Chapter IX

Message from Almamy — My Visit to Boolibany — Subject of Interview with him — His hostile Conduct and peremptory Demand for my leaving Samba Contaye — The Necessity of my Compliance — Return to the Camp accompanied by an Escort — Preparations for the March — Departure for Boolibany — Arrival there — Almamy endeavours to make us enter the Town — My Refusal, and Selection of a Position for the Camp — Return of my first Messenger to Mr. Dochard — His Misfortune and Failure — False Alarm at the Capital, and its Consequences — Indecision of Almamy and the Chiefs.

The month of January, 1819, also rolled over without any intelligence from either Mr. Dochard or Mr. Partarrieau, and what could detain the latter from joining me, or prevent the former from sending some person to make me acquainted with his proceedings and their result at Sego, I was at a loss to conjecture. Had the latter, however, either joined or forwarded the supplies which I was so much in want of, I would have endeavoured to reach Sego with the whole expedition, and try if it were not possible, by some means or other, to obtain Dha’s permission to erect boats, and embark on the Niger, but to have gone there without the means necessary to induce him and his chiefs to forward my views would have been fruitless work.

Another reason, too, prevented me taking this step without waiting Mr. Partarrieau’s return, namely, the impossibility of leaving Bondoo without paying to Almamy the articles promised his predecessor, and which, even with the assistance of the French officers at Galam, I could not have accomplished.

To add to these difficulties, one of a still more unpleasant nature, and attended with circumstances which clearly evinced a change in Almamy’s intentions towards us, occurred early in February.

One evening, on my return from Baquelle, where I had gone to procure some beads from the French merchants for the purchase of provisions, I found at the camp a messenger from Almamy to request my immediate attendance at Boolibany, where he had some business of such importance to communicate that he could not entrust it with any of his people.

What this might have been I could not readily imagine, but from some words that escaped from the messenger, I was inclined to think it was some information he had received concerning Mr. Dochard, and which appeared the more likely, as at that very time a large coffle of travelling merchants with slaves arrived at the capital from Sego.

My anxiety for Mr. Dochard’s safety, added to an intention I had of proposing to Almamy to be allowed to remove my camp to Baquelle, induced me to obey the summons without delay, but my surprise and disappointment may be more easily conceived than I can possibly express, when, on being admitted into the royal presence, where were assembled all the ministers, chiefs, &c., Almamy told me that I must, without delay, remove my camp from Samba Contaye to the capital, where, as he was in daily expectation of the arrival of the Kartan army, I would be more secure under his own protection than I possibly could be elsewhere.

Although I must acknowledge that this speech conveyed to my mind a very different idea from that which he intended it to do, I nevertheless endeavoured to hide any effect it might have had on the expression of my countenance, and, at the same time that I thanked him for his consideration for my safety, expressed a wish, in apparent good humour, to be allowed to remain where I was; as it would put me to much inconvenience indeed, both to remove my baggage which was then all open, and to form a new camp which would probably not be finished before Mr. Partarrieau would return from the coast.

In answer to these remonstrances on my part, he said that he would afford me every assistance I might require, both in removing my baggage and forming a new camp, if I did not wish to take up my quarters within the walls of the town, where I should be accommodated with as much room as I might want.

This I decidedly objected to, from a conviction that I would find much difficulty in again getting out of it, and was about making some further objections to the move he proposed, or rather dictated, when he ordered me to leave him, and, in a very angry tone indeed, said he would take no excuse whatever, as if I did not immediately comply, he would force me to it.

A refusal at that moment would have been highly imprudent as I was in his power, and which he said he should exercise by keeping me where I was until I should write to my _head man_ at Samba Contaye, and direct him to join me without delay with all the men and baggage. This I positively refused to do, but, as the only means left in my power of getting out of his hands, I promised to comply with his wishes of moving my camp, on condition that he should allow me to return there immediately to make the necessary preparations. To this he made some objections, but finding I was determined not to comply on any other terms, he at length consented, adding, however, that I should be accompanied by a strong detachment to enforce the fulfilment of the promise I had made. This surprised me much indeed, as in all our former transactions he had implicitly relied on my word; but I must acknowledge in this instance I did not purpose keeping it, as I had formed a determination to make a forced march to Baquelle the night of my return to the camp, and thereby put it out of Almamy’s power to serve me such a trick again. But he was too well aware of the advantage he now possessed over me to trust any longer to my word, and therefore had recourse to the most efficacious means of forcing me to compliance.

I really cannot give an idea of the state of my mind during the remainder of that night; suffice it to say that, for the first time since leaving the coast, I began to suspect treachery, and a predetermination on the part of Almamy and his chiefs to oppose our further progress. I still however had hopes, faint ones indeed, that time, patience, large presents, and explanatory conversation with Almamy in private, would obtain the desired permission to proceed eastward.

The following morning, after waiting nearly an hour for his highness Saada, who undertook to carry Almamy’s orders into effect, we left Boolibany, accompanied by a party of about one hundred horse and foot, which augmented at every village we passed through. When about half way, Saada, who complained much of being fatigued from the heat of the sun!!! halted, and wished me to follow his example, to which, as I would not consent, he sent forward some of his party with me.

