Daman Very Readily Undertook To
Negotiate The Business; But Found That Ali Considered The Boy As My
Principal Interpreter, And Was Unwilling To Part With Him, Lest He Should
Fall A Second Time Into My Hands, And Be Instrumental In Conducting Me To
Bambarra.
Ali, therefore, put off the matter from day to day; but withal
told Daman, that if he wished to purchase the boy for himself, he should
have him thereafter, at the common price of a slave; which Daman agreed
to pay for him, whenever Ali should send him to Jarra.
The chief object of Ali, in this journey to Jarra, as I have already
related, was to procure money from such of the Kaartans as had taken
refuge in his country. Some of these had solicited his protection, to
avoid the horrors of war; but by far the greatest number of them were
dissatisfied men, who wished the ruin of their own sovereign. These
people no sooner heard that the Bambarran army had returned to Sego
without subduing Daisy, as was generally expected, than they resolved to
make a sudden attack themselves upon him, before he could recruit his
forces, which were now known to be much diminished by a bloody campaign,
and in great want of provisions. With this view, they solicited the Moors
to join them, and offered to hire of Ali two hundred horsemen; which Ali,
with the warmest professions of friendship, agreed to furnish, upon
condition that they should previously supply him with four hundred head
of cattle, two hundred garments of blue cloth, and a considerable
quantity of beads and ornaments. The raising this impost somewhat
perplexed them; and in order to procure the cattle, they persuaded the
king to demand one-half the stipulated number from the people of Jarra;
promising to replace them in a short time. Ali agreed to this proposal,
and the same evening (June 2d) the drum was sent through the town; and
the crier announced that if any person suffered his cattle to go into the
woods the next morning, before the king had chosen his quota of them, his
house should be plundered, and his slaves taken from him. The people
dared not disobey the proclamation; and next morning about two hundred of
their best cattle were selected, and delivered to the Moors; the full
complement was made up afterwards, by means equally unjust and arbitrary.
June 8th. In the afternoon Ali sent his chief slave to inform me, that he
was about to return to Bubaker; but as he would only stay there a few
days, to keep the approaching festival (_Banna Salee_), and then return
to Jarra, I had permission to remain with Daman until his return. This
was joyful news to me; but I had experienced so many disappointments,
that I was unwilling to indulge the hope of its being true, until Johnson
came and told me that Ali, with part of the horsemen, were actually gone
from the town, and that the rest were to follow him in the morning.
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