TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 81 
and between which are heaps on heaps of filth 
of every description. The house of the king is 
separated from those of his subjects by a mud 
wall about nine feet high, and stands nearly in 
the centre of the town ; that of his son, and some 
of the chief men are similarly inclosed, but the 
walls of the latter are not so high. Two wells si- 
tuate within the wall at the east end of the town, 
of tolerably good water, supply the inhabitants 
with that necessary article in sufficient abun- 
dance. The ground, to the extent of half a mile 
all round the town, was cleared, and bore the 
marks of cultivation. A few large shady ever- 
green trees, scattered over this plain, relieves 
the otherwise fatiguing prospect of such an ex- 
tent of arid surface. At a short distance to the 
south, lay a large Bushreen town, called Barra 
Cunda, which might contain from one thou- 
sand to one thousand five hundred inhabitants, 
and was surrounded by a slight stake fence, in- 
terwoven with thorny bushes, which is the only 
defence the followers of Mahomet in this coun- 
try adopt. This arises from their not engaging 
in war, and never meeting with any other at- 
tack from an invading army than on their pro- 
visions, with which they are in general abun- 
dantly supplied, being more industrious and 
more abstemious than the Pagans ; a large pro- 
portion of whose corn, rice, &c., goes in the 
G 
