with great trains of camels, carrying brass, silver, and other articles, to Tombucto and the country of the Negroes, whence they bring back gold and melhegette, or cardamom seeds[3].  These people are all of a tawny colour, and both sexes wear a single white garment with a red border, without any linen next their skins.  The men wear turbans, in the Moorish fashion, and go always barefooted.  In the desert there are many lions, leopards, and ostriches, the eggs of which I have often eaten, and found them very good.

Don Henry has farmed out the trade of the island of Arguin, under the following regulations.  No person must enter this gulf to trade with the Arabs, except those who are licensed according to the ordinance, and have habitations and factors on the island, and have been accustomed to transact business with the Arabs on that coast.  The articles of merchandize chiefly provided for this trade are, woollen cloth and linen, silver trinkets, aldtizeli or frocks, and cloaks, and other things, and above all, wheat; and the Arabs give in return negro slaves and gold.  A castle has been built on the isle of Arguin, by order of the prince, to protect this trade, on account of which caravels or ships arrive there every year from Portugal.

The Arabs of this coast have many Barbary horses, which they carry to the country of the Negroes, which they barter with the great men for slaves, receiving from ten to eighteen men for each horse, according to their goodness.  They also carry thither silken staffs of Granada and Tunis, with silver, and many other things, in return for which they receive great numbers of slaves and some gold.  These slaves are brought first to Hoden in the desert, and thence by the mountains of Barka into Barbary, whence they are transported across the Mediterranean into Sicily.  Part of them are sold in Tunis, and in other places along the coast of Barbary; and the rest are brought to Arguin, where they are sold to the licensed Portuguese traders, who purchase between seven and eight hundred every year, and send them for sale into Portugal.  Before the establishment of this trade at Arguin, the Portuguese used to send every year four or more caravels to the bay of Arguin, the crews of which, landing well armed in the night, were in use to surprise some of the fishing villages, and carry off the inhabitants into slavery.  They even penetrated sometimes a considerable way into the interior, and carried off the Arabs of both sexes, whom they sold as slaves in Portugal.

Leaving Arguin we sailed along the coast to the river Senegal[4], which is very large, and divides the people called Azanaghi, or Azanhaji, from the first kingdom of the Negroes.  The Azanhaji are of a tawny colour, or rather of a deep brown complexion, and inhabit some parts of the coast beyond Cape Branco, ranging through the deserts, and their district reaches to the confines of the Arabs of Hoden.  They live on dates, barley, and the milk of camels; but as they