Thus Was I In Danger Of Falling A Second Time Into The Hands
Of Men Who Would Consider It Not
Only justifiable, but meritorious,
to destroy me, and this reflection was aggravated by the
circumstance that the danger increased as
I advanced in my journey,
for I learned that the places beyond Jenne were under the Moorish
influence in a still greater degree than Jenne itself, and
Timbuctoo, the great object of my search, altogether in possession
of that savage and merciless people, who allow no Christian to live
there. But I had now advanced too far to think of returning to the
westward on such vague and uncertain information, and determined to
proceed; and being accompanied by the guide, I departed from the
village on the morning of the 24th. About eight o'clock we passed a
large town called Kabba, situated in the midst of a beautiful and
highly cultivated country, bearing a greater resemblance to the
centre of England than to what I should have supposed had been the
middle of Africa. The people were everywhere employed in collecting
the fruit of shea trees, from which they prepare the vegetable
butter mentioned in former parts of this work. These trees grow in
great abundance all over this part of Bambarra. They are not
planted by the natives, but are found growing naturally in the
woods; and in clearing woodland for cultivation every tree is cut
down but the shea. The tree itself very much resembles the American
oak, and the fruit - from the kernel of which, being first dried in
the sun, the butter is prepared by boiling the kernel in water - has
somewhat the appearance of a Spanish olive. The kernel is enveloped
in a sweet pulp, under a thin green rind; and the butter produced
from it, besides the advantage of its keeping the whole year without
salt, is whiter, firmer, and, to my palate, of a richer flavour,
than the best butter I ever tasted made from cow's milk. The growth
and preparation of this commodity seem to be among the first objects
of African industry in this and the neighbouring states, and it
constitutes a main article of their inland commerce.
We passed, in the course of the day, a great many villages inhabited
chiefly by fishermen, and in the evening about five o'clock arrived
at Sansanding, a very large town, containing, as I was told, from
eight to ten thousand inhabitants. This place is much resorted to
by the Moors, who bring salt from Berroo, and beads and coral from
the Mediterranean, to exchange here for gold dust and cotton cloth.
This cloth they sell to great advantage in Berroo, and other Moorish
countries, where, on account of the want of rain, no cotton is
cultivated.
I desired my guide to conduct me to the house in which we were to
lodge by the most private way possible. We accordingly rode along
between the town and the river, passing by a creek or harbour, in
which I observed twenty large canoes, most of them fully loaded, and
covered with mats to prevent the rain from injuring the goods.
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