Travels in the Interior of Africa, vol 1 | Page 5

it as a great delicacy.
On the 6th of October the waters of the Gambia were at the greatest
height, being fifteen feet above the high-water mark of the tide, after
which they began to subside, at first slowly, but afterwards very rapidly,
sometimes sinking more than a foot in twenty-four hours. By the
beginning of November the river had sunk to its former level, and the
tide ebbed and flowed as usual. When the river had subsided, and the
atmosphere grew dry, I recovered apace, and began to think of my
departure, for this is reckoned the most proper season for travelling.
The natives had completed their harvest, and provisions were
everywhere cheap and plentiful.
Dr. Laidley was at this time employed in a trading voyage at
Jonkakonda. I wrote to him to desire that he would use his interest with
the slatees, or slave-merchants, to procure me the company and
protection of the first coffle (or caravan) that might leave Gambia for

the interior country; and, in the meantime, I requested him to purchase
for me a horse and two asses. A few days afterwards the Doctor
returned to Pisania, and informed me that a coffle would certainly go
for the interior in the course of the dry season; but that, as many of the
merchants belonging to it had not yet completed their assortment of
goods, he could not say at what time they would set out.
As the characters and dispositions of the slatees, and people that
composed the caravan, were entirely unknown to me--and as they
seemed rather averse to my purpose, and unwilling to enter into any
positive engagements on my account--and the time of their departure
being withal very uncertain, I resolved, on further deliberation, to avail
myself of the dry season, and proceed without them.
Dr. Laidley approved my determination, and promised me every
assistance in his power to enable me to prosecute my journey with
comfort and safety.
This resolution having been formed, I made preparations accordingly.
And now, being about to take leave of my hospitable friend (whose
kindness and solicitude continued to the moment of my departure), and
to quit for many months the countries bordering on the Gambia, it
seems proper, before I proceed with my narrative, that I should in this
place give some account of the several negro nations which inhabit the
banks of this celebrated river, and the commercial intercourse that
subsists between them, and such of the nations of Europe as find their
advantage in trading to this part of Africa. The observations which have
occurred to me on both these subjects will be found in the following
chapter.

CHAPTER II
--LANGUAGE AND RELIGION OF THE NATIVES

The natives of the countries bordering on the Gambia, though
distributed into a great many distinct governments, may, I think, be
divided into four great classes--the Feloops, the Jaloffs, the Foulahs,
and the Mandingoes. Among all these nations, the religion of
Mohammed has made, and continues to make, considerable progress;
but in most of them the body of the people, both free and enslaved,

persevere in maintaining the blind but harmless superstitions of their
ancestors, and are called by the Mohammedans kafirs, or infidels.
Of the Feloops, I have little to add to what has been observed
concerning them in the former chapter. They are of a gloomy
disposition, and are supposed never to forgive an injury. They are even
said to transmit their quarrels as deadly feuds to their posterity,
insomuch that a son considers it as incumbent on him, from a just sense
of filial obligation, to become the avenger of his deceased father's
wrongs. If a man loses his life in one of these sudden quarrels which
perpetually occur at their feasts, when the whole party is intoxicated
with mead, his son, or the eldest of his sons (if he has more than one),
endeavours to procure his father's sandals, which he wears ONCE A
YEAR, on the anniversary of his father's death, until a fit opportunity
offers of revenging his fate, when the object of his resentment seldom
escapes his pursuit. This fierce and unrelenting disposition is, however,
counterbalanced by many good qualities: they display the utmost
gratitude and affection towards their benefactors, and the fidelity with
which they preserve whatever is entrusted to them is remarkable.
During the present war, they have more than once taken up arms to
defend our merchant vessels from French privateers; and English
property of considerable value has frequently been left at Vintain for a
long time entirely under the care of the Feloops, who have uniformly
manifested on such occasions the strictest honesty and punctuality.
How greatly is it to be wished that the minds of a people so determined
and faithful could be softened and