TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 177 advantage of by the evil-disposed, to commit all manner of crimes, and for which they cannot be punished, as, during that period the laws are not in force in consequence of the non-existence of a king, with whom they also are considered defunct.

A few days after his election, I paid him a congratulatory visit, accompanied as usual by a present. He received me with marked attention and hospitality, and told me that I might now depend on his doing every thing to forward my views, to which he was bound by a request to that effect of the late Almamy a short time before his death.

He was not attended by the ministers of the late king, for they attached themselves to Saada in hopes, no doubt, of drawing from him all the treasure left him by his father, about the division of whose slaves a dispute arose between him and the new Almamy, in consequence of Saada' s not wishing to give him that proportion of them which he was desired by his father to do. The chief slaves too, like the ministers, preferred remaining, and for the same reason, with Saada, and consequently advised him not to submit to Almamy's demand. The time however was not far distant, when both ministers and slaves, being disappointed in their expectations from Saada, left him, and attached themselves to Al-N