Next To The Language, My Great
Object Was To Collect Information Concerning The Countries I Intended To
Visit.
On this occasion I was referred to certain traders called Slatees.
These are free black merchants, of great consideration
In this part of
Africa, who come down from the interior countries chiefly with enslaved
negroes for sale; but I soon discovered that very little dependance could
be placed on the accounts they gave; for they contradicted each other in
the most important particulars, and all of them seemed extremely
unwilling that I should prosecute my journey. These circumstances
increased my anxiety to ascertain the truth from my own personal
observations.
In researches of this kind, and in observing the manners and customs of
the natives, in a country so little known to the nations of Europe, and
furnished with so many striking and uncommon objects of nature, my time
passed not unpleasantly; and I began to flatter myself that I had escaped
the fever, or seasoning, to which Europeans, on their first arrival in
hot climates, are generally subject. But, on the 3d of July, I
imprudently exposed myself to the night dew, in observing an eclipse of
the moon, with a view to determine the longitude of the place; the next
day I found myself attacked with a smart fever and delirium; and such an
illness followed, as confined me to the house during the greatest part of
August. My recovery was very slow; but I embraced every short interval of
convalescence to walk out and make myself acquainted with the productions
of the country. In one of those excursions, having rambled farther than
usual, in a hot day, I brought on a return of my fever, and on the 10th
of September I was again confined to my bed. The fever, however, was not
so violent as before; and in the course of three weeks I was able, when
the weather would permit, to renew my botanical excursions; and when it
rained, I amused myself with drawing plants, in my chamber. The care and
attention of Dr. Laidley contributed greatly to alleviate my sufferings;
his company and conversation beguiled the tedious hours during that
gloomy season, when the rain falls in torrents; when suffocating heats
oppress by day, and when the night is spent by the terrified traveller in
listening to the croaking of frogs, (of which the numbers are beyond
imagination,) the shrill cry of the jackal, and the deep howling of the
hyaena; a dismal concert, interrupted only by the roar of such tremendous
thunder as no person can form a conception of but those who have heard
it.
The country itself being an immense level, and very generally covered
with woods, presents a tiresome, and gloomy uniformity to the eye; but
although nature has denied to the inhabitants the beauties of romantic
landscapes, she has bestowed on them, with a liberal hand, the more
important blessings of fertility and abundance. A little attention to
cultivation procures a sufficiency of corn; the fields afford a rich
pasturage for cattle; and the natives are plentifully supplied with
excellent fish, both from the Gambia river and the Walli creek.
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