SENEGAL, or SENEGAL, a kingdom of Africa, in Negroland, seated on a river of the same name, which some suppose to be a branch of the Niger; but this is very uncertain, no European having travelled so far up as to determine this assertion. However, it overflows like the Nile, and much about the same time of the year. It is 40 days before it comes to the height; when the river overflows its banks, and the channel is difficult to find by those who go up it in boats. The French once sent 30 men up this river, who rowed 1000 miles, undergoing great hardships, inasmuch that only five returned back alive; their boat once stuck fast on the tops of trees, and they got it off with a great deal of difficulty. The kingdom of Senegal was formerly very considerable, but it is now reduced into a very narrow compass: it is populous and full of trees, but the soil is sandy and barren; for which reason they never sow till the rainy season comes on, in June, and get in their harvest in September. The French had a fort
Seneschal fort and factory in an island at the mouth of this river, and were entire masters of the gum-trade. It was called Fort-Louis, and was taken by the British on the 1st of May 1758, and ceded to Great Britain by the peace of 1763.