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.  There was also another strong inducement, which operated upon the mind of the Landers, to expedite their departure, and that was, that from some circumstances which had occurred, it was not beyond the range of probability, that the head of John Lander, if not of his brother also, might be severed by the skill of Ebo, the executioner.  Love is certainly a most wondrous power, whether it shows itself in the bosom of the fair English girl, or in that of the sooty African; nor is it confined to times and places, to condition or to climate; for it grows and flourishes in the wigwam of the American, the coozie of the African, and the proud edifices of the Europeans.  It, however, sometimes happens, that although one party may be in love, the other is as frigid, as if he were part and parcel of an iceberg, and so was it situated with John Lander.  It has been already stated, that the communication between the yard which the Landers occupied, and that which was tenanted by the wives of Ebo, was uninterrupted, and of course in the absence of their husband, there