68 FRENCH DISCOVERIES* 



power. But, unfortunately, according to the spirit of tlw 

 time, the only mode in which he ever thought of promoting 

 any branch of trade, was by vesting it in an exclusive com- 

 pany ; and when, according to the usual fate of such asso- 

 ciations, one was involved in bankruptcy, another immedi- 

 ately supplied its place. Thus four successive companies 

 rose and fell, till at length they all merged in that greatest 

 and most fatal delusion, the Mississippi scheme. However, 

 these copartneries, at their first formation, attracted many 

 individuals of opulence and talent, and generjilly opened 

 with a spirited career of enterprise and discovery. While 

 the English sought to ascend the Gambia, the Senegal was 

 the Niger to the French — the stream by which they hoped 

 to penetrate upwards to Timbuctoo and the regions of gold. 

 At the mouth of this river, about the year 1G26, was founded 

 the settlement of St. Louis, which has ever since continued 

 to be the capital of the French possessions in Africa. 



The first person who brought home any accounts of 

 French Africa was Jannequin, a young man of some rank, 

 who, seeing, as he walked along the quay at Dieppe, a vessel 

 bound for this unknown continent, took a sudden fancy to 

 embark and make the voyage. The adventurers sailed on 

 the 5th November, 1637, and touched at the Canaries ; but 

 the first spot on the continent where they landed was a part 

 of the Sahara, near Cape Blanco. Jannequin was struck, 

 in an extraordinary degree, with the desolate aspect of this 

 region. It consisted wholly of a plain of soft sand, in which 

 the feet were buried at every step ; and a man, after walk- 

 ing fifty paces, was overwhelmed with fatigue. At Senegal 

 the colony was found in so imperfect a state that the sailors 

 were obliged to rear huts for their own accommodation ; and, 

 shght as these were, the labour under a burning sun was 

 very severe. In ascending the river, however, he was de- 

 lighted with the brilliant verdure of the banks, the majestic 

 beauty of the trees, and the thick impenetrable underwood. 

 Amid the deep solitude which distinguished the country, all 

 the forests were filled with echoes. The natives received 

 him hospitably, and lie was much struck by their individual 

 strength and courage, decidedly surpassing, as appeared to 

 him, the similar (puilities in Europeans. He saw a Moorish 

 chief, called the Kamalingo, who, mounting on horseback, 

 and brandisliing three javelins and a cutlass, engaged a lior> 



