At This Time, However, It Would, I
Think, Have Been A Matter Of Great Difficulty For Any European Boat To
Have Crossed The Stream.
About four o'clock in the afternoon, having
altered my course from the river towards the mountains, I came to a small
pathway which led to a village called Foorkaboo, where I slept.
Aug. 23d. Early in the morning I set out for Bammakoo, at which place I
arrived about five o'clock in the afternoon. I had heard Bammakoo much
talked of as a great market for salt, and I felt rather disappointed to
find it only a middling town, not quite so large as Maraboo; however, the
smallness of its size is more than compensated by the riches of its
inhabitants; for, when the Moors bring their salt through Kaarta or
Bambarra, they constantly rest a few days at this place; and the Negro
merchants here, who are well acquainted with the value of salt in
different kingdoms, frequently purchase by wholesale, and retail it to
great advantage. Here I lodged at the house of a Sera-Woolli Negro, and
was visited by a number of Moors. They spoke very good Mandingo, and were
more civil to me than their countrymen had been. One of them had
travelled to Rio Grande, and spoke very highly of the Christians. He sent
me in the evening some boiled rice and milk. I now endeavoured to procure
information concerning my route to the westward, from a slave merchant
who had resided some years on the Gambia.
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