white men and a crowd of negroes.  The white inhabitant stretched on a couch under the veranda of the one-storied house in which he dwells, has no society beyond that of the signare, who acts provisionally as his wife, and the crowd of slaves of both sexes who go and come around him.  Fever lurks on every side, and carries him off on the slightest imprudence.  But it is a rich country, for it is inhabited by a race of negroes, fervent Mussulmans, who are industrious workers, and the produce of their industry is a lucrative article of barter.  In the evening, after a long walk through the woods, balmy with a thousand sweet scents, where flights of lovely birds, long-tailed parrokeets, and black-plumaged widow birds, perched in the trees, I saw a small British vessel approach, and an officer put off from her.  He had been sent by the governor, who was on board, and had been going up the river to call on the captain of the French ship, and express his regret at not having seen him at Bathurst in the morning—­a covert complaint, in fact.  On hearing who I was, and that I expected to go to Bathurst the following day, he sent me word that he would return and receive me there.

The flagstaff on which our colours had been hoisted having fallen down, I had it set up again.  It was necessary in a disputed country, such as this was, and pending the Government’s decision, that our flag should wave over our colonists, and protect them from all insult.

Then I landed at Bathurst.  Our captives, anxiously directed by the master-gunner, contrived somehow or other to fire a salute of twenty-one guns, which was instantly returned from the British forts, and I went ashore in the whale-boat I had brought from the Belle-Poule.  The commander of the Galibi, who wanted to escort me, had manned a boat and rigged out his men for the nonce in smart striped shirts and red caps.  Wonderful to relate, they were so electrified by the reception I was given, and the example of my white crew, that they brought both shirts and caps faithfully back!  I was received on the beach by a company of what in those days was called the Royal African Corps—­splendid black troops, officered by white men.  I had a great deal of conversation with the governor, a very sensible man, who expressed the hope that my visit would result in a prompt settlement of a state of local affairs which might give rise to the most serious difficulties.  He was exceedingly civil to me, and gave me a very fine dinner-party, before which I was somewhat astonished to see “the ladies” appear in the drawing-room, in the shape of three very dark mulattoes, in full evening dress—­low bodices, lace pocket-handkerchiefs, and fans.  The doors of the dining-room having just been thrown open, the governor indicated to me by a gesture that I was to take one of these ladies into dinner.  Not knowing which of them should take precedence, I held my arm out in the middle of the drawing-room, and one of the dark-skinned ladies blushingly put hers