Their Monarch, And A Respectable Married Female, Who Had Passed The Meridian Of Her Days, Were The Only Individuals, Amongst Several Thousands, That Showed Them Anything Like Civility Or Kindness, And The Latter Alone Acted, As They Were Convinced, Solely From Disinterested Motives.

All ranks of people here are passionately fond of palm wine, and drank of it to excess, whenever they had an opportunity, which often occurred, as great quantities of it are produced in the town and its neighbourhood.

It was a very general and favourite custom with them, as soon as the sun had set, to hold large meetings and form parties in the open air, or under the branches of trees, to talk over the events of the day, and make merry with this exciting beverage. These assemblies are kept up until after midnight, and as the revellers generally contrive to get inebriated very soon after they sit down to drink, the greater part of the evening is devoted to wrangling and fighting, instead of convivial intercourse, and occasionally the most fearful noises that it is possible for the mind to conceive. Bloodshed, and even murder, it is said, not unfrequently terminate these boisterous and savage entertainments. A meeting of this description was held outside the yard of their residence every evening, and the noise which they made was really terrifying, more especially when the women and young people joined in the affray, for a quarrel of some sort was sure to ensue. Their cries, groans, and shrieks of agony were dreadful, and would lead a stranger to suppose, that these dismal and piercing sounds proceeded from individuals about to be butchered, or that they were extorted by the last pangs of anguish and suffering.

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