Chapter XXVIII: Appendix: No. II

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_Translations of a Manuscript descriptive of Mr. Park’s Death._

MR. SALAME’S TRANSLATION.

[The words in italics, so distinguished at that Gentleman’s request, not
being in the original.]

A literal translation of a Declaration, written in a corrupted Arabic, from the town of Yaúd in the interior of Africa.

In the name of God the Merciful and the Munificent.

This Declaration is issued from the town called[145] Yaúd in the Country of Kossa[146].—We (the writer,) do witness the _following_ case; (statement.) We never saw, nor heard of the sea (River) called[148] Koodd; but we sat to hear (understood) the voice (report) of some persons _saying_, “We saw a ship, equal to her we never saw before; and the King of Yaúd had sent plenty of every kind of food, with cows and sheep; _There_ were two men, one woman, two male slaves and two maids in the ship;[149] _The_ two white men _were_ derived from the race (_sect_) of Nassrí; (Christ or Christianity.) The King of Yaúd asked them to come out to him; (to land[150]; and they refused coming out, (landing,) and they went to the _King of the_ Country of[151] Bassa, who is greater than the King of Yaúd; And _while_ they _were_ sitting in the ship and gaining a position (rounding) over the Cape of Koodd, and _were_ in society with the people of the King of Bassa, the ship reached (struck) a-head of Mountain which took (destroyed) _her_ away,[152] and the men and women of Bassa all together, with every kind of arms; (goods); And the ship could find no way to avoid the mountain; And the man who _was_ in the ship, killed his wife, and threw all his property into the Sea, (River), and _then_ they threw themselves _also_ from fear[153]: Afterwards they took one _out of the_ water till the news reached the town of Kanji,[154] the country of the King of Wawí, and the King of Wawí heard of it, he buried him in his earth, (grave), and the other we have not seen[155]; perhaps he is in the bottom of the water.”—And God knows best. Authentic from the mouth of Sherif Abrahim.—Finis.

MR. JACKSON’S TRANSLATION.

[Of this Gentleman’s considerate politeness in anticipating my wishes by a spontaneous offer to translate this MS., I shall have occasion to repeat my acknowledgments in the Geographical Appendix.]

In the name of God the Merciful and Clement.

This Narrative proceeds from the territory in Housa[146] called[145] Eeauree. _We observed_ an extraordinary event or circumstance[147], _but we neither saw nor heard of the River which is called[148] Kude_, and as we were sitting, we heard the voice of children and _we saw a vessel_ the like to which in size we never saw before; and, _we saw_ the King of Eeauree send cattle and sheep, and a variety of vegetables in great abundance: and there were two men and one woman, and two slaves, and _they tied or fastened them in the vessel_.[149]

There were also in the vessel, two white men of the race called Christians (N’sarrah) and the Sultan of Eeauree called aloud to them to come out of the vessel,[150] but they would not.

They proceeded to the country of Busa, which is greater than that of the Sultan of Eeauree, and as they were setting in the vessel, they hung or were stopped, by the Cape or Head Land of Kude.[151]

And the people of the Sultan of Busa called to them, and poured their arms into the vessel, and the vessel reached the head-land or cliff, and became attached or fixed to the head of the mountain, and could not pass it. Then the men and women of Busa collected themselves hostilely together, with arms of all descriptions, when the vessel being unable to clear or pass the Cape, the man in the vessel killed his wife[153] and threw the whole of her property into the river: they then threw themselves into the river, fear seizing them (the news of this occurrence was then conveyed to the Sultan Wawee) until it reached by water the territory of Kanjee,[154] in the country of the Sultan Wawee, and we buried it (a male body) in its earth, and one of them, we saw not at all in the water,[155] and God knows the truth of this report. From the mouth of the Shereef Ibrahim.—The end.

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I have sent the original MS. to the African Association, the following is Mr. Jackson’s transcript of it. I regret that Mr. Salamé did not also furnish a transcript of this MS.

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

هذه الوثيقه خرج من بلد حوسا يقال يَور ونحن راينا الامر لم نري ولانسمع في البحر الذي يقال كوض انما نحن جلسنا نسمع صاخ صبيان لرايت السفينه لم نري مثله قط فارسل سلطان يَور لرايته مع البقر والكبس مع انواع الطعام كثيرِ هما رجلان وامراة واحدة والعبدان وعقدان في السفينة رجلان بيضان خرجوا من نسب نصري ويدعوهو سلطان يور الي ان خرجوا اليه وابوا خروج ومشوا الي بلد بسا وهوا كبر من سلطان يور وهم يجلسون ويعلكون ملوك علي راس كُوض ويصاخور اهل سلطان بُسا لرايته وهم ركوب في السفينة بلغ السفينة راس جبل وياخد الجبل السفينة ورجال بُسا والنساه بسا يجمعون كلهم مع انواع السلاح والسفينة لم يجد طريق المنع الجبل ورجل الدي في السفينة قتل امراته ورمي ماله كله في البحر ورموا نفسهما في البحر لخوف ثم ياخدوا بلغ خبر الي سلطان واوي حتي بلغ ماه به الي بلد كنجي بلد سلطان وَاوَيَ ودفنه في قرابه وواحد منهما لم نره اقل في قهر الماه والله اعلم صح في فَم شريف اِبراهيم * تمت *

[Footnote 145: Sir William Ouseley (who very obligingly communicated a hurried translation from Crickhowel, although the original had been but two hours in his possession) read this Yaur or Yaôur.]

