Before I set out for Kakondy, I converted my two thousand francs partly into specie and partly into merchandise. This was my whole fortune, but I meant to devote it all to the accomplishment of my project. I expended seventeen hundred francs in the purchase of gunpowder, paper, sundry glass wares, tobacco, amber, coral, silk handkerchiefs, knives, scissors, looking-glasses, cloves, three pieces of Guinea stuff, and an umbrella. All these goods formed a bundle of no great bulk; they did not weigh one hundred pounds, for I had bought but a small quantity of each article; the price of European goods being then high in all the colonies. I put into my girdle the rest of my two thousand francs, half in silver and half in gold. Thanks to the kindness of my friends at Sierra-Leone, I had no need to buy medicines; they furnished me with cream of tartar, jalap, calomel, and different kinds of salts, sulphate of quinine, diachylon plaister, and nitrate of silver. Provided with all these useful things, and with two pocket compasses to direct me, and dressed in my Arabian costume, with my pockets filled with leaves torn out of the Koran, I embarked at Sierra-Leone on the 22nd of March, 1827, for Rio Nuñez, on board the schooner Thomas. The wind being foul we did not arrive at the mouth of the Rio Nuñez till the thirty-first of the month. I had here the good fortune to meet with a Frenchman of the name of Castagnet, who, though not acquainted with me, took me home with him, and promised that he would do all he could to forward my undertaking. He was then going to Rio Pongo, and as he was to be absent a fortnight, he begged me to defer my journey till he came back. I was glad to accede to this obliging request, for I was told that M. Castagnet owned one of the principal factories at Kakondy, where caravans from the interior were arriving daily, and particularly from Kankan, a part of the country which I was particularly anxious to visit. I must confess that this meeting with M. Castagnet was a most fortunate circumstance for me, and that the generous hospitality which I enjoyed in his house during my stay at Kakondy merits my everlasting gratitude. On the 5th of April, I was conducted to Rebeca by Mr. Bethman, an English merchant, the proprietor of an establishment near M. Castagnet’s residence, and who had the kindness to introduce me to the presumptive heir of the Landamas, whose name is Macandé. The king had been dead for some months, and they were waiting for the rainy season to chuse a successor. Mr. Tudsberry, who possesses a noble factory at the foot of the mountain, was so good as to accompany us to see the prince, who received us without ceremony in the corridor belonging to his house. This corridor is supported by pillars, and goes all round the premises.