a large state in the interior of Africa, situated in N. Lat. 12. 40. and W. Long. 6. 40. The government, according to Mr. Park, seems to be a kind of republic, or rather an oligarchy. Many species of edible roots are found here; but the sugar cane, coffee, and the cocoa tree, appear to be unknown to the inhabitants. The Mandingoos are reputed a very gentle race of people, cheerful in their dispositions, inquisitive, credulous, simple, and fond of flattery. The men, in general, are about the middle size, well-shaped, strong, and capable of enduring great labour; the women are good- good-natured, sprightly, and agreeable. Both sexes dress in cotton cloth of their own manufacture, and both seem irresistibly inclined to commit depredations on the property of unprotected strangers; yet, strange as it may appear, they will contribute to the personal safety of the very people whom they are bent upon plundering.

Parental and filial affection is very strong between the mother and her child, but not so between the father and his children, which must originate from that divided love which never fails to be an attendant on polygamy. The care of the mother extends to the cultivation of the mind; and one of the first lessons in which they instruct their offspring, is the practice of truth. To suckle their children three years is an ordinary occurrence, during which time the husband devotes all his attention to his other wives. When a young man intends to marry a young girl, he first addresses the parents, as her consent is not deemed necessary. If the parents are agreeable, she must either accept of the hand of her lover, or continue unmarried all her life long. The Mandingoes practise circumcision both on males and females, which is a very painful operation, but not performed by them from any religious motive, for they have a superstitious notion that it contributes to render the married state prolific. Mr Park assures us, that the belief of one God, and a future state of rewards and punishments, is universal among them, but that the management of all sublunary concerns is committed to certain subordinate or tutelary agents, whose wrath they deprecate by every mean in their power. These people seldom arrive at old age, being gray-headed and covered with wrinkles about 40, and few reach the age of 60, although their diseases are few, being confined almost to fevers, fluxes, elephantiasis, and a leprosy of the worst kind, together with the Guinea worm. Their feelings, on the death of a relation, are manifested by loud and dismal howlings; and the body is interred, when rolled up in white cotton with a mat above it, on the day of its decease. The men cultivate the ground, and the women manufacture cotton cloth, viz. the spinning and dyeing of it, for it is wove by the men in looms of about four inches broad. Here also there are manufactories of leather and iron. They tan and dress leather with great expedition, and are said to be acquainted with the smelting of gold, which they convert into a great variety of ornaments, executed with much taste and ingenuity.

Their notions of geography are rather puerilc, as they conceive the earth to be an extended plane, the termination of which no eye has as yet discovered, it being, according to them, overhung with clouds and darkness. They suppose the sea to be a large river of salt water, on the farther shore of which is situated a country called Tobaubudoo, or the land of the white people; at a distance from which they describe another country, which they believe to be inhabited by cannibals of a gigantic size, called Koomi.

As to their ideas of property, they consider the lands in native woods to belong to government. When any individual of free condition has the means of cultivating more land than he actually possesses, he applies to the chief man of the district, who allows him an extension of territory, on condition of forfeiture, if the lands are not brought into cultivation by a given period. The condition being fulfilled, the soil becomes vested in the possessor, and in all probability descends to his heirs.