ing circumstances of my situation and prospects, should appear to me to be most advisable."

We sailed from Portsmouth on the 22d day of May, 1795. On the 4th of June, we saw the mountains over Mogadore, on the coast of Africa; and on the 21st of the same month, after a pleasant voyage of thirty days, we anchored at Jillifree, a town on the northern bank of the river Gambia, opposite to James's Island, where the English had formerly a small fort.

The kingdom of Barra, in which the town of Jillifree is situated, produces great plenty of the necessaries of life; but the chief trade of the inhabitants is in salt; which commodity they carry up the river in canoes as high as Barraconda, and bring down in return Indian corn, cotton cloths, elephant's teeth, small quantities of gold dust, &c. The number of canoes and people constantly employed in this trade, makes the King of Barra more formidable to Europeans than other Chieftian on the river; and this circumstance probably encouraged him to establish those exorbitant duties, which traders of all nations are obliged to pay at entry, amounting to nearly 20. on every vessel, great and small. These duties, or customs, are generally collected in person by the Alkaid, or Governor of Jillifree, and he is attended on these occasions by a numerous train of dependants, among whom are found many, who, by their frequent intercourse with the English, have acquired a smattering of our language; but they are commonly very noisy, and very troublesome; begging for every thing they fancy with such earnestness and importunity, that traders, in order to get quit of them, are frequently obliged to grant their requests.

On the 23d we departed from Jillifree, and proceeded to Vintain, a town situated about two miles up a creek on the southern side of the river. This place is much resorted to by Europeans, on account of the great quantities of bees wax which are brought hither for sale; The wax is collected in the woods by the Feloops, a wild and unsociable race of people; their country, which is of considerable extent, abounds in rice and the natives supply the traders, both on the Gambia and Cassamansa rivers with that article, and also with goats and poultry, on very reasonable terms. The honey which they collect is chiefly used by themselves in making a strong intoxicating liquor, much

:

the same as the mead which is produced from honey in Great-Britain.

In their traffic with Europeans, the Feloops generally employ a factor, or agent, of the Mandingo nation, who speaks a little English, and is acquainted with the trade of the river. This broker makes the bargain: and, with the con- . nivance of the European, receive a certain part only of the payment; which he gives to his employer as the whole; the remainder (which is very truly called the cheating money) he receives when the Feloop is gone, and appropriates. to himself, as a reward for his trouble.

The language of the Feloops is appropriate and peculiar; and as their trade is chiefly conducted, as hath been, observed, by Mandingoes, the Europeans have no inducement to learn it. The numerals are as follows:

On the 26th we left Vintain, and continued our course up the river, anchoring whenever the tide failed us, and frequently towing the vessel with the boat. The river is deep and muddy; the banks are covered with impenetrable thickets of mangrove; and the whole of the adjacent coun-try appears to be flat and swampy.

The Gambia abounds with fish, some species of which are excellent food; but none of them that I recollect areknown in Europe. At the entrance from the sea, sharks. are found in great abundance; and, higher up, alligators and the hippopotamus (or river horse) are very numerous. The latter might with more propriety he called the riverelephant, being of an enormous and unwieldly bulk, and his teeth furnishes good ivory. This animal is amphibious, with short and thick legs, and cloven hoffs; it feeds on grass, and such shrubs as the banks of the river afford, boughs of

trees, &c. seldom venturing far from the water, in which it seeks refuge on hearing the approach of man. I have seen many, and always found them of a timid and inoffensive disposition.

In six days after leaving Vintain, we reached Jonkakonda, a place of considerable trade, where our vessel was to take in part of her lading. The next morning, the several European traders came from their different factories to receive their letters, and learn the nature and amount of the cargo; and the captain dispatched a messenger to Dr. Laidley to inform him of my arrival. He came to Jonkakonda the morning following, when I delivered him Mr. Beaufoy's letter, and he gave me a kind invitation to spend my time at his house until an opportunity should offer of prosecuting my journey. This invitation was too acceptable to be refused, and being furnished by the Doctor with a horse and guide, I set out from Jonkakonda at day-break on the 5th of July, and at eleven o'clock arrived at Pisania, where I was accommodated with a room and other conveniences in the Doctor's house.

