TRAVELS IN AFRICA. 65 sions, and neither acknowledging the supremacy of the other, although formerly, and of right, it belonged to the former, near which are the ruins of Fort St. Joseph, The succession to the crown is not hereditary ; it descends in a regular line to the eldest branch of a numerous family called Batcheries, who are the undisputed chiefs of the country.

The face of the country is very mountainous, and much covered with wood, a large proportion of which is well adapted to common uses. Its vegetable productions are the same as those of Bondoo, from which country it differs in nothing save its proximity to the river, and its partial inundation during the season ofthe rains.

The commerce, like that of Bondoo, consists in the exchange of the productions of the country for European goods. Those are again exchanged with their neighbours of Kaarta, Kasson, and Bambouk, for gold, ivory, and slaves, who are in their turn sold to the French vessels from Senegal.

Their manufactures, although nearly the same as those of their neighbours, have the advantage of them in some respects, particularly that of weaving and dyeing the cotton ; and whether it be that the humidity of the soil on the banks of the river is more congenial to the growth of the