I rejoined Ibrahim, and we went together to see the huts of the slaves. An old woman was employed in preparing the dinner of the husbandmen, who provide their own food. Behind their huts there are small plantations of caribbee cabbage, which the women cultivate. As we were sitting near the labourers, the old woman gave her master a portion of the dinner, which she had just prepared; consisting of a calabash of foigné boiled without salt, with the addition of a sauce of different herbs and gombo, which the want of butter and salt rendered very unpalatable. I ate about a handful of it; but my guide, a little more dainty than I, refused to take any; the poor slaves, however, seemed to relish it. I was informed that, in the Fouta-Dhialon, the negroes are allowed two days in the week to work in their own fields, that is to say, the ground which furnishes their subsistence. One of Ibrahim’s women brought for our dinner a calabash full of rice and milk, which she had carried on her head. We did not return to the village until a short time before day-break. My guide behaved very kindly to me, and in the evening, sitting with him in his court-yard, I amused myself by playing with his children. However, at my departure, I thought to penetrate to the east, and learned, with regret, that Ibrahim would not accompany me to Bouré, according to his promise. He alleged that he was prevented from going with me by the necessity of attending to his plantations; but that if I would wait for him, he would fulfil his promise. This proposition was far from being satisfactory to me, for I was very anxious to see myself to the east of the Fouta. I was afraid of being discovered by the Foulahs, and wished to reach Kankan before the rains, which already began to be very frequent, should have fairly set in.
On the 17th of May, I went with Ibrahim to the village, to see a drum made, which is used by these people in time of war. There were twenty Mandingoes employed in making it. The drum consisted of a large bowl, formed of the trunk of a tree, three or four feet in circumference, and from six to eight inches deep, covered with a piece of untanned bullock’s hide. At the bottom of the drum were pasted a great many bits of paper, inscribed with Arabic characters. These were amulets, to preserve them from their enemies. They were employed a whole day at this work, which they regarded as an amusement.
The day was hot and stormy, and the sun was several times obscured by dark and thick clouds. In the evening a violent south wind rose, followed by thunder and lightning. Thick black clouds gathered on the summit of the mountains, surrounding the beautiful plain of Kankan-Fodéa. About eight in the evening, a heavy rain set in, and lasted all night. I could not sleep, and passed the time in reflecting on the difficulties which I should have to surmount, in crossing a country intersected by rivers and large streams, which in this season overflow their banks. I travelled on foot, for the appearance of humility which I had imposed upon myself during this journey did not allow me to purchase an animal to ride on, which would have awakened the cupidity of the various tribes that I had to visit; thoroughly persuaded that the success of my undertaking depended on this appearance of poverty.
The old schoolmaster fell ill, and I became his physician. He had a fever, and I gave him some doses of sulphate of quinine, and, afterwards, a dose of salts as a purgative; I then advised him to buy a fowl to make broth, seasoned with brettes, a sort of herb which grows in that country, but the poor old man had not the means of buying a fowl. I begged Ibrahim to make him a present of one, but he replied coldly that he had none, though I saw twenty running about in his yard. I gave the old man five tobacco leaves, to purchase a fowl, which Ibrahim found for that price; he gave it to one of his women to cook, and the schoolmaster speedily recovered. I had given Ibrahim some doses of jalap, which he had asked me for, and though nothing ailed him, he took a dose of it, with the view of having a claim on some of the broth, which he saw preparing for my patient. It was rumoured among the inhabitants that I possessed medicines for all sorts of disorders, and I was much importuned and harassed for them. Some had ulcers on the arms or legs, others, fever and bowel complaint; I was teazed all day long by demands for medicine. To cure the ulcers, I washed them with a caustic, and then dressed them with lint; and to those suffering from fever I administered a few doses of quinine, and directed a regimen, which did not always please my patients. To act up to the character of doctor, I sometimes grew angry, and threatened to abandon to their fate those who did not follow my directions. The only medicines I had were those few with which the English doctors of Sierra-Leone had been kind enough to furnish me, and I was anxious to keep them for myself, presuming that I might need them; but the Mandingoes imagined that my stock was inexhaustible, and that it might be