So Content And Happy Did I Become Under These Soothing Influences, That I Actually Took Off My Boots, A Thing I Had Quite Got Out Of The Habit Of Doing, And Had Them Dried.

I wanted to have them rubbed with palm oil, but I found, to my surprise, that there was no

Palm oil to be had, the tree being absent, or scarce in this region, so I had to content myself with having them rubbed with a piece of animal fat instead. I chaperoned my men, while among the ladies of Esoon - a forward set of minxes - with the vigilance of a dragon; and decreed, like the Mikado of Japan, "that whosoever leered or winked, unless connubially linked, should forthwith be beheaded," have their pay chopped, I mean; and as they were beginning to smell their pay, they were careful; and we got through Esoon without one of them going into jail; no mean performance when you remember that every man had a past - to put it mildly.

Esoon is not situated like the other towns, with a swamp and the forest close round it; but it is built on the side of a fairly cleared ravine among its plantain groves. When you are on the southern side of the ravine, you can see Esoon looking as if it were hung on the hillside before you. You then go through a plantation down into the little river, and up into the town - one long, broad, clean-kept street.

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