I shall not weary the reader with a narrative of my journey homeward
over the track I had followed on my way to Timbo. A grand Mahometan
service was performed at my departure, and Ahmah-de-Bellah accompanied
me as far as Jallica, whence he was recalled by his father in
consequence of a serious family dispute that required his presence.
Ali-Ninpha was prepared, in this place, to greet me with a welcome,
and a copious supply of gold, wax, ivory, and slaves. At Tamisso, the
worthy Mohamedoo had complied with his promise to furnish a similar
addition to the caravan; so that when we set out for Kya, our troop
was swelled to near a thousand strong, counting men, women, children
and ragamuffins.
At Kya I could not help tarrying four days with my jolly friend
Ibrahim, who received the tobacco, charged with "bitters," during my
absence, and was delighted to furnish a nourishing drop after my long
abstinence. As we approached the coast, another halt was called at a
favorable encampment, where Ali-Ninpha divided the caravan in four
parts, reserving the best portion of slaves and merchandise for me.
The division, before arrival, was absolutely necessary, in order to
prevent disputes or disastrous quarrels in regard to the merchantable
quality of negroes on the beach.
I hoped to take my people by surprise at Kambia; but when the factory
came in sight from the hill-tops back of the settlement, I saw the
Spanish flag floating from its summit, and heard the cannon booming
forth a welcome to the wanderer. Every thing had been admirably
conducted in my absence. The Fullah and my clerk preserved their
social relations and the public tranquillity unimpaired. My factory
and warehouse were as neat and orderly as when I left them, so that I
had nothing to do but go to sleep as if I had made a day's excursion
to a neighboring village.
Within a week I paid for the caravan's produce, despatched
Mami-de-Yong, and made arrangements with the captain of a slaver in
the river for the remainder of his merchandise. But the Fullah chief
had not left me more than a day or two, when I was surprised by a
traveller who dashed into my factory, with a message from
Ahmah-de-Bellah at Timbo, whence he had posted in twenty-one days.
Ahmah was in trouble. He had been recalled, as I said, from Jallica by
family quarrels. When he reached the paternal mat, he found his sister
Beeljie bound hand and foot in prison, with orders for her prompt
transportation to my factory as a slave. These were the irrevocable
commands of his royal father, and of her half-brother, Sulimani. All
his appeals, seconded by those of his mother, were unheeded. She must
be _shipped_ from the Rio Pongo; and no one could be trusted with the
task but the Ali-Mami's son and friend, the Mongo Teodor!
To resist this dire command, Ahmah charged the messenger to appeal to
my heart by our brotherly love _not_ to allow the maiden to be sent
over sea; but, by force or stratagem, to retain her until he arrived
on the beach.
The news amazed me. I knew that African Mahometans never sold their
caste or kindred into foreign slavery, unless their crime deserved a
penalty severer than death. I reflected a while on the message,
because I did not wish to complicate my relations with the leading
chiefs of the interior; but, in a few moments, natural sensibility
mastered every selfish impulse, and I told the envoy to hasten back on
the path of the suffering brother, and assure him I would shield his
sister, even at the risk of his kindred's wrath.
About a week afterwards I was aroused one morning by a runner from a
neighboring village over the hill, who stated that a courier reached
his town the night before from Sulimani-Ali,--a prince of
Timbo,--conducting a Fullah girl, who was to be sold by me
_immediately_ to a Spanish slaver. The girl, he said, resisted with
all her energy. She refused to walk. For the last four days she had
been borne along in a litter. She swore never to "see the ocean;" and
threatened to dash her skull against the first rock in her path, if
they attempted to carry her further. The stanch refusal embarrassed
her Mahometan conductor, inasmuch as his country's law forbade him to
use extraordinary compulsion, or degrade the maiden with a whip.
I saw at once that this delay and hesitation afforded an opportunity
to interfere judiciously in behalf of the spirited girl, whose sins or
faults were still unknown to me. Accordingly, I imparted the tale to
Ali-Ninpha; and, with his consent, despatched a shrewd dame from the
Mandingo's _harem_, with directions for her conduct to the village.
