After remaining at the island about an hour, during which time Boy was in the hut with the priest, he rejoined them, and they proceeded to Forday’s town, and took up their residence at Boy’s house.  In the extraordinary ceremony which they had just witnessed, it was evident that they were the persons principally concerned, but whether it terminated in their favour or against them; whether the answers of the Dju-dju were propitious or otherwise, they were only able to ascertain by the behaviour of the Brass people towards them.

It was with the strongest emotions of joy that they saw a white man on shore, whilst they were in the canoe, waiting the conclusion of the ceremony.  It was a cheering and goodly sight to recognize the features of an European, in the midst of a crowd of savages.  This individual paid them a visit in the evening; his behaviour was perfectly affable, courteous, and obliging, and in the course of a conversation which they had with him, he informed them that he was the master of the Spanish schooner, which was then lying in the Brass River for slaves.  Six of her crew, who were ill of the fever, and who were still indisposed, likewise resided in the town.

Of all the wretched, filthy, and contemptible places in this world of ours, none can present to the eye of a stranger so miserable an appearance, or can offer such disgusting and loathsome sights as this abominable Brass Town.  Dogs, goats, and other animals were running about the dirty streets half starved, whose hungry looks could only be exceeded by the famishing appearance of the men, women, and children, which bespoke the penury and wretchedness to which they were reduced, while the sons of many of them were covered with odious boils, and their huts were falling to the ground from neglect and decay.

Brass, properly speaking, consists of two towns of nearly equal size, containing about a thousand inhabitants each, and built on the borders of a kind of basin, which is formed by a number of rivulets, entering it from the Niger through forests of mangrove bushes.  One of them was under the domination of a noted scoundrel, called King Jacket, to whom a former allusion has been made, and the other was governed by a rival chief, named King Forday.  These towns are situated directly opposite each other, and within the distance of eighty yards, and are built on a marshy ground, which occasions the huts to be always wet.  Another place, called Pilot’s Town by Europeans, from the number of pilots that reside in it, is situated nearly at the mouth of the first Brass River, which the Landers understood to be the “Nun” River of the Europeans, and at the distance of sixty or seventy miles from hence.  This town acknowledges the authority of both kings, having been originally peopled by settlers from each of their towns.  At the ebb of the tide, the basin is left perfectly dry, with the exception of small gutters, and presents a smooth and almost unvaried surface of black mud, which emits an intolerable odour, owing to the decomposition of vegetable substances, and the quantity of filth and nastiness which is thrown into the basin by the inhabitants of both towns.  Notwithstanding this nuisance, both children and grown-up persons may be seen sporting in the mud, whenever the tide goes out, all naked, and amusing themselves in the same manner, as if they were on shore.