his
trouble, began to wish me away—and Johnson, my interpreter, refusing to
proceed, my situation became very perplexing.  I determined to avail
myself of the first opportunity of escaping, and to proceed directly for
Bambarra, as soon as the rains had set in for a few days, so as to afford
me the certainty of finding water in the woods.

Such was my situation when, on the evening of the 24th of June, I was
startled by the report of some muskets close to the town, and inquiring
the reason, was informed that the Jarra army had returned from fighting
Daisy, and that this firing was by way of rejoicing.  However, when the
chief men of the town had assembled, and heard a full detail of the
expedition, they were by no means relieved from their uneasiness on
Daisy’s account.  The deceitful Moors having drawn back from the
confederacy, after being hired by the negroes, greatly dispirited the
insurgents, who, instead of finding Daisy with a few friends concealed in
the strong fortress of Gedingooma, had found him at a town near Joka, in
the open country, surrounded by so numerous an army that every attempt to
attack him was at once given up; and the confederates only thought of
enriching themselves by the plunder of the small towns in the
neighbourhood.  They accordingly fell upon one of Daisy’s towns, and
carried off the whole of the inhabitants; but lest intelligence of this
might reach Daisy, and induce him to cut off their retreat, they returned
through the woods by night bringing with them the slaves and cattle which
they had captured.

_June_ 26.—This afternoon a spy from Kaarta brought the alarming
intelligence that Daisy had taken Simbing in the morning, and would be in
Jarra some time in the course of the ensuing day.  Early in the morning
nearly one-half of the townspeople took the road for Bambarra, by the way
of Deena.

Their departure was very affecting, the women and children crying, the
men sullen and dejected, and all of them looking back with regret on
their native town, and on the wells and rocks beyond which their ambition
had never tempted them to stray, and where they had laid all their plans
of future happiness, all of which they were now forced to abandon, and to
seek shelter among strangers.

_June_ 27.—About eleven o’clock in the forenoon we were alarmed by the
sentinels, who brought information that Daisy was on his march towards
Jarra, and that the confederate army had fled before him without firing a
gun.  The terror of the townspeople on this occasion is not easily to be
described.  Indeed, the screams of the women and children, and the great
hurry and confusion that everywhere prevailed, made me suspect that the
Kaartans had already entered the town; and although I had every reason to
be pleased with Daisy’s behaviour to me when I was at Kemmoo, I had no
wish to expose myself to the mercy of his army, who might in the general
confusion mistake me for a Moor.  I therefore mounted my horse, and
taking a large bag of corn before me, rode slowly along with the
townspeople, until we reached the foot of a rocky hill, where I
dismounted and drove my horse up before me.  When I had reached the
summit I sat down, and having a full view of the town and the
neighbouring country, could not help lamenting the situation of the poor
inhabitants, who were thronging after me, driving their sheep, cows,
goats, &c., and carrying a scanty portion of provisions and a few
clothes.  There was a great noise and crying everywhere upon the road,
for many aged people and children were unable to walk, and these, with
the sick, were obliged to be carried, otherwise they must have been left
to certain destruction.

About five o’clock we arrived at a small farm belonging to the Jarra
people, called Kadeeja; and here I found Daman and Johnson employed in
filling large bags of corn, to be carried upon bullocks, to serve as
provisions for Daman’s family on the road.

_June_ 28.—At daybreak we departed from Kadeeja, and having passed
Troongoomba without stopping, arrived in the afternoon at Queira.  I
remained here two days, in order to recruit my horse, which the Moors had
reduced to a perfect Rosinante, and to wait for the arrival of some
Mandingo negroes, who were going for Bambarra in the course of a few
days.

On the afternoon of the 1st of July, as I was tending my horse in the
fields, Ali’s chief slave and four Moors arrived at Queira, and took up
their lodging at the dooty’s house.  My interpreter, Johnson, who
suspected the nature of this visit, sent two boys to overhear their
conversation, from which he learnt that they were sent to convey me back
to Bubaker.  The same evening two of the Moors came privately to look at
my horse, and one of them proposed taking it to the dooty’s hut, but the
other observed that such a precaution was unnecessary, as I could never
escape upon such an animal.  They then inquired where I slept, and
returned to their companions.

All this was like a stroke of thunder to me, for I dreaded nothing so
much as confinement again among the Moors, from whose barbarity I had
nothing but death to expect.  I therefore determined to set off
immediately for Bambarra, a measure which I thought offered almost the
only chance of saving my life and gaining the object of my mission.  I
communicated the design to Johnson, who, although he applauded my
resolution, was so far from showing any inclination to accompany me, that
he solemnly protested he would rather forfeit his wages than go any
farther.  He told me that Daman had agreed to give him half the price of
a slave for his service to assist in conducting a coffle of slaves to
Gambia, and that he was determined to embrace the opportunity of
returning to his wife and family.

