YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

1938

VOYAGE
TO THE
V
Cmiariea, Cape tl)erb»
anb £# Coail of Utv^&if
Dl^Dta THE
(1682.}

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH
or
EBMlSip) O&LDSMIP, F.R.n.S.,
f .S.A, (Scos.)

«Q*0' —
PRIVAIteLY FKINTED, EDHWU&GII.
1887.

to Africa.

This Edition is limited to 275 small- fafer and
75 Idrqe-pafer copies.

Bibliotl)eca €miosa.
VOYAGE
TO THE
Canaries, Cape Derb,
anb tbe Coast of Hfrica,

XTNDER THE

(16 8 2.)
— »8*«« —
TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH
OF
MC. XiBE MCi5c.I3R:3G,
BY
EDMUND GOLDSMID, F.R.H.S.,
F.S.A. (Scot.)
— e-SKK-i^ — ¦
PRIVATELY PRINTED, EDINBURGH
1887.

(o8a

%c riDaire's Hccount
OF
Dancourt's IDo^age to Hfrica.
(1682.)
— »>«•<« —
FOR three years I had been acting as surgeon
at the H&tel Dieu, at Paris, when I
learned that M. Dancourt was just about
to sail for Cape Verd, as Director-General of the
Royal African Company. This news gave birth
to the thought that I would accompany him. He
agreed that I should be of the party, and, after
having made our arrangements, he introduced me
on January 14th, 1682, to the members of the
Company, who ratified the treaty we had just
concluded. After having employed some days in setting my
affairs in order, and taking leave of my friends.

6 LE maire's account of
we started for Orleans, from whence we took a
boat down the Loire to Nantes. We ought in
due course to have taken only two or three days
to arrive by this route, but it took seven or eight
days to accomplish the journey, and even then not
without running considerable risk.
All the time the wind was contrary, and so
violent that the waves were as high as sea waves ;
to this drawback was added the overflowing of the
banks to such an extraordinary degree that we
could not be sure whether we were in the bed of
the river or not, and as we could see nothing but
the tops of the trees, all else being under water,
we several times found ourselves perched amongst
the branches, like birds making their nests.
At last, however, we arrived at Nantes, and
after staying there ten days we took horse for
Brest. What we saw of Brittany in passing would
not have impressed us with the idea (had we not
known it before) that the province is good and
fertile in many parts ; for all along our route
nothing was to be seen but sandy wastes, very
disagreeable to traverse.
Arrived at Brest February 4th, we thought that
in a few days we should be able to embark, but
the vessel was not ready, the caulking was found
to be worthless, and the ship was denuded for the
most part of its rigging ; we had to wait till it
was remasted, and was put into a condition to

DANCOURTS VOYAGE TO AFRICA. ^
resist the sea and all the enemies to be found in
or on it.
Two months were occupied in putting this vessel
to rights. It was named the Ste. Catherine, of
400 tons, and mounted 40 guns. It was built
at Flushing as a cruiser. Captain Monsegur com
manded it by order of the Company.
The port of Brest, where this frigate lay, is the
best and the most beautiful we have on the
Atlantic. Large ships are secure in it, and are
sheltered from wind from every quarter as conj'
pletely as in a room. Hence its old name.*
Vessels can leave it at low as well as at high
tide, for they are always afloat in it. Its mouth
is as narrow as a river, and it has two good hajf-
nioons on each side, and on the right a fine castle,
built a I'antique, which defends the entrance.
This port runs in a spiral line, is a gpod half
league long, by about 200 paces wide, and is
situated between two hills, which shelter it. All
these advantages are purely natural.
I saw in this harbour the finest and largest
vessels in the world. Among others, the Soleil
Royal, not so much gilded as the Royal Louis of
Toulon, but better built, longer, and a swifter
sailing ship, carrying 120 guns, and having three
bridges. Its state cabin is magnificent, finely
* Brest was anciently called Chambre.

8 LE maire's account of
gilded, with a ceiling designed by M. Le Brun ;
there are about fifteen others, but, though smaller,
they are commodious and very pretty.
Besides this vessel there were more than fifty
other ships of 90, 80, 70, 60, and 50 guns, with
out counting those of inferior rank. After the
Soleil Royal, the most beautiful are : — The Reins,
the Couronne, the Glorieux, the Beau, the Bon,
the Tonnant, the Foudroyant, the Ecueil, the
Diamant, &c. One is astonished at the sight
of these vast machines, which look like floating
palaces, and cannot help admiring the power of
the owner of all these fine things.
Our vessel, being refitted and furnished with all
the necessary rigging, left the harbour for the
roadstead, March 20th. Five men of war left
equally manned, four of which were ordered to
join the galleys of Toulon against Algiers, and the
other, to escort some vessels of the East India
Company. On Wednesday, April gth, 1682, I embarked
with four young men of good family, who went
with us. As M. Dancourt was still at Brest, we
raade up a shooting party while waiting for him,
these gentlemen and I, imagining that returning
would be as easy as setting out. The Director's
cook had come on board on some business, and
for this purpose had made use of a little skiff,
rowed by two little boys of eleven or twelve.

DANCOURT S VOYAGE TO AFRICA. 9
The accommodation seemed well timed, so
without troubling ourselves as to how the man
should return, we found ourselves with his boat
two leagues away, at sea, close to Camaret. The
desire that we had for sport impelled us to go on
shore at the nearest point, without thinking of the
peril of passing over the rugged rocks, at the foot
ofwhich was the sea, into which I thought I should
have fallen two or three times.
With all our trouble, we had the grief of find
ing no game, and we were reduced to killing
larks, which proved in the sequel more useful to
us than we thought at first. Tired of so unfortu
nate a pursuit, we turned to a better, lo the
consumption of a hare pasty, that we had brought
away with us, and quenched our thirst with a
bottle of excellent wine that had accompanied it.
After having consumed these provisions, we
embarked again in our little boat. We were
hardly out at sea before the wind rose, so that I
turned devout, in fear of being lost there and then.
One of our gentlemen being very tired, had slept
ever since our return to the boat, and only awoke
at the sound of our cries, and with the tossing of
the boat, when we were half way ; and, though
still only half aroused, seemed at once to guess
our danger, and cried out that we should be lost
if we did not return. That appeared to us only
too true, there was so little strength left in our

ID LE maire's ACCOUNT OF
little rowers, who were less afraid than our
selves, and who endeavoured to console us by
saying that the boat could but turn over, and
that it would not go to the bottom. They supposed
that each of us would only haue to swim, but they
were deceived in their calculations I knew, as far
as I was concerned. Besides, I thought in such a
case it would have been very difficult to save our
selves on account of the size and violence of the
waves, which would infallibly have dashed us to
pieces against the rocks.
We followed the advice of our comrade ; we
tacked about to return to shore instead of pursuing
our game, each of us putting a hand to the oars.
We reached the shore after a good deal of trouble,
and stepped on land to await a calm.
Whilst we were all enjoying a little tranquility,
we heard a gun fired, and saw at the same time
the topsail unfurled, which is the ordinary signal
for departure. There were near to us some
lighters which might have taken us on board, but
we could not get the owners to undertake the
passage. Thus we saw our ship set sail, fire a salute of
seven guns to the Admiral, then pass with all sails
set, without hope of being able to rejoin her. I
was in despair at finding myself without my
luggage and without any instruments, exposed to
the chance of fortune.

DANCOURTS VOYAGE TO AFRICA. II
We followed the vessel with our eyes and qried
out till we were hoarse, and made a great noise
with our guns, but in vain ; the vessel disappeared.
One of our comrades whose legs were not so good
as ours had taken the road to Camaret, expecting
to find us there. We on our part looked for him,
and we spent the best part of the night seeking
each other.
A thousand accidents crossed our path, for at
every moment one of us sank into a swamp,
another fell into a ditch ; we were all calling out
to one another for help, and the general refrain
was cursing our sport. Hunger followed other
misfortunes, and we were obliged to go to an ion,
where by chance we found all we could afford to
get. We only found some black bread, the
remains of some Dutch cheese, and beds, the
straw of which was so hashed up that the cleverest
man could not have told what kind of grain it
bore. The little money we had about us was
employed in paying for our supper and our night's
lodging ; our breakfast had to wait till a more
favourable opportunity,
As we resumed our search for our lost comrade,
keeping near the shore, we caught sight of some
masts, which at first we took for tall trees that
bordered the coast, not daring to hope to see tbe
vessel that we thought far away ; but coming
nearer, we found that it had not gone, but was

12 LB MAIRE'S ACCOUNT OF
moored in the roadstead of Camaret, three leagues
from Brest.
You may imagine our joy. The only thing
now to be done was to find our other companion
and to go on board. We tried by signals to let
the crew know where we were, so that they might
send us a boat, but we succeeded no better than
on the previous day.
As we tried every imaginable way to get out of
our difficulty, we perceived at sea a barque plying
to windward to reach the ship. I do not know-
how we came to guess that our lost comrade
could be in it, but the conjecture proved right,
and he was the first whom we recognised when
they had tacked. We signalled our wishes to
him, he understood them, and the barque turned
in our direction ; but as the coast is almost inac
cessible on account of the, rocks, we had to make
our way to them as best we could.
At last we reached them, and after congratulat
ing ourselves on our happy meeting, our only
thought was to get a little rest, but the time for
that had not yet arrived, for the waves which
swept the ship covered us with water from head
to foot. Added to this, the cold, and the peril
of being wrecked, which event the sailors seemed
to fear, were fresh troubles, until, after many
adventures, we arrived on board.
We laughed at our leisure, and promptly sought

DANCOURTS VOYAGE TO AFRICA. I3
to satisfy the hunger that tormented us. We had
still some time to wait in the roads for M.
Dancourt, who was staying at Brest. He arrived
on Sunday, April I2th, 1682, at noon, and we set
sail at once.
About three leagues out at sea we encountered
the ship named the Ardent, al 80 guns, which
was lying at anchor, awaiting the tide to enter
the Bay of Brest. She had come from Havre in
order to take up M. de Preuilly, Lieutenant-
General, who was at once to set sail for the coast
of Algiers.
We saluted them in the usual way with seven
guns and a fanfare of trumpets, giving three
cheers for the King. They responded by the
same number of rounds, contrary to the custom
of men-of-war, who always return two less.
Apparently it was done out of compliment to the
Intendant, who was on board her, and who is the
friend of M. Dancourt.
After having thanked them with three more
rounds, we continued our route with a N.E. wind,
steering west, and drifting west-south-west.
Tuesday, April 21st, we perceived two ships to
the east of us. Judging from the efforts they
made to gain upon us, they must have been
privateers. We put ourselves in a state of defence,
and it was doubtless that which prevented them

