Things Were In This Situation When, On The 29th Of April, A Messenger
Arrived At Benowm, With The Disagreeable Intelligence That The Bambarra
Army Was Approaching The Frontiers Of Ludamar.
This threw the whole
country into confusion; and in the afternoon Ali's son, with about twenty
horsemen, arrived at Benowm.
He ordered all the cattle to be driven away
immediately, all the tents to be struck, and the people to hold
themselves in readiness to depart at daylight the next morning.
April 30th. At daybreak the whole camp was in motion. The baggage was
carried upon bullocks, the two tent poles being placed one on each side,
and the different wooden articles of the tent distributed in like manner;
the tent cloth was thrown over all, and upon this was commonly placed one
or two women, for the Moorish women are very bad walkers. The king's
favourite concubines rode upon camels, with a saddle of a particular
construction, and a canopy to shelter them from the sun. We proceeded to
the northward until noon, when the king's son ordered the whole company,
except two tents, to enter a thick low wood, which was upon our right. I
was sent along with the two tents, and arrived in the evening at a Negro
town called Farani; here we pitched the tents in an open place, at no
great distance from the town.
The hurry and confusion which attended this decampment prevented the
slaves from dressing the usual quantity of victuals; and lest their dry
provisions should be exhausted before they reached their place of
destination, (for as yet none but Ali and the chief men knew whither we
were going,) they thought proper to make me observe this day as a day of
fasting.
May 1st. As I had some reason to suspect that this day was also to be
considered as a fast, I went in the morning to the Negro town of Farani,
and begged some provisions from the Dooti, who readily supplied my wants,
and desired me to come to his house every day during my stay in the
neighbourhood. These hospitable people are looked upon by the Moors as an
abject race of slaves, and are treated accordingly. Two of Ali's
household slaves, a man and a woman, who had come along with the two
tents, went this morning to water the cattle from the town wells, at
which there began to be a great scarcity. When the Negro women observed
the cattle approaching, they took up their pitchers, and ran with all
possible haste towards the town, but before they could enter the gate,
they were stopped by the slaves, who compelled them to bring back the
water they had drawn for their own families, and empty it into the
troughs for the cattle. When this was exhausted, they were ordered to
draw water until such time as the cattle had all drank; and the woman
slave actually broke two wooden bowls over the heads of the black girls,
because they were somewhat dilatory in obeying her commands.
May 3d. We departed from the vicinity of Farani, and after a circuitous
route through the woods, arrived at Ali's camp in the afternoon. This
encampment was larger than that of Benowm, and was situated in the middle
of a thick wood about two miles distant from a Negro town, called
Bubaker. I immediately waited upon Ali, in order to pay my respects to
Queen Fatima, who had come with him from Saheel. He seemed much pleased
with my coming; shook hands with me, and informed his wife that I was the
Christian. She was a woman of the Arab cast, with long black hair, and
remarkably corpulent. She appeared at first rather shocked at the thought
of having a Christian so near her; but when I had (by means of a Negro
boy, who spoke the Mandingo and Arabic tongues) answered a great many
questions, which her curiosity suggested, respecting the country of the
Christians, she seemed more at ease, and presented me with a bowl of
milk; which I considered as a very favourable omen.
The heat was now almost insufferable; all nature seemed sinking under it.
The distant country presented to the eye a dreary expanse of sand, with a
few stunted trees and prickly bushes, in the shade of which the hungry
cattle licked up the withered grass, while the camels and goats picked
off the scanty foliage. The scarcity of water was greater here than at
Benowm. Day and night the wells were crowded with cattle, lowing and
fighting with each other to come at the troughs; excessive thirst made
many of them furious: others, being too weak to contend for the water,
endeavoured to quench their thirst by devouring the black mud from the
gutters near the wells; which they did with great avidity, though it was
commonly fatal to them.
This great scarcity of water was felt severely by all the people of the
camp, and by none more than myself; for though Ali allowed me a skin for
containing water, and Fatima, once or twice, gave me a small supply, when
I was in distress, yet such was the barbarous disposition, of the Moors
at the wells, that when my boy attempted to fill the skin, he commonly
received a sound drubbing for his presumption. Every one was astonished
that the slave of a Christian should attempt to draw water from wells
which had been dug by the followers of the Prophet. This treatment, at
length, so frightened the boy, that I believe he would sooner have
perished with thirst, than attempted again to fill the skin; he,
therefore, contented himself with begging water from the Negro slaves
that attended the camp; and I followed his example; but with very
indifferent success; for though I let no opportunity slip, and was very
urgent in my solicitations, both to the Moors and the Negroes, I was but
ill supplied, and frequently passed the night in the situation of
_Tantalus_. No sooner had I shut my eyes, than fancy would convey me to
the streams and rivers of my native land; there, as I wandered along the
verdant brink, I surveyed the clear stream with transport, and hastened
to swallow the delightful draught; - but, alas!
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