Pisania is a small village in the King of Yany's dominions, established by British subjects as a factory for trade, and inhabited solely by them and their black servants. It is situated on the banks of the Gambia, sixteen miles from Jonkakonda. The white residents, at the time of my arrival there, consisted only of Dr. Laidley, and two gentlemen who were brothers, of the name of Ansley; but their domestics were numerous. They enjoyed perfect security under the king's protection, and being highly esteemed and respected by the natives at large, wanted no accommodation or comfort which the country could supply; and the greatest part of the trade in slaves, ivory and gold, was in

their hands.

Being now settled for some time at my ease, my first object was to learn the Mandingo tongue, being the language in almost general use throughout this part of Africa; and without which I was fully convinced, that I never could ac quire an extensive knowledge of the country or its inhabi tants. In this pursuit I was greatly assisted by Dr. Laidley, who, by a long residence in the country, and constant intercourse with the natives, had made himself completely master of it. Next to the language, my great object was to collect information concerning the countries I intended

to visit. On this occasion I was referred to certain traders called Slatees. These are free black merchants, of great consideration in this part of Africa, who come down from the interior countries, chiefly with enslaved negroes for sale; but I soon discovered that very little dependence could be placed on the accounts which they gave; for they contradicted each other in the most important particulars, and all of them seemed extremely unwilling that I should prosecute my journey. These circumstances increased my anxiety to ascertain the truth from my own personal observation,

In researches of this kind, and in observing the mannersand customs of the natives, in a country so little known to the nations of Europe, and furnished with so many striking. and uncommon objects of nature, my time passed not unpleasantly; and I began to flatter myself that I had escaped the fever, or seasoning, to which Europeans, on their first arrival in hot climates, are generally subject. But on the 31st of July, I imprudently exposed myself to the night. dew, in observing an eclipse of the moon, with a view todetermine the longitude of the place: The next day I found myself attacked with a smart fever and delirium; and such. an illness followed, as confined me to the house during the greatest part of August. My recovery, was very slow; but I embraced every short interval of convalescence to walk out, and make myself acquainted with the productions of the country. In one of those excursions, having rambled farther than usual, in a hot day, I brought on a return of my fever, and on the 10th of September I was again confined to my bed: The fever however, was not so violent as before; and in the course of three weeks I was able, when the weather would permit, to renew my botanical excursions; and when it rained, I amused myself with drawing plants, &c. in my chamber. The care and attention of Dr. Laidley contributed greatly to alleviate my sufferings; his company and conversation beguiled the tedious hours during that gloomy season when the rain falls in torrents; when suffocating heats oppress by day, and when the night is spent by the terrified traveller, in listening to the croaking of frogs (of which the numbers are beyond imagination,) the shrill cry of the jackall, and the deep howling of the hyæna; a dismal concert, interrupted only by the roar of such tremen

dous thunder, as no person can form a conception of but those who have heard it.

The country itself being an immense level, and very generally covered with woods, presents a tiresome and gloomy uniformity to the eye; but although nature has denied to the inhabitants the beauties of romantic landscapes, she has bestowed on them, with a liberal hand, the more important blessings of fertility and abundance. A little attention to cultivation procures a sufficiency of corn; the fields afford a rich pasturage for cattle; and the natives are plentifully supplied with excellent fish, both from the Gambia river and the Walli creek.

The grains which are chiefly cultivated are Indian corn, (zeamays); two kinds of holcus spicatus, called by the natives soone and sanio; hotcus nigar, and holcus bicolor; the former of which they have named bassi woolima, and the latter bassiqui. These, together with rice, are raised in considerable quantities; besides which, the inhabitants in the vicinity of the towns and villages, have gardens which produce onions, calavances, yams, cassavi, ground-nuts, pompions, gourds, water melons, and some other esculent plants.

I observed likewise, near towns, the small patches of cotton and indigo. The former of these articles supplies them with clothing, and with the latter they dye their cloth of an excellent blue colour, in a manner that will hereafter be described.

In preparing their corn for food, the natives use a large wooden motar, called a paloon, in which they bruise the seed until it parts with the outer covering, or husk, which is then separated from the clean corn, by exposing it to the wind; nearly in the same manner as wheat is cleared from the chaff in England. The corn, thus freed from the husk, is returned to the mortar, and beaten into meal; which is dressed variously in different countries; but the most common preparation of it among the nations of the Gambia, is a sort of pudding, which they call kouskous. It is made by first moistening the flour with water, and then stiring and shaking it about in a large calabash, or gourd, till it adheres together in small granules, resembling sago. It is then put into an earthen pot, whose bottom is perforated with a number of small holes; and this pot being placed upon another, the two vessels are luted together, either