418 
KONG AND BAUNAN. 
babs^ and other useful trees and plants, and that his country- 
men were rich in oxen, sheep, goats, and poultry. They 
have also horses, which must be a small breed, for he com- 
pared them with those of the country in which we were. 
I learned from my informant, that a market is held 
every day in the town of Kong. The country is watered 
by numerous small streams, but it contains no rivers. The 
people grow a great quantity of cotton, of which they ma- 
nufacture beautiful cloth, highly esteemed in trade. There 
are no gold-mines in Kong. Gold is brought thither from 
Baunan, which is fifteen days' journey further south. 
Baunan produces colat-nuts and a great quantity of 
gold, which the inhabitants exchange for salt and cloth. The 
soil of Baunan, although fertile and hilly, is uncultivated. 
The inhabitants^ who employ themselves in working the 
mines, obtain provisions from their neighbours. The Kong 
trader told me that he had been many times at Baunan, and 
that beyond Kong there were no Bambara negroes ; the 
people had, indeed, curly hair, but they spoke a different 
language. They are all idolaters, and do not travel, having 
markets of their own. The Mandingo merchants trade in 
Baunan, and go in caravans to Jenne, taking with them gold, 
colat-nuts, allspice, and long pepper. The negro, from whom 
I learned these particulars, told me that there were at that 
time many traders of his country at Jenn^, and that 1 might, 
perhaps, see them. From Kong, caravans of pilgrims some- 
times go to Mecca. The Baunan country, to which this 
negro alluded, is most probably the Tauman, which I heard 
mentioned by the good old woman at Time. 
On the 11th of February, as we were still sojourning at 
Douasso, awaiting the arrival of a party of our companions, 
who remained behind, I thought I would make an observa- 
tion, at least approximatively, of the meridian altitude of the 
sun, by measuring a shadow at noon. For this purpose, I 
stationed myself near a large baobab, at a little distance from 
