natives of all parts of Soudan may be seen there, many of
them entirely naked.
The country, without the gates of the enclosure or citadel
noticed above, is represented to be thickly covered with
the hovels or huts of the natives as far as the eye can
reach; especially in the direction of the river, to the
banks of which these habitations extend, deserving, in fact,
the name of a town. _D.
From Park’s description (1st. Journey, 4to. p. 22) the
palace of the King of Bondou appears to be a structure
very much resembling that described by Adams at Tom-
buctoo.
“ All the houses,” he says, “ belonging to the King and
“ his family, are surrounded by a lofty mud wall, which
1 converts the whole into a kind of citadel. The inleriof
“ is subdivided into diiferent courts.”
Note 11, p. 23.
I perfectly recollect that Adams told me at Mogadore of
these muskets which he had seen in the King’s house at
Tinjbuctoo; and at the same time that fire arms were not
used by the inhabitants; which agrees with what I have
heard from other quarters.
In the northern regions of the Deseft, I have always
understood that double-barrelled guns are in common use;
and Park mentions them even on the south and southwestern
confines of the Desert: but the arms of the Arabs
bordering on the Negroes of Timbuctoo, have been
described to me by the traders, to consist of javelins,
swords and daggers. D.
Note 12, p. 25.
As far as I can recollect, the description, which I received
from Adams in Barbary of the houses of Timbuctoo, was
more detailed than that in the Narrative. There were,
he said, two distinct sorts of habitations; the houses of
the Chiefs and wealthier Negroes, and the huts of the
poor. The former (as well as the palace of the King,) he
described as having walls of clay, or clay and sand,
rammed into a wooden , case or frame, and placed in
layers one above another until they attained the height
required; the roof being composed of poles or rafters
laid horizontally, and covered with a cement or plaister
of clay and sand. The huts of the poorer people are
constructed merely of the branches of trees stuck into the
ground in circles, bent, and lashed together at the top.
This frame is then covered with a sort of matting made of