Narrative of a Voyage to Senegal in 1816 Part 11

We had absolutely resolved to reach the point, where the river joins the downs. There some boats, which were coming up the river, were to take us on board, and convey us to St. Louis. When we had nearly reached this spot, we crossed the downs, and enjoyed the sight of the river which we had so long desired to meet with.

Happily too, it was the season when the water of the Senegal is fresh: we quenched our thirst at our pleasure. We stopped at last; it was only eight o'clock in the morning. We had no shelter during the whole day, except some trees, which were of a kind unknown to me, and which had a sombre foliage.

I frequently went into the river, but without venturing too far from the bank, for fear of the alligators.

About two o'clock, a small boat arrived; the master of it asked for Mr.

Picard; he was sent by one of the old friends of that gentleman, and brought him provisions and clothes for his family. He gave notice to us all, in the name of the English Governor, that two other boats loaded with provisions, were coming. Having to wait till they arrived, I could not remain with Mr. Picard's family. I know not what emotion arose in my soul when I saw the fine white bread cut, and the wine poured out, which would have given me so much pleasure. At four o'clock we also were able to eat bread and good biscuit, and to drink excellent Madeira, which was lavished on us with little prudence. Our sailors were drunk; even those among us who had been more cautious, and whose heads were stronger, were, to say the least, very merry. How did our tongues run as we went down the river in our boats! After a short and happy navigation, we landed at Saint Louis, about seven o'clock in the evening.

But what should we do? whither should we go? Such were our reflections when we set foot on sh.o.r.e. They were not of long duration. We met with some of our comrades belonging to the boats who had arrived before us, who conducted us, and distributed us among various private houses, where every thing had been prepared to receive us well. I shall always remember the kind hospitality which was shewn to us, in general, by the white inhabitants of St. Louis, both English and French. We were all made welcome; we had all clean linen to put on, water to wash our feet; a sumptuous table was ready for us. As for myself, I was received, with several of my companions, in the house of Messrs. Potin and Durecur, Merchants of Bordeaux. Every thing they possessed was lavished upon us.

They gave me linen, light clothes, in short, whatever I wanted. I had nothing left. Honour to him, who knows so well how to succour the unfortunate; to him especially who does it with so much simplicity, and as little ostentation as these gentlemen did. It seemed that it was a duty for them to a.s.sist every body. They would willingly have left to others no share in the good that was to be done. English officers eagerly claimed the pleasure, as they expressed it, of having some of the shipwrecked people to take care of. Some of us had feather beds, others good mattra.s.ses laid upon mats, which they found very comfortable. I slept ill notwithstanding, I was too much fatigued, too much agitated: I always fancied, myself either bandied about by the waves, or treading on the burning sands.(B)

[A11] XXI.--_On the Manufactures of the Moors_.

The Moors tan skins with the dried pods of the Gummiferous Accia: thus prepared, they are impenetrable to the rain, and it may be affirmed that, for their suppleness, as well as for the brilliancy and finesss of their grain, they might become a valuable fur in Europe, either for use or ornament. The most beautiful of these skins seemed to be those of very young goats, taken from the belly of the dam before the time of gestation is completed. The great numbers of these animals, which are found round all the inhabited places, allow the inhabitants to sacrifice many to this species of luxury, without any extraordiny loss. The cloaks, with a hood, which are mentioned in this memoir, are composed of several of these skins, ingeniously sewed together, with small and very fine seams. These garments, designed as a protection against the cold and the rain, are generally black, but some are also seen of a reddish colour, which are not so beautiful, and heavier these latter are made of the skins of the kind of sheep, known by the name of guinea-sheep, which have hair instead of wool.

