Travels into the Interior of Africa

by Mungo Park

  Part of this gold is converted into ornaments for the women; but, in general, these ornaments are more to be admired for their weight than their workmanship. They are massy and inconvenient, particularly the ear-rings, which are commonly so heavy as to pull down and lacerate the lobe of the ear; to avoid which they are supported by a thong of red leather, which passes over the crown of the head from one ear to the other. The necklace displays greater fancy: and the proper arrangement of the different beads and plates of gold is the great criterion of taste and elegance. When a lady of consequence is in full dress, her gold ornaments may be worth altogether from fifty to eighty pounds sterling.

  A small quantity of gold is likewise employed by the Slatees, in defraying the expenses of their journeys to and from the coast; but by far the greater proportion is annually carried away by the Moors in exchange for salt and other merchandise. During my stay at Kamalia, the gold collected by the different traders at that place, for salt alone, was nearly equal to one hundred and ninety-eight pounds sterling; and as Kamalia is but a small town, and not much resorted to by the trading Moors, this quantity must have borne a very small proportion to the gold collected at Kancaba, Kancaree, and some other large towns. The value of salt in this part of Africa is very great. One slab, about two feet and a half in length, fourteen inches in breadth, and two inches in thickness, will sometimes sell for about two pounds ten shillings sterling, and from one pound fifteen shillings to two pounds may be considered as the common price. Four of these slabs are considered as a load for an ass, and six for a bullock. The value of European merchandise in Manding varies very much, according to the supply from the coast, or the dread of war in the country; but the return for such articles is commonly made in slaves. The price of a prime slave when I was at Kamalia, was from nine to twelve minkallis, and European commodities had then nearly the following value:

  A musket from three to four minkallis.

  The produce of the country, and the different necessaries of life, when exchanged for gold, sold as follows: common provisions for one day, the weight of one teeleekissi (a black bean, six of which make the weight of one minkalli) – a chicken, one teelee-kissi – a sheep, three teelee-kissi – a bullock, one minkalli – a horse, from ten to seventeen minkallis.

  The Negroes weigh the gold in small balances, which they always carry about them. They make no difference in point of value, between gold dust and wrought gold. In bartering one article for another, the person who receives the gold, always weighs it with his own teelee-kissi. These beans are sometimes fraudulently soaked in Shea-butter, to make them heavy; and I once saw a pebble ground exactly into the form of one of them; but such practices are not very common.

  Having now related the substance of what occurs to my recollection concerning the African mode of obtaining gold from the earth, and its value in barter, I proceed to the next article, of which I proposed to treat, namely ivory.

  Nothing creates a greater surprise among the Negroes on the sea coast, than the eagerness displayed by the European traders to procure elephants’ teeth; it being exceedingly difficult to make them comprehend to what use it is applied. Although they are shown knives with ivory hafts, combs, and toys of the same material, and are convinced that the ivory thus manufactured was originally parts of a tooth, they are not satisfied. They suspect that this commodity is more frequently converted in Europe to purposes of far greater importance; the true nature of which is studiously concealed from them, lest the price of ivory should be enhanced. They cannot, they say, easily persuade themselves, that ships would be built, and voyages undertaken, to procure an article which had no other value than that of furnishing handles to knives, etc, when pieces of wood would answer the purpose equally well.

  Elephants are very numerous in the interior of Africa, but they appear to be a distinct species from those found in Asia. Blumenbach, in his figures of objects of natural history, has given good drawings of a grinder of each; and the variation is evident. M. Cuvier also has given in the Magazin Encyclopedique, a clear account of the difference between them. As I never examined the Asiatic elephant, I have chosen rather to refer to those writers, than advance this as an opinion of my own. It has been said that the African elephant is of a less docile nature than the Asiatic, and incapable of being tamed. The Negroes certainly do not at present tame them; but when we consider that the Carthaginians had always tame elephants in their armies, and actually transported some of them to Italy in the course of the Punic wars, it seems more likely that they should have possessed the art of taming their own elephants, than have submitted to the expense of bringing such vast animals from Asia. Perhaps the barbarous practice of hunting the African elephants for the sake of their teeth, has rendered them more intractable and savage than they were found to be in former times.

  The greater part of the ivory which is sold on the Gambia and Senegal rivers is brought from the interior country. The lands towards the coast are too swampy, and too much intersected with creeks and rivers, for so bulky an animal as the elephant to travel through, without being discovered; and when once the natives discern the marks of his feet in the earth, the whole village is up in arms. The thoughts of feasting on his flesh, making sandals of his hide, and selling the teeth to the Europeans, inspire every one with courage; and the animal seldom escapes from his pursuers; but in the plains of Bambarra and Kaarta, and the extensive wilds of Jallonkadoo, the elephants are very numerous; and, from the great scarcity of gunpowder in those districts, they are less annoyed by the natives.

