FRENCH DISCOVERIES. 69 



in single combat, and vanquished that mighty king of the 

 desert. Fiat noses and thick lips, so remote from his own 

 ideas of the beautiful, were con iered on the Senegal as 

 forming the perfection of the haman visage ; nay, he even 

 fancies that they v^ere produced by artificial processes. He 

 was surprised by the enormous number of greegrees, or 

 charms, in which the chiefs were enveloped. All the perils, 

 of water, of wild beasts, and of battle, had an appropriate 

 charm, by which the owner was secured against them. 

 These potent greegrees were merely slips of paper, which 

 the marabouts, or Mussulman doctors, had inscribed with 

 Arabic characters ; and being then enclosed in cases of thick 

 cloth, or even of gold and silver, were hung round the per- 

 son in such profusion that they actually formed a species of 

 armour. In some instances they composed such a load that 

 the possessor.was unable to mount on horseback without as- 

 sistance. 



The Sieur Brue, who, in 1697, was appointed director- 

 general of the company's affairs, was the person who did 

 most for their prosperity, and made the greatest efforts to 

 penetrate into the interior. In that year he embarked on a 

 visit to the Siratik, or king of the Foulahs, whose territory 

 lay about 400 miles up the Senegal. In ascending that 

 river he was struck, like Jannequin, by the magnificent 

 forests, and the profuse and luxuriant verdure with which 

 whey were clothed ; while it was amusing to obser\'e the 

 numberless varieties of the monkey tribe, which were conti- 

 nually leaping from bough to bough. Elephants marched 

 in bands of forty or fifty ; and large herds of cattle fed on 

 the rich meadows, though, during the season of inundation, 

 they withdrew to the more elevated spots. At Kahayde, he 

 was received by a chief belonging to the Siratik, accom- 

 panied by numerous attendants, among whom were his wife, 

 daughters, and some female slaves, all mounted upon asses. 

 He was cordially welcomed ; yet the reflection suggested by 

 his dealings with this gay and fair train was, that European 

 beggars, however great their effrontery, might learn much 

 from the example of the liigher circles in Africa. When 

 they can no longer ask, they begin to borrow, with the firm 

 resolution of never repaying ; and, what is worst of all, 

 when they make a present, they hold it a deadly offence 

 not to receive at least double the value in return. 



