TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
181 
hardware, amber, coral, and glass beads, with 
all which they are supplied by the merchants in 
the Gambia and Senegal. 
The manufactures, although few, are well cal- 
culated to supply the natives with clothing, the 
different articles of household furniture which 
they require, together with implements of hus- 
bandry, carpenters', blacksmiths', and leather 
workers' tools, and knives, spear and arrow 
heads, bridle bits, stirrups, and a variety of small 
articles, such as pickers, tweezers, turnscrews, 
&c. ; all which, taking into consideration the very 
rough materials and tools employed, are finished 
in a manner which evinces much taste and in- 
genuity on the part of the workmen, who, in all 
cases, work sitting on the ground cross-legged. 
The people of those several trades are by far 
the most respectable of the class which I have 
met with in Africa; so much so, that the minis- 
ters, favourites, and officers are chiefly chosen 
from amongst them ; but this, I believe, arises 
in part from their being more finished courtiers 
and flatterers than are to be met with amongst 
the other classes of the people. 
The government of Bondoo is monarchical, 
the whole authority being vested in the hands of 
the almamy or king. He is, however, in most 
cases, guided by the laws of Mahomet, which 
are interpreted by the Imans, or chief priests, 