beneficially employed in all kinds of distempers. They were continually asking me for physic, and though I was obliged to refuse them, yet they continually renewed their applications, observing that they were Musulmans as well as I, and that no Musulman ought to withhold a service which he can perform. Wearied by their importunity, I sometimes left them in an ill humour, and went to lie down. They then cried out “He is a christian! See how he behaves to us! He has medicine, and will not give any to us Musulmans.” In these dilemmas, I was always much indebted to Ibrahim, who told his countrymen that I had been brought up among christians, and had learned their manners. But they constantly renewed their entreaties, and, in the end, succeeded in getting what they wanted. During the whole period of my residence at Cambaya, I was teazed in this way by the inhabitants, who were not satisfied with obtaining my medicines for nothing, but also expected tobacco, scissors, and Guinea cloth, to make coussabes. Several children used to come into the yard and ask me to dress their sores. At length, after innumerable importunities of this kind, which I omit to mention, these Mandingoes, more selfish and ignorant than deliberately wicked, began to accommodate themselves to my character, and ceased to regard me as a white. In fact, they never could conceive it possible that a European should undertake so long a journey on foot, and alone, merely from philanthropic motives. As they live in a state of ignorance and simplicity, similar to that of our first parents, unacquainted with wealth and luxury, the existence of learned societies in Europe, formed for the purpose of meliorating their condition and extending to them the advantages of knowledge and all the benefits of civilization, is to them a thing quite incomprehensible.
Ibrahim was not more sagacious than the other negroes. He did not solicit me directly, but pretended that he wished to purchase every thing; he coveted in particular, my baggage. He had brought a quantity of Guinea cloth and tobacco from Kakondy, but that did not prevent him from continually proposing to buy what I had. He alleged that my Guinea cloth was finer than his, and that the flavour of my tobacco was superior, though they were both of precisely the same quality. Sometimes he hinted to me that he was without trowsers, or that his coussabe was quite worn out; and in this way he suggested the necessity of purchasing what he wanted from me, in the hope that I should make him a present of it. While we were at Popoco, he took a fancy to a fine piece of muslin, which served me for a turban. He begged that I would sell it to him when we arrived at his village. I made him a present of it, and in return, he overwhelmed me with endless thanks.
I shall here relate an anecdote relative to my character of physician, which the Mandingoes made me assume in spite of myself.
On the 17th, I gave to a man, who had long solicited me, a dose of jalap for his wife, who he said, had the colic. He begged me to call and see her; I visited her and found her really in great pain. I made the husband promise to kill a fowl and make a refreshing broth of it, which she was to take after the jalap had operated. He came to me next day and told me that the medicine had operated very well, but that his wife still suffered from swelling of the abdomen, and begged me to give her a second dose. I supposed that this distension of the abdomen was the effect of irritation, in consequence of the jalap having been given in too great a quantity, and I told him that a second dose would probably do her a great deal of harm, and that it was necessary to let the patient have rest, and to give her the broth as I had directed. But I could not convince him. He alleged that there was a want of good-will on my part, and reiterated his request so earnestly that, for the sake of peace, I was obliged to substitute for the jalap a dose of cream of tartar, which I knew could do no harm; but the Mandingo perceived the difference, and would have jalap, insisting that it was better. Being unable to convince him, I again visited my patient. I was uneasy about the consequences of my jalap. However I diluted the cream of tartar, which she drank, and I ordered a mess of gruel to be made for her. Thus I became a physician, without having had for a moment the idea of assuming that character.
I was extremely desirous to set out as soon as possible for the country of Kankan, as I feared that I should be obliged to go to Timbo, to visit the almamy, and that I might there be discovered and arrested. It is true my skin had became so swarthy, by exposure to the sun, that I might very easily have passed for a Moor; I was nevertheless not disposed to incur the risk. My guide was employed in his husbandry labours, which were likely to detain him a month or two, and I by no means wished to wait for him so long. I therefore resolved to take advantage of the first opportunity which might occur for crossing the country which separates Fouta-Dhialon from the Kankan.