Little Balls Of Beef And Mutton Were Also To Be Had, Weighing About Two Ounces, But The Stomach Must Not Have Been Of The Squeamish Kind, Which Could Relish Them.

On the return of the Landers from the market, where they were more gazed upon than any of the

Articles submitted for sale, they received a visit from their friend Ebo, who was the bearer of the unwelcome intelligence, that a body of Fellatas from Soccatoo had arrived at the Moussa, a river which divides Yarriba from Borgoo, and that they had attacked a town on its borders, through which their route would lie. Therefore, continued Ebo, the Yaoorie messenger will of necessity be compelled to wait here till authentic intelligence be received of the truth or falsehood of the rumour, before he sets out on his mission to Kiama. There was little doubt, Ebo said, but the truth or falsity of the statement would be ascertained in about three days, and the messenger then would be immediately despatched on his errand.

This intelligence bore in the eyes of the Landers the character of a complete fiction, but for what purpose it was so got up, they could not divine. The king could gain little or nothing by their protracted stay in his capital; he had received his presents, and therefore it was conjectured, that it might be the etiquette of the court of Katunga, not only for the king to receive some presents from strangers on their arrival, and especially from travellers of the character and importance which the Landers gave themselves out to be, as the accredited ambassadors of the king of England, but also that the departure was to be preceded by certain presents, as a kind of passport or purchase of his leave to travel through his dominions. It appeared also most strange to the Landers, that the very day after their arrival, the Fellatas should so opportunely seize upon a town, through which they were to pass, and that the information of the inroad of so dreaded an enemy should not have reached Katunga at an earlier period, when intelligence of no moment whatever flies through the country with the swiftness of an arrow from the bow.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 789 of 1124
Words from 216021 to 216392 of 309561