14 LE maire's ACCOUNT OF
from coming upon us, judging from our appearance
that they would gain nothing but blows.
On Sunday morning the 26th, being in 32 degrees
and as many minutes north latitude, and 4 degrees
13 minutes east longitude, we saw Cape Cantin,
the coast of Barbary, and the kingdom of Morocco,
only six leagues distant. If the night had been
darker, we should have been lost, as we thought
Ourselves to t'he west of Madeira, which is more
than a hundred and forty leagues from there.
On Wednesday the 29th, we perceived the Isle
of Ancerotte, one of the seven Canaries, which we
left about ten leagues to the S.E. We experienced
a calm there, and great heat.
On Thursday the 30th of April, we found our
selves in 28 degrees 30 minutes N. latitude, and
4 tilinutes of longitude, talcing, according to the
custom of our nation, the first meridian at the
Isle de Ferro, so that being not further away than
ten leagues to the N.E. ofthe great Canary, we
Went shooting on this island till night-fall over
about a league of ground. We could not moor as
there was so little wind, and the night was dark,
which obliged us to tack to the east, and to keep
away till morning from land.
On Friday, May 1st, having tacked to the
west about half-past nine, we moored in twenty-
four fathoms, and found grey and red sand
mixed with coral. The town, which lies to

DANCOURT'S VOYAGE TO AFRICA. 15
the south-south-west, is a league and a half
from the road-stead, and defended by a sorry
castle. When they remarked us from the top of this
castle, they hoisted the Spanish flag, which we
saluted with five guns. They did not return the
salute, because, I believe, they had no powder.
The anchorage here is very good, provided you
do not get too near the town, where the rocks,
hidden under the water, make the access danger
ous. It is fortified by a. castle situated on a
hill) from any affront that it might receive from
any vessels that would attack it. It is peopled
by I2,ooo brave Islanders, capable of repuls
ing whoever dared to insult them. Our barque
anchored in i8 fathoms of water in front of the
town. Its circumference is about a league; most of the
houses there are fairly well built, but low, having
pnly two stories. Above, they are all in terraces,
and the roofs cannot be seen. They appear to
have been burnt. During the day, hardly any
one is to be seen in the streets.
Though the Bishop, the Governor, and the
people of quality, make Teneriffe their residence,
it is in this capital that the Episcopal See, the
tribunal of the Inquisition, and thesovereign council
pr parliament are situated. Four religious houses
are to be seen — one, of the Dominicans, one of

l6 LE maire's ACCOUNT OF
the Franciscans ; the others are the Bernardines,
and the RecoUets.
These isles formerly named "The Fortunate,"
bore this title with good reason, if one considers
the good air, and the fertility of the earth. They
abound in wheat, barley, cattle, sheep, and game ;
in short in all the necessaries of life ; Malvoisie
wine is produced there in such quantity, that
France, Spain, England and Holland, and other
countries are furnished with it every year.
The happiness that this country enjoyed in
surpassing all others in providing for the comforts
of life, formerly made the Pagans believe that
these were the Elysian fields destined to happy
souls released from their bodies.
The quality of the water there is not equally
good, but they remedy that by putting it into
vases in the shape of mortars, made of extremely
porous stone, through which it filters, so that
being thus purified, ^it becomes fresh and very
good. The harvest is usually in the month of March ;
sometimes, in April ; in some parts they have two
a year. The soil is excellent, for I saw a cherry-
tree, grafted only six weeks previously, whose
boughs were laden with fruit. Flowers grow
without any care, and oranges and lemons are in
surprising abundance.
The great Canary, as well as Teneriffe and

DANCOURTS VOYAGE TO AFRICA. 1/
Palma, were for some time idolatrous, after being
¦conquered by the Spaniards in 1460. Lanzarote,
Fuertaventura, Gomera and Ferro were the first
to receive Christianity. The three others ultim
ately followed their example. The Spaniards,
wishing absolutely to reduce this country to their
sway, sent a great number of the inhabitants as
slaves to Spain. Those that remained in their
own country were civilized and lived after the
imanner of their conquerors. These people, and
above all those of the great Canary, are extremely
friendly to foreigners.
M, Dancourt was well received there by the
Governor of the Isle, at whose house he dined,
conducted by the consul of our nation, by name
Remond, originally from Liege, and a very pleasant
man. The latter regaled us very well, and did
not let us want for wine or fruit. I spent two
<lays with him, and received all imaginable kind
attentions. I was four times at the Convent of the Bernar
dines, the confessor having given me permission
at the instance of the Abbess. There were some
French women there ; among others, a Parisian
who served me as interpreter. As there were
some sick people in this Convent, they did not
fail to consult me, and to take great care of me.
The presence of the doctor induced them to
t,^ke advantage of the occasion. Some said they
B

1 8 LE maire's ACCOUNT OF
were ill, doubtless because they wanted more
liberty, though in truth they had plenty. As I
remarked that most of them had no other com
plaint than that of being separated from the world
by a, grating, I had no remedy to offer them.
However, in order to play the part of an important
man who has a remedy for everything, I ordered
some specifics suitable for chimerical ills.
These good nuns overwhelmed me with caresses,
and loaded me with dry and luscious sweets, with
lemonade, malvoisie, and sent me all sorts of fruit
on dishes and porcelaine saucers, garnished with
roses, carnations, orange blossoms, jasmine, and
tuberoses, besides a number of bouquets. I sent
them some, which they graciously received.
Leaving these ladies, I found at the Consul's a
number of people who wished me to see their sick
folk. At one house in particular, that of a certain
lawyer (the possessor of a hundred thousand
crowns), I went to see his wife, who was ill
occasionally with congestion of the womb. The
doctors in the place had treated her for lung
disease, and this principally showed me their
ignorance. As the people have but little confidence in them,
they were anxious to get a French surgeon. The
lawyer did all he could to persuade me to remain
in the Great Canary, offering me his house, his
table, and many advantages. I did not wish to

DANCOURT's VOYAGE TO AFRICA. I9
go back from the promise I had given to M.
Dancourt, so I acknowledged with many thanks
the Spaniard's obliging offers, and ordered for his
wife the remedies I thought suitable, and what I
believed could be procured in the island, though
they are very scarce.
He wished to give me money, which I declined
for the honour of our nation. I intended to return
the next day, as he had begged the Consul that I
would, adding that he wished to recompense rae
in another way since I would not take the raoney ;
but I had not tirae, the boat having corae to fetch
me on the Saturday evening, to bring rae back tu
the ship.
I assure you I was enchanted with this country,
and that I did violence to myself in leaving it.
If ever I quitted France, it would be to go and
live in the Great Canary, but I hope I shall never
be obliged to leave my country, whose attractions
appear to me preferable to all others. However,
on quitting the isle, I ought not to forget to tell
you that it is about thirty leagues in circumference,
and is almost round.
On S.iturday, March 2nd, towards evening, the
wind being N.N.E., we got under sail. As it
ceased towards three in the morning, we changed
our course in sight of the Peek, a high mountain in
Teneriffe, in order to anchor in the roads of Santa
Cruz. Our pilots remarked in this station that

20 LE maire's ACCOUNT OF
¦the variations of the needle was 3 degrees 30
minutes N.E.
On Sunday, the 3rd, being at the extreme north
of the Great Canary, with but little wind from the
N.N.E., we had the Cape on our west all night.
On Monday, the 4th, we arrived in the raorning
at Teneriffe, the richest of all the Canary Isles, in
sight of Santa Cruz, a little town of the same isle,
on the east point. One can moor there in 25 or
30 fathoms ; but we did not moor, and the vessel
tacked all day to await the boat w.hich was gone
to the land.
Although the Governor of Santa Cruz permitted
those in the boat to land, he sent to inform the
Governor-General, whose residence is at Laguna,
three leagues inland, that there were some French
men who wished to land for some provisions they
wanted. The reply vv'as that he was to arrest
them if they did so. Perhaps he thought we had
some plague-stricken people on bpard, in case we
had cpme frpm the Levant, a cpuntry very subject
tP this cpntagion.
As fpr the rest, as I have raenlipned the Peek,
I will tell you in passing that it is one of the
highest mountains in the world. They say that
it can be seen forty leagues O'lit at sea ; as for us,
we saw it at twelve or fifteen only, on account of
the mist, which made it appear to us like a cloud
with a diamond point. It is always covered with

DANCOURT's VOYAGE TO. AFRICA. 21
snow, although none falls at the foot, and it never
freezes there.
As to Teneriffe, they hold that it is the highest
island in the ocean, and the most largely populated
for its size, containing 15,000 inhabitants. It is
that which produces the excellent malvoisie, which
is allowed to be the best wine in the world. This
wine was not known in these isles until the
Spaniards made themselves masters of them, for
they were the first to bring the plants from Candia.
At this day this wine is preferred to that of the
place from which it takes its origin, and it grows
here in larger quantities than in Candia.
AU the seven Canary Isles are in a. line with
one another, almost from east to west, very
mountainous and very fertile. The smallest is
sixty miles in circumference.
As I had been told of a wonderful tree in
Ferro, whose long and narrow leaves were
always green, and furnished all the inhabitants
with water, I wished to find out if it were
true. I asked if, as I had heard, such a heavy
dew fell on this tree that it dropped clear water
into stone basins placed expressly to receive
it. There was enough of it for the islanders and
their cattle. Nature repairing by this miracle the
defect of not providing pure water for this isle.
The inhabitants confirmed my belief that this
was a pure fable. There were some, however.

