from it, besides the advantage of its keeping the whole year without
salt, is whiter, firmer, and, to my palate, of a richer flavour,
than the best butter I ever tasted made from cow's milk. The growth
and preparation of this commodity seem to be among the first objects
of African industry in this and the neighbouring states, and it
constitutes a main article of their inland commerce.

We passed, in the course of the day, a great many villages inhabited
chiefly by fishermen, and in the evening about five o'clock arrived
at Sansanding, a very large town, containing, as I was told, from
eight to ten thousand inhabitants. This place is much resorted to
by the Moors, who bring salt from Berroo, and beads and coral from
the Mediterranean, to exchange here for gold dust and cotton cloth.
This cloth they sell to great advantage in Berroo, and other Moorish
countries, where, on account of the want of rain, no cotton is
cultivated.

I desired my guide to conduct me to the house in which we were to
lodge by the most private way possible. We accordingly rode along
between the town and the river, passing by a creek or harbour, in
which I observed twenty large canoes, most of them fully loaded, and
covered with mats to prevent the rain from injuring the goods. As
we proceeded, three other canoes arrived, two with passengers and
one with goods. I was happy to find that all the negro inhabitants
took me for a Moor, under which character I should probably have
passed unmolested, had not a Moor, who was sitting by the river-
side, discovered the mistake, and, setting up a loud exclamation,
brought together a number of his countrymen.

When I arrived at the house of Counti Mamadi, the dooty of the town,