_Occurrences at the Camp continued. — Information collected by
the Author, concerning Houssa and Tombuctoo; and the Situation of
the latter. — The Route described from Morocco to Benowm. — The
Author’s Distress from Hunger. — Ali removes his Camp to the
Northward. — The Author is carried Prisoner to the new Encampment,
and is presented to Queen Fatima. — Great Distress from the Want
of Water._
One whole month had now elapsed since I was led into captivity; during
which time, each returning day brought me fresh distresses. I watched
the lingering course of the sun with anxiety, and blessed his evening
beams as they shed a yellow lustre along the sandy floor of my hut;
for it was then that my oppressors left me, and allowed me to pass
the sultry night in solitude and reflection.
About midnight, a bowl of kouskous with some salt and water was brought
for me and my two attendants; this was our common fare, and it was
all that was allowed us, to allay the cravings of hunger, and support
nature for the whole of the following day: for it is to be observed,
that this was the Mahomedan Lent; and as the Moors keep the fast with
a religious strictness, they thought it proper to compel me, though a
Christian, to a similar observance. Time, however, somewhat reconciled
me to my situation: I found that I could bear hunger and thirst better
than I expected; and at length, I endeavoured to beguile the tedious
hours, by learning to write Arabic. The people who came to see me,
soon made me acquainted with the characters; and I discovered, that
by engaging their attention in this way, they were not so troublesome
as otherwise they would have been: indeed, when I observed any person
whose countenance I thought bore malice towards me, I made it a rule
to ask him, either to write in the sand himself, or to decipher what I
had already written; and the pride of shewing his superior attainments,
generally induced him to comply with my request.
April 14th. As Queen Fatima had not yet arrived, Ali proposed to go
to the north, and bring her back with him; but as the place was two
days’ journey from Benowm, it was necessary to have some refreshment
on the road; and Ali, suspicious of those about him, was so afraid of
being poisoned, that he never eat any thing but what was dressed under
his own immediate inspection. A fine bullock was therefore killed,
and the flesh being cut up into thin slices, was dried in the sun; and
this, with two bags of dry kouskous, formed his travelling provisions.
Previous to his departure, the black people of the town of Benowm
came, according to their annual custom, to shew their arms, and
bring their stipulated tribute of corn and cloth. They were but badly
armed; twenty-two with muskets, forty or fifty with bows and arrows;
and nearly the same number of men and boys, with spears only: they
arranged themselves before the tent, where they waited until their
arms were examined, and some little disputes settled.
About midnight on the 16th, Ali departed quietly from Benowm,
accompanied by a few attendants. He was expected to return in the
course of nine or ten days.
April 18th. Two days after the departure of Ali, a Shereef arrived
with salt, and some other articles, from Walet, the capital of
the kingdom of Biroo. As there was no tent appropriated for him,
he took up his abode in the same hut with me. He seemed to be a well
informed man, and his acquaintance both with the Arabic and Bambarra
tongues, enabled him to travel, with ease and safety, through a
number of kingdoms; for though his place of residence was Walet, he
had visited Houssa, and had lived some years at Tombuctoo. Upon my
inquiring so particularly about the distance, from Walet to Tombuctoo,
he asked me if I intended to travel that way; and being answered in
the affirmative, he shook his head, and said, _it would not do_; for
that Christians were looked upon there as the devil’s children, and
enemies to the Prophet. From him I learned the following particulars;
that Houssa was the largest town he had ever seen: that Walet was
larger than Tombuctoo; but being remote from the Niger, and its
trade consisting chiefly of salt, it was not so much resorted to by
strangers: that between Benowm and Walet was ten days’ journey; but
the road did not lead through any remarkable towns, and travellers
supported themselves by purchasing milk from the Arabs, who keep
their herds by the watering-places: two of the days’ journies,
was over a sandy country, without water. From Walet to Tombuctoo,
was eleven days more; but water was more plentiful, and the journey
was usually performed upon bullocks. He said there were many Jews at
Tombuctoo, but they all spoke Arabic, and used the same prayers as
the Moors. He frequently pointed his hand to the south-east quarter,
or rather the east by south; observing, that Tombuctoo was situated
in that direction; and though I made him repeat this information,
again and again, I never found him to vary more than half a point,
which was to the southward.
April 24th. This morning Shereef Sidi Mahomed Moora Abdalla, a
native of Morocco, arrived with five bullocks loaded with salt. He
had formerly resided some months at Gibraltar, where he had picked
up as much English, as enabled him to make himself understood. He
informed me, that he had been five months in coming from Santa Cruz;
but that great part of the time had been spent in trading. When
I requested him to enumerate the days employed in travelling from
Morocco to Benowm, he gave them as follows:—to Swera, three days;
to Agadier, three; to Jiniken, ten; to Wadenoon, four; to Lakeneig,
five; to Zeeriwin-zeriman, five; to Tisheet, ten; to Benowm, ten; in
all fifty days: but travellers usually rest a long while at Jiniken
and Tisheet; at the latter of which places they dig the rock salt,
which is so great an article of commerce with the Negroes.
