Dr. Laidley Approved My Determination, And Promised Me Every Assistance In
His Power, To Enable Me To Prosecute My Journey With Comfort And Safety.
This resolution having been formed, I made preparations accordingly.
And
now, being about to take leave of my hospitable friend, (whose kindness
and solicitude continued to the moment of my departure,[1]) and to quit,
for many months, the countries bordering on the Gambia, it seems proper,
before I proceed with my narrative, that I should, in this place, give
some account of the several Negro nations which inhabit the banks of this
celebrated river, and the commercial intercourse that subsists between
them, and such of the nations of Europe as find their advantage in
trading to this part of Africa. The observations which have occurred to
me on both these subjects will be found in the following chapter.
[1] Dr. Laidley, to my infinite regret, has since paid the debt of
nature. He left Africa in the latter end of 1797, intending to return
to Great Britain by way of the West Indies; and died soon after his
arrival at Barbadoes.
CHAPTER II.
_Description of the Feloops, the Jaloffs, the Foulahs, and
Mandingoes. - Some account of the trade between the nations of Europe and
the natives of Africa by the way of the Gambia, and between the native
inhabitants of the coast and the nations of the interior countries - their
mode of selling and buying._
The natives of the countries bordering on the Gambia, though distributed
into a great many distinct governments, may, I think, be divided into
four great classes; the Feloops, the Jaloffs, the Foulahs, and the
Mandingoes. Among all these nations, the religion of Mahomet has made,
and continues to make, considerable progress; but in most of them, the
body of the people, both free and enslaved, persevere in maintaining the
blind but harmless superstitions of their ancestors, and are called by
the Mahomedans _kafirs_, or infidels.
Of the Feloops, I have little to add to what has been observed concerning
them in the former chapter. They are of a gloomy disposition, and are
supposed never to forgive an injury. They are even said to transmit their
quarrels as deadly feuds to their posterity; insomuch that a son
considers it as incumbent on him, from a just sense of filial obligation,
to become the avenger of his deceased father's wrongs. If a man loses his
life in one of those sudden quarrels, which perpetually occur at their
feasts, when the whole party is intoxicated with mead, his son, or the
eldest of his sons, (if he has more than one,) endeavours to procure his
father's sandals, which he wears _once a year_, on the anniversary of his
father's death, until a fit opportunity offers of avenging his fate, when
the object of his resentment seldom escapes his pursuit. This fierce and
unrelenting disposition is, however, counterbalanced by many good
qualities; they display the utmost gratitude and affection towards their
benefactors; and the fidelity with which they preserve whatever is
entrusted to them is remarkable.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 19 of 282
Words from 9385 to 9896
of 148366