Two days were spent in the preparations necessary for the march, which we commenced at five o’clock in the morning of the 13th of February. We halted that night at Gamby, and reached the capital the following morning at half after eight. Almamy, who, with some of his train, came out to meet us, wished us to enter the town and remain there, as he said, till huts could be prepared for us; but, as I would not listen to his proposal under any pretence whatever, he proceeded with me to select a site for our camp convenient to water. A little eminence, the summit of which was shaded by a large tamarind tree, and within a few yards of some wells, west of the town, from which it was distant about two musket shots, offered more advantages than any other spot around Boolibany. We therefore, having unloaded the animals, and arranged the baggage under the tree, commenced, on the following morning, to surround our post with a strong fence of stakes and thorny bushes, which, with our huts and the addition of a new well about fifteen feet deep, we completed in a few days; during which his majesty paid me some visits, and made us a present of a bullock, asking, however, in return, a piece of baft to make a dress which was double its value.

We had not been long here when Alley Lowe, the man I had sent from Samba Contaye with the dollars and other articles to Mr. Dochard, returned, not having been able to pass Kasson, where he was robbed, and from where he with difficulty escaped with his life. Dheangina, the man who accompanied him, was taken ill with the Guinea worm at a very early part of their march, in which state he remained so long unable to move, that Alley Lowe endeavoured to prosecute the journey alone, but in which he unfortunately failed. He had neither seen nor heard any thing of Bakoro or the man I sent with him; I was therefore in hopes they had been able to pass; but alas! those hopes soon vanished, and I had the mortification of seeing them return in a short time equally unsuccessful. Their case however was not that of Alley Lowe, who would have got on if the possibility of his doing so had existed.

They had idled so much of their time at the towns and villages they passed on the road, that their stock of articles for the purchase of provisions was soon exhausted, and they were reduced to the necessity of selling one of their horses to procure subsistence. Ismena, too, had been ill some time; but Bakoro, who was well and might have gone on without him, had he felt the least inclination to do so, squandered both his time and money until the means of proceeding were completely exhausted.

This second failure in the attainment of an object I had so much at heart, and the impossibility which presented itself of inducing any of the natives of the country to undertake such a voyage, had I even promised them the whole baggage of the expedition, added to my anxiety for the arrival of Mr. Partarrieau, had such an effect on my spirits that I could with difficulty at times force myself to take the exercise necessary for my health, which, in spite of all those annoyances and the effects of the late season, continued unimpaired.

The month of March was spent in anxious suspense on these subjects, and in visiting the country about Boolibany, which is beautifully diversified by hill and dale thinly covered with wood.

Almamy during this month received a hasty report from the north-east frontier that the Kartan army was within a day’s march of the capital, where the utmost confusion prevailed in consequence of the inhabitants from all the neighbouring villages having fled to it for protection. So great was the crowd that many could not find room to lie down in the streets.

On one occasion when all the women were busily employed drawing water from the wells, where were also many of the men endeavouring to procure for their horses a share of the scanty and muddy supply they afforded, the alarm was given by some people who had been attending herds of cattle to the eastward of the town, from which direction they were seen running in the utmost confusion, the altercations at the wells, and the busy scene going on there, soon closed by one of a still more extraordinary and confused nature. The supposed approach of the enemy was no sooner made known amongst them, than they all, as if by magic, dropped their jars, calabashes, and leather bags, and ran with all their might to the nearest gate of the town, which, being rather narrow, was so much crowded, that an old man and a girl about eight years of age were trampled to death.

A council of war, composed of some of the princes and their followers, with Almamy at their head, assembled between our camp and the town. I attended to witness their proceedings, which were carried on with the utmost contempt to the rules of order or regularity; every one present proposing some plan of his own, and rejecting that of his companions. I had been all this time sitting on horseback unobserved by Almamy, who had scarcely said a word on the subject. When he perceived that I was present he beckoned me to approach him, and, with much earnestness and anxiety depicted on his countenance, asked my opinion, which I hesitated in giving; but being requested by the whole council to do so, I said that I thought it would be advisable, previous to deciding on any plan either of attack or defence, to reconnoitre for the purpose of ascertaining beyond a doubt the enemy’s strength and position, in case they were really in the country, but which I much doubted.

My opinion was favourably received by the whole assembly, but nobody could be found to undertake the task which to them was a new one. Saada, although a young man, and better mounted than any other person in the town, was the first to refuse. At length a Joloff man, one of Almamy’s suite, offered to undertake it, if his majesty would provide him with a horse, and appoint some person to accompany him. The horse was brought, but not even one of the king’s slaves could be found willing to go—the Joloff man therefore set off alone. He had not been gone an hour when it was found that the alarm had been given by Saada’s herdsman, who, seeing such crowds about the wells, knew if he did not adopt that means of driving them away, he should not be able to procure water for the cattle during the day, and, although the death of the man and girl killed at the gate was, in addition to the false alarm, the consequence of his cleverness, he was nevertheless permitted to escape with impunity—nay, he was not so much as called to an account for his conduct. Saada was so pleased with his slave’s adroit stratagem, that he not only laughed at the affair, but, when spoken to by the friends of the deceased, told them they were rightly served. The scene of confusion and uproar which for several days existed at Boolibany, from the immense numbers of people who flocked to it for security from the unwalled towns, was beyond any thing I had ever witnessed. It, however, ended in a scarcity of provisions which necessitated them to return to their homes.