I Only Saw Four Muskets
Fired, Which, Being Loaded With Gunpowder Of The Negroes' Own
Manufacture, Did No Execution.
Shortly after this I observed a number of
people supporting a young man upon horseback, and conducting him slowly
towards the town.
This was one of the herdsmen, who, attempting to throw
his spear, had been wounded by a shot from one of the Moors. His mother
walked on before, quite frantic with grief, clapping her hands, and
enumerating the good qualities of her son. _Ee maffo fonio_, (he never
told a lie,) said the disconsolate mother, as her wounded son was carried
in at the gate - _Ee maffo fonio abada_, (he never told a lie; no, never.)
When they had conveyed him to his hut, and laid him upon a mat, all the
spectators joined in lamenting his fate, by screaming and howling in the
most piteous manner.
After their grief had subsided a little, I was desired to examine the
wound. I found that the ball had passed quite through his leg, having
fractured both bones a little below the knee. The poor boy was faint from
the loss of blood, and his situation withal so very precarious, that I
could not console his relations with any great hopes of his recovery.
However, to give him a possible chance, I observed to them that it was
necessary to cut off his leg above the knee. This proposal made every one
start with horror; they had never heard of such a method of cure, and
would by no means give their consent to it; indeed, they evidently
considered me as a sort of cannibal for proposing so cruel and unheard-of
an operation, which, in their opinion, would be attended with more pain
and danger than the wound itself. 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.
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