Having no hopes, therefore, of persuading him to accompany me, I resolved
to proceed by myself.  About midnight I got my clothes in readiness,
which consisted of two shirts, two pairs of trousers, two
pocket-handkerchiefs, an upper and under waistcoat, a mat, and a pair of
half-boots; these, with a cloak, constituted my whole wardrobe.  And I
had not one single bead, nor any other article of value in my possession,
to purchase victuals for myself or corn for my horse.

About daybreak, Johnson, who had been listening to the Moors all night,
came and whispered to me that they were asleep.  The awful crisis was now
arrived when I was again either to taste the blessing of freedom or
languish out my days in captivity.  A cold sweat moistened my forehead as
I thought on the dreadful alternative, and reflected that, one way or
another, my fate must be decided in the course of the ensuing day.  But
to deliberate was to lose the only chance of escaping.  So, taking up my
bundle, I stepped gently over the negroes, who were sleeping in the open
air, and having mounted my horse, I bade Johnson farewell, desiring him
to take particular care of the papers I had entrusted him with, and
inform my friends in Gambia that he had left me in good health, on my way
to Bambarra.

I proceeded with great caution, surveying each bush, and frequently
listening and looking behind me for the Moorish horsemen, until I was
about a mile from the town, when I was surprised to find myself in the
neighbourhood of a korree belonging to the Moors.  The shepherds followed
me for about a mile, hooting and throwing stones after me; and when I was
out of their reach, and had begun to indulge the pleasing hopes of
escaping, I was again greatly alarmed to hear somebody holloa behind me,
and looking back, I saw three Moors on horseback, coming after me at full
speed, whooping and brandishing their double-barrelled guns.  I knew it
was in vain to think of escaping, and therefore turned back and met them,
when two of them caught hold of my bridle, one on each side, and the
third, presenting his musket, told me I must go back to Ali.  When the
human mind has for some time been fluctuating between hope and despair,
tortured with anxiety, and hurried from one extreme to another, it
affords a sort of gloomy relief to know the worst that can possibly
happen.  Such was my situation.  An indifference about life and all its
enjoyments had completely benumbed my faculties, and I rode back with the
Moors with apparent unconcern.  But a change took place much sooner than
I had any reason to expect.  In passing through some thick bushes one of
the Moors ordered me to untie my bundle and show them the contents.
Having examined the different articles, they found nothing worth taking
except my cloak, which they considered as a very valuable acquisition,
and one of them pulling it from me, wrapped it about himself, and, with
one of his companions, rode off with their prize.  When I attempted to
follow them, the third, who had remained with me, struck my horse over
the head, and presenting his musket, told me I should proceed no farther.
I now perceived that these men had not been sent by any authority to
apprehend me, but had pursued me solely with a view to rob and plunder
me.  Turning my horse’s head, therefore, once more towards the east, and
observing the Moor follow the track of his confederates, I congratulated
myself on having escaped with my life, though in great distress, from
such a horde of barbarians.

I was no sooner out of sight of the Moor than I struck into the woods to
prevent being pursued, and kept pushing on with all possible speed, until
I found myself near some high rocks, which I remembered to have seen in
my former route from Queira to Deena and, directing my course a little to
the northward, I fortunately fell in with the path.




CHAPTER XIV.
JOURNEY CONTINUED; ARRIVAL AT WAWRA.


IT is impossible to describe the joy that arose in my mind when I looked
around and concluded that I was out of danger.  I felt like one recovered
from sickness; I breathed freer; I found unusual lightness in my limbs;
even the desert looked pleasant; and I dreaded nothing so much as falling
in with some wandering parties of Moors, who might convey me back to the
land of thieves and murderers from which I had just escaped.

I soon became sensible, however, that my situation was very deplorable,
for I had no means of procuring food nor prospect of finding water.
About ten o’clock, perceiving a herd of goats feeding close to the road,
I took a circuitous route to avoid being seen, and continued travelling
through the wilderness, directing my course by compass nearly
east-south-east, in order to reach as soon as possible some town or
village of the kingdom of Bambarra.

A little after noon, when the burning heat of the sun was reflected with
double violence from the hot sand, and the distant ridges of the hills,
seen through the ascending vapour, seemed to wave and fluctuate like the
unsettled sea, I became faint with thirst, and climbed a tree in hopes of
seeing distant smoke, or some other appearance of a human habitation—but
in vain: nothing appeared all around but thick underwood and hillocks of
white sand.

