Many Of These People Informed Me, That, When They First Saw
Ships Under Sail, Which Had Never Been Beheld By
Any of their ancestors,
they took them for large birds with white wings, that had come from
foreign parts; and
When the sails were furled, they conjectured, from
their length, and swimming on the water, that they must be great fish.
Others again believed that they were spirits, who wandered about by night;
because they were seen at anchor in the evening at one place, and would
be seen next morning 100 miles off, either proceeding along the coast to
the southwards, or put back, according as the wind changed, or the
caravels might happen to steer. They could not conceive how human beings
could travel more in one night than they were able to perform themselves
in three days; by which they were confirmed in the notion of the ships
being spirits. All this was certified to me by many of the Azanhaji who
were slaves in Portugal, as well as by the Portuguese mariners who had
frequented the coast in their caravels.
About six days journey by land from Hoden, there is a place called
Teggazza[5], which in our language signifies a chest or bag of gold. In
this place large quantities of salt are dug up every year, and carried by
caravans on camels to _Tombucto_ and thence to the empire of _Melli_,
which belongs to the Negroes. Oh arriving there, they dispose of their
salt in the course of eight days, at the rate of between two and three
hundred _mitigals_, or ducats, for each load, according to the quantity,
and then return with their gold.
[1] This is erroneous, as there are several towns on the coast of Morocco
beyond this Cape, as Saffia, Mogadore, Santa Cruz, and others.
Cape Cantin is in lat. 32 deg.30'N. and the river _Sus_ in 30 deg.25', which
is 140 miles to the south. There are no towns on the coast beyond that
river; but the northern limit of the _Sahara_, or great desert, is in
lat. 27 deg.40', 186 miles to the south of the river _Sus_, and is surely
inhabited by wandering Arabs. Even the great desert, which extends 750
miles from north to south, almost to the river Senegal, is thinly
interspersed by several wandering tribes of the _Azanhaji_. - E.
[2] Called Tombuto in the original, and Ataubat in Grynaeus. - Astl. Hoden
stands in an _ouasis_, or watered island, in the sea of sand, or great
desert, about lat. 19 deg.20'N. and W. long. 11 deg.40'. - E.
[3] Under the general name of _Azanhaji_, which probably signifies the
pilgrims or wanderers of the desert, the Nomadic Arabs or Moors are
distinguished into various tribes; as Beni-amir, Beni-sabi, Hilil
Arabs, Ludajas, and Hagi; sometimes called Monselmines, Mongearts,
Wadelims, Labdessebas, and Trasarts; all named in their order from
north to south, as occupying the desert towards the Atlantic. - E.
[4] In the text this river is named Senega, and its name probably
signifies the river of the Azanhaji.
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