Woman's tact and woman's sympathy are the same throughout the world,
and the proud ambassadress undertook her task with pleased alacrity. I
warned her to be extremely cautious before the myrmidons of Sulimani,
but to seize a secret moment when she might win the maiden's
confidence, to inform her that I was the sworn friend of
Ahmah-de-Bellah, and would save her _if she followed my commands
implicitly_. She must cease resistance at once. She must come to the
river, which was fresh water, and not salt; and she must allow her
jailers to fulfil all the orders they received from her tyrannical
kinsmen. Muffled in the messenger's garments, I sent the manuscript
Koran of Ahmah-de-Bellah as a token of my truth, and bade the dame
assure Beeljie that her brother was already far on his journey to
redeem her in Kambia.
The mission was successful, and, early next day, the girl was brought
to my factory, _with a rope round her neck_.
The preliminaries for her purchase were tedious and formal. As her
sale was compulsory, there was not much question as to quality or
price. Still, I was obliged to promise a multitude of things I did not
intend to perform. In order to disgrace the poor creature as much as
possible, her sentence declared she should be "sold for salt,"--the
most contemptuous of all African exchanges, and used in the interior
for the purchase of _cattle_ alone.
Poor Beeljie stood naked and trembling before us while these
ceremonies were performing. A scowl of indignation flitted like a
shadow over her face, as she heard the disgusting commands. Tenderly
brought up among the princely brood of Timbo, she was a bright and
delicate type of the classes I described at the brook-side. Her limbs
and features were stained by the dust of travel, and her expression
was clouded with the grief of sensible degradation: still I would have
risked more than I did, when I beheld the mute appeal of her face and
form, to save her from the doom of Cuban exile.
When the last tub of salt was measured, I cut the rope from Beeljie's
neck, and, throwing over her shoulders a shawl,--in which she
instantly shrank with a look of gratitude,--called the female who had
borne my cheering message, to take the girl to her house and treat her
as the sister of my Fullah brother.
As I expected, this humane command brought the emissary of Sulimani to
his feet with a bound. He insisted on the restitution of the woman! He
swore I had deceived him; and, in fact, went through a variety of
African antics which are not unusual, even among the most civilized of
the tribes, when excited to extraordinary passion.
It was my habit, during these outbursts of native ire, to remain
perfectly quiet, not only until the explosion was over, but while the
smoke was disappearing from the scene. I fastened my eye, therefore,
silently, but intensely, on the tiger, following him in all his
movements about the apartment, till he sank subdued and panting, on
the mat. I then softly told him that this excitement was not only
unbecoming a Mahometan gentleman, and fit for a savage alone, but that
it was altogether wasted on the present occasion, _inasmuch as the
girl should be put on board a slaver in his presence_. Nevertheless, I
continued while the sister of Ahmah was under my roof, her blood must
be respected, and she should be treated in every respect as a royal
person.
I was quite as curious as the reader may be to know the crime of
Beeljie, for, up to that moment, I had not been informed of it.
Dismissing the Fullah as speedily as possible, I hastened to
Ali-Ninpha's dwelling and heard the sufferer's story.
The Mahometan princess, whose age surely did not exceed eighteen, had
been promised by the king and her half-brother, Sulimani, to an old
relative, who was not only accused of cruelty to his harem's inmates,
but was charged by Mussulmen with the heinous crime of eating "unclean
flesh." The girl, who seemed to be a person of masculine courage and
determination, resisted this disposal of her person; but, while her
brother Ahmah was away, she was forced from her mother's arms and
given to the filthy dotard.
It is commonly supposed that women are doomed to the basest obedience
in oriental lands; yet, it seems there is a Mahometan law,--or, at
least, a Fullah custom,--which saves the purity of an unwilling bride.
The delivery of Beeljie to her brutal lord kindled the fire of an
ardent temper. She furnished the old gentleman with specimens of
violence to which his harem had been a stranger, save when the master
himself chose to indulge in wrath. In fact, the Fullah damsel--half
acting, half in reality--played the virago so finely, that her
husband, after exhausting arguments, promises and supplications, sent
her back to her kindred _with an insulting message_.
