In The Afternoon We Passed Several Villages, At None Of Which Could We
Procure A Lodging; And In The Twilight We Received Information That Two
Hundred Jallonkas Had Assembled Near A Town Called Melo, With A View To
Plunder The Coffle.
This induced us to alter our course, and we travelled
with great secrecy until midnight, when we approached a
Town called Koba.
Before we entered the town, the names of all the people belonging to the
coffle were called over, and a freeman and three slaves were found to be
missing. Every person immediately concluded that the slaves had murdered
the freeman, and made their escape. It was therefore agreed that six
people should go back as far as the last village, and endeavour to find
his body, or collect some information concerning the slaves. In the
meantime the coffle was ordered to lie concealed in a cotton field near a
large nitta tree, and nobody to speak except in a whisper. It was towards
morning before the six men returned, having heard nothing of the man or
the slaves. As none of us had tasted victuals for the last twenty-four
hours, it was agreed that we should go into Koba, and endeavour to
procure some provisions. We accordingly entered the town before it was
quite day, and Karfa purchased from the chief man, for three strings of
beads, a considerable quantity of ground nuts, which we roasted and ate
for breakfast; we were afterwards provided with huts, and rested here for
the day.
About eleven o'clock, to our great joy and surprise, the freeman and
slaves, who had parted from the coffle the preceding night, entered the
town. One of the slaves, it seems, had hurt his foot, and the night being
very dark, they soon lost sight of the coffle. The freeman, as soon as he
found himself alone with the slaves, was aware of his own danger, and
insisted on putting them in irons. The slaves were at first rather
unwilling to submit, but when he threatened to stab them one by one with
his spear, they made no further resistance; and he remained with them
among the bushes until morning, when he let them out of irons, and came
to the town in hopes of hearing which route the coffle had taken. The
information that we received concerning the Jallonkas, who intended to
rob the coffle, was this day confirmed, and we were forced to remain here
until the afternoon of the 30th; when Karfa hired a number of people to
protect us, and we proceeded to a village called Tinkingtang. Departing
from this village on the day following, we crossed a high ridge of
mountains to the west of the Black river, and travelled over a rough
stony country until sunset, when we arrived at Lingicotta, a small
village in the district of Woradoo. Here we shook out the last handful of
meal from our dry provision bags; this being the second day (since we
crossed the Black river) that we had travelled from morning until night,
without tasting one morsel of food.
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