The Patient Was Therefore Committed To
The Care Of Some Old Bushreens, Who Endeavoured To Secure Him A Passage
Into Paradise, By Whispering In His Ear Some Arabic Sentences, And
Desiring Him To Repeat Them.
After many unsuccessful attempts, the poor
Heathen at last pronounced, _la illah el allah, Mahomet rasowl
allahi_;[9] and the disciples of the Prophet assured his mother that her
son had given sufficient evidence of his faith, and would be happy in a
future state.
He died the same evening.
[9] There is but one God, and Mahomet is his Prophet.
Feb. 17th. My guides informed me, that in order to avoid the Moorish
banditti, it was necessary to travel in the night; we accordingly
departed from Funingkedy in the afternoon, accompanied by about thirty
people, carrying their effects with them into Ludamar, for fear of the
war. We travelled with great silence and expedition until midnight, when
we stopped in a sort of enclosure, near a small village; but the
thermometer being so low as 68 deg., none of the Negroes could sleep on
account of the cold.
At daybreak on the 18th we resumed our journey, and at eight o'clock
passed Simbing, the frontier village of Ludamar, situated in a narrow
pass between two rocky hills, and surrounded with a high wall. From this
village Major Houghton (being deserted by his Negro servants, who refused
to follow him into the Moorish country) wrote his last letter with a
pencil to Dr. Laidley. This brave but unfortunate man, having surmounted
many difficulties, had taken a northerly direction, and endeavoured to
pass through the kingdom of Ludamar, where I afterwards learned the
following particulars concerning his melancholy fate. On his arrival at
Jarra he got acquainted with certain Moorish merchants who were
travelling to Tisheet (a place near the salt pits in the Great Desert,
ten days' journey to the northward) to purchase salt; and the Major, at
the expense of a musket and some tobacco, engaged them to convey him
thither. It is impossible to form any other opinion on this
determination, than that the Moors intentionally deceived him, either
with regard to the route that he wished to pursue, or the state of the
intermediate country between Jarra and Tombuctoo. Their intention
probably was to rob and leave him in the Desert. At the end of two days
he suspected their treachery, and insisted on returning to Jarra. Finding
him persist in this determination, the Moors robbed him of every thing he
possessed, and went off with their camels; the poor Major being thus
deserted, returned on foot to a watering place in possession of the
Moors, called Tarra. He had been some days without food, and the
unfeeling Moors refusing to give him any, he sunk at last under his
distresses. Whether he actually perished of hunger, or was murdered
outright by the savage Mahomedans, is not certainly known; his body was
dragged into the woods, and I was shown at a distance the spot where his
remains were left to perish.
About four miles to the north of Simbing, we came to a small stream of
water, where we observed a number of wild horses; they were all of one
colour, and galloped away from us at any easy rate, frequently stopping
and looking back. The Negroes hunt them for food, and their flesh is much
esteemed.
About noon we arrived at Jarra, a large town situated at the bottom of
some rocky hills. But before I proceed to describe the place itself, and
relate the various occurrences which befel me there, it will not be
improper to give my readers a brief recital of the origin of the war
which induced me to take this route; an unfortunate determination, the
immediate cause of all the misfortunes and calamities which afterwards
befel me. The recital which I propose to give in this place will prevent
interruptions hereafter.
This war, which desolated Kaarta soon after I had left that kingdom, and
spread terror into many of the neighbouring states, arose in the
following manner. A few bullocks belonging to a frontier village of
Bambarra having been stolen by a party of Moors, were sold to the Dooty
or chief man of a town in Kaarta. The villagers claimed their cattle, and
being refused satisfaction, complained of the Dooty to their sovereign,
Mansong, King of Bambarra, who probably beheld with an eye of jealousy
the growing prosperity of Kaarta, and availed himself of this incident to
declare hostilities against that kingdom.
With this view he sent a messenger and a party of horsemen to Daisy, King
of Kaarta, to inform him that the King of Bambarra, with nine thousand
men, would visit Kemmoo in the course of the dry season; and to desire
that he (Daisy) would direct his slaves to sweep the houses, and have
every thing ready for their accommodation. The messenger concluded this
insulting notification by presenting the king with a pair of _iron
sandals_; at the same time adding, that "until such time as Daisy had
worn out these sandals in his flight, he should never be secure from the
arrows of Bambarra."
Daisy, having consulted with his chief men about the best means of
repelling so formidable an enemy, returned an answer of defiance, and
made a Bushreen write in Arabic, upon a piece of thin board, a sort of
proclamation, which was suspended to a tree in the public square; and a
number of aged men were sent to different places to explain it to the
common people. This proclamation called upon all the friends of Daisy to
join him immediately; but to such as had no arms, or were afraid to enter
into the war, permission was given to retire into any of the neighbouring
kingdoms; and it was added, that provided they observed a strict
neutrality, they should always be welcome to return to their former
habitations; if, however, they took any active part against Kaarta, they
had then "broken the key of their huts, and could never afterwards enter
the door." Such was the expression.
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