About four o’clock I came suddenly upon a large herd of goats, and
pulling my horse into a bush, I watched to observe if the keepers were
Moors or negroes.  In a little time I perceived two Moorish boys, and
with some difficulty persuaded them to approach me.  They informed me
that the herd belonged to Ali, and that they were going to Deena, where
the water was more plentiful, and where they intended to stay until the
rain had filled the pools in the desert.  They showed me their empty
water-skins, and told me that they had seen no water in the woods.  This
account afforded me but little consolation; however, it was in vain to
repine, and I pushed on as fast as possible, in hopes of reaching some
watering-place in the course of the night.  My thirst was by this time
become insufferable; my mouth was parched and inflamed; a sudden dimness
would frequently come over my eyes, with other symptoms of fainting; and
my horse being very much fatigued, I began seriously to apprehend that I
should perish of thirst.  To relieve the burning pain in my mouth and
throat I chewed the leaves of different shrubs, but found them all
bitter, and of no service to me.

A little before sunset, having reached the top of a gentle rising, I
climbed a high tree, from the topmost branches of which I cast a
melancholy look over the barren wilderness, but without discovering the
most distant trace of a human dwelling.  The same dismal uniformity of
shrubs and sand everywhere presented itself, and the horizon was as level
and uninterrupted as that of the sea.

Descending from the tree, I found my horse devouring the stubble and
brushwood with great avidity; and as I was now too faint to attempt
walking, and my horse too much fatigued to carry me I thought it but an
act of humanity, and perhaps the last I should ever have it in my power
to perform, to take off his bridle and let him shift for himself, in
doing which I was suddenly affected with sickness and giddiness, and
falling upon the sand, felt as if the hour of death was fast approaching.
Here, then, thought I, after a short but ineffectual struggle, terminate
all my hopes of being useful in my day and generation; here must the
short span of my life come to an end.  I cast, as I believed, a last look
on the surrounding scene, and whilst I reflected on the awful change that
was about to take place, this world with its enjoyment seemed to vanish
from my recollection.  Nature, however, at length resumed its functions,
and on recovering my senses, I found myself stretched upon the sand, with
the bridle still in my hand, and the sun just sinking behind the trees.
I now summoned all my resolution, and determined to make another effort
to prolong my existence; and as the evening was somewhat cool, I resolved
to travel as far as my limbs would carry me, in hopes of reaching—my only
resource—a watering-place.  With this view I put the bridle on my horse,
and driving him before me, went slowly along for about an hour, when I
perceived some lightning from the north-east—a most delightful sight, for
it promised rain.  The darkness and lightning increased very rapidly, and
in less than an hour I heard the wind roaring among the bushes.  I had
already opened my mouth to receive the refreshing drops which I expected,
but I was instantly covered with a cloud of sand, driven with such force
by the wind as to give a very disagreeable sensation to my face and arms,
and I was obliged to mount my horse and stop under a bush to prevent
being suffocated.  The sand continued to fly in amazing quantities for
nearly an hour, after which I again set forward, and travelled with
difficulty until ten o’clock.  About this time I was agreeably surprised
by some very vivid flashes of lightning, followed by a few heavy drops of
rain.  In a little time the sand ceased to fly, and I alighted and spread
out all my clean clothes to collect the rain, which at length I saw would
certainly fall.  For more than an hour it rained plentifully, and I
quenched my thirst by wringing and sucking my clothes.

There being no moon, it was remarkably dark, so that I was obliged to
lead my horse, and direct my way by the compass, which the lightning
enabled me to observe.  In this manner I travelled with tolerable
expedition until past midnight, when the lightning becoming more distant,
I was under the necessity of groping along, to the no small danger of my
hands and eyes.  About two o’clock my horse started at something, and
looking round, I was not a little surprised to see a light at a short
distance among the trees; and supposing it to be a town, I groped along
the sand in hopes of finding corn-stalks, cotton, or other appearances of
cultivation, but found none.  As I approached I perceived a number of
other lights in different places, and began to suspect that I had fallen
upon a party of Moors.  However, in my present situation, I was resolved
to see who they were, if I could do it with safety.  I accordingly led my
horse cautiously towards the light, and heard by the lowing of the cattle
and the clamorous tongues of the herdsmen, that it was a watering-place,
and most likely belonged to the Moors.  Delightful as the sound of the
human voice was to me, I resolved once more to strike into the woods, and
rather run the risk of perishing of hunger than trust myself again in
their hands; but being still thirsty, and dreading the approach of the
burning day, I thought it prudent to search for the wells, which I
expected to find at no great distance.

In this purpose I inadvertently approached so near to one of the tents as
to be perceived by a woman, who immediately screamed out.  Two people
came running to her assistance from some of the neighbouring tents, and
passed so very near to me that I thought I was discovered, and hastened
again into the woods.

