Durand entertaining King Hamet & Family.
I have mentioned this anecdote by way of opposition to the naturally obdurate, barbarous, and cruel character of the Moors in general. It is a light upon the dark picture which I have already given of their savage manners; and it affords a proof, that our connections with these people render them more communicative, sensible, and humane.
CHAP. XV.
ACCOUNT OF A JOURNEY BY LAND FROM ISLE ST. LOUIS, ALONG THE SENEGAL, TO GALAM, IN WHICH ARE GIVEN THE PARTICULARS OF THE DIFFERENT COUNTRIES, INHABITANTS, AND PRODUCTS ON THE ROUTE. — OF THE KINGDOMS OF CAYOR, JOLOF, BARRA OR MANDING, BAMBOUK, JOULY, MERINA, BONDOU, &c. &c.
ON setting off for Isle St. Louis, I promised that I would penetrate into the interior of Africa, and decide our doubts as to the state of that part of the world. The same project had excited the attention of the English; and I must declare that I was eager to imitate, or even to anticipate, them in such an undertaking. Nevertheless I did not wish to venture upon one of those journies which, transporting a single man, without any fixed object, amidst savage hordes, exposes him to all sorts of privations and risques, without affording him proper means of information: but, on the other hand, I was well aware that those dangers, which often occur, are provoked by imprudence, or exaggerated by misfortune and a wish to excite interest.
It was, however, my wish to visit an unknown soil, but which I thought less liable to difficulty and labour; and I resolved to execute what had, till then, appeared impracticable—a journey by land from Isle St. Louis to Galam. My intention was, should I succeed, to travel afterwards over land to Morocco and Tunis[2].
My choice of this journey for a trial likewise had another motive. I wished to know if the inconveniencies of the route which I was about to trace through the interior of the country, would not be much less than those of the voyage hitherto performed along the coast of the Senegal, to arrive at fort St. Joseph, the most distant of our factories.