Perils and Captivity Part 8

It is made by first moistening the flour with water, and then stirring and shaking it about in a large calabash, or gourd, till it adheres together in small granules, resembling sago. It is then put into an earthen pot, whose bottom is perforated with a number of holes; and this pot being placed upon another, the two vessels are luted together, either with a paste of meal and water, or cow-dung, and placed upon the fire. In the lower vessel is commonly some animal food and water, the steam or vapour of which ascends through the perforations in the bottom of the upper vessel, and softens and prepares the kouskous, which is very much esteemed throughout all the countries that I visited. I am informed, that the same manner of preparing flour is very generally used on the Barbary coast, and that the dish so prepared is there so called by the same name. It is therefore probable, that the Negroes borrowed the practise from the Moors.

For gratifying a taste for variety, another sort of pudding, called _realing_, is sometimes prepared from the meal of corn; and they have also adopted two or three different modes of dressing their rice. Of vegetable food, therefore, the natives have no want; and although the common cla.s.s of people are but sparingly supplied with animal food, yet this article is not wholly withheld from them.--Park's Travels, in 1795, 1796, and 1797, pp. 10, 11. Lond. 1799, 4to.

NOTE B, p. 103.

I cannot withhold the following notice of the worthy Major's death, extracted from a work lately published, ent.i.tled Travels, in Western Africa, in the years 1818, 1819, 1820 and 1821, by Major William Gray.

Lond. 1825, 8vo.

"On that day (24th December) Major Peddie was attacked with a violent fever, from which he experienced little relief until the morning of the 1st of January 1817, when, thinking himself better, he left his bed, but was soon obliged to resume it, and in a few hours breathed his last.

"This was a sad commencement of the new year, and the melancholy event cast a heavy gloom on the minds of every individual connected with the expedition. It made so deep an impression on some, that it was with much difficulty they could be prevailed on not to abandon the enterprise.

Never was a man more sincerely beloved, nor more truly regretted, by all who knew him. His remains were deposited, amidst the heartfelt regrets of his friends and companions, on the following day, in the court-yard of Mr Beatman, under the shade of two orange-trees; and an appropriate epitaph, written by Captain Campbell, and carved on a slab of native mahogany, was placed on his grave." pp. 67.

NOTE C, p. 108.

When we had reached the other side of the river, they drew the piroque on land. This is the only way that the people of the country have to secure their little boats, which the surge would instantly fill, when they cannot cast anchor at a sufficient distance from the sh.o.r.e.

This manuvre did not occupy a long time, and I bent my steps to the village of Sor. I was kindly welcomed as usual; and I requested them to point out to me the best place for hunting; for I had that day left my interpreter, because I had gained a sufficient knowledge of the language of the country to understand all that the negroes said to me, and to make myself understood by them. They led me in a direction whence I had seen a troop of antelopes scamper off; but I thought no more of the chase after I had seen a tree, the enormous dimensions of which completely rivetted my attention. It was a calabash tree, otherwise called the monkey-bread tree, which the Woloffs call _goui_ in their language. Its height was nothing extraordinary, being but about sixty feet; but its trunk was of prodigious dimensions. I spanned it thirteen times with my arms stretched out, but it was more; and, for greater exactness, I at last measured it with twine, and found its circ.u.mference to be sixty-five feet, its diameter consequently nearly twenty-two feet.

I believe there has never been any thing seen equal to it in any country; and, I am persuaded that, had our ancient travellers known it, they would not have failed to have included it among the wonders of the world. It is also very astonishing that this tree has been totally neglected by those who have given us the history of Senegal, especially as there are but few common to the country.

The trunk of the one which I saw was twenty-two feet in diameter, about eight or twelve feet in height, with many branches, some of which stretched out horizontally, and touched the ground with their tops.

These were very large, some being about forty-five or fifty-five feet in length. Each branch would have made one of the largest trees in Europe; and the tout ensemble of the monkey-bread tree looked less like a single tree than a forest. This was not all. The negro who conducted me took me to a second, which was sixty-three feet in circ.u.mference, that is twenty-one feet in diameter, and appeared to be about one hundred and ten feet in length, without counting the root which was concealed under the waters of a neighbouring river, the depth of which I had no means of ascertaining. The same negro told me of a third which was not far from the place where we were, and added that, without leaving the island, I would see a great many more which were not much inferior in size, pp.