About a mile from this place I heard a loud and confused noise somewhere
to the right of my course, and in a short time was happy to find it was
the croaking of frogs, which was heavenly music to my ears.  I followed
the sound, and at daybreak arrived at some shallow muddy pools, so full
of frogs, that it was difficult to discern the water.  The noise they
made frightened my horse, and I was obliged to keep them quiet, by
beating the water with a branch, until he had drunk.  Having here
quenched my thirst, I ascended a tree, and the morning being calm, I soon
perceived the smoke of the watering-place which I had passed in the
night, and observed another pillar of smoke east-south-east, distant
twelve or fourteen miles.  Towards this I directed my route, and reached
the cultivated ground a little before eleven o’clock, where, seeing a
number of negroes at work planting corn, I inquired the name of the town,
and was informed that it was a Foulah village belonging to Ali, called
Shrilla.  I had now some doubts about entering it; but my horse being
very much fatigued, and the day growing hot—not to mention the pangs of
hunger, which began to assail me—I resolved to venture; and accordingly
rode up to the dooty’s house, where I was unfortunately denied
admittance, and could not obtain oven a handful of corn either for myself
or horse.  Turning from this inhospitable door, I rode slowly out of the
town, and, perceiving some low, scattered huts without the walls, I
directed my route towards them, knowing that in Africa, as well as in
Europe, hospitality does not always prefer the highest dwellings.  At the
door of one of these huts an old motherly-looking woman sat, spinning
cotton.  I made signs to her that I was hungry, and inquired if she had
any victuals with her in the hut.  She immediately laid down her distaff,
and desired me, in Arabic, to come in.  When I had seated myself upon the
floor, she set before me a dish of kouskous that had been left the
preceding night, of which I made a tolerable meal; and in return for this
kindness I gave her one of my pocket-handkerchiefs, begging at the same
time a little corn for my horse, which she readily brought me.

Whilst my horse was feeding the people began to assemble, and one of them
whispered something to my hostess which very much excited her surprise.
Though I was not well acquainted with the Foulah language, I soon
discovered that some of the men wished to apprehend and carry me back to
Ali, in hopes, I suppose, of receiving a reward.  I therefore tied up the
corn; and lest any one should suspect I had run away from the Moors, I
took a northerly direction, and went cheerfully along, driving my horse
before me, followed by all the boys and girls of the town.  When I had
travelled about two miles, and got quit of all my troublesome attendants,
I struck again into the woods, and took shelter under a large tree, where
I found it necessary to rest myself, a bundle of twigs serving me for a
bed, and my saddle for a pillow.

_July_ 4.—At daybreak I pursued my course through the woods as formerly;
saw numbers of antelopes, wild hogs, and ostriches, but the soil was more
hilly, and not so fertile as I had found it the preceding day.  About
eleven o’clock I ascended an eminence, where I climbed a tree, and
discovered, at about eight miles’ distance, an open part of the country,
with several red spots, which I concluded were cultivated land, and,
directing my course that way, came to the precincts of a watering-place
about one o’clock.  From the appearance of the place, I judged it to
belong to the Foulahs, and was hopeful that I should meet a better
reception than I had experienced at Shrilla.  In this I was not deceived,
for one of the shepherds invited me to come into his tent and partake of
some dates.  This was one of those low Foulah tents in which there is
room just sufficient to sit upright, and in which the family, the
furniture, &c., seem huddled together like so many articles in a chest.
When I had crept upon my hands and knees into this humble habitation, I
found that it contained a woman and three children, who, together with
the shepherd and myself, completely occupied the floor.  A dish of boiled
corn and dates was produced, and the master of the family, as is
customary in this part of the country, first tasted it himself, and then
desired me to follow his example.  Whilst I was eating, the children kept
their eyes fixed upon me, and no sooner did the shepherd pronounce the
word _Nazarani_, than they began to cry, and their mother crept slowly
towards the door, out of which she sprang like a greyhound, and was
instantly followed by her children.  So frightened were they at the very
name of a Christian, that no entreaties could induce them to approach the
tent.  Here I purchased some corn for my horse, in exchange for some
brass buttons, and having thanked the shepherd for his hospitality,
struck again into the woods.  At sunset I came to a road that took the
direction for Bambarra, and resolved to follow it for the night; but
about eight o’clock, hearing some people coming from the southward, I
thought it prudent to hide myself among some thick bushes near the road.
As these thickets are generally full of wild beasts, I found my situation
rather unpleasant, sitting in the dark, holding my horse by the nose with
both hands, to prevent him from neighing, and equally afraid of the
natives without and the wild beasts within.  My fears, however, were soon
dissipated; for the people, after looking round the thicket, and
perceiving nothing, went away, and I hastened to the more open parts of
the wood, where I pursued my journey east-south-east, until past
midnight, when the joyful cry of frogs induced me once more to deviate a
little from my route, in order to quench my thirst.  Having accomplished
this from a large pool of rain-water, I sought for an open place, with a
single tree in the midst, under which I made my bed for the night.  I was
disturbed by some wolves towards morning, which induced me to set forward
a little before day; and having passed a small village called Wassalita,
I came about ten o’clock (July 5th), to a negro town called Wawra, which
properly belongs to Kaarta, but was at this time tributary to Mansong,
King of Bambarra.




