ABSTRACT
It was a hot day, the humidity building up with little relief from the winds that tend to disappear right before a rain is coming. If it had not already begun, the raining season was on its way along the Senegambian 1 coast that day in 1455 when a strange ship appeared on the horizon. The ship was quite big, and did not have the long sleek look of the local canoes. In fact, the people from Niumi watching from the shore had in all likelihood never seen a ship of its kind before, pushed by the wind and not oarsmen as their boats required.
