tHF'.-- THE NARRATIVE OP ROBERT I ADAMS. AN AMERICAN SAILOR. WHO WAS WRECKED ON THE WESTERN CO*ST OF AFRICA. IN THE YEAR 1810; WAS DETAINED THREE FEARS IN SLAVERY BY THE ARABS OF THE GREAT DESERT, AND RESIDED SEVERAL MONTHS IN THE CITY OF TOMBUCTOO. WITH A MAP, NOTES, AND AN APPENDIX BOSTON : PCBLISHED BY WELLS AND LILLY SOLD BY M. CAREY AND SON. PHILADELPHIA. »♦«♦♦» i8ir. T)T35G TO THE COMMITTEE OF THE COMPANY OF MERCHANTS TRADING TO AFRICA. Gentlemen, I beg leave to present to you the Nar- rative of the Sailor, Robert Adams, in the form which 1 conceive will be most interest- ing to you and to the publick, and most use- ful to the poor man himself, for whose benefit it has been committed to the press. I have the honour to be, Gentlemen, your faithful and obedient Servant, S. COCK. African Office, April 30th, 1816, t CONTENTS. Introductory Details respecting Adams. ...Discovered in London.... examined by the African Committee respecting his travels in Africa ....his answers satisfactory. ...Notes of his story laid before the African Committee... Their belief in its truth ...Mode of interrogat- ing Adams His method of reckoning bearings, distances, and rate of travelling, through the Desert. ...Examined by several Mem- bers of the Government.... Receives a Gratuity from the Lords of the Treasury.. ..Sir Willoughby Gordon's opinion of his state- ments page ix— xvi Reasons for publishing the following Narrative. ...Departure of Adams for America Arrival in England of Mr. Dupuis, British Vice Consul at Mogadore His confirmation of the whole of Adams's story in a Letter to the Editor, with other interesting parti- culars relating to him on his arrival and during his stay at Moga- dore p. xvi — xxii Advertisement to the Map.. ..Explanations respecting the data on which the Map is constructed Information on the route, and na- ture of the country, between Haoussa and Lagos on the Coast of the Bight of Benin. ...Probability of Europeans being able to pene- trate from Lagos in the direction of the Niger p. xxiv — xxviii NARRATIVE. CHAPTER I. Departure from New York on board the "Charles" Names of the Crew.. ..Arrival at Gibraltar.. ..Voyage to the Isle of Mayo.. ..Igno- rance of the Captain.. ..The ship is wrecked on the 4 Western coast of Africa.. ..The Crew saved, but are enslaved by the Moors. ...El Gazie... Description of the Moors, and their proceed n«;s... .French Renegade ...Sufferings of the Crew.. ..Death of Captain Horton.... Separation CONTENTS. of the Crew, and departure of the Moors from El Gazie.... Adams iv conveyed eastward into the Desert.... Mode of travelling.. ..Arrival at the encampment of the Moors. ...Employment there.. ..Expedition to steal Negro Slaves at Soudenny. ...Sufferings in traversing the De- sert.. ..Arrival near Soudenny.... The Moors seize a Woman and two Children ; are themselves surprized by the Negroes, taken prison- ers, and confined in the town. ...Soudenny, and its inhabitants.. ..The prisoners are conveyed by a party of armed Negroes to Tombuctoo ... Journey thither ; during which fourteen of the Moors are put to death. ...Arrival at Tombuctoo p. 29 CHAPTER II. Imprisonment of the Moors at Tombuctoo. ..Adams an object of cu- riosity, and kindly treated. ...King and Queen; Woollo and Fatima ....Their Dress, Ceremonies, Residence, and Attendants.. ..Muskets ....Curiosity of the Natives to see Adams. ...Tombuctoo. ...La Mar Zarah Canoes. ...Fish Fruits. ...Vegetables Grain. ...Food pre- pared from the Guinea corn. ...Animals. ...Heirie. ...Elephant hunt.... Birds: Ostriches. ...Sulphur.. ..Poisonous preparation of the Negroes for their Arrows. ...Persons and Habits of the Negroes. ...Incisions in their Faces Dress Ornaments, and Customs Musical Instru- ments. ...Dancing. ...Military Excursions against Bambarra. ...Slaves ....Criminal Punishments. ...Articles of Trade. ...Jealous precautions of the Negroes against the Moors ; their kindness to Adams.... Rain.. ..Names of Countries... .Words in the Language of Tombuc- too p. 40 CHAPTER III. Ransom of the imprisoned Moors and of Adams. ...Departure from Tombuctoo. ...Journey eastward along the River ; then northward to Taudeny.... Traders in salt. ...Taudeny... .Mixed Population of Moors and Negroes.. ..Beds of Rock Salt. ...Preparations and De- parture to cross the Sandy Desert.... Sufferings in the Desert.... Arrival at Woled D'leim.... Employment, and long detention there.... Refusal of Adams to attend to his tasks.... He is punished for it ; but perseveres.. ..Seizes an opportunity of escaping. ...Is pursued ; but reaches El Kabla ...He is purchased by the Chief.... Employed to tend the flocks #f his Master's Wives.... Negotiates with Aisba, the younger wife, on the subject of Wages.... Their bargain, and its consequences. ...Adams flies and conceals himself.. ..Is purchased by a CONTENTS. Trader; and conveyed to Woled Aboussebab....Woled Adrialla.... Aiata Mouessa Ali....He attempts to escape. ...Is retaken ; and con- veyed to Wed-Noon p. 58 CHAPTER IV. Description of Wed-Noon ; where Adams finds three of the crew of the "Charles". ...He is purchased by Bel-Cossim-Abdallah... .French Renegade.... Wreck of the Montezuma.... Gunpowder Manufacture ....Curious Relation of a Negro Slave from Kanno... .Severe labours and cruel treatment of the Christian Slaves at Wed-Noon. ...Adams is required to plough on the Sabbath day ; refuses ; is cruel iy beat- en, and put in irons. ...His firmness.. ..Inhuman treatment and death of Dolbie.... Williams and Davison, worn out by their sufferings, re- nounce their Keligiou.... Adams perseveres... .Letter from the Bri- tish Vice-Consul at Mogadore, addressed to the Christian Slaves.... Ransom of Adams. ...Departure from Wed-Noon Akkad;a....Bled Cidi Heshem.-.Marketof Cidi Hamet a >loussa....Agadeer, or Santa Cruz.... Mogadore ...Adams is sent to the Moorish En)peiour...Fez.... Mequinez.... Tangier... .Cadiz.. .Gibraltar.. ..Loudon p. 72 Concluding Remarks p. 140 — 165 Notes and Illustrations. El Gazie.. ..Shipwrecks. ...French Rene- gade.. ..Agadeer Doma....Soudenny....Woollo and Fatima.... Dress of the inhabitants of Tombuctoo, Houses, &c....La Mar Zarah. ...Ca- noes. ...Fruits.. ..Quadrupeds. ...Heiries... .Elephant huniiug....Alliga- tors....Courcoo Wild Beasts. ...Birds. ...Poisons. ...Polygamy. ...Re- ligion Physicians Sorcery ....Dancing Bambarra Slaves.... Punishments.. ..Shops and Trade at Tombuctoo Cowries Moors Negroes ....Crossing the Desert. ...Joliba river.. ..Negro Language ....Taudeny... .Woled D'leim....El Kabla.... Aisha....Wooled Abous- sebah....Kanno... .Christian Slaves. ...Reckonings of Time and Dis- tance p. 85—139 Appendix, No. I. Information obtained in the year 1764, respecting Tombuctoo, and the course and navigation of the Niger.... Park.... Major Rennell. ...Sources of the Senegal and Gambia Remarks on the Rivers passed by Park. ...Kong mountains.... Expediency of exploring the furthest western navigation of the Niger.. .p. 167 — 180 Appendix, No. II. Sketch of the Population of Western Bar- bary Berrebbers Arabs Moors Distinguishing occupa- tions p. 181—193 Index.... ; , p. 194 INTRODUCTORY DETAILS RESPECTING ROBERT ADAMS. In the month of October, 1815, the Editor of the following pages was informed by a friend, that a Gentleman of his acquaintance, recently arrived from Cadiz, had accidentally recognised an American seaman, in the streets of London, whom he had seen, only a few months before, in the service of an English merchant in Cadiz, where his extraordinary history had excited considerable interest ; the man having been a long time in slavery in the interiour of Africa, and having resided several months at Tombuc- too. Such a report was too curious not to have attract- ed the peculiar attention of the Editor at all times ; but the interest of the story was much heightened at that particular moment, by the circumstance of the recent embarkation of Major Peddie and his compa- nions, to explore those very parts of Africa which this person was said to have visited : and the Editor en- treated' his friend to assist him, by all the means in his power, to find the seaman in question, in order to ascertain, whether he really had been where it was reported, and in the hope that, either by his infor- mation or his personal services, the man might be 2 I INTRODUCTORY DETAILS. rendered useful to the views of Government in the exploratory expedition then on its way to Africa. Through the intervention of the Gentleman who had originally recognised the seaman, he was again found, and immediately brought to the office of the African Committee. The poor man, whose name was Robert Adams, was in very ill plight, both from hun- ger and nakedness. Scarcely recovered from a fit of sickness, he had, in that condition, begged his way from Holyhead to London, for the purpose of ob- taining, through the American Consul, a passage to his native country ; and he had already passed seve- ral nights in the open streets amongst many other distressed seamen, with whom the metropolis was at that period unfortunately crowded. No time was lost in questioning him respecting the length of his residence in Africa, the circumstances which led him thither, the places he had visited, and the means by which he had escaped. His answers disclosed so extraordinary a series of adventures and sufferings, as at first to excite a suspicion that his story was an invention ; and the gentlemen, by whom he was accompanied to the office, and who were pre- sent at his first examination, were decidedly of that opinion, when they considered how widely his ac- count of Tombuctoo differed from the notions gene- rally entertained of the magnificence of that city, and of the civilization of its inhabitants. The Edi- tor, however, received from this short examination, and from the plain and unpretending answers which the man returned to every question, a strong impres- sion in favour of his veracity. He accordingly took notes of the leading facts of his statement, particu- larly of the places he had visited, the distances ac- cording to his computations, and the direction in which his several journeys lay ; and having relieved his immediate necessities, and furnished him with a INTRODUCTORY DETAILS. XI trifle for his future subsistence, he desired the man to attend him again in the course of a few days. It was nearly a week before Adams again made his appearance : but upon his return, being immediately interrogated upon all the leading points of his story, the Editor had the gratification to find, upon com- paring his answers with the account which he had given on his first examination, that they were in sub- stance the same, and repeated almost in the same terms. Thus strengthened in his previous opinion that the man's veracity was to be depended upon, the Editor resolved to take down in writing (the man himself being unable either to write or read) a full account of his travels and adventures, from the pe- riod of his departure from America in the ship " Charles," in which he was wrecked on the coast of Africa, until that of his return to Cadiz, from whence he had just arrived. With this intention, the Editor took measures to render Adams's situation more comfortable, by equip- ping him with decent clothes, of which he stood peculiarly in need. He was also supplied with a trifle in money, as an earnest of the future recompense which was promised to him, provided he would attend regularly every day until the whole of his story should be taken down. It was not, however, with- out considerable difficulty that the man could be persuaded to remain during the period thus requir- ed. He was anxious to return to his friends, after so long and perilous an absence, and had been re- commended, by the Consul of the United States, to join a transport of American seamen which was then on the point of sailing. His desire to be gone was increased by some rumours then in circulation, of a probable renewal of hostilities between Great Bri- tain and the United States. But his objections were at length overcome on receiving an engagement, XU INTRODUCTORY DETAILS. that even if war should break out, and he, by any accident, be impressed, his discharge, either by pur- chase or substitute, should be immediately effected. Upon this understanding, he consented to remain as long as his presence should be required. The Editor has been induced to enter into this de- tail, for the satisfaction of those who might be dispos- ed to believe that Adams had obtruded his story upon his hearers, for the purpose either of exciting their compassion, or of profiting by their credulity. To obviate such a suspicion, it is sufficient to shew, with what difficulty he was induced to remain in the country to tell his story ; and to state, that he was never known to solicit relief from any of the nume- rous gentlemen by whom he was seen and examined. Previous, however, to Adams's agreement to stay, a Committee of the African Company having met, the Editor laid before them the notes he had taken of the heads of his story, expressing at the same time his firm belief that the man had really been at Tombuctoo; and he had the satisfaction to find that the Members of the Committee concurred in his opinion of the credibility of the man's statements; in which belief they were afterwards confirmed by their personal examination of him. They strongly encouraged the Editor to proceed in the course which he had begun; and recommended him to omit no practicable means of securing the residence of Adams in this country, until all the information he could possibly give, had been obtained from him, — whether for the purpose of increasing our general knowledge of the interiour of Africa, or of obtain- ing information on particular points which might be useful to the expedition actually on foot. After this arrangement was completed, Adams at- tended the Editor for a few hours daily during the following fortnight or three weeks, for the purpose INTRODUCTORY DETAILS. Xlll of answering his inquiries. During these examina- tions upwards of fifty gentlemen saw and interrogat- ed him at different times ; among whom there was not one who was not struck with the artlessness and good sense of Adams's replies, or who did not feel persuaded that he was relating simply the facts which he had seen, to the best of his recollection and be- lief. The Narrative now presented to the publick, is the fruit of these interrogatories. It is proper to mention in this place, that all the information contained in the Narrative was drawn from Adams, not as a continuous and straight-forward story, but in answer to the. detached, and often un- connected, questions of the Editor, or of any gentle- men who happened to be present at his examina- tions ; for he related scarcely any thing without his attention being directed to the subject by a special inquiry. This explanation will be necessary, to ac- count for the very large portion of his Narrative devoted to the description of Tombuctoo; for it might otherwise appear extraordinary to some of Adams's readers, that his details respecting a place which occurs so early in his adventures, and of which his recollection might be presumed to be less vivid, should be so much more minute than those respecting any other place which he has visit- ed : but the fact is, that Tombuctoo being the point to which the curiosity and inquiries of all his examin- ers were mainly directed, his answers on that subject were thus swelled to the prominence which they pos- sess in the Narrative. It has already been stated, that the first inquiries of the Editor related to the places which Adams had visited, and the courses and distances of the journeys between them. Having obtained these particulars, he communicated them to a friend, who was desirous XIV INTRODUCTORY DETAILS. of examining their pretensions to accuracy by tracing them upon a map of Africa, from the point where Adams appears to have been wrecked. The result of this test, as may be seen in the Map prefixed to the Narrative, at the same time that it afforded a most convincing corroboration of the truth of his story, proved that the man possessed an accuracy of observation and memory that was quite astonishing. Being questioned how he came to have so minute a recollection of the exact number of days occupied in his long journeys from place to place, he answer- ed, that being obliged to travel almost naked under a burning sun, he always inquired, before setting out on a journey, how long it was expected to last. In the progress of it he kept an exact account ; and when it was finished, he never failed to notice whe- ther it had occupied a greater or lesser number of days than he had been taught to expect, or whether it had been completed exactly in the stated time. On asking him how he could venture to speak with confidence of the precise number of miles which he travelled on each day ; he replied, that he could easily recollect whether the camels on any particular journey, travelled well or ill ; and knowing that when they are heavily laden and badly supplied with pro- visions, they will not go more than from ten to fif- teen miles a day; but that, on the other hand, when they are fresh and lightly laden, they will travel from eighteen to twenty-five miles a day, he had reckoned the length of his journeys accordingly. When asked how he came to observe so minutely the directions in which he travelled ; he replied, that he always noticed in a morning whether the sun rose in his face, or not : and that his thoughts being for- ever turned to the consideration of how he should escape, he never omitted to remark, and as much as possible to impress on his recollection, the course he INTRODUCTORY DETAILS. XV was travelling, and had travelled, and to make in- quiries on the subject. Being a sailor, he observed, he had the habit of noticing the course he was steer- ing at sea; and therefore found no difficulty in doing so, when traversing the Deserts of Africa, which looked like the sea in a calm. Enough, it is hoped, has been said to satisfy the Reader that the Narrative is genuine. But the Edi- tor, aware that it might be difficult to obtain credit for so extraordinary a story, was anxious, that Adams, before he left the country, should be seen and examin- ed by every gentleman who might w r ish it, or whose opinions would be most conclusive with the publick. Fortunately this wish was fully accomplished : for the story having come to the knowledge of Earl Ba- thurst, the Right Honourable the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Major General Sir Willoughby Gordon, the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, John Barrow, Esq.* George Harrison, Esq. Henry Goulburn, Esq. M. P. and other members of the Government who interest themselves in African affairs, and they hav- ing expressed a desire to see Adams, he waited upon them in person, and the Narrative was at the same time transmitted to them for their perusal. It is un- necessary to give stronger evidence of the general impression derived from this investigation than is af- forded by the fact, that the Lords of the Treasury were pleased to order to the poor man a handsome gratuity for his equipment and passage home : and Sir Willoughby Gordon, in a Letter which the Edi- * In mentioning the names of Sir Joseph Banks and Mr. Barrow, the Editor ought not to conceal that Adams had the misfortune, at his first interviews with these gentlemen, and previous to the conclusive corroborations which his story has since received, to excite some doubts in their minds by his account of Tombuctoo, and by his mis- takes on some subjects of natural history, (see Notes 15, 18, and 20,) but of the general truth of his Narrative they did not, even at thnr early period, entertain any doubts, XVI INTRODUCTORY DETAILS. tor had subsequently the honour to receive from him, expressed his opinion in the following words : " the perusal of his Statement, and the personal examina- tion of Adams, have entirely satisfied me of the truth of his deposition. If he should be proved an impos- tor, he will fee second only to Psalmanazar." Although the information thus obtained fromAdamg did not, in strictness, answer the specifick object for which it was sought, that of assisting Major Ped- die; yet as his extraordinary adventures, and his de- tails of Tombuctoo, were too curious to be suppress- ed, it was resolved, with a view to the gratification of the publick, and in some respects, in justice to Adams, that the Narrative should be printed for his sole benefit. It was accordingly about to be sent to the press in December last, unsupported by any external evidence beyond the considerations and opinions, contained in the preceding part of this Preface, which was written at that time. And as no sufficient reason then existed for any longer opposing Adams's wish to revisit his home, he embarked on board a vessel bound to New York; leaving until his return, (which he promised should take place in the Spring,) a large balance of the bounty of the Lords of the Treasury, and the expected profits of his Book ; but before his departure he communicated to the Editor such particulars of his family as might lead to the verification of his, and their, identity, if his return to this country should be prevented by his death. At this conjuncture an opportunity unexpectedly presented itself, of putting Adams's veracity to a decisive test on many important details of his Narra- tive; and the intended publication was consequently jH$' INTRODUCTORY DETAILS. XVU suspended until the result of this investigation should be ascertained. The circumstance which produced this fortunate delay, was notice of the arrival in England of Mr. Dupuis, the British Vice-Consul at Mogadore ; to whose interference Adams had ascribed his ransom ; and to whom, consequently, the truth or falsehood of many of his statements must of necessity be known. No time was lost in obtaining an interview with this gentleman : and the satisfactory answers returned by him to the Editor's first inquiries, led to further trespasses on his kindness and his leisure ; which ter- minated in his consenting, at the earnest solicitation of the Editor, to undertake the perusal of the entire Narrative, and to communicate in writing whatever observations, whether confirmatory or otherwise, might occur to him in the course of its examination. The general result of this scrutiny, so satisfacto- ry to the previous believers of Adams, is contained in the following Letter from Mr. Dupuis, which is too interesting and important to admit of any abridgment. * " London, 31sl January, 1816. " In compliance with your request, I have great pleasure in communicating to you all the particulars with which I am acquainted, respecting the Ameri- can seaman who is supposed to have been at Tim- buctoo ; of whom I have a distinct recollection. "In the latter end of the year 1810, 1 was informed, at Mogadore, that the ship Charles, of New York, to which that seaman belonged, was wrecked on the Western Coast of Africa, near the latitude of Cape Blanco : and about three months after her loss, I was fortunate enough to ransom three of her crew; who informed me that their Captain was dead, 3 XV111 INTRODUCTORY DETAILS. that the rest of the crew were in slavery, and that two of them, in particular, had been carried away by the Arabs in an easterly direction across the De- sert, and would probably never be heard of again. Some time after this, I heard that the mate and one seaman were at Wed-Noon ; and I accordingly tried to effect their liberation; but after a considerable time spent in this endeavour, I could neither suc- ceed in that object, nor in obtaining any information respecting the rest of the crew. At length, nearly two years after the wreck of the Charles, I acciden- tally heard that a Christian was at El Kabla, a re- mote Douar in the Desert, in a south-east direction from Mogadore; and subsequently I heard of the arrival of the same individual at Wed-Noon ; from whence, after a tedious negociation, I ultimately ob- tained his release about a year afterwards. " The appearance, features and dress of this man upon his arrival at Mogadore, so perfectly resembled those of an Arab, or rather of a Shilluh, his head being shaved, and his beard scanty and black, that I had difficulty at first in believing him to be a Chris- tian. When I spoke to him in English he answered me in a mixture of Arabick and broken English, and sometimes in Arabick only. At this early period I could not help remarking, that his pronunciation of Arabick resembled that of a Negro, but concluded that it was occasioned by his intercourse with Ne- gro slaves. " Like most other Christians after a long captivity and severe treatment among the Arabs, he appeared upon his first arrival exceedingly stupid and insensi- ble ; and he scarcely spoke to any one : but he soon began to show great thankfulness for his ransom, and willingly assisted in arranging and cultivating a small garden, and in other employments, which I gave him with a view of diverting his thoughts. About ten or INTRODUCTORY DETAILS. XIX twelve days afterwards his faculties seemed pretty- well restored, and his reserve had in a great mea- sure worn off; and about this period, having been informed by a person with whom he conversed, that he had visited the Negro country, I began to inquire of him the extent of his travels in the De- sert ; suppressing every appearance of peculiar cu- riosity, or of expecting any thing extraordinary from his answers. He then related to me, with the greatest simplicity, the manner in which he had been wrecked, and afterwards carried away to the east- ward, to Timbuctoo ; the misfortunes and sufferings of the party which he accompanied, his return across the Desert, and his ultimate arrival at Wed-Noon. What he dwelt upon with most force and earnest- ness during this recital, were the particulars of the brutal treatment which he experienced from the Arabs at El Kabla and Wed-Noon. He did not ap- pear to attach any importance to the fact of his having been at Timbuctoo: and the only strong feeling which he expressed respecting it, was that of dread, with which some of the Negroes had inspired him, who, he said, were sorcerers, and possessed the power of destroying their enemies by witchcraft. " The probability of the events, the manner of his relating them, and the correspondence of his description of places with what information 1 pos- sessed respecting them, led me to attach a conside- rable degree of credit to his Narrative. After re- peated examinations, in which I found him uniformly clear and consistent in his accounts, I sent for seve- ral respectable traders who had been at Timbuc- too ; and these persons, after examining him respect- ing the situation of that city and of other places, and respecting the objects which he had seen there, assured me that they had no doubt of his having been where he described. So strongly was my be- XX INTRODUCTORY DETAILS. lief in the truth and accuracy of his recital now con- firmed, that I wrote a detail of the circumstances to Mr. Simpson, Consul-General of the United States at Tangier : I made a chart, on which I traced his course ; and observed, that it extended eastward nearly to the supposed situation of Timbuctoo : I also took down in writing an account of his travels, which I regret that I left amongst my papers at Mo- gadore ; and although in doing this I had occasion to make him repeat his story several times, I never found that he differed in any important particular from the tale he told at first. 44 The Narrative which you have transmitted to me appears, after a minute examination, and to the best of my recollection, to be the same, in substance, as that which I received from him at Mogadore. The chain of events is uniformly the same ; but I think he entered more into detail on many points, in the relation which he gave to me. I do not enlarge upon this subject here, having pointed out in the Notes which I have made on the Narrative, the few passages, in which I found it differ materially from what! recollect of his statements at Mogadore. I have also mentioned such circumstances as corro- borated any part of his statements ; and I have ad- ded, according to your desire, such illustrations or in- cidental information, as occurred to me in perusing the Narrative. " Being quite satisfied from your description of the person of the American seaman, and from the internal evidence of the Narrative, that 4 Robert Adams* is the identical individual who was with me at Mogadore, I must not, however, omit to inform you, that the name by which he went in Africa was Benjamin Rose ; by which name also he was known to those of the crew of the Charles who were ran- somed. INTRODUCTORY DETAILS. XXI "I cannot say that I am much surprised at this circumstance, because I recollect that he once hint- ed, during his residence at Mogadore, that ; Benja- min Rose' was not his real name : and from the Ereat apprehensions which he always discovered, ;st he should fall in with, or be impressed by a British Man of War, as well as from the anxiety which he shewed on being sent to Tangier, so near to Gibraltar, I could not help suspecting that he might have some reasons of his own, connected with the British Naval service, for going under a feigned name. This conjecture was in some degree con- firmed by an acknowledgment which he made, that he had once been on board a British Man of War, either on service, or detained as a prisoner. " There is another circumstance which he men- tioned to me at Mogadore, which may possibly have led to this change of name. He told me that he had quitted America to avoid a prosecution with which he was threatened for the consequences of an amour, which he was unwilling to make good by marriage. But on the whole, I am disposed to think that the former was the real cause; since he never express- ed any reluctance to go to America, but always seemed to dread the idea of visiting Europe. I never doubted at Mogadore that he was an Ameri- can, as he stated ; and on one occasion, he discover- ed an involuntary exultation at the sight of the American flag, which seemed quite convincing. He told me that he was born up the river of New York, where his father lived when he quitted America ; and I learnt, either from himself or from some other of the Charles's crew, that his mother was a Mulat- to, which circumstance his features and complex- ion seemed to confirm. " On the whole, as I consider it not improbable that Adams may be his real name, and being at all XXII INTRODUCTORY DETAILS. events quite satisfied, that he is the person whom I knew at Mogadore, I have, (to avoid confusion) adopted the name which he bears in the Narrative, when I speak of him in my Notes. " I shall be very happy if this explanation, and the details into which I have entered in the Notes, prove of any interest: if you think them of sufficient importance, I can have no possible ground for ob- jecting to their being made pubhck. « JOSEPH DUPUIS." Fortified by this important testimony, the Narra* tive is now presented to the publick, with a guaran- tee for its substantial veracity, which happily su- persedes, though it does not render the less interest- ing, the presumptive and internal evidence to which the Reader's attention has already been directed. The Editor reserves for another place, a brief review of the extent to which Mr. Dupuis' com- munications thus confirm the Narrative ; together with an examination of those parts of it which still rest on the unsupported authority of the Narrator. But he cannot omit this, the earliest, opportunity, of publicly acknowledging his great personal obli- gations to that gentleman, not merely for his ex- amination of the Narrative, and for the confirma- tion which his Letter and Notes have lent to it, but peculiarly for the ready kindness with which he has yielded to the Editor's request, in extend- ing his interesting remarks on some particular oc- casions, further than the mere confirmation of Adams's Narrative in strictness seemed to require. To this additional encroachment on the leisure of Mr. Dupuis, the Editor was impelled by information, that few persons were better qualified to give origi- nal and accurate details respecting the natives of Barbary and the Desert;— a residence of eight years INTRODUCTORY DETAILS. XX11I in the dominions of the Emperour of Morocco, — (more than half of which period in an official charac- ter,) — and an eminent proficiency in the Arabick language, and in its very difficult pronunciation, having* afforded to him facilities of accurate com- munication with the natives, to which very few of our countrymen have ever attained. The Editor's particular acknowledgments are also due to two gentlemen, members of the African Committee (whom he should have been glad to have had permission to name,) whose contributions will be found in this publication : to the one, for a Dissertation of great practical importance on the Up- per Regions of the Niger, inserted in the Appendix, No. I ; — and to the other, for the Map already alluded to, and for various Notes and Remarks with which, during the Editor's temporary absence, from ill health, he has had the kindness to illustrate the Narrative. In conclusion, the Editor has only to add the as- surance (which however he trusts is hardly neces- sary,) that the Narrative itself is precisely in the same state now, as when it was read at the offices of the Colonial Secretary of State, and of the Quarter- Master-General ; — not a single liberty either of ad- dition or suppression having been taken with the plain statements of Adams : even the imperfect or- thography of the names of places, as they were first written to imitate Adams's pronunciation, remains uncorrected; in order that the Reader may judge for himself of Adams's approach to accuracy, in this respect, by comparing his recollections of the names of places and persons, with those accurately furnish- ed by Mr. Dupuis. April 30th, 1816. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE MAP. In conformity with the reported computation of the master of the " Charles," the scene of the shipwreck has been placed in the map four hundred miles north of the Senegal, or about the 22d. degree of north latitude. The ruled line drawn from this point represents Adams's recollected courses to Tombuctoo and Wed-Noon, extracted from the narrative at his high- est estimates of distance.* The dotted line from the same point is given as the assumed real track of these journeys : being an adaptation of the former line to the positions assigned by the best authorities to the cities of Tombuctoo and Wed-Noon; and the differ- ence between thsee two lines will shew the extent of allowance for errours in reckoning, which Adams's statements appear to require. It is evident, however, that the accuracy of the first part of these journeys (from the coast to Tombuctoo) must depend altogether upon the cor- rectness of the assumed point of departure from which it is traced ; and it will probably be remarked, that as the fact of the shipwreck proves the master to have been mistaken in his estimate of longitude, we may fairly presume that he was at least equally mistaken in his latitude ; since the known direction of the currents which prevail on this part of the African coast (by which he was probably misled) * See the Table in Note 60. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE MAP. XXV would doubtless carry the ship at least as far to the southward of her reckoning, as the fact of the wreck proves that she was carried to the eastward. Admitting the force of this consideration, we may observe, that in the degree in which it tends to in- validate the accuracy of the master's estimate, it cor- roborates the precision of Adams's recollections — his line of journey (as now traced from the master's position of the shipwreck,) lying actually a little further to the north than is requisite to bring him to the supposed situation of Tombuctoo. There is not, however, any sufficient ground for believing, that Captain Horton's estimates, after the loss of his ship, did notinclude, all the allowances for the effect of the currents, which we are now contem- plating, and which that misfortune was calculated to suggest; and we are, consequently, not at liberty to deviate from his opinion merely to fit the circum- stances to Adams's story. Nevertheless, this opi- nion (which may be erroneous) must be taken, in conjunction with Adams's description of the place where they were cast away ; and the only certain conclusion thusdeducible from the narrative appears to be, — that the " Charles" was wrecked on a ledge of low rocks, projecting from a level sandy coast, not far from the latitude of Cape Blanco. With respect to other positions in the map, we have only to explain, — that the latitude of Park's lines of journey from the Gambia to Silla is adjusted from the data afforded by his last mission ; but that Major Rennell's situation of Tombuctoo has been retained. A conjectural junction has been suggested be- tween Adams's river La Mar Zarah and the Niger: and a suppositious course has also been assigned to the latter river, above the point to which Park's per- 4 XXVI ADVERTISEMENT TO THE MAP. sonal observation extended, in order to illustrate the question discussed in the Appendix, No. I. In a publication professedly intended to promote, in however trifling a degree, our acquaintance with the interiour of Africa, it has not appeared improper to advert to the question of the termination of the Niger; and the outline of the map has accordingly been extended to the Zaire and the Nile, in order to afford a glance at the great points of this much agi- tated question. It is not, however, our intention to mix further in this discussion. The problem which has excited so strong an interest, is now, we trust, in a fair way of being satisfactorily solved, by the joint labours of the double expedition which is actu- ally on foot; and it has been, in the mean time, so ably illustrated in all its parts, by Major Rennell in his Geographical Illustrations of Park's first Travels, — by the Editor of Park's Second Mission, — and by the most respectable of our periodical publica- tions, that it would appear a little presumptuous in us to expect that we could throw any new interest into the discussion. But desirous of contributing our mite of information to the facts upon which the discussion itself is founded, we shall offer no apology for inserting, in this place, the substance of a com- munication with which we have been favoured by a gentleman upon whose statements we can rely, and who has resided, at different intervals, a considera- ble time at the settlement of Lagos, and at other sta- tions on the coast of the Bight of Benin. We learn from our informant that the Haoussa* traders who, previous to the abolition of the slave trade, were continually to be met with at Lagos, still come down to that mart, though in smaller bodies. The result of his frequent communications with them * Pronounced by the Negroes as ifit were written A-Houssa. ADVERTISEMENT TO THE MAP. XXVll respecting the journey to their own country and the Negro nations through which it lay, has strongly persuaded him of the practicability of a body of Europeans penetrating in that direction to the Ni- ger, with proper precautions, under the protection of the Haoussa merchants : and of insuring their safe return by certain arrangements to be made be- tween the adventurers themselves, (countenanced by the authority of the Governours of the neigh- bouring forts,) — their Haoussa conductors, and the settled native traders on the coast. The principal Negro nation on the journey are the Joos,* a pow- erful and not ill disposed people ; and, nearer the coast, (avoiding the Dahomey territories,) the Anagoos, and the Mahees ; the latter of whom are stated to be an industrious people and good plant- ers. Cowries alone would be necessary, for suste- nance or presents, during the whole of the journey. But it is principally with reference to the nature of the country which lies between the coast and Haoussa that we notice this communication. The traders describe their journey to the coast as occu- pying between three and four months, which is as much time as they require for the journey from Haoussa to the Gambia; the difficulties and delays incidental to the former journey counterbalancing its shorter distance. These difficulties are invariably described as resulting from the numerous rivers, mo- rasses, and large lakes which intersect the countries between Haoussa and the coast. Some of these lakes are crossed by the traders on rafts of a large size, capable of transporting many passengers and much merchandise at one passage j and here the travellers are often detained a considerable time until a sufficiently large freight of passengers and * Yos, or Jyos, in D'Anville's maps. XXVU1 ADVERTISEMENT TO THE MAP. goods happens to be collected. On no occasion does our informant recollect that the Haoussa traders have spoken of a range of mountains, which they had to cross in coming down from their own country, and he has no idea that any such range ex- ists in that direction, as the traders spoke only of morasses and other impediments from water. We hardly need to observe, that these statements appear to remove some of the difficulties which have been objected to the prolongation of the course of the Niger to the southward, either to the kingdom of Congo or to the Gulf of Guinea, in consequence of the supposed barrier of the Jibbel Kumri, or moun- tains of the moon; but the details are of course too vague to supply any argument in favour of either of the particular systems here alluded to respecting the termination of the Niger, — either of the conjectural theory of Reichard, or of the more reasoned system which Park adopted, and which is so ably illustrated and enforced in one of the publications* to which we have already alluded. * See the Quarterly Review for April 1815, Art. VI. NARRATIVE, $c. CHAPTER I. Departure from New York on board the "Charles. "....Names of the Crew.. ..Arrival at Gibraltar.... Voyage to the Isle of Mayo. ...Igno- rance of the Captain.. ..The ship is wrecked on the Western coast of Africa.. ..The Crew saved,but are enslaved by the Moors. ...El Gazie... Description of the Moors, and their proceedings... .French Renegade ....Sufferings of the Crew. ...Death of Captain Horton.... Separation of the Crew, and departure of the Moors from El Gazie.. ..Adams is conveyed eastward into the Desert. ...Mode of travelling.. ..Arrival at the encampment of the Moors. ...Employment there... .Expedition to steal Negro Slaves at Soudenny.... Sufferings in traversing the De- sert.. ..Arrival near Soudenny.... The Moors seize a Woman and two Children.... Are themselves surprized by the Negroes, taken prison- ers, and confined in the town.. ..Soudenny, and its inhabitants.. ..The prisoners are conveyed by a party of armed Negroes to Tombuctoo ....Journey thither ; during which fourteen of the Moors are put to death. ...Arrival at Tombuctoo. Robert Adams, aged 25, born at Hudson, about one hundred miles up the North River, from New York, where his father was a sail maker, was brought up to the seafaring line, and made several voyages to Lisbon, Cadiz, Seville, and Liverpool. On the 17th of June, 1810, he sailed from New York in the ship Charles, John Horton master, of 280 tons, Charles Still well owner; laden with flour, rice, and salted provisions? bound to Gibraltar. 