Nature, However, Has Provided Mankind With
Necessaries Fitted For Their Various Occasions; Having Furnished The
Europeans With Wool, As They Have Need Of Warm Clothing, While The
Negroes, Who Live In Such Intense Heat, Have Been Supplied With Cotton By
The Almighty.
Owing to the heat, in my opinion, the cattle of this
country are much smaller than those of Italy.
It is a great rarity to see
a red cow in this country, as they are all black or white, or mottled
with black and white spots. Beasts of prey, such as lions, leopards, and
wolves, are numerous, and there are plenty of hares. Wild elephants go
about in troops, like the wild swine in Italy, but can never be tamed, as
they are in other parts of the world. As the elephant is a well-known
animal, I shall only observe in general, that those of Africa are of a
very large size, as may be easily conceived by the size of their teeth,
which are imported into Europe. Of these large teeth, or tusks rather,
each elephant has two in the lower jaw, the points of which turn down,
whereas those of the wild boar are turned up. Before my voyage to Africa
I had been told that the elephant could not bend its knee, and slept
standing; but this is an egregious falsehood for the bending of their
knees can be plainly perceived when they walk, and they, certainly lie
down and rise again like other animals. They never shed their large teeth
before death; neither do they do any harm to man unless provoked. In that
case the elephant makes his attack with his trunk, which is a kind of
nose, protruded to a great length. He can contract and extend this
proboscis at pleasure, and is able to toss a man with it as far as a
sling can throw a stone. It is in vain to think of escape by running, let
the person be ever so swift, in case the elephant pursues in earnest, as
his strides are of prodigious length. They are more dangerous when they
have young ones in their company than at any other time; of which the
females have only, three or four at a birth. They feed on the leaves and
fruit of trees, pulling down the large boughs with their trunks, and
bringing them to their mouths. This trunk is composed of a very thick
cartilage, and is pliable in every direction.
There are many kinds of birds in this country, and parrots are
particularly numerous, which are much hated by the negroes, because they
do much damage to their crops of pulse and millet. There are said to be
several kinds of parrots, but I never saw more than two. One of these is
like the kind which is brought into Italy from Alexandria in Egypt, but
rather smaller. The other kind is much larger, having a brown head, neck,
bill, and legs, with a yellow and green body. I procured a considerable
number of both sorts, particularly of the smaller kind, many of which
died; but I brought 150 back to Portugal, where I sold them for half a
ducat each. These birds are very industrious in constructing their nests,
which they build with bulrushes and the small leaves of the palm, and
other trees, in a very curious and ingenious manner. Choosing the
slenderest branch of a tree, the parrot fastens a bulrush of about two
spans long to its outer extremity, at the depending end of which rush it
weaves its nest in a most beautiful manner, suspended like a ball, and
having only one passage for entering. By this means they contrive to
preserve their young from being devoured by the serpents, as the small
twigs from which the nests are suspended are unable to bear the weight of
the serpents. There are likewise abundance of those birds called Pharaoh's
hens[4] in Europe, which come to us out of the Levant. They have
likewise other birds, both large and small, which are quite different
from any that are known in Italy.
As I was long on shore, I went several times to see their markets or
fairs, which were held every Monday and Friday in a meadow, not far from
where I resided. The men and women, from four or five miles around, came
to this place with their various commodities, and those who lived at a
greater distance, went to other markets nearer their habitations. The
great poverty of the natives appeared manifest in the goods they brought
to these fairs; consisting of small quantities of cotton cloth, and
cotton yarn, pulse, oil, millet, wooden tubs, palm matts, and every thing
else useful to life, according to their manners, likewise arms, and some
small quantities of gold. Having no money or coin of any kind, all their
trade was carried on by way of barter, or exchange of one thing for
another, sometimes two or three things for one, according to their
different values. All these blacks used to gaze on me, as if I had been a
prodigy, having never seen a white man before. Some took hold of my hands,
which they rubbed with spittle, to see if the whiteness was natural or
artificial, and expressed their wonder to find that my skin was not
painted. They were as much astonished at my dress, being clothed in the
Spanish fashion, with a black damask waistcoat, and a cloak over it: They
seemed much surprised at the waistcoat, and greatly admired the woollen
cloth, which they had never seen any of before. My chief purpose in going
to these fairs, was to see what quantity of gold was brought thither.
Horses are very scarce, and of great value in the country of the Negroes,
being brought all the way from that part of Barbary which lies nearest to
Europe, by the Arabs and Azanhaji. Owing to the great heat, horses do not
live long here; for they grow so fat that they cannot stale, and so burst.
They are fed with bean leaves, which are gathered after the beans are
brought from the fields; and, being dried like hay, are cut small, and
given to the horses instead of oats.
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