On the 4th of June, at six in the morning, we left the banks of the Ba-ndiégué, and found the plain covered with a beautiful white narcissus. We took a very pleasant road to the south-east. About eight o’clock we seated ourselves under a large bombax to breakfast. In this part huts are erected for the accommodation of travellers, and I saw many cés in the neighbourhood. We now heard the sound of a drum proceeding from Saraya, the first village eastward of Baléya. After a good breakfast of rice and smoke-dried fish, we proceeded nine miles eastward over a sandy soil. The country is very open, and its uniform level is not broken by a single hillock. Having crossed the Ba-ndiégué by a tottering bridge made of the branches of trees, we reached Saraya about three in the afternoon.
In the plain in which this village is situated I saw some slaves at work preparing the ground. They had a drum to stimulate them at their labour. It was the beat of this drum that we heard in the morning. In some parts of Africa nothing is done except to the sound of music. Lamfia called to see a man of his acquaintance, who gave us one of his huts to lodge in. On hearing that an Arab sherif had arrived, the inhabitants thronged to see me. They gazed at me with great curiosity, and said that they had seen Soulocas[48] before; but none so white as I was. Lamfia told them my history, and our hut was full of visiters the whole evening. My umbrella, which I shewed them, strongly excited their curiosity. Those who went away, described the wonder to their friends, who came in their turn to get a peep at it. We made a good supper, which I purchased for about three charges of gunpowder.
We stopped the whole of the 5th of June at Saraya, in order to recover a little from our fatigue. My feet were very painful, for my sandals galled me.
I surveyed the village and its neighbourhood. It is surrounded by two earth walls, nine feet high, and eight or ten inches thick. The entrance gate is surmounted by a close range of loopholes for muskets. I also remarked a little sentry box, round which there were holes looking in every direction. This village, which is on the frontier of Baléya, is situated in a sandy plain, level, open, and fertile. I saw in the neighbourhood large bombaces, baobabs, nédés, and cés. Indigo grows here without cultivation, and is employed by the natives for dying their cloths. I shall hereafter describe the way in which they use it. Water is procured here from wells, two feet deep, and though rather thick, it is very pleasant to the taste. The negroes of Saraya, who are all Dhialonkés, came to see me during the day, and brought me little presents of milk, and the chief gave me a fowl, which we ate for supper. I gave Lamfia some glass trinkets to purchase rice and honey, as I wished to treat the people of our caravan. I observed that Lamfia kept some of the glass for himself; but this was a trifle which I did not think worth while to notice to him. I asked him to get the rice pounded, and made into cakes with the honey which I had bought and that which the people had given me. Lamfia and his wife mixed with their dirty hands the flour, honey, and powdered allspice. They made it into little cakes, which, after a great deal of kneading, were baked in the sun, and put into a little bag to be eaten on our journey. To add to my stock of provisions, I bought some salt, an article which was beginning to be very scarce and dear. I learned that the village of Foho, the residence of the chief of Baléya, was a day’s journey E.N.E. of Saraya. The people advised me not to go to Foho, “For,” said they, “the chief is not a Musulman, and he will make you pay transit duties.” In the neighbourhood of the village, I saw some ferruginous stones. I broke one, which contained many particles of iron. These stones are found on the surface of the soil. The inhabitants smelt them to make their agricultural implements, which consist merely of hoes, seven or eight inches long, and three broad. The ends are rounded, and the handles, which are two feet long, are much bent.
The village of Saraya contains a population of about seven or eight hundred. The inhabitants keep many cattle which at night are driven within the two walls that surround their village. I was informed that the great river flows at the distance of a day’s journey south of the village. Fish are caught in it, and, after being dried and smoked, they are used as sauce, and eaten with rice: they make them also an article of trade. The whole evening the young people of this village amused themselves by dancing to the sound of a tambourine, and a small instrument made of bamboo; their dances are sprightly and decorous. My guide and I paid a visit to the chief, who received us very kindly, and offered me a sheep-skin to sit upon. The door of his court was shaded by two bombaces. He afterwards sent us a very good supper of rice and gombo.
At half past six o’clock in the morning of the 6th of June, we proceeded four miles E.S.E., over a fine plain of sand. We passed Fausimoulaya, a village surrounded by a mud wall. The country was covered with cés and nédés. We crossed the Ba-ndiégué, which flows through a fine plain clothed with perpetual verdure. We advanced for two miles in the same direction, over a level plain, composed of red earth, with a great deal of gravel, and some red stone of the same kind as that of Sierra-Leone.
