414 
COLD WINDS. 
these people are acquainted^ for I saw no other. It is a 
hoe, a foot long and eight inches broad. The handle, which 
is about sixteen inches in length, slants very much. In 
reaping they make use of a sickle without teeth, as at 
Wassoulo. 
At eight o'clock, on the morning of the 8th of February, 
we left Pala, and proceeded to the N. E. over a soil com- 
posed of white hard sand. The country is very open, but 
here and there are to be seen many mimosas and ces. The 
ce, which, as I have before stated, furnishes abundance of 
butter, grows spontaneously throughout the interior of Africa. 
It would thrive admirably in our American colonies, where 
its introduction would be a great service to humanity. To 
the inhabitants of those regions the gift of this useful plant 
would be more valuable than a mine of gold. It was nine 
o'clock in the morning when we arrived at Maconeau, a 
pretty village, containing from three to four hundred inhabit- 
ants, and situated in a well cultivated plain. Near the 
village there is a low hill, extending from N. W. to S. E. 
On the 9th of February, at six in the morning, we 
directed our course N. E. and proceeded about a mile 
ascending the hill where I saw many white calcareous stones. 
We descended by a very difficult road into a fine, firm sandy 
plain^ along which we proceeded five miles. Although our 
daily journeys had not been very long, I was nevertheless 
greatly fatigued. If, at times, I sat down while hot under 
a tree to rest awhile, I was instantly chilled by a cool 
wind. These sudden transitions caused those frequent colds 
which I may rank among the greatest miseries I suffered 
during my travels. In sleeping in the huts I experienced 
a similar inconvenience. The large fires which the negroes 
are accustomed to make occasioned a suffocating heat, and 
the wind penetrating through a badly closed door, chilled 
me with cold; I sometimes coughed so much that I could 
not sleep, and sat up part of the night; I occasionally 
