After the widow had left them, Richard carried the presents which had been selected for the king and queen.  Each appeared delighted with them, and the former more especially was extravagant in his expressions of admiration and thankfulness.  A pair of silver bracelets, a tobacco pipe, and a looking-glass, seemed to rivet the attention of the king, who could not take his eyes off them for a full half hour, so much was he pleased with them.

The Landers now visited the far famed Niger or Quorra, which flowed by the city about a mile from their residence, and were greatly disappointed at the appearance of this celebrated river.  In its widest part it was not more than a stone’s throw across.  The rock on which Richard Lander sat, overlooked the spot where Mr. Park and his associates met their untimely fate; he could not help meditating on that circumstance, and on the number of valuable lives that had been sacrificed in attempting to explore that river, and he secretly implored the Almighty, that he might be the humble means of setting at rest for ever the great question of its source and termination.

The queen of a country is generally the standard of fashion, and therefore some idea may be formed of the fashions of Boossa, by the following description of the dress in which the Midikie or queen of Boossa paid a visit to the Landers.  Her majesty was clad in a common check shirt of Nooffie manufacture, a plain piece of blue cotton was fastened round her head, wholly concealing the hair, a larger piece of the same kind was thrown over her left shoulder, and a third tied round her waist, reached so far as the middle of the leg.  Her feet were bare, as were likewise her arms up to the elbow; a brass ring ornamented each great toe, and eight silver bracelets each wrist, the least of them weighing little less than a quarter of a pound.  Besides these ornaments, the queen wore a necklace of coral and bits of gold, and small pieces of pipe coral were stuck in the lobe of each ear.

It was the opinion of Lander that it would have been bad policy on his part, to have stated the true reason of his visiting this country, knowing the jealousy of most of the people with regard to the Niger; and, therefore, in answer to the king’s inquiries, he was obliged to deceive him with the assertion, that his object was to go to Bornou, by way of Yaoorie, requesting at the same time, a safe conveyance through his territories.  This answer satisfied the king, and he promised them every assistance in his power.  In the course of conversation the king observed that he had in his possession a tobe, which belonged to a white man, who came from the north many years ago, and from whom it had been purchased by the king’s father.  The Landers expressed a great curiosity to see this tobe, and in a very short time after the departure of the king, it was sent to them as a present.  Contrary to their expectations, they found it to be made of rich crimson damask, and very heavy from the