22 LE maire's ACCOUNT OF
who said that there might have been such a tree,
but it could never have furnished the quantity
attributed to it.
On Tuesday, the 5th, we continued our journey
southward, being 27 degrees 40 minutes N. lati
tude, and 360 degrees W. longitude.
On Wednesday, the 6th, it blew so strong frora
the east, that in tacking, the topsail yard and a
yard of the mainmast were broken, while the
mainmast itself bent in such a way that we thought
it must fall. This wind ceased in a quarter of an
hour, and the vessel recovered itself after having
been all this time in danger.
Thursday, the 7th, at mid-day, being in 23
degrees N. latitude and 28 minutes E. longitude,
we passed the tropic of Cancer.
They did not forget in this place the customary
ceremony by the sailors called baptism, and they
practise it upon those who have not passed the
tropic before. In general, this is what is done.
They place a tub of water at the foot of the main
mast, with a stick upon it, put cross wise. Then
those who have been initiated in preceding
voyages, after having their faces shaved, walk in
procession round the ship, one holding a cutlass,
another a frying-pan, and divers culinary utensils.
The pilot, to distinguish himself from the others,
turns his coat and dons for a scarf, the first rag
he can find. The procession which is always

DANCOURT's VOYAGE TO AFRICA. 23
accompanied with the sound of trumpets and
drums, being over, they proceed to the baptism of
the ship. If it has never crossed the tropic, they
throw a number of buckets of water over it, whilst
the captain keeps giving them something to drink.
They pass from that to those of higher rank in
the ship, whom they compel to sit, one after the
other, on the stick I mentioned, and surround
them, handing them a basin to receive their con
tribution as a ransom from baptism, and hold the
cutlass on the neck for a time. Then the pilot
presents himself with the marine chart, and makes
the patient put his hand where the tropic is, and
swear that in similar cases he will perform the
same ceremony to those who have not already
undergone it. At last he makes a black cross on
his forehead, throws a little water over his head,
and that is followed by a present being put into the
basin. If they wish to gratify a person, they let
him go as soon as the money is paid ; if not, they
roughly draw the stick away, drop hira into the
tub, and throw twenty more buckets of water over
the fallen body. It is a necessity to undergo this
ceremony — even an f Admiral is not exempted ;
only they would not duck him.
On Friday the 8th, we approached the coast of
Barbary, being in 21 deg. 47 rain. N. latitude,
with a high wind E.N.E.. Finding that it was
mpossible to reach Cape Blanco before night-fall.

24 Le MAIRE S ACCOUNT OF
and that we were four leagues'from land, in twenty-
-eight fathoms with sandy bottom, we tacked, and
on Saturday the 9th, at eight in the morning, we
found ourselves a league from land.
We coasted along as far as Cape Blanco. We
moored in fourteen fathoms to the N.W., a league
from the Cape, which, following our reckoning, is
in 20 deg. 30 min, N. latitude.
When the Portuguese discovered the Cape,
about 1454, they called it Cape Blanco, because,
being sandy and sterile, not the least verdure
could be seen.
It is as level as the sea, and is called the Sea of
Sand, From Cape Cantin to this Cape (three hundred
leagues distance) nothing is seen but a plain
covered with sand, called by the ancients, Libya,
and by the Arabs, Sahara. The only inhabitants
are wild beasts, such as lions, tigers, panthers,
leopards, and other similar animals.
These deserts are bounded on the north by
Mount Atlas, and on the south by the countries of
the Blacks ; they are of such great extent from
E, to W., that it takes more than fifty days to
traverse them on horseback. It is across them
that the caravans pass from Fez to Timbuctoo,
Melly, Borneo, and the other kingdoms of the
Blacks. When a storm arises on these deserts, the sand

DANCOURT's VOYAGE TO AFRICA. 25
covers men and camels and often suffocates them,
filling the wells that are found on the route, so
that the men and camels passing them, die of
thirst. As there is no open roaJ, they use the
compass, as if they were at sea.
There is a kind of gulf at the point of Cape
Blanco, which takes its name from the island
which it forms, called Arguin. This gulf runs
fifteen leagues inland ; hence it is lost to view past
the point.
The Portuguese formerly had a fort in this isle,
from whence they trafficked with the Azoaghes,
Arabs or Moors, who bartered with them gold,
gum arable, ivory, and ostrich feathers, which are
there in great abundance, there being so many of
these birds. They say of this animal, that it has
such a bad memory, that it forgets where it has
laid its eggs, and it hatches the first that it can
find. I doubt whether what they assured me is
true, that one of these eggs is sufficient to nourish
eight men. They brought these goods from
Hoden, which is four days journey inland, and
where the caravans arrive from Timbuctoo, Gual-
ata, and other parts of the interior of Libya, and
countries ofthe negroes.
These peoples observe the precepts of Mahomet,
not staying long in one spot, wandering in the
deserts from place to place, according to the
dasturage they find for their horses, camels, oxen.

26 LE maire's ACCOUNT OF
sheep and goats, the milk of which they use.
They are divided into tribes or families ; they do
not recognize any king or superior except the one
who surpasses the others in wealth ; him they obey
voluntarily as their captain.
Their traffic with the negroes is carried on in
horses and camels ; they receive two, six, eight,
as many as ten slaves for a horse, but for a camel,
one, two, sometimes three only.
Fort Arguin was taken by the Dutch from the
Portuguese, and retaken from the latter during the
war of 1672, by M. Ducas, C?,p^<lin of the Royal
African Company. There witre ¦inly 120 men in
this expedition, and they only lost three. The
cowardice of the Dutch Governor did much to aid
this conquest, for nothing could have been easier
than to prevent il. Our guns consisted of six
small ones, the largest were eight pounders. We
had no protection, and with all that, we were
short of water, for no one could drink that from
the one filthy spring in the isle.
This fort belongs to the French by the peace
of Nimeguen, as do all the others occupied by
the Company. Notwithstanding this treaty, the
Dutch do not cease to send some vessel every year,
which is a manifest infraction.
The captain of our vessel disembarked there
with thirty men, thinking the vessel named Ville
de Hambourg might still be there, but she had

DANCOURT's VOYAGE TO AFRICA. i.^
beaten a retreat. They found there only one
barque on the stocks, not finished, which they set
fire to, and a small ship, having on board some
Moors and sorae Dutchman, who abandoned it
and plunged overboard to swim away. They
found it laden with turtles, which gave great
pleasure to the men in the boat, who had no
provisions left. They are very large on this coast,
and are found in abundance. One single one is
sufficient to satiate thirty men. Its fiesh is like
veal, and is good. Its shell measures at least
fifteen feet round.
Cape Blanco abounds in fish, such as dorados,
sambucus, vieilles, and sea dogs, and many others
which I do not know. Our crew caught a quan
tity of them, and had good cheer during the eight
days that we kept along this coast, as far as the
mouth of the Senegal River. Here there are
several colonies of Moors separated from all others,
though the country is extremely sterile and they
have only fish to live upon.
Saturday, the l6th, we continued our route for
Goree, and passed in sight of the Senegal River,
of which I shall speak in due course.
Tuesday, the 19th, we discoverd Cape Verd ,
being in 14 deg. 45 min. north latitude.
This Cape was thus named by the Portuguese,
who discovered it the same year as Cape Blanco.
The y called it Cape Verd because the first thing

25 LE MAIRE S ACCOUNT OF
they saw was a quantity of trees, many of which
are green all the year round. It is high, and
presents a beautiful sight. On the height are two
round mountains, to which they gave the name
of Paps, because they have some resemblance to
them. It juts far out into the sea, and is con
sidered the largest in the ocean after the Cape of
Good Hope. There is a great meeting of currents,
that bear to the south.
Its situation is badly marked on the chart,
which places it in 14 degrees exactly, instead of
14 degrees and a half. After having doubled the
first point (for there are two), one sees a little isle
which is not inhabited. They call it the Isle of
Birds, because they found a number there at the
time of the discovery.
When you have passed this isle, you double the
other point and discover Goree, which is behind
the Cape, almost opposite to the Paps. The
coast recedes to the north-west, and makes a bay
where there is the best water along the whole
coast, a great boon to ships.
Having arrived at Goree on Wednesday, May
20, 1682, and anchored in the roads, we fired a
salute of seven rounds ; they returned the sainte
round for round. The first was with ball, in order
to do honour to M. Dancourt. When we passed
in the boat our vessel fired five salutes, every

DANCOURT's VOYAGE TO AFRICA. 29
vessel in the roads fired as many, and when he
landed the fort fired seven.
After having shown his credentials as Director,
he took possession of his office. He found tbe
affairs in a bad condition, owing to the conduct of
two persons, who both claimed the control. One
was a Frenchraan and Commandant of Goree fur
the Company, and the other their Agent-General
along the coast. As these things are no affair of
mine, I shall say no more about them.
The Isle of Goree has been thus named by the
Dutch because it resembles an isle of Zealand that
is called by the same name. It is about a quarter
of a league in circumference, and extends from
north to south about a league from the mainland.
It has on the south a rock, steep on one side, and
on the other beaten by the sea. The island is
entirely surrounded with rocks, which obstruct
the entrance, except through a little hay, -where
ships can approach.
As the Portuguese were the first to make
voyages in this sea, it was first discovered
by them, along with all the rest of the African
coast of the open sea and Atlantic. Having fallen
under the power of the Dutch, they had a fort
built at the weakest part of the mountain for the
defence of the isle, and another, badly built, at
the foot.
M. le Comte d'Estrees, Vice-Admiral of France,

30 LE maire's account of
in November 1678 seized this fort, which the
Governor gave up to him, being unable to defend
it. As they could not leave it unguarded, both
were rased to the ground. The Company, who
at present occupy the isle, have in some measure
repaired the lower one by the sheds which they
use as magazines, and by a badly-built wall which
they have constructed on the ruins of the old fort,
merely to repress the insults which may be offered
by the blacks.
The first thing M. Dancourt did was to facilitate
commerce by visiting the stations established along
the coast, and by giving orders to the clerks, and
then by making friends with the black kings and
the principal chiefs.
In order to accomplish this, he set out to travel
over the country for the space of eighty leagues,
from the mouth of the Senegal to that of the
Gambia, which are the two mouths of the river
Niger. I accompanied him in all these voyages
along the coast, where I learnt everything con
cerning the country, the religion, the manners and
customs of the Africans of Cape Verd.
We began our journey December 6, 1682, with
the Senegal, where we could not go by sea,
because of a contrary north wind. However, as
the business of the place required the presence of
M. Dancourt, on account of the death of the
Governor, which happened a few days previously,

