A little before sun-set we passed Kera, a pretty little village on the right bank of the river, containing about three hundred inhabitants. It is nearly seven miles from Cougalia. Here the river turns to the N. E. A little to the left there is a small island submerged during the inundation The river is much wider here than at Cougalia, and it is quite as deep. On the plain I observed some slaves tilling the ground; they had pickaxes like those of the Bambaras. We continued our course till near midnight. As I had no compass I observed the direction of our course during the night by the polar star. In the evening we stood to the N. E., still going at the rate of about two miles an hour. When we lay to, the negroes who had the management of the canoe sought to pick a quarrel with me: they would not allow me to sleep on board. They told me that I had given them nothing, and that if I did not pay them they would put me on shore. I saw very well that their only object was to intimidate me and thereby to extort something from me. I disregarded their threats, and prepared to sleep on board in spite of them, for the cold night air and the damp were very unpleasant. I arranged my resting place as well as I could on a heap of baggage, where I was almost folded double and unable to move. I had not a wink of sleep during the whole night, and the negroes annoyed me in every possible way to induce me to leave the canoe. They even began to address insulting language to me, and threatened to put me on shore next day if I did not satisfy their demands. I suffered much from this annoyance; but the negroes gained nothing by their insolence. When the common people of these countries meet with a stranger who does not speak their language, they think they may insult him with impunity; but it is sufficient to shew firmness to make them more tractable. They gave me for supper a little rice boiled in water, which was the food of the slaves. I had not eaten any thing all day, for there was no possibility of cooking on account of the crowded state of the canoe. At four in the morning of the 24th of March we stood to the N. E. The sailors pushed forward the canoe with a long pole: they rowed it in deep water, and sometimes towed it along shore.