The Smell From Decayed Vegetable Substances Was Sickly And Exceedingly Disagreeable.

Through these dismal and gloomy passages, they travelled during the whole of the night of the 15th November without stopping, unless for a few minutes at a time, to disengage themselves from the pendant shoots of the mangrove and spreading brambles, in which they occasionally became entangled.

These luxuriant natives of the soil are so intricately woven, that it would be next to impossible to eradicate them. Their roots and branches are the receptacles of ooze, mud, and filth of all kinds, exhaling a peculiar offensive odour, which no doubt possesses highly deleterious qualities.

The reason adduced for not resting during the night, was the apprehension entertained by King Boy, of being unable to overtake his father and brothers, they having left the Eboe country the day before them. A certain spot had been previously fixed upon by the parties for the meeting, and they arrived there about nine o'clock a.m., and found those individuals in three large canoes, with their attendants, waiting their arrival. Here they stopped, and made their canoes fast to the trees, to take refreshment, such as it was, and half an hour's rest; and here they were introduced to the renowned King Forday, who according to his own account is monarch of the whole country. In one of the canoes sat old King Forday, in company with several fetish priests; the second canoe belonged to King Boy, and the third was Mr. Gun's. These canoes had come thus far for the purpose of escorting them into their country.

King Forday was a complaisant venerable-looking old man, but was rather shabbily dressed, partly in the European and partly in the native style. Like most savages, his fondness for spirituous liquors was extreme, and he took large potations of rum in their presence, though it produced no visible effect upon his manner or conversation. In the jollity of the moment, he attempted to sing, but his weak piping voice did not seem to second his inclination, and the sound died away from very feebleness. His subjects, however, amounting to nearly two hundred individuals, testified their approbation of the effort by a tremendous "Yah!" shouted simultaneously by every voice, which sounded like the roar of a lion.

During the time that they had been at breakfast, the tide ebbed, and left their canoes lying on the mud. Breakfast being over, the fetish priests commenced their avocations, by marking the person of King Boy from head to foot with chalk, in lines, circles, and a variety of fantastic figures, which so completely metamorphosed him, as to render his identity rather questionable, at the distance of only a few yards. His usual dress had been thrown aside, and he was allowed to wear nothing but a narrow silk handkerchief tied round his waist; on his head a little close cap was placed, made of grass, and ornamented with large feathers. These they found to be the wing feathers of a black and white buzzard, which is the fetish bird of Brass Town.

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