54 
AFRICA AND ITS EXPLORATION. 
Adanson selected Senegal as the field of his labours. 
He says, in a manuscript letter, that he chose it because 
it was the most difficult to explore of all European 
settlements, and, being the hottest, most unhealthy, and 
most dangerous, was the least known by naturalists. 
Certainly a choice founded upon such reasoning gave 
proof of rare courage and ambition. 
It is true that Adanson was by no means the first 
naturalist to encounter similar dangers, but he was the 
first to undertake them, with so much enthusiasm, at 
his own cost, and without hope of reward. Upon his 
return, he had not sufficient money to pay for the 
publication of his account of the discoveries he had 
made. 
Embarking upon the 3rd of March, 1749, on board 
the Chevalier Marin, commanded by D’Apres de Manne- 
villette, he touched at Santa Cruz, Teneriffe, and disem¬ 
barked at the mouth of the Senegal, which he took to 
be the Niger of ancient geographers. During nearly 
five years he was engaged in exploring the colony in 
every direction, visiting in turn Podor, Portudal, 
Albreda, and the mouth of the Gambia. With un¬ 
ceasing perseverance, he collected a rich harvest of facts 
in the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms. 
To him is due the first exact account of a gigantic 
tree called the Baobab, which is often called Adansonia 
after him ; of the habits of the grasshoppers, which form 
