At five o’clock in the afternoon we arrived at Doudé, a village of the same size as Bady, and about a mile and a half to the E.S.E. of it. The chief came to receive us at the entrance of the palisade, by which his grounds were surrounded. I remarked some cotton very badly cultivated. They sow it broad-cast, as we do corn, so that it grows too close, which prevents its thriving. I saw a young negress gathering the cotton, which appeared to me to be of inferior quality. We were lodged in a large and handsome hut with two doors, situated on the left of our route. Our host felt highly honoured in having beneath his roof a countryman of the prophet’s; for my guide had related to him the pretended events of my youth. He came up close to me, stroked my head with his hands, and then rubbed his own face, as if this contact with a countryman of the prophet’s had in it something holy or salutary. We performed our devotions together. The old man had collected near an orange-tree a great number of small flints, on which, in the spirit of penitence, he knelt to prayer. This greatly annoyed me; for I was obliged to follow his example. He afterwards presented to me a child of four or five years of age, who had sore eyes, and begged me to cure him if I could. I was much embarrassed, and told him that I had no remedy for the disorder; but my guide had assured him of the contrary, and the old man, supposing there was a want of inclination on my part, offered to pay me. I told him that my baggage had been sent forward, and that I could not overtake it till next day. He was silent, but appeared not to be best pleased with my answer. In all my life I never saw such a disease as that under which this child laboured. It suffered no pain, but it was almost deprived of sight. I have since thought that it might be a kind of cataract. The marabouts, who officiate as doctors in this country, had ineffectually exhausted all their skill in grigris, or amulets, for the patient. They could do nothing more, and the child was abandoned to its fate. I advised the parents to wash its eyes with a decoction of baobab leaves, which might serve as a substitute for mallows, and to take the child to Sierra-Leone for medical assistance; but they shrunk with horror from the idea of placing it in the hands of christians. Our host gave us rice and sour milk for supper, which we ate seated under an orange tree.