140 
TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
worse every day. In prescribing for them, I was 
assisted by Private Kenyon, who, from having 
served seven years as orderly man in the hospi- 
tal at Senegal, had become acquainted with the 
medicine susually administered ; in some cases, 
I had recourse to the remedies made use of by 
the natives of Africa, and whenever those were 
resorted to in time, the disease soon gave way. 
The rains were then so frequent and heavy, that 
scarcely a dry day occurred once in the week, 
which had a very strikingly bad effect on the 
health and spirits of all. The plentiful supply 
of provisions, however, which we were enabled 
to procure since our arrival at Samba Contaye, 
in some measure alleviated our sufferings; and a 
little labour, with more solidity in the ^naterials 
employed, provided us with huts, if not as com- 
fortable as we might have wished, at least suffi- 
ciently so to afford us shelter from the inclemen- 
cies of the season. 
A regular market for the purchase of corn, 
rice, milk, butter, eggs, fowls, and game, was 
established, and well attended by the inhabit- 
ants of all the surrounding villages, to the dis- 
tance of seven or eight miles ; and were it not 
that the prospect of remaining in a state of 
inactivity for so long a time as some months at 
least, added to the uncertainty of the result of 
Mr. Dochard's mission to Sego, and the sickly 
