August 23 - Early In The Morning I Set Out For Bammakoo, At Which
Place I Arrived About Five O'clock In The Afternoon.
I had heard
Bammakoo much talked of as a great market for salt, and I felt
rather disappointed to
Find it only a middling town, not quite so
large as Marraboo; however, the smallness of its size is more than
compensated by the richness of its inhabitants, for when the Moors
bring their salt through Kaarta or Bambarra, they constantly rest a
few days at this place, and the negro merchants here, who are well
acquainted with the value of salt in different kingdoms, frequently
purchase by wholesale, and retail it to great advantage. Here I
lodged at the house of a Serawoolli negro, and was visited by a
number of Moors. They spoke very good Mandingo, and were more civil
to me than their countrymen had been. One of them had travelled to
Rio Grande, and spoke very highly of the Christians. He sent me in
the evening some boiled rice and milk. I now endeavoured to procure
information concerning my route to the westward from a slave
merchant who had resided some years on the Gambia. He gave me some
imperfect account of the distance, and enumerated the names of a
great many places that lay in the way, but withal told me that the
road was impassable at this season of the year: he was even afraid,
he said, that I should find great difficulty in proceeding any
farther; as the road crossed the Joliba at a town about half a day's
journey to the westward of Bammakoo, and there being no canoes at
that place large enough to receive my horse, I could not possibly
get him over for some months to come.
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