[Footnote 146: Sir Wm. writes Husa or Haousa: the latter is occasionally the Moorish pronunciation, but Houssa is invariably the negro. I certainly never once heard that Houssa included Yawoorie, which has a distinct Sovereign, who is mentioned in the MS.: Perhaps it may be accounted for, from Yawoorie being one of the seven kingdoms tributary to Houssa or Mallowa.]

[Footnote 147: Mr. Jackson has preserved this apparent contradiction in his fidelity to the original, according to his reading. He considers, it may be reconciled by presuming that the writer only saw the vessel pass Yawoorie, and did not witness the ultimate catastrophe at Boussa, where he imagines the river may first receive the name of Kude, as African rivers frequently have a different name in every country through which they flow. This interpretation does not make the writer a mere reporter as in the other translation, but a witness of all that happened at Yawoorie, although not afterwards. I never understood the river to have any other name than Quorra or Quolla, from Shego to Foör, yet of this we ought not to feel positive.]

[Footnote 148: It is very extraordinary that the name of the Quolla should always be written Kude, Koad, or Koada, and that Mr. Hutchison, who was learning Arabic of the Moors, in Ashantee, should be taught to write and pronounce as Quolla, the same Arabic word which every European proficient reads as above. I cannot help thinking that, from bad writing, ignorance, or perhaps some occidental difference, the _d_ is put for the _l_,[a] and that it should be Kule or Koala, especially as there appears to be a town called Kula on its banks, (see routes in Appendix) which comes very close to Kulla, Mr. Brown’s river. The identity of the Quolla and Kulla, seems confirmed by Mr. Dupuis reading the name of the kingdom, as written by the Moors, Koora, which seems as if they had written it for once, according to the negro pronunciation, (Quorra,) for as I have observed (p. 196) that the negroes always substitute r for the Moorish _l_ (a defect also characterising a dialect of the Coptic, the Chayma, the Tamanack, &c. &c., and common, as Baron Humboldt observes, to every zone) Koora becomes Koola, for the same reason which the Quorra of the negroes was always pronounced Quolla by the Moors; and Koola, it will be allowed, is very near to Mr. Brown’s Kulla.]

[Footnote a: I recollect one, but only one instance of the negroes substituting _d_ for the Moorish _l_, which was in Toppodo for Toppollo, a town of Bornoo.]

[Footnote 149: Mr. Jackson writes وعقدان في السفينة Uakkadan fee sfeena, i.e. and tied or bound them in the vessel or ship, adding, that he is at a loss to imagine how it can have been converted into “two maids in the ship.”[a] Sir Wm., however, in his hurried notice, rendered it ‘female slaves.’]

[Footnote a: _Ockdan fi ássafinat_, means either “_Two maids_, or _two female slaves_, in the ship,” and no otherwise.—A. S.]

[Footnote 150: “Invited (or entertained them) until they left him,” Sir Wm.]

[Footnote 151: Sir William, in his hurried perusal, read this, “and went on to the country of Besa, and (the Sultan of) this country is greater than the Sultan of Yaour: there they settled or halted, above Ras (Cape) Koumen. The people belonging to the Sultan of Besa saw the boat, and they went into the boat, and it reached the Mountain Cape, (or Headland,) and was there stopped.”]

[Footnote 152]

[Footnote 153: “And _the man who was_[a] in the boat slew his woman (امراة) and threw every article of his property into the river, and then cast _themselves_ into the river through fear.]

[Footnote a: I translate this in the singular, yet afterwards, there seems a confusion with the plural.” Sir Wm. This act, which appears very improbable, and which I never heard of in the oral accounts which I received whilst in Coomassie, (Diary, p. 91) if it was committed, must have been by Lieut. Martyn, recollecting the difference of his and Mr. Park’s dispositions, and Amadi Fatouma’s anecdote of the former wishing to kill him for preventing him from firing any more at the people of the King Gotoijege, I should observe here, that Amadi Fatouma’s _Poul_ nation can be no other than the Fillani, (p. 207) the Fullan of Ben Ali, for though it has been translated Poul, there is no _p_ in the Arabic, and the Moors in Ashantee always wrote _f_ for the negro _p_, as _fon_ for _pon_. As Col. Maxwell merely observes in his letter, that “Isaaco’s Arabic Journal was translated into English, by a person resident in Senegal, who probably had but an ordinary or colloquial knowledge of Arabic, it is to be regretted that the original was not transmitted with it, as a more careful perusal of it by Sir William Ouseley or some Arabic scholar in England, would probably reconcile the two accounts, at least in the names of places, if not in the circumstances, more than they can be from the translation remitted.]

[Footnote 154: See note; p. 202.]

[Footnote 155: “And the other did not,——from the violence of the water.”—Sir Wm.]