54, 55.--Histoire Naturelle du Senegal; avec le Relation abregee d'un Voyage fait en ce Pays, pendant les annees, 1749, 1750, 1751, 1752 and 1753. Par M. Adanson, Correspondant de l'Academie Royale des Sciences, Paris, 1757, 4to.

It was night before we reached Cogne. Our route was bordered with gum-trees, the yellow flowers of which, arranged in circular bunches, spread a delicious perfume. We also saw some _rates_. The bark of this tree yields a yellow dye; its leaf is without indentation, and of a beautiful green; it is not very high; the wood is white, and the bark is easily reduced to powder. This was the first time that I saw the baobab, that enormous tree which has been described by Adanson, and which bears his name. I measured one, and found it to be forty feet in circ.u.mference. Stripped at this time of its foliage, it resembled an immense wooden tower. This majestic ma.s.s is the only monument of antiquity to be met with in Africa. I am astonished that the negroes have not paid to this tree the same honours that the Druids did to the oak; for to them the baobab is perhaps the most valuable of vegetables.

Its leaves are used for leaven, its bark furnishes indistructible cordage; and the bees form their hives in the cavities of its trunk. The negroes, too, often shelter themselves from storms in its time-worn caverns. The baobab is indisputably the monarch of African trees, p.

41.--Travels in the interior of Africa, to the sources of the Senegal and Gambia, by G. Mollien. Lond. 1820, 4to.

Mollien was one of the shipwrecked in the Medusa, and who got to the sh.o.r.es of the desert in the boats.--_Trans._

NOTE D, p. 110.

The kingdom of Kajaaga, in which I was now arrived, is called by the French Gallam; but the name that I have adopted is universally used by the natives.--Park's Travels, c. v. p. 1.

NOTE E, p. 111.

About eight o'clock, we pa.s.sed a large town called Kabba, situated in the midst of a beautiful and highly cultivated country; bearing a greater resemblance to the centre of England, than what I should have supposed had been the middle of Africa. The people were everywhere employed in collecting the fruit of the Shea-trees, from which they prepare the vegetable b.u.t.ter, mentioned in a former part of this work.

These trees grow in great abundance all over this part of Bambaraa. They are not planted by the natives, but are found growing naturally in the woods; and, in clearing wood-land for cultivation, every tree is cut down but the Shea. The tree itself very much resembles the American oak; and the fruit, from the kernel of which, being first dried in the sun, the b.u.t.ter is prepared by boiling the kernel in water, has somewhat the appearance of a Spanish olive. The kernel is enveloped in a sweet pulp, under a thin green rind; and the b.u.t.ter produced from it, besides the advantage of its keeping the whole year without salt; is whiter, firmer, and, to my palate, of a richer flavour, than the best b.u.t.ter I ever tasted made from cows' milk. The growth and preparation of this commodity seem to be among the first objects of African industry in this and the neighbouring states; and it const.i.tutes a main article of their inland commerce.--Park's Travels, pp. 202, 203.

II.

NARRATIVE OF THE CAPTIVITY OF M. DE BRISSON IN THE DESERTS OF AFRICA, IN THE YEAR 1785.

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH.

After making several voyages to Africa, which had been attended with much difficulty, trouble and loss, I received orders, in the month of June 1785, from Mons. le Marechal de Castries, Minister and Secretary of the Marine Department, to embark for the island of St Louis, in Senegal, in the Ship St Catherine, Captain le Turc commander, the same officer who gained so great a character last war, when commander of the Flessinguois.

Having examined all the coasts from France to the Canary Islands, on the 10th of July following, we pa.s.sed between these isles and that of Palma, about three o'clock in the afternoon.

Previous to our leaving France, I had taken care to apprise the Captain of the danger to which we should be exposed, in these lat.i.tudes, from the violence of the currents. I remarked to him, that every time I had pa.s.sed that way, I found cause to fear our being windbound on the coasts of Barbary. This advice, the result of experience, should have met with attention from Captain le Turc; I therefore again repeated it, the moment I perceived the sea began to a.s.sume a clearer tinge, and inquired if he did not intend to sound. _What are you afraid of?_ said he, _the land! we are more than eighty leagues from it._

Allow me here to express my disapprobation of that immoderate self-conceit and confidence, for which the captains of trading vessels, especially those who visit these coasts, are so remarkable. However important an advice may be, they are not disposed to pay any regard to it; and of whatever kind the impending dangers appear, so much confidence have they in their own abilities, that they are better pleased to repair damage than prevent it.

