344 TRAVELS IN THE 
" thousands who fell in the woods. I will not therefore kill 
c> ' you in cold blood, but I will retain you as my slave, until I 
" perceive that your presence in your own kingdom will be no 
" longer dangerous to your neighbours ; and then I will con- 
" sider of the proper way of disposing of you/' Abdulkader 
was accordingly retained, and worked as a slave, for three 
months; at the end of which period, Darnel listened to the 
solicitations of the inhabitants of Foota Torra, and restored to 
them their king. Strange as this story may appear, I have no 
doubt of the truth of it ; it was told me at Malacotta by the 
Negroes ; it was afterwards related to me by the Europeans 
on the Gambia ; by some of the French at Goree ; and con- 
firmed by nine slaves, who were taken prisoners along with 
Abdulkader, by the watering place in the , woods, and carried 
in the same ship with me to the West Indies. 
