When the king decides on sending a part only of the army to plunder the frontier towns of some neighbouring state, a chief to command the party is selected from amongst his own relatives, or favourites, and few (if any) but the immediate followers of the king and the chief chosen to command, or rather conduct this party, accompany it. Their destination is known only to the king, his ministers, and the commander, who seldom imparts to any of his attendants until they are close to the scene of action. The general object of these detachments is, the attack of some small town or village, the inhabitants of which, together with their cattle, they carry off. Sometimes, however, information of their coming reaches the village in sufficient time before them, to enable the women and children to retreat towards the interior of the country, taking with them the cattle, and leaving the men to oppose the enemy, who not unfrequently come off with the loss of one or more of their party, and the failure of their attempt.
Several of these parties were sent out during our stay in Bondoo, and with one or two exceptions, came off victorious, if the word can be made use of with propriety, in describing the exploits of a horde of plunderers, whose chief object is invariably the obtaining of slaves, for whom they always find a market, either with the travelling merchants of the country, or the Senegal vessels at Galam.
Woolli, Tenda, Dentilla, and Bambouk, are the frequent scenes of these unnatural depredations, and in their turn often furnish Almamy with ample means of procuring supplies of arms, ammunition, horses, and the different articles of European merchandize in demand in his dominions. To the frequency of these predatory excursions, and the insecure nature of the lives and properties of the inhabitants in consequence, may be attributed, in a great degree, the desertion of many of the frontier towns in those states, and their subsequent occupation by the Bondoo people, who of late years have extended their dominions considerably in these directions.
Bondoo in its turn has often been attacked by its more powerful neighbours, and suffered dreadfully, but an instance of retaliation on the part of those weak states rarely occurs.
Many of the natives of Kayaye, Joloff, and Woolli, have settled in Bondoo, and embraced the Mahomedan faith. Their towns are chiefly on the western frontier, and are preeminent for their extent, riches, and productive cultivation. The most effective division of Almamy’s army is entirely composed of the Joloff and Woolli people, who are proverbial for bravery. The greater number of those of Kayaye being priests are exempt from the field by the payment of a large yearly present to Almamy, who, in addition to the present, often trespasses, in the form of a request (but which they dare not refuse), on their stores of provisions and their herds of cattle, with both which they are better supplied than any other class of people in that country. But this is not the only advantage they possess, for they enjoy a degree of respect and independence even in their connexions with the princes, who look upon all belonging to them as sacred, Almamy alone, being the head of the church, daring to infringe on their rights and privileges.
Bondoo has been, for some years, involved in a war with the king of Karta, which arose, as most of the wars in Africa do, in an act of aggression in this case on the part of Bondoo, to explain which, it will be necessary to detail, at some length, the circumstances which led to the act itself. This will, at the same time, serve to give a just idea of the politics of those people, and to prove how well they are versed in the principles of self interest and aggrandizement, the natural consequence of the comparative state of civilization to which they have attained.
About forty years previous to the time we visited Bondoo, Abdoolghader, a Mahomedan priest, and chief of a tribe of Foolahs that had come from Massina, and settled in Toro (then ruled by the Dileankey family), made so many converts to this faith among the people of that country, and acquired such influence with them, that he succeeded in leading them to dethrone that family, and proclaim him king or almamy.
At the time Karta was invaded by the Sego Bambarras, and its chiefs, and many of the inhabitants obliged to leave it for a short time, a large detachment of them, under the command of a prince, arrived at Galam, where they were well received, and whence they despatched messengers to Abdoolghader to apprize him of their intention to put his hospitality to the test, but which they were prevented from doing by his assembling his army, and marching to attack them. They, having received early information of his intentions, left Galam, and, on their return to Karta, destroyed some towns belonging to Gedumah, in revenge upon the inhabitants of that country for having refused to assist them against their Sego enemies.
The chief of one of those towns, an Iman, of considerable respectability in the country, called on Abdoolghader, at his camp in Bondoo (where he made some stay, with a part of his army, after the retreat of the Kartans), and preferred a complaint against Sega, the reigning chief of Bondoo, for having assisted the Kartans in the destruction of his town, and carried off his wife and daughter, both of whom he added to the list of his concubines, and for having destroyed his religious books, written by himself, and said to be so voluminous as to be a sufficient load for an ass. He expatiated on the enormity of these crimes, and called on Abdoolghader, in the name of God and their prophet, to obtain for him the satisfaction to which he conceived himself so justly entitled.
Abdoolghader being himself a Mahomedan prelate of the first rank, and anxious to give every proof of his attachment to his religion, immediately summoned Sega to appear before the laws of Mahomet. This prince, whether from being too well aware of Abdoolghader’s power to force his compliance, or from being badly advised by some who wanted to compass his fall, made his immediate appearance before the angry monarch, who, without hearing half what Sega had to say in his defence, judged the affair against him, and sentenced him to be banished to Toro, where he was to be taught how to live; but, on their departure from Marsa[16], they had not gone one hundred yards from the walls, when Sega was barbarously murdered by some of Abdoolghader’s followers, and his body thrown, without further ceremony, into a ravine.