30 ROBERT ADAMS'S NARRATIVE. The crew consisted of the following persons : — Stephen Dolbie, mate, Thomas Williams, Martin Clarke, Unis Newsham, Nichofas (a Swede,) John Stephens, : I * I John Matthews, , James Davison, .*• • :t..?, ■■ .Robert Adams, shipped at New York. The vessel arrived in twenty-six days at Gibraltar, where the cargo was discharged. Here she was joined by Unis Nelson, another sailor : she lay at Gibraltar about a month, and after taking in sand ballast, 68 pipes of wine, some blue nankeens, and old iron, proceeded on her voyage, the Captain stat- ing that he was bound to the Isle of May, for salt, but afterwards it appeared that he was going on a trading voyage down the coast. (*) When they had been at sea about three weeks, Adams heard two of the crew, Newsham and Matthews, who were old sailors, and had been on the coast before, speaking to the mate, stating their opinion that the Captain did not know where he was steering : the ship's course was then south south-west : they said he ought to have steered to the northward of west* They had to beat against contrary winds for eight or nine days afterwards ; and on the 11th of October, about 3 o'clock in the morning, they heard breakers ; when Matthews, the man at the helm, told the mate, who was keeping watch, that he was sure they were near the shore ; to which the mate replied, that "he had better mind the helm, or his wages would be * These courses, whether from the fanlt of Adams's memory, or of the judgment of the "old sailors," hardly seem to warrant the conse- quences here ascribed to them. ROBERT ADAMS S NARRATIVE. 31 stopped." An hour afterwards the vessel struck, but there was so much fog that the shore could not be seen. The boat was immediately hoisted out, and the mate and three seamen got into it, but it instantly swamped. The four persons who were in it, swam, or were cast ashore by the surf; soon after a sea washed off four or five more of the crew, in- cluding Adams ; but as all of the ship's company could swim, except Nicholas and the mate, they reached the shore without much difficulty ; the latter two were nearly exhausted, but no lives were lost. When morning came, it appeared that the ship had struck on a reef of rocks that extended about three quar- ters of a mile into the sea, and were more than twelve feet above the surface at low water. The place, according to the Captain's reckoning, was about four hundred miles to the northward of Sene- gal. Soon after break of day they were surrounded by- thirty or forty Moors, who were engaged in fishing on that coast, by whom Captain Horton and the ship's company were made prisoners. The vessel bilged : the cargo was almost entirely lost ; and what re- mained of the wreck was burnt by the Moors, for the copper bolts and sheathing ; but as they had no tools wherewith to take off the copper, they saved little more than the bolls. The place which was called El Gazie, ( 2 ) was a low sandy beach, having no trees in sight, nor any verdure. There was no appear- ance of mountain or hill ; nor (excepting only the rock on which the ship was wrecked) any thing but sand as far as the eve could reach. The Moors were straight haired, but quite black; their dress consisted of little more than a rug or a skin round their waist, their upper parts and from their knees downwards, being wholly naked. The men had neither shoes nor hats, but wore their hair 32 ROBERT ADAMS'S NARRATIVE. very long : the women had a little dirty rag round their heads by way of turban. They were living in tents made of stutFlike a coarse blanket, of goat's hair, and sheep's wool interwoven; but some of them were without tents, until they were enabled to make them of the sails of the ship ; out of which they also made themselves clothes. The men were circumcised. They appeared to be provided with no cooking uten- sil whatever. Their mode of dressing fish was by drying it in the sun, cutting it into thin pieces, and letting it broil on the hot sand ; but they were better off after the wreck, as they secured several pots, saucepans, &c. So extremely indigent were these people, that when unable to catch fish, they were in danger of starving ; and in the course of fourteen days, or thereabouts, that they remained at El Gazie, they were three or four days without fish, owing to the want of proper tackle. Among the articles in a chest that floated ashore, was fishing tackle, which the crew of the Charles offered to shew the Moors how to use, and to assist them in fishing ; but they refused to be instructed, or to receive any assistance. At length, having accumulated enough to load a ca- mel, they raised their tents and departed, taking with them their prisoners. Besides the Moors, there was a young man in ap- pearance a Frenchman, but dressed like a Moor. As captain Horton spoke French, he conversed with this man, who told him that about a year before he had made his escape from Santa Cruz, in the Canary Islands, in a small vessel, ,with some other French- men ; and that having appoached the shore to pro- cure goats, they had found it impossible to get the vessel off again, on account of the surf, and were ta- ken prisoners ; his companions had been sent up the country. As he associated, and ate and slept with ROBERT ADAMS ? S NARRATIVE. 33 the Moors, Adams was of opinion that he had turned Mohammedan, although he assured Captain Horton that he had not done so. ( 3 ) On the landing of the Captain and crew, the Moors stripped all of them naked, and hid the clothes under ground, as well as the articles which they had collected from the ship, or which had floated ashore. Being thus exposed to a scorching sun, their skins became dreadfully blistered, and at night they were obliged to dig holes in the sand to sleep in, for the sake of coolness. This was not the only evil they had to encounter, for as the Moors swarmed with lice, Adams and his companions soon became covered with them. About a week after landing, the Captain became extremely ill, and having expressed himself violently on the occasion of his being stripped, and frequently afterwards using loud and coarse language, and me- nacing gestures, he was at length seized by jhe Moors and put to death. The instrument they used on the occasion was a sword, which they found in the cabin : the Captain used no resistance ; he was in fact so reduced by sickness, and was in such a state of despondency, that he frequently declared he wished for death. It was the manner of the Cap- tain that gave offence, as the Moors could not un- derstand what he said, any more than he could un- derstand them. One thing in particular, about which Adams understood the Moors to quarrel with him was, that as he was extremely dirty, and (like all the party) covered with vermin, they wished him to go down to the sea to wash, and made signs for him to do so. But partly from an obstinacy of dis- Eosition, and partly from the lassitude brought on y sickness and despair, he refused to do as de- sired; and whenever pressed to do so, used the most threatening looks, actions, and words. ( 4 ) 04 ROBERT ADAMSES NARRATIVE. When the vessel struck, the Captain gave orders that the heads of the wine casks should be knocked in, in the hope of thereby making her float ; and when he found that did not succeed, he ordered that the guns, flour, anchors, &c. should be thrown over- board, and the water started. In the confusion and alarm, the muskets and powder were also thrown overboard ; otherwise the party might have had the means of defending themselves against the Moors who appeared on their first landing, the number of whom did not exceed forty or fifty people ; but though the Captain was a man of courage, he ap- peared to be utterly deprived of reflection after the vessel had struck. He was also an excellent navi- gator, but relied too much upon the Mate. After they had remained about ten or twelve days, until the ship and materials had quite disap- peared, the Moors made preparation to depart, and divided the prisoners among them, carefully hiding in the sand every thing they had saved from the wreck. Adams, the Mate, and Newsham were left in the possession of about twenty Moors, (men, women, and children,) who quitted the sea coast, having four camels, three of which they loaded with water, and the other with fish and baggage. They travelled very irregularly, sometimes going only ten or twelve miles a day, but often considerably more, making upon an average about fifteen miles a day ; occasionally going two or three days without stop- ping, except at night, at others resting a day or two ; on which occasions they pitched the tents to recruit the camels. Except one woman, who had an infant, which she carried on her back, the whole of the party went on foot. The route was to the eastward, but inclining rather to the south than to the north of east, across a desert sandy plain, with occasional low hills ajnd ROBERT ADAMs's NARRATIVE. 35 stones. At the end of about thirty days, during which they did not see any human being, they ar- rived at a place, the name of which Adams did not hear, where they found about thirty or forty tents, and a pool of water, surrounded by a few shrubs, which was the only water they had met with since quitting the coast. In the first week after their arrival, Adams and his companions being greatly fatigued, were not re- quired to do any work, but at the end of that time they were put to tend some goats and sheep, which were the first they had seen. About this time John Stevens arrived, under charge of a Moor, and was sent to work in company with Adams. Stephens was a Portuguese, about eighteen years of age. At this place they remained about a month. The Mate offered the Moors one hundred dollars to take the party to Senegal, which was called by the Moors Agadeer Bomba,* which they refused; but, as Adams understood, they were willing to take them to a place called Suerra. ( 5 ) Not being ac- quainted with this place, they objected to go thith- er ; but when the}* began to learn the language, they found that what was called Suerra, meant Mogadore, The Mate and Newsham remained only a few days at the place at which they were stop- ping, when they went away with some of the Moors in a northerly direction. It was very much the de- sire of Adams and Stevens to continue in company with the Mate and the others, but they were not permitted, i 6 ) Some days after, it was proposed by the Moors to Adams and Stevens to accompany them in an expe- dition to Soudenny to procure slaves. It was with S^reat difficulty they could understand this proposal, * " Agadeer Doma." D, 3a ROBERT ADAMS'S NARRATIVE. but the Moors made themselves intelligible by point* ing to some Negro boys who were employed in taking care of sheep and goats ; and §s they fre- quently mentioned the word " Suerra," Adams at last made out, that if he and Stevens would join in the expedition, they should be taken to that place. 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 off for Soudenny, taking with them nine camels, laden with water and barly flour, procured at a place at which they had stopped. After proceeding two days, they were joined by twelve other Moors, and three more camels, and then the whole party set off to cross the Desert,* proceeding south southeast; travelling at first at the rate of from Mteen to twenty miles a day. It was the expectation of the Moors, that by travel- ling at that rate for ten days, they should come to a place where water was to be procured ; but the weather having been exceedingly hot, and the sea- son dry, when they arrived at the spot (which they did in ten days) where the water was expected, which seemed to be a well about eight or nine feet deep, it was found quite dry. By this time their water running short, they resorted to the expedient of mixing the remainder of their stock with the cam- els' urine, and then set out again on their journey to Soudenny, pursuing a course rather more south- erly, in the neighbourhood of which they arrived in about four days more. About two days journey from this place they appeared to have left the De- sert, the country began to be hilly, and they met with some small trees. * Adams calls " the Desert" only those parts of the great Sahara, which consist of loose sand, without any traces of vegetation. ROBERT ADAMS'S NARRATIVE. 37 Soudenny is a small Negro village, having grass and shrubs growing about it, and a small brook of water. The houses are built of clay, the roofs be- ing composed of sticks laid flat, with clay on the top. For a week or thereabouts, after arriving in the neighbourhood of this place, the party conceal- ed 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. ( T ) During the next four or five days the party re- mained concealed, when one evening, as they were ail lying on the ground, a large party of Negroes, (consisting of forty or fidy men,) made their ap- pearance, armed with daggers and bows and ar- rows, 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 Governour, or chief person, named Mahamoud, 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 enterpris- ing ; but they were a cowardly set. Here they were kept three or four days, for the purpose, as it after- wards appeared, of being sent forward to Tombuctoo, which Adams concluded to be the residence of the king of the country. The better order of natives at Soudenny wear blue nankeen, in the manner of a frock; but are en- tirely without shoes, hats, or turbans, except the Chief, who at times wears a blue turban. The dis- 38 ROBERT ADAMs's NARRATIVE. tinguishing ornament of the Chief is some gold work- ed on the shoulder of his frock, in the manner of an epaulette ; some of the officers about him were or- namented in a similar manner, but with smaller epaulettes. Their arms were bows and arrows; the former about four feet long, with strings made of the skin of some animal ; the arrows were about a foot and a half long, not feathered. The Negroes frequent- ly practised shooting at small marks of clay, which they scarcely ever missed at fifteen or twenty yards distance. 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. The lower order of people wear blankets, which they buy from the Moors. After remaining about four days at Soudenny, the pri- soners were sent to Tombuctoo, under an escort of about sixty armed men, having about eighteen cam- els and dromedaries. During the first ten days, they proceeded east- ward at the rate of about fifteen to twenty miles a day, the prisoners and most of the Negroes walk- ing, 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 ter- rour 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 re- move it. At this village the natives wore gold rings in their ears, sometimes two rings in each ear. They had a hole through the cartilage of the nose, wide enough to admit a thick quill, in which Adams ROBERT ADAMS'S NARRATIVE. 39 saw some of the natives wear a large ring of an oval shape, that hung down to the mouth. They waited only one day at this place, and then proceeded towards Tombuctoo, shaping their course to the northward of east : and quickening their pace to the rate of twenty miles a day, they completed their journey in fifteen days. I 40 j CHAPTER II. Imprisonment of the Moors at Toinbuctoo.... Adams an object of cu*- riosity, and kindly treated. ...King and Queen; Woollo and Fatima ....Their Dress, Ceremonies, Residence, and Attendants... .Muskets ....Curiosity of the Natives to see Adams. ...Tombuctoo.. ..La Mar Zarah Canoes... .Fish Fruits.. ..Vegetables Grain. ...Food pre- pared from the Guinea-corn. ...Animals. ...Heirie.... Elephant-hunt.... Birds : Ostriches. ...Sulphur.. ..Poisonous preparation of the Negroes for their Arrows.. ..Persons and Habits of the Negroes.... Incisions in their Faces Dress Ornaments, and Customs Musical Instru- ments. ...Dancing. ...Military Excursions against Bambarra.... Slaves ....Criminal Punishments. ...Articles of Trade.... Jealous precautions of the Negroes against the Moors ; their kindness to Adams. ...Rain ....Names of Countries.. ..Words in the Language of Tombuctoo. Upon their arrival at Tombuctoo, the whole party was immediately taken before the King, who order- ed the Moors into prison, but treated Adams and the Portuguese boy as curiosities ; taking them to his house, where they remained during their resi- dence at Tombuctoo. For some time after their arrival, the Queen and her female attendants used to sit and look at Adams and his companion for hours together. She treated them with great kindness, and at the first interview offered them some bread baked under ashes. The King and Queen, the former of whom was named Woollo, the latter Fatima, ( 8 ) were very old gray-headed people. The Queen was extremely fat. Her dress was of blue nankeen, edged with gold lace round the bosom and on the shoulder, and having a belt or a stripe of the same material halfway down the dress, which came only a few ROBERT ADAMS'S NARRATIVE. 41 inches below the knees. The dress of the other females of Tombuctoo, though less ornamented than that of the Queen, was in the same short fashion ; so that as they wore no close under garments, they might, when sitting on the ground, as far as decen- cy was concerned, as well have had no covering at all. The Queen's head-dress consisted of a blue nankeen turban ; but this was worn only upon occa- sions of ceremony, or when she walked out. Be- sides the turban, she had her hair stuck full of bone ornaments of a square shape, about the size of dice, extremely white ; she had large g6ld hoop ear- rings, and many necklaces, some of them of gold, the others made of beads of various colours. She wore no shoes ; and, in consequence, her feet ap- peared to be as hard and dry " as the hoofs of an ass."* Besides the blue nankeen dress just described, the Queen sometimes wore an under-dress of white muslin ; at other times a red one. This colour was produced by the juice of a red root which grows in the neighbourhood, about a foot and a half long. Adams never saw any silks worn by the Queen or any other inhabitant of Tombuctoo ; for, although they have some silks brought by the Moors, they appeared to be used entirely for purposes of ex- ternal trade. The dress of the King was a blue nankeen frock decorated with gold, having gold epaulettes, and a broad wristband of the same metal. He sometimes wore a turban; but often went bare-headed. ( 9 ) When he walked through the town, he was generally a little in advance of his party. His subjects saluted him by inclinations of the head and body ; or by touching his head with their hands, and then kissing * Adams's expression. 6 42 their hands. When he received his subjects in his palace, it was his custom to sit on the ground, and their mode of saluting him on such occasions was by kissing his head. The King's house, or palace, which is built of clay and grass, (not white-washed) consists of eight or ten small rooms on the ground floor ; and is surround- ed by a wall of the same materials, against part of which the house is built. The space within the wall is about half an acre. Whenever a trader ar- rives, he is required to bring his merchandise into this space for the inspection of the King, for the purpose, Adams thinks, (but is not certain,) of duties being charged upon it. ( 10 j The King's attendants, who are with him all the day, generally consist of about thirty persons, several of whom are armed with daggers and bows and arrows. Adams does not know if he had any family. In a store-room of the King's house Adams ob- served about twenty muskets, apparently of French manufacture, one of them double-barrelled; but he never saw them made use of. ( n ) For a considerable time after the arrival of Adams and his companion, the people used to come in crowds to stare at them; and he afterwards under- stood that many persons came several days' journey on purpose. The Moors remained closely confined in prison ; but Adams and the Portuguese boy had permission to visit them. At the end of about six months, there arrived a company of trading Moors with tobacco, who after some weeks ransomed the whole party. Adams does not know the pre- cise quantity of tobacco which was paid for them, but it consisted ot the lading of five camels, with the exception of about fifty pounds weight reserved by the Moors. These Moors seemed to be well known at Tombuctoo, which place, he understood, 4 ROBERT ADAMS'S NARRATIVE. 43 they were accustomed to visit every year during the rainy season. Tombuctoo is situated on a level plain, having a river about two hundred yards from the town, on the south-east side, named LaMar Zarah* The town appeared to Adams to cover as much ground as Lisbon. He is unable to give any idea of the number of its in- habitants; but as the houses are not built in streets, or with any regularity, its population, compared with that of the European towns, is by no means in proportion to its size. It has no walls, nor any thing resembling fortification. The houses are square, built of sticks, clay, and grass, with flat roofs of the same materials. The rooms are all on the ground floor, and are without any article of fur- niture, except earthen jars, wooden bowls, and mats made of grass, upon which the people sleep. He did not observe any houses, or any other buildings, constructed of stone. ( 12 ) The river La Mar Zarah is about three quarters of a mile wide at Tombuctoo, and appears to have, in this place, but little current, flowing to the south- west. About two miles from the town to the south- ward it runs between two high mountains, appa- rently as high as the mountains which Adams saw in Barbary : here it is about half a mile wide. The water of La Mar Zarah is rather brackish, but is commonly drunk by the natives ; there not being, as Adams believes, any wells at Tombuctoo. ( 13 ) The vessels used by the natives are small canoes for fishing, the largest of which is about ten feet * Or La Mar Zahr. It was not easy to fix the probable orthography of African names, from Adams's indistinct pronunciation. ¥ 44 ROBERT ADAMS'S NARRATIVE. long, capable of carrying three men : they are built of fig-trees hollowed out, and caulked with grass, and are worked with paddles about six feet long. ( 14 ) The river is well stored with fish, chiefly of a sort which Adams took for the red mullet: there is also a large red fish, in shape somewhat like a salmon, and having teeth ; he thinks it is the same fish which is known in New York by the name of " sheep's- head." The common mode of cooking the fish is by boiling; but they never take out the entrails. The principal fruits at Tombuctoo are cocoa-nuts, dates, figs, pine-apples, and a sweet fruit about as large as an apple, with a stone about the size of a Elum stone. This latter was greatly esteemed ; and eing scarce, was preserved with care for the Roy- al Family. The leaves of this fruit resembled those of a peach. ( ,f ) The vegetables are carrots, turnips, sweet pota- toes, negro-beans, and cabbages; but the latter are eaten very small, and never grow to a solid head. The grain is principally rice and Guinea-corn. The cultivation of the soil at Tombuctoo requires very little labour, and is chiefly performed with a kind of hoe which the natives procure from the Moors, and which appears to be their only implement of husbandry. Adams never observed any cattle used in agriculture. The Guinea-corn grows five or six feet high, with a bushy head as large as a pint bottle, the grain being about the size of a mustard seed, of which each head contains about a double handful. This they beat upon a stone until they extract all the seed, and then they put it between two flat stones and grind it. These operations are performed by one person. The meal, when ground, is sifted through a small sieve made of grass. The coarse stuff is boiled for some time, after which the flour NARRATIVE. 45 is mixed with it, and when well boiled together, it makes a thick mess like burgoo. This is put into a wooden dish, and a hole being made in the middle of the mess, some goats' milk is poured into it. The natives then sit on the ground, men, women and children, indiscriminately round the mess thus pre- pared, and eat it with their fingers. Even the King and Queen do the same, having neither spoons, knives, nor forks. In the preparation of this food for the King and Queen, they sometimes use butter, which is produced from goats' milk; and though soft and mixed with hair, it appeared to be consider- ed a great dainty. Some of the bowls out of which the natives eat are made of cocoa-nut shells; but most of them are of the trunk of the fig-tree hollow- ed out with chisels. The animals are elephants, cows, goats, (no horses,) ( w ) asses, camels, dromedaries, dogs, rab- bits, antelopes, and an animal called heirie, of the shape of a camel, but much smaller. These latter are only used by the Negroes for riding, as they are stubborn, and unfit to carry other burdens : they are excessively fleet, and will travel for days together at the rate of fifty miles a day. The Moors were very desirous of purchasing these animals, but the Ne- groes refused to sell them. ( 1T ) The elephants are taken by shooting with ar- rows pointed with a metal like steel, about a foot long, and exceedingly sharp. These arrows are steep- ed in a liquid of a black colour ; and when the ani- mal is wounded they let him go, but keep him in sight for three or four days, at the end of which he expires from the effects of the wound. Adams never saw more than one killed, which was at the distance of about two miles from the town. He was one evening speaking to a Negro, when they heard a whistling noise at a distance: as soon* as it was 46 heard, the Negro said it was an elephant, and next morning at day-light he set off with his bow and ar- rows in pursuit of him. Adams, and the Portuguese boy, and many of the town's people accompanied him, until they came within about three quarters of a mile of the elephant, but were afraid to go any nearer on account of his prodigious size. The Ne- gro being mounted on a heirie, went close to him, riding at speed past his head : as he passed him he discharged an arrow, which struck the elephant near the shoulder, which instantly started, and went in pursuit of the man, striking his trunk against the ground with violence, and making a most tremendous roaring, which " might have been heard three miles off." Owing to thefleetness of the heirie, which ran the faster from fear, the elephant was soon left at a distance; and three days afterwards was found lying on the ground in a dying state, about a mile from the spot where it was shot. According to the best of Adams's recollection, it was at least twenty feet high ; and though of such an immense size, the natives said it was a young one. The legs were as thick as Adams's body ( 18 j The first operation of the Negroes was to take out the four tusks, the two largest of which were about fi\e feet long. They then cut off the legs, and pieces of lean from the hinder parts of the body, and carried them home ; where they skinned the flesh, and then exposed it to dry in the sun for two days. It was afterwards boiled, but proved to Adams's taste coarse food, the grain of the meat being as thick as a straw, and of a very strong flavour. The only thing eaten with it was salt, which is procured from a place called Tudenny Wells, which will be spoken of hereafter* Upon the occasion of the elephant being killed, the Negroes were greatly delighted ; and Adams fre- quently laughed with them, at the recollection of NARRATIVE. 47 their appearance as they stood round the dead car- cass, all laughing and shewing their white teeth at once, which formed a ridiculous contrast with their black faces. The other wild animals which Adams saw were foxes, porcupines, baboons, wolves, and a large species of rat which frequents the river. He does not appear to have seen either hippopotami or aliga- tors. ( 19 ) Besides these, there is in the vicinity of Tombuc- too a most extraordinary animal named courcoo, some- what resembling a very large dog, but having an opening or hollow on its back like a pocket, in which it carries its prey. (^°) It has short pointed ears and a short tail. Its skin is of an uniform reddish- brown on its back, like a fox, but its belly is of a light-gray colour. It will ascend trees with great agility and gather cocoa-nuts, which Adams suppos- es to be a part of its food. But it also devours goats and even young children, and the Negroes were greatly afraid of it. Its cry is like that of an owl. The wolves are destructive to asses as well as goats. The foxes frequently carry off young goats and Guinea-fowls, particularly the former. Although he never saw either lions, tigers, or wild cats; yet the roaring of animals of these descriptions was heard every night in the neighbouring mountains. ( 21 ) The domestick birds are Guinea-fowls. The wild birds are ostriches, eagles, crows, owls, green par- rots, a large brown bird that lives upon fish, and several smaller birds. He does not recollect to have seen any swallows. ( 22 ) The ostriches are about double the size of a tur- key, quite wild, and go in "flocks. When any are ob- served in the day time, the place where they resort is marked, and they are caught at night by men mounted on heiries, who strike them with sticks* ■ 4& ROBERT ADAMSES NARRATIVE. When they are first caught their feathers are very beautiful. The flesh of the ostrich is cooked with- out being previously dried in the sun, and is good eating, as well as the eggs, which are boiled: in fact, almost every thing which the Negroes of Tom- buctoo eat is boiled. The principal animal food eaten by the Negroes is goats' flesh. Adams did not see more than one cow killed during his stay; and then, he thinks,, it was on account of the animal's being in a declining state. The cows are very small, and but few in num- ber: some of them are milk-white; but the colour of the greater part is red. There are two sorts of ants at Tombuctoo ; the largest black, the smallest red ; which appear at times in prodigious numbers. He has also seen bees there ; but he has no recollection of having seen any honey. Having occasionally at night seen a light like fire on the mountains to the southward of the town, Adams had the curiosity to visit them, and found a considerable quantity of sulphur, which the na- tives collected. The only use to which he has seen them apply this mineral, was to mix it with a sub- stance in black lumps which looked like opium, ( 23 ) for the purpose of making a liquid into which they dipped the heads of their arrows. It was with an ar- row so prepared that the elephant, before spoken of, was killed. The natives of Tombuctoo are a stout, healthy race, and are seldom sick, although they expose themselves by lying out in the sun at mid-day, when the heat is almost insupportable to a white man. It is the universal practice of both sexes to grease themselves all over with butter produced from goats' milk, which makes the skin smooth, and gives it a shining appearance. This is usually re- ROBERT ADAMS'S NARRATIVE. 49 newed every day ; when neglected, the skin becomes rough, grayish, and extremely ugly. They usually sleep under cover at night ; but sometimes, in the hottest weather, they will lie exposed to the night air with little or no covering, notwithstanding that the fog which rises from the river descends like dew, and in fact, at that season, supplies the want of rain. All the males of Tombuctoo have an incision on their faces from the top of the forehead down to the nose, from which proceed other lateral incisions over the eyebrows, into all of which is inserted a blue dye, produced from a kind of ore which is found in the neighbouring mountains. The women have al- so incisions on their faces, but in a different fashion ; the lines being from two to five in number, cut on each cheek bone, from the temple straight down- wards : they are also stained with blue. These in- cisions being made on the faces of both sexes when they are about twelve months old, the dying mate- rial which is inserted in them becomes' scarcely visible as they grow up. ( 25 ) Except the King and Queen and their companions, who had a change of dress about once a week, the people were in general very dirty, sometimes not washing themselves for twelve or fourteen days to- gether. Besides the Queen, who, as has been al- ready stated, wore a profusion of ivory and bone ornaments in her hair, some of a square shape, and others about as thick as a shilling, but rather small- er, (strings of which she also wore about her wrists and ancles) many of the women were decorated in a similar manner; and they seemed to consider hardly any favour too great to be conferred on the person who would make them a present of these precious ornaments. Gold ear-rings were much worn. Some of the women had also rings on their fingers ; but 7 50 ROBERT ADAMs's NARRATIVEr these appeared to Adams to be of brass ; and as many of the latter had letters upon them (but whe- ther in the Roman or Arabick characters Adams can?- not tell) he concluded both from this circumstance, and from their workmanship, that they were not made by the Negroes, but obtained from the Moor- ish traders. The ceremony of marriage amongst the upper ranks at Tombuctoo, is for the bride -to go in the day time to the King's house, and to remain there until after sunset, when the man who is to be her husband goes to fetch her away. This is usually followed by a feast the same night, and a dance. Adams did not observe what ceremonies were used in the marriages of the lower classes. As it is common to have several concubines, be- sides a wife, the women are continually quarrelling and fighting. But there is a marked difference in the degree of respect with which they are each treat- ed by the husband ; the wife always having a decid- ed preeminence. ( 26 ) The Negroes, however, ap- peared to Adams to be jealous and severe with all their women, frequently beating them for apparently very little cause. The women appear to suffer very little from child- birth, and they will be seen walking about as usual the day after such an event. It is their practice to grease a child all over soon after its birth, and to ex- pose it for about an hour to the sun : the infants are at first of a reddish colour, but become black in three or four days. Illicit intercourse appeared to be but little regard- ed amongst the lower orders ; and chastity amongst the women in general seemed to be preserved only so far as their situations or circumstances rendered it necessary for their personal safety or convenience. In the higher ranks, if a woman prove with child, the ROBERT ADAMSES NARRATIVE. 5i man is punished with slavery, unless he will take the woman for his wife and maintain her. Adams knew an instance of a young man, who, having refused to marry a woman by whom he had a child, was on that account condemned to slavery. He afterwards repented ; but was not then permitted to retract his refusal, and was sent away to be sold. The practice of procuring abortion is very com- mon. Adams -was informed that in cases of preg- nancy from illicit- intercourse, where the woman would not submit to this alternative, it was no un- usual thing for the father secretly to poison her. The Negroes of Tombuctoo are very vehement in their quarrels. When they strike with their fists they use the under part of the hand, as if knocking with a hammer ; but their principal mode of offence is by biting. On the whole, however, they are a good natured people ; and always treated Adams with the greatest kindness. It does not appear that they have any publick re- ligion, as they have no house of worship, no priest, and as far as Adams could discover, never meet to- gether to pray. He has seen some of the Negroes who were circumcised ; but he concluded, that they had been in the possession of the Moors, or had been resident at Tudenny. ( 27 ) The only ceremony that appeared like the act of prayer was on the occasion of the death of any of the inhabitants, when their relatives assembled and sat round the corpse. The burial is unattended with any ceremony. The deceased are buried in the clothes in which they die, at a small distance to -the southwest of the town. Adams does not believe that any of the Negroes could write, as he never saw any of them attempt it; their accounts appeared to be kept by notching sticks. Almost all the Moors, on the contrary, are able to write. 52 ROBERT ADAMS'S NARRATIVE. Their only physicians are old women, who cure diseases and wounds by the application of simples. Adams had a wen on the back of his right hand, the size of a large egg ; which one of the women cured in about a month by rubbing it and applying a plas- ter of herbs. ( 38 ) They cure the tooth-ache by the application of a liquid prepared from roots ; which frequently causes not only the defective tooth to fall out, but one or two others. He never saw any of the Negroes blind but such as were very old ; of these, judging from their ap- pearance, he thinks he has seen some upwards of one hundred years of age. Children are obliged to support their parents in their old age; but when old people are childless, there is a house for their re- ception, in which they live, four or five in a room, at the cost of the King. The only tools which the Negroes appeared to possess (besides the hoes and chisels previously mentioned) were knives and small hatchets, with which they cut their timber, and a few other rough instruments of iron, which they procured from the Moors. Adams does not remember ever to have seen a saw. Their musical instruments are, 1st, a sort of fife made of reeds ; 2d, a kind of tambourine covered with goat skin, within which are ostrich quills laid across in such a manner, that when the skin is struck with the hand, the quills jar against it; 3d, an instru- ment which they call bandera, made of several cocoa- nut shells tied together with thongs of goat skin, and covered with the same material ; a hole at the top of the instrument is covered with strings of leath- er or tendons, drawn tightly across it, on which the performer plays with the fingers in the manner of a guitar. ROBERT ADAMSES NARRATIVE. 