We stopped about nine o’clock at Tiara, a village surrounded by a wall. A little before we reached it, we crossed a small river, which supplies the inhabitants with water. The village is shaded by bombaces and baobabs, and the inhabitants cultivate tobacco in the gardens surrounding their huts. The market is not well stocked, and we had a good deal of difficulty to procure millet for our supper. In the evening a man belonging to our caravan came to me joyfully and told me that we were going to Jenné. At first, I thought he was jesting with me, but my guide Karamo-osila came soon afterwards to inform me that it was determined we should take that direction, because there were already too many merchants going to Sansanding. Our caravan was indeed, exceedingly numerous. I cannot express the gratification I felt at this happy news, for it was not without great reluctance that I had resolved to take the road to Sansanding, a course which thwarted all my plans, and deprived me of all chance of visiting Timbuctoo. I made my guide a present, as a token of the pleasure I felt at his resolution, and purchased a fowl that we might have a good supper. As my companions had before declined accepting any part of the poultry I bought for myself, for fear of depriving me of it, I insisted on their taking this whole of the fowl; but yet, at supper time, my guide himself brought me my portion of it.
I saw in this village a very large tree, the branches of which were fringed with small roots. At Tangrera I had observed a similar one. It also grows in the island of Saint-Louis in the Senegal. This tree, which is a species of ficus indica, is milky and viscous; the natives hold their banancoro in its shade.
On the 24th of January, at six in the morning, the chief part of our company took a N.W. direction, on their way to Sansanding. We took the road to Jenné, proceeding four miles to the N.E. over a very smooth soil, composed of hard grey sand, covered with ferruginous stones. We crossed several small streams, the water of which reached to our knees. The vegetation did not vary much; but I observed a tree which is common in the neighbourhood of the Senegal; it bears a round and rather flat fruit, and of the size of a golden rennet. It has a grey pellicle, and the pulp, of which the negroes are very fond, is of a greenish colour. The kernel is fibrous, and the leaves of the tree are pinnate, and as large as those of the ash. The negroes use the bark in distempers, employing it as a caustic. About nine in the morning, we arrived at Douasso, where we stopped. It is a small village without walls, containing about two hundred, or two hundred and fifty inhabitants.
I experienced great pain in my palate, for the sores occasioned by the scurvy, were not yet healed. During the halt, I kept myself apart from my companions, being unwilling that they should witness my sufferings, or the painful operations which I was myself obliged to perform, having no one capable of rendering me those disagreeable services. I drew from my palate a bone, which was connected with the skull. I asked my guide to procure some of the astringent, which the natives employ in such disorders. He immediately ordered one of his women to prepare me some and I used it with success.
Throughout all this part of Africa, even on this side of Baléya, the negroes place hives in the trees, for bees to settle in. They collect a great quantity of honey, of which they are very fond. These hives are made of the bark of trees, and covered with straw. I saw several green trees, entirely stripped of the bark for this purpose. In the environs of the village, millet and maize are cultivated. Markets are not held daily, but some women came and sold us millet and pistachio-nuts for supper.
On the 25th of January, at six in the morning, we proceeded northward, at first over a sandy and well cultivated tract, and afterwards over a soil composed of red earth covered with gravel, and having ferruginous stones on the surface. This country is full of cés and nédés. We met a caravan of Mandingo merchants coming from Kayaye, where they had been buying salt. They had with them many asses, and the animals were adorned with fine scarlet bridles, which are sold in the markets on the banks of the Dhioliba. These bridles were studded with cowries, and bells; each ass had about fifty bells attached to his collar, so that their approach was audible from some distance. The salt appeared to me to be rather dark in colour, and very coarse in the grain. It was made up in cakes of two feet and a half long, one foot broad and two inches thick. An ass generally carries four of these cakes, and a negro two and a half; the women carry only two, but their burthen is augmented by calabashes and cooking utensils.
