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
Madina is a respectable walled town, containing about two hundred
and fifty huts, and from eight hundred to a thousand inhabitants,
all Sonikeas; it is the capital of the kingdom of Woolli, and the
residence of the king. Outside the walls is a strong stake or palisade
fence, about five feet high, which gave to the place the appearance
of a large fortified redoubt. The interior of the town was beautifully
shaded with large trees of the fig and palm kind, and altogether had a
very good outward appearance. There are three gates to it; two in the
north, and one in the east, which are shut every night. The interior
of the town does not at all accord with its external appearance,
being filled with small round grass, and mud huts jumbled together
without any regard to order or regularity, and between which are
heaps on heaps of filth of every description. The house of the king
is separated from those of his subjects by a mud wall about nine feet
high, and stands nearly in the centre of the town; that of his son,
and some of the chief men are similarly inclosed, but the walls of the
latter are not so high. Two wells situate within the wall at the east
end of the town, of tolerably good water, supply the inhabitants with
that necessary article in sufficient abundance. The ground, to the
extent of half a mile all round the town, was cleared, and bore the
marks of cultivation. A few large shady evergreen trees, scattered
over this plain, relieves the otherwise fatiguing prospect of such
an extent of arid surface. At a short distance to the south, lay a
large Bushreen town, called Barra Cunda, which might contain from one
thousand to one thousand five hundred inhabitants, and was surrounded
by a slight stake fence, interwoven with thorny bushes, which is the
only defence the followers of Mahomet in this country adopt. This
arises from their not engaging in war, and never meeting with any
other attack from an invading army than on their provisions, with
which they are in general abundantly supplied, being more industrious
and more abstemious than the Pagans; a large proportion of whose corn,
rice, &c., goes in the purchase of inebriating liquors. The dress
of the latter also is neither so good nor so cleanly as that of the
former, which is, almost invariably, white or blue. The Sonikeys
are careless about their dress or persons, and what with smoking,
drinking, and dirt, they are the most filthy set we ever saw.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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