REVOLUTION IN YOLOF. 
149 
this simple formality, he treated those proud people like revolted 
subjects; on which the great men withdrew to Tin, king of 
Baol, and intreated his protection against their sovereign, whom 
they now stigmatized as an usurper. Latir-Fat-Soucabe, king of 
Baol, entered immediately into the views of the refugees, and 
fearing that he would himself be driven from his territories, if 
he gave Burba- Yolof time to strengthen himself in Cayor, he 
raised a body of troops, whose number was rapidly augmented by 
the discontented hordes who quitted the kingdom of Cayor. He 
then conducted them with so much skill and courage, that he 
beat Burba- Yolof in several skirmishes, and killed him in a ge- 
neral engagement; on which such of his army as were not cut 
in pieces took flight, so that, in a short time, the kingdom of 
Cayor had neither enemies to fear, nor a sovereign to go- 
vern it. 
Hitherto king Tin had only acted as an auxiliary : he had 
played the part of a man who, seeing his neighbour's house oa 
iire, runs and uses all his efforts to extinguish the flames in order 
that he may preserve his own. He had only taken part in this 
quarrel to maintain an equilibrium amongst his neighbours, and 
to prevent the most powerful from overrunning the others ; but 
now finding himself at the head of a numerous army, he wished 
to possess himself of the kingdom of Cayor, and to keep it by 
covering his usurpation with the veil of a legitimate election. 
With this view he convoked all the notables of the kingdom, 
and, on the appointed day, the people repaired to a vast plain, on 
which the army of Tin was encamped. He addressed them on 
the necessity of having a king who would govern them with equi- 
ty, and protect them from invasion; declared that he knew no 
person better qualified for such duties than himself ; and without 
waiting for their opinions, he added, that whoever did not im- 
mediately approve of his proposition he should consider as his 
capital enemy. He even went farther, and pronounced the 
Desoulé Sabai, which is the most terrible oath in use amongst 
the Negroes : it is a violent imprecation ; and he thundere<l it 
as a solemn defiance against whoever might oppose his election. 
All the electors acutely felt this injury, which was the greatest 
that could be done to them. The Negroes never pardon it, and 
nothing can elface it but the poniard : they were, however, in 
the midst of a conquering army, which would htive cut them in 
pieces if they had presumed to oppose the wishes of its chief ; 
they therefore looked at one another for some time in melancho- 
ly silence, and seeing that they had no alternative, they acknow- 
ledged him as king, to the prejudice of the heirs of the sovereign 
whom he had killed, and whom they already began to regret. 
. As soon as he was proclaimed king he distributed honorary ti* 
