The Hammock-Men Found Their Burden Rather Troublesome, Nevertheless They Travelled At A Pretty Quick Pace, And Between Eight And Nine O'clock, Halted At A Pleasant And Comfortable Village Called Etudy.

The chief sent them a fowl and four hundred kowries; but they stopped only to take a slight refreshment, and to pay their respects.

They then proceeded through large plantations of cotton, indigo, Indian corn, and yams, and over stony fields, till between ten and eleven, when they entered the town of Chouchou. They were almost immediately introduced to the chief, and from him into a ruinous hut, in a more filthy state than can be imagined. No pigstye was ever half so bad. Its late occupier had incurred the displeasure and hatred of the chief, because he happened to be very rich, and rather than pay a heavy fine, he ran away and joined his former enemies, and this partly accounted for the destitution and wretchedness around them.

Since leaving Jenna they met an incredible number of persons visited with the loss of one eye. They assigned no other reason for their misfortune, than the heat and glare of the rays of the sun.

During the whole of this night it rained most heavily; but their hut, although of the very worst description, had a pretty good thatched roof, and sheltered them better than they could have expected. There are seasons and periods in our life-time, in which we feel a happy complacency of temper and an inward satisfaction, cheerfulness, and joy, for which we cannot very well account, but which constrain us to be at peace with ourselves and our neighbours, and in love with all the works of God. In this truly enviable frame of mind, Richard Lander says he awoke on this morning, to proceed onwards on horseback. It was a morning, which was fairly entitled to the epithet of incense breathing; for the variety of sweet-smelling perfumes, which exhaled after the rain, from forest flowers and flowering shrubs, was delicious and almost overpowering. The scenery which gratified their eyes on this day, was more interesting and lovely, than any they had heretofore beheld. The path circled round a magnificent, cultivated valley, hemmed in on almost every side with mountains of granite of the most grotesque and irregular shapes, the summits of which were covered with stunted trees, and the hollows in their slopes occupied by clusters of huts, whose inmates had fled thither as a place of security against the ravages of the warmen who infest the plains. A number of strange birds resorted to this valley, many of whose notes were rich, full, and melodious, while others were harsh and disagreeable, but, generally speaking, the plumage was various, splendid, and beautiful. The modest partridge appeared in company with the magnificent balearic crane, with his regal crest, and delicate humming birds hopped from twig to twig, with others of an unknown species; some of them were of a dark, shining green; some had red silky wings and purple bodies; some were variegated with stripes of crimson and gold, and these chirped and warbled from among the thick foliage of the trees. In the contemplation of such beautiful objects as these, all so playful and so happy, or the more sublime ones of dark waving forests, plains of vast extent, or stupendous mountains, that gave the mind the most sensible emotions of delight and grandeur, leading it insensibly

"To look from nature up to nature's God."

Speaking on these subjects, Lander very feelingly expresses himself, "For myself," he says, "I am passionately fond of them, and have regretted a thousand times, that my ignorance incapacitated me from giving a proper representation of them, or describing the simplest flower that adorns the plains, or the smallest insect that sparkles in the air. This consideration gives me at times many unhappy reflections, although my defective education arose from circumstances over which my boyhood had no control."

Having passed through the immense valley already mentioned, they had not travelled far before they arrived and halted at a large village called Tudibu; here they rested a while, and then continuing their journey for two hours over even ground between high hills, they rode into the town of Gwen-dekki, in which they purposed passing the night. The chief was either very poor or very ill natured, for the only thing he sent them was a little boiled yam, with a mess of unpalatable gravy, which he would not have given, if he had not expected ten times its value in return. Divine service, it being Sunday, was performed in the course of the day, and this was a duty, which to persons in their situation, was found inconceivably pleasant. It rendered them happy and resigned in the midst or their afflictions and privations; reposing their confidence in the all-protecting arm of that beneficent Being, who is the author and disposer of their destinies, and in whom alone, thus widely separated as they were from home, and kindred and civilization, the solitary wanderer can place his trust.

On the morning of Monday the 26th April, a thick mist obscured the horizon, and hid in deep shade the mountains and the hills; every object indeed was invisible, with the exception of the pathway and the trees growing on each side, which they could hardly distinguish as they passed along. It continued hazy for two hours after leaving Gwen-dekki, when the mist dispersed and the atmosphere became clear. Preparatory to ascending a steep granite hill, they halted to refresh their horses under the branches of a high spreading tree, near a town called Eco. Here they were visited by several of the inhabitants, who, as soon as they were informed of their arrival, came flocking to the spot. They formed themselves into a line to pay their respects, and entreated them to wait a little for the arrival of their chief, who was momentarily expected. But after staying as long as they conveniently could, and no chief appearing, they mounted their beasts and began the toilsome ascent.

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