THE AUTHOR PRESCRIBES. 
279 
garden he had a beautiful orange-tree, which bore very fine 
fruit. He told me he was sorry the oranges were not ripe 
enough for me to taste them. His poverty, together with 
the disinterested hospitality which he had extended to me, 
interested me exceedingly. I regretted that I could not 
meliorate his condition 5 but I forced him to accept a few 
small presents, for which he testified his gratitude in the 
warmest terms. Mamadi-Sanici sent to ask me for a reme- 
dy to give to one of his wives, who had sore eyes. I did not 
know what to give him, but as it was to my interest net to 
refuse him any thing, I put a little volatile alkali in watei, 
and directed the eyes to be bathed with it, thinking that at 
ail events it could do no harm. My presence, however, was 
required, and I went and bathed the patient's eyes myself. 
The mansa took the opportunity of asking me for an ap- 
plication for a bad foot, with which he had been afflicted for 
some years. I prescribed poultices of purslain, which grows 
spontaneously all over the country. The diseases which I 
observed to prevail among the people were ulcers on the 
legs, fevers, leprosy, elephantiasis, and goitre. I also no- 
ticed that several negroes had large white marks, of the 
colour of our skin, on their arms and legs, which I was told 
arose from ill health. I conjectured that they were marks 
of leprosy. 
