In Adventures Of This Nature I Passed The Sultry Month Of May,
During Which No Material Change Took Place In My Situation.
Ali
still considered me as a lawful prisoner; and Fatima, though she
allowed me a larger quantity of victuals than I had been accustomed
to receive at Benowm, had as yet said nothing on the subject of my
release.
In the meantime, the frequent changes of the wind, the
gathering clouds, and distant lightning, with other appearances of
approaching rain, indicated that the wet season was at hand, when
the Moors annually evacuate the country of the negroes, and return
to the skirts of the Great Desert. This made me consider that my
fate was drawing towards a crisis, and I resolved to wait for the
event without any seeming uneasiness; but circumstances occurred
which produced a change in my favour more suddenly than I had
foreseen, or had reason to expect. The case was this:- The fugitive
Kaartans, who had taken refuge in Ludamar, as I have related in
Chapter VIII., finding that the Moors were about to leave them, and
dreading the resentment of their own sovereign, whom they had so
basely deserted, offered to treat with Ali for two hundred Moorish
horsemen, to co-operate with them in an effort to expel Daisy from
Gedingooma; for until Daisy should be vanquished or humbled they
considered that they could neither return to their native towns nor
live in security in any of the neighbouring kingdoms. With a view
to extort money from these people by means of this treaty, Ali
despatched his son to Jarra, and prepared to follow him in the
course of a few days. This was an opportunity of too great
consequence to me to be neglected. I immediately applied to Fatima,
who, I found, had the chief direction in all affairs of state, and
begged her interest with Ali to give me permission to accompany him
to Jarra. This request, after some hesitation, was favourably
received. Fatima looked kindly on me, and, I believe, was at length
moved with compassion towards me. My bundles were brought from the
large cow-skin bag that stood in the corner of Ali's tent, and I was
ordered to explain the use of the different articles, and show the
method of putting on the boots, stockings, &c. - with all which I
cheerfully complied, and was told that in the course of a few days I
should be at liberty to depart.
Believing, therefore, that I should certainly find the means of
escaping from Jarra, if I should once get thither, I now freely
indulged the pleasing hope that my captivity would soon terminate;
and happily not having been disappointed in this idea, I shall pause
in this place to collect and bring into one point of view such
observations on the Moorish character and country as I had no fair
opportunity of introducing into the preceding narrative.
CHAPTER XII - OBSERVATIONS ON THE CHARACTER AND COUNTRY OF THE MOORS
The Moors of this part of Africa are divided into many separate
tribes, of which the most formidable, according to what was reported
to me, are those of Trasart and Il Braken, which inhabit the
northern bank of the Senegal river.
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