On the 5th I remained at N’pâl. I spent the day in visiting the environs of the village, which is charmingly situated, amidst an immense plain, fertilized by the rains of the tropic. The inhabitants grow in abundance all that is requisite for their wants: accustomed to lead a very temperate life, they frequently have a surplus, which they carry for sale to St. Louis, bringing back in exchange fire-arms for their defence, and amber, coral, and glass trinkets to adorn their wives. This village is reputed to be the wealthiest in the neighbourhood of St. Louis. Its population may be estimated at two thousand, all marabouts. The natural advantages of their soil and situation have a visible influence on their manners; less slothful, less insolent, and less treacherous, than the negroes of other parts, they bestow hospitality without ostentation, and always in a generous manner which heightens its value. Every stranger is sure of finding an asylum among them. Situated between the country of Cayor and Wâlo, twenty miles eastward of Gandon, this village, entirely independent, is governed by a marabout who is its absolute master. At his death he is succeeded by his eldest son; if the latter dies without children, the supreme power devolves to his nearest kinsman. This chief levies an impost on millet, which is paid to him in kind at harvest-time, and amounts to one tenth. The inhabitants are armed with muskets and lances. When the neighbouring villages are threatened with pillage by the damel, or king, of Cayor, their inhabitants seek refuge at N’pâl, where they are not only received, but also find generous allies who take up their defence. Throughout the whole country the huts are small, ill constructed, and extremely filthy; the door is so low that to enter you are obliged to crawl on all fours. The residence of each family is composed of several huts surrounded by quick hedges, planted at random and without taste: sometimes this inclosure is formed merely of posts and rails, or a kind of palisade of straw. The streets are extremely narrow, winding, and dirty, all sorts of filth being thrown into them. Both men and women are very uncleanly, as in all the negro villages in this country, and they rub a great quantity of butter upon their heads. Few idle persons are to be seen among them. The men employ themselves in the cultivation of their fields during the rainy season, and in clearing the land required for fresh crops during the dry season: the women have to attend to the household concerns; they spin cotton; some dye cloths blue with the indigo which the country supplies almost without culture; and the cleverest of them traffic in the productions of the soil, which they procure in exchange for the glass beads, amber, and coral, purchased at St. Louis, whither they repair to sell the corn and cloths, by which they make a great profit.