About This Time, John Stevens Arrived, Under Charge Of A Moor, And Was Sent To Work In Company With Adams.

Stevens was a Portuguese, about eighteen years of age.

At this place they remained about a month.

It was now proposed by the Moors to Adams and Stevens, to accompany them on an expedition to Soudenny to procure slaves. It was with great difficulty they could be made to understand this proposal, but the Moors made themselves intelligible by pointing to some negro boys, who were employed in taking care of sheep and goats. Being in the power of the Moors, they had no option, and having therefore signified their consent, the party consisting of about eighteen Moors, and the two whites, set out for Soudenny.

Soudenny is a small negro village, having grass and shrubs growing about it, and a small brook of water. For a week or thereabouts, after arriving in the neighbourhood of this place, the party concealed themselves amongst the hills and bushes, lying in wait for the inhabitants, when they seized upon a woman with a child in her arms, and two children (boys), whom they found walking in the evening near the town.

During the next four or five days, the party remained concealed, when one evening, as they were all lying on the ground, a large party of negroes, consisting of forty or fifty made their appearance, armed with daggers, and bows and arrows, who surrounded and took them all prisoners, without the least resistance being attempted, and carried them into the town; tying the hands of some, and driving the whole party before them. During the night above one hundred negroes kept watch over them. The next day they were taken before the governor or chief person, named Muhamoud, a remarkably ugly negro, who ordered that they should all be imprisoned. The place of confinement was a mere mud wall, about six feet high, from whence they might readily have escaped, though strongly guarded, if the Moors had been enterprising, but they were a cowardly set. Here they were kept three or four days, for the purpose, as it afterwards appeared, of being sent forward to Timbuctoo, which Adams concluded to be the residence of the king of the country. At Soudenny, the houses have only a ground floor, and are without furniture or utensils, except wooden bowls, and mats made of grass. They never make fires in their houses. After remaining about four days at Soudenny, the prisoners were sent to Timbuctoo, under an escort of about sixty armed men, having about eighteen camels and dromedaries.

During the first ten days they proceeded eastward, at the rate of about fifteen to twenty miles a day, the prisoners and most of the negroes walking, the officers riding, two upon each camel or dromedary. As the prisoners were all impressed with the belief that they were going to execution, several of the Moors attempted to escape, and in consequence, after a short consultation, fourteen were put to death by being beheaded, at a small village at which they then arrived, and as a terror to the rest, the head of one of them was hung round the neck of a camel for three days, until it became so putrid, that they were obliged to remove it.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 104 of 587
Words from 54045 to 54597 of 309561