JANNEQUIN*S NARRATIVE, f ^3 
To view this spectacle, the French were mounted 
upon high trees, at a safe distance from the scene 
of encounter. The chief then mounted on horse- 
back, armed with three javelins and a Moorish 
cutlass, and actually performed the exploit, sus- 
taining only a slight wound in the thigh. Janne- 
quin seems, on the whole, to have been much 
struck with the strength and individual courage 
of the negroes ; and declares that, with one hand, 
they were more than a match for the strongest 
European. He seems to have been impressed 
with peculiar awe by the close intercourse which 
they were understood to maintain with a super- 
natural being, whom he terms the devil. That 
personage, it seems, was accustomed to assist the 
Marabouts in teaching them to read ; a faculty 
which, without his aid, they could never have ac- 
quired. He performed a less agreeable, but 
equally useful office, in making regular reports of 
all the acts of theft committed by any of the na- 
tives. 
In treating of the external appearance of the 
Mandingo negroes, Jannequin asserts, that their 
flat noses and thick lips are produced by artificial 
pressure, both being considered as the highest 
possible ornament. This report, however, is not 
confirmed by other travellers. The species of 
shirt with which they cover themselves, he com- 
pares to the surplice worn by the Catholic priests, 
14 
