The manufactures, although few, are well calculated to supply the natives with clothing, the different articles of household furniture which they require, together with implements of husbandry, carpenters’, blacksmiths’, and leather workers’ tools, and knives, spear and arrow heads, bridle bits, stirrups, and a variety of small articles, such as pickers, tweezers, turnscrews, &c.; all which, taking into consideration the very rough materials and tools employed, are finished in a manner which evinces much taste and ingenuity on the part of the workmen, who, in all cases, work sitting on the ground cross-legged. The people of those several trades are by far the most respectable of the class which I have met with in Africa; so much so, that the ministers, favourites, and officers are chiefly chosen from amongst them; but this, I believe, arises in part from their being more finished courtiers and flatterers than are to be met with amongst the other classes of the people. The government of Bondoo is monarchical, the whole authority being vested in the hands of the almamy or king. He is, however, in most cases, guided by the laws of Mahomet, which are interpreted by the Imans, or chief priests, who, being much in his power, and from example and habit of a crouching mean disposition, in all cases where his Majesty’s interest is concerned, decide in his favour. The revenues, which are solely the property of the King, at least wholly at his disposal, are considerable, and consist in a tenth of all agricultural produce, and a custom or duty paid by the travelling merchants who pass through the country. This latter amounts to seven bottles of gunpowder, and one trade musket, or their value in other articles, for each ass load of European goods; and must be accompanied by a present to the king and his head men. A refusal on the part of any of those merchants to comply with the exorbitant demands of these people, would inevitably lead to their being plundered, and probably to personal ill treatment. This, however, seldom takes place, as those merchants always endeavour, by some means or other, to conceal the most valuable part of their goods, either about their persons or in the house of their host, (whom it is also necessary to bribe) before they entrust the remainder to the inspection of the people appointed by the king for that purpose. He derives also considerable emolument from a tenth of the salt imported from the coast by the natives of the country, and from an annual custom, or tribute, paid him by the Senegal Company’s vessels trading in the river, and the French Government establishment at Baquelle, where, as will appear in a subsequent article on Galam, he has of late years acquired considerable influence and authority.