146 
Voyage to Senegal. 
would not be inuch less than those of the voyage hitherto pef« 
formed along the coast of the Senegal, to arrive at fort St. 
Joseph, the most distant of our factories. 
This attempt met with the most complete success* I shall 
proceed to give an account of it, in which it will be seen that 
the Negroes, though avaricious and needy, received my traveller 
"vvith affection of the most hospitable and generous kind; that 
they appeared with all their natural good qualities, and the 
simplicity of the early ages ; and that they every where professed 
a desire to gain information with all the efforts of a rude people 
approaching towards civilization ; while they eagerly expressed 
their wish, that we would establish ourselves amongst them. 
I must first make known m hat means were in my power for 
executing my project, and what measures I thought would 
insure it success. 1 had no compass in my possession, and was 
therefore obliged to regulate the journey by the course of the 
stars, and the indications of the natives. 
I could not hope for any great accuracy in the observations 
which might be made during the journey ; but I imposed an 
obligation on the person, whom 1 employed to perform it, to 
mark the number of days' march by the rising and setting of the 
sun, so as to point out, as nearly as possible, the hour of his 
arrival at, and departure from, each station. 1 also pressed him 
to note in his journal, the changes he might experience in the 
soil, the hills, mountains, forests, trees, lakes, rivulets, ani* 
mais, and kinds of cultivation. He was likewise to observe the 
different tribes which he might meet \vith in his route, and to 
give an account of their manners, customs, religion, language, 
and the reception which he met with amongst them. My ulte- 
rior object was, that, after making all these remarks on the coun- 
try, he should prepare the people for a general intercourse vvith 
the French, discover the exact situation of their gold mines, and 
continue his route as far as the isthmus of Suez, after which he might 
- return to France from some of the poils in the Mediterranean. 
1 have to regret, that the noble enterprize which I had 
planned, though equal to my expectations, was far from affording 
the results which might have been expected ^ as, since my de- 
parture, it has never been follow ed up, and because the principal 
agent in it became the victim of an unpardonable negligence. 
M. Rubault, the person employed under my orders in this 
expedition, left Isle St. Louis on the 11th January, 1786, in 
company with a Marabou Moor, named Sidy Carachi: this 
Moor, from his quality as priest and doctor of laws, enjoyed, 
like all his cast, the greatest veneration from all the hordes in 
Africa., I gave Rubault two domestic Negroes, three camels to 
carry the baggage and convey the travellers^ and ordered hiia 
