ard with the compliments of the chief
priest (Mahommedan). We made arrangements with him for the supply of the
ship. One of his companions asked me to which of the belligerent parties
I belonged to, the North or the South. I replied, to the South. "Then,"
said he, "you belong to the side which upholds slavery." "Yes," said I,
"we belong to the country where the black man is better taken care of
than in any other part of the world." The churchman seeing me put on the
defensive, as it were, came to my aid, and said: "Oh, we are
slaveholders here; being Mahommedans, we have no prejudices that way;
our only trouble is, we cannot get slaves enough. The English, who have
no control over us, we being an independent government, are strong
enough to interfere in everybody's business, and to say to us, that we
bring over from the main no more slaves. The slaves themselves would
gladly come to us, as they are much better off than under their native
chiefs, who are continually making war upon and enslaving one another."

My informant was himself a full-blooded African negro, as black as the
ace of spades, but with an immaculate white turban on his head, and the
flowing robe and loose jacket of the Mahommedan.

_Wednesday, February 10th_.--Visited by the King's Dragoman this
morning, who came to pay the respects of the authorities, to say he was
glad to see us in Johanna. In the course of conversation, he was pleased
to say that our ship was well known to him, and the news of our having
appeared off the Cape some months ago had driven off all the Yankee
whalers, several of which had been accustomed to resort hither. King
Abdallah, he said, resided on the east side of the island. The king
himself would come to see us, but was very busy just now patting up a
sugar-mill, which he had just received from the Mauritius.

The island is a beautiful, picturesque spot. There is quite a mountain
in the interior, and the higher parts of Johanna are densely wooded; the
mountain-sides being in some places so steep that the tops of some trees
touch the trunks and roots of others.

The inhabitants are a mixture of Arabs and negroes. They are intelligent
and sprightly, and had not only heard of the American war, but said it
bore heavily on them, as they were now compelled to pay a much higher
price for their goods, which are mostly cotton. We have driven away,
they say, all their Yankee trade. The Sultan is a young man of
twenty-eight, with a mod