The Mandingoes of this part of Africa have more resources for food than the negroes who inhabit the neighbourhood of the Senegal, who have, in fact nothing but millet. Their food too is better cooked, and, excepting salt, which they have a great deal of trouble to obtain, they possess all that is necessary for supporting life; yams, maize, rice, honey, foigné, beans, giraumons, and pistachios, grow abundantly in this happy land: on the Senegal, on the other hand, all these things are wanting, though salt is easily procured. The expence of cultivation in this part of the country is low. The slaves merely break up the surface of earth, to destroy the weeds, and the seed is then sown. In planting yams, the ground is trenched up, for the root does not thrive well in a level soil. Every thing grows here very rapidly. The soil, which is composed of excellent black sandy mould, is fertilized alternately by the rains and the tropical heat, not less than by the numerous streams which wind through every part of the country; thus the land rewards with interest the labour of the husbandman. The foigné, which is sown during the month of May, is gathered in July. This grain is very useful to the negroes, for it often happens that their supplies of provisions are not sufficient to last them till the following year. They might make two harvests in the course of the year, as is done in Wassoulo, if they were not too indolent. The foigné is abundant throughout the whole of the south. The women take great pains in separating it from extraneous matters. They expose the grain to the heat of the sun, after which they put it into a mortar and clear it from the chaff, which requires considerable time and trouble. The bran is afterwards extracted in the same way, as on the Senegal; the foigné is then pounded a second time, and when the grain is thoroughly cleared, it appears white and of about the coarseness of gunpowder. It is next washed and drained through a basket, in which it is allowed to remain until it swells a little. After this it is again consigned to the mortar, and a few strokes of the pestle suffice to reduce it to flour. If it were not wetted, the process of trituration would require longer time. The flour thus produced is made into a sort of pudding or paste called tau, which is the sangleh of the negroes of the Senegal. When this tau is baked it is put into a calabash, and seasoned with a sauce made of giraumon leaves, various herbs, and allspice; a little gombo is also added to render it glutinous, but neither salt nor butter is used in this sauce. The yams are cooked in a different manner. They are first boiled, and then pounded, and they are eaten with a sauce composed of dried fish reduced to powder, a little gombo, allspice, and zambala, or nédé seeds boiled, dried, and pulverized; which gives them a very agreeable flavour. Though the nédé seeds are very abundant in this country, yet the women use them but sparingly in their cookery,