53 Their principal and favourite amusement is danc- ing, which takes place about once a week in the town, when a hundred dancers or more assemble, men, women and children, but the greater number men. Whilst they are engaged in the dance they sing extremely loud to the musick of the tambourine, fife, and bandera ; so that the noise they make may be heard all over the town. They dance in a circle, and (when this amusement continues till the night) generally round a fire. Their usual time of begin- ning is about two hours before sunset, and the dance not unfrequently lasts all night. The men have the most of the exercise in these sports whilst day- light lasts, the women continuing nearly in one spot, and the men dancing to and from them. ( 29 ) During this time the dance is conducted with some decency; but when night approaches, and the women take a more active part in the amusement, their thin and short dresses, and the agility of their actions, are lit- tle calculated to admit of the preservation of any de- corum. It has been already stated, that Adams can form no idea of the population of Tombuctoo; but he thinks that once he saw as many as two thousand persons assembled at one place. This was on the oc- casion of a party of five hundred men going out to make war in Bambarra. ( 30 ) The day after their departure they were followed by a great number of camels, dromedaries, and heiries, laden with provi- sions. Such of these people as afterwards returned, came back in parties of forty or •fifty; many of them did not return at all whilst Adams remained at Tom- buctoo ; but he never heard that any of them had been killed. About once a month a party of a hundred or more armed men marched out in a similar manner to pro- cure slaves. These armed partias were all on foot M ROBERT ADAMSES NARRATIVE. except the officers ; they were usually absent from one week to a month, and at times brought in con- siderable numbers. The slaves were generally a different race of people from those of Tombuctoo, and differently clothed, their dress being for the most part of coarse white linen or cotton. He once saw amongst them a woman who had her teeth filed round, he supposes by way of ornament ; and as they were very long they resembled crow-quills. The greatest number of slaves that he recollects to have seen brought in at one time, were about twenty, and these he was informed were from the place call- ed Bambarra, lying to the southward and westward of Tombuctoo; which he understood to be the coun- try whither the aforesaid parties generally went out in quest of them. The slaves thus brought in were chiefly women and children, who, after being detained a day or two at the King's house, were sent away to other parts for sale. ( 31 ) The returns for them consisted of blue nankeens, blankets, barley, tobacco, and some- times gunpowder. This latter article appeared to be more valuable than gold, of which double the weight was given in barter for gunpowder. Their manner of preserving it was in skins. It was, however, never used at Tombuctoo, except as an article of trade. Although the King was despotick, and could com- pel his subjects to take up arms when he required it, yet it did not appear that they were slaves whom he might sell, or employ as such generally ; the only actual slaves being such as were brought from other countries, or condemned criminals. Of the latter class only twelve persons were condemned to slavery during the six months of Adams's residence at Tombuctoo. The offences of which they had been guilty were poisoning, theft, and refusing to join ROBERT ADAMs's NARRATIVE. 65 a party sent out to procure slaves from foreign coun- tries. Adams never saw any individual put to death at Tombuctoo, ( 32 ) the punishment for heavy offences being, as has just been stated, slavery ; for slighter misdemeanours the offenders are punished with beating with a stick; but in no case is this punish- ment very severe, seldom exceeding two dozen blows, with a stick of the thickness of a small walk- ing cane. Adams did not observe any shops at Tombuc- too. ( 33 ) The goods brought for sale, which consisted chiefly of tobacco, 4ar, gunpowder, blue nankeens, blankets, earthen jars, and some silks, are obtained from the Moors, and remain in the King's house, un- til they are disposed of. The only other objects of trade appeared to be slaves. The principal articles given in exchange in trade by the people of Tombuctoo, are gold dust, ivory, gum, cowries, ostrich feathers, and goat skins ; which latter they stain red and yellow. Adams has seen a full-grown slave bought for forty or fifty cowries. ( 34 ) He never saw the Negroes find any gold, but he understood that it was procured out of the mountains, and on the banks of the rivers, to the southward of Tombuctoo. The Negroes consume the tobacco both in snuff and for smoking ; for the latter purpose they use pipes, the tubes of which are made of the leg bones of ostriches. The chief use to which they apply the tar brought by the Moors, is to protect the camels and other animals from the attacks of large green flies, which are very numerous, and greatly distress them. Adams has sometimes seen tar water mixed with the food of the natives as medicine, which made it so nauseous to his taste that he could not eat it. The 56 Negroes, however, did not appear to have the same dislike to it; from which he infers, that the use of tar-water in their food, was frequent, though he only saw it four or five times. None of the persons whom he saw using it were in bad health at the time. During the whole of Adams's residence at Tom- buctoo, he never saw any other Moors than those whom he accompanied thither, and the ten by whom they were ransomed ; and he understood from the Moors themselves, that they were not allowed to go in large bodies to Tombuctoo. ( 35 ) He did not see any mosque or large place of worship there ; and he does not think that they had any. Neither Adams nor the Portuguese boy were ever subjected to any restraint whilst they remained at Tombuctoo. They were allowed as much food, and as often as they pleased ; and were never required to work. In short, they never experienced any act of incivility or unkindness from any of the Negroes, except when they were taken prisoners in company with the Moors engaged in stealing them. ( S6 ) Adams could not hear that any white man but them- selves had ever been seen in the place ; and he believes, as well from what he was told by the Moors, as from the uncommon curiosity which he excited (though himself a very dark man, with short curly black hair,) that they never had seen one be- fore. ( 37 ) There was no fall of rain during his residence at Tombuctoo, except a few drops just before his de- parture; and he understood from the Negroes, that they had usually little or none, except during the three months of winter, which is the only season when the desert can be crossed, on account of the heat. ( 38 ) In some years, Adams was informed, when the season had been unusually dry, there was great distress at Tombuctoo for want of provisions : but no such want was felt whilst he was there* ROBERT ADAMS'S NARRATIVE. 57 He never proceeded to the southward of Tom- buctoo, further than about two miles from the town, to the mountains before spoken of; and he never saw the river Joliba: but he had heard it mentioned; and was told at Tudenny, that it lay between that place and Bambarra. ( 39 ) Being asked the names of any other places which he had heard mentioned, he recollected that the people of Tombuctoo spoke of Mutnougo^ and of a very considerable place to the eastward called Tua- rick, to which they traded. He had also often heard them mention Mandingo, and Bondou ; but he cannot recollect what was said respecting these places.* The following is a list of some of the words which Adams recollects in the language of Tom- buctoo. ( 40 ) Man, - Jungo. Woman, ------ Jumpsa. Camel, ----- - So. Dog, ------- Killab. Cow, - - - * - - - FaUee. Goat, - - - - - - - Luganam. Sheep, ------ JYaidsh. Elephant, Elfeel House, ------- Dah. Water, ------- Boca. Mountain, - Kaddear. Tree, ------- Carna. Date Tree, ------ Carna Tomar. Fig Tree, ------ Carna Carmoos. Gold, ------- Or. A Moor, ------ Seckar. * Adams mentioned Jinnie to me, amongst the towns wbich he had heard named by the Negroes of Tombuctoo. D. 8 [ 58] CHAPTER III. Hansom of the imprisoned Moors and of Adams. ...Departure from Tombuctoo... Journey eastward along the River ; then northward to Tudenny.... Traders in salt. ...Tudenny... .Mixed Population of Moors and Negroes.... Beds of Rock Salt. ...Preparations and De- parture to cross the Sandy Desert.. ..Sufferings in the Desert.... Arrival at Woled Dleim.... Employment, and long detention there.... Refusal of Adams to attend to his tasks.... He is punished for it ; but perseveres. ...Seizes an opportunity of escaping. ...Is pursued ; but reaches El Kabla ...He is purchased by the Chief.. ..Employed to tend the flocks of his Master's Wives.... Negotiates with Aisha, the younger wife, on the subject of Wages. ...Their bargain, and its consequences. ...Adams flies and conceals himself.. ..Is purchased by a Trader; and conveyed to Woled Aboussebah ...Woled Adrialla.... Aiata Mouessa Ali...He attempts to escape. ...Is retaken ; and con- veyed to Wed-Noon. The ten Moors who had arrived with the five ca- mels laden with tobacco, had been three weeks at Tombuctoo before Adams learnt that the ransom of himself, the boy, and the Moors his former com- panions, had been agreed upon. At the end of the- first week he was given to understand, that himself and the boy would be released, but that the Moors would be condemned to die; it appeared, however, afterwards, that in consideration of all the tobacco being given for the Moors, except about fifty pounds weight, which was expended for a man slave, the King had agreed to release all the prisoners. Two days after their release, the whole party, consisting of the 10 Moorish traders 14 Moorish prisoners ROBERT ADAMS's NARRATIVE. 59 2 white men, and 1 slave, quitted Tombuctoo, having only the five camels which belonged to the traders ; those which were seized when Adams and his party were made priso- ners not having been restored. As they had no means left of purchasing any other article, the only food they took with them was a little Guinea corn flour. On quitting the town they proceeded in an east- early course, inclining to the north, going along the border of the river, of which they sometimes lost sight for two days together. They did not meet with any high trees; but on the banks of the river, which were covered with high grass, were a few low trees, and some shrubs of no great variety. Oc- casionally they came to a Negro hut. Except the two mountains before spoken of, to the southward, between which the river runs, there are none in the immediate neighbourhood of Tombuctoo ; but at a little distance there are some small ones. They had travelled eastward about ten days, at the rate of about fifteen to eighteen miles a day, when they saw the river for the last time ; it then appeared rather narrower than at Tombuctoo. They then loaded the camels with water, and striking off in a northerly direction, travelled twelve or thirteen days, at about the same pace. In the course of this journey they saw a great number of antelopes, rab- bits, foxes, and wolves, and a bird somewhat larger than a fowl, which the Moors called Jize ; # it ap- peared to Adams to be the same kind of bird known in America by the name of cuckoo. The soil was generally covered with shrubs, and a low kind of grass like moss. Trees were seldom * Djes, is the Arabick name for the common domestick fowl. D. BO ROBERT ADAMs's NARRATIVE. seen, and those not large. From the time of quit* ting the river, the only persons whom they saw were Negro travellers carrying salt to Tombuctoo, of whom they met parties of about ten or twelve almost every day with dromedaries, camels, and asses. At the end of the thirteen days they arrived at a place called Tudenny* a large village inhabited by Moors and Negroes, in which there are four wells of very excellent water. At this place there are large ponds or beds of salt, which both the Moors and Negroes come in great numbers to purchase, and date and fig trees of a large size: in the neighbour- hood the ground is cultivated in the same manner as at Tombuctoo. From the number of Moors, many if not all of whom were residents, it appeared that the restriction respecting them, existing at Tombuc- too, did not extend to Tudenny. ( 41 ) The salt beds which Adams saw were about five or six feet deep, and from twenty to thirty yards in circumference. The salt comes up in hard lumps mixed with earth, and part of it is red. The Moors here are perfectly black; the only personal distinction between them and the Negroes being, that the Moors had long black hair, and had po scars on their faces. The Negroes are in gene- ral marked in the same manner as those of Tombuc- too. Here the party staid fourteen days, to give the ransomed Moors, whose long confinement had made them weak, time to recruit their strength ; and hav- ing sold one of the camels for two sacks of dates and a small ass, and loaded the four remaining camels with water, the dates, and the flour, (in the propor- tion of eight goat skins of water, or six skins of water and two bags of dates or flour, to each * Taudeny. D> ROBERT ADAMS'S NARRATIVE. 61 camel) they set out to cross the Desert,* taking a northwest direction. They commenced their journey from Tudenny about four o'clock in the morning, and having travel- led the first day about twenty miles, they unloaded the camels, and lay down by the side of them to sleep. The next day they entered the Desert ; over which they continued to travel in the same direction, nine and twenty days, without meeting a single human being. The whole way was a sandy plain, like a sea, without either tree, shrub or grass. After tra- velling in this manner about fourteen days at the rate of sixteen or eighteen miles a day, the people began to grow very weak; their stock of water began to run short ; and their provisions were nearly exhaust- ed. The ass died of fatigue ; and its carcass was immediately cut up and laden on the camel, where it dried in the sun, and served for food ; and had it not been for this supply, some of the party must have died of hunger. Being asked if asses' flesh was good eating, Adams replied ; " It was as good to my taste then, as a goose would be now." In six days afterwards, during which their pace was slackened to not more than twelve miles a day, they arrived at a place where it was expected water would be found ; but to their great disappointment, owing to the dryness of the season, the hollow place, of about thirty yards in circumference, was found quite dry. All their stock of water at this time consisted of four goat skins, and those not full, holding from one to two gallons each ; and it was known to the Moors that they had then ten days further to travel before they could obtain a supply. * See Note, p. 36. 62 NARRATIVE. In this distressing dilemma, it was resolved to mix the remaining water with camels' urine. The allow- ance of this mixture to each camel was only about a quart for the whole ten days : each man was allow- ed not more than about half a pint a day. The Moors who had been in confinement at Tom- buctoo becoming every day weaker, three of them in the four following days lay down, unable to proceed. They were then placed upon the camels : but con- tinual exposure to the excessive heat of the sun, and the uneasy motion of the camels, soon rendered them unable to support themselves, and towards the end of the second day they made another attempt to pursue their journey on foot, but could not. The next morning at day break they were found dead on the sand, in the place where they had lain down at night, and were left behind without being buried. The next day another of them lay down ; and, like his late unfortunate companions, was left to perish : but on the following day one of the Moors determin- ed to remain behind, in the hope that he who had dropped the day before might still come up, and be able to follow the party : some provisions were left with him. At this time it was expected, what prov- ed to be the fact, that they were within a day's march of their town : but neither of the men ever after- wards made his appearance ; and Adams has no doubt that they perished. Vied Duleim* (the place at which they now ar- rived) was a village of tents inhabited entirely by Moors, who, from their dress, manners, and general appearance, seemed to be of the same tribe as those of the encampment to which Adams was conveyed from El Gazie.(42) They had numerous flocks of sheep and goats, and two watering places, near one of * Woled DHeim. D. ROBERT ADAMs's NARRATIVE. 63 which their tents were pitched; but the other lay nearly fixe miles off. The first fortnight after the arrival of the party, was devoted to their recovery from the fatigues of the journey ; but as soon as their strength was re-es- tablished, Adams and his companion were employed in taking care of goats and sheep. Having now be- gun to acquire a knowledge of the Moorish tongue, they frequently urged their masters to take them to Suerra ; which the latter promised they would do, provided they continued attentive to their duty. Things, however, remained in this state for ten or eleven months, during which time they were continu- ally occupied in tending the flocks of the Moors. They suffered severely from exposure to the scorch- ing sun, in a state of almost utter nakedness ; and the miseries of their situation were aggravated by de- spair of ever being released from slavery. The only food allowed to them was barley flour, and camels' and goats' milk ; but of the latter they had abundance. Sometimes they were treated with a few dates, which were a great rarity ; there being neither date trees nor trees of any other kind in the whole country round. But as the flock of goats and sheep consisted of a great number (from one hun- dred and fifty to two hundred,) and as they were at a distance from the town, Adams and his companion sometimes ventured to kill a kid for their own eating; and to prevent discovery of the fire used in cooking it, they dug a cave, in which the fire was made, cov- ering the ashes with grass and sand. At length Adams, after much reflection on the mise- rable state in which he had been so long kept, and was likely to pass the remainder of his life, deter- mined to remonstrate upon the subject. His master, whose name was Harriet Laubed, frankly replied to him, that as he had not been, successful in procuring 64 ROBERT ADAMS'S NARRATIVE. slaves, it was now his intention to keep him, and not* as he had before led him to expect, to take him to Suerra or Mogadore. Upon hearing this, Adams resolved not to attend any longer to the duty of watching the goats and sheep ; and in consequence, the next day, several of the young goats were found to have been killed by the foxes. This led to an inquiry, whether Adams or the boy was in fault; when it appearing that the missing goats were a part of Adams's dock, his master pro- ceeded to beat him with a thick stick ; which he re- sisted, and took away the stick ; upon which a dozen Moors, principally women, attacked him, and gave him a severe beating. As, notwithstanding what had occurred, Adams persisted in his determination not to resume his task of tendings the goats and sheep, his master was ad- vised to put him to death ,-(43) but this he was not in- clined to do, observing to his advisers, that he should thereby sustain a loss, and that if Adams would not work, it would be better to sell him. In the mean time he remained idle in the tent for about three days ; when he was asked by his master's wife, if he would go to the distant well to fetch a couple of skins of water, that being of a better quality ; to which he signified his consent, and went off the next morning on a camel with two skins to fetch the water. On his arrival at the other well, instead of procur- ing water, he determined to make his escape ; and understanding the course to a place called Wadi- noon, lay in a direction to the northward of west,* * This account of the relative bearings of Woled D'leim and Wed Noon is rather at variance with the details of Adams's recollected course between those two places ; but it accords very nearly with what is assumed in the map, on other grounds, to have been his real route. ROBERT ADAMSES NARRATIVE. 65 he passed the well, and pushing on in a northerly course, travelled the whole of that day ; when the camel, which had been used to rest at night, and had not been well broke in, would not proceed any fur- ther; and in spite of all the efforts Adams could make, it lay down with fatigue, having gone upwards of twenty miles without stopping. Finding there was no remedy, Adams took off the rope with which his clothes were fastened round his body, and as the camel lay with his fore-knee bent, he tied the rope round it in a way to prevent its rising, and then lay down by the side of it. This, rope, which Adams had brought from Tombuctoo,* was made of grass, collected on the banks of the river. The saddles of camels are made of the same material, interwoven between a frame of sticks placed together in the form of a St. Andrew's cross, so as to fit the back of the animal. The next morning at day light he mounted again, and pushed on till about nine o'clock, when he perceiv- ed a smoke a-head, which he approached. There was a small hillock between him and this place, ascending which, he discovered about forty or fifty tents pitched, and on looking back he saw two camels coming to- wards him, with a rider on each. Not knowing wheth- er these were pursuers, or strangers going to the place in view, but being greatly alarmed, he made the best of his way forwards. On drawing near to the town, a number of women came out, and he ob- served about a hundred Moors standing in a row in the act of prayer, having their faces towards the east, and at times kneeling down, and leaning their heads to the ground. On the women discovering Adams, they expressed great surprise at seeing a white man. He inquired of them the name of the place, and they told him it was Hilla Gibla. Soon afterwards the two camels, before spoken of, arriving, the rider of 9 66 ROBERT ADAMs's NARRATIVE. one of them proved to be the owner of the camel on which Adams had escaped, and the other his master. At this time Adams was sitting under a tent speak- ing to the Governour, whose name was Mahomet, telling him his story ; they were soon joined by his two pursuers, accompanied by a crowd of people. Upon his master claiming him, Adams protested that he would not go back ; that his master had fre- quently promised, to take him to Suerra, but had broken his promises; ahd that he had made up his mind either to obtain his liberty or die. Upon hear- ing both sides, the Governour determined in favour of Adams ; and gave* his master to understand, that if he was willing to exchange him for a bushel of dates and a camel, he should have them; but if not, he should have nothing. As Adams's master did not approve of these conditions, a violent altercation arose; but at length finding the Governour deter^ mined, and that better terms were not to be had, he accepted the first offer, and Adams became the slave of Ma hornet. (44) The natives of Hilla Gibla* appeared to be better clothed, and a less savage race, than those of Vied Duleim, between whom there appeared to be great enmity ; the Governour therefore readily interfered in favour of Adams, and at one time threatened to take away the camel and to put Mahomet Laubed himself to death. Another consideration by which the Governour was probably influenced, was, a knowledge of the value of a Christian slave, as an object of ransom, of which Mahomet Laubed seem- ed to be wholly ignorant. On entering the service of his new master, Adams was sent to tend camels, and had been so employed about a fortnight, when this duty was exchanged for that of taking care of goats. Mahomet had two * El Kdbla. jD, ROBERT ADAMs's NARRATIVE. 67 wives who dwelt in separate tents, one of them an old woman, the other young : the goats which Adams was set to take care of, were the property of the elder one. Some days after he had been so employed, the younger wife, whose name was Isha^\ proposed to him, that he should also take charge of her goats, for which she would pay him ; and as there was no more trouble in tending two flocks than one, he readily consented. Having had charge of the two flocks for several days, without receiving the promis- ed additional reward, he at length remonstrated ; and after some negotiation on the subject of his claim, the matter was compromised, by the young woman's desiring him, when he returned from tending the goats at night, to go to rest in her tent. It was the custom of Mahomet to sleep two nights with the elder woman, and one with the other, and this was one of the nights devoted to the former. Adams according- ly kept the appointment ; and about nine o'clock Isha came and gave him supper, and he remained in her tent all night. This was an arrangement which was afterwards continued on those nights which she did not pass with her husband. Things continued in this state about six months, and as his work was light, and he experienced noth- ing but kind treatment, his time passed pleasantly enough. One night his master's son coming into the tent, discovered Adams with his mother-in-law, and informed his father, when a great disturbance took place: but upon the husband charging his wife with her misconduct, she protested that Adams had laid down in her tent without her knowledge or consent; and as she cried bitterly, the old man appeared to be convinced that she was not to blame. * Aisha. D. 68 ROBERT ADAMS's NARRATIVE. . The old lady, however, declared her belief that the young one was guilty, and expressed her convic- tion that she should be able to detect her at some future time. For some days after, Adams kept away from the lady ; but at the end of that time, the former affair appearing to be forgotten, he resumed his visits. One night the old woman lifted up the corner of the tent and discovered Adams with Isha ; and having reported it to her husband, he came with a thick stick, threatening to put him to death : Adams be- ing alarmed, made his escape; and the affair having made a great deal of noise, an acquaintance proposed to Adams to conceal him in his tent, and to endea- vour to buy him of the Governour. Some laughed at the adventure ; others, and they by far the greater part, treated the matter as an offence of the most atrocious nature, Adams being "a Christian, who never prayed."(45) As his acquaintance promised, in the event of be- coming his purchaser, to take him to Wadinoon, Adams adopted his advice and concealed himself in his tent. For several days the old Governour re- jected every overture; but at last he agreed to part with Adams for fifty dollars' worth of goods, con- sisting of blankets and dates ; and thus he became the property of Boerick, a trader, whose usual resi- dence was at Hilla Gii.la. The girl (Isha) ran away to her mother. The next day, Boerick set out with a party of six men and four camels for a place called Villa de Bousbach,*(4s) which they reached after travelling nine days at the rate of about eighteen miles a day; their course was northeast. On the rout they saw neither houses nor trees, but the ground was cover- * Woled Aboussebeih. D. ROBERT ADAMS'S NARRATIVE. 69 ed with grass and shrubs. At this place they found about forty or fifty tents inhabited by Moors, and re- mained five or six days ; when there arrived a Moor from a place called Hieta Mouessa Ali, named Abdal- lah Houssa, a friend of Boerick, who informed him that it was usual for the British Consul at Mogadore to send to Wadinoon (where this man resided,) to purchase the Christians who were prisoners in that country ; and, that as he was about to proceed thither, he was willing to take charge of Acams, to sell him for account of Boerick ; at the same time he informed Adams that there were other Christians at Wadinoon. This being agreed to by Boerick, his fjiend set out in a few days after, for Hieta Mouessa Ali, taking Adams with him. Instead, however, of going to that place, which lay due north,* they pro- ceeded north-northwest, and as they had a camel each, and travelled very fast, the path being good, they went at the rate of twenty-five miles a day, and in six days reached a place called Villa Adrialla^ where there were about twenty tents. This place appeared to be inhabited entirely by traders, who had at least five hundred camels, a great number of goats and sheep, and a few horses. The cattle were tended by Negro slaves. Here they remained about three weeks, until Abdallah had finished his busi- ness; and then set out for Hieta Mouessa Ali, where they arrived in three days. Adams believes that the reason of their travelling so fast during the last stage was, that Abdallah was afraid of being robbed, of which he seemed to have no apprehension after he had arrived at Villa Adrialla, and therefore they tra- * This bearing is not reconcileable with Adams's 1 " subsequent course. f This should probably be Wokd Adrialla ; but I have no know- ledge of the place. D. 70 veiled from that place to Hieta Mouessa AH at the rate of only about sixteen or eighteen miles a day ; their course being due northwest. Hieta Mouessa Ali* was the largest place Adams had seen in which there were no houses, there being not less than a hundred tents. Here was a small brook issuing from a mountain, being the only one he had seen except that at Soudenny ; but the vege- tation was not more abundant than at other places. They remained here about a month; during which Adams was as usual employed in tending camels. As the time hung very heavy on his hands, and he saw no preparation for their departure for Wadinoon, and his anxiety to reach that place had been very much excited by the intelligence that there were other Christians there, he took every opportunity of making inquiry respecting the course and distance ; and being at length of opinion that he might find his way thither, he one evening determined to desert ; and accord- ingly he set out on foot alone, with a small sup- ply of dried goats' flesh, relying upon getting a further supply at the villages, which he under- stood were on the road. He had travelled the whole of that night, and until about noon the next day without stopping; when he was overtak- en by a party of three or four men on camels, who had been sent in pursuit of him, It seems they expected that Adams had been persuaded to leave Hieta Mouessa Ali, by some persons who wished to take him to Wadinoon for sale ; and they were therefore greatly pleased to find him on foot, and alone. Instead of ill treating him, as he apprehended they would do, they merely conducted him back to Hieta Mouessa Ali ; from * Aiata Mouessa AIL D. ROBERT ADAMS'S NARRATIVE. 7 1 whence, in three or four days afterwards, Ab- dallah and a small party departed, taking him with them. They travelled five days in a north- west direction at about sixteen miles a day, and at the end of the fifth day, reached Wadinoon ; having seen no habitations on their route, except a few scattered tents within a day's journey of the town. - [ 72 j CHAPTER IV. Description of Wed-Noon ; where Adams finds three of the crew of the "Charles". ...He is purchased by Bel-Cossim-Abdallah... .French Renegade.... Wreck of the Montezuma.... Gunpowder Manufacture ....Curious Relation of a Negro Slave from Kanno... .Severe labours and cruel treatment of the Christian Slaves at Wed-Noon.. ..Adams is required to plough on the Sabbath day ; refuses ; is cruelly beat- en, and put in irons. ...His firmness.. ..Inhuman treatment and death of Dolbie....Williams and Davison, worn out by their sufferings, re- nounce their Religion.. ..Adams perseveres. ...Letter from the Bri- tish Vice-Consul at Mogadore, addressed to the Christian Slaves.... Ransom of Adams. ...Departure from Wed-Noon Akkadia.-.Bled Cidi Heshein.... Market of Cidi Haraet at Moussa....Agadeer, or feanta Cruz. ...Mogadore.. ..Adams is sent to the Moorish Emperour... Fez.... Mequinez... .Tangier.. ..Cadiz.. .Gibraltar.. ..London. Wadinoon* was the first place at which Adams had seen houses after he quitted Tudenny. It is a small town, consisting of about forty houses, and some tents. The former are built chiefly of clay, inter- mixed with stone in some parts; and several of them have a story above the ground floor. The soil in the neighbourhood of the town was better cultivat- ed than any he had yet seen in Africa, and appear- ed to produce plenty of corn and tobacco. There were also date and fig trees in the vicinity, as well as a few grapes, apples, pears, and pomegranates. Prickly pears flourished in great abundance. The Christians whom Adams had heard of, whilst residing at Bieta Mouessa Ali, and whom he found at Wadinoon, proved to be, to his great satisfaction, * Wed-Noon. D, ROBERT ADAMs's NARRATIVE. 73 his old companions Stephen Dolbie, the mate, and James Davison and Thomas Williams, two of the seamen of the Charles. They informed him that they had been in that town upwards of twelve months, and that they were the property of the sons of the Governour. ( 4Y ) Soon after Adams's arrival at Wadinoon, Abdal- lah offered him for sale to the Governour, or Shieck, called Amedallah Salem, who consented to take him upon trial ; but after remaining about a week at the Governour's house, Adams was returned to his old master, as the parties could not agree about the price. He was at length, however, sold to Belcassam Ab- dallah,* for seventy dollars in trade, payable in blan- kets, gunpowder and dates. ( 48 ) The only other white resident at Wadinoon was a Frenchman, who informed Adams that he had been wrecked about twelve years before, on the neighbouring coast, and that the whole of the crew, except himself, had been redeemed. He further stated, that a vessel called (as Adams understood him) the Agezuma'f from Liverpool, commanded by Captain Harrison, had been wrecked about four years before, and that the Captain and nearly the whole of the crew had been murdered. ( 49 ) This man had turned Mohammedan, and was named Ab- salom ; he had a wife and child and three slaves, and gained a good living by the manufacture of gunpow- der. Adams has often seen him employed in making it, by pounding brimstone in a wooden mortar, and grinding charcoal by hand between two stones, in the manner of grinding grain. The final process of mixing he performed in a room by himself, not being willing to let any person see how it was done. He lived in the same house as the person who had * Bel-Cossim-AbdaJIah. D, + Montezuma. 10 74 ROBERT ADAMS's NARRATIVE. been his master, who, upon his renouncing his reli- gion, gave him his liberty. ( 50 ) Among the Negro slaves at Waclinoon was a woman who said she came from a place called Kan- no, a long way across the Desert, and that she had seen in her own country, white men, as white as " bather," meaning the wall, and in a large boat with two high sticks in it, with cloth upon them, and that they rowed this boat in a manner different from the custom of the Negroes, who use paddles : in stating this, she made the motion of rowing with oars, so as to leave no doubt that she had seen a vessel in the European fashion, manned by white people. ( 51 ) The work in which Adams was employed at Wa- dinoon, was building walls, cutting down shrubs to make fences, and working in the corn lands or in the plantations of tobacco, of which great quanti- ties are grown in the neighbourhood. It was in the month of August that he arrived there, as he was told by the Frenchman before spoken of; the grain had been gathered ; but the tobacco was then get- ting in, at which he was required to assist. His la- bour at this place was extremely severe. On the Moorish sabbath, which was also their market-day, the Christian slaves were not required to labour, un- less on extraordinary occasions, when there was any f>articular work to do which could not be delayed. n these intervals of repose, they had opportunities of meeting and conversing together; and Adams had the melancholy consolation of finding, that the lot of his companions had been even more severe than his own. It appeared that on their arrival, the Frenchman before mentioned, from some unexplain- ed motive, had advised them to refuse to work ; and the consequence was, that they had been cruelly beaten and punished, and had been made to work hard ROBERT ADAMs's NARRATIVE. 75 and live hard, their only scanty food being bar- ley flour, and Indian corn flour. However, on ex- traordinary occasions, and as a great indulgence, they sometimes obtained a few dates. In this wretched manner Adams and his fellow captives lived until the June following; when a cir- cumstance occurred which had nearly cost the former his life. His master's son, Hameda Bel Cossim, having, one Sabbath day, ordered Adams to take the horse and go to plough, the latter refused to obey him, urging that it was not the custom of any slaves to work on the sabbath day, and that he was intitled to the same indulgence as the rest. Upon which Hameda went into the house and fetched a cutlass, and then demanded of Adams, whether he would go to plough or not. Upon his reply that he would not, Hameda, struck him on the forehead with the cutlass, and gave him a severe wound over the right eye, and immediately Adams knocked him down w r ith his fist. This was no sooner done than Adams w r as set upon by a number of Moors, who beat him with sticks in so violent a manner that the blood came out of his mouth, two of his double teeth were knocked out, and he was almost killed ; and he thinks they would have entirely killed him had it not been for the interference of Boadick, the Shieck's son, who reproached them for their cruelty, declaring that they had no right to compel Adams to work on a market-day. The next morning Ha- meda's mother, named Moghtari^ came to him, and asked how he dared to lift his hand against a Moor? to which Adams, being driven to desperation by the ill treatment he had received, replied, that he would even take his life if it were in his power. Moghta- ri then said, that unless he would kiss Hameda's hands and feet, he should be put in irons; which he peremptorily refused to do. Soon after Hameda's 76 ROBERT ADAMS's NARRATIVE. father came to Adams and told him, unless he did kiss his son's feet and hands, he must be put in irons. Adams then stated to him, that he could not submit to do so ; that it was " contrary to his re- ligion"* to kiss the hands and feet of any person ; that in his own country he had never been required to do it; and that whatever might be the consequence, he would not do it. Finding he would not submit, the old man ordered that he should be put in irons, and accordingly they fastened his feet togeth- er with iron chains, and did the same by his hands. After he had remained in this state about ten days, Moghtari came to him again, urging him to do as required, and declaring that if he did not, he should never see the Christian country again : Adams, how- ever, persevered in turning a deaf ear to her entrea- ties and threats. Some time afterwards, finding that close confinement was destructive of his health, Hameda came to him, and took the irons from his hands. The following three weeks he remained with the irons on his legs, during which time, re- peated and pressing entreaties, and the most dread- ful threats, were used to induce him to submit; but all to no purpose. He was also frequently advised by the Mate and the other Christians (who used to be sent to him for the purpose of persuading him,) to submit, as he must otherwise inevitably loose his life. At length, finding that neither threats nor en- treaties would avail, and Adams having remained in irons from June till the beginning of August, and his sufferings having reduced him almost to a skele- ton, his master was advised to sell him, as if longer confined, he would certainly die, and thus prove a total loss. Influenced by this consideration, his master at last determined to release him from his con- * Adams's expression. ROBERT ADAMs's NARRATIVE. 77 finement; but though very weak, the moment he was liberated he was set to gathering in the corn. ( 52 ) About a week afterwards, Dolbic, the mate, fell sick. Adams had called to see him, when Dolbie's master (named Brahim, a son of the Shieck) order- ed him to get up and go to work; and upon Dolbie declaring that he was unable, Brahim beat him with a stick to compel him to go; but as he still did not obey, Brahim threatened that he would kill him ; and upon Dolbie's replying that he had better do so at once than kill him by inches, Brahim stabbed him in the side with a dagger, and he died in a few minutes. As soon as he was dead, he was taken by some slaves a short distance from the town, where a hole was dug, into which he was thrown without ceremony. As the grave was not deep, and as it frequently happen- ed that corpses after burial were dug out of the ground by the foxes, Adams and his two surviving companions went the next day and covered the grave with stones. ( 53 ) As the Moors were constantly urging them to be- come Mohammedans, and they were unceasingly treated with the greatest brutality, the fortitude of Williams and Davison being exhausted, they at last unhappily consented to renounce their religion, and were circumcised ; and thus obtained their liberty ; after which they were presented with a horse, a musket, and a blanket each, and permitted to mar- ry ; no Christian being allowed at any of the places inhabited by Moors, to take a wife, or to cohabit with a Moorish woman. As Adams was the only remaining Christian at Wadinoon, he became in a more especial manner an object of the derision and persecution of the Moors, who were constantly upbraiding and reviling him, and telling him that his soul would be lost unless he became a Mohammedan, insomuch, that his life was 78 ROBERT ADAMS'S NARRATIVE. becoming intolerable ; ( 54 ) when, only three days after Williams and Davison had renounced their re- ligion, a letter was received from Mr. Joseph Du- puis, British Consul at Mogadore, addressed to the Christian prisoners at Wadinoon, under cover to the Governour; in which the Consul, after exhorting them most earnestly not to give up their religion, whatever might befall them, assured them that within a month, he should be able to procure their liberty. Davison heard the letter read apparently without emotion, but WiUiams became so agitated, that he let it drop out of his hands, and burst into a flood of tears. ( 55 ) From this time Adams experienced no particular ill treatment ; but he was required to work as usual. About a month more elapsed, when a man who brought the letter, who was a servant of the British Consul, disguised as a trader, made known to Adams that he had succeeded in procuring his re- lease; and the next day they set out together for Mogadore. On quitting Wadinoon, (where Adams is confi- dent he stayed more than twelve months ; the se- cond year's crop of tobacco having been completely got in before his departure) they proceeded in a northerly direction, travelling on mules at the rate of thirty miles a day, and in fifteen days* arrived at Mogadore. The first night they stopped at a vil- lage called Akkadia, situated at the foot of a high mountain. Here, for the first time, Adams saw olive trees, and palm trees from the nuts of which oil is extracted. The place consisted of about twenty houses ; some of them two stories high. Having slept there, they set out the next morning at four * The detail of Adams's course from Wed-Noon to Mogadore, makes only thirteen days. ROBERT ADAMs's NARRATIVE. 