His Celebrated Generals Bombanee And Poser, And All His Most Able Warriors Had Either Been Slain In Battle, Or Fallen By Other Violent Means.

The former in particular, whose loss he more especially lamented, had been captured by the Lagos people, who were his most inveterate enemies.

When this unfortunate man was taken prisoner, his right hand was immediately nailed to his head, and the other lopped off like a twig. In this manner he was paraded through the town, and exposed to the view of the people, whose curiosity being satiated, Bombanee's head was at length severed from his shoulders, and being dried in the sun and beaten to dust, was sent in triumph to the chief of Badagry. To add to his calamities, Adooley's house, which contained an immense quantity of gunpowder, had been blown up by accident, and destroyed all his property, consisting of a variety of presents, most of them very valuable, that had been made him by Captain Clapperton, by European merchants, and traders in slaves. The chief and his women escaped with difficulty from the conflagration; but as it was the custom to keep the muskets and other firearms constantly loaded, their contents were discharged into the bodies and legs of those individuals, who had flocked to the spot on the first alarm. The flames spread with astonishing rapidity, notwithstanding every exertion, and ended in the destruction of a great part of the town. This accounted in some measure for the sad and grievous expression so strongly depicted on the chiefs countenance; but still another and more powerful reason had doubtless influenced him on this occasion.

On returning to their residence, a number of principal men, as they style themselves, were introduced to compliment them on coming to their country, although their true and only motive for visiting their quarters was the expectation of obtaining rum, which is the great object of attraction to all of them. They had been annoyed during the greater part of this day by a tribe of ragged beggars, whose importunity was really disgusting. The men were in general old, flat-headed, and pot-bellied. The women skinny and flap-eared. To these garrulous ladies and gentlemen they were obliged to talk and laugh, shake hands, crack fingers, bend their bodies, bow their heads, and place their hands with great solemnity on their heads and breasts. They had not indeed a moment's relaxation from this excessive fatigue, and had Job, amongst his other trials, been exposed to the horrors of an interminable African palaver, his patience would most certainly have forsaken him. Lander was of opinion that he never would be a general favourite with this ever-grinning and loquacious people. If he laughed, and he was obliged to laugh, it was done against his inclination, and consequently with a very bad grace. At this time, Lander, speaking of himself, says, "for the first five years of my life, I have been told, that I was never even seen to smile, and since that period, Heaven knows my merriment has been confined to particular and extraordinary occasions only. How then is it possible, that I can be grinning and playing the fool from morning to night, positively without any just incentive to do so, and sweltering at the same time under a sun that causes my body to burn with intense heat, giving it the appearance of shrivelled parchment. Fortunately these savages - for savages they most certainly are in the fullest extent of the word - cannot distinguish between real and fictitious joy; and although I was vexed at heart, and wished them, all at the bottom of the Red Sea, or somewhere else, I have every reason to believe that my forced attempts to please the natives have so far been successful, and that I have obtained the reputation, which I certainly do not deserve, of being one of the pleasantest and best-tempered persons in the world."

This candid exposition, which Lander gives of his own character is fully borne out by our own personal observation. On no occasion do we remember that we ever saw a smile sit upon his countenance, and as to a laugh, it appeared to be an act which he dreaded to commit. He seemed always to be brooding over some great and commanding idea, which absorbed the whole of his mind, and which he felt a consciousness within him, that he had not the ability to carry into execution, at the same time that he feared to let a word escape him, which could give a clue to the subject, which was then working within him. In this respect, he was not well fitted for a traveller in a country where, if his nature would not allow him, it became a matter of policy, if not of necessity, to appear high-hearted and gay, and frequently to join in the amusements of the people amongst whom he might be residing. Lander himself was not ignorant of the Arab adage, "Beware of the man who never laughs;" and, therefore, as he was likely to be thrown amongst those very people, he ought to have practised himself in the art of laughing, so as not to rouse their suspicions, which, it is well known, if once roused, are not again easily allayed.

To return to the narrative, one of the fetishmen sent them a present of a duck, almost as large as an English goose; but as the fellow expected ten times its value in return, it was no great proof of the benevolence of his disposition. They were now obliged to station armed men around their house, for the purpose of protecting their goods from the rapacity of a multitude of thieves that infested this place, and who displayed the greatest cunning imaginable to ingratiate themselves with the travellers. On the following morning, they awoke unrefreshed at daybreak; the noise of children crying, the firing of guns, and the discordant sound of drums and horns, preventing them from enjoying the sweetness of repose, so infinitely desirable, after a long day spent in a routine or tiresome ceremony and etiquette.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 170 of 302
Words from 173086 to 174111 of 309561