Karfa Surveyed Me In
My British Apparel With Great Delight; But Regretted Exceedingly That I
Had Taken Off My Beard; The Loss Of Which, He Said, Had Converted Me From
A Man Into A Boy.
Dr. Laidley readily undertook to discharge all the
pecuniary engagements I had entered into since my departure from the
Gambia, and took my draft upon the Association for the amount.
My
agreement with Karfa (as I have already related) was to pay him the value
of one prime slave, for which I had given him my bill upon Dr. Laidley,
before we departed from Kamalia: for, in case of my death on the road I
was unwilling that my benefactor should be a loser. But this good
creature had continued to manifest towards me so much kindness, that I
thought I made him but an inadequate recompence, when I told him that he
was now to receive double the sum I had originally promised; and Dr.
Laidley assured him that he was ready to deliver the goods to that
amount, whenever he thought proper to send for them. Karfa was
overpowered by this unexpected token of my gratitude, and still more so,
when he heard that I intended to send a handsome present to the good old
schoolmaster Fankooma, at Malacotta. He promised to carry up the goods
along with his own; and Dr. Laidley assured him that he would exert
himself in assisting him to dispose of his slaves to the best advantage,
the moment a slave vessel should arrive. These and other instances of
attention and kindness shown him by Dr. Laidley were not lost upon Karfa.
He would often say to me, "my journey has indeed been prosperous!" But,
observing the improved state of our manufactures, and our manifest
superiority in the arts of civilized life, he would sometimes appear
pensive, and exclaim with an involuntary sigh, _fato fing inta feng_,
"black men are nothing." At other times, he would ask me with great
seriousness, what could possibly have induced me, who was no trader, to
think of exploring so miserable a country as Africa? He meant by this to
signify that, after what I must have witnessed in my own country, nothing
in Africa could in his opinion deserve a moment's attention, I have
preserved these little traits of character in this worthy Negro, not only
from regard to the man, but also because they appear to me to demonstrate
that he possessed a mind _above his condition_; and to such of my readers
as love to contemplate human nature in all its varieties, and to trace
its progress from rudeness to refinement, I hope the account I have given
of this poor African will not be unacceptable.
No European vessel had arrived at Gambia for many months previous to my
return from the interior; and as the rainy season was now setting in, I
persuaded Karfa to return to his people at Jindey. He parted with me on
the 14th with great tenderness; but as I had little hopes of being able
to quit Africa for the remainder of the year, I told him, as the fact
was, that I expected to see him again before my departure.
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