near his own, and his wife, who was a black woman, ordered an apartment to be prepared for me. Here, after five months of great privation, I found a good bed of bamboo leaves, white linen, a musquito curtain, bread and butter, tea and wine; in a word, all the conveniences common in Europe.

The country between the Rio Grande and Geba is called Kabou. It is level and fertile; the climate is hot, moist, and unhealthy. The towns are inhabited by Mandingoes, and theirs is the only language spoken. The Foolahs live in the Foola kondas, which consist of two rows of huts, forming a long, wide street. Both Mandingoes and Foolahs are pagans.

The Portuguese establishment of Geba is about 180 miles north-east of Bissao, the fortified settlement belonging to the same nation on the coast. At Geba there is no fort, and the soldiers are black men. I saw only three Europeans, and they were as pale as spectres. The whole number of persons amounts to 750; the mulattoes are called whites. Geba is bounded on the south by a marshy river, and on the east by mountains; the place is most unhealthy. Oranges, lemons, guavas, yams, cassada, and maize, are abundant; oxen, sheep, goats, hogs, and poultry, are common.

I remained four days at Geba, when I embarked on the river, and in four days more I arrived at Bissao. The banks are low and woody, and serve as a retreat for a number of hippopotami.

On landing at Bissao, my large Bambarra hat, and tattered negro garments, drew around me a crowd of black men, who laughed at my appearance: a Portuguese serjeant drew his sword, and restored order; he then desired me to follow him,

and he kept off the multitude that obstructed the way. When we arrived at the fort, the black sentinel said to me in Portuguese, "Comrade, take off your hat." I pulled it down farther, and went on. I was announced to the governor, who appeared in the midst of a numerous circle of officers; and he seated me by his side, while the water, which my clothes had imbibed by rain, dropped from them on the floor. Having asked my motives for travelling into the interior of Africa, and being satisfied with my answers, he ordered tea, and fresh bread and butter to be set before me: he then poured out the first cup for me, and left me to make my breakfast.

After I had done eating, an officer conducted me to a good stone house on the sea shore. I went to bed and slept soundly, but on awaking, I was told that I had lost another of my travelling companions; my ass, which had braved all the dangers and fatigue of the journey, had here perished in the sea. The governor of Bissao sent me a bundle of new clothes, and a tray with six dishes, for my dinner. In the morning I waited upon him, dressed in the clothes he had sent me ; and, instead of being ordered by the sentinel to take off my hat, some of the officers seemed jealous of the favour shewn me by the governor.

From Bissao I again sailed to the Island of St. Louis, from whence I had set out on this expedition. Here I fully recompenced the important services rendered me by Boukari, and I obtained for him the grant of a piece of land on the island, on which he was to build himself a brick house.

CHAPTER XÍ.

THE SENEGAL, THE BORDERING ARABS,

THE ISLE OF ST. LOUIS, VOYAGE TO Galam.

THERE is, perhaps, no river in the world that has so many circumvolutions as the Senegal, from the fall of Felow to the sea, as there are few that run through a country so level. From the mouth of the river to this cataract, which is the boundary of the French navigation, the distance, in a direct line, is only 480 miles; by the windings of the river it is nearly 840. The Senegal, rolling over lands which are in general light and sandy, and with little declination, is affected by the slightest local circumstances. Thus a clod of earth more tenacious than usual, or a forest more impervious, changes the course of its waters in such a manner, that they sometimes seem upon the point of returning to their sources; and vessels pursuing the same track appear to be sailing in a contrary di rection. The Senegal continues its tortuous disposition to the last; for, instead of discharging itself, like other rivers, directly into the ocean, it flows a considerable way by its side, leaving a tongue of land between, about 200 yards broad, and finds itself an oblique passage. The bar is extremely dangerous, from the violence of the

waves.

The French formerly endeavoured, during the. time of the inundation, to penetrate from the Se

negal to the Gambia by water; but their bark was sometimes stranded on banks of earth, and sometimes stuck fast on stumps of trees; the sailors perished with fatigue and hardships, or were thrown into fevers by the heat; and the enterprize miscarried.

The Senegal, from its mouth to Galam, forms the boundary between the Negroes and the Arabs. The first Negro kingdom on its banks is called by a writer of the 17th century the kingdom of Senega, and its sovereign is indiscriminately styled the King of Senega, and the Great Brak. A writer of the 18th century calls the country Doual; and, at this time, the Great Brak was become so small, that his servants did not scruple to take a glass of brandy from his hand, and drink half of it. What was of much more consequence to himself, he did not dare to seize his subjects, openly, and sell them. They were, however, sometimes sold; and the women, particularly, were so handsome and intelligent, that they sold each for twenty or thirty pistoles more than the women of other countries.

The subjects of the Brak were Jalofs, and probably formed one of fourteen nations that were formerly under the dominion of the Great Boor. They subsisted chiefly by agriculture; each man cultivating what quantity of land he chose; the lazy being frequently in want, and the industrious selling grain to the French at St. Louis. Their manner of raising the crop was simple. A month before the rains, they set fire to the dry stubble, and at the commencement of the rains, the father of the family, with his wife and children, went into the field. The man led the way, and, with a Kind of

pick-axe, made a hole in the ground; the woman followed, and dropped in the grain; the children came after, and, with their feet, covered it with earth; and this process was repeated till the field

were sown.

When the grain was ripening, another care devolved upon the women and children; the produce of their labour being attacked by monkeys and innumerable flights of birds. To prevent, as much as possible, the depredations of these animals, stages were erected in the fields, at proper distances, and women and children were stationed on them. When a cloud of birds approached one of these, the people, set up a horrible cry, which drove them to a distance, where they encountered another cry, which sent them to a third, and they knew not where to eat in safety. But birds discovered, after some time, that cries did them no injury, and they learned to eat, as they passed from one stage to another.

A writer of the 19th century calls both the country and the sovereign Brak. It is probable that the one continues to be cultivated in the same manner, and the other has not increased in power

or stature.

The succeeding negro kingdoms, as we advance up the Senegal, are Foota Toro, through which I travelled to the sources, and Kajaaga, from whence I crossed the river to Kasson.

On the northern side of the Senegal, beyond its fertile border, extends the Sahara, the vast domain of different tribes of Arabs. How they came there is not my business to enquire: it is sufficient for me to know that the Arabs are a roving people, and that a desert connects Arabia and Africa.