- We departed from Baniserile and travelled through thick
woods until noon, when we saw at a distance the town of Julifunda,
but did not approach it, as we proposed to rest for the night at a
large town called Kirwani, which we reached about four o'clock in
the afternoon.
This town stands in a valley, and the country for
more than a mile round it is cleared of wood and well cultivated.
The inhabitants appear to be very active and industrious, and seem
to have carried the system of agriculture to some degree of
perfection, for they collect the dung of their cattle into large
heaps during the dry season for the purpose of manuring their land
with it at the proper time. I saw nothing like this in any other
part of Africa. Near the town are several smelting furnaces, from
which the natives obtain very good iron. They afterwards hammer the
metal into small bars, about a foot in length and two inches in
breadth, one of which bars is sufficient to make two Mandingo corn-
hoes. On the morning after our arrival we were visited by a slatee
of this place, who informed Karfa that among some slaves he had
lately purchased was a native of Foota-Jalla, and as that country
was at no great distance he could not safely employ him in the
labours of the field, lest he should effect his escape. The slatee
was therefore desirous of exchanging this slave for one of Karfa's,
and offered some cloth and shea-butter to induce Karfa to comply
with the proposal, which was accepted. The slatee thereupon sent a
boy to order the slave in question to bring him a few ground-nuts.
The poor creature soon afterwards entered the court in which we were
sitting, having no suspicion of what was negotiating, until the
master caused the gate to be shut, and told him to sit down. The
slave now saw his danger, and, perceiving the gate to be shut upon
him, threw down the nuts and jumped over the fence. He was
immediately pursued and overtaken by the slatees, who brought him
back and secured him in irons, after which one of Karfa's slaves was
released and delivered in exchange. The unfortunate captive was at
first very much dejected, but in the course of a few days his
melancholy gradually subsided, and he became at length as cheerful
as any of his companions.
Departing from Kirwani on the morning of the 20th we entered the
Tenda Wilderness, of two days' journey. The woods were very thick,
and the country shelved towards the south-west. About ten o'clock
we met a coffle of twenty-six people and seven loaded asses
returning from the Gambia. Most of the men were armed with muskets,
and had broad belts of scarlet cloth over their shoulders and
European hats upon their heads. They informed us that there was
very little demand for slaves on the coast, as no vessel had arrived
for some months past. On hearing this the Serawoollies, who had
travelled with us from the Faleme River, separated themselves and
their slaves from the coffle. They had not, they said, the means of
maintaining their slaves in Gambia until a vessel should arrive, and
were unwilling to sell them to disadvantage; they therefore departed
to the northward for Kajaaga. We continued our route through the
wilderness, and travelled all day through a rugged country covered
with extensive thickets of bamboo. At sunset, to our great joy, we
arrived at a pool of water near a large tabba-tree, whence the place
is called Tabbagee, and here we rested a few hours. The water at
this season of the year is by no means plentiful in these woods, and
as the days were insufferably hot Karfa proposed to travel in the
night. Accordingly about eleven o'clock the slaves were taken out
of their irons, and the people of the coffle received orders to keep
close together, as well to prevent the slaves from attempting to
escape as on account of the wild beasts. We travelled with great
alacrity until daybreak, when it was discovered that a free woman
had parted from the coffle in the night; her name was called until
the woods resounded, but, no answer being given, we conjectured that
she had either mistaken the road or that a lion had seized her
unperceived. At length it was agreed that four people should go
back a few miles to a small rivulet, where some of the coffle had
stopped to drink as we passed it in the night, and that the coffle
should wait for their return. The sun was about an hour high before
the people came back with the woman, whom they found lying fast
asleep by the stream. We now resumed our journey, and about eleven
o'clock reached a walled town called Tambacunda, where we were well
received. Here we remained four days on account of a palaver which
was held on the following occasion:- Modi Lemina, one of the slatees
belonging to the coffle, had formerly married a woman of this town,
who had borne him two children; he afterwards went to Manding, and
remained there eight years without sending any account of himself
during all that time to his deserted wife, who, seeing no prospect
of his return, at the end of three years had married another man, to
whom she had likewise borne two children. Lemina now claimed his
wife; but the second husband refused to deliver her up, insisting
that by the laws of Africa when a man has been three years absent
from his wife, without giving her notice of his being alive, the
woman is at liberty to marry again. After all the circumstances had
been fully investigated in an assembly of the chief men, it was
determined that the wife should make her choice, and be at liberty
either to return to the first husband, or continue with the second,
as she alone should think proper.
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