Niger

I was the 2nd of December, 1795, when
^ Mungo left Pisania, and turned the head of
his horse along the banks of the Gambia. This
animal, small, spirited, and much to be travailled,
Mungo had purchased for the sum of £7 10s. od.—
half the price of a slave. Behind him there rode on
ass-back or trudged on bare feet a small caravan of
six attendants and companions.
Of the latter, two were free negroes—Madiboo,
travelling to Bambarra, and Tami, a native of
Kasson, a blacksmith returning to his home after
four years of employment in the coastal lands. Both
were Mohammedans, both were to prove very trust¬
worthy and likable friends of Mungo. However
they regarded him at first, in the hot tracks and the
dangers of the following nights these two succeeded
in penetrating the icy reserve that cased about the
young white, and, whatever else they found below
it, found little or nothing of white snobbery or white
disgust. The two other companions were slatis,
slave-merchants travelling into the interior as far
as Bondou. Mungo accepted them with the same
cold and friendly interest as he accepted all else.
Besides companions he had two negro servants,
procured him by Laidley. One, Johnson, a freed-
man who had been a slave in Jamaica, was hired
for the sum of a £1 a month, to be paid to him on
q.n.
49
D