never permitted to take any share in the executive government, which
rests solely in the hands of the _Mansa_, or sovereign, and great
officers of the state. Of these, the first in point of rank is the
presumptive heir of the crown, who is called the _Farbanna_; next to him
are the _Alkaids_, or provincial governors, who are more frequently
called _Keamos_. Then follow the two grand divisions of freemen and
slaves:[3] of the former, the Slatees, so frequently mentioned in the
preceding pages, are considered as the principal; but in all classes
great respect is paid to the authority of aged men. On the death of the
reigning monarch, his eldest son (if he has attained the age of manhood)
succeeds to the regal authority. If there is no son, or if the son is
under the age of discretion, a meeting of the great men is held, and the
late monarch's nearest relation (commonly his brother) is called to the
government, not as regent, or guardian to the infant son, but in full
right, and to the exclusion of the minor. The charges of the government
are defrayed by occasional tributes from the people, and by duties on
goods transported across the country. Travellers, on going from the
Gambia towards the interior, pay customs in European merchandize. On
returning they pay in iron and _shea-toulou_: these taxes are paid at
every town.

[3] The term which signifies a man of free condition is _Horia_; that
of a slave, _Jong_.

Medina,[4] the capital of the kingdom, at which I was now arrived, is a
place of considerable extent; and may contain from eight hundred to one
thousand houses. It is fortified in the common African manner, by a
surrounding high wall built of clay, and an outward fence of pointed
stakes and prickly bushes; but the walls are neglected, and the outward
fence has suffered considerably from the active hands of busy housewives,