DANCOURT'S VOYAGE TO AFRICA. 3I
he resolved to go by land, and to send La
Renommee avessel commanded byCaptain d'Oyere,
in order to carry merchandise and bring back
goods in exchange.
It is easy to come from the Senegal to Goree,
but not to go there; this ship, having encountered
a head wind, took a month to make the journey,
which was only 40 leagues by the direct route,
but 500 by the route she was obliged to take.
We were beginning to think she was lost, when
we saw her, at last, arrive in the roadstead.
Our journey by land was not so long, but much
more troublesome, for the route does not furnish
travellers with the least necessaries. There are
no carriages even, and in all the village of Rusis,
which is only three leagues from here, we could
only find one horse for M. Dancourt, and six
asses, two of which carried our provisions. Mine,
which looked strong, wheeled and played the
devil for some time; then, having gone two
leagues, refused to go any further.
My negro, being tired of beating him, I was
obliged to dismount ; as he was not very tall, I
mounted and dismounted without a stirrup. And,
when I found myself in some bad road into which
my ass sank, spreading out my legs a little, he
passed from under them, and I found rayself on
my feet. I was hardly off his back, before he
began to swerve and to run after the female asses

32 LE MAIRE'S ACCOUNT OF
¦that were carrying our luggage. Perceiving that
he was net tired, I remounted him, believing I
was going to revenge myself. But we both
deceived ourselves. He intended to stop again,
so that I should again dismount. I did nothing
of the kind. And I imagined that I should be
able to raake him go by dint of blows, but I could
not succeed. All that I gained was, that he went
very slowly, and with the sarae gravity as the
Portuguese from whom I got him. His back
was so pointed, that he might have played the
part of a wooden horse. I had nothing but my
great coat for a saddle. Without having de
served it, he kept me on the rack for the six
days of our journey.
Though we were in the month of December
the heat was excessive, and that rauch increased
my discomfort. We rode in this way frora sun
rise to sun-set, raaking only a little halt at noon
under some tree, where we ate a little of what v/e
had brought with us. In the evening we lodged
in a village, but could find neither food for our
selves nor for our beasts, except the ordinary
nourishment of the negroes, who often live upon
nothing but roots, when they cannot get corn.
Our hosts did their best in receiving us, but
their extreme poverty made this best insupport
able. Their houses are made of straw, and those
of their kings also. In some places, they are

DANCOURT's VOYAGE TO AFRICA. 33
more commodious than others. The shape of
these is a sort of dome, about four paces in
diameter ; the roof, of which the upper part is
made of straw and the under part of palra
branches, is very well formed. The dome is
supported by five or six poles. The wall is of
palm branches or of straw, very industriously
interlaced. They have no doors or windows in their houses,
excepting a hole similar to the opening of a village
forge, so that one has to go on all fours to enter.
Though the heat must be excessive in such a
place, they still keep a fire, which is always
accompanied with a good deal of smoke. This
inconvenience is agreeable to them, for they like
smoke. The flooring of the house is of sand, into
which you sink up to your knees.
There are some houses, the opening of which is
so small that one wonders how any one can get in
and out. I remember one day, a rather stout
gentleman and I, having slept in one of these
beautiful palaces, though he crawled like a serpent,
he could not get out, for he had an extra coat on.
He had got half way out, and hoped to be able
to slip through, but there he stuck, unable to
get in or out. I tried in vain to help him, not
daring to cut the wall, and had to call out for
help. Their beds are even less comfortable than their
c

34 LE maire's ACCOUNT OF
houses. They are formed of a quantity of sticks
twice as thick as your thumb, placed at two
fingers' length one from the other, joined together
by a cord, almost like a hurdle. Large crooked
sticks (like all their wood) fill up the spaces, and
seem only placed there to break one's ribs. The
beds, like their roofs, are supported by poles.
They sleep upon them without any other bedding,
except those that are rather above the common,
and who have a mat which serves as a mattrass.
From what I have just said, it is easy to con
clude that if this country does not permit its
inhabitants to be happy because of its sterility,
they themselves add to their misery by their want
of industry.
But to return to our travels, which this digres
sion has interrupted. After a march of six days
we reached a village called Bieiire, at the mouth
of the Senegal river. So many countries, so raany
customs. We found that in this one the men do
not concern themselves with anything. It is the
women that attend to business ; under the pretext
of bringing goods to sell, they divei ted themselves
with our sailors, who were quite willing to accom
modate them.
We left our mounts at this place, and M. Dan
court sent word to the colony to send us a barque
to bring us the reraaining five leagues we had to
traverse, to reach the Isle of St. Louis, in the

DANCOURT's VOYAGE TO AFRICA. 35
Senegal, where we arrived at two in the morning,
December 13th.
This island is situated in the middle of the river,
five leagues above its mouth, and is about a league
in circumference. The Company have their ware
houses here, with a commandant and clerks. It
is here that the negroes bring leather, ivory,
captives and sometimes ambergris. As for gum
arable, it comes to us from the Moors, as I shall
mention. They give the negroes in exchange — linen cloth,
cotton, copper, pewter, iron, brandy and trifles
of glass. The profits drawn from this enterprise
amount to eight hundred per cent. The hides,
ivory and gum are taken to France, and as to the
slaves, they are sent to the French islands of
America, to work at the sugar canes.
The best slaves are to be had for ten francs
a piece, and are sold for more than a hundred
crowns. For four or five jars of brandy, one can
often get a very good slave ; thus the expenditure
is less in the buying than in the transport, because
of the great expense of the vessels.
The Senegal river is an arm of the Niger, leav
ing the larger river about 600 leagues above its
mouth, which spreads itself over the kingdom of
Cantorsi, and from there divides itself into several
branches, of which the principal ones are the
Gambia and Rio Grande ; I do not know this last.

36 LE MAIRF.'S ACCOUNT OF
The Senegal separates the Azonaghes, Moors,
or "Bazanez," from the blacks, in such a manner
that on one side of the river there are Moors more
white than black, and on the other quite black
men. The first are wandering, encamp, and
do not make a longer stay in any place than
will enable them to find pasturage ; the latter,
that is to say the negroes, are sedentary, and
inhabit villages.
The former own no superiors but those they
choose, and are free, but the latter have kings
that tyrannise over them and make slaves of them.
The Moors are short, thin and with bad faces,
but having bold untrammelled spirits ; the negroes
on the contrary, are tall, broad and well made,
but simple and spiritless. The country inhabited
by the Moors is nothing but sterile sand, deprived
of all verdure, and that of the negroes is fruitful
in pasturage, in corn and in evergreen trees,
which, it is true, do not bear fruit good to eat.
It is from the Moors we get gum arable. They
gather it in the deserts in the interior of Libya.
It grows on the trees which bear it like that which
comes frora the cherry trees and plum trees in
France. They come to sell it a month or six
weeks before the inundation of the Niger.
They give them in exchange blue cloth, linen
cloth of the sarae colour and a little iron. They
come from five and six hundred leagues' distance

DANCOURT's VOYAGE TO AFRICA. 37
inland, to bring — one, half a hundredweight of
gum, another, more or less. They are quite naked
on their camels, horses, and oxen, which they use
also to carry their merchandise. The raost con
siderable among them have a sort of mantle made
of dressed skin, which resembles the cape worn
by our choristers. Others have only a poor piece
of hide which covers their nakedness. Their only
nourishment is milk and gum, which they dissolve.
The colonists have been accustomed to nourish
thera partly when they come to barter. They buy
their oxen expressly in order to feed them, but they
will not eat thera unless they kill thera themselves ;
and there are people among them set apart for
that. Though they have plenty of cattle, they
eat them but rarely, and then only when they see
them about to die of illness or old age.
It is incredibly troublesome to negociate with
them, for there is always on their side either
deceit or insolence. As the business is done on
the river bank, they do not cheat so easily,
because we ship the goods as soon as we have
received them from thera. The sales take place
in the months of May and June, 30 leagues above
the colony.
When everything is finished, they shout after
you a lot of abuse, and if they kidnap a French
man, or any other white man, they kill him in
revenge for a quarrel, if it be twenty years after.

38 LE MAIRE S ACCOUNT OF
Two months ago they took a sailor who under
stood Arabic, and whom one of the captains of
the Company had sent to Arguin, and they
demanded in exchange no fewer than fifty slaves.
Never was a nation more thievish and perfidious.
They are very adroit, and make good use of fire
arms, the effect of which they are much afraid of,
since three whites prevented 400 of them, one
day, from seizing a barque with which these
infidels had just been doing business ; the shots,
which fell thick among them, deprived them of
the courage to accomplish their treachery. It
has since been learned that raost of them were
Moors from Mount Atlas, who had just deposed
Cheiratick, one of the most powerful princes of
the negroes in these countries, and of whom I
shall speak hereafter. I forgot to say that they
retire into their own countries as soon as the
Niger begins to overflow.
The kingdom of Senegal is the first of the
countries of the blacks. It was forraerly very
considerable, but at present is not worth much,
though it has a very brave king, because, for
want of strength, this prince has become tributary
to another.
His rule extends along the river for the space
of 40 leagues, without reckoning some petty chiefs
near to the mouth who are tributary to him, and
about 10 or 12 leagues inland.

