CHAPTER V.
In crossing the Bar at Senegal the boat is upset by a Tornado--We escape being devoured by Sharks only to be captured by the Natives--Are taken into the interior of the country, and brought before the Negro King, from whose wrath we are saved by the intercession of his female attendants.
A day or two after we had arrived, the master of another vessel thatwas at anchor near to us came on board and borrowed our long-boat andsome hands that he might go in it to Senegal. The captain, who was anold friend of the party who made the request, agreed to lend it tohim, and as accidents are very frequent with boats crossing the bar,on account of the heavy breakers, the best swimmers were selected forthe purpose, and the charge of the boat was given to me. We set off,five men rowing and I at the helm. When we approached the bar, atornado, which had been for some time threatening, came upon us. Theimpetuosity of these blasts is to be matched in no part of the world,and as it came at once in its full force, we endeavoured, by puttingthe boat before it, to escape its fury. This compelled us to run tothe southward along the coast. We managed to keep the boat up for along while, and hoped to have weathered it, when, being on the bar,and in broken water, a large wave curled over us, filled the boat, andit went down in an instant.
Our only chance now was to reach the shore by swimming, but it was ata distance, with broken water the whole way; and our great terror wasfrom the sharks, which abound on the coast and are extremelyravenous--nor were we without reason for our alarm. Scarcely had theboat gone down, and we were all stretching out for the shore, when oneof our men shrieked, having been seized by the sharks, and instantlytorn to pieces. His blood stained the water all around, and thisattracting all the sharks proved the means of our escape. Never shallI forget the horrible sensation which I felt as I struggled throughthe broken water, expecting every minute a limb to be taken off by oneof those voracious animals. If one foot touched the other, my heartsank, thinking it was the nose of a shark, and that its bite wouldimmediately follow. Agonized with these terrors, we struggled on--nowa large wave curling over us and burying us under water, or now forcedby the waves towards the beach, rolling us over and over. So batteredwere we by the surf, that we dived under the waves to escape the blowswhich we received, and then rose and struck out again. At last, wornout with exertion, we gained the shore, but our toil was not over.
The beach was of a sand so light that it crumbled beneath us, and atthe return of the wave which threw us on shore we were dragged backagain, and buried in sand and water. We rose to renew our endeavours,but several times without success, for we could not obtain a firmfooting. At last the Negroes, who had witnessed our accident, and whonow came down in great numbers on the beach, laid hold of us as thesea threw us up, and dragged us beyond the reach of the waves. Wornout with fatigue we lay on the sand, waiting to ascertain what thesavages would do with us; they were not long in letting us know, forthey soon began to strip us of every article of clothing on our backs.One of our men attempted to resist, upon which a Negro drove a spearthrough his thigh.
Having divided our apparel, after some consultation, they tied ourhands, and placing us in the midst of a large force, armed withspears, and bows and arrows, they went off with us for the inland partof the country. We set off with heavy hearts; taking, as we thought, alast farewell of the ocean, and going forwards in great apprehensionof the fate that awaited us. The sand was very deep, and the heat ofthe sun excessive, for it was then about noon. Without any garments,we were soon scorched and blistered all over, and in intolerableanguish, as well as fatigued; but the Negroes compelled us to move on,goading us with their spears if we slackened our pace, and threateningto run us through if we made a halt. We longed for the night, as itwould afford a temporary relief to our sufferings. It came at last,and the Negroes collected wood and lighted a fire to keep off the wildbeasts, lying round it in a circle, and placing us in the midst ofthem. We hoped to have some rest after what we had gone through, butit was impossible--the night proved even worse than the day. Themusquitoes came down upon us in such swarms, and their bites were sointolerable that we were almost frantic. Our hands being tied, wecould not beat them off, and we rolled over and over to get rid ofthem. This made matters worse, for our whole bodies being covered withraised blisters from the rays of the sun, our roiling over and overbroke the blisters, and the sand getting into the wounds, added to thebites of the musquitoes, made our sufferings intolerable. We hadbefore prayed for night, we now prayed for day. Some prayed for death.
