Timbo lies on a rolling plain. North of it, a lofty mountain range
rises at the distance of ten or fifteen miles, and sweeps eastwardly
to the horizon. The landscape, which declines from these slopes to the
south, is in many places bare; yet fields of plentiful cultivation,
groves of cotton-wood, tamarind and oak, thickets of shrubbery and
frequent villages, stud its surface, and impart an air of rural
comfort to the picturesque scene.
I soon proposed a gallop with my African kindred over the
neighborhood; and, one fine morning, after a plentiful breakfast of
stewed fowls, boiled to rags with rice, and seasoned with delicious
"palavra sauce," we cantered off to the distant villages. As we
approached the first brook, but before the fringe of screening bushes
was passed, our cavalcade drew rein abruptly, while Ahmah-de-Bellah
cried out: "Strangers are coming!" A few moments after, as we slowly
crossed the stream, I noticed several women crouched in the underwood,
having fled from the bath. This warning is universally given, and
enforced by law, to guard the modesty of the gentler sex.
In half an hour we reached the first suburban village; but fame had
preceded us with my character, and as the settlement was cultivated
either by serfs or negroes liable to be made so, we found the houses
bare. The poor wretches had learned, on the day of my reception, that
the principal object of my journey was to obtain slaves, and, of
course, they imagined that the only object of my foray in their
neighborhood, was to seize the gang and bear it abroad in bondage.
Accordingly, we tarried only a few minutes in Findo, and dashed off to
Furo; but here, too, the blacks had been panic struck, and escaped so
hurriedly that they left their pots of rice, vegetables, and meat
boiling in their sheds. Furo was absolutely stripped of inhabitants;
the veteran chief of the village did not even remain to do the honors
for his affrighted brethren. Ahmah-de-Bellah laughed heartily at the
terror I inspired; but I confess I could not help feeling sadly
mortified when I found my presence shunned as a pestilence.
The native villages through which I passed on this excursion
manifested the great comfort in which these Africans live throughout
their prolific land, when unassailed by the desolating wars that are
kept up for slave-trade. It was the height of the dry season, when
every thing was parched by the sun, yet I could trace the outlines of
fine plantations, gardens, and rice-fields. Every where I found
abundance of peppers, onions, garlic, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and
cassava; while tasteful fences were garlanded with immense vines and
flowers. Fowls, goats, sheep, and oxen, stalked about in innumerable
flocks, and from every domicil depended a paper, inscribed with a
charm from the Koran to keep off thieves and witches.
My walks through Timbo were promoted by the constant efforts of my
entertainers to shield me from intrusive curiosity. Whenever I sallied
forth, two townsfolk in authority were sent forward to warn the public
that the Furtoo desired to promenade without a mob at his heels. These
lusty criers stationed themselves at the corners with an iron
triangle, which they rattled to call attention to the king's command;
and, in a short time, the highways were so clear of people, who feared
a _bastinado_, that I found my loneliness rather disagreeable than
otherwise. _Every person I saw, shunned me._ When I called the
children or little girls,--they fled from me. My reputation as a
slaver in the villages, and the fear of a lash in the town, furnished
me much more solitude than is generally agreeable to a sensitive
traveller.
Towards nightfall I left my companions, and wrapping myself closely in
a Mandingo dress, stole away through bye-ways to a brook which runs by
the town-walls. Thither the females resort at sunset to draw water;
and, choosing a screened situation, where I would not be easily
observed, I watched, for more than an hour, the graceful children,
girls, and women of Timbo, as they performed this domestic task of
eastern lands.
I was particularly impressed by the general beauty of the sex, who, in
many respects, resembled the Moor rather than the negro. Unaware of a
stranger's presence, they came forth as usual in a simple dress which
covers their body from waist to knee, and leaves the rest of the
figure entirely naked. Group after group gathered together on the
brink of the brook in the slanting sunlight and lengthening shadows of
the plain. Some rested on their pitchers and water vessels; some
chatted, or leaned on each other gracefully, listening to the chat of
friends; some stooped to fill their jars; others lifted the brimming
vessels to their sisters' shoulders--while others strode homeward
singing, with their charged utensils poised on head or hand. Their
slow, stately, swinging movement under the burden, was grace that
might be envied on a Spanish _paseo_. I do not think the forms of
these Fullah girls,--with their complexions of freshest bronze,--are
exceeded in symmetry by the women of any other country. There was a
slender delicacy of limb, waist, neck, hand, foot, and bosom, which
seemed to be the type that moulded every one of them. I saw none of
the hanging breast; the flat, expanded nostrils; the swollen lips, and
fillet-like foreheads, that characterize the Soosoos and their sisters
of the coast. None were deformed, nor were any marked by traces of
disease. I may observe, moreover, that the male Fullahs of Timbo are
impressed on my memory by a beauty of form, which almost equals that
of the women; and, in fact, the only fault I found with them was their
minute resemblance to the feminine delicacy of the other sex. They
made up, however, in courage what they lacked in form, for their manly
spirit has made them renowned among all the tribes they have so long
controlled by distinguished bravery and perseverance.