It was a sad day when she returned to the paternal roof in Timbo. Her
resistance was regarded by the dropsical despot as rebellious
disobedience to father and brother; and, as neither authority nor love
would induce the outlaw to repent, her barbarous parent condemned her
to be "_a slave to Christians_."
Her story ended, I consoled the poor maiden with every assurance of
protection and comfort; for, now that the excitement of sale and
journey was over, her nerves gave way, and she sank on her mat,
completely exhausted. I commended her to the safeguard of my landlord
and the especial kindness of his women. Esther, too, stole up at night
to comfort the sufferer with her fondling tenderness, for she could
not speak the Fullah language;--and in a week, I had the damsel in
capital condition ready for a daring enterprise that was to seal her
fate.
When the Spanish slaver, whose cargo I had just completed, was ready
for sea, I begged her captain to aid me in the shipment of "_a
princess_" who had been consigned to my wardship by her royal
relations in the interior, but whom I dared not put on board his
vessel _until she was beyond the Rio Pongo's bar_. The officer
assented; and when the last boat-load of slaves was despatched from my
_barracoon_, he lifted his anchor and floated down the stream till he
got beyond the furthest breakers. Here, with sails loosely furled, and
every thing ready for instant departure, he again laid to, awaiting
the royal _bonne-bouche_.
In the mean time, I hurried Beeljie with her friends and Fullah jailer
to the beach, so that when the slaver threw his sails aback and
brought his vessel to the wind, I lost not a moment in putting the
girl in a canoe, with five Kroomen to carry her through the boiling
surf.
"Allah be praised!" sighed the Fullah, as the boat shot ahead into the
sea; while the girls of the harem fell on the sand with wails of
sorrow. The Kroomen, with their usual skill, drove the buoyant skiff
swiftly towards the slaver; but, as they approached the breakers south
of the bar, a heavy roller struck it on the side, and instantly, its
freight was struggling in the surge.
In a twinkling, the Fullah was on the earth, his face buried in the
sand; the girls screamed and tore their garments; Ali-Ninpha's wife
clung to me with the grasp of despair; while I, stamping with rage,
cursed the barbarity of the maiden's parent, whose sentence had
brought her to this wretched fate.
I kicked the howling hypocrite beneath me, and bade him hasten with
the news to Timbo, and tell the wicked patriarch that the Prophet
himself had destroyed the life of his wretched child, sooner than
suffer her to become a Christian's slave.
The Spanish vessel was under full sail, sweeping rapidly out to sea,
and the Kroomen swam ashore without their boat, as the grieving group
slowly and sadly retraced their way along the river's bank to Kambia.
[Illustration: THE SHIPPING OF BEELJIE.]
There was wailing that night in the village, and there was wailing in
Timbo when the Fullah returned with the tragic story. In fact, such
was the distracted excitement both on the sea-shore and in the
settlement, that none of my companions had eyes to observe an episode
of the drama which had been played that evening without rehearsal.
Every body who has been on the coast of Africa, or read of its people,
knows that Kroomen are altogether unaware of any difference between a
smooth river and the angriest wave. They would as willingly be upset
in the surf as stumble against a rock. I took advantage of this
amphibious nature, to station a light canoe immediately on the edge of
the breakers, and to order the daring swimmers it contained to grasp
the girl the moment her canoe was _purposely upset_! I promised the
divers a liberal reward if they lodged her in their boat, or swam with
her to the nearest point of the opposite beach; and so well did they
perform their secret task, that when they drew ashore her fainting
body, it was promptly received by a trusty Bager, who was in waiting
on the beach. Before the girl recovered her senses she was safely
afloat in the fisherman's canoe. His home was in a village on the
coast below; and, perhaps, it still remains a secret to this day, how
it was that, _for years after, a girl, the image of the lost Beeljie,
followed the footsteps of Ahmah, the Fullah of Timbo_!