The principal difficulties which impeded my progress may be reduced to a few heads. The cupidity and duplicity of the chiefs, the existence of slavery as connected with our endeavours to abolish it, the idle fears and apprehensions growing out of recent hostile transactions in the Senegal, and, mainly, the rapid spread and dreadful influence of the Mahomedan faith.
The duplicity of the chiefs is principally exemplified in the conduct of the kings of Woolli, Bondoo and Kaarta, and either in the want of inclination, or the fear of our approaching or passing Sego, by the king of that country. At Woolli perhaps they were of too trivial a nature, and the king so inadequate to prevent our passing by force, that they scarcely merit attention. They serve however to shew, that if he had not the power, he had at least the inclination to throw every obstacle in the way of our proceeding eastward, but in which direction, it is equally true, that none but his enemies resided. It may be naturally supposed he did not wish such persons to be enriched by sharing in the booty expected from our baggage, exaggerated reports of whose value had been circulated through the interior long before even the first expedition had left Senegal. At Bondoo the fairest promises were in the first instance held out to us by Almamy; nay, an apparent impatience was evinced by him to send us forward, but this we soon discovered to have originated in a desire on his part to grasp at those presents which he supposed we should make him in consideration for so laudable an attention to our interests, but which (although more than we could well afford) not being sufficiently valuable in his eyes, were no sooner handed over to him, than the appearance of things changed, and he made a demand for nearly as much more, under the name of customs. The English name, and the liberality of the British governors of St. Louis, and Senegal, to Almamy Bondoo were well and long known to him previously to our entering his country, but it appears that not only the recollection of their kindness to him had vanished with our cession of that colony to the French, but that he had been determined to crown his ingratitude with treachery, deceit, and even want of common hospitality to the expedition, which was unfortunately induced to prefer the road through his country for the reasons already mentioned in [p. 61], and in consequence of the very apparently warm manner in which he expressed himself grateful for the handsome presents he had received from Sir Charles M‘Carthy when commanding at St. Louis. That every deference and respect for him as the king of Bondoo, and indeed in some cases rather more than enough, had been shewn him, is but too evident from the enormous sacrifices we made at the shrine of his insatiable avarice, with a view of conciliating his favour and protection, and of convincing him that our object in going to the east was not only the mere solution of a geographical question, but an endeavour at the eventual improvement of the commercial and social interests of the countries we visited, by opening a safe and direct communication between them and our settlements, where I assured Almamy we should be most happy to see himself and subjects as constant visitors. What could have induced him to act as he did towards us I was really for a long time at a loss to define, although he more than once hinted at having received private information, and as he said from good authority, that we had in view the destruction of his country, but which I could not then believe, and supposed he only made that excuse a cloak to hide some other motive with which I ineffectually strained every nerve to become satisfactorily acquainted. The information which I afterwards acquired with respect to the immense profits arising to the native merchants from the trade, and barter of slaves, in the transaction already mentioned of redeeming the Bondoo woman and her daughter out of the hands of the Kaartans, led me, in considering that subject minutely, to reflect on other circumstances connected with the question, and that left no doubt on my mind as to his having been thereby influenced: these shall be fully explained hereafter.
The king of Kaarta likewise, after tempting me under the most flattering promises to enter his country, having even sent an escort of one thousand horse to conduct me in safety, when he had received from me to the full measure which inclination or duty prompted me to give him, not only broke every promise he made me of assistance in the prosecution of my journey, but literally plundered me of the few articles which his avarice had hitherto spared. As on other occasions, I was here at a loss to conjecture the cause of such treatment, and upon the most mature and unprejudiced consideration, can only attribute it to the same causes as operated on his brother chiefs of Woolli and Bondoo.
The King of Sego was at war with the Massina Foulahs when Mr. Dochard entered his country, and as his enemies were a powerful people, he was unwilling to admit of our nearer approach, until, as he said, they should either be defeated, or yield to terms of peace which he should dictate to them. That Mr. Dochard’s delay might have been caused by such a disposition, is not at all impossible, but it is nevertheless evident, that the very great distance he ordered the removal of Mr. Dochard, pending these negociations, affords room for supposing that he was actuated by other motives than those which he had previously assigned, namely, a superstitious fear of the too near approach of a person who was supposed to possess supernatural powers, and likely to become a troublesome neighbour. That the general persuasion throughout the country of Bambarra, and particularly at Sego, was of this nature, has been already proved by Mr. Park, to whose appearance there the death of Mausong himself, and of other great personages immediately after his passage through, was industriously attributed by the Mahomedans. A second opportunity was afforded to their malice against us, and their hatred of our faith, upon the occasion of the subsequent death of some of Dha’s chief men, particularly the governor of Bamakoo, who died suddenly a few days after Mr. Dochard’s arrival at that town.
The existence of slavery as connected with the endeavours of England to abolish it, tends in a material degree to awaken the jealousy of the native chiefs, who, in common with the Moorish and Negro traders, derived, and are still deriving, a very lucrative income from that abominable traffic, which they designate by the softened appellation of a lawful branch of commerce. In order to give an adequate idea to my readers of the profits attending this trade in human flesh, it will be necessary for me to state a few particulars.
I have already stated in [page 326], that in order to save from the fate which I had good reason to know awaited my baggage at Moonia, I had released from slavery a Bondoo woman and her child, with the intention of restoring them to their family, and had paid for each of them a larger sum in merchandize than is generally considered the ransom of a slave taken in war, but in reality amounting to a mere trifle when put in competition with the liberty of a fellow-creature, as will appear by the following statement:—
ARTICLES PAID FOR THE WOMAN AND HER CHILD.
| Value in England. | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 pieces of blue India baft | 75s. | equal in Kaarta each to 40 bars, of the nominal value of 1s. 6d. ea. | 120 |
| 30 lbs. trade gunpowder | 30s. | of the same bars | 300 |
| 1000 common flints | 12s. | 10 one bar | 100 |
| 1. yd coarse scarlet cloth | 16s. | 50 | |
| A fine silk pang | 15s. | 50 | |
| £7 8s. | 500 |
Or the value of five prime slaves in that country. Had one of the native merchants purchased those poor creatures, he would not have paid more than two hundred of those bars for them, and probably not so much, as he would first have changed those articles for cowries[34], the current money of that country, with which he would have made the bargain. He could next sell them to the traders in the Senegal, or as profitably to their friends in Bondoo, for the following articles:—
| Kaarta bars. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 pieces baft | each called 10 trade barsat Galam, where 60 of those bars are given for a slave | equal to | 240 | ||
| 4½ lbs. of powder, ¼ lb. a trade | bar | 30 | |||
| 2 common guns (each 10) | 20 | do. | 80 | ||
| 480 flints | 40 | do. | 48 | ||
| 120 sheets common paper | 20 | do. | 24 | ||
| 1 card snuff-box | 1 | do. | 2 | ||
| 1 scissors | 1 | do. | 2 | ||
| 1 steel | 1 | do. | 2 | ||
| 1 common looking-glass | 1 | do. | 2 | ||
| 120[35] | equal to | 430[36] | |||