79 o'clock, and the following day about sunset reached another village, the name of which he does not re- member. Here were only a few houses, but a great many tents, and in the neighbourhood large fields of wheat, Indian corn, and barley. Adams thinks this place was all the property of one man. The place at which they next stopped, having travelled that day in a northeast direction, was the residence of a great warrior named Cidi Heshem, who had with him upwards of six hundred black men and Moors, most of them armed with muskets, which they kept in excellent order. Adams was in- formed that he admitted into his service any runa- way Negroes or Moors; to whom he gave liberty on condition of their entering into his service. He appeared to be very rich : having numerous camels, goats, sheep, and horned cattle, and abundance of piece goods of various kinds, as also shoes and other manufactures which were exposed for sale in shops kept by Jews. The place was called after its owner, Bled de Cidi Heshem, in the district of Suz, and to the best of Adams's recollection, contained from twenty to thirty houses. Here he saw a great quantity of silver money, principally dollars. Cidi Heshem was at war with the Emperour of Mo- rocco. ( 56 ) After staying one night and part of the next day, Adams and his companion proceeded on their jour- ney ; and the following night slept at a place where there were only two huts. The next day they ar- rived at a place of a similar description, and then set out, expecting to arrive at a large town, situate on a high hill by the sea side named in English Santa Cruz, (where he was told, formerly a British Con- sul resided,) but called by the Moors Agadeer. They did not, however, get so far ; but reached a place 80 ROBERT ADAMS'S NARRATIVE. called Cidi Mahomeda Moussa,* situate in a wide sandy plain, where the harvest being just got in, the inhabitants were holding a market, at which there appeared to be assembled not less than four thou- sand persons from all quarters, who had goods of all descriptions for sale. This market, he was told, is held once a year, and lasts for five days. Here Adams's companion was met by several persons of his acquaintance, who seemed greatly delighted at his success in effecting his (Adams) liberation : some of them spoke English. After remaining there one day, they set out again on their journey, and by one o'clock reached Aga- deer. As soon as they arrived, the Governour sent for Adams, and said to him in the Moorish lan- guage, " now, my lad, you may consider yourself safe." He afterwards made particular inquiry as to the treatment Adams had met with; and on being told with what inhumanity he had been used at Wadinoon, the Governour said he well knew their manner of treating Christians ; but that they were savages, and not subjects of the Emperour: he ad- ded, that having the good fortune now to be in the dominions of the Emperour, Adams might rest satis- fied that he was perfectly safe, and would meet with nothing but good treatment ; an assurance that af- forded him the greatest satisfaction, although ever since his departure from Wadinoon he had felt a confident belief that his complete deliverance was at hand. The next day they resumed their journey, and from this time travelled northerly for five days, without meeting with any other habitation than oc- casional huts. About twelve o'clock on the Mth * There is a sanctuary near Santa Cruz, called Cidi Mohammed Monsoul, but Adams appears to have confounded it, (probably from the similarity of the names) with Cidi Hamet a Moussa. See Note 56. D. ROBERT ADAMS S NARRATIVE. 81 day, ascending a hill, they discovered the town of Mogadore beneath them, and square rigged vessels lying in the harbour: the sight of which, says Adams, " I can no otherwise describe than by say- " ing, I felt as if a new life had been given to me." In about half an hour afterwards they entered the town, and immediately went to the house of the Governour, who sent Adams to Mr. Dupuis, the British Consul ; by whom he was received into his house, and treated with the utmost kindness. "Ne- " ver," says Adams, " shall I forget the kindness of " this good gentleman, who seemed to study how to " make me comfortable and happy." On the arrival of Adams at Mogadore, it appear- ed to be the wish of the Governour to send him to the Emperour; but to this Mr. Dupuis objected, and Adams remained with him the following eight months; in the course of which time, Mr. Dupuis frequently interrogated him upon the subject of the several places at which he had been in Africa, and sent for travellers for the purpose of comparing their statements with those given by him ; ( 57 ) after which he expressed a strong desire that Adams should come to England for the purpose of giving an account of his travels, as he said many gentlemen would be glad to receive it. But as England and America were then at war, Adams was apprehensive lest he might be made a prisQner, and therefore declined the pressing offers and solicitations of the Consul that he should take his passage in an English vessel, bound to London. Finding Adams thus averse from going to England, and the only vessels which were lying at Mogadore being bound thither, Mr. Dupuis wrote to the Emperour of Morocco, and also to Mr. Simpson the British* Consul at Tan- * Mr . Simpson was American Consul. D. 11 82 ROBERT ADAMS'S NARRATIVE, gier with the view of procuring permission for Adams to go to Tangier, from whence he hoped he might get a passage by some Spanish vessel to Cadiz. This being at length agreed to, Adams took leave of Mr. Dupuis in the month of April, 1814, who sent him under the protection of two Moorish soldiers, to Fez, the residence of the Em- perour. (* 8 ) They travelled on mules ; but as they stopped two days at VArrache,* and travelled but slowly, it was eighteen days before they arrived at Fez. On their arrival the Emperour was absent at Mequi- nez, and they accordingly proceeded thither the next day, and went to the house of Doctor Manu- el, a Portuguese physician, who informed the Em- perour of Adams's arrival. Adams was then order- ed into the presence of the Emperour, who first asked him of what country he was ; he replied, " an Englishman." He then inquired into the treat- ment he had met with, and whether he liked the Moors as well as the Europeans, to which Adams answered, "No." The Emperour then ordered that Adams should be taken to the Governour ; who, the next day, sent him in the charge of two soldiers to Tangier, where, travelling on mules, they arrived in three days. Immediately upon his arrival at Tangier, Adams was presented to the Governpur, and then conveyed to the Consul, Mr. Simpson ; who, two days after- wards, procured him a passage on board a Spanish schooner bound to Cadiz, ( 59 ) where he arrived the next day, being the 27th of May, 1814, making three * Adams has evidently forgotten the situation of El Araische. He could not have touched there on his journey from Mogadore to Fez ; though he might very probably pass through it on his way from Me- quinez to Tangier. The place he alludes to must be either Rhabatt or Sallee. D. ROBERT ADAMS's NARRATIVE. 83 njears and seven months, ( 60 ) since he was wrecked in the Charles ; during which period, except from the effect of the severe beating he received at Wadi- noon, and the weakness produced by his long con- finement at that place in irons, he never was sick a single day. After remaining about fourteen months at Cadiz as a servant or groom, in the service of Mr. Hall, an English merchant there ; peace having in the mean time been restored ; Adams was informed by the American Consul that he had nowan opportuni- ty of returning to his native country with a cartel, or transport, of American seamen, which was on the point of sailing from Gibraltar. He accordingly proceeded thither ; but arrived two days after the vessel had sailed. Soon afterwards he engaged himself on board a Welsh brig lying at Gibraltar, in which he sailed to Bilboa, from whence the brig took a cargo of wool to Bristol ; and, after discharg- ing it there, was proceeding in ballast to Liverpool ; but having been driven into Holyhead by contrary winds, Adams there fell sick, and was put on shore. From this place he begged his way up to London, where he arrived about the middle of October, completely destitute ; and had slept two or three nights in the open streets, before he was accidentally met by a gentleman, who had seen him in Mr. Hall's service at Cadiz, and was acquainted with his his- tory ; by whom he was directed to the office of the African Committee. :nd of the narrative. NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Note 1, p. 30. I do not recollect to have heard any suspicion stated, either by Adams or others of the crew of the " Charles," that the Captain was really bound to any other place than the Isle of May, or some other of the Cape de Verd Islands ; but the ship's name, the owners, Captain, crew and cargo, agree precisely with the statements which were made to me at Mo- gadore. D. • Note 2, p. 31. El Gazie (the g strongly guttural) has been de- scribed to me by Arabs who have occasionally visited that part of the coast, chiefly for the purpose of sharing or purchasing the plunder of such vessels as may be cast on shore : — which misfortune but too frequently happens to those who do not use the precaution of keeping a good offing ; for most parts of this desert coast are so low, and the weather is here in general so hazy, as to preclude a distant view of the shore. The Douar (by which word I mean a village of tents, and which I shall accordingly so use hereaf- ter, in speaking of the encamped residences of the Arabs) is here scarcely deserving of the name ; con- sisting, as I have been told, only of a few scattered 86 El Gazie. — Shipwrecks. tents, inhabited by a small community of poor and miserable Arabs, whose manner of living, dress and appearance, are doubtless such as Adams here de- scribes; and who, residing chiefly, if not entirely, on the seacoast, become the first possessors of the valuables and surviving crews of such vessels as here suffer shipwreck. As soon as such an event is known in the Desert, their Douar becomes a mart, to which Arabs from all parts of the interiour resort for trade ; and it even not unfrequently happens, that when the news of such a catastrophe reaches the southern provinces of Barbary, the native traders of Santa Cruz, Moga- dore, and their districts, make long journeys for the same purpose, and frequently bring back valuable articles saved from the wreck, which they purchase from the ignorant natives as things of no value. In this manner, I have been informed of superfine cloths being bought at half a dollar the cubit measure. Occasionally also I have seen Bank of England notes, which I was assured cost a mere trifle ; the purchaser only knowing their value. Watches, trinkets, wearing apparel, muslins, silks, linens, &c. are gladly disposed of for dates, horses, camels, their favourite blue linens (baftas) or any of the few arti- cles which are felt by these poor people to be imme- diately serviceable in their wretched way of living. They are, however, more tenacious of the firearms, cutlasses, pikes, cordage, bits of old iron, spike nails, and copper, upon which they set great value, and therefore seldom part with them. This is the common mode of transacting the trade of a wreck. However, it not unfrequently happens, that when the crew and cargo fall into the posses- sion of any tribe of insignificant note, the latter are invaded by one of their more powerful neighbours, who either strip them by force of all their collected French Renegade, — Death of the Captain, 87 plunder, or compel them, through fear, to barter it at rates far beneath its estimated value. In either case, whether obtained by purchase or by force, the Arabs load their camels with the spoil, and return to their homes in the Desert, driving the unfortunate Christians before them. The latter, according to the interest of their new masters, are sold again or bartered to others ; often to Arabs of a different tribe, and are thus conveyed in various directions across the Desert, suffering every degree of hard- ship and severity, which the cruelty, caprice or self- interest of their purchasers may dictate. D. Note 3, p. 33. At the very time that Adams was making this statement relative to the Frenchman who had es- caped from the Canary Islands, Mr. John Barry, a merchant of Teneriffe, accidentally entered the room : and upon being asked whether he had ever heard of such a circumstance, he stated, that between four and five years ago, some French prisoners did make their escape from Santa Cruz in a boat belong- ing to Canary, and that it was afterwards reported they had run their vessel on shore on the Coast of Africa, and had been seized and carried into captivi- ty by the Moors. It can hardly be doubted that the man of whom Adams speaks, was one of them. Note 4, p. 33. I perfectly recollect, that the fact of the Cap- tain's death, was mentioned to me by others of the Charles's crew who were ransomed at Mogadore. as well as by Adams ; but I do not think that I 88 Jlgadeer Doma. — Ransom of three Sailors. was told he was murdered ; only that he died from disease, want of nourishment and severe treat- ment. D. Note 5, p. 35. Adams, should have said Jlgadeer Doma. This proposition made by the Mate to the Arabs, to con- vey the Christians to Senegal, was related to me, as we«. by Adams, as by others of the crew who were ransomed. The Arabs, I was told, had frequent consultations together; apparently to determine how they should dispose of their prisoners : after which, as if to raise the spirits of the sailors, they would point with their fingers to the north, or north-north- east; saying many words, which they (the sailors) did not understand, and frequently repeating the words Siterra and Sultan. D. Note 6, p. 35. In the spring of 1811, at which time, and until the breaking out of the war between Great Britain and the United States, I held the commission of Agent for the American Consulate at Mogadore, (under James Simpson, Esq. Consul General of the United States at Tangier,) three of the Charles's crew, named Nicholas^ Newsham and Nelson were brought to me at Mogadore by an Arab of the tribe of Woled Moussebah, for the purpose of bargaining for their ransom ; which, after some difficulties de- scribed in a subsequent Note, I effected. These men related to me the circumstances of their shipwreck, almost precisely in the same terms in which they were afterwards described to me by Adams, and as they are described in the Narrative. They also informed me that Adams, (or Rose) and another of Soudenny. 89 the crew had been purchased from the Arabs, who first made them prisoners, bj a party who came from the eastward, and who had carried him into the Desert in that direction. JQ. Note 7, p. 37. Soudenny has been described to me as a Negro town or village bordering on the Desert : and 1 am credibly informed by traders, that it is a practice of the neighbouring Arabs to resort to the habi prions of the Negroes on the confines of the Desert, ior the purpose of stealing and carrying them away into slavery. This, however, is not the common method of procuring slaves ; for it is attended with great personal risk, as Adams here relates. During my residence in south Barbary, I have frequently in- quired of different Negro slaves the manner of their falling into the hands of the Arabs ; and many have assured me that they were stolen by them from their own country, and not regularly purchased at the slave marts. D. According to Adams's statement of his route, Soudenny may be supposed to lie about the 6th de- gree of west longitude and the 16th of north lati- tude. This situation will fall very near the northern confines of Bambarra, where they approach, (if they do not actually touch) the Desert, on the eastern borders of Ludamar. It also approaches close to the line of Park's route in his first journey, when endeavouring to escape from the Moors of Benown : and we are consequently enabled to derive from Park's descriptions, materials for estimating, in some degree, the probability of what Adams says respect- ing Soudenny. 12 90 Soudenny. — Woollo and Fatima. Referring therefore to Park's account of this part of Africa, we find him drawing a melancholy pic- ture of the sufferings of its Negro inhabitants from the plundering incursions of Moorish Banditti ; on which excursions he says, (4to. ed. p. 159,) " they " will seize upon the Negroes' cattle, and even on " the inhabitants themselves." On arriving at Sam- paka, in Ludamar, he says, p. 119, " the towns' peo- " pie informed us that a party of Moors had at- " tempted to steal some cattle from the town in the ** morning, but had been repulsed." He describes the Foulahs of Wassiboo, who are extensive culti- vators of corn, as "obliged for fear of the Moors " to carry their arms with them to the fields." See page 187. And in the next page he says, on ap- proaching Satile, " the people, who were employed " in the corn fields, took us for Moors, and ran " screaming away from us. When we arrived at " the town, we found the gates shut, and the peo- " pie all under arms." The places here mentioned are in the immediate vicinity of each other; and occur in that part of the line of Park's travels, which lies nearest to the pre- sumed situation of Soudenny. The details, there- fore, afford the nearest evidence which can at pre- sent be obtained, by which to estimate the probabi- lity of this part of Adams's story ; and it is presum- ed that stronger circumstantial corroboration of it, will hardly be thought necessary. Note 8, p. 40. Woollo, which is a Negro, and not a Moorish ap- pellative, occurs in a Note on Isaaco's Journal (4to. p. 203) as the name of a former King of Bambar- ra, the father of Mansong : but the probability of Adams's statement in this passage is more immedi- Woollo and Fatima. — Dress. 91 ately corroborated by Mr. Jackson ; who assures his readers, that there was a King Woollo, actually reigning at Tombuctoo in the year 1800. Mr. Jackson further states, that this same King of Tom- buctoo was also sovereign of Bambarra ; in which respect, however, (as in many other instances where he relies on African authority) it is apparent that he was misinformed; for the name of the sovereign of Bambarra from the year 1795 to 1805 inclusive, (the dates of Park's journeys) was certainly Man- song. Nevertheless it is very possible that Woollo, of whom Mr. Jackson heard in 1800, and whom Adams saw in 1811, as King of Tombuctoo, was one of the numerous tributaries of the sovereign of Bambarra ; and that this connexion between the two states may have led to the report that they had jointly, but one King. The name of Fatima affords, in itself, no proof that its possessor was a Moorish or even a Mohamme- dan woman : for Park, in speaking of another Ne- gro sovereign, (the King of Bondou,) says " this "monarch was called Almami, a Moorish name ; al- " though I was told that he was not a Mahome- " dan, but a Kafir or Pagan." 1st Journey, 4to. p. 53. Note 9, p. Dancing. 109 'O admiration expressed at them by those in the ring, appeared to be extempore. Two performers were playing on the outside of the ring; one on a large drum, the other on a sort of guitar. They did not interrupt the singer in the ring during his recitations ; but at the end of every verse, the instruments struck up, and the whole party joined in loud chorus, danc- ing round the man in the circle, stooping to the ground and throwing up their legs alternately. To- wards the end of the dance, the man in the middle of the ring was released from his enclosure, and danc- ed alone, occasionally reciting verses ; whilst the other dancers begged money from the by-standers. 1 do not recollect to have seen any of the female slaves join in these dances ; but I have observed them very much interested whilst attending the diversion: sometimes appearing extravagantly delighted, and at others exhibiting signs of mourning and sorrow. These dances were prohibited soon after the ac- cession of the present Emperour ; but they have been occasionally permitted of late years. Whether the prohibition arose from some connexion, either real or supposed, which the dances had with any of the religious ceremonies of the Negroes, offensive to the Mohammedans, I was never able to ascertain. D. The dancing of the Negroes at Joag in Kajaaga, as described by Mr. Park, corresponds very remarka- bly with Adams's description of the same amusement at Tombuctoo. " 1. found," he says, 1st Journey 4to. p. 68, " a " great crowd surrounding a party who were danc- " ing by the light of some large fires, to the musick " of four drums, which were beaten with great " exactness and uniformity. The dances, however, " consisted more in wanton gestures than in muscu- " lar exertion or graceful attitudes. The ladies vied 110 Bambarra. — Slaves. " with each other in displaying the most voluptuous M movements imaginable. They continued to dance " until midnight." Note 30, p. 53. This statement, which is in opposition to the usual opinion that Tombuctoo is a dependency of Bambar- ra, receives some corroboration from a passage in Isaaco's Journal, (4to. p. 205) where a " Prince of " Tombuctoo" is accused by the King of Sego, of hav- ing, either personally or by his people, plundered two Bambarra caravans, and taken both merchandise and slaves. This was in September 1810, some months previous to the date of the expeditions men- tioned in the Narrative. Note 31, p. 54. The Negro slaves brought to Barbary from Tim- buctoo appear to be of various nations; many of them distinguishable by the make of their persons and features, as well as by their language. I have seen slaves, who were described as coming from the remote country of Wamgara ; but the greater part of them aro brought from Bambarra ; the Negroes of that nation being most sought after, and fetching the highest prices in Barbary. 1 recollect an unusually tall, stout Negress at Mogadore, whose master assured me that she belong- ed to a populous nation of cannibals'. I do not'know whether the fact was sufficiently authenticated; but it is certain that the woman herself declared it, ad- ding some revolting^ accounts of her own feasts on human flesh. Being in the habit of inquiring from Negroes at Mogadore the manner of their falling into slavery, I ► Slaves, 111 received, on one such occasion, from a Bambarreen Negro, a long account of his capture, (on a plunder- ing expedition) his sale, escape, and recapture, amongst different Negro nations before he was final- ly sold, at Timbuctoo, to the Arabs. His account was chiefly curious from Jiis description of a nation which he called Gollo or Quallo, which conveyed to me an idea of a people more advanced in the arts, and wealthier than any that J. had previously heard of. The King's palace and the houses in general were described as superiour structures to those of the Moors: and he even spoke of domesticated elephants trained to war, of which the King had a large force. To this nation he was conveyed by a party of its natives, a stout race of people ; who, happening to be in a town on the Weil-Nile, in which he and half of the plundering party to which he belonged, had been made prisoners, bought him from his captors, and carried hirfr«away to their own country. They arrived at Gollo after nearly a month's journey inland from the river; during which they crossed a large chain of mountains ; and as far as I could judge from his account, the country lay southeast of Bambarra. Within three days' journey of the capital was a large lake or river which communicated with the Wed- Nile, by which he eventually escaped. Notwithstanding the reserve with which the sto- ries of Negroes must be received, there was a cir- cumstantiality in this man's account, which seemed very like the truth ; and he bore about him ocular evidence in corroboration of one part of his story; namely, that the right ears of himself and his plun- dering companions were cut off, as a punishment, by the people who sold him to the Negroes of Gollo. D. 112 Punishments. — Shops and Trade. Note 32, p. 55. It was already evident from Park's accounts, and the fact receives a more extended confirmation from Adams, that the Negroes in the interiour of Soudan are in general harmless and compassionate in their per- sonal characters, and humane in their laws; in which respects they are remarkably distinguished from many of their neighbours to the south, who, besides the ordinary implacability of savages towards their external and publick enemies, are not sparing of the blood of their own countrymen, in their quarrels, punishments, or superstitious sacrifices. Adams's account of the punishment assigned by the laws of Tombuctoo to the principal criminal offences, is substantially the same as that given by Park, in speaking of the laws of the Mandingoes; amongst whom, he informs us, that murder, adultery, and whitchcraft (which, in other words, is the admin- istering of poison) are punished with slavery. It appears, however, that in cases of murder, the rela- tions of the deceased have, in the first instance, pow- er over the life of the offender. The infrequency of the punishment of death, in a community which counts human life amongst its most valuable objects of trade, is not, however, very surprising; and considerable influence must be con- ceded to the operation of self-interest, as well as to the feelings of humanity, in accounting for this mer- ciful feature (if it be indeed merciful) in the criminal code of the Negroes of Soudan. Note 33, p. 55. I do not at present recollect whether Adams told me, that there were, or that there were not, shops at Timbuctoo ; but, as I have stated in Note 10, I Shops and Trade. — Cowries. 113 have been informed by some of the traders, and am disposed to believe, that there arc shops, in which foreign merchandise, and the domestick commodities of the inhabitants, are exposed for sale. Others, how- ever, have contradicted this account. The articles of trade which Adams enumerates in the succeeding lines, appear to me to correspond with tolerable accuracy with those which the caravans from the Barbary states carry to Soudan, and bring from thence. This trade from the states of Morocco, which ap- pears to have been carried on to a considerable and uniform extent since the reign of Mulai Ismael (at whose death the dominion previously exercised by the Moors over the natives of Timbuctoo is reported to have been shaken off by the latter,) has begun to decline of late years, in consequence of the es- tablishment of the market of Hamet a JWousa in the territory of the Cid Heshem, described in a subse- quent note : and I do not suppose that more than a hundred of the Emperour's subjects now annually cross the Desert. With respect to the caravans themselves, their man- ner of assembling and travelling, the dangers which they incur in the Desert from the Shume wind, from want of water, and from the marauding disposition of the Desert Arabs, have been so fully described in other places, that any further detail here would be unnecessary. D. Note 34, p. 55. In quoting the price in cowries of a full grown slave, Adams must certainly have committed a great mistake. I remember he told me that the Arabs gave a considerable value in tobacco or other raer- 15 114 Cowries. — Moots at Tombuctoo. chandise for a slave ; and that he thought them cheaper in the Desert than at Timbuctoo. D. At Sansanding Park gives forty thousand cowries, as the current price of a male slave : it is not possible that the value either of cowries or slaves can be so utterly disproportionate in two countries so near to each other. Adams must have been quite in the dark with respect to the real terms of the bargain. Note 35, p. 56. That the people of Timbuctoo should feel some jealousy of the tribes of Arabs immediately in their neighbourhood, is extremely probable, considering the general marauding characters of the latter ; but I do not know what particular measures of exclusion are enforced against them. With respect to the traders from Barbary, I have always been told that they are permitted to reside at Timbuctoo as long as they think proper. On the other hand, I believe, that camel drivers, Arab guides, and those attached to the caravans, who are either not able, or not will- ing, to make the King a present, are excluded. D. Adams's assertion, that he saw no Moors during his stay at Tombuctoo, except the aforesaid two parties, is not so improbable as it may at first sight appear. Tombuctoo, although it is become, in consequence of its frontier situation, the port, as it were, of the caravans from the north (which could not return across the Desert the same season if they were to penetrate deeper into Soudan) is yet, with respect to the trade itself, probably only the point from whence it diverges to Haoussa, Tuarick, &c. on the east, and to Walet, Jinnie, and Sego, in the west and south, and not the mart where the merchandise of the caravans is sold in detail. Park was inform- Moors at Tombuctoo. — Negroes. 115 ed, that Haoussa and Walet were, both of them, lar- ger cities than Tombuctoo. Such Moors therefore as did not return to Barbarj with the returning cara- van, but remained in Soudan until the following sea- son, might be expected to follow their trade to the larger marts of the interiour, and to return to Tom- buctoo, only to meet the next winter's caravans. Adams, arriving at Tombuctoo in February, and departing in June, might therefore miss both the caravans themselves and the traders who remained behind in Soudan : and, in like manner, Park might find Moors carrying on an active trade in the summer, at Sansanding, and yet there might not be one at Tombuctoo. With respect to the trade actually carried on at Tombuctoo (which makes but an insignificant figure in Adams's account,) we can only regret that a per- son placed in his extraordinary situation, was not better qualified to collect or communicate more satis- factory information on this and many other interest- ing subjects. However, his lists of the articles of trade show that he was not wholly unobservant in this respect; and we cannot but think it probable that the " armed parties of a hundred men or more," which he describes at page 53, as going out once a month for slaves, and returning sometimes in a week, and sometimes after a longer absence, were in reali- ty traders. Note 36, p. 56. I was frequently told by Adams, who appeared to take pleasure in speaking of the circumstance, that the Negroes behaved to him on all occasions with great humanity, never insulting or illtreating him on account of his religion, as the Arabs did. He was never confined at Timbuctoo, but could go where he pleased. Upon these grounds I entertain little doubt 116 Negro Curiosity, — Crossing the Desert, (and I was conrfimed in my opinion by Timbuctoo traders with whom I conversed on the subject) that had Adams explained his story to the Negroes, and expressed any unwillingness to accompany the Arabs on their return, he would have been rescued out of their hands, and left at liberty. I do not recollect whether he told me, that the idea had ever occurred to him; but, if it did, it is probable that when he came to consider his hopeless prospect of reaching the seacoast, if left to himself, and that the Arabs had promised to take him to Suerra after their expedi- tion to Soudenny ; he would prefer the chance of ulti- mate liberation afforded him by accompanying the Arabs, of whose severe treatment he had then had but a short experience. D. Note 37, p. 56. I do not imagine that the curiosity of the Negroes can have been excited so much on account of Adams's colour, as because he was a Christian, and a Chris- tian slave, which would naturally be to them a source of great astonishment. The Negroes must have seen, in the caravans from the Barbary states which annually visit the countries of Soudan, and Timbuctoo in particular, many Moors, especially those from Fez, of a complexion quite as light as that of Adams. D. • Note 38, p. 56. September and October are the months in which the caravans from Barbary to Timbuctoo assemble on the northern confines of the Desert. They com- mence their journey as soon as the first rains have cooled the ground, and arrive again from the De- sert about the month of March. Z). Crossing the Desert. — Joliba. 117 7? Whilst Adams states in the text, on the one hand, that the Desert can be crossed only in winter during the rainy season, it appears, on the other, that he himself must have crossed it in July. (See Note 60.) Yet, upon examination, the circumstances of the Nar- rative will be found not only to reconcile this appa- rent contradiction, but even to add to the internal evidence of the truth of Adams's story. The winter is, admittedly, the only proper time for crossing the Desert, and (as Mr Dupuis states in the preceding part of this Note,) the trading caravans from Barba- ry never attempt the journey at any other season. But the solitary troop of Arabs from the Woled D'leim do not appear to have come to Tombuctoo for the ordinary purposes of trade. Their only object seems to have been to ransom their imprisoned com- rades : and having this alone in view, they would naturally come as soon as they had ascertained the captivity of the latter and prepared the means of redeeming them ; without regarding the inconve- niences of travelling at an unusual season. Their ex- traordinary sufferings, and loss of lives, from heat and thirst in returning across the Desert, may be hence accounted for. This explanation moreover confirms, and is cor- roborated, by Adams's subsequent remark, in page 62, that the Arabs of Woled D'leim (which was the home of his ransomers) to be of the same tribe as those of the douar whither he was first conveyed from the coast, and consequently, as those who were taken prisoners with him at Soudenny. Note 39, p. 57. This apparently unimportant passage affords, on examination, a strong presumption in favour of 1 1 8 Joliba. — Negro Language. the truth and simplicity of this part of Adams's Nar- rative. In the course of his examinations, almost every new inquirer eagerly questioned him respecting the Joliba; and he could not fail to observe, that, be- cause he had been at Tombuctoo, he was expected, as a matter of course, either to have seen, or at least frequently to have heard of, this celebrated river. Adams, however, fairly admits that he knows no- thing about it : and, notwithstanding the surprise of many of his examiners, he cannot be brought to ac- knowledge that he had heard the name even once mentioned at Tombuctoo. All that he does recol- lect is, that a river Joliba had been spoken of at Tudenny, where it was described as lying in the direction of Bambarra. Those who recollect Major Rennell's remarks re- specting the Niger, in his "Geographical Illustrations," will not be much surprised that Adams should not hear of the " Joliba" from the natives of Tom- buctoo. At that point of its course, the river is doubtless known by another name : and if the Joliba were spoken of at all, it would probably be accom- panied (as Adams states in the text) with some men- tion of Bambarra, which may be presumed to be the last country eastward in which the Niger retains its Mandingo name. Note 40, p. 57. Some of the words mentioned in this short speci- men of the Negro language are Arabick ; for in- stance, — killed, a dog ; feel, an elephant ; dar, a house : also the names which he has given for "date" and " fig" ; but the word carna, which he has prefix- ed to the latter, signifying " tree," is not Arabick. Whether Adams, in consequence of the short oppor- Taudeny. — Wolcd D^leim. 119 tunity which he had of hearing the language of the Negroes, and his subsequent long residence amongst the Arabs, has confounded the two languages in the above instances; or whether there may not really be some mixture of the languages at Timbuctoo (as not unfrequently happens in the frontier places of adjoining countries,) I cannot pretend to determine. It is at least certain, that Adams did know some- thing of the Negro language, for I have frequently heard him hold conversations with the slaves at Mo- gadore ; especially with a young Negro who used to visit my house on purpose to see Adams, and (as he has himself told me) to converse with him about his own country, where, he has often assured me, Adams had been. D. Note 41, p. 60. Taudeny has been frequently described to me by traders in a manner which corresponds with Adams's account ; it being reported to have four wells of good water, and a number of date and fig trees : the inhabitants are represented as quite black, but without the Negro features. The salt pits consist of large beds of rock salt, in the manner that Adams describes, and of very considerable extent. Their produce is in much request at Timbuctoo, and in all Soudan, whither it is sent in large quantities ; the people of Taudeny receiving in return slaves and merchandise, which they again exchange with the Arabs of Woled D'leim, and Woled Aboussebah, for camels, horses, or tobacco ; so that I should imagine Taudeny to be a place of importance, and highly in- teresting. D. Note 42, p. 62. Woled DHeim is the douar of a tribe of Arabs- inhabiting the eastern parts of the Desert from the ir 120 Woled DHeim.—El Kabku latitude of about twenty degrees north to the tropick. I have been informed by travellers who have visited these parts, that they are a tribe of great extent and power; that they inhabit detached fertile spots of land where they find water, and pasturage for their flocks, but do not at all practise agriculture. I have occasionally seen Arabs of this tribe during my resi- dence at Mogadore. They appear to be an extreme- ly fine race of men. Their complexion is very dark, almost as black as that of the Negroes ; but they have straight hair, which they wear in large quan- tities, aquiline noses, and large eyes. Their beha- viour was haughty and insolent: they spoke with fluency and energy, appeared to have great powers of rhetorick ; and I was told that many of them pos- sessed the talent of making extempore compositions in verse, on any object that attracted their notice. Their arms were javelins and swords. D. Note 43, p. 64. The circumstances of Adams's neglect of his em- ployment, and of the punishment which he received in consequence, appear to have made a strong impres- sion on him ; for he frequently mentioned them to me ; always adding, that he had firmly determined to persevere in his resistance, though it had cost him his life. £>. Note 44,;?. 66. Adams described the circumstances of his escape from the Woled DHeim to El Kabla^ precisely as they are here related : but he observed to me that, with respect to masters, he had scarcely bettered his con- dition ; and at all times he shewed an inveterate ani- El Kabla.—Aisha. 