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Updated: June 13, 2025
These different branches of commerce are conducted principally by Mandingoes and Serawoollies, who have settled in the country. These merchants likewise carry on a considerable trade with Gedumah and other Moorish countries, bartering corn and blue cotton cloths for salt, which they again barter in Dentila and other districts for iron, shea-butter, and small quantities of gold-dust.
From all that has been written three facts are prominent: That at some time early in the Middle Ages, perhaps about the seventh century, there was a considerable infiltration of Arabian culture into the tribes living below the Sahara, something of which may to-day most easily be seen among such people as the Haussas in the Soudan and the Mandingoes along the West Coast; That, whatever influences came in from the outside, there developed in Africa an independent culture which must not be underestimated; and That, perhaps vastly more than has been supposed, this African culture had to do with early exploration and colonization in America.
The Fernando Po legend may be taken as fairly pure African, but the Timneh, I expect, is a transmogrified Arabic story though I do not know of anything like it among Arabic stories; but they are infinite in quantity, and there is a certain ring about it I recognise, and these Timnehs are much in contact with the Mohammedan, Mandingoes, etc.
I have myself suffered great inconvenience from the scarcity of this article. The long use of vegetable food creates so painful a longing for salt that no words can sufficiently describe it. The negroes in general, and the Mandingoes in particular, are considered by the whites on the coast as an indolent and inactive people I think without reason.
The Mandingoes, of whom it remains to speak, constitute in truth the bulk of the inhabitants in all those districts of Africa which I visited; and their language, with a few exceptions, is universally understood and very generally spoken in that part of the continent. Their numerals are these: One ......... Killin. Two ......... Foola. Three ......... Sabba. Four ......... Nani.
This town, according to the report of the natives, was formerly inhabited only by a few Foulah shepherds, who lived in considerable affluence by means of the excellent meadows in the neighbourhood, in which they reared great herds of cattle; but their prosperity attracting the envy of some Mandingoes, the latter drove out the shepherds, and took possession of their lands.
In the construction of their dwelling-houses, the Mandingoes also conform to the general practice of the African nations on this part of the continent, contenting themselves with small and incommodious hovels.
I have myself suffered great inconvenience from the scarcity of this article. The long use of vegetable food creates so painful a longing for salt, that no words can sufficiently describe it. The Negroes in general, and the Mandingoes in particular, are considered by the whites on the Coast as an indolent and inactive people; I think without reason.
The trade with the nations of the interior is chiefly confined to the Foulahs and Mandingoes, who bring small quantities of gold with them, which they exchange for European articles to carry home. Their mode of travelling to the colony is not a little curious.
Though this country will be amply described in other voyages in our Collection, it may be proper to remark, that both sides of the river Gambia are inhabited by a mixed population of three nations, the Feloops, Foleys, and Mandingoes, each of whom have their own separate villages interspersed.
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