These
People No Sooner Heard That The Bambarran Army Had Returned To Sego
Without Subduing Daisy, As Was Generally Expected,
Than they resolved to
make a sudden attack themselves upon him, before he could recruit his
forces, which were now
Known to be much diminished by a bloody campaign,
and in great want of provisions. With this view, they solicited the Moors
to join them, and offered to hire of Ali two hundred horsemen; which Ali,
with the warmest professions of friendship, agreed to furnish, upon
condition that they should previously supply him with four hundred head
of cattle, two hundred garments of blue cloth, and a considerable
quantity of beads and ornaments. The raising this impost somewhat
perplexed them; and in order to procure the cattle, they persuaded the
king to demand one-half the stipulated number from the people of Jarra;
promising to replace them in a short time. Ali agreed to this proposal,
and the same evening (June 2d) the drum was sent through the town; and
the crier announced that if any person suffered his cattle to go into the
woods the next morning, before the king had chosen his quota of them, his
house should be plundered, and his slaves taken from him. The people
dared not disobey the proclamation; and next morning about two hundred of
their best cattle were selected, and delivered to the Moors; the full
complement was made up afterwards, by means equally unjust and arbitrary.
June 8th. In the afternoon Ali sent his chief slave to inform me, that he
was about to return to Bubaker; but as he would only stay there a few
days, to keep the approaching festival (_Banna Salee_), and then return
to Jarra, I had permission to remain with Daman until his return. This
was joyful news to me; but I had experienced so many disappointments,
that I was unwilling to indulge the hope of its being true, until Johnson
came and told me that Ali, with part of the horsemen, were actually gone
from the town, and that the rest were to follow him in the morning.
June 9th. Early in the morning the remainder of the Moors departed from
the town. They had, during their stay, committed many acts of robbery;
and this morning, with the most unparalleled audacity, they seized upon
three girls who were bringing water from the wells, and carried them away
into slavery.
The anniversary of _Banna Salee_, at Jarra, very well deserved to be
called a festival. The slaves were all finely clad on this occasion, and
the householders vied with each other in providing large quantities of
victuals, which they distributed to all their neighbours with the
greatest profusion; hunger was literally banished from the town; man,
woman, and child, bond and free, all had as much as they could eat.
June 12th. Two people, dreadfully wounded, were discovered, at a
watering-place in the woods; one of them had just breathed his last, but
the other was brought alive to Jarra. On recovering a little, he informed
the people, that he had fled through the woods from Kasson; that Daisy
had made war upon Sambo, the king of that country; had surprised three of
his towns, and put all the inhabitants to the sword. He enumerated by
name many of the friends of the Jarra people, who had been murdered in
Kasson. This intelligence made the death-howl universal in Jarra for the
space of two days.
This piece of bad news was followed by another not less distressing. A
number of runaway slaves arrived from Kaarta on the 14th, and reported
that Daisy, having received information concerning the intended attack
upon him, was about to visit Jarra. This made the Negroes call upon Ali
for the two hundred horsemen, which he was to furnish them, according to
engagement. But Ali paid very little attention to their remonstrances;
and at last plainly told them that his cavalry were otherwise employed.
The Negroes, thus deserted by the Moors, and fully apprised that the King
of Kaarta would show them as little clemency as he had shown the
inhabitants of Kasson, resolved to collect all their forces, and hazard a
battle, before the king, who was now in great distress for want of
provisions, should become too powerful for them. They, therefore,
assembled about eight hundred effective men in the whole; and with these
they entered Kaarta on the evening of the 18th of June.
June 19th. This morning the wind shifted to the south-west; and about two
o'clock in the afternoon we had a heavy tornado, or thunder squall,
accompanied with rain, which greatly revived the face of nature, and gave
a pleasant coolness to the air. This was the first rain that had fallen
for many months.
As every attempt to redeem my boy had hitherto been unsuccessful, and in
all probability would continue to prove so whilst I remained in the
country, I found that it was necessary for me to come to some
determination concerning my own safety, before the rains should be fully
set in; for my landlord, seeing no likelihood of being paid for his
trouble, began to wish me away; and Johnson, my interpreter, refusing to
proceed, my situation became very perplexing. If I continued where I was,
I foresaw that I must soon fall a victim to the barbarity of the Moors;
and yet if I went forward singly, it was evident that I must sustain
great difficulties, both from the want of means to purchase the
necessaries of life, and of an interpreter to make myself understood. On
the other hand, to return to England, without accomplishing the object of
my mission, was worse than either. I therefore determined to avail myself
of the first opportunity of escaping, and to proceed directly for
Bambarra, as soon as the rains had set in for a few days, so as to afford
me the certainty of finding water in the woods.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 51 of 146
Words from 51262 to 52262
of 148366
