They are civil, but the truth is not in them, and to be detected in a lie is not the smallest disgrace, it only causes a laugh. They are also great cheats. The men drink very hard, even the Mahometans; and the women are generally of easy virtue. Notwithstanding all this against them, they are a people of a natural good disposition; for when it is considered that they have been twice burnt out of the town by the enemy within the last six years, and that they have had a civil war desolating the country for the last seven years, and been subject to the inroads of the Fellatas during twenty years, and having neither established law nor government but what a present sense of right and wrong dictates, I am surprised that they are as good as they are.
I witnessed while here several acts of real kindness and goodness of heart to one another. When the town of Bali was burnt down, every person sent next day what they could spare of their goods, to assist the unfortunate inhabitants. My landlady, who has given away a number of her female slaves to freemen for wives, looks upon them as her own children, attending them when sick; and one who had a child while I was here, at the giving it a name, she sent seventy different dishes of meat, corn, and drink, to assist at the feast on that occasion. In all my dealings with them they tried and succeeded in cheating me, but they had an idea that I was possessed of inexhaustible riches; and besides, I differed with them in colour, in dress, in religion, and in my manner of living. I was considered therefore as a pigeon for them to pluck. Had they been rogues, indeed, they might have taken all I had; but, on the contrary, I never had an article stolen, and was even treated with the most perfect respect and civility they were masters of.
I believe it is generally considered in England, that when a negro slave is attached to his master, he will part with his life for him. Instances of this kind are not so common as they ought to be, when it is considered that all of these slaves are brought up from their childhood, and know no other parent or protector; and if they were to run away, or behave so ill as to cause him to sell them, they would never be so well off as they were before. Those who are taken when grown-up men or women, and even boys and girls, run whenever an opportunity offers, and, whenever they can, take their owner’s goods or cattle to assist them on their journey. Instances of this kind happened every night.
They have very few bullocks, sheep, or goats, in the country; but that is owing to the desolating war. Corn they have in abundance, as that cannot be driven away by plundering parties. The surrounding country is a level plain, well cultivated, and studded with little walled towns and villages, along the banks of the May-yarrow, and another little river running into it from the north. It is subject to the Majia, but never visited by him or his people, except to attend the market, or collect the duties from the traders. The town of Kufu, at a short distance (not a mile), has a quarrel with another little town about half a mile from it, called Lajo, the latter having taken the wife of a man, whom they thought they had killed and left for dead, and selling her; hence arose a regular system of retaliation; and they take and sell one another whenever they have an opportunity. Every other night almost the war-cry was raised about stealing asses, oxen, or murder; and sometimes the inhabitants of Koolfu would join in the fray, always siding with Kufu.
Monday, 19th.—Having been detained thus long at Koolfu, by my own and my servant Richard’s illness, we left it this morning, accompanied by the head man and the principal inhabitants of Koolfu, who went with me as far as the walled and warlike village of Kufu, where I stopped for the night. Here the head man of Koolfu introduced me to the head man of Kufu, who provided me with a good house, and made me a present of a sheep and some cooked meat. I had also presents of meat sent me by the principal inhabitants. The people of Kufu, not satisfied with having frequently seen me and my servants at Koolfu, are in the habit of mounting some trees growing on a small hill close to and overlooking my house and court-yard, to get another and a last look: party came after party until sunset, when they went away.
My landlady, the widow Laddie, also accompanied me to Kufu, where she remained all night. I thought it had been out of a great regard for me; but I was soon let into the secret, by five of her slaves arriving with booza and bum, which she began selling in my court-yard to the different merchants, bullock-drivers, and slaves assembled here, who are going to the eastward.
The village of Kufu is walled, and only about two musket shots from the other walled village, which is to the south, and with whom they are at heavy war. The space between is generally occupied by the caravans bound to the eastward, who usually halt here for a week to complete their purchases at the market of Koolfu before they start. The country around has a rich and clay soil, planted with indigo, cotton, Indian corn, and yams.
Tuesday, 20th.—Having given the head man of Kufu thirty Gora nuts, with which he was well pleased, and loaded the bullocks, horse, ass, and camel, at 6 A.M. left Kufu. The path, or road, through a woody country: the trees consisting mostly of the micadania, or butter tree, which does not grow to a large size; the largest only about the size of our apple trees in Europe, and this only seldom: their girth is not above two or three feet. The path was winding; the soil a deep red clay, covered with a thin layer of sand.
Wednesday, 21st.—After passing a great number of towns and villages, we arrived at a walled town called Bullabulla, where we encamped outside. As soon as my tent was pitched, I was surrounded by the inhabitants. They were quite amused with my hat; and the women soon found that I was a stranger, and no Moslem, and charged me three times as much for any thing I wanted to buy as they would any body else. They brought boiled beans, fowls, pudding, goats, sheep, wood, and water, for sale. The young men were dressed in a very fanciful manner, with a bandeau of beads, red and white; the wool cut short, and shaved in circles and straight lines; round the neck strings of red and white beads, with pendants of white beads attached to the lowest string, and reaching to the upper part of the breast; round the loins a tanned sheep or goat’s skin, cut into thongs, to the ends of which were attached beads or cowrie shells. Those who pretended to be Mahometans wore a tobe or large loose shirt; but these were few in number, not more than two or three.
The young women wore a string of large beads round the loins; where they had not beads they had pieces of bone, round which was twisted a piece of narrow brown or blue cloth; the beads, bone, or cloth, showing alternately, and hanging down about a foot before and behind, fringed at the end, with cowries or beads attached to the ends of the fringe. They appeared a good looking active set of people, but suspicious. Every two or three women had an armed man to attend them, and to see that they got paid for what they sold. By all accounts they are very ill used, both by their rulers and those who are not. Their wives and children are stolen and made slaves by every one who can seize them; and rulers, whenever a demand is made on them, take them by force and sell them as slaves.