The under captain made me a very similar reply with his superior. Alas!

too soon they experimentally found my fears were far from groundless!

At midnight, I was awakened by a violent motion of the ship, and, thinking we were aground, I immediately leaped on deck. Judge my surprise, when I observed a kind of creek formed by the rocks. The mariners were all sound asleep. I quickly awaked them:--_Save yourselves_, cried I, _we are near the sh.o.r.e!_ The captain got up in great consternation; and in his alarm, in which his officers partook, ordered them to steer towards the rocks. The vessel thus directed, and hurried at the same time by the force of contending currents, struck thrice on the sands, and remained immoveable.

Suddenly a horrid cry was heard; the masts were shaken; and the sails being violently shattered, were torn to pieces. The terror became universal, and the cries of the mariners were blended with the horrid noise of the roaring waves, enraged as it were that their course should be stopped by the rocks and the vessel, between which they were to pa.s.s.

So great was the consternation that no one thought of doing any thing for his preservation. O, my wife!--O, my children!--they cry to one another, raising their hands to heaven. Meantime, they cut the masts by the board, in order, if possible, to right the ship. Vain trouble--the cabin is already filled with water.

In this dismal situation, I made up to the Captain, who, in his perplexity, could pay attention to nothing. It was but eighteen months before, that Captain Ca.s.sin had experienced a similar accident near Cape Blanc. In his desperation, he had occasioned the loss of many unhappy wretches by blowing out his own brains. I began to fear that Captain le Turc might act in the same manner, and that we should lose him too. I therefore besought him to have patience, and endeavoured to raise his spirits and courage, but in vain. We had without doubt perished, if M.

Yan, his first lieutenant, M. Suret, a pa.s.senger, three English sailors and some others, encouraged by my example, had not a.s.sisted in throwing over the long boat into the sea, and preventing it afterwards from being broken to pieces against the ship, or sunk. We were compelled to struggle the whole night with a boisterous sea, in hopes that, when day appeared, we might effect a landing on the coast, and shun the rocks which surrounded us on every side.

Having taken every precaution, I went into the boat with a few of the sailors, and desired they would throw to us some ropes from the ship, to moor our boat, by which means they might pull the boat again to the vessel, in case we were lucky enough to get a safe landing. This was the only method we could think of for preserving the Captain, his mate, and about three-fourths of the hands, who did not incline to hazard themselves in the boat, for the first trial.

Scarcely had we made two strokes with the oars, when the ebbing and flowing of the waves tore them from the hands of the rowers, and the boat was overset; the waves parted us, and cast us all on the sh.o.r.e, except the Sieur Devoise, brother of the Consul of Tripoli, in Syria. I plunged again into the sea, and was lucky enough, at that instant, to s.n.a.t.c.h him from the grave.

Our unfortunate friends on board the ship, had now no prospect of a.s.sistance from us; but I speedily endeavoured to refresh them with hope; and for this end again threw myself into the water, accompanied by Sieur Yan, who always zealously supported me. He soon engaged the rest to a.s.sist us in attempting to recover the boat, which we did with much difficulty. Our labour was however abundantly repaid, when we had brought the whole crew safe to land.--Thus did we escape this first danger, only to fall victims to a second vastly more terrible.

I inquired at the Captain, at what distance he supposed we were from Senegal; but his answer was not satisfactory. Ignorant to what hand we should turn, I informed my companions in misfortune, that I could not flatter myself with the hopes of conducting them to any village of the tribe of Trargia, where I might perhaps have been known by some Arab who had relations at the island of St Louis. "In this case," said I, "our captivity would have been shorter and less rigorous; but I am afraid we may fall in with some hordes of the tribe of the Ouadelims and Labdesseba, a ferocious people, who live in a manner truly savage, who always wander through the deserts, and subsist on the milk of their camels."

We had no sooner landed, than I persuaded my companions to ascend the rocks to discover upon what country Providence had cast us. When we reached the summit, we perceived a vast plain, covered with white sand, and interspersed with certain plants, resembling branches of coral.

These plants carry a small grain, of the same colour, and almost the same shape, with mustard. The Arabians call it Avezoud: they gather it and make it up into a paste, on which they feast. We observed that the distant hills were covered with a species of wild fern, which bore the appearance of an extensive forest.

In proceeding towards the hills, I found some camel's dung under my feet, and soon after observed the animals pasturing here and there.