DANCOURT's VOYAGE TO AFRICA. 39
This king is called Brae, which is a name of
dignity ; sovereign though he is, he is miserable,
and has often "no millet to eat. He is so fond of
horses, that the greater part of his time he contents
himself with a pipe of tobacco and a little brandy,
so that he raay leave the millet to the three or
four horses he has. He uses them to make raids
on the weakest of his neighbours, without the
slightest pretext, and thus carries away their oxen,
in which their wealth consists, and makes slaves
of the people themselves and sells them for brandy.
When the supply of brandy is diminishing, he
shuts up all the rest in a chest and gives the key
to one of his favourites, whom he sends 30 leagues
away with some trifling message to his wives, so
that while he is deprived of the key, he cannot
drink, and thus saves the rest.
If his tyranny cannot be exercised over his
neighbours, he makes his subjects feel it, travelling
over his own country, staying two days in one
village, three in another, making thera provide
food for himself and all his suite. This is com
posed of 200 rogues, made worse by the commerce
with the whites, from whom they retain the worst
qualities. When he has ruined the villages, he
often makes the people slaves for the least shadow
of offence.
But if the Prince is perfidious, his subjects are
no less so, for they sell one another without regard

40 LE maire's ACCOUNT OF
to the ties of blood, so that the father sells the
son, and the son, the father and mother, when
the occasion arises. They make the excuse of
of engaging those they wish to sell, to help them
to carrying something to the colony, and when
they are there they sell them to any one who will
buy, provided they do not understand their
language. Here let me tell you of an instance that took
took place a little while ago. One of these
wretches forraed the design of selling his son.
The son found it out, and, pretending to take no
notice, and understanding French, whilst his father
was gone away somewhere, he went to the ware
house, declared that he had a slave for sale,
arranged the price, sold hira up, and received
the money. This slave was the father, who seeing
them put the irons on his feet, tried hard to let
them know that the other was his son. He denied
it, and the bargain was concluded.
This crime did not long go unpunished, for the
son, returning to his house with his profits, en
countered a great Chief, who took from him
everything he had, made him a slave and sold
him to the colony.
After the estates of Brae, are found those of
Cheyratick, that is, the most powerful, the
Emperor. On the latter depend more than ten
petty kings, and other sovereigns. His empire

DANCOURT S VOYAGE TO AFRICA. 4I
extends, on the two banks of the Senegal river,
over three hundred leagues of country. This
soil produces dates, millet, and pasturage for a
quantity of cattle. They call these people
" Foules," they are not black, neither are they
as white as the moors, but half way between.
They are more civilised than the other negroes,
and receive foreigners well. It has often hap
pened that our sailors, maltreated by their
commanders, run away to Cheyratick ; he has
received them kindly, admitted them to his table,
and procured for them all the pleasure which the
place can afford.
He usually lives on millet, beef and dates, and
milk — never wine or brandy — observing the law
of Mahomet raore religiously than the other blacks.
He can put 50,000 men in the field, but, there
being no provision for them, they could not subsist
long. Higher up than the estates of Cheyratick are
the countries of the Fargots and of Enguelland,
300 leagues distant from our colony. We buy
and sell to them also. They are not different
from the Foules. As it is impossible to get any
higher than this, my acquaintance with the country
goes no further.
After the river has flowed past Cantorcy and
divers large islands, it debouches into the sea in
two places in 15 deg. 32 min. north latitude.

42 LE maire's ACCOUNT OF
Between the sea and the river there is a sort of
dyke or sandbank, of which the widest part is not
more than a cannon shot in length. Owing to
this obstacle, the river continues its course for the
space of six leagues without joining the sea, though
the water is at the same level. But at last this
dyke is cut through in two places, and the river
debouches by these openings, three leagues apart,
between which an island is formed.
At each of these mouths several banks of sand
are formed. The sand is brought down by the
river and driven back by the sea, and leaves sand
banks, very dangerous to ships because of the
shallow waters. The continual movement of the
sea against these banks renders the waves so high
and so frighlfuUy large, that they often break
vessels to pieces or drive them on the coast. And
then there is hardly any help for the crew, for if
the men try to save themselves by swimming,
they are almost always eaten up by the sharks.
For the rest, this passage is not dangerous, except
when the tide is low, and not during the inundation
of the Niger.
The singular thing about the inundations of the
Nig^r is, that they almost always make new
mouths to the Dyke, in order to pass to the sea.
About twenty years ago, the river joined the sea
opposite to the island where the French colony
was. They were obliged to go further up the

DANCOURT's VOYAGE TO AFRICA. 43
river. At the present day this mouth is closed,
because others have formed themselves, and they
fill one another to such a degree, that never more
than two at a time remain.
Many European nations trafficked formerly in
this river ; at present only the French dp so.
Perhaps, having spoken several tiraes of the
inundation of the Niger, it is ^ profos to mark
when and how it happens, without pretending to
give any physical cause. If you can discover
it from the details I give, well and good ; I
merely relate what I saw.
The heat is extreme under the torrid zone,
because there is no rain, or very little, except in
the months of July, August, September ; at the
south of the equinoxial line, the rains begin
earlier, and fall in abundance during this period.
They are accompanied by furious winds, and
followed by so great a calm, and such excessive
heat, that one can hardly breathe. Two or three
hours afterwards, the tempest recommences, and
thus consecutively during the three months. This
causes severe maladies, fevers, cholera morbus,
ulcers on the legs, worms from four to five feet
long, and frequent convulsions ending in paralysis
and death.
One knows all that is told about the inundations
of the Nile, so I shall not repeat them. Those of
the Niger must be produced on the same principles.

44 LE maire's ACCOUNT OF
I believe that their veritable cause proceeds from
the fact that the sun in repassing the tropic of
cancer, which is in France the summer solstice,
and here the winter solstice, draws up the vap
ours which afterwards resolve themselves into
great continuous rains, which produce these over
flowings. These rains commence in Ethiopia in April, and
last through May and June ; here, till the middle
of July. They increase during forliy days, and
diminish in the same space of time. This
inundation, which fertilizes the fields, is not general,
but extends only over the neighbourhood of the
river. At such tiraes, one cannot tell where the
bed of the river is, because its channel, having
neither sufficient depth to contain its waters, nor
a sufficient fall for them to run into the sea, fills
the fields and the valleys and levels everything.
It is dangerous at these times to navigate the
river Senegal, at least unless one knows the
channel well, because, the waters beginning to
subside, a barque might be left high and dry on
an eminence, or in a large hole from which it
could not come out again.
About fifteen years ago, something happened
which confirms what I have said. The company,
wishing to profit by the inundation, sent some
boats on a voyage of discovery in the direc
tion of the place of separation of the branches

DANCOURT's VOYAGE TO AFRICA. 45
of the Niger. They wished to try, if possible, to
navigate frora the Senegal to the Gambia, where
the English, who had made themselves masters of
the mouth, were preventing others from trading,
by the fort that they had there. And no one
could atterapt this discovery, except at this time,
and with the help of the waters ; otherwise, one
would have to pass over dry rocks They manned
these boats with thirty men, and they went as
far as 400 leagues from our colony. But they
endured so much fatigue, that only five
came back ; having once lost the bed of
the river, their boat was stranded on some
trees. Happily they were not much misled, and
by the strength of their arms, got their boat
afloat. After M. Dancourt had done in this place what
he considered useful for the interests of the com
pany, finding that the mouth or bar was easy to
pass because of a light E. wind that had sprung
up, he made the transit in a suitable boat. It
brought us to the vessel called La Renommee,
which awaited us in the roads, as we were desirous
of embarking, to avoid the fatigue of a journey
by land.
They shipped the anchor on January lO, 1683,
and we set sail for Goree. We kept near the shore,
which looked very pleasant, owing to the innumer
able evergreen trees. When M. Dancourt had sur-

46 LE maire's ACCOUNT OF
veyed the coast, and given his orders in all the
stations, we retraced our steps, and were eight
entire days in returning. This is what I have
observed of these places, during the short time
I was there :
The peoples that inhabit the coast from the
mouth of the Senegal to the Gambia, are divided
into three, viz. — the Geloffes, the Sereres, and the
Barbecins. They are ruled by several petty kings,
absolute in their States. The greatest landholder
of all is the King of Amel, sovereign of the Geloffes.
The name of Amel is not peculiar to this prince,
but is a title of dignity. As all their governments
and their peoples and countries are very much
alike, I shall describe these to make you acquainted
with the others.
The Geloffes live in the part between the mouth
of the Senegal to six or seven leagues from Cape
Verd, and occupy, from north to south, forty
leagues of the maritime coast, and from east to
west, a hundred leagues inland.
The country of the Sereres has for a king him
whom we call Portugady, because of a village
called by that name, which belongs to him. Jain
is the name of his dignity. His country covers
ten or twelve leagues along the coast, and extends
nearly a hundred inland.
The kingdom of the Barbecins, otherwise
Joiialle (for a similar reason to that I have aUeged

DANCOURT's VOYAGE TO AFRICA. 47
for Sereres), is governed by a king whose name I
have forgotten. He has no more land than the
preceding one, with whom he is often at war.
Besides these three races, there is one called
Portuguese, being thus named because they
formerly served them, and are descended from
those who inhabited this coast when the Portu
guese discovered it. Negresses whora they
married, gave birth to mulattoes, whose sons and
daughters were blacker than they. They may
have been also fugitives from Cape Verd, or from
Cacheau, another Portuguese colony on one of the
branches of the river Gambia, three days' journey
frora there. As they have followed the religion
of their old masters, they are, some of them, Jews,
and some. Catholics. They wear a large chaplet
on the neck, and are no more one than the other,
but instead, they are malicious impostors, having
all the vices of the Portuguese and none of their
good qualities.
All these places are in general sandy and sterile.
The heat is greater in the raonth of January than
in July and -August in France. It rains as I
have described to you in Senegal.
The country is populous, and well wooded.
They begin at the end of June to cultivate their
land, and sow their seed some time after it has
rained. They reap their harvest in September ;
thus in three months they till, sow, and reap.

