Travels Of Richard And John Lander Into The Interior Of Africa For The Discovery Of The Course And Termination Of The Niger By Robert Huish
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This And Similar Nonsense Was Delivered With
Such Determination And Earnestness, That They Reluctantly Laid Down,
And Allowed Themselves To
Be covered with mats, in order to quiet
their apprehensions; for they did not forget that they were
prisoners, and
That a perseverance in standing up, would have exposed
them to the mortification of being put down by force.
On the dispersion of the fog, the Landers were again permitted
to look at the river, and shortly afterwards one of the Eboe men in
their canoe, exclaimed, "There is my country;" pointing to a clump of
very high trees, which was yet at some distance before them, and
after passing a low fertile island, they quickly came to it. Here
they observed a few fishing canoes, but their owners appeared
suspicious and fearful, and would not come near them, though their
national flag, which was a British union, sewed on a large piece of
plain white cotton, with scollops of blue, was streaming from a long
staff on the bow. The town, they were told, was yet a good way down
the river. In a short time, however, they came to an extensive
morass, intersected by little channels in every direction, and by one
of these, they got into clear water, and in front of the Eboe town.
Here they found hundreds of canoes, some of them even larger than any
they had previously met with. When they had come alongside the
canoes, two or three huge brawny fellows, in broken English, asked
how they did, in a tone which Stentor might have envied; and the
shaking of hands with their powerful friends was really a punishment,
on account of the violent squeezes which they were compelled to
suffer. The chief of these men called himself Gun, though
blunderbuss or thunder would have been as appropriate a name; and
without solicitation, he informed them, that though he was not a
great man, yet he was a little military king; that his brother's name
was King Boy, and his father's King Forday, who, with King
Jacket, governed all the Brass country. But what was infinitely
more interesting to them, than this ridiculous list of kings, was the
information he gave them, that besides a Spanish schooner, an English
vessel, called the Thomas of Liverpool, was also lying in the first
Brass river, which Mr. Gun said was frequented by Liverpool traders
for palm oil. Full of joy at this intelligence, they passed on to a
little artificial creek, where they were desired to wait till the
king's pleasure respecting them should be known. They were afterwards
drawn in a canoe over ooze and mud to a house, where, if the
countenance of their host had been at all in unison with the
agreeableness of his dwelling, they imagined that they could live at
ease in it, for a few days at least. The harshness, however, of this
man's manners, corresponded with his sulky, ill-natured face, and
deprived them of a good deal of pleasure, which they would have
enjoyed, in reposing at full length on dry, soft mats, after having
been cramped up for three days in a small canoe, with slaves and
goats, and exposed to the dews by night and the sun by day.
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