About nine in the morning, we reached Siracana, a large walled village, containing from six to eight hundred inhabitants. It is situated in an open plain. The soil, composed of grey earth, mixed with a good deal of sand, is in the proper season well cultivated. On my arrival, the Bambara at whose hut we went to put up would not let me in, because I was white, and therefore, he said, I might bring him ill luck. I sat down on a stone near the hut; and here I waited exposed to the heat of a burning sun, until my guide and three other Mandingoes succeeded in bringing the simple and superstitious Bambara to reason. They gave him a glowing account of my adventures, and the manner in which I had been carried off by the christians. They told him that I was now on my return to my own country, near Mecca; that it would be a meritorious action to receive me, and that those who treated me well would go straight to paradise. The negro, convinced by these powerful arguments, admitted me into his hut, where I, as well as my companions, enjoyed the benefit of the shade. The negro was doubtless delighted by the assurance he had received of going to paradise, for in the evening he and some of his friends came to see me, and sitting down by me, they gazed at me attentively. He begged me to excuse the reception I had met with in the morning, which he said was entirely owing to a mistake, for he at first supposed I was a christian. He afterwards requested me to accept a fowl for my supper.
I saw in this village a female trader and manufacturer, a native of Ségo. She bought cotton and employed her slaves in spinning it. I visited the market, which appeared very dull; it was scantily supplied, and we had some difficulty in procuring millet for our supper. I saw in the market, cotton, earthen utensils, tobacco, and the fried cakes called maumies: the latter were sold by women, whose dirty appearance was by no means calculated to tempt customers. There were not altogether more than thirty women in the market, which was held under a great bombax. Though there were some cattle in the village, yet we could procure no milk. There were in some of the huts beds formed of three or four trunks of trees, raised a little above the ground; we had one of these beds in our hut. Between the trunks of the trees, a small intervening space is left, into which I crept with the intention of taking a nap; but I found myself so uncomfortable, that I was glad to stretch myself on the floor, covered with my wrapper.
On the 26th of January, at six in the morning, we set out in the direction of E.N.E. We passed a small marsh, which, being dried up, afforded pasture for a few sheep. We also forded a river, which runs into the Dhioliba; the water was more than knee-deep at the part where we crossed. We pursued our course over a sandy gravelly soil, the country presenting one uniform aspect for the space of four or five miles. About eight in the morning we arrived at Sounibara, a small village, containing a population of about two or three hundred. Not being able to procure provisions here, we made no halt. After leaving the village, we passed some wells, fifteen or sixteen feet deep. The ground in which they were dug was composed of a reddish kind of sand, mixed with much gravel. I also observed veins of grey argillaceous earth mixed with gravel, about two feet and a half thick: the earth nearest to the water was argillaceous, and contained some flints. These wells afford abundance of good water, but it has a whitish tint from the clay. We saw a number of women employed in washing their pagnes. They draw the water from the wells in small calabashes, attached to ropes made of the bark of trees; and other calabashes of larger size served them to wash in. I saw that they used a kind of soap, called in the country saboune or safnan. These names are known throughout the interior, from the Senegal to Bondou, Caarta, and Cason. The Brakna Moors call their soap sabon. All these words bear a strong resemblance to the French savon.[60] The Bambara washerwomen, whom I have just mentioned, were stark naked, yet they manifested no shame at being seen in this state by the men composing our caravan.
We advanced three miles to the south, over a soil composed of grey sand and gravel. We halted at Fara about one in the afternoon. The country over which we had travelled was one immense forest of cés. In this part the cé surpasses every other tree in abundance, and the natives carry on a considerable trade in the butter which they obtain from it. They take it to Jenné, where they sell it to the caravans which stop at that town. In all the inhabited places through which I passed, I saw women carrying calabashes filled with this butter, some of which I often purchased. The price of a pound was forty cowries (about four French sous). The negro, whose business it was to provide millet for the whole caravan, on his return from the market informed us that it was much dearer than it had been for several preceding days. The expenses of each meal for our party, consisting of fifteen or sixteen persons, had usually been about eighty cowries: in the village of Fara, it amounted to thirty more. I was informed that the further we advanced towards Jenné, the dearer we should find provisions. Their high price is occasioned by the number of merchants travelling this way.