48 LE maire's account of
This shows the goodness of the ground, which,
without this sterility .and their natural idleness,
would produce for them corn in abundance —
millet, I mean.
Their manner of tilling the earth is funny.
They place themselves, four or five together, in the
field that they call Cougan or Courgar, and with a
sort of round palette of iron, a little larger than the
hand, and with a wooden handle, they scrape the
earth, which they throw before them, and which
they do not penetrate deeper than three or four
fingers' depth, holding their pipes in their mouths
all the time. If they work for an hour, they talk
for two. When the ground is thus tilled, they
sow it as they sow peas in France, and do not
trouble themselves about having more than enough.
They are even so idle, that they often have not
half what they want to live, existing then, on a
black, dry, flavourless root, and on another called
gernotte, the taste of which reminds one of the
hazel nut. If by chance their crop fails, they die
of hunger.
It is only five years ago that such an event
happened, when they were deceived by the
promises of a Marabout (the name they give their
priests). I ara speaking of the Azoaghes or Arabs.
Under the pretext of religion, he made himself
master of all the country lying between Cheyratick
and Sereres, telling them that he was instigated

DANCOURT's VOYAGE TO AFRICA. 49
by heaven, to avenge the tyranny of their Kings.
He gave them many promises of miracles to prove
his vocation, and above all, to make their land
yield in abundance, without their having the
trouble of cultivating it.
This promise so agreeable to their idleness
charmed them. They almost all joined the im-
poster, particularly those of the kingdom of Darnel.
Their king was deposed, and all their neighbours
plundered in this revolt. They lived always in
hope of the rairacle, and spent two years in
waiting for the millet, which never carae. They
ate one another for want of sustenance, and were
reduced to give themselves up as slaves. The
length of time disabused them, they dismissed the
tyrant, and Darnel was re-instated. They will no
longer have any marabouts in their country. All
those they have been able to catch, they have
made slaves.
Besides millet, they have black and white beans,
something like our haricots, and melons full of
insipid water. They use grain to make what they
call couscouse in Arabic, and Laguere in the
language of the country, and which is their most
ordinary food. The fruit that we call bananas, and
in the Canaries, Adam's apples, is common among
them. They feed their oxen, cows and goats
with it, and whoever has the most of it, is most
esteemed. Their oxen are not so large as a calf

SO LE MAIRE'S ACCOUNT OF
of eight or nine months in France ; the cause is, I
believe, the dryness ; for along the banks of the
Senegal, where there is good pasture, they are as
large as in Europe.
There are a quantity of palms; I have remarked
three sorts. One is like the date ]3alm, the second
like that which you may have seen in France, and
the third a species of Araerican palm. As for that
which bears the cocoanul, there is none here.
By incisions that the blacks make in these palm
trees they distill a liquor the colour of pearl,
which they call palm wine. It is sweet and agree
able to the taste the first day, but it intoxicates,
and looses its sweetness every day till it becomes
sour. The older it is the more inebriating it is.
One of these trees can produce about a pot and
a half of this liquor. They offer it generally for
the refreshment of strangers, and there is no want
of it in the houses of people of importance. This
same tree produces a species of little cocoanut,
from which they get punic oil, of the odour of the
violet, the colour of saffron, and the taste of the
olive. It enters into the composition of rausselin
oil, of Nicholas Alexandrin. These trees are
taxed by the Alzair, or lord of the village.
As the palm tree is high and without branches,
and as incisions have to be made in two or three
places under the leafy tuft which makes the beauty
of this tree, they climb it in this manner : —They

DANCOURT's VOYAGE TO AFRICA. 5 1
have a sort of hoop made of bark, which binds
and unbinds at will, and into which they pass
when it is fastened round the tree. They are
seated, so to speak, with their feet placed ag.iinst
the tree, supported round the back by the hoop,
as firmly as if they were on the ground ; they
thus reach the top, make their incisions and attach
calabashes to receive the liquor which distils.
One could not but feel alarm, seeing them so high
and supported by such a little thing.
All along the coast there are all sorts of animals,
of which I do not pretend to describe the species,
because I am too little versed in this sort of science.
I shall only speak of those which are known to
me, and of which one can see a great number in
Europe, owing to the care that different princes
have taken to have them transported thither. As
they are seen there in their natural ferocity, and
without being tamed, perhaps what I shall say of
thera will enable me to give some more par
ticulars. The places where these wild beasts are to be
seen are in lakes and holes that the rain fills. In
the evening and in the morning they come tp
them in a. crowd, as well as others, less savage.
There are found elephants, lions, tigers, leopards,
panthers, wolves, tigers, civet cats, foxes, gazelles,
etc. The negroes are all well made and finely pro-

52 LE maire's ACCOUNT OF
portioned. You see among them no hunchbacks
or lame people, unless rendered so by accident.
They are stupid and wanting in skill, even in the
least trifles, great liars and still greater thieves.
Larceny is the sole thing they have any dexterity
in. They acquit theraselves so well in this respect,
that they can steal anything from you before your
eyes, without your knowing it, picking up with
one foot that which they wish to take and taking
hold of it behind thera.
When any mountaineers (they call the people
thus who live inland) come to trade with us, there
is no deceit which the coast negroes fail to make
use of towards them. For under the pretext of
helping them to carry their purchases, and to serve
them as interpreters, they keep from them half
the payment that they receive from us, as if they
had a right to it.
The fear of punishment from their kings for
thefts accomplished by night, and that inflicted
on persons taken in the act, has not succeeded in
curing the vice. The chastisement iti rigorous
enough, however, for in this case they become the
slaves of those they have robbed.
As we are obliged to use the negroes as inter
preters, we are unhappily exposed to their
dishonesty. They never pass on a message
exactly as it is given them, and they are always
seeking some roundabout way to thwart us.

DANCOURT's VOYAGE TO AFRICA. 53
which often raakes our transactions end in
quarrels. They are insupportable in all their ways, and
in this above all, that they think theraselves able
to do anything. Their drunkenness is extreme,
for they are continuaUy imbibing brandy, for they
cannot usually get the palm wine, it not being
common enough. Their drunkenness is foUowed
by a total want of reason and by furious brutality.
They do not know what is meant by restitution,
and they have not a shade of civility. Their
ignorance goes the length of not knowing that
two and two make four, or their age, or the days
of the week, for which they have no names.
Their priests, who have a smattering of Arabic,
write their " Gris gris " in that language. I will
explain this terra hereafter.
These people have only one good quality, and
that is, they are hospitable, and let no strangers
to their nation pass them without offering them
any food and drink that they have, and even for
days together. As they attach great value to
brandy, when they wish to drink it they hide
theraselves frora their guests, because they would
be ashamed not to share it with them, They pay
theraselves for their hospitality to the mountaineers
by taking from them the brandy which they have
got in exchange from us for their merchandise,
and never let them take half of it away.

54 LE maire's ACCOUNT OF
They are all poor, their sole possessions being a
few oxen. The richest have forty or fifty, or
perhaps two or three horses, with as many slaves.
It is very rarely that they have any gold menilles
of the value of eleven or twelve pistoles.
Though they have neither wit nor talent, they
love praise so much, that they have people called
guiriots, whose trade it is to supply them with it.
The guiriots carry a kind of drum, four or five
feet long, made of the hollow trunk of a tree,
which they beat with the hand or with sticks.
They have also Moorish drums, on which they
play with one hand, while with the other they
strike them with a stick.
I have seen another of their instruments, which
would be fit for a sick roora. It is a kind of lute,
made of ^ small piece of hollow wood, covered
with leather, and with two or three strings of
horse hair. It is covered on the face with little
iron plates, and ornamented with little bells, like
a basque tambourine.
The dresses of the blacks are very simple. The
poor people have only a small piece of cotton
cloth, about half a foot wide round their loins,
which they fasten on with a cord, which serves
them as a belt. They let the two ends hang
before and behind, and consider that a great
ornament. The grandees and persons of distinction are

DANCOURT's VOYAGE TO AFRICA. 55
better equipped. They have shirts of cotton
made like the dress of a Franciscan, with long
white sleeves. They are not plaited at the neck,
because they have only one opening to pass the
head through, like the shirts of Europeans. They
wear them in all colours, blue, yellow, &c.
As they only wear them half down their thighs,
they have breeches of the same stuff, which reach
from the waist, down below the knee. These
breeches are so wide, that as many as five eUs of
cloth are required. They are like a woman's petti
coat, stitched along the bottora, leaving only two
openings through which to pass the legs, raaking
a sort of bag. The larger they are, the raore they
are admired.
They cover their head with a cap, narrow at
the opening, and wide at the further end, almost
like the capuchon of the Jacobins. The common
people go about with bare feet, but the people of
quality have sandals made of a small piece of
leather underneath, in the shape of a sole, and
attached above by leather straps, which hold the
foot like the sandals of the ancients. Their hair,
though short is well twisted. It is ornamented
with gris gris, with silver, leather, coral, and
copper. Those who are born of a race of slaves
are not permitted to wear their hair.
The girls and women are nude from the waist
upwards, at least unless the cold obliges them to

56 LE maire's ACCOUNT OF
wrap themselves in something. They cover the
other part of the body with a " paigne," that is to
say, a piece of cotton cloth, striped in their fashion,
and of the size of a winding sheet, which falls half
way down the leg. Their hair is also twisted and
ornamented with coral and other trifles. Their
coiffure makes a tuft on the head, half a foot high.
The higher it is the more it is esteemed.
The girls and boys run about naked till the age
of eleven or twelve years. The men and women
adorn their arms and legs with coral, with silver
and gold, and pewter menilles, according to their
wealth. The cotton, with which these people clothe
theraselves, would grow near them in abundance,
if they would take the trouble to cultivate it, but
they content themselves with what is barely
necessary, some times with less. The women
spin the cotton, and the men raake the cloth in
pieces, only five fingers wide, for want of necessary
tools to make it wider. For the rest, they are as
good weavers as those in France. They join
together ten or twelve pieces to make a " paigne''
an ell wide.
The ordinary food of western negroes is millet.
The women who prepare it raake it into " Sangle "
and " couscous," their terms to signify two sorts
of dishes.
They commence at the dawn to make the

DANCOURTS VOYAGE TO AFRICA. 57
sanglet, because it takes six entire hours to prepare
it. They begin, two or three together, and taking
all the millet they require for the day, they pile it
in large deep wooden mortars, for they do not use
mills. When the millet is separated from its
shell, they fan it with fans made of palm leaves,
to blow away the chaff. Then they cook it either
with milk or beer, or gravy, or dried fish, or
water. Couscous, which is their best dish, is also made
of millet grpund fine, and flannel like the preced
ing. When it is cleaned, they put a Uttle of it into
a very smooth bowl, and drop a drop of water on
it. They add water until they have reduced
this mass to little balls, about the size of a pin's
head. They then dry these, and when dry, put
them in an earthen pot, pierced with several holes,
where they cook the food, seasoned with pep
per and palra oil, when they have it. This
ragout is very good when it is well prepared, and
when there is no sand in it, which they often
happen to leave in it.
When they go to war, they carry a little bag a
foot long, and as thick as your arra, full of cou
scous thus cooked. As the women begin this
task every day, they are not a little busy. If the
women of France had to take as much trouble for
their husbands, they would have a bad time of it.
They have for drink the palm wine and water

S8 LE maire's ACCOUNT OF
from foul wells, and often from stagnant pools.
They use milk when they have any.
As ambition is a passion unknown to these
people, they are not at any pains to build towns,
castles or pleasure houses. Besides, they have
neither industry nor materials. They inhabit only
villages, the houses of which are such as I have
described. They have many, according to the
quality of the persons and their condition. Those
which are near palm trees are the prettiest, though
they are without doors and windows. The house
of a great chief will be sometimes composed of
thirty tents that they call corabettes, and even of
forty or fifty. A poor person will have only two
or three, and the king a hundred, but covered
with straw like the others.
Those of persons of consideration are inclosed
by palisades of straw or thorn, supported here and
there by stakes. The corabettes all communicate
with one another by roads arranged in the form
of a labyrinth. In the inolosure round a house
are seen beautiful trees, in number proportioned
to its capacity, spreading over the ground accord
ing to the places and the nature of the trees.
The palace of the king surpasses all the others
in magnificence. Before arriving at the gate of
the palisade which surrounds the grand inclosure
there is a spacious place, where they exercise the
horses, whose number rarely exceeds ten or twelve.

