They Had Not Indeed A Moment's Relaxation From This Excessive Fatigue, And Had Job, Amongst His Other Trials, Been Exposed To The Horrors Of An Interminable African Palaver, His Patience Would Most Certainly Have Forsaken Him.

Lander was of opinion that he never would be a general favourite with this ever-grinning and loquacious people.

If he laughed, and he was obliged to laugh, it was done against his inclination, and consequently with a very bad grace. At this time, Lander, speaking of himself, says, "for the first five years of my life, I have been told, that I was never even seen to smile, and since that period, Heaven knows my merriment has been confined to particular and extraordinary occasions only. How then is it possible, that I can be grinning and playing the fool from morning to night, positively without any just incentive to do so, and sweltering at the same time under a sun that causes my body to burn with intense heat, giving it the appearance of shrivelled parchment. Fortunately these savages - for savages they most certainly are in the fullest extent of the word - cannot distinguish between real and fictitious joy; and although I was vexed at heart, and wished them, all at the bottom of the Red Sea, or somewhere else, I have every reason to believe that my forced attempts to please the natives have so far been successful, and that I have obtained the reputation, which I certainly do not deserve, of being one of the pleasantest and best-tempered persons in the world."

This candid exposition, which Lander gives of his own character is fully borne out by our own personal observation.

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