AFRICAN EXPLORERS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 161 
of the jealousy of the natives and their love of pillage, 
he reached Bondou without accident. It took him three 
days to traverse the desert between Bondou and the 
districts beyond the Gambia, after which he penetrated 
into Niokolo, a mountainous country, inhabited by the 
all but wild Peuls and Djallons. 
Leaving Bandeia, Mollien entered Fouta Djallon, 
and reached the sources of the Gambia and the Bio 
Grande, which are in close proximity. A few days 
later he came to those of the Faleme' ; and, in spite of 
the repugnance and fear of his guide, he made his way 
into Timbo, the capital of Fouta. The absence of the 
king and of most of the inhabitants probably spared him 
from a long captivity abbreviated only by torture. 
Fouta is a fortified town, the king’s own houses, with 
mud walls between three and four feet thick and 
fifteen high. 
At a short distance from Timbo, Mollien discovered 
the sources of the Senegal—at least what were pointed 
out to him as such by the blacks ; but it was impossible 
for him to take astronomical observations. 
The explorer did not, however, look upon his work 
as done. He had ever before him the still more 
important discovery of the sources of the Niger ; but 
the feeble state of his health, the setting-in of the rainy 
season, the swelling of the rivers, the fears of his 
guides, who refused to accompany him into Kooranko 
and Soolimano, though he offered them guns, amber 
beads, and even his horse, compelled him to give up 
the idea of crossing the Kong mountains, and to return 
to St. Louis. Mollien had, however, opened several 
new lines in a part of Senegambia not before visited by 
any European. 
Senegal was the starting-point of another explorer, 
Be'ne Caillie. 
Caillie, who was born in 1800, in the department 
of the Seine et Oise, had only an elementary education; 
but reading “ Robinson Crusoe ” had fired his youthful 
imagination with a zeal for adventure, and he never 
rested until, in spite of his scanty resources, he had 
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