before I proceed with my narrative, that I should, in this place, give
some account of the several Negro nations which inhabit the banks of this
celebrated river, and the commercial intercourse that subsists between
them, and such of the nations of Europe as find their advantage in
trading to this part of Africa. The observations which have occurred to
me on both these subjects will be found in the following chapter.

[1] Dr. Laidley, to my infinite regret, has since paid the debt of
nature. He left Africa in the latter end of 1797, intending to return
to Great Britain by way of the West Indies; and died soon after his
arrival at Barbadoes.




CHAPTER II.

_Description of the Feloops, the Jaloffs, the Foulahs, and
Mandingoes.--Some account of the trade between the nations of Europe and
the natives of Africa by the way of the Gambia, and between the native
inhabitants of the coast and the nations of the interior countries--their
mode of selling and buying._


The natives of the countries bordering on the Gambia, though distributed
into a great many distinct governments, may, I think, be divided into
four great classes; the Feloops, the Jaloffs, the Foulahs, and the
Mandingoes. Among all these nations, the religion of Mahomet has made,
and continues to make, considerable progress; but in most of them, the
body of the people, both free and enslaved, persevere in maintaining the