capital, vessels, sailors, and other seafaring people. This quantity of gum, at the average price of thirty-five sols per pound, will produce a sale of three millions five hundred thousand livres, and a profit of near three millions.

all the commercial nations of Europe, many of which have at different periods established themselves at Arguin and Portendick, in the hope of attracting thither the gum trade.

All these successive establishments have cost considerable sums of money; they have also had but a short existence, and but indifferent success, because all the inconveniences of a difficult and dangerous coast, a security, which

We should not therefore neglect such an important branch of commerce; it was, however, sold in 1783, to a company whose least vice was that of being unenlight ened. This invaluable branch of a lucrative commerce withered the perfidy of the Moors incesaway, and perished, in the un-santly renders equivocal and preskilful hands of those who pos-carious, and the hazards of war sessed it; and the English, who unceasingly enrich themselves by our negligence, found means, though excluded from the Senegal, to procure for a length of time, by Arguin and Portendick, almost as much gum as we did from our factories in the river; and from 1787, until the period of the revolution, they had even monopolized nearly the whole of this merchandise, which, however, the most simple measures might have di

rected into our hands.

The public weal, which will not permit these errors and defects to be concealed, has induced me to discuss them, and to enter into those details, which are naturally allied with the history of a commerce necessary to be known in all its extent.

I shall not here relate all the circumstances which it has produced; it has excited the avarice of

have at all times been found united, to crush these factories; and in addition to these may be added, that the natural road for the gum of Zaara is along the banks of the Senegal; whence the possessors of this river might always draw hither, even the whole of it, if their conduct were firm, politic, and reasonable.

The English, hitherto our masters in industry and commerce, were possessed of the Senegal during the whole time between 1760 and 1779. They well knew the advantage which the exclusive possession of this river gave them in trading for the gum; and from the moment they entered it, they forbade any of the ships, frequenting Arguin or Portendick, in order that there might be no diversion in the disposing of a merchandise, which ought naturally to take place at the factories of the Senegal.

The tree which yields the gum, known in commerce under the name of the gum of Senegal, belongs to the genus of Acacias, and is called by the Moors and negroes near the river, when it produces white gum, Uereck, and when it yields red gum, Nebueb.

are not connected together, but scattered here and there.

The gum tree of the Senegal is not in general more than eighteen or twenty feet high, and about three feet in circumference; at least, such are, according to the Moors who sell us the gum, the trees which form the three forests of Sahel, Al-Fatack, and El-Hiebar. I have, however, seen gum trees twenty-five and twenty.

These two species of Acacia gum-trees are the most numerous, and are abundantly propagated in the white and moving sands, which form the soil of the countries bor-eight feet high, in the isles of Sorr and Thiong; but the soil here is covered with a bed of vegetable earth, and the trees are very few in number.

dering on the sea from Cape Blance of Barbary to Cape Verd, and in those which are situated to the North of the course of the Sene

In general also the gum tree is gal, from Galam to the factory crooked, and has a very irregular, inelegant, and unpleasant appear

called the Desart.

trees are, in the language of the forester, stunted, and the stocks of a year old resemble rather bushes and shrubs.

Many other species of gum-ance: in fact, nearly all these trees are also to be found here; but the Uereck and Nebueb are not only the most valuable, and the most numerous, but three large forests are principally composed of them, and are known under the appellation of Sahol, Al-Fatack, and El-Hiebar, and which are situated at the meridianal extremities of Zaara, or the great desart of Barbary, and nearly at an equal distance from the borders of the Senegal and the sea.

This effect is doubtless owing to the aridity and deleterious quality of the sandy soil in which they vegetate, but more particularly to the keenness and maligníty of the east winds, which prevail here during the whole winter, and consequently prevent them from arriving at their full perfection.

The leaves of this tree are alternate and bifed, very small, and of a dry, dirty green; the branch

The Uereck is found in equal plenty in the environs of fort St. Louis of the Senegal, and on the southern banks of this river, as far as Padhor. I have seen it also ines are thorny from the part where the islands of Sorr and Thiong, the leaves project; the flowers and in Wood Island; these trees are white and very short; the

trunk is full, hard, and dry, and the bark smooth, and of a dark green colour.

Those who wish for a more detailed information, relative to the gum trees of the Senegal, may consult the works of M. Adenson, of the Academy of Sciences, who resided in the Senegal upwards of fifty years in the capacity of a naturalist.

He has given a description of every spécies of gum tree which is

to be found in the countries comprised between the twentieth and the fourteenth degree of north latitude, and from the borders of the Atlantic Ocean, to the eighth longitudinal degree of the island of Ferro.

He also brought with him to France, from the environs of the Senegal, forty species of Acacia gum trees, all of which furnished a greater or less quantity of gum.

during their tedious travels, in the vast desarts of Zaara."

It appears that the three forests already mentioned, and which furnish the gum we purchase from the Moors, are principally composad of the Uereck and Nebueb, the first of which produces the white gum and the second the red.

I shall now proceed to make some observations on the manner

and time in which the Moors collect the gum, from the three forests, and the period when they encamp themselves on the right bank of the Senegal, for the purpose of selling to us this commodity.

