128 TRAVELS IN AFRICA.

destroyed by the Kartan army in one of tlieir attacks on Almamy—which must have been sanguinary, as the ground for a considerable distance round it is thickly strewed with the now whitened bones of the slain, whose bodies were allowed to putrify on the spot where they fell, or be devoured by the birds and beasts of prey.

The mother of the boy given to us by Almamy, came to our huts to see her son, whom we had by this time so convinced of his real situation, that he implored us on his knees and with tears in his eyes to work the same change in his unfortunate mother's situation, who together with his brother, an infant, were in the most deplorable state of slavery, in the possession of Moosa Yeona Malick. The poor woman herself was too much pleased with the respectable appearance of her son, and with the account he gave her of the comparative happiness of his present situation, to prevent a gleam of satisfaction from making itself evident, through the otherwise truly miseiable and desponding evidence of her feelings but too strongly depicted in her face and actions; the former being bathed in tears, and the latter more becoming of a person imploring assistance or protection from the divine, than a human being.

It is needless to say we promised her every exertion in her favour, and fulfilled the promise,