Description of Bondoo — Extent — Boundaries — Face of the Country — Productions — Commerce — Manufactures — Government — Revenues — Religion, its influence on the Inhabitants — Their Description, Dress, and Manner of Living — Military Equipments — Force — Mode of Warfare — Cause of War with Karta — Almamy’s sanguinary conduct — Attack of the Kartans on Boolibany. Bondoo, which is situate between 14° and 15° latitude north, and 10° and 12° longitude west, is bounded on the north by the kingdom of Kajaga, on the south by Tenda and Dentilla, on the east by the Fa-lemme, Bambouk and Logo, and on the west by Foota Toro, the Simbani Woods, and Woolli; its greatest extent from east to west does not exceed ninety British miles, and from north to south sixty. The whole face of the country is in general mountainous, but particularly so in the northern and eastern parts. Those mountains which are chiefly composed of rock are small, and for the most part thinly covered with low stunted wood, little of it being fit for any other use than that of fuel. The valleys, wherein are situated the towns and villages, are for the most part cleared for the purpose of cultivation, to which the soil, being a light sand mixed with brown vegetable mould, seems well adapted. Innumerable beds of torrents intersect these valleys in all directions, and serve during the rains, being dry at all other times, to conduct the water collected by the high grounds to the Fa-lemme and Senegal. Great numbers of tamarinds, baobabs, rhamnus lotus, and other fruit-trees, are beautifully scattered over these valleys, which are rendered still more picturesque by the frequent appearance of a village or walled town, in whose vicinity are always a number of cotton and indigo plantations. The proportion of land cultivated is small, but sufficient to supply the inhabitants abundantly with all the productions of the country; these are corn in four varieties, together with rice, pumpions, water-melons, gourds, sorrell, onions, tobacco, red pepper, pistacios, cotton, and indigo. The commerce, and in which the greater proportion of the inhabitants are engaged, consists in the exchange of the cotton cloths manufactured in the country, and the superabundance of their provisions, for gold, ivory, and slaves brought thither by the people of Bamboak, Kasson, and Foota Jallon; and for European merchandize, such as fire-arms, gunpowder, India goods, hardware, amber, coral, and glass beads, with all which they are supplied by the merchants in the Gambia and Senegal.