The female slaves of rich masters have gold ornaments about their necks; instead of wearing ear-rings as in the environs of the Senegal, they have little plates in the form of a necklace. A few days after my arrival at Timbuctoo I fell in with a negro, who was parading about the streets two women, whom I recollected to have been fellow-passengers with me on board the canoe. These women were not young, but their master, to give them the appearance of an age better suited to the market, had dressed them well. They wore fine white pagnes, large gold ear-rings, and each had two or three necklaces of the same metal. When I passed them, they looked at me, and smiled. They did not appear in the least mortified at being exhibited in the streets for sale, but manifested an indifference which I could easily enough account for, by the state of degradation to which they had been reduced and their total ignorance of the natural rights of mankind. They thought that tilings should be so, and that they had come into this world to be bought and sold.
The negroes of the Diriman Malaka and Kissoor villages, situated on the banks of the river, come to Timbuctoo in their canoes. They bring to that market slaves, ivory, dried fish, earthen pots, and various other articles, which they exchange for glass trinkets, amber, coral and salt.
To the south of Timbuctoo there is a country called Ginbala, which extends far inland. The inhabitants are, as I was told, all Mahometans. They seldom come to Timbuctoo on account of the Tooariks, whom they dread. They are very industrious, and raise crops of millet and rice; they are hospitable to strangers, and have numerous herds of horned cattle and flocks of sheep and goats. They grow cotton, with which they manufacture stuffs for clothing. Having nothing to fear in communicating with Jenné, they prefer trading with that place.
The Foulahs who inhabit the neighbourhood of the river also visit Timbuctoo. The few whom I happened to see were similar in features and colour to those of the Fouta-Dhialon. They were armed with several pikes.
The trade of Timbuctoo is considerably cramped by the Tooariks, a warlike nation who render the inhabitants of the town their tributaries. The latter, for the privilege of carrying on their trade, give them what they demand, independently of the duties levied on the flotillas at Cabra. A refusal to satisfy them would be attended with serious consequences; for the Tooariks are very numerous, and sufficiently strong to cut off all communication between Cabra and Timbuctoo, when the city and its neighbourhood, having within themselves no agricultural resources, would be reduced to famine. The Moors entertain a profound contempt for the Tooariks, and when they would express their utmost hatred of them, they compare them to the christians, whom they suppose to be the same kind of vagabonds and depredators. I endeavoured to refute this error, which received implicit credit here. I assured them that the Europeans were not to be compared to those marauders; that, instead of robbing, they were always ready to assist and succour their fellow creatures. “But if the christians are so very good,” said they, “why did you not stay among them;” This question embarrassed me a little; but I replied that God had ordained it otherwise, and had inspired me with the idea of returning to my country to resume the religion of my fathers.
The house of my host Sidi was constantly infested with Tooariks and Arabs. These people visit Timbuctoo for the sole purpose of extorting from the inhabitants what they call presents, but what might be more properly called forced contributions. I have often seen them sit in the court and insist on being supplied with food until the master sent them his tribute. They always come on horseback and their horses must be provided with forage.
When the chief of the Tooariks arrives with his suite at Timbuctoo, it is a general calamity, and yet every one overwhelms him with attention, and sends presents to him and his followers. He sometimes remains there two months, being maintained all that time at the expense of the inhabitants and the king, who sometimes give them really valuable presents, and they return home laden with millet, rice, honey, and preserved articles.
The Tooariks and Soorgoos are the same people: the former name is given to them by the Moors and the latter by the negroes. They are a wandering race, and inhabit the banks of the Dhioliba from the village of Diré to the environs of Haoussa, which my host informed me was twenty days’ journey E. by S. E. of Timbuctoo, situated in a vast country of the same name, watered by the river.
The Tooariks have terrified the negroes of their neighbourhood into subjection, and they inflict upon them the most cruel depredations and exactions. Like the Arabs, they have fine horses which facilitate their marauding expeditions. The people exposed to their attacks stand in such awe of them, that the appearance of three or four Tooariks is sufficient to strike terror into five or six villages. At Timbuctoo the slaves are never allowed to go out of the town after sun-set, lest they should be carried off by the Tooariks, who forcibly seize all who fall in their way. The condition of these unhappy beings is then more deplorable than ever. I saw some in the little canoes almost naked, and their masters were constantly threatening to beat them.
The Tooariks possess numerous flocks of sheep and herds of oxen and goats. Milk and meat are their only food. Their slaves gather the seed of the nenuphar, which is very common in all the surrounding marshes; they dry it and thrash it. It is so small that it does not require bruising; they boil it with their fish. The Tooariks cultivate no kind of vegetable. Their slaves are employed in tending their flocks and herds. They have no grain for their own use, except what they obtain from the flotillas passing from Jenné to Timbuctoo. During the swell of the waters, the Tooariks retire a little into the interior of the country, where they find good pasture. They have numerous herds of camels, whose milk is always a certain resource for them.