tRAVELS IN AFRICA. 
35S 
lated by the Moors and other native traders, and 
too credibly received by the several chiefs. 
Another circumstance, which took place in 
Bambarra, must serve to convince every impar- 
tial reader that fears were really entertained by 
the chiefs as to the ultimate results of our com- 
munications with them. 
At an interview which Mr. Dochard had with 
one of Dha's head slaves at Bamakoo, where all 
the occurrences in the Senegal were not only 
known but much exaggerated, he was asked with 
a significant smile, " in case the Niger terminat- 
ed in the sea and was found navigable to Sego, 
would our large vessels come up to that place, 
and our merchants settle there as the French had 
done in the Senegal ?" The object of this ques- 
tion is too palpably evident to need any com- 
ment of mine, and Mr. Dochard*s answer, " that 
he doubted the possibility of large vessels as- 
cending that river, or the wish of our merchants 
to try it without even settling there," although in 
my opinion the best he could have given, did not 
remove from the minds ofDhaand his ministers 
their apprehension of the consequences. 
The main difficulty to our success in Africa 
decidedly results from the extent and influence 
of the Mohamedan religion. From the period 
of its introduction as affecting the mode of Afri- 
can legislation, which is scarcely a century since, 
A A 