CHAPTER XV.
NEGRO CURIOSITY; A MESSAGE FROM THE KING.


WAWRA is a small town surrounded with high walls, and inhabited by a
mixture of Mandingoes and Foulahs.  The inhabitants employ themselves
chiefly in cultivating corn, which they exchange with the Moors for salt.
Here, being in security from the Moors, and very much fatigued, I
resolved to rest myself; and meeting with a hearty welcome from the
dooty, whose name was Flancharee, I laid myself down upon a bullock’s
hide, and slept soundly for about two hours.  The curiosity of the people
would not allow me to sleep any longer.  They had seen my saddle and
bridle, and were assembled in great numbers to learn who I was and whence
I came.  Some were of opinion that I was an Arab; others insisted that I
was some Moorish Sultan, and they continued to debate the matter with
such warmth that the noise awoke me.  The dooty (who had formerly been at
Gambia) at last interposed in my behalf, and assured them that I was
certainly a white man; but he was convinced from my appearance that I was
a poor one.

_July_ 6.—It rained very much in the night, and at daylight I departed in
company with a negro who was going to a town called Dingyee for corn; but
we had not proceeded above a mile before the ass upon which he rode threw
him off, and he returned, leaving me to prosecute the journey by myself.

I reached Dingyee about noon, but the dooty and most of the inhabitants
had gone into the fields to cultivate corn.  An old Foulah, observing me
wandering about the town, desired me to come to his hut, where I was well
entertained; and the dooty, when he returned, sent me some victuals for
myself and corn for my horse.

_July_ 7.—In the morning, when I was about to depart, my landlord, with a
great deal of diffidence, begged me to give him a lock of my hair.  He
had been told, he said, that white men’s hair made a saphie that would
give to the possessor all the knowledge of white men.  I had never before
heard of so simple a mode of education, but instantly complied with the
request.

I reached a small town called Wassiboo, about twelve o’clock, where I was
obliged to stop until an opportunity should offer of procuring a guide to
Satilé, which is distant a very long day’s journey, through woods without
any beaten path.  I accordingly took up my residence at the dooty’s
house, where I stayed four days, during which time I amused myself by
going to the fields with the family to plant corn.  Cultivation is
carried on here on a very extensive scale; and, as the natives themselves
express it, “Hunger is never known.”  In cultivating the soil the men and
women work together.  They use a large sharp hoe, much superior to that
used in Gambia, but they are obliged, for fear of the Moors, to carry
their arms with them to the field.  The master, with the handle of his
spear, marks the field into regular plats, one of which is assigned to
every three slaves.

On the evening of the 11th eight of the fugitive Kaartans arrived at
Wassiboo.  They had found it impossible to live under the tyrannical
government of the Moors, and were now going to transfer their allegiance
to the King of Bambarra.  They offered to take me along with them as far
as Satilé, and I accepted the offer.

_July_ 12.—At daybreak we set out, and travelled with uncommon expedition
until sunset.  We stopped only twice in the course of the day, once at a
watering-place in the woods, and at another time at the ruins of a town
formerly belonging to Daisy, called _Illa-compe_ (the corn-town).  When
we arrived in the neighbourhood of Satilé, the people who were employed
in the corn-fields, seeing so many horsemen, took us for a party of
Moors, and ran screaming away from us.  The whole town was instantly
alarmed, and the slaves were seen in every direction driving the cattle
and horses towards the town.  It was in vain that one of our company
galloped up to undeceive them; it only frightened them the more; and when
we arrived at the town we found the gates shut, and the people all under
arms.  After a long parley we were permitted to enter, and, as there was
every appearance of a tornado, the dooty allowed us to sleep in his
_baloon_, and gave us each a bullock’s hide for a bed.

_July_ 13.—Early in the morning we again set forward.  The roads were wet
and slippery, but the country was very beautiful, abounding with
rivulets, which were increased by the rain into rapid streams.  About ten
o’clock we came to-the rains of a village which had been destroyed by war
about six months before.

About noon my horse was so much fatigued that I could not keep up with my
companions; I therefore dismounted, and desired them to ride on, telling
them that I would follow as soon as my horse had rested a little.  But I
found them unwilling to leave me; the lions, they said, were very
numerous in those parts, and though they might not so readily attack a
body of people, they would soon find out an individual; it was therefore
agreed that one of the company should stay with me to assist in driving
my horse, while the others passed on to Galloo to procure lodgings, and
collect grass for the horses before night.  Accompanied by this worthy
negro, I drove my horse before me until about four o’clock, when we came
in sight of Galloo, a considerable town, standing in a fertile and
beautiful valley surrounded with high rocks.

