Some Historical Account of Guinea | Page 5

lands. If any of their people are known to be made slaves, all the
Fulis will join to redeem them; they also support the old, the blind, and
lame, amongst themselves; and as far as their abilities go, they supply
the necessities of the Mandingos, great numbers of whom they have
maintained in famine." The author, from his own observations, says,
"They were rarely angry, and that he never heard them abuse one
another."
[Footnote A: Astley's collect. vol. 2. page 46.]

[Footnote B: Astley's collection of voyages, vol. 2, page 86.]
[Footnote C: William Smith's voyage to Guinea, page 31, 34.]
[Footnote D: Astley's collection, vol. 2, page 358.]
[Footnote E: Idem. 259.]
[Footnote F: Moor's travels into distant parts of Africa, page 198.]
[Footnote G: Ibid, page 21.]
The Mandingos are said by _A. Brue_ before mentioned, "To be the
most numerous nation on the Gambia, besides which, numbers of them
are dispersed over all these countries; being the most rigid Mahometans
amongst the Negroes, they drink neither wine nor brandy, and are
politer than the other Negroes. The chief of the trade goes through their
hands. Many are industrious and laborious, keeping their ground well
cultivated, and breeding a good stock of cattle.[A] Every town has an
Alkadi, or Governor, who has great power; for most of them having
two common fields of clear ground, one for corn, and the other for rice,
the Alkadi appoints the labour of all the people. The men work the corn
ground, and the women and girls the rice ground; and as they all
equally labour, so he equally divides the corn amongst them; and in
case they are in want, the others supply them. This Alkadi decides all
quarrels, and has the first voice in all conferences in town affairs."
Some of these Mandingos who are settled at Galem, far up the river
Senegal, can read and write Arabic tolerably, and are a good hospitable
people, who carry on a trade with the inland nations."[B] They are
extremely populous in those parts, their women being fruitful, and they
not suffering any person amongst them, but such as are guilty of crimes,
to be made slaves." We are told from Jobson,"[C] That the Mahometan
Negroes say their prayers thrice a day. Each village has a priest who
calls them to their duty. It is surprizing (says the author) as well as
commendable, to see the modesty, attention, and reverence they
observe during their worship. He asked some of their priests the purport
of their prayers and ceremonies; their answer always was, _That they
adored God by prostrating themselves before him; that by humbling

themselves, they acknowledged their own insignificancy, and farther
intreated him to forgive their faults, and to grant them all good and
necessary things as well as deliverance from evil."_ Jobson takes notice
of several good qualities in these Negroe priests, particularly their great
sobriety. They gain their livelihood by keeping school for the education
of the children. The boys are taught to read and write. They not only
teach school, but rove about the country, teaching and instructing, for
which the whole country is open to them; and they have a free course
through all places, though the Kings may be at war with one another.
[Footnote A: Astley's collect. vol. 2, page 269.]
[Footnote B: Astley's collect. vol. 2, page 73.]
[Footnote C: Ibid, 296.]
The three fore-mentioned nations practise several trades, as smiths,
potters, sadlers, and weavers. Their smiths particularly work neatly in
gold and silver, and make knifes, hatchets, reaping hooks, spades and
shares to cut iron, &c. &c. Their potters make neat tobacco pipes, and
pots to boil their food. Some authors say that weaving is their principal
trade; this is done by the women and girls, who spin and weave very
fine cotton cloth, which they dye blue or black.[A] F. Moor says, the
Jalofs particularly make great quantities of the cotton cloth; their pieces
are generally twenty-seven yards long, and about nine inches broad,
their looms being very narrow; these they sew neatly together, so as to
supply the use of broad cloth.
[Footnote A: F. Moor, 28.]
It was in these parts of Guinea, that M. Adanson, correspondent of the
Royal Academy of Sciences at Paris, mentioned in some former
publications, was employed from the year 1749, to the year 1753,
wholly in making natural and philosophical observations on the
country about the rivers Senegal and Gambia. Speaking of the great
heats in Senegal, he says,[A] "It is to them that they are partly indebted
for the fertility of their lands; which is so great, that, with little labour
and care, there is no fruit nor grain but grow in great plenty."

[Footnote A: M. Adanson's voyage to Senegal, &c, page 308.]
Of the