388 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
Chav. LXTV 
some and dangerous journey through the whole west- 
ern part of the continent of Africa, from Sierra 
Leone to Morocco ; and it is an agreeable duty for 
me to confirm the general accuracy of his account. 
Following close upon the track of the enterprising 
and intelligent, but unfortunate Major Laing, who had 
been assassinated two years previously on his des- 
perate journey from Timbuktu, Caillie naturally ex- 
cited against himself the jealousy of the English, 
to whom it could not but seem extraordinary that a 
poor unprotected adventurer like himself should suc- 
ceed in an enterprise where one of the most cou- 
rageous and nobleminded officers of their army had 
succumbed. 
Gliding slowly along the channel, which here was 
about 600 yards in width, and gradually exchanging 
the eastern shore for the middle of the stream, we 
observed after a few miles' advance the first river- 
horses, or banga, that we had as yet seen in the 
Niger, carrying their heads out of the water like two 
immense boxes, and rather frightening our boatmen, 
who did not seem to relish a tete-a tete with these 
animals, till I sent a ball after them. 
Passing then the site of the former town of Gakoira, 
near which the people were busy with the labours of 
the rice-fields, and having again landed on the opposite 
shore, which was covered with numerous kalgo trees, 
in order that the lazy boatmen might get their break- 
fast with comfort and ease, we had to follow a large 
bend of the river where the town of Danga is situated 
