Each Of Its Sides Was Formed By Huts, Which Had All At One Time Been Inhabited, But A Fire Having Broken Out In One Of Them By Some Accident, The Greater Part Perished.

A few huts were only then standing, together with black, naked walls, and stakes, which supported the verandahs, the latter reduced to charcoal.

The tenantable buildings were inhabited by the female slaves of the owner of the square, and the travellers and their suite.

It is the custom in this place, when a governor dies, for two of his favourite wives to quit the world on the same day, in order that he may have a little, pleasant, social company in a future state; but the late governor's devoted wives had neither ambition nor inclination to follow their venerable husband to the grave, not having had or got, according to their opinion, enough of the good things of this world; they therefore went, and hid themselves before the funeral ceremonies were performed, and had remained concealed ever since with the remainder of their women. On this, day, however, one of these unfortunates, the individual to whom the house belonged, which the travellers resided, was discovered in her hiding place at the present governor's, and the alternative of a poisoned chalice, or to have her head broken by the club of a fetish priest, was offered her. She chose the former mode of dying, as being the less terrible of the two; and she, on this morning, came to their yard, to spend her last hours in the society of her faithful slaves, by whom she was addressed by the endearing name of mother. Poor creatures! as soon as they learnt her misfortune, they dropped their spinning; the grinding of corn was also relinquished; their sheep, goats, and poultry were suffered to roam at large without restraint, and they abandoned themselves to the most excessive and poignant grief; but now, on the arrival of their mistress, their affliction seemed to know no bounds. There is not to be found in the world perhaps, an object more truly sorrowful, than a lonely defenceless woman in tears; and on such an occasion as this, it may very easily be conceived that the distress was more peculiarly cutting. A heart that could not be touched at a scene of this nature, must be unfeeling indeed. Females were arriving the whole day, to condole with the old lady, and to weep with her, so that the travellers neither heard nor saw any thing but sobbing and crying from morning to the setting of the sun. The principal males in the town likewise came to pay their last respects to their mistress, as well as her grave-digger, who prostrated himself on the ground before her. Notwithstanding the representations and remonstrances of the priest, and the prayers of the venerable victim to her gods, for fortitude to undergo the dreadful ordeal, her resolution forsook her more than once. She entered the yard twice to expire in the arms of her women, and twice did she lay aside the fatal draught, in order to take another walk, and gaze once more on the splendour of the sun and the glory of the heavens, for she could not bear the idea of losing sight of them forever.

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