260 THEFT COMMITTED ON THE AUTHOR. 
could give him a piece of advice^ and if he followed it he 
would certainly grow rich. I reminded him that he had 
often spoken to me of the gold mines of Kankari, ''Now^^' said 
1, when you get there^ make your slaves dig up the ore^ 
and when you have got a certain quantity of gold^ take it 
to the christians, and with that talisman you can obtain 
whatever you want.'' He laughed and said he knew of that 
talisman before, but that it was a piece of advice which it 
would be very difficult to follow. 1 thus got rid of this 
troublesome fellow, and also took my revenge for the false- 
hood he had trumped up with the view of tempting me to 
go to Kankari with him ; for 1 was assured that there was 
no such thing as a gold mine in that place. 
On the 25th of June, I inspected my baggage, which J 
did not keep fastened up. I found that I had been robbed of 
part of my paper. Lamfia continued to show me so much 
kindness, that I could not possibly suspect him. When I 
mentioned the circumstance to him, he seemed greatly asto- 
nished and protested that he was not the thief. He went and 
fetched the things which I had given him, and desired a 
negro, who was in my hut, to return them to me. But I 
refused to accept them, observing that I placed too much 
confidence in him to suspect that he had robbed me. He 
then told me that he had seen the Foulah, who was my fel- 
low-lodger in the hut, rummaging among my things ; for 
which he (Lamfia) had been very angry with him, and desired 
him never again to touch the Arab's property. The poor 
Foulah, whom he thus accused, had been gone three days 
on his return to his own country. I passed over this little 
dishonesty in silence. In the evening I went with Lamfia to 
see a negro just arrived from Jenne : this man's hair was in- 
describably filthy, but in spite of this disadvantage he had 
an air of pretension about him. and appeared perfectly self-sa- 
tisfied. He moved his head from one side to another, and 
shook his dirty hair, which was long and platted. I and 