Early next morning (July 14th), having first returned many thanks to our
landlord for his hospitality, while my fellow-travellers offered up their
prayers that he might never want, we set forward, and about three o’clock
arrived at Moorja, a large town, famous for its trade in salt, which the
Moors bring here in great quantities, to exchange for corn and cotton
cloth.  As most of the people here are Mohammedans, it is not allowed to
the kafirs to drink beer, which they call _neodollo_ (corn spirit),
except in certain houses.  In one of these I saw about twenty people
sitting round large vessels of this beer with the greatest conviviality,
many of them in a state of intoxication.

On the morning of the 16th we again set forward, accompanied by a coffle
of fourteen asses, loaded with salt, bound for Sansanding.  The road was
particularly romantic, between two rocky hills; but the Moors sometimes
lie in wait here to plunder strangers.  As soon as we had reached the
open country the master of the salt coffle thanked us for having stayed
with him so long, and now desired us to ride on.  The sun was almost set
before we reached Datliboo.  In the evening we had a most tremendous
tornado.  The house in which we lodged being flat-roofed, admitted the
rain in streams; the floor was soon ankle-deep, the fire extinguished,
and we were left to pass the night upon some bundles of firewood that
happened to lie in a corner.

_July_ 17.—We departed from Datliboo, and about ten o’clock passed a
large coffle returning from Sego with corn-hoes, mats, and other
household utensils.  At five o’clock we came to a large village where we
intended to pass the night, but the dooty would not receive us.  When we
departed from this place my horse was so much fatigued that I was under
the necessity of driving him, and it was dark before we reached Fanimboo,
a small village, the dooty of which no sooner heard that I was a white
man than he brought out three old muskets, and was much disappointed when
he was told that I could not repair them.

_July_ 18.—We continued our journey, but, owing to a light supper the
preceding night we felt ourselves rather hungry this morning, and
endeavoured to procure some corn at a village, but without success.

My horse becoming weaker and weaker every day, was now of very little
service to me; I was obliged to drive him before me for the greater part
of the day, and did not reach Geosorro until eight o’clock in the
evening.  I found my companions wrangling with the dooty, who had
absolutely refused to give or sell them any provisions; and as none of us
had tasted victuals for the last twenty-four hours, we were by no means
disposed to fast another day if we could help it.  But finding our
entreaties without effect, and being very much fatigued, I fell asleep,
from which I was awakened about midnight with the joyful information
_Kinne nata_! (“The victuals are come”)  This made the remainder of the
night pass away pleasantly, and at daybreak, July 19th, we resumed our
journey, proposing to stop at a village called Doolinkeaboo for the night
following.  My fellow-travellers, having better horses than myself, soon
left me, and I was walking barefoot, driving my horse, when I was met by
a coffle of slaves, about seventy in number, coming from Sego.  They were
tied together by their necks with thongs of a bullock’s hide, twisted
like a rope—seven slaves upon a thong, and a man with a musket between
every seven.  Many of the slaves were ill-conditioned, and a great number
of them women.  In the rear came Sidi Mahomed’s servant, whom I
remembered to have seen at the camp of Benowm.  He presently knew me, and
told me that these slaves were going to Morocco by the way of Ludamar and
the Great Desert.

In the afternoon, as I approached Doolinkeaboo, I met about twenty Moors
on horseback, the owners of the slaves I had seen in the morning.  They
were well armed with muskets, and were very inquisitive concerning me,
but not so rude as their countrymen generally are.  From them I learned
that Sidi Mahomed was not at Sego, but had gone to Kancaba for gold-dust.

When I arrived at Doolinkeaboo I was informed that my fellow-travellers
had gone on, but my horse was so much fatigued that I could not possibly
proceed after them.  The dooty of the town at my request gave me a
draught of water, which is generally looked upon as an earnest of greater
hospitality, and I had no doubt of making up for the toils of the day by
a good supper and a sound sleep; unfortunately, I had neither the one nor
the other.  The night was rainy and tempestuous, and the dooty limited
his hospitality to the draught of water.

_July_ 20.—In the morning I endeavoured, both by entreaties and threats,
to procure some victuals from the dooty, but in vain.  I even begged some
corn from one of his female slaves, as she was washing it at the well,
and had the mortification to be refused.  However, when the dooty was
gone to the fields, his wife sent me a handful of meal, which I mixed
with water and drank for breakfast.  About eight o’clock I departed from
Doolinkeaboo, and at noon stopped a few minutes at a large korree, where
I had some milk given me by the Foulahs, and hearing that two negroes
were going from thence to Sega, I was happy to have their company, and we
set out immediately.  About four o’clock we stopped at a small village,
where one of the negroes met with an acquaintance, who invited us to a
sort of public entertainment, which was conducted with more than common
propriety.  A dish, made of sour milk and meal, called _sinkatoo_, and
beer made from their corn, was distributed with great liberality, and the
women were admitted into the society, a circumstance I had never before
observed in Africa.  There was no compulsion—every one was at liberty to
drink as he pleased—they nodded to each other when about to drink, and on
setting down the calabash commonly said _Berka_ (“Thank you”).  Both men
and women appeared to be somewhat intoxicated, but they were far from
being quarrelsome.

