In Some Parts Of This Extensive Waste, The
Ground Is Covered With Low Stunted Shrubs, Which Serve As Land-Marks For
The Caravans, And Furnish The Camels With A Scanty Forage.
In other parts
the disconsolate wanderer, wherever he turns, sees nothing around him but
a vast interminable expanse of sand and sky; a gloomy and barren void,
where the eye finds no particular object to rest upon, and the mind is
filled with painful apprehensions of perishing with thirst.
"Surrounded
by this dreary solitude, the traveller sees the dead bodies of birds,
that the violence of the wind has brought, from happier regions: and as
he ruminates on the fearful length of his remaining passage, listens with
horror to the voice of the driving blast, the only sound that interrupts
the awful repose of the Desert."[11]
[11] Proceedings of the African Association, part 1.
The few wild animals which inhabit these melancholy regions are the
antelope and the ostrich, their swiftness of foot enabling them to reach
the distant watering places. On the skirts of the Desert, where water is
more plentiful, are found lions, panthers, elephants, and wild boars.
Of domestic animals, the only one that can endure the fatigue of crossing
the Desert is the camel. By the particular conformation of the stomach,
he is enabled to carry a supply of water sufficient for ten or twelve
days; his broad and yielding foot is well adapted for a sandy country;
and by a singular motion of his upper lip, he picks the smallest leaves
from the thorny shrubs of the Desert as he passes along. The camel is,
therefore, the only beast of burthen employed by the trading caravans,
which traverse the Desert in different directions, from Barbary to
Nigritia. As this useful and docile creature has been sufficiently
described by systematical writers, it is unnecessary for me to enlarge
upon his properties. I shall only add, that his flesh, though to my own
taste dry and unsavoury, is preferred by the Moors to any other; and that
the milk of the female is in universal esteem, and is indeed sweet,
pleasant, and nutritive.
I have observed that the Moors, in their complexion, resemble the
Mulattoes of the West Indies; but they have something unpleasant in their
aspect, which the Mulattoes have not. I fancied that I discovered in the
features of most of them a disposition towards cruelty and low cunning;
and I could never contemplate their physiognomy without feeling sensible
uneasiness. From the staring wildness of their eyes, a stranger would
immediately set them down as a nation of lunatics. The treachery and
malevolence of their character are manifested in their plundering
excursions against the Negro villages. Oftentimes, without the smallest
provocation, and sometimes under the fairest professions of friendship,
they will suddenly seize upon the Negroes' cattle, and even on the
inhabitants themselves. The Negroes very seldom retaliate. The
enterprising boldness of the Moors, their knowledge of the country, and,
above all, the superior fleetness of their horses, make them such
formidable enemies, that the petty Negro states which border upon the
Desert are in continual terror while the Moorish tribes are in the
vicinity, and are too much awed to think of resistance.
Like the roving Arabs, the Moors frequently remove from one place to
another, according to the season of the year, or the convenience of
pasturage. In the month of February, when the heat of the sun scorches up
every sort of vegetation in the Desert, they strike their tents, and
approach the Negro country to the south, where they reside until the
rains commence in the month of July. At this time, having purchased corn
and other necessaries from the Negroes, in exchange for salt, they again
depart to the northward, and continue in the Desert until the rains are
over, and that part of the country becomes burnt up and barren.
This wandering and restless way of life, while it inures them to
hardships, strengthens at the same time the bonds of their little
society, and creates in them an aversion towards strangers, which is
almost insurmountable. Cut off from all intercourse with civilized
nations, and boasting an advantage over the Negroes, by possessing,
though in a very limited degree, the knowledge of letters, they are at
once the vainest and proudest, and perhaps the most bigotted, ferocious,
and intolerant of all the nations on the earth, combining in their
character the blind superstition of the Negro, with the savage cruelty
and treachery of the Arab.
It is probable that many of them had never beheld a white man before my
arrival at Benowm; but they had all been taught to regard the Christian
name with inconceivable abhorrence, and to consider it nearly as lawful
to murder a European as it would be to kill a dog. The melancholy fate of
Major Houghton, and the treatment I experienced during my confinement
among them, will, I trust, serve as a warning to future travellers to
avoid this inhospitable district.
The reader may probably have expected from me a more detailed and copious
account of the manners, customs, superstitions, and prejudices of this
secluded and singular people; but it must not be forgotten, that the
wretchedness of my situation among them afforded me but few opportunities
of collecting information. Some particulars, however, might be added in
this place; but being equally applicable to the Negroes of the southward,
they will appear in a subsequent page.
CHAPTER XIII.
_Ali departs for Jarra, and the Author allowed to follow him
thither. - The Author's faithful servant, Demba, seized by Ali's order,
and sent back into slavery. - Ali returns to his camp, and permits the
Author to remain at Jarra, who, thenceforward, meditates his
escape. - Daisy, King of Kaarta, approaching with his army towards Jarra,
the inhabitants quit the town, and the Author accompanies them in their
flight. - A party of Moors overtake him at Queira. - He gets away from them
at daybreak. - Is again pursued by another party, and robbed; but finally
effects his escape._
Having, as has been related, obtained permission to accompany Ali to
Jarra, I took leave of Queen Fatima, who, with much grace and civility,
returned me part of my apparel:
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