CHESSO. 
413 
pan made in the country. I bought some of them, not 
being able to procure any others ; as there was no market 
in this village. Our hut, which was very narrow and low, 
scarcely afforded room for us and our luggage. However, 
I was obliged to pass the night in it. 
My new companions clubbed to buy a goat. I gave 
seventy cowries for my share, and unfortunately I could 
not eat it, the meat being hard and badly cooked. An hour 
or two after supper, the negroes fell to eating the head half 
roasted on the ashes ; and after they had gnawed the bones 
they gave them to the slaves. 
The want of a market renders this place extremely dull. 
Its long, crooked streets are very dirty, and contain pools 
of filthy water, through which we were obliged to wade 
mid-leg deep in mud. Around these pools the inhabitants 
grow herbs for their sauces. My supper, consisting of the 
liquor in which the goat was boiled, helped to recruit my 
strength, exhausted by travelling every day without inter- 
mission. 
At seven o'clock in the morning of the 7th of February, 
we left Chesso, taking a N. E. direction. The soil was level 
and covered with ferruginous stones and gravel. The vege- 
tation was similar to that which 1 observed on the preced- 
ing days, but I also saw some specimens of the rhamnus 
lotus. We continued our journey over a grey sandy soil, 
producing millet and various other things. A fresh breeze 
blew from the north, and 1 should have been glad to warm 
myself, my clothing being but slight and falling in tatters 
about me. 
We arrived about nine in the morning at Pala, where 
we halted for the rest of the day. This little village has a 
well stocked market. I perceived in the neighbourhood 
many furnaces for smelting iron, which is found on the sur- 
face of the soil. I saw also the implement employed in the 
cultivation of the soil, the only one, I believe, with which 
