August 15.--About nine o'clock I passed a large town called Sai,
which very much excited my curiosity. It is completely surrounded
by two very deep trenches, at about two hundred yards distant from
the walls. On the top of the trenches are a number of square
towers, and the whole has the appearance of a regular fortification.

About noon I came to the village of Kaimoo, situated upon the bank
of the river, and as the corn I had purchased at Sibili was
exhausted, I endeavoured to purchase a fresh supply, but was
informed that corn was become very scarce all over the country, and
though I offered fifty kowries for a small quantity, no person would
sell me any. As I was about to depart, however, one of the
villagers (who probably mistook me for some Moorish shereef) brought
me some as a present, only desiring me to bestow my blessing upon
him, which I did in plain English, and he received it with a
thousand acknowledgments. Of this present I made my dinner, and it
was the third successive day that I had subsisted entirely upon raw
corn.

In the evening I arrived at a small village called Song, the surly
inhabitants of which would not receive me, nor so much as permit me
to enter the gate; but as lions were very numerous in this
neighbourhood, and I had frequently, in the course of the day,
observed the impression of their feet on the road, I resolved to
stay in the vicinity of the village. Having collected some grass
for my horse, I accordingly lay down under a tree by the gate.
About ten o'clock I heard the hollow roar of a lion at no great
distance, and attempted to open the gate, but the people from within
told me that no person must attempt to enter the gate without the
dooty's permission. I begged them to inform the dooty that a lion