Who Could Not Understand The Meaning Of All This?

Now this handsome salt cellar was of latten, and was formerly a common round tinder box, and because they had nothing better for the purpose, they deprived it of the candlestick on its cover a short time before, and converted it to its present use.

The tin, moreover, had been burnt off from many parts of it, and Pascoe's wife not being an admirer of cleanliness, it had lost much of its original brightness. The king's encomiums were nothing more than an indirect and ingenious solicitation of the article for his own use; which was further apparent by desiring the woman to relate to the Landers, no part of the conversation that had passed between them: or in other words, that she should tell them every syllable. They could not help admiring the delicacy of the king, and sent back the tinder box to him immediately. The bearer was rewarded handsomely for his trouble, and they received as many thanks, as when he accepted the silver medal and chain which they had presented to him.

It is by such means as this, that the chiefs and rulers of this country, ashamed of making a direct application for any thing in the possession of the travellers, to which they may have taken a fancy, endeavour to obtain it. If, however, the hint does not succeed in making a visible impression, less delicate measures are presently resorted to, and when every other expedient fails, they cast aside the reserve and bashfulness which had influenced them at first, and express their meaning in language which cannot be misunderstood. In this respect, the chiefs and governors are all alike, from Badagry to the metropolis of Yaoorie.

On the 31st, a messenger with a canoe arrived from the king of Wowow, but it was so very small, that it was wholly inadequate for their purpose. This was a most provoking circumstance, because a larger canoe was to be procured, which could not be done without a considerable loss of time. In fact, between the chief of Wowow and his sister, the midiki, the travellers were completely taken in. The horses given in exchange to the prince of Wowow for this sorry canoe, were large, handsome, and superior animals, worth in England at least sixty pounds, and the article they got in exchange for them was not worth so many pence. They heard that boats of a considerable size were kept at a small town on the banks of the Niger called Lever, and thither they resolved to proceed as soon as the Boossa messenger should have returned from Rabba, and get a canoe prepared with as much expedition as possible.

The Landers were now weary of their protracted stay at Boossa, and urged the king to hasten their departure, and after many scruples and much hesitation, he at length appointed the second day of the moon, that being, according to his opinion, the happiest and luckiest of all days.

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