30 
SENEGAL. 
with all necessaries from the opposite continent. The water 
is brackish and bad, but is rendered potable by the use of 
filtering stones, brought from the island of Teneriffe. In 
1787, the number of white inhabitants permanently esta¬ 
blished at Fort St. Louis, did not exceed 60, consisting of 
merchants, mechanics and soldiers, who had retired and in¬ 
termarried with the mulatto women. The governor, the 
military, naval and civil officers, and all the European ser¬ 
vants, might amount to nearly 600. The free mulatto and 
negro population was estimated at 2400 individuals. The 
domestic and labouring slaves, called cottage captives, 
amounted to nearly the same number. -Lastly, during the 
prevalence of the slave trade, about 1200 unfortunate negroes 
were always kept in confinement, ready to be embarked for 
the West Indies. Thus the whole population amounted to 
about 6000 souls. The negroes here are partly Christians 
and partly Mahometans; and a recent traveller accuses them 
of being always ready to change their religion from motives 
of interest. 
The most important branch of the commerce of this settle¬ 
ment, consists in procuring the gum known in commerce by 
the name of gum Senegal. It has been ascertained by expe¬ 
riment, that this is much superior to all the eastern kinds, 
and even to that of Arabia; that it is both more mucilagi¬ 
nous and gummy; that in some arts and trades no other gum 
can be used as a substitute; in short the use of it has become 
general within the last half century; it is now sought after 
with avidity, and tire increase of the different manufactures 
has rendered it an object of great importance. The forests 
of acacia, from which this substance exudes, grow in the 
track of desert extending northwards from the Senegal. They 
are in the possession of three tribes of Moors, called Trarshaz, 
Braknaz and Darmanko, who occupy about seven oases or 
verdant spots, in that vast track of desert bounded on the 
south by the Senegal, on the west by the Atlantic, and on the 
east and north extending indefinitely into the vast expanse of 
the Sahara. There are three great gum forests called Sahel, 
A1 Fatack and El Hiebar. The former, producing the white 
gum, which is held in highest estimation, is in the possession 
of the Trarshaz; while the forest of A1 Fatack belongs to the 
Bracknaz, and that of El Hiebar to the Darmanko. These 
two last produce gum of the red kind. The gum tree of the 
Senegal is in general not more than eighteen or twenty feet 
high, and its circumference seldom exceeds three feet. On 
the banks of the Senegal, the trees have been observed from 
twenty-five to twenty-eight feet high; but there the soil is 
covered with a stratum of vegetable earth, and the trees are 
also few in number. In general too, the gum tree of the 
desert is crooked, and has a rough and irregular appearance; 
such an appearance is common to all the productions of this 
track, which are, as it were, stunted, so that the plants ap¬ 
pear rather like bushes than shrubs. The aridity of the soil, 
and the severity of the winds, are probably the cause of this 
imperfect growth. The leaves of these trees are alternate, of 
a dry and dirty green ; the branches are thorny at the points 
where the leaves project, the blossoms are white and very 
short, the bark is smooth, and of a dark green. The period 
when the trees begin to give out their gum is about the 10th 
of November, when the great periodical rains have newly 
ceased. No artificial incision is necessary; for as soon as 
the harmattan or hot wind of the desert begins to blow, the 
drying process is so powerful, that the bark cracks in num¬ 
berless places. The gum then issues out in various forms, 
but chiefly in drops about the size of a partridge’s egg. The 
tenacity of the substance, however, is such as to prevent the 
drops from falling to the ground, when they would be in 
danger of being buried in the sand. They remain attached 
to the bark, near the spot whence they issued; they are 
always transparent and brilliant at the part where they are 
broken off, and when they have been kept for a few moments 
in the mouth, have all the clearness, limpidity and trans¬ 
parency of the finest rock crystal. About the beginning of 
December, the Moors of the three tribes quit their residences 
in the desert, where they leave only the aged, decrepid and 
infants, with a few who are necessary to tend the cattle; all 
the rest set out in a confused and tumultuous crowd, the 
kings, princes, and rich men, riding on horses and camels, 
while the poor march on foot. In twelve days or a fortnight, 
each tribe reaches the forest which belongs to it, and on the 
borders of which it forms an encampment. The harvest 
continues about six weeks, when the gum being collected in 
heaps, is placed on the backs of camels and oxen, for the 
purpose of being transported to the banks of the Senegal, 
The camel generally carries from four to five hundred weight; 
the ox about a hundred and fifty pounds; and the gum is 
contained in immense leathern sacks, made of tanned ox hides. 
