330 DEPARTURE FROM BISSAO IN A NEGRO VESSEL. 
requested him to provide me with a horse and a guide, and to 
furnish me with such merchandize as I might require. The 
governor also recommended me the master of the canoe in 
which I was to embark, and he was the more earnest in these 
recommendations as my paUid looks seemed to predict that I 
had but a few days to live. I parted from M. de Mattos with the 
grief that is felt in leaving a father ; he had indeed supplied 
the place of one to me. To his kindness and generosity I am 
indebted for my life. My extreme weakness would not permit 
me to express all the warmth of the gratitude with which my 
heart was impressed ; I told him, that his memory would never 
be effaced from it, and addressed the most fervent prayers to 
Heaven for the happiness of this excellent man. 
As soon as we had lost sight of Bissao, we anchored in 
the river of the Balantes, to purchase salt, which the people 
of that name extract from the earth by ebullition. Our stay 
in this place was so much more disagreeable for me, as the 
country was entirely open, and the deep mud in which our 
canoe was moored, prevented our leaving it to seek shelter 
from the rays of the sun ; the Negroes of Bissao, whether free- 
men or slaves, being very unruly and insolent, it was only by 
dint of intreaties and presents, that I prevailed on them to 
make me a little cabin in the boat, with the branches of man- 
grove trees. We remained three days in the river of Balantes ; 
a considerable quantity of salt was purchased with tobacco ; 
seven leaves were given for forty pounds of salt. When the 
