12 
VOYAGE TO SENEGAL. ^ 
part he had been shipwrecked ; and on being informed, he called 
several of his fellows, and made a sign to them to follow him. 
By the manner in which they approached, M . de Brisson per- 
ceived that his protector was a man of some consideration ; and 
he afterwards learned that he was one of the priests, whom they 
called a Talba. 
On reaching the sea-shore they shouted w ith joy ; but their 
eagerness for plunder soon set them at variance. Several of them 
swam off to the remains of the wreck in order to get what they 
could, while those who remained behind were afraid that they 
should not obtain their share : the women, in particular, became 
quite outrageous. 
l^he news of this shipwreck becoming known in the country, 
the savages ran towards the shore in great numbers ; and their dis- 
putes about the plunder attained such a height that several lives 
were lost. The women, enraged at not being able to get to the 
ship, fell upon the unfortunate Frenchmen, and partly stripped 
them naked, disputing all the time who should possess the 
clothes of M. de Brisson, which were better than the rest. 
The talba, M'ho had become the master of the ship-wreck- 
ed cre^v, but Avho, though a priest, was a warrior by pro- 
fession, perceiving that the number of savages increased every 
instant, found himself obliged to join ^\itli two friends in order 
to secure the portion of plunder which he had obtained. The 
arrangements being madC;, as well concerning the share of plunder 
as that of the slaves, the three Moors retired from ihe crowd for 
the purpose of biding their booty. The Frenchmen were con- 
ducted to a miserable hut covered with moss, about a league 
distant fj om the sea, where they were crow^ded togedier and ri-r 
gorously searched nt case they might have concealed some va- 
luables; but nothing being found on them, they were stripped 
quite naked, and even robbed of their shirts and handkerchiefs. 
M. de Brisson then learned that his master was called Sidy Ma^ 
hammet-del-Zoii%e, of the tribe of Labdesseho, the most fero- 
cious of any in the desert, and the irreconcilable enemy of the 
WadelimSf who are not much better. 
After having buried in the sand tlie treasure which he had ac- 
quired, Sidy-Muhammet returned to the shore to get his share 
of the plunder of the ship ; and during his absence a troop of 
Wadelims attacked the retreat of the Europeans, pulled them 
out by the throat and the hair of the head, and then began to 
fight amongst themselves for the few clothes which M. de Brisson 
had about him; and in their jealous fury they not only stripped 
him to the skin, but pursued him behind some heaps of sand, 
w here they knocked him down, and almost beat him to death. 
They were pre|)arnig a rope to strangle him, when one of the 
