A voyage to Senegal

by Jean Baptiste Léonard Durand

The Portuguese build their habitations according to the plan of their ancestors, by which they are more solid and commodious than those of the Negroes: they raise them two or three feet above the soil to secure them from the damp, and give them a considerable length so as to divide each house into several chambers. The windows they make are very small, in order to keep out the excessive heat of the climate; and they never fail to build a vestibule open on all sides, in which they receive visits, take their meals, and transact their business. The walls are seven or eight feet high, and, as well as the roof, are of reeds covered on both sides with a mixture of clay and chopped straw: the whole is coated with plaister. They take care to plant latane or other trees before their houses, or to build them on a spot where such trees are growing, in order to enjoy the refreshing shade which they produce. The king of Barra and the greatest people of his kingdom have similar places of residence.

On the banks of the river Gambia may also be found three nations of Africans, namely, the Felups, Yolofs, and Foulahs. All these people are Mahometans, but they have retained the stupid, though innocent superstitions of their ancestors. The real Mahometans they call Kafirs, which means infidels.

The Felups are of an indolent, melancholy, and slovenly character: they never pardon an injury, but transfer their hatred to their children as a sacred inheritance, so that a son must necessarily avenge the offence received by his father. At their festivals they drink a quantity of mead, and their drunkenness almost always produces quarrels: if on these occasions a man lose his life, his eldest son takes his sandals and wears them every year on the anniversary of his death, till he have had an opportunity to avenge it; and the murderer seldom escapes this determined resentment. The Felups, however, notwithstanding this ferocious and unruly disposition, have several good qualities; they are very grateful, have the greatest affection for their benefactors, and restore whatever is entrusted to their care, with the most scrupulous fidelity.

The Yolofs are active, powerful, and warlike; they inhabit a part of the vast territory which extends between the Senegal and that occupied by the Mandingos on the banks of the Gambia. I shall speak of them more fully in the description which I shall give of the Senegal, and in which I shall include some account of the different people who inhabit its banks.

The Foulahs have a complexion of a rather deep black colour, silky hair, and small and agreeable features; their manners are mild, and they love a pastoral and agricultural life. They are dispersed through several kingdoms on the coast of the river Gambia as shepherds and farmers; and they pay a tribute to the sovereign of the country which they cultivate. They are natives of the kingdom of Bondou, situated between the Gambia and the Senegal, near Bambouk: they leave their country in large bodies in search of distant territories, where they can extend their industry; and after making, what they conceive, a fortune, they return to enjoy the result of their labours.

To recur to the establishments which have been formed by Europeans on the river Gambia, it should be stated that the Portuguese replaced the French on that river, and that the former were succeeded by the English. They established themselves at a distance of fourteen leagues from its mouth, on a little isle not more than seventy or eighty fathoms in length, by forty or fifty in width. They built a tolerably strong fort flanked by three bastions, and constructed several redoubts on different parts of the isle; but in the war from 1688 to 1695, several attacks were made on this settlement by the French with various success, and which ended in a convention for a permanent neutrality between France and England in that part of the world. The possessions of the French were confirmed by the treaty of 1783; and at present the only post which the French possess in the Gambia, is Albreda on the territories of the king of Barra, to whom they pay a duty of 810 livres. It is a possession at the mouth of the river which will never be of any great importance, as nothing can be procured by it but what escapes the activity of the English, and that of course is little. The English have no fort in this quarter, nor does it appear that they have any intention of building one; they have, however, four factories without fortifications, one at Gillifrie, a little town on the northern bank, opposite St. Jaques; another at Vintain, on the southern bank, and about two leagues from Gillifrie; and two more, which will be subsequently mentioned.

The Felups, a savage and unsocial nation of whom I have spoken, carry to Vintain a great quantity of wax, which they collect in the woods: the honey is consumed amongst them, as they make it into an intoxicating drink, which bears a great resemblance to the mead of the Europeans. The country which they inhabit is very extensive, and produces a quantity of rice, with which they supply the persons who trade on the rivers Gambia and Casamança; they also sell them goats and poultry at a moderate price.

The third English factory is at Joukakonda, about six days’ navigation from Vintain. This is a very mercantile town, and is entirely inhabited by Negroes and English.

The fourth is at Pisania, about sixteen miles above Joukakonda. It is a village built by the English in the states of the king of Gniagnia; it serves them for a factory, and is only inhabited by themselves and a few domestic Negroes; they here carry on a trade in slaves, ivory, and gold. This village is situated in an immense and peculiarly fertile plain, and is covered with wood. The cattle get very fat from the richness of the pasture, and the inhabitants raise them in great numbers; they also employ themselves in fishing, from which they derive much advantage, and have a number of well regulated gardens, in which they grow onions, potatoes, manioc, pistachios, pompions, and other useful pulse. Near the towns they cultivate on a large scale, tobacco, indigo, and cotton. Their domestic animals are the same as in Europe: they have hogs which live in the woods, but whose flesh is by no means good; poultry of every kind, with the exception of turkies; and red partridges and Guinea-hens are abundant. The forests are filled with a small species of gazelle, whose flesh is perfectly good. The most common wild animals are the hyæna, the panther, the elephant, the tiger, and the lion. The ass is the only beast of burden which is used in this part of Africa. The art of employing animals in labours of the field is unknown, for every thing is done by hand. The principal aratory instrument is the hoe, whose form is different in every district. The free Negroes do not till the ground, as this labour is performed exclusively by the slaves.

The commerce is carried on by the Negro courtiers, who are known by the name of the Slatées; these are free Negroes who possess considerable influence in the country, and whose principal employment consists in selling the slaves they procure from the centre of Africa. They likewise furnish the Negroes on the coast with native iron, odoriferous gums, incense, and schetoulou, or vegetable butter, which I shall afterwards have occasion to speak of; and take in exchange salt, which is a rare and valuable commodity in the interior.