As we were about to move on the morning of the 26th, an armed party of about forty men came running into our camp. They were met by our guides, who conducted them to me, when their leader said they had been sent by Almamy to ascertain the truth or falsehood of a report which was in circulation of our having quarrelled with our guides, and refused to follow the path appointed by him. We referred them to Doka and Macca, who assured them the report was false. I did not believe they were sent by Almamy, but I had strong reason to suppose they were assembled by the guides with a view of deterring us from following the path we were pursuing. I was the more certain of this being the case from my having received information that they had set on foot a false report of one of the princes having an army at a short distance watching our movements. An account was brought us in the afternoon by one of our own men (who had been at the village and overheard some conversation), that it was the intention of the men in this posse, headed by our guides, to attack us during the night. Improbable as it appeared, I placed triple centinels, and kept on foot myself the whole night, which we passed very quietly, and, at half after six the following morning, moved forward to the north. We had not proceeded, however, above three miles, when a tornado came on so rapidly and violently from the ESE. that we had scarcely time to secure the baggage by covering it with green leafy boughs of trees. It continued raining nearly an hour and a half, when, having cleared a little, we resumed our march to the west of north for two hours; this brought us to a small miserable village called Gari-Eli, where we halted for the night. Dohonoe was so ill when we moved in the morning that he was unable to sit upright. I was therefore obliged to leave him in care of the chief of Gwina, with means of subsistence, and directions, in case of recovery, to send him to Baquelle.
We had not been long at our bivouac, when another nephew of Almamy’s, named Amady Samba, made his appearance, and said he was sent by his uncle to enforce compliance with his orders respecting the path, but to which I only answered that I would not pursue any path but that I was then following. On this he went off apparently much displeased, for which I cared the less—as I was determined not to listen to the tales of those soi-disant messengers, who haunted our march, merely in hopes of exacting something from us, or plundering (if occasion presented itself) from our baggage.
We left Gari-Eli at half after six on the morning of the 28th, and travelled ten miles north by east, over an extremely close country to Bokey Guiley, a small village. There we halted for the night, and had considerable difficulty in obtaining a supply of muddy water, the only quality which the place afforded.
When loading the animals the following morning, Macca sent one of his satellites to say that as he was ill and could not accompany us if we moved; he requested us to remain at Bokey Guiley until the following morning. As I was aware that this was an excuse dictated by Amady Samba to detain us, so I refused to comply, and, having sent Mr. Partarrieau to urge Macca’s coming on, we moved forward at seven o’clock, but had not proceeded above a mile when one of the men who accompanied Mr. Partarrieau came running in a great hurry to let me know that the people of the village, at the instigation of our guides, seemed inclined to oppose his following the caravan. I immediately selected one sergeant and fifteen men, and had proceeded about a quarter of a mile towards the village, when I met the guides and Amady Samba, (and, in a few minutes after, Mr. Partarrieau,) who informed me that many objections were made to his joining me, in accomplishing which he had nearly come to blows with the guides and villagers.
Shortly after this, a large bullock which had been bought at Gari-Eli, and conducted since it left that place by a Foolah hired for the purpose, having nearly killed one of our men, was ordered to be shot, which was not effected until many shots had been fired at him. This circumstance so trivial in itself was nearly the cause of very serious consequences, as the men of the villages in the vicinity of our road heard the shots, and, knowing that we had nearly fought with our guides in the morning, thought that such was then actually the case, and came running up from all quarters ready for action,—which they were with difficulty prevented from commencing by the intercession of Macca. Many of them, however, accompanied us to Dindoody, where we arrived at noon, having travelled ten miles NNE.
Although the day was excessively hot, and both men and animals were much in want of water, we were obliged to endure the privation, having a well within a few yards of our bivouac; but this we were not allowed to touch before seven o’clock in the evening, and, having paid dearly for the indulgence, we found also, on returning from the well to tie up the asses for the night, that two of them had been stolen. Macca promised to have them restored, but we never saw them afterwards.
It appeared to me that our guides were at the bottom of all this hindrance from water and objections to the path, in which the inhabitants of all the towns we passed through joined them, (but particularly those of Dindoody, where we spent the whole of the 30th in palaver with them), I conceived it better to make them a large present[22] to induce their acting in compliance with our wishes, to which they consented, binding themselves by an oath on the Koran, to which, although little regard had been paid by Almamy, I trusted, however, that they would remain faithful.
We therefore again set forward to the NE., and, in about two hours, reached a small village called Loogoonoody, where we found that the oaths of our guides were of as little avail as that of their sovereign and his ministers, for we were again obliged to pay for water before the inhabitants would allow us to approach their wells.
We were met here by two men who stated themselves to be messengers sent by the chiefs of Foota Toro to conduct us into that country; but, as the path they pointed out led too much to the west to answer our purpose, we signified to them that it was our wish to proceed more eastward, to a town called Gawde Bofê, where we proposed remaining until a person whom we should send to consult with the chiefs of Toro could return. To this they would not consent, and intimated that if we did not comply with their wishes they had orders to oppose us.
As I was well aware of the difficulties we should experience in travelling through that part of Foota, at a moment when the lawless disposition of the inhabitants was completely divested of any restraint by the existence of an interregnum of some duration, which arose from dissensions among its chiefs, I thought it more adviseable to move back from Bokey Guiley, where I should be certainly out of the power at least of the people of Foota, who were even more to be dreaded by us than those of Bondoo: and I was also in hopes that my returning there, would by our appearing to have more confidence in our Bondoo guides, induce them to act more honourably towards us. I was however deceived, for, during the return to Bokey Guiley, which was partly performed by night, we were robbed by them of two asses with their loads and many small articles.