We reached Boolibany at noon, and were accommodated with huts in the town, a division of which was given up entirely for our use, and from which Almamy, who paid us a visit in the afternoon, desired us to keep off the mob, in the same way we should do were we in an English fort. This, however, we found much difficulty in accomplishing against a host of visitors of all ages and descriptions, coming to see, for the first time in their lives, a white man. Shortly after our arrival some of the king’s wives sent us two or three large calabashes, full of fine milk and cous cous, which was not at all a despicable present.
Many of the great men of the town paid us visits of ceremony and curiosity; all which we would have most willingly dispensed with, but they were not to be sent off in a hurry, and we were often reduced to the necessity of walking out of our huts, in hopes of their doing so too. But even this did not always succeed, and we were necessitated to submit with an apparent good grace to their importunities for presents. I do believe they thought that asking alone was necessary to the filling of their pockets with amber, &c., and covering their backs with silks, bafts, &c.; for the procuring of all of which they seldom brought any more valuable articles than a little milk, or some rice, or corn. Indeed we wanted nothing else, but the miserable handfuls which they presented, were scarcely worth the trouble of receiving, much less giving more than the value in return.
FOOTNOTES:
[10]Leather bags.
CHAPTER VI.
Description of Boolibany — Delays and Disappointments there — Scarcity of Provisions — Death of Private Pickard — My decision of passing the rains in the Country, and Departure for Samba Contaye to select a position for winter quarters — Arrival of the Expedition from Boolibany — Mr. Pilkington and men left there sick — Death of Lieutenant Burton, and Sickness of the Men — Preparations for Mr. Dochard’s Departure for Sego — Almamy’s Arrival near our Camp — Difficulties about the Guide — Mr. Dochard’s Departure — The Object of his Embassy — Mr. Partarrieau’s Departure for the Coast — Mr. Nelson’s weak state — A regular Market established — Mr. Pilkington’s Arrival from the Capital — Mr. Nelson’s Death — My own Indisposition — Deaths amongst the Men — Extraordinary Ceremony at the killing of a lioness — Lions’ Attack on the Horse — Accounts from Mr. Dochard — Return of the Messengers — Almamy’s unjust Conduct, and its Results.
Boolibany, the Capital of Bondoo, stands in an extensive plain at the foot of a range of rocky hills, which are distant from it about a quarter of a mile east: to the west, the dry bed of a considerable torrent winds along the plain, and, in the season of the rains, conducts the water, which descends in a thousand streams from the hills, to the Falune and Senegal.
Here is the residence of the king, or Almamy, but it is by no means so large a town as we expected to see in the capital of so thickly inhabited a country. The number of souls do not exceed fifteen or eighteen hundred; the greater number are either the relatives, slaves, tradesmen, or followers of Almamy, or those of the royal family.
