presenting to my readers. L commence with some nations of
the mountainous country in the interior.
Paragraph A.—Inhabitants of Mountainous Regions.
1. Of the Jallonkas, or Jallunkan, and the Sokko.
The highest part of Senegambia above and behind the
western border of that mountainous region occupied by the
Fulahs, and equally above the northern border, which is the
country of the Mandingos, is Jallonkadou, or the Wilderness
of the Jallonkas.
The Jallonkas appear to be more nearly connected .With the
Mandingos than with any other known people of Africa.
Mr. Park, "who traversed the country of the Jallonkas, and
visited one of their towns termed Manna, has afforded some
brief notices of them, lie has likewise given us the numerals
of the language spoken at Manna, which, as he says,
prevails over all the extensive and hilly country termed Jallonkadou.
These numerals are all nearly identical with those
of the Mandingos. Park observes, that some of the words
of the Manna speech have a great affinity with the Mandingo,
though the nations themselves consider the two languages as
distinct The excellent missionary, Oldendorp, whom I havé
frequently cited in the first volume of this work, says, that
he has conversed with two Mandingos, who described their
own country as Very extensive, and mentioned among their
neighbours the Fulah and the Jallunkan ; the latter, a people
of kindred jrace with the Mandingos themselves,* but
having a different language. Oldendorp lias given, in his
vocabulary, thirteen words, besides ten numerals, of the Jallunkan
language, nearly all of which are Mandingo words,
with some trifling corruption. From these facts it appears
probable, that the Jallonkas are a tribe of the Mandingo race,
having a peculiar dialect, which, as-it has happened in many
other similar instances, has been regarded as a distinct idiom.
It Would appear probable that tribes of the Jallonkas, or
other nations of language equally related to that of the
* Ein mit ihnen verwandtes Volk.
Mandingos, and in part pagans, extend eastwards from Jallonkadou,
perhaps along the chain of the Kong mountains, to
the countries behind the Gold Cbast. We have from Oldendorp
some accounts of the Sokko or Asokko, a nation bordering
on the Amina, in the country near that coaStv Olden-.
dorp was acquainted'with three>individuals p|f| the tribe, who
stated that 'their country was a steven-weekS’ joufriby- dii^
taut from the sea-shpr'e. Their sovereign, who had many
subordinate kings under him, was Mansa. The|jv
carry on defensive wars against the; Aminä^who make kidnapping!
incursions into their territory. The languageof the
Asokko, as far as we can judgeMp^b^a vocabulajy/bfpt givdn
by Oldendorp, compared with another-Specimen’of the idiom
f f the Jallunkan, or Jallonka, bears to, the latter a close affinity,
as do both of them to the Mandingo,-^. jj
The Kissi.
The Kissi are' a people ,of whom wi know nothingl^x^pt
that they inhabit the country about the sources of? the Niger,
to the .southward of Sülimana arid Sangara.
Sulima.
The Sulimas, made known by Major Laing, who-vi sited
their capital town in 1822, are a warlike and ipqwbrful Negro
.meet, inhabiting a ngguntainous country to the söuthwardfxj:’
Fouta-jallo, and around the sources , pf the Rokelle. They
are among the most civilized of the pagan nations of Africa,
and haveflitobably, derived improvement from their 'intercourse
with Mohammedans, particularly With; the Fulahs,
with whom they were long closely united, but now. %&g||qjef-
petual hpstilitiiSi For information re^e'^p&g the Sulimfes;
I must refer.my readers to Major Laing, who has drawn a
parallel between them and the ancient Romans) and has collected
particulars relating to their history from the latteVpart
of the seventeenth century, or the reign of Gesma Fonjdo, in
1690, who was powerful in higher Senegambia, and waged
wars with the Kissi and LimbavAepple for the captivation of
slaves, which were sold to Mandingo slave-dealerS: In the
time of his ssccisspr) according to.Major Lahi®^.informants,
* See Oldendorp’s Geschichte der Mission der Evangelischen Brüder, p. 281,
291, 333; and Vater, Mithridafe theil iii. p. 169.