_Description of the Feloops, the Jaloffs, the Foulahs, and
Mandingoes. — Some Account of the Trade between the Nations of
Europe and the Natives of Africa by the way of the Gambia, and between
the native Inhabitants of the Coast and the Nations of the interior
Countries — their Mode of selling and buying,_ &c.
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 Mahomet 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 Mahomedans _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 those 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 intrusted 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 civilized,
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 in this part of the Continent.
They are divided into several independent states or kingdoms; which
are frequently at war either with their neighbours, or with each
other. In their manners, superstitions, and government, however,
they have a greater resemblance to the Mandingoes (of whom I shall
presently speak) than to any other nation; but excel them in the
manufacture of cotton cloth; spinning the wool to a finer thread,
weaving it in a broader loom, and dying it of a better colour.
Their language is said to be copious and significant; and is often
learnt by Europeans trading to Senegal. I cannot say much of it from
my own knowledge; but have preserved their numerals, which are these:
One --- _Wean_.
Two --- _Yar_.
Three --- _Yat_.
Four --- _Yanet_.
Five --- _Judom_.
Six --- _Judom wean_.
Seven --- _Judom Yar_.
Eight --- _Judom Yat_.
Nine --- _Judom Yanet_.
Ten --- _Fook_.
Eleven --- _Fook aug wean_, &c
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. Their numerals are these:[3]
One --- _Killin_.
Two --- _Foola_.
Three --- _Sabba_.
Four --- _Nani_.
Five --- _Loolo_.
Six --- _Woro_.
Seven --- _Oronglo_.
Eight --- _Sie_.
Nine --- _Conunta_.
Ten --- _Tang_.
Eleven --- _Tan ning killin_, &c.
They are called Mandingoes, I conceive, as having originally
migrated from the interior state of Manding, of which some account
will hereafter be given; but, contrary to the present constitution
of their parent country, which is republican, it appeared to me
that the government in all the Mandingo states, near the Gambia,
is monarchical. The power of the sovereign is, however, by no means
unlimited. In all affairs of importance, the king calls an assembly
of the principal men, or elders, by whose councils he is directed, and
without whose advice he can neither declare war, nor conclude peace.
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 Mahomet 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 Mahomedan 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 Mahomedan 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 Mahomedan 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 its 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 the waist, which hanging
down to the ancles 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 stripe 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 sea-shells. 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 on 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 stakes, 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 inclosure is called a _sirk_, or _surk_. A
number of these inclosures, 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 Mahomedans 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 preceding remarks, concerning the several nations that inhabit
the banks of the Gambia, are all that I recollect as necessary to
be made in this place, at the outset of my journey. With regard to
the Mandingoes, however, many particulars are yet to be related;
some of which are necessarily interwoven into the narrative of my
progress, and others will be given in a summary, at the end of my
work; together with all such observations as I have collected on
the country and climate, which I could not with propriety insert
in the regular detail of occurrences. What remains of the present
Chapter will therefore relate solely to the trade which the nations of
Christendom have found means to establish with the natives of Africa,
by the channel of the Gambia; and the inland traffic which has arisen,
in consequence of it, between the inhabitants of the Coast, and the
nations of the interior countries.
The earliest European establishment on this celebrated river
was a factory of the Portugueze; 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 time 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 fire-arms and ammunition, iron ware, spirituous liquors, tobacco,
cotton caps, a small quantity of broad cloth, 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, bees-wax, 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 16 to 25 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 merchandize
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_. This commodity is extracted,
by means of boiling water, from the kernel of a nut, as will be
more particularly described hereafter: it has the consistence and
appearance of butter; and is in truth an admirable substitute for
it. It forms an important article in the food of the natives, and
serves also for every domestic purpose in which oil would otherwise
be used. The demand for it is therefore very great.
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
Desart, and receive in return corn, cotton cloth, and slaves.
In thus bartering one commodity for another, many inconveniences
must necessarily have arisen at first from the want of coined money,
or some other visible and determinate medium, to settle the balance,
or difference of value, between different articles; to remedy which,
the natives of the interior make use of small shells called _kowries_,
as will be shewn hereafter. On the Coast, the inhabitants have adopted
a practice which I believe is peculiar to themselves.
In their early intercourse with Europeans, the article that attracted
most notice was iron. Its utility, in forming the instruments of
war and husbandry, made 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 merchandize. 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
vicinage 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.
[Footnote 3: In the Travels of Francis Moore the reader will find a
pretty copious vocabulary of the Mandingo language, which in general
is correct.]