Before The Establishment Of
This Trade At Arguin, The Portuguese Used To Send Every Year Four Or More
Caravels To The Bay Of Arguin, The Crews Of Which, Landing Well Armed In
The Night, Were In Use To Surprise Some Of The Fishing Villages, And
Carry Off The Inhabitants Into Slavery.
They even penetrated sometimes a
considerable way into the interior, and carried off the Arabs of both
sexes, whom they sold as slaves in Portugal.
Leaving Arguin we sailed along the coast to the river Senegal[4], which
is very large, and divides the people called Azanaghi, or Azanhaji, from
the first kingdom of the Negroes. The Azanhaji are of a tawny colour, or
rather of a deep brown complexion, and inhabit some parts of the coast
beyond Cape Branco, ranging through the deserts, and their district
reaches to the confines of the Arabs of Hoden. They live on dates, barley,
and the milk of camels; but as they border likewise on the country of the
Negroes, they carry on trade with these people, from whom they procure
millet and pulse, particularly beans. Owing to the scarcity of provisions
in the desert, the Azanhaji are but spare eaters, and are able to endure
hunger with wonderful patience, as a poringer of barley-meal made into
hasty-pudding will serve them a whole day. The Portuguese used to carry
away many of these people for slaves, as they were preferred to the
negroes; but for some time past this has been prohibited by Don Henry,
and peace and trade has been established with them, as he is in hopes
they may be easily brought over to the catholic faith by intercourse with
the Christians, more especially as they are not hitherto thoroughly
established in the superstitions of Mahomet, of which they know nothing
but by hearsay. These Azenhaji have an odd custom of wearing a
handkerchief round their heads, a part of which is brought down so as to
cover their eyes, and even their nose and mouth; for they reckon the
mouth an unclean part, because it is constantly belching and has a bad
smell, and ought therefore to be kept out of sight; even comparing it to
the posteriors, and thinking that both ought alike to be concealed. On
this account they never let their mouths be seen except when eating, as I
have often had occasion to observe. They have no lords among them, but
the rich men are respected somewhat more than the rest. They are of
ordinary stature, and very lean, wearing their black hair frizzled over
their shoulders like the Germans, and grease it daily with fish oil,
which gives them a nasty smell; yet they consider this as modish. They
are extremely poor, egregious liars, the greatest thieves in the world,
and very treacherous. They have never heard of any Christians except the
Portuguese, with whom they had war for thirteen or fourteen years, in
which many of them were carried off as slaves, as has been already
mentioned.
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