In the course of the day I had an opportunity of examining a snake which a Timmanee black carried, as ladies wear boas in England, round his neck, which is a common practice.  It was about a yard long, and six inches in circumference.  The blacks frequently extract the teeth of these reptiles, even those of the most venomous species, a process which renders them harmless.  In the evening we returned to Freetown.  The black ostler, who is generally a Krooman, performs in this country a double duty, for he not only attends the horse in the stable, but accompanies him on his journey, keeping pace with the animal at whatever rate his master pleases to ride.  This would be a very good punishment for some of our ostlers who are in the habit of cheating the horses out of their corn.  To compel the rogues to share fatigue with the animal, might teach them to treat them with more humanity.  Horses are sometimes brought to this country from St. Jago, but they do not live long.  A smaller and hardier breed comes from the Gambia, and the climate seems to agree very well with them.  Neither English nor St. Jago horses live long at Sierra Leone, and the cause assigned for this is, that the coarse grass, which grows so rapidly in this country, has too little nutriment in it to support the animal under the exhausting effects of such a climate; and it is observed that he is continually though gradually wasting away, notwithstanding his appetite is most voracious; that at length he partially loses the use of his hind legs, becomes weak across the loins, and for the want of nervous energy, a paralysis ensues, and the horse ultimately dies.  But if he is given more stimulating food there is a chance of his doing well; or at any rate of his living much longer than he otherwise would on such poor food as he usually gets.

Saturday, September 29th.—­The Henri Quatre, a beautiful brig, arrived yesterday afternoon from the Bight of Benin, with 548 slaves on board, a prize to H.M.S.  Sybille.  This vessel was afterwards fitted out as a tender to the Commodore’s ship, and well known, as the celebrated Black Joke, for her success in capturing other slavers.  To-day I accompanied the Rev. Mr. Davy on board.  A multitude of slaves crowded her deck in a state of nudity.  The spectacle was humiliating in every sense, and the immediate effect upon the olfactory nerves was excessively disagreeable and oppressive.  We found the officer who had charge of the vessel confined to a small space in the after-part of the deck near the tiller.  The pressure of this dense mass of human beings was suffocating, and the crowd was so great that one poor slave who had fallen overboard in the night, on the voyage, was never missed until the following morning.