28o 
TRAVELS IN THE 
of inhabitants are so very rarely indulged with this precious 
article, that to say a man eats salt with bis victuals, is the same 
as saying, he is a rich man. I have myself suffered great incon- 
venience from the scarcity of this article. The long use of 
vegetable food, creates so painful a longing for salt, that no 
words can sufficiently describe it. 
The Negroes in general, and the Mandingoes in particular, 
are considered by the whites on the Coast as an indolent and 
inactive people; I think, without reason. The nature of the 
climate is, indeed, unfavourable to great exertion; but surely 
a people cannot justly be denominated habitually indolent, 
whose wants are supplied, not by the spontaneous productions 
of nature, but by their own exertions. Few people work 
harder, when occasion requires, than the Mandingoes; "but not 
having many opportunities of turning to advantage, the super- 
fluous produce of their labour, they are content with cultivating 
as much ground only, as is necessary for their own support. 
The labours of the field give them pretty full employment 
during the rains; and in the dry season, the people who live in 
the vicinity of large rivers, employ themselves chiefly in fishing. 
The fish are taken in wicker baskets, or with small cotton 
nets; and are preserved by being first dried in the sun, and 
afterwards rubbed with Shea butter, to prevent them from 
contracting fresh moisture. Others of the natives employ 
themselves in hunting. Their weapons are bows and arrows ; 
but the arrows in common use are not poisoned.* They are 
* Poisoned arrows are used chiefly in war. The poison, which is said to be 
very deadly, is prepared from a shrub called koonay (a species of echites) which is 