When the sun rose, we set off again, our conductors utterlydisregarding our anguish, and goading us on as before. In the forenoonwe arrived at a village, where our guards refreshed themselves; a verysmall quantity of boiled corn was given to each of us, and wecontinued our journey, passing by several small towns, consisting, asthey all do in that country, of huts built of reeds, round in form,and gathered to a point at top. This day was the same as thepreceding. We were pricked with spears if we stumbled or lagged,threatened with death if we had not strength to go on. At last theevening arrived, and the fires were lighted. The fires were muchlarger than before, I presume because the wild beasts were morenumerous, for we heard them howling in every direction round us, whichwe had not done on the night before. The musquitoes did not annoy usso much, and we obtained some intervals of broken rest. At daylight weresumed our journey, as near as we could judge by the sun, in a moreeasterly direction.
During the first two days we were badly received by the inhabitants ofthe towns, whose people had been kidnapped so often for theslave-trade; they hated the sight of our white faces, for theypresumed that we had come for that purpose; but as we advanced in theinterior, we were better treated, and the natives looked upon us withsurprise and wonder, considering us as a new race of beings. Some ofthe women seeing how utterly exhausted we were with fatigue andhunger, looked with compassion on us, and brought us plenty of boiledcorn and goats' milk to drink. This refreshed us greatly, and wecontinued our journey in anxious expectation of the fate for which wewere reserved.
On crossing a small river, which appeared to be the boundary of twodifferent states, a multitude of Negroes approached, and seemeddisposed to take us from our present masters, but after a conference,they agreed among themselves, and a party of them joined with thosewho had previously conducted us. We soon came to the edge of a desert,and there we halted till the Negroes had filled several calabashes andgourds full of water, and collected a quantity of boiled corn. As soonas this was done, we set off again, and entered the desert. We wereastonished and terrified when we looked around us, not a singlevestige of herbage, not a blade of grass was to be seen--all was onewide waste of barren sand, so light as to rise in clouds at the leastwind, and we sank so deep in walking through it that at last we couldhardly drag one foot after the other. But we were repaid for ourfatigue, for when we halted at night, no fires were lighted, and toour great delight we found that there were no musquitoes to annoy us.We fell into a sound sleep, which lasted till morning, and were muchrefreshed; indeed, so much so as to enable us to pursue our journeywith alacrity.
In our passage over the desert we saw numbers of elephants' teeth, butno animals. How the teeth came there, unless it were that theelephants were lost in attempting to cross the desert, I cannotpretend to say. Before we had crossed the desert, our water wasexpended, and we suffered dreadfully from thirst, walking as we didduring the whole day under a vertical sun. The night was equallypainful, as we were so tortured with the want of water; but on thefollowing day, when our strength was nearly exhausted, and we weredebating whether we should not lie down and allow the spears of ourconductors to put an end to our miseries, we came to the banks of ariver which the Negroes had evidently been anxiously looking for. Herewe drank plentifully, and remained all the day to recruit ourselves,for the Negroes were almost as exhausted as we were. The next morningwe crossed the river, and plunged into a deep wood: the ground beinghigh, the musquitoes did not annoy us so much as they did down on
thelow marshy land near the sea-coast. During our traverse through thewood, we subsisted solely upon the birds and animals which the Negroeskilled with their bows and arrows.
