The great number of canoes and men employed in this commerce gives great influence and respect to the king of Barra. Indeed, he is the most powerful and terrible of all the kings of the Gambia ; he has imposed considerable duties on the ships of all nations,. each of which, whatever may be its size, is obliged to pay on entering the river, a duty equal to about five hundred livres, or nearly R21 sterling. The go vernor of Gillifrie is charged with the receipt of these duties, and lie is always attended by a number of per sons who are very importunate : they are incessantly asking for whatever pleases their fancy, and pursue their demands with such ardour and perseverance, that to get rid of them the navigators are almost al ways obliged to satisfy their desires.
The Mandingos are above the middle size, are well made, robust, and capable of bearing great fatigue. The women are stout, active, and pretty. The clothes of both sexes are of cotton, which they ma nufacture themselves. The men wear drawers, which hang half way down the thigh, and an open tunic, si milar to our surplice. They have sandals on their feet, and cotton caps on their heads. The women's dress consists of two pieces of linen six feet long and about three wide ; the one is plaited round the loins, and falls down to the ancle, forming a kind of petti coat • while the other negligently covers their bosom and shoulders.
Their habitations, like those of all the other ne gives, are small and inconvenient huts. A mud wall about four feet high, over which is a conical opening made of bamboos and straw, serves for the residence of the rich man, as well as of humblest slave. The furniture is equally uncouth : their beds are made of a bundle of reeds placed on pickets two feet high, and covered with a mat or an ox's skin ; a jar for water, a few earthen vessels for boiling their meat, with some wooden bowls, calabashes, and one or two stools, form the whole of their household goods.
All the Mandingos in a free state have several wo men; but they cannot marry two sisters. These men have each a hut ; while all the hovels belonging to one master are surrounded by a lattice-work of bamboo made with much art : an assemblage of this kind is called Sirk, or Sourk. Several of these en closures, separated by narrow paths, compose a town ; but the huts are placed with much irregularity, and according to the caprice of the person to whom they belong. The only point to which they attend is to have the door in a south-westerly direction, that it may admit the sea breezes.
In each town a spot is set apart for the assemblies of the old men ; it is enclosed by interlaced reeds, and generally covered by trees which protect it from the sun. Here they discuss public affairs, and try causes ; the idle and profligate also resort hither to smoke their pipes and hear the news.
In several parts they have missourates or mosques, where they meet to say the prayers prescribed by the Koran.
The population of the free Mandingos, forms at the utmost, about one-fourth of the inhabitants of the country which they occupy. The remaining three fourths are born in slaxery, and have no hope of esca ping from it : they are employed in all servile la bours; but the free Mandingo has no right to take the life of his slave, nor to sell him to a foreigner, un less he has been publicly tried, and decreed to deserve such a punishment. The prisoners of war, those im
prisoned for crimes or debt, and those who are taken from the centre of Africa and brought to the coast for sale, have no right to appeal, as their masters may treat and dispose of them according to their fancy.
Another part of the population of the kingdom of Barra, is composed of the descendants of the Portu guese families who remain in the country, and of whom we have already spoken. Such persons, or rather those who take the title of Portuguese (for all the Mulattos, and even men who are almost black, call themselves Portuguese, and to doubt their origin is an affront they do not pardon,) profess the catholic religion, and have churches and priests in different parts. They are recognised by their costume ; they wear a great chaplet suspended from the neck, a very sword by their side, a shirt, a cloak, a hat, and a poignard.
Some of these people devote themselves to com merce and and are generally adroit, brave, and enterprising. They acquire property, live hap pily, and are much esteemed ; but by far the great est part live in the most complete state of idleness, and in consequence of being poor, addict themselves to thieving ; they also pass their time in the most disgusting state of libertinism, and are equally despi sed by the Mahometans and the Christians.
The industrious part of these people proceed to the top of the river in the canoes or boats of the country, and generally perform such voyages on ac count of the French, who entrust them with merchan dise, and pay them liberally. They have sometimes been attacked in their voyage, but they always proved that they knew how to defend their liberty and pro perty. They have also learnt from their ancestors never to pardon wrongs nor injuries ; and if this be not a precept of their religion, it is a command of their fathers which necessity justifies. M. is of opi nion that it is possible to employ, with great advan tage, these men so inured to the climate, to travel over, and make discoveries in the interior of Africa.
The Portuguese build their habitations according to the plan of their ancestors, by which they are more solid and commodious than those of the Negroes : they raise them two or three feet above the soil, to se cure them from the damp, and give them a consider able length so as to divide each house into several chambers. The windows they make are very small,, in order to keep out the excessive heat of the climate ; and they never fail to build a vestibule open on all sides, in which they receive visits, take their meals, and transact their business. The walls are seven or eight feet high, and, as well as the roof, are of reeds co vered en both sides with a mixture of clay and chop ped straw : the whole is coated with planter. They take care to plant latane, or other trees, before their houses, or to build them on a spot where such trees are growing; in order to enjoy the refreshing shade which they produce. The king of Barra and the 'greatest people of his kingdom have similar places of residence. West Long. 16° 45', North Lat. 13° 40'. (Q)