At three in the morning, previous to leaving Pakeba, we were alarmed by screams, apparently of some person in agony. We immediately repaired to the spot, accompanied by some of the watch. There we found the wife of Yarra Comba, one of the native civilians from Sierra Leone, weltering in her blood, having received three very severe wounds on the head from her husband, who, exasperated at her refusing to desert with him (a step, he told her, he was about to take), and fearing, we supposed, that she would give the alarm, after thus brutally attempting to seal her lips, by taking her life, made his escape; in accomplishing which he succeeded, being favoured by a dark night, and an intricately wooded country.
The wounds appeared to be all but fatal; the exterior membrane of the brain, was visible in one of them, and the other two were very deep. When every attention in the dressing, &c., had been paid, and I found that there was no hope of getting hold of the savage who inflicted them, I sent her to the chief of the town, to whom we gave ten bars for her support, until she might be able to return to Kayaye. As an inducement to make this man act kindly to her, we gave him a further sum of ten bars for himself, and offered a handsome reward for the apprehension of her husband.
About three miles before we reached this town, we observed some stones of curious form and composed of red sand-stone, in which were encrusted small silicious pebbles. They had much the appearance of broken pillars; some were standing upright, and others lying flat on the surface. From the space inside them, and its form, which was an oblong square, we are inclined to think they must, at some former period, have supported a roof. The largest of them is as four feet in circumference, and seven feet high.
Sandoo Madina is a very small walled village, inhabited by Sonikeys, and is subject to Katoba, but more immediately under the control of the Wallia chief, who is himself nominally subject to the former. This subjection is however not easily defined: a slave running away from one finds an asylum with the other, who (on both sides) does not hesitate to acknowledge his having kept him in despite of the other’s remonstrances.
At a short distance to the NW. is a small unwalled Bushreen town called Coota Cunda; the water good and plentiful, and every appearance of extensive cultivation.
We received a visit from the chief of Jambaroo, a small independent province of Jaloff Woolli, situate about fifteen miles north of this village. We bought from him a small strong horse for eighty-five bars in amber and coral, the value of which did not exceed five pounds sterling. We made him a small present.
Corporal Richmond, a native, was added to the sick list, with a severe pulmonic attack. Some of the men who have had slight attacks of intermittent fever appear to recover rapidly; on the whole, the health of the party might be then considered good. Mr. Nelson was the only one of the officers who was at all delicate; Mr. Pilkington was recovering rapidly.
Having left Sandoo Madina at four o’clock in the morning of the 2d, we had a pleasant march to the next town, Fodia Cunda, the first of Woolli, which we reached at half after nine, having passed the ruins of two towns, both destroyed by the people of Bondoo in their wars with this country. The animals travelled very badly, being too heavily loaded, and which could not be avoided, in consequence of the very rapid decrease of their numbers, and the impossibility of replenishing them; five died or were abandoned this day’s march.
We here procured a plentiful supply of milk and butter, such as it was, and more than a sufficiency of corn to give the horses, camels, &c. as much as they could eat, and which they were much in want of, not having had more than one good feed since we left Kayaye. The country about this village, although much parched, was beautifully picturesque, being thickly covered with wood, and agreeably diversified by hill and dale. There were numbers of wandering Foolahs with large herds of cattle, in the vicinity of this village: those people supply the inhabitants of the towns who keep no cattle themselves with milk and butter, in exchange for which they receive cotton cloths, glass beads, and tobacco.
From Fodia Cunda I despatched Lamina, our Sego guide, to the town of Slatee Modiba, to request him to meet us at Madina to-morrow; this man being a relative of the king’s, with whom he has considerable influence, advising him in all affairs of importance, and well known to Lamina, we considered it right to secure his interest, by sending him a small present, and holding out the promise of a suitable reward, should he act in compliance with our wishes.