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 Mohammedans 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 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 the 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.
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