THE EDINBURGH MAGAZINE O R 425 LITERARY MISCELLANY, FOR DECEMBER 1793; With a View of the RUINS of the CASTLE of ABERDOUR, &c. in the County of FIFE. ABSTRACT OF M. FOLLIE'S NARRATIVE OF HIS VOY. AGE TO THE COAST OF AFRICA, AND HIS JOURNEY THROUGH THE DÉSART OF SAHARA. LATELY PUBLISHED IN PARIS. N the 19th of December, 1783, I failed for Senegal, on board the Two Friends, commanded by Captain Carfin. We had a fair wind, till the night of the first of January. It then blew a ftorm. The crew were diforderly; the captain and his officers unfkilful. On the 17th of January, 1784, when the captain believed himself to be on the coaft of Mogodore; the fhip fuddenly ftruck on a rock, at fixty leagues diftance, on the point of Cape Norn. V A number of negroes appeared on the fhore. A M. Defchamps, a skilful fwimmer, made to them, They inftantly feized and ftripped him to the fhirt; dragged him to the top of a hill; there fufpended him for fome fhort time by the feet; and then rolled him in the fand, dancing round him the whole time, with loud shouts of joy. We who faw all this from on board the fhip, concluded that the Cannibals were deyouring our poor comrade .The boatfwain, however, would follow to the fore; promifing to give us notice by a fignal, whether Defchamps were yet in life. We faw him meet with the fame treatment; and none would venture a third experiment. Meanwhile, night coming on, all on board affembled at prayers, on the deck. The captain proposed, that we should make an attempt to remove the vessel from the rock on which it had ftruck. Some eagerly adopted this counfel; others, however, diflatisfied with this, knew not what else to offer. I, with difficulty, perfuaded all to wait patiently as we were, till the morning. Upon this, the captain, in a tranfport of rage and defpair, fhot himself with two piftol bullets, through the head, but not mortally. Next day, the negroes came swarming to the ship, plunderedit, and carried all on board afhore with them on rafts. My raft was overturned by a guft of wind; and I should have perished, had not three of our conductors haf tened to my help. On fhore, we immediately underwent the fame treatment as our two comrades. But the negroes intended it only to make us vomit up the water which we might have fwallowed. After much quarreling among themselves, carried almoft to the highest pitch; we were fhared among them. I, with nine of my comrades, fell to one mafter. He conducted us to his home, where he was joyfully received by his family. My apprehenfions of death were foon diverted by affurances, that for my life I had nothing to fear. Although weak even to faintnefs, I was compelled to affift in bringing on fhore the cargo of the fhip; and, after labouring at this the whole day, to provide wood for fuel to the family in the evening. Thus expofed naked to a heat infufferably torrid, my feet were foon entirely excoriated, and my body covered over with wounds and fores. A cup or two of milk in the day was the food allowed me. The defart is deftitute of water. My bed was the torrid fand. On the 28th of the month, thefe favages, the two hordes of the Moffelmes and the Mougeares, parted, after burning the remains of the wrecked veffel. After I had given up all hopes of ever feeing any ofmy unfortunate companions, the captain was brought to me, in a miferable condition, by two Moors. He was disfigured by wounds; his eyes looked wild; his countenance was pale and bloody; his mouth, already gangrenous; his death was evident ly near. The Savage to whofe fhare he had fallen, would take no farther care of him; as he was now more troublesome than ferviceable. I ran to meet him, wept with him, foothed his diftrefs, and placed him in a hut which I raised, that I might there perform to him every office of humanity in my power. But the Moors coming upon us with loud fhouts, drove me away. I was forced to leave the unfortunate man to his fate. He was murdered in the night by blows with the butt end of a gun. While I continued to feed my mafter's flocks, I, one day, when' fainting under pain, fatigue, and the weight of anxious thought, heard a tyger iffue from an adjoining wood, with fcreams and bellowings, at which my heart thrunk within me. Refiftance I could make none. I hid myfelf. He devoured three of my goats, and then went his way. Hefitating whether to expofe myfelf to my mafter's rage for the lofs, or not rather to the horrors of the defart, I delayed my return home, to a later hour than ufual. My mafter, alarmed by my delay, came out, with his fon, to find me. No fooner did they hear what had detained me, than my mafter whipped me with an handful