When The Rains Became Less Frequent, And The Country Began To Grow
Dry, The Fever Left Me, But In So
Debilitated a condition that I
could scarcely stand upright; and it was with great difficulty that
I could carry my
Mat to the shade of a tamarind-tree, at a short
distance, to enjoy the refreshing smell of the cornfields, and
delight my eyes with a prospect of the country. I had the pleasure
at length to find myself in a state of convalescence, towards which
the benevolent and simple manners of the negroes, and the perusal of
Karfa's little volume, greatly contributed.
In the meantime many of the slatees who reside at Kamalia having
spent all their money, and become in a great measure dependent upon
Karfa's hospitality, beheld me with an eye of envy, and invented
many ridiculous and trifling stories to lessen me in Karfa's esteem.
And in the beginning of December a Serawoolli slatee, with five
slaves, arrived from Sego; this man, too, spread a number of
malicious reports concerning me, but Karfa paid no attention to
them, and continued to show me the same kindness as formerly. As I
was one day conversing with the slaves which this slatee had
brought, one of them begged me to give him some victuals. I told
him I was a stranger, and had none to give. He replied, "I gave you
victuals when you were hungry. Have you forgot the man who brought
you milk at Karrankalla? But," added he with a sigh, "THE IRONS
WERE NOT THEN UPON MY LEGS!" I immediately recollected him, and
begged some ground nuts from Karfa to give him, as a return for his
former kindness.
In the beginning of December, Karfa proposed to complete his
purchase of slaves, and for this purpose collected all the debts
which were owing to him in his own country; and on the 19th, being
accompanied by three slatees, he departed for Kancaba, a large town
on the banks of the Niger and a great slave-market. Most of the
slaves who are sold at Kancaba come from Bambarra; for Mansong, to
avoid the expense and danger of keeping all his prisoners at Sego,
commonly sends them in small parties to be sold at the different
trading towns; and as Kancaba is much resorted to by merchants it is
always well supplied with slaves, which are sent thither up the
Niger in canoes. When Karfa departed from Kamalia he proposed to
return in the course of a month, and during his absence I was left
to the care of a good old bushreen, who acted as schoolmaster to the
young people of Kamalia.
CHAPTER XX - NEGRO CUSTOMS
The whole of my route, both in going and returning, having been
confined to a tract of country bounded nearly by the 12th and 15th
parallels of latitude, the reader must imagine that I found the
climate in most places extremely hot, but nowhere did I feel the
heat so intense and oppressive as in the camp at Benowm, of which
mention has been made in a former place.
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