United States or Kenya ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"This evening I despatched the barge to Sierra Leone, with an account of our progress, and requesting the Convention to be immediately transmitted, together with the usual presents to be given to the new King and chiefs. "Tuesday, March 6th. This morning I walked out to make a few observations, and to form some idea of the capabilities of the Boollam country.
In the year 1804, the colony of Sierra Leone was attacked by the Native Powers, and a body of blacks to the northward of the Boollam territories was put in motion for the purpose of assisting the other native tribes in overwhelming the white population at Freetown.
"After some conversation among the chiefs, consisting principally of tributes of praise to the late king, it was formerly announced to me, 'that John Macaulay Wilson was elected King of the Boollams: that he held the Boollam Country in the palm of his hand: and that the scales of justice hung upon his finger, I was also entreated to report to his Excellency the Governor of Sierra Leone, the choice they had made, and their hopes that it would meet with his approbation.
Dalmahoumedii, whom I mentioned above, is the principal Mandingo chief in Boollam, and is by far the best informed man that I had seen here. He is even well conversant in European politics. He is a man of large property, and has a town of his own, called Madina, inhabited entirely by Mandingoes.
In Boollam this was becoming very apparent; and as the Mandingo chiefs are all either covertly or openly, supposed to be engaged in the slave trade, and consequently opposed to the English Government, I was instructed particularly to guard against, and to oppose their interest in the election of the King.
It was attempted some years ago with much zeal, but there is not at this moment, I believe, a single convert to Christianity in Boollam, to reward the labour, or repay the expense, which was lavished on that object. But a very different success has attended the efforts of the disciples of Mahommed in propagating the doctrines of the crescent.
In short, the produce of the Boollam country might, without very great labour be made to rival that of either our East or West India possessions, in fact almost every article imported into Great Britain from either is indigenous to this soil. The indolent and lazy natives, however, cultivate little excepting rice.
King George was the first king of Boollam, that had been allowed to die a natural death, through fear of getting 'a palaver, as they term it, with Sierra Leone. Previous to this, they always despatched their kings when they considered them about to expire, sacrificing two human victims, whom they buried in the same grave. Meaning that the late king loved him as a son.
The election of Macaulay Wilson having been accomplished, it would then become the duty of the Commissioner, on the part of the English Government to use every means in his power to induce the new King, with the numerous chiefs and head men, to accede to, and sign, a convention, whereby the sovereignty of Boollam was to be ceded to the King of Great Britain, under certain limitations and restrictions specified in the treaty.
On my arrival the late Regent pronounced a very long harangue in the Boollam language, which was repeated sentence by sentence in the Mandingo and English by the respective interpreters.
Word Of The Day