INTERIOR OF AFRICA. 293 
season, when the labour of the harvest is over and provisions 
are plentiful. Schemes of vengeance are then meditated. The 
chief man surveys the number and activity of his vassals, as 
they brandish their spears at festivals ; and elated with his own 
importance, turns his whole thoughts towards revenging some 
depredation or insult, which either he or his ancestors may 
have received from a neighbouring state. 
Wars of this description are generally conducted with great 
secrecy. A few resolute individuals, headed by some person of 
enterprise and courage, march quietly through the woods, sur- 
prise in the night some unprotected village, and carry off the 
inhabitants and their effects, before their neighbours can come 
to their assistance. One morning, during my stay at Kamalia, 
we were all much alarmed by a party of this kind. The king 
of Fooladoo's son, with five hundred horsemen, passed secretly 
through the woods, a little to the southward of Kamalia, and 
on the morning following, plundered three towns belonging to 
Madigai, a powerful chief in Jallonkadoo. 
The success of this expedition encouraged the governor of 
Bangassi, a town in Fooladoo, to make a second inroad upon 
another part of the same country. Having assembled about 
two hundred of his people, he passed the river Kokoro in the 
night, and carried off a great number of prisoners. Several 
of the inhabitants who had escaped these attacks^ were after- 
wards seized by the Mandingoes, as they wandered about in 
the wOods, Or concealed themselves in the glens and strong 
places of the mountains. 
These plundering excursions, always produce speedy reta- 