DANCOURT's VOYAGE TO AFRICA. 59
Outside the paUsade are the smaller houses of the
great ^chiefs. You enter the palace from this
place by a wide avenue. This space of ground is
ornamented by a number of trees which we call
calabashes, because its fruit resembles a gourd.
Persons who have their place nearest the person
of the king have their dwellings in this avenue,
and their proximity or distance frora the royal
combette indicates their rank. Each of the
dwellings is inclosed by palisades, and you have
to pass through several of the courts before reach
ing the king. But few people dare enter his
court. All his wives have separate apartments, and five
or six slaves each to wait upon them. The king
can sleep with the one he prefers without the
others being jealous. He has always one that he
prefers. When he gets tired of her, he sends her
away to some village with her slaves, and provides
her with land necessary for her maintenance, and
another succeeds her. Half the thirty he has had
are in the country.
The negroes from this coast as far as the Gambia
observe the law of Mahomet, but in the territories
about Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast they
have, for the most part, no religion at all, or
worship the first thing they meet in the raorning.
Formerly they were idolaters, worshipping
the devil, to whora they sacrificed oxen, and

60 LE maire's ACCOUNT OF
though they ate these animals, they believed in
metempsycosis. There are even now those who will not kill
certain lizards which run about in their huts,
because they say it is the soul of their father or
mother, who has come to make the folgar with
thera, that is to say, rejoicing.
They have taken the Mahoraetan religion from
the Azoaghes or Arabs, of whora I have spoken.
It is but little observed by the common people,
who have only a smattering of it. The nobles are
more attached to it, because they usually have
near to them a Moorish marabout, and these
rascals have interested motives. They raake their
salaam or prayer three times a day — at sunrise, at
noon, and in the evening, some of them in the
afternoon. The common people do not do it at
all, or but seldom, except in the mosque.
The king and the nobles have mosques. They
are covered with straw like their other houses.
They stand there a long tirae facing the east,
then they take two steps forward, muttering some-
words between their teeth, then lie on their faces
on the earth, then rise, kneel and make a circle
on the ground round them, and round the head,
two or three times. They afterwards repeatedly
kiss the earth, putting sand to the forehead with
both hands, and repeat these ceremonies for half
an hour.

DANCOURT's VOYAGE TO AFRICA. 6l
One asks of God that he may have no enemies
that he cannot defeat, that God will do him no
harm ; another, that He will give him beautiful
wives, plenty of millet, etc. Whilst they are at
prayer nothing is capable of interrupting them,
not even if they were to see their houses on fire.
They believe in predestination, and when some
misfortune happens to them they say that the
same comes from God, so that if a negro is killed
by another, they say that God has killed him, but
they do not fail to take the homicide and to sell
him. They are so superstitious that they imagine
that, having certain naraes, they ought not to
touch any beasts having names at all similar to
their own, for that will either cause their death,
or bring some trouble upon thera.
They have certain characters which they call
gris-gris. They are short prayers of which the
characters are Arabic, and interspersed with
figures of Necromancy, which the marabouts sell
to them. These serve as they believe, to prevent
them from being wounded, to enable them to
swim well, to catch plenty of fish ; others, to get
plenty of wives and children, to prevent them
' from being taken captives, and generally, to get
for them all they desire.
They have so much confidence in these charac
ters, that they do not fear being hit by an arrow.

62 LE MAIRE'S ACCOUNT OF
It is true they are so covered with them (having
sorae over all parts of the body) that often an
assagaye would have great difficulty in penetrating
them. The nobles, above all, have their shirts
and caps covered with them, and they cover
themselves with them to such a degree, that they
are often obliged to be placed on horseback.
They put them also on the horses, in order to
make them go fast, or to prevent thera from being
wounded. These gris-gris are enveloped In linen well
folded and glued, and are covered over with well-
dressed red leather. There are some not larger
than your thumb, worked with the diamond point,
of which they make collars. Inside these en
velopes, the marabouts often place nothing, as I
found, when I examined some belonging to our
slaves. They wear them before and behind, over the
stomach, the size of a quarto volume, and two
inches thick. They make them of horses tails, of
stag-horn, or of the horns of wild bulls, covered
with red cloth. They put two of these last in the
front of the cap. This head-dress makes them
look like devils. It is supposed to protect them
in their combats with one another, but not against
our musket shots. They say that they have no
gris-gris to ward off the "puff" as they call
them.

DANCOURT's VOYAGE TO AFRICA. 63
The marabouts charge a ruinous price for the
gris-gris, sometimes three slaves, sometimes four
or five oxen, according to the amount of virtue
they attribute to them. The opinion that these
negroes have of their gris-gris, has made ignorant
French people believe that among these peoples
sorcerers are to be seen.. There are certain times
when these pretended sorcerers make horrible
grimaces, singing or weeping when the devil beats
them. When they believe that this happens, if it is to
a woman, they dress her like a man, with an
assagaye in her hand, and make her walk up and
down, singing in a lugubrious voice, and they
believe that this chases away the evil spirit. I have
often observed that these sorceries were pure
impostures, for when we take a stick, and beat the
"possessed," this exorcism is so effectual that the
devil does not come again.
During their Ramadan, which is the Lent of
Mahomet, and which lasts through the September
moon, they perform the ceremony of Circumcision.
They wait till the child is ten or twelve. The
Marabout performs the operation, making the
child swallow the flesh. He raust not cry, no
matter what pain he suffers. You often see them
laugh, even when fire is applied to stop the bleeding.
Whilst the Ramadan lasts they keep the
Folgar " all night, for in the day-time fhey

64 LK maire's ACCOUNT OF
neither eat, drink, nor smoke, some of them dare
not even spit. As soon as the sun sets, they make
a great noise with their drums, and eat and drink
till sun-rise.
Though they may not have more than four
wives, according to the Koran, they have as many
as they can keep. If a man takes a fancy for a
girl, he asks her of her father. The price is then
discussed. Oxen form the dowry, which the
father obtains. This never exceeds five oxen.
The bargain struck, they are put to bed without
further ceremony. If she is supposed to be a
maid, a rare thing here, a white sheet is stretched
over the battlefield, and its testiraony is held
unimpeachable. If all is satisfactory, songs in
praise of the wife are sung in public ; if otherwise,
the husband sends her away, and loses the oxen
with which he has purchased her. This happens
rarely, however, as an examination is generally
demanded before the man proposes. A girl
returned does not lose caste, for if she is not one
man's wife, she becomes another's concubine.
If the husband tires of his wife, he can always
return her, and a wife has the same privilege, on
returning the oxen paid for her.
When the king wishes to gratify some grandee,
he gives him one of his wives. This grandee may
not put her away, but the prince may take her
back if he will.

DANCOURT's VOYAGE TO AFRICA. 65
The funerals of the negroes are conducted with
great ceremony. A marabout washes the body of
the defunct, and wraps him in the most beautiful
cloths that he has had during his life. All the
relations and neighbours come to weep, and ask
him several questions. They ask him, if he was
not well with them, what evil they had done him,
if he was not rich enough, if he had not plenty of
beautiful wives, and other similar things. Seeing
that he does not answer, they go away and give
place to others, who say the same things, during
which time the guiriots do not cease singing his
good qualities.
And as it is the custom to feast all those who
have come to pay respect to the dead, they kill
oxen, they sell slaves to get brandy, with which
they console themselves. When the assistants
have had enough, they bury the defunct in the
house in which he has died, and they lift the roof
off. Then, when the body is in the ground, the
weepers redouble their cries, and four persons
making a square with four sheets that they hold,
cover it up out of sight.
After this the marabout comes, says some words
in the ear of the corpse, and covers it with cloths,
and then they replace the roof to which they hang
cloth, white, red, or any colour they fancy. Near
by they raise a stake on which they attach the
bow, quiver,' and the assagayes of the defunct.

66 LE maire's ACCOUNT OF
They place for him a pot of couscouse, and one of
water, which are his provisions for a year, because
they imagine that he eats, though dead.
In some pUces they surround the hut with
thorns, or a large ditch, to defend the body from
wild beasts, which do soraetiraes, however, succeed
in getting at it. When that is finished, the
weepers continue their contortions for eight days.
When the deceased is a boy, the women and
girls sing, and the boys run after one another with
all their might, their drawn sabres in their hands,
knocking against one another, and each striking
the sabre of the one preceding him, with his own.
A number of other ridiculous things they do, too
tiresome to relate.
The negroes have few artisans among them.
The most ordinary are blacksmiths, tailors and
potters. The former make knives, the chains of
slaves, of gold, silver, copper and iron, ornaments
for knives and sabres, and the coverings of the
gris-gris. They make the ferrules of their
scabbards of any metal they like, and the handles
of their sabres. They have no farriers, as they
do not shoe their horses. When they forge, they
are always two or three together under the shade
of a tree, with their pipes in their mouths, seated
on the ground. They use about as much fire for
it as would boil an egg, and they light it with a
pair of bellows madQ of two skins, frora which

