with a paste of meal and water, or with cows dung, and placed upon the fire. In the lower vessel is commonly some animal food and water, the steam or vapour of which ascends through the perforations in the bottom of the upper vessel, and softens and prepares the kouskous, which is very much esteemed throughout all the countries that I visited. I am informed, that the same manner of preparing flour, is very generally used on the Barbary coast, and that the dish so prepared, is there called by the same name. It is therefore probable, that the Negroes borrowed the practice from the Moors.

For gratifying a taste for variety, another sort of pudding, called nealing, is sometimes prepared from the meal of corn; and they have also adopted two or three different modes of dressing their rice. Of vegetable food, therefore, the natives have no want; and although the common class of people are but sparingly supplied with animal food, yet this article is not wholly withheld from them.

Their domestic animals are nearly the same as in Europe. Swine are found in the woods, but their flesh is not esteemed: Probably the marked abhorrence in which this animal is held by the votaries of Mahomet, has spread itself among the Pagans. Poultry of all kinds (the turkey excepted) is every where to be had. The Guinea fowl and partridge abound in the fields; and the woods furnish a small species of antelope of which the venison is highly and deservedly prized.

Of the other wild animals in the Mandingo countries, the most common are the hyæna, the panther, and the elephant. Considering the use that is made of the latter in the East Indies, it may be thought extraordinary, that the natives of Africa have not, in any part of this immense continent, acquired the skill of taming this powerful and docile creature, and applying his strength and faculties to the service of man. When I told some of the natives that this was actually done in the countries of the East, my auditors laughed me to scorn, and exclaimed, Tobaubo fonnio ! (a white man's lie.) The Negroes frequently find means to destroy the elephant by fire arms; they hunt it principally for the sake of the teeth, which they transfer in barter to those who sell them again to the Europeans. The flesh they eat, and consider it as a great delicacy.

The usual beast of burthen in all the Negro territories,

is the ass. The application of animal labour to the purposes of agriculture, is no where adopted; the plough, therefore, is wholly unknown. The chief implement used in husbandry is the hoe, which varies in form in different districts; and the labour is universally performed by slaves.

On the 6th of October the waters of the Gambia were at the greatest height, being fifteen feet above the high-water mark of the tide; after which they began to subside; at first slowly, but afterwards very rapidly; sometimes sinking more than a foot in twenty-four hours: By the beginning of November the river had sunk to its former level, and the tide ebbed and flowed as usual. When the river had subsided, and the atmosphere grew dry, I recovered apace, and began to think of my departure; for this is reckoned the most proper season for travelling: The natives had completed their harvest, and provisions were every were cheap and plentiful.

Dr. Laidley was at this time employed in a trading voyage at Jonkakonda. I wrote to him to desire that he would use his interest with the Slatees, or slave merchants, to procure me the company and protection of the first coffie (or caravan) that might leave Gambia for the interior country; and in the mean time I requested him to purchase for me a horse and two asses. A few days afterwards the Doctor returned to Pisania, and informed me that a coffle would certainly go for the interior, in the course of the dry season; but that, as many of the merchants belonging to it had not yet completed their assortment of goods, he could not say at what time they would set out.

As the characters and dispositions of the Slatees, and people that composed the carayan, were entirely unknown to me, and as they seemed rather averse to my purpose, and unwilling to enter into any positive engagements on my account, and the time of their departure being withal very uncertain, I resolved, on further deliberation, to avail myself of the dry season, and proceed without them.

Dr. Laidley approved my determination, and promised me every assistance in his power, to enable me to prosecute my journey with comfort and safety.

This resolution having been formed I made preparations accordingly. And now, being about to take leave of my hospitable friend, (whose kindness and solicitude continuC

ed to the moment of my departure*) and to quit, for many months, the countries bordering on the Gambia, it seems proper, before I proceed with my narrative, that I should, in this place, give some account of the several Negro nations which inhabit the banks of this celebrated river; and the commercial intercourse that subsists between them, and such of the nations of Europe as find their advantage in trading to this part of Africa. The observations which have occurred to me on both these subjects, will be found in the following chapter.

