CHAP. III.

FARTHER REMARKS ON GOREE, AND COMMUNICATION FROM IT TO THE SENEGAL. — KINGDOMS ON THE COAST OF GOREE, VIZ. CAYOR, BAOL, SIN, AND SALEM. — CURIOUS PARTICULARS OF A RACE OF NEGROES. — JOURNEY FROM GOREE TO SENEGAL, &c.

THE commerce of the isle of Goree, extends from Cape Verd to the kingdom of Salem, about seven leagues from the mouth of the Gambia; but there is no establishment on that part of the coast. The three factories of Rufisque, Portudal, and Joal are abandoned, the French administration of Goree merely keeping as residents, while they had the island, an inhabitant and a negro, who relieved each other alternately, and whose business was to treat for provisions. An establishment was projected at Cahone, a village belonging to the kingdom of Salem, nearly at the part where the river Gambia divides into two branches, the most northerly of which takes the name of Salem. It would have been very advantageous, as the Mandingos, from the kingdoms of Tombuctoo, Bambara, and the other states to the eastward, come to Cahone with their merchandise. It was not carried into execution; but it is evident that such an establishment would at any time be of the greatest advantage, as it might receive the commerce which formerly existed between Goree and the numerous isles formed by the river of Salem. Some inhabitants still go to trade at that river, and always turn their merchandise to the best account. It was on the banks of this river, that the famous lump of ambergrease was found, which M. Pelletan acquired; I will give an account of its discovery.

An inhabitant of Goree, named St. Jean, a well informed man, one day observed his negroes employed in careening their canoe, with a substance which they had melted, and of which they neither knew the nature nor the value. St. Jean discovered it by the smell, and caused what remained of the lump to be carried home. The whole had weighed upwards of a hundred pounds. To shew that this branch of commerce might become very important, I shall only observe that M. St. Jean sold the substance at from nine to ten francs per ounce, and it was resold in France for thirty-six francs.

Besides the means of commerce which Goree might have on this coast, it has opened a communication by land with Senegal. The distance between those two establishments is about forty leagues, but it is commonly made in five or six days; and the journey used to be one of pleasure to the French merchants, who went in parties, carrying with them provisions and tents for encamping on the most agreeable spots. The route is now so well known, that a sort of barracks have been built as an asylum for travellers. The greatest difficulty on the journey is that of procuring water, which it is necessary to carry with one, though wells have been dug at different distances. Milk, however, may always be procured in great quantities and at a cheap rate.

About half way up Cape Verd is a large lake, the water of which is brackish, though formed by a rivulet which is perfectly fresh. It is difficult to explain the cause of this singularity. Some suppose that the bottom of the lake consists of a nitrous earth, which communicates its flavour to the water; while others think, and perhaps with more reason, that the sea water filtrates through the ground, and mixes with that of the lake. But whatever may be the cause, it is remarkable that the water agrees equally well with sea and river fish. The negroes take immense quantities of fish between Capes Verd and Manuel, where the lake empties itself into the sea; and the vast flocks of birds, which live on its banks, also devour quantities of fish. Amongst the birds is a species which seems to belong to the falcon tribe: they have a brown plumage, with some white feathers at the neck and extremities of the wings . Their beak is thick and curved like a sickle, so that the fish which they take cannot escape. They have short thighs and claws; and the latter are armed with strong and sharp nails. They fly easily, and keep themselves for a considerable time on the surface of the water with the head inclined. When a fish appears they dart upon it, and carry it off to devour amongst the reeds. They have been sometimes shot, but they cannot be eaten, as their flesh has such a rank and fishy taste, and is full of oil. Near this lake, and in several parts of the route lately mentioned, are numbers of trumpet birds, whose notes resemble the sound of that instrument. They are black, and of the size of a turkey-cock, to which they are nearly similar in shape. Their lower beak is hollow and sonorous; and it is by this that they produce the sound described.

The lake just mentioned is named after the Cereses or Serays, some tribes of negroes who inhabit its banks: they form, as in every other part where they establish themselves, a sort of democratic republic, without knowing the principles of that kind of government; but following in this case their instinct and wishes, they never choose to acknowledge any master. They live in a complete state of nature, without any other rules than what she inspires: they have no idea of the divinity, and are persuaded that the soul dies with the body. They go almost entirely naked, speak a particular language, which differs from that of all their neighbours, and never intermarry with the other negroes, whom they dislike to such a degree, that they seem to be as averse from trading with them, as they would be from a contagion. One of the principal traits in their character is the resentment which they bear for offences, which they never pardon: and if they do not take vengeance themselves, they transmit their hatred to their children, and it subsists in the family till reparation be made for the real or supposed injury. In other respects they are a good kind of people, mild and simple in their manners, and hospitable even to officiousness. They give a particularly kind reception to the whites who pass through their country, carefully cultivate their lands, and raise a great number of cattle.