121 mosity against any of the Arabs of the Desert whom he saw at Mogadore. El Kabla means the eastern Arabs, so distinguished from those of west Barbary and the coast. In the pronunciation of a Desert Arab, the name might sound very like El Gibla, or Hilla Gibla. These people inhabit large tracts of the Desert on the northern limits of the Woled D'leim. They are looked upon as a tribe of considerable importance, and are frequently employed by the traders in cross- ing the Desert, serving as guides or escorts as far as Taudeny. They have been represented to me as a haughty and ferocious race, yet scrupulously observant of the rites of hospitality. In persons they are said to resemble their Woled D'leim neighbours, being extremely dark, straight haired, and of the true Arabian feature. They are reported to be de- scendants from the race of Woled Aboussebah; from whom they probably separated themselves, in conse- quence of some of the disputes which frequently in- volve the Desert tribes in domestick wars. Their large flocks of sheep and goats supply them with outer raiment as well as food ; but the blue shirts of Soudan, are almost universally worn by them as un- der garments. ZX Note 45', p. 68. These details of Adams's amour with Aisha&re the same as he gave to me at Mogadore. Of the fact itself 1 can entertain no doubt, from the following circumstances : After the loss of the " Charles" it had been my constant practice, when traders went to the Desert, to commission them to make inquiries respecting the re- mainder of the crew, who were in the possession of the Arabs ; and, in particular, respecting those who had 16 1 22 Aisha. — Woled Aboussebah. been reported to me to be carried eastward. On the return of one of these men from El Kabla, he told me that there was a Christian slave at that place, in pos- session of an Arab, who would doubtless be very glad to dispose of him, in consequence of the slave having been detected in an affair with his wife. He then briefly related to me the same story, in substance, as I afterwards heard from Adams. I also heard of it from a trader from Wed-Noon, who told me of Adams being there some time before I effected his ransom : I was informed at the same time, that this trait of his character and history was much talked of at Wed-Noon. D. Note 46, p. 68. Villa de Bousbach should be Woled Aboussebah ; Woled signifying sons or children, and being common- ly applied to all the tribes of Arabs. The Woled Aboussebah is a considerable tribe of Arabs distinct from the Woled D'leirn, inhabiting large tracts of the northern and western parts of the Desert. They report themselves to be descendants from the line of sheriffes, or race of the Prophet. Their country is described as a Desert interspersed with spots of fertile land, where they fix their douars, and pasture their flocks of goats, sheep, and camels. Their diet is occasionally the flesh of their flocks, but chiefly the milk of the niag, or female camel. They trade with their northern neighbours for dates and tobacco; being, immoderately fond of the latter for their own consumption in snuff and smoking, and employing it also in their trade with Soudan for slaves and blue cottons. As this tribe is reported to reach quite down to the seacoast, and to be spread over a very ex- tensive tract of country, there are various branches Woled Aboussebah. 123 of it, who consider themselves wholly independent of each other, jet all calling themselves the " Woled " Aboussebah." Those who inhabit the seacoast are supplied with double barrelled guns, and various implements of iron, by trading vessels from the Ca- nary Islands, for which they give cattle in exchange. They are represented to be very expert in the management of their horses, and in the use of fire- arms, being excellent marksmen at the full speed of the horse, or of the Desert Camel (heirie.) They have frequent wars with their southern and eastern neighbours, though without any important results; the sterility of the soil, throughout the whole^of this region of sand, affording little temptation to its in- habitants to dispossess each other of their territorial possessions. The inhabitants of Wed-Noon are descended from this tribe, and owe their independence to its sup- port : for the Arabs of Aboussebah being most nu- merous on the northern confines of the Desert, pre- sent a barrier to the extension of the Emperour of Morocco's dominion in that direction. During the discords and civil wars which raged in Barbary previous to the present Emperour's tran- quil occupation of the throne of Morocco, a horde of these Arabs, amounting to about seven thousand armed men, seizing that opportunity of exchanging their barren Deserts for more fertile regions, over- ran the southern parts of the Empire. Mounted on horses and camels, and bearing their tents and fami- lies with them, they pursued their course, with little or no opposition, until they reached the provinces of Abda and Shiedma^ which lie between Saffy and Mogadore, where they were opposed by the Arabs of those provinces, united with a powerful tribe call- ed Woled-el-Haje, who inhabit a fertile country north of the river Tensift. The Woled Aboussebah were, 1 24 Woled Abomsebah. — Seamen at Wed-Noon. however, victorious, and a dreadful slaughter of their enemies ensued ; who, after oeing driven down to the sea, were cut to pieces without mercy, neither women nor children escaping the massacre. The victors then took possession of the country, where they settled, and maintained themselves against all opposition; and they now form a part of the sub- jects of the Emperour of Morocco. D. Note 47, p. I'd. The mate and the seamen of the " Charles," whom Adams ^escribed to have found at Wed-Noon, were, to my knowledge, in that town a considerable time previous to his arrival. Some explanation may no* be out of place here, of the reasons why these men did not reach the Era- perour's dominions, at the period when the three of the Charles'S crew, whom I have before named, were ransomed. Upon the arrival of the Arab of Aboussebah (whom I have mentioned in Note 6) at Santa Cruz on his way to Mogadore, with Nicholas, Newsham, and Nelson, the Governour of that city and district wished to take possession of the Christians in order to send them to the Emperour: but the Arab re- fused to part with them, not considering himself a subject of the Emperour, or under the control of any of the rulers of Barbary ; and he accordingly escaped out of the city with his property by night ; but before he reached Mogadore he was overtaken by two soldiers whom the Governour had dispatch- ed after him, and who accompanied him and the Christians to me. The Arab then declared to me, that it never was his intention to take his slaves to the Emperour, that he had bought them in the Desert in the hopes Seamen at Wed-Noon. — BeLCossim-Mdallah. 125 of making some profit by their ransom, and that, if he succeeded in this object, he would return, and en- deavour to bring the others up to Mogadore. Upon this, I bargained with him for the purchase of them ; but refusing to accept the highest sum which it was in my power to offer him, he left me, pretending that he had resolved to take his slaves to Fez, where the Emperour then was. Fearful of trusting the men again in his power, I objected to his taking them from under my protection, unless thoy were entrusted to the care of a Moorish soldier ; but the Governour of Mogadore refused to grant him a soldier for that purpose. Thus circumstanced, he was at length compelled to accept the proffered ransom. The dissatisfaction which the Arab felt at the result of his journey, and at the interference of the Governours of Santa Cruz and Mogadore, was, I fear, the cause why the rest of the Charles's crew were not subsequently brought up to be ransomed ; but it could not be helped. D. Note 48, p. 73. The sale of Adams at Wed-Noon to Bel-Cossim- Abdallah was mentioned to me by him at Moga- dore ; Adams observing that he had been bought by Bel-Cossim very cheap, the latter having paid no more for him than the value of seventy dollars in barter. This part of the Narrative was further confirmed by Bel-Cossim himself; who having arrived at Mogadore some time after Adams had been ransom- ed, called upon me, and requested permission to see him. Bel-Cossim then shewed a great regard for him, and told me that he had been unwilling to part with him, when he was ransomed. D. 126 Montezuma.'— 'French Renegade. — Kanno. Note 49, p. 73. The following is ark extract of a letter from P. W. Brancker, Esq. of Liverpool, in reply to an inquiry into the truth of this part of Adams's story. " Liverpool, Nov. 28, 1815. " The American seaman is correct as to the loss " of a vessel from this port, but makes a small mis- " take in the name ; for it appears that the ship " Montezuma, belonging to Messrs. Theodore Kos- 44 ter and Co., and bound from hence to the Brazils, "was wrecked on the 2d November, 1810, between " the Capes de Noon and Bajedore on the coast of " Barbary ; that the master and crew were made " prisoners by a party of Arabs, and that he (the " master) was taken off without the knowledge of the " persons in whose service he then was, and might " therefore be supposed to be murdered ; for being " left in charge of a drove of camels, he was found " by a party of the Emperour's cavalry and carried " off to Morocco, from whence he was sent to Gib- " r altar. " It is also said that the crew have obtained their " liberty, except one boy." Note 50, p. 74. I have often heard of this French renegade, and of his "manufacture of gunpowder ; he is said to have died about two years ago. D. Note 51, p. 74. It has already been stated (see Note 31) that many of tjie slaves purchased at Tombuctoo, and brought by the Arabs across the Desert, came Kanno. 127 from countries even as far east of that city as Wan- gara ; it is therefore not unreasonable to suppose, that Kanno, mentioned in the text, may be the king- dom of Ghana, or Cano, which D'Anville places on the Niger, between the tenth and fifteenth degrees of eastern longitude. Assuming this to be the fact, the curious relation of the Negro slave at Wed-Noon might afford ground to conjecture, that Park had made further progress down the Niger than Amadi Fatouma's story seems to carry him ; further, we mean, than the frontier of Haoussa. In fact, the time which intervened between Park's departure from Sansanding, and his asserted death, would abundantly admit of his having reached a much more distant country even than Ghana: for ac- cording to Isaaco and Amadi Fatouma (see Park's Second Mission, 4to. p. 218,) he had been four months on his voyage down the Niger before he lost his life ; having never been on shore during all that time. This long period is evidently quite unnecessary for the completion of an uninterrupted voyage from San- sanding to the frontiers of Haoussa : for Park was informed by Amadi Fatouma himself, that the voyage even to Kashna (probably more than twice the dis- tance, according to Major Rennell's positions of these places,) did not require a longer period than two months for its performance.* * In quoting Major Rennell's authority for the distance between Haoussa and Kask?ia, the writer referred to the Map accompanying the first edition of the Geographical Illustrations of Park's First Mission. In a later edition of the Map the estimated distance between the two countries has been shortened. This, however, only furnishes an addi* tional instance of the varying statements of African authorities, with- out affecting the general scope of the observations in Note 51 ; since, whatever be the precise distance between the frontiers of Haoussa and those of Kashna, the general result of all the statements on the subject leaves no reason to doubt, that the latter lie considerably further to the eastward tfan the former, and consequently, in the same degree, more, remote from Sansanding. 128 Kanno. The mention of Kashna reminds us of another remarkable circumstance in Amadi Fatouma's state- ments. In the instance just quoted, he appears to be inconsistent with himself; but in the passages to which we allude, we find him at issue with Park. In his last letter to Sir Joseph Banks, announcing the completion of his preparations, and written ap- parently only three days before he commenced his voyage from Sansanding, Park, speaking of Amadi Fatouma, says, u I have hired a guide to go with me "to Kashna ;" and again, in the same letter, " I mean "to write from Kashna by my guide." But Amadi Fatouma, in accounting for his separation from Park before the fatal catastrophe, tells quite another story. He asserts, that he was only engaged to go to Ha- oussa : and an apparently forced prominence is given to this assertion by his manner of making it. His words are these (p. 212 :) " Entered the country of " Haoussa, and came to an anchor. Mr. Park said to " me, ; Now, Amadi, you are at the end of your jour- " ; ney. / engaged you to conduct me here ; you are "'going to leave me.'" Almost the same words are repeated a few lines afterwards; with this differ- ence, however, that Amadi Fatouma now quotes the remark as his own. "1 said 1o him (Mr. Park) 1 " have agreed to carry you to Haoussa ; we are now in " Haoussa. I have fulfilled my engagements with you ; " I am therefore going to leave you, and return." The reader will not need to be informed, that Amadi Fatouma's account goes on to state, that Park and his party lost their lives the day but one after he (Amadi) had thus parted from them ; and that they had previously thrown into the river " every " thing they had in the canoe ;" a proceeding for which no sufficient reason is afforded by the details in the Journal. >'\ Adams'* $ ill treatment. — Death of the Mate. 129 We are quite disposed to make all due allowances for the evidence of an African, conveyed to us through an uncertain translation ; hut, we really think, that the discordances which we have quoted, (joined to other improbabilities in the Narrative) warrant a suspicion that, either with respect to the circumstances of Park's death, or to the appropria- tion of his effects, Amadi Fatouma had something to conceal. We are not, however, very confident that the further prosecution of this inquiry could lead to any satisfactory conclusion ; for whatever suspicion it might tend to throw on Amadi Fatouma's state- ment of the time, place, and circumstances of Park's lamented death, it could not, we fear, justify a rea- sonable doubt, at this distant period, of the actual oc- currence, in some mode or other, of the melancholy event itself. Note 52, p. 77. I heard from several other persons of the ill treatment which Adams received from Hameda-Bel- Cossim, his master's son; and the Moors who visited Wed-Noon corroborated the account of his unshaken resolution, and of the punishment which he suffered in consequence of it, having been put in irons and in prison. D. Note 53, p. 77. I have no reason to doubt the truth of the circum- stances here related by Adams respecting Stephen Dolbie, except as to the fact of his dying in conse- quence of a wound given by Brahim. Other accounts stated that he died at Wed-Noon of a fever only, the effects of a cold contracted by gathering in the harvest during heavy rain : and this, as far as I can recol- 17 ** 130 Christian Slaves. Ject, was the account which Adams gave me at Mo- gadore. I remember that he told me he had assisted at Dolbie's interment, and that he had afterwards covered the grave with stones. D. Mte 54, p. 78. I can easily believe Adams's statement of the bru- tal treatment he experienced at Wed-JVoon. It is consistent with the accounts I have always heard of the people of that country, who I believe to be more bigoted and cruel than even the remoter inhabitants of the Desert. The three men of the Charles's crew already mentioned, complained vehemently of the miseries they had suffered, though they had been but a comparatively short time in slavery ; and one of them shewed me a scar upon his breast, which he told me was the mark of a wound given him by one of the Arabs. In the frequent instances which have come under my observation, the general effect of the treatment of the Arabs on the minds of the Christian captives, has been most deplorable. On the first arrival of these unfortunate men at Mogadore, if they have been any considerable time in slavery, they appear lost to reason and feeling, their spirits broken, and their faculties sunk in a species of stupor which 1 am unable adequately to describe. Habited like the meanest Arabs of the Desert, they appear de- graded even below the Negro slave. The succes- sion of hardships which they endure from the caprice and tyranny of their purchasers, without any protect- ing law to which they can appeal for alleviation or redress, seems to destroy every spring of exertion or hope in their minds ; they appear indifferent to every thing around them, — abject, servile, and bruti- fied. Christian Slaves, 131 Adams alone was, in some respects, an exception from this description. I do not recollect any ran- somed Christian slave who discovered a greater elasticity of spirit, or who sooner recovered from the indifference and stupor here described. it is to be remarked, that the Christian captives are invariably worse treated than the idolatrous or Pagan slaves whom the Arabs, either by theft or purchase, brinagj^rom the interiour of Africa; and that religious Ij^Bry is the chief cause of this dis- tinction. The zealous disciples of Mohammed con- sider the Negroes merely as ignorant unconverted beings, upon whom, *by the act of enslaving them, they are conferring a benefit, by placing them with- in reach of instruction in the " true beliet ;" and the Negroes having no hopes of ransom, and being often enslaved when childien, are in general, soon converted to the Mohammedan faith. The Chris- tians, on the contrary, are looked upon as hardened infidels, and as deliberate despisers of the Prophet's call ; and as they in general stedfastly reject the Mohammedan creed, and at least never embrace it whilst they have hopes of ransom, the Mooslim, consistently with the spirit of many passages in the Koran, views them with the bitterest hatred, and treats them with every insult and cruelty which a merciless bigotry can suggest. It is not to be understood, however, that the Christian slaves, though generally ill treated and in- humanly worked by their Arab owners, are persecut- ed by them ostensibly on account of their religion. They, on the contrary, often encourage the Chris- tians to resist the importunities of those who wish to convert them : for, by embracing Jslamism the Christian slave obtains his freedom ; and however ar- dent may be the zeal of the Arab to make proselytes, #* 132 Christian Slaves, it seldom blinds him to the calculations of self in- terest. A curious instance of the struggle thus excited between Mohammedan zeal and worldly interest, was related to me to have occurred at Wed-Noon, in the case of a boy belonging to an English ves- sel, which had been wrecked on the neighbouring coast a short time previous to the " Charles." This boy had been persuaded to embrace the Mo- hammedan faith; but after a littte while, repenting of what he had done, he publicly declared that he had renounced the doctrines of the Koran, and was again a Christian. To punish so atrocious an out- rage, the Arabs of Wed-Noon resolved to burn him; and they would no doubt have punctually performed the ceremony, but for the interference of the man from whose service the boy had emancipated him- self by his first conversion. This man contended, that by abjuring the Mohammedan faith, the boy had returned into his former condition of slavery, and was again his property; and in spite of the most opprobrious epithets which were heaped upon him (including even the term u infidel," the horrour and abomination of all true Mooselmin) the man insisted that if they would burn the boy, they should first reimburse him for the value of a slave. Re- luctant to lose their sacrifice, the Arabs now at- tempted to raise money by subscription to purchase the boy ; and contributions were begged about the town to burn the Christian. But in the end, as they made slow progress towards obtaining by these means a sufficient sum to purchase the boy, they re- linquished their project; the owner, however was shortly afterwards obliged to remove his slave to another part of the country, to secure him from pri- vate assassination. D. Davison and Williams escape from Wed-Noon. 133 Note 56, p. 78. Adams describes correctly the tenour of my Let- ter addressed to the survivors of the crew of the "Charles" at .Wed-Noon. His account, also of the behaviour of Williams, is confirmed by the testimo- ny of the man whom I employed to purchase Adams, who was a Moor, — and not, as Adams supposes, an European in disguise. He informed me, that he found that Adams's two companions had embraced the Mohammedan faith; but that the younger, in particular, interested him s» deeply by his tears, and by his earnest supplications that he would take him to Mogadore, that he could not himself refrain from tears ; and was half inclined to steal him away let the consequence be what it would. He also assur- ed me that he gave him some money at parting, and a few rags for clothing. Just previous to my quitting Mogadore in Octo- ber, 1814, these two men contrived to make their escape, as Mohammedans, from Wed-Noon, and reaching Mogadore in safety, they staid there only a few hours and then departed for Tangier. I learnt shortly afterwards that upon their arrival at the latter city, they claimed the protection of their respective Consuls there, (one of the men being an Englishman and the other an American) disclaim- ing the Mohammedan faith ; but it was not without much difficulty and negotiation, during which time the men were placed in confinement, that they were ultimately liberated and restored to the Chris- tian world. D. Note 56, p. 79. I was informed by the man who brought Adams to Mogadore, that he had passed through the coun- try called Bled-Cidi'Heshem* on his return ; having 1 34 Bled-Cidi-Heshem. gone for the purpose of purchasing another of the Charles's crew, {Martin Clark, a black man,) who was in slavery there, in which he could not then suc- ceed. The country is just on the southern confines of the Emperour's dominions. It is a small independ- ent state of Shilluh, and (as described by Adams) lies in lower Suse. The Chief here mentioned, the Cid Heshem, who has successfully resisted the endeavours of his neighbours to subvert his go- vernment, is the descenctant of Cidi Harriet a Mous- 5«, a reputed modern Saint, who during his life was highly venerated for his justice and piety, and whose tomb, since his death, has been resorted to by religious Mooselmin from many parts of South Barbary and the Desert. This chief has lately open- ed an extensive trade with Soudan, for gums, cot- tons, and ostrich feathers, ivory, gold dust, and slaves, which are sold by his agents at the great annual market of Harriet a Moussa, The traders from Southern Barbary resort to this market in great numbers ; and I have heard it asserted, that they can there purchase, for money, the produce of Soudan, to more advantage than they can them- selves import it, without taking into account the risks and fatigues of the journey ; insomuch, that but for the important object of disposing of their own commodities in barter, in the douars of the Desert and the markets of Soudan, I apprehend that very few of the native traders of Barbary would continue to cross the Desert. It appears by the account which Adams subse- quently gives of this market, that he must have been there; and the time of his journey corres- ponds with the season when it is held : but I think he must have committed an errour, in placing it more than a day's journey from the residence of the Cid m Confirmation of Adams's Statement. 1 35 Heshem ; as the sanctuary and market of Cidi Ha- met a Moussa are within the small territory of this Chief, who himself presides during the market days, to preserve order and tranquillity. The inhabitants of this district, as I have stated before, are Shilluh ; who are a distinct race from the Arabs, and ha\e different dress, customs, and lan- guage. They live in houses built of stone, which are generally situated on eminences and fortified, for security in their domestick wars. They are possessed of a fertile country, producing abundance of barley and some wheat. The fruits and vege- tables common in South Barbary are also grown here. Their sheep and goats are of the finest breed, and are frequently brought to Mogadore as presents: and their camels are much esteemed for their patience and great power of enduring fa- tigue.* D. Note 57, p. 81. I did frequently interrogate Adams, when at Moga- dore, respecting his travels in Africa ; and frequent- ly sent for persons ivho had been at the places he described, in order to confront their accounts with his, and especially to ascertain the probability of his having been at Timbuctoo. Amongst these indi- viduals was a Shieck of Wed-Noon, a man of great consideration in that country, who had been seve- ral times at Timbuctoo in company with trading parties; and who, after questioning Adams very closely respecting that city and its neighbourhood, assured me that he had no doubt that he had been there Another Moorish trader who was in the habit of frequenting Timbuctoo gave me the same ac- * For a more detailed description of the ShiUuh, see the Appendix, No. II. 1 36 Fez. — Tangier. — Reckonings. count. In short, it was their universal opinion that he must have been at the places he described, and that his account could not be a fabrication. D. Note 58, p. 82. I did, about the time stated by Adams, send him to Fez to the Emperour, under the protection of one sol- dier and a muleteer. D. Note 59, p. 82. Having visited Tangier myself a few months af- terwards, I there learnt from Mr. Simpson, that he had sent Adams to Cadiz a few days after his arrival. D. Note 60, p. 83. Upon a minute examination of Adams's Narrative, a considerable difference will be found to exist be- tween his collective estimates of the time he remain- ed in Africa, and the actual interval between the dates of his shipwreck and return; the aggregate of the former amounting to about four years and three months, whilst the real time doe* not appear to have exceeded three years and seven months. It is not dif- ficult to conceive, that the tedium of so long a period of slavery and wretchedness would easily betray Adams into an errour of this nature ; especially in a situation where he possessed no means of keeping a minute account of the lapse of time ; and it is reason- able to presume, that when he speaks of having re- sided six mouths at one place, eight at another, and ten at a third, he has, in each of these estimates, somewhat overrated the real duration of these te- dious and wretched portions of his existence. When this discrepancy in his statements was point- ed out to him, and he was led to reconsider in what part of his Narrative the errour lay, it did not ap- Reckonings of Time and Distance. 137 pear to change his persuasion of the accuracy of any- detached portion of his estimates. He did however express his peculiar conviction that he was at least accurate in the number of days occupied in his jour- neys from place to place. On this occasion, as on many others in the course of his numerous examina- tions, it was impossible not to derive from the indis- position which he evinced to conform to the opinion of others, upon points on which he had once given an opposite deliberate opinion of his own, a strong im- pression of his general veracity and sincerity. It was at Wed-Noon that the first opportunity oc- curred to him after his shipwreck, of correcting his reckoning of time ; his arrival at which place, (as he was informed by the French renegade whom he found there) having occurred about the middle of August, 1812, or about eight months earlier than his own computation would have made it. Assuming therefore the Frenchman's account to have been correct, and deducting Adams's excess of time in relative proportions from his stationary periods at Tombuctoo, Woled D'leim, and other places, the following will be the probable dates of the several stages of his travels : — 1810, October 1 1. — Shipwrecked at El Gazie. December 13. — Set out on the expedition to Soudenny. 1811, February 5. — Arrived at Tombuctoo. June 9. — Departed from Ditto.* August 11. — Arrived at Woled D'leim. 1812, March 7. — Departed from Ditto. June 20. — Departed from El Kabla. August 23. — Arrived at Wed-Noon. * He says they had a few drops af rain before his departure, which in some degree confirms the accuracy of this date ; since the tropical rains in the latitude of Tombuctoo, may be supposed to commence early in June. 18 138 Reckonings of Time and Distance. 1813, September 23. — Departed from Wed-Noon. October 6. — Arrived at Mogadore. 1814, April 22.— Departed from Ditto. May 17. — Arrived at Cadiz. To this statement with respect to time, we may add the following summary of the distances of his respective journeys, collected from the Narrative at his highest estimates. JOURNEYS. From El Gasie to the Douar in the Desert ■»■• - - - On the Journey to Soudenny Ditto Ditto - - - - To the Village where the Moors were put to death - To Tombuctoo Distance in British Miles from the Coast to Tombuctoo - To the point of departure from La Mar Zarah - - - - — Taudeny ------ — the border of the Sandy Desert ------- In the Sandy Desert - - - Ditto From the edge of the Sandy Desert to Woled D'leim - To El Kabla — Woled Abousseb&h - - - — Woled Adrialla - - - - — Aiata Mouessa Alt - - - — Wed-Noon - - - - - — Akkadia ------ — Bled Cidi Heshem - - - — Agadeer or Santa Cruz - — Suerra or Mogadore - < Distance in British Miles from Tombuctoo to Mogadore Days. 30 13 4 10 15 10 13 1 14 15 1 2 9 6 3 5 1 2 4 4 1 Course. 6. S. E. S. S. E. \ S E. E. by N. E. N. E. N. N. W. N. by W. N. E. N. N. W. N. W. N. N. E. N. by W. N. Rate in Miles 15 20 20 20 20 18 18 20 18 12 12 18 25 18 16 30 30 20 10 Distance 450 260 80 200 300 1290 180 234 20 252 180 12 30 162 150 54 80 30 60 90 80 10 1624 Reckonings of Time and Distance. 139 These distances, as well as the courses of his jour- neys, will be found accurately represented by the ruled line in the Map: and it is impossible to observe how nearly they approach to what may be presum- ed to be the truth, without being astonished at Adams's memory, and at the precision with which he estimated his course with no other compass than the rising and setting of a vertical sun. CONCLUDING REMARKS. We shall close our remarks on Adams's Narrative with a brief review, of the extent to which it has hitherto been confirmed, and of the credibility of those parts of it which still rest on his own unsupport- ed testimony. The first part of this examination may be disposed of in a very few words. The preceding notes will be found to contain an uninterrupted chain of evidence by which his course may be traced backwards from London, through Cadiz, Tangier, Mequinez, Fez, Mogadore, and Wed-Noon, to the Douar of El Kabla in the depths of the Desert His adventure with Aisha at El Ka- bla — the fame of which preceded him to Mogadore, and adhered to him during his residence at Wed- Noon — sufficiently establishes the identity of the in- dividual whom Mr. Dupuis received from the Desert. From Mogadore, he is delivered into the hands of the American Consul at Tangier, who, in his turn, transmits him to Cadiz, where he is traced into the service of Mr. Hall. The Cadiz gentleman who first discovered him in the streets of London, sup- plies the last link to this chain of identity ; and com- pletes the proof (strengthened by other circumstan- ces) that the gallant of Aisha at El Kabla, and the Tombuctoo traveller in London, whether known by the name of Adams, or Rose, is one and the same individual. Passing now to the earlier part of his adventures, we find the time and circumstances of his shipwreck, CONCLUDING REMARKS. 141 and his conveyance eastward into the Desert, con- firmed by three of the Charles's crew who were first ransomed ; whilst, on the other hand, the fact of the individual in question being actually one of the seamen of the Charles, is fully established by the testimony of Davison and Williams, his comrades at Wed-Noon, who may be said to have delivered him, as such, into the hands of Mr. Dupuis' agent, — and who confirmed the fact upon their subsequent arri- val at Mogadore.* Thus far Adams's story is supported and confirm- ed by direct external evidence. We have seen it accompany him far into the Desert; and there find him again, at a greater distance from the coast than any other Christian, we believe, has ever been trac- ed in these inhospitable regions. But between these two points of his advance and return, a wide inter- * It ought to be mentioned in this place, because it affords an ad- ditional proof of Adams's accuracy on such points as he ought to be well acquainted with, that ten of the eleven individuals composing the crew of the Charles at the time of her wreck, were either ransomed by Mr. Dupuis, or accounted for to him through other channels than Adams, by the same names, (his own excepted) which the latter has given in the first page of this Narrative. The following is Mr. Dupuis' memorandum on the subject : — Horton, Capt , died immediately after the wreck. Nicholas, seaman. Newsham, ditto, ) R ansomec | three months after the wreck. Nelson, ditto, $ Dolbie, mate, died at Wed-Noon in 1813. Rose, (alias Adams) ransomed ditto, Clark, black seaman, ditto, - 1814. Davison, seaman, l R ades at Wed-Noon, but liberated in 1814. W llhams, boy, $ ° Matthews, an old man, reported to have died in the Desert. Recapitulation, 7 liberated, 3 dead, 1 unaccounted for. 11 Total number stated by Adams : of whom Stephens alone, (whom he says he left at Woled D'leim,) was never heard of by Mr. Dupuis. 142 CONCLUDING REMARKS. val occurs, during which we entirely lose sight of him : and we must therefore be content to receive this part of his story on his own credit alone, illus- trated by such indirect corroborations as we may be enabled to glean from other sources. This unsupported part of Adams's story extends, it will be seen, from the Douar to which he was first conveyed from the coast, until his arrival at El Ka- bla ; occupying a period of fifteen or sixteen months, — a period which the Narrative fills up with the ex- pedition to Soudenny, — the journey to, and residence at, Tombuctoo, — and the return through Taudeny across the Desert to Woled D'leim and El Kabla. We do not deem in necessary to extend our examina- tion to the whole of these journeys, because if we shall be fortunate enough to satisfy the reader that Adams is entitled to credit as far as Tombuctoo, we conceive that no doubt can be raised respecting his journey from thence to El Kabla. We have already entered so fully into the question of the probability of the expedition to Soudenny, in Note 7, p. 89, that the reader would hardly excuse us for repeating in this place the arguments which were there adduced in support of it. We shall therefore confine our remarks to the journey from thence to Tombuctoo. But before we enter upon this examination, we are anxious to caution our readers against suspecting us of setting up any pretensions to minute accuracy, either in the situation which we have assigned to Soudenny in the Note in question, or in any positions of places in the map adjusted from data necessarily so vague as those afforded by Adams : neither must it be forgotten on the other hand, that the precise situations of the places which we have used as the standards of his accuracy, are rather assumed than proved. There may be errours in both cases : and CONCLUDING REMARKS. 143 in the latter, it is at least as probable that such errours may contribute to increase the apparent inaccuracy of Adams's positions, as that they lend to those posi- tions any undue degree of probability. Without, therefore, pretending to determine whether the Ne- gro dominion does actually reach to the 16th degree of north latitude under the assumed meridian of Sou- denny, (that the Negro population extends so far we presume no one will doubt) or whether Adams's real course lay further to the south than his Narrative warrants us in placing it, we must at least contend that the approximation of Adams's evidence on this part of his journey, to the best standards by which it can be tried, is astonishingly near ; — so near, indeed, that if we had not been assured, upon the undoubted authority of Mr. Dupuis, that the first account of his courses and distances which he gave them fresh from the Desert, afforded, with respect to Tombuctoo, the same results as those which we are now remarking, we should have been rather tempted to suspect that this degree of coincidence was the result of contrivance, than to have derived from the degree of his discord- ance with other authorities any doubts of the reality of his journeys. Those who are most conversant with questions of this nature will best appreciate the extreme difficulty w 7 hich an unscientifick individual must find in even approaching to the truth in his computations of the direction and extent of a long succession of journeys : even the evidence of so prac- tised an observer as Park was not sufficiently precise, to secure the eminent compiler of the Map of hiv first Journey from very considerable inaccuracies. which Park on his second mission, by the aid of his instruments of observation, was enabled to correct. On the whole, since the circumstances stated by Mr. Dupuis entirely preclude all suspicion of con- 144 CONCLUDING REMARKS. trivance in Adams's account of his route in Africa* (a contrivance which he was too ignorant to invent himself and in which, when he arrived from the Desert, he had had no opportunity of being instruct- ed by others) we do not conceive how it is possible to resist the circumstantial corroboration of his story which the application of his route to the Map affords ; unless, indeed, by resorting to the preposterous supposition that so uniform an approach to the truth, throughout a journey of nearly three thousand miles, could be purely accidental. But to return to the particular question before us. In addition to the grounds already adduced for placing Soudenny within the Bambarran territories, Adams may fairly claim the advantage of another circumstance mentioned by Park; we mean the fluc- tuating state of the line of boundary itself Considera- ble changes in that respect had occurred within a few months of the period when Park crossed the frontier in question : — -the seeds of further changes were perceptible, both in the restless and marauding disposition of the Moors, and in the preponderating strength of the King of Bambarra : and it would by no means follow (if the question were really of im- portance to Adams's story) that the northern fron- tiers of the state must, in 181 1, be the same as they were supposed to be in 1796.* Placing Soudenny, therefore, wi f hin the frontiers of Bambarra, in the sixteenth or possibly the fif- teenth degree of north latitude, and about the fifth or sixth of west longitude, we shall find Adams's * In one direction at least, (to the west) the King of Bambarra's frontiers appear to have been much extended in 1810; for, according to isaaco's Journal, 4to. p. 11)4, they cannot be placed more than three or four short days' journey from Giocha [Joko) ; although according to Park's first map, the distance from Joko to the nearest frontiers of Bambarra is at least ten days' journey. There had been a war in 1801, in these parts ; being the second war in six years. CONCLUDING REMARKS. 145 account of his course and distance from thence to Tombuctoo, approach with extraordinary accuracy to the line of journey required. We possess too lit- tle knowledge of the countries through which this route would lie, to pronounce with any confidence upon the probability of the circumstances of his jour- ney. What we can at present know upon the sub- ject must be learnt from Park ; — who informs us, that to the eastward of Bambarra, between that kingdom and Tombuctoo, lies the Foulah kingdom of Masina. It is not known to what latitude the north frontiers of the latter kingdom extend ; but we are told that it is bounded on that side by the Moorish kingdom of Beeroo ; and there is great reason to suppose, with Major Rennell,* that the Moorish population which to the westward touches the Senegal, does from that point incline in an oblique line to the northward of east, as it advances from the west along the limits of Soudan. Admitting this retrocession of the Moors towards the Desert, the Negroes of Soudenny would find a secure route, through Negro countries, along the extreme frontierst of Bambarra and Masina to the borders of Tombuctoo, generally in the direction described by Adams. Why the Negroes, if they were actually Bambar- rans, should convey their prisoners to Tombuctoo rather than to Sego, may not perhaps be quite so apparent as some of Adams's readers may require : but it would be pushing the caution of incredulity to an unreasonable extreme to disbelieve the asserted * See Park's First Mission, Appendix, 4to. p. Ixxxix. f Adams states his rout to have lain through barren and uninhabit- ed districts ; and Park, speaking of Soudan generally, says, first Mission, 4to. p. 261, "the borders of the different kingdoms were either very thinly peopled, or entirely deserted." See also his Account of the country, east of Benown, near the frontiers of Bambarra, p. 116, — •« a sandy country" — p. 121, » a hot sandy country covered with small stunted shrubs." 