Mungo Park

“ When war compels him to abandon the delightful spot in which he first drew his breath, and seek for safety in some other kingdom, his time is spent in talking about the country of his ancestors; and no sooner is peace restored than he turns his back upon the land of strangers, rebuilds with haste his fallen walls, and exults to see the smoke ascend from his native village. ”

“ 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 ”

“ A state of subordination, and certain inequalities of rank and condition, are inevitable in every stage of civil society; but when this subordination is carried to so great a length, that the persons and services of one part of the community are entirely at the disposal of another part, it may then be denominated a state of slavery; and in this condition of life, a great body of the Negro inhabitants of Africa have continued from the most early period of their history; with this aggravation, that their children are born to no other inheritance. ”

“ Perhaps, by a philosophic and reflecting mind, death itself would scarcely be considered as a greater calamity than slavery; but the poor Negro, when fainting with hunger, thinks like Esau of old; “behold I am at the point to die, and what profit shall this birthright do to me?” There are many instances of free men voluntarily surrendering up their liberty to save their lives. ”

“ A conqueror commonly disposes of his captives according to the rank which they held in their native kingdom. Such of the domestic slaves as appear to be of a mild disposition, and particularly the young women, are retained as his own slaves. Others that display marks of discontent, are disposed of in a distant country; and such of the freemen or slaves, as have taken an active part in the war, are either sold to the Slatees, or put to death. War, therefore, is certainly the most general, and most productive source of slavery ”

“ Be this as it may, it is a known fact, that prisoners of war in Africa, are the slaves of the conquerors; and when the weak or unsuccessful warrior, begs for mercy beneath the uplifted spear of his opponent, he gives up at the same time his claim to liberty; and purchases his life at the expence of his freedom.
In a country, divided into a thousand petty states, mostly independent and jealous of each other; where every freeman is accustomed to arms, and fond of military achievements ”

“ A freeman may, by the established customs of Africa, become a slave, by being taken in war. War, is of all others, the most productive source, and was probably the origin, of slavery; for when one nation had taken from another, a greater number of captives than could be exchanged on equal terms, it is natural to suppose that the conquerors, finding it inconvenient to maintain their prisoners, would compel them to labour ”

“ When one nation is more powerful than another, a pretext is seldom wanting for commencing hostilities. Thus the war between Kajaaga and Kasson was occasioned by the detention of a fugitive slave; that between Bambarra and Kaarta by the loss of a few cattle. Other cases of the same nature perpetually occur, in which the folly or mad ambition of their princes, and the zeal of their religious enthusiasts, give full employment to the scythe of desolation. ”

“ Oftentimes, without the smallest provocation, and sometimes, under the fairest professions of friendship, they will suddenly seize upon the Negroes’ cattle, and even on the inhabitants themselves. The Negroes very seldom retaliate. The enterprizing boldness of the Moors, their knowledge of the country, and, above all, the superior fleetness of their horses, make them such formidable enemies, that the petty Negro states which border upon the Desert, are in continual terror while the Moorish tribes are in the vicinity, and are too much awed to think of resistance. ”

“ I had heard Bammakoo much talked of as a great market for salt, and I felt rather disappointed to find it only a middling town, not quite so large as Marraboo: however, the smallness of its size, is more than compensated by the richness of its inhabitants; for when the Moors bring their salt through Kaarta or Bambarra, they constantly rest a few days at this place; and the Negro merchants here, who are well acquainted with the value of salt in different kingdoms, frequently purchase by wholesale, and retail it to great advantage. ”

“ But though the African husbands are possessed of great authority over their wives, I did not observe, that in general they treat them with cruelty; neither did I perceive that mean jealousy in their dispositions, which is so prevalent among the Moors. They permit their wives to partake of all public diversions, and this indulgence is seldom abused; for though the Negro women are very cheerful and frank in their behaviour, they are by no means given to intrigue: I believe that instances of conjugal infidelity are not common. ”

“ As soon as we had crossed the river, Karfa gave orders that all the people of the coffle should in future keep close together, and travel in their proper station: the guides and young men were accordingly placed in the van, the women and slaves in the centre, and the free men in the rear. In this order, we travelled with uncommon expedition, through a woody, but beautiful country, interspersed with a pleasing variety of hill and dale, and abounding with partridges, guinea-fowls, and deer, until sunset ”

“ The anniversary of Banna Salee, at Jarra, very well deserved to be called a festival. The slaves were all finely clad on this occasion, and the householders vied with each other in providing large quantities of victuals, which they distributed to all their neighbours, with the greatest profusion: hunger was literally banished from the town; man, woman, and child, bond and free, all had as much as they could eat.
June 12th. Two people, dreadfully wounded, were discovered at a watering-place, in the woods; one of them had just breathed his last, but the other was brought alive to Jarra. ”

“ A white fowl, suspended to the branch of a particular tree; a snake’s head, or a few handfuls of fruit, are offerings which ignorance and superstition frequently present, to deprecate the wrath, or to conciliate the favour, of these tutelary agents. But it is not often that the Negroes make their religious opinions the subject of conversation: when interrogated, in particular, concerning their ideas of a future state, they express themselves with great reverence, but endeavour to shorten the discussion by observing—mo o mo inta allo, “no man knows any thing about it.” ”