The patriarchal landscape by the brook, with the Oriental girls over
their water-jars, and the lowing cattle in the pastures, brought
freshly to my mind many a Bible scene I heard my mother read when I
was a boy at home; and I do not know what revolution might have been
wrought on my spirit had I not suddenly become critical! A stately
dame passed within twenty feet of my thicket, whose _coiffure_ excited
my mirth so powerfully that I might have been detected as a spy, had
not a bitten lip controlled my laughter. Her ladyship belonged,
perhaps, to the "upper-ten" of Timbo, whose heads had hitherto been
hidden from my eyes by the jealous _yashmacks_ they constantly wear in
a stranger's presence. In this instance, however, the woman's head,
like that of the younger girls, was uncovered, so that I had a full
view of the stately preparation. Her lower limbs were clad in ample
folds of blue and white cotton, knotted in an immense mass at the
waist, while her long crisp hair had been combed out to its fullest
dimensions and spliced with additional wool. The ebony fleece was then
separated in strands half an inch in diameter, and plaited all over
her skull in a countless number of distinct braids. This quill-like
structure was then adorned with amber beads, and copiously anointed
with vegetable butter, so that the points gleamed with fire in the
setting sunlight, and made her look as if she had donned for a
bewitching headdress a porcupine instead of a "bird of paradise."
* * * * *
My trip to Timbo, I confess, was one of business rather than pleasure
or scientific exploration. I did not make a record, at the moment, of
my "impressions de voyage," and never thought that, a quarter of a
century afterwards, I would feel disposed to chronicle the journey in
a book, as an interesting _souvenir_ of my early life. Had I supposed
that the day would come when I was to turn author, it is likely I
might have been more inquisitive; but, being only "a slaver," I found
Ahmah, Sulimani, Abdulmomen, the Ali-Mami, and all the quality and
amusements of Timbo, dull enough, _when my object was achieved_.
Still, while I was there, I thought I might as well see all that was
visible. I strolled repeatedly through the town. I became excessively
familiar with its narrow streets, low houses, mud walls, cul-de-sacs,
and mosques. I saw no fine bazaars, market-places, or shops. The chief
wants of life were supplied by peddlers. Platters, jars, and baskets
of fruit, vegetables, and meat, were borne around twice or thrice
daily. Horsemen dashed about on beautiful steeds towards the fields in
the morning, or came home at nightfall at a slower pace. _I never saw
man or woman bask lazily in the sun._ Females were constantly busy
over their cotton and spinning wheels when not engaged in household
occupations; and often have I seen an elderly dame quietly crouched in
her hovel at sunset reading the Koran. Nor are the men of Timbo less
thrifty. Their city wall is said to hem in about ten thousand
individuals, representing all the social industries. They weave
cotton, work in leather, fabricate iron from the bar, engage
diligently in agriculture, and, whenever not laboriously employed,
devote themselves to reading and writing, of which they are
excessively fond.
These are the faint sketches, which, on ransacking my brain, I find
resting on its tablets. But I was tired of Timbo; I was perfectly
refreshed from my journey; and I was anxious to return to my factory
on the beach. Two "moons" only had been originally set apart for the
enterprise, and the third was already waxing towards its full. I
feared the Ali-Mami was not yet prepared with _slaves_ for my
departure, and I dreaded lest objections might be made if I approached
his royal highness with the flat announcement. Accordingly, I schooled
my interpreters, and visited that important personage. I made a long
speech, as full of compliments and blarney as a Christmas pudding is
of plums, and concluded by touching the soft part in African royalty's
heart--_slaves!_ I told the king that a vessel or two, with abundant
freights, would be waiting me on the river, and that I must hasten
thither with his choicest gangs if he hoped to reap a profit.
The king and the royal family were no doubt excessively grieved to
part with the Furtoo Mongo, but they were discreet persons and
"listened to reason." War parties and scouts were forthwith despatched
to blockade the paths, while press-gangs made recruits among the
villages, and even in Timbo. Sulimani-Ali, himself, sallied forth,
before daybreak, with a troop of horse, and at sundown, came back with
forty-five splendid fellows, captured in Findo and Furo!
The personal dread of me in the town itself, was augmented. If I had
been a Pestilence before, I was Death now! When I took my usual
morning walk the children ran from me screaming. Since the arrival of
Sulimani with his victims, all who were under the yoke thought their
hour of exile had come. The poor regarded me as the devil incarnate.
Once or twice, I caught women throwing a handful of dust or ashes
towards me, and uttering an invocation from the Koran to avert the
demon or save them from his clutches. Their curiosity was merged in
terror. _My popularity was over!_
It was not a little amusing that in the midst of the general dismay,
caused by the court of Timbo and myself, my colored brother
Ahmah-de-Bellah, and his kinsman Abdulmomen, lost no chance of
lecturing me about my soul! We kidnapped the Africans all day and
spouted Islamism all night! Our religion, however, was more
speculative than practical. It was much more important, they thought,
that we should embrace the faith of their peculiar theology, than that
we should trouble ourselves about human rights that interfered with
profits and pockets. We spared Mahometans and enslaved _only_ "_the
heathen_;" so that, in fact, we were merely obedient to the behests of
Mahomet when we subdued "the infidel!"
This process of proselytism, however, was not altogether successful.
As I was already a rather poor Christian, I fear that the Fullah did
not succeed in making me a very good Mussulman. Still, I managed to
amuse him with the hope of my _future_ improvement in his creed, so
that we were very good friends when the Ali-Mami summoned us for a
final interview.
The parting of men is seldom a maudlin affair. The king's relations
presented me bullocks, cows, goats, and sheep. His majesty sent me
five slaves. Sulimani-Ali offered a splendid white charger. The king's
wife supplied me with an African quilt ingeniously woven of red and
yellow threads unravelled from Manchester cottons; while
Ahmah-de-Bellah, like a gentleman of taste, despatched for my
consolation, the two prettiest handmaidens he could buy or steal in
Timbo!