They have a great respect for the dead, whom they inter without their villages, in round or square spots, like those which they inhabit. After exposing the body on a bed they plaister the stakes, which form the square of interment, with a kind of clay, and also encompass it with a wall about a foot thick, which ends in a pointed roof, and incloses the spot. This collection of burying grounds resembles another village, and is often larger than the inhabited one to which it belongs. These people do not know how to write; but to distinguish the bodies which rest in these little huts, they put a bow and arrow on those which contain the men, while the women’s sepulchres have at top a pestle and mortar, being the instruments which they use to pound their rice and millet. In other respects, as they marry amongst each other, and thus form only one family: they have no object in transmitting to posterity the names of the dead or their parentage.

The route from Goree to Senegal is in general woody, and the woods contain many banyan and latane or palm trees. The fruit of the former, and the wine of the latter, are too well known to need any description. There are also great numbers of a shrub, whose leaves resemble those of the pear-tree, and have an aromatic flavour combined with the smell of the myrtle: it communicates its delicious flavour to the flesh of the cattle, which feed on it in preference to any other vegetable. There is likewise a tree which is called the soap-tree: its fruit is of the size of a small walnut, and the negroes, who use it to wash the cotton cloths which they wear round their waists, beat it between two stones to separate the nut from the shells; and it is with the latter that they rub what they are about to wash. It dissolves easily, and completely cleanses the cotton, but burns the cloth: this circumstance, however, though serious to the wearers, is of great advantage to our commerce, which supplies them with such articles.

In some parts they cultivate tobacco upon a large scale; for the negroes, though they only use it for smoking, consume vast quantities. They merely bruise it when ripe, and make it into bunches; and notwithstanding this slovenly way of preparing it, the flavour of it is tolerably good.

In the journey to which I have alluded we meet with no dangerous animals, excepting serpents, which are both large and numerous, being sometimes from fifteen to twenty feet long, and a foot and a half in diameter. It is asserted that these are less dangerous than the small ones, which are but two inches thick, and four or five feet long: it is, however, remarkable that the human species are very seldom injured by these reptiles. To observe the sang froid with which the negroes let the serpents enter the hovels to creep about, hunt the rats, and sometimes the fowls, without feeling the least alarm at their appearance, one would suppose that there was a reciprocal contract between them to live together in harmony. Nevertheless the negroes are sometimes bitten by these animals, on which occasions the remedy they apply is the actual cautery. When they happen to possess gunpowder, they cover the puncture with it and explode it, which produces a scar that draws out the venom. These accidents, however, are not frequent, and the negroes in general do not appear to apprehend them. The Cereses, on the contrary, dread the serpents, and keep them from their habitations as much as possible; indeed, they are continually at war with them, lay snares for them with much adroitness, and, on finding them, eat their flesh, which they think very good.

The serpents have other and still more terrible enemies, which are the eagles that abound throughout the country: they are of the same species as those in Europe, but far superior in size and strength.

We also meet in the journey above described numerous hordes of elephants; but they do no injury, nor ever disturb travellers: and likewise with parties of apes, who amuse by their watching and singular antics. There is also an aquatic animal sometimes found which the Cereses call bourba. This animal is something between the bear and the hog: its hair is short, thin, and whitish; and its feet have tolerably strong and pointed claws, which it uses to climb up trees like the bear. Its head is more like the bear’s than the hog’s; and though wild, it has not a terrific aspect. Its eyes are small and half closed, notwithstanding which it is very active. Its mouth is large and furnished with long and sharp strong teeth. It lives almost constantly in the rivers, notwithstanding which it is ascertained to be amphibious: its size is equal to that of a hog about a year old; and its flesh is fat and succulent.

Several persons have published their accounts of this little journey, and they all agree in stating that it is easy and agreeable. Indeed, I never heard of the slightest accident happening to those who performed it. The travellers arrive unfatigued at the village of Gandiolle, which is situated at the mouth of the Senegal, where they embark in canoes, and proceed to isle St. Louis in two or three hours, ascending the river by means of their oars.

The coast on which the commerce with Goree is established, as has been specified in the preceding passages, is divided amongst, and governed by, four negro kings. The most important and considerable of these states is that of Cayor, which is worthy of particular attention on account of the influence which its king, named Damel, has had in the success or disasters of the French establishments in this vicinity.

