said above, it is when we penetrate a little into the
interior, that an immense country, rich in the gifts of nature, invites
European cultivation, and offers the fairest prospect of success for the
colonial productions.

The soil is in general good, and all colonists from the Antilles, who have
visited these countries, think that they are well adapted to the
cultivation of all kinds of colonial produce. This immense country is
watered by the Senegal and the Gambia, which bound it to the north and
south. The river Faleme crosses it in the eastern part, as well as many
other less considerable rivers, which, flowing in different directions,
water principally that part covered with mountains which is called the high
country, or the country of Galam. All these little rivers fall at length
into the two large ones, of which we have spoken above.

These countries are very thickly peopled, and are in general mild and
hospitable. Their villages are so numerous, that it is almost impossible to
go two leagues without meeting with some, that are very extensive and very
populous. Nevertheless, we have no more than two settlements; those of St.
Louis and Goree; the others, which were seven or eight in number, have been
abandoned; either, because the French and the English, who have occupied
them in turn, have wished to concentrate the trade in the two settlements
which still exist; or because the natives no longer found the same
advantage in bringing their goods and slaves. It is, however, true, (as we
have been assured) that in consequence of the abolition of those factories,
the considerable commerce which France carried on upon this coast before
the revolution, has been reduced to one fourth of its former extent.[A14]

The town of St. Louis, the seat of the general government, is situated in
longitude 18 deg. 48' 15" and in latitude 16 deg. 4' 10". It is built on a little
island formed by the river Senegal, and is only two leagues distant from
the new bar formed by the inundation of 1812. Its situation in a military
point of view, is pretty advantageous, and if art added something to
nature, there is no doubt, but this town might be rendered almost
impregnable; but in its present state, it can hardly be considered as any
thing more than an open town, which four hundred resolute men, well
commanded, might easily carry. At the mouth of the river is a bar, which is
its strongest bulwark. It may even be said, that it would be impossib