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As this moon is reckoned extremely lucky, Karfa gave orders that all the people belonging to the coffle should immediately pack up their dry provisions, and hold themselves in readiness: and on the 16th of April, the Slatees held a consultation, and fixed on the 19th of the same month, as the day on which the coffle should depart from Kamalia.
The Slatee of Samee, as well as the Slatees of Lamain and Kutijar, is subject to the King of Kataba; but their subjection is not easily defined. If a slave runs away from one to another, he cannot be reclaimed unless the other chooses to give him up.
I asked him whether the slatees had given him the garment as a reward for cutting her throat. He replied that Karfa and the schoolmaster would not consent to that measure, but had left her on the road, where undoubtedly she soon perished, and was probably devoured by wild beasts.
In front five or six singing men, all of them belonging to the coffle; these were followed by the other free people; then came the slaves fastened in the usual way by a rope round their necks, four of them to a rope, and a man with a spear between each four; after them came the domestic slaves, and in the rear the women of free condition, wives of the Slatees, &c.
I continued in the village all this day in conversation with the natives, who came in crowds to see me; but was rather uneasy towards evening, to find that no message had arrived from the king; the more so, as the people began to whisper, that Mansong had received some very unfavourable accounts of me, from the Moors and Slatees residing at Sego; who it seems were exceedingly suspicious concerning the motives of my journey.
He was reading to them from an Arabic book, and inquired with a smile if I understood it. Being answered in the negative, he desired one of the slatees to fetch the little curious book which had been brought from the west country. Karfa, however, perceiving that I could read this book, had no doubt concerning me, and kindly promised me every assistance in his power.
He was immediately pursued and overtaken by the Slatees, who brought him back, and secured him in irons, after which one of Karfa's slaves was released and delivered in exchange. The unfortunate captive was at first very much dejected, but in the course of a few days his melancholy gradually subsided; and he became at length as cheerful as any of his companions.
About noon, I stopped under a tree, to consider what course to take; for I had now no doubt but that the Moors and Slatees had misinformed the king respecting the object of my mission, and that the people were absolutely in search of me to convey me a prisoner to Sego.
When I produced Richardson's Arabic Grammar to some slatees on the Gambia, they were astonished to think that any European should understand and write the sacred language of their religion.
Every person was ordered to keep in his proper station, and we marched towards the town in a sort of procession nearly as follows: In front five or six singing men, all of them belonging to the coffle; these were followed by the other free people; then came the slaves, fastened in the usual way by a rope round their necks, four of them to a rope, and a man with a spear between each four; after them came the domestic slaves; and in the rear the women of free condition, wives of the slatees, etc.
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