They had not been long there, when Staff-Surgeon Cowdrey took ill, and in a few days fell a victim to the climate, much regretted by his brother officers, who were thus left without a medical assistant, and deprived not only of his society, but of his invaluable services as a naturalist and astronomer.
To fill the situation thus left vacant, at least in the capacity of a medical officer, I was applied to by Major Peddie; and although I felt that I possessed few of the qualifications requisite to the discharge of the duties of so important a situation, I nevertheless accepted the offer, with a determination that no exertion should be wanting on my part to forward the services of the expedition, which I joined at Senegal, in February, 1816.
Major Peddie’s first step was to despatch a messenger with a letter to the king of Sego, informing him of our intention to visit him, and begging he would send some of his chiefs to Senegal, to conduct us into his territories. The person employed, whose name was Lamina, was a native of Sego, and promised to return with the king’s answer in three months.
Captain Campbell went to Sierra Leone in March, 1816, for the purpose of acquiring information respecting the path through Foota Jallon, and on his return so strongly urged Major Peddie to enter the country for the interior from the Rio Nunez, that he decided on doing so, and fixed the middle of November for their departure from Senegal. The interim was employed in collecting information respecting the countries through which we were to travel, and selecting from the regiment serving on the coast, a detachment of non-commissioned officers and men fitted to the peculiarity of such a service, and purchasing animals for the transport of the baggage.
All these preparations being completed, we embarked on board four vessels, hired for the purpose, and sailed from Senegal on the 17th of November, 1816.
The expedition was then composed of Major Peddie, Captain Campbell, Mr. Adolphus Kummer, a German, as naturalist, Mr. Partarrieau, a native of Senegal (possessing considerable knowledge of the Arabic and Moorish languages, with some of the native African tongues), and myself, having with us a party of soldiers and civilians, amounting to 100 individuals, and a train of 200 animals. We called at Goree, where we remained until the 26th, when being joined by a vessel from the Cape de Verde Islands, having on board some horses and mules for our use, we proceeded and arrived, after a tedious passage of sixteen days, at Kakundy, a factory belonging to a Mr. Pearce, on the left bank of the Rio Nunez.
While waiting for the tide at the mouth of that river, we visited a small island formed by the alluvial matter brought down with the stream, and collected by a ridge of rocks which run nearly across its embouchure. It is called Sandy Island, from its soil being almost wholly composed of that substance. It is about a mile in length, and from a quarter to half a mile in breadth, having a gentle rise towards the centre, where it is covered by a grove of palm trees. We met on it a party of about twenty of the Bagoo tribe, who had come thither to collect palm wine, for the celebration of a mournful ceremony over one of their chiefs, who had died a short time before. At a little distance from the spot where we met them, there is an arbour, on approaching which we were stopped, and told the place was sacred, as it contained their idols; of those we could not obtain even an indistinct view.
Tallabunchia, which we also visited, is situated on the north bank of the river, about four miles above Sandy Island, in a plain, beautifully shaded with lofty palm trees, and a great profusion of orange, lime, plantain, and bananas. The town is straggling and irregular, and contains about 200 inhabitants. The houses are about sixteen feet high, and divided, by a partition of split cane, into two apartments, one of which serves as a store for their rice, &c. and the other for a dwelling. The men are strong and well formed, but of an extremely savage appearance; their whole apparel consists of a fathom of cotton cloth wrapped round their waists; they practise cutting the incisor teeth and tattooing the breasts and arms; holes are pierced through the whole circle of the ear, in which are inserted bits of a coarse kind of grass. The dress of the women is still less decent or becoming; a strip of cotton bound round the loins, in the shape of what surgeons call a T bandage, is their only covering; a band of twisted grass round the upper parts of the thigh, one immediately above, and another below the knee, with one over the ankle, constituted the female ornaments. The children were quite naked, and had large copper rings hanging from the cartilage of the nose.
A NATIVE’S HUT AT TALABUNCHIA.