The kingdom of Cayor begins in the province of Toubè on the continent, and is about six leagues distant eastwards of Senegal, from which it is only separated by some marshes and the isle of Sor. It extends along the sea as far as the village called Grand Brigny, the frontier of the kingdom of Baol. Its continent is only a short league from Goree, but it stretches nearly sixty leagues in the interior. It was joined to the dominions of the provinces of Baol in 1695, after a sanguinary war, in which the latter were conquerors, and possessed both states to the year 1717. The king gave himself the name of Damel, which is the particular appellation of the king of Cayor; but at the death of Tinmacodon, the inconvenience arising from so great an extent of country being under one governor was seriously felt, and the kingdom was again divided, when Amarizone, brother to the deceased monarch, ascended the throne of Baol.

The royal family of Cayor is called Bisayou-ma-Fatim. The king who at present reigns was not the first in the order of succession, but was elected; but he was elected without any intrigue on his part: he took the title of Damel, and established his common residence at Guiguis, a village about thirty leagues from Senegal. After his election, the great people came to pay their homage to him, and all the ceremonies usual in such cases were scrupulously attended to: they prostrated themselves at some distance from the king’s feet without any other clothing than a simple piece of cloth round the loins; and afterwards, on approaching, they bent the knee three times before him, putting at each declension a handful of sand to their foreheads. The marabous or priests were exempted from these humiliating ceremonies; and on coming to acknowledge their new sovereign, they merely took the oath of fidelity, which was administered by himself.

The order of succession to the throne is regulated as follows: The brothers of the king succeed him by seniority; and the children of the deceased prince only ascend the throne when there are no brothers to take possession of it, a circumstance which very rarely happens; but when it does, the eldest son takes precedence. The first wife is the queen; the prince marries her publicly, and the festival lasts three days; nearly all his subjects attend it and make him presents. The children by this marriage are the legitimate children, and natural heirs to the throne; and after them the children by the second wife have the right, as well as those of the other women whom the king has simply declared to be his wives. The king may also have other women to whom he gives no qualification; and their children, who are reputed legitimate, may also pretend to the throne according to their age, in case their father should die, and leave no children by his first queen or other acknowledged wives.

This succession to the throne in the collateral lines is not peculiar to the kingdom of Cayor. It is also the case in that of Hoval, which is contiguous, and the king of which takes the title of Brack; but a different method is adopted by the family of the latter; as it is always the eldest son of the eldest sister of the deceased king who succeeds to the throne. These people, who in other respects are neither better informed, nor more polished, than their neighbours, think with good reason that by this manner of succession, there is more certainty as to birth-right. They apply to themselves, without knowing the meaning of it, the maxim of the Roman laws: “Partus matrem demonstrat, pater vero semper est incertus”; and it is doubtless this persuasion which causes the law to be religiously observed in the country of Hoval. In the kingdom of Cayor, on the contrary, it is sometimes violated, as is proved by the election of the last sovereign. Indeed it often happens that the great men combine together, convoke the people, and appoint to the throne another prince of a different family from him who has the right to ascend it, though they are always cautious to take him from the royal family.

The king of Cayor reigns despotically over his subjects, who are rather his slaves, as they tacitly obey and serve him: in other respects he is neither richer nor better off than themselves; and they pay him for his subsistence, a tribute which varies according to his pleasure. He is not distinguished either by the number of his houses, by that of his women, or by his guards. The military service near his person, that which takes place in time of war, and, in general, all the jobs or escorts, are performed by the subjects at their own expence, and they are obliged to execute his orders, and follow him wherever he chooses to lead them.

Damel and his subjects profess the Mahometan religion; but they render it scarcely recognisable by a multitude of retrenchments or additions. The same occurs amongst all the African hordes, who only agree together on three points, namely, a plurality of women, circumcision, and the respect which is due to the prophet Mahomet: on the other hand, each village has its particular practices, and turns those of the others into ridicule.

Damel, and the other kings and princes of the Negroes or Moors, have the privilege of never being made slaves. When they are taken in battle, they are either killed, or they destroy themselves.

A superstition peculiar to the kingdom of Cayor is, that both the people and the king think that the latter will die in the year in which he may cross any river or branch of the sea: hence he never goes to Goree, or to isle St. Louis in the Senegal, but remains always in his own territories on the continent.