In conversing with these Shereefs, and the different strangers that
resorted to the camp, I passed my time with rather less uneasiness
than formerly. On the other hand, as the dressing of my victuals was
now left entirely to the care of Ali’s slaves, over whom I had not
the smallest control, I found myself but ill supplied, worse even than
in the fast month: for two successive nights, they neglected to send us
our accustomed meal, and though my boy went to a small Negro town near
the camp, and begged with great diligence from hut to hut, he could
only procure a few handfuls of ground nuts, which he readily shared
with me. Hunger, at first, is certainly a very painful sensation;
but when it has continued for some time, this pain is succeeded by
languor and debility; in which case, a draught of water, by keeping
the stomach distended, will greatly exhilarate the spirits, and
remove for a short time every sort of uneasiness. Johnson and Demba
were very much dejected. They lay stretched upon the sand, in a sort
of torpid slumber; and even when the kouskous arrived, I found some
difficulty in awakening them. I felt no inclination to sleep, but was
affected with a deep convulsive respiration, like constant sighing;
and, what alarmed me still more, a dimness of sight, and a tendency
to faint when I attempted to sit up. These symptoms did not go off
until some time after I had received nourishment.
We had been for some days in daily expectation of Ali’s return from
Saheel (or the north country) with his wife Fatima. In the meanwhile
Mansong, King of Bambarra, as I have related in Chapter VIII, had sent
to Ali for a party of horse to assist in storming Gedingooma. With
this demand Ali had not only refused to comply, but had treated the
messengers with great haughtiness and contempt; upon which Mansong
gave up all thoughts of taking the town, and prepared to chastize
Ali for his contumacy.
Things were in this situation when, on the 29th of April, a messenger
arrived at Benowm with the disagreeable intelligence that the Bambarra
army was approaching the frontiers of Ludamar. This threw the whole
country into confusion; and in the afternoon Ali’s son with about
twenty horsemen arrived at Benowm. He ordered all the cattle to be
driven away immediately, all the tents to be struck, and the people
to hold themselves in readiness to depart at daylight the next morning.
April 30th. At daybreak the whole camp was in motion. The baggage was
carried upon bullocks, the two tent poles being placed one on each
side, and the different wooden articles of the tent distributed in
like manner; the tent cloth was thrown over all, and upon this was
commonly placed one or two women; for the Moorish women are very bad
walkers. The king’s favourite concubines rode upon camels, with a
saddle of a particular construction, and a canopy to shelter them from
the sun. We proceeded to the northward until noon, when the king’s
son ordered the whole company, except two tents, to enter a thick low
wood, which was upon our right. I was sent along with the two tents,
and arrived in the evening at a Negro town called Farani: here we
pitched the tents in an open place, at no great distance from the town.
The hurry and confusion which attended this decampment, prevented the
slaves from dressing the usual quantity of victuals; and lest their
dry provisions should be exhausted before they reached their place of
destination, (for as yet none but Ali and the chief men knew whither
we were going,) they thought proper to make me observe this day as
a day of fasting.
May 1st. As I had some reason to suspect that this day was also to
be considered as a fast, I went in the morning to the Negro town of
Farani, and begged some provisions from the Dooti, who readily supplied
my wants, and desired me to come to his house every day during my stay
in the neighbourhood. These hospitable people are looked upon by the
Moors as an abject race of slaves, and are treated accordingly. Two of
Ali’s household slaves, a man and a woman, who had come along with
the two tents, went this morning to water the cattle from the town
wells, at which there began to be a great scarcity. When the Negro
women observed the cattle approaching, they took up their pitchers and
ran with all possible haste towards the town, but before they could
enter the gate, they were stopped by the slaves, who compelled them
to bring back the water they had drawn for their own families, and
empty it into the troughs for the cattle. When this was exhausted,
they were ordered to draw water until such time as the cattle had
all drank; and the woman slave actually broke two wooden bowls over
the heads of the black girls, because they were somewhat dilatory in
obeying her commands.
May 3d. We departed from the vicinity of Farani, and after a
circuitous route through the woods, arrived at Ali’s camp in
the afternoon. This encampment was larger than that of Benowm, and
was situated in the middle of a thick wood about two miles distant
from a Negro town, called Bubaker. I immediately waited upon Ali, in
order to pay my respects to Queen Fatima, who had come with him from
Saheel. He seemed much pleased with my coming; shook hands with me,
and informed his wife that I was the Christian. She was a woman of
the Arab cast, with long black hair, and remarkably corpulent. She
appeared at first rather shocked at the thought of having a Christian
so near her: but when I had (by means of a Negro boy, who spoke the
Mandingo and Arabic tongues) answered a great many questions, which
her curiosity suggested, respecting the country of the Christians,
she seemed more at ease, and presented me with a bowl of milk; which
I considered as a very favourable omen.
