one of Karfa’s, and offered some cloth and shea-butter to induce Karfa to comply with the proposal, which was accepted.  The slatee thereupon sent a boy to order the slave in question to bring him a few ground-nuts.  The poor creature soon afterwards entered the court in which we were sitting, having no suspicion of what was negotiating, until the master caused the gate to be shut, and told him to sit down.  The slave now saw his danger, and, perceiving the gate to be shut upon him, threw down the nuts and jumped over the fence.  He was immediately pursued and overtaken by the slatees, who brought him back and secured him in irons, after which one of Karfa’s slaves was released and delivered in exchange.  The unfortunate captive was at first very much dejected, but in the course of a few days his melancholy gradually subsided, and he became at length as cheerful as any of his companions.

Departing from Kirwani on the morning of the 20th we entered the Tenda Wilderness, of two days’ journey.  The woods were very thick, and the country shelved towards the south-west.  About ten o’clock we met a coffle of twenty-six people and seven loaded asses returning from the Gambia.  Most of the men were armed with muskets, and had broad belts of scarlet cloth over their shoulders and European hats upon their heads.  They informed us that there was very little demand for slaves on the coast, as no vessel had arrived for some months past.  On hearing this the Serawoollies, who had travelled with us from the Faleme River, separated themselves and their slaves from the coffle.  They had not, they said, the means of maintaining their slaves in Gambia until a vessel should arrive, and were unwilling to sell them to disadvantage; they therefore departed to the northward for Kajaaga.  We continued our route through the wilderness, and travelled all day through a rugged country covered with extensive thickets of bamboo.  At sunset, to our great joy, we arrived at a pool of water near a large tabba-tree, whence the place is called Tabbagee, and here we rested a few hours.  The water at this season of the year is by no means plentiful in these woods, and as the days were insufferably hot Karfa proposed to travel in the night.  Accordingly about eleven o’clock the slaves were taken out of their irons, and the people of the coffle received orders to keep close together, as well to prevent the slaves from attempting to escape as on account of the wild beasts.  We travelled with great alacrity until daybreak, when it was discovered that a free woman had parted from the coffle in the night; her name was called until the woods resounded, but, no answer being given, we conjectured that she had either mistaken the road or that a lion had seized her unperceived.  At length it was agreed that four people should go back a few miles to a small rivulet, where some of the coffle had stopped to drink as we passed it in the night, and that the coffle should wait for their return.  The sun was about