a part of Negroland in Africa, the boundaries of which are not known. See GUINEA.

Isle of SENEGAL, sometimes called Saint Louis, is a small island in the mouth of the river Senegal, and according to Mafkeleyne's tables is situated in N. Lat. 15. 53. W. Long. 16. 31. The Dutch were the first Europeans who settled at Senegal; but their colony was expelled by the French in 1687. It was taken by the English in 1692; and retaken by the French the year following. It was a second time taken possession of by the English in 1758; but in 1779 the French recovered it, and it was ceded to the British crown by the treaty of 1783.

The best account of this island which we have seen, is given in the interesting voyage of M. Saugnier to the coast of Africa. This adventurer visited Senegal in June 1785.

"The island (says he), properly speaking, is only a bank of sand in the middle of the river. It is 1000 geometrical paces long, and about 60 in its greatest width; is almost on a level with the river and with the sea, being defended from the latter by Barbary point, which is of greater elevation than the colony. The eastern branch of the river is the more considerable of the two, being about 400 toises across; the western branch is only from 50 to 200 toises wide. The island consists entirely of burning sands, on the barren surface of which you sometimes meet with scattered flints, thrown out among their ballast by vessels coming from Gorée, or with the ruins of buildings formerly erected by Europeans. There is scarcely such a thing as a garden upon the island; European seeds in general not thriving here. It is not surprising that the soil is so unproductive; for the air is strongly impregnated with sea salt, which pervades every thing, and confines even iron in a very short space of time. The heats are excessive, and rendered still more insupportable by the reflection of the sand; so that from ten in the morning until four in the afternoon it is almost impossible to do any work. During the months of January, February, March, and April, the heats are moderated; but in August and the following months they become so oppressive as even to affect the natives themselves. What effect then must they have upon the Europeans, suddenly transplanted into this burning climate? The nights are a little less sultry; not always, however, but only when the sea-breeze sets in. It is then that the inhabitants of the colony breathe a freer air, for which they have been longing the whole of the day; but this air in our climate would seem a burning vapour. The nights are nevertheless troublesome, notwithstanding the comforts of the sea-breeze. The instant the sun is set, we are assailed by an infinity of gnats, which are called myquitos; their stings are very painful, and their multitudes incredible. The inhabitants find but a poor defence in their gauze-curtains. For my own part, accustomed as I had been to live among the Moors, I was but little annoyed by these insects. Being half a savage, I felt no desire to recommend myself to the favourable regard of the fair sex, and I was therefore under no necessity of taking care of my person. In imitation of my former masters, I smeared myself with butter, and this expedient preserved me at all times from these impertinent fingers, these spiteful enemies to the repose of the human kind.

"If the prospect of Senegal is not agreeable to the eye, much less are its environs, which are covered over only with sand, and overrun with mangoes. It may be said, without exaggeration, that there is not a more forlorn situation to be found on the face of the inhabited globe, or a place in which the common necessaries of life are procured with greater difficulties. Water, that indispensable aliment of man, is here not potable. Wells are dug in the sand to the depth of five or fix feet, and water is obtained by these means; but whatever pains are taken to refresh it, it ever retains a brackish taste. I have distilled this water myself, and observed that it always had a disagreeable flavour, which cannot fail to be hurtful to the health: it is true, that when the river is high, its streams are fresh, but the water is only the more dangerous. It provokes the cause of most of those maladies which carry off the Europeans so rapidly, that at the end of every three years the colony has a fresh set of inhabitants. The blacks themselves, although accustomed to the climate, are not in this season free from disease."

The fort of St Louis is a quadrangle, and has two bastions of considerable strength; but the greatest security of the fort is its natural situation. The cannon of the fort are numerous, and the arsenal well supplied with small arms and stores. Besides this fort the French had no other upon the river, except Fort St Joseph, which stands about four leagues below the cataract at Govina, though they had a few factories in different parts.

The principal commodity of this country is that of gum-Senegal (see GUM-Senegal), which is a valuable branch of commerce, as it is used in many arts and manufactures, particularly by the painters in water-colours, the silk-weavers, and dyers.

The French import from the river Senegal not only gum-arabic, but elephants teeth, hides, bees-wax, gold-dust, cotton, ostrich feathers, ambergris, indigo, and civet.

Notwithstanding the barrenness of the spot, Senegal contains more than 6000 negroes, including the captives of the Tapades, or negroes born of the black inhabitants of the country. They are never put up to sale, unless convicted of some crime. Their huts, constructed in the form of bee-hives, and supported upon four stakes, surround the habitations of the negro inhabitants. The entire height of those huts may rise to about 12 feet, the width in every direction is commonly from 10 to 12. The beds are composed of hurdles laid upon cross-bars, supported by forked stakes at the height of about a foot from the ground. Here the slaves sleep promiscuously, men, women, girls, and boys. A fire is made in the middle of the hut, which is filled with smoke, sufficient to stifle any man but a negro.