As for the goldsmiths work, made by these people, it is executed by travelling workmen, who are at the same time armourers, smiths and jewellers. Furnished with a leather bag which is provided with an iron pipe, and filled with air, which they press and fill alternately, by putting it under their thigh, which they keep in constant motion, singing all the while; seated before a little hole dug in the sand, and under the shade of some leaves of the date-tree laid upon their heads, they execute on a little anvil, and with the help of a hammer, and some small iron awls, not only all kinds of repairs necessary to fire-arms, sabres, &c. but manufacture knives and daggers, and also make bracelets, earrings, and necklaces of gold, which they have the art of drawing into very fine wire, and forming into ornaments for women, in a manner which, though it wants taste, makes us admire the skill of the workman, especially when we consider the nature, and the small number of the tools which he employs.

The Moors, like the Mahometan negroes, are for the most part, provided with a larger or smaller number of _gris-gris_, a kind of talisman consisting in words, or verses copied from the Coran, to which they ascribe the power of securing them against diseases, witchcraft and accidents, and which they buy of their priests or Marabous. Some Spaniards from Teneriffe, who came to Cape Verd, at the time that the French Expedition had taken refuge there, struck us all, by their resemblance with these Africans. It was not only by their brown complexions that they resembled them; but it was also by their long rosaries, twisted in the some manner about their arms, resembling, except the cross, those of the Moors, and by the great number of Amulets, (_gris-gris_ of another kind) which they wear round their necks, and by which they seemed to wish to rival the infidels in credulity.

There is then, in the South of Europe, as well as in the North of Africa, a cla.s.s of men, who would found their authority, upon ignorance, and derive their authority from superst.i.tion.

[A12] XXII.--_On the Bark given to the Sick_.

The bark, which began to be administered at that time, had been damaged, but an attempt was made to supply the want of it by the bark which the negroes use to cure the dysentery, and which they bring from the environs of Rufisque. This bark, of which they made a secret, seems to come from some terebinthine plant, and perhaps, from the _monbins_, which are common on this part of the coast. In the winter fevers which prevail at Goree, Cape Verd, &c. two methods of cure were employed which had different effects. These fevers were often attended with cholic, spasms in the stomach, and diarrhea. The first method consisted in vomitting, purging, and then administering the bark, to which musk was sometimes added, when the disorder grew worse. In this case, when the disease did not end in death, the fever was often succeeded by dysentery, or those who believed themselves cured, were subject to relapses. The second method, which Doctor Bergeron employed with more success, was opposite to the former; he vomited the patients but little, or not at all, endeavouring to calm the symptoms, to strengthen the patient by bitters, and at the last, he administered the bark.[A13]

The Negroes who, like all other people, have a materia medica, and pharmacopeia of their own, and who at this season, are subject to the same disorders as the Europeans, have recourse at the very beginning, to a more heroic remedy, and such of our soldiers encamped at Daccard, as made use of it, in general found benefit from it. The Priest or Marabous, who often offered them the a.s.sistance of his art, made them take a large gla.s.s of rum-punch, very warm, with a slight infusion of cayenne pepper. An extraordinary perspiration generally terminated this fit. The patient then avoided, for some days, walking in the sun, and eat a small quant.i.ty of roasted fish and cous-cous, mixed with a sufficient quant.i.ty of ca.s.sia leaves of different species, to operate as a gentle purgative. In order to keep up the perspiration, or according to the Negro Doctor, to strengthen the skin, he applied from time to time, warm lotions of the leaves of the palma christi, and of ca.s.sia, (_ca.s.se puante_.) The use of rum, which is condemned by the Mahometan religion, and is a production foreign to this country, gives reason to suppose that the remedy is of modern date, among the Negroes.

[A13] It is to be observed that the author, in these two pa.s.sages, uses the word _Kina_ or Peruvian bark--T.

[A14] XXIII.--_On the Isle of St. Louis_.

St. Louis is a bank of scorching sand, without drinkable water or verdure, with a few tolerable houses towards the South, and a great number of low smoky straw huts, which, occupy almost all the North part. The houses are of brick, made of a salt clay, (_argile salee_) which the wind reduces to powder, unless they are carefully covered with a layer of chalk or lime, which it is difficult to procure, and the dazzling whiteness of which injures the eyes.

