BEGINS TO RETURN. 
387 
to penetrate to Cape Coast, through Kong or 
Gonjah, which was ten days' journey to the south. 
But, on considering the dangers which it was ne- 
cessary to encounter, among nations whose lan- 
guage and manners were equally unknown, he 
resolved to advance towards the west along the 
Niger, and ascertain its navigable course in that 
direction. Leaving the vicinity of Sego on the 
13th of August, he travelled rapidly over a popu- 
lous and fertile country, but through roads which 
the mud rendered almost impassable, frequently 
swimming over the creeks with the bridle of his 
horse in his teeth, and his papers in the crown of 
his hat ; mistaken frequently for a Moor ; always 
received with rudeness and suspicion ; subsisting 
on the same raw corn with his horse, unless when 
the superstition of the negroes induced them to 
purchase a white man's saphie for a meal of rice 
or milk. Two days' journey from Sego he passed 
Sai, a large town, the walls of which, at the dis- 
tance of two hundred yards, were surrounded by 
two deep trenches, flanked with square towers, 
like a regular fortification. The inhabitants in- 
formed him, that, fifteen years ago, the Dooty of 
Sai had two sons killed in the war of Maniana, 
and refused, at the order of the king, to send his 
sole surviving son to join the army of Bambarra* 
The incensed monarch, on his return from Ma- 
niana, laid siege to Sai, and as the inhabitants 
