, which is nearly equal in value to a ducat. The inhabitants of the desert have neither religion nor sovereign; but those who are richest, and have the greatest number of retainers and dependents, are considered as chiefs or lords. The women are tawny, and wear cotton garments, which are manufactured in the country of the Negroes; but some of them wear a kind of cloaks, or upper garments, called Alkhezeli, and they have no smocks. She who has the largest and longest breasts, is reputed the greatest beauty; on which account, when they have attained to the age of seventeen or eighteen, and their breasts are somewhat grown, they tie a cord very tight around the middle of each breast, which presses very hard and breaks them, so that they hang down; and by pulling at these cords frequently, they grow longer and longer, till at length in some women they reach as low as the navel. The men of the desert ride on horseback after the fashion of the Moors; and the desert being everywhere very hot, and having very little water, and extremely barren, they can keep very few horses, and those they have are short lived. It only rains in the months of August, September and October. I was informed that vast swarms of locusts appear in this country some years, in such infinite numbers as to darken the air, and even to hide the sun from view, covering the horizon as far as the eye can reach, which is from twelve to sixteen miles in compass; and, wherever they settle they strip the ground entirely bare. These locusts are like grasshoppers, as long as ones finger, and of a red and yellow colour. They come every third or fourth year, and if they were to pay their visits every year, there would be no living in the country. While I was on the coast, I saw them in prodigious and incredible numbers.
SECTION IV.
Of the River Senegal and the Jalofs, with some Account of the Manners, Customs, Government, Religion, and Dress of that Nation .
Leaving Cape Branco, and the Gulf of Arguin, we continued our course along the coast to the river Senegal, which divides the desert and the tawny Azanhaji from the fruitful lands of the Negroes. Five years before I went on this voyage, this river was discovered by three caravels belonging to Don Henry, which entered it, and their commanders settled peace and trade with the Moors; since which time ships have been sent to this place every year to trade with the natives[1]. The river Senegal is of considerable size, being a mile wide at the mouth, and of sufficient depth. A little farther on it has another entrance, and between the two, there is an island which forms a cape, running into the sea, having sand- banks at each mouth that extend a mile from the shore[2]. All ships that frequent the Senegal ought carefully to observe the course of the tides, the flux and reflux of which extend for seventy miles up the river, as I was informed by certain Portuguese, who had been a great way up this river with their caravels. From Cape Branco, which is 280 miles distant, the whole coast is sandy till within twenty miles of the river. This is called the coast of Anterota , and belongs entirely to the Azanhaji or Tawny Moors. I was quite astonished to find so prodigious a difference in so narrow a space, as appeared at the Senegal: For, on the south side of the river, the inhabitants are all exceedingly black, tall, corpulent and well proportioned, and the country all clothed in fine verdure, and full of fruit trees; whereas, on the north side of the river, the men are tawny, meagre, and of small stature, and the country all dry and barren. This river, in the opinion of the learned, is a branch of the Gihon , which flows from the Terrestrial Paradise, and was named the Niger by the ancients, which flows through the whole of Ethiopia, and which, on approaching the ocean to the west, divides into many other branches. The Nile , which is another branch of the Gihon, falls into the Mediterranean, after flowing through Egypt[3].
[1] Cada Mosto is incorrect in the chronology of this discovery, and even de Barros is not quite decided as to the first discovery of the Senegal. He says that Denis Fernandez passed it in 1446, and that Lancerot discovered it in 1447; the latter of which is eight years before the visit of Cada Mosto.--Clark.
[2] The northern mouth of the Senegal is in lat. 16° 40'. The southern in 15° 45', both N. so that the distance between them, or the length of the island mentioned in the text, is about sixty-two miles.--E.
[3] This fancy of all the great rivers in Africa being branches from one principal stream, is now known to be entirely erroneous.--Astl.
The first kingdom of the Negroes is on the banks of the Senegal, and its inhabitants are called Gilofi or Jalofs. All the country is low, not only from the north to that river, but also beyond it, as far south as Cape Verd, which is the highest land on all this coast, and is 400 miles from Cape Branco. This kingdom of the Jalofs, on the Senegal, is bounded on the east by the country called Tukhusor ; on the south by the kingdom of Gambra or Gambia; on the west by the Atlantic Ocean; and on the north by the river Senegal and the Azanhaji[4]. The king who reigned in Senegal in my time was named Zukholin, and was twenty-two years old. This kingdom is not hereditary; but for the most part, three or four of the principal lords, of whom there are many in the country, choose a king, in the event of a vacancy, but always fix their choice on a person of noble lineage, who reigns only as long as he gives satisfaction to these great lords. They often dethrone their kings by force; who, on the other hand, often render; themselves so powerful as to stand on their defence. This renders the government unsettled, and is productive of civil wars; similar to Egypt, where the Soldan of Cairo is always in fear of being killed or banished.
[4] Although the first kingdom, or kingdoms of the Negroes lies on the Senegal, Senega, or Sanaghas, and others along the Gambia, yet there were not properly any kingdoms of these names. On the north, indeed, of the Sanagha, lay the country of the Sanhaga, Azanaghi, or Azanhaji, from whence the river seems to have taken its name; but was divided among various tribes of people, and not under any one sovereign. Geographers, however, have since continued to propagate this first error.--Astl.
The Jalofs and Foulahs inhabit the country between the Senegal and Gambia, on which latter river the Feloops reside. What is meant by Tukhusor in the text does not appear, unless it may obscurely indicate Karta.--E.
The people are savages, and extremely poor, having no walled towns, and their villages are entirely composed of thatched cottages. They use neither lime nor stone in building, not knowing how to make the one, or to form the other. The kingdom of the Jalofs is small, and, as I was informed, extends only 300 miles along the coast, and about the same distance inland. The king has no settled revenue; but the lords of the country court his favour, by making him yearly presents of horses, which being scarce, are in high estimation, together with horse furniture, cows, and goats, pulse, millet, and other things. He likewise increases his wealth by means of robbery, and by reducing his own subjects, and those of neighbouring provinces to slavery, employing a part of these slaves to cultivate the lands which are assigned to him, and selling the rest to the Arabs and Azanhaji traders, who bring horses and other things for sale; as likewise to the Christians, since they have established a trade in these parts.
Every man may keep as many wives as he pleases. The king has always upwards of thirty, and distinguishes them according to their descent, and the rank of the lords whose daughters they are. He keeps them in certain villages of his own, eight or ten in one place, each having a separate house to dwell in, with a certain number of young women to attend her, and slaves to cultivate the land which is assigned for her maintenance, which they sow and reap, and to tend her cows and goats. When the king comes to any of these villages, he brings no provisions along with him, as his women are obliged to support him and his retinue whenever he visits them. Every, morning at sunrise, each of his wives in the village where he happens to reside, prepares three or four dishes of various viands, such as flesh, fish, or other dainties, cooked in their fashion; which are carried by the slaves to the kings pantry; so that in less than an hour, thirty or forty dishes are provided, and when the king has a mind to eat, he finds every thing ready at his command. When he has eaten of such things as he likes best, the remainder is given to his retinue; but as this, diet is never very plentiful, they are but poorly fed. He travels about in this manner, from place to place, visiting his several wives, by which means he has a very numerous issue and whenever one of his wives happens to fall with child, he visits her no more. The lords or chiefs of the country live in a similar manner.
These