19 146 CONCLUDING REMARKS. fact on that account alone. Desirous as we may be f supposed to be, to obviate the doubts of the most skeptical, we can hardly venture to suggest any mo- tives for this journey which are not supplied by the Narrative itself, or by some collateral testimony. Yet, we will hazard this brief remark, that if it were the object of the Negroes to place their prisoners in a situation where they would be at once secure from rescue, yet accessible to the interference of their fel- lows for the purpose of ransom, (for it must be re- membered that the imprisoned Arabs did not belong to a neighbouring state, but were a troop of maraud- ers from a distant tribe of the Desert) we can hard- ly conceive a more probable course than that of con- veying them to Tombuctoo. We are aware that it may be objected to these re- marks that they take for granted, that Tombuctoo is a Negro state, and at least in amity with, if not a dependency of, the King of Bambarra ; and we shall probably be told that Tombuctoo is under the do- minion of the Moors, and that Adams's account of it must consequently be untrue. In reply to such an objection we would by no means deny that Adams's entire liberation of Tombuc- too from the tyranny of the Moors or Arabs, does present a difficulty, — especially with reference to Park's information on the same subject. But let us fairly examine how the question stands with respect to Adams's testimony on the one hand, and the evi- dence to which it is opposed on the other. In Adams we find an individual relating travels and adventures, which are indeed singular and ex- traordinary, but are told with the utmost simplicity and bear strong internal marks of truth. Placed in a wide and untravelled region, where a mere narra- tor of fables might easily persuade himself that no one would trace or detect him, we find Adams re- CONCLUDING REMARKS. 147 sis ting the temptation (no slight one for an ignorant sailor) of exciting the wonder of the credulous, or the sympathy of the compassionate, by filling his story with miraculous adventures, or overcharg- ed pictures of suffering. In speaking of himself he assumes no undue degree of importance. He is rather subordinate to the circumstances of the story, than himself the prominent feature of it; and almost every part of his Narrative is strictly in nature, and unpretending. Unexpectedly to this individual, and in his ab- sence, an opportunity occurs of putting his veracity and his memory to the test, on many of the impor- tant points of his story : and the result of the ex- periment is, that all the facts, to which the test will reach, are, in substance, confirmed, — that none are disproved. Again, we are enabled by the same op- portunity to try his consistency with himself at .dif- ferent periods : and we find him, after an interval of more than two years, adhering in every material point to the story which he told on arriving from the Desert. But a difficulty arises in the course of his Narra- tive : he states a fact which his hearers did not ex- pect, and respecting which they had previously re- ceived evidence of a contrary tendency. Neverthe- less this unexpected fact contains nothing marvellous id itself, nothing even extraordinary ; nothing which can be conceived to afford the slightest temptation to such an individual to invent it : but it occurs simply, and in some measure even indirectly, in the chain of his evidence. If this is admitted to be a fair statement of the cir- cumstances under which Adams informs us that Tombuctoo is a Negro state : and if there is nothing suspicious in the internal character of this part of his evidence, we are not at liberty lightly to disbelieve 148 CONCLUDING REMARKS. it, because we think it improbable, "or because it happens to want those collateral proofs by which other parts of his story have accidentally been con- firmed : but, a manifest preponderance of unexcep- tionable evidence to the contrary can alone justify us in rejecting it. For this evidence we must again have recourse to Park's first Travels (for the Journal of his Second Mission contains only one incidental notice on the subject) and we shall therein find a general descrip- tion of Tombuctoo as a Moorish state, which he pre- faces in these words (p. 213.) " Having thus brought my mind, after much doubt " and perplexity, to a determination to return west- " ward, I thought it incumbent on me, before I left " Silla^ to collect from the Moorish and Negro tra- " ders, all the information I could, concerning the " further course of the Niger eastward, and the situ- ation and extent of the kingdoms in its vicinage;" — and the following account of Tombuctoo is part of the information which he says he thus collected at Silla (p. 215.) " To the northeast of Masina is situated the king- " dom of Tombuctoo, the great object of European " research ; the capital of this kingdom being one " of the principal marts for that extensive commerce " which the Moors carry on with the Negroes. "The hopes of acquiring wealth in this pursuit, and " zeal for propagating their religion, have filled this " extensive city with Moors and Mahomedan con- " verts ; and they are said to be more severe and " intolerant in their principles than any other of the " Moorish tribes in this part of Africa. I was in- " formed by a venerable old Negro, that when he " first visited Tombuctoo, he took up his lodging at a " sort of publick inn, the landlord of which, when he ss conducted him into his hut, spread a mat upon the CONCLUDING REMARKS. 119 " floor, and laid a rope upon it, saying, ; if you are a " 'Mussulman you are my friend, — sit down; but if " ' you are a Kafir you are my slave ; and with this u « rope I will lead you to market.' The present "King of Tombuctoo is named Abu Abrahima ; he " is reported to possess immense riches. His wives "and concubines are said to be clothed in silk, and " the chief officers of state live in considerable splen- " dour. The whole expense of his government is " defrayed, as I was told, by a tax upon merchan- " dise, which is collected at the gates of the city." To this account Major Rennell adds (doubtless on the verbal authority of Park,) that the greatest proportion of the inhabitants were, nevertheless, Ne- groes. (Appendix, p. xc.) We are now to examine under what circumstances the information contained in this description was procured. Of his arrival and residence at Silla, Park gives us very minute details. His journey thither from Sego had been hurried, and his situa- tion extremely distressing during its whole course : until, on the 29th July, at four o'clock in the after- noon, he arrived at Moorzan, a fishing town on the northern bank of the Niger, " from whence," he says, " I was conveyed across the river to Silla, a large " town, where I remained until it was quite dark " under a tree surrounded by hundreds of people. " Their language was very different from [that of] " the other parts of Bambarra. With a great deal " of entreaty the Dooty allowed me to come into his " balloon to avoid the rain ; but the place was very " damp, and I had a smart paroxysm of fever during " the night. Worn down by sickness and exhausted " with hunger and fatigue, I was convinced, by pain- " ful experience, that the obstacles to my further H progress were insurmountable." Happily for him- self, and for that science whose limits his return was 150 CONCLUDING REMARKS. so widely to extend, — this determination was no sooner adopted than executed ; and at eight o'clock the next morning he stepped into a canoe, and com- menced his painful return to the westward ; having only spent at Siila one wretched night in sickness and despondency. It is impossible for any of our readers to view the unquenchable zeal and intrepidity of Park with higher admiration than we do ; and merely to express our belief that before he thus resolved to return he " had made," as he states, " every effort to proceed " which prudence could justify," would be to render, in our opinion, very imperfect justice to his unparal- leled ardour of enterprise and enduring preseverance. Joining to these higher qualifications, admirable pru- dence in his intercourse with the natives, and a tem- per not to be ruffled by the most trying provocations, he exhibited on his first journey an union of qualities often thought incompatible ; an union which in our days we fear we cannot expect to see again, direct- ed to the same pursuits. We will further add, that to our feelings scarcely an individual of the age can be named, who has sunk under circumstances of deeper interest than this lamented traveller: wheth- er we consider the loss which geographical science has suffered in his death, or whether we confine our views to the blasted hopes of the individual, snatch- ed away from his hard-earned, but unfinished, triumph ; and leaving to others that splendid con- summation which he so ardently sought to achieve. True it is, that the future discoverer of the termina- tion of the Niger must erect the structure of his fame on the wide foundation with which his great predecessor has already occupied the ground : but though the edifice will owe its very existence to the labours of Park, yet another name than his will be recorded on the finished pile : CONCLUDING REMARKS. 151 *;* Hos ego — feci, tulit alter honores." Feeling, as we do, this unaffected interest in the fate and fame of Park, it is hardly necessary to pre- face our further remarks with the declaration, that there is not a tittle of the evidence given upon the authority of his own observation, which we should not feel it a species of sacrilege to dispute. But the case is different with respect to those details which he gives on hearsay evidence only, — which we may fairly, and which we ought, to try by the circumstances by which Park himself enables us to estimate their pretensions to accuracy. Availing ourselves of this undeniable, and as we hope, not invidious, privilege, we shall find that a situation can hardly be imagined less favourable to the acquisition of authentick information, than that which Park describes during the single melancholy night which he passed at Silla. He had before told us (p. 181,) that he was not well acquainted with the Foulah language spoken in Bambarra ; and he in- forms us that he found the language of Silla " very " different" even from that of the more western parts of the kingdom : but the extent of his diffi- culty in that respect may be gathered from what he relates of his arrival even at Sansanding, where he found the people " speaking a variety of different • ; dialects, all equally unintelligible" to him, and where he was obliged to have recourse to the in- terpretation of his Sego guide ; who, however, did not accompany him in his further progress to Silla. Obtaining therefore, his information from Negroes at more than two hundred miles distance from Tom- buctoo, and probably through the medium of Ne- gro interpreters, we cannot be surprised either that it should not be accurate in itself, or that, such as it was, it should not be very accurately understood. 152 CONCLUDING REMARKS. We believe there is no person, who can speak from his own experience on the subject, who will not bear testimony to the extreme uncertainty, not to say general inaccuracy, of the information to be ob- tained from the natives of Africa, whether Moham- medans or Pagans. Jealousy and suspicion of the objects of such inquiries on the one hand, and un- observing ignorance on the other, render both Ne- gro and Moor alike unwilling, or unable, to disclose the secrets of the interiour to any European. The whole of Park's communications leave not the small- est doubt respecting the temper of the trading Moors towards him. He also remarks, page 214, how little information is to be expected from a Ne- gro trader of the countries through which he pass- es in search of gain, — of which he affords us the following striking instance in the commencement of his Journey. " I was referred," he says, p. 8, " to " certain traders called Slatees. These were free " black merchants of great consideration in those " parts of Africa, who come down from the interi- " our countries. But I soon discovered that very " little dependence could be placed on the accounts u which they gave : for they contradicted each other in "the most important particulars." To what degree the natives of Silla would have contradicted each other in their accounts of Tombuctoo, Park's short stay there could not have allowed him time to ascer- tain ; even if his knowledge of their language had enabled him to understand their accounts as well as he did those of the Slatees on the Gambia. This appears to be the state of the evidence which places the government of Tombuctoo in the hands of the Moors : and it really does appear to us, that it is at least neutralized by other evi- dence which may fairly be opposed to it ; we mean, the uniform testimony of the natives of Barbary, who have traded to Tombuctoo. The reader will CONCLUDING REMARKS. 153 not have forgotten that all the accounts which Mr. Dupuis collected from such individuals, some of them men of high authority and credit amongst their countrymen, spoke of Tombuctoo as being now in all respects a Negro state. The hearsay evidence of Mr. Jackson goes decidedly to the same point ; and although that gentleman may have given an in- judicious importance to such testimony in his book, it ought not on that account alone to be entirely dis- regarded. The fact then being undeniable, that the most creditable of the Barbary traders who cross the Desert do not assign the dominion of Tombuc- too to the Moors ; and their testimony being ap- parently free from suspicion, because, in opposition to that which would most gratify their vanity, we can- not but think that it is at least as likely to be accu- rate as the reports of the Negroes whom Park con- sulted at Silla ; taking, as we ought, into account, the disadvantages both of language and situation under which he consulted them, and not forgettingthe reserve with which he himself teaches us to receive their testimony . # Having, as we trust, said sufficient to satisfy the reader, that there is nothing in the character of Adams's general evidence which can warrant the arbitrary rejection of his authority on points which are merely improbable; and having shewn that the evi- dencof otherson the particular pointatissue, is at least * Several instances of the contradictory testimony of the Negroes occur in Park's Travels. Jinnie, for instance, is stated in his first Mission to be situated on the Niger; but on his second Journey he renounces that opinion on the apparently good authority of an old So- monie (canoe-man) " who had been seven times at Tombuctoo." This informant places it on the Ba Nimma in the sketch which is copied into Park's Journal ; and the latter accordingly says, p. 166, " we *' shall not see Jinnie in going to Tombuctoo.'* But Amadi Fatouma confirms the first account which Park received, and says, in describing their voyage down the Niger from Silla, " we went in two days to Jinnie.'* 20 154 CONCLUDING REMARKS. of doubtful preponderance, we will just say one word on the probability that the story of the " old Negro," at Silla, may be strictly true, with reference to the early period of which he may be supposed to speak, and yet that Adams's account may be equally true, of a very different state of things now. It is well known that the vernacular histories, both traditionary and written, of the wars of the Moorish empire, agree in stating, that from the mid- dle of the seventeenth century, Tombuctoo was occupied by the troops of the Ernperours of Mo- rocco; in whose name a considerable annual tribute was levied upon the inhabitants: but that the Ne- groes, in the early part of the last century, taking advantage of one of those periods of civil dissen- sion and bloodshed which generally follow the de- mise of any of the Rulers of Barbary, did at length shake off the yoke of their northern masters, — to which the latter were never afterwards able again to reduce them. Nevertheless, although the Ernpe- rours of Morocco (whose power even to the north of the Desert has been long on the decline) might be unable, at the immense distance which separates them from Soudan, to resume an authority which had once escaped from their hands; it is reasonable to suppose, that the nearer tribes of Arabs would not neglect the opportunity thus afforded to them, of returning to their old habits of spoliation, and of exercising their arrogated superiority over their Negro neighbours ; # and that this frontier state would thus become the theatre of continual contests terminating alternately in the temporary occupation, * Mr. Jackson was informed, (See his " Account of Morocco," 4to, p. 250) that previous to the Moorish occupation of Timbuctoo (no- ticed in the text) the inhabitants had been subject to continual depre- dations from the Arabs of the adjacent countries. CONCLUDING REMARKS. 155 of Tombuctoo by the Arabs, and in their reexpul- sion by the Negroes.* We have seen this state of things existing in Lu- damar to the west of Tombuctoo, where a Negro population is subjected to the tyranny of the Arab chieftain Mi; between whom and his southern neigh- bours of Bambarra and Kaarta we find a continual struggle of aggression and self-defence : and the well known character of the Arabs would lead us to expect a similar state of things along the whole frontier of the Negro population. In the pauses of such a warfare we should expect to find no inter- mission of the animosity or precautions of the an- tagonist parties. The Arab, victorious, would be ferocious and intolerant even beyond his usual vio- lence ; and the Koran or the halter, as described by the old Negro of Silla, would probably be the al- ternatives which he would offer to his Negro guest : whilst the milder nature of the Negro would be content with such measures of precaution and self- defence as might appear sufficient to secure him from the return of the enemy whom he had expel- led, — without excluding the peaceful trader; and under the reestablished power of the latter, we might expect to find at Tombuctoo, precisely the same state of things as Adams describes to have ex- isted in 181 l.t * To elucidate the state of things which we have here supposed, we need not go further than to the history of Europe in our own days. How often, during the successful ravages of the great Arab chieftain of Christendom, might we not have drawn from the experience of Madrid, or Berlin, or Vienna, or Moscow, the aptest illustration of these conjectures respecting Tombuctoo? And an African traveller (if so improbable a personage may be imagined) who should have vis- ited Europe in these conjunctures, might very naturally have reported to his countrymen at home, that Russia, Germany, and Spain were but provinces of France ; and that the common sovereign of all these coun- tries resided sometimes in the Escurial and sometimes in the Kremlin ! f In the second volume of the Proceedings of the African Associa- tion, it is stated on the authority of VHagi Mohammed Sheriffe, that 156 CONCLUDING REMARKS. The reserve with which we have seen grounds for receiving the testimony of the natives of Africa, may reasonably accompany us in our further comparative examination of their accounts, and those of Adams, respecting the population and external appearance of the city of Tombuctoo. Notwithstanding, therefore, the alleged splendour of its court, polish of its in- habitants, and other symptoms of refinement which some modern accounts (or speculations,) founded on native reports, have taught us to look for, we are disposed to receive the humbler descriptions of Adams as approaching with much greater probabiln ty to the truth. Let us not, however be understood, as rating too highly the value of a Sailor's reports. They must of necessity be defective in a variety of ways. Many of the subjects upon which Adams was questioned are evidently beyond the competency of such an individual fully to comprehend or satisfactorily to describe ; and we must be content to reserve our final estimates of the morals, religion, civil polity, and learning (if they now have any) of the Negroes of Tombuctoo, until we obtain more conclusive in- formation than we can possibly derive from our pre- sent informant. Sufficient, however, may be gather- ed from his story, to prepare us for a disappoint- ment of many of the extravagant expectations which have been indulged respecting this boasted city. And here, we may remark, that the relative rank of Tombuctoo amongst the cities of central Africa, and its present importance with reference to Euro- pean objects, appear to us to be considerably overrate ed. The descriptions of Leo in the sixteenth century, the King of Bambarra, at the head of a numerous array actually did take the government of Tombuctoo out of the hands of " the Moors,'* in the year 1800. There is, however, a disagreement between this Sheriflfe and Park, respecting the name of the said King of Bambarra, whom the former calls Woollo. See Note 8, p. 90, respecting Woolla and Mansonjr. CONCLUDING REMARKS. 157 may indeed lend a colour to the brilliant anticipa- tions in which some sanguine minds have indulged on the same subjects in the nineteenth ; but with re- ference to the commercial pursuits of Europeans, it seems to have been forgotten, that the very circum- stance which has been the foundation of the impor- tance of Tombuctoo to the traders of Bai bary, and, consequently, of much of its fame amongst us, — its frontier situation on the verge of the Desert, at the extreme northern limits of the Negro population, — will of necessity have a contrary operation now; since a shorter and securer channel for European en- terprise into the central regions of Africa, has been opened by the intrepidity and perseverance of Park, from the southwestern shores of the Atlantick. Independently of this consideration, there is great reason to believe, that Tombuctoo has in reality de- clined of late, from the wealth and consequence which it appears formerly to have enjoyed. The ex- istence of such a state of things as we have described in the preceding pages, the oppressions of the Moors, the resistance of the Negroes, the frequent change of masters, and the insecurity of property consequent upon these intestine struggles, would all lead di- rectly and inevitably to this result. That they have led to it, may be collected from other sources than Adams. Even Park, to whom so brilliant a descrip- tion of the city was given by some of his informants, was told by others, that it was surpassed in opu- lence and size, by Haoussa Walet, and probably by Jinnie. Several instances also occur in both his Mis- sions, which prove that a considerable trade from Barbary is carried on direct from the Desert, to Sego and the neighbouring countries, without ever touch- ing at Tombuctoo ; and this most powerful of (he states of Africa in the sixteenth century, according to Leo, is now, in the nineteenth, to all appearance. 15$ CONCLUDING REMARKS. a mere tributary dependency of a kingdom, which does not appear to have been known to Leo, even by name. Such a decline of the power and commercial im- portance of Tombuctoo, would naturally be accom- panied by a corresponding decay of the city itself; and we cannot suppose that Adams's description of its external appearance will be rejected on account of its improbability, by those who recollect that Leo describes the habitations of the natives in his time, almost in the very words of the Narrative now ; # * One of the numerous discordances between the different transla- tions of Leo occurs in the passage here alluded to. The meaning of the Italian version is simply this, — that *» the dwellings of the people *' of Tombuctoo are cabins or huts constructed with stakes covered " with chalk (or clay) and thatched with straw." — " le cui case sono "capanne fatte di pali coperte di creta coi cortivi di paglia." But the expression in the Latin translation, (which is closely followed by the old English translator, Pory,) implies a state of previous splendour and decay, — "cujus doraus omnes in tuguriola cretacea, stramineis "tectis, sunt mutatce." As we shall have occasion hereafter to point out another disagree- ment between the different versions of Leo, it may be expedient to in- form some of our readers, that the Italian translation here quoted, is described to have been made by Leo himself, from the original Arabick in which he composed his work ; and he appears, by the following extract from the Preface of his Italian Editor, to have learnt that language, late in life, for this especial purpose. See the first volume of Ramusio's Raccolto delle Navigatione e Viaggi. Venetia, 1588. " Cosi habito poi in Roma il rimanente della vita sua, dove imparl " la lingua Italiana e leggere e scrivere, e tradusse questo suo libro *' meglio eh' egli seppe di Arabo : il qual libro scritto da lui medesimo, M dopo rnolti accidente pervenne nelle nostre mani ; e noi con quella " maggior diligenza che habbiamo potuto, ci siamo ingegnati con ogni 44 fedelta di farlo venir in luce nel modo cbe hora si legge." — " Thus '* he dwelt in Rome the remainder of his life, where he learnt to read " and write the Italian language, and translated his Book from the 44 Arabick in the best manner that he was able," &c. &c. Suppos- ing the Latin version to be a translation direct from the Arabick, that circumstance, and the preceding explanation, may afford a clue to the discordances to which we have alluded ; but a reference to the Arabick original (which we believe is not to be found in any of our publick libraries) could alone enable us to ascertain, whether the fault lay solely in the Latin translator's ignorance of Arabick, or in Leo's probable imperfect acquaintance with the Italian. We will only add, that in the passages which we have compared, the Italian and French, and the Latin and English translations, respectively agree with each other. CONCLUDING REMARKS. 159 and that the flourishing cities of Sego and Sansand- ing appear, from Park's accounts, to be built of mud, precisely in the same manner as Adams describes the houses of Tombuctoo. But whatever may be the degree of Adams's coin- cidence with other authorities, in his descriptions of the population and local circumstances of Tombuc- too, there is at least one asserted fact in this part of his Narrative, which appears to be peculiarly his own ; the existence, we mean, of a considerable navi- gable river close to the city. To the truth of this fact Adams's credit is completely pledged. On many other subjects, it is possible that his Narrative might be considerably at variance with the truth, by a mere defect of memory or observation, and without justifying any imputations on his veracity; but it is evident that no such latitude can be allowed to him on the present occasion ; and that his statement respect- ing the La Mar Zarah, if not in substance true, must be knowingly and wilfully false. Those of our readers who have attended to the progress of African discovery, will recollect that Tombuctoo, although it is placed, by the concurring testimony of several authorities, in the immediate vi- cinity of the Niger, is nevertheless represented to lie at a certain distance from the river, not greater than a day's journey according to the highest state- ment, nor less according to the lowest, than twelve miles. To these statements, which may be presum- ed to approach very nearly to the truth, may be ad- ded, on pretty much the same authorities, that the town of Kabra on the Niger is the shipping port of Tombuctoo, lying at the aforesaid distance of twelve miles, or of a day's journey, from the city. And neither Park, nor any other written authority (in- cluding the English translation of Leo, of which we shall say more hereafter) make any express mention 160 CONCLUDING REMARKS, of a communication by water with the city of Tom- buctoo itself. Adams, however, as has been already observed, cannot have been mistaken in so important a tact as that which he has here stated. He never discover- ed the least hesitation in his repeated assertions of the proximity of the river to the town, or of his subse- quent journey, for ten days, along its banks ; and we cannot entertain the smallest doubt that the river exists precisely as he has described it. We shall presently shew to what extent the probability of this fact is countenanced by other considerations: and in the mean time, the two following alternatives present themselves, respecting the probable course of the river beyond the southwestern point to which Adams's observation of it extended ; — either, that it turns immediately, at a considerable angle, to the southward, and falls into the Niger in the neigh- bourhood of Kabra ; — or, that continuing its south- westerly course from Tombuctoo, it empties itself into the lake Dibble^ possibly at the northern inlet which Park's informants described to him as one of the two channels* by which that lake discharges the waters of the Joliba. Neither of these suppo- sitions are inconsistent with the existence, or the importance to Tombuctoo, of the port of Kabra : for if, on the one hand, the communication of Adams's river with the Niger lies through the lake Dibbie, it will be seen by a glance at the Map, what a circuitous water conveyance would be cut off by * The fact of a large lake like the Dibbie discharging its waters by two streams flowing from the distant parts of the lake, and re-uniting after a separate course of a hundred miles in length, has always ap- peared to us extremely apocryphal : at least we believe, that the geo- graphy of the world does not afford a parallel case. The separation of rivers into various branches, in alluvial tracts on the sea coast, is a well known geological fact; but the case is essentially different with reference to a lake at so great a distance inland. CONCLUDING REMARKS. 161 transporting from Tombuctoo across to Kabra, and shipping there such merchandise as should be des- tined for the eastward ; and even if Kabra should be situated at the confluence of the La Mar Zara and the Niger, its importance as the rendezvous, or point of contact with Tombuctoo, for all the ca- noes coming either up or down the stream, — from the west or from the east, — needs no explanation. We will now endeavour to show what degree of countenance or corroboration other authorities afford to the general fact, that there is a water communica- tion between the Niger, at some point of its course, and the city of Tombuctoo. In the first place, notwithstanding the distinct no- tice of Kabra, both by Leo and Park, as the great resort of the trade of the Niger, and as the port of Tombuctoo, both these writers, especially Park in his last journey, speak indirectly on several occa- sions of sailing to and from Tombuctoo, in such a manner as fairly to imply that they or their infor- mants meant, not the distant port of Kabra, but the city of Tombuctoo itself. The Barbary tra- ders, also, whose reports are quoted by Mr. Dupuis, mention a river (which they, however, consider to be the Niger) as running close past the city; and we are inclined to pay the greater attention to these re- ports, because we have always considered it ex- tremely improbable, that the greatest trading de- pot in the interiour of Africa (and such undoubtedly has been the city of Tombuctoo) lying so near to all the advantages of an extensive water communica- tion like the Niger, should yet have no point of im- mediate contact with the river itself, or with any of its tributary branches. But there is, in the second place, strong reason to believe that Leo Africanus, the only writer who professes to describe Tombuctoo from personal ob- 2i 162 CONCLUDING REMARKS. servation, will really be found to have noticed sucn a river as Adams has made us acquainted with. A comparison of the original Arabick in which Leo wrote, with the translations, could alone enable us to speak with perfect confidence on this subject; but we trust that we shall be able, by a brief examina- tion of the latter, to show that our opinion is not a gratuitous speculation. There are two passages in which Leo speaks of the relative situations of Tombuctoo and the Niger ; the one in his chapter on Tombuctoo, and the other in that on Kabra ; and our opinion of his meaning, on a joint consideration of both these passages, and of the ambiguity or contradiction of his translators, is this ; that Tombuctoo is situated upon a branch or arm of the JYiger twelve miles distant from the princi- pal stream. We are aware that this construction is not warranted by the English translation,* which (following the Latin) states, that " it is situate within "twelve miles of a certain branch of Niger;'' but there is a peculiarity in the expression of the Latin translation, an ambiguity in that of the Italian ver- sion, and an inconsistency in both, between the passage in question and the context, which are open to much observation. The Italian translation (subject, always, to the explanation given in the Pre- facef ) must be considered as the best authority ; its words are these : " vicina a un ramo del Niger " circa a dodici miglia ;" the ambiguity of which has been faithfully preserved by the French trans- lator, who with a total disregard of idiom, and appa- rently little solicitude about meaning, thus copies it, * " A Geographical Historie of Africa," written in Arabicke and " Italian by John Leo, a More. Translated and collected by John IV «' ry, lately of Gonville and Caius College." London, 1600. f See Note, pp. 182-3. CONCLUDING REMARKS. 163 word for word : # " prochain d'un bras du Niger en- " viron douze mile." The Latin Editor, however, takes more pains to explain his conception of the passage, which he conveys in the following words : " in duodecimo miliario a qiwdam fluviolo situm fuit " quod e Nigro flumine effluebat." Conjointly with this passage, thus translated, we must take into our consideration the other passage in the chapter on Kabra, to which we before allud- ed ; wherein Leo states (without any variation be- tween his translators) that Tombuctoo is distant twelve miles from the Niger. Now, supposing, on the one hand, that the literal meaning of the translations of the former passage implies, that Tombuctoo is situated twelve miles from a smaller river communicating with the Niger ; and being certain, on the other, that the latter passage really means that Tombuctoo lies ex- actly the same distance from the Niger itself; ad- mitting, we say, that there may be two distinct streams, each precisely twelve miles distant from the city ; is it probable that Leo, wishing to desig- nate to his readers, in the former passage, the ex- act position of Tombuctoo, by its distance from some given point, should select for that purpose, not the far famed Niger itself, but an equally re- mote, a smaller, and a nameless stream ? Surely not. There can hardly be a doubt, that it is to the Niger, and to the same point of the Niger, that he refers in both passages; that the translators, by a very trifling mistake in the Arabick idiom, or by a want of precision in their own, have given a different colour to his meaning; and that the smaller stream, the " ramo del Niger," and the " fluviolum," is really the La Mar Zarah seen by Adams. * Lyons Ed. folio, 1556. 164 CONCLUDING REMARKS. We have been led into a more detailed examina- tion of this part of the Narrative than we had at first anticipated ; but the question is of considerable in- terest, not merely with reference to the verification of Adams's story, but as containing in itself a probable solution of the mistakes and doubts by which the real course of the Niger (from west to east) was for so many ages obscured. If the La Mar Zarah really communicates with the Niger, either at Kabra, or through the Lake Dibbie, by a southwesterly course from Tombuctoo, w r e have at once a probable explanation of the origin of Leo's mistake, (so ably exposed and corrected by Major Rennell) in plac- ing Ginea (Gana) to the westward of Tombuctoo. That Leo was never on the Niger itself is sufficient- ly evident, for he states it to flow from east to west ; but knowing that the traders who embarked at Tom- buctoo for Ginea # proceeded, in the beginning of their course, to the west or southwest with the stream, (wjiich would be the case on Adams's river) he was probably thus misled into a belief that the whole of the course, as well as the general sfer earn of the Niger, lay in that direction. We shall here close these imperfect remarks ; in which we have endeavoured to bring before the reader such illustrations as are to be collected from collateral sources, of the most original, or most ob- jectionable, of those points of Adams's stofy v which are * Leo says, that the merchants of Tombuctoo sailed to. Ginea dur- ing the inundations of the Niger in the months of July, August, and Sep- tember; which seems to, imply, that at other seasons there was not a continuous passage by water. He also says In another place, that when the Niger rises, the waters flow through certain canals to the ci,ty (Tom- buctoo). As these passages when considered together, seeni to infer that the navigation of the river of Tombuctoo (the La Mar Zqrah) is bstructed by shallows during the dry season, they afford grounds for g that Adams, when he saw that river (which was in the dry y. have had good reasons for doubting which way the strain tOXCLUDING REMARKS. 