In Addition To The Officers And Attendants In The Canoe Formerly Mentioned, They Had One Drummer, The King's Steward, And His Lady's Maid, And Two Persons To Bale Out Water, Besides Three Captains, To Give The Necessary Directions For The Safety Of The Canoe.

The noise made by these people on their starting, in bawling to their fetish through the trumpets, was beyond all description.

Their object was to secure them a safe journey, and most certainly, if noise could do so, they were pretty certain of it.

The villages that they passed in the course of the day, were very numerous, and not distant more than two or three miles from each other, on the banks of the river. They were surrounded by more cultivated land than they had seen for the previous fortnight; the crops consisting of yams, bananas, plantains, indian corn, &c. &c., not having seen so much since they left Kacunda. The villages had a pleasing appearance from the river. The houses seemed to be built of a light-coloured clay, and being thatched with palm branches, they very much resembled our own cottages. They were of a square form, with two windows on each side of the door, but have no upper rooms.

In many places they observed that the river had overflowed its banks, and was running between the trees and thick underwood. In the widest part, it did not seem more than a mile and a half across, in fact, its width, contrary to the usual course of rivers, when approaching the sea, was sensibly diminishing, and was dwindling away into an ordinary stream.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 981 of 1124
Words from 269633 to 269903 of 309561