Departing from thence, we passed several large villages, where I was
constantly taken for a Moor and became the subject of much merriment to
the Bambarrans, who, seeing me drive my horse before me, laughed heartily
at my appearance.  “He has been at Mecca,” says one, “you may see that by
his clothes;” another asked me if my horse was sick; a third wished to
purchase it, &c., so that, I believe, the very slaves were ashamed to be
seen in my company.  Just before it was dark we took up our lodging for
the night at a small village, where I procured some victuals for myself
and some corn for my horse, at the moderate price of a button; and was
told that I should see the Niger (which the negroes call Joliba, or the
Great Water) early the next day.  The lions are here very numerous; the
gates are shut a little after sunset, and nobody allowed to go out.  The
thoughts of seeing the Niger in the morning, and the troublesome buzzing
of mosquitoes, prevented me from shutting my eyes during the night; and I
had saddled my horse, and was in readiness before daylight, but, on
account of the wild beasts, we were obliged to wait until the people were
stirring and the gates opened.  This happened to be a market day at Sego,
and the roads were everywhere filled with people carrying different
articles to sell.  We passed four large villages, and at eight o’clock
saw the smoke over Sego.

As we approached the town I was fortunate enough to overtake the fugitive
Kaartans, to whose kindness I had been so much indebted in my journey
through Bambarra.  They readily agreed to introduce me to the king; and
we rode together through some marshy ground, where, as I was anxiously
looking around for the river, one of them called out, _Geo affili_! (“See
the water!”) and, looking forwards, I saw with infinite pleasure the
great object of my mission—the long-sought-for majestic Niger, glittering
in the morning sun, as broad as the Thames at Westminster, and flowing
slowly to _the eastward_.  I hastened to the brink, and having drunk of
the water, lifted up my fervent thanks in prayer to the Great Ruler of
all things for having thus far crowned my endeavours with success.

The circumstance of the Niger’s flowing towards the east, and its
collateral points, did not, however, excite my surprise, for, although I
had left Europe in great hesitation on this subject, and rather believed
that it ran in the contrary direction, I had made such frequent inquiries
during my progress concerning this river, and received from the negroes
of different nations such clear and decisive assurances that its general
course was _towards the rising sun_, as scarce left any doubt on my mind,
and more especially as I knew that Major Houghton had collected similar
information in the same manner.

Sego, the capital of Bambarra, at which I had now arrived, consists,
properly speaking, of four distinct towns—two on the northern bank of the
Niger, called Sego Korro and Sego Boo; and two on the southern bank,
called Sego Soo Korro and Sego See Korro.  They are all surrounded with
high mud walls.  The houses are built of clay, of a square form with flat
roofs—some of them have two storeys, and many of them are whitewashed.
Besides these buildings, Moorish mosques are seen in every quarter; and
the streets, though narrow, are broad enough for every useful purpose, in
a country where wheel carriages are entirely unknown.  From the best
inquiries I could make, I have reason to believe that Sego contains
altogether about thirty thousand inhabitants.  The King of Bambarra
constantly resides at Sego See Korro.  He employs a great many slaves in
conveying people over the river, and the money they receive (though the
fare is only ten kowrie shells for each individual) furnishes a
considerable revenue to the king in the course of a year.  The canoes are
of a singular construction, each of them being formed of the trunks of
two large trees rendered concave, and joined together, not side by side,
but endways—the junction being exactly across the middle of the canoe:
they are therefore very long, and disproportionably narrow, and have
neither decks nor masts: they are, however, very roomy, for I observed in
one of them four horses and several people crossing over the river.  When
we arrived at this ferry, with a view to pass over to that part of the
town in which the king resides, we found a great number waiting for a
passage: they looked at me with silent wonder, and I distinguished with
concern many Moors among them.  There were three different places of
embarkation, and the ferrymen were very diligent and expeditious; but
from the crowd of people I could not immediately obtain a passage, and
sat down upon the bank of the river to wait for a more favourable
opportunity.  The view of this extensive city—the numerous canoes upon
the river—the crowded population, and the cultivated state of the
surrounding country—formed altogether a prospect of civilisation and
magnificence which I little expected to find in the bosom of Africa.

