This Intelligence Bore In The Eyes Of The Landers The Character Of A Complete Fiction, But For What Purpose It Was So Got Up, They Could Not Divine.

The king could gain little or nothing by their protracted stay in his capital; he had received his presents,

And therefore it was conjectured, that it might be the etiquette of the court of Katunga, not only for the king to receive some presents from strangers on their arrival, and especially from travellers of the character and importance which the Landers gave themselves out to be, as the accredited ambassadors of the king of England, but also that the departure was to be preceded by certain presents, as a kind of passport or purchase of his leave to travel through his dominions. It appeared also most strange to the Landers, that the very day after their arrival, the Fellatas should so opportunely seize upon a town, through which they were to pass, and that the information of the inroad of so dreaded an enemy should not have reached Katunga at an earlier period, when intelligence of no moment whatever flies through the country with the swiftness of an arrow from the bow. There was also another strong inducement, which operated upon the mind of the Landers, to expedite their departure, and that was, that from some circumstances which had occurred, it was not beyond the range of probability, that the head of John Lander, if not of his brother also, might be severed by the skill of Ebo, the executioner. Love is certainly a most wondrous power, whether it shows itself in the bosom of the fair English girl, or in that of the sooty African; nor is it confined to times and places, to condition or to climate; for it grows and flourishes in the wigwam of the American, the coozie of the African, and the proud edifices of the Europeans. It, however, sometimes happens, that although one party may be in love, the other is as frigid, as if he were part and parcel of an iceberg, and so was it situated with John Lander. It has been already stated, that the communication between the yard which the Landers occupied, and that which was tenanted by the wives of Ebo, was uninterrupted, and of course in the absence of their husband, there was no impediment to any of them whispering their tale of love into the ears of the juvenile travellers, whenever they thought they were in a disposition to hear it. Some of the wives indeed, instead of being the nourishers and fosterers of love, were the veriest antidotes to it, that perhaps human nature could produce; on the other hand, there were some in the fullness and freshness of youth, who had just been selected or rather purchased by Ebo, as very proper persons to soothe and comfort him in his declining years. One of them in particular, had, by certain signs and gestures, given John Lander to understand, that although they might vary very much in colour, yet that a kind of sympathy might exist between their hearts, which would lead to a mutual communication of happiness, so much desired at so great a distance from his native land.

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