Bloody and remorseless are the wars the princes of these
barbarians carry on against one another. They have no horsemen or body
armour, but use darts and spears, barbed with many poisonous fangs, and
several kinds of arrows, as with us. From the beginning of the world
they knew nothing of ships before the Portuguese came; they only used
light canoes or skiffs, each of which can be carried by three men, and
in which they fish and go from place to place on the river.
The boundaries of the kingdom of Senegal are the ocean on the west, the
land of Gambra on the south, the inland Blackman's country on the east,
and on the north the River Niger (Senegal), which, "as I have said
before, divides the Azaneguys from the First Kingdom of the Negroes. And
the said river," concludes Cadamosto, "five years before my coming, had
been explored by the Portuguese, who hoped to open up a great commerce
in those parts. So that every year from that time their ships had been
off that coast to trade."
Cadamosto determined to push farther up the river than any had done
before, and so to come to the land of Budomel, one of the great negro
princes and kingdoms, for it was the name both of place and person.
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