286 PROPOSED ESTABLISHMENTS. 
traverse Kankan^ Baleya^ Fouta-Dhialon^ Bondou, Fouta- 
Toro, and part of Cayor or of the Walo country, to arrive 
there. It would, in the first instance, be requisite to ascertain 
the distance betvreen Bamako and the point of the Senegal to 
which vessels can ascend — I mean above the rock of Felou. 
After having established a factory near this cataract, another 
should be formed where the river ceases to be navigable. It 
is to be presumed that from this second station at Bamako it 
would not be more than eight or ten days' journey ; and from 
this important point the caravans of salt and of European 
commodities would proceed to Bamako. It is perhaps to be 
feared, that the natives would oppose this plan ; but they 
might soon be brought to think more favourably, by shewing 
them the great advantages to be derived from the arrange- 
ment, and by paying them annual duties : the conduct of 
these people will always be governed by interest. The Moors, 
who carry on the greater part of this commerce which en- 
riches them, would oppose to the utmost of their power this 
project of an establishment ; but the duties that would be 
paid to the negro king would smooth away all difficulties 3 
for the Moors pay no tribute whatever. 
On the 16th of July, about nine in the morning, after 
having made a slight breakfast of rice, we prepared to set off ; 
I presented to my host a little tin drinking mug, which he 
seemed to wish for, and with which he was very much 
delighted. After having escorted me to the end of the village, 
he left me with his benediction. I was accompanied by 
old Mohammed, who had shown me much kindness during 
my residence at Kankan ; he had often told me that if he and 
his son were alone he would come with me to Jenne. We 
travelled about a mile to the east, across a plain, where we saw 
many little ourondea, surrounded by flourishing fields of maize. 
We arrived on the banks of the Milo, which I found very 
rapid, and as broad again as when I saw it before. We 
crossed it, with our baggage, in a canoe about fifty feet long 
