TRADE OF THE ENGXISH. 43 
Inown by tlie name of the Shitees; these are free Negroes who 
possess considerable inliucQce in the country, and whose prin- 
cipal employment consists in selling the slaves they procure from 
the centre of Africa. They likewise fiunish the Negroes on the 
coast with native iron, odoriferous gums^ iLicense, and schetouiou, 
or vegetable butter^ which 1 shall afterwards have occasion to^ 
speak of ; and take m exchange salt, which is a rare and valuable 
commodity in the interior. 
The English are not established on the river Gambia farther 
lip than Pisania; and here their trade is not very extetisive, as 
their eiqjorts do not amount to more than 500,000 Fiencb 
francs, (about 20,000i.) The Americans have attempted to send 
jonje vessels to this quarter on commercial speculations. 
The objects of trade hes e are the same as on the other parts 
of the coast, namely, gold, elephants' teeth, slaves, wax, millet, 
oxen, sheep, poultry, and other articles of subsistence. Slaves, 
however, form the principal object ; but at present not above 
1000 are annually purchased: they cost from 450 to 500 francs 
each, Vvhich is the ordinary price of a man of a healthy consti- 
tution, from sixteen to twenty-tive years of age. The Europeaa 
merchandises giveii in exchange are, fire-arms, ammunition, iroa 
work, spirituous liquors, tobacco, cotton caps, a small quantity 
of broad cluth, triukets, India goods^ glass-work, and other 
triiics, 
CHAP V. 
COMMUNICATION BY LAND BETWEEN AL:BTîEI>A AN» 
CACHAUX. DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY, MAN- 
ÎN'ERS, CUSTOMS, AND RELIGION OF ITS INHABITANTS^ 
• — ARTS. EXT R A O R D I N A R Y SPANIARD. D I F F E II E N T 
VILLAGES, &C. 
]NrOTWlTKSTA^^DÎNG the difficulties wbicb the factoiy 
of Albreda had to encounter from the operations of the Enghsh 
established up the river, it nevertheless acquired a degree of im- 
portance from the industry of the persons employed isi it. Thej 
lormed connections with the villages situated along the rivers that 
emptied themselves into the Gambia, and extended their viesvs 
as tar as Cachaux, the principal establishment of the Portuguese 
at the river of St. Domingo, with w Inch they opened a commu-^ 
iiication bv land. 
They first arrived at tlie river of Bintan, the mouth of wbicli 
is on the left bank of the Gambia, about a league above the old 
-fort of the English. Vessels eu.ter it witliout fear of grounding, 
St any season of the jear^ though thej generally profit by spring 
