Like the roving Arabs, the Moors frequently remove from one place to another; according to the season of the year, or the convenience of pasturage. In the month of February, when the heat of the sun scorches up every sort of vegetation in the Desert, they strike their tents, and approach the Negro country to the south; where they reside until the rains commence, in the month of July. At this time, having purchased corn, and other necessaries from the Negroes, in exchange for salt, they again depart to the northward, and continue in the Desert until the rains are over, and that part of the country becomes burnt up and barren.
This wandering and restless way of life, while it inures them to hardships, strengthens, at the same time, the bonds of their little society, and creates in them an aversion towards strangers, which is almost insurmountable. Cut off from all intercourse with civilized nations, and boasting an advantage over the Negroes, by possessing, though in a very limited degree, the knowledge of letters, they are at once the vainest and proudest, and, perhaps, the most bigotted, ferocious, and intolerant of all the nations on the earth: combining in their character, the blind superstition of the Negro, with the savage cruelty and treachery of the Arab.
It is probable that many of them had never beheld a white man, before my arrival at Benowm: but they had all been taught to regard the Christian name with inconceivable abhorrence, and to consider it nearly as lawful to murder a European, as it would be to kill a dog. The melancholy fate of Major Houghton, and the treatment I experienced during my confinement among them, will, I trust, serve as a warning to future travellers to avoid this inhospitable district.
The reader may probably have expected from me a more detailed and copious account of the manners, customs, superstitions, and prejudices, of this secluded and singular people; but it must not be forgotten, that the wretchedness of my situation among them, afforded me but few opportunities of collecting information. Some particulars, however, might be added in this place; but being equally applicable to the Negroes to the southward, they will appear in a subsequent page.
[12]Proceedings of the African Association, Part I.
CHAPTER XIII.
Ali departs for Jarra, and the Author allowed to follow him thither. — The Author’s faithful Servant, Demba, seized by Ali’s Order, and sent back into Slavery. — Ali returns to his Camp, and permits the Author to remain at Jarra, who, thenceforward, meditates his Escape. — Daisy, King of Kaarta, approaching with his Army towards Jarra, the Inhabitants quit the Town, and the Author accompanies them in their Flight. — A Party of Moors overtake him at Queira. — He gets away from them at Daybreak: — is again pursued by another Party, and robbed; but finally effects his Escape.
Having, as hath been related, obtained permission to accompany Ali to Jarra, I took leave of Queen Fatima, who with much grace and civility, returned me part of my apparel; and the evening before my departure, my horse, with the saddle and bridle, were sent me by Ali’s order.
Early on the morning of the 26th of May, I departed from the camp of Bubaker, accompanied by my two attendants, Johnson and Demba, and a number of Moors on horseback; Ali, with about fifty horsemen, having gone privately from the camp during the night. We stopped about noon at Farani, and were there joined by twelve Moors riding upon camels, and with them we proceeded to a watering-place in the woods, where we overtook Ali and his fifty horsemen. They were lodged in some low shepherds’ tents near the wells. As the company was numerous, the tents could scarcely accommodate us all; and I was ordered to sleep in the open space, in the centre of the tents, where every one might observe my motions. During the night, there was much lightning from the north-east; and about daybreak a very heavy sand-wind commenced, which continued with great violence until four in the afternoon. The quantity of sand which passed to the westward in the course of this day, must have been prodigiously great. At times it was impossible to look up; and the cattle were so tormented by the particles lodging in their ears and eyes, that they ran about like mad creatures, and I was in continual danger of being trampled to death by them.