AFRICAN EXPLORERS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 183 
yielded to the persuasions of his visitor, telling him that 
“ as his heart panted after the water, he might go to it.” 
The major had not, however, left Falaba two hours 
before the permission was rescinded, and he had to give 
up an enterprise which had justly appeared to him of 
great importance. 
A few days later he obtained leave to visit the source 
of the Rokelle or Sale Kongo, a river of which nothing 
NATIVE WOMEN AT WORK IN THE FIELDS. 
was known before his time beyond Rokon. From the 
•summit of a lofty rock Laing saw Mount Loma, the 
highest of the chain of which it forms part. “ The 
point,” says the traveller, “ from which the Niger issues, 
was now shown to me, and appeared to be at the same 
level on which I stood, viz., 1600 feet above the level 
of the Atlantic ; the source of the Rokelle, which I had 
already measured, being 1470 feet. The view from this 
hill amply compensated for my lacerated feet. . . . . 
Having ascertained correctly the situation of Konkodoo- 