16a unsupported by direct external evidence. We might have greatly multiplied our examples of the indirect coincidences between Adams's statements, and other authorities, respecting the habits, customs, and cir- cumstances of the inhabitants of central Africa; which would have added to the other incontestable evidences of the genuineness and accuracy of his relations. But the detail will have been already anticipated by most of Adams's readers, and would, we hope, be super- fluous to all. We shall therefore conclude, by no- ticing only two important circumstances, respective- ly propitious and adverse to the progress of disco- very and civilization, which the present Narrative de- cidedly confirms; viz. the mild and tractable natures of the Pagan JVegroes of Soudan, and their friendly de- portment towards strangers, on the one hand, — and, on the other, the extended and baneful range of that great original feature of African society — Slavery. APPENDIX. No. I At a time when the civilization and improvement of Africa, and the extension of our intercourse with the natives of that long neglected country, seem to be among the leading objects of the British government and nation, — and when, with these views, great ex- ertions are making to procure information respecting theinteriour of that vast and unknown continent; the following account of Tombuctoo, and the trade and navigation of the Niger, may perhaps prove not alto- gether uninteresting. It was procured on a journey to Galam in about the year 1764, for a gentleman who was then Governour of Senegal, by a person who acted as his Arabick interpreter. # c; Apres bien des difficultes, j'ai enfin trouve un hornme qui est revenu de Tombuctoo depuis peu, qui * It may seem superfluous in the present enlightened age, to give a translation of a French paper; but there may still be some of our rea- ders to whom the following, if not necessary, may be convenient. " After many difficulties, I have at length found a man lately return- ed from Tombuctoo, from whom I have obtained better information of the country than from any other person. I have spoken to several merchants, who have reported some things to me, but I confide most in this last, who is lately returned, who has assured me that the vessels which navigate in the river of Tombuctoo do not come from the sea ; that they are vessels constructed at Tombuctoo, which are sewed either with cordage or with the bark of the cocoa tree, he does not exactly know which ; that these vessels only go by tracking and by oars (or paddles). M He says, that the inhabitants of the city of Tombuctoo are Arabs, that it is a large city, and that the houses have three or four stories. He says, that the caravans which come to Tombuctoo, come from the side of Medina, and bring stuffs, white linens, and all sorts of merchandise. That these caravans are composed only of camels, that they stop at 168 APPENDIX. NO. I. m'a mieux instruit du pays que personne. J'ai parle aplusieurs marchands, qui m'en ont compte quelque chose, mais je m'en rapporte mieux au dernier, qui en vient depuis peu ; qui m'a assure que les batimens, qui naviguent dans la riviere de Tombuctoo, ne viennent point de la grande mer ; que ce sont des batimens construits a Tombuctoo, qui sont cousus soit avec du cordage, soit avec de 1'ecorce de coco, il ne le sait pas au juste; que ces batimens ne vont qu'au traite et a l'aviron. " II dit que ce sont des Arabes qui habitent la ville de Tombuctoo, que c'est une grande ville, que les maisons ont trois ou quatre etages. II dit, que les caravanes qui viennent a Tombuctoo, viennent du cote de Medine,* et apportent toutes sortes de marchandises, des etoffes, et des toiles blanches; que ces caravanes ne sont composees que de cha- meaux; qu'elles s'arretent a une demi lieue de Tom- the distance of half a league from Tombuctoo, and that the people of Tombuctoo go there to buy the goods, and take them into the city ; afterwards that they equip their vessels to send them to Gentle, which is another city under the dominion of Tombuctoo, and that the inhabitants of Tombuctoo have correspendents there. The people of Genne in their turn equip their vessels, and put into them the merchandise which they have received from the people of Tombuctoo, with which they ascend the river. It is to be remarked, that the separation of the two rivers is at half a league from Genne, and Genne is sitaated between the two rivers like an island. One of these rivers runs into Bambarra and the other goes to Betoo, which is a country inhabited by a people of a reddish colour, who are always at war with the Bambarras. When they go out to war against the Bam- barras, they are always five months absent. After the barks of Genne hare gone a great distance up the river, they arrive at the fall of Soo- tasoo, where they stop and can proceed no further. There they un- load their salt and other merchandise, and carry them upon the backs of asses, and uponjheir heads to the other side of the fall, were they find the large boats of the Negroes, which they freight ; and ascend the river to she country of the Mandingoes who are called Malins, and who are near to the rock Gouvina. * It appears from Mr. Ledyard's and Mr. Lucas's communications to the African Association, that the caravans from Mecca, Medina, and all Egypt, arrive at Tombuctoo, by the same rout as those from Me- surata, going round by Mourzouk. Proceedings of the African Associa- tion, 4to. 1790, pp. 33, 87. APPENDIX. NO. I. 169 buctoo, et que tie la, les gens de Tombuctoo vont acheter les marchandises, et les apportent dans la ville ; ensuite, qu'ils arment leurs batimens pour les envoyer a Genne, qui est une autre ville sous la do- mination de Tombuctoo, et que les habitans de Tombuctoo y ont des corresponclans. Ceux de Gen- ne arment a leur tour leurs batimens, et y mettent les marchandises qu'ils ont re$us des batimens de Tombuctoo, et font monter leurs batimens a leur tour, et leur font monter la riviere. II est a remar- quer, que la separation des deux rivieres est a une demi lieue de Genne, et Genne se trouve entre les deux rivieres, comme une isle. Une de ces rivieres court dans la Bambarra, et l'autre va a Bctoo, qui est un pays habite par un peuple rougeatre, qui fait sans cesse la guerre aux Bambarras. Lorsqu'ils vont a la guerre contre les Bambarras, ils sont toujours cinq mois dehors. Apres que les barques de Genne ont monte la riviere bien avant, ils trou- vent la chute de Sootasoo ; ou ils s'arretent, et ne peuvent plus passer. La ils dechargent leur sel et leurs marchandises, et les portent a l'autre cote de la chute a dos d' anes, et sur leurs tetes. La ils trouvent les grandes pirogues des Negres, qu'ils frakent, et content la riviere avec ces pirogues jusqu'a chez les JMarulings, qui s'appellent Matins, ,qui sont proche du roche Gouvina." The gentleman, for whom these particulars were collected, states, that he has always had the greatest confidence in their correctness ; not only on account of the character and talents .of the person employ- ed, but also from the means which he had, during a residence of three or four years at Senegal, to verify all the most material points in them, upon the in- formation of others ; which he lost no opportunity of obtaining. In his account of the position of Genne? the junction of the two rivers near to it, the course 22 170 APPENDIX. NO. I. of one of these rivers from Betoo or Badoo, and the course of the Niger itself at that time (17 64) generally supposed to be from east to west ; the Arabick inter- preter has been proved, by the information obtained through Mr. Park, to be correct; and his represen- tation of the trade upon the Niger is accurately con- firmed by Mr. Park, in hjs conversation with the ambassadors of the King of Bambarra;* except that he carries it beyond Mr. Park's report. If the interpreter's report be correct, it would seem that the Niger is navigable to a much greater distance westward, than it is represented to be in any of the existing maps of that part of Africa ; nor does there appear to be any authority to oppose to this theory, except the information which Major Rennell states Mr. Park to have received, when at Kamalia, on his return from his first journey ; that the source of the Niger was at a bearing of south, a very little west, seven journeys distant, for which Mr. Park calculated one hundred and eight geogra- phical miles.f The name of the place was said to be Sankari, which the Major supposes to correspond with the Song of D'Anville. But this account is too vague to be implicitly relied upon, in a country, where men travel, as Mr. Park observes,f only for the acquirement of wealth ; and pay but little at- tention to the course of rivers, or the geography of countries. In other respects, the idea that the Niger is navigable to a considerable distance above Bammakoo, instead of being contradicted, is much supported by all the information which is to be col- * " We sell them (the articles brought by the Moors) to the Moors ; "the Moors bring them to Tombuctoo, where they sell them at a " higher rate. The people of Tombuctoo sell them to the people of " Jinnie at a still higher price ; and the people of Jinnie sell them to "you." Park's Last Mission, 4to. p. 268. f Appendix, First Journey, page xliv. { Idem, page 214. APPENDIX. NO. I. 171 lected from Mr. Park's Journeys, and particularly his Last Mission ; though to a person looking only at the Map attached to his Notes, the fact would ap- pear to be otherwise. Tne Arabick interpreter speaks of a trade and extensive navigation above the falls of Sootasoo, which must be to the westward ; as he states it to extend into the country of a Mandingo nation called Malms,* whose territories approach near to the rock Gouvina. His account is supported by the fact, that Bammakoo is at the commencement of the Mandingo Nations ; but the representation of the river above it, according to our maps, gives no idea of the further voyage which he speaks of. Mr. Park does not notice the existence of the falls of Soo- tasoo, but from his description of the rapids at Bam- makoo, there is every reason to believe that they are the same.t He tells us, that at that} season (21st August) the river was navigable over the rapids. We are consequently to understand, that at other seasons it is not navigable over them even downwards ; and that although he avoided the prin- cipal falls, where, as he says, the water breaks with considerable noise in the middle of the river, * We have no account of the people here spoken of under the name of Matins, and have ascertained hy Mr. Park's discoveries, that the river does not actually approach the rock Gouvina; but it should be observed that the rock was the only point in that part of Africa to which the interpreter could refer as known to the person to whom his communication was addressed. The Mandingo nations commence to the eastward at about Bammakoo, and extend some distance to the northwest, and to the west almost to the seacoast. From this cir- cumstance therefore, as well as from the mention of the rock Gou- vina, it is evident that the country spoken of must be to the west of Bammakoo. f The country in which Bammakoo is situated, and a very extensive tract to the westward, is stated by D'Anville to be inhabited by a people called Soosos. | Last Mission, page 257 172 APPENDIX. NO. I. and paddled down one of the branches near the shore ; still the velocity was such, as to make hiua sigh.* Major Rennell, who appears to have obtained from Mr. Park information upon geographical mat- ters, far beyond that which is to be collected by the mere perusal of his first Journey, states, thatf the Niger first becomes navigable at Bammakoo, or per- haps, that it is only navigable upwards to that point in a continuous course from Tombuctoo. His lat- ter supposition is most probably correct, as it does not militate against the existence of a navigation, not continuous, beyond Bammakoo, nor against the fact proved by Mr. Park in his second mission, that at particular seasons the rapids may be passed downwards. It is also clear from Park, that there is, at least to a certain distance, above Bammakoo, a populous and trading country : as it was at Kan* caba (called in the maps Kaniaba)f that Karfa Tau- ra bought his slaves before proceeding to the coast. It is called a large town on the banks of the Niger, and a great slave market ; and is placed by Major Rennell, (doubtless on the authority of Park) above Bammakoo. § Most of the slaves, Mr. Park says, who are sold at Kancaba, come from Bambarra : for Mansong, to avoid the expense and danger of keep- ing all his prisoners at Sego, commonly sends them in small parties to be sold at the different trading towns; and as Kancaba is much resorted to by merchants, it is always well supplied with slaves, which are sent thither up the Niger in canoes. It cannot be supposed that this resort of merchants, is from places down the river ; that they leave the * Idem, page 258. f First Journey, Appendix, xliv. f Idem, p. 275, 6 Idem, Major Rennell's Maps. APPENDIX. NO. I. 173 great markets of Sego and Sansanding, to labour over the rapids to Kancaba; or that the slaves would be sent there to be bought by merchants who could receive them at places so much nearer. It must be for a trade down the river from populous countries situated above Kancaba, that they are sent there. Nor is it easy to believe, that a river, which Mr. Park states to be at Bammakoo, a mile across, and to be interrupted in its navigation only by a lo- cal cause, should not be navigable above that cause : or that a stream, which he states to be larger even there (at Bammakoo) than either the Gambia or the Senegal, should be distant from its source only 108 geographical miles, and draw its supplies from a country, which, by the map attached to Park's last mission, appears to be only 40 or 50 G. miles in breadth ; when the Senegal has a course of not less than 600 G. miles, measured by the same map, across to the rock Gouvina, and from that to its mouth, without making any further allowance for its windings; and drains for its support, a country extending, according to the same authority, in breadth, not less than 300 G. miles. It will of course occur to any person, looking at the maps at- tached to Park's Journeys, that the places marked out as the sources of the Senegal and Gambia, pre- clude the possibility of the Niger's extending far- ther to the westward than is there represented ; but upon a careful perusal of Park's Last Mission, there seems strong ground to believe, that the fra- mers of his map, proceeding upon the old idea that the Seqegal and Gambia take their rise in the Kong mountains, have here fallen into an errour. It would appear that there are two distinct ranges of mountains, commencing at the Foota J alia hills. The Kong mountains running to the east, but in a 174 APPENDIX. NO. I. line curved considerably to the south, and supposed to be the greatest mountains in Africa ; the other proceeding in a more direct line and increasing in its elevation, as it extends towards the east, seems to approach nearly to its full height at the Konkodoo mountains, and bending or returning to the north and N. W. beyond Toniba, where Mr. Park crossed it, to give birth to all the streams, which, united, form the Senegal. Of the sources of the Gambia, we have no particu- lar account, but it seems probable that these two ranges of mountains are united at their western ex- tremity, and that the Gambia does not extend beyond this union ; an idea in which there is ground to believe that Mr. Park would have concurred from expressions in two of his first letters to Sir Joseph Banks, the first dated from Kayee, River Gambia, 26 April, 1805.* " The course of the Gambia is " certainly not so long as is laid down in the charts." The second letter is dated Badoo, near Tambacun- da, May 28th, 1805.f " The course of the Gambia " is laid down on my chart too much to the south ; I " have ascertained nearly its whole course." The removal of the river more to the north by leaving a larger space for its course from the mountains, ren- ders it more probable that it should be terminated at the point herein supposed; and if its sources were as they are represented to be in our maps, it is difficult to imagine that Mr. Park could, as he states, have ascertained nearly its whole course. The position of the northern range of hills is de- scribed by Mr. Park with considerable accuracy at Dindikoo.J where he speaks of the inhabitants looking from their tremendous precipices over that wild and woody plain which extends from the Fale- * The Last Mission, p. 62. f Idem, p. 69. J Last Mission, p. 176. APPENDIX. NO. I. 175 me to the Black River. This plain, he says, is, in extent from north to south, about forty miJes; the range of hills to the south seems to run in the same direction as those of Konkodoo, viz. from east to west. The framers of his map have made them run north and south, because they could not otherwise carry the sources of the rivers beyond them. Dindi- koo was on the northern range of hills, and suppos- ing the southern range to be, as he states, distant about forty miles, it will be found sufficient to ac- count for the size assigned to all the rivers passed by Mr. Park in his route from the Gambia. The first of these is the Faleme river, which he had already crossed at Madina. # No particular ac- count is given of the size of this river, or of the man- ner of passing it; but in his former journey, when he crossed it about the same place, he sayst that it was easily forded, being only about two feet deep. In his last mission,^ he says, its course is from the south- east, the distance to its source six ordinary days' travel. Assigning to it this course, its source will not be beyond the hills ; but the compilers of the map attached to his Journal have given it a course much more nearly south, and have placed its source, even in this direction, far beyond six days' journey by their own scale, and without making any allowance for the time, and the distance in an horizontal line, lost in travelling over a mountainous country. The next river is the Ba Lee, too insignificant to be noticed. The next the Ba Fing, the greatest of the rivers which form the Senegal. This was passed at Kon- kromo by canoes. He gives us no account of the course of this river or the distance to its sources, but merely says,|| M it is here a large river, quite navi- * Idem, page 167. f First Journey, page 34G. t Last Mission, page 167. || Last Mission, pages 1«3, lfl4, 195, 176 APPENDIX. NO. I. " gable ; it is swelled at this time about two feet, " and flows at the rate of three knots per hour." When fully flooded, its course must be much more rapid, as in his first journey,* he crossed it by a bridge, formed of two trees, tied together by the tops; and adds, that this bridge is carried away every year by the swelling of the river. Running, as we collect, from both Mr. Park's journeys, but particularly the first, as this river does, at the foot of a high ridge of mountains,t and through a coun- try, which he calls every where " hilly, and rugged, u and grand beyond any thing he had seen ;"f and allowing for its necessary sinuosity in such a coun- try, and its receipt of numerous smaller streams in passing through it, there can be no difficulty in ac- counting for it such as described by Mr. Park at Konkromo, by placing its sources in the hills already described ; for neither his descriptions of a river,which being flooded two feet is quite navigable, nor of one, which could be crossed by so simple a bridge, im- press us with the idea of a mighty stream, or of one far distant from its source. It is also fair to presume, that this and the other rivers, forming the Senegal, have a part of their course at, or parallel with, the foot of these hills, collecting the waters which de- scend from them. The next river is crossed near to Madina, and is represented in the map as formed by the confluence of the Furkomah and Boki rivers, and not very greatly inferiour either in magnitude or in the length of its course even to the Ba Fing. All that Mr. Park says of this great river, is, " at eleven " o'clock, crossed a stream, like a mill-stream, run- ning north" !|| The last river we come to, is the Ba Woolima, with its various streams, the Wonda, * First Journey, page 338. f First Journey, page 340. | Second Mission, page 192, and First Journey, page 337, et passim || Second Mission, page 197. APPENDIX. NO. I. 177 Ba Lee, Kokoro, &c. ; which, after what has been said of the Ba Fing, scarcely require to be noticed ; except, that by their windings and the numerous streams crossed in each day's journey, they serve to shew the small distance, in which a considerable river may be formed in such a country. They are all clearly bounded by the chain of mountains herein described, which, a little further eastward, bends or returns (as already observed) to the north and northwest to the kingdom of Kasson,* and forms the eastern angle of the triangle, described by Major Rennell, in his Appendix to Park's first Journey ; a description corresponding very accurately with that here supposed; though the Major, in his Map, still carries the sources of the Senegal (the Ba Fing, &c.) across to the Kong mountains, and represents the mountains in that part of the country as running north and south, and extending southward to the same chain of mountains ; and it is in this point only, that there appears to be reason for doubting his cor- rectness. In Konkodoo, we have this northern range clearly described as running east and west at a dis- tance of about forty miles. By the necessity for avoiding the difficulties of the Jalonka wilderness, we there lose sight of them for a time ; but when we find them again at Toniba, they are there also running east and west, for Mr. Park crossed them in a course nearly from north to south,! and we have endeavoured to shew, that the magnitude of the rivers passed in the intermediate space, is not such as necessarily to induce a belief, that the mountains do not there preserve the same direction ; especially as the course of the greatest of these rivers is not given, whether from the south, or rather from the * First Journey, Appendix, page xix. f Second Mission, pages 253, 254, 255. 23 178 APPENDIX. NO. I. eastward of south, which seems the most probable ; as the Major represents (and we believe with correct- ness), that the eastern level of the country is here the highest. It is in the plain, left between the Kong mountains and this ridge, which, according to Park, separates the Niger from the remote branches of the Senegal ; # that the Niger has its course, " rolling its immense u stream along the plain,"t and washing the southern base of these mountains.^ The extent of this plain to the west, and the distance to which the Niger is navigable through it, are points not yet known, and which, although of the very utmost importance to the prosecution of our discoveries or the extension of our trade in the interiour. it does not appear that any attempt has yet been made to ascertain. From its situation between two such ranges of mountains, it may be presumed, that the plain is of great eleva- tion ; and from the report of the Arabick interpre- ter, supported by Mr. Park's account of Kaniaba or Kancaba, there is reason to believe that the Niger is navigable through it, to a considerable distance westward. The information received by Mr. Park at Kamalia may still have been correct: one of the principal streams, forming the Niger, may have its source at the place described to him; another may flow down this plain from the westward, collecting in its course all the streams that run from the south side of the mountains which give birth to tl e Sene- gal, and from the northern declivity of the Kong mountains. In this way we have no difficulty in ac- counting for the magnitude of the Niger at Bamma- koo; which we have already observed that it is im- possible to do, by the course hitherto assigned to it ; especially when it is considered that that course is * Idem, page 256. f Idem, page 256. J Idem, page 231 . APPENDIX. NO. I. 179 nearly at a right angle with the Kong mountains, and consequently a great part of it through the plain, where it is not likely to receive much additional supply. If these conjectures be well founded, it would seem that our pursuit should be, instead of endeavouring to perform the difficult, dangerous, and expensive operation of transporting a caravan to the remote station of Bamraakoo ; to search for the nearest point to the westward, at which the Niger is navigable; that we may commence our discoveries and trade by navigation as near as possible to the Western Ocean. With this view, the Gambia should be im- mediately occupied by this country ; and indeed this, under any circumstances, would seem to be a wise measure, that we may not, at the moment that our discoveries begin to lead to results of value, find, that the right of navigating that river is disputed with us by the prior establishment of some rival and more active European nation. An establishment should then be formed as high up that river as its navigation, and the state of the country, will permit ; and from this point, there could be no great difficulty or expense in sending a mission into the interiour, to the southeast, to seek for the sources of the Niger, and the extent of its naviga- tion to the westward. Nor can there be any ques- tion upon the possibility of establishing a settlement high up in the Gambia, from whence to commence our discoveries, after the example of the French Fort of St. Joseph at Galam on the Senegal. Galam is 150 leagues in a direct line from the mouth of the Senegal, or by the course of the river 350 leagues.* * These distances are given according to a most beautiful and cor- rect Chart of the River Senegal, drawn from an actual survey, which was in the possession of the gentleman here alluded to as having been in the government of Senegal, and was taken from him by the French, by whom he was captured on a voyage to England. 180 APPENDIX. NO. I. The fort was many years in the possession of the French ; and at the time its garrison was removed after the capture of Senegal by this country in the year 1763, the officer in charge of it had been station- ed there twenty-four years, the next in command six- teen, and others very long periods. The natives were so far from shewing any hostile disposition to the French trade upon the river, that they gave to it every possible protection and encouragement ; as they were fully sensible that it was for their interest to support it: the navigation of the river was secure, and the officers at the fort upon the most friendly footing with the inland powers. By commencing our operations from the Gambia in the manner proposed, wa should have the impor- tant advantage of experiencing the least possible opposition from our rivals and inveterate enemies, the Moors; whose influence naturally diminishes in proportion as we recede from the Desert : and if we were once established on the Niger, our superiour advantages in trade would render nugatory any attempts, which they might make to resist our further progress. P. S. The writer of this Memoir thinks it right to disclaim all pretensions to any superiour or exclu- sive knowledge of African geography. There ap- peared to him to be something inconsistent in the magnitude of the Niger as represented by Mr. Park at Bammakoo, and its sources according to our maps ; and being in possession of a paper which seemed to throw some little light upon the subject, he has ventured to give it to the publick, accompanied with a few remarks ; and will feel highly gratified, if they should have the effect of engaging the attention of some person capable of doing justice to an inquiry which is certainly interesting and important. APPENDIX. No. II* The whole of the population of Western Barbary may be divided into three great classes (exclusive of the Jews) viz. Berrebbers, Arabs, and Moons. 1 he two former of these are in every respect distinct ra- ces of people, and are each again subdivided into various tribes or communities ; the third are chiefly compiled of the other two classes, or of their de- scendants, occasionally mixed with the European or Negro races. In the class of Berrebbers, of which I shall first treat, I include all those who appear to be descend- ants of the original inhabitants of the country before the Arabian conquest ; and who speak several lan- guages, or dialects of the same language, totally dif- ferent from the Arabick. The subdivisions of this class are — 1st, the Errifi, who inhabit the extensive mountainous province of that name on the shores of the Mediterranean ; 2dly, the Berrebbers of the lnte- riour, who commence on the southern confines of Errif, and extend to the vicinity of Fez and Me- * This original and interesting Sketch of the Popvlation of Western Barbary grew out of some observations made by the Editor to Mr. Dupuis, upon the frequent indiscriminate use of the names of Arab and Moor, in speaking apparently of the same people : and the explanation of these terms (as well as of the term Shillvh. see p. 133, Note 56) hav- ing led Mr. Dupuis into a longer detail thanrould be conveniently com- prised in a Note on the Narrative, he kindly consented, at the Editor's request, to extend his Remarks to all the classes of the inhabitants of the Empire of Morocco; and the Editor is happy to have permission to present these Remarks, in their present entire form, to the reader. 182 APPENDIX. NO. II. quinez, occupying all the mountains and high lands in the neighbourhood of those cities; .^dly, the Ber- rebbers of Middle jitlas ; and, 4thly, the Shi Huh of Suse and Haha, who extend from Mogadore southward to the extreme boundaries of the domi- nions of the Cid Heshem, and from the seacoast to the eastern limits of the mountains of Atlas. Trie Erriji are a strong and athletick race of peo- ple, hardy and enterprising; their features are gene- rally good, and might in many cases be considered handsome, were it not for the malignant and fero- cious expression which marks them in common with the Berrebber tribes in general, but which is pecu- liarly striking in the eye of an Errif. They also pos- sess that marked feature of the Berrebber tribes, a scantiness of beard ; many of the race, particularly in the south, having only a few straggling hairs on the upper lip, and a small tuft on the chin. They are incessantly bent, on robbing and plundering ; in which they employ either open violence or cunning and treachery, as the occasion requires ; and they are restrained by no checks either of religion, morals or humanity. However, to impute to them in particu- lar, as distinct from other inhabitants of Barbary, the crimes of theft, treachery, and murder, would cer- tainly be doing them great injustice ; but I believe I may truly describe them as more ferocious and faith- less than any other tribe of Berrebbers. The Berrebbers of the districts of Fez, Mequinez, and the mountains of Middle Atlas, strongly resem- ble the Errifi in person, but are said to be not quite so savage in disposition. They are a warlike peo- ple, extremely tenacious of the independence which their mountainous country gives them opportunities of asserting, omit no occasion of shaking off the con- trol of government, and are frequently engaged in open hostilities with their neighbours the Arabs, or APPENDIX. NO. II. 183 the Emperour's black troops. They are, as I am informed, the only tribes in Barbary who use the bayonet. The districts which they inhabit are peculiarly interesting and romantick ; being a succes- sion of hills and vallies well watered and wooded, and producing abundance of grain and pasturage. The Shilluhi or Berrebbers of the south of Bar- bary, differ in several respects from their brethren in the north. They are rather diminutive in person; and besides the want of beard already noticed, have in general an effeminate tone of voice. They aie, however, active and enterprising. They possess ra- thermore of the social qualities than the other tribes, appear to be susceptible of strong attachments and friendships, and are given to hospitality. They are remarkable for their attachment to their petty chief- tains; and the engagements or friendships of the lat- ter are held so sacred, that 1 never heard of an in- stance of depredation being committed on travellers furnished with their protection, (which it is usual to purchase with a present) or on any of the valuable caravans which are continually passing to and fro through their territory, between Barbary and Sou- dan. However, the predominant feature of their character is self-interest; and although in their deal- ings amongst strangers, or in the towns, they assume a great appearance of fairness and sincerity, yet they are not scrupulous when they have the power in their own hands: and like the other Berrebbers, they are occasionally guilty of the most atrocious acts of treachery and murder, not merely against Christians (for that is almost a matter of course with all the people of their nation) but even against Mohamme- dan travellers, w 7 ho have the imprudence to pass through their country without having previously se- cured the protection of one of their chiefs. 184 APPENDIX. NO. II. As the Shilluh have been said to be sincere and faithful in their friendships, so are they on the other hand, perfectly implacable in their enmities and in- satiable in their revenge.* Their country produces grain in abundance, cattle, wax, almonds, and vari- ous valuable articles of trade. I have already said, that the languages of all the Berrebber tribes are totally different from the Ara- bick ; but vvhetner they are corrupted dialects of the ancient Punick, Numidian, or Mauritanian, I must leave to others to determine. That of the * The following anecdote, to the catastrophe of which I was an eye witness, will exemplify in some degree these traits of their character. A Shilluh having murdered one of his countrymen in a quarrel, fled to the Arabs from the vengeance of the relations of his antagonist ; but not thinking himself secure even there, he joined a party of pil- grims and went to Mecca. From this expiatory journey he returned at the end of eight or nine years to Barbary ; and proceeded to his native district, he there sought (under the sanctified name of El Haje, the Pilgrim, — a title of reverence amongst the Mohammedans) to effect a reconciliation with the friends of the deceased. They, how- ever, upon hearing of his return, attempted to seize him ; but owing to the fleetnessof lis horse he escaped and fled to Mogadore, having been severely wounded by a musket ball in his flight. His pursuers followed him thither; but the Governour of Mogadore hearing the circumstances of the case, strongly interested himself in behalf of the fugitive, and endeavoured, but in vain, to effect a reconciliation. The man was imprisoned ; and his persecutors then hastened to Morocco to seek justice of the Emperour. That prince, it is said, endeavoured to save the prisoner; and to add weight to his recommendation, of- fered a pecuniary compensation in lieu of the offender's life; which the parties, although persons of mean condition, rejected. They re- turned triumphant to Mogadore, with the Emperour's order for the de- livery of the prisoner into their hands : and having taken him out of prison, they immediately conveyed him without the walls of the town, where one of the party, loading his musket before the face of their victim, placed the muzzle to his breast and shot him through the body ; but as the man did not immediately fall, he drew his dagger and by repeated stabbing put an end to his existence. The calm intrepidity, with which this unfortunate Shilluh stood to meet his fate, could not be witnessed without the highest admiration ; and, however much we must detest the blood-thirs'iness of his executioners, we must still acknowledge, that there is something closely allied to nobleness of senti- ment, in the inflexible perseverance with which they pursued the mur- derer of their friend to punishment, without being diverted from theiv purpose by the strong inducements of self-interest. APPENDIX. NO. II. 185 Errifi, I am told, is peculiar to themselves. It has also been asserted that the language of the Berreb- bers of the interiour, and of the Shilluh, are total- ly distinct from each other; but I have been assur- ed by those who are conversant with them, that al- though differing in many respects, they are really dialects of the same tongue. Like the Arabs, the Berrebbers are divided into numerous petty tribes or clans, each tribe or family distinguishing itself by the name of its patriarch or founder. The authority of the chiefs is usually founded upon their descent from some sanctified an- cestor, or upon a peculiar eminence of the individual himself in Mohammedan zeal or some other reli- gious qualification. With the exception already noticed, (that the Berrebbers of the North are of a more robust and stouter make than the Shilluh) a strong family like- ness runs through all their tribes. Their customs, dispositions, and national character are nearly the same ; they are all equally tenacious of the inde- pendence which their local positions enable them to assume ; and all are animated with the same invete- rate and hereditary hatred against their common enemy, the Arab. They invariably reside in houses, or hovels, built of stone and timber, which are gene- rally situated on some commanding eminence, and are fortified and loop-holed for self-defence. Their usual mode of warfare is to surprise their enemy, rather than overcome him by an open attack ; they are reckoned the best marksmen, and possess the best firearms in Barbary, which renders them a very destructive enemy wherever the country affords shelter and concealment ; but although they are al- ways an over match for the Arabs when attacked in their own rugged territory, they are obliged, on the other hand, to relinquish the plains to the Arab 24 186 APPENDIX. NO. II. cavalry, against which the Berrebbers are unable to stand on open ground. The Arabs of Barbary are the direct descendants of the invaders of the country, who about the year 100 of the Hegira, according to their own histories, completed the conquest of the whole of the North of Africa, dispersing or exterminating the nations which either attempted to oppose their progress, or refused the Mohammedan creed. During the dreadful ravages of this invasion, the surviving in- habitants, unable to resist their ferocious enemy, (whose cavalry doubtless contributed to give them their decided superiority) fled to the mountains; where they have since continued to live under the names of Berrebber, Shilluh, &c. a distinct people, retaining their hereditary animosity against their in- vaders. The Arabs, who now form so considerable a por- tion of the population of Barbary, and whose race (in the SherifFe line) has given Emperours to Mo- rocco ever since the conquest, occupy all the level country of the Empire ; and many of the tribes, penetrating into the Desert, have extended them- selves even to the confines of Soudan. In person they are generally tall and robust, with fine fea- tures and intelligent countenances. Their hair is black and straight, their eyes large, black and pierc- ing, their noses gently arched, their beards full and bushy, and they have invariably good teeth. The colour of those who reside in Barbary is a deep but bright brunette, essentially unlike the sal- low tinge of the Mulatto. The Arabs of the De- sert are more or less swarthy according to fc their prox- imity to the Negro states ; until, in some tribes, they are found entirely black, but without the wool- APPENDIX. NO. II. 187 ly hair, wide nostril, and thick lip which peculiarly belong to the African Negro. The Arabs are universally cultivators of the earth or breeders of cattle, depending on agricultural pursuits alone for subsistence. To use a common proverb of their own, " the earth is the Arab's por- tion." They are divided into small tribes or fami- lies, as I have already stated with respect to the Berrebbers;— each separate tribe having a particu- lar Patriarch or Head by whose name they distin- guish themselves, and each occupying its own sepa- rate portion of territory. They are scarcely ever engaged in external commerce ; dislike the restraints and despise the security of residence in towns; and dwell invariably in tents made of a stuff woven from goats' hair and the fibrous root of the palmeta. In some of the provinces their residences form large circular encampments, consisting of from twenty to a hundred tents, where they are governed by a shieck or magistrate of their own body. This officer is again subordinate to a bashaw or governour ap- pointed by the Emperour, who resides in some neighbouring town. In these encampments there is always a tent set apart for religious worship, and appropriated to the use of the weary and benighted traveller, who is supplied with food and refreshment at the expense of the community. Something has already been said in the preceding Notes of the character of the Arab. In a general view, it is decidedly more noble and magnanimous than that of the Berrebber. His vices are of a more daring, and (if I may use the expression) of a more generous cast. He accomplishes his designs rather by open violence than by treachery ; he has less duplicity and concealment than the Berrebber ; and to the people of his own nation or religion he is much more hospitable and benevolent. Be- 188 APPENDIX. NO. II. yond this, I fear it is impossible to say any thing in his favour. But it is in those periods of civil dis- cord which have been so frequent in Barbary, that the Arab character completely developes itself. — On these occasions they will be seen linked togeth- er in small tribes, the firm friends of each other, but the sworn enemies of all the world besides. Their ravages are not confined merely to the Ber- rebber and Bukharie tribes to whom they are at all times hostile, and whom they take all opportuni- ties of attacking, but every individual is their ene- my who is richer than themselves. Whilst these dreadful tempests last, the Arabs carry devasta- tion and destruction wherever they go, sparing neither age nor sex, and even ripping open the dead bodies of their victims, to discover whether they have not swallowed their riches for the purpose of concealment. Their barbarity towards Christians ought not to be tried by the same rules as the rest of their con- duct; for although it has no bounds but those which self-interest may prescribe, it must almost be con- sidered as a part of their religion ; so deep is the detestation which they are taught to feel for the " unclean and idolatrous infidel." A Christian, therefore, who falls into the hands of the Arabs, has no reason to expect any mercy. If it is his lot to be possessed by the Arabs of the Desert, his value as a slave will probably save his life ; but if he happens to be wrecked on the coast of the Em- perour's dominions, where Europeans are not allow- ed to be retained in slavery, his fate would in most cases be immediate death, before the Government could have time to interfere for his protection. The next great division of the people of Western Barbary, are the inhabitants of the cities and towns, who may be collectively classed under the general APPENDIX. NO. II. 189 denomination of Moors ; although this name is only known to them through the language of Europeans. They depend chiefly on trade and manufactures for subsistence, and confine their pursuits in general to occupations in the towns. Occasionally, however, but very rarely, they may be found to join in agri- cultural operations with the Arabs. The Moors may be subdivided into the four fol- lowing classes — 1st, the tribes descended from Arab families ; 2d, those of Berrebber descent; 3d, the Bukharie ; 4 th, the Andalusie, The Arab families are the brethren of the conquer- ors of the country; and they form the largest por- tion of the population of the southern towns, especial- ly of those which border on Arab districts. The Berrebber families are in like manner more or less numerous in towns, according to the proximity of the latter to the Berrebber districts. The Bukharie, or black tribe, are the descendants of the Negroes brought by the Emperour Mulai Is- mael from Soudan. They have been endowed with gifts of land, and otherwise encouraged by the sub- sequent Emperours ; and the tribe, although inconsi- derable in point of numbers, has been raised to im- portance in the state, by the circumstance of its form- ing the standing army of the Emperour, and of its being employed invariably as the instruments of fovernment. Their chief residence is in the city of Iequinez, about the Emperour's person. They are also found, but in smaller numbers, in the different towns of the Empire. The Andalusie, who form the fourth class of Moors, are the reputed descendants of the Arab conquerors