When we had forced our way through the forest, we found the country,as before, interspersed with wicker villages or small hamlets at a fewmiles' distance from each other. Round each village there were smallpatches of Guinea corn, and we frequently came to clusters of hutswhich had been deserted. Between the sea-coast and the desert we hadtraversed we observed that many of the inhabitants had Europeanfire-arms, but now the only weapons to be seen were spears and bowsand arrows. As we advanced we were surrounded at every village by thenatives, who looked upon us with surprise and astonishment, examiningus, and evidently considering us a new species. One morning we arrivedat a very large Negro town, and as we approached, our guards began toswell with pride and exultation, and drove us before them among thecrowds of inhabitants, singing songs of triumph, and brandishing theirweapons. Having been driven through a great part of the town, wearrived at a number of huts separated by a high palisade from therest, and appropriated, as we afterwards found, to the use of the kingof the country, his wives and attendants. Here we waited outside sometime, while our guards went in and acquainted this royal personagewith the present which they had brought for him.
We had reason to think that our captors were not his subjects, but hadbeen at variance with him, and had brought us as a present, that theymight make peace with an enemy too strong for them. We were at lastordered to go inside the inclosure, and found ourselves in a largeopen building, constructed like the others, of reeds and boughs. Inthe centre was squatted a ferocious-looking old Negro, attended byfour young Negro women. He was raw-boned and lean, and of a very largeframe. A diabolical ferocity was imprinted on his grim countenance,and as he moved his arms and legs he showed that under his loose skinthere was a muscle of extraordinary power. I never had before seensuch a living type of brutal strength and barbarity. On a mat beforehim were provisions of different kinds. Behind him stood several grimsavages who held his weapons, and on each side, at a greater distance,were rows of Negroes, with their heads bent down and their armscrossed, awaiting his orders. The chief or king, as well as the fourwomen, had clothes of the blue cotton cloth of the country, that is,one piece wrapped round the loins and descending to the ankles, andanother worn over their shoulders; but, with few exceptions, all therest, as well as the inhabitants generally, were quite naked. So werewe, as the reader may recollect. Round the necks of the women wererows of gold beads, longer by degrees, until the last of the rows hunglower than their bosoms, and both the king and they had largebracelets of gold round their arms, wrists, and legs. The women, whowere young and well-looking, stared at us with eager astonishment,while the old king scowled upon us so as to freeze our blood. At last,rising from the ground, he took his sabre from the man who held itbehind him, and walked up among us, who with our heads bowed, andbreathless with fear, awaited our impending fate. I happened to bestanding the foremost, and grasping my arm with a gripe which made myheart sink, with his hand which held the sword he bent down my headstill lower than it was. I made sure that he was about to cut off myhead, when the women, who had risen from the ground, ran crowdinground him, and with mingled entreaties and caresses strove to inducehim not to put his intentions, if such he really had, into execution.They prevailed at last; the youngest took away his sword, and thenthey led him back to his seat, after which the women came to us togratify their curiosity. They felt our arms and breasts, puttinginnumerable questions to those who brought us thither. They appearedvery much amazed at the length of my hair, for I had worn it tied in along cue. Taking hold of it, they gave it two or three severe pulls,to ascertain if it really grew to my head, and finding that it did so,they expressed much wonder. When their curiosity was satisfied, theythen appeared to consider our condition, and having obtained the oldking's permission, they brought us a calabash full of cush-cush, thatis Guinea corn boiled into a thick paste. Our hands being still tied;we could only by shaking our heads express our inability to profit bytheir kindness. Understanding what we meant, they immediately cut ourthongs, and the youngest of the four perceiving that my arms werebenumbed from having been confined so many days, and that I could notuse them, showed the most lively commiseration for my sufferings. Shegently chafed my wrists with her hands, and showed every sign of pityin her countenance, as indeed did all the other three. But I was byfar the youngest of the whole party who had been captured, and seemedmost to excite their pity and good-will. Shortly afterwards we wereall taken into an adjoining tent or hut, and our bodies were rubbedall over with an oil, which after a few days' application left usperfectly healed, and as smooth as silk. So altered was our condition,that those very people who had guarded us with their spears andthreatened us with death, were now ordered to wait upon us, and asthe king's wives frequently came to see how we were treated, we wereserved with the utmost humility and attention.