C OUR A CO. 
195 
age, who had sore eyes, and begged me to cure him if I 
could, I was much embarrassed, and told him that I had 
no remedy for the disorder ; but my guide had assured him 
of the contrary, and the old man, supposing there was a want 
of inclination on my part, offered to pay me. I told him 
that my baggage had been sent forward, and that I could 
not overtake it till next day. He was silent, but appeared 
not to be best pleased with my answer. In all my life I 
never saw such a disease as that under which this child la- 
boured. It suffered no pain, but it was almost deprived of 
sight. I have since thought that it might be a kind of ca- 
taract. The marabouts, who officiate as doctors in this 
countrj^, had ineffectually exhausted all their skill in grigris, 
or amulets, for the patient. They could do nothing more, 
and the child was abandoned to its fate. I advised the pa- 
rents to wash its eyes with a decoction of baobab leaves, 
which might serve as a substitute for mallows, and to take 
the child to Sierra-Leone for medical assistance ; but they 
shrunk with horror from the idea of placing it in the hands 
of christians. 
Our host gave us rice and sour milk for supper, which 
we ate seated under an orange tree. 
At seven o'clock in the morning of the 7th of May, we 
prepared for departure. On going out I observed that the 
goats had been put for the night into a loft, ten or twelve 
feet high. We set out in an E. S. E. direction, and pro- 
ceeded four miles down hill, by a very stony road, which 
brought us to Couraco, a village situated near a hill, at the 
foot of which flows a pretty stream. We seated ourselves 
on the margin of this stream to take our breakfast of rice, 
which we had saved from the preceding evening. Our repast 
being ended, we proceeded gaily on our vray, in the same 
direction, over a very good sandy soil. We passed near 
Coulinco, a village containing from five to six hundred in- 
habitants, and surrounded by a quick- set hedge. Farther 
o 2 