  Scattered teeth are frequently picked up in the woods, and travellers are very diligent in looking for them. It is a common practice with the elephant to thrust his teeth under the roots of such shrubs and bushes as grow in the more dry and elevated parts of the country where the soil is shallow. These bushes he easily overturns, and feeds on the roots, which are in general more tender and juicy than the hard woody branches or the foliage; but when the teeth are partly decayed by age, and the roots more firmly fixed, the great exertions of the animal in this practice frequently causes them to break short. At Kamalia I saw two teeth, one a very large one, which were found in the woods, and which were evidently broken off in this manner. Indeed, it is difficult otherwise to account for such a large proportion of broken ivory as is daily offered for sale at the different factories; for when the elephant is killed in hunting unless he dashes himself over a precipice, the teeth are always extracted entire.

  There are certain seasons of the year when the elephants collect into large herds, and traverse the country in quest of food or water; and as all that part of the country to the north of the Niger is destitute of rivers, whenever the pools in the woods are dried up, the elephants approach towards the banks of that river. Here they continue until the commencement of the rainy season, in the months of June or July; and during this time they are much hunted by such of the Bambarrans as have gunpowder to spare. The elephant-hunters seldom go out singly; a party of four or five join together; and having each furnished himself with powder and ball, and a quantity of corn-meal in a leather bag, sufficient for five or six days’ provision, they enter the most unfrequented parts of the wood, and examine with great care everything that can lead to the discovery of the elephants. In this pursuit, notwithstanding the bulk of the animal, very great nicety of observation is required. The broken branches, the scattered dung of the animal, and the marks of his feet, are carefully inspected; and many of the hunters have, by long experience and attentive observation, become so expert in their search, that as soon as they observe the footmarks of an elephant, they will tell almost to a certainty at what time it passed, and at what distance it will be found.

  When they discover a herd of elephants, they follow them at a distance, until they perceive some one stray from the rest, and come into such a situation as to be fired at with advantage. The hunters then approach with great caution, creeping amongst the long grass until they have got near enough to be sure of their aim. They then dischar
ge all their pieces at once, and throw themselves on their faces among the grass. The wounded elephant immediately applies his trunk to the different wounds, but being unable to extract the balls, and seeing nobody near him, becomes quite furious, and runs about amongst the bushes, until by fatigue and loss of blood he has exhausted himself, and affords the hunters an opportunity of firing a second time at him, by which he is generally brought to the ground.

  The skin is now taken off, and extended on the ground with pegs to dry; and such parts of the flesh as are most esteemed, are cut up into thin slices and dried in the sun, to serve for provisions on some future occasion. The teeth are struck out with a light hatchet, which the hunters always carry along with them; not only for that purpose, but also to enable them to cut down such trees as contain honey; for though they carry with them only five or six days’ provisions, they will remain in the woods for months if they are successful, and support themselves upon the flesh of such elephants as they kill, and wild honey.

  The ivory thus collected is seldom brought down to the coast by the hunters themselves. They dispose of it to the itinerant merchants, who come annually from the coast with arms and ammunition to purchase this valuable commodity. Some of these merchants will collect ivory in the course of one season, sufficient to load four or five asses. A great quantity of ivory is likewise brought from the interior by the slave coffles; there are, however, some Slatees of the Mohammedan persuasion, who, from motives of religion, will not deal in ivory, nor eat of the flesh of the elephant, unless it has been killed with a spear.

  The quantity of ivory collected in this part of Africa is not so great, nor are the teeth in general so large as in the countries nearer the line; few of them weigh more than eighty or one hundred pounds; and upon an average, a bar of European merchandise may be reckoned as the price of a pound of ivory.

  I have now, I trust, in this and the preceding chapters, explained with sufficient minuteness the nature and extent of the commercial connection which at present prevails, and has long subsisted, between the Negro natives of those parts of Africa which I visited, and the nations of Europe; and it appears that slaves, gold, and ivory, together with the few articles enumerated in the beginning of my work, viz, bees-wax and honey, hides, gums, and dye-woods, constitute the whole catalogue of exportable commodities. Other productions, however, have been incidentally noticed as the growth of Africa; such as grain of different kinds, tobacco, indigo, cotton-wool, and perhaps a few others; but all of these (which can only be obtained by cultivation and labour), the natives raise sufficient only for their own immediate expenditure; nor under the present system of their laws, manners, trade, and government, can anything farther be expected from them. It cannot, however, admit of a doubt, that all the rich and valuable productions, both of the East and West Indies, might easily be naturalised and brought to the utmost perfection in the tropical parts of this immense continent. Nothing is wanting to this end but example, to enlighten the minds of the natives, and instruction, to enable them to direct their industry to proper objects. It was not possible for me to behold the wonderful fertility of the soil, the vast herds of cattle, proper both for labour and food, and a variety of other circumstances favourable to colonisation and agriculture – and reflect, withal, on the means which presented themselves of a vast inland navigation, without lamenting that a country so abundantly gifted and favoured by nature, should remain in its present savage and neglected state. Much more did I lament that a people of manners and disposition so gentle and benevolent, should either be left as they now are, immersed in the gross and uncomfortable blindness of pagan superstition, or permitted to become converts to a system of bigotry and fanaticism, which, without enlightening the mind, often debases the heart. On this subject many observations might be made; but the reader will probably think that I have already digressed too largely, and I now, therefore, return to my situation at Kamalia.

