The want of a market renders this place extremely dull. Its long, crooked streets are very dirty, and contain pools of filthy water, through which we were obliged to wade mid-leg deep in mud. Around these pools the inhabitants grow herbs for their sauces. My supper, consisting of the liquor in which the goat was boiled, helped to recruit my strength, exhausted by travelling every day without intermission.
At seven o’clock in the morning of the 7th of February, we left Chesso, taking a N.E. direction. The soil was level and covered with ferruginous stones and gravel. The vegetation was similar to that which I observed on the preceding days, but I also saw some specimens of the rhamnus lotus. We continued our journey over a grey sandy soil, producing millet and various other things. A fresh breeze blew from the north, and I should have been glad to warm myself, my clothing being but slight and falling in tatters about me.
We arrived about nine in the morning at Pala, where we halted for the rest of the day. This little village has a well stocked market. I perceived in the neighbourhood many furnaces for smelting iron, which is found on the surface of the soil. I saw also the implement employed in the cultivation of the soil, the only one, I believe, with which these people are acquainted, for I saw no other. It is a hoe, a foot long and eight inches broad. The handle, which is about sixteen inches in length, slants very much. In reaping they make use of a sickle without teeth, as at Wassoulo.
At eight o’clock, on the morning of the 8th of February, we left Pala, and proceeded to the N.E. over a soil composed of white hard sand. The country is very open, but here and there are to be seen many mimosas and cés. The cé, which, as I have before stated, furnishes abundance of butter, grows spontaneously throughout the interior of Africa. It would thrive admirably in our American colonies, where its introduction would be a great service to humanity. To the inhabitants of those regions the gift of this useful plant would be more valuable than a mine of gold. It was nine o’clock in the morning when we arrived at Maconeau, a pretty village, containing from three to four hundred inhabitants, and situated in a well cultivated plain. Near the village there is a low hill, extending from N.W. to S.E.
On the 9th of February, at six in the morning, we directed our course N.E. and proceeded about a mile ascending the hill where I saw many white calcareous stones. We descended by a very difficult road into a fine, firm sandy plain, along which we proceeded five miles. Although our daily journeys had not been very long, I was nevertheless greatly fatigued. If, at times, I sat down while hot under a tree to rest awhile, I was instantly chilled by a cool wind. These sudden transitions caused those frequent colds which I may rank among the greatest miseries I suffered during my travels. In sleeping in the huts I experienced a similar inconvenience. The large fires which the negroes are accustomed to make occasioned a suffocating heat, and the wind penetrating through a badly closed door, chilled me with cold; I sometimes coughed so much that I could not sleep, and sat up part of the night; I occasionally adopted the plan of sleeping out of doors, in order to enjoy a more equal temperature, but from this I found little relief. I was exceedingly ill, and so hoarse that it was necessary to come very close to me to hear me speak.
We met a caravan of traders coming from Jenné, where they had purchased salt; they had with them some horses, which they had also bought at that place. About nine o’clock in the morning we halted at Couara, a pretty village, where we found an abundance of all the necessaries of life. The inhabitants grow a great deal of cotton and millet, and are supplied with water from a stream which runs E.N.E., half a mile from the village.
