We left Maghem-Yaghere at six on the morning of the 10th, passed a small village called Gakoro, close to the river, at half after six, and arrived at the ruins of N-gany-n-gorē at noon. This had been a considerable town, and was destroyed about two years before by the very people who were now escorting us. Having halted during the heat of the day under some large shady trees, that had formerly afforded a cool and pleasing retreat from the scorching rays of the sun to the inhabitants of the town, and now to us, and the destroyers of their peace, we moved forward at half after four in the afternoon, and continued to do so until eight, when we halted for the night at the ruins of another Gidumagh town, called Soman Keeté. The first part of this day’s march lay through corn grounds, and open wood, close to the river side, for about thirteen miles, ESE. In the latter part of it we were much impeded by the steep and rocky state of the dry beds of several torrents, which in the rainy season convey the waters collected by the mountains in the NE. to the Senegal, which at Soman Keeté runs for some hundred yards over a shelving bed of solid rock, and on which there was at that season, only eighteen inches water. On the south bank immediately opposite, stands Dhyagh-an-dappé, a large town of Galam.
There being no water at the next halting-place, we filled all our soofras, and at one, P.M. on the 20th, entered the wilderness, through which we travelled without any path until nine, having passed the dry beds of several streams, and three extraordinary piles of rocks. They were each nearly one hundred feet high, and composed of enormous round masses of stone (granite, I believe) heaped together in the form of an irregular cone. They are situated in an immense plain thinly covered with wood, and are at a very considerable distance from any mountains or other eminences.
The sufferings of the poor slaves during a march of nearly eight hours, partly under an excessively hot sun and east wind, heavily laden with water, of which they were allowed to drink but very sparingly, and travelling barefoot on a hard and broken soil, covered with long dried reeds and thorny underwood, may be more easily conceived than described. One young woman who had (for the first time) become a mother two days only before she was taken, and whose child, being thought by her captor too young to be worth saving, was thrown by the monster into its burning hut, from which the flames had just obliged the mother to retreat, suffered so much from the swollen state of her bosom, that her moans might frequently be heard at the distance of some hundred yards, when refusing to go on she implored her fiend-like captor to put an end to her existence; but that would have been too great a sacrifice to humanity, and a few blows with a leathern horse fetter, soon made the wretched creature move again. A man also lay down, and neither blows, entreaties, nor threats of death could induce him to move. He was thrown across a horse, his face down, and with his hands and feet tied together under the animal’s chest, was carried along for some distance. This position, however, soon caused difficulty of breathing, and almost suffocation, which would certainly soon have ended his miserable existence had they not placed him in a more easy posture, by allowing him to ride sitting upright; but he was so exhausted that to keep him on the horse, it was necessary to have him supported by a man on each side. Never did I witness (nor indeed did I think it possible that a human being could endure) such tortures as were inflicted on this man. When he first refused to go on, they had recourse to a mode of compulsion which I have been told is common on those occasions, but of too disgusting a nature to be described. I did not see the old woman, nor could I ascertain, what had become of her.
We moved forward at three o’clock on the morning of the 21st, and travelled east, through woods until half after seven, when we reached the foot of a high range of rocky mountains, running north and south, said by the Kaartans to be a continuance of those which break the course of the Senegal at Feloo, forming the falls of that name. Their western sides are steep, much broken, and very difficult of access; and their tops where we crossed them, a flat table land thinly covered with stunted wood, and in many places forming a surface of solid flat rock, bearing a brown metallic polish, so smooth that the animals were constantly slipping. The descent on the eastern side was scarcely perceptible, and as we advanced, the soil began to bear a more fertile, and less rocky appearance. At half after ten we reached Conian-gee, or the water of Conian, where a town formerly stood, but of which no vestige remained. It belonged to Kasson, and was destroyed by the Kaartans. The place appeared to be the resort of numerous herds of elephants and other wild animals, drawn there in search of water, in which, though muddy and of a bad taste, the place abounded. Some of our asses that had fallen and thrown their loads, in scrambling up those mountains fell to the rear, and were, with the men attending them, attacked by so dense a swarm of bees, that the former ran into the woods throwing their loads, and the latter were obliged to seek safety in flight. It was not without much labour and loss of time that the loads were brought up, or the asses found.
Having made a scanty meal with some of our dried provisions, and filled our soofras with putrid water, we moved forward to the ENE., at five P.M., and, travelling through close woods until eight, arrived at a place called Mama Niarra, where, to our no small mortification, the supply of muddy water we expected to meet was dried into mud itself. To increase the unpleasantness of our situation, some of the Kaartans who had gone on before set fire to the grass, which, being to windward of us, made rapid progress towards the spot where we had halted. It providentially did not reach us, and we had only to complain of a restless night, and much anxiety, to say nothing of our labour in clearing the ground around our bivouac.
Four o’clock on the morning of the 22d again found us moving to ENE. At seven we passed the Kolle-m-bimee, or black creek, nearly dry and running south; it joins the Senegal a little above Feloo. Our path then changed to due east, and over a swampy soil through an immense forest of lofty ron-trees[30], which continued all the way to Kirrijou, the first town of Kasson, where we arrived at half after ten.
Garran here left us, and gave us into the care of Bojar (Modiba’s eldest son), at whose town his father wished us to remain during our halt in that country, and whither I should have proceeded the following morning, but the men and animals were so much fatigued, that I found it necessary to give them a day’s rest.
Kirrijou is beautifully situated on an eminence overlooking an extensive plain bounded by forests of ron-trees, and covered with the most luxuriant verdure nearly all the year round, except when inundated, which is the case yearly for four months, from July to October. Large quantities of corn, rice, ground-nuts and onions are grown there, and the people are well and abundantly supplied with milk and butter from large herds of horned cattle and sheep. The only disadvantage the place labours under is the bad quality of the water, which they obtain from wells about four feet deep, on the borders of a narrow stagnant lake.
The chief (Saféré) who with his followers and slaves composed a part of the Kaartan forces, received us kindly, provided us with huts, and furnished us with an excellent supper of rice and mutton, the first good one we had made since leaving Galam.
I paid him a complimentary visit at his palace, where I found him seated in an open court surrounding his own hut, but separated from the others, composing the palace, by a clay wall eight feet high. He was attended by a few of his domestic slaves and favourites. He accommodated me with a seat on his own mat, and asked many questions about the country of the white people, as they call us, our mode of warfare, government, laws, and revenue, and appeared much astonished at some of my answers, particularly when I said that we fought on firm ground and on horseback, and which he acknowledged he could scarcely credit, as it was his belief in common with all the natives of the interior, that we live exclusively on the sea in ships, where we subsist entirely upon fish, to which they attribute the whiteness of our skins. He pressed me much to spend a few days with him, and, as an inducement, said he would make his wives and daughters exert their musical and dancing abilities to amuse me, but my time was too precious to be spent in amusements.