In The Afternoon I Arrived At A
Small Village Called Binni, Where I Agreed With The Dooty's Son, For One
Hundred kowries, to allow me to stay for the night; but when the Dooty
returned, he insisted that I should
Instantly leave the place, and if his
wife and son had not interceded for me, I must have complied.
[14] There is another town of this name hereafter to be mentioned.
Aug. 15th. About nine o'clock I passed a large town called Sai, which
very much excited my curiosity. It is completely surrounded by two very
deep trenches, at about two hundred yards distant from the walls. On the
top of the trenches are a number of square towers, and the whole has the
appearance of a regular fortification. Inquiring into the origin of this
extraordinary entrenchment, I learned from two of the townspeople the
following particulars, which, if true, furnish a mournful picture of the
enormities of African wars. About fifteen years ago, when the present
King of Bambarra's father desolated Maniana, the Dooty of Sai had two
sons slain in battle, fighting in the king's cause. He had a third son
living; and when the king demanded a further reinforcement of men, and
this youth among the rest, the Dooty refused to send him. This conduct so
enraged the king, that when he returned from Maniana, about the beginning
of the rainy season, and found the Dooty protected by the inhabitants, he
sat down before Sai with his army, and surrounded the town with the
trenches I had now seen.
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