Travels into the Interior of Africa (13 page)

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 boars.

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 its 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 manifested in their plundering excursions against the Negro villages. Often-times, 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. The enterprising boldness of the Moors, their knowledge of the country, and, above all, the superior fleetness of their horses, make them such formidable enemies, that the petty Negro states which border upon the Desert are in continual terror while the Moorish tribes are in the vicinity, and are too much awed to think of resistance.

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 enures 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.

It is probable that many of them had never beheld a white man before my arrival at Benowm; but they had all been taught to regard the Christian name with inconceivable abhorrence, and to consider it nearly as lawful to murder a European as it would be to kill a dog. The melancholy fate of Major Houghton, and the treatment I experienced during my confinement among them, will, I trust, serve as a warning to future travellers to avoid this inhospitable district.

The reader may probably have expected from me a more detailed and copious account of the manners, customs, superstitions, and prejudices of this secluded and singular people; but it must not be forgotten, that the wretchedness of my situation among them afforded me but few opportunities of collecting information. Some particulars, however, might be added in this place; but being equally applicable to the Negroes of the southward, they will appear in a subsequent page. 

H
AVING
, 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 orders.

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 shepherds’ tents near the wells. As the company was numerous, the tents could scarcely accommodate us all; and I was ordered to sleep in the open space in the centre of the tents, where every one might observe my motions. During the night there was much lightning from the
north-east
; and about daybreak a very heavy sand-wind commenced, which continued with great violence until four in the afternoon. The quantity of sand which passed to the westward, in the course of this day, must have been prodigiously great. At times it was impossible to look up; and the cattle were so tormented by the particles lodging in their ears and eyes, that they ran about like mad creatures, and I was in continual danger of being trampled to death by them.

May 28th
– 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 shoulders, 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 which 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 follow 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 Bambarran 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. The raising this impost somewhat perplexed them; and in order to procure the cattle, they persuaded the king to demand
one-half
the stipulated number from the people of Jarra, promising to replace them in a short time. Ali agreed to this proposal; and the same evening (June 2nd) the drum was sent through the town, and the crier announced that if any person suffered his cattle to go into the woods, the next morning, before the king had chosen his quota of them, his house should be plundered, and his slaves taken from him. The people dared not disobey the proclamation; and next morning about two hundred of their best cattle were selected, and delivered to the Moors; the full complement was made up afterwards by means equally unjust and arbitrary.

June 8th
– 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 Salee
), 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 9th
– 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.

The anniversary of
Banna Salee
, at Jarra, very well deserved to be called a festival. The slaves were all finely clad on this occasion, and the householders vied with each other in providing large quantities of victuals, which they distributed to all their neighbours with the greatest profusion; hunger was literally banished from the town; man, woman, and child, bond and free, all had as much as they could eat.

June 12th
– 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 on the whole; and with these they entered Kaarta, on the evening of the 18th of June.

June 19th
– This morning the wind shifted to the southwest; 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. If I continued where I was, I foresaw that I must soon fall a victim to the barbarity of the Moors; and yet, if I went forward singly, it was evident that I must sustain great difficulties, both from the want of means to purchase the necessaries of life, and of an interpreter to make myself understood. On the other hand, to return to England, without accomplishing the object of my mission, was worse than either. I therefore 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 enquiring 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 26th
– 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. A number of people were immediately stationed on the tops of the rocks, and in the different passages leading into the town, to give early intelligence of Daisy’s motions, and the women set about making the necessary preparations for quitting the town as soon as possible. They continued beating corn, and packing up different articles during the night; and 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.