Travels in the Interior of Africa — Volume 01Park, Mungo
History
Travels in the Interior of Africa — Volume 01
Park, Mungo
Africa -- Discovery and exploration; Niger River
THE Moors of this part of Africa are divided into many separate tribes,
of which the most formidable, according to what was reported to me, are
those of Trasart and Il Braken, which inhabit the northern bank of the
Senegal river. The tribes of Gedumah, Jaffnoo, and Ludamar, though not
so numerous as the former, are nevertheless very powerful and warlike,
and are each governed by a chief, or king, who exercises absolute
jurisdiction over his own horde, without acknowledging allegiance to a
common sovereign. In time of peace the employment of the people is
pasturage. The Moors, indeed, subsist chiefly on the flesh of their
cattle, and are always in the extreme of either gluttony or abstinence.
In consequence of the frequent and severe fasts which their religion
enjoins, and the toilsome journeys which they sometimes undertake across
the desert, they are enabled to bear both hunger and thirst with
surprising fortitude; but whenever opportunities occur of satisfying
their appetite they generally devour more at one meal than would serve a
European for three. They pay but little attention to agriculture,
purchasing their corn, cotton, cloth, and other necessaries from the
negroes, in exchange for salt, which they dig from the pits in the Great
Desert.
The natural barrenness of the country is such that it furnishes but few
materials for manufacture. The Moors, however, contrive to weave a
strong cloth, with which they cover their tents; the thread is spun by
their women from the hair of goats, and they prepare the hides of their
cattle so as to furnish saddles, bridles, pouches, and other articles of
leather. They are likewise sufficiently skilful to convert the native
iron, which they procure from the negroes, into spears and knives, and
also into pots for boiling their food; but their sabres, and other
weapons, as well as their firearms and ammunition, they purchase from the
Europeans, in exchange for the negro slaves which they obtain in their
predatory excursions. Their chief commerce of this kind is with the
French traders on the Senegal river.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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