The men are tall, and the women are accounted the handsomest negresses of all Africa. The Senegaleans may be considered as the most courageous people of that part of the world, without even excepting the Moors. Their courage, however, is more nearly allied to temerity than to bravery. In the course of the voyage to Galam, they meet the greatest dangers with gaiety and song; they dread neither musket nor cannon, and are equally fearless of the cayman or crocodile. Should one of their companions be killed, and devoured by these animals before their face, they are not deterred from plunging into the water, if the working of the ship require it. These excellent qualifications which distinguish them, and on which they value themselves so much, do not, however, preserve them from the common contagion of the country, which inclines them all to rapine. They are emulous to surpass one another in all the arts of over-reaching and fraud. The conduct of the Europeans has, no doubt, encouraged these vices as much as the lessons of the marabout, who inculcate the duty of plundering the Christians to the utmost of their power.

The Yolof negroes of Senegal are either Christians or Mahometans, or rather one and the other, or with more truth neither; religion being a matter of indifference to them. Those on the continent are of the same way of thinking, and their religious practices are kept up only for the sake of form. A bar of iron, a few beads, will make them change their opinion at will. By such means are they acted upon; a sufficient proof of their want of all religious principle. The marabouts, or priests, and the men of their law, are no better than the rest. "I have examined the character of several of this order of men (says M. Saugnier), and even among the nation of the Poules, who are considered as great fanatics, I discovered that they were only publicly attached to their opinions. 'This white man (say they) does so; he is better informed than I, and why should not I imitate his example?' This way of reasoning is common to all that tract of country.

The colony of Senegal is surrounded with islands, which, on account of the proximity of the sea, are all more unhealthy than that on which the town is built. They are full of standing pools, that, when dried up by the sun, exhale a putrid vapour that carries mortality with it, and defolates these islands. It is doubtless the same cause that takes off so many of the French at Senegal during the dangerous season of the year. This also may be in part occasioned by the bad quality of the water, which flows from the ponds in the neighbourhood of the colony, and though incorporated with that of the river, comes down little agitated by the current, and is easily distinguished by a rapidity of taste. This particular is, in my opinion, essentially worthy of notice, and if properly attended to by our medical men, might become the means of preserving many lives.

SENEGAL-River, see NIGER. As so little is known respecting this river, which is one of the greatest in Africa, any additional information must be interesting. We shall therefore present our readers with the account contained in the communications presented to the Association for promoting the discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa, which, as far as we know, is the latest and most authentic.

The river known to Europeans by the name of Niger or Senegal runs on the south of the kingdom of Cathna, in its course towards Tomboutou; and if the report which Ben Alli heard in that town may be credited, it is afterwards lost in the sands on the south of the country of Tomboutou. In the map (A), only the known part of its course is marked by a line; and the supposititious part by dots. It may be proper to observe, that the Africans have two names for this river; that is, Neel il Abeed, or river of the Negros; and Neel il Kibeer, or the great river. They also term the Nile (that is the Egyptian river) Neel Shen; so that the term Neel, from whence our Nile, is nothing more than the appellative of river; like Ganges, or Sinde.

Of this river, the rise and termination are unknown, but the course is from east to west. So great is its rapidity, that no vessel can ascend its stream; and such is the want of skill, or such the absence of commercial inducements among the nations who inhabit its borders, that even with the current, neither vessels nor boats are seen to navigate. In one place, indeed, the traveller finds accommodations for the passage of himself and of his goods; but even there, though the ferrymen, by the indulgence of the sultan of Cathna, are exempted from all taxes, the boat which conveys the merchandise is nothing more than an ill-constructed raft; for the planks are fastened to the timbers with ropes, and the seams are closed both within and without by a plaster of tough clay, of which a large provision is always carried on the raft, for the purpose of excluding the stream wherever its entrance is observed.

The depth of the river at the place of passage, which is more than a hundred miles to the south of the city of Cathna, the capital of the empire of that name, is estimated at 23 or 24 feet English. Its depth is from 10 to 12 peeks, each of which is 27 inches.

Its width is such, that even at the island of Gongoo, where the ferrymen reside, the sound of the loudest voice from the northern shore is scarcely heard; and at Tomboutou, where the name of Guewa, or black, is given to the stream, the width is described as being that of the Thames at Westminster. In the rainy season it swells above its banks, and not only floods the adjacent lands, but often sweeps before it the cattle and cottages of the short-fighted or too confident inhabitants.

That the people who live in the neighbourhood of the Niger should refuse to profit by its navigation, may justly surprise the traveller: but much greater is his astonishment, when he finds that even the food which the bounty of the stream would give, is uselessly offered to their acceptance; for such is the want of skill, or such the settled dislike of the people to this sort of provision, that the fish with which the river abounds are left in undisturbed possession of its waters.