neighbourhood, and a passage from the Koran is inscribed over
each door. The mosque is one of the worst huts in the town.
The watering-place, or spring, looking like a muddy pool, is at
the back of the town. We approached it by a path cut through
the small wood that surrounds it, and which entirely exeluded the
light of the full moon. It was perfectly still, and the enormous
monkey-Wead trees (Adamonia digitata) threw their large arms
over the lower ones, as if to protect them and the source to which
they perhaps owed their massy grandeur. I did all in my power
to frighten my female companion, to whom the sound of a wild
beast was perfectly new, by rustling the trees close to her, and
suggesting the probable attendance of a ferocious escort, not
imagining there was so much truth in my pretended fears, for a
panther, who was killed on the spot a few nights afterwards, was
roaming round the neighbourhood.
Every town has its Aleade or Governor, always subject to the
reigning King, who at all interviews demands a present in behalf
of his sovereign, and another for himself. The old Alcade at
Bakkow, was one of the most rapacious of his tribe, and although
he had already received a handsome present, for granting permission
to build a cooking-house, and form a garden close to
the Government-House, he attended at the measurement of the land
to secure another; and on its being laid out, and marked for
railing-in the next morning, he re-appeared to dispute every inch,
in the hope of further extortion. The deposed prince of Barra
paid us a visit, who was a fine powerful man in appearance, but
extremely forward in deportment, and surrounded by the filthiest
black children I ever saw. It is the custom of the country, when
a King dies, to change the capital, or rather, every town in the
kingdom becomes capital in turn, and its chief Sovereign and
great care is always taken of that next in succession. The
above prince, thinking he was more powerful than the lawful