146 
AUTHOR'S ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF. 
These hopes^ these visions of glory, of patriotism, and 
of fraternal affection, left me no rest; and I had nothing 
like peace till the evening before I left Sierra- Leone. Not 
having been able any where to obtain the necessary assist- 
ance for a journey to Timbuctoo, 1 determined to under- 
take it entirely at my own expense. I hoped also that when 
I returned, the French government, ever just in its appreci- 
ation of courageous exertion, would reward the service which 
I should have rendered to geographical science, by making 
known the new countries which I intended to visit. 
Encouraged by these hopes, I gave in my resignation 
without regret ; I was afterwards actively engaged in pro- 
curing the goods I was likely to want, and laid out my 
savings in the purchase of paper, glass, and other articles. 
During my residence at Freetown, the capital of the 
colony of Sierra Leone, I became acquainted with some 
Mandingoes and seracolets.* I won their confidence, and 
availed myself of it to gain information about the countries 
which I intended to visit. At last, to make sure of their 
friendship, I gave them a few trifles 5 and then I told them 
one day, with a very mysterious air, and a charge of secrecy, 
that 1 was born in Egypt, of Arabian parents, and that I 
had been carried into France, in my infancy, by some soldiers 
of the French army which had invaded Egypt ; that I had 
afterwards been brought to the Senegal by my master, who 
in consideration of my services had given me my liberty, 
I added that, as I was now free, I felt a natural inclination 
to return to Egypt, to seek my relations, and to adopt the 
Mahometan religion. At first the Mandingoes did not seem 
to credit my account, and especially what I said of my zeal 
for their religion ; but their doubts were removed when they 
* The seracolets, or sarakolas, are a corporation of itinerant merchants 
who travel over Africa ; it is an error to suppose that the sarakolas are a 
nation. 
