TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 181 hardware, amber, coral, and glass beads, with ail which they are supplied by the merchants in the Gambia and Senegal.

The manufactures, although few, are well calculated to supply the natives with clothing, the different articles of household furniture which they require, together with implements of husbandry, carpenters', blacksmiths', and leather workers' tools, and knives, spear and arrow heads, bridle bits, stirrups, and a variety of small articles, such as pickers, tweezers, turnscrews, &c. ; all which, taking into consideration the very rough materials and tools employed, are finished in a manner which evinces much taste and ingenuity on the part of the workmen, who, in all cases, work sitting on the ground cross-legged.

The people of those several trades are by far the most respectable of the class which I have met with in ifrica; so much so, that the ministers, favourites, and officers are chiefly chosen from amongst them 5 but this, I believe, arises in part from their being more finished courtiers and flatterers than are to be met with amongst the other classes of the people.

The government of Bondoo is monarchical, the whole authority being vested in the hands of the almamy or king. He is, however, in most cases, guided by the laws of Mahomet, which are interpreted by the Imans, or chief priests.