This War, Which Desolated Kaarta Soon After I Had Left That Kingdom, And
Spread Terror Into Many Of The Neighbouring States, Arose In The
Following Manner.
A few bullocks belonging to a frontier village of
Bambarra having been stolen by a party of Moors, were sold to the Dooty
or chief man of a town in Kaarta.
The villagers claimed their cattle, and
being refused satisfaction, complained of the Dooty to their sovereign,
Mansong, King of Bambarra, who probably beheld with an eye of jealousy
the growing prosperity of Kaarta, and availed himself of this incident to
declare hostilities against that kingdom.
With this view he sent a messenger and a party of horsemen to Daisy, King
of Kaarta, to inform him that the King of Bambarra, with nine thousand
men, would visit Kemmoo in the course of the dry season; and to desire
that he (Daisy) would direct his slaves to sweep the houses, and have
every thing ready for their accommodation. The messenger concluded this
insulting notification by presenting the king with a pair of _iron
sandals_; at the same time adding, that "until such time as Daisy had
worn out these sandals in his flight, he should never be secure from the
arrows of Bambarra."
Daisy, having consulted with his chief men about the best means of
repelling so formidable an enemy, returned an answer of defiance, and
made a Bushreen write in Arabic, upon a piece of thin board, a sort of
proclamation, which was suspended to a tree in the public square; and a
number of aged men were sent to different places to explain it to the
common people.
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