DANCOURT's VOYAGE TO AFRICA. 76
they express the air, and which looks like an
inflated bladder. Their anvU is almost Uke the
stone with which mowers whet their scythes. It
is so embedded in the sand that two or three
strokes cf the hammer drive it in, and most of
their time is taken up with puUing it out again.
Their tailors are but little occupied, clothing
being not much worn, as I have already men
tioned. The potters make only one sort of pots, which
serve as kettles, and pipes, of which the bowl
only is made of earth. The rest is a little hol
lowed stick attached to it with earth.
In general all these artisans are idle fellows, and
pass half their time discussing various affairs.
They do not trouble themselves much if provisions
fail, in which case they can but become parasites
on their neighbours.
The ordering of the household, except the pre
paration of food, gives very little trouble to the
women, for the furniture of the greatest gentleman
among them only consists of a few earthen pots,
some wooden vessels split in half, and which they
use as cups and dishes.
Their children, even the little ones, do not give
them much trouble either, for they are left naked
on the sand or crawling about the whole day.
They carry on their backs those that cannot run
alone, with the legs on the side, their feet stretched

68 LB maire's ACCOUNT OF
out in front, fastening them on with a cloth tied
round themselves.
Whatever work they are doing, these little ones
are always packed up thus on their backs, even
when they beat their millet. l''or this reason they
have such large stomachs and such flat noses,
because the mother, in letting them slip down,
and raising thera with a shake, brings the child's
nose against her back ; and the children, to avoid
this knock, which they always receive, neverthe
less, draw the head back nnd push the stomach
forward. I believe this is the sole reason they
are flat-nosed. For tho rest, it is not true that
they admire flat noses and thick lips.
They think ns much of beauty ns w-c do, and
they adraire fine eyes, small mouths, beautiful
lips, and a well iiroportioncd nose. With the
exception of blackness, there arc as good looking
ncgrcsses as there arc European ladies. They
have moro wit than the men, nnd arc very volup
tuous, The caresses of tho whites please tliem,
but still they do not give their favours fur nothing.
The men consider it an honour if a Frenchman
sleeps with their wives. It is not the same thing
amongst themselves, unless the gallantry In1»es
place with one of their concubines. The women
have always a pipe in their mouths, and love to
dance in the evening. They dance in a ciiele
with one hand on their hair, the other on their

DANCOURT's VOYAGE TO AFRICA. 69
lips, and all their positions are lascivious, especially
when a youth is dancing with them. Their music
consists of a tin kettle.
The men exercise themselves in wrestling, and
approach one another in ridiculous postures, point
ing at one another. On these occasions, there is
always some one who plays the part of Guiriot,
and who strikes a caldron or a drum, to encourage
them. As they are naked, they are very difficult
to throw down. When one is down, the Guiriot
vaunts the valour of the victor, whom he exhorts
to do still better with his next antagonist. They
shake one another roughly, and the vanquished
one falls heavily.
Most of those that live on the river banks are
fishermen. They exercise their children at an.
early age in their trade. They use canoes, which
are little boats made of a single tree hoUowed out.
The largest will contain ten or twelve men, being
about thirty feet long by two and a half feet wide.
These canoes are rowed or sailed. When the
wind is high and the sea is rough, the canoe often
capsizes, but they do not care much if it does, for
they are good swimmers, and do not go to the
bottom. They turn it over again with their
shoulders, and come up again as if nothing had
happened. They row standing, and go like, a
dart from a cross-bow ; none of out sloops can
reach them, however light they are.

70 LE MAIRES ACCOUNT OF
At the time that I was in this country, an
amusing thing happened, which shows well of how
much use presents are, and how unfair the Princes
are. Two of King Darnel's petty tributary kings
quarreled for the succession of a very mediocre
sovereignty. They were uncle and nephew, that
is to say, the brother and son of the deceased
King, and they supported their pretensions by
diverse reasons, too long to be mentioned. They
proposed to terminate their differences either by
force, or by the judgment of the King. The Prince
having forbidden fighting, they were obliged to
abide by his decision.
The day when the judgment was appointed to
be given, the two parties asserabled in the grand
"Place" before the Palace, accompanied by a
large number of people, who formed themselves
in two battalions, about thirty steps apart. They
were armed with darts, arrows, assagayes, javelins,
and Moorish knives. The King, followed by six
hundred men, covered with their gris-gris,
appeared, mounted on a beautiful Barbary horse,
and placed himself opposite the two rivals.
Though they all speak the same language, they
used interpreters, who spoke to the king. The
son of the deceased finished his discourse, showing
him that since God had formerly given to his
father the estates that were in litigation, they
belonged to him by right, and therefore he hoped

dan-court's voY.\aK to Africa. 71
frora his Majesty the confirmation of ,a right that
no one could contest without injustice. The king,
having listened attentively, said to him with an
air full of gravity — " God has given it to you ; 1
give it to yon again, after him."
Snch a response quickly dispersed the party of
the unde, who retired to his own house. The
s^oiriots, with their instruments and their drums,
celebrated the praises of the victor, saying to him :
"Thou dost merit more than the other. The
king has done thee justice, thou att more beautiful,
richer, more valiant, etc"
While this poor prince thought with joy of his
happiness, he was altogether surprised the next
day to see himself deprived of the authority with
which he had been invested, for his unde, not
having lost any time, had made sudi a beantiful
present to the king, that he forgot the rights
of the nephew, and disfx^ssessed him in the morn
ing of that which he had given him the evening
before, and installevl the other in his place. This
te\-erse of fortune caused the guiriots to change
their tune, and they lauded him whom they had
just blamed. Such is the perfidy of the prince
and of his subjects.
To return to that whidt concerns him more
particularly, I shall say that when he goes to war
he has no need of sutler^ because he is supplied
l^y the women of the villa^ thtou^ which he

72 LB maire's ACCOUNT OF
passes with all his suite. They sometimes serve
him with fifty wooden platters of couscouse,
seasoned in different ways. He keeps those the
flavour of which pleases him, and gives the rest
to his people, who are quite as hungry after the
repast as before it.
They all eat very dirtily, lying on the ground,
taking handfuls out of the wooden bowl, and use
neither cloths nor napkins. No one eats with the
king, except the Grand Marabout or one of the
lords of the highest qualifications. Often he eats
alone. He is not willing that the Thonbabes (it is thus
they call us) should see him at table. I believe
he hides himself, because he is persuaded
that our repasts are cleaner and better than
his, and besides he is ashamed of his poverty.
Among the common people, all those of a family
eat together. Their first dish is couscouse ; when
that is despatched, they throw themselves on the
meat, 'which they tear with their fingers, not using
knives. After having bitten it, they put it back
in the plate for any one who likes to have it.
They use only the right hand all the time of the
repast, which takes place in the evening and at
noon. The left hand is destined to work, and on
that account, they regard it as indecent to use it
in eating.
The king has under him several ministers, who

DANCOURT's VOYAGE TO AFRICA. 73
relieve him in the government of the state, and in
the exercise of justice. The " Condy,'' who is a
tributary sovereign, is like a Constable, and has
the general corara-:nd of the troops. The great
" Geraff" is the high judge in the whole extent of
the states of king Darnel. He travels from time
to tirae over the whole kingdom, to listen to the
complaints of each one. He generally executes
judgement on the spot, and punishes stealing with
captivity ; for he rarely punishes with death for
any crime.
The "Alzair" of the king exercises the same
office as the Geraff, but his power is more limited.
He has under him the " Alkatys" or "Alkairs"
of large villages, who are like private gentlemen.
When a negro is accused of a crime of which
he cannot be easily convicted, he is obliged, in
order to justify himself, to pass a red-hot iron three
times over his tongue. If it is burnt, he is reputed
guilty, unless the accuser and he withdraw from
Court. The negro kings make war under very slight pre
texts. When it comes to pass, the Condy makes all
the great lords assemble, and the other subjects of
whom he composes his cavalry and infantry.
They have rarely a body of more than twelve or
fifteen hundred men, because their war is a mere
raid. In all the kingdom of Damel one could
hardly muster two hundred horses. The distin-

74 LE M.ilRE's ACCOUNT OF
guished people in the army, above all the cavaliers,
are loaded with gris-gris, as I have already
remarked. I think that, once they have dis
mounted, that would prevent them from taking
four steps on foot.
The cavaliers are armed with assagayes, which
are a sort of long wide dart with three or four
javelins, furnished with a ferrule larger than that
of arrows, which having divers little hooks, tear
the wound when they are drawn out. They fling
these darts and assagayes a long distance. - They
have besides that a sabre and a moorish knife, a
cubit long and two inches wide. They parry
blows by a large shield made of very thick leather.
Though so many things raust embarass them, they
never fail to have the arm and the hand free, and
to attack well.
The foot soldier is armed with a sabre, with
darts, and a quiver furnished with fifty or sixty
poisoned arrows, the wound of which is always
mortal unless it is seared.
The iron teeth with which the arrow is furnished
produce also a cruel effect, because they can be
drawn out only by cutting the flesh.
Their bow is made of a reed similar to that
which we call bamboo, that which serves as cord
is of another wood, very delicately accommodated
to it. They are so adroit in draw>ing the bow,
that they hit the mark from fifty steps distance in

DANCOURT's VOYAGE TO AFRICA. 75
a circle the size of a crown piece. They march
without any order of battle, even in the evenings
country. The Guiriots excite thera to the combat
by the sound of their instruments.
As soon as they are within reach, the infantry
shoot their arrows and the cavalry throw their
javelins. This discharge is followed by blows of
the assegayes. They kill fewer enemies than
they might, in order to make them captives —
persons of quality only are not spared. As they
are nude as well as adroit, their wars are more
cruel than they would otherwise be. They are
hardy, and would rather lay down their lives
than be thought wanting in courage. This,
added to the contempt shown to any cowardice
and the fear of losing their liberty, augments their
bravery. The first shock over, they recommence often
two or three days in succession, then they send
marabouts to treat for peace. When they are
agreed upon the conditions, they swear to them
on the Koran and by Mahomet, though they
know very little about either the one or the other.
The prisoners made on each side do not rejoice
in the happiness of peace, remaining slaves as
much as if the war were eternal.
Here is almost all there is to tell about this
country. If I should learn anything more before
I return to Europe, I will give it in exact and

76 DANCOURT's VOYAGE TO AFRICA.
faithful detail to fulfil the commission placed upon
me by my friends, which is to acquaint them
with that which I have remarked. I am not
much given to writing, and my bad style will
make them agree with me that I am hardly the
proper person to send them this narration. All
that they can depend upon in my account, is that
I will not impose upon them, and that J. prefer
the truth to distinguishing myself by recitals more
full of singularity than those of others.

YALE UNIVERSITY