Eh! You Thief Man, You Are No Good, English Captain, No Will!' He Then Stamped On The Ground, And Gnashing At Me With His Teeth Like A Dog, He Cursed Me Again And Again.

"It is true I did not feel perfectly easy at this severe rebuke, and under such taunting reproaches; but I refrained from giving utterance to a single thought till after he had concluded his abuse and anathematizing.

Had a spirited person been in my situation, he might have knocked him down, and might have had his head taken off for his pains, but as for me, all such kind of spirit is gone out of me entirely. Besides we had, though unintentionally, deceived King Boy, and I also bore in mind the kindness which he had done us, in ransoming us from a state of slavery. Most of what he had asserted was most unquestionably true, and in some measure, I was deserving his severest reprehension and displeasure.

"The fury of Boy having been somewhat appeased by my silence and submission, as well as by his own extraordinary and violent agitation, I ventured mildly to assure him, on the strength of my brother's letter, that his suspicions were entirely groundless, that Mr. Lake had certainly a will or inclination to enter into arrangements with him for the payment of his just demands, and that when he should convey our people and myself to the Thomas, every thing would be settled to his complete satisfaction. He half believed, half mistrusted my words, and shortly afterwards quitted the apartment, threatening, however, that we should not leave Brass till it suited his own pleasure and convenience.

"It is really a most humiliating reflection, that we are reduced to the most contemptible subterfuges of deceit and falsehood, in order to carry a point which might have been easily gained by straightforward integrity. But the conduct of Lake has left us no alternative, and whatever my opinion of that individual may be, he surely must be destitute of all those manly characteristics of a British seaman, as well as of the more generous feelings of our common nature, to be guilty, on a sick bed, of an action which might, for aught he knew or cared, produce the most serious consequences to his unfortunate countrymen in a savage land, by exposing them to the wretchedness of want, and the miseries of slavery, to mockery, ill-usage, contempt, and scorn, and even to death itself.

"November 20th. King Boy has not visited us to-day, though we have received the customary allowance of four yams from his women. In addition to which, Adizzetta made us a present of half a dozen this morning, as an acknowledgment for the benefit she had derived from a dose of laudanum, which I gave her last night, for the purpose of removing pain from the lower regions of the stomach, a complaint by which she says she is occasionally visited.

"This morning, November 21st, I dismissed the poor Damaggoo people, with a note to either of the English vessels lying in the Bonny river, requesting him to give the bearer three barrels of gunpowder, and a few muskets, On the faith of being paid for the same by the British government. They left Brass in their own canoe, quite dejected and out of heart, and Antonio, the young man who volunteered to accompany us from his majesty's brig, Clinker, at Badagry, went along with them, on his return to his country, from which he has been absent two or three years.

"The following day, one or two crafty little urchins, who are slaves to King Boy, brought us a few plantains as a gift. They had been engaged in pilfering tobacco leaves from an adjoining apartment, to which our people were witnesses, and the juvenile depredators, fearing the consequences of a disclosure, bribed them to secrecy in the manner already mentioned. Boy's women have also been guilty, during the temporary absence of their lord and master, of stealing a quantity of rum from the store room, and distributing it amongst their friends and acquaintance, and they have resorted to the same plan as the boys, to prevent the exposure, which they dreaded. One of them, who acts as a duenna, is the favourite and confidante of Boy, and she wears a bunch of keys round her neck in token of her authority. She has likewise the care of all her master's effects, and as a further mark of distinction, she is allowed the privilege of using a walking-stick with a knob at the end, which is her constant companion. This woman is exceedingly good-natured, and indulges our men with a glass or two of rum every day.

"Last evening, King Boy stripped to the skin, and having his body most hideously marked, ran about the town like a maniac with a spear in his hand, calling loudly on Dju dju, and uttering a wild, frantic cry at every corner. It appears that one of his father's wives had been strongly suspected of adulterous intercourse with a free man residing in the town, and that this strange means was adopted, in pursuance of an ancient custom, to apprize the inhabitants publicly of the circumstance, and implore the counsel and assistance of the god at the examination of the parties. This morning the male aggressor was found dead, having swallowed poison, it is believed, to avoid a worse kind of death, and the priest declaring his opinion of the guilt of the surviving party, she was immediately sentenced to be drowned. This afternoon, the ill-fated woman was tied hand and foot, and conveyed in a canoe to the main body of the river, into which she was thrown without hesitation, a weight of some kind having been fastened to her feet for the purpose of sinking her. She met her death with incredible firmness and resolution. The superstitious people believe, that had the deceased been innocent of the crime laid to her charge, their god would have saved her life, even after she had been flung into the river; but because she had perished, her guilt was unquestionably attested.

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