of small ropes, till I was, all over, bloody, and fank down in a ftate of infenfibility. In this condition, I was faftened to a post before the door of the cottage, where I remained through the night, expofed to all the dampnefs and cold moisture of the atmosphere. By this fuffering and expofed, I loft my fight. They threatened to knock me on the head, if I recovered it not within three days. Happily, within five and thirty hours, I began again to discern objects. A ftranger foon after arrived, to whom my old mafter was glad to difpofe of me for three goats. On the 14th of February, this tranger, who was one of the richest and most confiderable merchants in the country, brought me away with him. We had an hundred leagues to tra el; and, of this journey, I performed the greater part, walking with my feet bare, and pushed on by the blows of five or fix flaves, who followed behind me. At length, my vigour was wholly exhaufted, and I was fet upon a camel. When we had reached my new mafter's dwelling, I was left at my eafe for three days; and then fent out to my former employment of a goatherd. I received a little barleybread, ment. His camels are then difburthened; and his goods laid fafely afide. A matrefs is given him to lie upon, and to cover him while he fleeps; altho' to accommodate him thus, the hofpitable family often leave themfelves without covering. His arms are depofited within the tent, befide thofe of his hoft. bread, in addition to what had been my former fare. My mafter, pleafed to fee my strength gradually recruited, now treated me lefs harthly; and, on the 15th of March, fold me to a third mafter, who dwelled at Glimy. In that town I was at length redeemed by the Sieurs Cabanne and Defparres, French merchants from Mogodore. The Emperor of Morocco was at first extremely angry, that thofe merchants had prefumed to encroach upon a branch of traffic which he had referved to himself, by redeeming a French flave. But he was pacified; and, what by force, what by money, brought at length, together all our hipwrecked crew, with the exception of fome who had died, or had loft themselves in the defarts. I at length reached Morocco, from which I returned home by the way of Cadiz, The inhabitants of the defart of Sahara are, in their descent, a mixture of Arabians, Moors, and Portuguese, who retired hither when the Sherriffes feized the three kingdoms of Barbary. They are now divided into the Mougeares, the Trafarts, and the Bracnarts. ( The religion of the Mougeares is a mixture of Mahometifm, with various other fuperftitions. All religions, indeed, but the Jewish, are tolerated among them. A Jew, if discovered here, would be immediately burnt alive. What is remarkable; priefts here travel about from horde to horde, for the inftruction of the children. At night, food is brought out to him. If the family have nothing that they can give him, the neighbours fupply; for the ftranger must, on no account, want. The laft recourfe is always to the tent of the chief. But then, all are taxed for this; each fupplying to their lord two pounds of barley-meal in the week; by which he is well repaid for what he furnishes to the expenditure of hofpitality. As the chief is commonly he who is richest in cattle, he hath always enough of milk, When he wants, the furrounding tents fupply him. The children teach one another to read, by fcrawling upon boards, fome maxims from the Koran, in Arabic characters. At the age of feven years, they are circumcifed, and have their heads haven; only, there are four fmall tufts left to grow; and of thefe at the perfor mance of each of the child's next four remarkable actions, one is cut off. He is not regarded as a man, till after he has loft them all. . Juftice is diftributed by the elders of each tribe; from whose sentence there is hardly ever an appeal. all Thefe people follow that mode Thefe people have fome fingular of life which is common among cuftoms of hofpitality. When a paftoral nations. They know no ftranger arrives at their tents, the other art, but the care of their flocks. first perfon he meets, directs him to Their utenfils, they purchafe from the tent of that family whofe turn it travelling artifans of Biledulgerid. is to receive him. If the mafter be Difputes never arife among them. not at home; the miftrefs and the Any acquifition of plunder is equally. flaves come out to meet him, and shared among thofe by whom it is make him top at the diftance of taken. Their drefs is a blue shirt of twenty paces from the tent-door. cotton, or woollen, an upper gar Milk is there offered him for refresh- ment of woollen, four or five ells in 3 H2 length2 |