PREFACE. 
V 
that presumed to suppose, the countries under the 
torrid zone to be inhabited, expressed such an opi- 
nion, they were looked upon as heretics. 
The Spaniards, in more modern times, pretended 
to have examined all the coasts of Africa, several 
centuries before the birth of the Messiah ; but they 
said nothino* of the interior, and we must o'ive them 
credit for their reserve. They pretended to have 
conducted to America the vessels of Solomon and 
Hiram, v/hen they vvent in search of the treasures 
mentioned in scripture; but this pretension was seri- 
ously combated by the Portuguese, \vlio insisted on 
the honour of bavins: made the first discoverv of 
those countries; and w:ith such obstinacy did the 
latter maintain their opinions, that the subject was 
brought under legal discussion, and a verdict given 
in their favour. At this period, some rrenchmea 
of Dieppe interfered in the famous dispute, and 
proved, that they v/ere the first navigators who had 
entered the Senegal, and that they had formed esta- 
blishments on that part of the coast, long before the 
Portuguese and other navigators had made their 
appearance. 
These expeditions of the merchants of Dieppe, took 
place at the commencement of the fourteenth cen- 
tury, and from that time they established themselves 
on the Senegal, and along the coast as far as Sierra 
Leone. In September, 1365, they engaged with 
some merchants of Rouen ; and the next year they 
vmdertook the strongest maritime expedition which 
had till then been seen on the African coast. They 
formed factories at certain distances, which served 
as an asylum for their merchandise and the persons 
in their employ, by which the Africans always found 
a ready market, and the French vessels constant car- 
goes. From this beginning were produced the esta- 
bHshments of the Senegal, Rufisque, Goree, the river 
Gambia, Sierra Leone, and two others on the coast 
of Malaguette, one of which was called Little Pa- 
ris," and the other " Little Dieppe." In 1382, they 
erected forts at the gold mine on the coast of Guinea, 
