ing 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 whiteman'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 o f my departure ; for this is reckoned the most proper season for travelling : the natives had completed their harvest, and provisions were every where 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 coffle (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 day 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 o f the slatees, and people that composed the caravan, 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 m y hospitable friend, (whose kindness and solicitude continued 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 * D r . Laidley, to my infinite regret, has since paid the debt o f nature. He left A frica in the latter end o f 1797, intending to return to Great Britain by way o f the W e s t Indies; and died soon after his arrival at Barbadoes.
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