My large tent was pitched beneath an immense
banian-tree, close to which was the new government house. This
grand-sounding name was given to a very solid construction of a most
simple character. The divan was a building containing only one room
twenty-eight feet long by fourteen wide, and about twenty feet high. It
was carefully thatched with overhanging eaves, which formed a narrow
verandah, and it was entered by a commodious porch; this was arched in
the native fashion, and was so large that it formed a lobby, in which we
sometimes dined. The inside walls of the divan were neatly made with
canes closely lashed together.
There was a back door to this public room which communicated with a
separate house by a covered way.
This was our private residence, which also consisted of only one room;
but I had arranged it with extreme neatness, in order to excite the
admiration of Kabba Rega and his chiefs, who would, I hoped, imitate the
manners and customs of civilized life, and thus improve trade.
The room was twenty-four feet long by thirteen wide. The walls were as
usual made of canes, but these were carefully hung with scarlet
blankets, sewn together and stretched to the ground, so as to form an
even surface. The floor was covered with mats. Upon the walls opposite
to each other, so as to throw endless reflection, were two large oval
mirrors (girandoles) in gilt metal frames. A photograph of her Majesty
the Queen stood on the toilet table.
At the extreme end of the room was a very good coloured print, nearly
life size, of her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales. The scarlet
walls were hung with large coloured prints, life size, of very beautiful
women, with very gorgeous dresses, all the jewelry being imitated by
pieces of coloured tinsel. A number of sporting prints, very large, and
also coloured, were arranged in convenient places on the walls. There
were fox-hunting scenes, and German stag-hunts, together with a few
quiet landscapes, that always recalled the dear old country now so far
away.
The furniture was simple enough: two angarebs, or Arab stretchers,
which, during the day, were covered with Persian carpets and served as
sofas, while at night they were arranged as beds. The tables were made
of square metal boxes piled one upon the other and covered with bright
blue cloths. These were arranged with all kinds of odd trinkets of gaudy
appearance, but of little value, which were intended to be asked for,
and given away. Two native stools curiously cut out of a solid block
formed our chairs. The guns and rifles stood in a row against a rack
covered with red Turkey cloth; and a large Geneva musical box lay upon a
table beneath the Princess of Wales.
