This engraving depicted Bûmey Haman Seaka mounted on a horse and wielding a spear. Barsalli was a Wolof kingdom in the Senegambia region. Astley provided a description of this kingdom (p. 261-62). Thomas Astley (d. 1759) was a British bookseller and publisher who never went to Africa. His imagined localities and illustrations of Africa were informed by a library of travel books at his disposal.
Bûmey Haman Seaka King of Barsalli
SI-OB-808
1745-1747
Bûmey Haman Seaka King of Barsalli
"Plate XXIV" in Thomas Astley (ed.), A New General Collection of Voyages and Travels, vol. 2 (London: Thomas Astley, 1745-1747), facing p. 262.
English
Pre-Colonial Africa: Society, Polity, Culture
Africa--Western Savanna
A near identical version is in Francis Moore, Travels into the Inland Parts of Africa: Containing a Description of the Several Nations. . . Up the River Gambia. . . 1723 (London: Printed by Edward Cave, 1738), facing 215.
Jerome Handler; Michael Tuite; Henry B. Lovejoy Graduate Research Assistants: Tiffany Beebe; Travis May
1-Feb-17; 21-Aug-19
Astley003