68 TRAVELS IN AFRICA.

not very honourable) of those who trade with them. They profess an attachment to and claim relationship with the inhabitants of Senegal, and if hospitality can in any degree prove the sincerity of the former, it must be allowed they have such attachment, as the house of a Serrawolli, and every thing it contains, is at all times at the service of the poorest inhabitant of that place.

Their local situation and the advantages they derive from it, render them enemies to the people of Bondoo, who have nothing to do with the river except through the medium of their country; hence, the great exertions of the late Almamy Amady to subjugate the nation, and which he maybe said to have in some degree accomplished; for he, by one means or other, gained such authority amongst them, that of late years the vessels trading in the river were obliged to pay him a large present before they could pass Yafrey*.

He also succeeded in sowing the seeds of discord between the chiefs of the upper and lower States, the latter of whom he contrived to attach to his own cause, or at least so much so that when Almamy attacked the former, the latter, although closely related, afforded them no assistance.

Since the death of Almamy and the arrival of the French to settle at Galam, they appear to * A large town ten miles west of the Fa-lemme.