The great gum fair is at a spot on the northern bank of the 
Senegal, about midway between Podor and Fort St. Louis. 
There is not in the world a more barren and desolate spot; 
it is merely an immense plain, formed of white and moving 
sands ; not an herb, plant, or shrub, varies the uniformity of 
this immense solitude. It does not even afford a drop of 
potable water, which must be brought from the river or 
from the neighbourhood. Hither, at the usual time, the 
French merchants repair, to wait the arrival of the Moors. 
On the morning of their approach, there may be heard, even 
at a great distance, the confused noise of their armies in mo¬ 
tion ; and towards noon, this vast and solitary plain appears 
covered with a multitude of men, women, camels, oxen and 
goats, all enveloped in clouds of dust. Some of these ani¬ 
mals carry the tents and baggage; on others are placed the 
women, who may be seen in the act of suckling their child¬ 
ren. The kings and chiefs are mounted on beautiful horses, 
while their wives appear seated on a few chosen camels, 
elegantly caparisoned, in a kind of baskets, covered with an 
awning. A band of Moors, armed with muskets and lances, 
escort this ambulatory horde, and vainly attempt to preserve 
some appearance of order. The air resounds with the voices 
of men, women, children and animals; and the living crea¬ 
tures who fill the plain appear truly innumerable. At length, 
when the whole of this barbarous assemblage is collected, 
the camps are fixed; a canon is then fired as a signal for 
beginning the fair. In carrying on the treaty there is no 
artifice to which these Moors do not resort; no lies which 
they do not invent, to obtain a higher price for their mer¬ 
chandise : address and threats are alternately employed; 
and the kings and chiefs invent a hundred lies to exact 
higher prices, and more considerable presents. The most 
ridiculous pretensions are every year renewed by these artful 
savages, who purposely raise innumerable difficulties in the 
course of the negociation. Europeans are driven almost dis¬ 
tracted by the extreme slowness and apathy of the Moors, 
who incessantly defer the termination of the business. Be¬ 
tween the years 1785 and 1787, the quantity of gum actually 
bought by the French, amounted to 800,000lbs., indepen¬ 
dent of 400,000 carried to Portendick, and sold to the 
English. It is purchased in kantars, which originally con¬ 
tained about 5001bs.; but the French, that they might not 
be behind hand in cheating, gradually increased the size of 
the kantar, without any observation being made by the Moors, 
who are entire strangers to this kind of geometry. The 
kantar thus amounts now to about 20001bs. It is paid al¬ 
most exclusively in East India cotton cloths, dyed with 
indigo, called pieces of guinea; each of these is seven or 
eight ells long, and half an ell broad. Attempts have been 
made to make them receive cottons of French manufacture; 
but the Moors immediately distinguish by the smell, the 
genuine productions of the East Indies, and will accept of no 
other. The standard price of the kantar is'15 pieces of 
guinea; and as these may be averaged at 25 francs, the 
original price of the kantar will be 365 franks (15s. 7| d.) 
which gives the pound of gum at nearly 3 sols, 6 deniers 
(not quite 2d.) The gum has sold in Europe at from 30 to 
40 sols (15rf. to 20 d.) ; so that, after ample allowance for 
freight and charges, the profit must still be very great. The 
trade might admit of considerable extension, as there are two 
other forests at Guerouf and Gallam, farther up the Senegal, 
the gum from which might be procured at a cheaper rate, 
though with greater expense of transport. 
Another trade to which the French have devoted a much 
greater 
