from Egypt to Western Africa. 9 
that I found it a difficult matter to change the subject, and 
bring them back to good humour. The specimen in question 
was not procured without considerable difficulty, for even the 
men whom I had with me from Sierra Leone, refused to row 
me to the spot. 
To return to the Priest; in five days after leaving Yarraba, he 
reached Azzugo, situated in a country flat, sandy and barren; 
he then proceeded W. by S. to Goingia, a journey of ten days, 
through a barren country, to the southward of which lies 
Dahomy, a very bad country, where he understands people eat 
one another; four days west through beautiful and well cul- 
tivated regions, abounding with every description of provisions 
brought him to Degumba, to the left of which are to be descried 
lofty mountains, extending along the horizon as far as the eye 
can reach ; these are of course the mountains of Kong, which 
were formerly supposed to stretch across the whole breadth of 
Africa; along the road to Degumba, numbers of women are to 
be met with inhabiting booths, in which the traveller may repose, 
and be regaled with milk, fruit, and other refreshments, in ex- 
change for kolas and kowries; the former, a fruit, so much 
prized by all Africans, grows abundantly here, and is the means 
of attracting the surrounding nations, who flock in great bodies to 
Degumba for the purpose of procuring it in exchange for Euro- 
pean and African produce. Gourmais the next place at which 
our Priest arrived, having travelled in a direction a little to the 
southward of east, passing through many small towns and 
villages, and a country rather fertile than otherwise; three 
days more, pursuing the same course, brought him to Mousi, 
a country which produces almost every article of food required 
by the African, excepting kolas, to get which they are obliged 
to trade to Degumba ; and although the distance is so trifling, 
yet such is the estimation in which that article is held, that 
six or seven are said to be a handsome price for a fine Mousi 
horse: this noble animal is very plentiful in this part of 
Africa, and arrives at great perfection, growing larger and 
stronger than at any other place which the Priest has visited. 
The principal vegetable productions of Mousi, as well as of 
