Feloops, a wild and unsociable race of people, who in
their trade with Europeans generally employ a factor or agent of the
Mandingo nation. This broker, who speaks a little English, and is
acquainted with the trade of the river, receives certain part only of
the payment, which he gives to his employer as a whole. The
remainder--which is very truly called the "cheating money"--he receives
when the Feloop is gone, and appropriates to himself as a reward for his
trouble.

On June 26 we left Vintain, and continued our course up the deep and
muddy river. The banks are covered with impenetrable thickets of
mangrove, and the whole of the adjacent country appears to be flat and
swampy. At the entrance of the Gambia from the sea sharks abound, and
higher up alligators and hippopotami. In six days after leaving Vintain
we reached Jonkakonda, a place of considerable trade, where our vessel
was to take in part of her lading. Dr. Laidley, a gentleman who had
resided many years at an English factory on the Gambia, to whom I had a
letter of recommendation, came to invite me to his house, to remain
there till an opportunity should offer of prosecuting my journey. I set
out for Pisania, a small village in the dominions of the King of Yany,
and arrived there on July 5, and was accommodated in the doctor's home.

On this occasion I was referred to certain traders called slatees. These
are free black merchants, of great consideration in this region, who
come down from the interior chiefly with enslaved negroes for sale. But
I soon found that very little dependence could be placed on their
descriptions. They contradicted each other in the most important
particulars, and all of them seemed most unwilling that I should
prosecute my journey.

The country is a uniform and monotonous level, but is of marvellous
fertility. Grain and rice are raised in great abundance, besides which
the inhabitants in the vicinity of the towns and villages have gardens
which produce onions, calavances, yams, cassava, ground-nuts, pompions,
gourds, watermelons, and other esculent plants. I observed also near the
towns small patches of cotton and indigo.

The chief wild animals are the antelope, hyaena, panther, and the
elephant. When I told some of the inhabitants how the natives of India
tame and use the elephant, they laughed me to scorn, and exclaimed,
"Tobaubo fonnio!" (white man's lie). The negroes hunt the elephant
chiefly for the sake of the teeth. The