While I was at Senegal, M. de Boufflers, governor-general of the colony, wished to have an interview with Damel, and it took place on the 24th April, 1786. The place fixed on was a large plain on the continent, called Guyarabop, and which lay on the banks of the Senegal; it was inclosed by a fosse, and its entrance was defended by an entrenchment; a tent was prepared in the middle. M. de Boufflers proceeded thither in the morning with a detachment of fifty men; and Damel, who was then at Gandiolle, a village in the southern part of his states, set off to meet the French general. This prince had in his suite a corps of cavalry, and a numerous body of infantry: on reaching the gate, he entered on horseback alone, and was received at the tent by the French general. The troops of this sovereign then took their station in the plain, and remained under arms the whole day in the most perfect order and discipline.

The productions and objects of commerce furnished by this country, are, slaves, who are generally rendered numerous by war; millet, of which such quantities are produced, that during my administration, being charged with the supply of provisions, &c., I derived enough from it for our whole consumption, which is immense; and lastly salt, which is furnished by the inexhaustible pits at Gandiolle.

These pits form the dowry of the wife of Damel, who is the acknowledged queen of Cayor. Each vessel which comes to trade for the salt, pays her a sort of duty, which is not always the same, but is agreed on with a delegate whom she sends to the spot during the period of the trade. It is however, in general, a piece of Guinea, four piastres, and twenty bottles of brandy, for a hundred barrels of salt; which number of barrels every year receives an addition of three or four. The purchasers give besides to the queen’s envoy a present in merchandise to the value of three or four piastres.

On the payment of these duties, and a few others of a subordinate nature, the women of Gandiolle undertake to carry the salt on board the ships at the rate of half a bar per barrel. By giving them something more they are induced to smuggle an additional quantity on board, a plan which is always adopted, and which it is impossible for the queen to prevent. These expences of porterage are paid in iron, coral, beads, and other trifling articles, on which the merchants gain so much profit, that the half bar, which is valued at two livres, eight sous (about two shillings sterling) is not worth to them more than ten sous, or five pence English.

During the time that M. Brue was at Senegal, a serious dispute arose between him and Damel, during which the former was seized by the negro king, and was in great danger of his life; but after many stratagems and much threatening on the part of the French, he regained his liberty; and though by the stipulations in the last treaty of peace with Damel, the French were to pay no kind of duty for their commerce, it was found necessary on this occasion to make the king a present amounting to 20,779 livres, which was taken in merchandize, valued according to the price which is given for negroes. This reduced the ransom to about 7,000 livres in actual value, without reckoning the private loss of the general, who was robbed of his money, jewels, and clothes, which were estimated at 6,000 livres; besides which he was kept for twelve days in close captivity, without being allowed to speak to any one. Since this period, Damel has never failed to insist on a very considerable duty every year, as the price of his good-will towards our nation. The king, however, did not escape with impunity on account of the outrage; for M. Brue on his liberation formed a coalition with the neighbouring sovereigns of Brack, Siratick, Burba-yolof, Bur-sin, and Bur-salum, and watched the coasts of Damel so closely, that no foreign vessels could approach them. He likewise seized and destroyed all the fishing-boats that came out, burned several villages, and obliged many others to supply Goree with all the wood which it required.

This war lasted eight months, and the states of Damel suffered by it severely, but still no reconciliation took place; and a plan was laid for seizing the negro king, and sending him as a slave to the West Indies; but at this crisis M. Brue was recalled to France, to give his advice on the deranged affairs of the African company. A negociation was afterwards entered into with M. Lemaitre, who submitted to the most humiliating terms, and undertook to pay annually to the king of Cayor 100 bars of iron for permission to get wood and water from his territory, and to purchase provision. This duty has successively increased, and it is now very high, so that it would be dangerous, if not impossible, to suppress it.

What I am now about to say relative to the Moors, and the customs in the kingdom of Cayor, will apply to all the other states on this coast, the difference between each being too trivial to merit distinction. I shall therefore confine myself chiefly to topographical details.

The kingdom of Baol, which is the first after Cayor, begins at the village of Little Brigny, and ends at the river of Serena: it is seven leagues from Goree, and has only about twelve leagues of coast from north to south. The king bears the name of Tin.

The kingdom of Sin, whose sovereign takes the name of Bur, is still smaller; as it has only eleven leagues of coast in the same direction.

The same title of Bur belongs to the king of Salum, whose dominions begin at the river of Palmera, and end at two or three leagues from the point of Barra. They run inwards as far as where the Gambia separates into two branches, the northern of which takes the name of the river of Salum. This river divides itself into six arms, each of which contains islands, which are inhabited and cultivated; but they are said to be unhealthy, particularly for foreigners.