I Took Up My Residence At This Officer's House, And Agreed With Him
To Accompany Me To Fatteconda, The Residence
Of the king, for which
he was to receive five bars; and before my departure I wrote a few
lines
To Dr. Laidley, and gave my letter to the master of a caravan
bound for the Gambia. This caravan consisted of nine or ten people,
with five asses loaded with ivory. The large teeth are conveyed in
nets, two on each side of the ass; the small ones are wrapped up in
skins, and secured with ropes.
December 14. - We left Tallika, and rode on very peaceably for about
two miles, when a violent quarrel arose between two of my fellow-
travellers, one of whom was the blacksmith, in the course of which
they bestowed some opprobrious terms upon each other; and it is
worthy of remark, that an African will sooner forgive a blow than a
term of reproach applied to his ancestors. "Strike me, but do not
curse my mother," is a common expression even among the slaves.
This sort of abuse, therefore, so enraged one of the disputants,
that he drew his cutlass upon the blacksmith, and would certainly
have ended the dispute in a very serious manner, if the others had
not laid hold of him and wrested the cutlass from him. I was
obliged to interfere, and put an end to this disagreeable business
by desiring the blacksmith to be silent, and telling the other, who
I thought was in the wrong, that if he attempted in future to draw
his cutlass, or molest any of my attendants, I should look upon him
as a robber, and shoot him without further ceremony.
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