  * I am informed that the gold mine, as it is called, in Wicklow, in Ireland, which was discovered in the year 1795, is near the top, and upon the steep slope of a mountain. Here pieces of gold of several ounces weight were frequently found. What would have been gold dust two miles below, was here golden gravel—that is, each grain was like a small pebble in size, and one piece was found which weighed nearly twenty-two ounces troy.

  Chapter 24

  Transactions at Kamalia resumed – Arabic manuscripts in use among the Mohammedan Negroes – Reflections concerning the conversion and education of the Negro children – Return of the Author’s benefactor, Karfa – Further account of the purchase and treatment of slaves – Fast of Rhamadan, how observed by the Negroes – Author’s anxiety for the day of departure – The caravan sets out – Account of it on its departure, and proceedings on the road until its arrival at Kinytakooro.

  THE SCHOOLMASTER, to whose care I was entrusted during the absence of Karfa, was a man of a mild disposition and gentle manners; his name was Fankooma; and although he himself adhered strictly to the religion of Mahomet, he was by no means intolerant in his principles towards others who differed from him. He spent much of his time in reading; and teaching appeared to be his pleasure, as well as employment. His school consisted of seventeen boys, most of whom were sons of Kafirs, and two girls, one of whom was Karfa’s own daughter. The girls received their instructions in the daytime, but the boys always had their lessons by the light of a large fire before daybreak, and again late in the evening; for being considered, during their scholarship, as the domestic slaves of the master, they were employed in planting corn, bringing firewood, and in other servile offices through the day.

  Exclusive of the Koran, and a book or two of commentaries thereon, the schoolmaster possessed a variety of manuscripts, which had partly been purchased from the trading Moors, and partly borrowed from Bushreens in the neighbourhood, and copied with great care. Other manuscripts had been produced to me at different places in the course of my journey, and on recounting those I had before seen, and those which were now shown to me, and interrogating the schoolmaster on the subject, I discovered that the Negroes are in possession (among others) of an Arabic version of the Pentateuch of Moses, which they call Taureta la Moosa. This is so highly esteemed, that it is often sold for the value of one prime slave. They have likewise a version of the Psalms of David (Zabora Dawidi). And, lastly, the book of Isaiah, which they call Lingeeli la Isa, and it is in very high esteem. I suspect, indeed, that in all these copies, there are interpolations of some of the peculiar tenets of Mahomet; for I could distinguish in many passages the name of the Prophet. It is possible, however, that this circumstance might otherwise have been accounted for, if my knowledge of the Arabic had been more extensive. By means of those books, many of the converted Negroes have acquired an acquaintance with some of the remarkable events recorded in the Old Testament. The account of our first parents; the death of Abel; the deluge; the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; the story of Joseph and his brethren; the history of Moses, David, Solomon, etc All these have been related to me in the Mandingo language, with tolerable exactness, by different people, and my surprise was not greater on hearing these accounts from the lips of the Negroes, than theirs, on finding that I was already acquainted with them; for although the Negroes in general have a very great idea of the wealth and power of the Europeans, I am afraid that the Mohammedan converts among them think but very lightly of our superior attainments in religious knowledge. The white traders in the maritime districts take no pains to counteract this unhappy prejudice; always performing their own devotions in secret, and seldom condescending to converse with the Negroes in a friendly and instructive manner. To me, therefore, it was not so much the subject of wonder as matter of regret, to observe, that while the superstition of Mahomet has, in this manner, scattered a few faint beams of learning among these poor people, the precious light of Christianity is altogether excluded. I could not but lament that, although the coast of Africa has now been known and frequented by the Europeans for more than
two hundred years, yet the Negroes still remain entire strangers to the doctrines of our holy religion. We are anxious to draw from obscurity the opinions and records of antiquity, the beauties of Arabian and Asiatic literature, etc; but while our libraries are thus stored with the learning of various countries, we distribute, with a parsimonious hand, the blessings of religious truth to the benighted nations of the earth. The natives of Asia derive but little advantage in this respect from an intercourse with us; and even the poor Africans, whom we affect to consider as barbarians, look upon us, I fear, as little better than a race of formidable but ignorant heathens. When I produced Richardson’s Arabic Grammar to some Slatees on the Gambia, they were astonished to think that any European should understand and write the sacred language of their religion. At first they suspected that it might have been written by some of the slaves carried from the coast; but on a closer examination, they were satisfied that no Bushreen could write such beautiful Arabic; and one of them offered to give me an ass, and sixteen bars of goods, if I would part with the book. Perhaps, a short and easy introduction to Christianity, such as is found in some of the catechisms for children, elegantly printed in Arabic, and distributed on different parts of the coast, might have a wonderful effect. The expense would be but trifling; curiosity would induce many to read it; and the evident superiority which it would possess over their present manuscripts, both in point of elegance and cheapness, might at last obtain it a place among the schoolbooks of Africa.