of Spain ; the remnant of whom, on being expelled from that kingdom, appear to have retained the name of its nearest province. These people form a large class of the population of the towns in the north 190 APPENDIX. NO. II. of Barbary, particularly of Tetuan, Mequinez, Fez, and Rhabatt or Saliee. They are scarcely, if at all, found residing to the south of the river Aza- moor; being confined chiefly to that province of Barbary known by the name of El Gharb. The two last named classes of Bukharie, and Andalusie, are entire in themselves, and are not divi- sible into smaller communities like the Moors de- scended from the Arab and Berrebber tribes, the latter imitating in that respect their brethren in- the country, and retaining the names of the petty tribes from which their ancestors originally sprung ; for instance, the Antrie, Rehamni, &c. which are Arab tribes, and the Edoutanan, the Ait Amoor, &c. amongst the Berrebbers. All these smaller tribes are very solicitous to maintain a close fami- ly alliance with their brethren, who still pursue their agricultural employment in the country, which they find of great advantage in the event of in- testine commotions. The length of time since the settlement of these tribes in the towns cannot be accurately ascertain- ed; but the manner in which they were first separat- ed from their kindred in the country, may probably be exemplified by the following modern occurrence. When the father of the present Emperour had built the town of Mogadore, he caused a certain number of individuals to be selected, or drafted, from Arab and Berrebber (or Shilluh) tribes, and also from some of the towns; whom he compelled to set- tle in the new town. The young colony was after- wards encouraged and enriched by the removal of the foreign trade of the empire from Santa Cruz to Mogadore, which led to the settlement of other ad- venturers there. The probability that other towns were peopled by a similar compulsory proceeding, is confirmed by the known repugnance of the Arabs APPENDIX. NO. II. 191 to quit their tents for houses, and by the aversion and even contempt which they feel for the restraints of a fixed residence in towns. These are the component parts of that mixed po- pulation which now inhabits the towns of Barbary, and which is known to Europeans by the name of Moors, In feature and appearance the greater part of them may be traced to the Arab or Berrebber tribes from which they are respectively derived ; for marriages between individuals of different tribes are generally considered discreditable. Such marriages however do occasionally take place, either in conse- quence of domestick troubles, or irregularity gf con- duct in the parties ; and they are of course attended with a corresponding mixture of feature. Intermar- riages of the other tribes with the Bukharie are al- most universally reprobated, and are attributed, when they occur, to interested motives on the part of the tribe which sanctions them, or to the overbearing in- fluence and power possessed by the Bukharie. These matches entail on their offspring the Negro feature and a mulatto-like complexion, but darker. In all cases of intermarriage between different tribes or classes, the woman is considered to pass over to the tribe of her husband. Besides the Moors, the population of the towns is considerably increased by the Negro slaves, who are in general prolifick, and whose numbers are continually increasing by fresh arrivals from the countries of Soudan. In conclusion, the following may be stated as a brief leading distinction between the habits and cir- cumstances of the three great classes of the inhabi- tants of Western Barbary. The Berrebbers, (including the Shilluh) are cul- tivators of the soil and breeders of cattle ; they oc- 192 APPENDIX. NO. If. cupy the mountainous districts, and reside in houses or hovels built of stone and timber. The Arabs, occupying the plains, follow the same pursuits as the Berrebbers, and live in tents. The Moors are traders, and reside in the towns. It will, perhaps, be observed, that this distinction will not apply to the tribe described by Mr. Park on the southern confines of the Desert, whom he calls Moors, and distinguishes by that name from the Arabs of the Desert. It is evidently quite im- practicable to assign precise denominations to the many possible mixtures of races which in process of time naturally occur: but a roving people, living in tents, as these are described to be, certainly cannot be entitled to the appellation of Moors. Neither can the people in question, whom Park describes to have short bushy hair, be a pure Arab tribe ; though their leader, Ali, appears to have been an Arab. But by whatever name they ought to be distinguished, it seems very probable that they are descended from the ancient invaders of Soudan, who having been left to garrison the conquered places, remained on the southern borders of the Desert, after the authori- ty which originally brought them there became ex- tinct ; and who by occasional intermarriages with the Negroes have gradually lost many of the distinguish- ing features of their Arab ancestors. Viewing the term Moor as a translation or cor- ruption of the Latin word Mauri, by which the Romans designated a particular nation, it is evident, that it cannot with strict propriety be used even in the limited sense which I have here confined it; for, the people who now occupy the towns of Wes- tern Barbary, (with the exception, perhaps, of that small portion of them allied to the Berrebber tribes) are certainly not descendants of the ancient Mauri- tanians. The name, as I have said before, is not APPENDIX. NO. II. 193 used amongst the people themselves, as the names of Arab, Berrebber, &c. are : but the class is quite dis- tinguished from the other inhabitants of Barbary by the modes of life and pursuits of those who com- pose it. And as Europeans in their loose accepta- tion of the name Moor, have successively designat- ed by it all the different races who have from time to time, occupied this part of Africa ; applying it even to the Arab invaders of Spain, who proceeded from hence; they may very naturally appropriate it to those stationary residents of the Empire of Mo- rocco with whom, almost exclusively, they carry on any intercourse. The only distinguishing term which the Arabs occasionly give to the Moors is that of Medainien, towns' people ; which is a depre- ciating appellation in the estimation of an Arab. If you ask a Moor; what he calls himself? he will naturally answer you that he is a Mooslim, or be- liever ; — his country ? Bled Mooselmin, the land of believers. If you press him for further particulars, he will then perhaps tell you the tribe to which he belongs, or the district or city in which he was born. Neither have they a general name for their country ; in other Mohammedan states it is distinguished by the name of El Ghdrb, the West ; but the natives themselves only apply this name to a province in the northern part of the Empire beyond the River Azamoor. The term Moor, therefore, seems to stand, with respect to the people to whom we apply it, exactly in the same predicament as their term Romi with re- spect to us ; which, having survived the times when the extended power of the Romans rendered it not an improper appellation for all the inhabitants of Europe, known to the Mauritanians, continues, in the dialects of Barbary, to be the general name for Eu- ropeans of every nation at this day. D. 25 Adams, Robert, Introductory Details respecting — accidentally met with in London, ix — brought to the office of the African Company, and questioned respecting his adventures in Afri- ca; his answers satisfactory, x-xi — his method of comput- ing bearings, distances, and rates of travelling through the de- serts, xiv — examined by several members of government, and others, xv — receives a gratuity from the Lords of the Treasury, and departs for America, xv — his statements cor- roborated by Mr. Dupuis, British Vice Consul at Mogadore, xvii — curious particulars relating to his conduct and appear- ance when liberated from slavery, xviii — -known at Mogadore by the name of Rose — reasons for his changing his name to Adams, xx-xxi. Adams, Robert, his Narrative — wrecked on the western coast of Africa, 31 — carried from the coast by a party of Moors to a Douar in the Desert, 34 — accompanies a party of Moors in an expedition to Soudenny, 36 — made prisoner, with them, by the Negroes, and carried to Tombuctoo, 37-39 — ransomed, with the Moors, and carried to Tudenny, and thence to the Douar of Woled D'leim, 58-62 — employment and treatment there, 63-64 — escapes with a camel to Hilla Gibla (or El Kabla) 64-5 — becomes the slave of the Governour, has an intrigue With one of the Governour's wives, and is sold, in consequence to a trading Moor, 66-8 — carried thence to different Douars in the Desert, and finally to Wadinoon, 68-71 — his employ- ment and inhuman treatment at that place — but at length ransomed and carried to Mogadore, 74-81 — sent thence by ]VIr. Dupuis to Fez and Tangier, 82 — thence to Cadiz by the American Consul ; his stay there, 82-3— arrives in London in the utmost distress, 83 — his reckoning of time and distances corrected, 137-8. African Company, Committee of the, examine Adams, and re* commend the Editor to compile his Narrative, xii. Agadter Doma, the Moorish name of Senegal, 88. Andalusie tribe of Moors, origin and description of it, 189-190, INDEX. 195 Arabs of El Gagie described, 85-6— make prisoners the crew of the " Charles," and plunder the wreck, 31 — quit the coast with their prisoners; their mode of travelling, 34 — pre- datory expedition to Soudenny ; made prisoners by the Ne- groes, and sent to Tombuctoo, 37-9. Arabs of Barbary, and the Desert, description and character of, 186, etscqq. — their distinguishing occupations, 192. Arrows, poisoned, used by the Negroes, 48, 103-104. Ba Fing river, notices respecting it, 1 75* Ba Lee river, notices respecting it, 175. Ba Woolima river, notices respecting it, 176-177. Bammakoo, too remote a point on the Niger for the destination of European expeditions, 178. Banks, Sir Joseph, examines Adams, xv. Barbary, West, description of its classes of inhabitants, 181, et seqq, Barrow, John, Esq. examines Adams, xv. Bathurst, Earl, examines Adams, xv. Barry, Mr. of Teneriffe, confirms a circumstance in Adams's story, 87. Berrebbers, one of the three great classes of inhabitants of West Barbary, description and character of them, 181-185. Betoo, or Badoo, country of, noticed, 168-g. Bold river, noticed, 176. Bukharie trine of Moors, origin and description of it, 189. Caravans, seasons of travelling of those of Barbary which trade to Tombuctoo, and other parts of the Interiour, 116. Cannibals, 110. Canoes, description of those which navigate the La Mar Zarah, 43, 96. Chancellor of the Exchequer, examines Adams, xv. " Charles," the, American ship, names of her owner and crew, 50 — wrecked on the western coast of Africa, 31 — statement of the fate of the crew, 141. Christian captives, their inhuman treatment, 74, 75, 130 — their deplorable condition, when rescued from the Arabs, 130 — treated more cruelly than any other slaves, 131. Cidi Mohammed Mousoul, sanctuary of, noticed, 80. Cidi Mahomeda Moussa, great market held there annually, 80, 134 Courcoo, a singular animal described by Adams, 47 — his descrip- tion apparently erroneous, 104. D'Anville, cited, 96, 171. 196 INDEX. Davison, one of the crew of the " Charles" renounces his religion, 77 — escapes from Wed-Noon, and finally restored to Christianity, 133. Details, introductory, respecting Adams, ix. Dibbie, Lake, the descriptions of it improbable, 160. Dolbie, the mate of the " Charles," falls sick at Wed-Noon, and put to death by his master, 77, 129. Douar, its meaning, 85. Dupuis, Mr., British Vice Consul at Mogadore, letter from him to the Editor, corroborating Adams's statements, and containing some curious particulars relating to his ransom, and appear- ance and conduct on his arrival at Mogadore, vii-xxii — his notes and observations on Adams's Narrative, 85, et seqq. — his account of the different classes of the inhabitants of "West Barbary, 181, et seqq. El Gazie, Moors of, make prisoners the crew of the " Charles," 31 — description of that Douar, 85. El Kabla (see Hilla Gibla.) Elephants, mode of hunting them by the people of Tombuctoo, 45-6 — great numbers of their teeth brought into Barbary, 100 — observations on Adams's account of the elephant, 101-2. Erriji, a tribe of Berrebbers, described, 182. Faleme river, notices respecting it, 1 75. Fatima, queen of Tombuctoo, her dress, 40-41 — her name no proof of her being a Moorish, or Mohammedan woman, 91. French renegade at El Gazie, his story, 32 — manufactures gun- powder at Wed-Noon, 73. Furkomah river, noticed, 176. Gambia river, its course not so long nor so far south, as laid down on the Maps, 1 74. Genne (or Jinnie) its trade with Tombuctoo, 167. Gollo (or Quallo,) account of a Negro nation of that name, 111. Gordon, Major-General Sir Willoughby, examines Adams, hi* opinion of his story, xv-xvi. Goulburn, Henry, Esq. examines Adams, xv. Gonvina, rock of, the Niger navigable westward nearly to that point, 171. Guns, double-barrelled, in common use among the Arabs of the Desert, 94. Gunpowder, manufactured at Wed-Noon by a French rene- gade, 73. Haoussa, merchants from that country frequent Lagos, in the Bight of Benin ; information obtained from them respecting INDEX. 197 the nature of the country through which they travel, xxvi- xxvii. Heirie, a species of camel, of great swiftness, 45 — the same animal as that described by Leo Africanus under the name ragnahil; and by Pennant under that of raguahl, 99. Hieta Mouessa Alt (Aiata Mouessa Ali,) a large Douar in the Desert, visited by Adams, 70. Harrison, George, Esq. examines Adams, xv. Hilla Gibla, (or El Kabla,) a Douar in the Desert, described, 66. — some account of the Arab tribe of that place, 121. Horses, none at Tombuctoo, 99. Horton, John, master of the " Charles," his death among the Moors, 33, 87. Jinnie, its distance and bearing from Tombuctoo, 97. (See Gennt.) Joos, (Yos or Yadoos (Ayos) of D'Anville's Maps,) a powerful Negro nation, xxvii. Isha, the wife of the Governour of Hilla Gibla, intrigues with Adams, 67-8. Kancaba (Kaniaba of Rennell's Maps,) an extensive slave mar- ket on the Niger, 172. Kanno, curious relation made to Adams by a female slave from that place, 74. Kashna, notice respecting the distance between that place and Houssa, in Major Rennell's Maps, 127. Kong mountains, their general direction, 1 78. Lahatnar river, mentioned by Marmol, as a branch of the Niger, 96. La Mar Zarah, name of the river on which Tombuctoo stands ; its size, navigation, and course, 43 — conjectures respecting it, 95-6 — probably a branch of the Niger, 164. Lagos, in the Bight of Benin, probability of Europeans being able to proceed thence in the direction of the Niger, xxyi. Lake Dibbie, (See Dibbie.) Lakes of considerable extent intersect the countries between Haoussa and the coast of the Bight of Benin, xxvi. Leo Africanus, his account of Tombuctoo noticed, 156 — re- marks on the discordances in the different versions of his book, 158-9; 162-3. Lords of the Treasury, order Adams a handsome gratuity, xv. Matins, a Mandingo nation, noticed, 169. Map, explanations respecting the construction of that which ac- companies the Narrative, xxiv-v — errours noticed in the 198 INDEX. construction of that prefixed to the account of Park's Last Mission, 175-6 7. Marmol, cited, 96. Mauri of the Romans, the origin of the term Moors, 192. Mcdainien, the Arab term for Moors, 193. Mogadore, how first peopled, 190. • " Montezuma," the, from Liverpool, wrecked on the coast of Wadinoon; fate of her crew, 73, 126. Moors, their predatory incursions in the Negro countries fre- quent, 89. (See Arabs.) Moors, classes of, their origin and character, 189, et seqq. — their distinguishing occupations, 191 — origin of the term, 192. Negro slave, curious history of one, 110-111. Negro slaves, a great source of population in the towns of Bar- bary, 191. Negroes, description of those of Soudenny and Tombuctoo, 37- 38; 48, 52; 106, 109 — theii accounts of the interiourof Afri- ca to be received with caution, 153 — characteristicks of those of Soudan, 165. Niger river, remarks respecting it, 162-164 — account of its trade and navigation in 1 764, 1 67, et seqq. — its falls at Sootasoo, 168 — supposed to be navigable much further westward than represented in the maps, 167 — its magnitude at Bammakoo not reconcileable with the distance of that place from its source, as given in the Maps, 173 — conjectures respecting its sources, 178-9 — expediency and practicability of exploring its remotest western navigation, 179. Park, Mr., observations on some parts of his account of his se- cond mission, 127 — remarks on some passages in his account of his first mission, 148-153 ; 172-179. Peddie, Major, the examination of Adams undertaken in the hope of its result proving of use to that officer in his expedi- tion to Africa, xx. Poisonous preparation of the Negroes in which they dip their ar- rows, 48, 103. Quarterly Review cited, xxviii. Rapids in the Niger at Bammakoo, conjectures respecting them, 172. Remarks on Adams's Narrative, 167, et seqq.— on various passa- gesinMr. Park's Travels, 128, 148-153; 172-179. Reuegade, French, at El Gazie and Wed-Noon, 32, 87. Rennell, Major, notice respecting his estimate of distance be- tween Kashna and Houssa, 127 — his correction of an erroiu INDEX. 199 in Leo Africanus, 164 — appears to have obtained more extensive geographical details from Mr. Park, than what are given in his Travels, 172 — probable errour in his Maps, respecting the sources of the Senegal, 176. Rivers, notices respecting those mentioned by Mr. Park in his Travels, 175-7. Romi, the term in Barbary for Europeans in general, 1 93. Rose, Benjamin, xxi. (See Adams.) Senegal, information obtained by the Governour of that settle- ment, in 1764, respecting Tombuctoo, and the navigation of the Niger, 1 67, et seqq. Senegal river, probable errour respecting its sources, 1 73-7. Shilluh, tribe of, 134 — described, 183 — singular instance of their implacable hatred, and revengeful spirit, 184. (See Berrebbers.) Shipwrecks, why frequent on the western Coast of Africa, 85 — proceedings of the Moors when they happen there, 86 — usual fate of the crews of the ships, 87. Simpson, Mr., Consul General of the United States at Tangier, Adams's history communicated to him by Mr. Dupuis, xx. Soosos of D'Anville, noticed, 171. Sootasoo, falls of, on the Niger, 168— probably the rapids mention- ed by Mr. Park, in his " Second Mission," 171. Soudenny, route thither across the Desert, 36 — description of its inhabitants, 37 — rout thence to Tombuctoo, 38 — probable situation, 89-90. Stevens, a Portuguese ; accompanies Adams in an expedition with the Moors, 35-6. Sucrra, the Moorish name of Mogadore 35. Tavdeny, (or Tudenny) a Moorish and Negro village, on the borders of the Desert, 60 — account of the salt pits there, 60 — its trade in that article, 1 19 Tombuctoo, or Timbuctoo, its situation and extent, 43 — ani- mal, vegetable, and mineral productions of the surrounding country, 43-6 — observations on Adams's description of these, 96-7 — dress, manners and customs of the natives, 48-52; 106,109 — musical instruments, 52 — population of Tombuctoo, 53 — slaves, 54 — articles of commerce, 55, 112 — climate, 56 — list of native words, 57 — information respecting Tombuc- too, by Mr. Dupuis, 91-4, et seqq. — its trade with Barbary de- clined of late years, 112-13; 158 — occupied at an early period by the troops of the Emperours of Morocco, 154 — conjec- tures respecting the stream on which Adams describes it to stand, 161, 164— information respecting its trade in 1764, 167, 200 INDEX. Wadinoon (or Wed-Noori) described, 72 — cruel treatment of the Christian slaves at that place, 74-5 ; 130 — singular instance of bigotry and self-interest in regard to an English captive there, 132. Wed-Noon. (See Wadinoon.) White men, curious relation respecting some seen at a place called Kamio, 74. Williams, one of the crew of the " Charles," renounces his re- ligion, 77 — escapes from Wed-Noon and finally restored to Christianity, 133. WoollO) King of Tombuctoo, treats Adams kindly, 40 — his dress, 40 — conjectures respecting him, 91. Vied Diileim, (or Woled DHcim) a Douar in the Desert, account of it, 62 — description of the Arabs of that place, 119. Villa de Bousbach, (or Woled Aboussebah) a Douar of that name in the Desert, 68 — account of this tribe of Arabs, 122-3. Villa Adrialla, (Woled Adrialla) another Douar, 69. Yea, (or Issa) the name given to the Niger by Marmol, and adopted by D'Anville, 96. Zaire river, xxviii. Boston, May 1, 1317. 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By JOHN BROWN, Minister of the Gospel at Haddington. To which are added Notes, Historical, Literary, and Theological. Illustrated with elegant Maps and Plates. In two vols. 8vo. Price $7 bound. DISCOURSES TO YOUNG PERSONS, by the late Rev. JOHN CLARKE, D. D. Minister of the First Church in Boston. Price $1 25 bound. A GENERAL VIEW of the DOCTRINES of CHRIS, TIANITY. " A general View of the Doctrines of Christianity."— Compiled principally from that celebrat- ed work of Robert Fellows, of St. Mary's Hall, Oxford, entitled " Religion without Cunt," of which this is a judicious abridgment, improved also by large additions from various other authors. It is cordially recommended as a work calculated to do much good, and to exhibit su«.h rational and scriptural notions of the doctrines of Christianity as cannot fail to gratify and instruct every serious inquirer after the truth. Price 62 1-2 cents in boards, neatly bound 75 cents. Extract from the Preface. " CJpoa these subjects, (the Doctrines of Christianity) notions, dark and confused, are often en- tertained ; and men frequently receive and speak of them, without appearing themselves prec sely to comprehend their import.— The object of this little volume, it is trusted, is to exhibit such scriptural, evangelical, and at the same time clear and rational ideas of them, that they may distinctly Understand what they fully believe. It has been compiled with a sincere desire to promote the cause of true Christianity, faith and knowledge, piety and comfort, and nothing but what it is con- ceived the sacred scriptures clearly teach, nothing but what approves itself to the enlightened rea- son and conscience of men, is offered. Wishing religion to appear as it really is, man's reasonable service, and not to teach for doctrines the commandments of men, we take the word of God only for our gaide." As this work is designed more particularly for the use and edification of families, it is recommend- ed as a valuable manual for the instruction of youth and children. The subjects treated of in the above volume are general observations upon the nature of religion, and the mistakes that occur on that subject ; free agency and accountability of men ; the fail of Adam ; original sin, &c. ; doctrines of faith in general, and religious faith in particular ; of work* of regeneration; of repentance ; of grace ; of election and reprobation; of perseverance ; obser- vations on the second commandment, and on the Sin against the Holy Ghost. Clergymen may find it a useful work for distribution among their parishiouers, as from it, sincere but timid and desponding Christians may derive much light and comfort. SERMONS by the Rev. J. S. BUCKMINSTER, with a Me- rooir of his Life and Character, and Portrait. Second edition. Price in boards $ 2, neatly bound $ 2 25. FITSOSBORNE'S LETTERS, on several subjects. By "WILLIAiM MELMOTH, Esquire, Translator of the Letters of Cicero, &e. With the Dialogue concerning Oratory. To which is prefixed, a Memoir of the Au- thor. From the Twelfth London Edition. Price $1 25 boards. ELEMENTS of the PHILOSOPHY of the HUMAN MINI). By DUGALD STEWART. 2 vols. 8vo. Price in boards $ 4 50, neatly bound $ 5. The only uniform, elegant, and accurate edition of this celebrated Work, which has been printed in the United States. PRACTICAL PIETY ; or, tlie influence of the RELIGION OF THE HEART on the conduct of the Life. Efy Hannah More. Price $\. The fear of God begins with the Heart, and purifies and rectifies it : and from the Heart, thus rectified, grows a conformity in the Life, the Words and the Actions. Sir Matthew Hale's Contemplations. EPISTLES ON WOMEN, exemplifying their Character and condition in various ages and nations. With Miscellaneous Poems. By Lucy Aikin. Price 87 1-2 cents boards. LETTERS CONCERNING THE DISEASES OF THE URETHRA. By CHARLES BELL. Price $1 50 boards. ^ Verisimile est autem, id a quoque praetsrmissum quod ipse non cognoverat : a nullo id quod noa viderat, fictum. Celsus. JUVENILE TRIALS for Robbing Orchards, Telling Fibs, and other heinous offences. By Master Tommy Littleton, Secretary to the Court; with a Sequel by Dr. Aikin. Price 20 cents. Children, like tender Oziers take the Bow, And, as they first are fashion'd, always grow. MEMOTRS of the WAR of the FRENCH TN SPAIN. By M. DE ROCCA, an Officer of Hussars, and Knight of the Order of the Legion of Honour. Translated from the French, by MARIA GRAHAM, Author of " Jour- nal of a Residence in India," &c. From the second London edition. Price $1 boards. Extract from the Edinburgh Review, No. XXV, for June— Oct. 1815. "For the purpose oi bringing under the consiuerai ton of our reaciei> an interesting portion of recent history, we have selected the present performance, which contains an account of the inya- lioti of Spain by the French armies, and a general view of the causes, which, notwithstanding a continued series of reverses, still gave energy to the Spanish cause. The author, M. de Rncca, had a command in a regiment of French hussars, and a place in the Legion of Honour. He enter- ed Spain in the year 1803, along with the troops sent to reinforce the French armies, which wero at that : time encamped on the Kbro, under the command of Joseph ; and, except during a short interval in the year 1809, when he was sent against tiie English at Walcheren, he continued in Spain until the summer of 1810, when he was severely wounded in an encounter with a party of Spanish guerrillas. He relates chiefly what tame under his own personal notice, and, as he seems to be an acute and discriminating observer, his remarks, which are always lively, are frequently judicious and striking. In his account of the campaign, he certainly maintains a tone of great impartiality praising or blaming indifferently the plans and movements of the contending armies, while his narrative of military events is enlivened with some interesting sketches of Spanish man- ners, and with an amusing account of his own personal adventures. "The work concludes with a very brief and perspicuous account of the campaign in Portugal, which took place after our author had quitted Spain, and which he justly terms the chef d'oeuvre of a defence at once national and military " From the Monthly Review. " "We have made large extracts from tins puolieation, under a persuasion of the accuracy and fidelity of the writer." POETICAL CHRONOLOGY of ANCIENT and ENGLISH HISTORY, with Historical and Explanatory Notes. By ROBERT VAL- PY, D.D. F.A.S. With additions and improvements. Non in notiti3 vel rerum, vel temporum, satis opera? insumitur... tacit, dial, de orato. xxxix. To which is added, AMERICAN CHRONOLOGY, from the discovery by Columbus to the establishment of the Federal Constitution. Price 62 1-2 cents bound. PREFACE. The necessity of an early acquaintance with History has been always acknowledged. It is generally confessed, that without a proportionate knowledge of Geography and Chronology, Histo- ry cannot make a lasting impression on the memory. The satisfaction of beholding the face of the earth, of tracing the march of an army, the progress of an empire, or even the tour of a traveller, insensibly leads the inquisitive minds of youth to a competent knowledge of Geography. Less attractive is the study of Chronology. A list of dates is far from leaving that agreeable impression on the memory, which is the result of the attractive survey of a map or chart. What is indis- tinctly remembered, ceases to engage delight j and what is no longer interesting, is soon totally forgotten. Those who rank History among the principal branches of a classical education, have long been sensible of this difficulty. Various plaus have been proposed, and systems adopted, io order to, clear the path of Chronology of its intricacies and impediments. — Of these plans, the most successful, was that of Dr. Valpy, who has done much to smooth xhe difficulties in the attainment of classi- cal learning. He conceived, that if the knowledge of dates, which is happily connected with that of facts, could be reduced to a poetical form, in a series of English verses, which might be easily learnt on account of their simplicity, and remembered without disgust, a benefit of some importance would be conferred on the rising age. He found his path fortunately traced, and his labour con- siderably diminished, by a work of the celebrated Lowth, Bishop of Loudon. Upon this ground- work he proceeded, and gave the publick a small volume, which passed through seven editions in a short time The present is an attempt to enlarge and extend the usefulness of Dr. Valpy's Chronology. Seve ral additional articles are given in the reign of George III, including th^ most important events to the year 1815:— and an entire series is added, of American Chronology, from the discovery of Columbus, to the establishment of the Federal Constitution. It is obvious, that great and leading events only could be noticed in a work of this nature, whose object is to assist, and not to overload the memory. The editors hope that the additional stanzas wttl be found not inferiour to those of the original in comprehensiveness or harmony of diction and will be gratified if they can furnish to our school*. and academies a cheap book, on a neglected branch of education, in any degree calculated to open the; understanding of the young, and enlarge the stock of useful knowledge. 6 FEMALE SCRIPTURE CHARACTERS ; exemplifying FEMALE VIRTUES. By the Author of the " Beneficial effects of the Christian Temper on Doraestick Happiness." From the third London Edition. Price $ I 12 1-2 cents. This book contains the Lives of Eve.. ..Sarah. ...Rebekah.... Thermusis, Pharaoh's Daughter...' Ruth ....Hannah Queen of Sheba.... Jezebel. ...Esther.. ..Judith Susannah.. ..The Mother, and her seven Sons.. ..The Virgin Mary.. ..Elizabeth and Anne.. ..Martha and Mary.. ..Dorcas. JANE OF FRANCE, an Historical Novel. By MADAME I)E GENLIS. Translated from the French. In two Volumes. Price $1 boards. " This tale is, perhaps, one of the most beautiful and instructive of the kind that has ever been written.* 1 — Lit. Reg. Extract from the Preface. This Historical Romance presents a picture, which has never before been offered to the publick eye. In pourtraying a heroine disgraced by nature, and describing the afflictions attendant on a legitimate but hopeless attachment, a passion which even virtue itself could not overpower — it has been my object to oppose moral and physical beauty. There is something ideal in physical beauty, because it cannot be quite perfect without an assemblage of a host of circumstances, which it is impossible to find united in one object. The most lovely creature will always have some little defect, either in countenance or person. But there is nothing ideal in moral beauty. It is not necessary that a thousand things should combine to com- plete it, for truly enlightened piety alone has often produced it. What imagination will ever be able, in the best work of fiction, to create characters more perfect than those of Saint Louis and Vincent de Paule p How can actions be invented, more heroically affecting than those which have immortalized their memory ? The heroes of this work are not saints. I have not disguised the weakness of Louis, but have presented him, as well as Jane, in the light that History displays them. I have, however, at tempted to describe the goodness of heart, the greatness of soul, and the perfection of senti- ment, which characterized the latter. 1 trust that the reader, who possesses generous feelings, will like the subject of this romance, which at least resembles no other. It has already obtained the approbation of several persons who have perused it in manuscript, and whose good opinion I most highly value. 1 produce it, therefore, under happy auspices, for even before its appearance, it has procured me a degree of satisfaction, which is a thousand times preferable to any that the vanity of an author can desire. ESSAYS IN RHYME, ON MORALS AND MANNERS. By JANE TAYLOR, Author of • Display ; a Tale.' And one of the Authors of * Original Poems for Infant Minds,' « Hymns for Infant Minds,' &c. Price 75 cents, half bound. INFLUENCE OF LITERATURE upon SOCIETY. Trans- lated from the French of MADAME DE STAEL-HOLSTEIN. To which is pre- fixed, a Memoir of the Life and writings of the Author. In two vols. From the second London edition. Price $2 boards, THE PARENT'S ASSISTANT ; or STORIES FOR CHILDREN. In three volumes. By MARIA EDGEWORTH, Author of Prac- tical Education, and Letters for Literary Ladies. Price $3 00, bound. AN APPEAL to the Serious and Candid PROFESSORS of CHRISTIANITY, on the following subjects, viz. I. The Use of Reason in Matters of Religion. II. The Power of Man to do the Will of God. III. Original Sin. IV. Election and Reprobation. V. The Divinity of Christ. And, VI. Atonement for Sin by the Death of Christ. By JOSEPH PRIESTLEY, L.L.D. F.R.S. &c. To which are added, a concise History of the Rise of those Doctrines ; and an account of the Trial of Mr, El- wall, for Heresy and Blasphemy, at Strafford Assizes. Price 20 cents. To us there is one God, the father ,* and one Mediator, the man christ jesus. 1 Cor. viii. 6.—1 Tim. ii. 5. 7 A LETTER OF ADVICE TO HIS GRANDCHILDREN, Matthew, Gabriel, Anne, Mary, and Frances Hale. By SIR MAT- THEW HALE, Lord Chief Justice in the reign of Charles II. Price 87 1-2 cents bound. CONTENTS. Introduction. — Chapters : 1 Danger of the Times in relation to Religion — 2 Dangers incident to your Age — 3 Dangers that arise to you from your Condition and Relations — 4 Dangers that may arise from your Constitution and Complexion — 5 Religion in general — 6 The Christian Religion — 7 Directions concerning Prayer — 8 Reading of the Scriptures, &c. — 9 Observation of the Lord's Day — 16 Ordinary religious Conversation- — 11 On the Sacrament — 12 Moral and civil Con- versations and Actions — 13 Moderation of the Passions — 14 Idleness and Employ- ment — 15 Ordinary Employments — 16 Employment of young gentlewomen — 17 Company, and the Choice of it — 18 Recreations — 19 Eating, Drinking, and Sleep- ing — 20 Apparel and Habit — 21 Carriage to your Inferiours, Superiours, and Equals — 22 SingleiLife and Marriage. WAVERLY, OR, 'TIS SIXTY YEARS SINCE In 2 vols. Price $2 boards. BELINDA. By Miss EDGEWORTH. In two vols. Price $ 2 boards. RHODA. A Novel, in 2 vols. By the Author of « Things by their Right Names." Price $ 2 in boards. " We have seldom," observe the critical reviewers, " had an opportunity of noticing a novel possessing such claims to approbation as the volumes before us. We deprecate the injurious con- sequences too generally produced in the female mind by this species of reading. But the work we are about to introduce to the attention of our readers, is not merely exempt from the ordinary objections preferred against publications of this description, but presents such numerous excel- lencies, and illustrates so sound amoral, that we recommend it to the perusal of all our female readers ; particularly to those whose pretty faces and fascinating manners become dangerous possessions, from being the allies of vanity, irresolution, and frivolity." DISCIPLINE. By the Author of " Self Controul." In 2 vols. 12mo. 2d American edition. Price $2 00 bound. > QUARRELS OF AUTHORS ; or, some Memoirs for our lite- rary History, including specimens of controversy to the reign of Elizabeth. By the Author of «« Calamities of Authors." In 2 vols. Price $2. The use and end cf this Work I do not so much design for curiosity, or satisfaction of those that are the lovers of learning, but chiefly for a more grave and serious purpose ; which is, that it will make learned men ?vise in the use and administration of learning. Lord Bacon, of Learning. TALES OF FANCY. By S. H. BURNEY. Author of * Clarentine,' ' Geraldine Fauconberg,' and * Traits of Nature.' — Containing THE SHIPWRECK. Price $\ boards. ST. VALENTINE'S EVE. A Novel. By Mrs. OPIE. In 2 vols. Price $2 boards. ANSTER FAIR, a Poem in six Cantos, with other Poems. Price 75 cents. THE POET'S PILGRIMAGE TO WATERLOO, by RO- BERT SOUTHEY. Price 75 cents. CHRIST ABEL.— KublaKhan, a vision.— The Pains of Sleep. By S. T. COLERIDGE, Esq. Price 37 1-2 cents. THE STORY OF RIMINI, A POEM, By LEIGH HUNT. LARA, a Tale. JAQUELINE, a Tale. Price 40 cents. li 8 PARTS REVISITED in 1815, by way of Brussels : including; a walk over the Field of Battle at Waterloo. By JOHN SCOTT, Author of a visit to Paris in 1814; and Editor of the Champion, a London weekly Journal. Price $1 boards. Extract from the Work. " The political institutions of society are, at least, as far from having reached perfection, as the arts and sciences ; and if change and experiment are not so practicable in the former as ia the latter, yet, in proportion as it is mischievous to tamper with them hut when the occasion is clear, the'opportunity striking, and the call urgent, it is dangerous and guilty to withstand those great" invitations which at intervals summon mankind to improve their coudition. It would be stupidly base to set down all those disturbances that have of late years agitated Europe, to a wilful and unfounded temper of popular insubordination; the convulsion can only fairly be considered as a natural working, accompanied with painful arid diseased symptoms, but occasioned by the growth of men's minds beyond the institutions that had their origin in a very inferiour state of information. Nor should England consider herself out of the need of advancing herself further, . because she is already advanced beyond her neighbours ; on the contrary, her sti ;ngth and wis- dom lies in maintaining her wouted prerogative of being the first to move forward 1 a safe road, of first catching the briglu prospect of further attainments, and securing for herse '. in the inde- pendence and fortitude of her judgment, what others tardily copy from her prac* e. The vigo- rous habits of action and thought which her rulers have found so valuable in the e struggle lor, national fame and pre-eminence, are only to be preserved, as they were engeudeied,— namely,— by admitting popular opinion to busy itself with the internal affairs of the country, to exercise itself freely on the character of its political establishments, to grapple on even ground with professional and official prejudices and pre-possessions, and finally, to knock every thing down that does not stand firm in its own moral strength. This is England's duty to herself j and, to the world at large, she owes an equally sacred one ; viz. so to regulate the application of ner influence and power, that it shall oppose no tendency to good ; that it shall never be available io evil and bigoted designs masking themselves under canting professions j but ju tify those loud I and confident calls which she has every where addressed to generous hearts and fin ; spirits." READINGS ON POETRY. By Richard Lovjll Edge- worth and Maria Edgeworth. Price 75 cts. half bound. Vol. Ill of COVYPER'S POEMS, containing his Posthumous Poetry, and a sketch of his Life. By his kinsman, JOHN JOHNSON, L.L.D. Rector of Yaxham with Wei bourne, in Norfolk. Price $1. His virtues forni'd the inagick of his song.— Co7vper y s Epitaph. JUST PUBLISHED, A SERTES of POPULAR ESSAYS, illustrative of principles essentially connected with the improvement of the understanding, the imagination, and the heart. By ELIZABETH HAMILTON, Author of Letters on the Ele- mentary principles of Education, Cottagers of Glenburnie, &c. In 2 vols. Price $2 50 bound $2 boards. SANCIIO, OR THE PROVERBIALIST. Bv J. W. CUN- NINGHAM, a.m. Author of " The Velvet Cushing, &c." Price 75 cents bound* THE NABRATIVEOF ROBERT ADAMS, AN AMERI- CAN SAILOR, who was wrecked on the western coast of AFRICA, in the year 1810, was detained three years in Slavery by the Arabs of the Great Desert, and resided several months in the city of TOMBUCTOO. With a M IP, Notes, and an Appendix. IN PRESS, A GENERAL VIEW OF THE PROGRESS OF MET A- PHYSICAL, ETHICAL, AND POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY, ince the revival of Letters in Europe. By DUGALD STEWART, Esq p. r. ss. Lond. & F.din. Honorary member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg ; member of the Royal Academy of Berlin, and of the American Philosophical So- ciety held at Philadelphia ; formerly professor of Moral Philosophy in the Univer- sity of Edinburgh. A VOLUME OF POEMS. By HANNAH MORE. 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