An hour before we reached the village, we entered some very fine fields of millet, which the moon-light enabled us to perceive. We reached Mall about one in the morning: at the noise made by the dogs on our approach, some of the inhabitants rose to enquire who we were. A good old marabout offered me his hut: my feet were so swollen and so painful that I could not stir a step: the negro lent me his arm, and kindly leading me in, told me to lie down on his humble bed. But for this attention of the humane old man’s, I should not have been able to prosecute my journey on the following day.
Having extracted a great quantity of thorns from my feet, I thought myself capable of starting, when I was suddenly seized with a most violent pain in my left arm, which obliged me to halt that day and the 12th at this village. I saw the lake of Panieh-Foul or N’gher; it is at this part about a mile broad.
On the 13th at sun-rise I set out from Mall with my old marabout, who insisted on accompanying me to Nieyeh,[9] about three miles distant. The whole country between these two villages is highly cultivated. It was eight in the morning when I parted from my guide: I proceeded northward, and about ten arrived at Neyreh. I sought a lodging with the chief of the village, to whom the old marabout at Mall had directed me, and who received me very kindly. He questioned me concerning the object of my journey; I replied that I was going to embrace the Mahometan faith: he highly approved my design, and endeavoured to impress me with the notion that God was extremely gracious to me in thus delivering me from the flames to which the christians are destined. My disguise deceived some persons; for, being in the evening at the door of the hut for the sake of coolness, I overheard a dispute between two women, one of whom asserted that I was a Moor.
On the following day, the 14th, I joined a Moor and three Moorish females who were travelling the same way as I was; they were mounted on carrier-bullocks[10]. At the distance of about three miles, we met a troop of Moors and negroes of Wâlo, who attempted to rob me. One of the Moors thrust his hand into my bundle, which was placed on a bullock, and pulled out a roll of papers, among which were letters of the utmost consequence to me, and carried them off. I ran after him, and had a long struggle with him for the purpose of recovering them, but several negroes interfered and knocked me down: at length the Moor who acted as a guide to me came to my assistance and obtained restitution of my roll. After some altercation they let me go; they nevertheless wanted to force me to give them some tobacco, which they had seen in my bundle; I would gladly have made a sacrifice to get rid of them, but this article was absolutely necessary to me, and I persisted in my refusal to give them any thing. They left us and we continued our route, without any other accident, to the camp to which my guides were bound, where we arrived about two in the morning. By the way I had suffered severely from thirst; I appeased it with milk and water, and lay down under a tent for about an hour, after bargaining with a man to take me on a carrier-bullock to the French settlements for a hundred head of cloves.
I set out and at five in the evening arrived at Richard-Tol, where I waited for an opportunity of proceeding. On the 18th I embarked in the Active cutter for Dagana. The night which I passed on board was as harassing as that which I spent at Leybar: at this season it is impossible to get any rest on board these small vessels unless you are provided with a mosquito-curtain; the mosquitoes settling upon you in countless numbers and inflicting inexpressible torments. In the evening of the 19th I arrived at Dagana, where I sojourned eight days. During this time I took walks in the environs, especially towards the neighbouring marigot[11] to the east of the village, where I had occasion to notice the ingenious manner, adopted by the negroes of Wâlo to catch the fish which are very abundant in these waters. They have a net eight or nine feet square, sewed up at one end: two thick flexible sticks are securely fastened at the extremities to the lateral sides of the net in such a manner, that by means of them the net may be shut and opened at pleasure: the upper side is left open or but half sewed up; lastly, the two sticks being held together with the hand, the net has the form of a bag. The negroes drive a row of stakes into the bottom of the marigot, so as to divide it in two: these stakes are placed so close as to allow only very small fish to pass; and they fasten to them, two feet below the surface of the water, wooden cross-bars on which they stand. To catch the fish, they sink the net gently to the bottom, holding the two sticks apart, that is, keeping the net open; then bringing the sticks together, they close it and draw it out of the water: in this manner the fish are taken as in a bag. To manage it with the greatest ease, they take care to let the sticks project two feet beyond the top of the net, and support these ends upon their shoulders; then with their hands they can move it about at pleasure. They have a stick about a foot long, with which they kill the fish, and then by means of an iron hook and a cotton cord they hang it to one of the stakes, to keep moist in the water till they have finished their fishery, which is always very productive. The nets are made of twisted cotton thread of the thickness of sail-makers’ twine.
The fishermen cut open the fish, dry it, and take it for sale to villages at a distance from the banks of the river; carrying on a very extensive commerce in this article.
On the 24th of August the steam-vessel, for which I was waiting to be conveyed to Podor, arrived; we started at seven in the evening of the 27th, and landed there on the 29th at two in the afternoon. It is an ancient French settlement, of which few traces only are now left. I went to lodge at the house of Moctar Boubou, the chief of the village, and minister of Hamet-Dou, king of the Braknas, to whom I wished to go for the purpose of completing my Arabic education, that I might the more easily penetrate into the interior of the country, and visit every part of that immense desert, respecting which we possess but vague and scanty information.
At this marabout’s I found the agents of Hamet-Dou, who had been to St. Louis to receive the customs which the government annually pays to that prince. They were delighted to hear that it was my intention to embrace Islamism, congratulating me at great length upon it, and encouraging me to persist in my resolution. They also promised to serve me as guides in my journey to their king; but, on the 1st of September, when they set out, they refused to take me along with them, alleging that the camp was ten days’ march distant, and that I should not be able to support the fatigue of the voyage. I guessed the motive which induced them to act thus: I offered two gourdes[12] to Boubou-Fanfale, the chief of the party; he agreed to take me with him and we started at eight in the morning.
We went back down the Senegal for two miles, towards the factory of the Cock or the Braknas. At the call of my guides, a negro brought us from the opposite bank a large canoe, into which the merchandise was put; we then went on board ourselves, ten in number. They made the bullocks swim after us, pulling them along by the cord passed through their nostrils: in this manner we reached without accident the right bank of the river. The bullocks were reloaded, and about eleven we were ready to resume our journey. The two negroes accompanied us to the marigot of Koundy. Our road lay through a black clayey soil, enriched by the relics of vegetables which cover it. Large mimosas form a thick wood under which the zizyphus lotus grows in abundance. This soil would be extremely fertile if it were cultivated.
Having reached the marigot the negroes began to look for their canoes which they had sunk in the water for concealment: they were very small, and could not carry the baggage across in fewer than six trips, which greatly delayed our journey.