- 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 Jinikin, ten; to Wadenoon, four; to Lakeneig, five; to
Zeeriwin-zerimani, five; to Tisheet, ten; to Benowm, ten - in all,
fifty days: but travellers usually rest a long while at Jinikin 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.
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 chastise 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 30. - 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 the 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.
May 1. - 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 dooty, 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.
May 3. - 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 un 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 caste, 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 troughs. 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.
One night, having solicited in vain for water at the camp, and been
quite feverish, I resolved to try my fortune at the wells, which
were about half a mile distant from the camp.
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