CHAPTER II.

Description of the Feloops, the Jaloffs, the Foulahs, and the Mandingoes. Account of the trade between Europe and Africa by the way of the Gambia, and between the native, inhabitants of the coast and the nations of the interior countries: Their mode of selling and buying, &c.

THE natives of the countries bordering on the Gambia, though distributed into a great many distinct governments, may, I think, be divided into four great classes; the Feloops, the Jaloffs, the Foulahs, and the Mandingoes.Among all these nations, the religion of Mahomet has made, and continues to make, considerable progress; but, in most of them, the body of the people, both free and enslaved, persevere in maintaining the blind but harmless superstitions of their ancestors, and are called by the Mahomedans Kafirs, or infidels.

Of the Feloops, I have little to add to what has been observed, concerning them in the former chapter. They are of a gloomy disposition, and are supposed never to forgive an injury. They are even said to transmit their quarrels as deadly feuds to their posterity; insomuch, that a son considers it as incumbent on him, from a just sense of filial ob

* Dr. Laidley, to my infinite regret, has since paid the debt of nature. He left Africa in the latter end of 1797, intending to return to Great Britain by way of the West Indies; and died soon after his arrival at Barbadoes.

ligation, to become the avenger of his deceased father's wrongs. if a man loses his life in one of those sudden quarrels, which perpetually occur at their feasts, when the whole party is intoxicated with mead, his son, or the eldest of his sons (if he has more than one) endeavours to procure his father's sandals, which he wears once a year, on the anniversary of his father's death, until a fit opportunity offers of revenging his fate, when the object of his resentment seldom escapes his pursuit. This fierce and unrelenting disposition is, however counterbalanced by many good qualties; they display the utmost gratitude and affection towards their benefactors; and the fidelity with which they preserve whatever is intrusted to them is remarkable. During the present war they have, more than once, taken up arms to defend our merchant vessels from French privateers; and English property, of considerable value, has frequently been left at Vintain, for a long time, entirely under the care of the Feloops; who have uniformly manifested on such occasions the strictest honesty and punctuality. How greatly is it to be wished, that the minds of a people, so determined and faithful, could be softened and civilized, by the mild and benevolent spirit of Christianity.

The Jaloffs (or Yaloffs) are an active, powerful, and warlike race, inhabiting great part of that tract which lies between the river Senegal, and the Mandingo States on the Gambia; yet they differ from the Mandingoes, not only in language, but likewise in complexion and features. The noses of the Jaloffs are not so much depressed, nor the lips so protuberant, as among the generality of Africans; and although their skin is of the deepest black, they are considered by the white traders, as the most sightly Negroes in this part of the continent.

They are divided into several independent states or kingdoms; which are frequently at war, either with their neighbours, or with each other. In their manners, superstitions, and governments, however, they have a greater resemblance to the Mandingoes (of whom I shall presently speak) than to any other nation; but excel them in the manufacture of cotton cloth; spinning the wool to a finer thread, weaving it in a broader loom, and dying it of a better col

our.

Their language is said to be copious and significant; and is often learnt by Europeans trading to Senegal. I cannot

say much of it from my own knowledge; but have preserv

ed their numerals, which are these:

The Foulahs (or Pholeys) such of them at least as reside near the Gambia, are chiefly of a tawny complexion, with soft silky hair, and pleasing features. They are much attached to a pastoral life, and have introduced themselves into the kingdoms on the windward coast, as herdsmen and husbandmen, paying a tribute to the sovereign of the country for the lands which they hold. Not having many op portunities however, during my residence at Pisania of improving my acquaintance with these people, I defer entering at large into their character, until a fitter cecasion occurs, which will present itself when I come to Bondou.

The Mandingoes, of whom it remains to speak, constitute in truth, the bulk of the inhabitants in all those districts of Africa which I visited; and their language, with a few exceptions, is universally understood, and very gener ally spoken, in that part of the continent. are these:*

Their numerals

* In the Travels of Francis Moore the reader will find a pretty copious vocabulary of the Mandingo language, which in general is cor

rect.