Courouassa is a neat village, surrounded by a mud wall, from ten to twelve feet high and from eight to ten inches thick. It contains between four and five hundred inhabitants. I observed that thousands of swallows, of the same kind as those seen in Europe, had built their nests in this wall. They were collected in flocks upon the trees, and I concluded that they were preparing to depart.
Courouassa is entered by several low and narrow openings which are closed by a thick plank made of a single tree. The town is shaded by bombaces and baobabs, and it is the principal of five small villages situated on the banks of the Dhioliba. This country is called Amana; the inhabitants are called Dhialonkés, and are chiefly idolaters. They do not travel, but occupy themselves peaceably in the cultivation of their little fields, which are fertilised by the inundations of the river. They catch many fish with hooks, which they obtain from travellers coming from our settlements on the coast. They likewise fish with the fouène, an instrument consisting of three branches with darts having teeth like a saw. A large piece of wood forms the handle of this instrument, which the natives use with great address. I saw a species of fish with a number of small bones like the carp. The people dry and smoke this fish, and sell it to their neighbours and the traders who pass through their country.
Bouré is situated at the distance of a five days’ passage down the river, in a canoe. The voyage is thus divided: from Courouassa to Cabarala one day; from Cabarala to Balatou one day; from Balatou to the village of Dhioliba one day; from Dhioliba to Boun-Bouriman, one day; from Boun-Bouriman to Bouré, proceeding a little way up the Tankisso, one day.
Bouré is a mountainous country, containing a number of rich gold mines, according to the account given to me by the natives. I shall speak of it more at length in the proper place. I went, accompanied by my guide, to pay a visit to the chief, who I was told, was a great warrior and dreaded by his neighbours. We found him alone in his hut employed in fastening a point to an arrow. A number of bows, arrows, and quivers, were hung up in various parts of the hut. He asked us to sit down on a bullock’s hide, and Lamfia conversed with him. The conversation turned on me. He promised that we should cross the river next day. Travellers are rowed across by his slaves. He levies duties which are paid in European merchandise, such as gunpowder, tobacco, knives, scissors, &c. He also receives salt in payment of these duties, which render him tolerably rich. He told me that, out of respect to my rank of sherif, he would allow me to pass duty free. The chief was a man about fifty years of age, five feet and some inches high. His countenance was mild, nay even pleasing.
On returning to our hut, we bought some fresh fish for supper. It was of the kind resembling the carp, which I have already mentioned. It measures about eight inches long and four or five broad, and is very bony. The general food of the inhabitants is boiled rice without salt, but seasoned with a sauce made of dry fish minced. They also eat fresh fish. With the foigné they make a sort of thick pudding, which they call tau. This is the sangleh of the Senegal. They eat this tau with a sauce made of herbs or pistachio-nuts; the latter they cultivate very abundantly. As salt is beginning to be dear, they use it on festivals and rejoicing days only. They gather the fruit of the cé and nédé, from which they obtain butter. I saw some heaps of the seeds of these trees freshly gathered and exposed to the rain. They were already beginning to germinate.
On the 13th of June, we crossed the river in canoes, twenty-five feet long, three wide, and one deep. A great number of people were going across, and they were all disputing, some about the fare that was demanded, others about who should go first. They all talked at once and made a most terrible uproar. The saracolets had a great deal of trouble in getting their asses on board the canoes, and the parties who had crossed fired muskets in token of rejoicing, which augmented the tumult created by the disputes of the negroes. I was obliged to remain exposed to the sun the whole morning; for the banks of the river are very open. Along the left bank but one tree was visible. This was a large bombax, under which so many people had crowded for shade that I could not find room. I saw a number of women and girls bathing in the river. They were quite naked, but they seemed to care very little about the presence of the men. Having finished their ablutions, they returned to the village, with pagnes round their waists and calabashes on their heads. There were only four canoes for conveying between two hundred and fifty and three hundred persons, besides luggage. We were not all landed on the right bank until near eleven o’clock. The excessive heat had brought on me a severe head-ache accompanied with fever. We proceeded onwards to the S.E. over good land, leaving behind us a few merchants who had not yet crossed the river. I was so ill that I experienced great difficulty in walking. The heat was intense, and I opened my umbrella to shelter me from the scorching rays of the sun; but some of my travelling companions advised me to shut it on approaching the villages, lest, as they said, it should excite the cupidity of the Kafirs (infidels). We proceeded eastward. The road was flooded, and in several places the water was ancle-deep. We passed Sambarala, a village situated on the bank of the river and surrounded by nédés and cés. We next pursued our course over a sandy soil, clothed with beautiful vegetation, among which I observed tamarind-trees. About three o’clock we arrived at Counancodo, where I saw some fine orange-trees. We had travelled nine miles in the course of the day.
I told Lamfia that I wished to procure a few tamarinds, as I was very feverish. He immediately sent his brother to gather some in the neighbouring wood; but the brother, not understanding what I meant, brought the leaves instead of the fruit. We could procure no milk, for the saracolets had gone before us and bought all that the village afforded. My fever had continued without intermission the whole of the way. For a little powder I bought a fowl, in order to recruit my strength. Our caravan consisted of sixty or eighty men, some carrying loads, others leading asses, and very few walking free from all encumbrance. One of our companions had a slave, whom he said he had procured at Sierra-Leone. He feared that he intended to desert, and begged me to write an amulet to prevent him. The man was very earnest in his request, and offered immediately to furnish me with ink and paper. However, as I did not wish to write European characters, for fear of exciting suspicion, I observed that having left my country very young I did not know how to make grigris, and I begged him to apply to some one more learned than I. Next day I saw the poor slave bearing on his head a burthen which he could scarcely carry, fastened to a rope the other end of which was tied round his leg, so that it was out of his power to run away; for his prudent and suspicious master took care that he should not have a knife to cut the rope.
Our host sent us a good supper of rice, which I added to my fowl. All the evening, and indeed till night was pretty well advanced, the young negroes and negresses amused themselves by dancing to the sound of the tomtom. Their dancing was more decorous than that of the Wolof negroes in the neighbourhood of the Senegal.
On the 14th of June, at seven in the morning, our caravan proceeded onward in the direction of E.S.E. After travelling three miles, we passed near the river, and advanced six miles eastward. We then turned half a mile to the north, to reach the village of Fessadougou, where we halted about noon. This village, which contains a population of about three or four hundred, is situated on the bank of a river, about half the width of the Dhioliba at Courouassa. I at first conjectured that it was a branch of that river; but I observed that the direction of its current, which flowed at the rate of about three miles and a half an hour, was from south to north. The Mandingoes informed me that it falls into the Dhioliba, not far from this place. The river is called the Yendan; its banks are for the most part low and open, but, about six miles from the village, there are, on both sides, some little hills. Fessadougou is a part of the Sangaran.
Our road, during the day, was partly sandy, and partly covered with red porous stones. The country is thickly overgrown with large trees, which renders it exceedingly pleasant. In the neighbourhood of Fessadougou, the cé and the nédé are very abundant; indeed, they are the only trees reared by cultivation, and they are highly useful to the inhabitants. In the vicinity of the village I saw tilled land in very good order. Our host sent us a supper.