80 TRAVELS IN AFRICA.

interest, by sending him a small present, and holding out the promise of a suitable reward, should he act in compliance with our wishes.

We left Fodia Cunda at six, on the morning of the 3d, and travelled east, at a smart pace, over a flat country, little wooded and for the most part cultivated ; the soil was of a darker colour, and contained more mould and clay than any we had seen since leaving Kayaye. We arrived at Madina at nine, and bivouacked under a large tree, about five hundred yards north of the town.

Madina is a respectable walled town, containing about two hundred and fiitj huts, and from eight hundred to a thousand inhabitants, all Sonikeas; it is the capital of the kingdom of Woolli, and the residence of the king. Outside the walls is a strong stake or palisade fence, about ve feet high, which gave to the place the appearance of a large fortified redoubt. The interior of the town was beautifully shaded with large trees of the fig and palm kind, and altogether had a very good outward appearance.

There are three gates to it ; two in the north, and one in the east, which are shut every night. The interior of the town does not at all accord with its external appearance, being filled with small round grass, and mud huts jumbled together without any regard to order or regularity.