The almamy of Bondou, a man of about seventy, had quite white hair, a long beard, and a face deeply wrinkled. He was dressed in two _pagnes_[4] of the country and covered with amulets down to the ancles. He eyed me with a look of indifference and seemed to pay much more attention to the work of the mason than to my presence, which afforded me leisure to examine without giving him offence. Having staid some days at Boulibaneh, during which we were on the best terms with the inhabitants, Major Gray made arrangements for quitting this royal residence. But before his departure he deemed it right to make the almamy a farewell present: it consisted of a piece of Guinea cloth,[5] and a few trifling articles. Whether the prince was dissatisfied with it, or apprehensive that the English were going to join the French for the purpose of attacking his dominions, or had vowed not to allow us to pass, he declared with feigned regret that he could not permit us to proceed to Bakel; that he would suffer us to go to Clego, but we must traverse his territories and those of Kaarta: otherwise there was no alternative for us but to take the road of Fouta-Toro, to reach the Senegal. These two routes were equally arduous and dangerous for us, since we were sure to find in both those countries people as fanatic and as barbarous as the inhabitants of Bondou. It was evidently the almamy’s design to cause us to be plundered and perhaps murdered. Our situation became alarming. A council was held, and the indignation excited by the almamy’s conduct caused the adoption of the violent measure of opening by force a passage to Bakel. The animals were immediately laden, and preparations made for breaking up: but no sooner was our intention known than the king’s soldiers, fifty in number, armed with lances and muskets, came and possessed themselves of the wells and surrounded our camp. We had but little water, through the imprudence which I have mentioned above; and notwithstanding the economical manner in which we employed it, we were on the point of being totally cut off from it. In Africa it is easier to reduce a place by thirst than by famine.