Towards the middle of this town, if it may be so called, is a large manufactory in ruins, which is honored with the name of a fort, and of which the English have sacrificed a part, in order to make apartments for the governor, and to make the ground floor more airy, to quarter troops in it.

Opposite is a battery of heavy cannon, the parapet of which covers the square, on which are some trees, planted in strait lines for ornament.

These trees are oleaginous Benjamins (_Bens Oleferes_) which give no shade, and ought to be replaced by tamarinds, or sycamores, which are common in this neighbourhood, and would thrive well on this spot. None but people uncertain of their privilege to trade on this river, merchants who came merely to make a short stay, and indolent speculators would have contented themselves with this bank of burning sand, and not have been tempted by the cool shades and more fertile lands, which are within a hundred toises, but which, indeed, labour alone could render productive. Every thing is wretched in this situation.

Saint Louis is but a halting place in the middle of the river, where merchants who were going up it to seek slaves and gum, moored their vessels, and deposited their provisions, and the goods they had brought with them to barter.

What is said in the narrative of the means of attacking this port, is correct. When the enemy have appeared, the Negroes have always been those who have defended it with the most effect. But unhappily, there, as in the Antilles, persons are already to be found, who are inclined to hold out their hands to the English.

At Louis there are some palm-trees, and the lantara flabelliformis. Some little gardens have been made; but a cabbage, or a salad, are still of some value. Want, the mother of industry, obliged some of the inhabitants, during the war, to turn their thoughts to cultivation, and it should be the object of the government to encourage them.

[A15] XXIV.--_On the Islands of Goree and Cape Verd_.

At the distance of 1200 toises from the Peninsula of Cape Verd, a large black rock rises abruptly, from the surface of the sea. It is cut perpendicularly on one side, inaccessible in two-thirds of its circ.u.mference, and terminates, towards the south, in a low beach which it commands, and which is edged with large stones, against which the sea dashes violently. This beach, which is the prolongation of the base of the rock, bends in an arch, and forms a recess, where people land as they can.

At the extremity of this beach is a battery of two or three guns; on the beach of the landing-place, is an epaulement, with embrasures which commands it. The town stands on this sand bank, and a little fort, built on the ridge of the rock, commands and defends it. In its present state, Goree could not resist a ship of the line. Its road, which is only an anchoring place in the open sea, is safe in the most stormy weather; but it is exposed to all winds except those that blow from the island, which then serves to shelter it.

The Europeans who desire to carry on the slave trade, have preferred this arid rock, placed in the middle of a raging sea, to the neighbouring continent, where they would find water, wood, vegetables, and in short, the necessaries of life. The same reason which has caused the preference to be given to a narrow and barren sand bank, in the middle of the Senegal to build St. Louis, has also decided in favor of Goree: it is, that both of them are but dens, or prisons, intended as a temporary confinement for wretches who, in any other situation, would find means to escape. To deal in men, nothing is wanting but fetters and jails, but as this kind of gain no longer exists, if it is wished to derive other productions from these possessions, and not to lose them entirely, it will be necessary to change the nature of our speculations, and to direct our views and our efforts to the continent, where industry and agriculture promise riches, the production of which humanity will applaud.

The point which seems most proper for an agricultural establishment, is Cape Belair, a league and a half to the leward of Goree: its soil is a rich black mould, lying on a bed of Lava, which seems to come from the Mamelles.

It is there that other large vegetables, besides the Baobabs, begin to be more numerous, and which, farther on, towards Cape Rouge, cover, like a forest, all the sh.o.r.es. The wells of Ben, which supply Goree with water, are but a short distance from it, and the lake of Tinguage, begins in the neighbourhood. This lake, which is formed, in a great measure, by the rain water of the Peninsula, contains a brackish water, which it is easy to render potable; it is inhabited by the Guesiks, or Guia-Sicks of the Yoloffes, or Black Crocodiles of Senegal; but it would be easy to destroy these animals. In September, this lake seems wholly covered with white nymphaea, or water-lilly, and in winter time it is frequented by a mult.i.tude of waterfowl, among which, are distinguished by their large size, die great pelican, the fine crested crane, which has received the name of the royal-bird, the gigantic heron, known in Senegambia by the venerable name of Marabou, on account of its bald head, with a few scattered white hairs, its lofty stature, and its dignified gait.

