The Author embarks in the Ship Minerva.—Proceeds to the Rio Pongo.—Disquisitions thereon.—Further Observations on the Inhabitants, obtained from Natives of various Nations met with there.—The Isles de Loss—Returns to Sierra Leone, &c.
Upon the 4th of June, 1806, I embarked at Bance Island, on board the ship Minerva of Liverpool, bound upon a trading voyage to the Rio Pongo, and other rivers to the northward, and on Thursday the 12th came to an anchor at the upper forks, in the Rio Pongo, being the point at which the branches of the Bungra, Charleston, Constintia, &c. empty themselves; higher up the river are the Sanga and Bashia branches, occupied by a chain of factories, and inhabited by various nations and tribes. The principal factories for trade are on the Constintia, about 40 miles up the river, Mr. Cummings's factory, at Ventura; Mr. John Irvin's, at Kessey; Mr. Benjamin Curtis's, at Boston; Mr. Frasier's, at Bangra; Mr. Sammo's, at Charleston; Mr. David Lawrence's, at Gambia; Mr. Daniel Botefeur's, at Mary Hill; Mr. Ormond's, Mr. Tillinghurst's, Mr. Gray's, in the Bashia branch; with various others of inferior consideration.
During my stay on this river, I visited the whole of these branches, and in addition to personal investigation, I obtained much information from the various conductors of these factories, and had a variety of opportunities of communicating with many of the natives from the interior countries, who are drawn hither by the extensive commerce of the Rio Pongo. In my excursions on this river, I was generally accompanied by Captain William Browne, of Liverpool, who was part owner of the Minerva, and had the sole management of the concerns of her voyage; and I am happy to give him this public testimony of the many obligations he conferred upon me, while on this part of the coast, which unceasingly continued until my arrival in England, by the way of the West Indies.
The countries bounded by the Rio Pongo and the Gambia, are inhabited by the Nilloes and various tribes, who carry on a considerable trade with that river, the Rio Noonez, and Rio Grande, and inland to the two latter, is the powerful nation of the Foolahs, possessing an extensive country, about 200 miles in breadth from north to south, and 400 miles from east to west. Teembo, the capital of the Foolah king, is about 270 miles inland from the entrance of the Rio Noonez. The paths for trade and communication with the interior, from this position, are at the king's pleasure, and he opens and shuts them by his mandate. The Foolahs are tall, well-limbed, robust and courageous, grave in their deportment, are well acquainted with commerce, and travel over an astonishing space of the country. Their religion is a mixture of Mahomedanism, idolatry, and fetishism. One of their tenets, which inculcates the destruction of those they term infidels, is peculiarly friendly to slavery, and as the greater part of their neighbouring tribes are of that description, they are continually practising every violence, and, are frequently engaged in wars. When I suggested to a chief of very considerable intelligence, and one of the Foolah king's head men, whom I met in the Rio Pongo, the enormity of their injustice to the surrounding tribes, and how displeasing it was to the God they prayed to, his reply was, "True, this be bad fashion to Foolah, or Mandingo man, but these people we make war against never pray to God, nor do we make war with those who give God Almighty service." While this barbarism exists, and the slave trade is continued, humanity will have to, bewail the miserable condition of the African slave. For this, and various other reasons that might be urged, and considering the position and extensive influence of the Foolah nation, their king claims a high consideration in a combined scheme of establishment upon the coast.
So impressed was this chief, of the beneficial advantages to be derived from agriculture, that he tendered land, cattle, men, &c. to the agents of the Sierra Leone Company, only requesting from them, in return, a delegated superintendance; but, strange to tell, this disposition was not cultivated nor improved; nor was the further offer of the king of Laby, and his high priest, to place their sons under the protection of the Company, to be sent to England and educated. A more important step could not have been taken to attain the object of the Directors, than this of attaching the Foolah nation to their interest.
The women of this nation are handsome, and of a sprightly temper, and their countenances are more regular than those of the common Negroes; the hair in both men and women is much longer, and not so woolly, but they have a most disgusting custom of forming it into ringlets, bedaubed with oil and grease, which gives them a very barbarous appearance. The Foolah tongue, is different from that of the surrounding nations, and its accent is more harmonious.
To the southward of the Rio Pongo, to Sierra Leone, lie the countries of the Bagoes, Soosees, Mandingos, Timminees, and Boolams, all idolaters except the Mandingos, who, like the Foolahs, associate in their religion a mixture of fetishism and Mahomedanism. The Timminees are a more harmless race of men than any of the other infidel nations, and their dispositions are more calculated to industrious avocations than their neighbours.
I have already noticed the Mandingos, but, as I consider this nation and the Foolahs of the first consequence, from their power and influence over the other nations of this part of the coast, I shall add a few more observations upon them.
From what I have before stated, it will appear that the Mandingos are a numerous people in Africa, gaining a daily influence and authority in the district now under consideration. Besides the tribes of this people who inhabit the countries between the Soosees and Timminees, there are various others established in the country of Bambouk, and on the borders of the Gambia, but the great body occupy an extensive territory above the sources of that river.
The empire of the Mandingos is not, however, so considerable as that of the Foolahs, but from their increasing influence over the western countries, from their docile and cunning dispositions, their knowledge in merchandize, and acquirements in book-knowledge, their power must, in process of time, be greatly increased; and it will be of the utmost moment to civilize them, in order to acquire an influence over the more barbarous states.