CAlLLIE. 191 



vegetables, are also cultivated with success. Their rude 

 agriculture, however, is conducted chiefly by slaves, who 

 are in general well treated, living in villages by themselves, 

 and having two days in the week allowed to provide for 

 their own subsistence. Cailli^, like other writers, describes 

 the Foulahs as a fine and handsome people, attached to a 

 pastoral life, but at the same time very warlike, and exces- 

 sively bigoted in religion. 



In his route through Foota Jallo, the traveller crossed 

 the Bafing, not far from its source, where it was still ford- 

 able, though it rolled a rapid and foaming stream about 100 

 paces broad. It is said, at a little distance above, to form 

 a very striking cataract. About 100 miles farther on, in 

 the territory of Kankan, near the village of Couroussa, he 

 came to the Joliba or Niger, already a very considerable 

 river, eight or ten feet deep, and running at the rate of two 

 miles and a half an hour. 



Kankan, where the traveller spent some time, is described 

 as an interesting place, with about 6000 inhabitants, sur- 

 rounded by a beautiful quickset-hedge, answering the pur- 

 pose of a wall for defence. The market, held thrice a 

 week, is extremely well supplied, not only with the native 

 commodities of cloth, honey, wax, cotton, provisions, cattle, 

 and gold from the neighbouring district of Boure, but also 

 with European articles brought up from the coast, among 

 which the chief are, firearms, powder, India calicoes, amber, 

 beads, and coral. The adjoining country is fertile and 

 highly cultivated. The Milo, a tributary to the Niger, 

 runs close by the town. To the north is the province of 

 Bour^, which our author represents as more abundant in 

 gold than any other in this part of Africa. The metallic 

 produce here, as well as in the districts visited by Park, is 

 entirely alluvial, imbedded in a species of earth, from which 

 it is separated by agitation in water. 



M. Caillie remained more than a month at Kankan be- 

 fore he could find a caravan to guide him through Ouas- 

 soulo, a fine country diversified by numerous little villages 

 surrounded by fields neatly laid out and highly cultivated. 

 The people are industrious, mild, humane, hospitable, and, 

 though pagans, feel no enmity towards their Mohammedan 

 neighbours. The women weave a fine cotton cloth, which 

 is exported to all the surrounding districts ; yet there waa 



