Dochard

“ Like most half taught people their cunning generally supersedes their wisdom, but then I am still prepared to argue, that if you allow them the full exercise of their industry; if you improve and protect it; if, by wise and judicious policy, you lift the Negro in his own esteem, and teach his Chief, that what is good was intended for all, though not in the same proportion, for the servant as the master ”

“ It is a melancholy truth, that some of the white men who were in the first instances sent ostensibly to instruct them, were often actuated by different motives to suffer the lust of interest and power to tempt them from the useful discharge of the functions entrusted to them;—they, too, often meet cunning by cunning, treachery by treachery, and rapine by rapine: and while they thus conducted themselves,—why expect the Negro to view them in the light of friends and Christian regenerators? ”

“ I was, therefore, reduced to the disagreeable necessity of employing a person for the sole purpose of going round the country in search of a woman slave, and which he, with much difficulty, procured, not in consequence of the scarcity of those poor wretches in the country, but of the enormous price demanded, arising no doubt from their knowledge of the obligation I was under of providing one without delay. ”

“ The principal difficulties which impeded my progress may be reduced to a few heads. The cupidity and duplicity of the chiefs, the existence of slavery as connected with our endeavours to abolish it, the idle fears and apprehensions growing out of recent hostile transactions in the Senegal, and, mainly, the rapid spread and dreadful influence of the Mahomedan faith.
The duplicity of the chiefs is principally exemplified in the conduct of the kings of Woolli, Bondoo and Kaarta, and either in the want of inclination, or the fear of our approaching or passing Sego, by the king of that country. ”

“ The arrival of the French trading fleet from St. Louis, at Galam, commanded by an officer whom I had the pleasure of knowing at Senegal, and who, on his way to Boolibany, had called to see me, also tended, in a great degree, to give new vigour to our proceedings. The idea alone of having near, if not with us, people of our own colour, [165] with whom we may occasionally associate, affords a pleasure which none but those who have experienced the absence, can duly appreciate. ”

“ The women are good figures, have a lively and graceful air, and prominent features, much resembling the European. They are at great pains to preserve their teeth of a pearly white, by constantly rubbing them with a small twig of the tamarind tree, which is an admirable substitute for the tooth-brush. They are, like all other African females, extremely fond of amber, coral, and glass beads, which they bestow in profusion on their heads, necks, arms, waists, and ancles. ”

“ The sun seems to roll his orbit without their observance, and the earth to yield its fruits without their gratitude; and yet they exhibit a deep sense of injury, and feel an insatiable thirst for revenge: such opposite feelings all being generated from the unwholesome effluvia of their religion—of which, however, more hereafter.
Another and very plausible reason was afforded the chiefs and people of the interior for not wishing our presence in their countries, and for exciting them to jealous and fearful conjectures as to the object of our visits. ”

“ When once a people feel their moral power improving it is not difficult to give it a degree of perfection, and when once the chief found his former slave so far lifted in the scale of being, as to have some notion of the place and duties assigned him here, it would not be easy for him to continue his sway without limit or controul. ”

“ Polygamy is the fruitful source of jealousy and distrust, it contracts the parental and filial affections, it weakens and disjoints the ties of kindred, and but for the unlimited influence of the Maraboos and the fear of hell, if they do not profit of the license of their great Apostle, must totally unhinge the frame of all society. ”

“ But the hope they entertained of finding some valuables in the camp, was too sanguine to admit of their leaving it; in consequence of which I declined doing so, as I was not only ignorant of the path, but aware that the inhabitants of the first village I might come to, finding me unattended by any of Bayla’s people, would stop me, and most probably treat me worse than he had done. I therefore proposed our immediate return to Samba Jamangele, where I should endeavour so to arrange matters with Bayla, as to obtain from him permission to proceed, and guides to conduct me to Baquelle. ”

“ England, however, does not come in for any share of blame on this eventful subject: every thing has been done by her which eloquence, treasure, influence, humanity, or religion could unite in favour of so desirable a consummation. It is to be hoped that her example will, sooner or later, induce the other powers of Europe to imitate it, in which event the most incalculable advantages would result to the suffering negroes of Africa. ”

“ The soil of the island is a red or light coloured sand, with little appearance of clay or mould, but from its having furnished the natives of the adjacent country, and the inhabitants of a small town which formerly stood on the island, with rice previously to our taking possession of it, I am satisfied it would, by proper management, bring all the productions of the country to perfection; and, no doubt, be rendered as congenial to the culture of some of our garden vegetables as Senegal or Sierra-Leone. ”

