Resorted to by the trading
Moors, this quantity must have borne a very small proportion to the gold
collected at Kancaba, Kancaree, and some other large towns.
The value of salt in this part of Africa is very great. One slab, about
two feet and a half in length, fourteen inches in breadth, and two inches
in thickness, will sometimes sell for about two pounds ten shillings
sterling, and from one pound fifteen shillings to two pounds, may be
considered as the common price. Four of these slabs are considered as a
load for an ass, and six for a bullock. The value of European merchandize
in Manding varies very much, according to the supply from the Coast, or
the dread of war in the country; but the return for such articles is
commonly made in slaves. The price of a prime slave, when I was at
Kamalia, was from _nine_ to _twelve_ minkallies, and European commodities
had then nearly the following value: -
18 gun flints, )
48 leaves of tobacco, ) one minkalli.
20 charges of gunpowder, )
A cutlass, )
A musket from three to four minkallies.
The produce of the country, and the different necessaries of life when
exchanged for gold, sold as follows: -
Common provisions for one day, the weight of one _teelee-kissi_, (a black
bean, six of which make the weight of one minkalli;) a chicken, one
teelee-kissi; a sheep, three teelee-kissi; a bullock, one minkalli; a
horse, from ten to seventeen minkallies.
