ment, and have made the neceflary ar- 
rangements, a gun,is fired, as a fignal that 
the gum-fair may begin. 
All that is difgufting, tedious, and 
mortifying, is experienced in the courfe of, . 
this bufinefs. The factors and traders 
are continually furrounded by crowds of 
thefe rough and perfidious Moors. Their 
abufive and infulting behaviour, their 
menaces, and lifted daggers, muft be pa- 
tiently fuffered, as well as the inceflant’ 
importunities of their chiefs, the infatia- 
le avarice of their wives, and the endlefs 
demands from every quarter. 
The owners of the trading-veffels in 
the river, which feldom exceed one hun- 
dred tons, are no longer matters of them: 
they are filled with Moors, crowds of 
whom occupy the fore-decks of all the 
crait employed in the trade. The quar- 
ter decks are fortified with bulk-heads 
and {wivel-guns, and part of the crew 
is always under arms. 
During the years 1735, 1786, and 17387; 
the quantity of gum annually brought to 
the factories of the Defert and of Cok, 
amounted to more than. eight hundred 
thoufand pounds weight. ‘he Trarfhar 
Moors carried alfo every year to Porten- 
dick about four hundred thoufand for fale 
to the Englith. 
The three forefts of Sahal, Alfatack, 
and Elhicbar, furnifh, therefore, a {tated 
quantity of twelve hundred thoufand 
weight of gum yearly ; and, if no part of 
it were diipofed of elfewhere, this branch 
of commerce alone would render our fet- 
tlements on the Senegal of great impor- 
tance. 
In the beginning of 1784, Mr. Dere- 
pentigny caufed a foreft of white gum- 
trees, fituated fome leagues to the north of 
the Senegal and the Lake of Goumel, to 
be examined. This foreft lies nearly be- 
tween the fifth and feventh degree of eaft 
longitude from the Ifle of Ferro. It ftands, 
like the other three, in the midit of the 
white and quick. fands of the Zaarha. 
This foreft confitts chiefly of that {pe- 
cies of white gum, which the Moors call 
dad, and which belongs to one of the five 
forts of Acacia gum-trees mentioned by 
by Mr. Adanfon. 
This foreft{ was known to the old India 
Company, which, with the view of ga- 
thering its gum, had formed a fettlement 
in the Ifle of Bilbas, oppofite a Negro 
village, called Guercuf; but it could not 
fucceed, 
The country where this foreft lies is 
the property of the two tribes of Brach- 
nez and Dormanko. The Company was 
Monruty Mac, No. 100. 
On the Trade of the Gum of Senegal, 313 
obliged to make a treaty with them, in 
order to have the gum of this foreft; and 
another with the Negroes, called Foulhas, 
and by us the Pouls, for the procuring of 
a free trade for provifions. 
Thefe treaties being concluded, a {ets 
tlement was begun, and a kind of fort 
was conftruéted for the factory, to which 
the Moors brought their gum. But om 
their departure from the banks of the 
river, to return to their habitations, the 
Foulhas rofe upon the Company’s agents, 
thinking them too partial to the Moors, 
and that the factory of Guarouf would be 
prejudicial to them, Without any regard 
to the treaty entered into by their Sira- 
tick, or King, with the Company, the 
Foulhas attacked the faétory, and took it, 
maffacring feveral of the people there, 
and the mafter of a veffel juft arrived 
with materials for building. 
The meafure ufed in the fale and the 
-purchafe of gum, is a large wooden veflel, 
fixed on the deck of the trading-craft, 
and holding two thoufand pounds weight. 
-The Moors call it a kantar, and we have 
adopted that name, which was given to it 
by the Sarracen Moors, while they were 
matters of Spain, and which the Spaniards 
and the Portuguefe have naturaiifed in 
the countries fouth of the Zaarha. 
Every trading veflel has its kantar fixed 
on the deck. At the bottom of the kan- 
tar is a {quare opening, eighteen inches 
long, anda foot in breadth: to this opening 
is faftened a conduit, made of thick fail- 
cloth, and communicating with the hold. 
While the gum is meafuring, the opening 
at the bottom of the kantar is fhut by a 
fliding-board ; as foon as the kantar is 
filled, the board is drawn away, andthe 
gum falis through the conduit into the 
hold, where people are waiting to flow it. 
Itwill be readily perceived,that additions 
may have been gradually made to the fize 
of the kantar, without being difcovered or 
gucfled by the Moors, who, though cun- 
ning and artful, are too ignorant to fufpeét 
the confequence of fome few inches more 
in the depth or diameter of this meafure. 
They have been of courfe over-reached 
by our traders, who know perfeétly weil 
how to make the moft of the lefs or larger 
dimenfions of the veffels ufed for fale or 
purchafe. 
Thofe who bought their gum from the 
Moors of the Zaarha have fucceflively 
made ufe of thefe frauds, in order to pro- 
cure, at the fame price, a greater quantity 
of merchandize. Thus the kantar is bes 
come, by degrees, foadvantageous a mea- 
fure to the European traders, that it holds 
sf at 
a ee ee ee 
s 
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