Niger

8 Settled in Laidley’s house, Mungo set about
learning Mandingo, the lingua franca of the
country, and acquiring all relevant and irrelevant
knowledge possible of the lands through which he
must travel. Laidley helped greatly in this ; so (the
beginning of that suspicious association with slavery
which was afterwards to reflect seriously on Mungo’s
impeccable character) did the slatis, negro mer¬
chants who traded chiefly in slaves. They were
mostly liars or unreliable, those slatis, and Mungo
appears to have summed them up with as cool a
patience as he did the rest of the fauna and flora of
the remarkable country on the edge of which he sat
in survey. For more than three weeks he kept at
study of the language and study of the natives, study
of the country, its products and appearance, and
piled up careful notes on all five subjects.
Only a few of these carry interest to this day.
Feloops and Mandingoes we have already met.
Further study of the former acquainted Mungo with
their gloomy and reserved disposition, their love of
feuds, and their fondness for mead intoxication.
But these unpraiseworthy characteristics were in
some degree counterbalanced by qualities of grati¬
tude and trustworthiness. Also, they were fond of
the English, as Mungo notes with a bland approval,
and had on various occasions taken up arms in
42