Considered geologically, the Island of Goree is a group of basaltic columns still standing, but a part of which seem to have experienced the action of the same cause of destruction and overthrow, as the columns of the same formation of Cape Verd, because they are inclined and overthrown in the same direction.

Cape Verd is a peninsula about five leagues and a half long; the breadth is extremely variable. At its junction, with the continent, it is about four leagues broad; by the deep recess which the Bay of Daccard forms, it is reduced, near that village, to 600 toises, and becomes broader afterwards.

This promontory, which forms the most western part of Africa, is placed, as it were, at the foot of a long hill, which represents the ancient sh.o.r.e of the continent. On the sea-sh.o.r.e, and towards the north-east, there are two hills of unequal height, which serve as a guide to mariners; and which, from the substances collected in their neighbourhood, evidently shew that they are the remains of an ancient volcano. They have received the name of Mamelles. From this place, to the western extremity of the Peninsula, the country rises towards the north-east, and terminates in a sandy beach on the opposite side.

Almost the whole north-side is composed of steep rocks, covered with large ma.s.ses of oxyd of iron, or with regular columns of basalt which, for the most part, still preserve their vertical position. Their summits, which are sometimes scorified, seem to prove that they have been exposed to a great degree of heat. The soil which covers the plateau, formed by the summit of the Basaltic columns, the sides of which a.s.sume towards the Mamelles, the appearance of walls of Trapp, but already, in a great degree, changed into tuf, is arid and covered with briars. The soil of the Mamelles, like almost all that of the middle of the Peninsula, which appears to lie upon argillaceous lava, in a state of decomposition, is much better. There are even to be found, here and there, some spots that are very fertile; this is the arable land of the inhabitants. Towards the south, all resumes more or less, the appearance of a desert; and the sands, though less dest.i.tute of vegetable mould, extend from thence to the sea-sh.o.r.e. It is by manuring the land, with the dung of their cattle, that the Negroes raise pretty good crops of sorgho. The population of this peninsula may be estimated at ten thousand souls. It is entirely of the Yoloffe race, and shews much attachment to all the ceremonies of Islamism. The Marabous or Priests, sometimes mounted on the top of the Nests of the Termites, or on the walls surrounding their mosque, call the people several times a-day to prayer.

The social state of this little people, is a kind of republic governed by a senate, which is composed of the chiefs of most of the villages. They have taken from the Coran the idea of this form of government, as is the case with most of those, established among the nations who follow that law.

At the time of the expedition of the Medusa this senate was composed as follows:

Moctar, supreme chief resident of Daccard.

Diacheten, chief of the village of Sinkieur.

Phall Yokedieff.

Tjallow-Talerfour Graff.

Mouim Bott.

Bayemour Kaye.

Modiann Ketdym.

Mamcthiar Symbodioun.

Ghameu Wockam.

Diogheul, chief of the village of Gorr.

Baindonlz Yoff.

Mofall Ben.

Schenegall Bambara.

This tribe was formerly subject to a Negro King in the neighbourhood; but having revolted against him, though very inferior in numbers, it defeated his army a few years ago. The bones of the vanquished, that still lie scattered on the plain, attest the victory. A wall, pierced with loop-holes, which they erected in the narrowest part of the Peninsula, and which the enemy was unable to force, chiefly contributed to their success.

