One Or Two Of Them Were Masticating The Goora Nut, And Others Had Their Lips, Teeth, And Finger Nails Stained Red.

Each of the mallams was attended by a well-dressed little boy of agreeable countenance, who acted as page to his master, and was his protege.

Neither of the men would eat or drink with those who they came to visit, yet whilst they were in their company, they seemed cheerful and good humoured, and were communicative and highly intelligent. In answer to the questions put to them, they; were informed that two rivers enter the Quorra, or great river of Funda, one of which is called the Coodonie, and the other the Tshadda, (from the lake Tshad); that a schooner might sail from Bornou to Fundah, on the latter river, without difficulty; that Funda is only twenty-four hours pull from Benin, and twenty-nine days' journey from Bornou. At the close of a long and to the travellers rather an interesting conversation, their visitors expressed themselves highly gratified with their reception, and left the hut to repair to their own habitations.

These men, though slaves to Adooley, are very respectable, and are never called upon by their master, except when required to go to war, supporting themselves by trading for slaves, which they sell to Europeans. They wore decent nouffie tobes, (qu Nyffee,) Arab red caps, and Houssa sandals. The mallams, both in their manners and conversation, are infinitely superior to the ungentle, and malignant natives of Badagry.

March 28th fell on a Sunday, and luckily for the travellers, the inhabitants of the place considered it as a holiday, and their singing, dancing, and savage jollity possessed greater charms for them than an empty rum cask, though backed by two white faces. With a trifling exception or so, they were in consequence unmolested by their visitors of the everlasting grin and unwearied tongue during the day. This happy circumstance afforded them an opportunity, and ample leisure for spending the Sabbath in a manner most agreeable to their feelings; by devoting the greater part of it to the impressive duties of their divine religion, in humbling themselves before the mercy seat of the great Author of their being, and imploring him to be their refuge and guardian, to shield them from every danger, and to render their undertakings hopeful and prosperous.

As yet no crime of any peculiar atrocity had been committed, to impress the travellers with an unfavourable opinion of the moral character of the people amongst whom they were then residing, but on this evening of the Sabbath, a Fantee was robbed of his effects, and stabbed by an assassin below the ribs, so that his life was despaired of. The most unlucky part, however, of this tragical affair to Richard Lander, was, that the natives, from some cause, which he could not divine, had imbibed the conceit that he was skilled in surgery. In vain, he protested that he knew nothing of the anatomy of the human frame - there were many present, who knew far better than he did himself, and therefore, nolens volens, he was obliged to visit the patient.

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