AFRICAN EXPLORERS OF TEE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 179 
colony, with a view to increasing the trade of Sierra 
Leone by admitting their productions. 
Laing left Sierra Leone on the 16th April, 1824, and 
rowed up the Rokelle river to Rokon, the chief town of 
Timmannee. In Timmannee Laing made acquaintance 
with a singular institution, a kind of freemasonry, 
FALLS OF AX AFRICAN RIVER. 
known as “ Purrah,” the existence of which on the 
borders of the Rio Nunez had been already ascertained 
by Caillie. 
“ Their power ” [that of the £< Purrah ”], says Laing, 
“ supersedes even that of the headmen of the districts, 
and their deeds of secrecy and darkness are as little 
called in question, or inquired into, as those of the 
Inquisition were in Europe in former years. I have 
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