Captain Canot; Or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver
her hovel at sunset reading the Koran. Nor are the men of Timbo less
thrifty. Their city wall is said to hem in about ten thousand
individuals, representing all the social industries. They weave
cotton, work in leather, fabricate iron from the bar, engage
diligently in agriculture, and, whenever not laboriously employed,
devote themselves to reading and writing, of which they are
excessively fond.
These are the faint sketches, which, on ransacking my brain, I find
resting on its tablets. But I was tired of Timbo; I was perfectly
refreshed from my journey; and I was anxious to return to my factory
on the beach. Two "moons" only had been originally set apart for the
enterprise, and the third was already waxing towards its full. I
feared the Ali-Mami was not yet prepared with _slaves_ for my
departure, and I dreaded lest objections might be made if I approached
his royal highness with the flat announcement. Accordingly, I schooled
my interpreters, and visited that important personage. I made a long
speech, as full of compliments and blarney as a Christmas pudding is
of plums, and concluded by touching the soft part in African royalty's
heart--_slaves!_ I told the king that a vessel or two, with abundant
freights, would be waiting me on the river, and that I must hasten
thither with his choicest gangs if he hoped to reap a profit.
The king and the royal family were no doubt excessively grieved to
part with the Furtoo Mongo, but they were discreet persons and
"listened to reason." War parties and scouts were forthwith despatched
to blockade the paths, while press-gangs made recruits among the
villages, and even in Timbo. Sulimani-Ali, himself, sallied forth,
before daybreak, with a troop of horse, and at sundown, came back with
forty-five splendid fellows, captured in Findo and Furo!
The personal dread of me in the town itself, was augmented. If I had
been a Pestilence before, I was Death now! When I took my usual
morning walk the children ran from me screaming. Since the arrival of
Sulimani with his victims, all who were under the yoke thought their
hour of exile had come. The poor regarded me as the devil incarnate.
Once or twice, I caught women throwing a handful of dust or ashes
towards me, and uttering an invocation from the Koran to avert the
demon or save them from his clutches. Their curiosity was merged in
terror. _My popularity was over!_
It was not a little amusing that in the midst of the general dismay,
caused by the court of Timbo and myself, my colored brother
Ahmah-de-Bellah, and his kinsman Abdulmomen, lost no chance of
lecturing me about my soul! We kidnapped the Africans all day and
spouted Islamism all night! Our religion, however, was more
speculative than practical. It was much more important, they thought,
that we should embrace the faith of their peculiar theology, than that
we should trouble ourselves about human rights that interfered with
profits and pockets. We spared Mahometans and enslaved _only_ "_the
heathen_;" so that, in fact, we were merely obedient to the behests of
Mahomet when we subdued "the infidel!"
This process of proselytism, however, was not altogether successful.
As I was already a rather poor Christian, I fear that the Fullah did
not succeed in making me a very good Mussulman. Still, I managed to
amuse him with the hope of my _future_ improvement in his creed, so
that we were very good friends when the Ali-Mami summoned us for a
final interview.
The parting of men is seldom a maudlin affair. The king's relations
presented me bullocks, cows, goats, and sheep. His majesty sent me
five slaves. Sulimani-Ali offered a splendid white charger. The king's
wife supplied me with an African quilt ingeniously woven of red and
yellow threads unravelled from Manchester cottons; while
Ahmah-de-Bellah, like a gentleman of taste, despatched for my
consolation, the two prettiest handmaidens he could buy or steal in
Timbo!
CHAPTER XXV.
I shall not weary the reader with a narrative of my journey homeward
over the track I had followed on my way to Timbo. A grand Mahometan
service was performed at my departure, and Ahmah-de-Bellah accompanied
me as far as Jallica, whence he was recalled by his father in
consequence of a serious family dispute that required his presence.
Ali-Ninpha was prepared, in this place, to greet me with a welcome,
and a copious supply of gold, wax, ivory, and slaves. At Tamisso, the
worthy Mohamedoo had complied with his promise to furnish a similar
addition to the caravan; so that when we set out for Kya, our troop
was swelled to near a thousand strong, counting men, women, children
and ragamuffins.
At Kya I could not help tarrying four days with my jolly friend
Ibrahim, who received the tobacco, charged with "bitters," during my
absence, and was delighted to furnish a nourishing drop after my long
abstinence. As we approached the coast, another halt was called at a
favorable encampment, where Ali-Ninpha divided the caravan in four
parts, reserving the best portion of slaves and merchandise for me.
The division, before arrival, was absolutely necessary, in order to
prevent disputes or disastrous quarrels in regard to the merchantable
quality of negroes on the beach.
I hoped to take my people by surprise at Kambia; but when the factory
came in sight from the hill-tops back of the settlement, I saw the
Spanish flag floating from its summit, and heard the cannon booming
forth a welcome to the wanderer. Every thing had been admirably
conducted in my absence. The Fullah and my clerk preserved their
social relations and the public tranquillity unimpaired. My factory
and warehouse were as neat and orderly as when I left them, so that I
had nothing to do but go to sleep as if I had made a day's excursion
to a neighboring village.
