KAJAAGA, or Galam, a kingdom of Western Africa, extending from within a few miles of the Cataract of Feloo in the east (where it is bounded by Kasson), about forty miles west of the Falume, to the north of Geereer Creek, which divides it from Foota. On the south it is bounded by Bondoo. The most complete description of this country is that contained in Major Gray’s Travels in Africa, who visited it in 1819. At that time Kajaaga was composed of a series of towns situated on either bank of the river Senegal. It formerly extended several miles in the direction of Bondoo, Foota, and Bambouk, but had shrunk into its present dimensions in consequence of the encroachments of the neighbouring tribes, with whom a war was kept up, and who were enabled to carry it on more successfully from disagreements amongst the various branches of the royal family. The river Fa-lemmê (which signifies “small river”) divides it into Upper and Lower Kajaaga. The former is governed by the Tonca of Maghana, and the latter by the Tonca of Tuabo. These towns constitute the capitals of the respective divisions, but neither acknowledge the supremacy of the other, although previously and of right it belonged to the former, near which is situated Fort St Joseph, now deserted and in ruins. This was the point at which the French attempted to carry on the commerce of the Upper Senegal, and a voyage thither was calculated to realize cent, per cent.; but the unhealthiness of the climate, the difficulties of the navigation, and the constant hazard of being plundered by a succession of barbarous chiefs, who occupy the banks, render it a very precarious speculation. The Serawoollies, who are located in this quarter, rank amongst the most industrious of the African tribes, and have engrossed the trade of Barnbouk, Manding, and most of the upper districts of the Senegal as well as the Niger.

The face of the country is very mountainous, and covered to a considerable extent with wood, a large portion of which is well adapted to common uses. The vegetable productions, like those of Bondoo, are corn of four different kinds, together with rice, pumpions, water melons, gourds, sorrell, onions, tobacco, red pepper, pistachios, cotton, and indigo. Numbers of tamarinds, baobabs, rhamnus lotus, and other fruit-trees, are likewise scattered about the beautiful and picturesque valleys. This country differs from Bondoo only in its proximity to the river, and in its partial inundation during the rains. The commerce consists in the exchange of the cotton cloths manufactured in the country, and the superabundance of their provisions, for European merchandise, such as fire-arms, gunpowder, India goods, hardware, amber, coral, and glass beads. These are again exchanged with their neighbours of Kaarta, Kasson, and Bambouk, for gold, ivory, and slaves, who are in their turn sold to vessels from Senegal. The manufactures of Kajaaga are nearly similar to those of the neighbouring kingdoms, consisting of wearing apparel, household furniture, together with implements of husbandry, carpenters’, blacksmiths’, and leather-workers’ tools, and knives, spear and arrow heads, bridle-bits, stirrups, and a variety ofother small articles. But they have an advantage over their neighbours in some respects, particularly in the weaving and dyeing of cotton; “and,” Major Gray observes, “whether it be that the humidity of the soil on the banks of the river is more congenial to the growth of the cotton and indigo, or that the manufacturers are more expert, I cannot say; but certain it is, that they can dye a much finer blue than I have before [7:12:662]seen in Africa.” The dress of the people is far from being inelegant or inconvenient. The men wear on the head a white cotton cap, very neatly worked with different coloured silks or worsteds; whilst a shirt of white cotton, with short sleeves, worn next the skin, covers the body from the neck to about the thigh, and is surmounted by a very large one of the same materials, descending below the knees, as do also the small clothes, which are very roomy above, and generally of a blue colour. They wear their hair cut close; and the cap, which is always white, is of a very graceful form, and embroidered. The dress of the women, who are extremely neat in their persons, is handsome; and they are very fond of such ornaments as amber, coral, and glass beads of different colours, wherewith they bedeck different parts of their bodies. In their living they are proverbially fond of animal food; indeed a putrid hippopotamus floating down the Senegal is considered as a prize, the division of which, when dragged to shore, sometimes occasions strife amongst the captors. From a state of paganism, these people are gradually veering round to the tenets of Mahommed. Some towns are wholly inhabited by priests, who are by far the most wealthy and respectable members of the community. There is a mosque in every town, and the times of worship are strictly attended to by the priests and their disciples. Great numbers of dates are grown in all the towns, which are beautifully shaded with large trees of the fig and other kinds of timber; and being well walled, present a more respectable appearance than might be expected amongst a people whose means are so limited. In their persons they are rather robust, and of a grave and sober deportment. Their colour is a jet black, which they are at much pains to preserve, by profusely anointing their bodies with rancid butter. They are considered as more friendly to Europeans than any other of the surrounding tribes, probably from the long existence of a state of commercial intercourse between them and the inhabitants of Senegal, with whom they claim relationship, and towards whom they show much attachment. The advantages which they derive from their local situation render them enemies to the people of Bondoo, who have nothing to do with the river except through the medium of the Kajaaga country. Hence the exertions which have been made by Bondoo to subjugate the nations, and kindle up intestine warfare between the inhabitants of the upper and lower states; and this to a certain extent they have succeeded in effecting. But with these barbarous races of men, amongst whom war is a regular trade, and moral restraint can be but imperfectly recognised, there is such a continual fluctuation of affairs, that it is hazardous to assign limits to the territory which they possess, or to say what the form of government is at any given time; for the predatory inroad of a neighbouring foe may totally alter both in the course of a single day. According to Major Gray’s account, the succession to the crown is not hereditary, but descends in a regular line to the eldest branch of a numerous race called Batelleries, who are the undisputed chiefs of the country. The population was considerably increased by an influx of inhabitants from the north bank of the river who were obliged to quit their own country on account of the exorbitant demands of the Kaartans,' to whom they paid tribute. But what the total amount may at present be it is impossible to form a conjecture.