Travels in the Interior of Africa — Volume 02Park, Mungo
History
Travels in the Interior of Africa — Volume 02
Park, Mungo
Africa -- Discovery and exploration; Niger River
Departing from Kirwani on the morning of the 20th we entered the Tenda
Wilderness, of two days’ journey. The woods were very thick, and the
country shelved towards the south-west. About ten o’clock we met a
coffle of twenty-six people and seven loaded asses returning from the
Gambia. Most of the men were armed with muskets, and had broad belts of
scarlet cloth over their shoulders and European hats upon their heads.
They informed us that there was very little demand for slaves on the
coast, as no vessel had arrived for some months past. On hearing this
the Serawoollies, who had travelled with us from the Falemé River,
separated themselves and their slaves from the coffle. They had not,
they said, the means of maintaining their slaves in Gambia until a vessel
should arrive, and were unwilling to sell them to disadvantage; they
therefore departed to the northward for Kajaaga. We continued our route
through the wilderness, and travelled all day through a rugged country
covered with extensive thickets of bamboo. At sunset, to our great joy,
we arrived at a pool of water near a large tabba-tree, whence the place
is called Tabbagee, and here we rested a few hours. The water at this
season of the year is by no means plentiful in these woods, and as the
days were insufferably hot Karfa proposed to travel in the night.
Accordingly about eleven o’clock the slaves were taken out of their
irons, and the people of the coffle received orders to keep close
together, as well to prevent the slaves from attempting to escape as on
account of the wild beasts. We travelled with great alacrity until
daybreak, when it was discovered that a free woman had parted from the
coffle in the night; her name was called until the woods resounded, but,
no answer being given, we conjectured that she had either mistaken the
road or that a lion had seized her unperceived. At length it was agreed
that four people should go back a few miles to a small rivulet, where
some of the coffle had stopped to drink as we passed it in the night, and
that the coffle should wait for their return. The sun was about an hour
high before the people came back with the woman, whom they found lying
fast asleep by the stream. We now resumed our journey, and about eleven
o’clock reached a walled town called Tambacunda, where we were well
received. Here we remained four days on account of a palaver which was
held on the following occasion:—Modi Lemina, one of the slatees belonging
to the coffle, had formerly married a woman of this town, who had borne
him two children; he afterwards went to Manding, and remained there eight
years without sending any account of himself during all that time to his
deserted wife, who, seeing no prospect of his return, at the end of three
years had married another man, to whom she had likewise borne two
children. Lemina now claimed his wife; but the second husband refused to
deliver her up, insisting that by the laws of Africa when a man has been
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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