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Life and Travels of Mungo Park in Central Africa

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For gratifying a taste for variety, another sort of pudding, called
_nealing_, is sometimes prepared from the meal of corn; and they have
also adopted two or three different modes of dressing their rice. Of
vegetable food, therefore, the natives have no want, and although the
common class of people are but sparingly supplied with animal food, yet
this article is not wholly withheld from them.

Their domestic animals are nearly the same as in Europe. Swine are found
in the woods, but their flesh is not esteemed; probably the marked
abhorrence in which this animal is held by the votaries of Mahomet has
spread itself among the Pagans. Poultry of all kinds (the turkey
excepted) is every where to be had. The Guinea fowl and red partridge
abound in the fields; and the woods furnish a small species of antelope,
of which the venison is highly and deservedly prized.

Of the other wild animals in the Mandingo countries, the most common are
the hyaena, the panther, and the elephant. Considering the use that is
made of the latter in the East Indies, it may be thought extraordinary,
that the natives of Africa have not, in any part of this immense
continent, acquired the skill of taming this powerful and docile
creature, and applying his strength and faculties to the service of man.
When I told some of the natives that this was actually done in the
countries of the East, my auditors laughed me to scorn, and exclaimed,
_Tobaubo fonnio!_ (a white man's lie.) The Negroes frequently find means
to destroy the elephant by fire-arms; they hunt it principally for the
sake of the teeth, which they transfer in barter to those who sell them
again to the Europeans. The flesh they eat, and consider it as a great
delicacy.

The usual beast of burthen in all the Negro territories is the ass. The
application of animal labour to the purposes of agriculture is no where
adopted; the plough, therefore, is wholly unknown. The chief implement
used in husbandry is the hoe, which varies in form in different
districts; and the labour is universally performed by slaves.

On the 6th of October the waters of the Gambia were at the greatest
height, being fifteen feet above the high-water-mark of the tide; after
which they began to subside; at first slowly, but afterwards very
rapidly; sometimes sinking more than a foot in twenty-four hours; by the
beginning of November the river had sunk to its former level, and the
tide ebbed and flowed as usual. When the river had subsided, and the
atmosphere grew dry, I recovered apace, and began to think of my
departure; for this is reckoned the most proper season for travelling;
the natives had completed their harvest, and provisions were every where
cheap and plentiful.

Dr. Laidley was at this time employed in a trading voyage at Jonkakonda. I
wrote to him to desire that he would use his interest with the slatees,
or slave-merchants, to procure me the company and protection of the first
_coffle_ (or caravan) that might leave Gambia for the interior country;
and in the meantime I requested him to purchase for me a horse and two
asses. A few days afterwards the Doctor returned to Pisania, and informed
me that a coffle would certainly go for the interior in the course of the
dry season; but that as many of the merchants belonging to it had not yet
completed their assortment of goods, he could not say at what time they
would set out.

As the characters and dispositions of the slatees, and people that
composed the caravan, were entirely unknown to me, and as they seemed
rather averse to my purpose, and unwilling to enter into any positive
engagements on my account; and the time of their departure being withal
very uncertain, I resolved, on further deliberation, to avail myself of
the dry season, and proceed without them.

Dr. Laidley approved my determination, and promised me every assistance in
his power, to enable me to prosecute my journey with comfort and safety.

This resolution having been formed, I made preparations accordingly. And
now, being about to take leave of my hospitable friend, (whose kindness
and solicitude continued to the moment of my departure,[1]) and to quit,
for many months, the countries bordering on the Gambia, it seems proper,
before I proceed with my narrative, that I should, in this place, give
some account of the several Negro nations which inhabit the banks of this
celebrated river, and the commercial intercourse that subsists between
them, and such of the nations of Europe as find their advantage in
trading to this part of Africa. The observations which have occurred to
me on both these subjects will be found in the following chapter.

[1] Dr. Laidley, to my infinite regret, has since paid the debt of
nature. He left Africa in the latter end of 1797, intending to return
to Great Britain by way of the West Indies; and died soon after his
arrival at Barbadoes.




CHAPTER II.

_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._


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 avenging 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
entrusted 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 dyeing it of a better colour.

Their language is said to be copious and significant; and is often
learned 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:[2]

One ......... _Killin_.
Two ......... _Foola_.
Three ......... _Sabba_.
Four ......... _Nani_.
Five ......... _Looloo_.
Six ......... _Woro_.
Seven ......... _Oronglo_.
Eight ......... _Sie_.
Nine ......... _Conunta_.
Ten ......... _Tang_.
Eleven ......... _Tan ning killin_, &c.

[2] In the Travels of Francis Moore the reader will find a pretty
copious vocabulary of the Mandingo language, which in general is
correct.

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
Sharru_, 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 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 dispute) 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 townhouse; 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 of 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 Portuguese; 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' 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 L. .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 L. 18 to L. 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
Desert, 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 shown 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 to a bar of iron, constituted, in the trader's 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.

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