This
Was But A Small River At This Time, But In The Rainy Season It Is
Often Dangerous To Travellers.
As soon as we had crossed this
river, the singing men began to vociferate a particular song,
expressive of their joy at having got safe into the west country,
or, as they expressed it, the land of the setting sun.
The country
was found to be very level, and the soil a mixture of clay and sand.
In the afternoon it rained hard, and we had recourse to the common
negro umbrella, a large ciboa-leaf, which, being placed upon the
head, completely defends the whole body from the rain. We lodged
for the night under the shade of a large tabba-tree, near the ruins
of a village. On the morning following we crossed a stream called
Noulico, and about two o'clock, to my infinite joy, I saw myself
once more on the banks of the Gambia, which at this place, being
deep and smooth, is navigable; but the people told me that a little
lower down the stream is so shallow that the coffles frequently
cross it on foot.
June 2. - We departed from Seesukunda and passed a number of
villages, at none of which was the coffle permitted to stop,
although we were all very much fatigued. It was four o'clock in the
afternoon before we reached Baraconda, where we rested one day.
Departing from Baraconda on the morning of the 4th, we reached in a
few hours Medina, the capital of the king of Woolli's dominions,
from whom the reader may recollect I received an hospitable
reception in the beginning of December, 1795, in my journey
eastward.
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