NARRATIVE. 201 



but it was in so shattered a state, that it was deemed more 

 advisable to establish a new settlement ; and most assuredly, had 

 the whole river been searched, a worse situation in point of 

 healthiness, could not have been fixed on, than the Island of 

 Banjole. Its commercial advantages, however,' were thought suffi- 

 cient to counterbalance the evils which had already driven the 

 natives from the place, and the town of Bathurst was founded in 

 1816. 



Much has been done by making dikes, cutting the timber which 

 covered the island, and cultivating the soil ; but nothing can ever 

 totally eradicate the insalubrious exhalations arising from its 

 locality. It is so low, that the high tides, which occur in February 

 and March, continually encroach on the sand ; and it is probable, 

 that some will hereafter regret having built houses so close upon 

 the shore. 



Numerous creeks intersect the island, and when the tide retires, 

 leave stagnant pools ; the soil, which reflects back the heat with 

 intensity, is in general sandy, with scattered patches of vegetable 

 mould, but alluvial and marshy in the neighbourhood of the 

 creeks, the half dried margins of which exliale a baneful miasma 

 that alone would generate fever, needing no addition to its 

 poisonous effects from the bad quahty of the water. The river, 

 in its whole extent, flows through a thickly-wooded country, and 

 the mangroves penetrate far into its bed on each side ; conse- 

 quently, the return of the tide brings with it a quantity of putrid 

 vegetable matter, which is continually deposited on the banks. 

 The only advantage wliich this Gambia settlement possesses, is its 

 exposure to the powerful north and north-west winds, blowing 

 directly from the sea. They generally prevail from December tiU 

 May, but, when the rains commence, in the month of June, the 

 island is deprived of their purifying influence ; and it is this 

 temporary privation, admitting the accumulation of morbific prin- 



2D 



