No Language Or Expression Could Have Been Half So Eloquent.

They were now preparing to proceed on their journey, when they learned with surprise and sorrow, that a part

Of the populace had expressed themselves decidedly hostile to their projects, and that the leaders were continually with Adooley, using all their influence, and exercising all their cunning, in order to awaken his slumbering jealousy. They endeavoured to persuade him to demand, before he granted them leave to pass through his country, a sum of money, which, they were aware, was not in the power of the travellers to pay; and therefore it was imagined they would be compelled to abandon the undertaking. The first intimation they received of the effect of these insinuations on the mind of the chief, was brought to them by a person, who pronounced himself to be "on their side." This man assured them, with an ominous visage, that Adooley had declared, in the hearing of all the people, that the coat which Richard Lander had given him was intended for a boy, and not a man; it was therefore unworthy his acceptance as a king, and he considered that by the gift, they meant to insult him. The coat alluded to by Adooley was certainly extremely old-fashioned, and belonged to a surgeon in the navy about twenty years ago, notwithstanding which, it was almost as good as new, and was made showy by the addition of a pair of tarnished gold epaulets. It was, however, clear to Lander, that as this very same coat had been, only two days before, received with great satisfaction, that some enemy of theirs had been striving to render the chief discontented and mistrustful. To counteract the efforts of the malicious, they judged it prudent to sound the dispositions of those, who they were inclined to believe, from the fondness which they evinced for their rum, that they were favourable to their intentions and devoted to their interests.

At this time, there were two mulattoes residing in the town, one of whom, by name Hooper, acted as interpreter to Adooley, and shared a good deal of his confidence. He was born at Cape Coast Castle, in 1780, and was for many years a soldier in the African corps. His father was an Englishman, and he boasted of being a British subject. He was excessively vain of his origin, yet he was the most confirmed drunkard alive, always getting intoxicated before breakfast, and remaining in a soaking state all day long. This did not, however, make him regardless of his own interest, to which, on the contrary, he was ever alive, and indeed sacrificed every other feeling. The other mulatto could read and write English tolerably well, having received his education at Sierra Leone; he was a slave to Adooley, and was almost as great a drunkard as Hooper. These drunken political advisers of the chief they had little difficulty in bribing over to their interests; they had likewise been tampering with several native chiefs, apparently with equal success.

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