DISCOVERIES OF THE FRENCH. 
dise, whereas he could discover nothing that was 
not horrible in the extreme. The country is a 
plain of burning sand, which affords no delight 
either to the eye or any other sense. The gar- 
dens are few, and produce almost nothing. Dur- 
ing the day, the heat to an European is quite in- 
supportable ; in the night, it is still painful, and 
accompanied by the incessant stings of flies with- 
out number. The fish is bad, the flesh detestable, 
and, if kept a single day, must be thrown into the 
river. Water is found only by digging five or six 
feet deep, and then brackish to a degree which 
even distillation will not wholly remove. If a 
man goes out to take a walk, he is in hourly dan- 
ger, either of being devoured by wild beasts, or 
carried captive by men equally ferocious. The 
only benefit is, where he is tired of life, and seeks 
a termination to it ; since, by merely remaining 
on the spot where he is, this wish will be certainly 
and very speedily fulfilled. If unluckily he should 
desire to prolong the term, this can only be done 
by adopting the diet of the negroes, which is ut- 
terly loathsome to an European palate. 
Saugnier agrees with Adanson in describing the 
men of Senegal as the tallest and best made, and 
the women as the handsomest in Africa. The 
former are also remarkable for courage, to a 
degree bordering even on rashness. Their chief 
fault is that propensity to rapine, which they have 
