9 Said River, by Readily Believing Suspicions of Disloyalty and Treason

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9 Said River, by Readily Believing Suspicions of Disloyalty and Treason 9 said river, by readily believing suspicions of disloyalty and treason against Bemoym, or more truthfully because he wanted to return to the kingdom, he slew the said Bemoym with a sword, and then returned to this kingdom; whereat the king, being in Tavilla, grew very sad; and he overlooked this crime by Pero Vaaz, seeing that he did not visit heavy punishment upon him or many others who served it for the same reason; yet the king strongly disapproved of their killing him, since, being accomplices in such an error, they ought to have been treated as they treated him, because they had him freely in their power without offence or peril. Duarte Pacheco Pereira, Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis, pp. 21-24 The wealth of Africa (1508) As the Portuguese moved farther and farther along the coast of Africa, they reported on the great amounts of trade in which the local people engaged, the wealth and power of many of the communities, and the skill evident in the production of items such as delicately carved ivory necklaces and finely woven mats. This was a continent teeming with people and commerce. And where the Portuguese could not go, such as inland areas where the followers of Islam ruled, they imagined the existence of dog- faced people and men with bristles like those of pigs. Duarte Pacheco Pereira wrote this account of Africa’s wealth in 1505–8 after spending many years in the late 1400s as a ship’s captain employed by King John II of Portugal. He was involved in the building of Elmina Castle, traveled to India in the early 1500s, and returned to serve as governor of the castle from 1520 to 1522. The Senegal River and its hinterland 10 The first black men are found at the Rio de Çanaguá [Senegal River]. This river is the beginning of the kingdom of Jalofo, which extends nearly a hundred leagues in length and forty in breadth; on the north the Rio de Çanaguá divides it from the Azanegues; on the south it borders Mandingua and on the east the kingdom of Turucol . The King of Jalofo can put 10,000 horsemen into the field and 100,000 footmen; they are all naked except the nobles and honourable men, who wear blue cotton shorts and drawers of the same stuff. These peoples, as those of the great kingdom of Mandingua and of Turocol and other negroes, are all circumcised and worship in the false sect of Mahomet. They are given to vice and are rarely at peace with one another, and are very great thieves and liars, great drunkards and very ungrateful and shameless in their perpetual begging. All these people and others who dwell near them are ignorant of the source of the Rio de Çanaguá, which is so large and deep that they call it the Rio Negro. Many intelligent Ethiopians who know different provinces and countries for five hundred leagues up this river have told us that its source is unknown; but from its course and beginnings we know that it rises in a great lake of the river Nile thirty leagues long and ten broad, so that it seems that this is the branch which the Nile throws out through Ethiopia in a westerly direction, the other branch flowing north and disemboguing by four months in the sea of Egypt . At the head of this lake is a kingdom called Tambucutu, which has a large city of the same name on the edge of the lake. There also is the city of Jany, inhabited by negroes and surrounded by a stone wall, where there is great wealth of gold; tin and copper are greatly prized there, likewise red and blue cloths and salt, all except the cloths being sold by 11 weight; also greatly prized here are cloves, pepper and saffron, and fine thin silk and sugar. The commerce of this land is very great, and in the above-mentioned places and in Cooro as well, fairs are held; every year a million gold ducats go from this country to Tunis, Tripoli of Soria and Tripoli of Berbery and to the kingdom of Boje and Feez and other parts. This Rio de Çanaguá would be navigable for small vessels were it not for a great rock a little over 250 leagues from its mouth before one arrives at Tambucutu and the other towns. This rock is called Feleuu and it runs across the river so that no ship or boat can pass, as the water pours over it in a cataract. The ships of your Highness ascend this river only so far as the kingdom of Turocol, which the tide reaches sixty leagues from the mouth and bar of the river. There six or seven slaves are bartered for one horse of no great value, and some gold in return for kerchiefs and red cloths and stones called “alaquequas,” which we are familiar with as stones that staunch blood. In this country there are very large snakes, twenty feet long and more and very thick . There are also in this river very large lizards, many of them twenty-two feet long, and their mouths are so large that they can easily swallow a man . This river is rife with fever . The Gambia River and its hinterland 150 leagues from its mouth is a district called Cantor, where there are four towns, the principal of which is called Sutucoo and has some four thousand inhabitants; the names of the other three are Jalancoo, Dobancoo and Jamnamsura; they are all enclosed with wooden palisades and are distant from the river by half a league, a league and a league and a half. At Sutucoo is held a great fair, to which the Mandinguas bring many asses; these same Mandinguas, when the country is at 12 peace and there are no wars, come to our ships (which at the bidding of our prince visit these parts) and buy common red, blue and green cloth, kerchiefs, thin coloured silk, brass bracelets, caps, hats, the stones called “alaquequas” and much more merchandise, so that in time of peace, as we have said, five and six thousand doubloons of good gold are brought thence to Portugal. Sutucoo and these other towns belong to the kingdom of Jalofo, but being on the frontier of Mandingua they speak the language of Mandingua. This Rio de Guambea divides the kingdom of Jalofo from the great kingdom of Mandingua . When ascending the Guabuu [Gambia River] the kingdom of Jalofo is on the N and that of Mandingua on the S, extending nearly 200 leagues in length and eighty in breadth. The king of Mandingua can put into the field twenty thousand horsemen, and infantry without number for they take as many wives as they choose; when their king is very old and cannot govern or when he is afflicted with a prolonged illness, they kill him and make one of his sons or relatives king. 200 leagues from this kingdom of Mandingua is a region where there is abundance of gold; it is called Toom. The inhabitants of this region have the faces and teeth of dogs and tails like dogs; they are black and shun conversation, not liking to see other men. The inhabitants of the towns called Beetu, Banbarranaa and Bahaa go to this country of Toom to obtain gold in exchange for merchandise and slaves which they take thither. Their mode of purchase is as follows: he who wishes to sell a slave or other article goes to a certain place appointed for the purpose and ties the slave to a tree and makes a hole in the ground as large as he thinks fit, and then goes some way off; then the Dogface comes and if he is content with the size of the hole he fills it with gold, and if not he covers 13 up the hole and makes another smaller one and goes away; the seller of the slave then returns and examines the hole made by the Dogface and if he is satisfied he goes away again, and the Dogface returns and fills the hole with gold. That is their mode of commerce, both in slaves and other merchandise, and I have spoken with men who have seen this. The merchants of Mandingua go to the fairs of Beetu and Banbarranaa and Bahaa to obtain gold from these monstrous folk . The people of this country all speak the language of Mandingua and follow the sect of Mahomet. South to Serra Lyoa There is a river called Casamansa, the people on whose banks belong to the Mandingua. Here are some shallows of mud, with five or six fathoms, running out two leagues into the sea, and at the end of this mud there are shallows of sand with twelve and fifteen fathoms, extending for four leagues. In this Rio de Casamansa iron is greatly prized, and slaves are bartered for horses and handkerchiefs and red cloths . I will not speak of the channel of this river, for it often changes; he who would enter it must take soundings at its bar to find the deepest part . The Rio Grande has at its mouth five or six islands, very low and full of woods . the channels flowing between them are not very narrow, but in places they have bad shallows of rock through which the tide runs with great force . The tidal waters flow in so strongly that . leagues above its mouth there is a macareo [tidal bore] where the incoming tide raises the water twelve and fifteen fathoms and runs with such violence that a ship at anchor there could only escape being swamped by a miracle .
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