“ The people of Bondoo are a mixture of Foolahs, Mandingoes, Serrawollies, and Joloffs, retaining, however, more of the manners and customs of the first, and speaking their language exclusively. They are of the middle size, well made, and very active, their skin of a light copper colour, and their faces of a form approaching nearer to those of Europe than any of the other tribes of Western Africa, the Moors excepted. Their hair, too, is not so short or woolly as that of the black, and their eyes are, with the advantage of being larger and rounder, of a better colour, and more expressive. ”

“ The Rio Nunez and Pongas, which were formerly infested by slave dealers and their emissaries, are now freed from the odious burden of such a party, and those who still retain factories there, although they would smile at the revival of that unnatural trade, see so little prospect of its ever again being open to them, that they begin to think of other and less nefarious means of amassing wealth. ”

“ The first authorities of the present day, the ablest political economists of this and every other country, have decided that labour should be free; not only as conducive to the increased comforts of the labourer, but as decidedly favourable to the pecuniary interests of the employer and consumer. ”

“ We left Tandicunda at five o’clock on the morning of the 29th, and travelled to the east, over a country beautifully diversified, to Samee, a small walled town containing about a hundred and twenty huts. The inhabitants are Sonikeas or Pagans. Dyeing with indigo is here carried on to some extent. About a quarter of a mile to the south-east, by a small creek or branch of the Gambia, its water good and plentiful, we halted, under a large tree, which afforded the most grateful shelter to all from the excessive heat of the sun. ”

“ By increasing their commerce we also obtain another happy consummation, we give them employment, and we consequently to a certain extent, secure them from the incessant meddling of their maraboos. We could congregate them in greater numbers together, and therefore the more readily instruct them; and I may venture to add, that, if a fair degree of zeal were used in such a delightful employment, within a very few years they would prove themselves not unfitted for the enjoyment of liberal institutions. ”

“ The supposed approach of the enemy was no sooner made known amongst them, than they all, as if by magic, dropped their jars, calabashes, and leather bags, and ran with all their might to the nearest gate of the town, which, being rather narrow, was so much crowded, that an old man and a girl about eight years of age were trampled to death. ”

“ One of them named Ely, or Ali, assured me (if such assurance valued any thing) that he would make Modiba do all I wanted; but these fine promises were made only to induce me to make more presents. Isaaco also paid me a visit, and wished much to be employed, but he was in too little repute, not to say worse, with both Modiba and Dha, to admit of my having any thing to do with him; the former having taken, but a few days before, nearly all his goods and slaves from him, and the latter was so much displeased at his leaving Sego without his permission, that Isaaco dare not return there. ”

“ The poor woman herself was too much pleased with the respectable appearance of her son, and with the account he gave her of the comparative happiness of his present situation, to prevent a gleam of satisfaction from making itself evident, through the otherwise truly miserable and desponding evidence of her feelings but too strongly depicted in her face and actions ”

“ In fact, I have never seen a people who have more of the outward show of religion with less of its inward influence.
There are schools in almost every town, for the instruction of those youths who intend making the Mahomedan religion their profession, and in the principles and practice of which, and reading and writing Arabic from their sacred book, the Koran, they are solely instructed. Numbers and their uses are unknown; they [185] can scarcely add two simple numbers together without having recourse to the usual African methods, namely, counting the fingers, or making strokes in the sand. ”

“ It is not however denied, that slaves must and will be slaves, with all the cunning and treachery which their condition engenders, and perhaps it may still be a question, if persons enfranchised from a state of slavery can, by the fact of such an enfranchisement, become at once, or even very speedily, fit and useful members of a free and enlightened community. ”

“ The men are of the middle stature, well-formed, very active and intelligent, and are dressed nearly in the same manner as those of Bondoo; the cap is of a different form, and most frequently made of scarlet cloth; they wear sandals, and usually carry a long cane or spear. Thus equipped they strut about, with all the air and affected dignity of men of the first consequence. They are characterised by a high degree of cunning, duplicity, self-interestedness, and avarice; to gratify which they are neither deterred by shame nor fear. ”

“ It would be, perhaps, unbecoming in me to press this important topic to an extremity; the wisest men as statesmen, and the minutest calculators as political economists, all concur in stating the general abolition of slavery (placing all humanity and religion out of the question) to be a general good. ”

