A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 02: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present TimeKerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 02: Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
The first kingdom of the Negroes is on the banks of the Senegal, and its
inhabitants are called _Gilofi_ or Jalofs. All the country is low, not
only from the north to that river, but also beyond it, as far south as
Cape Verd, which is the highest land on all this coast, and is 400 miles
from Cape Branco. This kingdom of the Jalofs, on the Senegal, is bounded
on the east by the country called _Tukhusor_; on the south by the kingdom
of _Gambra_ or Gambia; on the west by the Atlantic Ocean; and on the
north by the river Senegal and the Azanhaji[4]. The king who reigned in
Senegal in my time was named Zukholin, and was twenty-two years old. This
kingdom is not hereditary; but for the most part, three or four of the
principal lords, of whom there are many in the country, choose a king, in
the event of a vacancy, but always fix their choice on a person of noble
lineage, who reigns only as long as he gives satisfaction to these great
lords. They often dethrone their kings by force; who, on the other hand,
often render; themselves so powerful as to stand on their defence. This
renders the government unsettled, and is productive of civil wars;
similar to Egypt, where the Soldan of Cairo is always in fear of being
killed or banished.
The people are savages, and extremely poor, having no walled towns, and
their villages are entirely composed of thatched cottages. They use
neither lime nor stone in building, not knowing how to make the one, or
to form the other. The kingdom of the Jalofs is small, and, as I was
informed, extends only 300 miles along the coast, and about the same
distance inland. The king has no settled revenue; but the lords of the
country court his favour, by making him yearly presents of horses, which
being scarce, are in high estimation, together with horse furniture, cows,
and goats, pulse, millet, and other things. He likewise increases his
wealth by means of robbery, and by reducing his own subjects, and those
of neighbouring provinces to slavery, employing a part of these slaves to
cultivate the lands which are assigned to him, and selling the rest to
the Arabs and Azanhaji traders, who bring horses and other things for
sale; as likewise to the Christians, since they have established a trade
in these parts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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