Within a week I paid for the caravan's produce, despatched
Mami-de-Yong, and made arrangements with the captain of a slaver in
the river for the remainder of his merchandise. But the Fullah chief
had not left me more than a day or two, when I was surprised by a
traveller who dashed into my factory, with a message from
Ahmah-de-Bellah at Timbo, whence he had posted in twenty-one days.
Ahmah was in trouble. He had been recalled, as I said, from Jallica by
family quarrels. When he reached the paternal mat, he found his sister
Beeljie bound hand and foot in prison, with orders for her prompt
transportation to my factory as a slave. These were the irrevocable
commands of his royal father, and of her half-brother, Sulimani. All
his appeals, seconded by those of his mother, were unheeded. She must
be _shipped_ from the Rio Pongo; and no one could be trusted with the
task but the Ali-Mami's son and friend, the Mongo Teodor!
To resist this dire command, Ahmah charged the messenger to appeal to
my heart by our brotherly love _not_ to allow the maiden to be sent
over sea; but, by force or stratagem, to retain her until he arrived
on the beach.
The news amazed me. I knew that African Mahometans never sold their
caste or kindred into foreign slavery, unless their crime deserved a
penalty severer than death. I reflected a while on the message,
because I did not wish to complicate my relations with the leading
chiefs of the interior; but, in a few moments, natural sensibility
mastered every selfish impulse, and I told the envoy to hasten back on
the path of the suffering brother, and assure him I would shield his
sister, even at the risk of his kindred's wrath.
About a week afterwards I was aroused one morning by a runner from a
neighboring village over the hill, who stated that a courier reached
his town the night before from Sulimani-Ali,--a prince of
Timbo,--conducting a Fullah girl, who was to be sold by me
_immediately_ to a Spanish slaver. The girl, he said, resisted with
all her energy. She refused to walk. For the last four days she had
been borne along in a litter. She swore never to "see the ocean;" and
threatened to dash her skull against the first rock in her path, if
they attempted to carry her further. The stanch refusal embarrassed
her Mahometan conductor, inasmuch as his country's law forbade him to
use extraordinary compulsion, or degrade the maiden with a whip.
I saw at once that this delay and hesitation afforded an opportunity
to interfere judiciously in behalf of the spirited girl, whose sins or
faults were still unknown to me. Accordingly, I imparted the tale to
Ali-Ninpha; and, with his consent, despatched a shrewd dame from the
Mandingo's _harem_, with directions for her conduct to the village.
Woman's tact and woman's sympathy are the same throughout the world,
and the proud ambassadress undertook her task with pleased alacrity. I
warned her to be extremely cautious before the myrmidons of Sulimani,
but to seize a secret moment when she might win the maiden's
confidence, to inform her that I was the sworn friend of
Ahmah-de-Bellah, and would save her _if she followed my commands
implicitly_. She must cease resistance at once. She must come to the
river, which was fresh water, and not salt; and she must allow her
jailers to fulfil all the orders they received from her tyrannical
kinsmen. Muffled in the messenger's garments, I sent the manuscript
Koran of Ahmah-de-Bellah as a token of my truth, and bade the dame
assure Beeljie that her brother was already far on his journey to
redeem her in Kambia.
The mission was successful, and, early next day, the girl was brought
to my factory, _with a rope round her neck_.
The preliminaries for her purchase were tedious and formal. As her
sale was compulsory, there was not much question as to quality or
price. Still, I was obliged to promise a multitude of things I did not
intend to perform. In order to disgrace the poor creature as much as
possible, her sentence declared she should be "sold for salt,"--the
most contemptuous of all African exchanges, and used in the interior
for the purchase of _cattle_ alone.
Poor Beeljie stood naked and trembling before us while these
ceremonies were performing. A scowl of indignation flitted like a
shadow over her face, as she heard the disgusting commands. Tenderly
brought up among the princely brood of Timbo, she was a bright and
delicate type of the classes I described at the brook-side. Her limbs
and features were stained by the dust of travel, and her expression
was clouded with the grief of sensible degradation: still I would have
risked more than I did, when I beheld the mute appeal of her face and
form, to save her from the doom of Cuban exile.
When the last tub of salt was measured, I cut the rope from Beeljie's
neck, and, throwing over her shoulders a shawl,--in which she
instantly shrank with a look of gratitude,--called the female who had
borne my cheering message, to take the girl to her house and treat her
as the sister of my Fullah brother.
As I expected, this humane command brought the emissary of Sulimani to
his feet with a bound. He insisted on the restitution of the woman! He
swore I had deceived him; and, in fact, went through a variety of
African antics which are not unusual, even among the most civilized of
the tribes, when excited to extraordinary passion.
It was my habit, during these outbursts of native ire, to remain
perfectly quiet, not only until the explosion was over, but while the
smoke was disappearing from the scene. I fastened my eye, therefore,
silently, but intensely, on the tiger, following him in all his
movements about the apartment, till he sank subdued and panting, on
the mat. I then softly told him that this excitement was not only
unbecoming a Mahometan gentleman, and fit for a savage alone, but that
it was altogether wasted on the present occasion, _inasmuch as the
girl should be put on board a slaver in his presence_. Nevertheless, I