“ The African chiefs, like the owners of slaves in other countries, think they have no security for their authority but the maintenance of their people in slavery; and the prejudices of the negroes are such, the custom has been so long continued and by time become so inveterately strong, that no one having pretensions to superiority will perform any of those useful occupations which the best informed in civilised countries so usually attend to. ”

“ Essences are forgotten in the strict observance of a miserable ritual, and truth has lost its value and its splendour when only seen through the jaundiced instruction of peculating Maraboos. These jugglers in morality make whatever use they please of the victims of their sorcery, and if once they catch them in their toils, escape is almost literally impossible. ”

“ The inhabitants, whose numbers do not exceed 3000, are descended from the Foolahs (who some years since possessed themselves of that country) and such of the former proprietors and their vassals as embraced the Mahomedan faith. They are governed by Bayla, who is a priest and a minister of the council of Foota, which is a sort of republic, headed by an almamy, but who reigns only during the pleasure of the council, and it is not at all uncommon to see this chief changed two or three times within one year. These people have every appearance of being [249] comparatively happy. ”

“ Here again does the pernicious effect of the Mahomedan faith make itself evident; for those people are taught by their priests to regard the murder of an infidel, or the destruction of his property, as a meritorious act in the eyes of their prophet:—but of this in another place.
We left Samba Jamangele at two o’clock on the morning of the 21st of June, and after a most fatiguing march of eight hours we reached a small village called Bunjuncole, where we halted until half after two. ”

“ One leather bag, to contain water, and another, a small store of dried cous cous, for their own provision, together with a nose bag, and a fetter of the same material, for their horse, make up the catalogue of their marching baggage, and are all fastened, by leather straps, to the back part of the saddle, which is at best but a bad one, being chiefly composed of pieces of wood, tied together by thongs of raw cow hide, and which, when wet, stretches so as to allow the wood to come in contact with the horse’s back, and wound it in a shocking manner. ”

“ It appeared to me that our guides were at the bottom of all this hindrance from water and objections to the path, in which the inhabitants of all the towns we passed through joined them, (but particularly those of Dindoody, where we spent the whole of the 30th in palaver with them) , I conceived it better to make them a large present [22] to induce their acting in compliance with our wishes, to which they consented, binding themselves by an oath on the Koran, to which, although little regard had been paid by Almamy, I trusted, however, that they would remain faithful. ”

“ They have not, unfortunately, any common language to knit them together in society, hence must their intercourse with each other be extremely limited; their curiosity is not awakened by the contemplation of new and remote objects, they know few artificial necessities to induce the visits of strangers to supply them, and hence, except in war, they seldom pass the boundaries of the hut that shelters, and the field of rice or corn that feeds them. ”

“ Louis, until a woman with a basket on her head could travel unmolested from one place to the other. It was to no purpose I endeavoured to convince him that such an improbable arrangement had never been entered into between any European governor of Senegal and his enemies; and I likewise as ineffectually brought forward to support my assertion the friendly intercourse which had so long subsisted between the several English governors of Senegal and himself, and the very handsome and rich presents he, as well as his predecessors, had received from them and the vessels trading in the river. ”

“ The people of those several trades are by far the most respectable of the class which I have met with in Africa; so much so, that the ministers, favourites, and officers are chiefly chosen from amongst them; but this, I believe, arises in part from their being more finished courtiers and flatterers than are to be met with amongst the other classes of the people.
The government of Bondoo is monarchical, the whole authority being vested in the hands of the almamy or king. ”

“ When the king decides on sending a part only of the army to plunder the frontier towns of some neighbouring state, a chief to command the party is selected from amongst his own relatives, or favourites, and few (if any) but the immediate followers of the king and the chief chosen to command, or rather conduct this party, accompany it. Their destination is known only to the king, his ministers, and the commander, who seldom imparts to any of his attendants until they are close to the scene of action. ”

“ The main difficulty to our success in Africa decidedly results from the extent and influence of the Mohamedan religion. From the period of its introduction as affecting the mode of African legislation, which is scarcely a century since, [354] the negroes, but particularly the chiefs, have lost the little of honesty or natural feeling which they before possessed. The doctrines of Mohamedanism are at right angles with those of Christianity, or if the doctrines be not so widely different, it is unquestionable that their influence produces the most melancholy and opposite results. ”