There remained therefore no doubt of the country being inhabited, a discovery which was very agreeable to us; for although we were entirely ignorant what sort of people they were into whose hands we had fallen, we were very happy in the thoughts of approaching some inhabited village, as hunger began to press very hard. I knew better than any of them, from former experience, what we had to fear from hunger, and still more from thirst.

I was occupied with these dismal reflections, when I observed at a distance some children eagerly gathering together their herds of goats, and driving them away before them. I instantly concluded that we were discovered, and that our presence had occasioned some terror amongst them. The cries of the children spread the alarm to the neighbouring camps, and the inhabitants very soon appeared coming out to meet us.

When they had observed us a little, they separated from one another, skipping and bouncing about upon the sand; they covered their faces with their hands, and screamed out with horrid cries. We had now every reason to believe these people were acquainted with Europeans. Their gestures, and operations in order to surround us, bore no favourable aspect. I therefore charged my unfortunate companions, by all means to keep together, and to proceed in order, till I should be within hearing of the natives. In my former voyages to Senegal, I had acquired a few Arabian words, which I hoped would prove useful on this occasion. First, then, I fastened a white handkerchief to the top of my cane, in the manner of a flag. Perhaps, thought I, they may have some acquaintance with this signal, the rather, if any of them may have seen it at Senegal, or if they have observed any vessel on their coasts, they may perhaps conceive that we are unhappy Frenchmen whom shipwreck has thrown on their coasts.

When we drew near to the savages, some of our people, among whom were the first and second lieutenants, went apart from the rest; they were immediately beset and seized by the collar. It was not till this moment, that, by the reflection of the sun upon the polished steel of their poignards, we observed they were armed. Ignorant of this, I had consequently advanced without fear. As the two unhappy men who had been seized did not appear again, I did what I could to compose my companions; but my attempts were vain; terror seized them, and they all began to cry out in despair, and disperse from one another. The Arabs, armed with great cutla.s.ses and small clubs, fell upon them with incredible ferocity; and I soon saw some of them lying wounded, and others stript and naked, stretched out expiring on the sand.

Amidst this horrid ma.s.sacre, I observed an unarmed Arab. From his appearance, I conceived he was one of those who had accompanied Prince Allicoury, in a former visit which he made to the Isle of St Louis. I immediately ran up to him, and threw myself into his arms. After examining me some time, he cast a disdainful look on me, on the Sieur Devoise, the mate of the ship, and five others of my companions who never would leave me, sufficient to convince us our situation was not more favourable than our neighbours. He then took my hand, examined it attentively, counted my fingers, slipped his hand into mine, and, after making several motions with his head, he inquired at me, Who are you?

What are you doing here? How came you hither? I traced upon the sand, the figure of a ship, and by means of a few Arabic words with which I was acquainted, and my gestures, I succeeded so far as to make him understand, that I entreated his a.s.sistance to conduct us to the place appointed for us. I also informed him, that I had about me what would abundantly repay him for his trouble--an argument which I found he more readily understood, and much more weighty in his mind than any other; for he immediately entwisted his fingers with mine, to show me that, from that moment, we became closely united, and upon the spot desired me to give him the effects of which I had spoken. I then delivered to him two very elegant watches, one of which was a repeater, with their chains, a gold buckle for the neckcloth, two pair of silver buckles, a ring set with diamonds, a goblet and silver cover, and the sum of two hundred and twenty livres in specie. I easily observed that if the jewels were acceptable, the silver was much more so. He concealed his treasure with great care and secrecy in his shirt, which was blue, promising me at the same time, that he would not forsake me. The precaution which I had taken to preserve these jewels, in the hope of gaining, by their means, the good will of any person into whose hands I should fall, proved in the end a cause of very great regret to me.

As soon as my Arab had secured his booty, he inquired upon what coast we had been shipwrecked. I pointed it out to him, and he immediately called upon some of his people, whom he desired to follow him. From the manner in which they approached him, I perceived that my protector was a man of some note; indeed he proved to be their priest, whom they called Talbe.

Having reached the sea-sh.o.r.e, they began to raise a great shout of joy; but the jealousy which was visible on their countenances, speedily damped their spirits. They wished that we would swim to the ship, and recover all that possibly could be saved; but we excused ourselves, alleging that we could not swim; and they were thus obliged to go themselves. It was impossible for those who remained on the sh.o.r.e to conceal their fear, lest their neighbours who swam should be greater sharers in the spoil than they. The women, in particular, showed excessive uneasiness on this head.