It Was A Clear And Lovely Night; The Moon Shone Gloriously As A Silver Shield, And Reflecting The Starry Firmament On The Unruffled Surface Of The Water, The Real Concave Of Heaven With Its Reflection Seemed To Form A Perfect World.

The scenery on the borders of the river appeared wild and striking, though not magnificent.

In the delicious moonshine it was far from uninteresting: the banks were low and partially covered with stunted trees, but a slave factory and, a fetish hut were the only buildings which were observed on them. They could not help admiring at some distance ahead of their canoe, when the windings of the river would permit, a noble and solitary palm tree with its lofty branches bending over the water's edge; to them it was not unlike a majestical plume of feathers nodding over the head of a beautiful lady.

Proceeding about ten miles in a westerly direction, they suddenly turned up a branch joining the river from the northward, passing on the left the village of Bawie, at which Captain Clapperton landed. They saw several small islands covered with rank grass, interspersed in different parts of the river. They were inhabited by myriads of frogs, whose noise was more hoarse and stunning than ever proceeded from any rookery in Christendom. As they went up the river the canoe men spoke to their priests, who were invisible to them, in a most sepulchral tone of voice, and were answered in the same unearthly and doleful manner. These sounds formed their nocturnal serenade. Notwithstanding the novelty of their situation and the interest they took in the objects, which surrounded them, they were so overcome with fatigue, that they wrapped a flannel around them, and fell fast asleep.

The hard and uncomfortable couch, on which they had reposed the preceding night, made their bodies quite sore, and occasioned them to awake at a very early hour in the morning. At six o'clock A.M. they found themselves still upon the river, and their canoe gliding imperceptibly along. From half a mile in width, and in many places much more, the river had narrowed to about twenty paces; marine plants nearly covered its surface, and marsh miasmata, loaded with other vapours of the most noxious quality, ascended from its borders like a thick cloud. Its smell was peculiarly offensive. In about an hour afterwards, they arrived at the extremity of the river, into which flowed a stream of clear water. Here the canoe was dragged over a morass into a deep but narrow rivulet, so narrow indeed that it was barely possible for the canoe to float, without being entangled in the branches of a number of trees, which were shooting up out of the water. Shortly after, they found it to widen a little; the marine plants and shrubs disappeared altogether, and the boughs of beautiful trees, which hung over the banks, overshadowed them in their stead, forming an arch-like canopy, impervious to the rays of the sun. The river and the lesser stream abound with alligators and hippopotami, the wild ducks and a variety of other aquatic birds resorting to them in considerable numbers. In regard to the alligator, a singular fraud is committed by the natives of the coast, who collect the alligators' eggs in great numbers, and being in their size and make exactly resembling the eggs of the domestic fowl, they intermix them, and sell them at the markets as the genuine eggs of the fowls; thus many an epicure in that part of the world, who luxuriates over his egg at breakfast, fancying that it has been laid by some good wholesome hen, finds, to his mortification, that he has been masticating the egg of so obnoxious an animal as the alligator.

The trees and branches of the shrubs were inhabited by a colony of monkeys and parrots, making the most abominable chattering and noise, especially the former, who seemed to consider the travellers as direct intruders upon their legitimate domain, and who were to be deterred from any further progress by their menaces and hostile deportment. After passing rather an unpleasant, and in many instances an insalubrious night, the travellers landed, about half-past eight in the morning, in the sight of a great multitude, that had assembled to gaze at them.

Passing through a place, where a large fair or market is held, and where many thousands of people had congregated for the purpose of trade, they entered an extensive and romantic town, called Wow, which is situated in a valley. The majority of the inhabitants had never before had an opportunity of seeing white men, so that their curiosity, as may be supposed, was excessive. Two of the principal persons came out to meet them, preceded by men bearing large silk umbrellas, and another playing a horn, which produced such terrible sounds, that they were glad to take refuge, as soon as they could, in the chief's house. The apartment, into which they were introduced was furnished with a roof precisely like that of a common English barn inverted. In the middle of it, which reached to within a few inches of the floor, a large square hole had been made to admit air and water to a shrub that was growing directly under it. The most remarkable, if not the only ornament in the room, were a number of human jaw bones, hung upon the side of the wall, like a string of onions. After a form and ceremonious introduction, they were liberally regaled with water from a calabash, which is a compliment the natives pay all strangers, and then they were shown into a very small apartment. Here Richard Lander endeavoured to procure a little sleep having remained awake during the whole of the preceding night; but they were so annoyed by perpetual interruptions and intrusions, the firing of muskets, the garrulity of women, the unceasing squall of children, the drunken petition of men and boys, and a laugh, impossible to describe, but approximating more to the nature of a horse-laugh than any other, that it was found impossible to sleep for ten minutes together.

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