a twig.  In this manner he was paraded through the town, and exposed to the view of the people, whose curiosity being satiated, Bombanee’s head was at length severed from his shoulders, and being dried in the sun and beaten to dust, was sent in triumph to the chief of Badagry.  To add to his calamities, Adooley’s house, which contained an immense quantity of gunpowder, had been blown up by accident, and destroyed all his property, consisting of a variety of presents, most of them very valuable, that had been made him by Captain Clapperton, by European merchants, and traders in slaves.  The chief and his women escaped with difficulty from the conflagration; but as it was the custom to keep the muskets and other firearms constantly loaded, their contents were discharged into the bodies and legs of those individuals, who had flocked to the spot on the first alarm.  The flames spread with astonishing rapidity, notwithstanding every exertion, and ended in the destruction of a great part of the town.  This accounted in some measure for the sad and grievous expression so strongly depicted on the chiefs countenance; but still another and more powerful reason had doubtless influenced him on this occasion.

On returning to their residence, a number of principal men, as they style themselves, were introduced to compliment them on coming to their country, although their true and only motive for visiting their quarters was the expectation of obtaining rum, which is the great object of attraction to all of them.  They had been annoyed during the greater part of this day by a tribe of ragged beggars, whose importunity was really disgusting.  The men were in general old, flat-headed, and pot-bellied.  The women skinny and flap-eared.  To these garrulous ladies and gentlemen they were obliged to talk and laugh, shake hands, crack fingers, bend their bodies, bow their heads, and place their hands with great solemnity on their heads and breasts.  They had not indeed a moment’s relaxation from this excessive fatigue, and had Job, amongst his other trials, been exposed to the horrors of an interminable African palaver, his patience would most certainly have forsaken him.  Lander was of opinion that he never would be a general favourite with this ever-grinning and loquacious people.  If he laughed, and he was obliged to laugh, it was done against his inclination, and consequently with a very bad grace.  At this time, Lander, speaking of himself, says, “for the first five years of my life, I have been told, that I was never even seen to smile, and since that period, Heaven knows my merriment has been confined to particular and extraordinary occasions only.  How then is it possible, that I can be grinning and playing the fool from morning to night, positively without any just incentive to do so, and sweltering at the same time under a sun that causes my body to burn with intense heat, giving it the appearance of shrivelled parchment.  Fortunately these savages—­for savages they most certainly