190 HISTORY OF 



provide fresh shelter for the creatures that infest 

 it. If the flood continues but a few days longer 

 than usual, the improvident inhabitants, who are 

 driven up into the higher grounds, want provi- 

 sions, and a famine ensues. When the river be- 

 gins to return into its channel, the humidity and 

 heat of the air are equally fatal ; and the carcasses 

 of infinite numbers of animals, swept away by the 

 inundation, putrefying in the sun, produce a 

 stench that is almost insupportable. But even 

 the luxuriance of the vegetation becomes a nui- 

 sance. I have been assured, by persons of vera- 

 city who have been up the river Senegal, that 

 there are some plants growing along the coast, 

 the smell of which is so powerful that it is hardly 

 to be endured. It is certain, that all the sailors 

 and soldiers who have been at any of our fac- 

 tories there, ascribe the unwholesomeness of the 

 voyage up the stream, to the vegetable vapour. 

 However this be, the inundations of the rivers in 

 this wretched part of the globe, contribute scarce- 

 ly any advantage, if we except the beauty of the 

 prospects which they afford. These, indeed, are 

 finished beyond the utmost reach of art : a spa- 

 cious glassy river, with its banks here and there 

 fringed to the very surface by the mangrove tree 

 that grows down into the water, presents itself 

 to view. Lofty forests of various colours, with 

 openings between, carpeted with green plants, 

 and the most gaudy flowers ; beasts and animals 

 of various kinds, that stand upon the banks of 

 the river, and, with a sort of wild curiosity, sur- 

 vey the mariners as they pass, contribute to 



