Travels in Western Africa, in the years 1818, 19, 20, and 21, from the river Gambia, through Woolli, Bondoo, Galam, Kasson, Kaarta, and Foolidoo, to the river NigerGray, William, Major
History
Travels in Western Africa, in the years 1818, 19, 20, and 21, from the river Gambia, through Woolli, Bondoo, Galam, Kasson, Kaarta, and Foolidoo, to the river Niger
Gray, William, Major
Sudan (Region) -- Description and travel
Garran here left us, and gave us into the care of Bojar (Modiba’s
eldest son), at whose town his father wished us to remain during
our halt in that country, and whither I should have proceeded the
following morning, but the men and animals were so much fatigued,
that I found it necessary to give them a day’s rest.
Kirrijou is beautifully situated on an eminence overlooking an
extensive plain bounded by forests of ron-trees, and covered with
the most luxuriant verdure nearly all the year round, except when
inundated, which is the case yearly for four months, from July to
October. Large quantities of corn, rice, ground-nuts and onions are
grown there, and the people are well and abundantly supplied with
milk and butter from large herds of horned cattle and sheep. The only
disadvantage the place labours under is the bad quality of the water,
which they obtain from wells about four feet deep, on the borders
of a narrow stagnant lake.
The chief (Saféré) who with his followers and slaves composed a
part of the Kaartan forces, received us kindly, provided us with
huts, and furnished us with an excellent supper of rice and mutton,
the first good one we had made since leaving Galam.
I paid him a complimentary visit at his palace, where I found him
seated in an open court surrounding his own hut, but separated from
the others, composing the palace, by a clay wall eight feet high. He
was attended by a few of his domestic slaves and favourites. He
accommodated me with a seat on his own mat, and asked many questions
about the country of the white people, as they call us, our mode of
warfare, government, laws, and revenue, and appeared much astonished
at some of my answers, particularly when I said that we fought on
firm ground and on horseback, and which he acknowledged he could
scarcely credit, as it was his belief in common with all the natives
of the interior, that we live exclusively on the sea in ships, where
we subsist entirely upon fish, to which they attribute the whiteness
of our skins. He pressed me much to spend a few days with him, and,
as an inducement, said he would make his wives and daughters exert
their musical and dancing abilities to amuse me, but my time was
too precious to be spent in amusements.
[Illustration: MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.]
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