THE RIVER KORABA. 
415 
adopted the plan of sleeping out of doors, in order to enjoy 
a more equal temperature, but from this I found little relief. 
I was exceedingly ill, and so hoarse that it was necessary 
to come very close to me to hear me speak. 
We met a caravan of traders coming from Jenne, where 
they had purchased salt ; they had with them some horses, 
which they had also bought at that place. About nine 
o'clock in the morning we halted at Couara, a pretty vil- 
lage, where we found an abundance of all the necessaries 
of life. The inhabitants grow a great deal of cotton and 
millet, and are supplied with water from a stream which 
runs E. N. E., half a mile from the village. 
At eight o'clock in the morning of the 10th of February 
we quitted Couara, and crossed the river called Koraba 
which delayed us at least three hours. This river is narrow 
and deep, and its banks, which are very high and well wooded, 
are composed of a red argillaceous earth, mixed with sand, 
gravel, and fragments of rock. The current is very rapid. 
The Koraba makes great ravages during its inundations, 
sweeping away masses of earth, and enlarging its bed ; in return 
for these encroachments, however, it fertilises the country. 
This river comes from the south and flows rapidly from N.E, 
to east ; on its right bank there is a chain of hills ex- 
tending from south to E. N. E. The natives and the Man- 
dingo merchants assured me that this river passes Kayaye, 
a considerable town, where a well frequented market is held, 
five days' journey N, N W. of Couara, and that it falls into 
the Dhioliba in the neighbourood of Sego. The Koraba 
is navigable for vessels of from sixty to eighty tons ; in the 
part which we crossed it was ten feet deep, and from fifty to 
sixty fathoms wide. It is called by some the Couaraba ; 
several women from the village had stationed themselves 
on the bank of the river, to sell maumies. I bought some 
for my breakfast. We had two canoes to cross the river ^ 
the boatmen were very hard in their demands upon us ; they 
