I Reached A Small Town Called Wassiboo, About Twelve O'clock, Where I Was
Obliged To Stop Until An Opportunity Should Offer Of Procuring A Guide To
Satile, Which Is Distant A Very Long Day's Journey, Through Woods Without
Any Beaten Path.
I accordingly took up my residence at the Dooty's house,
where I staid four days; during which time I amused myself by going to
the fields with the family to plant corn.
Cultivation is carried on here
on a very extensive scale; and, as the natives themselves express it,
"hunger is never known." In cultivating the soil, the men and women work
together. They use a large sharp hoe, much superior to that used in
Gambia; but they are obliged, for fear of the Moors, to carry their arms
with them to the field. The master, with the handle of his spear, marks
the field into regular plats, one of which is assigned to every three
slaves.
On the evening of the 11th, eight of the fugitive Kaartans arrived at
Wassiboo. - They had found it impossible to live under the tyrannical
government of the Moors, and were now going to transfer their allegiance
to the King of Bambarra. They offered to take me along with them as far
as Satile; and I accepted the offer.
July 12th. At daybreak we set out, and travelled with uncommon expedition
until sunset: we stopped only twice in the course of the day; once at a
watering-place in the woods, and another time at the ruins of a town
formerly belonging to Daisy, called _Illa Compe_, (the corn town). When
we arrived in the neighbourhood of Satile, the people who were employed
in the corn fields, seeing so many horsemen, took us for a party of
Moors, and ran screaming away from us.
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