his neck, and a pretty little crucifix of seed beads hung on his bosom.  This latter ornament, which has probably been given him by a slave captain, had by no means an unbecoming appearance.  King Boy introduced himself to me with the air of a person who bestows a favour, rather than soliciting acquaintance, and indeed his vanity in other respects was highly amusing.  He would not suffer any one to sit between him and the platform, but squatted himself down nearest the king’s seat, which, as a mark of honour, had been previously assigned to us; and with a volubility scarcely imaginable, he commenced a long narrative of his greatness, power, and dignity, in which he excelled all his neighbours, and to this I was constrained to listen with assumed composure and attention for a considerable time.  To convince me of his veracity, he produced a pocket book, containing a great number of recommendatory notes, or ‘characters,’ as a domestic would call them, written in the English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese languages, and which had been given him by the various European traders, who had visited the Brass River.  This practice of giving written characters, which has for some time been adopted by Europeans, is both praiseworthy and useful, and it has become almost universal on the western coast; because it is not to be supposed that the natives themselves can understand these documents, and strangers are made acquainted with their good or bad qualities by them, and taught to discriminate the honest from the unfaithful and malicious.  Boy’s letters mentioned certain dealings, which their authors had had with him, and they likewise bore testimony to his own character, and the manners of his countrymen.  Amongst others is one from a ’James Dow, master of the brig Susan, from Liverpool,’ and dated:  ‘Brass First River, Sept. 1830,’ which runs as follows:  “Captain Dow states, that he never met with a set of greater scoundrels than the natives in general, and the pilots in particular.”  These he anathematised as d——­d rascals, who had endeavoured to steer his vessel among the breakers at the mouth of the river, that they might share the plunder of its wreck.  King Jacket, who claims the sovereignty of the river, is declared to be a more confirmed knave, if possible, than they, and to have cheated him of a good deal of property.  The writer describes King Forday as a man rather advanced in years, less fraudulent but more dilatory.  King Boy, his son, alone deserved his confidence, for he had not abused it, and possessed more honour and integrity than either of his countrymen.

“These are the rulers of the Brass River, and pretty fellows they are, truly.  Mr. Dow further observes, that the river is extremely unhealthy, and that his first and second mates, three coopers, and five seamen, had already died of fever, and that he himself had had several narrow escapes from the same disorder.  He concludes, by cautioning traders against the treachery of the natives generally, and gives them certain directions concerning ‘the dreadful bar,’ at the mouth of the river, on which he had nearly perished.