COMMUNICATIONS, 
'^11 
dantly afford, is always die firft object: of commercial acqnifi- 
tion. The odier articles which they obtain, confift of 
Slaves, 
Cotton Cloth, 
Goat-Skins, of a beautiful dye, 
Hides of Buffaloes and Cows, and 
A fpecies of Nut — which is much valued in the kingdoms 
to the North of the Niger, and which is called Gooroo. It 
grows on a large and broad leafed tree that bears a pod of about 
eighteen inches in length, in which are inclofed a number of 
nuts that varies from feven to nine. Their colour is a yellowiili 
green ; their fize is that of a chefnut, which they alfo refemble in 
being covered by a hufk of a limilar thlckncfs ; and their taile, 
which is defcribed as a pleafant bitter, is fo grateful to thofe who 
are accuftomed to its ufe, and fo important as a corrective to the 
unpalatable or unwholefome waterci of Fezzau, and of the other 
kingdoms that border on the vaft Zahara, as to be deemed of 
importance to the happinefs of life. 
No commercial value appears to be annexed to the fleeces 
which the numerous flocks of tlie Negro kingdoms afford; for 
the cotton manufafture, which, the Shereef fays, is eftablillied 
among the tribes to the South of the Niger, feems to be the 
A a only 
