After
much debate, carried on by yelling from boat to boat, one of the negroes
came on board the caravel and was loaded with presents, to make him more
communicative. The ruse was successful. The string of his tongue was
quite loosed and he chattered along freely enough. The country, like the
river, was called "Gambra"; its king, Farosangul, lived ten days'
journey toward the south, but he was himself under the Emperor of Melli,
chief of all the negroes.
Was there no one nearer than Farosangul? Oh, yes, there was Battimansa,
"King Batti," and a good many other princes who lived quite close to the
river. Would he guide them to Battimansa? Yes, safe enough, his country
was only some forty miles from the mouth of the Gambra.
"And so we came to Battimansa, where the river was narrowed down to
about a mile in breadth," where Cadamosto offered presents to the King,
and made a great speech before the negro magnates, which is abridged in
the narrative, "lest the matter should become a great Iliad." King Batti
returned the Portuguese presents with gifts of slaves and gold, but the
Europeans were sadly disappointed with the gold. It was not at all equal
to what they expected, or what the people of Senegal had talked of;
"being poor themselves, they had fancied their neighbours must be rich.
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