Travels in Western Africa, in the years 1818, 19, 20, and 21, from the river Gambia, through Woolli, Bondoo, Galam, Kasson, Kaarta, and Foolidoo, to the river Niger

by Major William Gray; Staff Surgeon Dochard

Mr. Nelson was daily getting worse, and the soldiers, seven in number, left on the sick list by Mr. Dochard, had no appearance whatever of recovery. One died on the 22d, and some of the others appeared likely soon to follow him. All that could be done, situated as we were, was done for them. The disease, however, was stronger than the remedies, and they continued getting worse every day. In prescribing for them, I was assisted by Private Kenyon, who, from having served seven years as orderly man in the hospital at Senegal, had become acquainted with the medicines usually administered; in some cases, I had recourse to the remedies made use of by the natives of Africa, and whenever those were resorted to in time, the disease soon gave way. The rains were then so frequent and heavy, that scarcely a dry day occurred once in the week, which had a very strikingly bad effect on the health and spirits of all. The plentiful supply of provisions, however, which we were enabled to procure since our arrival at Samba Contaye, in some measure alleviated our sufferings; and a little labour, with more solidity in the materials employed, provided us with huts, if not as comfortable as we might have wished, at least sufficiently so to afford us shelter from the inclemencies of the season.

A regular market for the purchase of corn, rice, milk, butter, eggs, fowls, and game, was established, and well attended by the inhabitants of all the surrounding villages, to the distance of seven or eight miles; and were it not that the prospect of remaining in a state of inactivity for so long a time as some months at least, added to the uncertainty of the result of Mr. Dochard’s mission to Sego, and the sickly state of the Europeans, we might have been comparatively happy.

Mr. Pilkington arrived from Boolibany on the 29th, and although he was much better than when we left him, he was still in so weak a state as to be unable to take any exercise, and consequently was incapable of affording me society in my excursions through the country. Mr. Nelson, too, continued to decline, and on the 6th of August, he was reduced to a complete inanimate skeleton; in this state he remained until the 9th, when he breathed his last, without a struggle. His remains were buried close by the side of Mr. Burton’s, under the shade of two large tamarind trees, about four hundred yards west of the camp.

My feelings on this occasion (whether from a weak state of body in consequence of some attacks of fever which I had lately experienced, or from other motives, I cannot pretend to say) were so much affected, that I could with difficulty witness the last sad offices to the remains of one of my companions, who, without disparagement to the others, was by no means the least worthy or useful member of the expedition. The consequence of this was, I had a severe relapse, which confined me to my bed for three weeks; at the end of which time I could scarcely stand upright.

On my recovery, I employed myself in learning the Foolah language, and making frequent excursions to the adjacent towns, as the weather, which was then not quite so wet, permitted.

Our supply of provisions, such as they were, continued abundant; and having completed a strong fence round the camp, we were, in some degree, defended both from the encroachments of the wild beasts, which nightly serenaded us, and the not less troublesome daily visits of the inhabitants of the town; whom, previous to the fence being made, we found impossible to keep out of our huts, and from which, on their departure, some one thing or other was always missing.

The fever and dysentery still continued to do their work of destruction. Private Watzer died on the 19th; Fallen on the 22d; and Corporal Howell on the 25th of August, and many more were fast declining. To divert, as much as possible, the minds of the men from reflecting on the scenes of death around them, I had recourse to amusements and employments of all kinds. Hunting the game in which the country abounded, afforded an ample range for those, who were able to partake of it, to employ their time to advantage. Wild hogs, antelopes, guinea fowls, and partridges, were constantly brought in. During one of our excursions we met, and succeeded in killing, a large lioness, which had, for some time, been disturbing the neighbourhood of the village. On this occasion, we were accompanied by some of the inhabitants of Samba Contaye, one of whom gave the first wound to the animal; in consequence of which he was disarmed by the rest of his companions, and led prisoner (his hands tied behind his back) to the town, at whose outer approach they were met by all the women, singing and clapping hands. The dead animal, covered with a white cloth, was carried by four men on a bier constructed for the purpose, accompanied by the others of their party, shouting, firing shots, and dancing, or rather playing all sorts of monkey tricks. As I was not a little surprised at seeing the man, whom I conceived ought to be rewarded for having first so disabled the animal as to prevent it from attacking us, thus treated, I requested an explanation; and was informed that being a subject only, he was guilty of a great crime in killing or shooting a sovereign, and must suffer this punishment until released by the chiefs of the village, who knowing the deceased to have been their enemy, would not only do so immediately, but commend the man for his good conduct. I endeavoured to no purpose to find out the origin of this extraordinary mock ceremony, but could only gain the answer, frequently given by an African, “that his forefathers had always done so.”

