I was surrounded with hundreds of people speaking a variety of
different dialects, all equally unintelligible to me. At length, by
the assistance of my guide, who acted as interpreter, I understood
that one of the spectators pretended to have seen me at one place,
and another at some other place; and a Moorish woman absolutely
swore that she had kept my house three years at Gallam, on the river
Senegal. It was plain that they mistook me for some other person,
and I desired two of the most confident to point towards the place
where they had seen me. They pointed due south; hence I think it
probable that they came from Cape Coast, where they might have seen
many white men. Their language was different from any I had yet
heard. The Moors now assembled in great number, with their usual
arrogance, compelling the negroes to stand at a distance. They
immediately began to question me concerning my religion, but finding
that I was not master of Arabic, they sent for two men, whom they
call Ilhuidi (Jews), in hopes that they might be able to converse
with me. These Jews, in dress and appearance, very much resemble
the Arabs; but though they so far conform to the religion of
Mohammed as to recite in public prayers from the Koran, they are but
little respected by the negroes; and even the Moors themselves
allowed that, though I was a Christian, I was a better man than a
Jew. They however insisted that, like the Jews, I must conform so
far as to repeat the Mohammedan prayers; and when I attempted to
waive the subject by telling them that I could not speak Arabic, one
of them, a shereef from Tuat, in the Great Desert, started up and
swore by the Prophet that if I refused to go to the mosque, he would
be one that would assist in carrying me thither; and there is no
doubt that this threat would have been immediately executed had not
my landlord interposed on my behalf. He told them that I was the
king's stranger, and he could not see me ill-treated whilst I was