It is well known, that the western countries of Africa, comprised between the tenth degree of north latitude, and the tropic of Cancer, and between the first and longitudinal degree east of the island of Ferro, do not receive the tropical rains till towards the beginning of July. This law of nature is almost invariable, and it seldom happens, that in the countries watered by the Senegal, that the rainy season begins much before the first of July, or that it is prolonged beyond the first days of November.

The five species of gum trees, which this learned academician principally attended to, during his residence at the Senegal, were the red gum tree Nebueb, the red one of Gonake, and the white one of Suing, all of which he ranges in the class of true Acacias; he likewise observes, that the white gum tree Uereck, and the white kind called Ded, ought to form another genus, the chief of which should be the gum tree of the Sen-heavens fall in torrents on the egal, as its juice forms almost the earth; the heat is humid and only nourishment of the Moors, stifling; storms unceasingly suc

It is also pretty well known what are called rainy seasons, between the tropics; when this time commences, the waters of the

ceed each other, and the rivers swell and overflow all the low lands, which surround them; all

hering to the incision whence it issued, sometimes twisted in a vermicular form, but most com

these are white when proceeding from the white gum tree, and of a yellowish orange colour, border ing a little on the red, when pro. ceeding from the red gum tree.

The drops are always transparent, and brilliant at the part where they are broken off; when they are held for a short time in the mouth, they possess all the clearness, transparency, lustre, and limpidity of the finest rock crystal.

the shallows are quickly deluged,monly in round or oblong drops: and the Senegal receives such a prodigious access of water, that its level is elevated upwards of twenty feet; its overflowings are extensive as those of the Nile in Egypt its smooth and tranquil course becomes rapid and impetuous, and no vessel can any longer proceed up it but by means of towing; the waters of the sea, which during the preceding months, had entered, and given the river a brackish taste, as far as forty leagues from its mouth, can longer enter, and fresh water may be procured even near the bar. It may, I think, be confidently asserted, that the regions irrigated by the Senegal and the Gain-deed be superfluous, because the

no

bia, receive during the rainy season a mass of water three times more considerable than the most humid countries in France absorb during a whole year.

When the lands have been abundantly saturated, by these heavy rains when the waters begin to disappear, and when the sands begin to dry, which is towards the 15th of November, then also we may perceive oozing from the trunk, and principal branches of the gum trees, a gummy juice, which at first has no consistency, but trickles down the trees; at the end, however, of fifteen days this juice becomes inspissated, ad

These gummy exudations are entirely natural, and the Moors solicit then by no kind of artifice, or any sort of incision.

These precautions would in

variations of the atmosphere in the season immediately succeeding that of the heavy rains, alone increases infinitely the clefts on the surface of the bark, and by means of these, which answers every purpose, the gums find a natural and easy passage.

Towards the 10th of November, the easterly winds begin to prevail, or rather those of the northeast. These winds are dry and blighting; they are burning twothirds of the day, and cold during the night and morning.

This north-east wind (in the Senegal improperly called an easterly wind) passes over those im.

mense sandy plains, which border

From hence may easily be con

on the west of Egypt, and after-ceived, the effect which these arid wards crosses the spacious desart and piercing winds must have on of Zaara. This wind is what the the bark of the gum trees, which Arabs and the Moors call Samiel is naturally slender and smooth; or Cimoon, and which in other consequently the apertures are parts of Africa bears the name of very numerous, and the gum exHarmatans its pestiferous and udes from all parts in profusion. well The drops are in general about malignant qualities are the size of a small partridge's eggi known. there are also, occasionally, some both larger and smaller; I had one, which was five inches and a half long, by a medial breadth of four inches: these variations are however very rare.

If the gum of the Senegal did not possess an essential tenacious quality, the keenness and rapidity of the east wind would infalli bly detach the half formed drops from the trees, which would then be blown along by the wind, and

This wind, before it reaches the banks of the Senegal, doubtless loses those dangerous qualities which it possesses in the desart; for in the countries bordering on the island of St. Louis, though it may be inconvenient from its keenness and activity, yet it never occasions any diseases; but on the contrary, the violent fevers which are produced by the bad season, generally cease when the north-east wind begins to prevail. It is, however, arid and devour-covered with sand; hence the ing; it absorbs, so completely dis- duce would be less pure, less vasipates, and above all so sudden-luable, and more difficult to colly the humidity of inanimate bo- lect: this, however, never hap dies, that they have not time to pens, for the drops adhere firmly adapt themselves to the vacuum to the bark, near the apertures from occasioned by this unexpected and whence they issued. rapid desiccation; hence the adhesion of the particles of these bo-ly wind did not increase the num

dies is compelled to separate.

pro

On the other side, if the easter

ber of incisions, and thus open an infinity of passages, by which the

I have seen pieces of wainscot split suddenly with a considera-gum might transpire, the drops ble detonation, and glass goblets break in half; a walnut tree ruler, of four lines in thickness, split exactly in the middle, with a noise similar to a strong electric explosion.

would become more scarce, and at the same time proportionably large; hence their weight would overcome their tenacity; they would fall to the earth, and be buried in the sand, which would