This, with a hyena, shot by a sentinel when attempting to take away one of our asses, were the only animals of the kind killed by us. In a few nights after this, we were surprised by three lions, which, in despite of the strength of our fence, and of the centinels, who fired several shots at them, forced their way into the camp, and succeeded in mangling one of our horses, which was tied to a stake within fifteen yards of our huts, in such a dreadful manner, that I thought it best, by means of a pistol ball, to put an end to the poor animal’s sufferings.

Those animals are very troublesome, particularly at the time of year when the corn and grass, being nearly the height of a man, afford them means of concealing themselves near the towns, and of making nightly attacks on the herds of black cattle and goats belonging to the natives, who keep up large fires in the folds, and occasionally fire off their muskets, to deter them from approaching;—but in this they do not unhappily always succeed.

Not having heard any intelligence of Mr. Dochard since his departure, I began to be uneasy for his safety, and thought of despatching a person in the direction he went, in order to ascertain, if possible, how far he had got, when I was agreeably surprised by the arrival of one of his men whom he had sent back from Kasson with letters, giving an account of his transactions since his departure, and requiring some supplies. He stated that on the 25th he reached Nayer, a town of Bondoo, on the banks of the Fa-lemme, distant from Samba Contaye thirty-four miles; there he had to await the arrival of Almamy’s guide, who joined him on the 27th, but having then refused to proceed unless provided with a horse and a fine dress, which articles Mr. Dochard neither could nor would give him, he returned. Mr. Dochard gave him a note to me, but the fellow did not deliver it, nor did I see him until I met him by accident at Boolibany some days after; when he told me that he had received a letter from Mr. Dochard, in which was contained an order on me for a new dress, but that he had lost it in crossing the Fa-lemme; this I knew to be false, and told him that I could not take his word. Almamy had then sent another man to join Mr. Dochard, who crossed the Fa-lemme on the 27th, and arrived at Mamier, the residence of Hawah Demba, a prince of Kasson, on the 1st of August, having found much difficulty in crossing some streams running to the Senegal, and being much disturbed by wild beasts. He stated this place to be upwards of eighty miles from the Fa-lemme, and to be a very small village, the occasional residence of that prince, who had then been there some weeks, and who detained Mr. Dochard under the pretence of not having received a sufficiently large present, until the 17th, on which day he again moved forward accompanied by one of Hawah Demba’s men, sent to escort him into Foolidoo, about four miles from Mamier. He ascended some steep and rugged hills, from the top of which he had a fine view of the Senegal, distant about a mile to the north. On descending into the valley, he travelled over a solid bed of rock for more than a mile, when he reached an extensive plain lying along the banks of the river, by the side of which he travelled through villages and large corn-grounds, until he arrived at Savusuru, another town of Kasson. Here he met a division of Hawah Demba’s army, going on a plundering excursion into some of the neighbouring states. It was his intention to leave Savusirie on the following day, but it rained so incessantly, and the innumerable brooks and rivers he had to cross were so swollen, that he could not move before the 21st, and even then he did so contrary to the advice of the natives, which proved to be well founded, as he had not travelled above four miles when he came to a stream called the Tangina, running into the Senegal, and so deep and rapid that to attempt crossing it without canoes, of which there were none at the place, would have been madness; he was therefore, however reluctantly, obliged to return to a small town called Jamoonia, about a mile from the river.