The Yolloffes are in general handsome and their facial angle has hardly any thing of the usual deformity of the Negroes. Their common food is cous-cous, with poultry, and above all fish; their drink is brackish water, mixed with milk and sometimes with palm wine. The poor go on foot, the rich on horseback, and some ride upon bulls, which are always very docile, for the Negroes are eminently distinguished by their good treatment of all animals. Their wealth consists in land and cattle; their dwellings are generally of reeds, their beds are mats made of _Asouman_ (maranta juncea) and leopards' skins; and their cloathing broad pieces of cotton. The women take care of the children, pound the millet, and prepare the food; the men cultivate the land, go a hunting and fishing, weave the stuff for their clothes, and gather in the wax.

Revenge and idleness seem to be the only vices of these people; their virtues are charity, hospitality, sobriety, and love of their children. The young women are licentious, but the married women are generally chaste and attached to their husbands. Their diseases among the children, are worms, and umbilical hernia; among the old people, and particularly those who have travelled much, blindness and opthalamia; and among the adult, affections of the heart, obstructions, sometimes leprosy, and rarely elephantiasis.

Among the whole population of the Peninsula, there is only one person with a hunch back, and two or three who are lame. During the day they work or rest; but the night is reserved for dancing and conversation. As soon as the sun has set, the tambourine is heard, the women sing; the whole population is animated; love and the ball set every body in motion.

"_Africa dances all the night_," is an expression which has become proverbial among the Europeans who have travelled there.

There is not an atom of calcareous stone in the whole country: almost all the plants are twisted and th.o.r.n.y. The Monbins are the only species of timber that are met with. The th.o.r.n.y asparagus, A. retrofractus, is found in abundance in the woods; it tears the clothes, and the centaury of Egypt p.r.i.c.ks the legs. The most troublesome insects of the neighbourhood are gnats, bugs, and ear-wigs. The monkey, called cynocephalus, plunders the harvests, the vultures attack the sick animals, the striped hyoena and the leopard prowl about the villages during the night; but the cattle are extremely beautiful, and the fish make the sea on this coast boil, and foam by their extraordinary numbers. The hare of the Cape and the gazell are frequently met with. The porcupines, in the moulting season, cast their quills in the fields, and dig themselves holes under the palm trees. The guinea-fowl (Pintada), the turtle-dove, the wood-pigeon are found every where. In winter immense flocks of plovers of various species, are seen on the edges of the marshes, and also great numbers of wild ducks. Other species frequent the reeds, and the surface of the water is covered with geese of different kinds, among which is that whose head bears a fleshy tubercle like that of the ca.s.sowary. The fishing nets are made of date leaves; their upper edge is furnished, instead of cork, with pieces of the light wood of the _Asclepias_.--The sails of the canoes are made of cotton.

Several shrubs, and a large number of herbaceous plants of this part of Africa, are found also in the Antilles. But among the indigenous plants, are the Cape Jessamine, the _Amaryllis Rubannee_, the Scarlet Hoemanthus, the Gloriosa Superba, and some extremely beautiful species of _Nerions_. A new species of Calabash, (Crescentia) with pinnated leaves is very common.

Travellers appear to have confounded it with the Baobab, on account of the shape of its fruits, the thickness of its trunk, and the way in which its branches grow. Its wood, which is very heavy and of a fallow colour, has the grain and smell of ebony: its Yoloffe name is Bonda, the English have cut down and exported the greatest part of it.

In short, Africa, such as we have seen it either on the banks of the Senegal or the Peninsula of Cape Verd, is a new country, which promises to the naturalist an ample harvest of discoveries, and to the philosophical observer of mankind, a vast field for research and observation. May the detestable commerce in human flesh, which the Negroes abhor, and the Moors desire, cease to pollute these sh.o.r.es! It is the only means which the Europeans have left to become acquainted with the interior of this vast continent, and to make this great portion of the family of mankind, by which it is inhabited partic.i.p.ate in the benefits of civilization.

[1] The _Medusa_ was armed en flute, having only 14 guns on board; it was equipped at Rochefort with the _Loire_.

[2] Equipped at Brent.

[3] Came from L'Orient.

[4] The town of Cha.s.siron is on the point of Oleron, opposite a bank of rocks called _Les Antiochats_.