At eight o’clock in the morning of the 10th of February we quitted Couara, and crossed the river called Koraba which delayed us at least three hours. This river is narrow and deep, and its banks, which are very high and well wooded, are composed of a red argillaceous earth, mixed with sand, gravel, and fragments of rock. The current is very rapid. The Koraba makes great ravages during its inundations, sweeping away masses of earth, and enlarging its bed; in return for these encroachments, however, it fertilises the country. This river comes from the south and flows rapidly from N.E. to east; on its right bank there is a chain of hills extending from south to E.N.E. The natives and the Mandingo merchants assured me that this river passes Kayaye, a considerable town, where a well frequented market is held, five days’ journey N.N.W. of Couara, and that it falls into the Dhioliba in the neighbourhood of Ségo. The Koraba is navigable for vessels of from sixty to eighty tons; in the part which we crossed it was ten feet deep, and from fifty to sixty fathoms wide. It is called by some the Couaraba; several women from the village had stationed themselves on the bank of the river, to sell maumies. I bought some for my breakfast. We had two canoes to cross the river; the boatmen were very hard in their demands upon us; they made us pay in advance, and counted their cowries two or three times over, to be assured that we had not deceived them. I was impatient at this delay. The asses also gave us infinite trouble; it was necessary to make them swim over, for the canoes were too small to receive them; when they got into the middle of the river, these animals turned and would have gone back to the bank which they had just left. At length, one of the negroes, whose patience was worn out, put cords round the necks of the asses, and fastening the other end round his own waist, swam across, whilst the other Mandingoes, who were behind, beat the animals and thus forced them on. We reached the right bank without experiencing any other difficulty. I asked a Mandingo negress to give me some water in a calabash, and she was good enough to add a little millet-flour to it. It was near noon when we left the bank of the river and proceeded towards the N.E. over a clayey soil. The country in general was very open. I perceived some nauclea Africana. The soil is covered with ferruginous stones, and in every direction are to be seen hills of no great height, most of which extend from N.W. to east and are covered with cés, at least those which I saw. About half past two in the afternoon, having proceeded four miles and a half, we halted at Douasso a village shaded by numerous baobabs and bombaces. The wells, which were between twelve and fourteen feet deep, afforded clean and pleasant water.
The surrounding country is very level and covered with nédés. Part of our caravan remained at Couara, not being able to cross the river that day. We were to wait for them at this village. I visited the market, which I found supplied with fish, fresh and dried, a great deal of millet, some rice, pistachios, maumies, and plenty of cotton. The women of our caravan obtained some colat-nuts from their husbands, to purchase this last article. They spin it, and, as I said before, whatever profit it produces, is their own. I saw some persons weaving under trees. In the evening our host presented us with a fowl, some pistachios, and a fresh fish of the carp kind, which is very common in the marshes: to catch it, the natives use a basket made of the branches of a tree. My old guide, whose name was Kai-mou, returned thanks for the present by a long prayer, and after assuring our host that he would go to Mahomet’s paradise, he gave him eight colat-nuts, valued in that country at forty-eight cowries.
After supper I took my seat on a sheep-skin in the court, to enjoy the cool air. Here we saw a Mandingo merchant, a native of Kong, who was returning from Jenné to trade in salt. He was alone, and carried his merchandise on his head. I entered into conversation with him, and obtained all the information I could respecting his country. He told me that Kong, his native place, was a large town, the capital of a district, inhabited by Mahometan Mandingoes. From Douasso, where we were, he said it would take him a month and a half to travel to Kong, with his load on his head. I asked him in what direction his country lay, and he several times pointed to the S.S.E. and S. ¼ S.E. I had a pocket compass, which I was afraid to make use of, except when alone. Had it been seen, it would probably have brought me into trouble. In order to ascertain as correctly as I could the situation of Kong, as described by the Mandingo, I remarked attentively the place where he sat, and fixed upon an object near the point of the horizon, which he had indicated. Next morning, without being seen by any person, I satisfied myself of its situation. The merchant told me that, on his return, he should leave Tangrera on his left, and pass through a great trading village, inhabited as he said, by Mandingoes, and a month’s journey from Douasso; he called it Dierisso. From that place he said it would take fifteen days to reach Kong. He likewise told me that the soil of his country was level and sandy; but very productive in millet, rice, yams, cassava, giraumons, cés, nédés, baobabs, and other useful trees and plants, and that his countrymen were rich in oxen, sheep, goats, and poultry. They have also horses, which must be a small breed, for he compared them with those of the country in which we were.
I learned from my informant, that a market is held every day in the town of Kong. The country is watered by numerous small streams, but it contains no rivers. The people grow a great quantity of cotton, of which they manufacture beautiful cloth, highly esteemed in trade. There are no gold-mines in Kong. Gold is brought thither from Baunan, which is fifteen days’ journey further south.