l64 TRAVELS IN AFRICA.

theless a slave bought and sold. Osman, who had no scruples of that kind, very willingly undertook to do it for me, and I have no doubt made something by it.

Thus terminated an unfortunate affair which, although wholly providential, was certainly of such an unpleasant nature as to cause deep regret to all our party ; but which did not appear to make any more impression on the minds of the natives, than if the deceased had been a bullock ; so little is the life of a slave noticed in that country.

The weather had then begun to be more settled and dry, and the sick, with the exception of three Europeans (a sergeant and two privates), were improving rapidly. The approach, too, of the dry season, which was daily making itself more evident, and the hope of being thereby enabled to resume our march to the east, in a great measure alleviated the disagreeable nature of our halt, which had then become extremely irksome to all. The arrival of the French trading fleet from St. Louis, at Galam, commanded by an officer whom I had the pleasure of knowing at Senegal, and who, on his way to Boolibany, had called to see me, also tended, in a great degree, to give new vigour to our proceedings. The idea alone of having near, if not with us, people of our own colour.