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 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 fonio_!” (“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 bushreens, 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, having
surmounted many difficulties, had taken a northerly direction, and
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.