re at them, others to sell their cotton cloths, nets,
gold rings, civet and furs, baboons and marmots, fruit and especially
dates. Each canoe seemed to differ in its build and its crew from the
last. The river, crowded with this light craft, was "like the Rhone,
near Lyons," but the natives worked their boats like gondolas, standing,
one rowing and another steering with oars, that were like half a lance
in shape, a pace and a half long, with a round board like a trencher
tied at the end. "And with these they make very good pace, being great
coasting voyagers, but not venturing far out to sea or away from their
own country, lest they should be seized and sold for slaves to the
Christians."

After the fortnight's stay in Battimansa's country, the crews began to
fall ill and Cadamosto determined to drop down the river once more to
the coast, noting as he did so all the habits of the natives. Most of
them were idolaters, nearly all had implicit faith in charms, some
worshipped "Mahmoud most vile," and some were Nomades like the Gypsies
of Europe. For the most part the people of the Gambra lived like those
of the Senegal, dressing in cotton and using the same food, except that
they ate dog's flesh and were all tattooed, women as well as men.

We need not follow Cadamosto in his accounts of the great trees, the
wild elephants, great bats and "horse-fish" of the country. A chief
called Gnumi-Mansa, "King Gnumi," living near the mouth of the Gambra,
took him on an elephant-hunt, in which he got the trophies, foot, trunk,
and skin, that he took home and presented to Prince Henry.

On descending the Gambra, the caravel tried to coast along the
unexplored land, but was driven by a storm into the open sea. After
driving about some time and nearly running on a dangerous coast, they
came at last to the mouth of a great river which they called Rio Grande,
"for it seemed more like a gulf or arm of the sea than a river, and was
nearly twenty miles across, some twenty-five leagues beyond the Gambra."
Here they met natives in two canoes, who made signs of peace, but could
not understand the language of the interpreters. The new country was
absolutely outside the farthest limits of earlier exploration, and
discovery would have to begin afresh. Cadamosto had no mind to risk
anything more. His crew were sick and tired, and he turned back to
Lisbon, observing, before he left the Ra or Rio Grande, as he noticed in
his earlier voyage, that th