200 WESTERN AFRICA* 



Mr. M'Leod, during his residence at Whidah, in 1809 

 found the country still groaning under the cruel effects of 

 Dahoman tyranny. He particularly deplores the case of 

 Sally Abson, daughter of the late English governor by a 

 native female, who, trained in all European accomplish- 

 ments, added to them the most engaging simplicity of 

 manners. Suddenly, she disappeared, and Mr. M'Leod's 

 eager inquiries were met by a mysterious silence ; all hung 

 down their heads, confused and terrified. At length an ola 

 domestic whispered to him that a party of the king's half- 

 heads (as his messengers are termed) had carried her off in 

 the night, to be enrolled among the number of his wives, 

 and warned him of the danger of uttering a word of com 

 plaint. 



A more pleasing spectacle was presented to Messrs. Watt 

 and Winterbottom, who, in 1794, ascended the Rio Nunez 

 to Kakundy, and made an excursion to Foota Jallo, the 

 principal state of the southern Foulahs. This people pro- 

 fess the Mohammedan religion, are orderly and weU in- 

 structed, display skill in working mines of iron, and in car- 

 rying on the manufacture of cloth, leather, and other African 

 fabrics. Caravans of 500 or 600 Foulahs were often met, 

 carrying on their heads loads of 160 pounds weight. The 

 article chiefly sought after is salt, which the children suck as 

 ours do sugar ; and it is common to describe a rich man by 

 saying, he eats salt, The two principal towns, Laby and 

 Teemboo, were found to contain respectively 5000 and 7000 

 inhabitants. The king could muster 16,000 troops, whom, 

 unhappily, he employed in war, or at least hunts, against 

 twenty-four pagan nations that surround his territory, 

 chiefly with the view of procuring slaves for the market on 

 the coast. When the travellers represented to him the ini- 

 qui':y of this course, he replied, " The people with whom 

 we go to war never pray to God ; we never go to war with 

 people who pray to God Almighty." As they urged, that 

 in a case of common humanity this ought to make no dis- 

 tinction, he quoted passages from the Koran commanding 

 the faithful to make war on unbelievers. They took the 

 liberty to insinuate that these might be interpolations of 

 the I)e^'il, but found it impossible to shake his reliance on 

 their authenticity. 



A more recent and memorable intercourse was that opened 



