TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
177 
advantage of by the evil-disposed, to commit all 
mamier of crimes, and for which they cannot be 
punished, as, during that period the laws are not 
in force in consequence of the non-existence of 
a king, with whom they also are considered de- 
funct. 
A few days after his election, I paid him a 
congratulatory visit, accompanied as usual by a 
present. He received me with marked attention 
and hospitality, and told me that I might now 
depend on his doing every thing to forward my 
views, to which he was bound by a request to 
that effect of the late Almamy a short time be- 
fore his death. 
He was not attended by the ministers of the 
late king, for they attached themselves to Saada 
in hopes, no doubt, of drawing from him all the 
treasure left him by his father, about the divi- 
sion of whose slaves a dispute arose between 
him and the new Almamy, in consequence of 
Saada's not wishing to give him that proportion 
of them w^hich he was desired by his father to do. 
The chief slaves too, like the ministers, prefer- 
red remaining, and for the same reason, with Saa- 
da, and consequently advised him not to submit 
to Almamy's demand. The time however was 
not far distant, when both ministers and slaves, 
being disappointed in their expectations from 
Saada, left him, and attached themselves to Al- 
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