As Every Man Of Free Condition Has A Plurality Of Wives, It Is Found
Necessary (To Prevent, I Suppose, Matrimonial
Dispute) that each of the
ladies should be accommodated with a hut to herself; and all the huts
belonging to
The same family are surrounded by a fence, constructed of
bamboo canes split and formed into a sort of wicker-work. The whole
inclosure is called a _sirk_ or _surk_. A number of these inclosures,
with narrow passages between them, form what is called a town; but the
huts are generally placed without any regularity, according to the
caprice of the owner. The only rule that seems to be attended to, is
placing the door towards the south-west, in order to admit the sea
breeze.
In each town is a large stage called the _Bentang_, which answers the
purpose of a public hall or townhouse; it is composed of interwoven
canes, and is generally sheltered from the sun by being erected in the
shade of some large tree. It is here that all public affairs are
transacted and trials conducted; and here the lazy and indolent meet to
smoke their pipes, and hear the news of the day. In most of the towns the
Mahomedans have also a _missura_, or mosque, in which they assemble and
offer up their daily prayers, according to the rules of the Koran.
In the account which I have thus given of the natives, the reader must
bear in mind, that my observations apply chiefly to persons of _free
condition_, who constitute, I suppose, not more than one-fourth part of
the inhabitants at large; the other three-fourths are in a state of
hopeless and hereditary slavery; and are employed in cultivating the
land, in the care of cattle, and in servile offices of all kinds, much in
the same manner as the slaves in the West Indies. I was told, however,
that the Mandingo master can neither deprive his slave of life, nor sell
him to a stranger, without first calling a palaver on his conduct; or, in
other words, bringing him to a public trial; but this degree of
protection is extended only to the native of domestic slave. Captives
taken in war, and those unfortunate victims who are condemned to slavery
for crimes or insolvency, and, in short, all those unhappy people who are
brought down from the interior countries for sale, have no security
whatever, but may be treated and disposed of in all respects as the owner
thinks proper. It sometimes happens, indeed, when no ships are on the
coast, that a humane and considerate master incorporates his purchased
slaves among his domestics; and their offspring at least, if not the
parents, become entitled to all the privileges of the native class.
The preceding remarks concerning the several nations that inhabit the
banks of the Gambia, are all that I recollect as necessary to be made in
this place, at the outset of my journey. With regard to the Mandingoes,
however, many particulars are yet to be related; some of which are
necessarily interwoven into the narrative of my progress, and others will
be given in a summary at the end of my work; together with all such
observations as I have collected on the country and climate, which I
could not with propriety insert in the regular detail of occurrences.
What remains of the present chapter will therefore, relate solely to the
trade which the nations of Christendom have found means to establish with
the natives of Africa, by the channel of the Gambia; and the inland
traffic which has arisen in consequence of it between the inhabitants of
the coast and the nations of the interior countries.
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