Of This
Number Was Ali Himself; But Among The Generality Of The People The
Hair Is Short And Busy, And Universally Black.
And here I may be
permitted to observe, that if any one circumstance excited among
them favourable thoughts towards my own person, it was my beard,
which was now grown to an enormous length, and was always beheld
with approbation or envy.
I believe, in my conscience, they thought
it too good a beard for a Christian.
The only diseases which I observed to prevail among the Moors were
the intermittent fever and dysentery - for the cure of which nostrums
are sometimes administered by their old women, but in general nature
is left to her own operations. Mention was made to me of the small-
pox as being sometimes very destructive; but it had not, to my
knowledge, made its appearance in Ludamar while I was in captivity.
That it prevails, however, among some tribes of the Moors, and that
it is frequently conveyed by them to the negroes in the southern
states, I was assured on the authority of Dr. Laidley, who also
informed me that the negroes on the Gambia practise inoculation.
The administration of criminal justice, as far as I had
opportunities of observing, was prompt and decisive: for although
civil rights were but little regarded in Ludamar, it was necessary
when crimes were committed that examples should sometimes be made.
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.
Of the number of Ali's Moorish subjects I had no means of forming a
correct estimate. The military strength of Ludamar consists in
cavalry. They are well mounted, and appear to be very expert in
skirmishing and attacking by surprise. Every soldier furnishes his
own horse, and finds his accoutrements, consisting of a large sabre,
a double-barrelled gun, a small red leather bag for holding his
balls, and a powder bag slung over the shoulder. He has no pay, nor
any remuneration but what arises from plunder. This body is not
very numerous; for when Ali made war upon Bambarra I was informed
that his whole force did not exceed two thousand cavalry. They
constitute, however, by what I could learn, but a very small
proportion of his Moorish subjects. The horses are very beautiful,
and so highly esteemed that the negro princes will sometimes give
from twelve to fourteen slaves for one horse.
Ludamar has for its northern boundary the great desert of Sahara.
From the best inquiries I could make, this vast ocean of sand, which
occupies so large a space in northern Africa, may be pronounced
almost destitute of inhabitants, except where the scanty vegetation
which appears in certain spots affords pasturage for the flocks of a
few miserable Arabs, who wander from one well to another. In other
places, where the supply of water and pasturage is more abundant,
small parties of the Moors have taken up their residence. Here they
live, in independent poverty, secure from the tyrannical government
of Barbary. But the greater part of the desert, being totally
destitute of water, is seldom visited by any human being, unless
where the trading caravans trace out their toilsome and dangerous
route across it. In some parts of this extensive waste the ground
is covered with low stunted shrubs, which serve as landmarks for the
caravans, and furnish the camels with a scanty forage. In other
parts the disconsolate wanderer, wherever he turns, sees nothing
around him but a vast interminable expanse of sand and sky - a gloomy
and barren void, where the eye finds no particular object to rest
upon, and the mind is filled with painful apprehensions of perishing
with thirst.
The few wild animals which inhabit these melancholy regions are the
antelope and the ostrich; their swiftness of foot enabling them to
reach the distant watering-places. On the skirts of the desert,
where water is more plentiful, are found lions, panthers, elephants,
and wild bears.
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. As this useful and
docile creature has been sufficiently described by systematical
writers it is unnecessary for me to enlarge upon his properties. I
shall only add that his flesh, though to my own taste dry and
unsavoury, is preferred by the Moors to any other; and that the milk
of the female is in universal esteem, and is indeed sweet, pleasant,
and nutritive.
I have observed that the Moors, in their complexion, resemble the
mulattoes of the West Indies; but they have something unpleasant in
their aspect which the mulattoes have not. I fancied that I
discovered in the features of most of them a disposition towards
cruelty and low cunning; and I could never contemplate their
physiognomy without feeling sensible uneasiness. From the staring
wildness of their eyes a stranger would immediately set them down as
a nation of lunatics. The treachery and malevolence of their
character are manifest in their plundering excursions against the
negro villages. 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.
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