He Inquired Particularly
If I Had Brought Any Present, And Seemed Much Disappointed When He
Was Told That I Had Been Robbed Of Everything By The Moors.
When I
proposed to go along with him, he told me to stop until the
afternoon, when the king would send for me.
July 23. - In the afternoon another messenger arrived from Mansong,
with a bag in his hands. He told me it was the king's pleasure that
I should depart forthwith from the vicinage of Sego; but that
Mansong, wishing to relieve a white man in distress, had sent me
five thousand kowries, to enable me to purchase provisions in the
course of my journey: the messenger added, that if my intentions
were really to proceed to Jenne, he had orders to accompany me as a
guide to Sansanding. I was at first puzzled to account for this
behaviour of the king; but from the conversation I had with the
guide, I had afterwards reason to believe that Mansong would
willingly have admitted me into his presence at Sego, but was
apprehensive he might not be able to protect me against the blind
and inveterate malice of the Moorish inhabitants. His conduct,
therefore, was at once prudent and liberal. The circumstances under
which I made my appearance at Sego were undoubtedly such as might
create in the mind of the king a well-warranted suspicion that I
wished to conceal the true object of my journey. He argued,
probably, as my guide argued, who, when he was told that I had come
from a great distance, and through many dangers, to behold the
Joliba river, naturally inquired if there were no rivers in my own
country, and whether one river was not like another.
Notwithstanding this, and in spite of the jealous machinations of
the Moors, this benevolent prince thought it sufficient that a white
man was found in his dominions, in a condition of extreme
wretchedness, and that no other plea was necessary to entitle the
sufferer to his bounty.
Footnotes:
{1} I believe that similar charms or amulets, under the names of
domini, grigri, fetich, &c., are common in all parts of Africa.
{2} Maana is within a short distance of the ruins of Fort St.
Joseph, on the Senegal river, formerly a French factory.
*** END OF TRAVELS IN AFRICA - VOLUME 1 ***
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