The Same Custom Is Observed At Badagry Also, And Although The King's Son May Be Of Age At The Period Of His Father's Death, He Inherits His Authority And Influence Only.

He is left to his own sagacity and exertions to procure wealth, which can seldom be obtained without rapine, enslavement, and bloodshed.

Whenever a town is deprived of its chief, the inhabitants acknowledge no law; anarchy, troubles, and confusion immediately prevail, and until a successor is appointed, all labour is at an end. The stronger oppress the weak, and perpetrate every species of crime, without being amenable to any tribunal for their actions. Private property is no longer respected, and thus, before a person arrives to curb its licentiousness, a town is not unfrequently reduced from a flourishing state of prosperity and of happiness to all the horrors of desolation.

Considerable surprise was now excited at the delay of the messenger, who was sent to Badagry for the horses, on which they placed so much value, for he had not yet returned, although he promised to be back in four days from the time of his departure. As he had exceeded the time by a whole day, and being a native of Badagry, the travellers had given up all hopes of again seeing either him or the horse, or even the message sword they had lent him as a token that he had been sent by them. Positive assurances were given them that leave would be granted to depart from Jenna on the following week, but as they had only one horse, they would be obliged to take it in turns to ride, or procure a hammock, which it would be a difficult thing to get, and attended with considerable expense.

In the mean time, the devoted old queen dowager engrossed the chief part of their attention, although her doom was inevitably fixed, yet her cheerfulness appeared rather to increase, and she seemed determined to spin out her thread of life to its utmost limit; spies were now set over her, and she was not permitted to go out of the yard.

On Monday the 12th of April, the travellers had the customary visit to their yard of a long line of women, who came every morning with rueful countenances and streaming eyes to lament the approaching death of the old widow. They wept, they beat their breast and tore their hair; they moaned, and exhibited all manner of violent affliction at the expected deprivation. Perhaps their sorrow was sincere, perhaps it was feigned; at all events their lamentations were ungovernable and outrageous; the first woman in the line begins the cry, and is instantly followed by the other voices; the opening notes of the lamentation were rather low and mournful, the last wild and piercing.

The principal people of the place finding the old lady still obstinately bent on deferring her exit, sent a messenger to her native village, to make known to her relatives, that should she make her escape, they would take all of them into slavery, and burn their town to ashes, in conformity to an established and very ancient law. They therefore strongly advised the relatives of the old woman for their own sakes, and for the sake of the public, to use all their endeavours to prevail upon her to meet her fate honourably and with fortitude. A deputation was expected from the village on the morrow, when no doubt, after a good deal of crying and condoling, and talking and persuading, the matter will eventually be decided against the old lady. It was well understood that she had bribed a few of the most opulent and influential inhabitants of Jenna with large sums of money, to induce them to overlook her dereliction from the path of duty, and by their representations that she had obtained the tacit consent of the king of Katunga to live out the full term of her natural life. But the people for many miles round, horror-struck at such impiety and contempt for ancient customs, rose to enforce the laws of her country against her.

On Tuesday April 13th, the town of Jenna was visited by one of those terrific thunder storms, which are so prevalent in those latitudes. The thatched hut in which the Landers resided, afforded but an insecure and uncertain asylum against its fury. Part of the roof was swept away, and the rain admitted freely upon their beds, whence the most awful lightning flashes could be seen, making "darkness visible." It appeared as if the genius of the storm were driving through the murky clouds in his chariot of fire to awaken the slumbering creation, and make them feel and acknowledge his power. It was, indeed, a grand lesson to human pride, to contemplate the terrors of a tornado through the trembling walls and roof of a gloomy dilapidated hut in the interior of Africa. It is scenes like these, which make the traveller think of his home, his friends, and his fireside enjoyments, and by comparison, estimate the blessings which are his portion in his native land. In civilized countries, when men are visited by an awful calamity of this kind, the distinctions of rank are levelled, and numbers flock together, for the purpose of keeping each other in countenance, and strengthening each other's nerves; but here all was naked, gloomy, desolate.

They passed the night, as may be supposed, in a very uncomfortable state. The roof of their dwelling had long been infested with a multitude of rats and mice; and these vermin being dislodged from their haunts, by the violence of the wind and rain, sought immediate shelter between their bed-clothes; and to this very serious inconvenience was added another still greater, viz. the company of lizards, ants, mosquitoes, besides worms and centipedes, and other crawling, creeping, and noxious things, which the tempest seemed to renovate with life and motion. After a long, long night, the morning at length appeared, and the terrors of the storm were forgotten.

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