ACCOUNTS OF BAMBOUK, _ ^6? 
There seems very little doubt, that Bamboukp 
in the occupation of any European nation, would 
yield a much larger proportion of gold than is now 
drawn from it. But it is a much more serious 
question, whether the produce of its mines could 
ever repay the expenditure of men and treasure, 
by which its conquest must be achieved. It 
might, indeed, in the first instance, be effected 
by the employment of not a very large body of 
troops. Besides the general want of discipline, 
which renders an African army wholly unable to 
contend in the field with the troops of Europe, 
the Bamboukians appear to labour under a pecu- 
liar want of intrepidity, which renders them often 
the prey of their hardier neighbours. But after 
the subjection was completed, the difficulties of 
the invading army would only begin. The intense 
heat and malignant character of the climate, the 
distance from reinforcements, the hostility certain- 
ly excited both in the country itself and in all the 
surrounding regions, would soon render it such a 
possession, as blind and misjudging avarice alone 
could covet. 
In the year 1749-50, the banks of the Senegal 
were visited by Adanson, the celebrated naturalist. 
Although he did not penetrate so far up the river 
as several of his predecessors in the same track, 
yet the intelligence and activity with which he 
