the greatest of all luxuries is salt. It would appear strange to a
European to see a child suck a piece of rock salt as if it were
sugar. This, however, I have frequently seen, although, in the
inland parts, the poorer class of inhabitants are so very rarely
indulged with this precious article that to say a man ate salt with
his victuals is the same as saying he is a very rich man. I have
myself suffered great inconvenience from the scarcity of this
article. The long use of vegetable food creates so painful a
longing for salt that no words can sufficiently describe it.

The negroes in general, and the Mandingoes in particular, are
considered by the whites on the coast as an indolent and inactive
people--I think without reason. The nature of the climate is,
indeed, unfavourable to great exertion; but surely a people cannot
justly be denominated habitually indolent whose wants are supplied,
not by the spontaneous productions of nature, but by their own
exertions. Few people work harder, when occasion requires, than the
Mandingoes; but not having many opportunities of turning to
advantage the superfluous produce of their labour, they are content
with cultivating as much ground only as is necessary for their own
support. The labours of the field give them pretty full employment
during the rains; and in the dry season the people who live in the
vicinity of large rivers employ themselves in fishing. The fish are
taken in wicker baskets or with small cotton nets, and are preserved
by being first dried in the sun and afterwards rubbed with shea
butter, to prevent them from contracting fresh moisture. Others of
the natives employ themselves in hunting. Their weapons are bows
and arrows; but the arrows in common use are not poisoned. {6} They
are very dexterous marksmen, and will hit a lizard on a tree, or any
other small object, at an amazing distance. They likewise kill