the natives of Africa, by the channel of the Gambia; and the inland
traffic which has arisen in consequence of it between the inhabitants of
the coast and the nations of the interior countries.

The earliest European establishment on this celebrated river was a
factory of the Portuguese; and to this must be ascribed the introduction
of the numerous words of that language which are still in use among the
Negroes. The Dutch, French, and English, afterwards successively
possessed themselves of settlements on the coast, but the trade of the
Gambia became and continued for many years a sort of monopoly in the
hands of the English. In the travels of Francis Moore is preserved an
account of the Royal African Company's establishments in this river, in
the year 1730: at which time James' Factory alone consisted of a
governor, deputy governor, and two other principal officers; eight
factors, thirteen writers, twenty inferior attendants and tradesmen; a
company of soldiers, and thirty-two Negro servants, besides sloops,
shallops, and boats with their crews; and there were no less than eight
subordinate factories in other parts of the river.

The trade with Europe, by being afterwards laid open, was almost
annihilated; the share which the subjects of England at this time hold in
it supports not more than two or three annual ships; and I am informed
that the gross value of British exports is under L. .20,000. The French
and Danes still maintain a small share, and the Americans have lately
sent a few vessels to the Gambia by way of experiment.

The commodities exported to the Gambia from Europe consist chiefly of
fire-arms and ammunition, iron ware, spirituous liquors, tobacco, cotton
caps, a small quantity of broad cloth, and a few articles of the
manufacture of Manchester; a small assortment of India goods, with some