and docile creature, and applying his strength and faculties to the
service of man. When I told some of the natives that this was
actually done in the countries of the East, my auditors laughed me
to scorn, and exclaimed, "Tobaubo fonnio!" ("A white man's lie!")
The negroes frequently find means to destroy the elephant by
firearms; they hunt it principally for the sake of the teeth, which
they transfer in barter to those who sell them again to the
Europeans. The flesh they eat, and consider it as a great delicacy.

On the 6th of October the waters of the Gambia were at the greatest
height, being fifteen feet above the high-water mark of the tide,
after which they began to subside, at first slowly, but afterwards
very rapidly, sometimes sinking more than a foot in twenty-four
hours. By the beginning of November the river had sunk to its
former level, and the tide ebbed and flowed as usual. When the
river had subsided, and the atmosphere grew dry, I recovered apace,
and began to think of my departure, for this is reckoned the most
proper season for travelling. The natives had completed their
harvest, and provisions were everywhere cheap and plentiful.

Dr. Laidley was at this time employed in a trading voyage at
Jonkakonda. I wrote to him to desire that he would use his interest
with the slatees, or slave-merchants, to procure me the company and
protection of the first coffle (or caravan) that might leave Gambia
for the interior country; and, in the meantime, I requested him to
purchase for me a horse and two asses. A few days afterwards the
Doctor returned to Pisania, and informed me that a coffle would
certainly go for the interior in the course of the dry season; but
that, as many of the merchants belonging to it had not yet completed
their assortment of goods, he could not say at what time they would