On Crossing The Streams, They Were Invariably Saluted By A Loud And Unaccountable Hissing, As If From A Multitude Of Serpents.

They could not account for this extraordinary noise in any other way, than by supposing it to have proceeded from some species of insects, whose retreats they had invaded.

With very trifling manual labour, the path, which was little better than a mere gutter formed by repeated rains, might be converted into a good and commodious road; and were a tree simply thrown over them, the streams and morasses might be crossed with ease and safely. But the natives appeared to have no idea whatever of such improvements, and would rather be entangled in thick underwood, and wade through pools of mud and water, than give themselves any trouble about repairing the road. But the native, however, says to himself, and not unjustly, cui bono? neither in England or in Africa are individuals to be found, who will undertake a work of difficulty and fatigue gratuitously, merely for the benefit and accommodation of others; characters of that description are very rarely to be found, and perhaps the interior of Africa is the last place in the world where we should look for them. An Englishman might find it to be his interest to repair the roads on which he is frequently obliged to travel; but what benefit can accrue to the uncivilized African, and particularly the slave, who has not a blade of grass under the canopy of Heaven, which he can call his own, to trouble himself about the repair of a road, on which he might never have occasion to travel, and which, with the great uncertainty which is always hanging over his future condition in life, he may never fee again. Trees not unfrequently fall across the pathway, but instead of removing them, the people form a large circuit round them, even a small ant hill is an object too mighty to be meddled with, and it is left in the centre of the narrow road, to be jumped over, or to be travelled round, according to the option of the traveller.

Several women, with little wooden figures of children on their heads, passed them in the course of the morning; they were mothers, who, having lost a child, carry these rude imitations of them about their persons for an indefinite time, as a symbol of mourning. Not one of them could be induced to part with one of these little affectionate memorials.

They entered Egga, which is a very large town, in the early part of the afternoon. On their arrival, they were introduced into the house occupied by Captain Clapperton on his last journey, in the yard of which, repose the remains of an Englishman, named Dawson, who died here of a fever when that officer passed through the country. Both the hut and yard were soon tilled with people, and were in a state of filth, which baffles all description. They could not by any means rid themselves of sheep, goats, and fowls, with their train; in spite of all their attempts to remove them, they were determined to be their companions, and this grievance, added to the tongues of a hundred visitors, made their situation all but intolerable.

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