I waited more than two hours without having an opportunity of crossing
the river, during which time the people who had crossed carried
information to Mansong, the king, that a white man was waiting for a
passage, and was coming to see him.  He immediately sent over one of his
chief men, who informed me that the king could not possibly see me until
he knew what had brought me into his country; and that I must not presume
to cross the river without the king’s permission.  He therefore advised
me to lodge at a distant village, to which he pointed, for the night, and
said that in the morning he would give me further instructions how to
conduct myself.  This was very discouraging.  However, as there was no
remedy, I set off for the village, where I found, to my great
mortification, that no person would admit me into his house.  I was
regarded with astonishment and fear, and was obliged to sit all day
without victuals in the shade of a tree; and the night threatened to be
very uncomfortable—for the wind rose, and there was great appearance of a
heavy rain—and the wild beasts are so very numerous in the neighbourhood
that I should have been under the necessity of climbing up a tree and
resting amongst the branches.  About sunset, however, as I was preparing
to pass the night in this manner, and had turned my horse loose that he
might graze at liberty, a woman, returning from the labours of the field,
stopped to observe me, and perceiving that I was weary and dejected,
inquired into my situation, which I briefly explained to her; whereupon,
with looks of great compassion, she took up my saddle and bridle, and
told me to follow her.  Having conducted me into her hut, she lighted up
a lamp, spread a mat on the floor, and told me I might remain there for
the night.  Finding that I was very hungry, she said she would procure me
something to eat.  She accordingly went out, and returned in a short time
with a very fine fish, which, having caused to be half broiled upon some
embers, she gave me for supper.  The rites of hospitality being thus
performed towards a stranger in distress, my worthy benefactress
(pointing to the mat, and telling me I might sleep there without
apprehension) called to the female part of her family, who had stood
gazing on me all the while in fixed astonishment, to resume their task of
spinning cotton, in which they continued to employ themselves great part
of the night.  They lightened their labour by songs, one of which was
composed extempore, for I was myself the subject of it.  It was sung by
one of the young women, the rest joining in a sort of chorus.  The air
was sweet and plaintive, and the words, literally translated, were
these:—“The winds roared, and the rains fell.  The poor white man, faint
and weary, came and sat under our tree.  He has no mother to bring him
milk, no wife to grind his corn.  _Chorus_.—Let us pity the white man, no
mother has he,” &c. &c.  Trifling as this recital may appear to the
reader, to a person in my situation the circumstance was affecting in the
highest degree.  I was oppressed by such unexpected kindness, and sleep
fled from my eyes.  In the morning I presented my compassionate landlady
with two of the four brass buttons which remained on my waistcoat—the
only recompense I could make her.

_July_ 21.—I continued in the village all this day in conversation with
the natives, who came in crowds to see me, but was rather uneasy towards
evening to find that no message had arrived from the king, the more so as
the people began to whisper that Mansong had received some very
unfavourable accounts of me from the Moors and slatees residing at Sego,
who, it seems, were exceedingly suspicious concerning the motives of my
journey.  I learned that many consultations had been held with the king
concerning my reception and disposal; and some of the villagers frankly
told me that I had many enemies, and must expect no favour.

_July_ 22.—About eleven o’clock a messenger arrived from the king, but he
gave me very little satisfaction.  He inquired particularly if I had
brought any present, and seemed much disappointed when he was told that I
had been robbed of everything by the Moors.  When I proposed to go along
with him, he told me to stop until the afternoon, when the king would
send for me.

_July_ 23.—In the afternoon another messenger arrived from Mansong, with
a bag in his hands.  He told me it was the king’s pleasure that I should
depart forthwith from the vicinage of Sego; but that Mansong, wishing to
relieve a white man in distress, had sent me five thousand kowries, to
enable me to purchase provisions in the course of my journey: the
messenger added, that if my intentions were really to proceed to Jenné,
he had orders to accompany me as a guide to Sansanding.  I was at first
puzzled to account for this behaviour of the king; but from the
conversation I had with the guide, I had afterwards reason to believe
that Mansong would willingly have admitted me into his presence at Sego,
but was apprehensive he might not be able to protect me against the blind
and inveterate malice of the Moorish inhabitants.  His conduct,
therefore, was at once prudent and liberal.  The circumstances under
which I made my appearance at Sego were undoubtedly such as might create
in the mind of the king a well-warranted suspicion that I wished to
conceal the true object of my journey.  He argued, probably, as my guide
argued, who, when he was told that I had come from a great distance, and
through many dangers, to behold the Joliba river, naturally inquired if
there were no rivers in my own country, and whether one river was not
like another.  Notwithstanding this, and in spite of the jealous
machinations of the Moors, this benevolent prince thought it sufficient
that a white man was found in his dominions, in a condition of extreme
wretchedness, and that no other plea was necessary to entitle the
sufferer to his bounty.




FOOTNOTES


{41}  I believe that similar charms or amulets, under the names of
_domini_, _grigri_, _fetich_, &c., are common in all parts of Africa.

{70}  Maana is within a short distance of the ruins of Fort St. Joseph,
on the Senegal river, formerly a French factory.