356 APPENDIX. 
benefit to geography, and with the exception of the coasts, the 
whole of that part of Africa of which we are speaking, remained 
to be explored when other European nations directed their naviga- 
tion and commerce to this quarter. 
The French more particularly established themselves at the 
mouth of the Senegal, where they fixed the capital of the factories 
which they possessed from Arguin to Sierra Leone. 
Father Labat, in his work published in 1728, and entitled, 
" Nouvelle Relation de V Afrique Occidentale,'''' has given an excellent 
description of the country. It is principally compiled from the 
memoirs of André Brue, director of the African Company, and 
an acute observer. We have also had divers French travellers, 
whose narratives contain information, more or less instructive : — 
Father Alexis de St. Lo in 1G3T, Jannequin in 1643, Villaut de 
Bellefond in 1669, Father Jaby in 1689, Lemaire in 1695, Adan- 
son in 1757, Denianet in 1767, Pruneau de Pommegorge in 1789, 
Lam irai and Sauguier in 1791, presented to the public the result of 
their observations. ' ' j- 
Long before the French had settled on the Senegal, the 
English had directed their attention towards the Gambia. Several 
of their travellers whose accounts have been preserved by Hakluyt 
and Purchas, such as Jobson in 1623, Moore in 1738, Smith 
in 1744, Lindsay in 1747, Matthews in 1788, described that part 
of the African continent comprised between the above-mentioned 
limits. 
These different accounts contain positive information respecting 