“ The wars of Africa are of two kinds, which are distinguished by different appellations: that species which bears the greatest resemblance to our European contests, is denominated killi, a word signifying “to call out,” because such wars are openly avowed, and previously declared. Wars of this description in Africa, commonly terminate, however, in the course of a single campaign. A battle is fought; the vanquished seldom think of rallying again; the whole inhabitants become panic struck; and the conquerors have only to bind the slaves, and carry off their plunder and their victims. ”

“ The Moors are certainly very good horsemen. They ride without fear; their saddles, being high before and behind, afford them a very secure seat; and if they chance to fall, the whole country is so soft and sandy, that they are very seldom hurt. Their greatest pride, and one of their principal amusements, is to put the horse to his full speed, and then stop him with a sudden jerk, so as frequently to bring him down upon his haunches. Ali always rode upon a milk-white horse, with its tail dyed red. ”

“ When the wind sets in from the north-east, it produces a wonderful change in the face of the country. The grass soon becomes dry and withered; the rivers subside very rapidly, and many of the trees shed their leaves. About this period is commonly felt the harmattan, a dry and parching wind, blowing from the north-east, and accompanied by a thick smoky haze; through which the sun appears of a dull red colour. This wind, in passing over the great desert of Sahara, acquires a very strong attraction for humidity, and parches up every thing exposed to its current. ”

“ Early in the morning we departed from Sooseeta, and about ten o’clock, came to an unwalled town called Manna; the inhabitants of which were employed in collecting the fruit of the nitta trees, which are very numerous in this neighbourhood. The pods are long and narrow, and contain a few black seeds enveloped in the fine mealy powder before mentioned; the meal itself is of a bright yellow colour, resembling the flour of sulphur, and has a sweet mucilaginous taste: when eaten by itself it is clammy, but when mixed with milk or water, it constitutes a very pleasant and nourishing article of diet. ”

“ The white traders in the maritime districts, take no pains to counteract this unhappy prejudice; always performing their own devotions in secret, and seldom condescending to converse with the Negroes in a friendly and instructive manner. To me, therefore, it was not so much the subject of wonder, as matter of regret, to observe, that while the superstition of Mahomet has, in this manner, scattered a few faint beams of learning among these poor people, the precious light of Christianity is altogether excluded. ”

“ Of domestic animals, the only one that can endure the fatigue of crossing the Desert, is the camel. By the particular conformation of the stomach, he is enabled to carry a supply of water sufficient for ten or twelve days; his broad and yielding foot, is well adapted for a sandy country; and by a singular motion of his upper lip, he picks the smallest leaves from the thorny shrubs of the Desert as he passes along. The camel is, therefore, the only beast of burden employed by the trading caravans, which traverse the Desert in different directions, from Barbary to Nigritia. ”

“ It is, however, highly probable that the Niger affords a safe and easy communication between very remote nations. All my informants agreed, that many of the Negro merchants who arrive at Tombuctoo and Houssa, from the eastward, speak a different language from that of Bambarra, or any other kingdom with which they are acquainted. But even these merchants, it would seem, are ignorant of the termination of the river, for such of them as can speak Arabic, describe the amazing length of its course in very general terms; saying only, that they believe it runs to the world’s end. ”

“ On such occasions, the offender was brought before Ali, who pronounced, of his sole authority, what judgment he thought proper. But I understood that capital punishment was seldom or never inflicted, except on the Negroes.
Although the wealth of the Moors consists chiefly in their numerous herds of cattle; yet, as the pastoral life does not afford full employment, the majority of the people are perfectly idle, and spend the day in trifling conversation about their horses, or in laying schemes of depredation on the Negro villages. ”

“ A deeply rooted idea, that the whites purchase Negroes for the purpose of devouring them, or of selling them to others, that they may be devoured hereafter, naturally makes the slaves contemplate a journey towards the Coast with great terror; insomuch that the Slatees are forced to keep them constantly in irons, and watch them very closely, to prevent their escape. They are commonly secured, by putting the right leg of one, and the left of another, into the same pair of fetters. By supporting the fetters with a string, they can walk, though very slowly. ”

“ Having now related the substance of what occurs to my recollection concerning the African mode of obtaining gold from the earth, and its value in barter, I proceed to the next article, of which I proposed to treat, namely, ivory.
Nothing creates a greater surprise among the Negroes on the sea coast, than the eagerness displayed by the European traders to procure elephants’ teeth; it being exceedingly difficult to make them comprehend to what use it is applied. ”

“ The common boundary of the Moors and Negroes, in Africa, forms a striking feature, as well in the moral, as the political and physical, geography of this continent. The Moors, descendants of Arabs, intermixed with the various colonists of Africa, from the earliest to the latest times, overspread the habitable parts of the Desert, and the oases within it: and have pushed their conquests and establishments southward ”