The heat was now almost insufferable; all nature seemed sinking under
it. The distant country presented to the eye a dreary expanse of sand,
with a few stunted trees and prickly bushes, in the shade of which
the hungry cattle licked up the withered grass, while the camels and
goats picked off the scanty foliage. The scarcity of water was greater
here than at Benowm. Day and night the wells were crowded with cattle,
lowing and fighting with each other to come at the trough: excessive
thirst made many of them furious; others, being too weak to contend
for the water, endeavoured to quench their thirst by devouring the
black mud from the gutters near the wells; which they did with great
avidity, though it was commonly fatal to them.
This great scarcity of water was felt severely by all the people
of the camp, and by none more than myself; for though Ali allowed
me a skin for containing water, and Fatima, once or twice, gave me
a small supply, when I was in distress, yet such was the barbarous
disposition of the Moors at the wells, that, when my boy attempted
to fill the skin, he commonly received a sound drubbing for his
presumption. Every one was astonished that the slave of a Christian
should attempt to draw water from wells which had been dug by the
followers of the Prophet. This treatment, at length, so frightened
the boy, that I believe he would sooner have perished with thirst,
than attempted again to fill the skin; he therefore contented himself
with begging water from the Negro slaves that attended the camp; and
I followed his example; but with very indifferent success; for though
I let no opportunity slip, and was very urgent in my solicitations,
both to the Moors and Negroes, I was but ill supplied, and frequently
passed the night in the situation of _Tantalus_. No sooner had I shut
my eyes, than fancy would convey me to the streams and rivers of my
native land: there, as I wandered along the verdant brink, I surveyed
the clear stream with transport, and hastened to swallow the delightful
draught;—but alas! disappointment awakened me; and I found myself
a lonely captive, perishing of thirst amidst the wilds of Africa!
One night, having solicited in vain for water at the camp, and
being quite feverish, I resolved to try my fortune at the wells,
which were about half a mile distant from the camp. Accordingly,
I set out about midnight, and, being guided by the lowing of the
cattle, soon arrived at the place; where I found the Moors very busy
drawing water. I requested permission to drink, but was driven away,
with outrageous abuse. Passing, however, from one well to another,
I came at last to one where there was only an old man and two
boys. I made the same request to this man, and he immediately drew
me up a bucket of water; but, as I was about to take hold of it, he
recollected that I was a Christian, and fearing that his bucket might
be polluted by my lips, he dashed the water into the trough, and told
me to drink from thence. Though this trough was none of the largest,
and three cows were already drinking in it, I resolved to come in for
my share; and kneeling down, thrust my head between two of the cows,
and drank with great pleasure, until the water was nearly exhausted;
and the cows began to contend with each other for the last mouthful.
In adventures of this nature, I passed the sultry month of May,
during which no material change took place in my situation. Ali still
considered me as a lawful prisoner; and Fatima, though she allowed me
a larger quantity of victuals than I had been accustomed to receive
at Benowm, had as yet said nothing on the subject of my release. In
the meantime, the frequent changes of the wind, the gathering clouds,
and distant lightning, with other appearances of approaching rain,
indicated that the wet season was at hand; when the Moors annually
evacuate the country of the Negroes, and return to the skirts of the
Great Desert. This made me consider that my fate was drawing towards
a crisis, and I resolved to wait for the event without any seeming
uneasiness: but circumstances occurred which produced a change in my
favour, more suddenly than I had foreseen, or had reason to expect. The
case was this: the fugitive Kaartans, who had taken refuge in Ludamar,
as I have related in Chapter VIII. finding that the Moors were about
to leave them, and dreading the resentment of their own sovereign,
whom they had so basely deserted, offered to treat with Ali, for two
hundred Moorish horsemen, to co-operate with them in an effort to
expel Daisy from Gedingooma; for until Daisy should be vanquished, or
humbled, they considered that they could neither return to their native
towns, nor live in security in any of the neighbouring kingdoms. With
a view to extort money from these people, by means of this treaty, Ali
dispatched his son to Jarra, and prepared to follow him in the course
of a few days. This was an opportunity of too great consequence to me,
to be neglected. I immediately applied to Fatima (who, I found, had the
chief direction in all affairs of state), and begged her interest with
Ali, to give me permission to accompany him to Jarra. This request,
after some hesitation, was favourably received. Fatima looked kindly
on me, and, I believe, was at length moved with compassion towards
me. My bundles were brought from the large cow-skin bag that stood in
the corner of Ali’s tent, and I was ordered to explain the use of
the different articles, and shew the method of putting on the boots,
stockings, &c.; with all which I cheerfully complied, and was told
that, in the course of a few days, I should be at liberty to depart.
Believing, therefore, that I should certainly find the means of
escaping from Jarra, if I should once get thither; I now freely
indulged the pleasing hope that my captivity would soon terminate;
and happily not having been disappointed in this idea, I shall pause,
in this place, to collect and bring into one point of view, such
observations on the Moorish character, and country, as I had no fair
opportunity of introducing into the preceding narrative.