September 4th. An hour before sunrise we set out, directing our course eastward, and after proceeding three miles we found traces of a camp which appeared to have been left the same morning. We travelled about a mile to the south, to visit a small camp occupied by slaves of Hamet-Dou’s, who had been sent to this place to cultivate millet. In a moment I was surrounded by the inhabitants of this camp, who thronged round to examine me, being the first European they had ever seen. An old marabout, who appeared to be the chief of these slaves, ordered them to retire, and asked me numerous questions respecting my conversion to Islamism: after making me repeat some words of the Koran he directed sangleh to be made. Each family brought us a small calabash full; but had we not been so hungry as we were, we could not have eaten it, for, it was not only without salt, but the poor creatures had not even milk to mix it with. The appearance of the camp gave no high opinion of the magnificence of the prince to whom it belonged: the huts were small and ill built, and they scarcely afforded shelter from the sun. Two very shabby tents were no doubt the dwellings of the marabouts appointed to superintend the slaves, whose only garment was a sheep-skin, which covered them from the waist to the knees: they were about fifty in number and lived in fifteen huts. A Wolof[14] slave having heard me speak her language came up to me and inquired if I was acquainted with her country: I availed myself of this opportunity to learn some particulars concerning their occupations. She informed me that the wealthy Moors send out slaves every year to sow millet, and that after the harvest they return to the camp of their masters. I went to look at their fields and found them badly cultivated. The negroes were busy weeding the millet; they merely scratched the surface of the ground, which, from its clayey compact nature ought to be turned up to some depth and broken. At two o’clock we pursued our route to the E. ¼ N.E. and, having proceeded eight miles, crossed a rivulet in which the water was up to our waists: its current, which is very rapid, runs to the N.N.W. I was told that this stream descends from the mountains situated near Galam, the direction of which was pointed out to me to the E.S.E.; according to the Moors, it is absorbed by a lake about three days’ journey from the spot where we halted.