We entered the village of Sancougnan, in order to visit the chief, a ceremony which all travellers are obliged to observe. We found him lying on a large bullock’s hide, with his head resting on a log of wood. My guide told him that I was a sherif going to my native country, near Mecca. This chief, who was said not to be a very pious Musulman, gave us a very kind reception. He assigned to me a very good hut, and asked me to pass the next day in his village. Lamfia met with the son of the chief of Kankan, a zealous Musulman, who had come to Baléya to sell a horse. I was desirous of making acquaintance with him, and with this view I gave him a sheet of paper. He spoke favourably of me to the chief of Sancougnan, who, he said, was a great warrior, and not over-devout, and therefore might make me pay a considerable tribute for liberty to pass. After our interview, which took place in a stable, where he was lying beside his horse, we went to the hut which was destined for us. The mansa, or chief, soon sent me a calabash full of rice, mixed with milk and butter, and sprinkled with salt, which we ate for dinner. I took the precaution of circulating in the village a story calculated to serve my purpose. I said that Mr. Macaulay, a merchant at Sierra-Leone, well known through all this country, had wished me to remain in the English settlement, and for that purpose offered to advance me money to carry on trade; but that I rejected the offer on account of my strong dislike to live among infidels. When in the presence of the chief, I drew forth some leaves of the Koran, which I read aloud, to induce a belief that I was a very zealous Musulman. An old man of Bondou, who was settled in the village, took the leaves of the Koran out of my hands, and wishing to show his learning, he mumbled some words in a low tone, holding the leaves sometimes sideways, and sometimes upside-down. I was so imprudent as to remark upon this, and laugh a little at his ignorance. He was offended, and immediately returned me the leaves of the Koran. He remained with the chief until we were gone, and then he asserted that I was a christian, and not a sherif, as my guide had stated.
In the evening a storm came on, and it rained heavily all night. The chief sent us a supper of rice, cooked like the last. On the morning of the 7th of June we prepared to depart. Lamfia and myself, accompanied by the son of the chief of Kankan, went to see the mansa of Sancougnan, to whom I presented seven or eight charges of gunpowder and some leaves of tobacco; Lamfia added some colat-nuts, which we distributed among the relations of the chief. They were all in their smoky hut, on the walls of which were suspended bows, arrows, quivers, and lances. A jar for water, a bullock’s hide, and some mats, composed the whole furniture of the place.
We left the village about eight in the morning, and were soon after overtaken by the mansa, accompanied by the Mandingo of Kankan; the latter proved very serviceable to me on this occasion. The chief told us that the old Bondouké had assured him that I was a European, and not a Moor; that, moreover, I was too white for a Moor; and, that we certainly intended to deceive him, in order to evade the payment of the passage duties. Here my guide behaved exceedingly well: he assured the chief that I was a real Arab, a countryman of the Prophet’s, and a great sherif, supporting his assertions by the arguments which he had already employed to convince other incredulous persons whom he had met with. The Mandingo of Kankan strongly confirmed the declarations of Lamfia, who manifested much zeal, and asked the chief whether he had ever seen a christian read the Koran; the mansa concluded by saying, that he perceived the old Bondouké had spoken falsely, and that he had no longer any doubt of my being a sherif; then, offering me his hand in token of peace, he wished me a pleasant journey, and returned to the village. We continued our route to the east, over a soil composed of gravel and volcanic stones, black, brittle, and porous. As I went along I reflected on my imprudent behaviour to the old Bondouké, which had irritated him and induced him to seek revenge. I resolved in future to be more circumspect in my intercourse with the negroes, who, being ignorant, are naturally irritable and vindictive.
After travelling two miles, we arrived, at half-past nine in the morning, at Courouman-Cambaya, a village surrounded, like Sancougnan, with a double wall. It contains between five and six hundred inhabitants. My guide, who had many acquaintances in this village, assured me that I had nothing to fear: “These people,” said he, “will not take you for a christian, as they did there,” meaning at Sancougnan: “they wanted to get at your baggage, for they are Kaffres,[49] and but for the son of the chief of Kankan, we should not have come off so well.” We went to one of his school-fellows, who lodged us in a good hut. It was soon filled by people, attracted by curiosity to see a sherif. I was visited by a saracolet, who was on his way from Ségo to Kakondy: he addressed me in the Moorish tongue. I made him a small present of tobacco-leaves. We stopped at this village the whole of the 8th; Lamfia exchanged some salt for cloths. The heat, which had been suffocating throughout the day, was at night succeeded by a violent storm and heavy rain. On the 9th, we had to wait for several travellers who were to join us. Some persons brought me small presents of milk and a fowl, which served for our dinner. Our host was particularly attentive to us. The inhabitants were kind and hospitable: every evening by moonlight they assembled under a bombax to dance. I was much amused by seeing them caper to the sound of a little tambourine and an instrument made of bamboo, resembling a flageolet, and producing a very melodious tone.